Environment

Unknown

Haven't seen such topics, so decided to make it.
There're currently 6 environments in MPQ (I'm not sure how to call it, I would say "terrain", but not all of them are actually that)(also not sure if there're already names for them):

1. High-tech
   • Containment Breach (40 AP) - A high-energy phenomenon breaches containment vessel, causing one random tile to become a Critical tile.
   • System Failure (240 AP) - An ion acceleration chamber fails, scattering charged particles around the room. Destroys 21 random tiles and deals 150 damage to each enemy.
2. City
   • Hot Dog Stand (55 AP) - Take a quick breack to eat one of the city's famous hot dogs. All allies recover 50 health.
   • Narrow Alley (210 AP) - Destroy the left and right sides of the board. (Generates AP).
3. Latveria
   • Latverian Terrain (35 AP) - Knowledge of the Latverian countryside gives your team tactical edge. Adds three Black Strike tiles. (Strength 6).
   • Doomstadt Gambit (190 AP) - Your team's devastating strike recalls Doom conquering Haasenstadt and remaking it into his capital. Stuns the target for 5 turns and deals 200 damage to each enemy.
4. Forest
   • Thorned Rose (50 AP) - Take 100 damage. Gain 5 AP of every color.
   • Forest Fire (186 AP) - Turn all Green and Forest tiles into Red tiles. Empty all enemy AP.
5. Desert (though it looks like a canyon)
   • Oasis (25 AP) - A lush oasis appears on the horizon. 6 random tiles become basic green tiles.
   • Sandstorm (170 AP) - A sudden sand storm envelops the battlefield, creating 6 critical tiles.
6. Mountains
   • Snow Drift (45 AP) - Stun target for 1 turn. Reduce enemy AP of every color by 1.
   • Cold Snap (102 AP) - Turns all Red and Winter tiles into Blue tiles. Stuns the target for 3 turns.

At first, my favourite was City, because it healed - it was when I started playing, 50 HP was much & I have seen only High-tech except it. And I thought that Containment Breach is kinda useless. Then Forest became my favorite, because 6 AP for 100 HP is just OP. Also, after the recent event, in which I kinda discoveren Daken (already had him, but didn't play, lvled him up exactly because of it - he was buffed, and he helped me to get my Psylocke)), I like Desert & 500 damage matches. In Latveria I don't use environment abilities at all.
There were only few match where I had near the ammount needed for expensive abilities, battles just end sooner then I get the AP. Have anybody used them?
MB it would be better in Charater Discussion, but it's not exactly characters)

Unknown

I also wanted to start this topic for a while now.
Just want to add a few thing that you miss.

You are spot on with laboratory(though its actually High-Tech) and city.

Latveria

Latverian Terrain
cost 35 AP
Knowledge of the Latverian countryside gives your team tactical edge. Adds three Black Strike tiles.

Doomstadt Gambit
cost 190 AP
Your team's devastating strike recalls Doom conquering Haasenstadt and remaking it into his capital. Stuns the target for 5 turns and deals 200 damage to each enemy.

Winter

Snow Drift
cost 45 AP
Stun target for 1 turn. Reduce enemy AP of every color by 1.

Cold Snap
cost 102 AP
Turns all Red and Winter tiles into Blue tiles. Stuns the target for 3 turns.


Forest

Throned Rose
cost 50 AP
Take 100 damage. Gain 5 AP of every color.

Forest Fire
cost 186 AP
Turn all Green and Forest tiles into Red tiles.
Empty all enemy AP.

Desert
The Desert tile unlocks this following powers:

Oasis
cost 25 AP
A lush oasis appears on the horizon. 6 random tiles become basic Green tiles.

Sandstorm
cost 170 Desert AP
A sudden sand storm envelops the battlefield, creating 6 critical tiles.

Balancing suggestion
These environment skill are not very balance. Some extremely useful while other extremely useless.
Desert is way to over power like it is now. It used to be 50 AP for oasis and 200 AP for sand storm. Not saying to change it back. May be make oasis 35AP and leave sandstorm as it is.

Forest is fine the way it is now. May be change thorned rose to damage 10% of max health to make it a bit more balance scaling wise.(or even make this 15% of current health to prevent suicide, bot does it all the time its hilarious but stupid at the same time)

Winter is pefert. Would not change anything.

High-Tech is half/half. Containment Breach is fine but system failure cost way too much. If it is not already so system failure should destroy 21 tiles ,deal damage for each destroy tiles and general AP to make it more relevant. This or lower the cost to say 175AP

City is ridiculously useless. 50hp heal is ok for low lvl but when you starting getting better characters. 50hp heal is a joke. Make it 10% heal then it would be more of use.

Also narrow alley only destroy the outer two column. It doesnt seem like a narrow alley at all. Make it at least 2 outer column and reduce the cost to say 150AP

Latveria is equally as useless as city. 6 Strength Strike tiles? you want us to tickle the enemy with that? I not sure how to fix this, may be make it scale with your character lvl if that is possible. Also the second skill should get the AP cost lower to may be 140AP

Unknown

Justdangit wrote:

Balancing suggestion
These environment skill are not very balance. Some extremely useful while other extremely useless.
Desert is way to over power like it is now. It used to be 50 AP for oasis and 200 AP for sand storm.
.
.
City is ridiculously useless. 50hp heal is ok for low lvl but when you starting getting better characters. 50hp heal is a joke. Make it 10% heal then it would be more of use.

Also narrow alley only destroy the outer two column. It doesnt seem like a narrow alley at all. Make it at least 2 outer column and reduce the cost to say 150AP

Latveria is equally as useless as city. 6 Strength Strike tiles? you want us to tickle the enemy with that? I not sure how to fix this, may be make it scale with your character lvl if that is possible. Also the second skill should get the AP cost lower to may be 140AP

I agree with most of what you said. For me, the city is the worst. Healing each character for 5-7% of their health would be much more useful. Healing a character with 5000hp for 250 would be awesome. Even 1* characters like MStorm and MWidow would heal for 75-100 and Juggernaut would heal for 150-250, instead of just 50hp which is laughable.

Latveria is equally bad. The damage from the Strike tiles is almost negligible even in 1* battles so most of the times I forget to even use the ability since I am focused on making color matches.

I never use the second (more expensive) abilities since they require too much AP so I don't care at all.

user311

Thanks. Its nice to see these details when not in a rush playing. I almost always avoid city and Latveria is at all posssible. I think Winter is my favorite when I see it. Usually though, I am going between Forest and Desert. I think it would be cool it every one was like Desert but ya know varied by color effect.

The secondary effects of Lab and City are very hard to attain (even for an MStorm spammer like myself). The reward for that is so blah.

Unknown

user311 wrote:

Thanks. Its nice to see these details when not in a rush playing. I almost always avoid city and Latveria is at all posssible. I think Winter is my favorite when I see it. Usually though, I am going between Forest and Desert. I think it would be cool it every one was like Desert but ya know varied by color effect.

The secondary effects of Lab and City are very hard to attain (even for an MStorm spammer like myself). The reward for that is so blah.

When the environmental tiles were mega buffed for boosted characters, I actually found the secondary City effect to be pretty decent - would generate you a ruck of AP. The secondary effect in the Lab is pretty blah though - when you could spawn 6 crit tiles instead.

Phaserhawk

Yeah, there is a lot lacking with enviornmental tiles at current state. The different enviornments are so unbalanced it's comical. The costs are insanely high with really forest, winter, and desert being remotely useful as a player. I like the idea of enviornmental tiles, but they need to be retooled. and if they are keeping the enviornmental AP cost as is, then they need to allow characters to build enviornment points faster, as is, only Modern Storm can generate you enviro tiles at a decent rate.

Unknown

Justdangit wrote:

I also wanted to start this topic for a while now.
Just want to add a few thing that you miss.

Edited the description of Latveria, Forest & Mountains, tnx.

user311 wrote:

Thanks. Its nice to see these details when not in a rush playing. I almost always avoid city and Latveria is at all posssible. I think Winter is my favorite when I see it. Usually though, I am going between Forest and Desert. I think it would be cool it every one was like Desert but ya know varied by color effect.

YW)
I also had that idea, that each environment would have its colour, especially that there're 6 colour & 6 environments.
Desert, Latveria, Forest, Mountains already have colours (though Desert & Latveria on the low and Forest & Mountains on the high abilities). I think other would be City & High-Tech.

BTW does anybody else think that buying a hot-dog during a battle is kinda comic?)

favabear

ZeroUnderscoreOu wrote:

BTW does anybody else think that buying a hot-dog during a battle is kinda comic?)

I like to imagine a hot dog vendor, inspired by their heroics, shouting "On the house!" while tossing three hotdogs into the midst of the fray. Wolverine deftly catches it mid-strike, jamming it down his throat while he blocks the counter-attack. The Hulk Smashes his victim in the face with his hot dog laden fist before plopping down on the unconscious body to enjoy what's left of his snack. Iron man gives the vendor a quick thumbs up and then promptly, forgetting his helmet is down, makes a mess of ketchup and mustard on his visor.

Seriously though, I definitely agree that the environment tiles need rebalancing. A relatively easy fix would be to make everything damage related (self-damage from forest, healing from hot dogs, value of strike tiles) scale based on level of the user.You should also be able to consistently determine who uses the environment ability.

Unknown

favabear wrote:

Seriously though, I definitely agree that the environment tiles need rebalancing. A relatively easy fix would be to make everything damage related (self-damage from forest, healing from hot dogs, value of strike tiles) scale based on level of the user.You should also be able to consistently determine who uses the environment ability.

As I understand, they are activated by that character who charges them, but I don't know what determines that, and also would like to know.

Also, can anybody give more description of high abilities? The Ladder said that Narow Alley generated AP, but does it still? And does System Failure generate?

ZeroUnderscoreOu wrote:

I also had that idea, that each environment would have its colour, especially that there're 6 colour & 6 environments.
Desert, Latveria, Forest, Mountains already have colours (though Desert & Latveria on the low and Forest & Mountains on the high abilities). I think other would be City & High-Tech.

IMO interesting way to change environments would be to change high abilities to have about the same price & power as lower and to be based on colours, or to add such abilities as 3rd. It would be good if players could choose in which environment to battle, at least in PVP. If it was possible, and all environments had "coloured" abilities (with low enough cost), environments would become a part of making a team.

Unknown

ZeroUnderscoreOu wrote:

As I understand, they are activated by that character who charges them, but I don't know what determines that, and also would like to know.

I am sure you know that character with 4 environment tile rating will be chosen over character with 3 environment tile rating.
I did some testing and found that in most case, if the environment rating are even, the character will lower starting health will make the match. But there are a few exception where this is not apply.

Unknown

forest is the best. cheap. useful. can turn the tide in single use.
desert is great for cascade and green hero and winter is good , and the second ability is great.
hitech is pretty random.
city and latveria need boosting , 50 heal? what is this? recovery for ants?? 6 strike tiles? what a joke.

Unknown

Hot Dog Stand should be a % boost, and Latveria should be tied to your team's highest black AP damage dealer. That means, for example, if you encounter Dr. Doom in Latveria, his strike tiles are going to wreck you and you need to plan accordingly. It also promotes terrain-specific team diversity.

PuceMoose

Dunkelgrau wrote:

Hot Dog Stand should be a % boost, and Latveria should be tied to your team's highest black AP damage dealer. That means, for example, if you encounter Dr. Doom in Latveria, his strike tiles are going to wreck you and you need to plan accordingly. It also promotes terrain-specific team diversity.

That would be an interesting change - strike tile set to 6 + level of your team's highest level character with an active black ability. It would promote matching environmental tiles as a denial measure, and not just a "nothing better to match" sort of situation.