Star Trek: Wrath of Gems - MPQ Could Learn a Few Things

ntcplanters

I just stumbled across the Android game: Star Trek: Wrath of Gems. It is an MPQ clone of sorts, but they do a few things better than this game, which I really enjoy:

1.) Choose your ability. To me, this is where the game really shines. MPQ has colored covers/powers, but, what you pick is what you get. Do you have a color max'ed on a 4* character, and roll another color that you cannot use? Tough! Unless you champ that 4*, you just got spammed for 1000 ISO. With Wrath of Gems, you can pick how you spec your character/ship from the get-go.

2.) Ships. Ships are cool. They add another whole aspect to the game. Granted that MPQ cannot easily do ships, as it is not Star Trek or Star Wars. I mean, what are they going to do, the Spider Mobile vs. Silver Surfer's Surfboard? However, they could think of something, I am certain.

3.) Diplomatic boards. Part of Star Trek is diplomacy. For Star Wars, it would be using Force powers, I am sure. For MPQ, I do not know, but the diplomatic feature adds a different sort of challenge to the game: providing variety. Variety is good.

Admittedly, I have only been playing Wrath of Gems for a short while, but these are my top 3 so far. I hope MPQ takes a few hints (especially with the powers). What do you think?

JHawkInc

I don't know how exactly these things work in the Star Trek game, so I can't say whether or not they'd be good additions to MPQ (or how to adapt them in the first place), but for number 2, maybe a "Team HQ"? Baxter Building, Avengers Tower, X-Mansion, Helicarrier, etc? That could fill the mechanical role of a "ship" while being more thematically fitting for a superhero game.

bbigler

It would be cool if MPQ had a feature/mechanic where (instead of a ship) you can acquire an infinity stone for the season, which will give you some kind of added benefit in every battle you have.  Such as:

Beginning the match with a strong strike, protect or attack tile.
Increase the match damage of all characters by 50%
Give you a 1 time per battle "undo" option where you can replay your last turn.
Beginning the match with 1 AP in all colors.
Increase the activated power damage by 50%
Have all characters heal 1% each turn

Hendross

Wait, you don't get color locked!?  HERETIC!

Jarvind

Is...is that supposed to be like Wrath of Khan? Like, they just replaced the word "Khan" with "Gems?" 

That might be the laziest, sloppiest, "screw it we've got a recognizable brand behind it so we can halfass everything else" nonsense I've ever seen.

Ships sound cool though.

Starfury

bbigler said:

It would be cool if MPQ had a feature/mechanic where (instead of a ship) you can acquire an infinity stone for the season, which will give you some kind of added benefit in every battle you have.  Such as:

Beginning the match with a strong strike, protect or attack tile.
Increase the match damage of all characters by 50%
Give you a 1 time per battle "undo" option where you can replay your last turn.
Beginning the match with 1 AP in all colors.
Increase the activated power damage by 50%
Have all characters heal 1% each turn

Time stone: All animations play 100% faster!

nitefox1337

MPQ asset is not it's gameplay or features.

It's just that it's Marvel.

Change all the Heroes, and no one would look at this game. It's because the Heroes are familiar and so are their powers that you tolerate whatever doesn't really work.

Neuromancer

@JHawkInc

Wouldn't want to neglect villain bases either: Doomstadt, Thunderbolts Mountain, Asteroid M, etc. 

I've been advocating for a base building mechanic for years. Most surveys I've submitted included the suggestion. I was thinking they could either be tied to an individual or an Alliance. Heck, the base could be a bit of both; a personal base with enhancements provided to your Alliance.

I thought it could serve as a generator with Boosts unique for a chosen base. This could also make for a more interesting manipulation of the Boost mechanic, which strikes me as a little underused. I still have those old Combat Boosts that enhance damage to certain opponents. I thought these interesting, and was sad they went toward a more general mechanic rather than something more creative. MPQ could do all sorts of interesting things with Boosts such as expanded/focused probability controls for rewards at the end of a game, treating a certain character as powered-up for a single match, etc.

Don't know if the base'd be another ISO sink. Maybe HP is more appropriate, or if it's Alliance based, it could be tied to event scores as more incentive to contribute to events.

Again, the details should be left to the designers, as I'm not on payroll.

@nitefox1337

That doesn't mean MPQ shouldn't work toward the goal of improving these mechanics to the point of surmounting the IP. At this stage, MPQ has all the Marvel fans it's going to get, can't really expand there save for story alteration, which might be impossible for them due to continuity direction. That means it's time to get all the gamers. Improve the gameplay.

bbigler

Starfury said:

bbigler said:

It would be cool if MPQ had a feature/mechanic where (instead of a ship) you can acquire an infinity stone for the season, which will give you some kind of added benefit in every battle you have.  Such as:

Beginning the match with a strong strike, protect or attack tile.
Increase the match damage of all characters by 50%
Give you a 1 time per battle "undo" option where you can replay your last turn.
Beginning the match with 1 AP in all colors.
Increase the activated power damage by 50%
Have all characters heal 1% each turn

Time stone: All animations play 100% faster!

I was actually going to suggest that the time gem speeds up all aspects of the game, but then all other gems would be neglected.

Jarvind

nitefox1337 said:

MPQ asset is not it's gameplay or features.

It's just that it's Marvel.

Change all the Heroes, and no one would look at this game. It's because the Heroes are familiar and so are their powers that you tolerate whatever doesn't really work.

Eh, I dunno. I had either never heard of, or was unfamiliar with, a bunch of the characters in the game when I started playing. Hell, I didn't even know Howard the Duck was a Marvel character until he showed up; I thought he was just the product of George Lucas's peyote dreams. We still get some that I don't know much or anything about - Coulson and Quake for example.

I agree that the Marvel license is what pulls people in for the most part, but the gameplay is fine.

bbigler

nitefox1337 said:

MPQ asset is not it's gameplay or features.

It's just that it's Marvel.

Change all the Heroes, and no one would look at this game. It's because the Heroes are familiar and so are their powers that you tolerate whatever doesn't really work.

I must disagree, giving an example of Magic the Gathering.  When Magic debuted in the 90's, all characters were unfamiliar and just "made up", but people played it anyway because they liked the game play and deck building aspect of it.  Great for engineers.  Numerous other games do not rely on a known brand to promote it. 

If you think about it, it's the gameplay / mechanics of a game that really sell, why do you think we have a thousand different match-3 games out there?  People like that gameplay because it's easy to understand.  Castle defense games?  Army building games?  First person shooters?  It's the game mechanic that people understand and are familiar with.  Clash of Clans?  Looks like World of Warcraft to me. 

Now, I'll admit that it's more interesting with known Marvel characters, but that's just a bonus.  They could replace the characters with Gummy Bears, Smurfs, My Little Pony, whatever, and it would still be interesting from a gameplay point of view.

Starfury

bbigler said:

Starfury said:

bbigler said:

It would be cool if MPQ had a feature/mechanic where (instead of a ship) you can acquire an infinity stone for the season, which will give you some kind of added benefit in every battle you have.  Such as:

Beginning the match with a strong strike, protect or attack tile.
Increase the match damage of all characters by 50%
Give you a 1 time per battle "undo" option where you can replay your last turn.
Beginning the match with 1 AP in all colors.
Increase the activated power damage by 50%
Have all characters heal 1% each turn

Time stone: All animations play 100% faster!

I was actually going to suggest that the time gem speeds up all aspects of the game, but then all other gems would be neglected.

I guess that should be a hint to the devs to speed up their freaking game

Kaeyne

I played Wrath of Gems for about a year or so, it was a nice change but ultimately too slow for my tastes. And the data charges were higher than MPQ, curiously. But yeah, it has some differences in gameplay, which is nice.

I mean - even the original Puzzle Quest Challenge of the Warlords had some other variety, if I recall correctly. And they expanded that in Puzzle Quest 2 as well.

All in all I would welcome a little change in gameplay now and then. And maybe bring some "real" puzzle aspects into the game. Like the boss fight with Caecillius (or whatever his name was).

Starfury

Kaeyne said:

And maybe bring some "real" puzzle aspects into the game. Like the boss fight with Caecillius (or whatever his name was).

Yeah, even the name is a puzzle

Brigby

*Moved to Suggestions & Feedback, as the OP is suggesting 3 different features MPQ should incorporate

Wonko33

Yeah I tried it, way more "puzzly" - haven't played enough to catch problems but the different styles of games is refreshing.

Diplomatic is cool, when you try to convince someone in the story you have to match your 3 gems but not his 3 - different enough to be fun