Put the "Puzzle" back in MPQ, shave 5* match damage

Tryke

5* match damage simply scales too high and too quickly. The recent boss rush highlights this issue and it should be considered for all forms of play as well.

The "puzzle" component of puzzle quest involves making matches that collect colors you want while preventing the AI opponent from building up their own colors. As others have said, the recent bosses and high level 5* rosters are difficult rather than challenging. There isn't any puzzle component against someone that can make just about any match and kill you off in just a few turns without using any abilities. If they get a cascade, even worse.

5* covers starting at 255 created the awful scaling problems for rosters for many months, but have at least been alleviated by people growing their rosters and the new system taking number of covers into account. It is time that the match damage scaling on 5*s was looked at and put in check. Gameplay balancing and health is also a part of keeping players playing and paying.

Give me a good, tactical, thought-provoking challenge rather than a brick wall that shoots spikes at you and the spikes are covered in bees that shoot poison clouds that follow you into your nightmares. Bring back the "Puzzle".

Pylgrim

Sadly, too many people have spent TONS of money acquiring 5*s so if they nerfed them in any way, the backlash would be devastating. We all told them that 5* match damage was broken when they first announced them and then when they released them and allowed you a free taste. That's when they should have fixed. Now it's too late.

Time after time after time, the players have been right about an upcoming or recent broken change or feature, time after time devs choose not to listen, and time after time eventually players are proven right beyond doubt, but by then the damage is done. I'm almost positive that every single positive feature and change in MPQ has come from a dev saying "what if we listen to the players this time?" Sadly they don't do it quite as often as empiric evidence suggests they should.

SnowcaTT

Agree with Pylgrim - to much money spent, they can't nerf them that much.

Folks said it was a problem going in, and they were right. Devs rarely listen to the playerbase warnings.

I'm more concerned about CHAMP damage of 5*'s - just as 5*'s have way more damage than previously, the Champed ones start going crazy on damage quickly. And the people who will have the highest champed ones are those that whaled them early, and have done nothing but champ them since.

snlf25

You can't geld the 5*s. The best way to fix the game is to elevate the 3 and 4*s like they did before and give them more health and damage, closing the gap into a gap instead of the current chasm it is. The other thing to do is to completely scrap mmr and make matchmaking purely random with less penalties for loses and once you've fought someone or skipped them you NEVER see them again. Scaling needs eased as well. Boss Rush perfectly illustrated that. The max level used to be 325. They jacked that because people whaled 5*s faster than they thought they would. That absolutely **** everyone because they got it wrong. There needs to be a new reasonable cap and there needs to be realistic scaling based on what team you are using.

Smudge

I think Boss Rush highlighted more of the "not paying attention to minor but ultimately game-changing details" that we are used to from this dev team regarding 5* match damage rather than the broken component of 5* match damage itself.

Before, we had them release a test Story mode that enabled players to grind trivial nodes repeatedly for 20 points in a competitive event. They were warned; they did not listen and were "surprised" to see numerous people grinding trivial nodes for 20 points... repetitively.

Then they released an event where the overall number of points was capped at an absolute maximum. They were warned that numerous people would hit the max points for a tie and whoever got there first would lose the first place rewards. They did not listen and were "surprised" to see numerous people tie for first (and thankfully compensated those who did tie).

This time, we did not have advance knowledge of the mechanics, but as soon as I saw why I was wiping on round 4 in Boss Rush, this same thing was highlighted. My opening boss Green Goblin had match damage of 276 per tile... PER COLOR! At least Iron Man had "weak" colors like normal characters so I could attempt to limit the match damage. Not paying attention to things like this limits the ability of the player to enact the puzzle part of Puzzle Quest to try to limit that match damage. If I could prevent Goblin from getting a match 3 on black, purple, or yellow and only eat 90 points of match damage, it's one thing. When I'm eating almost 900 points every time he makes any match 3, it's another thing entirely.

I personally don't have a problem with the match damage on player-owned 5*s, and I don't have a problem with high match damage on boss characters that lines up with the player-owned mechanic (3 strong, 3 weak, middling TU). Civil War with that mechanic was tough, but fair and quasi-controllable. This was a poorly designed disaster.

Arctic_One

Open up SCLS 8,9 & 10 and make these the ONLY place the use of 5* are allowed.
SCL8 would be for early 5* transitioned and those that are curious.
SCL9 would be for usable 5* rosters.
SCL10 would be for bragging rights, the Best of the Best (or Best of the Bought). Let the big dogs fight it out for supremacy. Isn't that why they worked so hard to get those rosters anyway?
Just a quick thought. Anyone who agrees can elaborate more.

ClydeFrog76

Arctic_One wrote:

Open up SCLS 8,9 & 10 and make these the ONLY place the use of 5* are allowed.
SCL8 would be for early 5* transitioned and those that are curious.
SCL9 would be for usable 5* rosters.
SCL10 would be for bragging rights, the Best of the Best (or Best of the Bought). Let the big dogs fight it out for supremacy. Isn't that why they worked so hard to get those rosters anyway?
Just a quick thought. Anyone who agrees can elaborate more.

Complete agree. And get them all the **** out of the brackets of everyone else.

The top of my Anniversary leaderboard is King Whale. I have ZERO maxed or champed 4*s, let alone a maxed and champed 5*. He has all of them.

Cool system.

fmftint

Arctic_One wrote:

Open up SCLS 8,9 & 10 and make these the ONLY place the use of 5* are allowed.
SCL8 would be for early 5* transitioned and those that are curious.
SCL9 would be for usable 5* rosters.
SCL10 would be for bragging rights, the Best of the Best (or Best of the Bought). Let the big dogs fight it out for supremacy. Isn't that why they worked so hard to get those rosters anyway?
Just a quick thought. Anyone who agrees can elaborate more.

The problem is there aren't enough players to fill 5 time slices of SCL 8/9/10
Why do you think SCL7 extends all the way down to rank 32?

acescracked

Pylgrim wrote:

Sadly, too many people have spent TONS of money acquiring 5*s so if they nerfed them in any way, the backlash would be devastating. We all told them that 5* match damage was broken when they first announced them and then when they released them and allowed you a free taste. That's when they should have fixed. Now it's too late.

Time after time after time, the players have been right about an upcoming or recent broken change or feature, time after time devs choose not to listen, and time after time eventually players are proven right beyond doubt, but by then the damage is done. I'm almost positive that every single positive feature and change in MPQ has come from a dev saying "what if we listen to the players this time?" Sadly they don't do it quite as often as empiric evidence suggests they should.

What time is it?
Is it time yet?
Now is the time to listen to some Morris Day & The Time!