Question for any programmer

westnyy2

I am wondering if the following scenario is something that could be done in this game.

Take my 8th yellow 5 star Iron Man cover and change it to blue. Rather than have a quick sell value of 2k, could it also have the option to change the color to red or blue for a certain amount of CP, HP, or ISO?

There is nothing worse than selling a 5 as many of you know these days. 720 cp is too much to buy a specific cover but I understand that if it was less then even more whaling would be going on. I'm asking for a system that allows us to take a cover we earned and make it usable for us. It doesn't have to be super cheap but at least it would be an option and would help players' morale. Lack of 5's and the wrong color 5's are the top reasons I see people from my alliance retiring for.

justplainchips

Pretty much anything *can* be done with code. It doesn't mean it's easy. And even if they can and it *would be* easy, it of course doesn't mean they want to do it.

It depends a ton on how they've got the app and data and everything else structured.
Code can be amazingly intertwined. That may partially explain why something something completely unrelated breaks when a new feature comes out.

Polares

justplainchips wrote:

Pretty much anything *can* be done with code. It doesn't mean it's easy. And even if they can and it *would be* easy, it of course doesn't mean they want to do it.

It depends a ton on how they've got the app and data and everything else structured.
Code can be amazingly intertwined. That may partially explain why something something completely unrelated breaks when a new feature comes out.

But this feature would be VERY easy to implement, because it just affects a cover, not even to your char, just the cover you pulled. Most of the work would be UI, adding the button, events for the button, animations for the result, etc. But the code to change the color would be very short.

I would even prefer a reroll for any 5 (not a reroll of an LT, a reroll with a guaranteed 5), because sometimes (it happened to me a lot, I am looking at you SS) you get covers for the one 5 you can't use. So It would be cool If I could pay 10 CPs to get a reroll for a cover of any other 5.

westnyy2

Polares wrote:

I would even prefer a reroll for any 5 (not a reroll of an LT, a reroll with a guaranteed 5), because sometimes (it happened to me a lot, I am looking at you SS) you get covers for the one 5 you can't use. So It would be cool If I could pay 10 CPs to get a reroll for a cover of any other 5.

This would work too. It's still a lot left up to RNGesus but it's better than selling for 2k ISO.

mpqr7

It would be pretty easy to implement. Probably at most a few days of work to develop, a few days to test and so forth.

I think it would be great, because I only win a new 5* every few weeks, and it's just awful when it turns out to be a 6th cover of a non-champed character. It's a big slap in the face!

I don't mind when that happens with a 1*, 2* or 3*, but it's problematic for a 4* and absolutely terrible for a 5*.

broll

Unless they keep track of how many times you've pulled each cover (which I doubt) then if they were to implement it wouldn't count any of your previous pulls. Outside of the caveat I would think it would be doable, not really sure how complicated it would. You'd basically be adding stat (again assuming one doesn't exist already) for every cover for number of pulls so that would be 107 x 3 variables being tracked per roster. I would think database size would be the most likely limiting factor, or the difficulty around restructuring the database.

stochasticism

broll wrote:

Unless they keep track of how many times you've pulled each cover (which I doubt) then if they were to implement it wouldn't count any of your previous pulls. Outside of the caveat I would think it would be doable, not really sure how complicated it would. You'd basically be adding stat (again assuming one doesn't exist already) for every cover for number of pulls so that would be 107 x 3 variables being tracked per roster. I would think database size would be the most likely limiting factor, or the difficulty around restructuring the database.

You don't need to check the number of pulls, all the data you need is already in the game. Just check if that character is rostered, if it is check the number of covers in that color. If that number is <5 do nothing, otherwise offer another color from that character. Refinements on this can be made but the basic logic is simple.

Natsufan01

Or even simpler, allow color changes for all 5* pulls regardless of how many you already have. Maybe even costing more to change to a more desired color, like OML yellow or PHX green.

huktonfonix

The least complex solution would probably be to simply eliminate color-specific covers and allow them to be used to train any power. This drawback made some sense prior to championing, but at this point it's a pain point for the players that game mechanics have rendered almost completely obsolete anyway.

For example:
Maxed 2* character requires 63 covers. Color matters only on the first 13/63 (20%)
Maxed 3*,4*,5* characters requires 113 covers. Color matters only on the first 13/63 (11.5%)

When 80% of covers can be used regardless of the color, why make the first 13 such a pointless, feel bad experience for players? Having a 5/5/1 4* or 5* character is a really demoralizing experience when you realize that the already minuscule odds are now horribly against you.

If devs don't want to allow players completely free reign to pick and choose which powers to apply covers to (ex: they don't want a player putting their first 5 covers in the same power ramping up its utility much faster than normal, or going 1/1/1 in order to whale the remainder more easily), just allow anything in a color already maxed to be a wild card.

westnyy2

I love it all. Any devs paying attention?

ProfessorGumby

If there could be a value established (I think a 10% rate of the cover CP price would be fair), it would be fairly easy to implement within the existing "power level upgrade" screen. And I don't feel that this should be restricted purely to colors with 5 covers.

For example, I have a Spider Gwen with 2 2 and 3 . And currently, I have enough CP to upgrade any one of those powers (>=120 CP).

My current power level upgrade screen for her shows dimmed out upgrade with cover options, and highlighted upgrade with CP options.

Now, let's say I draw (or earn) another cover, but I really have no desire to ever go above 3 in . Currently, my power level upgrade screen would show that I could upgrade with a cover, or any color with CP.

Let's add a third button to each, that would let me apply the cover to or for 12 CP. For this example, my options would be:

cover (dimmed) / 120 CP (highlighted) / 12 CP (highlighted)
cover (dimmed) / 120 CP (highlighted) / 12 CP (highlighted)
cover (highlighted) / 120 CP (highlighted) / 12 CP (dimmed)

Apologies for not having the time to screen grab and photo shop... too many irons in the fire today.

Cheers!
- PG

ZeiramMR

The counterpoint to how easy or not it is to program is how cleanly it fits into the UI... on a phone size screen.

ProfessorGumby

ZeiramMR wrote:

The counterpoint to how easy or not it is to program is how cleanly it fits into the UI... on a phone size screen.

Put the "UPGRADE WITH:" text horizontally under the power description instead of stacked on the left... slide the two existing buttons left... add the third button.

Cousin Simpson

westnyy2 wrote:

I love it all. Any devs paying attention?

I am! But then, I'm a developer for a completely different company.

Linkster79

justplainchips wrote:

Pretty much anything *can* be done with code. It doesn't mean it's easy. And even if they can and it *would be* easy, it of course doesn't mean they want to do it.

It depends a ton on how they've got the app and data and everything else structured.
Code can be amazingly intertwined. That may partially explain why something something completely unrelated breaks when a new feature comes out.

Completely wrong. It depends on money. What effect will it have on the bottom line? If dedicating thousands of man hours to a task means long term net profit it will be done.

justplainchips

Linkster79 wrote:

justplainchips wrote:

Pretty much anything *can* be done with code. It doesn't mean it's easy. And even if they can and it *would be* easy, it of course doesn't mean they want to do it.

It depends a ton on how they've got the app and data and everything else structured.
Code can be amazingly intertwined. That may partially explain why something something completely unrelated breaks when a new feature comes out.

Completely wrong. It depends on money. What effect will it have on the bottom line? If dedicating thousands of man hours to a task means long term net profit it will be done.

LOL
What do you think I meant by "Pretty much anything *can* be done"? I'm sorry I didn't explicitly state that all it takes is time and money.
I was mainly just saying that we really have no idea how easy or difficult it is.

And if the reason they don't do it is because of how it affects the bottom line or because they have a set of principles on how the game should work or something else...well, I wouldn't presume to know anyone else's mind. Though I do know that I've put multiple features in software that I highly doubt will ever make my company money.

theloniuscrunk

I'm pretty sure doing this would break fastball special

Eddiemon

Its very easy to do.

It hasn't been implemented based on business logic. They determined how difficult they want to make assembling a perfect 5 star and implemented that.

It wouldnt be difficult implementing giving everyone free Logan covers either, but it's not implemented for the same reason.

TLCstormz

Working on it!!!!! :+D

acescracked

westnyy2 wrote:

I am wondering if the following scenario is something that could be done in this game.

Nah man they tried to develop an option to switch the color of a cover.

There was rumors that d3 had contracted a year and a half ago with google, tesla and NASA to try and get such a feature implemented. The development on the option was scrapped when it was deemed just to difficult and costly. The programmers from the respective companies and NASA said programming self driving cars and deep space missions way easier so they gave up.

Mawtful

acescracked wrote:

westnyy2 wrote:

I am wondering if the following scenario is something that could be done in this game.

Nah man they tried to develop an option to switch the color of a cover.

There was rumors that d3 had contracted a year and a half ago with google, tesla and NASA to try and get such a feature implemented. The development on the option was scrapped when it was deemed just to difficult and costly. The programmers from the respective companies and NASA said programming self driving cars and deep space missions way easier so they gave up.

That's just what they want you to think. What they don't want you to know is that Mars is rife with colourless covers, just mountains of them. That's what all these missions are for. Google linked the cars here on earth to robots on Mars, so as people are driving around it moves the robots and they just gather up all the covers. The truth it out there, friend.