MPQ Sneak Peek: March 2020 (Updated 3/17/20)

pheregas

Let's just boil this down to what is causing all of this consternation.  Lack of communication and divergence from established practices.

Before anyone makes any kind of statement that the devs don't owe us any kind of communication, I'd like to just say "please don't."  Market uncertainty leads to market instability.  Just look at the world economy with the coronavirus disruptions.  The market is volatile precisely because of the uncertainty a worldwide pandemic brings.  Everything from health concerns to manufacturing disruptions.  Much of the forum-going populace is volatile for the same reasons.  Businesses give status updates to shareholders on a regular basis for these very same reasons.  I would be 100% shocked if the game managers did not give quarterly reports to muckety mucks.  While we may not be in charge of the business side of this game, all players are stakeholders in the game, especially so if they've ever financially supported it.

Ultimately, any changes in the release schedule do not matter.  What matters is the formal practice and expectation.  If 4/5/4/5 is too much, there may be downstream consequences.  There may not be.  But the devs do have control over the information they disseminate and how often.   As long as it is consistent, and regularly timed, IMHO, I'd be fine with that.

That being said, the list of things that seem to be unknown are:

1) The formal 4/5 release schedule.
2) Time before 5s enter Latest
  a) Previously it had been two weeks from special store.  Things have gotten erratic since Professor X.
  b) Does that countdown start at the beginning/end of the HP store, or at the end of the CP store (as was the previous norm)?
3) 5* Feeders
  a) Will they become more regular, if so how?
  b) How often will they be rolled out.
4)  Lack of clarity/follow up when gameplay changes are rolled out.

There's a lot of negativity happening on the forums.  In the old days, the forums were where we came to post bugs, give opinions, get information, and discuss gameplay tactics.

Now, mostly due to lack of information, it's devolved quite spectacularly.

@IceIX  What can be done to alleviate these concerns?  If there are changes to the game, would it not behoove us to have a simple AMA on reddit or something?  

wymtime

ThaRoadWarrior said:

4/5/4/5 would be just fine if it came with an attendant gap increase in the release drops. I definitely agree the 4* tier is over - my feeling is not that I actually want, well, any more 4*s to have to roster, but they serve as a buffer to 5* acquisition. By spacing out the 5* releases it gives you a window of time where it's realistic to chase them in latest to champion. that 4*s are coming out in between is, to me, the necessary evil that facilitates that capability. 

This new development is coming with no updates on how or even if post-carbage 5*s are going to be assigned to feeders. So we have an apparent acceleration in release rate on 5s, radio silence on how they might be fed, and a general reduction to cp/hp/iso8 rewards all over the place. Fearmongering or not, it paints a picture.

This exactly.  If they had a release of a new character every 3 weeks and went 4/5/4/5 this would still give a 6 week gap between 5* entering LL allowing players to feel like they can keep up 

bluewolf

We have asked them questions about plans etc more times than I could count.   Always the same response. 

It took an enormous snafu - putting up an event with wrong rewards, wrong SCL options - to even get Ice to appear on the forum when it wasn't time to post a new character announcement or a rare Sneak Peek update.

Uncertainty is their bread and butter since people get worried and spend when they aren't sure how long they can get things.

New bundle!  Act fast, goes away in 3 days.  HP bonus sale!  Act fast, ends in 7 days.  Same deal with Latests and being unsure how long they will be in or not.  Buy clubs are a thing, still.  I'm sure they are driven by people stressing about missing out.

As soon as they say "this is our plan for feeders" or whatever, and then something comes up and messes that up, then we will rake them over the coals.  Someone will.

There is basically no upside for them.  People will just keep playing and logging in and spending no matter how much they communicate.

RickOShay

Noticing a new or deviating pattern is very important in a game where we have to do LOTS of planning ahead. 

Asking if it is the new norm, and voicing concerns is to be expected. When we don't get answers, the concerns and confusion grows. That is human nature.

Imagine if very expected and routine things changed abruptly at your job?  Would you hope to get an explanation? Would you ask coworkers to discuss what is going on? That's what we're doing here.

I too would like the 4/5/4/5 releases on a 3 week schedule, but that cannot happen. It would reduce roster slot spending by a significant percent.
However, as has been discussed before, perhaps they could add a new mechanic that gets most players to spend the difference in HP some other way, to equate the 2-week roster slot spending. Like unlocking a special DDQ node or something each week for xx HP. One you really couldn't afford to pass up on.

@HoundofShadow I too back the Dev's quite a bit, but some kind of 'going forward' plan info would go a long way and be greatly appreciated.

StormDragonE55

I'm not going to concern myself over the release schedule for the characters.  It's not really something that is written in stone and I believe a lot of it depends on the character they are developing for the game.  It may be that the way they designed them makes it more appropriate that they be placed in the 5 star tier instead of 4.  Either way, I'll get them when I can.  What bothers me is the lack of alliance event for the 5 stars and no mention of shield training for the new 4 star.  There are members of my alliance that depend on those 4 star rewards during the alliance event since the pool is so large now. Also on a personal level... I've worked my butt off to get the new 4 stars covered enough for a shield training.... I WANT IT!!  (lol, I'm nuts, I know.)

skittledaddy

StormDragonE55 said:

I'm not going to concern myself over the release schedule for the characters.  It's not really something that is written in stone and I believe a lot of it depends on the character they are developing for the game.  It may be that the way they designed them makes it more appropriate that they be placed in the 5 star tier instead of 4.  Either way, I'll get them when I can.  What bothers me is the lack of alliance event for the 5 stars and no mention of shield training for the new 4 star.  There are members of my alliance that depend on those 4 star rewards during the alliance event since the pool is so large now. Also on a personal level... I've worked my butt off to get the new 4 stars covered enough for a shield training.... I WANT IT!!  (lol, I'm nuts, I know.)

This. Exactly this.

I wanted (and truly expected) a Boss Event this weekend.

DAZ0273

I know some people hate them but Boss Events are literally the only time my Alliance Sobers up enough to actually go to work. Then it is back to lying drunk in the gutter. So a bad miss for me too.

ThaRoadWarrior

I really hate the play schedule for boss events personally. having to check in on this game every 8hrs to get a token and a 4* cover or two in the middle of my family time is not great. I love the actual boss fights themselves, I just really dislike the refresh timing.

AXP_isme

The timing’s not great on boss events  here in the UK. One refresh runs from 1am to 9am. I don’t want to have to get a bunch of clears in before nine in the morning on a weekend. What does this look like, a weekday? Sheesh. 

DAZ0273

Agreed on all of the above. It is actually impossible for me to participate in the 9am refresh on a Friday as I don't play on a phone (or at work).

However when it was run that time on the Monday through Thursday for Battle at the Basilica I couldn't even make personal progression because I missed I think like 4 clears due to the awful time for the UK. So purely selfish reasons how it is is better than a Monday start up.

Therealsmkspy

Tony_Foot said:

I’m still waiting for any of this to be a cure for dilution.

That's gonna be a long wait, lol.

Concerning releasing 5s faster, as a five star player that generally only gets new releases to the mid 450s (Kitty is my highest at 466), this potentially worries me. Half cover shards won't be enough for me to keep up. Only way I can behind the faster schedule would be if every pve gave a 5* cover per event...which was what I had hoped scl10 would accomplish, but bong there.

bluewolf

Tony_Foot said:

I’m still waiting for any of this to be a cure for dilution.

To be fair, we saw last time (Karnak) how many covers you can get for a new 4.  If you play up in 10 you get a lot in progression, in both the PVE and PVP.  Placing is a bit tougher but you can probably get at least one from PVE if you are the type of person who is reading a forum about MPQ, lol.  Anyway I ended up with 12 covers, personally, and he's not even in tokens yet.

Also, in general we are getting more covers for 4's.  It's not a true fix for dilution, but now you earn more covers than before via shards and such.  It's pretty obvious that's the fix we are getting; some more rewards while leaving tokens very diluted.  Of course the number of characters means that there are some very long reward cycles (until you see someone again) so the problem was only addressed in a partial manner.  However, I imagine the devs consider it a feature for them to have so many characters in tokens and hence potential needed roster slots when opening tokens(look at the app stores and you'll see them pushing the number of characters as a selling point).

It looks like maybe (?) ST is ending in which case the race to 10 covers would become a thing of the past.  If true, that reduces artificial pressure which is probably a good thing at this point, so players can focus on the characters they really want vs arbitrarily chasing all 91 4's to a level they might not bother with otherwise.  If they aren't going to otherwise adjust tokens, then letting players feel more free to advance their favorite characters without fear of missing out on ST would be a nice thing.

Here is yet another matter where some communication would be much appreciated.

StormDragonE55

bluewolf said:

A note re: actual event scheduling....

Here in the States we have Spring Forward this weekend.  An alliance/boss event is fantastic when those time changes happen because you're not trying to plan around a time change and your locked-in time which doesn't get shifted so you need to do it "an hour earlier".

But instead of an alliance event, or even a merciful 48 hour sub that runs Sat - Monday, we get a normal old PVE.  Strange Sights, in fact.

Feeling burned out yet.......?

Thank you for reminding me about daylight savings this weekend.  I was confused when my usual start time wasn't listed for Strange Sights....

bluewolf

StormDragonE55 said:

bluewolf said:

A note re: actual event scheduling....

Here in the States we have Spring Forward this weekend.  An alliance/boss event is fantastic when those time changes happen because you're not trying to plan around a time change and your locked-in time which doesn't get shifted so you need to do it "an hour earlier".

But instead of an alliance event, or even a merciful 48 hour sub that runs Sat - Monday, we get a normal old PVE.  Strange Sights, in fact.

Feeling burned out yet.......?

Thank you for reminding me about daylight savings this weekend.  I was confused when my usual start time wasn't listed for Strange Sights....

Looking at the prejoin pane I see that the Spring Forward change will have a different effect than I expected.

You don't need to get up any earlier or whatever since the event will end 1 hour later in the day in terms of what time your clock says.

However....that also means that SS ends at (for me in Slice 1) 8 AM EST, but that DP v MPQ will start at 7 AM EST.  Now....all players in the same slice will have the same problem, which will be your end grind (if you're trying to be optimal) will overlap with an opening grind (again, trying to be optimal).  So every player will have to figure out what their priority will be - grind early or open late.

DAZ0273

I would be fine with Shield Training going away, it never was what it was dressed up to be. You can keep your Northstar cover.

AXP_isme

While it’s frustrating when you don’t have the characters to play all the way through shield training it still gives some more resources. If it’s taken away you don’t get those resources so I would see removing it as an unambiguous negative. The only upside is potential psychological benefit of not having the pressure to hit 209 but I see little evidence that there is a concerted attempt to reduce the pressure being applied. 

In summary, I would prefer ST were kept. I like more resources. 

DAZ0273

I would prefer Shield Training is replaced by re-visiting System ReBoot beginning with Pun Max.

If Shield Training is retained then how about at least giving us a shot at some shards for the newest required character? Northstar was ludicrous. I bagged 5 Karnak covers so at least have him featured before the next one to give us a bit of a shot. If I don't make it, fair enough.

MrEd95

DAZ0273 said:

Agreed on all of the above. It is actually impossible for me to participate in the 9am refresh on a Friday as I don't play on a phone (or at work).

However when it was run that time on the Monday through Thursday for Battle at the Basilica I couldn't even make personal progression because I missed I think like 4 clears due to the awful time for the UK. So purely selfish reasons how it is is better than a Monday start up.

My way around the Basilica event was to play a bit at lunchtime and some more during some (probably suspiciously long) toilet breaks. My company are pretty rubbish at making sure people are actually working.

I do play on a phone though. I think they would probably question it if I was taking a computer into the toilets with me

DAZ0273

MrEd95 said:

DAZ0273 said:

Agreed on all of the above. It is actually impossible for me to participate in the 9am refresh on a Friday as I don't play on a phone (or at work).

However when it was run that time on the Monday through Thursday for Battle at the Basilica I couldn't even make personal progression because I missed I think like 4 clears due to the awful time for the UK. So purely selfish reasons how it is is better than a Monday start up.

My way around the Basilica event was to play a bit at lunchtime and some more during some (probably suspiciously long) toilet breaks. My company are pretty rubbish at making sure people are actually working.

I do play on a phone though. I think they would probably question it if I was taking a computer into the toilets with me

Lol! I play on a tablet (and not a small one either) so yeah, slightly suss! I could get away with it if I was on Steam!

DAZ0273

Tony_Foot said:

bluewolf said:

Tony_Foot said:

I’m still waiting for any of this to be a cure for dilution.

To be fair, we saw last time (Karnak) how many covers you can get for a new 4.  If you play up in 10 you get a lot in progression, in both the PVE and PVP.  Placing is a bit tougher but you can probably get at least one from PVE if you are the type of person who is reading a forum about MPQ, lol.  Anyway I ended up with 12 covers, personally, and he's not even in tokens yet.

Also, in general we are getting more covers for 4's.  It's not a true fix for dilution, but now you earn more covers than before via shards and such. 

Yes but our level isn’t where the fix was needed, how many three star or early four star players are doing CL10. This fix does nothing to help dilution for those that really needed it.

Cl10 will not help to make more 5* players unless they can survive in SCl10 - The above is 100% right with what Tony is saying. For every 5* player/vet that has a spreadsheet and can work out gains/losses for their experience is utterly out of touch with the brutal nerf that SCl10 brought to PvE for lower levels. Be a top player or spend to be a top player is the only option these days. If you are not there then bad luck. I am a strange case and should really be above where I am but otherwise the game has no interest in helping lower rosters develop. Rich get richer.