5* exchange service

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Markot
Markot Posts: 84 Match Maker
in MPQ General Discussion
Did anyone of you manage to use the 5* exchange service in 2 messages? I have used it 4 times and the scenario is always:
My request -> They ask what I would like to exchange -> I write it again -> They check my queue and ask to sell -> I sell and inform them -> They send me new cover.

As each step takes at least one working day. I was trying to shorten it to
My request -> They check my queue and ask to sell -> I sell and inform them -> They send me new cover.
But so far I'm not succesfull. The main part of my last request was

I would like to use your exchange service for unusable latest 5* covers. I have used it before, so I know the conditions. This time it is the following request:
Hero: 5* Black Panther (Civil War)
Unusable cover: red cover ("Move... Or Be Moved" power)
I want in exchange: black cover ("Panther's Prey" power)
I think it was as clear as it can be. But the answer was the usual "We are currently running a limited time service .................. please tell us which unusable duplicate 5-star comic covers that you would like to exchange from your pending rewards, along with the comic covers you would like to receive from this exchange. Once we have this information, we will proceed with the next step for this exchange process, so long as the duplicate comic cover meet the requirements described above."

If anyone managed to skip this step, please, tell me how you formulated your initial request.
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Comments

  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
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    @mexus - as I understand it it only applies to the fivestars currently in Latest Legends.

    @Markot - it's quite possible that the request gets forwarded to a specific person who handles these requests and the first response is more or less automated to make sure that person has all the info they need when your turn comes up. Just speculating.

    I am planning to open my Latest Legends stash next week, so I may have to use the service then...

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,477 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I think its because they use zendesk auto answering bots to scan through your initial emails.  I haven't figured out the exact combinations of keywords to get the message automatically escalated to a human
    https://www.zendesk.com/automatic-answers/

    so you send your basic email saying Lastest legend, thanos blah blah.

    automatic answers captures the keywords and sends back the basic form letter.

    So now you respond back answering the specific queries ideally in an organized format.

    they verify the cover and so on.

    Really the best way you can rationalize the process is.

    1. Your first email is to a bot and just type" activate Latest legends trade in program."  You probably don't need to go into depth on your covers.  this is just to activate the bot.

    2.  Respond to the form letter response.  From a support perspective,  this actually has the advantage of allowing them to adjust the form letter and the players will tailor their responses accordingly.

    3.  After each email.  they say the have upto 72 hrs to respond back.  you should expect them to take advantage o that  delay.



  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
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    When an Alliance buddy contacted CS about exchanging a Latest Legends fivestar cover, the stock letter he received in response explicitly said it only applied to fivestar covers from latest legends, not fourstar covers or fivestar covers from Classic Legends. So I expect you to be shot down.

    I do agree that this policy should be documented and not spread through rumors though.

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
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    mexus said:
    @Quebbster
    "as I understand it it only applies to the fivestars currently in Latest Legends."

    That's also my understanding, however without a segment in their official FAQ - how can I truly know? If this is a thing they're planning to continue doing it has to be defined in their regulations.
    That's my little OT in this thread. :)

    They are going to tell you in very, very great detail that it only applies to 5* covers that are in latest, and also that it's only covers for the same character.

    Like, 6 paragraphs of details.

    No, you will not get your Carol swapped.

  • Quebbster
    Quebbster Posts: 8,070 Chairperson of the Boards
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    mexus said:

    I do agree that this policy should be documented and not spread through rumors though.

    Basically this is why I sent them e-mail; I am not expecting a Carol swap but I'm hoping to see their official rules around this.
    My suggestions:
    Stop swapping possibilities for certain covers / active forum members / people who are in an alliance that has the knowledge of this. Or fix an in-game swap mechanic for unwanted latest 5* covers or maybe colorless latest 5* covers. Or by all means, keep having customers sending requests to swap covers via CS but it's that really an inconvenient way of handling this for all parts involved? 

    If you get them to discontinue the service Before I open my hoard I might be a wee bit mad at you...
  • killerkoala
    killerkoala Posts: 1,185 Chairperson of the Boards
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    don't muck things up, be happy they let us do it.   let them do it one form letter at a time.  it's their system, work within it.


    best solution for everyone involved would be to "make every cover colorless."
  • We_are_Venom
    We_are_Venom Posts: 308 Mover and Shaker
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    Why is this even a thing? Come up with something legit that solves this issue instead of having people beg to have covers swapped. Mind boggling in its bad-ness.
  • badsaj
    badsaj Posts: 73 Match Maker
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    From the developers/publishers point of view, one of the objects of the game is to get us to spend money, right?

    So why not create a new revenue stream by creating a function that allows users to pay hp or cp to change the color of a cover that you can't use?

    I'm sure this suggestion has been made before, just the 2 cents of a guy that's been playing for a year and a half, and has spent a couple hundred bucks.

  • aargyle
    aargyle Posts: 2 Just Dropped In
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    As much as I don't want to cost any CS folks their job, imagine how much time/money would be saved if ALL characters simply had colorless covers.
  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
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    aargyle said:
    As much as I don't want to cost any CS folks their job, imagine how much time/money would be saved if ALL characters simply had colorless covers.
    I agree (my original account, since somehow the forums logged this one out and I forgot with user name I had for a minute).
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,477 Chairperson of the Boards
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    The point to remember is that the devs have stated that the cost of colorless covers will be 6 months of development and design change.  They've said it quite a few times, that their current design architecture won't support that concept.  For them to implement colorless covers,  they would literally rebuild the game code from scratch.

    Feel free to argue the technical details of why you think colorless covers is easy to implement.  But realize your arguing about something they've said is a CORE limitation of the game.  Its almost like asking "Why don't we have batman in the game?"

    No technical reason to preclude that right?  its just slap some art on a model and rewrite the powers?

    If the option is redesign and rewrite the code from scratch or spend X dollars more on CS swap requests (either through buying automated chat bots or staffing more CS hours).  They've made a clear choice to spend more money, and the code rewrite will be for the next iteration of this game when its applied to some other licensing property
  • JVReal
    JVReal Posts: 1,884 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2017
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    Phumade said:
    The point to remember is that the devs have stated that the cost of colorless covers will be 6 months of development and design change.  They've said it quite a few times, that their current design architecture won't support that concept.  For them to implement colorless covers,  they would literally rebuild the game code from scratch.

    Feel free to argue the technical details of why you think colorless covers is easy to implement.  But realize your arguing about something they've said is a CORE limitation of the game.  Its almost like asking "Why don't we have batman in the game?"

    No technical reason to preclude that right?  its just slap some art on a model and rewrite the powers?

    If the option is redesign and rewrite the code from scratch or spend X dollars more on CS swap requests (either through buying automated chat bots or staffing more CS hours).  They've made a clear choice to spend more money, and the code rewrite will be for the next iteration of this game when its applied to some other licensing property
    I don't recall ever reading that, but I haven't read every single post.  Colorless is the idea. It doesn't have to be a true colorless cover, it could be a cover pops up and you have to pick a color... and that one is the reward.  Or you could have an exchange store (they are good at making stores) where you bring your cover and do an even trade for one of 3 choices of the exact same character.  There are several ways to accomplish the "colorless" function of being able to choose your color without it being a wild-card cover that needs to be recoded.  Heck, give a specific character token, then take that token to the token store (see, more stores for them) and trade it for the color of your choice of that cover. OR if you create a re-roll button for the cover that is picked, to re-roll the color until you get the color you want, then accept it.
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,477 Chairperson of the Boards
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    JVReal said:Colorless is the idea.

    a:  it could be a cover pops up and you have to pick a color... and that one is the reward. 

    b:  Or you could have an exchange store (they are good at making stores) where you bring your cover and do an even trade for one of 3 choices of the exact same character. 

    c:  There are several ways to accomplish the "colorless" function of being able to choose your color without it being a wild-card cover that needs to be recoded. 

     Heck, give a specific character token, then take that token to the token store (see, more stores for them) and trade it for the color of your choice of that cover.


    d:  OR if you create a re-roll button for the cover that is picked, to re-roll the color until you get the color you want, then accept it.
    So lets uses different terminology to clarify the issue for readers vs prejorative terms that most lay readers won't have and insight on.

    Option A: sounds like a programming change.   specifically I can't think of any vault/store example that lets us pick the cover.  

    Option B:  This sounds more feasible.  I could imagine a "NMG" process you sell a 4* carol to get NMG token for just 4* carol.  But how do you eliminate rerolling  the same color cover?  Wouldn't this effectively just have people re rolling until the get the color they want/ need?  For this option to be seriously considered you have to work through those questions so brigby can make those points.

    Option C:  I'm not dissming your approach,  but give concrete examples of past vault/processes that can be used to lego build the process you think works best.  Its pretty clear that their technology is based on various store mechanics used the past.  The easiest way to address your concerns is structure your solution in terms of their existing tools

    Option D:  This seems like a coding/design issue.  Maybe you could cobble a NMG type store that had this intervace.

    When you sell 4* Carol.  you sell for iso and NMG carol token.

    on the NMG carol store page you see 3 different button offer.

    button 1: only has 2 color outcomes (I.e. no black)
    button 2: only has 2 color outcomes (i.e. no yellow)
    etc...

    This seems possible, but I know the immedieate concern would be if the layout is too confusing.


    In any case,  Don't make the issue about color,  just layout an example of what store/process you want to see used to address the color concerns.

    1.  it needs to be based on demonstrated elements in the game.
    2.  Needs to work consistently whether your selling 1 cover or 5* covers.
    3.  Be clear on the price / exchange rates to so people can ballpark the economics.

  • broll
    broll Posts: 4,732 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2017
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    Phumade said:
    The point to remember is that the devs have stated that the cost of colorless covers will be 6 months of development and design change.  They've said it quite a few times, that their current design architecture won't support that concept.  For them to implement colorless covers,  they would literally rebuild the game code from scratch.

    Feel free to argue the technical details of why you think colorless covers is easy to implement.  But realize your arguing about something they've said is a CORE limitation of the game.  Its almost like asking "Why don't we have batman in the game?"

    No technical reason to preclude that right?  its just slap some art on a model and rewrite the powers?

    If the option is redesign and rewrite the code from scratch or spend X dollars more on CS swap requests (either through buying automated chat bots or staffing more CS hours).  They've made a clear choice to spend more money, and the code rewrite will be for the next iteration of this game when its applied to some other licensing property
    Which is one of the reasons I've always been against the colorless covers mantra.  There are other ways to fix the problem that wouldn't require so much re-coding.  I think they should make a trading post kind of system.  Every time you get an unusable cover (any character) you get a point in the that tier's bucket.  Every time you get so many points you can chose a character and color from the prize vault.  It wouldn't eliminate the problem, but it would reduce it and at least let us feel like an unusable cover provide some vault, even if not a full cover.  They could even set different point values to different tiers if they wanted.
  • MissChinch
    MissChinch Posts: 509 Critical Contributor
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    Hah, fully embrace the RNG:

    New store, all 5*s of all color available plus a 2000 ISO, a 100HP a 10CP and a bagman.

    Change to sale price of a 5* cover -> one token to the new store.



    Seriously though, why rock the boat, I'm working on a hoard and this is the kind of discontinuation I'd expect them to notify us after its happened...   ;)


  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Phumade said:
    The point to remember is that the devs have stated that the cost of colorless covers will be 6 months of development and design change.  They've said it quite a few times, that their current design architecture won't support that concept.  For them to implement colorless covers,  they would literally rebuild the game code from scratch.

    I also haven't read that....have they said that...let's say theoretically....more than six months ago? ;)

    I can specify here: when I say "colorless" I'm all for "even builds". Don't give random color, don't let player choose. Let the covers fall 1/0/0, 1/1/0, 1/1/1, 2/1/1.....5/4/4.

    No one can complain about tossing covers, bad RNG, or customer service. 13 covers first time, every time, and it's up to the player to champ and re-spec if they want to.
  • Jaedenkaal
    Jaedenkaal Posts: 3,357 Chairperson of the Boards
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    SnowcaTT said:
    I also haven't read that....have they said that...let's say theoretically....more than six months ago? ;)
    "That will take 6 months" != "You'll have it in 6 months" :)

    fwiw I don't recall reading that anywhere either.
  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,477 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Alright have brigby ask the question.

    If their answer is 3months development or less.  Then I'll lead the pitchfork to say move all resources to this project.

    If they say we anticipate a 6month + re write of the basic engine and migration of existing user progress.  Then lets accept their answer at face value and say that it won't be rewriiten.  

    More likely they will have a new ip license and they'll rewrite the code from scratch.

    To be clear the question we are asking is:

    "How long to develop a color less tracking system, migrate existing user records to the new "recording construct' and test it to have 99% transition success."

    If that answer is over 6 months, then lets figure out other solutions to the duplicate cover issue.
  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,410 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited April 2017
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    Simplest solution to develop is to create another icon on the recruit page (refresh icon next to the star icon). When tapped, it simply cycles through the colours of the cover. Shouldn't take more than a day and has no impact to anything else.

    if they want, put a cycle tax on it. 10iso, 10hp, 10cp etc 

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