Why do we have/need repeat passive animations per turn?

gentgeen
gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker
in MPQ General Discussion

It has been a LONG time since I posted to (or even read) the forum, but I have been playing the game now for over 7 years.... So I thought I would post here first just to get a general feel of how others feel.

When Dr. Strange came out, the animation for his passive attack would be shown EVERY time it got fired. So if you were playing against Dr. S and fired off 4 powers, you would see his face 4 times. As we all know by now, that got changed. The animation only plays once, and the notice comes up the rest of the time. (So you would see his face once, and the notice 3 times)

This was (is) a great choice ... I get to enjoy the animations of all the characters, but don't have to be bogged down seeing Dr. S face 100 times during a single match.

Move to today and play a match against/with Polaris or Beta Ray Bill (to name just two really annoying examples). I Might see Polaris throw metal at me 10 times in just one TURN.... or watch BRB run off the screen 15 times in a single TURN. Put the two together, and you spend more time seeing those two animations during the round then you do actually playing the game. (*I have actually put my phone down and walked away to grab a drink during a few of these matches. )

Why can't ALL the passive character animations work like Dr. Strange's? Would you like to see it that way, or am I the only one??

P.S. "Turn off animation" is not the -correct- answer in this case. It is an option, but IMHO it is not the 'right' answer. I play this game BECAUSE I like Marvel, and the Marvel characters. I want to SEE the characters and their animation. Otherwise I would just go play candy crush or some other match 3 game. The "Marvel-ness" of this game is one of it's selling points. Turning off ALL animation IMHO is overkill for this "issue". We already know there is a better option (thanks to Dr. S) so why would that not be the norm?

Comments

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

    I think this is one of the QoLs in the dev's list. Wait for it.

  • gentgeen
    gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker

    @HoundofShadow said:
    I think this is one of the QoLs in the dev's list. Wait for it.

    Man, I hope so! Although IDK why it would have taken this long to change and/or why it wouldn't be the NORM for any passive animation. (It's not like they didn't already have a working example :-) )

  • killahKlown
    killahKlown Posts: 584 Critical Contributor

    I enjoy them

  • LavaManLee
    LavaManLee Posts: 1,461 Chairperson of the Boards

    Don't get me started on the banners. Or the attack tiles that have to float up from the far right bottom corner of the screen. Or the Mindless Ones placing their tiles at the beginning of each match. There is so much room for improvement to make the game more fun to play.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,992 Chairperson of the Boards

    Some of that stuff was actually done on purpose, a very, very long time ago. In the very early days, goons used to just, like, do stuff, with no notifications about what they were doing, and a lot of players got really confused about what was happening in those fights.

    They could probably make something like this configurable, so veteran players could turn it off since we know what's happening, but I bet that'd be pretty low-priority for them.

  • Phumade
    Phumade Posts: 2,503 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2023

    At the end of the day, this is in designer/art manager's area of expertise. Yes, within the meta of speed play, we need to have a animation off toggle, so people who are focused on the leader board aspects can do their thing.

    But we should acknowledge that there a large component of casual play that doesn't really care about scoring and that good animations does improve the overall value proposition of the game. Fundamentally, animations are part of the artists/designer's game play loop, and they need to design animations within technology limits, how it serves gameplay, how does it reference lore?

    For example, Ghost Rider's Penance Stare is a match finisher move cast only 1x maybe 2x in a match. vs DR. Strange blue, which should fire frequently. In that scenario, Penance Stare can have a longer more flavorful animation under the idea that its infrequently used and meant as a match finisher vs. (as you correctly noted) Dr. Strange blue fires often resulting is tedious gameplay loop.

    So yes, I think its a valid criticism to say that animations need to be considered in the context of how it fits in a gameplay loop. For example, gladiator Hulks passive intro is slow but it only shows once at the start. Thats a well designed animation with lots of character lore and used in a way that doesn't diminish the fun of the gameplay loop.

    Another good example of a bad animation (IMHO) is Kitty Pryde. The idea of a appearing/dissaperaring avatar would be awesome on a 3d display, but looks goofy on a ipad,iphone (maybe it looks cooler on a VR set?). This fails what I call the technology limit test, even though its short/fast and lore appropriate.

  • gentgeen
    gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker

    @killahKlown said:
    I enjoy them

    I enjoy them too.... just not 10 times in a single turn (Not talking about the round... just simply my turn -- when I slide 1 tile, and then due to cascades, I end up seeing BRB run off screen 10 times before I can even make the next slide)

  • gentgeen
    gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker

    @LavaManLee said:
    Don't get me started on the banners. Or the attack tiles that have to float up from the far right bottom corner of the screen. Or the Mindless Ones placing their tiles at the beginning of each match. There is so much room for improvement to make the game more fun to play.

    I honestly don't have a problem with the banners -- Been playing long enough that I remember when they did NOT show... wasn't a fan. There needs to be feedback when things happen. And since I don't play with sound (and I would bet 99.99% of people don't) we need some kind of visual feedback. The other things you mention might be slow, but they only happen once per turn (or even less) -- so I personally don't see that as a problem, and just see it as part of my turn.

  • LavaManLee
    LavaManLee Posts: 1,461 Chairperson of the Boards

    @gentgeen said:
    I honestly don't have a problem with the banners -- Been playing long enough that I remember when they did NOT show... wasn't a fan. There needs to be feedback when things happen. And since I don't play with sound (and I would bet 99.99% of people don't) we need some kind of visual feedback. The other things you mention might be slow, but they only happen once per turn (or even less) -- so I personally don't see that as a problem, and just see it as part of my turn.

    Guess I disagree. What feedback do a need a banner to tell me? Especially on a wave? Yes, I know I downed one of them and I know another one comes in. Do I need to be told that constantly? It should be an option. If I want to turn it off, that is on me. I don't need to sit there and wait for banners. And I guess it is just me I really don't enjoy watching the attack numbers slowly go up to tell you the damage?

    Again, if others enjoy that, great. But it really should be an option for me to turn off.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,992 Chairperson of the Boards

    New players need that, because they'd be really confused without it. There's way more of them than us, and the devs care about their experience a whole lot. Like I said, I could see them making it optional but I bet it's not a high priority for them.

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

    I wonder what IS high priority for them these days, apart from trying to fix bugs.
    Feels like they should focus on some quick easy wins like this or expanding saved teams to show they're doing stuff.

  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited March 2023

    Their high priority is monitoring latest batch of 5* effects on Chasm/iHulk, Supports, reviving another retired event and bugs. It's not like they didn't give players estimated timeline what they have in store for us. Answers can be found in the various monthly developer q&a.

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

    Yes and of course these answers are gospel for all time.
    Thank you, I can read their posts as well as you do.

    Don't always assume lack of reading comprehension from everybody except you.

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

    Since you know where to find the answers, then it means you know what they are busy with. :o

  • gentgeen
    gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker

    @LavaManLee said:

    @gentgeen said:
    I honestly don't have a problem with the banners -- Been playing long enough that I remember when they did NOT show... wasn't a fan. There needs to be feedback when things happen. And since I don't play with sound (and I would bet 99.99% of people don't) we need some kind of visual feedback. The other things you mention might be slow, but they only happen once per turn (or even less) -- so I personally don't see that as a problem, and just see it as part of my turn.

    Guess I disagree. What feedback do a need a banner to tell me? Especially on a wave? Yes, I know I downed one of them and I know another one comes in. Do I need to be told that constantly? It should be an option. If I want to turn it off, that is on me. I don't need to sit there and wait for banners. And I guess it is just me I really don't enjoy watching the attack numbers slowly go up to tell you the damage?

    Again, if others enjoy that, great. But it really should be an option for me to turn off.

    FWIW... I was speaking VERY specifically about the "power" banners... The ones that come across with the power name when a power if used/fired. Here you are addressing the "Blob was Downed" ..."Spidey has joined" banners -- Did not even think about those. I would say those ones are only annoying on a wave when you do a big AOE (i.e. only very specific cases, and more often than not, only for those of us who have high level guys who can wipe out a whole node. ) I don't think about those ones too much, but I see where others might find them a nuisance.

  • gentgeen
    gentgeen Posts: 99 Match Maker

    @HoundofShadow said:
    Their high priority is monitoring latest batch of 5* effects on Chasm/iHulk, Supports, reviving another retired event and bugs. It's not like they didn't give players estimated timeline what they have in store for us. Answers can be found in the various monthly developer q&a.

    That is kinda why I brought it here first, before taking it to the "suggestion box" .... As noted it has been a VERY VERY long time since I read anything on the forums (My last post was 2019) -- so thought I would start here. (I tried searching, but got so many false-positive results, and there is NO way I am reading through 3 years of announcements)

    Do you know if this is something on their timeline? do you maybe know of the wording they used so I can use to search a little better?

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

    Some players asked about this question in reddit or here, and it's one of the QoLs the dev has, but with no ETA. Landscape mode is another one.

  • Punisher5784
    Punisher5784 Posts: 3,845 Chairperson of the Boards

    @LavaManLee said:
    Don't get me started on the banners. Or the attack tiles that have to float up from the far right bottom corner of the screen. Or the Mindless Ones placing their tiles at the beginning of each match. There is so much room for improvement to make the game more fun to play.

    This
    Attack tiles are slow enough as it is, but seeing the -1 damage is the most annoying thing for me

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,992 Chairperson of the Boards

    The -1 minimum damage needs to go. This was a fix they made in the first few months of the game, when it was actually possible to kill popular characters by -1'ing them to death.

    All it does now is make Beta Ray Bill (even more) insufferable, and create extra triggers for SW passive that she doesn't even need.

    If an attack would do 0 damage, let it do 0 damage.

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