New Feature in R191: Shards

spatenfloot

BoyWonder1914 said:

Highly curious now what the numbers are going to look like for shards given in placement/progression. This feels like a snails pace in terms of how frequently I got 3-star BHs, at least in current state. Could say the same for 4s and 5s though definitely not to as significant a degree. How they dole these out in other parts of the game is gonna be critical.

I opened a small batch of standard tokens after the patch. Under BH I would have gotten three 3 star covers. Under shards, I got 1/3 of one.

jamesh

Dogface said:

jamesh said:

So is it possible to use shards to recruit a duplicate of a hero? The in-game help says "shards can unlock a hero, upgrade a power, or increase champion levels", and I was able to use bonus heroes to start a duplicate before.

I should think so. If I'm reading correctly, you can also use shards to get a character you don't have yet.

I've already got one copy of the character: I'd like to recruit a duplicate.  As an example, lets say I get a 3* character to max champ status and want to start a duplicate rather than immediately selling the first one.  If I have collected 300 shards, it's not at all clear how I can spend them.

Xception81

jamesh said:

Dogface said:

jamesh said:

So is it possible to use shards to recruit a duplicate of a hero? The in-game help says "shards can unlock a hero, upgrade a power, or increase champion levels", and I was able to use bonus heroes to start a duplicate before.

I should think so. If I'm reading correctly, you can also use shards to get a character you don't have yet.

I've already got one copy of the character: I'd like to recruit a duplicate.  As an example, lets say I get a 3* character to max champ status and want to start a duplicate rather than immediately selling the first one.  If I have collected 300 shards, it's not at all clear how I can spend them.

I think if you go under Stats and More, then scroll down to the bottom there’s a button that says “recruit again”. I imagine if you have the shards, you can click that and get the dupe?

jamesh

Thanks.  That looks like what I was after.  That "stats and more" screen is a bit of a mess.

bluewolf

jamesh said:

Thanks.  That looks like what I was after.  That "stats and more" screen is a bit of a mess.

Indeed it is.

It's worth noting that you can hold Shards forever, so you can keep a cover(s) in reserve until you need it or want to use it.

DyingLegend

Shard costs are too high. Needs to be cut in half. 

wymtime

I have to say having to go through more animations for every token and placing a level on every character sucks.  Most of us have 2* and 3* farms the goal of these characters is to get champ rewards for resources.  You have now more than doubled the time to open tokens and place these covers on our characters.  This is awful

Rhipf

spatenfloot said:

BoyWonder1914 said:

Highly curious now what the numbers are going to look like for shards given in placement/progression. This feels like a snails pace in terms of how frequently I got 3-star BHs, at least in current state. Could say the same for 4s and 5s though definitely not to as significant a degree. How they dole these out in other parts of the game is gonna be critical.

I opened a small batch of standard tokens after the patch. Under BH I would have gotten three 3 star covers. Under shards, I got 1/3 of one.

 If you only got 1/3 of a 3* you must have opened ~17 standard tokens (or had multiple 3* favourites). If you previously got three 3* covers in 17 standard pulls you really had good luck drawing 3*s from standard tokens.

shardwick

@IceIX The in-game FAQ says that although you can't favorite a limited character you can still get shards for them. Are limited characters available in the Shard Store?

spatenfloot

Rhipf said:

spatenfloot said:

BoyWonder1914 said:

Highly curious now what the numbers are going to look like for shards given in placement/progression. This feels like a snails pace in terms of how frequently I got 3-star BHs, at least in current state. Could say the same for 4s and 5s though definitely not to as significant a degree. How they dole these out in other parts of the game is gonna be critical.

I opened a small batch of standard tokens after the patch. Under BH I would have gotten three 3 star covers. Under shards, I got 1/3 of one.

 If you only got 1/3 of a 3* you must have opened ~17 standard tokens (or had multiple 3* favourites). If you previously got three 3* covers in 17 standard pulls you really had good luck drawing 3*s from standard tokens.

Yes, that's my problem with the shards. There are no lucky streaks to get players excited.

HoundofShadow

On the other hand, there are no unlucky streaks to get players disappointed.

The point is, it's impossible to satisfy all groups of players. Regardless of what the devs do (besides giving covers freely like Christmas), some group of players will be affected when changes occur.

Chameleon

pheregas said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

pheregas said:

I'll probably never get a 3* shard to max.   By the time my shardable 3 has enough points to get the cover, I'll probably have already earned it organically.

3* shards are going to be for feeder levels for me. I'll just park it and never change it.

Yeah...  I'll see how that goes.  Might just park it at Hawkeye to get the 20 Kate covers I need to finally champ 5* Hawkeye.

It used to be I'd just select whoever gave me the LT or 4* next.

And the irony is not lost on me that I'm using 3* shards to earn a 4* to get 5* feeder covers instead of directly sharding the desired 5*.

Not to be all negative but.. how disappointing will it be if you pull the 5* Hawkeye you need and now those shards sit unused on the 3* and 4*?

Tony_Foot

You don’t realise what you had until it’s gone. What a mess. Slow, cluttered and had my throat slit for getting four star bonuses. All the tokens I drew and I’m a third of the way to a four star despite drawing six four stars from heroics. So yeah my option to target someone and cut through the rng is worse.

Brilliant, bye bye any chance of ever getting the cover from shield training.

Can I have bonus heroes back please. Maybe leave this system just for 5*.

Chameleon

Reecoh said:

The new UI issues aside ... opening my mini hoard from the last week of Heroics & Elites something was missing for me. I realized that I was expecting the shards to be better when I got a higher tier cover - which corresponded to the possibility of a matching tier bonus hero after all this time. That's missing now, you just get the same shard count no matter what.

That coupled with having to keep an eye on the shard count while I open has really made opening the tokens feel less fun now.

In my opinion this is going to drive away new players pretty quickly.  Having to do even more in this game to get further along is not a good thing when looking for a fun game.  Fun often equates with relaxing.  This is not relaxing.

I quit MBL when it got to be too many mechanics.  Seems I'm headed that way for MPQ now.  I'm actually regretting buying HP during the anniversary now.  Sorry Marvel games.  

Tony_Foot

Ignoring when you have 5 in a colour and it goes to saved I just don’t see how this is faster for 3 to 4* transition than BH. That saved cover gets used when you champ so it’s not wasted this is just slow. I’m now getting less 3 and 4* covers. Brilliant.

shardwick

spatenfloot said:

Rhipf said:

spatenfloot said:

BoyWonder1914 said:

Highly curious now what the numbers are going to look like for shards given in placement/progression. This feels like a snails pace in terms of how frequently I got 3-star BHs, at least in current state. Could say the same for 4s and 5s though definitely not to as significant a degree. How they dole these out in other parts of the game is gonna be critical.

I opened a small batch of standard tokens after the patch. Under BH I would have gotten three 3 star covers. Under shards, I got 1/3 of one.

 If you only got 1/3 of a 3* you must have opened ~17 standard tokens (or had multiple 3* favourites). If you previously got three 3* covers in 17 standard pulls you really had good luck drawing 3*s from standard tokens.

Yes, that's my problem with the shards. There are no lucky streaks to get players excited.

Yeah, they shouldn't have killed off Bonus Heroes. This should have complimented BH so when you didn't get a BH you still got some shards and you could still buy shards from their store. 

bluewolf

The "shards in other places" thing better come along quickly.  As of right now this all feels very much like being sold a "New and Improved!" box of cereal and finding out that they are putting 1/2 the amount in the same size box. 

aftarquino

Honestly, what is the advantage of shards instead of Bonus Hero?
With BH you could assign more than one character and wait for a lucky pull, now if you assign more than one char you need to wait a century to have 500 shards and, when you have, probably this char will be with13 covers and champed.
Complete waste of time.

Lilith

Double Plus Good Brothers!  Your Shard Rations have been Raised from 5% to 3%!

crackninja

Lilith said:

Double Plus Good Brothers!  Your Shard Rations have been Raised from 5% to 3%!

We have always been at war with bonus heroes...