Q&A with Demiurge_Will Answers from Demiurge_Will begin on p.2

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  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2018
    @Demiurge_Will

    Have any design conversations revolved around reducing 'speed' as the #1 focus of all gameplay?  
  • Colognoisseur
    Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor
    IceHockey333 said:
    @Colognoisseur How about a total revamp on the title of the thread?
    Excellent point.....done.
  • Daiches
    Daiches Posts: 1,252 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Demiurge_Will

    Personal question: Can Iron Man be the next classic 5star to get a feeder? Because in 50 days I will get my 14th red cover for him and I'm really not looking forward to selling my 9th red cover for this 5/4/3 character..

    General: Will we be seeing a renewal of the rebalance efforts for classic characters after the new features have been rolled out? Because due to severe powercreep several old characters have fallen very far down the power rankings (like poor Phoenix with her worst match damage, an unusable skill in green resurrection due to Thanos and Gambit and the weakest red of all 5s) or never got a chance to start with (Banner/Hulk, Ock).


  • Andre_Leca_89
    Andre_Leca_89 Posts: 92 Match Maker
    How about we get in a new update, in the game chat we never know if anyone is on an less we ask but it be nice if we could see who is on line
  • Eichen
    Eichen Posts: 176 Tile Toppler

    (Trying to narrow the gap between the strongest character and the rest of the pack while keeping the strongest character the strongest is what we attempted to do with the recent Gambit rebalance, and that didn't successfully shake up strategy.)

    Gambit's -2 AP steal each turn is the thing that makes him overpowered.  I think if you made that power conditional like Chavez' critical tile creation he would still be a top character but other characters could compete against him allot easier than now.
  • The rockett
    The rockett Posts: 2,016 Chairperson of the Boards
    @Demiurge_Will again this is great that you are answering some of these questions for us. Have another one.  

    MMR- It sucks.  Plain and simple.  I have a 493 Gambit and 479 Thor yet I cannot Q 500+ teams.  Why?  Why does this need to be so closed?  Once you get to a certain level of 5*, you have a special or paid MMR cloak where people cannot see you.  It is very frustrating when they are 100 points away from you and you cannot Q them.  Heck you can be ABOVE them and not Q them. Will MMR on the high end ever be addressed?  
  • TPF Alexis
    TPF Alexis Posts: 3,826 Chairperson of the Boards
    AlwaysWrong said:
    Do the current cover odds for heroic tokens really reflect the current flow of the game? I'm not suggesting it needs much of an adjustment for four stars, but it feels like a bottleneck for 3* growth because of so many 2*s still coming from them. Aside from the very occasional four star, I really don't see much difference between heroic and elite tokens, and the game has evolved a lot recent, so maybe time to adjust the odds a little there?
    I've mentioned that a few times before. 3*/4* is the only pair of adjacent tiers that don't have a dedicated token, and it can be surprisingly difficult to pull them sometimes when RNG turns against you. I don't have records to back it up, but I get a continual feeling that it's easier for me to make progress in the 4* tier now than it was for me to make progress in the 3* tier when I was there.

    Actually, I think it still might be easier to build 4*. I'm pretty sure I had America Chavez Champed before 3* Angel, and maybe even before 3* Gambit.
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,396 Chairperson of the Boards
    Will colorless covers or some in-game way to switch colors for powers you already have 5 covers in ever be a thing? Or will this forever remain a pipe dream for the player base?
  • ZeroKarma
    ZeroKarma Posts: 513 Critical Contributor
    Demiurge_Will said:
    ZeroKarma said:

    Are there any plans in the pipeline to address the tremendous gap that now exists between the veteran player and the new folks?

    When I started, there was one 4* character and the game revolved around 2's and 3's. That is obviously different now, where 5* characters are a must for progression in PvP, and the path to a pair of champed 5*'s is quite long for people not spending ungodly amounts of money.

    Is there a concern that existing event structures are no longer able to support both of these groups because of how wide this divide is, and if so what are the chances that PvP at the very least will split in the future? My idea would be parallel events that limit the rosters like the Heroics used to, so high level PvP is 4* featured and no more 3*. The 2nd tier would be no 5* at all.

    There are three big pieces to this puzzle that we talk about:

    1) Making sure that people can have fun even when they don't have everything that veterans have.
    2) Making game systems (especially event-related ones) function well in the context of an increasing power gap.
    3) Determining how possible it is for new players to narrow the gap and play alongside veterans.

    The different Shield Clearance Levels for events is the big thing we added to try to address #1 and #2 - now it's possible for newer players to get something out of trying to place highly in events, since they're not competing in placement against players who have been playing four years longer.

    Other work we do related to #1: The newer 3-stars we released along with 5-stars have been to try to make the mid-game richer. And when we're planning new features, we try to make most of them relevant to a wide range of players.

    The third one is a balancing act. If older players are still playing just as hard as the newer players, it wouldn't feel right if they end up in the same place. Veterans' investment in the game ought to give them an advantage. But it's also important that, if you outplay someone who started the game earlier than you consistently over time, eventually you'll come out on top. This happens less frequently as the game ages, and it does take a while to get there even if you're playing hard, but there are players in the top echelons of the game that have spent many fewer months getting there than other folks.

    Will, 

    Thanks so much for the insight and the in-depth response. Definitely a balancing act to make everyone happy and provide fulfilling experiences to people at all levels. I'd argue the long-term veterans like myself are the hardest to please! 

    P.S. - More 4* PvP!!!!  ;)
  • Colognoisseur
    Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor
    I am wondering if the content the Latest Legends tokens could be changed to reflect the first word. As in latest three 5* and latest 12 4*.
    I would be very interested to hear what goes into deciding the contents of each permanent token.
  • Colognoisseur
    Colognoisseur Posts: 806 Critical Contributor
    Why was vaulting discontinued?
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,812 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2018
    Combined Arms is the best PVP, fact. It promotes diversity in teams and roster use. It finds a use for my other 170+ slots. Since I champed my first 3 five stars, it's about all I use. I don't care one bit about new 4* releases unless it's a pve god like chavez.

    Would a constant combined arms pvp say CL 8-9 where you can use one five, one four and featured (two fours if 4* pvp became a thing) and CL7 and below 4/3/2 not add a lot more diversity and stop the meta pairing of the moment. There are so many good 4*s that work well with a 5* but no one runs them until they get very very high level or because they simply don't want to paint a target on their back.

    There's so many really excellent well designed four stars on my roster that are completely dead.

    Failing that or some other feature to promote diverse roster use can you half the cost of 4* champing more inline with the gap between 3-5 star costs. It then won't feel so bad as right now to pour 360k into a character I'm never going to use except fpr champion rewards hurts. It would also be helpful to newer players catching up and I wouldn't begrudge them the cheaper costs with the size of the wall they are looking up at.
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