October 2022 Developer Q&A (ANSWERS)

S0kun

Hi Everyone,

Thanks again for submitting your questions for this month's Dev Q&A thread and also big THANK YOU for welcoming me to the community! I'll try to keep the formatting as similar to previous threads as possible, but will revise things in the future where I see potential room for improvements. To keep things easier to read, some of your questions may have been truncated. Additionally, starting next month, we'll be using a Google Form to submit questions instead of through the forums as it'll make managing our workflow much more efficient.

With that out of the way, let's go straight to your select questions that were answered by James and crew from Broken Circle Studios! All answers are randomly ordered except the most important 2nd answer in the first Q&A. My personal take is, pineapple. Always.

Question: @Tony_Foot

1. I Like the new boss events particularly the murder-world one as I appreciate events that require better alliance engagement. On this topic can Sinister Six be reworked because the data must show that event scoring is seriously broken. I was done after the first flip and was far from the fastest. Even for really newer rosters there's little challenge there.

Or as I've begged before why not add more tokens, 4* covers etc past progression to give those of us that like these events more to play.

2. Pineapple on a pizza, Yay or Nay?

Answer:

1. Great point! "Rebalancing" events (bosses included) is something we haven't done and need to do. I also like the idea of post-progression rewards to add to the appeal of play (the scores some alliances are capable of achieving is just insane). We're actually in the process of improving our boss event creation toolset, so the timing of these questions is fantastic.

2. Honestly I go back and forth. I have trouble committing to a pizza that has pineapple on it, so you'll never see me order a whole one. If I'm at a party or a pizza buffet though, you can always count on my last couple of slices to have pineapple (in my mind, I treat it like dessert).

Question: @Bzhai

1. Would it be so bad to remove the damage cap from 4* Kitty and 5* Storm? The damage output from these powers would still be tame when compared to Shang Chi and Jane FosThor who can punch their way to another multiverse.

2. Curious how you guys would handle releases for characters that already exist as 3*. Will we ever see a 5* version of Psylock, Sentry, Quicksilver and Punisher?

Answer:

1. It probably wouldn't be so bad, no. When they're next in line for balance checks we'll evaluate and update as needed.

2. We won't let the existence of a 5* or 3* prevent the release of the other. We're here to do what's right for the game, which sometimes means breaking our own rules!

Question: @leviticuschom

1. Could you tell us some of the QoL changes we can expect to see in the next 6 months? Will these changes be released incrementally, or in larger pushes.

2. Great job with the all the rebalances. Is there a planned release frequency for these? Should we anticipate a small batch of reworks monthly? Would there ever be multiple 5*s rebalanced in the same batch??? so many need the love!

Answer:

1. It's still very difficult to project timeframes for improvements because we're still so relatively new to the inner-workings of the game. It's also a tough question given that the next 2 and a half months are really dedicated to holiday content. If I slightly rephrase your question to be "the first 6 months of 2023", I can say that we are planning on introducing some rather significant UI changes to event selection, some added filters to character selection, improvements to boosts, expansion of saved teams, and a re-introduction of some events that have fallen out of circulation. 

2. Thanks! We do think about rebalances in terms of months and what we feel we can achieve. The Banner rework, for example, took several months to implement even after a design was finalized! We have another 5* rework which, by the time you read this, will likely already be out. For small rebalances (mostly numbers adjustments or slight ability tweaks) we have been aiming for 3 per month between bigger and smaller reworks. For bigger ones that basically require the character to be rebuilt, it's less obvious.

Question: @ThaRoadWarrior

1) Looking at many of the characters released out of Broken Circle's tenure, it has been a common theme that the powers are complex and descriptions are incredibly verbose, and therefore very hard to read on a phone interface. As examples check:

Jane's Doctor Thor
All 3 of Chasm's powers
Kamala's green and blue
Everything Arcade does

Is there any way to curb this, and prioritize clear, concise descriptions that can be checked in-battle?

2) Chasm seems a bit buggy, and frankly a tad over-tuned. How closely are you monitoring the new Chasm/iHulk meta in PVP, and do you feel you can provide players tools to deal with it without a nerf or a rework?

Answer:

1. Kamala, Jane, and Chasm are all great characters, and also some of our earliest. We were (and are) eager to try things, and consequently felt the need to be verbose. Not to mention that in a game that's been around for 9 years (wow!) it's not feasible to create characters that are all that "simple" anymore. In short, these characters represented a desire to do things differently and a feeling of the need to be overly expressive in both mechanics and flavor text. I think we have improved since then, will continue to do so, and forthcoming UI / UX enhancements will aid these efforts further.
2. Chasm is a character that players continue to be divisive about. Some believe him to be immensely powerful, while others can't seem to think of a worse character to play with. We are indeed monitoring Chasm, the Chasm/iHulk meta, and will make adjustments should they be needed. As for nerfs in general, it is our design philosophy to attempt to solve character mechanics without nerfs wherever possible. Reworks, on the other hand, are something we are inclined to do (though if something occurs in meta that warrants a response that's typically a prime opportunity for a new character to come in and shake things up).

Question: @HoundofShadow

1) How many Shang-Chis have been champed or fully covered during this anniversary?

2) How do you and your team deal with players' feedbacks that contradict one another? How do you determine which group of players to listen to?

Answer:

1. Looks like ~4,000.
2. This is probably the toughest thing we do! The voices of the players do truly drive this game, but as you point out they so often differ from one another. What we strive to do is identify the voices. Not the individuals, but the vantage points. You'll have extremely late game players revile a feature that is welcomed and targeted at an entirely different class of player. Again, every voice matters and changes our thinking on how we proceed. If we feel we have a strong and flexible solution that can keep all of the player groups at least neutral whilst benefiting the feature's target, it's a win. When it's not so easy, we slow things down and keep working the problem. As for how we determine what group of players to listen to, I often times think it's more important to look at how we listen to them. Reddit, the forums, Discord, etc all have varried groups of vocal individuals, but there are more ways to communicate about this game. In addition to written words, we look at tons of data and use it to manifest voices of our less vocal player groups.

Question: @Hammer3001

1. Are you going to be introducing 3-Star versions of characters that have 4 & 5 star versions already? Like Carnage or Ghost Rider.

2. Are you going to make it easier to acquire Supports? As it stands there’s only 2 ways to even get chances to level up.

Answer:

1. Maybe! The 3* lineup is what we're working on to create an exciting place for new and early players. Characters like Carnage and Ghost Rider are iconic. The logistics of how we do this are yet to be solved, but the interest and desire is there!

2. Yes, following our Supports overhaul supports will be in a better place overall. Easier to acquire, more meaningful, and more intuitive to upgrade.

Question: @Pottsie1980

I recently passed 10m red iso with nothing to spend this on. Are there any ideas being discussed for options to spend this currency on?
Late level milestones take months to go from one step to the next. Would you look into seasonal milestones?

Answer:

1. Supports and Red-ISO have a forthcoming overhaul that is still in design phase. Hang in there, we feel your pain!
2. We're also in talks about revamping milestones, though not much work has gone into this just yet. We absolutely want these to feel more varied, rewarding, and with smaller gaps between.

Question: @Ptahhotep

1. We get alternative covers for things like hallowe’en. Is there any chance of the different covers being made available as a user choice and special ones being offered in a similar way to costumes?

2. Is there any possibility of characters that are Marvel properties but sit outside the usual Marvel universe being brought into the game? I realise that Star Wars characters aren’t a possibility, but what about someone like Miracle Man?

Answer:

1. This is an interesting idea that keeps coming up - will consider it!

2. I can't think of a reason why Miracle Man wouldn't be able to make his way into MPQ. I believe earlier this month he saw release of a new comic run! That said, the process for approving characters involves many teams. We can put him on the list and see what happens!

Question: @DAZ0273

1) The Boss Event (Murderworld) was ran Mon-Thurs which is (to my knowledge) only the second time a Boss has run on this schedule (Battle at the Basilica also). Was this just for Anniversary or is this going to be the new schedule moving forward for Bosses?

2) Is this part of a wider plan to try and get more players into 5* play (together with the increased Boss Event rewards)?

Answer:

1. This was just something we worked out for the Anniversary schedule. It was a packed month! The holiday season is upon us which means we have more great things to fit in, but you can expect to see a return to normal scheduling soon.
2. Probably a bit of both? On the one hand, we want to create more ramps to get players to later game content, but at the same time we want to offer players richer content and increased value. All love for the MPQ community!

Question: @Mrcl25

1) You recently said you were working to revamp MMR. Can you elaborate on what you plan to change, and can a feature be added were player X can’t target player Y more than once or twice for a short amount of time (e.g. 5 minutes), to avoid player X hitting player Y multiple times during a pvp climb?

2) PVP scores are unnaturally high in the game because of the use of third-party apps to coordinate when players are climbing, grilling, hopping, etc. Players who don’t use those apps are at a disadvantage, and many feel this is a kind of an exploit. I’m sure that’s not the way the game was meant to be played, so have you tought of doing something about that?

Answer:

1. Too early to say at the moment, but we do have an updated matchmaking routine that we are testing. So far the results are looking positive, but more evaluation is needed. Our goal with the matchmaking update is to roll out with a significant improvement to the algorithm and then make improvements periodically from there. In other words, it isn't something that goes live a long time from now and is considered "done". We plan on rolling it out soon (hoping early 2023) and we'll keep at it. Restricting player targeting is not an initial launch feature, but something we have talked about and will continue to evaluate.

2. This is on our radar but not something we are presently addressing. Our current focus is on the algorithm that drives matchmaking. That focus will broaden as we lay the foundation for PVP improvements.

Question: @Lionowilson

1) With the domination of Chasm iHulk teams in PvP (more prevalent than even boosted teams) is there consideration for a power “and stay down” that prevents a character from reviving, even if it’s only for a couple turns?

2) Would it be possible to Purchase more than just 5 boosts? When I’m down that low, I’d be happy to purchase 30, even if it’s not discounted.

Answer:

1. We do have our eyes on some of the things happening in the revive meta. Our design philosophy is to shake up the meta with new characters, and therefore what you describe could very well exist in the near future. (Note: See Silver Surfer for one example!)
2. Certainly something for us to consider.

Question: @DyingLegend

Question 1: Can we get an auto complete feature in PVE for the weaker nodes?

Question 2 : has there been any thought or discussion on increasing rewards based on roster strength? As in if your a 5 star roster your ISO gains are increased by a certain amount.

Answer:

1. We've had light discussion on this, but no plans just yet.
2. Since roster strength is directly tied to present MMR, this might create an issue in which players would artificially force their roster strength outside of the zone of comfort. In general rewards are something we immediately started to adjust when we took over earlier this year and we will continue to improve upon them.

Question: @Waddles_Pines

1) Can we get me saved team slots? With more nodes in ddq, plus potential team affiliation synergies in the future, more slots would be helpful.

2) On the team selection screen, would it be possible to add a "random" button to randomly choose your team? Just think it would be nice addition since there's so many characters to choose from.

Not really a have question per se, but can you tell us what roles D3, Broken Circle, and Infinite Interactive each have with this game? Just curious.

Answer:

1. Yes, and this has been added to a list of QoL UI improvements for the dev team to address as soon as they can.
2. Interesting idea, and will consider!
3. D3 (now 505) serve as the publisher of the game. Broken Circle serves as developer. Infinite Interactive is the team behind Puzzle Quest.

Question: @bigcaktus

1- Is it planned to add some new support items in the game ?

2- Is it possible to change the champions' picture with a toy (Jubilee, the last 3* Emma Frost) ? It's just so horrible ... I'm sure you can pick nice drawing of these champions !

Answer:

1. Yes, but not until we are closer to wrapping up the Support overhaul design work.

2. Believe it or not, those are comic covers that were created to look like toys! I personally like them, but who knows; maybe in the future it can be possible to choose alternate covers (at present we sometimes do cover swaps for holidays like Mother's day).

Question: @Colognoisseur

There are players who have purposely created accounts that were sandboxed. They use this as an alternative type of “developer’s kit” to test out new characters. Every new release sees videos from these types of accounts on YouTube. Do you see this as a problem and are you considering creating an in-game sandbox so that everyone can get a chance to try out a new character?

Answer:

At the moment we are experimenting with offers and other ways that players can gain access to characters earlier than they have in the past. Our current thinking is "how do we get content in player's hands sooner" so that these releases are more exciting.

Question: @gmp72

Are there any plans to introduce an auto-play option ?
The work is already half done, it would just mean the AI played your turn.
Of course, for PVE and PVP the serious players wouldn't dream of using it, but for the rest of us, who are multitasking and doing other things while playing, this would be an awesome feature.
Thank You!

Answer:

Definitely something we've talked about and will continue to talk about. Will keep you posted on how this shapes up!

Question: @ejmus

This is more of a suggestion than a question but here goes. I'm somewhat of a lapsed player who's still addicted enough to come on and clear a few things, but I still wanted to pipe up here once again. Firstly to say I'm very impressed with the work you've done so far, especially after years of silence, to see things moving in an obvious forward direction is very heartening. My biggest issues with the game have been the character imbalances, and lack of different gameplay, followed by the lack of forward movement at my level. Some of those you're already dealing with and I know you're aware of the rest.

One thought I've had for a while that perhaps could shake things up a little bit is some sort of bonus rewards for how you finish the round. For example some sort of overkill, to make use of a loaded ability when the enemy is down to nothing, or finishing off in other ways. This could add just a bit more puzzle to the game without being too hard to accomplish. Also perhaps they could be randomized (even switching off within the round), in order to avoid causing the player to always pick the "strongest" team over and over.

Anyway that's the basic gist, I'd love to be able to hear your thoughts on something like that, and again, great job and please keep it up!

Answer:

First of all, thanks so much for the warm comments and I hope we can soon see you come out of lapsed status! I love the idea of new goals altering the way you play for greater rewards. Revolving objectives like "do X amount of overflow damage on your final match" or "match X purple tiles in a single mission" stand to add a ton of fun for those who dare to be bold! The underpinnings for this sort of thing exist and an incarnation is on the distant horizon.

Question: @Omegased

Do you ever look at the synergy of recent releases?

For example, you had Mighty Thor who LOVES a lot of AP, followed by Chasm, who demands no AP.

Do you consider synergy with the three Latest Legends, or do you ever strive to try to make them more unique?

When designing Characters do you ever look at someone who is mid-tier (say hawkeye) and consider a new mechanic that would make him "essential" (Gargantos)?

Side note - I'm enjoying the fresh life injected into the game

Answer:

For character releases we have looked at the larger roster of MPQ. Our goal hasn't been to explore synergies across neighboring releases so much as it has been to introduce characters that fill in gaps, accentuate existing metas, or foster new ones. Similarly, Latest Legends aren't directly factored in as they would by extension be considered neighboring releases.

When designing characters, we absolutely look at characters who aren't in prime usage. This is part of that "gap-filling" I mentioned earlier. One of the great things about MPQ is that characters can take on new meaning when partnered with sometimes unexpected allies.

Glad you're enjoying where MPQ is going! Its best years are ahead of it and we're thrilled to be heading there together!

Question: @Heartbreaksoup

Perhaps one day I'll be restless with a surplus, but for now I have a devil of a time getting enough red iso to level my supports. Is there any way you can add more red iso into the vaults, and with enough value to actually raise a support up a level? Even if you clean out the spicy taco vault, there's only 2750 red iso across nine items in it. Overall, more support tokens and more red iso to spend on them would be greatly appreciated, and I hope you have plans to make these easier for players to obtain. Thanks very much.

Answer:

For the moment we are keeping the flow of Supports and Red-ISO untouched until we are further along in our planning for the Supports overhaul. We want to make sure that we have a solid direction in place first before introducing changes that could potentially negatively impact that plan. Changes are coming though, and they will improve the nature of Supports, how they are acquired, how they are upgraded, and how they factor into play.

Question: @samael64

Would you or have you considered costume tokens? Ranomly awarding one costume from the many available with ISO awarded instead for duplicates would be great.

Will Cyclops' AoA costume ever be available again? I wasn't playing yet when it was released and would love to have it.
Hoping for more AoA content in the future.

Answer:

Funny you should ask! By now you've likely seen our Spooky Scare Costume Vault which effectively uses a costume token for a random reward as a gift to our players for playing during the Spooky Season. As for the broader idea of what is essentially a Costume Store (akin to the Support Store), it's something we're talking about.

As for the general notion of costumes that haven't been in circulation for quite some time, barring good reason we are slowly bringing those back. Superior Octopus and Lady Deadpool are two particular costumes that we've re-introduced, and we don't plan on stopping there.

Question: @BallSoHard_45

1. any plans to remove or widen the cap on boosts? I'm fine with the usage of 2 and 5 respectively, but it is annoying that I can't buy more than 5.

2. any plans to remove or widen the cap on boosts? I'm fine with the usage of 2 and 5 respectively, but it is annoying that I can' buy more than 5..... ;-)

You see, I really have only this particular question. It is important for me because I use boosts every match.

Answer:

Hah, I see your point Another player asked this question. It's something for us to consider, as we want to make sure we factor in challenge and fairness. It's certainly on the table for discussion.

Question: @StanleyBurrell

There was recently a thread on Reddit and mirrored on Discord about someone suspected of using some kind of exploit to play PvE awfully fast. I myself have noticed someone in my bracket that went from not really competing to pushing the person I believe to be the best PvE player in the game to the edge, seemingly overnight. Understanding how PvE scoring works this seems suspicious at best. These players are both in the same alliance and from my understanding use the same platform. What can you tell the players to reassure them that you are watching, have the ability to recognize, and dealing with potential speed hacks.

Answer:

I'm not sure what I can do in the way of reassurance, but we are indeed watchful. Players who have been identified as cheaters and dealt with aren't always vocal about it, but we do take action against those who wrongfully abuse the systems of the game. Players should know that we are able to track metrics like mission completion times. Play well out there!

Question: @axmoss

why doesn't Thor (Gladiator)'s God of Thunder's passive matching red or purple count towards Shang Chi's River of Blows without needing another red or purple match? It always resets if only God of Thunder's red or purple match without another red or purple match before end of turn.

Answer:

I've asked QA to run this through testing to see if it is functioning as intended or in need of correction.

Question: @SaltnPeppa

1. Will there be new additional time slices for PVE? The during work hours, immediately after work (or when I'm on the road) and extremely late night hours don't help (need my sleep). It would be nice to have a few additional slices during primetime like 7pm/8pm/9pm to help us working people out.

Answer:

No immediate plans for this, but will take it into consideration.

Question: @Bad

1) We detected an increase on difficulty based on MMR, i.e on some nodes on the last puzzle gauntlet.
Personally I think it's great to have some challenge as there are really advanced players on this game who could beat anything without too much trouble.
Is this a new and future trend?

Answer:

No MMR related edits occured, so this might just be a perception (though we have been vocal that MMR is indeed something we are actively working on).

Question: @Godzillafan67

Who will be turning off the 2x iso at the end of the anniversary?
Can you give them an extended, paid vacation before the anniversary ends?

Answer:

Our devs responsible for generating events will be turning off the double iso at the end of the Anniversary. An extended paid vacation is certainly merited, though you'll be sad to hear that as of the time of this writing the end of the 2x ISO has already been built and scheduled.

Question: @Domitronas

How do you feel about probability based abilities as mechanic and are we going to see more of them in the future? Some examples that come to mind are Sersi, Domino, and recently Reptil with the percentage chance to stun his team mates.

Answer:

Personally, I love them. Don't get me wrong, I love consistency too. I suppose it just depends on my mood. Reading this question reminded me of running a coin-flip goblin deck in Magic: the Gathering back in the day. Did I run it all the time? No. Did I always have fun running it? Well, no, lol. But it was always exciting and it's something we aren't going to shy away from. If the time and character fit, we'll do it!

Question: @DaSal

Would you consider raising 5* shards for an LT from 3 to 5? If you hit a dry spell with no bonus shards 167 LT’s for 501 shards seems excessive. 100 LT’s would be reasonable.

Answer:

Possibly, though we do have it on the docket to apply an update to bonuses that might improve this situation altogether.

Question: @mdreyer93

Thanks for continuing these monthly Q&A's and for all of the recent changes to the game, you've certainly injected new life into it and increased my engagement.

It's been previously mentioned that 5* character releases initially started with 3 "archetypes" (offense, defense, support) then moved to "generations" where health and match/power damage increased with each subsequent generation. It was said that recently (starting with Kamala?) this philosophy was stopped and the match/damage state should now remain steady.

Given this, many older 5* characters would benefit from a simple increase to health and match damage to bring those values in line with current practice. I understand that many older 5s need more help, but has the team considered starting off with a balance pass over all the old 5s just to boost their HP/match damage and make them consistent? Maybe that takes more work than I know but it seems like a relatively quick fix for a lot of characters.

Answer:

Thank you so much for the kind words! It's an honor to talk with the community about MPQ!

The first step of the rebalance of every character is to "update their generation". In other words, get them on fair playing field (as though they were a newly released character). At one point we talked about doing a sweeping generation update, but a few issues popped up that resulted in us making a more concerted effort (like what we've been doing). I won't go into all of them, but the process is sadly not as fast as you might think (think spreadsheets...lots and lots of spreadsheets). Also, the generation jump for core character aspects don't factor in abilities for better or worse, and some early tests resulted in big swings that rendered characters too weak or too powerful. Rather than perform a batch operation that could potentially damage the integrity of characters in the game, we opted for a more steady and methodical approach that also allows us to put the spotlight on what we're working on.

Question: @Xax

I love most of the changes and updates the new team has made to the game, so thank you. Please keep it up!

My questions:

1) Can the What's New thread please be updated regularly? It's really helpful to know what rewards to expect for each event. I understand the thread could simply not exist and then we'd just never know and that would be ok if it were the case, but please keep it up to date since it does exist. I know a lot of players look forward to and appreciate that information (currently hasn't been updated since the beginning of the anniversary season!).

2) Would it be possible to add something in wave node matches that tells us which wave we're on after the wave banner disappears? I'm often multitasking while playing and miss the banners. It's surprisingly hard for me to keep track of which wave I'm on.

Answer:

Thanks so much for the praise! We'll certainly keep it up!

1. We try to update the What's New every Tuesday when possible. Sometimes though, we are doing changes to rewards or scheduling for some events right up until the wire. We'll do our best to stay diligent there!

2. One of the QoL improvements that is on our list to implement!

Question: @Illusionhill

Is there any interest in adding APIs to the game? They could be very useful for things like calling flips for flip hunters or sharing roster for players looking for a new alliance. It could also help in some of the areas there just isn't time to develop, the community could build out some features.

Answer:

There is a broad discussion currently happening concerning the underlying architecture and how we go about updating / improving it. APIs are part of that discussion. If our overhaul is as comprehensive as we want it to be, community-exposed APIs will exist for the player base to use as they see fit.

Question: @killahKlown

In previous years, the level of enemy cascades was tuned back to a point where all seemed right in the world. It has become clear to many recently that you guys have amped up enemy cascades to all new levels. Some suspect it's to give new releases like Mighty Thor or Chasm some additional umph....

My questions are: why was this done and would you please consider changing it back?

Answer:

This aspect of the game has not been touched by our dev team. Ever. (IceIX Note: For that matter, it hadn't been touched by Demiurge either, except to *limit* the number of cascades the enemy AI could get without changing the player cascade count.)

Question: @fnedude

Following Waddle's question about more saved Teams.

Can we get teams w/ only 2x saved for those DPDs that have the required 3*, but we want to use the same other 2x toons daily? So it would be, "Choice", "Fixed", "Choice"

Answer:

This is part of the general QoL UI improvements that we've talked of elsewhere. We'd like to improve on Saved Teams when it's possible!

Question: @Glockoma

1) Previously mentioned: if a remake didn’t quite hit home, the devs would consider another go at it. My question: ‘After playing this game since it’s infancy, many characters have generated a certain pattern of goods and bads about them. Would the devs consider affixing a very small, albeit noticeable need for the near perfect rebuff of Phoenix? She needs her countdown on death either fortified or selectable. With so many revivers in the game now, hers has a serious loss of teeth and her cd invariably ends up in the enemies’ next match or line clear. It’s truly a terrible thing to witness for one of the most powerful forces to not be able to reliably revive with the best of them. Her name is Phoenix after all.’

Answer:

This is precisely why we feel that our job is never done. The introduction of, well, anything, has an impact on the rest of the game. Every new character changes every other character. Sometimes we know about this at the time of the new character's creation. Other times, we find out about it later. You make a good point and when we do the next balance review of Phoenix, she might just get another lease on life

Question: @MadScientist

When 3-star Emma Frost was released, she quickly was added to Heroic and Mighty Tokens. However, she has not yet been added to Standard Tokens. When will that happen? When will newly released 3-star characters be added to various tokens? When will they be be added to the DDQ rotation?

Answer:

This simply looks like an oversight on my part and has been fixed as of this writing. Overall it is the goal for all new 3 stars to be immediately available in these packs. As for the DDQ rotation, they immediately get worked into our tools to be generated with event content, unless we feel it is too close to their release (in which case we override and allow them to sit on the bench a bit longer).

Question: @sameery

What goes into determining what color powers a character has? It seems almost criminal that Green Goblin doesn't have a green power

Answer:

Two aspects factor into ability colors: theme and what's best for the game. Each of the colors has a loose theme associated with it. Green, for example, is intended to represent strength that is less than precise. AOE types of abilities usually default to green. We always grant ourselves the opportunity to veto the rule of theme if the ability and how the character synergizes with others benefits from it.

Question: @jsmjsmjsm00

Do you consider Taskmaster set in stone or does the team think about adding more alternative powers to him (or Doop in the future)?

Answer:

We don't consider anything in this game set in stone! To more specifically answer your question, we think that Taskmaster and Doop are just begging to have their ability lists refreshed. We intend to do so (particularly with Taskmaster, since Doop is so recent). It's just a matter of time.

Question: @fractalvisions

The nodes for boss events are unlocked once every 8 hours. This seems fairly reasonable since most players who aren't too busy at the time of the event can probably find some point within each 8 hour window to play (perhaps missing one or two) no matter their timezone. What bugs me is that the final refresh only happens 4 hours before the end of the event. Why is that? In my timezone that's 2-6am - hardly a convenient time. Why not extend the event for another 4 hours so that the last time window is as long as the others?

Answer:

We'll take a look at this, but no promises. As you've probably seen with other events in recent times, messing with event timers can have Unintended Consequences(TM).

Question: @toecutter3095

My question is around feeder updates in the 3-star tier. So far they have been done in 2 different styles, She-Hulk with no retro rewards and Cyclops which did give retro rewards.

Do you have a definite plan for how further updates will be implemented in the future, always with/without retro rewards, or will it be variable and just a surprise when it is announced?

Follow-up question, when do we get the next feeder updates?

Answer:

With regards to retro / no-retro, these continue to be case-by-case, though philosophically our internal goal is "retro rewards unless we have a good reason not to."

We have a comprehensive list of feeder updates that essentially spans the entire roster. We aim to have the majority of this rolled out before the end of the year, barring any issues. Many are likely to experience a "Shardmas", and tis the season

Question: @Daniel2121

Are there plans for a Mark XLVI (aka 5* Iron Man) remake/rebalance anytime soon?

Answer:

Yes

Question: @fight4thedream

As a pixel art fan, I am digging the 3* Arcade (King of PWN) art. Is there any chance we will be getting more pixel versions of characters in the future?

Answer:

Yes, though likely as costumes. Arcade was the perfect character to simply exist in a retro pixelated format. In his wake, we were inspired and created the Retro Wolverine skin for X-Force Wolverine. We have plans to add many more in the future (though none are presently being worked on).

Question: @dianetics

Is there any chance, idea, or plan to address the early game for new users?
It is currently unbalanced and new users will see quick Shield Rank gains while their rosters are not able to support higher clearance levels. It could be problematic and turn new users off before they can really start enjoying the game at higher levels.

Answer:

Yes. A substantial portion of all of our thinking and planning goes into improving early game. As will all things, it will take time and must be done bit by bit, but we are aware that the early game experience is less than optimal and needs love.

Bowgentle

I'm very impressed by the frank and open answers to some touchy questions.
It's especially wonderful to read that you have absolutely no problem with giving us another Shardmas, this bodes really well for the future

Thank you for the continued engagement with the community.

Bad

"1) We detected an increase on difficulty based on MMR, i.e on some nodes on the last puzzle gauntlet.
Personally I think it's great to have some challenge as there are really advanced players on this game who could beat anything without too much trouble.
Is this a new and future trend?

Answer:
No MMR related edits occured, so this might just be a perception (though we have been vocal that MMR is indeed something we are actively working on)."

I'm surprised by this answer and I get from it that you weren't aware on this issue which was reflected on this thread:
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/87502/increased-difficulty-in-puzzle-gauntlet

AdeptusRevolt

Puzzle Gauntlet scales to your roster, I think that has been observed for some time. So the response here that they haven't made it additionally harder doesn't discount the fact that the puzzles seem harder than previous times you attempted them.

LavaManLee

@AdeptusRevolt said:
Puzzle Gauntlet scales to your roster, I think that has been observed for some time. So the response here that they haven't made it additionally harder doesn't discount the fact that the puzzles seem harder than previous times you attempted them.

Bingo. I think the issue was noticed because usually the alliance is done playing by that time so you don't see how tough those side nodes became. JMHO.

ThaRoadWarrior

How does puzzle gauntlet scale to your roster? Did 2* players not have to get as many enemy strikes on the board as I did or something?

KGB

@ThaRoadWarrior said:
How does puzzle gauntlet scale to your roster? Did 2* players not have to get as many enemy strikes on the board as I did or something?

Same number of strikes, but the opponents don't do as much damage.

For players like us who have most of their roster at the same level, it means Puzzle Gauntlet is not too bad. But for players with unbalanced rosters (ie 3-4 champed 5* and the rest maybe baby champed 4* or lower) it means they can wipe a lot more easily because they have to use 3 or 4* characters in the limited nodes.

KGB

Waddles_Pines

But the mmr in puzzle quest needs to scale, otherwise you would kill off the enemy team way too soon.

Bad

Precisely on puzzle gauntlet shouldn't need to scale with roster as many times the key character is a 3*.
And many times I had to struggle because of having him farming.

ThaRoadWarrior

i just assumed all the health pools were arbitrarily high because the match/power damage doesn't seem to actually be scaled up to the same degree. Not like it is on the side nodes in an alliance event with roster based scaling. I've never compared notes with anybody else though.

_TrashPanda

Thanks @S0kun!
Do you know when the Google Form will be posted for Nov22 Q&A?

S0kun

@_TrashPanda said:
Thanks @S0kun!
Do you know when the Google Form will be posted for Nov22 Q&A?

Sometime next week!

Omegased

Question: @axmoss
why doesn't Thor (Gladiator)'s God of Thunder's passive matching red or purple count towards Shang Chi's River of Blows without needing another red or purple match? It always resets if only God of Thunder's red or purple match without another red or purple match before end of turn.

I think I know the answer to this..

It seems to depend on where they are in your team.

Passive moves resolve Centre/Left/Right.

If Thor (either of them) is listed "before" Shang Chi, their cascades will be a "part" of the previous turn.

if Thor is AFTER Shang Chi, it'll count for this current turn.

this is the same for Big Wheel.

Marc_Spector

Thank you for doing these Q&As, and for all the incredible QoL changes, balance changes, new designs, and communication since the handover! My interest in the game has been reborn like a phoenix from the ashes these past months.

I'll echo the person above who felt that the Phoenix rebalance didn't go far enough, but for a different reason. Jean's "From The Ashes" (and, similarly, Loki's "Feign Death") don't do anything at all until dying; and in a game which mostly prioritizes efficient play and not-dying, those powers rarely ever see-use by me... and, are now even less likely to with her rebalanced HP buff! =}

Suggestion: How about some sort of minor "on first life only" passive added to those powers, such as generating 1AP of Phoenix/Loki's other colors per turn? Or a team damage buff / damage reduction, however minor -- or any other type of small benefit to justify those covers being there while playing to not-die. ^_^

Thank you, and keep up the great work!

AlexR

@Marc_Spector said:
Thank you for doing these Q&As, and for all the incredible QoL changes, balance changes, new designs, and communication since the handover! My interest in the game has been reborn like a phoenix from the ashes these past months.

I'll echo the person above who felt that the Phoenix rebalance didn't go far enough, but for a different reason. Jean's "From The Ashes" (and, similarly, Loki's "Feign Death") don't do anything at all until dying; and in a game which mostly prioritizes efficient play and not-dying, those powers rarely ever see-use by me... and, are now even less likely to with her rebalanced HP buff! =}

Suggestion: How about some sort of minor "on first life only" passive added to those powers, such as generating 1AP of Phoenix/Loki's other colors per turn? Or a team damage buff / damage reduction, however minor -- or any other type of small benefit to justify those covers being there while playing to not-die. ^_^

Thank you, and keep up the great work!

Agreed, that's a great idea! As someone who jumps on any opportunity to use Loki, it's always bothered me that he has 1 ability that does nothing until he dies (and his green is so slow and bad that it's pretty much useless - which effectively makes him a 1-color character until he dies, at which point he briefly becomes a 2-color character.) Some sort of benefit so his black isn't just an empty color if he stays alive would be really appreciated.

Bad

Imo for loki it suits a traitorous backslash dealing good damage, and for Jean a really powerful board shake (many red cds exploding a few times) when reviving both.

AlexR

Yeah, but "when reviving" is again dependent on them dying. Doesn't fix the issue that when they stay alive, it does absolutely nothing and they may as well not have a third ability in those matches. @Marc_Spector was suggesting an addition that will do a little something while alive on first life only.

Loki imo would benefit the most from some sort of self-acceleration. His purple costs 11 AP (7+4), his useless green also 11.

His revival ostensibly provides this by giving +2-3 green AP after revival. But after revival again means you go entire matches without ever seeing this happen and even when you do make use of his revival, you will likely only get this once in a match, and probably late too. So, this is awful in terms of self-acceleration and would not help you even if his green was better.

Instead, imo, I'd suggest a passive where he gets 1 purple or green AP on matching/destroying illusion cds which is what the rest of his kit is centered around. Because another of his problems is that multiplying the illusion cds gives black AP which Loki himself can't actually make use of, lol. Multiplying illusions are wasted AP unless you specifically bring a black user. So, giving him 1 purple or green AP on matching/destroying illusion cds would at least give you useable AP on matching the tiles his kit is meant to be matching(/destroying). Makes sense to me too; the more he multiplies his illusions, the more opportunities he should have for sneak attacks/stabs, right? You tend to run out of black tiles somewhat consistently if you multiply the illusion too much anyway. You could either make this a permanent passive or you could limit this to first life only, as suggested above - on the balancing logic that you traded the faster stabs for not dying. I'd be good with either.

Maybe a pipe dream, Idk. But ideally, that's what I'd love to give him because I think it would help his kit and be in the spirit of his design (encouraging you to match the illusion cds).

(I don't know Jean enough to suggest anything for her, since I don't have her useable.)

Bad

Actually characters with a revive power are health pack savers.
They may be less fun to play but they have that option to exploit so it's a power which can be used many times.
Shulk fires a power when she revives, those 2 could do something similar.
However Phoenix was rebalanced recently, and loki should be next for to be a playable character.

MegaBee

How's this for an idea: the option to sacrifice your own character for a few AP?