MPQ Developer Q&A February & March 2023 (ANSWERS)

dianetics

The hard truth is this, not everyone should be able to compete for the top spots. You have players playing since launch maxing their roster, and you want to step in...for reasons?

You are on the come up, and guess what you have to fight to make your place...that's the way it is. 2 years ago today I was pushing to get top 300, and over the next year I'm solid top 50.
I don't begrudge the people that placed above me. I worked harder built my roster and advance.

I get it you see a rich get richer situation, but for every 10 4* covers you get...5* players get less than 1/2 cover. You can catch up it just takes time. You have the ability to leap frog newer player sif you choose to jump at the right time.

Keep farming and building and jump at the best 5*s you can find.

entrailbucket

What's the point of collecting rewards if you don't want to use them to compete? I want covers/CP/iso/whatever to improve my roster so I can use it to beat people over the head, repeatedly. What else would you do with that stuff? Why build a roster when they only rewards they give out are essentially "more roster?"

I'd also strongly disagree with the early/mid/endgame classification in there. The vast, vast majority of MPQ players have never and will never champion a 5* character. Anyone with a character over 450 is in the top 5% or so of rosters in the game.

That's not "early game" by any definition. It's likely that everyone posting on this board is in the top 5-10% of MPQ players. We are all in the extremely late endgame.

Daredevil217

@entrailbucket said:
What's the point of collecting rewards if you don't want to use them to compete? I want covers/CP/iso/whatever to improve my roster so I can use it to beat people over the head, repeatedly. What else would you do with that stuff? Why build a roster when they only rewards they give out are essentially "more roster?"

I'd also strongly disagree with the early/mid/endgame classification in there. The vast, vast majority of MPQ players have never and will never champion a 5* character. Anyone with a character over 450 is in the top 5% or so of rosters in the game.

That's not "early game" by any definition. It's likely that everyone posting on this board is in the top 5-10% of MPQ players. We are all in the extremely late endgame.

I have 7 Bag-Men on my roster. I have a max copy of every 1*. I can only speak for myself, but as competitive as I am, I also really like the collection/trophy/Pokemon (which I've never actually played lol) aspect of the game. If I only cared about beating others over the head, then my roster would be built to min-max and I'd just work to 550 the meta, rather than build (somewhat) evenly.

entrailbucket

I think I'm drawing a line between people who build their rosters to play the game (gameplay-focused) and people who only play the game to build their rosters (rewards-focused). I don't understand the second group at all.

It goes back to my favorite hypothetical -- if you could pay some reasonable amount (say $0.99) to buy first-place rewards for every event (including an alliance score) but it meant that you couldn't play that event at all, how many events would you buy out?

Just the ones you hate? Would you only play events you really liked? Or would you buy out every event? If it's the last option...what are you still doing here?

dianetics

pay to not play? **** im not a zoomer

entrailbucket

@dianetics said:
pay to not play? **** im not a zoomer

When I ask this question on Line, you would not believe how many players would buy out every single event. It's like 90% or more. A lot of them cannot even comprehend that others want to play the game, vs just getting the rewards.

dianetics

@entrailbucket said:
When I ask this question on Line, you would not believe how many players would buy out every single event. It's like 90% or more. A lot of them cannot even comprehend that others want to play the game, vs just getting the rewards.

This makes my brain hurt. Do I slowly want a painting to paint itself? Sorry I'm older than 25 this is not interesting to me.

Hey, I got a good idea to make some money...I've got some horse armor to sell you.

entrailbucket

A lot of people view playing the game as an inconvenient, unpleasant chore that they have to do in order to get covers/CP/etc to build their rosters.

Daredevil217

@entrailbucket said:
A lot of people view playing the game as an inconvenient, unpleasant chore that they have to do in order to get covers/CP/etc to build their rosters.

I see now. I like both aspects lol. I don’t think it has to be either/or.

Skindo

I will probably stop responding after this but: 1. playing the game on the game's schedule is somewhat inconvenient. 2. Collecting rewards lets you play the game (essentials, crash, puzzle ops), even if you are not interested in speed running. It allows you to try out more interesting teams, so though I do like the collection aspect, it seems to me that people who only focus on speed are closer to the camp of collection for collection's sake than those who are more interested in making different teams. 3. It would not be "pay to not play," as I thought I explained it would be pay to play when I want (and how I want). I get that you enjoy the rush meta, but thinking that is all that counts as playing the game is a bit narrowminded. Notice I said making full progression would be tied to the purchase. It just would not be full progression on the game's schedule. Finally, I have no idea why wanting to play on my own schedule would make me a zoomer, but I have noticed that for all the people on here pointing out of strawman arguments, red herrings, ad hominem attacks, etc, most of those same people fail to apply a principle of charity.

Daredevil217

@Skindo said:
Notice I said making full progression would be tied to the purchase. It just would not be full progression on the game's schedule.

But you can make full progression now on your own schedule, so I don’t understand what the problem is? You don’t event need to do the end grind to get all the progression rewards.

And full progression gives you enough rewards/covers to unlock rewards/play in essential nodes, etc. I’m sure most CL are giving out at least the one cover you’d need to unlock nodes. So, again. Not understanding.

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:

@entrailbucket said:
A lot of people view playing the game as an inconvenient, unpleasant chore that they have to do in order to get covers/CP/etc to build their rosters.

I see now. I like both aspects lol. I don’t think it has to be either/or.

I don't think it has to be either/or at all! That's what I was saying. When people feel like the "playing the game" part of the game is a chore...well, I think those folks are very strange and I'm not sure what they get out of this.

I have all the 1* characters too! Collecting is fun. But I also really like the gameplay and I like competing.

dianetics

This is a farming game, similar to an arpg like Diablo. The whole goal of this game is to keep you running.
It’s no different than grim dawn or path of exile letting you experiment with different modes of play are dozens of hours.
Pq1 and Pq2 brought me to this game and this is speed tier of those games.

I never said you were a zoomer only people that choose to pay to and not pay. If you would choose to pay to not play then I guess you might be a zoomer. No offense just a certain class of gamer.

I like your opinions and want you to stick around. Not everyone agrees, but we can have open discussions and that is important. The more voices the better.

DAZ0273

What is a zoomer? Is that something to do with telescopes? Isn't he a Flash villain? Ugh...DC comics...won't somebody think of the children?

HoundofShadow

He wants to pay money to get top placement rewards. However, the requirement is getting full progression to activate top placement rewards. Unfortunately, top placements requires 4+3 clears/grinds, whereas full progression requires only 60%(?)? Top placements require at least twice the efforts of full progression play.

Currently, his view is that he wants to collect as much rewards as possible so that he can play with many different teams and also to "unlock" every node in the game. Top placements give good rewards. However, it requires scheduling his life around it. He can't do it or doesn't want to do it. But he still wants the top placement rewards. That's where his pay to get top placement rewards come into play.

It's once again, a patience issue. Technology has made people want to get things quickly. Look at the latest videos or chats apps. It's all about stuffing as much content into people's mind in the shortest time possible so that they can release their endorphins and then move to the next new thing to get their next shot of endorphin. Likewise, he wants to cycle through all characters to get that shot of happiness in the shortest time possible, so that he can move on to the next new experience.

If you really want to unlock everything quickly, whale it.

Bowgentle

@entrailbucket said:
A lot of people view playing the game as an inconvenient, unpleasant chore that they have to do in order to get covers/CP/etc to build their rosters.

I play PVP as an inconvenient, unpleasant chore that I have to do to get covers/CP to build my roster for PVE.
So... Yeah.

fight4thedream

@Skindo: I appreciate where you are coming from and have long advocated for a change in the PvE format. The PvE system is inherently unfair in that it favors players who can play at a particular time and also is known to lead to burn out.

In one of my previous analysis of the PvE system I wrote:

The Problem with PvE

Before I begin, it is essential that we understand the flaws with the current system. Mainly:

*time slices limit the amount of participants who are able to play optimally and therefore competitively.

*the emphasis of speed above all else severely devalues a majority of characters and skill sets and goes against the dev team's stated goal of roster diversity.

*bracket sniping. Gives players "in the know" an unfair advantage to gain better rewards than those players who have put in more time and effort, and perhaps performed better in an event.

*emphasis on competition alienates the casual player and does little to encourage them to spend money on the game.

For those of you, which includes myself, that can usually play optimally I ask that you consider how enjoyable an experience PvE would be if you could not find a time that worked with your schedule and how it would affect your overall enjoyment of the game.

I think asking "Why limit user engagement to six time slices?" and consider its potential financial disadvantages is a legitimate question and criticism of the current system.

I can't speak for everyone but if I were aware that I couldn't compete for top rewards simply because the start/end times didn't match my lifestyle, I know I would be much less inclined to spend a lot of money.

Excerpt from the discussion PvE on a Schedule -What's the fix?

I don't know if the Battle Pass system you proposed is the best solution to the problem, but I do think it's an idea the dev team should consider. As I understand it, it doesn't seem like it should have a negative impact on players vying for placement and it would give those who are unable to play at an ideal time a chance to earn those rewards, if they are willing to pay for it.

Under the current system, there are players who "bracket snipe" their way to top rewards for much less effort so if that is permissible, I don't see why this would be any different.

Ideally, I would love to see the PvE format get overhauled in a way that rewarded a variety of play styles and wasn't tied to playing at specific times but I don't see that happening anytime soon.

DAZ0273

PvE does not favour my schedule at all. I do not like PvE. I take breaks as I see fit or go nuts as suits me. I am also not going to tell people what they can or can't do with their hard earned $ £ or whatever. But a system where you pay for earnable rewards seems inherently anti-gaming to me to the point where I find it leaves a bit of a taste in the mouth that isn't pleasant. Sort of like having somebody assemble a jigsaw puzzle for you so you can say "Look at my great picture!"

Obviously "Pay to win" is already and has always been a thing but at least you have to actually win. "Pay to not even compete" - I dunno, it just doesn't seem right but at the end of the day I guess revenue flows would be king.

HoundofShadow

How much are players willing to pay for such battle pass? The placement rewards for T20 are:

5s shards x 100
4s shards x 150
4s cover x 2
3s cover x 2
Iso-8 x 550
HP x 130
Might Token x 1
Heroic Token x 1
Multiply the above by 7 and we are talking about Monthly BP worth $80-100.

Bowgentle

How should we know how much "players" are willing to pay?
You have ONE guy who asked for it, ask him.