New Feature Coming - Targeting Heroes

Loosie

DarthDeVo said:

fight4thedream said:

liminal_lad said:

fight4thedream said:

While new avenues to acquiring characters is always welcome news, until we get more concrete details I do think it would be wise to temper one's expectations.

Coming from a mod, I can't tell if this means "I know something you don't know and you're going to be disappointed" or just "I don't want you guys getting yourselves worked up when we don't know any details."

It's the latter. I do not get any special access to information about the game. I learn about new features and changes the same as everyone else here. But I have been around long enough to see people get their hopes up only for things to not work out as they had wished (myself included). It's definitely something to be curious about and look forward to but let's find out how it will work first before jumping to any conclusions.

Awwwwwww man, I was looking forward to breaking out my Jump to Conclusions Mat.

You see, it's this mat that has a bunch of different conclusions you can jump to. 

The Viceroy Returns

BriMan2222 said:

I've been saying for years that MPQ needs a system like this.  They had this type of system in Marvel Avengers Alliance where after drawing a certain number of duplicate covers to get a locked hero or villain you were guaranteed to draw a cover you didn't have already.

Lockbox Heroes!!
Like this game, I ran a sheet of how many ISO I needed as new Lockbox heroes were released.
Like with all RNG systems, I got them under the average, and sometimes not.  Think my best one was only needing like 90 total ISO (the average was 120 or so).  But at least there was a top end that guaranteed you the hero if you had **** enough RNG.
Ah those were the days...

I miss A:AA every now and then.
Coming up on the 3 year anniversary of its shut down (October 2016).  It's been that long already?

BriMan2222

The Viceroy Returns said:

BriMan2222 said:

I've been saying for years that MPQ needs a system like this.  They had this type of system in Marvel Avengers Alliance where after drawing a certain number of duplicate covers to get a locked hero or villain you were guaranteed to draw a cover you didn't have already.

Lockbox Heroes!!
Like this game, I ran a sheet of how many ISO I needed as new Lockbox heroes were released.
Like with all RNG systems, I got them under the average, and sometimes not.  Think my best one was only needing like 90 total ISO (the average was 120 or so).  But at least there was a top end that guaranteed you the hero if you had tinykitty enough RNG.
Ah those were the days...

I miss A:AA every now and then.
Coming up on the 3 year anniversary of its shut down (October 2016).  It's been that long already?

Hey, someone else who remember the glory days of A;AA!  I miss it too, but in some ways I'm kind of glad it ended.  Between MPQ and that game I was spending soooo much time grinding.

Falconfreak

I hope this new system makes it easier and realistic to find the covers you need for whatever the target hero is.

bluewolf

Daredevil217 said:

bluewolf said:

Demiurge is also the developer on a similar game to MPQ, SEGA Heroes.  In fact, some of the new game engine was borrowed/copied from that game.

That game has a shard system of character collection.  In that game there are 4 tiers, needing 15, 25, 50, or 65 shards to unlock or level a character. 

Of course they could be looking at something different here, and I don't want to make any assumptions about the numbers, or design or anything else.  But it makes me very suspicious that a shard system is what they are working on.

I really hope this new system is on top of bonus heroes vs replacing them......the fact is that it has gotten continually harder to get the covers you want in this game and if there isn't something introduced that actually makes things better (not just feels better) then players will just keep losing ground.  And of course I recognize that the game needs to make money, that it needs to be not-easy to get what you want etc but at the same time they should tacitly acknowledge the situation the game is in and how dilution has impacted players' ability to progress their rosters.

Interesting. This new feature sounds similar to the shards thing you are talking about. Like you can get 1/65th of a 4* cover. My question is, in Sega Heroes how do the shards drop (progression, placement, opening tokens, etc.), how frequently (every time X happens?), and are they universal (I.e. I can put them toward any character and higher tiers cost more) or tier specific? Any more insight you can give into Sega Heroes might give some insight. 

The game is structured so differently from MPQ that I don't think it would be that helpful to dig into it.  (I also only dabbled in it, and haven't really done anything in it in a while.)  If I recall you get chests from nodes and finishing paths that sometimes contain shards, which always are character-specific.  You don't pick from which ones you want etc.  I also have only played the non-placement PVE side.  The game is so different; every time you log in you are seeing the current bundles they are promoting, for example.  You also get a chest every 3 hours that you can open which seems to contain a shard every time.

HoundofShadow

A number of match-3 RPG games have similar shard systems to power up their characters. Typically, it involves about 150-200 covers to reach the final form of those characters. I know of one that give X exp points for character of the same class, and X+Y exp points for that exact character. Most of them involve opening packs or getting covers by playing nodes,  and then storing those character covers in an inventory. Finally, those cards will be merged to create a stronger character.

I think the more important question is, is this feature an add-on, or will this involve debuffing some other feature(s) or the removal of other feature? I'm going with the latter. 

sambrookjm

OJSP said:

https://live.staticflickr.com/78/200246008_b5b1a7b170_b.jpg

I guess that means one of the songs that the Maggia sings in Howard the Duck's PvE is "Damn, It Feels Good To Be a Gangsta."  Does that mean Kingpin is Lundberg?

grumbLEGO

dingo said:

My question is, will this be like Shield Clearance Levels? Remember when SCL first came our we were given a rank  based on something....? I don't remember the criteria. Which translated into a bunch of iso. I remember receiving around 300K or more.  Will we be prorated with rewards based on some sort of level?.... Not to jump to conclusions.... 

this is my question as well. 

Dragon_Nexus

I'll be very cusious to see how this differs from Bonus Heroes...

Scofie

I'm an optimist so I think it'll be positive. No point complaining about something that's not happened and might not happen. 

I'm keen to know if there's any point hoarding tokens or covers though...?

shardwick

Well, however it works I just hope it doesn't take forever and a day to level up.

HoundofShadow

It will take at least about a month or two for 4* and 5*.

crackninja

HoundofShadow said:

It will take at least about a month or two for 4* and 5*.

If it takes a month of say 75 total battles per day (full pve, ddq, and decent pvp participation) to get the 5* cover of my choice every month, and no existing mechanics go away, I'd be okay with that.  But if this signals the end of all future 5* feeders, then to me it's a net loss.
Looking forward to hearing more details.

Dragon_Nexus

Tony_Foot said:

Dragon_Nexus said:

I'll be very cusious to see how this differs from Bonus Heroes...

£$

I can see it now. A vault, but you pick what goes in it!

And then you pay money to draw stuff out of it! Yay! =D

HoundofShadow

Using available information:

1. Players receive one 5* cover every 90 days after hitting certain in-game days.

2. Direct Purchase of unlocked cover cost 720CP

3. HfH cost 250 or 500cp

4. Using average non-top players as a rough guide, they earn 30CP in PvPs per week and about ~80CP in PvEs per week.  That's about 440CP per month. It will take about 7 weeks to hit 720CP.

I believe it will be tied to SR in order to unlock the different tiers because I find it unlikely they will allow new players to target 5* characters at low SR.

I also believe that there will be a capped on how much we can "progress" per day with Targeting Heroes. Players who want to unlock the cap will probably pay ISO-8 to unlock them. This helps to solve the problem of players with excessive ISO-8.

The point is: don't get your hopes too high and expect to gain 1 5* cover every week. I'll put it at between 2 to 3 months.

DyingLegend

Can we just add a feature to the game that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.....

bluewolf

@Tony_Foot

I don't know exactly how this will work but the fact is that dilution has been making it harder to catch up, and making people pay for slow but gradual cover progress is unlikely to be a winner in terms of making people spend.  Maybe you could pay to get faster progress somehow but I don't think the basic access will be pay-gated.  (Just like bonus heroes are not pay-gated now.)

It is already true that with dilution, spending on bundles is almost a necessity if your goal is to have a workable 4* roster.  And every Friday we get another 4* cover bundle, which I am sure makes them some money.  Costumes have become a pretty regular feature and usually require spending some money (sometimes just HP).  Also, bundles in general are less generous than they were last year.

Even the rewards in game are stable - not going up to address dilution and sheer volume of covers to collect.  Effectively if progress is harder, then the game is continually creating an environment where spending makes more sense.

Obviously as you point out, long term vets who are willing to hoard, aren't chasing top placement and don't need to complete characters quickly don't feel much need to spend as a result.  However......if that is already someone's mindset, how would fractional progress on a character materially change that calculation? 

Oh... Why not increase the bonus rate?  Maybe because they decided that more RNG variability isn't as good as some measurable progress to keep people engaged.  Especially since they have no plan to stop or slow the character release schedule and therefore every new person who starts is farther behind everyone else every 2 weeks.

Ares76

I hope this feature let's you target a specific color. I am transitioning to 5-star land right now having already champed four of them. But a lot of my 5-stars that still need covers to champ them are already sitting on 5 covers in one or two colors - like 5/1/5 with already saved covers. As I only get a 5-star bonus-hero aproximately every  4 months I would never bonus-hero someone with such an uneven distribution. Getting a 6th cover only to save it would let me feel like the last 4 months were a total waste. 

shardwick

Tony_Foot said:

They have to look for additional revenue streams, especially after supports seem to have been ignored. Where I am in the game TBH the dilution or getting covers doesn't bother me. If I'm close I try a bit harder for a 4* to get to 10 covers but I don't care if I don't make it. I also don't have an issue getting the 5*s I want to 13 covers with the method I play, so I wouldn't be putting money into this system anyway.

What we need is a better system for 3-4 transition mainly, if this is it and it costs to catch up I'm fine with that.

I would have been fine with tweaking the BH rate and 4* drop rate in heroics. Adding more covers into daily reward. VIP giving double days or double rewards.

It could be something like getting experience from packs that helps towards getting a specific cover for your targeted hero. 10 and 40 packs would give more experience and would help to encourage more spending.

jp1

I think the whole system needs tweaking. I’ve been a spender from the onset of my play. Now the resources have become so minimal from a stark that it just doesn’t feel like it’s worth it any longer. 

The vets or top echelon of players earn rewards at such a rate that spending is almost pointless for them as well. This represents a small minority of the customer base and the system is somehow set up to cater to this section of people. It makes little sense from a financial standpoint.

on the lower end of play you have people trying to fight their way up Mount Everest in a game they can’t be sure will even stick around long enough for them to see the top. I’d be little incentivized if I were in their shoes to spend too much simply because of that, but dilution makes it so much worse. If you play for two to three years and you feel like there is little hope of catching up with the 4* tier alone, much less gaining the coveted 5* status, how likely are you to stick it out? Assuming you love the game enough to stay, how likely are you to spend? A stark today is worth so much less than it was even two years ago. That level of inflation is not sustainable and the only people in the end who will be able to stay afloat are the ones who are already at the top of the game. It’s like an accelerated form of capitalism right until the brink of collapse with no efforts to mitigate the damage being done.

I hope this new feature looks to be something useful enough to bring hope of progress to those who need it and encourage those who feel left behind to start supporting the game financially again. If it is a once a year or once every 10k dollars spent cover, it certainly won’t help enough to fix the issue.