Defy Conquest a case study in base boss design

dianetics
dianetics Posts: 1,656 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion

I’ll start by saying this has nothing to do with bugs or restarts or anything like that. Only what was presented to the player base as a “boss” event.

Boss events are supposed to be both eventful and impactful. They provide unique gameplay events that make you feel like it takes many people clear and take down the enemy.

That is not what this event was. I don’t think I used a single health pack. There were no unique challenges, and there were no specific characters required other than Antman affiliated characters. I chose antman in the middle and never altered my team once. Side nodes boss nodes didn’t matter just mindless tapping.

When you look at other bosses like Ultron, Galactus, or Apocalypse…team composition was something you had to think about. If you were not prepared those bosses could wipe you. BCS has the ability to make events like this…they did it with Gorr.

This event was less than a daily deadpool. I don’t even know who the boss was really. Was it Kang or was it MODOK? Did they do anything different from the standard player character variants? Why should we ever care to see this event again?

I like many things BCS is doing, and what they are trying; but this was a subpar attempt and I’m sure they know they can do better.

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Comments

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards

    Well they designed the Gorr boss with his two minions, so they again used the 3 characters template.
    Lord knows what MODOK was doing in there, though.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,342 Chairperson of the Boards

    I agree with everything in the OP.

    I mean with the greatest of respect that this Kang event is not a Boss Event in any way or form. It is just an Enemy of the State long playable single node.

    I have likewise just used Ant Man. Is there any other independent boost list for this? I don't have access to MPQ right now but it doesn't look like it. So Wasp/W5sp/Ant Man? I mean...it's fine I guess but...

    Kang has a mechanic that would have made for a great Boss in a race against time before he could send your whole team away through some sort of special tile/countdown/Kang tiles or whatever but unless things changed in Round 7 (not got there yet) then Kang is never going to send your whole team away and auto-win. So just kill him and really that is about it. We haven't even had any surprises hidden in the side nodes yet - no mini-Modok bosses or Super AIM minions. I guess maybe in Round 7 or 8? Not hopeful.

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards

    No changes in round 7 or 8, nope.

  • dianetics
    dianetics Posts: 1,656 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2023

    There were plenty of opportunities for them to do cool things.

    He could target a character and the target character became a summon like level variant after some turns. Most character have multiple variants so if you brought 5* SW he could summon a 3/5* like level variant.

    He could send a random character away every other turn.

    He could have a long countdown that replaced himself with a lower health version.

    This type of character lends himself to so many cool and interesting mechanics and they literally went with the most boring vanilla candy crush variant of the game.

    It is disappointing.

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards

    I'm just waiting for "someone" to come in and tell us that it's the players' fault that the poor devs can't design cool boss events because we relentlessly expect our monthly 5* covers.
    Without our insatiable greed we could have the MOST AMAZING stuff in game, but alas, it's not to be.
    Our own fault, really.

  • purplemur
    purplemur Posts: 454 Mover and Shaker

    This must be the Kang from Quantumania, just stands around looking sad the whole time and is finally beaten by dumb ol fisticuffs.

  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards

    Maybe they want to make it easier for players to score? Bosses give the most points and side nodes give much lesser points. Not every players have meta running around to deal with difficult boss events. Think about your new players: 2* or 3* players. If you want to make things challenging, you can always use 2* or 3* characters. I read that 550 or top players do that among themselves.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,342 Chairperson of the Boards

    @HoundofShadow said:
    Maybe they want to make it easier for players to score? Bosses give the most points and side nodes give much lesser points. Not every players have meta running around to deal with difficult boss events. Think about your new players: 2* or 3* players. If you want to make things challenging, you can always use 2* or 3* characters. I read that 550 or top players do that among themselves.

    They could have done that and still had something to make it special. Look at Thanos which is very new player friendly. This is a Boss Event that has no Boss mechanics to it.

  • Heartbreaksoup
    Heartbreaksoup Posts: 356 Mover and Shaker

    I'm most baffled by the AIM MEDTECH hanging out with Kang and MODOK, as she does not appear to actually have any powers or do anything.

  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards

    Maybe try using 2* or baby champed 3* to get a feel of how those players are feeling?

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards

    Yes I'm sure this was done on purpose.
    They probably did the non scaling nodes too to help players, right?
    Because they simply make no mistakes!

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,342 Chairperson of the Boards

    @HoundofShadow said:
    Maybe try using 2* or baby champed 3* to get a feel of how those players are feeling?

    Why? Does having Kang do nothing make it more fun then? Wouldn't it be better for lower rosters if there was some sort of gimmick involved instead of a flat health grind? You already get a 4* loaner and all the new 3* are pretty great.

    Besides - we aren't saying that it is too easy, we are saying it isn't a Boss Event.

  • dianetics
    dianetics Posts: 1,656 Chairperson of the Boards

    @HoundofShadow said:
    Maybe try using 2* or baby champed 3* to get a feel of how those players are feeling?

    Stop simping. The boss hit 40k in round 8..
    This was not a boss event and 3* players could dunk this in round 7. The Gorr event would trash low tier players in round 5 or 6.

    I would be surprised if any players wiped this.

  • gamecat235
    gamecat235 Posts: 117 Tile Toppler

    I used a grand total of 2 health packs, on round 8, and one of them was me stubbornly clinging to using 4*Wasp for the entire event. (The other was because Shang-Chi actually was downed in the same battle, RNG eventually leads to cascades).

    I agree that the mechanics and accompanying characters felt decidedly less than… every other boss event I’ve played.

    One potentially positive idea that I had from how this event ran. Would be scaled side nodes. Ranging from start of event to end of event as it runs. Day 1 all side nodes are easy, day 2 nodes 1&2 stay easy (1 stays normal, node 2 half scales) , and all other side nodes scale up normally), day 3 repeats but node 5 scales up to beyond challenge node status. Or have progressive scaling based on event MMR (don’t give me level 600 side nodes if all of my champed 5*’s are prohibited).

    This would keep lower level rosters still able to contribute to their alliances, while providing a challenge for higher level rosters and an incentive to try to finish the event prior to the roll over into day 3. (The goal of this last point would be to promote team goals / cohesion).

    Just a thought.

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2023

    The side nodes scale to roster, so lower rosters can hit them until the end of the event.
    This is how it is now.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,342 Chairperson of the Boards

    It was pretty nice of them to give the obviously several million regular 1* players a node to beat.

  • gamecat235
    gamecat235 Posts: 117 Tile Toppler
    edited March 2023

    @Bowgentle said:
    The side nodes scale to roster, so lower rosters can hit them until the end of the event.
    This is how it is now.

    I have 14 champed 5’s with my highest being a 469 Okoye. I still had two nodes that I could have beat 9 times out of 10 with a 1* team.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 10,342 Chairperson of the Boards

    I'm still a fan even though I was salty
    Hate to see you with some old code, know you not happy
    Hate to see you not happy if I'm not the one gem matching
    I'm so mature, I'm so mature
    I'm so mature, I got me a therapist to tell me there's other games
    I don't want none, I just want you
    If I can't have you, no one should
    I might
    I might complain to the Devs, not the best idea
    The new Programmers next, how'd I get here?
    I might complain to the Devs, I still love them though
    Rather be in Forum jail than playing that Kang node

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