Extend PVE beyond prologue

Unknown

I have stated this a few times in a couple of threads, and figured making it more... findable? (Probably not even a word) would be best, so here's to actually making it it's own thread.

Everyone enjoys the casual, NON-COMPETITIVE nature of the prologue. "Yay, a few minutes to kill? Let me see if I can get past that stage this time." You don't beat it, no big deal, you try again later, and DON'T feel pressured to do so!

So what I propose is finally starting to release the chapters that have come and gone as permanent additions to solo PvE. No tourney structure, no progression rewards outside of mission rewards, no time limit to try to beat before it disappears. Just let them be their own PvE chapter now.

It could be setup to refresh like every other week, so that ISO is there to get, and the rewards as well. Each chapter would also have a minimum and maximum character level allowed, so it would maintain some form of challenge. This would make it so that earning the ISO isn't a total pushover to get, and allows players to try different strategies in a reasonable and highly likely match in level.

It would have static leveling, so that it could encourage players to increase their roster and character levels, promoting progression.

The other benefit is that this will also allow players to follow back story at their own pace, and enjoy the game. This would attract and retain players in the long run, and may also boost iso sales as well, for the player who doesn't want to wait to progress in the story.

Well, tada. There's my idea. Hope to see some kind of extension on solo pve. And I don't think I am alone in the matter either.

danikalil

This please. It's a wonderful idea. I've thought about it a few times on my own.

Not only we'd have an opportunity of FINALLY earning all the rewards - the 20 Iso-8 thing is a bad joke - but we'd get to read parts of the story that were left behind. I started playing the game around the time that there was a PVE event going on in which you teamed up with Captain America. Needless to say, I never even came close to understanding what was happening, for I could hardly face any of the battles. And, even though, in a fit of rage, I said I didn't care a hang about reading the whole story in another post, I do care, a lot. I just can't stand the scaling.

With this idea implemented, there'd be no need for the accursed scaling. Everyone could, at some point in time, get to read the whole chapter. And refreshing the rewards every once in a while would make it perfect.

Unknown

The content has to be there that may have some way to increase the bottom line. While having extra stuff for free is always nice, it doesn't work like that, so suggestions like that should be augmented with how this can still turn a profit.

I'd propose make something like Elite touranments where you pay some amount of HP to unlock new PvE content for a fixed amount of time. Can even make it shields where you get a discount for paying for time in bulk. The rewards will be setup like heroic Oscorp where all the good rewards are from progression. In fact, there doesn't need to be any placement rewards at all.

For example let's just use the Heroic Oscorp as a base for missions. You can offer say 1000 HP entry fee for 1 month, or $5 and the top progression reward can be a random Psylocke cover. The missions should be setup that a casual person can hit the top reward in a month and around a week for fairly serious grinding. These numbers are just my guesses because I have no idea what's the difference in score in a non rubberband situation between a casual and a hardcore, but Heroic Oscorp should offer plenty of insight on the speed of point acquisition in a rubberband-less environment.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

The content has to be there that may have some way to increase the bottom line. While having extra stuff for free is always nice, it doesn't work like that, so suggestions like that should be augmented with how this can still turn a profit.

I disagree here. More PVE content is essential to keep players coming back. I think it would be an ideal way to get people re-interested in the game.

A side effect of MPQ being based on licensed content, it serves to advertise the Marvel Universe. There are a lot of people who don't read comic books but are willing to play match-3 games and watch the movies. When they see there's more to the Marvel Universe they might pick up some other Marvel product. Something Demiurge could do more, is provide more depth to character bios and citing reference comics that players can look up.

Consider that the more a person plays, the more they feel that the character is theirs. Their time has value and the improvments to their roster feel like an accomplishment, considering that there is a measurable level of effort required to achieve the higher levels. Eventually the player will decide to make a small purchase here and there to improve their gaming experience. Those purchases further add value to the roster.

I doubt MPQ earns the bulk of it's profit from players like me. I have invested a lot of time and money but they probably make most of their profit off people who spend no more than $20 a month. I don't think it's necessary to charge more. Even if it's offered to FTP only people, there's going to be a moment where they give in and make that purchase.

Unknown

I'm with Bugpop on this one. While a lot of the money comes from 10% of the players, those players need the other 90% playing to keep the game going. If you only cater to the whales you end up killing the game. Simply having good gameplay is the best way to maximize profits.

Permanent PVE - the kind we can do on our own schedule - would keep a lot of people playing who maybe don't feel like doing PVP all the time and still want to play. And even if they don't spend a cent - and most of them would probably at least shell out for roster slots, sine PVE doesn't provide many when you take out placement awards - they'd dip their toes in, and likely tell friends about the game.

OnesOwnGrief

I honestly don't see why they don't throw in an Episode 1 PvE that follows the story we had months ago. Should at least give out each cover for Cap and Moonstone, and Bullseye. That is pretty much 8 character rewards to help out new plays along with some HP and Standard Tokens. It could be played over two or three areas to spread out the rewards. Personally, I feel this should be standard to jump start new players by giving them access to the older pve event rewards they missed out on.

Unknown

That's why I said the cost can be $ or HP. The conversion should be favorable to those who spend money (1000 HP or $5 is the rate you get for buying $100 of HP at a time). I don't think 1000 HP for a month long event is an unreasonable cost, especially if you're fairly certain you'll get a 3* cover you need at the end of it. Again imagine something like Heroic Oscorp with mission rewards that reset every 3 days or so, and the final progression reward is some 3* that you'll need that can be reached in one month in a fairly casual manner. If you're hardcore you can try buying say one week of time for 300 HP and see if you can do it, and if you somehow fail you can always pay for more time. You wouldn't have to spend money, but anything that costs a signficant chunk of HP is almost certain to increasing revenue in the game overall.

Unknown

I'd pay decent money for a long PvE campaign like the original PQ. I'm sick of these stupidly scaling PvE races and PvP MMR nonsense.

I'd probably even pay money for "chapters" of a larger PvE campaign or "seasons", as far as that goes, so long as the value is reasonable. Iso and HP values per $ spent aren't even close to tempting. The Steam sale of 66% off was even on the high end, for what HP and Iso get you in the game.

Unknown

It'd probably make sense to release a paid (or at least signifciant HP cost) expansion when there are many new characters coming out. Right now, if you're already done with 2 stars, it simply doesn't make much sense to spend $5 or $10 for a week/month/season long event that offers mostly covers, especially if you actually have those covers.

In The Hulk event, one of the Punisher missions offers 3 covers of Modern Hawkeye and I did that immediately to get the Hawkeye covers. But, that doens't help anyone who already has those covers and it wouldn't be any incentive for a guy with max covered Hawkeye.

So what they probably should do is release like 5 new heroes at once and then sprinkle them in some new PvE premium campaign. At the very least, it should cover heroes that are relatively new and at least somewhat desireable. For example, if we're to run such an event now, it should feature chances to get Ares, Mangeto 2*, Psylocke, Daredevil (yeah I know people don't really want him, but he's likely relevent in events for a while), and maybe another new guy. Now, the event doesn't have to guaranteed you'll get all of them. Maybe you get a token for a random 3* hero between Psylocke/Daredevil/whoever, and 2 2* covers as guaranteed for clearing, and then the additional rewards will require a reasonable amount of grinding. Of course, if that's too complicated, more iso 8 always does the trick too.

Unknown

Love this idea.

I would be happier with "Pay to Unlock" once and for all rather than a payment with a time limit to the access. That way you have the PVE storyline available for all time afterwards. The format could be exactly the same as the Prologue, without the need for new characters (that aren't already in play, I mean) or refreshing or anything else fancy. Rewards can work exactly the same (yes, I have Low Expectation super-powers) as the Prologue, only relevant to the particular chapter (eg. A chance to get Daredevil in his chapter or Loki in the Loki chapter). I don't even mind having to get hundreds of 20 iso-8 rewards to get all 4 good rewards available. Or getting covers that I already have at max. They are still good for the iso sell. (Which is pretty much all I'm getting for the "Standard Recruit Tokens" now, unless they give me something more than a one star character.)

I just want permanent access to the ongoing Story that I can play at my own pace and won't miss if I blink or can't possibly win against in Suicidal battles against characters more than double my roster's levels. My little level 50s can't take on Level 230 opponents to get to the witty banter of the story bits after you win a battle in PVE events. Don't look at me like that. I don't know how the scaling works, I don't really care. I would just love access to the whole Story, is all.

I'm a PVE player of Choice. The PVP by proxy that this game offers isn't too bad and is good for Iso grind. I was up till 4am trying to keep in the top 10 for the last simulator round and I'm not likely to do it again. I don't have Psylocke and so am locked out of the current Events' full play and will not likely see most of the story. I haven't been able to unlock any of the big iso fights and can't even get into the Namibia Lab. (OK... maybe I could if... most of the boosted characters for this event, I have at level 15 - 22!) My point? oh yes... Knowing that I will be able to experience the story attached to Magneto's defection a few months from now will ease the frustration that I'm feeling right now. It will give me something to look foward to. At the moment, the game doesn't allow me to care about the Story, because I'm missing chunks of it that I don't know if I'll ever be able to access. It's sad.

I stop watching shows on TV if I miss too many episodes and wait for the Season's DVD to come out. I've missed the first few episodes of this game and can't complete the ones that come on because of deficits in my roster. When will I be able to buy the DVD?

Unknown

This, or...

I propose each week / fortnight you get a choice of the previous episodes to play, along with the latest episode. These episodes could have scaling difficulty - I.e episode 2 could be harder than 1, 3 could be harder than 2, and so on.

The episodes would have the rewards they initially had. Missed out on that Hulk cover? Go play the Hulk episode again. Placement awards would persist along with progression awards.

Crucially, I would implement it so you could only play one episode each week. So the newbies with 1* rosters could choose to play episode 4 with lvl 130+ enemies, but they would be competing against me (and people with better rosters!), and would likely not place well. Or, they could play an episode more suited to their roster, and likely bag themselves some useful covers to start moving their roster up. But they couldn't do both.

The main issue the game has is limited PvE content, and D3 are trying to get round that by making whatever content they do push out playable for everyone. But why not address it the other way by pushing out more content, with varied difficulty? Then the players who have been playing for months and are up for the latest challenge could tackle the newest (hardest) content, and the newbies who missed out on some great earlier (easier) content could still get their PvE fix.

Unknown

Well, the reason why I proposed a time limited PvE is because otherwise there might be too much content to do. Although it sounds like a first-world problem, you really don't want someone new to the game sees say a current PvE event, 3 PvP events, an elite tournament, and then some kind of rerun of an older event. If you make this stuff permanent, then you'd also have to add an option of buying say 5 or 6 permanent PvE content (there's no way they'd limit this to just a one time thing).

The structure of this game doesn't really favor having too much persistent content. It's the same way how in a MMORPG nobody does the older stuff once a new expansion is out. Rerunning older PvE events just isn't going to be very interesting when you don't need the covers from them. Having some kind of time limited and persistent (last a month, possibly more) content would allow such content to be relevent, as you can rotate the event or the rewards out after the duration has expired.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

The structure of this game doesn't really favor having too much persistent content. It's the same way how in a MMORPG nobody does the older stuff once a new expansion is out.

That's all well and fine, except that in this game the story is linear and there is no way to find out "what happened last week". There are no special NPCs I can stop at for "gossip" to keep track of the story. I have no access to "back issues". No New player will have access to back issues unless they happen to be very lucky to start when the earliest back issue is being made temporarily available.

Even simple links of the comic scenes before and after fights once the event is over so I have a straight line access to the very linear story will make me happy. I don't have to play them, I'll struggle through current events (I won't be letting a raiding team down if I fail the dungeon - what I love about the PVP side of this game) But I want to know what happened in episodes 1, 2 & 3 so that episode 4 can make sense to me. Then I'll want to know what I missed in episode 4 so that I can enjoy the bits of episode 5, that I can get to, more. The game as it stands does not allow for such continuity in its story while insisting on having a straight line story.

At least DCUO's story chunks are self contained - I doesn't matter if I miss one, it's not relevant to any of the others. Guildwars' s event story line I get email advertising telling me of what is happening this month because of what happened last month and I can go talk to people(NPCs) for details if I'm so inclined. Secret World you can pay to unlock the area and play there to its conclusion - theorectically - I haven't made it out of Kingsmouth yet.

OK... in comparison this is a very casual game. I really enjoy the casualness of it but the broken linear storyline is driving me batty.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

Well, the reason why I proposed a time limited PvE is because otherwise there might be too much content to do. Although it sounds like a first-world problem, you really don't want someone new to the game sees say a current PvE event, 3 PvP events, an elite tournament, and then some kind of rerun of an older event. If you make this stuff permanent, then you'd also have to add an option of buying say 5 or 6 permanent PvE content (there's no way they'd limit this to just a one time thing).

The structure of this game doesn't really favor having too much persistent content. It's the same way how in a MMORPG nobody does the older stuff once a new expansion is out. Rerunning older PvE events just isn't going to be very interesting when you don't need the covers from them. Having some kind of time limited and persistent (last a month, possibly more) content would allow such content to be relevent, as you can rotate the event or the rewards out after the duration has expired.

The problem as I see it is that D3 are trying to make one piece of story content playable for all. And it's not working particularly well as things stand.

All I'm suggesting is that previous episodes remain playable for those who want to play them. Should be easy to implement. You mention new players - it's precisely those guys I'm thinking of. Just because the old episodes don't hold interest to you, doesn't make that the case for everyone. And I refuse to believe a simple menu driven system with the option of "choose which episode you want to play this week/two weeks/month" would be daunting for new players. I've been dealing with 'level select' since I was about six years old.

To be clear - I'm talking about running them concurrently. So while newbies choose to play episode 1/2/3 because of the difficulty level/story/covers/whatever, you and I would be able to play episode 4 with the other old hands. Everyone wins - I can't see why you'd have a problem with that, to be honest.