Are 4* Feeders for 5*’s Now A Thing Of The Past?

Tony_Foot

Kolence said:

I don't understand this line of reasoning. It's like an auto-censorship on the player side?

I too just brought Carol to 370 this run of her rewards, and she's my first and only maxed 4*. Medusa is 350-360, and next few are under 340 and so on. But other three players with very similar rosters to mine in our alliance don't have her that high - instead two of them have Medusa maxed. And they started playing October 2013 (I started December). 

So what if some still remaining crusty old ftp vets get 5 or 6 cover head start with one or two 5* ?  Would it really be so egregiously devastating to the game economy ? There's always ways to spend cp,  missed 5* now stuck in classics or occasionally in a surprise special offer store or HfH offer for a really lopsided build... 

To me it doesn't make sense to have a Carol feed a new 5* or any older 4*. It goes against the complaints that come up time and time again, that it's near impossible to cover a classic 5* if you come in later. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a newer 4* feed a newer 5* and older 4* feed a classic?

For example 4* XFW feed OML, Talos feed 5* Marvel. Have the 4* that comes just before the 5* feed them. In that way 4* Mordo makes sense feeding Strange.

It would still be easy enough for most of us to get the one cover we need for essentials and still create something to go for.

pheregas

Every 5 should have a feeder.  At the very least it would let more people (especially newer players) play in PVE with the essential 5, even if it's only a cover.   That is not game breaking.

Cactus_Jack_87

I want feeders for my supports. I'd gladly trade in a 5* Talon Fighter for some more Wasp Gauntlets.

Steve111

Well, it appears as if the Carol celebration was not momentous enough to warrant a feeder for any 5*, old or new. 

whitecat31

Maybe they are having an ethics debate.  It makes the most sense that 4 star Captain Marvel feeds 5 star Captain Marvel.  If not that feeding pattern, than Fury makes the most sense.   Captain Marvel has very little attachments with any other possible 4 star so it really be one of those two.
The dilemma is many players have one or the other with enough levels to not have to use their command points to get the 5 star Captain Marvel. 
Unlike the low tiered 5 star Captain Marvel, 4 Star Captain Marvel is top tier in her 4 star ranks and many people have wisely made her a favorite. There are some people who are even working on her as a feeder.  So these people would get a bunch of covers.   
Fury was one of the very first four star characters.  So if anybody has been playing this game a very long time, they are very likely to have Fury to level 280 if not much higher. 
In both situations a decent segment of the of player population get FREE covers.
Ethically, that may be the right thing to do. 
But ethics don't pay the rent, so maybe they are looking for a different 4 star, or are going to make a feeder for somebody else.  

KGB

If  they are worried about too many covers being given for 5* Captain Marvel from a feeder (Carol or Fury) then the business decision thing to do is wait till she leaves Latest and then announce the feeder.

Once she's out of latest no one is going to be chasing her with hoards because dilution will prevent it.

KGB

pfarewell

I’m pretty sure they don’t care about announcing feeders. It doesn’t make them any money. Instead, they release costumes. Am I the only player that’s irritated by this?
     Every new release makes the problem worse. 5* don’t have feeders. 5* that do have feeders don’t always have 4* that have feeders. I’m not entirely sure that there is anything to look forward to in the game anymore.

bluewolf

I was thinking a little more about this....

1.  If it's true that revenue is down (anecdotally it certainly seems true), then you can easily imagine that work and resources are being devoted to focus on producing content that actually generates revenue, such as costumes or re-offering shield level bundles. Or vaults. Etc.
2.  The biggest MCU movie of all time is coming in about a month.  The devs know:  1.  We as a community were disappointed (mostly) by the Infinity War tie-in content and 2.  Many players are waiting around to see what happens in the game around Endgame.  So, making sure they have some feeders set aside in their "reward budget" to be able to put out a lot them around that time would be a reasonable plan, but of course frustrating to wait for.  

Most of the remaining unfed 5's are not meta or even run very often, so updating a number of feeders in a small window would also be a way to make the updates more fun vs spacing them out at one per month.  The month where, say, Archangel or Banner got fed would be like "meh" vs pushing them out with someone better like Strange or Cable.

wymtime

bluewolf said:

I was thinking a little more about this....

1.  If it's true that revenue is down (anecdotally it certainly seems true), then you can easily imagine that work and resources are being devoted to focus on producing content that actually generates revenue, such as costumes or re-offering shield level bundles. Or vaults. Etc.
2.  The biggest MCU movie of all time is coming in about a month.  The devs know:  1.  We as a community were disappointed (mostly) by the Infinity War tie-in content and 2.  Many players are waiting around to see what happens in the game around Endgame.  So, making sure they have some feeders set aside in their "reward budget" to be able to put out a lot them around that time would be a reasonable plan, but of course frustrating to wait for.  

Most of the remaining unfed 5's are not meta or even run very often, so updating a number of feeders in a small window would also be a way to make the updates more fun vs spacing them out at one per month.  The month where, say, Archangel or Banner got fed would be like "meh" vs pushing them out with someone better like Strange or Cable.

What your are saying might be true but I can’t imagine updating 4* to reward a 5* would be that much work.  If they really wanted they could have one person get the change done for all the 5* in one day.  Most of it is just changing the same piece of code so since they have the code already done it should be simple.

2nd If they did add a reader monthly and it was of a classic 5* that was going to be essential in PVE it would defiantly be welcomed.  Let’s say they updated a feeder for Banner before the Hulk event.  Now some players would have the essential 5* while others would be able to level up their Banner more to be a more effective meat shield.  Either way the update helps players that month with a PVE.

in reality they should either just do a mass update to 5* feaders or update a 5* grader every 2 weeks till they have caught up to the latest 5*

Steve111

Just to pass comment that it’s 1st April and no development on this issue since Jan, and to bump this discussion in case anyone with any influence is listening. 

HoundofShadow

Endgame is coming to you on 26th April. There are a number of 5* who are potential candidates for feeders:

Dr Strange, Bruce Banner and maybe Captain Marvel.

I think more details will be out the next or following week.

chris0001

So looks like this is being "brushed under the carpet" like most other things around here on the forum!

bluewolf

I just wanted to comment on this thread because of a couple bits that came up:

1.  As players know, 4CM now feeds 5CM and lots of covers were rewarded (thanks devs)

2.  Brigby has hinted pretty strongly that we will get a second feeder during the Endgame celebration, which I suspect will get to Week 4.

3.  While these feeders might make some players think that this means we are returning to a regular feeder update schedule, it appears we will not.  The Puzzle Warriors 3 had an interview with Demiurge last Thursday and they asked them about feeders.  To summarize those comments:
______

The developers set up the regular, once a month feeder schedule as a way to explore something and now they are exploring something else, which appears to include using feeders to make events more special.  They also said the feeder updates were too frequent before, although now they have swung back too far the other way (maybe too infrequent) and they are trying to figure out the proper cadence.

_____

It sounds like we won't see them regularly, but hopefully eventually more often than 1-2 every 4 months.  Note that if they somehow went to an every other month schedule (not spoken of....just my projection here) then they would be falling behind on a continuing basis as new 5's tend to release every 6 weeks.  I am a little concerned if they focus on special events, as Marvel movies appear to be taking a bit of a hiatus after Spidey.

Anyway, we can all stop trying to guess who will be the feeder of the month as that schedule is no longer the developer's goal.

This also solves the problem of double feeders since I don't think they'll get to the point of "catching up" to feeding everyone, unless they change their minds again.

marshall

This just makes me sad. As a collector, I have only 2 years of Classic pulls while pulling enough Legendaries to cover new 5*s just to finish off a few characters that have zero in-game value.

Barely any feeders and no reworks. I feel bad for those that champed Banner or Wasp first.

DAZ0273

I'm not in the category of either having many 4* that could provide me with multiple covers or double dipping, I got one Car5l cover from CM4 and she is my joint highest 4*, none are above 300.

The only reason I would like further feeders is for the chance to finally be able to fully cover a 5*, namely Cable who requires 2 more covers. I tried bonus heroing him but I think I have received exactly 2 5* bonus heroes in all the time they have existed, so the odds don't look very good. With that few in what, nearly 3 or so years, I can't see it ever really happening. So that leaves it down to random chance from the 29 Classic (which will grow) 5* further diluted by the fact I would not want a green cover. I can't be bothered to work out the odds but I suspect they are not in my favour by a rather large degree.

If getting a Cable feeder relies upon a special celebration of some kind then I suspect I might as well just give up now.

This isn't even a case of then wanting to Champ him because that sounds like a bad idea, just have a fully covered 5* on my roster. Just to see it can be done.

I like being in 4* land, don't get me wrong but the growing number of 4* that I could champ but can't quite see the point of doing so is growing. Is Winter Soldier going to improve my gameplay? It doesn't seem likely does it? Using Talos is about as much fun as having a radioactive squirrel attached to your face and then having an electric current passed through the squirrel which triggered a bear trap to the nether regions. There is probably a joke in there somewhere involving squirrels and nuts but I'm not going there.

So that just leaves the 5's and I don't seem to be getting any closer with those.

Anon

I'm going to assume Ronin will feed 5* Hawkeye.

Just having Hawkguy feed Ronin would make me happy.

Kolence

We already have 2* to 5* chain...

Hawkguy -> Kate Bishop -> 5Hawkeye 

That said... The day approaches when there are going to be twice as many 4-stars as there are 3-stars. So a new overall update to 3-stars' champion rewards that would have 2 sets of 3 covers for a pair of 4-stars is one of those pipe dreams I'm still silly enough to have about this game... 

With something like that in mind, it wouldn't be a bad time to start planning for all the possible connections between the characters.

Spudgutter

bluewolf said:

3.  While these feeders might make some players think that this means we are returning to a regular feeder update schedule, it appears we will not.  The Puzzle Warriors 3 had an interview with Demiurge last Thursday and they asked them about feeders.  To summarize those comments:
______

The developers set up the regular, once a month feeder schedule as a way to explore something and now they are exploring something else, which appears to include using feeders to make events more special.  They also said the feeder updates were too frequent before, although now they have swung back too far the other way (maybe too infrequent) and they are trying to figure out the proper cadence.

_____

I don't really listen to podcasts as much anymore, so thank you for the recap.

Until i see what the "something else" is, i will continue to be unsurprised but disappointed. 

Dilution in this game is horrible, and an extra cover here and there should not break the bank.

Realistically, the feeders themselves are looooong overdue for a revamp.  Every 4* should have a feeder, and since there are more 4* than 3*, there should be several 3* that feed multiple different 4*.  When a new 4* is introduced, it should also come with the knowledge of who their feeder would be.  Along the same vein, it should be the way for every 5* as well.

I just don't get it.

The rockett

Well after listen to the PW3 podcast it is very clear that they think in 2019 they were moving way too fast for 5* feeders and now have slowed down too much.  They will only do feeders for “special events”.  I just don’t get the reasoning on thIs but what does it matter.  They will do whatever they want and I will continue not to spend any more money on this game.  

marshall

As someone that has spent $ on this game, I have to say that since switching to 5* land two years ago, I've been nothing but frustrated by the lack of variety of gameplay and support for 5* players.

We had Thor, then Gambit, Okoye, Kitty, and that was it. 4 out of 20 or so? Nothing else moved the needle even remotely on new launches. Some are plain barely usable (i.e. Wasp). Had high hopes for Hela, and she's good, just not good enough to make a difference.

Then there's other stuff like lingering 5*s that are unfinishable and/or just plain ****. Any game out there would have just do a simple numbers rework, get them mildly usable again.

And we have to believe feeders is some great reward for special occasions?

I don't want to come here complaining repeatedly, so it might just be quitting time. Endgame was the last, last hope, for a changed status quo.