New Feature: Costumes! *Updated (11/26/18)

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  • WEBGAS
    WEBGAS Posts: 474 Mover and Shaker
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    I just don’t know anymore.  While I get it’s cool to reskin some of these, why can’t this energy and resources be focused on issues that the community has brought up.

    Feeders for all 5*.
    New game modes. 
    Yellow node, making this a 1 clear locking node.
    Buffing older chars, last time was over 1 year ago now minus Gambit. 
    Etc. 
      

    Because the changes you (and the majority of players) suggested, are money-free changes, while the "supports" and now the "costumes" changes have players pay to achieve them. 
    Sad but true
  • professorplum9
    professorplum9 Posts: 133 Tile Toppler
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    This seems like a "style over substance" thing when the game desperately needs more of the latter. Costumes can offer fun variety, but what good is having variety on characters you hardly ever used. How much money do you think could be made (or player base excitement could be generated) by offering alternate costumes for Bag-Man? I've got dozens of characters that are seeing only slightly more usage than him.
  • Lukeslad
    Lukeslad Posts: 10 Just Dropped In
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    Even though it seems like a great feature, I have some mixed feelings about it.
    - The way to obtain them. I think the players would welcome this feature much better if the costume was unlocked with, idk, playing with the said character 500-1000 times instead of raiding valuts or downright buying it. It would serve as a trophy much better. This concept reminds me of the infamous Battlefront 2 and its hero unlocks. Yeah, you can add premium, money-only costumes, but also give us some available through diligent playing.
    - I think we're gonna miss some great skins because how prude the D3 seems to be. For example, I'd love to have the "casual" version of X23 instead of that weird Wolverine-ish one, but it seems it's not gonna happen since D3 is, for some reason, mortally terrified of showing bare midriffs (see MPQ version of Emma Frost).
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,368 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited November 2018
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    Punter1 said:
    Is this an April Fools?
    My reaction exactly.... bringing this as the next big thing, really disappointing.

    I'm not against the flavour that this brings, but there's 2 issues at play here:

    1. I'd rather see them put more time into real bugfixes and new features, gameplay modes, or events. Geez, have you even seen the size of the 'acknowledged bugs' list? And that's only the forum-reported issues that got recognized. That excludes stuff that didn't get reported and stuff that was reported but never responded to.

    2. This is purely 'pay to get'. Either directly or indirectly.[* see edit]

    (Sorry if these points have already been made in this thread, I clicked reply before reading any further than this post)

    edit: just want to emphasize that I don't mind this being a paid feature (even though I wouldn't buy them myself), but they're announced as being rewards for achievements in game while that's certainly not the case, which is weird.
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
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    While I like the idea of being able to change costumes, making these limited-time and behind a paywall only further pushes the unhealthy "collecting" part of MPQ and has no bearing on the actual gameplay. If development resources are going to be directed somewhere, I really would like it to be the gameplay side of things. For example:

    -New game modes and events.
    -New goons with new abilities, creating new gameplay mechanics.
    -Refresh and rework the characters that are in the bottoms of their tiers, like 4* FalCap, to name one of many in desperate need of it.
    -Update the champion rewards system. We need more feeders, and I'm sick and tired of selling 3* covers now that most of my 3* tier is max-champed. I can only roster so many duplicates before it becomes a complete chore and burden on resources.
    While I'd like to see game play improvements, it is worth remembering that not everyone at the studio is interchangeable.  The artist (or artists) drawing these costumes aren't necessarily going to have the skill set to work on the things you've mentioned here.
    While there likely would have been some programming and design work to add the costume infrastructure, but as an ongoing feature it's just art.
  • Magic
    Magic Posts: 1,199 Chairperson of the Boards
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    SMH

    Really? Costumes? And behind RNG-pay wall? This is really desperation...
  • Yepyep
    Yepyep Posts: 952 Critical Contributor
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    They're kind of analogous to emoji -- some will love the new modes of expression and others will not get it. At all.

    I agree with @jamesh that really, it's just art.
  • DeNappa
    DeNappa Posts: 1,368 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Bowgentle said:
    ROFL at everyone who says "pity that you have to pay for the costumes and can't get them by playing".

    That. is. the. point.

    This will make a ton of money from casual players - IF the rollout is better than what it looks like.

    Costumes should be buyable at any time, for real world currency.

    Why make new players or 3* players jump through hoops to buy HP for heroes for hire.
    Price the costumes at 5 bucks, payable like VIP, and watch your profits rise.

    This feature should have been in the game day 1, seriously.
    (emphasis mine) Well, seeing how time-limited these costumes are... It doesn't look like they're really trying.

    If they really want this as a good extra income source, why not add an in-game skin shop where you can just directly purchase some costumes for a few bucks. Not weird shenanigans with VIP or HfH deals.
  • AlexR
    AlexR Posts: 427 Mover and Shaker
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    DeNappa said:
    Bowgentle said:
    ROFL at everyone who says "pity that you have to pay for the costumes and can't get them by playing".

    That. is. the. point.

    This will make a ton of money from casual players - IF the rollout is better than what it looks like.

    Costumes should be buyable at any time, for real world currency.

    Why make new players or 3* players jump through hoops to buy HP for heroes for hire.
    Price the costumes at 5 bucks, payable like VIP, and watch your profits rise.

    This feature should have been in the game day 1, seriously.
    (emphasis mine) Well, seeing how time-limited these costumes are... It doesn't look like they're really trying.

    If they really want this as a good extra income source, why not add an in-game skin shop where you can just directly purchase some costumes for a few bucks. Not weird shenanigans with VIP or HfH deals.
    Yeah, so much this.
    If it's supposed to be a fun harmless little customisation option that is pay-only for more income, don't put a time limit on it. Just make them easily buyable at any time.
    If it's supposed to be about trophies and achievements, don't make it pay-only.

    I don't mind the idea itself; alternative art can be neat. I'm just not too thrilled at the implementation; the whole achievement thing is laughable if you make it pay-only and making players jump through hoops to get them (making players deal with vault RNG?) runs counter to the whole customisation for casual players thing. Idk, seems a bit weird design-wise either way.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 9,618 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I'm surprised this wasn't a thing before to be honest. I notice this is phrased as "costumes" but assume that as Lady Deadpool is an early offering it is actually "skins" and we may get additional variants to existing characters. I would love some Age of Apocalypse or Days of Future Past skins (though we might just end up with an Adamantium Skeleton for Wolverine!). However I hope this isn't a total end to variant character releases because we do need higher tier versions of Magneto, Juggernaut and Doctor Doom.

    I don't like or understand the time limit aspect to this rollout, it makes no sense to me. Unless I am missing something, I don't anticipate feeling any pressure to being able to play as Unicorn logo Luke to achieve my in-game goals but it might have been something I would throw some extra resources at if I had them with nothing else going on.

    Finally, I don't know what is going on with Supports but ongoing surely adding some of these in to any future Supports bundles would sweeten the pot for players buying those?

    Will watch with interest.
  • Nick441234
    Nick441234 Posts: 1,496 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Not for me. This is the type of stuff that should be put into progression rewards. They are hardly worth paying for. 
  • Coubii
    Coubii Posts: 133 Tile Toppler
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    Disappointed. Really Disappointed.
    Announcement looked really promising, opening some potential new goals in daily game, new customisation, lots of hope and fun for the next month is promised in this start of post.

    And then you see how you will get them. By climbing a pay wall.
    Good idea with really poor execution. Make it possible to earn it for free!
  • MateriaHunter7
    MateriaHunter7 Posts: 7 Just Dropped In
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    It seems that the devs believe they perfected the game, and therefore are working on polishing it up cosmetically. 

    The devs must ask them selves a serious question. Is that really what their players want?
  • tiomono
    tiomono Posts: 1,654 Chairperson of the Boards
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    bluewolf said:
    Everyone should take a moment and consider this is the first step. We don’t know what you might be able to do in the future to earn costumes....imagine an extra ally reward for completing both sides in Civil War, for example.  

    Make these accomplishment trophies / bragging rights (as well as monetized), and get some more visually interesting ones (I feel safe predicting those will come) and you could have a good thing going.
    Or they might make a costume store that you can earn tokens for by being in the top 5% of placement, or having the tokens in a vault where they have like a 3 in 200 chance to earn them.

    And new costumes will only get put in a separate store that it's even harder to earn tokens for... 

    Oops I think my brain slipped over to supports. 

    I love new features but if they do not address the issues that we can spot in about 5 minutes of thought they are not going to draw in more players. They will push players to move to other gaming options.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,293 Chairperson of the Boards
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    After a little more thought, I realize the price point will determine a lot of the reception.  Any amount for a costume is a tough sell for me (unless a great HP deal is part of the package) but if the costume was something I really liked (examples:  Beta Ray Bill or Superior Spider-Man) and a character I used often (think 5's in my case), maybe I'd spend $5-10?  Anything more than that, and I'm saving money for a cover bundle that can actually enhance my roster.  I guess we don't know yet what the bundles will include....
  • firethorne
    firethorne Posts: 1,505 Chairperson of the Boards
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    So, you're selling JPEG's that change nothing about stats or skills.  

    Eh, I suppose it is better than some pay to win scenario, but still, not interested.
    You couldn't be more wrong. They're selling PNGs that change nothing about stats or skills.
    Ah, so you're one of those data miners trying to extract resources from the game for mad hax, are you?   (Just kidding, of course)  :p  
  • tfcrazy1980
    tfcrazy1980 Posts: 131 Tile Toppler
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    Can we say end of the year revenue push much?