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

Brigby

@Simplicius said:

LHammer said:

Demiurge_Will said:

LHammer said:

Q: Is the new Steam UI a forever thing or a temporary change that will be adjusted when time/resources are available?  If the former, what will it take to make you reconsider?

It would move higher on the to-do list if the number of PC players increased to be a bigger share of the total player population, or if we figured out how to get enough faster at building UI to efficiently support different UIs for different platforms.

Fair enough.  I might not like the answer but I understand and respect it.  Thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback.

As a separate note - I would also like to see more Steam players.  Something I say on every survey is that if you want more Steam users you should add cards and achievements.  It's a minimal amount of effort for free money and fresh blood that would not create an in-game advantage.  Consider it?

Have they even fixed the tutorial bug where players (like me, first time around) quit in frustration because they made Doctor Doom's hitbox too small? The game says "bring Doctor Doom up to the front" and you're led to assume it's just crashed, or was never programmed properly.

I actually encountered that when previously testing the tutorial, and discovered the hit box is at the very bottom left of Doctor Doom's character model (basically where his chest plate gets cut off by the bottom of the screen). I passed that along to our QA team when I noticed it, but I'll double check with them on its status.

(Although I believe the scenario I'm mentioning is when the game instructs players to view his abilities, not bringing him up to the front. Are you encountering that issue on a different tutorial step?)

Simplicius

Brigby said:

@Simplicius said:

LHammer said:

Demiurge_Will said:

LHammer said:

Q: Is the new Steam UI a forever thing or a temporary change that will be adjusted when time/resources are available?  If the former, what will it take to make you reconsider?

It would move higher on the to-do list if the number of PC players increased to be a bigger share of the total player population, or if we figured out how to get enough faster at building UI to efficiently support different UIs for different platforms.

Fair enough.  I might not like the answer but I understand and respect it.  Thanks for taking the time to provide the feedback.

As a separate note - I would also like to see more Steam players.  Something I say on every survey is that if you want more Steam users you should add cards and achievements.  It's a minimal amount of effort for free money and fresh blood that would not create an in-game advantage.  Consider it?

Have they even fixed the tutorial bug where players (like me, first time around) quit in frustration because they made Doctor Doom's hitbox too small? The game says "bring Doctor Doom up to the front" and you're led to assume it's just crashed, or was never programmed properly.

I actually encountered that when previously testing the tutorial, and discovered the hit box is at the very bottom left of Doctor Doom's character model (basically where his chest plate gets cut off by the bottom of the screen). I passed that along to our QA team when I noticed it, but I'll double check with them on its status.

(Although I believe the scenario I'm mentioning is when the game instructs players to view his abilities, not bringing him up to the front. Are you encountering that issue on a different tutorial step?)

Yes, it may have been the scenario you've described. All I remember was Doom's hitbox being too small during one of the steps. I then just looked the problem up, but others (as per some Steam reviews) clearly just packed it in and wrote the game off.

Thanos

@Demiurge_Will Are we ever going to get new game play modes or will it forever be the same old boring PVE and PvP? It would be nice to have other ways to play that would allow players to take advantage of their less oft used characters. Maybe even put the puzzle part of the name into the game.

sinnerjfl

Demiurge_Will said:

LHammer said:

Q: Is the new Steam UI a forever thing or a temporary change that will be adjusted when time/resources are available?  If the former, what will it take to make you reconsider?

It would move higher on the to-do list if the number of PC players increased to be a bigger share of the total player population, or if we figured out how to get enough faster at building UI to efficiently support different UIs for different platforms.

So now we're officially second-class players... Last time I checked, we pay the same price as everyone else and Steam players have historically gotten the shaft so far, why not continue that trend huh?

Very dissapointing.

shardwick

.bigsmooth said:

Demiurge_Will said:

Felessa said:

First, @Demiurge_Will , thank you for some answers, it's really good to have this kind of communication.

axmoss said:

Will there be an update to the feeders?

Gamora (guardians of the galaxy) is still rewarding star lord (legendary outlaw). Among others that could use a revamp.

Now this is my question as well: Why are we are having champion rewards updates only for 4*s (to give now 5*s), while the 3*s tier is still so outdated, with the same 4* been given twice (like SL/Gamora) in some cases?

Our thinking here is that we don't want to pull the rug out from under someone who's been working towards a particular reward by changing who's rewarded before they get there. We've updated the characters that are in champion rewards before, and may do so again, but want to do it rarely for that reason.

While I understand this logic, you have to weigh what's more frustrating - a player getting a different cover than originally expected, or keeping a reward totally unavailable?

I would argue that the latter scenario is more frustrating to the 3* player that hears great things about 4* characters like Vulture, Riri, Gamora etc. but has no path to earning covers from champ rewards. Of course, we now have far more 4* characters than 3* characters so this problem will remain no matter what, but that's all the more reason that we should no longer have two different 3* award the same 4* (Gamora/Star-Lord, Patch/Colossus, Ragnarok/Daken, Angel/Beast, Daredevil/Elektra).

There would only be a tiny minority of players that would be annoyed if you changed 3* Gamora to award 4* Gamora, or Colossus to award Nightcrawler, etc. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the player base would be very pleased.

Considering that Gamora and Colossus are the two 3s that I'm working on right now, hell to the no. I could see a compromise though in adding another 4* to champ rewards so 3* Gamora could reward Star Lord and Gamora at different levels. This way people don't have to worry about having their champ reward changed plus they can get covers for another 4*. This would give other characters like Spider Gwen the chance to get covers since nobody feeds her.

Daiches

sinnerjfl said:

Demiurge_Will said:

LHammer said:

Q: Is the new Steam UI a forever thing or a temporary change that will be adjusted when time/resources are available?  If the former, what will it take to make you reconsider?

It would move higher on the to-do list if the number of PC players increased to be a bigger share of the total player population, or if we figured out how to get enough faster at building UI to efficiently support different UIs for different platforms.

So now we're officially second-class players... Last time I checked, we pay the same price as everyone else and Steam players have historically gotten the shaft so far, why not continue that trend huh?

Very dissapointing.

Very few people pay the same price. There are wild differences by region and platform on pricing. It's one of the hidden unbalances in the game that gives a category of players a distinct and unfair advantage. And something they aren't willing to fix because they point to the stores setting the pricing. Even though they can give personalized offers and do so often.

TimGunn

Demiurge_Will said:

jtmagee said:

@Demiurge_Will

Thank you for taking some of your free time to answer these questions.

This is a specific question into game mechanics and potential character tweaks. How hard is it to format a change in where/how the stones drop? Is there a way for them to replace where a match is made before the board continues to drop? Is there a way for them to move from left-right/right-left instead of top-bottom? I feel with how different each character’s powers are, I was wondering if these types of mechanics are hard to code or if there is a way to implement some of these somehow. It would change the game drastically but also open up a LOT of possibilities.

This is a cool idea! It would be very challenging to implement a power that changed the "gravity" of the board, but we've tackled problems of similar magnitude over the years - usually something like this will happen when a character just *has* to do something unusual in order to tell their story. (Phoenix returning from being downed is an example of this - the game was not at all set up to allow downed characters to return before we built her.)

Sounds like some of the powers in the Stormlight Archive!  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stormlight_Archive

Spiritclaw

Demiurge_Will said:

LHammer said:

Q: Is the new Steam UI a forever thing or a temporary change that will be adjusted when time/resources are available?  If the former, what will it take to make you reconsider?

It would move higher on the to-do list if the number of PC players increased to be a bigger share of the total player population, or if we figured out how to get enough faster at building UI to efficiently support different UIs for different platforms.

So, it will move higher on the to-do list if something outside anyone's individual control happens.  Is it actually on the to-do list without that? Every time the game shrinks to use only about a third of my monitor, I want to grind my teeth.

Dragon_Nexus

aesthetocyst said:

Sounds like they are rebuilding that chunk of UI and the only way to get it to work right away on steam is to put steam on the mobile version, one patch ahead of the feature roll out. They dont currently have the resources to build and test the new UI twice concurrently. building the steam UI version of new feature goes on someday list.

All dandy(ish) assuming the new feature is worth it, and that someday ever comes!

Quoting this because I feel this really needs addressing. @Demiurge_Will 's reply was vague on purpose, I feel. It allowed wiggle room with that "We didn't promise anything" get-out clause. I get it, honestly...I understand why that's done. Under-promise and over-deliver.

However, saying things like "It would be higher on the to-do list" only adds to the confusion.

I think if Steam users were flat out told "We want to get this feature rolling and time is a factor. We hope you'll be able to endure this change for a while as a crutch while we get everything settled, then we'll sort out the UI for you" we'd probably all settle down.

Sure some would still be grumpy this change happened and we went so long without an answer, but we'd all learn to accept this temporary issue while new stuff came along. We're able to tollerate a lot of temporary misery if it means a brighter future later.

It's the not-knowing that always, always causes strife in a community.

HoundofShadow

I think the upper management are simply making business decision based on the data and ROI from Steam players gathered over the past 3 years. The mobile gaming market share holds the majority share now and will continue to increase its share.

The developers are working on 3 platforms that have different codings involved: IOS, Android and Steam. I guess they decided to shift some man-hours from Steam to the other two platforms. If data shows that the average profit made from Steam players is comparable or is doing better than IOS/Android, I don't think they would be doing this drastic change to Steam UI. Besides, it makes solving bugs easier in the future as well.

Jomu5

I guess this thread is just dying off now

The rockett

Well....we all need to keep this thread alive before a mod will lock it. 

aesthetocyst

Jomu5 said:

I guess this thread is just dying off now

Between Spring Break and the WhateverCon, a short recess. Maintain optimism, comrade!

The rockett said:

Well....we all need to keep this thread alive before a mod will lock it. 

My current questions would be:

Is The Big New Feature rolling out in the next patch (R149?) ?

And is that patch dropping Monday, 3/26?
And will it improve the training UI for all users?

Doc L

They’re all away for the week at sequential ‘cons’, as mentioned by Brigby - I’m sure next week would be more likely. Have a little faith, posters!

As for R149, I really hope so. Heard some small rumours about different changes, they all sound very positive. I feel like the game could do with that just before a massive influx of new players round the end of April from some film that comes out...

Dragon_Nexus

It always seems like the biggest issues in the community happen right before a con or a public holiday.

But then, that could just be confirmation bias.

Jomu5

Ok, so I have to be constructive to bump a thread....

Will, will there be future q&a sessions or are the forum users better to follow the *redacted* if they want a modicum of future knowledge of upcoming features? Do you think the current disparity of information gleaned from alternative avenues, e.g. Discord,  in comparison to the official forums is respectful to supporters of the game?

**Removed reference to spoiler document - Ducky

Hadronic

Jomu5 said:

Ok, so I have to be constructive to bump a thread....

Will, will there be future q&a sessions or are the forum users better to follow the *redacted* if they want a modicum of future knowledge of upcoming features? Do you think the current disparity of information gleaned from alternative avenues, e.g. Discord,  in comparison to the official forums is respectful to supporters of the game?

I would also like this question answered

DFiPL

Jomu5 said:

Ok, so I have to be constructive to bump a thread....

**Removed reference to spoiler document - Ducky

Did you, though, Ducky? Did you really?

aesthetocyst

Baghdad Bob strikes again!

The rockett

@Demiurge_Will. MMR, will this be ever looked at to open it up?  It is very frustrating that you are not able to see more team out there and look up at harder teams.