A Brief History of 5* Feeder Characters

GrimSkald

Every so often a question pops up here (and on FB) saying "Why doesn't so-and-so have a feeder?" or "Why are the vets so annoyed at the rate of feeder characters?"  I've been playing the game for a long time (since before there were 5*s, before viable 4*s, really,) and I was there, Gandalf, but not everyone was, so to give everyone some context I thought I would go into the history of 4* characters feeding 5*s, and why the vets expect all 5*s to have a feeder eventually.

I had to look it up under announcements to get the actual dates, but this all started in November of 2017.  In November of 2017 they announced that they would add 5* covers to the rewards of 3 4*s.  For those interested, these first three lucky 5*s were Spider-Man (Peter Parker,) Black Bolt, and Thanos.  It was also stated that anyone who had passed those rewards would still receive them retroactively - i.e. if you had, say, a level 301 Medusa you would get the first two Black Bolt covers (there were no Shards at the time,) because you had already gotten the alternate reward (LTs) for 280 and 300.  Some players grumbled about this and called it "Double dipping" as these players got a LT and a cover.

From that point forward they announced a new 4 to 5* feeder at irregular intervals. It happened often enough that people came to expect these announcements.  There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it (there probably wasn't,) most of it tied into things happening in the MCU or the comic book universe, but they kept adding feeders until, I believe, Captain Marvel in August of 2019 - this was to support the "Infinity War" movie.

After that - nothing for four months.  This was a very long interval, people began to wonder what was up.  Then in December of 2019, they made a big announcement - they basically announced feeders for all the 5* characters up to the oldest 5* still in the "Latest Legends" store (which was Professor X at the time.)   This announcement was met with a certain amount of glee, but this time around they were not going to give people the full retroactive shards - instead they were going to give a different amount.  It was complicated and the announcement was badly-worded enough that people didn't quite understand how it was supposed to work before it happened.  Honestly, it still makes me angry, so I don't really want to do the math, but I think it was somewhere around a quarter of the shards you would have gotten if you had actually leveled the characters after this change went through.

Needless to say, the vets were really, really angry, myself included.  We had already received full retroactive rewards for many 5*s, this created an expectation that would receive it for these.  What's more, the difference between a LT and a full cover (shards or no,) is vast, a cover is much, much more valuable any way you look at it.  Speaking for myself, I stopped giving any money to the game, and many others I know did as well.

I honestly don't recall how long this went on, I believe a few weeks but I can't find the information on the forums.  Eventually the devs relented and retroactively rewarded the full shards for 4* characters who had passed them before the update.  This made most of the vets happy, but newer players were upset about the "double dipping" I spoke about above.  Did they change their spending habits?  Probably not, but it was vocal enough that I believe it contributed to the current state of affairs.

And that current state of affairs, you may ask?  Well, after December of 2019 no existing 4* character was made a feeder of a 5* character.  For the longest time we had no new feeders at all, then with Red Guardian, released almost a year after that fateful December day,  something changed - he was a feeder for 5* Yelena Belova.    The next two 4* characters, Scorpion and Throg, were feeders as well.  Silk was not, but she didn't have anyone obvious to feed.

So that's where we are now - it seems as if they will not retroactively make any 4* character a feeder, which is a shame since half of the new released characters are 5*s and it means we'll never catch up.  In fact, since it seems likely that new 4*s will not always feed 5*s, we'll keep falling behind, as it were, and there are so many 5*s that don't have feeders now.  Most likely this was because of backlash against the "double dipping," but of course I can't say for sure.

Hopefully this explains why many of us have an expectation of every 5* getting a feeder.  For a brief period time, there were only 2 5*s (Carnage and Beta Ray Bill,) that didn't.  I hope you find this interesting, or at least gives you a bit of context for some of the older arguments on the forum.

BriMan2222

I would love if they would update all the missing 5 stars with 4 star feeders and give us one last payout and then have the new 4 star feed the previous 5.  We could be all caught up and never be without a feeder again.

GrimSkald

BriMan2222 said:

I would love if they would update all the missing 5 stars with 4 star feeders and give us one last payout and then have the new 4 star feed the previous 5.  We could be all caught up and never be without a feeder again.

I mean, they can even cherry pick a lot of the recent 4*s to feed 5*s, there are some pretty good connections there.  Legion to Magneto.  Negasonic to Deadpool.  Unfortunately I think they're not going to do it, which means, as I note above, we're not going to "catch up."

ThaRoadWarrior

This isn’t entirely accurate as a timeline of events - it was always a bit lumpy. We’d get a flurry of them, then nothing, then some more, then like a big drop of them, then a long stretch of nothing. Also that big December event you mentioned coincided with the Shard rollout. It’s become known on the forums as Shardmas because it happened at Christmas time. Basically all the 4* feeders used to give out 2/2/2 worth of covers at levels 280, 300, 320, 340, 350, 360. At that time, when a character’s champion rewards were updated, you’d get the covers for any of those milestones you’d passed. But once it was converted to shards, you got a full cover at 280 and then shards split up across 3 levels leading up to the old milestone levels. But - if it was a new feeder, say Rogue to Gambit, if you had her at 360, instead of getting a cover plus 2,500 shards you instead got the cover from 280 and a flat 100 shards for every 250 shard milestone you’d passed. That was course corrected at Shardmas 2.0 in I think January, and then there were no feeders until very recently where they seem to be pre incorporated into the champion rewards of new characters. I’ve been suggesting this for literally years as the equalizer between old and new players, so it doesn’t bother me personally, but it would be nice if there were a proper schedule for it.

KGB

Does it really matter if we never catch up with non-meta characters? Other than for the 'gotta champ em all' crowd who cares if SighCylops never gets a feeder because he's never used anyway.

We really only care if a meta or semi-useful character gets a feeder.

KGB

ThaRoadWarrior

Here is the R191 announcement thread when that big group of feeders was rolled out for the curious: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80702/r192-champion-rewards-updates/p1

ThaRoadWarrior

Here is the corrected shard reward rollout thread, it went out in the same month as the unpopular version: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80797/retroactive-rewards-update/p1

HoundofShadow

You missed out some parts.

The first part was how some players were complaining about the choice of feeders that the dev chose. Complaining about free stuffs? Seriously? Regardless of who they chose, they have something to complain about, unless it's someone whom they agreed. I think the first 5* to trigger that was Starlord. People were expecting 4* Starlord to feed 5* Starlord because it was a "logical" choice. It turned out to be Drax and he was considered a bottom tier character. Look what happened when 4* BP fed 5* BP. It was a "logical" choice and the dev still get some negativities thrown at them. 

You can see the kind of toxicity in this thread about Drax feeding Starlord:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/71242/update-to-draxs-champion-rewards-3-12-18/PG1



During the honeymoon period, feeders were pretty regular (once per month? on average). After a while, the period between each feeders gets longer and longer.


The second part was how the dev "explained" why they  slowed down the feeder rate. I'm don't remember them saying that they can't find a suitable or logical feeder but it was mentioned by some other players. So, I take it that it did happen. But my personal opinion is that the dev were probably taking a jab or joking with those players who always complain about the feeders choice. Somewhere in the middle of the year, they went to Puzzle Warriors 3 podcast to answer q&a. They felt that feeders were released too quickly and they need to figure out how to solve this. Some players called them out of touch and declared that "feeders are dead". 

Then in December, we have the shardapocalypse explained above.  While they did say 5* will get retroactive cover, but shards had higher value than cover. That's probably why the dev didn't give full 500 shards instead. The review bombing came and the dev caved in. Those players thought that they won the war against the dev, and we got a long drought of no feeders instead. 

Last year live twitch, when the dev were asked about feeders by host, they didn't even want to talk about them. Then, we had shardmas, thanks to Milestone rewards.

The problem with making all 5* have feeders now is that some players will get even more greedy or impatient. They will expect double feeders to be rolled out, and then triple feeders would be expected. 

Anyway, those players who like to feedback about feeders being slow are likely to be completionists anyway. They are still going to be playing with thier iHulkoye, Apocalypse and leave those non-meta/vintage characters sitting in one corner.

ThaRoadWarrior

At one point it was said that feeders were thought to be rolling out too quickly also, I don’t recall where that thing happened exactly though.

Pongie

KGB said:

Does it really matter if we never catch up with non-meta characters? Other than for the 'gotta champ em all' crowd who cares if SighCylops never gets a feeder because he's never used anyway.

We really only care if a meta or semi-useful character gets a feeder.

KGB

I used to be in the gotta champ them all (eventually) crowd as well, and planned by pulls accordingly. Usually stopping once they have enough covers to finish off with a feeder. The strategy was working and I only had wasp & dr ock remaining from the classic pool that weren't going to make it with feeders. Then milestones dropped and I carelessly claimed all the rewards without paying attention (was already cutting back my playtime and spending less time on reading forum announcements). This lead to dr ock championed with 4 extra levels, that could have been much needed covers for wasp. You'er right though, these non meta characters are never used, only in the rare occasion where they are essentials, just having them rostered is sufficient. Because of this, I'm not too concerned with the feeders anymore. If they get added, great. If not, meh.  

My non championed 5*s
Archangel 4/3/4. 19 levels of nightcrawler to go
Black Window 4/3/4. 35 levels of black window to go
First Avenger 5//3/3. 29 levels of peggy (dupe, second dipping of champion rewards) to go 
Yelena 3/2/3. 65 levels of Red guardian to go
Wasp 2/2/2. 3 more levels of antman to get 1 more cover. Will need a second dipping to make it, probably get there with bonus shards

These dont have feeders, but most will get there if they do get a feeder (except the latest 4)
Mr Sinister 5/3/3
Havok 3/4/4
Heimdall 3/5/3
Deadpool 5/2/2 with enough shards for 1 cover
Magneto 4/3/3 with enough shards for 1 cover
Adam Warlock 4/2/2 with enough shards for 1 cover
Yellow Jacket 0/1/1 with enough shards for 2 covers
Cyclops 0/1/1 with enough shards for 1 cover
Colossus 1/0/0 with enough shards for 1 cover
Scarlet Witch 0/0/0

HoundofShadow

It happened in one of the PW3 episode. I went to search "out of touch" in this forum and I found the thread:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/875288#Comment_875288

Bad

HoundofShadow said:

It happened in one of the PW3 episode. I went to search "out of touch" in this forum and I found the thread:

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/comment/875288#Comment_875288

Yesterday I got a promo mail from D3. It said dont miss in april wanda, monica rambeau and the new board improved from players feedback. 
That mail made me happy. It said from the players feedback. 
So players in a constructive way provided their feedback for to improve the game and devs found it a really useful source.
Positive players concerning about the game in fact did changed it, in other words. 
Not petty childs bombing review blackmailers.
After this digression(surely a lot of users wont like), I think the main point was polaris. A 4* so good that all players focused on her without being a feeder. 
After her perhaps devs are thinking more how they are going to approach that matter. And right now feeders are sharing a good connection with feeders.