On Galactus run 1 (Game feel vs Ultron)

TimGunn

Benjermain wrote:

I will thank D3 for this, as an MBA student I am fascinated with case studies of tone deaf marketing and talking down to customers. I can't wait to see how this shakes out so I can write a paper about it.
[D3]!

do it! and send to Disney

surely someone at Disney is looking at this situation. I wonder if Disney views this (and similar games) as a $$$ maker or more as a brand enhancer. Because this fiasco has not done the overall brand any favours.

TazFTW

With a little over 2 1/2 hours to go, my comparison of Galactus versus Ultron (Hulkbuster reward edition). It looks like my casual alliance will not complete round 5 in Galactus whereas we ended up halfway through round 6 in Ultron. The biggest difference is the individual progression. I reached maxed progressions on both Ultron runs but it looks like I'm barely going to reach the 600000 2000 iso reward which is 48% of the points needed for the Legendary. This will be the first Legendary I've missed in "Story" (non-DDQ) mode.

So in conclusion, Galactus sucks. And because its Sunday...

djvkool

With all the negativity and anger vented out in this thread, please allow me to voice my opinion...

I, for one, really enjoyed this event, yes, it's (almost) impossible to win, and yes, in the last slice I had to face 2 waves of four, lvl 257 opponents, and spent iso's and HP's on health packs, and boosts...

...but this event is unique, and what I've discovered near the end of the event is that, this made me a better player, you really have to look at the board/tiles, study it, and think about your move, instead of just going gung-ho and Hulk-smash.

Also, everytime I beat the big-G, I felt a massive rush of satisfaction, and adrenaline running through my body, fist clenched, pumping the air, and shout "CMONNNN!!!..." at the top of my voice; what D3 said about 'most of the time losing but actually winning...' was correct, even if I lose the match, I felt good as long as I've taken at least 20k+ health out of the big-G

that's my 2 cents...

Ctenko

HxiiiK wrote:

The "minion" fights against the villains are relatively simple. They're there as minor hazards but relatively easily winnable.

Lvl300 loki with 2 kishus say otherwise
I cannot take them out quickly with match 4s and 5s because loki will drain all my ap.. if i dont take them out quickly, the kishus will spam smoke bombs, making my damage ****, and spam caltrops all over the field, dealing 1.4k damage per accidental match

You all have some very sadistic combinations this time round

Captain Marvel 3
Kamala Khan 3

Focus Loki, allow CM to take brunt damage. Caltrops are actually your friend. Take damage from that and It will trigger energy absorption. Use Captain marvel red to blow up shields, and murder loki. Coincidentally healing your team as well with KK. Stun Loki with Black when needed till he drops, and make your good matches then if you can. No, the Hood, Muscle, Don level 370 kills me all the time. That one is just unfair.

fmftint

djvkool wrote:

With all the negativity and anger vented out in this thread, please allow me to voice my opinion...

I, for one, really enjoyed this event, yes, it's (almost) impossible to win, and yes, in the last slice I had to face 2 waves of four, lvl 257 opponents, and spent iso's and HP's on health packs, and boosts...

...but this event is unique, and what I've discovered near the end of the event is that, this made me a better player, you really have to look at the board/tiles, study it, and think about your move, instead of just going gung-ho and Hulk-smash.

Also, everytime I beat the big-G, I felt a massive rush of satisfaction, and adrenaline running through my body, fist clenched, pumping the air, and shout "CMONNNN!!!..." at the top of my voice; what D3 said about 'most of the time losing but actually winning...' was correct, even if I lose the match, I felt good as long as I've taken at least 20k+ health out of the big-G

that's my 2 cents...

How do you feel about winning 40 when you do it?

Zerbit

Joined the forums to add my disappointed voice.

I have been only playing for 90 days, with a roster of 32 slots and a handful of 2 star 94s. My best 3 star has 4 covers.

I joined an alliance just before the event. Just a public alliance, but with 17 players who had at least been active.

With 2 hours to go we have just finished round 4! I was seriously (but foolishly) thinking that the 3 star red cover for Human Torch would be achievable. Myself and one other in the alliance have just over 500k each, with no chance of even making the 600k reward, and of the rest, one person has just made 100k, and all the others are under 80k. So only 2 people in the alliance will even get the 1st recruit token at 120k. Is this working as intended?

Fighting lvl 200 nodes and lvl 180 waves is really punching above the weight of my little guys. Luckily I have OBW and Wolvie (buffed to 150) and Human torch (buffed from 68 to 162). But thats pretty much it, and I am envious of all of you who can at least try different combinations.

I was really thinking this event would provide a few desperately needed 3 star covers, but not a one.

Oh, and I have to agree with everyone that thinks getting 40 ISO for killing Galactus is a big slap in the face with a wet fish.

I had more fun reading the forums than I did playing the event, but at least I learned something.

Tinykitty D3. Tinykitty.

PS Looking for an alliance after this event. How do I find a semi decent one please?

Lopan15

Zerbit wrote:

Joined the forums to add my disappointed voice.

I have been only playing for 90 days, with a roster of 32 slots and a handful of 2 star 94s. My best 3 star has 4 covers.

I joined an alliance just before the event. Just a public alliance, but with 17 players who had at least been active.

With 2 hours to go we have just finished round 4! I was seriously (but foolishly) thinking that the 3 star red cover for Human Torch would be achievable. Myself and one other in the alliance have just over 500k each, with no chance of even making the 600k reward, and of the rest, one person has just made 100k, and all the others are under 80k. So only 2 people in the alliance will even get the 1st recruit token at 120k. Is this working as intended?

Fighting lvl 200 nodes and lvl 180 waves is really punching above the weight of my little guys. Luckily I have OBW and Wolvie (buffed to 150) and Human torch (buffed from 68 to 162). But thats pretty much it, and I am envious of all of you who can at least try different combinations.

I was really thinking this event would provide a few desperately needed 3 star covers, but not a one.

Oh, and I have to agree with everyone that thinks getting 40 ISO for killing Galactus is a big slap in the face with a wet fish.

I had more fun reading the forums than I did playing the event, but at least I learned something.

Tinykitty D3. Tinykitty.

PS Looking for an alliance after this event. How do I find a semi decent one please?

With some people already rage quitting from this event, I would check the recruiting form. I'm guessing there will be people looking. You will be best off looking for a semi casual alliance. Mine used to be top 100, but all the vets got burned out and we went casual. We still pull top 150-200 finishes. We don't get that extra cover from each event, but we usually get hp every time which helps a lot. Heck my alliance might have some openings next week.

SirLanik

Interesting idea, but result is flawed.

When an entire alliance spends time every 8 hours for 3 days straight, in order to receive only some ISO and 25 hero points, it's a problem. Multiply that by every normal alliance that isn't a super clearing top 25 alliance? And you have a massively un-rewarding event.

Take an event with no rewards, and make the mechanic inherently unfun/frustrating/unwinnable?

Well, that's a summary of the "feel" of this event.

Jawsome

@Zerbit I found an alliance by mercing out for events and checking if they were recruiting more permenantly afterwards. Otherwise theres the alliance page where you can see alliances recruiting.

As for this event, I think a big issue is that beating Galactus was supposed to feel like an accomplishment but really it just felt likea pile of luck at the later stages. Ultron was a slog but there was a good amount of skill in taking him down. At the time my best strat was to line up a 5 red patch Best there Is after letting the other 2 team mates die. I didn't have a good roster, this was all I could manage, but it took skill to get the 14 red and have patch up alone matching all the tiles. And there were tons of other strats that came out of it.

This event is really only supports a few good strats that Ive seen past round 6. Generally you're either throwing boosts at it and running loki / jug for board shakes and praying to god that the board helps you out. Or you're running CMarv or Hulk and tanking the first tiles to deal as much damage as you can before you go, or else its some variant on Winfinite.

But generally here, any time you DO beat Galactus unless you have some maxed 4 star team it doesn't feel like skill, it feels cheap or lucky. You only have a few turns to work with so a ton of characters are automatically cut.

Also you said that the minion nodes are supposed to be easy but, serisouly, throwing a level 395 gorgon at the end of 6 teriatsus? Or Carnage with 2 red generators? Those were BY FAR harder than most ultron nodes I ever fought. At the end of the teriatsu waves, I literally had 3 turns to kill him without knowing he'd be there, because the generators had given him enough red to 1 shot all my characters with debilitating slash every turn.

So no, you guys done screwed this event up bad, maybe you should apologize for it and do better next time instead of saying "Well you all just didn't get how it was supposed to play, lower your expectations".

lukewin

Hey Joe,

I know this may be an old article, but I hope that this quote is still true.

"Fletcher agrees that keeping the community happy is always a goal, as well as a key to success. “This has been an interesting situation, as this is the first fully live event-based game for either D3Publisher or Demiurge. Before, we’d do the work, push it out the door, and see how fans react.”

goal not met

"With daily drop box rewards, weekly tournaments that provide a chance at everything from new characters to premium currency, and a steady flow of story events meant to showcase new characters, Marvel Puzzle Quest treats it’s player base with respect not normally seen in other free-to-play titles. Players can expect to see this treatment continue, as D3Publisher has prepared for the long haul."

respect

Interesting tidbit about Dark Reign

“There’s a story bible planned quite a ways out with the whole Dark Reign arc penciled in,” he said. “That being said, we don’t tend to start zeroing in on writing/design for a PVE Event until about 2 months before it’s ready to go live."

So the whole arc is penciled in, but no idea if it'll ever be implemented. At this point, I want to say if it is, it'll be in the console version and not the mobile version.

danae

Really disappointed on IceX's response to this joke of an event. I've always thought he was more in touch with the playerbase than any of the other devs out there. I don't know if he was forced to post that or if he really feels that way about the event. There's something wrong with the game if the only way you can actually complete it is to use a loophole by closing down the app. There is just no way that is possible even if you were able to play at every single refresh. Also, the last couple of rounds, the only truly reliable way to win was to specifically use three characters. That in itself is just plain wrong. It feels like the devs wanted to create something challenging but failed to see how it scaled in the later rounds. Just another case of devs not playing their own games. Such a waste of a chance to create goodwill with the community.

ghandra

I'd be really curious to see the status on hero breakdowns that actually beat Galactus (esp in rounds 7-8).

As far as I can tell, short of super-whaling him, the ONLY tactic that has at least a moderate chance of success includes prof x (+bwgs or some other color builder to yield multiple match-5s). Even with the prof x combo, you have somewhere around 10-20% chance of an initial favorable board that yield potential early match 5s to generate quick AP to get the combo rolling.

All of this just goes to show that the balance was incredibly poor. If it was meant to be this difficult, the rewards should be suitably legendary, and the silver bullet should NOT be one character that not every has (unless there's a pre-event that gives suitable increased odds for people to acquire that character prior to the main event).

As it is, I imagine that the ONLY reason alliances are as successful as they have been is the ability force-quit/restart to try for a more favorable board. Without the ability to do that, I'd put money that only 1-2 alliances in the game could feasibly complete round 7, much less 8.

fmftint

What's the status of run 2? We had nearly 3 weeks lead time with run 1, when we get a run 2 warning/preview?

ZeiramMR

GurlBYE wrote:

Benjermain wrote:

I will thank D3 for this, as an MBA student I am fascinated with case studies of tone deaf marketing and talking down to customers. I can't wait to see how this shakes out so I can write a paper about it.

I'm not even mad anymore, I want to pop some popcorn and watch this car crash unfold.

Ok, I just thought about the lack of lightning rounds and the fact I haven't seen a gold token all (ANNIVERSARY!) week and I'm mad again. To quote Tony Stark: "D*ck move, [D3]!

I'm in your boat.
Not to write an essay about but to see how they can do anything without screwing up further.

As for screwing up further, that one's easy: "CYCLOPS REQUIRED INSTEAD OF JEAN GREY FOR PART 2"

simonsez

IceIX wrote:

The "minion" fights against the villains are relatively simple. They're there as minor hazards but relatively easily winnable.

By the time this mess ended, I had lv395s across the board. Do you consider these "relatively simple", or was the event actually NOT "working as intended"? There's something seriously wrong with your design when the Galactus fight becomes the breather...

GrumpySmurf1002

simonsez wrote:

IceIX wrote:

The "minion" fights against the villains are relatively simple. They're there as minor hazards but relatively easily winnable.

By the time this mess ended, I had lv395s across the board. Do you consider these "relatively simple", or was the event actually NOT "working as intended"? There's something seriously wrong with your design when the Galactus fight becomes the breather...

Oh c'mon, nothing easier than a 300+ Ares making way for a 300+ Sentry with preloaded AP.

Afrocigar

Throwing my 2 cents in just to pad the thread. I agree with everyone, that this event just isn't very fun.

The rewards aren't worth the effort. My Alliance hit Round 8 and I've given up. The next progression for me is Torch. Not much of an incentive to push forward. The subs are worth very little, so no reason to do that. Lets say I get a good board plus luck and kill Galactus. 40 ISO? So really, what do I have to gain by participating? I stand to have my team wiped, waste health packs and hinder my ability to play any other anniversary event. Way more risk than reward.

I would really be interested in knowing how you guys thought this would be something we would enjoy. I don't mind difficult, I completed Dark Souls back in the day and still play Rogue Legacy. Loosing can be fun and a valid game mechanic, but not in this context. The games I mentioned, are purchased once and dying costs me nothing except time. In this MPQ Anniversary Event, losing can cost money. I've ran out of health packs plenty and almost missed out on Black Vortex because of it. And I refused to buy health packs. Also in this Event I lose, not because I don't have the skill, I lose because you have intentionally made it that way. I know you have to generate revenue, I've supported the game. I think I'm ~$100 in on day 719. So I like the game, but this Anniversary is just poor.

I'm no conspiracy theorist but it sure looks like finances heavily influenced this anniversary more than fun for the player. I'm not going anywhere, I like the game. But again, I'll have to adjust my expectations going forward. I don't know why it surprises me that a FTP game favors profit more than fun. I won't make that mistake again.

DaveR4470

You know... I was thinking about the differences between this and the previous anniversary week, and the period when the Ultron events were in design/planning, and it occurred to me that there's one big difference between then and now that nobody seems to have mentioned.

Here's a hint:

Unknown

simonsez wrote:

IceIX wrote:

The "minion" fights against the villains are relatively simple. They're there as minor hazards but relatively easily winnable.

By the time this mess ended, I had lv395s across the board. Do you consider these "relatively simple", or was the event actually NOT "working as intended"? There's something seriously wrong with your design when the Galactus fight becomes the breather...

What he said!!! (x2)

glonq

This Galactus event is about as fun as a trip to the dentist.

Make 3 or 4 moves and then see your entire team obliterated instantly? What kind of broken design and playtesting resulted in this utter failure?

If there were any other non-PvP events happening right now, I'd play those. But this stupid Galactus event is the only thing available right now. I'm gonna go play different games for a few days. Somebody msg me when they fix MPQ.