*Venom* Update

The Viceroy Returns

Somewhat lost in all of this is that 1* Venom still only has two powers. I realize he's a 1 star character, but still. For consistency and providing viable early game options it bugs me.
His strongest color is green even, which is what color his third power should be. It's why the AI always matches green with Venom on his team I'm guessing, even when Daken isn't on his team and no one has a green power (aside from Flamethrower goons and the like).

Earlier in the year I thought I heard rumors that 1 star Venom was going to get a 3rd power to help make Venom in general more of a thing in this game, along with the roll out of the newly added more powerful version...
Altho fighting a Venom with 3 powers in PVE would probably be pretty rough with the ridiculous over-scaling that currently happens.

puppychow

JamesV wrote:

Things like this end up putting Fletcher in an awkward spot. The promotional material talks about X, the game patches X to remove it before X can be used by anyone who read about it, which in turn gives the impression that there's a lack of communication/no clear communication involved in the game.

Clearly, it's a case of too many chefs in the kitchen.

The Viceroy Returns

puppychow wrote:

JamesV wrote:

Things like this end up putting Fletcher in an awkward spot. The promotional material talks about X, the game patches X to remove it before X can be used by anyone who read about it, which in turn gives the impression that there's a lack of communication/no clear communication involved in the game.

Clearly, it's a case of too many chefs in the kitchen.

It's also highly possible that the 1 star Venom nerf came after he gave this interview, or was happening as he was giving it.
Also, this interview was probably done several days ago, well before the "concerns" about 1 star Venom were "made known". It was then posted after the changes were made, and it was "too late" to remove mention of how useful 1 star Venom could be, when in actuality it will be minimal at best.
Either way, it's not a good look when there's still distrust from a not so small subset of the player base dating back to the Anniversary event.

Unknown

Come on guys, is anyone really that surprised? Did anyone really not see this coming?

Bryan Lambert

At the risk of reading the tea leaves, the Venom nerf, Hi-Fi's hints, and that developer quote tells me that perhaps this upcoming feature next year will be some mechanic that flattens out star rarities and makes the mobile version play more like the console version. Or possibly a way to upgrade characters' star levels.

One-star Venom plus Miles may not be a problem. A Venom that could be upgraded to a 2*, 3*, or 4* Venom, appropriating something like the star mechanic from Future Fight, on the other hand, could be an issue.

Heartburn

only Rick and Morty comes to mind with this nonsense. I would of ran with it, made it a daily challenge for 2000 iso. now everyone has to spend a roster slot to keep venom.

Dragon_Nexus

Phaserhawk wrote:

So what you are saying now is sell 1* Venom because he is completely worthless now.

Way ahead of you on that. He and Yelena are the only 1*s I don't have and never bothered levelling. Sold them for roster space.

Still, as you say this seems bizarre. You'd still need a butt load of AP for this move, or a load of TU tiles.

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

JVReal wrote:

In the past you guys said that having to decide who to keep and who to sell was part of the fun. Now you don't recommend selling any characters (no more fun?)... that sort of equates to keep them all. If that means don't sell the ones in your roster, then you have to buy slots at 1000 HP for the next character (of which there are 2 coming, 2K HP). If you meant don't sell ones in your queue, then hopefully you roll out the new stuff before the 10 days are up for the expiring covers in my queue.

The vague foreplay is chaffing us rather than turning us on.

Are we to be held precisely to any recommendation ever made in the distant past regardless of changes made to the game in recent times or coming up in the pipe? A game that never changes or attempts to improve can stagnate.

That said, my recommendation wasn't really meant as foreplay, but more as a helpful suggestion for something players might want to keep in mind for future plans. The price of roster slots doesn't necessarily factor in.

I guess it may be better to not say anything at all. It has been noted.

fmftint

"David wrote:

Moore"]

JVReal wrote:

In the past you guys said that having to decide who to keep and who to sell was part of the fun. Now you don't recommend selling any characters (no more fun?)... that sort of equates to keep them all. If that means don't sell the ones in your roster, then you have to buy slots at 1000 HP for the next character (of which there are 2 coming, 2K HP). If you meant don't sell ones in your queue, then hopefully you roll out the new stuff before the 10 days are up for the expiring covers in my queue.

The vague foreplay is chaffing us rather than turning us on.

Are we to be held precisely to any recommendation ever made in the distant past regardless of changes made to the game in recent times or coming up in the pipe? A game that never changes or attempts to improve can stagnate.

That said, my recommendation wasn't really meant as foreplay, but more as a helpful suggestion for something players might want to keep in mind for future plans. The price of roster slots doesn't necessarily factor in.

I guess it may be better to not say anything at all. It has been noted.

Ah there it is, speak with one side of the mouth, instantly contradict with the other.

Shameless

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

fmftint wrote:

Ah there it is, speak with one side of the mouth, instantly contradict with the other. Shameless

Your angry attack benefits no one. Please keep it civil.

Cypr3ss

fight4thedream wrote:

If anything, what this "update" establishes is that the devs are capable of modifying a character rather quickly which puts them in the awkward position of justifying why other characters that are arguably in need of a buff being ignored. And as Lee T has also pointed out, it also calls into question the rigour of their play testing.

I think what this confirms is they don't do play testing, they just don't bother. I think it also confirms that they never wanted venom to have the (potentially) awesome power his black could have been and when you're new to the game, seems like it is!

"David wrote:

Moore"]Gotta remain vague here <snip>

"David wrote:

Moore"]I guess it may be better to not say anything at all. It has been noted.

And this is just.... wow. Did you really need a backlash to know its not a good idea to be all vague in your communication on the forums? Seriously?

Don't know why I'm constantly surprised at stuff like this, but there you have it, me surprised again... guess there's got to be something that keeps bringing me back.

Regards,
Cypr3ss.

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Cypr3ss wrote:

I think what this confirms is they don't do play testing, they just don't bother.

This is incorrect. Please refrain from posting speculation as if it were fact. Both in-house and external testing takes place.

Dragon_Nexus

The Viceroy Returns wrote:

Somewhat lost in all of this is that 1* Venom still only has two powers. I realize he's a 1 star character, but still. For consistency and providing viable early game options it bugs me.
His strongest color is green even, which is what color his third power should be. It's why the AI always matches green with Venom on his team I'm guessing, even when Daken isn't on his team and no one has a green power (aside from Flamethrower goons and the like).

Earlier in the year I thought I heard rumors that 1 star Venom was going to get a 3rd power to help make Venom in general more of a thing in this game, along with the roll out of the newly added more powerful version...
Altho fighting a Venom with 3 powers in PVE would probably be pretty rough with the ridiculous over-scaling that currently happens.

Venom exists for one purple now, he's someone to fight in PvE.
Remember how we used to ignore Daken before because he just healed and created strike tiles, but then suddenly became dangerous when he got a third power? Let's not wish in a third power for a level 300+ Venom to murder us with.

Punisher5784

Soo should we expect another nerf to 3* Spidey cause you know he'll perma-stun everyone with those webtiles Miles creates plus Miles generates blue AP with his yellow.. Hell team Miles, Parker and Rags.. Rags makes blue so Spidey can stun, stun and stun. SuperStunners.

wuweird

"David wrote:

Moore"]A game that never changes or attempts to improve can stagnate.

A game that changes wildly due to incompetence at the cost of player investment will churn players. So no, it's not stagnation, but is it healthy?

I'm at a loss to understand how something like this wouldn't have been blindingly obvious from the beginning. How do you not look at least at the interaction between characters that rely on the same mechanic? How have you not yet built design tools that let you plug in two or more characters and see how their powers interact as mechanic-triggers change?

This is yet another in an endless series of nerfs to existing characters for the sake of new ones. Newer, more expensive ones. A cynical person would begin to think this was intentional and not accidental.

wuweird

"David wrote:

Moore"]Both in-house and external testing takes place.

Do you even really need to do testing to think "this character generates web tiles, how does that impact on characters with skills that use web tiles"? We're not talking bizarre, unexpected interactions here, it doesn't get more direct than "what powers will be supercharged by having more of these tiles".

DrStrange-616

"David wrote:

Moore"]

Cypr3ss wrote:

I think what this confirms is they don't do play testing, they just don't bother.

This is incorrect. Please refrain from posting speculation as if it were fact. Both in-house and external testing takes place.

I'm genuinely surprised to hear this. Whatever testing is being done, it doesn't seem to be working very well. Or possibly, you guys just ignore what they say. Like you do us

wuweird

"David wrote:

Moore"]Your angry attack benefits no one. Please keep it civil.

With all due respect, David, passive-aggressive statements like:

I guess it may be better to not say anything at all. It has been noted.

...do nothing to promote positive discourse itself and hardly qualify as civil. I can understand feeling irritated at comments here, but at a time when trust in MPQ is at an all time low, just let them go without barbs like this and you'll stop seeing responses in kind.

Zen808

I have this image in my head of Ice getting home, cracking open a brewski, putting his feet up on the coffee table, turning on the ole' telly, and thanking the heavens above that this forum will be one less headache for him to suffer through.

JVReal

"David wrote:

Moore"]

JVReal wrote:

In the past you guys said that having to decide who to keep and who to sell was part of the fun. Now you don't recommend selling any characters (no more fun?)... that sort of equates to keep them all. If that means don't sell the ones in your roster, then you have to buy slots at 1000 HP for the next character (of which there are 2 coming, 2K HP). If you meant don't sell ones in your queue, then hopefully you roll out the new stuff before the 10 days are up for the expiring covers in my queue.

The vague foreplay is chaffing us rather than turning us on.

Are we to be held precisely to any recommendation ever made in the distant past regardless of changes made to the game in recent times or coming up in the pipe? A game that never changes or attempts to improve can stagnate.

That said, my recommendation wasn't really meant as foreplay, but more as a helpful suggestion for something players might want to keep in mind for future plans. The price of roster slots doesn't necessarily factor in.

I guess it may be better to not say anything at all. It has been noted.

I was implying that with the change of recommendation on your end to have us hold on to covers, which isn't a bad thing to do in giving us a heads up, you did not in turn change the very things you put into place that prevent us from saving all our covers... Namely roster slot costs and cover expiration dates.

Removing cover expiration dates would go a long way in helping us get excited and prepared for this new feature.