Meet Broken Circle Studios - Developer Blog (6/2/22)

SuperCarrot

This is all very exciting. I am looking forward to it! I would like to echo the HP concern after one breaks 300…this could be a real problem.

shardwick

I also share concerns about adding more 3s to the game unless you plan on reworking the reward structure. What definitely could use a tweak is the layout on some maps in the game where they are either very confusing on which node to do next, like the Florida sub in The Hunt, or where some nodes are pretty much right on top of each other and need to be spaced out more like Strange Sights. I would also like to see the 7 day events brought back even if it means that you break them up into "Part 1" and "Part 2." Enemy of the State is my favorite event and I haven't played that in forever. Oh, and I would also love to see more boss nodes in events that give out 4* covers or maybe even 5* shards like 5* Loki shards when you beat a boss 4* Gator Loki in the Florida sub. And the game needs more 5* feeders.

ThaRoadWarrior

What’ll happen to the forums? Anything?

IceIX

ThaRoadWarrior said:

What’ll happen to the forums? Anything?

You'll see BCS people on them, but other than that, nothing.

talleman

"-Micro / Macro Rebalances are coming to MPQ. Every month you'll see sweeping changes to underperforming characters to breathe new life into your roster."

This is great news! To many of my characters are just collecting dust atm.

Mattjimf

One thing that has been mentioned is the return of Gauntlet, either as an event or as a season long event.

Aweberman

I like the mention of these old events (Gauntlet, 7-day events).

I would also like to see some rebalancing on these boss events (especially if there are going to be more) so that the side nodes don't scale above the boss; that's such an artifact of the old PvE system.  I don't mind "you're supposed to lose", or maybe tack on a round 9 or round 10 (a la SCL9/SCL10).

And since it hasn't been mentioned yet: DDQ is well overdo for a refresh.

hipUK

Hi and welcome to the fold.  I've had bad Long Covid for the past couple of years and MPQ has really helped me through it.

The single thing I don't like about this game is how needlessly slow it is.  I understand for competitive balance that all platforms need to work at the same speed, but sitting through half-a-minute of a cascade while you're waiting for your turn can be maddening.  I know that the game/engine/CPU doesn't need the time to process the events - it would be great to be able to skip to the end of a turn instantly (instead of sitting through cascades and "X Defeated" and all that).

emswad

Welcome James! @DevpoolMPQ_BCS
I love your enthusiasm and look forward to seeing the upcoming changes!
As others before me have said, the extra new releases need to come with a rebalance of either roster slot costs, or more availablity of HP as rewards. 

In game options...
Currently we have the option to turn off animations & event AP etc.
There are some other things which some players would like to be optimal too, mainly banners...

WAVES-"he died, he arrived" for every single character is painful. We can see they're downed already!
BOOSTS-I know what boosts I've selected, I don't need banners telling me what I already know. 
While we're on the subject of boosts... please fix the bug that randomly auto adds boosts at the start of a match, even if we didn't have boosts on the previous match.
Also, the option of purchasing different amounts of boosts would be very useful. 
PVP- Please fix the issue of -points enemy attacks appearing AFTER we've shielded. 
FEEDERS - Lots of classic characters still don't have feeders. Even some new 4* releases are not feeders.
EVENTS - Since I started playing, the amount of different PvE events being cycled through has drastically reduced.
This leads to the game feeling stale, please can we have some variety again 🙏🙂

ThaRoadWarrior

Should we expect schedule disruptions as the new dev team learns where all the bodies are buried and how all the tool chains work? Or was all the previous event start disruption we saw starting with Moon Knight that handoff?

Mrcl25

Welcome @DevpoolMPQ_BCS ! I'm excited about the news and hope BCS will bring the game to the next level. And I also hope that the matter of having to play pve everyday at specific times is on your radar too. Over the years there have been a number of suggestions on this forum about how to keep pve a speed based competition without the need for time slices. As it is now, we have to schedule our life around MPQ to be able to play competitively.

Virus

I’m glad to hear this, anything would be better than the interaction the community had with the previous developers. I hope that you’ll take player feedback into consideration when making future changes. As one of the few original players still playing this game since it had environmental tiles, any change is considered good and welcomed. 

Zalasta

Long overdue. Cautiously optimistic. 

A lot of potentially good stuff here, but I wouldn't say not to some improvements in the alliance interface (including member management).

And as long as we're plugging ideas...  Any plans for shield rank? There's a line in the Shield Rank ? that states that "Over time, we'll be adding new features to the game that will unlock with higher SHIELD rank!".  Not sure that I can recall any new features ever being added.

Bubba3210

I agree about the slot costs. I’m well over 300 rostered and am not fond of the 2k roster charge. It will be even worse when the 3/5 versions are released with 6k required per month. The slot cost has to decrease for this game to be sustainable.

The sheer amount of characters required is a massive challenge for any new player that gets hooked. There has to be data that proves how hard it is to retain players. It will only get worse if there are no adjustments.

wymtime

sounds sounds like some good changes.  More 3* just means more feeders and more champ rewards.  

I really like more boss events and alliance events.

I really love the rebalancing and I hope you can do multiple characters at once.  

As others have mentioned I hope supports can be looked at to help players obtain 5* supports.

I look forward to the changes to an already great game

Borstock

Looks like this could freshen up the game. I definitely like that.

DeNappa

hipUK said:

Hi and welcome to the fold.  I've had bad Long Covid for the past couple of years and MPQ has really helped me through it.

The single thing I don't like about this game is how needlessly slow it is.  I understand for competitive balance that all platforms need to work at the same speed, but sitting through half-a-minute of a cascade while you're waiting for your turn can be maddening.  I know that the game/engine/CPU doesn't need the time to process the events - it would be great to be able to skip to the end of a turn instantly (instead of sitting through cascades and "X Defeated" and all that).

For matches/cascades just make the Kaecilius fight speed the standard. And maybe the new developers can actually get the 'speedy tile placement' for Mindless Ones to work instead of just once after app restart (and throw in a bonus speed fix for AIM goons as well lol)

hothie

Hello James, and welcome!

To piggyback on what pheregas said regarding supports, 4 and 5* supports are in the game, yet they seem impossibly difficult to obtain. Are they really that game-breaking that they have to be kept locked behind such security that they can only be obtained through a Mission: Impossible style heist? Players that I know have been in the game for many years can count on both hands the number of 4 and 5* supports combined that they have. I hope the availability of these support levels will at least be on the radar.

And something that Shardwick mentioned, following a linear path for all pve events would be a welcome change. Many of them have this, and it is wonderful for the ones that do. But the ones that don't, I spend way too long searching for the nodes that I want to play at certain times. It just seems like an unnecessary inconvenience while playing. Making it easier to find the nodes via a linear progression, like in the storylines that do have it, would make the game much easier for many of us.

I do hope that the changes that you bring to the game will help in the betterment of the game, and hopefully lead to less burnout among players, as there does seem to be a lot of that.

Vhailorx

I am leery of a change this significant.  Renewed dev investment is good, but major revisions to an 8- year old economy are not trivial.  There is a lot that could go wrong,  and that is even before we consider the worst possibilities like a pure cash grab or other bad faith actions.

More releases = more HP pressure.  And if they intend to do an aggressive balance pass,  should we also expect to see nerfs?  who is designing characters now?  I would exist some wildly high variance (both positive and negative) for new characters for the next year at least.

I am cautiously pessimistic,  but hope to be proven wrong.

ImmortalZodd

I'd like to see how you address PVP match making.  It's frustrating to have to soft-cap 5 stars because I don't want to be stuck seeing only meta 5 teams in PVP.

I like the idea of costumes as long as you can earn them without paying cash.

Enthused by idea of rebalancing old characters- many of them desperately need it. 

Would be cool to see more opportunities for Alliance members to support each other- like swapping covers, gifting iso, etc.