Help us out Devs

Glockoma

I’m going to make this simple. Years back, communication from above came almost ubiquitously. I remember R4X (revision 40 something) as my first communication post from the team at D3; enclosed was a laundry list of fixes. They also compiled a list of things to come down the pipeline in future revisions. 

The days of simply telling you which event you had to grind through next as some sort of complacent attempt to justify communication were not there. Work was being done (as I am sure is now), but at a digestable and observed rate that seemed to echo at least some of the issues conveyed by the community. Not simply the 4* you’ll need a month from now in the extremely dated DDQ.

Off season, regular character rebalancing, QoL improvements, albeit many things that seem to get further and further away from each other. Where are we at now?

I’m done now, but I hope we can keep the spirit of the game existent. Because here lately, it seems we have been fed nothing but new characters and no spirit.

Dragon_Nexus

It feels like they're *so* scared of telling us what they're planning for fear of a backlash "YOU PROMISED US THIS! WHERE IS IT!?" that they simply don't communicate at all.

I find it utterly bizarre that the devs seem this afraid of their own community forum.

As much as I dislike games these days all coming out with a roadmap for when they'll bother adding content in...it would be nice if we had some kind of roadmap for MPQ. The last truely significant update we had was, what...supports? Assuming you don't count the new suport themed PvE that runs once a week.

Other than creating new characters I'm curious what the team actually does.

0_efx_0

Well I’ll take it a step further. Are their employees happy? How many employees do they have now?
Are they being payed well?
Are the employees who are in charge now the same old employees?
Is the game ran by just one person?
Find out on thee next episode of Dragon Ball P.

Tony_Foot

0_efx_0 said:

Well I’ll take it a step further. Are their employees happy? How many employees do they have now?
Are they being payed well?
Are the employees who are in charge now the same old employees?
Is the game ran by just one person?
Find out on thee next episode of Dragon Ball P.

Ok you’re just hinting at stuff, some of it isn’t my business to know or care about. The same as your hinting about the game closing down which caused weeks of unrest on here. I don’t see that as helpful at all.

As for the rest, why not wait to see what the next film offers, small team or not that should give us an indication on where the game resources have been going. I’m confident it won’t be the mess that was infinity war.

abmoraz

I think this pretty much sums it up:

(the problem is us, not the devs)

//Censored Profanity in Image -Brigby

wymtime

Here is the biggest thing.  When the devs have come online and answered questions of the forum it was typically civilized.  The main times I can remember real rage with communication on the forum was when they were experimenting with scaling in PVE where some nodes got crazy hard and the other time was the infamous “your suppose to lose” with the first Galaxtus event.

thecreality is communication is hard to keep up but if you do creates a much better relationship between players and developers

Warbringa

abmoraz said:

I think this pretty much sums it up:

(the problem is us, not the devs)

//Censored Profanity in Image -Brigby

As with most things, the truth is somewhere in the middle.  The devs have no need to have regular information briefing to fill a small group of players (us forumites).  Too much information can cause more problems and an expectations issue (as we have seen before).  On the flip side, a decided lack of any significant communication* can be dangerous as well.  In many businesses, including my own field, a lack of communication is one of the easiest ways to lose clients/customers.  Both sides need to do a better job of providing info (devs) and handling this info (forum users).   

* By lack of communication, I am speaking narrowly about the upgrades/future of the game type of information at the development level, not the general game information and updates provided by Brigby, who does a fine job!

I also think there is a distinction in what the forums want.  Some want to know where the game is going long-term, ie (the possibility of 6* characters, SCL 10, etc.)  I don't think it is reasonable for the devs to reveal long-term plans/information for a multitude of reasons, but unreasonable player expectations is a big one.  I do think though that feedback on issues players have with the current state of the game is something that the devs could do a better job of communicating, and while a lot of detailed information would not need to be shared, any communication would make a lot of players feel better that their concerns are being listened to, at the very least.  This may be topics like QoL concerns, character rebalances, cover dilution etc.  Even a very narrow communication every six months such as "Issue X:  we understand this is a concern to players and/or a concern to us the devs and over the next six months we are looking at possible ways to improve the game concerning Issue X.  Of course with the disclaimer no changes may be made as a possible outcome."   

Glockoma

@Warbringa

I really appreciate your view on this. Would we benefit from a consistent news cycle other than the “sneak peeks” , (that are just cannon fodder imo), for instance: bi-annual or even quarterly review? 

Colognoisseur

In this thread in April of 2018:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/71795/april-q-a-with-demiurge-will/p2

This was the response Will gave to the Development team concern on burnout of players:

To put this response in context, MPQ is in a really healthy place right now. We don't want anyone to burn out, and anyone that leaves means that there's something we could be doing better. But players aren't leaving significantly more now than they were in, say, 2014, and more folks stick around for longer than in most comparable games.

But yes! We think about this a lot.

Our high-level strategy to address burnout is pretty straightforward:

• release exciting new things
• fix pain points
• listen carefully to players to improve our understanding of what's most painful and what might be most exciting

So ask yourself how well they achieved those bottom three bullet points over the last year. Even if they could just give an update on their efforts to do this over the last year. I know this is like spitting into the wind but I'll move to the side while wiping my face off.

TeamStewie

TBH it seems that the grind is getting worse and not better.

Tony_Foot

That’s because it has got worse, supports grind as one example.

but find the thread where the number of clears required went up and see how many ‘vets’ thought that it didn’t matter. 

TeamStewie

Tony_Foot said:

That’s because it has got worse, supports grind as one example.

but find the thread where the number of clears required went up and see how many ‘vets’ thought that it didn’t matter. 

I can understand vets thinking that though since if you’re trying to play optimally you were still going to have to do 7 clears either way. 

Colognoisseur

Tony_Foot said:

That’s because it has got worse, supports grind as one example.

but find the thread where the number of clears required went up and see how many ‘vets’ thought that it didn’t matter. 

There is no body who plays competitive PvE who didn't have their number of clears go down. Prior to the change everyone tapped for north of an hour. It was mindless and easy but this is an example of the development team making the right choice to fix a "pain point".

Spudgutter

Colognoisseur said:

Tony_Foot said:

That’s because it has got worse, supports grind as one example.

but find the thread where the number of clears required went up and see how many ‘vets’ thought that it didn’t matter. 

There is no body who plays competitive PvE who didn't have their number of clears go down. Prior to the change everyone tapped for north of an hour. It was mindless and easy but this is an example of the development team making the right choice to fix a "pain point".

you are talking about the fix to tapping.   about a year or so ago, they added things to the progression table for pve.  And since they always have to take a step or two back when stepping forward, they also increased the clears for max progression as well.  for those of us that were/are playing to max level it was a moot point.  tony is right, it seemed that too many people in that thread were ok with it going up when it should not have gone up at all.

Found it, with relevant quote

"Hi Everyone,

Starting in the The Hunt Story Event on May 21st, we will be updating progression rewards for 3-day, 4-day and 7-day Story events. We have increased the amount of rewards and made the rewards more goal oriented based on the amount of repeatable mission completions. We have also increased the reward amounts, most notably, more Iso-8, Hero Points, and Command Points. Every S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level (or SCLs) has been updated. Please see below for more details.

General Changes

• Increased the number of rewards to 30 (from 20)
• The number of times each repeatable mission needs to be completed to receive the top progression reward has been increased to 5 times (from 4)."

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/64726/update-to-progression-rewards-in-story-events-5-18-17/p1

bluewolf

It seems worth noting that back when the clear count went up, some SCLs got more than others in terms of increased rewards.  It just seems odd now to think they didn't just uniformly make every SCL get more resources.  I agree that many top players weren't much concerned about progression players having to hit 5 clears.

Also worth pointing out is that riso in nodes is given for the 5th clear (when it's rewarded) so the 5th clear is a little more worthwhile now than before.

The devs seem to consider 4 clears enough for Support Circuit, which rewards 40 CP after playing 4 "subs" at SCL9, so basically the same amount (CP from progression) as you get in normal PVE.  Maybe that's because they know the grind is a lot and the extra event isn't helping.

5 clears is seeming like a lot lately (and always) for a lot of people, especially because the more the tiers get diluted, the less valuable each reward becomes.  

Colognoisseur

Obviously I play PvE differently than a max progression player. Looking at the change from my lack of knowledge it seems like it is “just one more time through” for “better” rewards. The two responses above indicate that is not true. Can one of you tell me why?

bluewolf

I think the biggest issue was that the top CP reward was pushed back.  While it is true that players began getting more resources from their play, it also meant you HAD to begin to play more to get the maximum progression. 

Everyone is playing this game to their comfort level/time allowed.  When this change came along, a lot of players who were finding progression to be an appropriate time commitment were forced to decide whether to lose rewards or play more.

Yes, the rewards went up (but just a little, really) but being forced into that position wasn't pleasant for a lot of players.

abmoraz

abmoraz said:

I think this pretty much sums it up:

(the problem is us, not the devs)

//Censored Profanity in Image -Brigby

@Brigby - so sorry.  That word in the comic didn't even register to me when i read it.

Spudgutter

Colognoisseur said:

Obviously I play PvE differently than a max progression player. Looking at the change from my lack of knowledge it seems like it is “just one more time through” for “better” rewards. The two responses above indicate that is not true. Can one of you tell me why?

Not sure what you are asking?  Why people would be upset over more clears for more rewards?

My two cents:  the in game economy is continuously going down, due to inflation. Every new character added, at whatever tier, adds iso and hp needs to every single player if they want to play the game to their best ability.  I'm not saying they should just give everyone the hp and iso to roster and champ everyone, but occasionally you have to tweak the in game economy to keep up, and make it easier for new players to become vets. 

And by easier, i mean that if the calculation is that if someone plays full tilt and it takes them "X" amount of time to be fully into the 4* transition, that time frame should be the same in 2017, 2018 and now 2019.  Since there are more characters added practically every two weeks, the resources awarded should keep up.  For the most part, they do ok with this.  But in the particular example above, they didn't.  Now, the equation is "X + 1 clear." 

bluewolf

Spudgutter said:

And by easier, i mean that if the calculation is that if someone plays full tilt and it takes them "X" amount of time to be fully into the 4* transition, that time frame should be the same in 2017, 2018 and now 2019.  Since there are more characters added practically every two weeks, the resources awarded should keep up.  For the most part, they do ok with this.  But in the particular example above, they didn't.  Now, the equation is "X + 1 clear." 

I'm not sure by what definition they are "keeping up".  Other than Support Circuit, they have not modified rewards significantly since SCL9 was added in September 2017.  18 months means 36 characters - about 24 4's and 12 5's.  

It all depends on how you define "being able to transition", I guess.  You certainly will be much farther behind now (29 million iso for 80 4's) than back then (20.4 million iso for 56 4's).

Nevermind how many pulls and covers you'll need in the Era of Dilution.

ZootSax

Colognoisseur said:

Obviously I play PvE differently than a max progression player. Looking at the change from my lack of knowledge it seems like it is “just one more time through” for “better” rewards. The two responses above indicate that is not true. Can one of you tell me why?

I can't speak for max progression players, but because the added rewards were so backloaded, people like me who were doing 2.5 clears (for the 4* cover in the previous rewards system) ended up getting less rewards (at least in terms of CP & HP, I forget whether ISO-8 was a wash or not) for the exact same work (CP was 2 less and HP was either 50 or 100 less, I honestly forget the exact value and it's not important enough to look up now).

I would guess someone who played max progression would have the same argument with the backloading (i.e. 4x clears was once max CP and now it's only 8 CP for the exact same work).