A re-examining of 4* power

wirius

Hello Devs, love the game, but I think you need a balance repass on the 4* characters. Now before you run away, hear me out-I'm also going to give some suggestions about how to do it without community outrage that will hopefully make you money.

So first off WHY?

I'm going to quote your CEO Albert Reed: "Your No. 1 risk is fun. It’s not technical, it’s not monetization — it’s good old-fashioned game design. The challenge of mobile and free-to-play is keeping your players engaged. The best way to accomplish that is to make a joyful, compelling experience." http://venturebeat.com/2014/05/15/marve ... aul-redux/

The values of 4* characters are wildly off. We're not talking about niche power, we're talking flat out inbalanced champions who offer almost NOTHING to the 4* game. That's a massive problem. With the rarity level of these characters, as well as the cost to roster slots, its simply depressing to play at 4* tier. The only reason I've stuck around is habit and good will towards the better days of the game. That's not sustainable.

Suggestions of what to do: (With citations from other developers!)

1. Compile a tier list of your 4* champions.

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=36994

The community has generously donated a place where they discuss 4* values. I largely agree with them though your internal maths may pan out better. Still, try to find the trends as to the tier list. Here's why.

2. Why? http://www.sirlin.net/articles/balancin ... 3-fairness -A blog from the president of Sirlin games

Reading his section on tier lists, I largely agree. In the past, you have removed the God tier characters from the game. Rags, Sentry, and XFW at the current balance of play. I personally believe there is no god tier at 4* (Maaaaabe Jean) but you have clear first tier characters. Let those be your benchmark as stated in the blog. Bring up your other characters as close as you can. My advice would be love taps, as you don't want it overdone. While tier 1 is a goal, honestly, the tier 2 4*'s in this game feel just fine. Let it go a few months and let the community compile a new tier list. If there are characters that are still horrible or trash, love tap them up again. In a non-free to play, I would ask for nerfs, but having seen the community reaction, nerfs should be avoided if at all possible. You've wisely understood this by "leaving" character HP at a certain place while buffing all around them, or changing level caps. Keep it up, its awesome.

3. General themes that lead to lower tiers

Value per AP imbalance-your tier 3 champs and under
Risk-reward balance-countdown tiles risk generally not worth the payoff Starlord
Niche abilities-Abilities can have niches, but should not be worthless if that niche is not there. Binary is bad. Always have a lower alternative to the ability.
Using Reed as an example, "If there are no other Fantastic 4 in the party, Reeds passive bonus is cut by 1/3rd."
Hybrid balance-multicolor abilities that depend on one being fired off first. A link is fine, a binary dependence is not. Invisible woman's green should do base
damage, then extra damage per bubble destroyed.

4. Get feedback from your community

But tell them that doesn't mean they get to control the outcome. Yes, a lot of feedback will be useless, misguided, and lack an understanding of the math or grand plan behind characters. But, within those useless rocks you'll find nuggets of value such as how the character makes people feel, perceived uselessness, and real life application of the characters. Every single good creator knows they are great, not because of their brilliant ideas, but because someone else pointed out flaws the creator was unable to see and able to adjust their design.

I hope the feedback is helpful. I love the game and only want to see it soar from here.

wirius

I admit to being a bit bummed no one's commented. Was it a good post? Should I go back to the drawing board?

MPQ_Daywalker

I didn't see the OP when it was originally posted and just discovered it now. I think it's all very well put. It's an excellent description of what's wrong with the 4* characters. I've really enjoyed the 3* transition, and have been maxing out quite a few characters, as there are very few 3* characters that are completely useless when maxed out. The same can definitely not be said of the 4* characters -- the low- and trash- tier characters (Cho, Mr. F, IW, SL, etc.) won't be truly usable unless they receive some rebalancing. Right now, in order to be truly competitive in PvP at the high end, you need to have two or three of the top-tier 4* characters maxed out. If characters were more balanced, we would see more variety in PvP play (instead of Jean Grey and Hulkbuster pretty much everywhere), and someone who happens to have their best covered 4* be a Nick Fury (like me, for instance) could actually use him in PvP if his powers were tweaked.

wirius

Thanks Daywalker. Its nice to see a comment. Glad you liked it!

simonsez

wirius wrote:

I admit to being a bit bummed no one's commented.

You're in "suggestions"

I just don't see the devs redoing any 4*s, since they're still releasing characters that need buffs on day1. And no matter how well they balanced something like Starlord, I don't think it matters. We're pretty close to PvP being nothing but the featured, OML, and rotating fodder that doesn't matter.

wirius

Well simonsez, part of the point of the post is to show the developers why its a good idea. Maybe its not a priority now, but after current priorities are finished, they might consider this as the next thing on the list.