Marvel Contest of Champions Just Announced 6 Star Characters

notamutant

I started playing Marvel Contest of Champions a few months ago for the Marvel Insider points, and kept playing since (although the game is even more boring than MPQ and requires 10x the time commitment for PvP, but at least you don't need to play at specific times quite as much). The game also has the same tiered character structure, although leveling up characters is 10x longer and worse than in MPQ (in addition to needing iso to level up, in addition to needing to get "dupes" (essentially more than 1 cover of a character) to unlock their special powers, you also need catalysts that take forever to acquire (imagine needing to spend 10 CP on a character every 20 levels to keep leveling them up). Their five stars are even harder to get than in MPQ, perhaps because you don't get them randomly like in MPQ, but by saving up for a long time and competing at a really high level. 

Anyhow, they just announced that 6 stars will be coming out soon. Which made me shudder to think that MPQ could be reaching the same saturation point. We have a bunch more 4 stars than 3 stars had now, and 5 stars are starting to get higher up in numbers. I know we have discussed this in the past, but does anyone think we are starting to reach the saturation point where we will potentially be making 5 stars the new 4 stars like happened in the past with 3 and 4 star characters? And if so, how long before we get 6 stars?

The problem with the tiered character model, is that once you have fully reached the next tier, especially in the case of 5 stars and the extreme dilution in 4 stars, you no longer need 4 stars to compete. I would guess even the whales stopped bothering to max out new characters if they are 4 stars lately, since they are useless. Obviously, 5 stars bring in more money for the devs due to the increased cost in "buying" them with CP than 4 stars, so shifting to having mainly only 5 star releases going forward could up the cash coming in. It will also allow them to introduce the even crazier 6 star tier. I hope they don't introduce 6 stars without making them only a bit stronger than 5 stars.

Anyhow, I am just rambling now, but do people think that it is only a matter of time before the devs shift to primarly new 5 stars, and/or add 6 stars, or do you think they are happy with the current equilibrium of mixing in 4 and 5 star releases?

Dormammu

I believe it's only a matter of time before there is a 6-star tier. How much time that is and what will happen with 5-star availability would only be guess work.

broll

I for one would welcome this IF it means that basically everything shifts down.  4* & 5* covers much more available, 3*s become the new throw away farm characters.  Maybe 1* are flat out removed from the game and 2*s replace their lack common status?  

Knowing the devs though they'll probably bolt it on top and not improve anything below it.

Either way it will be fun to watch the forums explode.

Also if this is coming, I'd guess it would be released during the anniversary event like 5*s were, that's about 2 months from now.

broll

FYI Found the announcement:
http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/16101/six-star-champions-are-coming-to-the-contest

Looks like they are giving a big advanced heads up, not actually coming out to early 2018.

mpqr7

I will be super sad if they announce 6-start characters here. But we'll see.

I am definitely one of those people who doesn't bother to champion new 4*s. I'm hoarding in hopes of championing a new 5* some day! I only need to hoard for another 6 or so months to get a fighting chance! So each new 4* only gets to around 5 or so covers. I already have over 40 4*s championed, so I don't really need more at this point. I'll do it when I pull 13 covers on them.

notamutant

mpqr7 said:

I will be super sad if they announce 6-start characters here. But we'll see.

I am definitely one of those people who doesn't bother to champion new 4*s. I'm hoarding in hopes of championing a new 5* some day! I only need to hoard for another 6 or so months to get a fighting chance! So each new 4* only gets to around 5 or so covers. I already have over 40 4*s championed, so I don't really need more at this point. I'll do it when I pull 13 covers on them.

Think about it like this. If you are still hoarding when they announce 6 stars, you will be ahead of the pack, and can champ a new 6 star right away and be on top of the game for months while everyone else tries to catch up to a ridiculously overpowered opponent.

Beer40

Honestly, I think 5* are the end game here. But in the event I'm wrong, it appears they like their variants, so the most obvious choices would be:

Heroes:

Wastelands Hawkeye
Worldbreaker Hulk
Unworthy Thor
Spider Man 2099
X-Force Psylocke
Nick Fury (classic/white)
War Machine (Frank Castle)
Juggernaut (Colossus)

Villains:

Age of Apocalypse Wolverine
Hydra Captain America
Iron Patriot (Norman Osborne)
Infamous Iron Man (Dr. Doom)
Superior Spider Man (Doc Ock)
Ultimate Magneto
No more Mutants Scarlet Witch
Sentry (The Void)

You can debate the heroes/villains all you want, including their designation (I went for symmetry). But its tough to argue that this wouldn't be a fun tier to play with!

notamutant

broll said:

FYI Found the announcement:
http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/16101/six-star-champions-are-coming-to-the-contest

Looks like they are giving a big advanced heads up, not actually coming out to early 2018.

Would be awesome if we could hear more detailed stuff that wasn't full of half-truths here. That level of detail and announcement so far out was incredible, and I can't imagine us ever getting so much warning. I would imagine they make the announcement one hour before roll-out and delete everyone's CP beforehand to make sure hoarding won't help.

GrumpySmurf1002

There are only two complete tiers, 1 and 2 star.   They have 8 and 14 characters respectively, an increase of 1.75x

There's currently 44 threes, which is just over 3x the twos.  So lets assume 3.5x (2 x 1.75) is the magic number to shut down the tier.  That would leave final count at 49.

Then 4 stars are 5.25x (3 x 1.75) the 3s, which puts us at 257.25 four star characters, so ~200 more to go.

Then 5s.......

That's probably not related to anything of course, but don't think we're getting 6s any time soon.

notamutant

How many 4 stars were there when 5 stars were announced? Mid 30s?

Supravenbull

I was literally looking at this earlier on the character release date thread. there were about 17 4 stars when Black bolt was released. We are passed that now in 5 stars. Also close to the same time frame. 

bluewolf

I am not familiar with CoC, but if the progression model is more linear (aka far less RNG dependent), then adding a new tier makes more sense for the game vs MPQ, where you are chasing covers to decide who to level.  And some players can't get the covers they need.

As well, I shudder to imagine the 6* reaction after seeing the OML nerf fallout.

Finally, I fail to see how a 6* tier adds anything without breaking the game irreparably.  At least as it stands now.  We already have a 5* character and 4* teams that can literally finish an easy node in one move.

AngryGerman

notamutant said:

 I would imagine they make the announcement one hour before roll-out and delete everyone's CP beforehand to make sure hoarding won't help.

They wouldn't delete everyone's cp. They would just make a entirely new resource that can only be acquired through top1% finishes or the newly added cp buying store. 

The announcement would also be made 1 hour before they leave for the weekend. 

veny

Cant say i would mind if they added 6*s...
Maybe a bit since 4*s i am desperately try to max out will be even more useless.
Anyway i strongly doubt 6*s will be added - they would be both extremely powerful (thanks to insane scalling on higher levels - you know, that PvP that sets everyone to level 550) and extremely rare (now you have 10-15% chance to get random 5* from LT)... cant imagine fighting against luckers/whales who own 6* with 1 cover but yet, with f.e. 40 000 HP (equivalent of powered up 4* champion).
Not mentioning the PvP scale (since PvE now scales with Shield level, with 6*s it could be actually too easy).

Captain_Carlman

If they ever do make 6-star characters, there should only be one:  Stan Lee.

Borstock

Captain_Carlman said:

If they ever do make 6-star characters, there should only be one:  Stan Lee.

Kevin Feige.

bluewolf

Captain_Carlman said:

If they ever do make 6-star characters, there should only be one:  Stan Lee.

RDJ.  Made Iron Man A-list.  No MCU without him.

Milk Jugz

Please god no.

jamesh

The main reason to introduce 6* characters would be if the whales stop spending.  You'd introduce a new tier, and increase availability of the previous top tier (both the covers and resources to level  them) to devalue the rosters of the top dogs to encourage them to strive for the new shiny.

DAZ0273

What if instead of individual characters, the 6* level was actually Teams. They could introduce teams as they go along and once you get one, you would then unlock member slots of the team which would when the character was added would boost abilitities and increase health pools based upon multiplier of rank (i.e +50 for 4* or something). When teams fought each other, it would be like a boss battle where you have to deplete the whole team health rather than defeat characters individually. You might even be able to have it that say Hulk can be on multiple teams but you have to decide which one when rostered and need a duplicate to put on Defenders if you put him on say Avengers first. Then you fight other Teams in a special 6* PVP based upon what characters you have available in that pool. They could also run boss events for 6* teams. You could still have champ levels for teams also based on opening additional 6* team tokens above a certain level. No idea of how the logistics work out beyond this...or whether this is just an insane idea basically.

TL;DR - 6* Teams!

crackninja

I asked if we were ready for 6*'s a few months ago, most responded rather....unfavorably...to the idea 
What I do know is that from reading other forumites, my plight is very common:  I've champed a couple dozen 4*'s and could finish most of the others if i had the iso.  I also have 3109 cp's and 61 LT's that are of zero value to me because using them either requires me use iso I don't have,  or gives me a 5* cover for a character I may never fully cover.  Doing the hoard and get 3 fully covered 5*'s at once trick renders the game totally boring, which the devs have seemingly acknowledged with the new pve and win based PvP structures, but still, there are enough stories of 5 star land that I'm avoiding for now.
This is relevant because if adding in another tier will make the 5* tier a supported and entertaining experience,  we essentially all benefit from that.  If doing so means zero changes to the 5* kittyshow that we have today,  then not only would I be against it, but it would a major insult.