Submit Your Questions For Q&A With Oktagon (10/10/17)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

With the recent transition to Oktagon as the new development team, it has been a whirlwind of activity. We have been working closely with them, making sure that they have all the necessary resources available, in order to ensure this transition is as smooth as possible. We believe that making sure they have a solid foundation will allow them to be successful in the management and development of Magic: Puzzle Quest, which is why this is a process we do not want to rush through.

While we've certainly had plenty of interaction with them, we understand that some players may potentially feel a bit out of the loop, and we sincerely apologize for any unintentional reduction in communication. With this in mind, we want to give players the opportunity to submit any questions you'd like to ask the development team at Oktagon. If you would like to submit your question, then please leave a comment down below in this thread.

Since we would ideally like to post the answers to your questions next week, please note that we will be placing a cut-off date for question submissions at 6:00 PM PDT this Thursday, 10/12/17. This cut-off date is so we have time to compile and send the questions to the developers, and for them to have time to provide detailed responses.

We sincerely appreciate all of the support and patience the community has shown, and we look forward to answering any questions players may have for the team. Thank you!

deletedgone

Quick time-sensitive question:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/68096/new-elite-pack-this-week#latest

Any chance of an answer?

edit:  Thanks for the quick answer!

Corn_Noodles

Oktagon, what are your thoughts on re-balancing existing cards? Is this something you are looking at, or are you purely focused on new cards going forward?

Fiddler

Booster crafting: is it still on the table? It was a high priority for many players. Is there a potential window when we would see it in place?

Kinesia

1) Are you reading Magic design articles about the relevant sets especially from MaRo? While things need to be adjusted a fair bit porting them over to this game it would help greatly if you knew the _reasons_ for some things and also the things they tried and abandoned and _why_. The exact details might not be relevant but the _reasons_ and the thought processes probably are.

2) Are you going to have "policies" for costing things and porting them over? Some things currently seem very arbitrary, general policies might comfort us. (This ties to 1 since Wizards deliberately stopped making rarer cards automatically more powerful and tried to balance things mostly by cost, this isn't happening in MtGPQ yet.)

3) Are you going to look at the support tools and things too and make things easier for both players and support staff? (Currently there are many questions support asks over and over that the app _has_, that would be better off for everyone if the App autofilled them. It would also cut down on user typing errors and things. Stuff like uid and os version and stuff the App already knows, support shouldn't need to ask since you are posting the ticket from your account.)

Sorin81

Recent events in the game and the game in general for so long have been plagued with many bugs and other issues that affect game play to the point where, at times, players are not able to access the game or join events. Is there a plan to address these problems? 

Sorin81

Oktagon, will you have a presence on the forum? For many players communication especially direct communication is very important. A once a month developer Q&A would go a long way with the community.

Gideon

There is a feature that I’ve always wanted in the game and that’s the ability to pick which set Of cards I want my packs to be from. I understand that the current events should be for the the newest cards released but the older events which we are replaying I would like to be able to choose the set that my prizes are from. Is there any chance that this could be done or that anyone else wants this feature?

Houdin

Just because it is so necessary to the longevity of the game I will bring it up again.
Booster Crafting.
When can we expect to see it? Sometime later is not a good answer. 
A large number of players have only withheld their complete abandonment of the game because of this "holy grail"
The reason for this is simple. The game has an incredibly poor drop rate. Coupked with an obvious coding that increases your chance of obtaining cards you already hold rather than new.
Booster crafting would allow for collections to be eventually obtained over time. Even if that required includes of capital, at least it made it possible rather than not.

So yes bugs need to be fixed. When will that start?
Yes rewards need to be increased to the point of at least giving players a reason to compete (which also gives players a reason to spend capital)
When will this change?
Most importantly though the game of magic is a game of collecting. When can we see this promised ability.

boopers

What is your process for addressing card bugs?  I've submitted reports to customer service in the past but I never know if/when the cards get fixed. I've stopped bothering to report them because they seem to be such a low priority. It's a lot of work on the player to report these things, going back and forth several times trying to document the issue. It would be nice to see a list of cards that have known issues, and when each card last received an update or patch. 

Kinesia

Do you believe that rewards should be on an assymptotic scale? (start off large and taper off over time.) because beginners and oldtimers need different types of rewards and are chasing different things, rather than just give people "more" or "better" there needs to be a plan of progression.

Urzafigs

I was wondering if there was any plans to rework any of the games design?  I know many of us complain about various aspects of the game but we are only thinking from our past experiences.  


From your standpoint as an experienced Game designer, is there anything that you see that could be better within the game?  It dosent have to be something slated for change but at least gives us an idea of how you perceive this game as a whole.   

timthes

I stand behind a lot of the questions already asked, but I was wondering are you by any chance able to tweak the AI behind the game somewhat? Would be nice if the AI knew how to cycle for instance, a much better AI would be so much more fun to play with. And a somewhat easier question I guess, could you make the ranking in the alliance per event working again instead of giving everyone rank 1, thanks in advance, and good luck with the coding!

GrizzoMtGPQ

What are your thoughts on prioritizing input from players? We've all been suffering under a plethora of bad decisions and lack of effort to make things fun and fresh. Are you going to find some way to really engage with us to try to capitalize on these ideas?

Mizzlets

Hi, I stand for booster crafting but also another issues is having the massive issues of people slumming in silver and bronze and decimating young players.  That being, fix the RNG and do something with the dupes or something. I'm a day one player and this game is getting a tin bit stale.

babar3355

Top Questions:

1.  The primary focus of the game to this point has been around translation of MTG cards into MTGPQ cards. There has been little to no focus on creating other kinds of content like different battle modes (e.g. enraged), different board layouts (always 7x7), new event structures, progressive story mode, etc.  It has basically been the same game with tweaks to objectives since the game launched.  This gets pretty boring even if the cards do get refreshed each set. Will this be a priority to Oktagon, creating new non-card related content for players?

2. Does Oktagon have any control over drop rates and if so will you consider tapping into the zealous "collect them all" mindset that makes MTG so successful? Based on current drop rates it would cost on average $200,000 to collect every card in the game. That seems a bit steep and can discourage spending.

3. Will you consider creating an ELO system to match players of similar skill levels rather than based on color mastery?

I echo the questions around communication, booster crafting, poor AI (although not sure I want them cycling) and balancing older cards

Mburn7

Several Questions (sorry if they've already been asked)

1) How are you planning on testing updates and new cards before they are released?  There is nothing worse than an unplayable new event or a card that breaks everything.  (I know several people here have voiced a willingness to Beta test, if you are looking to go that route it should be easy to find volunteers)

2) Will you be adjusting drop rates?  Or at the very least making public the data for them?

3)How will you be addressing power creep?  New cards and planeswalkers are orders of magnitude stronger than older cards (on average).  It would nice to scale it back a bit.

4) Will you fix the AI and how it plays our decks?  Its gone from bad to worse lately, and while I appreciate the victories I get from it, it would nice to see decks being played properly for once (or at least better)

5) (more of a request) PLEASE HAVE A FORUM PRESENCE.  Even if its just one person who can get quick answers from the people actually doing the work (it can be an intern, just someone who can type and read) so that questions we have regarding issues, requests, updates, crashes...ect can be answered quickly and effectively.  @Brigby does a great job, but he doesn't always know what direction the game is going or how to help, and that's not ok

nerdstrap

I’ve been a devoted player from the beginning because the basics of the game are entertaining and the intellectual property is appealing. I have looked over small inconsistencies due to the fun I’ve had and I’ve given the publisher money for the same reason. Magic is a collectible game first and foremost. Given the amount of money I’ve spent, I would not expect to waste money on a gamble. All other top tier games have a targeted crafting system. I want to get that specific card I am still missing from Origins and Zendikar. IAP for cards should never retire. I would go back now and buy every IAP offer if I could. What is the vision for future growth to keep players who want access to EVERYTHING?

wickedwitch74

Hello, and welcome aboard. The community has a lot of frustration towards many facets of the existing game, but we also recognize that you are a new development team, and should be given much patience and encouragement to help make this game better.

To that end, I would like to talk about Ixalan.

First of, when can we expect to see a new card set drop? We're all very excited about new content, and there is nothing like a new set to energize the community.

Secondly, what sort of things will you be doing differently with this set than from sets in the past? For example, How do you plan to port the new mechanics into MtG:PQ? Will the events be different from what we've come to expect? The rewards? How about the way cards are released? Will you stagger them, like we saw in Amonkhet (Note: this was somewhat frustrating).

Thirdly, will you continue with separating the game into "Standard" and "Legacy" formats? What will the release of Ixalan mean for the card pool that we can use in certain events? Will Kaladesh cards rotate out?

Lastly, will you continue to make Planeswalkers "parasitic" towards the blocks they are released in? I know in some cases (Arlinn Kord) this is inescapable, but I believe the community prefers more generic abilities that can be useful beyond a current block. How will you tackle this?

Thank you for your time.

Corn_Noodles

Asking Oktagon for a forum presence may not matter much. It will be completely up to D3 to decide if they are allowed to speak on their own without going through Brigby or a producer.

Krishna

What plans does Oktagon have for the in-app purchases side of the game? Will it remain similar or will new features be introduced? (lower cost single card purchases for example)