Need More * and ** Characters

Pleefs

I was looking at the list of characters on one of the other forum topics and noticed that the ratios between the one, two and three star characters is quite disproportionate. Whether that's by design or not, I think the game could use an infusion of more one and two star characters.

This would make tokens, particular standard ones, exciting again, other than seeing the same old things over and over, and maybe encourage more purchases of tokens/packs. I pretty much have given up on spending money on buying HP for heroic or special character packs because I've reached a point where there's no two star character I haven't maxed the covers or don't care to have. As for three stars, the chances of pulling them, even with the so-called "increased chance" are still pretty bad, and there's no guarantee you'll get that three star that you may really want/need.

Newer and/or less competitive players will have a bigger pool of characters to work with, particularly if they aren't the type that tends to spend real money on the game, especially if some of those two stars are pretty usable (like Ares).

One (and Two) star tourneys can become more interesting, and maybe even more frequent.

Besides, like I'm sure many other long time players here, I WANT MY OWN 1-STAR DEVIL DINOSAUR, DAMMIT!

Unknown

This has been brought up multiple times before. It usually boils down to 2 opposing views:
1. More 1-star and 2-star characters gives greater variety. Newer players can play with their favorite heroes if these covers are more common. More things to collect for people. Tokens get more longevity as you're more likely to pull something you need if there were more covers available.
2. More 1 & 2 star characters dilutes the cover pool. It's harder for newer players to build up a character because more characters means less chance to pull the cover and color they need from a token. More characters also requires more roster space. Newer players will struggle to earn enough HP to keep all these different characters as a result of roster pricing. 1 & 2 star characters don't help mid and upper tier players.

GumisK

More 1* and 2* heroes will in fact slow down the progress for new players, keeping them longer in the below-3* zone. Are you sure that's exactly what they want? When I was a beginner, I wished for powerful characters that would make me more competitive and let me win the shiniest prizes, not for more characters with the same power level.

Dormammu

One-star characters are all starters. They exist to teach you the game and give you just enough variety to be successful. Do not expect any more.

Two-star characters are a bridge. They exist to give you a taste of what is possible at the next level, and give you enough tools to get there. Do not expect many more.

Three-star characters are the meat and potatoes of this game right now. They exist to satisfy the established player base and give them the variety of strategy they need to stay interested. Expect lots more of these dangling carrots.

Four-star characters are the future. Someday they will be what three-star characters are now.

One and Two-star characters are not the future. There's already enough there to move you on up.

Unknown

I disagree that adding more 2* would "dilute the pool" significantly.
When they released Ares they handed him out like candy for a while. Which is exactly what 2* teams need. The opportunity to gather many covers of the same person in a short period of time. Then they have a clear strong character to chase instead of listening to the forums and thinking they shouldn't level anyone until they have more covers for Thor and OBW despite having someone else fully covered.

To me it seems the best way to gain noticeable strength is to pick one person (which almost always depends on who you can get the covers for), concentrate on beefing them up and then build a team around them. I personally am doing this with Steve right now as I am sure others might be as well.

A monthly release of a new 2* that is handed out generously would help newer players solidify their two star team much better than playing the token lottery endlessly hoping something useful shows up. Yes new characters dilute the pool, but if you get excited about a new release fight hard to get them, enjoy playing and leveling them are these players even going to notice the small percentage drop in the probability of pulling a specific character? And even so, I feel like those in 3* land can debate the merits of more 1-2 star characters all we want but I want to hear the thoughts of the players who don't have a maxed 85 yet and see what their opinion on the subject is because I would give the weight of their suggestions on the topic 10x the weight of my own opinion because they are living that transition instead of remembering how it was back when. I rather doubt the experience of day one players going through 2* transition matches what new players are going through now.

Unknown

I have always been a fan of lower-tier tournaments. Sometimes, playing at the top over and over can get exhausting. I've always had fun "twinking" lower characters in almost every game I play, and finding a match for them.
Here's my suggestions: Introduce * and ** tournaments maybe once or twice a month for a couple of days (gives the starters a chance to outplay a seasoned vet) with ** and *** rewards. Along side that, introduce newr single-player missions which reward a small handful of new * and ** characters to close the damage gaps (i.e. make a balanced team at those levels of play). Don't flood us with new * and **, but make it so I can use 3 * to cover all colors.

Unknown

Technically, I have been playing the game, well since shortly before the alliances kicked in. I don't have any level 85 characters yet. (Though I do have enough covers to produce a couple, just not enough iso) Anyway, here is what I think. Yes there does need to be more one and two star characters because,

1. It would make those lone star tournaments more interesting(as well as any two star only tournaments)

2. It would give new players more characters that would be easier to pull and build, and a little more viability in tournaments as well as more (potentially) chances to have powered heroes in the other events. (Those two star powered heroes can help a lot)

3. There are just some characters that should not be 3 star guys, for instance if Frog Man made it to the game(Don't think he will, but just saying if) the last thing I would want to see is him being a 3 -4 star guy, as a matter of fact I think The Falcon would have been the perfect guy for a new one or two star character, while Juggernaut should have probably been a 3 star, and there is so many characters that could make the game and would be great at the one and two star level, such as Modok, Ka Zar, Longshot, Black Cat, Lady Sif, Mojo, etc. and you could do multiple versions of certain characters like you are now (For instance a 2 star Modern Gambit, a 3 star Classic Gambit, a 1 star Original Magneto etc.).this way the player has plenty of chances to get some of his favorites.

Anyway, that is my thoughts on it.

Unknown

Mentioned it in another thread. But I think here it fits even better:

I think introducing only 3*s is part of their strategy and it is good:

The most important thing with introducing new cards is to improve the overall set of cards. By 'improve' I mean the new card has to be interesting. From the point of a 1*-player EVERY card is interesting. But when you already have a maxed out 3*-team a new 1* character is nothing you will ever use. Maybe you collect it but you also know that there is no reason to hurry because you will get hundreds of these covers for free as any other 1*.
What keeps the game interesting for players who already have many covers is seeing new cards who are hard to get AND at its best are nice to play (which does not mean they have to be good but in some way interesting to play).

So, I guess they will introduce more 3*s. Maybe also some 2*s and maybe even a 1* just for fun. AND they will increase the number of 4*s. A few months from now we will see 4*s as a part of more and more teams. At that time they will introduce the first 5* - and maybe tokens that include only 3*s, 4*s and 5*s.
New characters will most often be 4*s and everybody will collect them. People will fight with the 3* to 4* transition just like today from 2 to 3.

To be honest: This is the only way I can imagine to keep the game interesting. What else should keep you motivated after you maxed all your 3*s and those three 4*-covers?
Maxing all the covers twice?
Winning the new 1*-cover... while you have 10.000 standard tokens that you didn't even use because there was nothing to get from them?
No, what keeps you motivated is a chance to get this one special very very rare new card.

AND NOW GIVE ME THAT FATCAT NICK FURY!

("fatcat" - when "tinykitty" is not enough...)

Unknown

I doubt there will ever be 5* characters. Even 4*s need so much ISO to level that it's a ridiculous grind to think of building up a whole roster of 4*s. And going a level beyond that? Inconceivable!

Unknown

ZenBrillig wrote:

I doubt there will ever be 5* characters. Even 4*s need so much ISO to level that it's a ridiculous grind to think of building up a whole roster of 4*s. And going a level beyond that? Inconceivable!

Give out more iso than today - problem solved.

I mean:
One day (and that day is in a few months) about 90% of their player base will have enough 3*-covers to start maxing their first few of them. At that point the game is much more about iso then about covers. A few months later the same and same iso-collecting will get boring... only the most self-mortivated collectors will call it enough fun that the game introduces some new 1* or 2* characters - even the xth 3* will be "just another guy to collect".
I think that day - when they decide not to keep increasing the power level any more - is the day the game starts to die.

Solution: Iso-inflation. Cover-inflation.
When 3*s became the new 2*s (i.e. the standard) give out more iso and let the 4*s become the new 3*s (i.e. the elite) and introduce new 5*s to fulfill todays function of the 4*s (i.e. the dream).
Because that's just how this game works. You remember your bad cards from yesterday, enjoy your good cards from today, want the better cards from tomorrow and dream about your mysterious cards of the future.

For the majority of players 1*s are "bad cards from yesterday" - and for the beginners they are "another new cover that increases the pool and decreases the chance to getting the cover you need to max the existing characters". From a collector's point of view, I would love to see a new 1*. From a gamer's point of view I'd say it doesn't matter for me - I'm in the 2->3 transition, I would not use the card but collect it.

From a game designer's point of view I would say "new 1*s or 2*s would not destroy the game but also not improve it - I better use my time for improvement".

Unknown

The problem is I do not think they should go past 4 stars. I have seen several games where they continually go up and up and up in rarity, and frankly one of the few games to do this correctly is Puzzle and Dragons, but there is a couple of reasons for that.

1. they give you messages that has free Magic Stones(AKA Hero Points in this game) So if you save them up you have a chance to pull a switch and get Rare-Super Rare Monsters.

and

2. They don't depend on PVP (Unlike this game that depends heavily on it)

and okay

3. You can use other players Monsters and gain pal points which in turn you can use to pull a switch and earn Rare Monsters too.

In the end this game would actually probably start going down because of the constant frustration of having to change your rosters just to keep up, and it does not help that roster spots keep going up in price of HP to open them up. I don't know while this is a game that appeals to players of all types, I also think it's a game that just as easily could lose players if they continually go up in rarity unless they do it properly

Unknown

For whatever reason the game has decided that 3* is where the power progression stops. This isn't a game where Ultra Rare +++ is always better than Ultra Rare ++. Nick Fury, unless his yellow ability turns out to do some impossibly powerful things, isn't even going to come close to Spiderman/Magneto's level of broken. It's not even clear if he's better than lazy Thor in a vacuum, though his color coverage is likely superior (Thor covers yellow, while Nick Fury covers yellow/purple. Awesome red/green/blue powers are dime a dozen so can be ignored for color coverage). This also means there's not much point to have characters weaker than the 3* power level. They don't even make very much money off 1* and 2*, and they're still going to be weaker than 3*. Don't confuse balance issues with intent. Pre nerf Wolverine and Thor are easily a match for any 3* but that's because whoever designed them wasn't paying attention. Likewise OBW, the current reigning 2*, likely benefits from how early AP stealing abilities are poorly designed, as you can see just how weak the newer AP steal abilities are (Daredevil, Psylocke, and even Nick Fury) compared to theirs. Unless there was another huge design oversight, you won't be getting another OBW power level character in 2*. You might not even get another Thor (who is still quite good).

While you should have new 1* and 2* if there are glaring holes in certain capabilities, I don't think the 1* and 2* is missing any core capability. It's quite obvious that from a design point of view, the more interesting (not necessarily powerful) abilities are reserved for 3* and 4*, and the existing 1* and 2* cover the basic abilities well enough.

Unknown

Id have to agree that you may think you want more 2* characters, but as stated they only carry you over until you build your 3* covers.... if there were more it would make getting those covers even harder. What they really need to do is bring three star cover packs around more often and not make them just as expensive as buying one for a character!

HailMary

Cryptobrancus wrote:

I disagree that adding more 2* would "dilute the pool" significantly.
When they released Ares they handed him out like candy for a while. Which is exactly what 2* teams need. The opportunity to gather many covers of the same person in a short period of time. Then they have a clear strong character to chase instead of listening to the forums and thinking they shouldn't level anyone until they have more covers for Thor and OBW despite having someone else fully covered.

To me it seems the best way to gain noticeable strength is to pick one person (which almost always depends on who you can get the covers for), concentrate on beefing them up and then build a team around them. I personally am doing this with Steve right now as I am sure others might be as well.

As a person whose 1*-2* transition apparently just missed the Ares-candy deluge, my core 2* team was a L85 AWolv, L77 Thor (I was stuck at 2 yellows until after I got 3 yellows in LThor), and L85 CStorm. OBW was stuck at 1/2/1 until after I'd already started my 2*-3* transition.

All that was with constant play and quite a few 3x2*-cover placements in PVP events. Especially with the nerfed 2*-cover reward tiers, I think cover dilution would be a real problem, and a much better way to provide real variety is to tweak weak 2* characters to increase their viability -- make characters like Moonstone, Bag-Man, MHawkeye, and Bullseye more usable. Frankly, Thorverine & OBW still dominate 2* land, not due to a lack of literal character variety, but due to a lack of viable alternatives. I would even count Ares out due to rarity. CStorm & MN Mags are really the only other viable options, and MN Mags is viable only when paired with CStorm.

As for your Mr. Rogers comparison, I think its a bit flawed. Mr. Rogers is a solid character, and his covers were over-rewarded due to the doubled PVE event. However, take Falcon as a counterpoint:
- new release: good
- more than one set of covers being handed out: good
- squishy, pure support character with entirely situational utility: very bad as a component of a core transitional team.