Hi, how is your general play and/or Alliance doing?

Unknown

Hopefully this doesn't turn into a moan thread. Just generally interested in the state of play with people given the changes. Wondering if my general thoughts match up with what others are experiencing.

Me: I am a three month player who has a decent two star roster and some three star covers though not enough to be useful. I am also wary of going up to three star quite frankly as it seems to be much harder and less fun/rewarding. I spent a bit of cash at the start, but don't anymore (the usual reasons) and won't do as the game stands today. I am having fun generally, but the leap from Season One to Two immediately had me close to tears and I am finding it a drag now to keep up with everything. Particularly the PVP as it seems in both seasons I have been put in a bracket where no mater what I do, I am miles away from the top prizes points-wise. Still, when I find a match-up that doesn't involve OBW and Thor I have fun and it reminds me of the first month when I thought this game was brilliant.

Alliance: A mess. People getting fed up and leaving almost constantly. It was great fun at the start, people enjoying themselves and being helpful to each other, but now it seems 75% of the players no longer enjoy the game/have left. Hopefully this balances out soon and it gets back to what it was. These guys were spending money and it seems odd that the developer thinks it's OK to lose (what seems to be) a large-ish amount of players.


So, how are YOU doing?

Unknown

No idea why this has posted twice

Unknown

I'm good. I recalibrated my expectations. I used to shoot for top 5 in all the things I did, but now I shoot for top 50 (and no HP spent). I look at my current seasons 2 ranking and it says 525th. No worries.


My alliance is awesome. No one has quit, no one complains, no pressure and everyone seems satisfied with our consistent top 20 (or better) finishes.

Unknown

i agree with toxicdams sentiment. im not grinding for the sake of grindjng anymore. i play to the lwvel of the prize that i want. my alliance is great, we are all on the same page and not stressing S2. we play all the events and will get our second fury cover with ease.

10 pack of **** tokens be dammed...ill take my sanity instead...thank u.

marc

Unknown

Personal positives: Progressing well, still enjoying the game / gameplay and keen to get my roster up to the level where it is on an even footing with the 'big dogs' out there. Enjoying the idea of Seasons as it rewards my constantly competitive daily play, even if it has led to a bit of a 'must play all the time' mentality.

Personal negatives: 5am finishes (I'm in the UK). It's a killer. I'm married, with kids and a fully time job so waking myself and sometimes my wife up at 4am to play MPQ to remain competive is starting to get tiresome in more ways than one. I need to be competitive (it's who I am) but can't justify doing this every other day. Something's got to give, and it'll probably be MPQ unless they do something to ease this problem for Europe / Africa based players.

Alliance: We're doing well (Chaos Rising) but decent players leaving because of the demands of the game now. Probably 30% left during season 1. A lot of this seems to be the pressure to be consistently competive with virtually no 'time off' the game combined with changes to bracketing that mean that players used to finishing top 10 comfortably (fun) are now struggling to finish top 25 (less fun) despite shielding back to back (even less fun) through fear of the mechanics that mean that past 700/800 points it simply isn't worth 'playing' because you'll lose more points than you can gain in the same unshielded period.

Unknown

yeah, I am in the UK as well and have the same issue Dr.

Nice responses, thanks. Maybe not all the Alliances are disintegrating then!

Unknown

hermanbloom wrote:

yeah, I am in the UK as well and have the same issue Dr.

Nice responses, thanks. Maybe not all the Alliances are disintegrating then!

Post writings note: kinda long. Tl;Dr I have lowered my expectations and."care" as well, bit I too have an alliance in shambles. I think season 1 was just a perfect jumping off point more than "the last straw" for ppl. There is a reason althletes retire at the end of seasons and not after thier 15th game in a row getting 2 min of play time, same here. Though the deva have kinda sucked the fun out of it recently, so I don't blame ppl.quitting. either way, summer is here...and one does not simply puzzle quest while surrounded by bikinis.


Most of them.are though, or aren't competetive enough for "disintegration" to matter. Although, "consolidation" might be a more apt phrase. My alliance has lost 3-4 ppl to the quit bug (to.be fair, its a legit excuse and they were trying to step.aside to help...it just didn't turn put that way lol) which caused a rift in the foundation and lowered how we ranked until spots are filled, which then.causes ppl getting kinda higher or higher-ish points to leave .ecause everyone wants to win now AMD not 2 events from now...who I mostly don't blame as, the whole point of the alliances is to get those stupid rewards they stole from solo play...not to.hve friends *sniffle*. So where once there were, let's say, 180-300 elite scoring alliances with a shot at fury, now there are closer to only.being about 140-200. Maybe over time some of the alliances in.shambles will get some stability...but a lot of the issue is ppl having very little real feeling of commradery between the alliance due to the fact this is still at the end of the day a 100% solo affair.

That said, I think one week isnt enough time to expect stabalization...which is part of why I was little miffed at the double dakan rewards (which I feel.was 100% a response go crowd displeasure to get ppl.to stay right after the season ending as I don't believe we ha d ever had back to back rewards except maybe for some of the double shots). Had the rewards for those two tournements.been, say, im40 I don't know if we would be seeing the alliance shake up AS bad (still would be issues as the game is sickly at the moment and I don't blame ppl not wanting go try and ride if out considering that the nature of iap games is to almost unanimously decline at an almost exponential rate as they try to.squeeze as many dollars per a day out of thier customers. Meaning while it has problems.now...expect MORE, not less. Sadly its just the nature of how these things work. "If you're not growing you're dying" and what not).


As for "losing players" if a veteran player is not a whale, then they feel they are easily net positive if they can bring in a bunch of fresh blood at the cost of some.of these veterans. It's all about what have you given me lately, and most vets spending habits drop considerably when they quickly see or learned the hard way that tokens aren't worth it. Vets might buy the odd hp for covers here and there, but most are either bored enough to not pay irritated enough to not pay or progressed enough to not need to pay. New players on the other hand, whom the game gives all sorts of advantages to atm, wont know the folly of tokens and unless they are mildly bright (most ppl aren't) won't see quickly that the tokens aren't worth getting. These new players also don't have a lot of stored hp or enough cover slots, so money grubbing tactics like lumping roster slots together at low lvls actually works. It's not necessarily horrible, especially if they had it like that since say one, but it looks exactly how it sounds when they do it at the same time as all the anti-veteran tactics from the last few months.

All that said, I don't think anything specific caused this rash of burnouts...season one end just happened.go be a great demarcated spot for "the end" of something. A lot od ppl.are like me, where when listening to a song on the radio they finish it before turning thier car off to get out because, why not? The burnouts themselves were weeks or months in the making. This isn't an MMO or a fighter or a shooter or a AAA title. It's a simple match 3 game with a collecting and training aspect that is pretty well.made, glossy, and uses the marvel license. It's not easy to play for months.. even A month for.some.

Personally, I am one foot out the door but I can't bring myself.to leave yet. I've played very minimally this last week (no pve...need to start that. Order got wrecked so 0 incentive to grind that...would rather start late and "see". 2 lowest scores on PvP in forever with a mid 700 and low 800). I might just try to merc for an alliance if my order never reassembles ...or just get a new one of it crumbles enough. That way I can dictate how I score on events more. No obligation, and.if o have a high enough score by the end...maybe someone will take me in. Last season I scored over 17k and would.have broken 18k but I had little incentive to grind the shield training up to 3k. A good deal.of that was in part because I decided that some ppl weren't scoring high enough for us to.reach fury (#%9 was likely.only 4k up on #101)and so, person that I am, I dragged them to a fury cover rather than moan at them.or kick.them for scoring.too low. While I put other's enjoyment first, I was draining the fun out for me a little....and my hp stores were staying pretty neutral despite finishing top 10 in everything basically and top 1 in half or more of the events. I. Could either get back.on the horse or dismount at this point, but I am.in.this grey area where I am hopping on to get a 700+ in the last hour for minimal.play time but I am also.not really enjoying it..but rather treating it like a small 45 minute task for my day. Like, "oh, its 8 pm. Better put on a tv show or music or go to.the gym and bike so I can get this out of the way."

Also, she-hulk and lazy storm isn't exactly something I am.stoked about so, characterwise, I feel I could take a season or two off and miss nothing I really cared about (that's exactly.the logic of some.of the ppl in my alliance that "quit"). Of course, without a fun mags replacement...I might quit if he got nerfed anyway. Not rage mind you, just because one of the last few enjoyments (getting to.use.one of.my.fav characters in marvel at a high lvl) will be gone.

Unknown

Yeah our alliance competed well enough in the beginning, then slowly got pushed out of the top 100 range. Then a few left or went inactive, then the top performers left for greener pastures. We brought in fresh recruits but now seemingly we are struggling to be even a top 250. Can work and work and work at improving my score or encouraging the alliance to do better but end of the day we are not in competition for that third cover, at all. So why work harder? Why push? We can coast along to get our 50 HP each event effortlessly. But all our hard work resets with each event, so a more competitive alliance will pull in many bonus 3* covers over the course of a month. And others like us will pull in zero. Zero is not any fun.


Suggestion :
Alliance only season progression replacing event alliance cover rewards.
There can be a list of 3* covers and it may take the top 10 alliances 1 event to get the first one maybe even part of the way towards the second, and might take a rank 300 alliance 3 whole events to get the first one and they may only get a small handful the entire season but they would get *something* for their effort and those at the top would still pull in a highly respectable haul of covers.

OnesOwnGrief

I only play events I'm interested in now. Mid tier player though. Currently building up a 3 star team with all the notable 2* characters leveled besides Storm. Been spending more and more time just playing my PS4 with Transistor last week and Watch Dogs today.

My alliance only has 6 members, currently the most consistent highest earner in points for it. Feels like a casual group is fine for me. We still gain some HP from events which help me build my roster up to 37. Overall, I'm taking a step back from the game but no real problems with it. Just spent to much time on it when I could be playing other games I own.

Unknown

Alliance only season progression replacing event alliance cover rewards.

This.

This would actually be really awesome and would give it more of a team goal kinda feel rather than each playing competing individually and hoping they do better than some other players competing individually much like solo play. I would love the chance to make alliances feel more like a cohessive unit.

noobprime

personal general play has dropped off slightly since you know, real life.
the alliance has had a noticeable drop off, both i think a combination of real life and burnout. seasons combined with events and low rewards has seen the averages fall significantly.

HailMary

Alliance: There's been a bit of turnover at Django, but all in all, we're still enjoying the game. We're all generally dialing back our Season competitiveness and, as an alliance, just making sure we get alliance covers from each event and not paying much attention at all to granular alliance standings. Now that we've gotten over the rush of Season 1, most of us are thinking "Well, that was fun, and a bit intense. One Season of that is enough. Also, f--- sharding."

Personal: I'm around Day 130, and have 5 L141s leading my roster. Over the course of Season 1, I broke 900, then 1000, then consistently hit 1000+. I went from using no shields (I think I used two, total, pre-Season-1) to doing end-game shielding and shield hops, partly because I thought 1000+ looked nice as a score, partly due to increased score requirements for good placement. For Season 2, I'm aiming to only shield (at all) for cover rewards that I actually want (no more absurd silliness like shielding for a Loki-rewards PVP). I'm lucky in that my PVE scaling has been quite good, and PVP matchmaking levels are manageable. The game's still fun. I've managed to stay F2P so far, which I find amazing, and rather generous of D3. I plan to max out UDaken; I'm looking forward to getting Sentry and Punkstorm, because they should be beastly. I know nothing at all about She-Hulk.

Unknown

I'm in the same alliance as Toxicadam, so I would just like to echo his sentiments. From the ground up we were built by Lord Will as an alliance of players who liked to play, and nothing else. No expectations other than finishing top-whatever to get alliance covers, which should never be an issue with 20 active players, and it hasn't been. So no burnout, no turnover. I hope more of you that are frustrated can band together and find/form something similar....alliances like Django, DeadpoolsTacos, and ScAvengers seem to be similar in outlook, and also thriving. I think it's key not to take the game or yourselves too seriously.

On a personal level, this game has been a great joy, but I have become very jaded by how Demiurge has treated it's customers. Everything seems to be a blatant money grab. IceIX giving us these unbelievable excuses for why things are done (really....you bundled buying roster slots because you thought you might lose money? That you are primarily interested in giving those poor, helpless new customers better value? Give me a break), really insulting my intelligence, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that feels this way. You want to maximize your revenue streams? I have zero problems with that. Just don't lie about it when we call you out on it. Admit it like a man at least.

During Season 1 I averaged around 1100 pts per PvP event, I shielded early, hopped to maintain a top 10 ranking, spent a decent amount of HP. I can only imagine how much HP some of the top players spent trying to average 1300+. My justification was always that I would eventually come around to buying more HP, so why not?

Now, I've come to realize I will not be buying any more HP unless it's on sale. It's like a game of chicken now....will I cave in and buy HP at full price since they don't seem to ever want to put it on sale, not even as a good will gesture with all the server screw-ups? The answer to that is no. I no longer have any sense of urgency to maintain rank or buy covers. If there is a sale I will more than likely purchase HP because at the end of the day, MPQ is still a fun game. However, the last thing I'm gonna do is reward the developers with a full price purchase after all the poor customer service and communication they have exhibited over the past month or so.

So now I'm back to carefully managing my HP. This means for season 2 I'm not gonna bother with shield-hopping or any of that nonsense except for when I need covers. Definitely not going to do something as asinine as last time where I would shield myself at 1100+ during a Loki event. My guess is I will be averaging about 800-900 per PvP event this time around.

Unknown

Mizake wrote:

No expectations other than finishing top-whatever to get alliance covers, which should never be an issue with 20 active players, and it hasn't been.

Think we are doing something wrong then. 19 players each day and we won't be getting the covers this time around. Season One we just about scraped in, but this one we are miles off. Another reason people are leaving I think.

Unknown

I'm doing well, although I'm not as addicted as I was in my first couple months in this game. The bracket and scaling stuff hasn't't bothered me more than a few times, yet. My alliance- well, it's on decline with a few people leaving and all but it wasn't really meant to be a competitive hardcore alliance so we'RE still coping pretty happily. Or at least I am...

Unknown

Peacemaker wrote:

I'm doing well, although I'm not as addicted as I was in my first couple months in this game. The bracket and scaling stuff hasn't't bothered me more than a few times, yet. My alliance- well, it's on decline with a few people leaving and all but it wasn't really meant to be a competitive hardcore alliance so we'RE still coping pretty happily. Or at least I am...

Ugh, I have no idea why my tablet always autocorrects RE into all caps...
RE