Question about release schedule for new characters.

wymtime

So in the last 4 months we have had an adjusted release schedule for new characters based on star levels.  We went 5*, 4*, 5* for anniversary then we went 4*, 4*, 4*, give the 5* time to be in the latest legends the same amount of time.  The devs then released spiderham 4* and then Doom 5* and now Namor 4*. 

My my question is this is the release schedual going to go 2 more 4* then a 5* so king pin gets the same amount of time in latest legends or will it be a 4* then 5* am determining how many pulls I will go after when Doom hits packs on Monday and how much time will be between 5* releases.

bluewolf

I'm not sure you, as a long time player, are looking for an actual official answer about this.  Even the cadence we are used to - 4,4,5 repeat - is just an observed pattern.  The developers won't officially say that's their plan...but occasionally they may make an obtuse statement like "We don't plan to change our release schedule."

Anyway.  The normal amount of time between 5's is 6 weeks, giving each one about 18 weeks in the Latest store.  BUT:  Kitty and Cable were 4 weeks apart.  Kingpin and Doom were 5 weeks apart.  Kitty, when she leaves Monday, will have been in Latest for 17 weeks.

It tends to average out pretty well that most 5's get the full 18 weeks, with some getting a week or two less.  Cable might actually get more time than that depending on whether the (assumed next) 5CM gets a release with her movie or the week before, or whatever.  That's 3/7/19.  The next 5 after that, presumably, will be somewhere around Endgame on 4/26/19, or 6-7 weeks later (Cap IW was a week before the movie).  (The devs are, of course, planning on releasing Endgame characters.)

Aside:  I am beginning to suspect that the developers are trying to slightly throttle back the release of full 4's (with some limited ones) and maybe even having a gap in the schedule on occasion, but time will tell there.  The reason is there are so gosh darn many that I feel like it's a bit overwhelming, not just to cover them (that's a horrendously large undertaking) but deciding among 80 characters which one has the specific set of abilities for the situation you have.  It's really starting to feel like overkill/too much choice.  Not to mention:  The more characters you have in a tier, the more each new one adds to the noise of the middle ground.  If you aren't adding a top tier character, you're just adding to the crowd of people that kind of blend together.  TLDR:  We may see slightly less 4's being added while maintaining the current gap between 5's, on average.

My guess is Kingpin will get the normal 17-18 weeks in the store.  I'm not sure from your post whether you'd consider that a good thing or a bad thing, but he's not a character I'd spend a lot of time chasing besides having him leveled for the 5E boost.

JHawkInc

Really and truly, we don't know. They told us we had the 5/4/4 pattern and "every two weeks", and those were kinda "semi-official" bits of info (they came from a dev, back when they did one of those "developer blog" Youtube videos way back ages ago, but they aren't Officially Announced important details). At the very least, they like to stick to the schedule and have commented that they weren't planning to change things yet (like when someone asks if they'll start releasing more 5's or whatever)

And then there's the fact that they've stuck to that pattern for years now, with only slight deviations that almost always coincide with a movie release (Star-Lord was a week... early or late, I forget which, and then Vulture and Spider-Man were "backwards" as far as the 5/4/4 pattern goes, which let Spidey come out with his movie, and then Rogue was offset a week which let Gambit come out during Anniversary, etc). And sometimes they course-correct afterwards (doing three 4* characters in a row after a stretch of "5/4/5"), but sometimes they don't and the pattern shifts a little.

Really, I think, the best way to guess an answer is to look at where the pattern falls. Namor today. Two weeks, February 14th. Two weeks, February 28th. Two weeks, March 14th. Captain Marvel hits theaters March 8th. 5/4/4 with Doom/Namor/Unknown puts a 5* out on the 28th. Three 4's in a row (since Kingpin/Spider-Ham/Doom was 5/4/5) puts a 5* out on March 14th. They're not going to miss a chance to cross-promote with the MCU, so where will our 5* Captain Marvel land? A week before her movie? Possible. A week after? Not likely. But then they could offset a release by a week (Doom was a week "late" after all). Do they delay the February 28th release by a week? Or speed up the March 14th release by a week?

Your guess is as good as mine. I think a 4* on February 14th is a "given." I think 5* Captain Marvel is a "given". But I don't know if the next three releases will go 4/4/5 (with CM early a week for her movie), or 4/5/4 (with CM a week later to launch with her movie, OR with her a week before, and another related character as a 4 the week after).

I'd estimate with the 17-18 week cycle mentioned above, and then re-evaluate once Captain Marvel is announced and has a release date.

broll

It's 445, unless it's not.  Assuming 445 is your best bet.  The occasionally do extra of tier to support something special, but it's only a few times a year typically.  They could also change it at any time and we likely would get no notice.  Communication isn't the strong suit of this game.

wymtime

JHawkInc said:

Really and truly, we don't know. They told us we had the 5/4/4 pattern and "every two weeks", and those were kinda "semi-official" bits of info (they came from a dev, back when they did one of those "developer blog" Youtube videos way back ages ago, but they aren't Officially Announced important details). At the very least, they like to stick to the schedule and have commented that they weren't planning to change things yet (like when someone asks if they'll start releasing more 5's or whatever)

And then there's the fact that they've stuck to that pattern for years now, with only slight deviations that almost always coincide with a movie release (Star-Lord was a week... early or late, I forget which, and then Vulture and Spider-Man were "backwards" as far as the 5/4/4 pattern goes, which let Spidey come out with his movie, and then Rogue was offset a week which let Gambit come out during Anniversary, etc). And sometimes they course-correct afterwards (doing three 4* characters in a row after a stretch of "5/4/5"), but sometimes they don't and the pattern shifts a little.

Really, I think, the best way to guess an answer is to look at where the pattern falls. Namor today. Two weeks, February 14th. Two weeks, February 28th. Two weeks, March 14th. Captain Marvel hits theaters March 8th. 5/4/4 with Doom/Namor/Unknown puts a 5* out on the 28th. Three 4's in a row (since Kingpin/Spider-Ham/Doom was 5/4/5) puts a 5* out on March 14th. They're not going to miss a chance to cross-promote with the MCU, so where will our 5* Captain Marvel land? A week before her movie? Possible. A week after? Not likely. But then they could offset a release by a week (Doom was a week "late" after all). Do they delay the February 28th release by a week? Or speed up the March 14th release by a week?

Your guess is as good as mine. I think a 4* on February 14th is a "given." I think 5* Captain Marvel is a "given". But I don't know if the next three releases will go 4/4/5 (with CM early a week for her movie), or 4/5/4 (with CM a week later to launch with her movie, OR with her a week before, and another related character as a 4 the week after).

I'd estimate with the 17-18 week cycle mentioned above, and then re-evaluate once Captain Marvel is announced and has a release date.

I think Marvel will have a 5* release and I can see it the week before the movie and have 2 characters released for the movie and possibly a new boss event or story mode.  I say the week before because it will be the new 5* then the new 5* hits latest lendaries the week after release.  They could also go 5 4 5 again and it wouldn’t surprise me.  I would just like some more communication on what the game plan is

Quebbster

JHawkInc said:

Star-Lord was a week... early or late, I forget which

As I recall Star-Lord was a week late, but on the other hand Black Panther was a week early so Star-Lord really just brought balance to the list again.

Quebbster

BlackBoltRocks said:

Quebbster said:

JHawkInc said:

Star-Lord was a week... early or late, I forget which

As I recall Star-Lord was a week late, but on the other hand Black Panther was a week early so Star-Lord really just brought balance to the list again.

God Doom, and subsequently SexyBoi Namor, were both a week early. Wonder if we'll get a late release to balance that out.

Doom was both early and late, since there was only one other release between him and Kingpin (and that was off-Schedule too).

Of course, Doom always arrives exactly when he intended.