MPQ Interview: Puzzle Warriors 3 Podcast

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Hi everyone,

We've got another great Marvel Puzzle Quest podcast interview to bring to your attention today.

The Puzzle Warriors 3 team had a long chat with MPQ Producer, Joe Fletcher this week and a wide variety of game-related topics were discussed.

You can LISTEN HERE.

Moon Roach

"David wrote:

Moore"]Hi everyone,

We've got another great Marvel Puzzle Quest podcast interview to bring to your attention today.

The Puzzle Warriors 3 team had a long chat with MPQ Producer, Joe Fletcher this week and a wide variety of game-related topics were discussed.

You can LISTEN HERE.

When I saw the topic I thought we were getting a new Warriors 3 character, kind of like Rocket & Groot but even more sardine-like. But no, there's something called Puzzle Warriors 3. Thank the stars.

XaOs72

Woot! Thanks for mentioning the podcast David. We enjoyed it thoroughly, hopefully so did Joe and we might be able to do it again!

LFChikarason

These guys have been doing a podcast for a few months now and it's great. The interview with Joe is super laid back and sheds light on TONS of stuff. Check it out!

Ralph-Wiggum

Can anyone that has heard the podcast give a brief summary for those of us who can't listen? Thanks!

Dayv

+100 Forum Points to whoever types up a transcript.

GothicKratos

The character that was data mined and never released was a at of Magneto.

IceIX

GothicKratos wrote:

The character that was data mined and never released was a at of Magneto.

Someone also data mined Dark Elves way back when. That was our first ever "leak".

The Viceroy Returns

IceIX wrote:

GothicKratos wrote:

The character that was data mined and never released was a alt of Magneto.

Someone also data mined Dark Elves way back when. That was our first ever "leak".

Didn't they get re-crafted into the Ultron bots or something to that effect?
I don't recall ever seeing any Dark Elf goons in this game, and I'm coming up on two years (that Black Surfer from the daily supply will be mine soon!!).
Is it bad that I don't remember if they were?

IceIX

The Viceroy Returns wrote:

Didn't they get re-crafted into the Ultron bots or something to that effect?
I don't recall ever seeing any Dark Elf goons in this game, and I'm coming up on two years (that Black Surfer from the daily supply will be mine soon!!).
Is is bad that I don't remember if they were?

Parts of them ended up in different places. They created Frozen tiles (special Locked tiles), which got worked in eventually with Quicksilver. Their other abilities got pared out to minions over time, with some of that ending up in the Ultron bots, yes.

Pylgrim

Was the fact that they got leaked a consideration to not use them?

Unknown

Here's a recap of the podcast:

DISCLAIMER -- This is an hour-long show and I couldn't include EVERYTHING but hits the major highlights. The recap is in general chronological order so if anything seems vague or confusing please use the recap as a "map" to find the segment yourself and listen to it. It is possible that I may have missed some details.

- Merged accounts across Steam and Facebook are on the list of things to do, but Steam user-base, though dedicated, is small.
- Lots of positive feedback for Ant-Man and Amadeus Cho story events, expect more like that in the future for releases that are a "big deal" vs. new variants of existing characters.
- There are three bracket modes: high level, mid-level, and newbie. Entry into bracket is 100% performance based with checks in place to prevent gaming the system.
- PvE scaling has two components. Primarily performance-based with a roster-check that can adjust based on changes in roster strength. Explains that 5* triggers the roster-check and a fix is in the works.
- Scaling check compares groups and is not linear/continuous, average level can bump up "enough" to place you into a different "group"
- Fixes considered include "benching" characters for events or an even cut (e.g. not considering top and bottom X number of characters) but sounds like nothing concrete decided. Ice says some in office hit by it and it "sucks."
- PvP MMR combination of average roster strength and event performance to calculate a score. Matchmaking is done by placing you into a group based on your current accrued points in an event and then selecting those people nearest to your matchmaking score within that group
- Group of possible players will widen or narrow based upon how many people can be found within that group and the points they are worth.
- Question asked about diminishing returns on cascade match damage and its inconsistency. Ice says it is a simple -20% modifier, but it it appears inconsistent because damage is based on the best possible damage per character. Suggest because of this that maximizing damage means matching the strongest damage match first if you are going to get multiple matches per turn.
- PvP teams determined by last team to win a match. A set will not update covers or levels until you win another match with that team.
- Ice's preferred team of three: LCap, KK, Hood or Blade for minions. Hosts bring up SL/Dino/KK combo for healing, Ice mentions that original PX had damage per ability fired and SL/Dino combo is why they decided to nerf it.
- Suggestion to add a message or reward for "completing" the prologue, Ice says it is a good idea.
- Must re-play tutorial when MPQing on new advice, is it possible to skip? Ice: definitely something we want to put in, but no timeline for it. Involves a lot of back-end work because it depends on how users come in and play, different referrers get paid depending on how this happens.
- Talks about "rumors" of Miles Morales and Eddie Brock, Ice confirms. Brief run-down of abilities for Miles and Brock. (recapper note: to reduce length, find specifics available in character forum)
- Miles can be played with Peter Parker version of Spider-Man.
- Talks about Venom protect tile / attack tile modification as new mechanic, another new mechanic will be released with a character early in the new year.
- Brief description of the story of the Venom Bomb story event.
- New character releases will continue to be every two weeks or so, new 5* characters will be coming, no time-table given.
- Why no Jessica Jones? Ice says they got info they needed about the story of the show too late, timelines didn't work out to make something happen.
- Possibility of a tweak to existing Cage and Fist characters when those shows begin, or a release of new variants. Considered releasing old-school Daredevil as a variant when that show came out, but decided on Kingpin instead.
- Hosts suggest Nightcrawler, Dr. Strange, Blob, Crossbones as new characters.
- MPQ moving away from X-Men? Ice says that this is not a permanent thing, just that several were released in a row and wanted to go in a different direction.
- Devs look at "character families" to see which ones are being neglected to help them decide directions. Spider-family underrepresented, thus Miles + Eddie.
- Player contest for new characters? Seems like a good idea but characters go through multiple revisions and the possibility that a player-suggested ability gets dropped or changed or a character might get delayed, so it makes player contributions complicated. They try to avoid it.
- Hosts request to change SG power "Furry Friends" to "Squirrels, Squirrels, Squirrels!". Ice amused but makes no promises.
- Most significant change to MPQ? Ice: Character abilities used to have 20 levels (50 total covers) instead of 5. Huge change in how rewards designed and given.
- Release of "gold" characters changed design philosophy based on player reaction. Players want new/different, not just more powerful.
- Have they thought about "retiring" characters e.g. Bag-man, Ragnarok? Ice talks about the "vault" as a similar thing, but they don't want to remove characters because they don't want to take away any options from players or characters that they might enjoy.
- Brief interlude on MtG:PQ
- Command points originally for 5* only and not for legendary tokens, was an afterthought. Legendary tokens are "big" rewards, command points a way to give small rewards frequently that add up to something big.
- Hosts ask about "championing" rumor. Ice says "definite rumor mill thing, but grains of truth" there.
- "Championing" info comes from data-mining, and some items are placed into game that make it onto "staging" or "test" server that is a copy of live. Some strings have to go the client in order to keep the staging server from "blowing up". Those things don't always make it to live the same way
- Ice talks about "trials", a mix between Gauntlet and DPD based off of What If? comics. They couldn't get balancing right, but strings were in game and were datamined, but those evnetually disappeared when they killed the feature.

TLCstormz

Thanks for the debriefing.

Malcrof

Sad knowing this is the last time we will hear Joe's voice, but what a way to go!

simonsez

Malcrof wrote:

Sad knowing this is the last time we will hear Joe's voice

You mean he didn't leave you his phone number? Awkward....

ronin_san

I thought it was Cyclops, that was

Roopesh80

I am looking forward to characters other than X-Men. Yes, they do have a plethora of characters, but there are other 'families' too.

I wish they would look at releasing Drax the Destroyer. But seeing as 3 of the 4 Guardians of the Galaxy members released are 3 star (Gamora , R&G ) I don't think Drax would fit the 4 star category.

Overall, pretty good listening.