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

PiMacleod

I believe the old 5s have value --

...but not in the sense in that they are good characters.  

They have value because they are worth someone's hard-earned time and/or cash.  You don't get a 5* on accident.  You can potentially get one cover for a 5* just by logging in enough days, but that's the only 'gimme' you're gonna get.  The rest of these are earned through cash or time grinding (and of course, RNG).

So to say they don't have value is almost a slap to those that spent their time/cash on them.  I know its not an INTENDED slap... but to bring this back full circle (for the purposes of why I'm saying this)

Yes, the old 5s have value.  Value in a sense that earning a 5* is a very high level trophy in this game, and no one should forget that.  It takes a lot of time to get to the place where we're at.  And while you can luck into 4*s or less from the get-go, there's no easy way to get a Legendary Token for quite some time... and even then, more than one... and even STILL, have the RNG on your side to pull a 5*.

Reworking 5*s is valid, IMO.  Because no matter how much person A spent on this game vs person B's grind, I would like to think that my hard earned 5* character is worth more than just collecting dust next to Bag-man.

argle_bargle

As someone who was blessed by the RNG as I was champing all my 3*s, I have a single champ 5*. It's an "old" one, but it's still a level 450+ character I use pretty much all the time. It has taken me to T10 in SCL8 PvE and given me plenty of mileage in PvP. Definitely not useless. If you are calling old 5*s useless, consider that you are effectively playing a different game than some of the other folks on here. If you are butting heads with the latest maxed out meta on a daily basis, that's a different experience than someone who hops on and does just enough clears to reach max progress before logging off.

Also, the complaints about SCL10 are absurd. It's meant to be hard. The scaling on character levels is just going to do that. imo, the rewards are commensurate with where your roster is if you can mop up there. If it takes you hours and you barely scrape by, consider dropping down to SCL9 or accept the reality of facing level 500+ enemies.

jp1

argle_bargle said:

As someone who was blessed by the RNG as I was champing all my 3*s, I have a single champ 5*. It's an "old" one, but it's still a level 450+ character I use pretty much all the time. It has taken me to T10 in SCL8 PvE and given me plenty of mileage in PvP. Definitely not useless. If you are calling old 5*s useless, consider that you are effectively playing a different game than some of the other folks on here. If you are butting heads with the latest maxed out meta on a daily basis, that's a different experience than someone who hops on and does just enough clears to reach max progress before logging off.

Also, the complaints about SCL10 are absurd. It's meant to be hard. The scaling on character levels is just going to do that. imo, the rewards are commensurate with where your roster is if you can mop up there. If it takes you hours and you barely scrape by, consider dropping down to SCL9 or accept the reality of facing level 500+ enemies.

Have you actually played in SCL 10? I find it absurd to weigh in on something you haven’t experienced. The scaling, by the way, is at level 650...not 500.

SCL 9 rewards are garbage now for a developed roster, and the average time requirement has doubled (or more) for similar progress as before. Doesn’t seem absurd at all to be annoyed by that to me.

argle_bargle

Yes, I have played in SCL10, thanks for asking. I managed to max progress and decided it was not for me, time investment-wise especially given my current roster. I said "level 500+", the plus implies that it goes up from there. Not all the enemies are level 650. The scaling I was referring to was how the damage and health numbers scale with level.

My point is that it doesn't take SCL10 and whale spending to make progress on 5*s.

Polares

Projectus2501 said:

Polares said:

.

And specially we need a much better way of covering old 5s. 

Why? 
I mean, I understand your point. But old 5*s are useless in this game. You need them once a year. It's not worth for the player and especially for the devs to work on this unless they find a way to improve gamming with the old chars. 

The problems are way before this point

First because some "old" chars like Kitty, Okoye, Thor, Iceman, Dr Strange, HE, Thanos are very meta right now (or very usable at least).

Second, because once these chars are once again easy to get, Devs would be able to buff them to more usable levels. Which would also make the releases way more manageable (the 4/new 5/ reworked 5) release rate I was talking about.

Third, these old chars are also required chars in a lot of PvEs, so having them champed helps in those.

Fourth, because of FUN. I mean, this is a game about collecting Marvel chars so you can use them in different teams. Collecting is part of the fun and being able to use them it is too. I feel SAD when I see so many 5s I will never be able to get.

And finally, because it would ease the pressure to champ all the 5s when they are in Latest, which would also help to enjoy more the game.

Projectus2501

Polares said:

Projectus2501 said:

Polares said:

.

And specially we need a much better way of covering old 5s. 

Why? 
I mean, I understand your point. But old 5*s are useless in this game. You need them once a year. It's not worth for the player and especially for the devs to work on this unless they find a way to improve gamming with the old chars. 

The problems are way before this point

First because some "old" chars like Kitty, Okoye, Thor, Iceman, Dr Strange, HE, Thanos are very meta right now (or very usable at least).

Second, because once these chars are once again easy to get, Devs would be able to buff them to more usable levels. Which would also make the releases way more manageable (the 4/new 5/ reworked 5) release rate I was talking about.

Third, these old chars are also required chars in a lot of PvEs, so having them champed helps in those.

Fourth, because of FUN. I mean, this is a game about collecting Marvel chars so you can use them in different teams. Collecting is part of the fun and being able to use them it is too. I feel SAD when I see so many 5s I will never be able to get.

And finally, because it would ease the pressure to champ all the 5s when they are in Latest, which would also help to enjoy more the game.

Of course the mentioned meta chars are the exception. And those are not hard to complete/increase since they appear in almost every store. They are the cash cows of this game.

The rest of your ideas are good but are just wishful thinking. I wish it was as you said: bufs, fun, relevance. But the game reality is not that as for classical 5s

As to pve you can do any node of a mandatory 5* at one cover as long as you have 2 other meta chars. Again I hate this but... It's the state of the game

Ps: I'm a collector. I want my 5*s champed. All of them

ZootSax

jamesh said:

Mitchslap said:

- More Character-Skins & making them available all the time
  How do you expect making money of the few skins you released if nobody knows how, where and when to get them?

I always assumed the reason they decided to sell character costumes rather than menu skins or variant comic book covers was that they are visible to other players in PVP, which would drive further sales as people see the costume in action.

So it seemed crazy that they would then provide no way for people to act on that desire if they missed the costume's release window.

Of all the developer's decisions with regards to encouraging spending, the treatment of costumes is the most baffling for me. When Spiderman: Far From Home came out, they had a lot of ads running on other games I played, but most all of these promoted the 3* Spider-Man costume which was no longer available by the time the add ran.  It was trying to lure new players with something that was LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE for them to acquire.  

I understand that there is value in creating an artificial "exclusivity" to costumes in the more expensive ($50+) bundles, but the ones which were gifts and/or given in PVP/PVE progression should be always available to anyone who missed those windows.   Even the other costumes should be available eventually, after a certain amount of time has passed to still provide the exclusivity to the bigger spenders (for example, maybe there's a 1-3 month delay between when a $9.99 to $49.99 bundle or VIP with a costume is released and it becomes available to everyone and maybe a 4-6 month delay for $50+ bundles--this is just a concept).

This is one of those changes which would take minimal development time to add one new HfH screen for purchasing the costume and the artwork is already in-game.  It's not pure profit, but the break-even threshold seems shocking low from the perspective of an outsider so it just seems odd to me that it isn't already in the game.

ErikPeter

Thanks IceIX for this info. Transparency in why you are doing this is really great, even if it makes some people angry. The quality of MPQ has been increasing steadily, with only a few temporary dips, for its entire six-plus-years. I'm a little skeptical of the recent throttling of CP and HP, but you do what you gotta do with character releases.

I'm still waiting for the Captain Marvel bomber jacket costume to come around again... Any chance of another Women of Marvel event?

Bad

Rewards of pve scl10 are really something. Im playing it since its start. A lot of times I wasnt interested in 5* clasic chars because I dont have them.  But the amount of 4* improvement is brutal. When this CC ends I will have super skrull champed, and Im really glad having him. In fact Im thinking on setting him as favourite.
Of course its not easy and scl10 eats a lot of time. I would like at least another 5E buffed for event.  
In the end I suppose I got accustomed to fight huge enemy bars.
And when I fight normal enemies on pvp it seems so easy lol

Vins2

argle_bargle said:

If you look at total rewards and assuming full PvE progress, it only takes 2 or 3 Legends pulls per day to keep up with the 4 week 5* release rate.

argle_bargle said:

Yes, I have played in SCL10, thanks for asking. I managed to max progress and decided it was not for me, time investment-wise especially given my current roster. I said "level 500+", the plus implies that it goes up from there. Not all the enemies are level 650. The scaling I was referring to was how the damage and health numbers scale with level.

My point is that it doesn't take SCL10 and whale spending to make progress on 5*s.

I don't think someone can average 50-75 CP a day if they're playing in scl9 and its slashed rewards. 

argle_bargle

Vins2 said:

I don't think someone can average 50-75 CP a day if they're playing in scl9 and its slashed rewards. 

You don't need 60-75CP because they don't need to be all Latest Legends pulls, just Legends, so closer to 40-60 minus LTs earned from Clash or champ rewards. (Also, that 2-3 pulls number doesn't take into account actual 5* shard rewards.) The idea is gaining at least 13 covers (or shard equivalent) towards any 5*s, not getting 13 covers of every new one.

They didn't slash rewards so much as shift them. We're getting way more covers which lead to more champ rewards.

JustJoe

As a newcomer who is going to hit 100 days in a week, news like this seem "player-unfriendly". Veterans complain about this the most because it is a problem they face directly and right now. How about beginners and medium-rated players? They will never be able to catch up nor come even close to the people who have their rosters almost completed by now, heck, maybe even rosters from years ago. The pace of this game is literally explainable via the definition of ever-expanding universe - some things are moving away so fast we will never be able to chase them... in other words, "Hey guys, we have released a game where you have to start playing in the first week, otherwise you can say goodbye to half of its content".

So at this point, I am questioning myself, whether it is worth even continuing under such circumstances, since there is higher possibility of this game shutting down long before I reach a roster of some of yours' ? And since I have started cosmic analogies, it is quite impossible to "play without pay" at  this low end, cause the roster slots are always lacking and 30% of the gameplay is just saying goodbye to covers vanishing in a black hole.

I am not even into competitive stuff, I just play casually, dailies and pve in 60mins, usually with my lil nephew who is into Marvel as much as I am, but the years of progression and (possibly) occasional rage I would have to throw into this game makes me really wanna give up, especially after seeing this kind of "rushed-up pressure"

Hope you all are having fun and wish you healthy days in these times!

HoundofShadow

You stated in your first post that you have played this game for years and now you are a 100-day player. Make up your mind? 

JustJoe

My bad, forgot to mention that I once lost all my progress already when transitioning my account between devices. However, I decided to give it a try after changes made in the last months to see whether something has changed, but unfortunately, I can only see the root issues being "cloaked" with new approaches rather than resolved. Shards versus Bonus heroes, seems pretty much the same, possibly even worse toward Shards, they just allow you to direct your aim at a particular character, which is still lacking due to the frequent characters' releases. But ye, on the other hand, I understand the company needs to make their millions somehow

Anyway, I am not trying to encourage some hatred here or anything, it is just my opinion as anybody else's positive or negative feedback, but assuming the dissatisfaction of majority of devoted fanbase with recent decisions, it seems like a common feeling

Projectus2501

JustJoe said:

 How about beginners and medium-rated players? 

Not even with money. That's what confuses me. I can't understand that. 

HoundofShadow

It seems like you left the game somewhere in 2017/2018. You can try emailing customer service to see if they can help you retrieve your old progress.

If you are a completionist and your ultimate goal is to champ all characters in the game, it won't be easy to catch up playing casually and without spending a lot of money.  We are talking about new players playing from scratch catching up with six years plus of developments and new "contents". If you expect yourself to champ all current and future characters within 2-3 years playing casually, you are putting a lot of unnecessary pressure on yourself.

However, if you are focusing on playing with your favourite characters or winning with your favourite abilities, it can be done. I played since MEH release and I have "catched up" with over 90% of 4-star (13-covers), with over 80% champed. I have a lot of them champed but there are probably 10 that I like to use. I have been hearing "new players will never catch up" fear-mongering tactic since late 2017 and it's totally false based on my playstyle and I didn't even spend a single dime on this game to achieve this. In the first year of playing, I've accumulated enough CP and LT to champ all 3 latest 5-stars. I could have jumped right into 5-star land at that time but I didn't want to skip 4-star land.

If you want to get good placement in PvEs, there are not more than 3 characters in each tier that you need to focus on. With shards, you can get to them quickly.

You just need to set realistic goals for yourself. If you play casually and are willing to spend not more than $10, don't expect to catch up with competitive players or whales. 

Bad

JustJoe said:

My bad, forgot to mention that I once lost all my progress already when transitioning my account between devices. However, I decided to give it a try after changes made in the last months to see whether something has changed, but unfortunately, I can only see the root issues being "cloaked" with new approaches rather than resolved. Shards versus Bonus heroes, seems pretty much the same, possibly even worse toward Shards, they just allow you to direct your aim at a particular character, which is still lacking due to the frequent characters' releases. But ye, on the other hand, I understand the company needs to make their millions somehow

Anyway, I am not trying to encourage some hatred here or anything, it is just my opinion as anybody else's positive or negative feedback, but assuming the dissatisfaction of majority of devoted fanbase with recent decisions, it seems like a common feeling

Wow, you seem pretty acknowledged on the dissatisfaction of majority of devoted fanbase on this comunnity despite being a casual player and one that lost his progress a lot of years ago. And the sistem of bonus heroes vs shards too, sure you catch up things quick.
You said that you are worried for the game shutting dow before you can improve your roster.
Well as you said Marvel has past trough some generations on his more than 70 years as your nephew could say.
Match up gem games are there for more than 30 years.
So I would say now hearing that you can improve your roster without worries

Michael1957

Joe is right , this is a whales only game. If you missed the initial launch there’s really no point in thinking you’ll ever catch up or be competitive. I started , missing the first 3 years , so I couldn’t even sniff a decent 5* until over 2 years of playing . Even after 3 plus years I’ve never even placed higher than in the 30s. Plus 99% of the players are mindless clones who all follow the same play format using all the same team . For example, I finished 133 points out of first place in a node today , and finished 40th! So if you’re thinking of starting to play as a new player , play only for the enjoyment of the game and forget about being competitive.

Projectus2501

Michael1957 said:

Joe is right , this is a whales only game. If you missed the initial launch there’s really no point in thinking you’ll ever catch up or be competitive. I started , missing the first 3 years , so I couldn’t even sniff a decent 5* until over 2 years of playing . Even after 3 plus years I’ve never even placed higher than in the 30s. Plus 99% of the players are mindless clones who all follow the same play format using all the same team . For example, I finished 133 points out of first place in a node today , and finished 40th! So if you’re thinking of starting to play as a new player , play only for the enjoyment of the game and forget about being competitive.

No, no, no. That's not correct. There's a steep curve to get up there but you can play at a high level even if you start now. But it will take you mb 2 years to do it. But that was always like that. The funny thing is that money won't speed up your pace as in a regular mobile game. I mean, if you spend 2$, 10$, 100$... almost 0 progress. Mb 1000 bucks will do something.
But there's lots of enjoyment in those first 2 years. 

Also, being placed at top 50 in CL 10 is a GOOD thing. The game has a large fan base. With 50k or 100k players you expect to be number one? Your expectations, are to high. You already are in the top 1%

Good job! 

Bad

Michael1957 said:

Joe is right , this is a whales only game. If you missed the initial launch play only for the enjoyment of the game and forget about being competitive.

Im 538 days and Im one of the most competitive guys around. Im usually at 100 rank pve and 50 pvp.
But this game has high valuable cps that can be earned and saved with effort.
And when I started playing there was no 5* char on heroic tokens.
So no, this is not a game just for whales.