Next Character Release Announcement (5/7/20 Release)

JHawkInc

Thanks for the feedback. I have questions like anyone else, but they have been voiced by others for the most part, so I'll just say we greatly appreciate the communication, and get right to commenting on the juicy character bits.

Yelena Belova was already far enough into development that it made sense to finish her up and release her. 
So, our short term plans were short circuited by recent events. With cinematic releases, we normally tend to plan a bit more in the way of tie-ins, which in this case included another character release.

Sounds like a Red Guardian 4* to me. Could be an MCU Taskmaster that's more movie themed and not Limited. Could also be a second 4-star Widow that's based on the new movie, though a costume with her blonde/red hair and white outfit wouldn't be a bad idea instead. I'm not super opposed to variants like many people (I totally get why, but I appreciate having many versions of characters represented as well), so another ScarJo Widow wouldn't be a bad thing in my book.

I won’t spoil who it is, but I’ll say that they’re among the top fan favorite bad guys who people have definitely wanted in a 5-Star capacity. They’re also not an alternative version of an already released character, so you’ll have an all new powerhouse to play with!

So not Magneto. Then... Red Skull and Omega Red sound most likely. I think the support for Omega Red is louder these days, but if it's been in the works for a while, Red Skull would fit the bill. Maybe Apocalypse? Not playable, so it wouldn't be an alternate, but he IS in the game already. I don't think anyone else is as highly requested (though we see plenty of Dormammu or Mephisto or Electro/Lizard/Shocker/SpideyVillain)

Borstock

I appreciate the communication. But we need to know how long each character will remain in LL. That's more important than the actual order.

Projectus2501

No, just no. 

Its not a post in the forum that solves the problem that many players will have completing a trio of 5* chars that's released so quickly. My question is:

Why didn't you simply postpone the release?

And stop releasing chars so fast Please! 

broll

It’s disappointing that you guys chose to do this vs just taking a release break or even doing 3 week gaps for a while. People are always asking for a release slowdown. You chose not to do what the players want. 

DarthDeVo

This... I don't even know where to begin with this. I'll start with something nice at least. I sincerely do appreciate the communication and explanation for *why* this is happening. That is helpful. 

Unfortunately, that's about all the "nice" I can muster. 

I'm genuinely curious, what other options were seriously discussed? Because deciding to release another 5* so soon was about the worst decision that could have been made, even if only from an optics standpoint. 

It's quite well known that new characters, especially 5*s, drive a lot of spending in this game. At a time when people are getting laid off, furloughed, or taking signficant pay cuts, you're essentially saying, "We think it's entirely reasonable to not only continue juicing that revenue source, but actually increase the demand on it."

Was anything even close to this considered?

"Hey guys, due to corona, we had to alter the character release schedule. [Insert explanation of character development cycles, blah, blah blah]

This left us in an unfortunate situation where the next completed character not tied to the Black Widow movie was another 5*.

To avoid forcing our players to spread their resources too thin trying to cover so many 5*s in short succession, we've decided to take a hiatus from releasing a new character this cycle. 

We'll release a new 5* in an HP store starting 5/21, then a CP store 5/28. We know times are tough right now, and we appreciate you still choosing to play MPQ. We hope this helps give you some breathing room during these tough times."

Maybe the thought of skipping a release entirely seemed really scary for you guys from a financial standpoint. But I doubt you would have really risked losing any regular spenders. You may have even gained a few as a show of appreciation for being considerate of your fan base. 

Maybe I'm way off base, but I think this decision really runs the risk of alienating and disgusting the playerbase and might even be what pushes some players to realize this game is no longer worth their time nor money because it's clearly never enough. Just my two cents. 

JiraiyaSannin

so we still dont have an explanation about the rewards changing. This feels like we are getting a 5\5\4 release now, theyre just "testing the water". could this mean we are getting ready to shift into the release of 6* (highly doubt it) but its an idea. 

you guys are taking away resources and still adding ways to take it faster from us. 

I agree with alot of players who are writing before me. you could of either not released anything OR make this character a 4* and you wouldnt be getting a backlash from the players.

The rockett

Oh and a Friday data dump to add.  This is going back a few years when they would always dump bad info on a Friday and run out the door.  The more and more I think about this and looking at other comments, this is by far the worst decision that D3/Demi could make.  Only 1 other time since 5* were released did we have this and it was a duel release of IM46 and Cap for Civil War.  That release made sense at that time, but this doesn’t.  This seems like a pure money grab during one of the darkest times of our life time. Well done. 

DarthDeVo

The rockett said:

Oh and a Friday data dump to add.  This is going back a few years when they would always dump bad info on a Friday and run out the door.  The more and more I think about this and looking at other comments, this is by far the worst decision that D3/Demi could make.  Only 1 other time since 5* were released did we have this and it was a duel release of IM46 and Cap for Civil War.  That release made sense at that time, but this doesn’t.  This seems like a pure money grab during one of the darkest times of our life time. Well done. 

The first run of Civil War is literally what drew me into this game. I obviously wasn't at the 5* tier, so wasn't really paying attention to it and my memory could be hazy on this, but didn't the first run of CW reward an actual cover for IM46 or FA Cap depending on which side you picked? 

The point being, even with a dual 5* release, there was still a way to earn at least one full cover for at least one of them. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that. 

bluewolf

@DarthDeVo You're correct.

I was looking at the stays in Latests (past and expected).  It is kind of weird the way the devs have handled things lately.

Looking back two years (and really, almost all the way back to the start of the old standard 4/4/5 release pattern) it was 16 or 18 weeks for each 5.  Last year we had a few (Kingpin, Captain Marvel, Rescue) all leave after 14 weeks, but 16 or 18 weeks was still pretty normal.  Then Storm had 21 weeks, and Iceman had 19, Prof had 24.  Then Carnage had 18, BRB had 17, and Sinister will have (presumably)......12 weeks, the all time low.

Havok says "hold my beer" and will leave Latests after either 9 or 10 weeks, depending on whether the boss event next week has a CP store attached or an HP store.  I had presumed the HP model was here to stay because, hey, people buy HP with cash and some are.....motivated.....enough to spend lots of cash on meta 5s.  NEW5 looks pretty good (maybe not really meta since I suspect those power dmg numbers will be kind of on the low side) so that should mean another HP store, right?  And how will that work with an Alliance event?  Please tell me we're not pushing into Round 8 for a 1:250 store token.....  Anyway, if they did an HP store alongside an alliance event then Havok would presumably get another week before NEW5s CP store starts the Walk of Doom to Classic limbo, rarely to be pulled again.

If you were interested in champing Havok and assume you need 300 pulls to be safe, and were pulling as you go, that's 4.76 pulls a day if he only is in for 9 weeks.

I feel kind of bad for the work that was done on him, because many players will be simply unable to make much progress on him under this release plan.  He's actually pretty fun.

As many have said, there were choices that were available to the developers when faced with the horrible pandemic upsetting many many lives and schedules.  And they picked the least player-friendly option.  I was not expecting some magic fairy to allow them to fix Supports or any of the other outstanding issues, but thinking outside the box......

Run an alliance event, and set up a special 5* store with 3 5s (with NONE of them a new one.....crazy, I know).  Reward special tokens to that store.  Put in the 3 most targeted 5's AFTER the top 3 (so 4-6) as one idea.   Maybe you put in some healers or protectors like Strange, Iceman, Rescue, Doom...I dunno.  The point is say "hey guys, here's a purely FUN thing you can play, maybe you'll spend some money, we're glad you are all staying with us and we're lucky we're doing well when 1/10 of the country is unemployed".

But this isn't surprising.  The recent change in PVP rewards was also handled in the most player-unfriendly way if the end goal was where we are.  If you had, there, set up with CP last and 4* shards at 1000 points, we all would have been pretty happy (better than riso) but instead you switched things out and created player resentment after 2 months of more enjoyable PVP rewards.

And then run another alliance event for NEW5 2 weeks later to make up for not running ANY for about 3 months and say "hey guys, we know you missed these so we ran two this month!". 

Anyway, that would have been cool in an alternate dimension.

Vins2

I don't see how it "made sense to finish her up and release her" doesn't directly relate with "just the way things ended up working out."  Like thinking it was an accident that two 5*s were released in a row, but a conscious decision was made to finish and release Yelena on time, in the first place.  

Vins2

JiraiyaSannin said:

so we still dont have an explanation about the rewards changing. This feels like we are getting a 5\5\4 release now, theyre just "testing the water".

Yeah I have a hard time buying into the innocent act.  "This is 'not' a new normal" doesn't provide any relief.  

HoundofShadow

Thanks for letting the players in here know in advance about the the next release being a 5*, even though it's not going to change their opinions of how things should be run. The company should have taken some hits to their incomes, so that it will make some happy and they will spend enough to make up for the losses incurred.

I'm excited to see how the Alliance Event will be upgraded (hopefully), and I'm looking forward to the new Shield Training.

A_Wise_Man

Why is it that we have little to no communication at all for long stretches and then when we *do* hear something its bad news?         I understand that the world is a mess right now and nothing is going according to plan for anyone.  I get that, I really do.  But if there wasn't anyone else close enough to being ready then why go ahead and release the other 5?  Why not hurry up and finish him/her and not release Yelena?  Hold *both* BW related characters til November.  Or just don't release anything for a couple weeks.  
     Nobody likes the 54545454 release schedule.  People have accepted it but *nobody* likes it.  Doubling down on it and just saying "my bad" really isn't cutting it.  I've stuck up for the devs when shards came out and wanted to see it through.  I'm generally pro-dev.  But there are lots of other avenues you could have taken and still can (release them with HP but hold the CP store back a week or two or just push back entering LTs for a month instead of 2 weeks).  
     I am generally very patient and willing to see things through.  But you doubled everyone's playtime by making cl10 mandatory to keep up with a faster release schedule that (I'll say it again) nobody likes.  Don't thank us for our patience.  Stop testing it.

itsuka7

wymtime said:

itsuka7 said:

I appreciate the info. But I wonder if you have considered what a 2 week 5* release schedule means for 4* players without the option of scl10 to get the shards for their one needed cover to play pve? Have you considered that 4* players cannot acquire enough cp in 2 weeks to have a chance of getting the next cover (it takes 525 cp on average after all), even if they play every pve event for t10 ranking?

If extraordinary circumstances force your hand as a company, may I suggest that extraordinary measures might be taken to ensure anyone below 5* rank can still play pve competitively? Make sure we get that cover, one way or another. Make up adequately for shortening the cp acquisition time. Double the cp awards in those two weeks, or double the odds of drawing that 5*. Or rig the draws from that special store. But please, please, consider how to make sure 4* players can remain competitive pve players. 

Cosmic Chaos will give IHulk shards so if you have a cover of IHulk then you should be able to get the shards of the new 5* in PVE.  Also ICE said there will be a boss event so maybe shards will be given in the boss event.

lastly if you did CL10 for Yelena then you will get another PVE giving Yelena covers one PVE.  That would let you get one cover of Yelena so you can keep hoarding for the next 5*.

Now if you don’t play CL10 then I would still recommend waiting for this 5* to enter LL so you will be able to get Yelena and the newest 5*.  There should only be 2 event with Yelena between now and when this 5* enters packs

The last suggestion I will give to my 4* players. They will just have to hope none of the pve events between Yelena entering the packs and the new one entering requires Yelena. Though of course there is no guarantee the new one will go to the packs as fast as that...

As for playing for 5* shards in pve and pvp, those playing in scl10 might not have looked at those rewards for a while... so let me explain it. Getting *the*, so 500, shards before that 5* is essential in pve is not possible outside scl10.

A scl7 player only earns 25 5* shards when he comes nr1 in his bracket, and none in progression. A scl8 player earns 50 5* shards in progression, and maybe a few extra in t10 placement or so. So, 4* pve players cannot get far.

PVP play in scl10 is possible for a 4* char, which will give 40 or 50 5* shards when ranking t100 or t200. Better ranking than that is not really an option, as you cannot make it very far beyond 900 pts on a 4* roster. For shield hopping etc you need to be able to take on the champed 5* teams that are hitting you above 900. Not an option.

The combination of which means that a top 5 scl7 or scl8 player  (nr 1 in pve is sadly always taken by a few champed 5* players) can earn about 100 5* shards of a new one, maybe 150 shards in scl8 at most. Not nearly enough to get it to 500 shards.

My point is, a 4* roster has no real option to *play* for that all important one 5* cover. They need to draw it out of the special store or LL ( the odds of drawing it out of tokens are just too low for those that cannot afford to spend megabucks on draws).

But to end on a positive note, I like the suggestion of 5* shards rewards in the boss event! If we get 250 5* shards as end lvl award in personal, and 250* end lvl shards in alliance, most of our problems will be solved. So devs, please go for that

shardwick

This wouldn't be so bad to me if you didn't just quietly move cp in pvp back to 1200 pts/75 wins. 

MrPlow

I doubt they'll give something back in return like a few extra weeks off from new covers.   IMO this is just them telling us to get ready for a new normal and we should be grateful that we got a heads up this time and threw in an alliance event in return.

CT1888

shardwick said:

This wouldn't be so bad to me if you didn't just quietly move cp in pvp back to 1200 pts/75 wins. 

This. It sucked guys. Back to back 5s will potentially push iHulk out faster, and the cp shift is either going to need more play time for me, or letting him go unchamped. Which sucks. And I ain't got more time to put into this game. 

fight4thedream

From my perspective, this was an unfortunate missed opportunity to kill two birds (or perhaps three or even four?) with one stone.

The best move would have been to postpone the release of Yelena Belova and instead re-release an updated version of 5* Black Widow. Additionally, if there was to be another 4* tie-in character, you could have switched in 4* Task Master as a substitute.

Ideally, an updated Black Widow would have the tool kit to effectively deal with the current stun-and-gun meta. Had the dev team done this, they would have accomplished the following:

1st bird: Demonstrated their commitment to updating old characters and keeping the meta balanced as discussed in the Feedback Wanted: Character Balance thread.

2nd bird: Provided newer players a good opportunity to get a classic character who potentially could be relevant to the current PvP meta. (of course, that's only if the dev team updated her powers)

3rd bird: Provided older players with more developed rosters an opportunity to take a breather, save up resources or to go all in for a potentially strong character.

4th bird: Have content at the ready for when the Black Widow movie is actually released. 

If the dev team had done this, I am sure it would have generated a lot of good will and positive feedback from the community. I don't know how it would have affected their bottom line, but considering not many people have a high level Black Widow or even have her champed, had they made her relevant to the current meta, I don't think it would have went badly. But then again, I am not a businessman nor do I have access to the numbers. 

What I do know, however, is that 5* Black Widow conceptually has the tools to deal with the current meta but is severely limited in her effectiveness due to her high AP cost and weak counter-stun mechanic. A few tweaks here and there and a good buff to her stun power (perhaps countering the jump-to-the-front mechanic) wouldn't change the overall flavor of the character but would do wonders for how useful she could be.

The fact that no buff appeared to be planned for 5* Black Widow to tie into her movie is probably what I find most disheartening about all of this. 

Finally, I believe the current new 5* release pace needs to be reconsidered. I am not a completionist myself but I know quite a few who are seriously contemplating leaving the game because they no longer believe it possible to keep up with the current release schedule. 

I know some people have mentioned spacing out releases by 3 weeks which is one viable solution. I think incorporating Supports into the release schedule might be another. Have alliance/boss events become Support specific events with the top prize being Master Tokens. (There is no way currently to gain Master Tokens which I find baffling). 

So basically the release schedule would be: 

Week 1: New 4* release
Week 2: Standard 
Week 3: New 5* release
Week 4: Standard
Week 5: Supports Event (preferably alliance or boss type events)

Considering the rarity of supports, I don't even think it would be necessary to release a new support for each cycle. Anywhoo, that's my Bugle Pittance on the matter. 

As always, thank you all for your hard work. I do know these are uncertain times, so please stay safe and healthy. 

Wishing you all the best,
fight4thedream

Colognoisseur

Let me whisper one word in your ear:

FEEDERS

for everything since prof x especially for iHulk Yelena New5

lakantanz

My latest 5 stars have NEVER been in a worse state.  I have Sinister at 7 covers (2/3/2), havok at 6 (2/1/3) and hulk at a measly 1 red cover.  This is despite putting roughly 1000 cp into the current latest and just having awful luck.   Combine that with now 1 coming and a second just announced?

There needs to be a serious re-look at 5 star acquisition.  Many people are getting increasingly burnt out by the decisions being made.

Heck, just releasing so much of the content that you've scrapped since I started playing would be wonderful.  I still don't know what was wrong with Support Circuit.  How about a gauntlet, how about heroic events.  7 day events not once every six months like it feels like?

I am getting increasingly sick of running the SAME events over and over again.  Acquiring CP and going "yay, opening a few ... oh, it's another lot of 4 stars."

Hulk came out and it took 700 cp to get one cover.  One.

Yes, I have a very good roster these days but there are an increasing number of players in this area of the game now and the decisions going on don't seem to be helping.  I don't want to acquire a minuscule amount of 5 star shards each time I spend CP (which is getting harder and harder to earn too... >.<)

Combine that with Challenge nodes in SL10 which even Deadpool laughs at us for trying?

Come on ... I have this game listed at 5 stars in the Play Store and the comment is "The only game I can't see not having on my phone".

Unfortunately that is starting to become increasingly untrue. 

I do understand how corona virus has made things difficult.  But you have tons of content that you have just let collect dust.  How hard is it to release old content that players loved and regularly ask for?  How hard is it to make the odd decision that actually will help people be happy and want to support this game?

I'm getting really tired of the treadmill where each carrot is a LONG LONG way away.  I almost feel like I'm better off deleting ALL of my characters and starting a new account at this point.  1 stars, 2 stars ... and not 30 5's.

Hell at least I might feel rewarded by playing and supporting this game again?