OKTAGON Q&A Session - September 2020 UPDATE* (10/01/2020)

Magic:PQ Support Team

Q&A September - Answers

1. Do you realise how frustrating an experience it is for a player to have all his hard earned (and in some cases paid for) boosters being devalued with 90-99%? I’m referring to legacy, standard and VIP boosters in case you are wondering.
Answer: First of all thank you for subscribing to a Membership and thank you for your feedback. There are a couple of benefits that go beyond the Boosters that the subscribers have access, too. There are discounts for content (Boosters and Planeswalkers) and the ability to craft Masterpiece Boosters (Tier 6, Pro, and Master). Also, Subscribers receive Mana Jewels and/or Mana Crystals on a weekly basis.

2. The From the Vault block has a good array of sets in it now. Would it be possible to get a Training Grounds FtV event that runs every now and then so we can play that block without the node requirements in Seize the Day?
Answer: That’s actually a great idea! We don’t have plans for that but it’s definitely something to be analyzed. Thank you for your interest!

3. What plans are there to improve the coalition experience? If there are none, do you feel that the available coalition functionality is in an ideal state?
Answer: What would you like to see improved most in the Coalition Experience? Please leave your comments below so we can collect them and pass along to the responsible team!

4. There is a consensus on these forums that poaching players in-game from another coalition is considered bad etiquette and that it is unwanted in active coalitions. What is being done to deal with this problem? If nothing is being done, why not?
Answer: We do not have any control about why players are entering certain Coalitions for poaching other players. However, we strongly advise for Fair Play between players. In case of offensive language or behavior, please get in touch with the Support Team. This question relates to question #3 in terms of improvement of the coalition experience and we can consider looking into a solution for what you call Player Poaching. May be something similar to what we did for switching Coalitions during Coalition Events, with a timeframe for when a Coalition can be joined again. Thank you for bringing this up.

5. In paper Magic, all set release dates are published in advance. Could you start doing the same for MTGPQ?
Answer:  The update for the iOS version depends on the approval process by Apple, therefore it would be a little tricky to announce any dates beforehand.  But usually the new collection is released in Magic: Puzzle Quest about 2 - 3 weeks after the release in paper. We hope that helps you to look out for the next update.

6. I'm not usually a negative-nancy, but there's nothing more frustrating than a 2 point missed objective that ranks you out of Seize the Day (or any other leaderboard event for that matter). Okay that wasn't really a question, more of a statement.  I'll hope that the brains behind the curtain can see the problem and address it.
Answer: Thank you for your feedback. This has been shared with the team and we will take a look into improving the event experience.

7. How does MtGPQ define a “match”, as in gem matching (not a set of games)? This, and other basic definitions, would be very useful in helping players know when a card is working as expected.
Answer: A match is a combination of 3 or more gems that can give a variable amount of mana or Loyalty to the player, according to the type of the gem, or to their mana bonuses. A match can happen either by a swap, a cascade or by converting gems.
A swap, on the other hand, is the active input of the player to intentionally make a match by swapping gems from place.
A cascade match is (usually) a non-intentional match that is sometimes caused when the board replenishes itself, whenever one or more gems are removed from the board.
A gem conversion match is caused whenever a card or ability converts gems to a specific color, in a spot where two or more gems of that same color can form a sequence of three or more gems.
I will make sure to add this to the Magic: Puzzle Quest - Gallery of Abilities, Mechanics and Rules on the FAQs.

8. Some of us love MTGPQ but may not have as much time to devote to it as we want. In particular, we might not get to finish all the charges in any given event because of other real life obligations. Would it be possible to give an option for the AI to run any given charge (single match) on our behalf? It can just give us the result without having to show each step. This would at least give some satisfaction that we can complete some of the events even though most of the Ai-run games using our decks would probably lose except those times in which they're going up against another AI. Plus, for those who like to spend more time creatively creating decks might enjoy having the AI take the burden of running it for them. And I think it would even be fine if you give slightly fewer points for any match we choose to have the AI play for us. Thanks for reading.
Answer: Thank you so much for this feedback! It’s great to see that you guys are always thinking creatively about every aspect of the game. It shows how our player base is loyal and full of passion! We don’t have any plans for this right now, but thank you again for your interest! This idea can be very useful for some future features. =D

9. The game has existed for many years, and we have a tremendous number of card and deck combinations available, and yet you still only provide 3 F2P deck slots per planeswalker. This is a detriment to deckbuilding and discourages people from experimenting.  Perhaps you don't appreciate the tedium of having to rebuild decks for events over and over again, but isn't it time to give us a small quality of life increase?  F2P players need more. VIP players need more to purchase.  Heck, just let us edit the mostly-useless Beginner/Expert/Master decks and we'll call it even.
Answer: Thank you for the feedback! We don’t have any plans for this right now, but this is something to consider, for sure.

10. Is The Colossal Tussle node-locked? In other words, do we only face opponents from the same node? If not, can that change be made? The lower-right node has punitive deck restrictions and should not have a 66% chance of facing a deck from another node without similar restrictions.
Answer: Yes. It’s “node-locked”. In this event, you only face opponents from the same node as you.

11. Why does Roar of the Wurm and Crush of Wurms produce two different Wurm tokens with different names and different sizes? Is this intentional?
Answer: Thank you for the heads up! This was added to an investigation and if confirmed will be fixed.

Observation: We know that some of our answers in regards to questions about new features and questions and feedback related to your ideas seem repetitive. It has to do more with the fact that we often can't say much about upcoming features nor give an estimate on when these ideas could potentially come to the game.

---------

Hi everyone,

How are you? This Forum is so quiet and I don't know if this is good or bad

Well, here's another Q&A SESSION.

We will answer the questions posted until September 20th, so please send your questions and doubts HERE.

Thank you for all the support,

Marcela.

Magic:PQ Support Team

The questions from the August Q&A Session are already with its responsible teams and I will post here as soon as possible!

Narcoticsagent

Oktagon_Support said:

Hi everyone,

How are you? This Forum is so quiet and I don't know if this is good or bad

Well, here's another Q&A SESSION.

We will answer the questions posted until September 20th, so please send your questions and doubts HERE.

Thank you for all the support,

Marcela.

I'm gonna say quiet is bad. Quiet means you no longer have an engaged player base. 

Volrak

Oktagon_Support said:

This Forum is so quiet and I don't know if this is good or bad

There seems to be an inverse correlation between forum activity and active events in game (especially coalition events).  Given RGP just ran for so many days, I'd say not good or bad but "expected"!

Tremayne

For my own memory, I document my question here.

“Do you realise how frustrating an experience it is for a player to have all his hard earned (and in some cases paid for) boosters being devalued with 90-99%? I’m referring to legacy, standard and VIP boosters in case you are wondering.“

jtwood

Oktagon_Support said:

The questions from the August Q&A Session are already with its responsible teams and I will post here as soon as possible!

Is this still coming soon?

Magic:PQ Support Team

September Session is over! The October Session is already happening

I already collected the questions and will try to get all the answers as soon as possible!

Thank you for participating

Magic:PQ Support Team

UPDATE* (10/01/2020) Q&A September - Answers

jtwood

Oktagon_Support said:

Answer: What would you like to see improved most in the Coalition Experience? Please leave your comments below so we can collect them and pass along to the responsible team!

I would like the concept of a coalition to actually matter during the events. Currently, coalitions are basically just a competition to get the most dedicated players on a team together. If you can gather the most dedicated players, you will have a high-performing coalition. That means coalitions aren't really teams so much as they're a consolidation of individual players of similar skill. And that may seem pedantic, but it leads to...

Coalition events in their current state require no cooperation, teamwork, or planning. You just get 20 people to do the same thing we do any day of the week - but it happens on the weekend and you have to do more of it. There is no need to talk to each other, interact with each other, or even really acknowledge each other. The most natural form of communication in this environment is negative: At the highest levels, people are incentivized to complain that someone didn't play. That's a coalition in MTGPQ. It's not a very compelling environment.

It would be a massive step forward if coalitions actually mattered in the game play. For example, imagine a coalition event where the coalition needed to achieve 6 objectives over the course of the weekend. In any given match, a single player can only achieve 2 of those objectives (in addition to winning), and a single player does not have enough charges to complete all 6 objectives on their own. This setup would require the coalition to actually have to converse with each other in advance of the event to plan which objectives each person will tackle. Forced community!

That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure there are massively better ideas.

tl;dr - I would love any change to coalition events that actually makes the coalition experience an integral aspect of the game.

Bubbles_CS

Coalition leaders need better coalition management tools, especially to identify inactive players. Player performance (points scored) should be available for the last few coalition events and not just the current event while it is live. It would also be helpful to have an option for coalition leaders to approve new membership with information available about the player’s previous coalition(s), points scored in those coalitions and how many times they have changed coalitions in the last three months.

Coalition rewards should depend on player participation or at least have a coalition setting to control whether non-participants should receive rewards.

Players need better tools to identify (and likely avoid) inactive coalitions. Coalitions that exist but are full should be found in the search but unavailable instead of not found.

Resources should be shareable among coalition members. I would be especially willing to dole out runes to deserving teammates.

jtwood

I would like to be able to buy rewards for my coalition. Let me spend a few buck and reward everyone with 5 jewels or something silly. 

Smokincookz

I think the response to the first question was not really what some of us had hoped for, but here is my response- my apologies in advance for the length! Tried to break it into parts and not rant much. Some of it is rehashing points others have made on the forums into one post.

As a former VIP-subscriber, for about a year, who now has a full legacy collection- personally, these other benefits are not enough to make me resubscribe, not when a significant portion of packs are no longer of any value.

To give mythic to masterpiece worth of orbs per card would restore some value back. But a regular 5 card pack’s orb values from a legacy non-dupe VIP pack is not good.
What would have previously given a potential 5 non-dupe mythics or MP’s, is now often reduced to less than 100 orbs. I still have three VIP legacy non-dupe boosters, and I won’t open them until they are amended with the equivalent value to what we paid for. 

Which I guess is not happening, ever. Some players have DOZENS of these now useless legacy packs... imagine how they feel. Well, we asked you if you realized how frustrating that is, but the response pretty much ignored that bit, thanked us for spending money and giving negative feedback, and then pushed the other reasons to keep on subscribing- but ignored the main fact that a big portion would be wasted for those with complete legacy collections. 

What is up with this cherry-picked, very corporate, and boilerplate sounding response to a very human question?

I can’t think of many other games that don’t offer some use or exchange for an item, even if it changes due to normal updates, etc. Especially not something that was paid for with real currency.

If you make an announcement with no warning, it is a courtesy to those who were on the old plan to get their full value from before, and do it before months go by and you have no data for who needs what exchanged. Some extra orbs, SOMETHING! As it stands now, they’re worth about the same in orbs as 2-3 FREE BOOSTERS. Those 6-hr interval free boosters, the worst ones. That is terribly devalued! 

That is what I am not seeing much of in my two years here- a true willingness, no, EAGERNESS, to compromise with your customers and player base when things go awry. We don’t expect you to shower us with huge resources, just a fair exchange for what we paid for.

A successful business does not focus on money alone- they know that by providing the best product, service, etc, to their customers, that will make satisfaction high, and the money still rolls in. Win-win. Plus, that way, you don’t end up losing people for short-term gains, but have a long-term base and foundation of trust built.

I am sorry to say it, but I can’t help feel that building for the long-term is not a priority.

So the responses we get are repetitive, due to not being allowed to talk much about upcoming development. Fine, that’s expected on some level. Can’t spill too many beans, and besides, we like the good and fun surprises!

But the concealment of serious economic decisions, until the worst moment for players, and the best (monetarily) for your company, will only leave a bad taste for us who can see and interpret what is going on. When I finally leave my review for MTGPQ on the App Store, this behavior will factor in greatly in what I write.

I would rather spend money willingly on the game and enjoy it- I’m not going to pay to get ahead, not when a game is purposefully trying to pressurize us into paying more and more to barely keep up.

I believe there are some one-time VIP bundle offers that only have standard packs, no legacy, but what a surprise- I can’t see when these offers show up, unless I buy a minimum of pro-level VIP, and accrue more wasted legacy packs. I mean, come on now... this is very poorly implemented. It’s totally inflexible and wasteful for anyone with a complete legacy collection to keep subscribed for standard non-dupe packs, jewels, crystals, deck slots, and discounts, when they’ll still be throwing money away on the legacy boosters.

Within the VIP system, the best value is from the non-dupe packs! Decks are nice, but I get by with the free and 20k rune slots. The discounts are ok, but not the main factor. Jewels and crystals from VIP pale in comparison to a non-dupe pack of mythics and masterpieces, once a set’s commons, uncommons, and rares are collected. So it does not mean much to tell us that we can keep spending, and just ignore the accrued packs with no use. 

Would it really be so hard to make a standard-only VIP option? Either only available to those who have all legacy cards crafted, and / or simply calculate the economic difference and charge accordingly. I don’t see why we don’t have this already. It was discussed briefly, at least two months back, IIRC.

This is probably grounds for a partial refund, at least in line with Apple’s policy- I will almost certainly be requesting a partial refund for a couple months of VIP, purchased before the announcement about legacy packs being nerfed.

Truly, had I known that would be the case BEFORE subscribing, I’d not have spent money those times! I’d also not have used up so many of my orbs on legacy crafting had I known much sooner. Apparently us being informed is not advantageous to the bottom line.

It definitely felt like a low-down dirty trick, that change with no warning, honestly. I have not been hosed like this in life very many times, that’s for sure. It’s not a kind way to do business or get someone’s hard earned money, with secrecy and surprise changes. That is why the question was asked about the frustration at this, but was sadly ignored for the boilerplate response. 

I have little trust in the future of anything here because of it. I am far less willing to invest in the game, and that is just plain sad. When VIP first started, I had such a different attitude, one bright and full of hope for the game’s future, funded in part by our VIP dollars. Oh, how naive of me. Once bitten, twice shy. I lost interest for most of this summer.

This type of information concealment with a devaluing surprise is definitely grounds for a refund, if only on the affected packs. I’ll take this Q&A’s response to question #1 as being the final answer on the legacy pack devaluation.

Now for a kind thing I want to say- thank you for making Chromatic Orrery available as a $5USD single! That was my latest purchase in this game. I hope to see more useful singles available for an affordable price. I think more people are willing to spend a little here or there, rather than a big chunk at a time. 

With how pandemic-stricken 2020 has gone down economically, I can’t afford the $15-30USD VIP any longer, even if a standard-only VIP was available. I don’t have that luxury anymore, as work has dried up so much, I am cash poor now. A $5 single though, I can still afford that here or there.

Also a HUGE thank you and props to Marcela for getting our communications through. Even if things don’t change much, it’s good to know we aren’t completely disconnected.

Tremayne

@Smokincookz - well spoken! 

I chose not to write a response, because the reply in #1 is so insulting. It is no where near an answer to my original question.

@Oktagon_Support - I realise that you are just the messenger, so no bad feelings toward you, you are doing a great job. However, would you kindly relay a message to whomever worded the written reply? The message is: “you didn’t answer my question, please try again”.

#7 - thank you for clarifying. My immediate impression is that it looks very thorough. Now, correct behaviour should be possible to determine.

Vorazg

Has anyone from Oktagon provided a reasonable explanation why legacy doesn't just grow with each rotation and not render legacy packs useless? I just got around to reading all this and I'm fully pissed all my hoarding of legacy packs seems to be entirely a waste of time. 

If this is explained somewhere, would someone mind linking to it?

And if not, is there an explanation other than "well, to be honest we're being greedy bastards"? -- because that's how it feels. 

Cheers!
V

Vorazg

Additional note:
The idea of "well you get crystals and deck slots and discounts and stuff" is pure bovine manure.

You could keep the price the same and dump all that stuff, and as long as the packs were non-dupe I'd still be subscribing -- and I suspect I'm not alone in this view. However, if you're going to render half the packs useless, well there's really no point to the VIP program. 

Extra decks? Yippee, how about I just keep a spreadsheet instead?
Oooh mana runes? Allow me to add to my 900k. And so on...  The only real reason to be VIP is to acquire a full set of cards. 

So yeah, I'm a smidge irate at this notion of making the packs I've been diligently saving for months largely useless. 

madwren

My question was #9....and you know, when you combine it with the other answers, it's pretty clear to see that they realize their VIP subscription is a losing proposition and that they're essentially holding deck slots hostage. 

I think the frustrating part is that there's no actual rationale given behind these vague, unsatisfying answers. 

It's all so pointless. 

versemage

5. In paper Magic, all set release dates are published in advance. Could you start doing the same for MTGPQ?

Answer: The update for the iOS version depends on the approval process by Apple, therefore it would be a little tricky to announce any dates beforehand. But usually the new collection is released in Magic: Puzzle Quest about 2 - 3 weeks after the release in paper. We hope that helps you to look out for the next update.

By this statement, can we expect the Zendikar Rising update in a week or so since it's release in paper was Sept 25?

andrewvanmarle

Regarding the VIP issue,

I have the same problem: my legacy collection is complete. I have no way to get From The Vault cards with legacy boosters, so they are useless to me.

And even worse: standard booster have become worthless too since my standard collection is complete too.

I have bought many a pack and quite a few exclusives and now I'm just waiting for rotation to get the last exclusives with my VIP packs. A shame is though that i'll have VIP packs left that will gain me nothing.


The added benefits (extra jewels etc etc) are of no use...why? well because I have -every- card.



This means one of two things. Either I spent too much at the release buying crystals and exchanging them for packs, or I have to discontinue my VIP till we get a new set.

Both of those options lose moneyfor oktagon.

A third option would be ofcourse to see how to make VIP interesting even when all cards have been obtained.

Smokincookz

So, I have to wait approximately 1.5 years, or until the next standard rotation, AND leave some standard cards unobtained at the shift, in order to get VIP again and be able to use the Legacy packs, which have to be bought AFTER standard shifts, and thus cannot as easily maximize the standard VIP packs. Because, after rotation, each VIP pack from then on has the newest set included, and you’d pull commons and uncommons. But, if you craft it down first, to maximize standard packs, you have nothing left to use the future legacy packs on, unless you purposefully leave some uncrafted.

Confused yet? Personally, the amount of brain processing-power required to maximize VIP is giving me a headache. Since I can’t blindly spend on it, it’s not worth the literal pain of trying to figure out how not to get hosed. Really sad. 

Same with the *non-dupe pack from leveling up. How are new players supposed to know it may be better to wait to level up, or do it quickly before a new set comes in? 10 levels is a lot for one pack, and it may seriously mess someone up if they level up at the wrong time!

This is all very sneaky, and hard to grasp intuitively. You have to be as crafty and cunning as they are to even be designing this malarkey! It is ALL by design.

Horribly unfair to those who want VIP standard packs (I don’t care for it much, but others do) and also have no Legacy left to obtain. 

If the four *oldest standard sets are added to Legacy booster crafting, which is relatively cheap, why punish us by not allowing legacy packs to update with new legacy? We paid for it! Not with orbs, but MONEY. They are in the Legacy format now, events and crafting follows suit. But not VIP, unless you just hopped in. 

More like “Very Exploited Player” than VIP!

*edits

Smokincookz

This part is a serious problem. Potentially illegal even. I’d be concerned if I were a company attorney, especially if this keeps happening on short notice.

I expect this is not being compensated for, because it is such a huge can of worms. Some players have given up, opened their nerfed VIP legacy packs for a meager amount of orbs. 

How would they be able to account for that now, all this time later? Should have offered an exchange the moment it was announced, and broadcast thru the inbox. Each player with full legacy should have logged in soon after to find their useless packs gone, crystals/jewels/orbs in a  good amount per pack, and the future warning in the inbox.

Now, it’s too late for that, and a huge mess... I’m curious what people who have full legacy, but keep VIP going have to say. Is Standard alone worth wasting a portion of the purchase?

This smells similar to WotC’s recent decisions that may threaten the entire IP itself. Wonderful.