Proposal: New story mode / replacing the prologue (long)

Heartbreaksoup

I don't play very many games at all, but I came to MPQ via some other puzzle aps, mainly Two Dots and Bejeweled Stars.  These games have a long, ongoing "track" with new levels added regularly.  But the levels are never closed off.  Players can go back and revisit favorites anytime, and there are occasional events in-game that encourage you to do so.  (For example, Bejeweled will probably have a St Patrick's Day event week where you try to collect as many green gems [reanimated into clovers] that you can over seven days, with rewards for every few thousand gems.  It's easiest to get these restarting from level 1.)

I wonder whether instead of the prologue, something like that could be created for MPQ.  The current PVE setup, with special story events, is just fine.  I enjoy it a lot!  But after playing four clears at the beginning of the day, there's nothing really for me to do with MPQ for many, many hours until the points reset somewhat, and I often have some free time midday and would like to play.  Only there's nothing but the Deadpool Daily and, grudgingly, a little bit of PVP, which I don't enjoy much.  So I spend a few little gray cells wondering what something for players like me might be like.

And I also wonder whether every board needs to be the same shape... or have the same rules...

What I imagine is a "track" to which the devs can add levels periodically.  It never goes away and it doesn't offer very many rewards, but perhaps it might offer points which perhaps can be exchanged for cover tokens.  (I'll come back to this*.)

It's there for new players to get used to the game and for casual players to just enjoy a little matching, and maybe try out some little-used characters on their roster.  (At present, I have a Quake with 3 covers.  When will I ever use her?)

The track takes the form of a long, sprawling story in the Mighty Marvel tradition.  Maybe the first ten nodes are built around Spider-Man investigating something before he passes the clues to Captain America for the next ten?  Players would be encouraged to use specific characters, but not *required* to have them in order to play (like the Behemoth Burrito).  Say node one is just Spider-Man fighting by himself against three Maggia goons.  The player could use any of the Spider-Man characters in the game for a reward of 100 Iso, but if the player doesn't have a Spidey, the player could use any other piece for a reward of 50 Iso.

Alternatively, maybe in some nodes, the game gives you loaner characters if you don't have them.  If you don't actually have a Spidey, here are the five versions of Peter Parker in the game.  Pick one (even Bag-Man) and learn how to play with him.

In node two, Spidey puts out a call for backup and the player can add anybody else to join in the next fight.  In nodes three-four, you can use three characters.  Node five it's two again, or whatever.  Maybe sometimes you've got three heroes against one villain?  Or waves?  Could be anything.

You can play the level as often as you like, but you only get the reward *once* unless there are special events going on, or perhaps it resets every six months?  The reward would be small: maybe 90% of the time 100 Iso, 5% of the time some Hero Points, 5% a character cover or a token?  Maybe a couple of Command Points at node 100?

How this would work for new players is that, every few nodes, the player sets the difficulty of the computer opponents from a list of choices: Level 5, level 15, level 25, etc.  So the brand new player could fight some level 5 goons with the 1-star characters on their roster, or the casual player with a deep bench of characters they never use could fight some level 65 goons with some two-covered 4-stars to see how they work.  If a player with undercovered Reed, Sue, and Ben reaches a Fantastic Four themed set of nodes, the player can adjust the difficulty down, before raising it again when the story reaches characters they have better versions of.

But more than just the story changes as it goes off into space and the dark dimension and everybody in the Marvel Universe gets involved, perhaps the board changes as well.  Instead of the standard board, maybe there are boards shaped like a diamond, or boards with an obstacle in the center, or boards without certain color gems?

Again, my idea here is to accommodate novice players as well as players who have some extra time and would like some low-stress alternatives to just chill and play and experiment outside of competition.  I suspect that PVP-primary players will not be interested in this idea.  "Whales" will pass.  I believe that rewards should be low, because the goal here is to experiment and learn and have a little fun.  I think that the game writers could come up with an amusing and entertaining story - more amusing than yet more of Nick Fury and Norman Osborn yelling at each other** - and by using ~~occasional~~ different shaped boards or Wakanda-style surprise tiles from time to time, it could be challenging and surprising and just the pleasure of the game could be its own reward... while we're waiting for our progression rewards in the PVE events. *grin

It's been my experience that much of the feedback on this forum is of the "No" variety.  I like the improv "Yes, and" tradition.  I'd love to read ways to make this idea even better.

_____


(*I haven't given much thought to it, but how I envision the points system would work like this: the hit points of your opponents are your total points for the match.  So if a newer player fought against three level 15 Thugs, the player gets 800 points x 3, 2400.  Every [great big number] points, you can trade in for a token. [Great big number] for a standard, [exponentially bigger number] for an elite, [exponentially bigger number still] for a heroic.  Or some Iso if not tokens.  The newer player who has selected level 15 opponents is probably looking for smaller rewards.  More skilled players would want to pick higher level opponents to get more points rather than wasting time beating up 800-point goons.  You'll never get a Legendary Token that way, so pick on some level 450 goons instead.)

(**Webbed Wonder and Meet Rocket and Groot are both very entertaining.  More like those, please!)