MPQ Developer Q&A April 2023 (ANSWERS)

S0kun
S0kun ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 704 Critical Contributor
edited June 2023 in MPQ General Discussion

Thank you all for submitting your questions. April was an interesting month to say the least. We knew you had some pretty direct questions so we did our best to directly and transparently answer them as possible.

TLDR: Building the plane while flying it is a tough thing to do so expect some turbulence, but the journey will be worth it!

1. @_TrashPanda [Official Forums]
Question: Why has communication from the devs dropped off on the official forums so dramatically in recent months and will communication/ feedback from the devs increase again?

Answer: We've had a number of issues that required our team's full attention and at the same time, have some really exciting announcements that we're working towards this year. While our responses may fluctuate, know that we're constantly monitoring the forums and try to communicate with our community as much as possible.

2. @ThaRoadWarrior [Official Forums]
Question: Why are the official forums no longer the official source of game information?

Answer: The forums will always be our main destination of information which is why new character info and What's New gets posted here. Occasionally we try to be reactive to our communities outside of this forum due to not owning our own real-time friendly social channels such as a Discord or Reddit. It's an issue that we're definitely trying to improve so look for an update from us in the upcoming months as we work on finding a solution that works for all our communities.

3. @Carnifex [Official Forums]
Question: It's fair to say there have been a few hiccups recently. Regarding this, how are the devs feeling about the game now? Is the game still being viewed positively and enjoyed being worked on? This isn't a negative question, I'm just curious! Thank you!

Answer: In many ways, the excitement for this game is at an all-time high for us. Issues encountered and introduced are not a direct reflection of this. I think the larger part of the recent problems pertain to scheduling which, to this day, is an entirely manual and error-prone process. In conjunction with those processes we work to create tools to make things more consistent and automated where possible.

Also, what's been said before but remains true, MPQ is a large game with years of infrastructural context and nuance that we're still working to make our own. Building the plane while flying it is a tough thing to do so expect some turbulence, but the journey will be worth it!

4. @ThisisClemFandango [Official Forums]
Question: Is the recent trouble due to bcs trying to change coding that you underestimated the wide range implications it has caused? Would you agree that this is the stickiest situation youve been in, since sticky the stick insect got stuck on a sticky bun?

Answer: I think alot of it comes down to what I mentioned before (the whole flying the plane while fixing it analogy). We're constantly engaging in a push-pull with what the game is capable of, working to automate error-prone systems so we can focus more of our attention on new/original content, etc. We are sorry about recent goofs and have put several passes into smoothing out the road ahead.

5. @Atomzed [Official Forums]
Question: Are there backend reasons why there has been so many bugs recently? Like the pve overlapping in timing, Boss (Apocalypse) points not tabulating correctly, Chasm not healing from web tiles… is it indicative of lack of manpower, or a lack of priority?

Answer: There are no specific backend reasons involved with PVE overlaps. Just some poor folks juggling the curation of the calendar whilst building systems and tools to improve upon it and make it a less manual and error-prone process (so we can focus more on new content).

The Apocalypse point tabulation issue was the first run of the Apocalypse boss event under BCS. For one reason or another, its approach to points tabulation varied from all of the others and wasn't part of our verification process (it is now, of course). There is certainly no lack of personnel (the team is at its largest). We are doing quite a bit as we consider the road of 2023 to be a huge transition of sorts in which we set the stage for the game (and its underlying infrastructure) for new chapters for our players.

6. @Wolvie171 [Official Forums]
Question: With the recent event overlaps and scheduling irregularities, many passionate players have raised concerns without a response. What is your communication process for informing players how issues are being addressed?

Answer: This is a significant challenge that we've been talking about with greater frequency. The MPQ community is a strong one, but split up amongst various platforms and means of communication. It is difficult to carry out the conversation in a way that everyone feels heard and prioritized. Furthermore, MPQ moves fast: content is deployed quickly, players quickly vocalize what's working and what isn't, and fixes occur rapidly as well. Everything is very "real-time", and often by the time we have an official approved message things are already well underway.

We are working on a better means by which we can streamline communication that occurs outside of game, and I can also say that we're working on roadmapping a MUCH needed system for patch notes and early-alerts so that our players can be better informed about the state of play from within the game itself. Our system is an imperfect one, we suffer with it too, and are working to improve our ability to communicate important information to you all.

7. @jffdougan [all of the above]
Question: What concrete steps can we, the community, take to help with the recent issues in event scheduling and reward cycles?

Answer: Posting to the forum is one of the most direct way for you to reach out to us. Every new thread sends us an internal notification that our team monitors so it's very helpful. Though we can't reply to every post, it's currently the best way for us to aggregate the general feedback we're seeing from players outside of social media comments and time spent on other platforms.

8. @dianetics [Official Forums]
Question: I asked this last time and the question went unanswered. Is there a chance that we can have a publicly available known bug report with a severity rating?

Answer: There are a number of known issues that we've acknowledged to our community, but putting together a detailed list of bugs that have been reported isn't common practice and not something we can readily make available.

9. @Punisher5784 [Official Forums]
Question: When the 3/5 New Release was initially launched, one was 5 * DD accompanied with 3* Elektra because we already had 3 * DD. Would you consider the same approach? For instance, 5 * Psylocke with 3 * Professor X

Answer: It's funny that you mention this! When internally discussing 3/5 releases Psylocke and Professor X were examples that I brought up as well. The key takeaways were essentially that we wouldn't let the existence of either a 3 * or 5 * impede the release of the other (I'm personally pushing for Professor X in a big way), and our options could either be to release a different corresponding partner character or, at the very least, rebalance the existing partner.

10. @BlixTheFrog [Official Forums]
Question: We know 3 * Deadpool’s whales are a way of getting through tough matches. Can we have an easy accessible spot where the number of DP points is mentioned? Happened a few times that I found out I was below the 28000 mark when trying to use the power.

Answer: Not a bad idea. Not sure exactly where that variable "lives" and whether we could surface it easily, but will investigate!

11. @leviticuschoms [Official Forums]
Question: What's the long term plan for 1 * and 2 * characters? Will this aspect of MPQ ever get freshened up? Or is their current DDQ role and farm feeding status satisfactory?

Answer: We've focused our first year on improving the game from a fresh set of eyes and hopefully our players have enjoyed what they're seeing. As we continue to build on the game, we're also looking back at other elements that we can improve on so stay tuned!

12. @CASSIDYFROST [Official Forums]
Question: Is the list of characters to be added to the game next year ready yet? If so, could you give some hints of what we can expect? If you're not ready yet, any tips for those coming this year?

Answer: Next year's character list has not been locked in, but I can say that this year's list is going to blow at least a few minds!

13. @Codex [Official Forums]
Question: Will we ever get a playable Galactus, preferably a 5 * ?

Answer: Never say never, though I can say that Galactus is not on the character list for 2023.

14. @StrangeWitch [Official Forums]
Question: About an option for us to choose which covers we want to appear for our characters, how are the plans for this addition? Will there be ways to get these covers and even different rarities (common, rare, legendary, ...)?

Answer: Collectible and selectable covers will be making their way to MPQ. It's an official item on the roadmap, and I'll let you all know as it gets closer to prime time!

15. @CarnageWing [Official Forums]
Question: How do you plan to make new costumes for the characters? They're one of my favorite additions to the game with the new characters (except the pixels). Whenever they have rebalance? Specific events? What stops them from being added more often?

Answer: Ah, the pixel skins! It's funny; audience fanfare over pixel skins is what made us produce more of them. The original plan was to make two of them, but they were so popular and well-received that we expanded the schedule for them. We only learned recently that their popularity has diminished somewhat and our plans reflect that. How do we make plans for costumes? Costumes are the epitome of "wouldn't it be cool" and we LOVE them. What we try to do is create at least one additional skin every season (more if we can) and we do typically try to plan them around a significant rebalance. When we can't check all of those boxes, we do what we can.

16. Unknown [Official Forums]
Question: How is 5* MThor a force to be reckoned with, but 4* Goddess of Thunder the weakest?

Answer: No character is off the table when it comes to the rebalance schedule. 4* Jane Foster's time will come!

17. Figzilla [Reddit]
Question: When building the next generation of PVE - what differences do you want players to experience in terms of character use? Will there be more required nodes? how are affiliations part of the vision? anything you can share on that implementation?

Answer: Ultimately we'd like players to be more fluid with their rosters. We talk about putting the "puzzle back in MPQ" quite a bit internally. We want to make composing teams better, more intuitive, more rewarding, and more valuable to the experience. Those are big shoes to fill though. Before we run we'll need to walk, and that starts with getting the ball rolling with new PVE episodes!

18. @Grizwald [Official Forums]
Question: When developing a new character, do you start with the character, 4 * Slapstick for example, and develop powers for them or does someone develop a powerset and then you find a character to fit it?

Answer: This can be a mixed bag. Sometimes we create abilities without the context of a character because they are simply cool abilities that would be great for the game and need to find a home. Typically though, abilities are bespoke for the characters we are building outright so that we can focus on their identity in MPQ.

19. @illusionist_KA [Official Forums]
Question: When is PVP going to be revamped? IE: god mode scaling, mmr, rewards, chasm reduction?

Answer: An updated algorithm for handling MMR is approaching a state of completion to which it can be tested (though it is likely to live in testing for quite some time. Rewards have already received a round of updates, but we do feel that they could use more to further incentivize participation (though this has yet to be designed). As for Chasm reduction, a rebalance for him is presently in QA and being closely monitored.

20. @fight4thedream [Official Forums]
Question: What's the rationale behind having permanent damage abilities start from original base health rather than current health? Seeing a big gap between current opponent health and the red slash marking permanent damage either feels meaningless or irksome.

Answer: This was a design created by Demiurge, so it's hard to pin down an exact rationale without knowing that thought process. However, it was most likely an attempt to cut down on characters that can easily burst heal to keep themselves alive and the meta there just never really developed. That would explain cutting the health in that manner.

21. @DAZ0273 [Official Forums]
Question: Was the Heroics experiment considered a failure due to your metrics - if not will we see it in some form again (be it Boss/Pve-Other?

Answer: The Heroic experiment is one we are still excited about and, in our opinion, not a failure. It was hugely divisive with the community, but we feel this was largely in the presentation (in which players felt forced to participate in it in more ways than one). We've learned from this and have plans for a revamped approach to Heroic events in the future.

22. @Kiko1317 [Official Forums]
Question: Besides daily and miles quests, would be possible to have a monthly quests as well? Would help okayers to ear more iso8. It’s very difficult for a player that started playing less than 2 years ago to compete with the OGs. Need more iso to champion

Answer: We do have plans and some implementation for this type of feature, as well as something on the very near horizon that will give players more agency in accumulating ISO-8

23. @stef_ipen [Official Forums]
Question: Stepford Cuckoos support should give extra benefit for all Emma Frost, not only 4 * one

Answer: This is an excellent point and one intended improvement when we get to our support rebalances. Thank you!

24. @DyingLegend [Official Forums]
Question: Burnout for me is becoming a reality. I am slowly losing the will to play. Are there any exciting features or changes coming to the game soon that you can share that will reignite my passion for the game?

Answer: Aside from a slew of QoL features working their way through QA, let's just say there is content coming to the game that players have been waiting a long time for...

25. @MirrorKnight [Official Forums]
Question: Would you consider tying the 4 star character in the daily Spicy Taco Vault to the four star character in the Behemoth Burrito node?

Answer: Yes, we can absolutely consider this!

26. @She-Ra007 [Official Forums]
Question: There isn't an obvious/ transparent schedule set for the order that classics & latest 5 * will be featured in PvE/ PvP. Can you release a standard schedule so we know exactly what to expect (i.e. Order set by Original Release Date/ Alphabetical, etc.)

Answer: Outside of being as transparent as possible with the What's New updates, this is actually a very difficult ask. There are some obvious "set" timings with newly released characters, but there isn't a direct rotation for older ones in PVE. Versus tends to be alphabetical, but also has issues when a character releases outside of their alphabetical order. For example, Emma happened to slot in pretty much perfectly in Versus as a reward, but if she had released even a month later? She'd be waiting a cycle of every single other 5-Star before she'd be up for Versus rewards. So sometimes you have to manually change that so that players have an opportunity to grab that not quite new release. But do you do that for a character that'll be up in a month alphabetically? In short, not as simple as it seems at the outset to just procedurally generate a list for the future.

27. @Bad [Official Forums]
Question: It seems you are overcautious now prenerfing characters who us advanced players don't see as any type of threat. Why are you doing this now and you didn't in chasm and kang cases?

Answer: Chasm was designed at the outset to be a bit of a meta changer. He was overbalanced to start, but we were confident (turns out overly so) that counterplay would provide enough of a stopper on him. Kang we're in a more reasonable place with; he has a place in high meta due to his utility, but he's not a Chasm, Polaris, or Gambit. Our goal with any character is to place them in at least the top 1/3 of characters of that tier. If they don't hit that for whatever reason (::cough:: Magik ::cough::) we put them on the shortlist pile for some numbers tweaking when we've got time.

What you're seeing with other characters in regards to "pre-nerfs" is the normal course of character balance, just that they came in at a point where players are able to see. This isn't anything new, off the top of my head I can think of several characters that had this treatment before they came out but after initial player facing drafts were pushed in the Demi days. Goddess Thor, Robbie Reyes, Crystal, and Rhino all had those. You're just happening to see a couple of them in somewhat short time. But it hasn't been a regular thing recently either! Jeffrey, Human Torch, M'Baku and Colleen all went out without any balance changes for around the last 2 weeks before their releases.

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Comments

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards

    FINALLY

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2023

    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

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

    @entrailbucket said:
    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

    Remember Gambit.
    The first nerf might turn out to be a buff.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Bowgentle said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

    Remember Gambit.
    The first nerf might turn out to be a buff.

    Nope, not letting you ruin Chasm Nerf Day for me!

    This is going to be better than No More Cupcakes Day!

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 852 Critical Contributor

    @entrailbucket said:

    @Bowgentle said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

    Remember Gambit.
    The first nerf might turn out to be a buff.

    Nope, not letting you ruin Chasm Nerf Day for me!

    This is going to be better than No More Cupcakes Day!

    Also remember dark beast, sometimes a buff is a solid nerf. I'm still confused over the change

  • Bad
    Bad Posts: 3,146 Chairperson of the Boards

    It only took 8 months for devs to see something so obvious and with so many negative consequences that I was warning about it from the first month and half.
    Better late than never, as it's said.

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,277 Chairperson of the Boards

    Please just let Chasm retain the first turn stun. That gives him a place for lesser rosters facing CL10 enemies who initially place SAPs of some kind.

    KGB

  • IrisRyu
    IrisRyu Posts: 174 Tile Toppler

    A Chasm nerf and Magik short-listed for a balance adjustment? Can’t happen soon enough in both cases.

  • Beast1970
    Beast1970 Posts: 421 Mover and Shaker

    @entrailbucket said:
    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

    But what about the percentage of players with a champed 5*?!? Looks like you get another month to ask again.

  • ThaRoadWarrior
    ThaRoadWarrior Posts: 9,470 Chairperson of the Boards

    I wonder if there is a way to petition to get Hell Ride reverted to original functionality but keep the rest of that Reyes buff?

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 5,965 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Beast1970 said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    There's only one important answer there, and it's that the Chasm nerf is decided and it's in testing now. Can't wait!

    But what about the percentage of players with a champed 5*?!? Looks like you get another month to ask again.

    Yeah I don't get why they won't/can't answer that one.

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 852 Critical Contributor

    They also ignored the red skull question? Becoming more disillusioned every day

  • liminal_lad
    liminal_lad Posts: 477 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2023

    This is the first time my question has not been answered. Bummer.

  • killahKlown
    killahKlown Posts: 584 Critical Contributor

    Ignored my question as well 😒

  • tonypq
    tonypq Posts: 557 Critical Contributor

    @killahKlown said:
    Ignored my question as well 😒

    They ignored my question as well, about Chasm not healing when matching web tiles. And I had the first question in the thread lol. They definitely don't want to comment on the Chasm bug at all, pretty lame.

  • fight4thedream
    fight4thedream GLOBAL_MODERATORS Posts: 1,978 Chairperson of the Boards

    Mod note: Removed a few off-topic posts. Please keep the discussion focused on the Q&A. Thank you.

  • fight4thedream
    fight4thedream GLOBAL_MODERATORS Posts: 1,978 Chairperson of the Boards

    In regards to the issue of Magik, I think the intention was to make her a battler-type character. You can see it in her design: a player can either run her as an all-out assault type by having her tank as many colors as possible and pairing her with a booster-type focusing mainly on maximizing her red passive. Or you could go for the slow burn approach, pairing her with a damage mitigater-type and try to maximize her demon tile damage.

    However, both approaches run into significant issues within the current meta. If a player tries to go the all-out assault type in PvP, they run into the issue of Magik taking excessive damage due to the current meta's love of high match damage plus passive damage combos.

    Victory is never assured and if a player manages a win, it's a pyrrhic one.

    If a player tries to go the slow burn approach, again you run into the excessive damage taken problem and additionally will have trouble maximizing the damage of her demon tiles due to either:

    a.) The current meta hard countering her demon tile ability either via Chasm denying the start of turn tile placement as well as preventing Magik from gathering the AP needed to use on Limbo on Earth, or Mighty Thor removing her demon tiles.

    b.) Bad board luck for example having the tile placed in the corner of the board or having it removed via opponent match 4.

    To be honest, even pre-nerfed I don't think she would have made much of a dent meta-wise because of the pre-existing hard counters and also just as significantly everything she does well, namely extra match damage boost, cheap AoE, and all-around good red ability, is already done better by other character who have better synergies.

    I don't think a numbers tweak is the ticket to seeing her crack the meta. As much as I appreciate the two-battle style approach to her design kit, I think the key is to have better coalescence between her abilities either by granting her better damage reduction through her demon tiles (not just limited to Supernatural enemies like her Purple passive) or if they decide to keep the repeater tiles set at 2, have them also generate red and purple AP every time they reach zero.

    Finally, it would be nice if the demon tiles were distinctly different from her Soul Sword repeater tile.

    In regards to a Chasm nerf, considering that the dev team has spent the better half of the past year making a variety of counters (i.e. Riri, Hit-Monkey, Kang, buffing Eldritch Whip to include Abyss Tiles, Kamar-Taj support) I would be surprised if the nerf is drastic. It would devalue a lot of the work they have put in to address the issue.

    Honestly, I would rather they just buff permanent damage to start from opponent's current health instead of original base health. That would add a bit more value to a lot characters (Magik, Knull, Samurai Daken, Crystal, High Evolutionary) and give more options against healers and revivers. Although, obviously I am biased on this particular issue. lol

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 852 Critical Contributor

    @fight4thedream said:
    In regards to the issue of Magik, I think the intention was to make her a battler-type character. You can see it in her design: a player can either run her as an all-out assault type by having her tank as many colors as possible and pairing her with a booster-type focusing mainly on maximizing her red passive. Or you could go for the slow burn approach, pairing her with a damage mitigater-type and try to maximize her demon tile damage.

    However, both approaches run into significant issues within the current meta. If a player tries to go the all-out assault type in PvP, they run into the issue of Magik taking excessive damage due to the current meta's love of high match damage plus passive damage combos.

    Victory is never assured and if a player manages a win, it's a pyrrhic one.

    If a player tries to go the slow burn approach, again you run into the excessive damage taken problem and additionally will have trouble maximizing the damage of her demon tiles due to either:

    a.) The current meta hard countering her demon tile ability either via Chasm denying the start of turn tile placement as well as preventing Magik from gathering the AP needed to use on Limbo on Earth, or Mighty Thor removing her demon tiles.

    b.) Bad board luck for example having the tile placed in the corner of the board or having it removed via opponent match 4.

    To be honest, even pre-nerfed I don't think she would have made much of a dent meta-wise because of the pre-existing hard counters and also just as significantly everything she does well, namely extra match damage boost, cheap AoE, and all-around good red ability, is already done better by other character who have better synergies.

    I don't think a numbers tweak is the ticket to seeing her crack the meta. As much as I appreciate the two-battle style approach to her design kit, I think the key is to have better coalescence between her abilities either by granting her better damage reduction through her demon tiles (not just limited to Supernatural enemies like her Purple passive) or if they decide to keep the repeater tiles set at 2, have them also generate red and purple AP every time they reach zero.

    Finally, it would be nice if the demon tiles were distinctly different from her Soul Sword repeater tile.

    In regards to a Chasm nerf, considering that the dev team has spent the better half of the past year making a variety of counters (i.e. Riri, Hit-Monkey, Kang, buffing Eldritch Whip to include Abyss Tiles, Kamar-Taj support) I would be surprised if the nerf is drastic. It would devalue a lot of the work they have put in to address the issue.

    Honestly, I would rather they just buff permanent damage to start from opponent's current health instead of original base health. That would add a bit more value to a lot characters (Magik, Knull, Samurai Daken, Crystal, High Evolutionary) and give more options against healers and revivers. Although, obviously I am biased on this particular issue. lol

    What he said.

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