Whatever happened to sending characters out for resources?

Druiz23

I'm sure you will all remember that about a year ago, there was a poll that was given to everyone that talked about a possible upcoming change to the game.  A change that would allow a user to send out their characters to gather resources like HP and ISO or extra covers while the user was not playing the game.  I thought the idea was absolutely brilliant and I was looking forward to it and I kept thinking it would happen by Christmas of last year (I think it was announced sometime around Halloween last year) and when it didn't happen, I kept thinking it might happen in January, and then in February and so on and it still never happened and nobody ever talked about it again.

Can you imagine the possibilities this kind of change could bring to the game?

There could be "missions" where you can send a certain amount of characters out for a 3 star cover of someone and that mission is supposed to last x number of hours.

Or, they can bring back with them X number of ISO or HP or maybe even some command points.

And they can even make it competitive.  Something like, if you send weaker characters out there, there's chance they might die and bring back nothing for you.  Or maybe "in order to complete this mission, you need at least 6 characters" or something like that and while they are gone, you don't have access to them at all.

Is any of this still being planned?

professorplum9

I have often wondered what happened to this myself. At the time it seemed like such a game mode was imminent. As you move through each tier there is an increasingly large portion of your roster that starts going increasingly unused. It would be nice to have something like this to make completing your roster feel more useful. Adding champ levels to these largely unused characters might feel more worthwhile if it increases survivability or reduces the number of healthpacks you might have to use before sending them out again. To me it seems like a fun new game mode that could increase enjoyment without increasing grindiness. Here's hoping...

Druiz23

And there could even be character exclusives. For instance, instead of sending out a team of however many characters, only 1 character is needed. Like in order for Invisible Woman to bring back a free Invisible Woman cover, she must go alone, stay invisible for her trip and she will return in 1 month with an extra cover for her. Or something like that. 

And they can make little stories for these exclusives. Like Danny Rand has to travel alone to that place he became the Iron Fist in order to obtain an extra cover for himself. Stuff like that. 

thisone

Star Trek:Timelines has something like this. But there are a ton of components to collect. Realistically, what could they bring back in this game? Covers, ISO, HP, CP? It'd probably be boosts.. or a new thing to collect. That's why I voted no originally. 

Health kits could be useful but cuts into their bottom line too much.

mega ghost

I wouldn't want a character gone for a month and presumably be unplayable during that time, but that said, I was really excited for this when they first announced it and it never came. It was announced alongside other upcoming "big news." We never found out what that big news was explicitly, but I assumed it was Bonus Heroes.

hunky_funky

I think the idea was very good. But, I guess they decided that it will low the money flow from buying iso and hp. Free iso, hp, cp and covers? In this game? Yeah, right. But and this problem could be solved, by giving the opportunity to buy some sort of boosters, that allows your chars to return faster. For hp. Like shields in pvp. For hour, 3h, 8h etc. Name it like "Quicksilver dust", I don't know. Player will have something new and additional sorce of getting resources, and devs will get additional sorce of money. And all live happily ever after.

Bowgentle

hunky_funky said:

I think the idea was very good. But, I guess they decided that it will low the money flow from buying iso and hp. Free iso, hp, cp and covers? In this game? Yeah, right. But and this problem could be solved, by giving the opportunity to buy some sort of boosters, that allows your chars to return faster. For hp. Like shields in pvp. For hour, 3h, 8h etc. Name it like "Quicksilver dust", I don't know. Player will have something new and additional sorce of getting resources, and devs will get additional sorce of money. And all live happily ever after.

Yeah people will recall chars for HP just as often as they recall team up characters.
Which is never.

hunky_funky

Bowgentle said:

hunky_funky said:

I think the idea was very good. But, I guess they decided that it will low the money flow from buying iso and hp. Free iso, hp, cp and covers? In this game? Yeah, right. But and this problem could be solved, by giving the opportunity to buy some sort of boosters, that allows your chars to return faster. For hp. Like shields in pvp. For hour, 3h, 8h etc. Name it like "Quicksilver dust", I don't know. Player will have something new and additional sorce of getting resources, and devs will get additional sorce of money. And all live happily ever after.

Yeah people will recall chars for HP just as often as they recall team up characters.
Which is never.

Yeah, but it's just a suggestion. If you have better way to make both sides happy with this idea, please, go ahead. Cause, I think lot of players are tiered of endless circle of pve and pvp. From 2013 it's the same 2 things. Yeah, the story are different, the structure are different, new characters are good, but overall it's the same old pve and pvp. Of course, you can't do everything with match-3 type of game, but it can be a little start of diluting monotonous gameplay. If devs will give it a shot...

JHawkInc

It would be an interesting way to utilize team affiliations.

Rather than "Send Invisible Woman on a mission" it would say "Send a Fantastic Four member on a mission," and then difficulty could be based on how well they're covered, maybe speed based on champ level (so there's a reason to cover and champ everyone). Then it's up to you which F4 member you send. And rather than sending someone away for a month, I'd do 30 24-hr missions that you have to complete for the same result. Adds to the daily routine neatly (it's not something you have to remember to do every X days, it's something you spend 10 minutes on each day), and lets you start/stop as you want (so you can keep your F4 member home if they're required for an event or boosted in a PVP or something).

Complete missions, unlock little prizes (tiny amounts of HP/ISO/CP), complete an entire chain, do a node for a big prize token. Then there's a thousand ways you could divide things up and break them down. Maybe harder or longer mission chains get better odds on the final prize, or specific chains eventually give specific covers (so the F4 missions give F4 covers as you do the series) which would let you focus on certain mission chains to go after certain characters.

Then you have "Mission Slots" that are just like roster slots, you have to spend HP or something to unlock them, so there's an investment to be able to run multiple missions at the same time.

Beer40

As I recall, they sent out the survey for this feature when the game was extremely buggy. Every release was creating new issues, old ones weren't getting resolved, etc...

My guess, and its just that, is that enough people thought they couldn't get this feature right and voted against it. Or someone with some sense said, "We've got to get our current game in better shape before we get this ambitious".

Either way, it seems like there are less character bugs now than there were back then (or maybe I think that because people don't complain as much?), so if that's the case maybe they'll revisit it again.

Druiz23

JHawkInc said:

It would be an interesting way to utilize team affiliations.

Rather than "Send Invisible Woman on a mission" it would say "Send a Fantastic Four member on a mission," and then difficulty could be based on how well they're covered, maybe speed based on champ level (so there's a reason to cover and champ everyone). Then it's up to you which F4 member you send. And rather than sending someone away for a month, I'd do 30 24-hr missions that you have to complete for the same result. Adds to the daily routine neatly (it's not something you have to remember to do every X days, it's something you spend 10 minutes on each day), and lets you start/stop as you want (so you can keep your F4 member home if they're required for an event or boosted in a PVP or something).

Complete missions, unlock little prizes (tiny amounts of HP/ISO/CP), complete an entire chain, do a node for a big prize token. Then there's a thousand ways you could divide things up and break them down. Maybe harder or longer mission chains get better odds on the final prize, or specific chains eventually give specific covers (so the F4 missions give F4 covers as you do the series) which would let you focus on certain mission chains to go after certain characters.

Then you have "Mission Slots" that are just like roster slots, you have to spend HP or something to unlock them, so there's an investment to be able to run multiple missions at the same time.

Yes!!!  Absolutely!  These are such brilliant ideas!  I love the idea of mission slots!  You unlock them with HP the same exact way that you unlock a character slot. You pay 1k HP for each slot and then it is up to the player how many of these missions they would like to be able to unlock for multiple missions at the same time. 

And you're absolutely right. Since they've gone through the trouble of categorizing all of these character affliations, there could be things like "send 4 members of the X-men to accomplish this mission"

And you're right about the time gone. It would have to be worth it. If a player could spend 4 mins in a lightning round and come out of it 1.5-2k ISO richer, then obviously the duration gone (since you can't use your character) would have to be worth it. Maybe something like 15k ISO for a whole day (since you're not doing anything to earn it). 

And maybe each month there can be a new mission with a new theme that gets introduced. 

darkwatcherDEZ

We recall this...

Here's an idea:

The developers adjusted the added incentive of sending Team-ups (removed the XP earned). They could simply tweak the same formula with the incentive being resources earned for Team-ups shared / sent. 

Most of us that send Team-ups usually send specific characters strategically, or simply send out their best. You could add incentives for sending out particular characters in order to obtain resources.

Example: Send Team-ups consisting of 3 Guardians of the Galaxy members and earn a stolen relic (insert item) upon return.

Example: Send Team-ups consisting of 2 or more members of the Sinister Six and earn resources (insert item) for their next scheme.

Example: Send Team-ups consisting of 2 or more members of Shield, and Coulson will call in the resource calvary

Example: Send out Nico Minoru, and the Runaway will return with a +20% Nico (eventually retired) Power Boost

Yepyep

Druiz23 said:

JHawkInc said:

It would be an interesting way to utilize team affiliations.

Rather than "Send Invisible Woman on a mission" it would say "Send a Fantastic Four member on a mission," and then difficulty could be based on how well they're covered, maybe speed based on champ level (so there's a reason to cover and champ everyone). Then it's up to you which F4 member you send. And rather than sending someone away for a month, I'd do 30 24-hr missions that you have to complete for the same result. Adds to the daily routine neatly (it's not something you have to remember to do every X days, it's something you spend 10 minutes on each day), and lets you start/stop as you want (so you can keep your F4 member home if they're required for an event or boosted in a PVP or something).

Complete missions, unlock little prizes (tiny amounts of HP/ISO/CP), complete an entire chain, do a node for a big prize token. Then there's a thousand ways you could divide things up and break them down. Maybe harder or longer mission chains get better odds on the final prize, or specific chains eventually give specific covers (so the F4 missions give F4 covers as you do the series) which would let you focus on certain mission chains to go after certain characters.

Then you have "Mission Slots" that are just like roster slots, you have to spend HP or something to unlock them, so there's an investment to be able to run multiple missions at the same time.

Yes!!!  Absolutely!  These are such brilliant ideas!  I love the idea of mission slots!  You unlock them with HP the same exact way that you unlock a character slot. You pay 1k HP for each slot and then it is up to the player how many of these missions they would like to be able to unlock for multiple missions at the same time. 

And you're absolutely right. Since they've gone through the trouble of categorizing all of these character affliations, there could be things like "send 4 members of the X-men to accomplish this mission"

And you're right about the time gone. It would have to be worth it. If a player could spend 4 mins in a lightning round and come out of it 1.5-2k ISO richer, then obviously the duration gone (since you can't use your character) would have to be worth it. Maybe something like 15k ISO for a whole day (since you're not doing anything to earn it). 

And maybe each month there can be a new mission with a new theme that gets introduced. 

I agree -- really fun ideas!

Nightglider1

Yepyep said:

Druiz23 said:

JHawkInc said:

It would be an interesting way to utilize team affiliations.

Rather than "Send Invisible Woman on a mission" it would say "Send a Fantastic Four member on a mission," and then difficulty could be based on how well they're covered, maybe speed based on champ level (so there's a reason to cover and champ everyone). Then it's up to you which F4 member you send. And rather than sending someone away for a month, I'd do 30 24-hr missions that you have to complete for the same result. Adds to the daily routine neatly (it's not something you have to remember to do every X days, it's something you spend 10 minutes on each day), and lets you start/stop as you want (so you can keep your F4 member home if they're required for an event or boosted in a PVP or something).

Complete missions, unlock little prizes (tiny amounts of HP/ISO/CP), complete an entire chain, do a node for a big prize token. Then there's a thousand ways you could divide things up and break them down. Maybe harder or longer mission chains get better odds on the final prize, or specific chains eventually give specific covers (so the F4 missions give F4 covers as you do the series) which would let you focus on certain mission chains to go after certain characters.

Then you have "Mission Slots" that are just like roster slots, you have to spend HP or something to unlock them, so there's an investment to be able to run multiple missions at the same time.

Yes!!!  Absolutely!  These are such brilliant ideas!  I love the idea of mission slots!  You unlock them with HP the same exact way that you unlock a character slot. You pay 1k HP for each slot and then it is up to the player how many of these missions they would like to be able to unlock for multiple missions at the same time. 

And you're absolutely right. Since they've gone through the trouble of categorizing all of these character affliations, there could be things like "send 4 members of the X-men to accomplish this mission"

And you're right about the time gone. It would have to be worth it. If a player could spend 4 mins in a lightning round and come out of it 1.5-2k ISO richer, then obviously the duration gone (since you can't use your character) would have to be worth it. Maybe something like 15k ISO for a whole day (since you're not doing anything to earn it). 

And maybe each month there can be a new mission with a new theme that gets introduced. 

I agree -- really fun ideas!

Fun for the players - which is why it will never happen.

Druiz23

True.  It's all true.  I can see how this would cause people to become upset about sending out characters not knowing they would be needed for an event, etc.  But there's a lot of things that could be tweaked about all the suggestions posted so far.  Instead of being gone weeks, they could be gone a max of 24 hours.  Or maybe you can send them on easier missions for only 6 hours, etc.  The possibilities are limitless.  I absolutely love darkwatcherDEZ suggestions about how it could be an extension of the whole "send your member team-ups" that's already in play right now.  Instead of the 20 max team-ups that each player can have, they can increase it so that you can have 100 team-ups in your reserves.  And instead of being able to send out a max of 5, maybe they can increase it to sending out a max of 8 and you don't lose your character, but like darkwatcherDEZ you get special bonuses for sending out characters of a certain affiliation.

And maybe instead of only being able to have a max of 30 boosts of one kind, they can increase it so that you can have 100 boosts of each type of boost.  And your characters can bring back retired boosts with them, etc.

I mean, the possibilities are literally endless.  There's so much that they can do with these kinds of ideas.

And also, maybe instead of stacking 2 boosts (like +2 all colors AP) you can stack 5 or 6 or 10, etc!  And that way, some of the players who don't have deep rosters, can try out SCL9 and use boosts on the really hard nodes.

There's just so much that can be done.  

ZeiramMR

aesthetocyst said:

"Whatever happened to sending characters out for resources?"

 Probably still on a drawing board somewhere?

 Maybe they considered the clash this would have with the game's various schedules of token availability changes, rewards, and "essentials". They aren't the best at keeping those from clashing as-is.

Perhaps they realized they'd have an avalanche of complaints from player that didn't know X was going to be essential soon when they sent them out, and resent being offered to pay to reel them back in.  So the devs would be roped into telling players send characters A, B, C, out, tipping everyone off they wouldn't be needed in the interim, and foregoing the possibility of recall monetization?

And then there's the issue of new players have incomplete rosters, having to face choices (horrors), and complaining about it.

 Looks like more planning ahead, more coordination, and crucially, more commuication for the devs, knowingthat no matter what you do, only a small sliver of the playerbase would get the info and heed it, and even those in the now would still have occasional gripes.

The "essential sent out" situation would mostly be solved by a premature callback option. Like the team-up timers, but instead of charging HP to end the timer, have the player lose the gains from the character returning early.

There would still be people complaining on the forum (because when are there not?) but that would mitigate the brunt of it.