The Golden Misnomer

Mawtful

I've been thinking quite a bit about the new Gold Star cover(s) and what they mean. I think I've pretty much run a full gamut of emotions and feelings - curiosity, optimism, surprise, anger, etc.

Today it's "understanding" (maybe even "enlightenment" - it's been Friday here for a while, surely everything becomes more Zen the closer you are to the weekend?)
I understand now: Gold Star Lazy Thor is just a 3 Star cover. There's not actually anything special about it. I'm sorry if you were expecting something deeper than that. Nevertheless, it has certainly made me feel a bit better about the whole situation. I think "Gold" represented a good opportunity to implement "ranking-up" covers to higher star tiers. In that way, demiurge could release every new character as a 1-star cover and require some series of jumping through hoops and levelling of covers in order to rank it up. This would let people invest in and continue to use the heroes they love at higher levels (This is almost another topic entirely, so I won't go into detail here).

But that brings me to the point I wanted to talk about. It's a kind of open question to IceIX: What was the point in using a different term to describe these characters? or What does Gold Star actually mean?

I'm now going to do that annoying thing where you double guess the response before the person gets a chance to reply:
Since this would be the first time that a 3 Star cover would have the exact same abilities as a 2 Star cover, a flashy name was required to try and establish a greater degree of separation between the two. Honestly, this seems like the most plausible reason. We've seen Aggressive Recon show up on two different variants of Black Widow, each operating slightly differently and with a different set of complementary abilities. In that situation it was understood that they where wholly different variants. The difference between 2 star Thor and 3 star Thor is minimal by comparison, so something else was required to set the two variants apart.

However, 3 star Captain America's blue is getting the upgrade treatment, so now it feels like I'm at an impasse; either my above theory is correct or there's no rhyme or reason in the "Gold Star" moniker. Perhaps the tweak to Peacemaker is considered minimal - but if you were going to tweak his abilities surely his yellow was much more deserving than his blue? And if all his abilities were tweaked in the same fashion, then we're back at an impasse, and the Golden Misnomer.

Unknown

Mawtful wrote:

However, 3 star Captain America's blue is getting the upgrade treatment, so now it feels like I'm at an impasse; either my above theory is correct or there's no rhyme or reason in the "Gold Star" moniker. Perhaps the tweak to Peacemaker is considered minimal - but if you were going to tweak his abilities surely his yellow was much more deserving than his blue? And if all his abilities were tweaked in the same fashion, then we're back at an impasse, and the Golden Misnomer.

Yeah, I like to think they listened to our feedback about Modern Thor

Unknown

They were initially called gold star characters because of the flashing gold stars underneath LT's cover which is unique to him as of right now.

ClydeFrog76

Wasn't The Golden Misnomer a Spidey villain from the 70s?

Unknown

I think the gold star covers are meant as 'foil' variants? A more rare, shiny version of a card?

Clintman

Yall hate on Fat Thor, about how disappointed you are etc. You just wait, every last one of you, myself included is going to be rolling his fat **** around town in every fight I go into because he is thermonuclear. They did not need to change him to make him great as a 3*. Cap on the other hand would be utterly useless if they did not boost or update his powers.

Unknown

I've thought that the gold moniker and the flashing stars meant that the character was above average for the 3*** tier. (synonymous with "foil" rarity/power)

So, Modern Thor would be considered a 3.5 star character. From the analysis on the Character Discussion board, his stats and abilities seem to suggest that he outperforms most of the 3*** tank characters by possessing tank-level health as well as very significant damage potential, which most 3*** tank characters currently lack as a balancing attribute.

The teases around Gold Captain America seem to imply that he will possess very significant upgrades as well, if his other two skills gain additional attributes, as Peacemaker has already been revealed to provide.

Unknown

Lyrian wrote:

I've thought that the gold moniker and the flashing stars meant that the character was above average for that tier.

So, Modern Thor would be considered a 3.5 star character. From the analysis on the Character Discussion board, his stats and abilities seem to suggest that he outperforms most of the 3*** tank characters by possessing tank-level health as well as very significant damage potential, which most 3*** tank characters currently lack as a balancing attribute.

The teases around Gold Captain America seem to imply that he will possess very significant upgrades as well, if his other two skills gain additional attributes, as Peacemaker has already been revealed to provide.

Interesting... I have not read the character discussion on modern Thor yet.

Mawtful

jozier wrote:

They were initially called gold star characters because of the flashing gold stars underneath LT's cover which is unique to him as of right now.

Ah, maybe I wasn't clear.

I understand the flashing gold stars. I guess my question is why were those stars necessary? I think I'm correct to assume that if LT had just been released as 3-star Thor there would have been even more baying for blood. The Gold Stars seem to be a case of, "oh, no no no! he's not 3-star Thor, he's Gold Star Thor - that's completely different!"

And now we're in a case where 3-star Cap is being released, and it sounds like he's had a little more effort put into him, but he's going to get slapped with the Gold Stars too in an attempt to legitimise Gold Star Thor.

Clintman

Let me start by saying, I am not trying to poke my finger in anyone in particulars eye. This is my general observation of what I am seeing with these discussions.

See the problem is the righteous indignation that is espoused on the forums, and the refusals to consider Fat Thor as a serious cover will be met with the reality that MANY MANY people are going to realize just how powerful he is and buy covers for him and use the hell out of him. The people that think they speak for the masses will keep yelling about it and protesting on and on, while the masses go after Fat Thor like crazy because he is a damn good character.

The Devs will look on with a bemused expression on their face as Fat Thor rakes in huge amounts of profit at the same time people wag their fingers at the devs noses telling them how unpopular these recovered 3* characters are.

People want heroes they know, they want them to match their expectations. Everyone loves 2* Thor because he is a straight forward direct damage type, no need for subtlety. People want a 3* Thor that rocks and that is what they got. We don't really have good nukers in the 3* ranks.

I would love to love Captain America, but I think the 2* is garbage, if the 3* lives up to my hopes I am going to use him like crazy and love the new costume he wears while doing it.

Don't assume that just because our small population of forum users, many of whom assume they know all without the benefit of the data the devs posses know the will of the people.

And for the love of god, don't pretend you are going to go on a hunger strike if they release another gold 3 star against your wishes, impotent rage is impotent.

Nemek

To show my displeasure, I have decided to stop eating...

...vegetables.

This is in my bid to one day be Lazy Nemek and have my own gold card.

KaioShinDE

I have no problem with lazy Thor existing as a character. The whole "gold" thing was just stupid though. It makes these characters stand out positively, but was that really the intent? If gold characters are really meant to be 3.5* in strength I'm seriously worried that the devs completely abandoned even the pretense of balance in the game.

Clintman

Maybe if we ran Modern Thor around the block a few times, trimmed him down to a fighting weight, do you think that would help

Mawtful

Clint wrote:

Let me start by saying, I am not trying to poke my finger in anyone in particulars eye. This is my general observation of what I am seeing with these discussions.

See the problem is the righteous indignation that is espoused on the forums, and the refusals to consider Fat Thor as a serious cover will be met with the reality that MANY MANY people are going to realize just how powerful he is and buy covers for him and use the hell out of him. The people that think they speak for the masses will keep yelling about it and protesting on and on, while the masses go after Fat Thor like crazy because he is a damn good character.

The Devs will look on with a bemused expression on their face as Fat Thor rakes in huge amounts of profit at the same time people wag their fingers at the devs noses telling them how unpopular these recovered 3* characters are.

People want heroes they know, they want them to match their expectations. Everyone loves 2* Thor because he is a straight forward direct damage type, no need for subtlety. People want a 3* Thor that rocks and that is what they got. We don't really have good nukers in the 3* ranks.

I would love to love Captain America, but I think the 2* is garbage, if the 3* lives up to my hopes I am going to use him like crazy and love the new costume he wears while doing it.

Don't assume that just because our small population of forum users, many of whom assume they know all without the benefit of the data the devs posses know the will of the people.

And for the love of god, don't pretend you are going to go on a hunger strike if they release another gold 3 star against your wishes, impotent rage is impotent.

Going to clarify myself again, just to make sure.

I don't doubt the legitimacy of Fat Thor, I tried to cover this in my "moment of realisation" - he's a 3-Star hero and should be considered as such.

Mostly the point of this thread was to get to the root of "What does Gold Star mean?" Does a Gold-star variant rule out a 3-star variant, and vice versa? etc. I'm of the opinion that the Gold/3-Star differentiation should be used to define an "upgraded" 2-star hero ("same" abilities, but at a new star rating). If the differentiation isn't going to be "used" for anything, I'm unsure why it was made at all. If there's a super secret reason for why some heroes are Gold Star, such as:

Surprise! All Gold Star Heroes are actual Skrulls!

then I could accept "There is a reason, but it's a secret so we won't tell you".

You know, that would actually be a fantastic secret. Devs, you can have that one for free.

Eddiemon

Why did they make cap a lazy gold cap? Having read his blue, it is a vastly different ability to his old blue. If his other abilities are similarly differentiated then I think they wasted their gold/lazy/fat standard on a character who may not fit that mold

Unknown

My main problem right now is that we have way too much 3* on the way with this Gold treatment, I'd much rather see a new 2* or see all those missing 3rd abilities pop up... I mean right now wa have 10 characters with an ability missing !

I'm not excited at all aboult Gold Cap, but I guess they try to make money off him since he has a movie coming... Nonetheless we'll have to try and win at least a cover since he will be required in future events... What worries me is that in two weeks we may have gold Storm then gold Ares etc... I'd much rather they fixed 2* Cap america by buffing him up...

Twysta

Eddiemon wrote:

Why did they make cap a lazy gold cap? Having read his blue, it is a vastly different ability to his old blue. If his other abilities are similarly differentiated then I think they wasted their gold/lazy/fat standard on a character who may not fit that mold

They have stated that Cap does need a buff they just needed to get round to it.
Maybe they're also add those changes to 2* cap.
Or maybe with the release of Gold Cap they'll just leave 2* as he is to further differentiate gold cap.