MPQ Developer Q&A June 2023 (ANSWERS)

Scofie

@pepitedechocolat said:

@ThisisClemFandango said:
Huh, so it seems that beast and fury actually ARE better now despite what we think.
Incredible.

That is not devs answer. They are used more just after rework, which is not "being better"...

Interesting to see the list of least used char, which is like 50% bad chars and 50% unpopular or harder to cover chars...

If they rebalance only based on popularity it makes sense. I think it's not right but it makes sense

I was going to say the same thing. "Used more" doors not equal "better", but if that's what the aim with rebalances is, then it's a reasonable indicator of success.

But it raises a valid question: I played Dark Beast when essential and at no other time. I kind of wanted to use him again after the change to see what the impact was, but didn't. His nerf, or update our whatever we are calling it, had no impact on my use of him. But I struggle to think what they could have done to him that made him worth me using, and under what circumstances.

The best I can think of is the 3/4* DDQ mode where I can have a free choice. I have the feeling that all rebalanced characters get an initial uptick in use as people try them out and find synergy if powers are shifted. I think a "difference in use after 3 months" metric would be more valuable to understand the impact.

entrailbucket

@MgoBlue51 said:
I definitely didn't expect an answer (mostly because I know $$ is the driving factor), but still bummed they didn't even attempt to acknowledge that 5 star characters are still being treated like gold, even though they aren't super rare anymore. There needs to be a more reliable way to acquire the OLD ones. My silver surfer still isn't anywhere near champing, and though his power level is not good enough to compete these days, it hurts to see one of my favorite characters from my childhood be sitting as completely useless. I've been playing for way too a long time (not from launch, but started within the first year) for this. We need a mechanism that makes characters 3+ years old (or some age related line in the sand) easier to acquire.

Silver Surfer is absolutely good enough to compete, since his recent buff.

LavaManLee

@entrailbucket said:
Silver Surfer is absolutely good enough to compete, since his recent buff.

I don't think that is a binary statement. He might be good enough to compete in some things but not all. I couldn't see recommending Silver Surfer as one of your two in high end PVP. You will get slaughtered. But he might be fine in SCL10 PVE if you don't have other 5s champed (or just a few). And even then, your placement won't be great because he isn't fast.

pepitedechocolat

@MgoBlue51 said:
I definitely didn't expect an answer (mostly because I know $$ is the driving factor), but still bummed they didn't even attempt to acknowledge that 5 star characters are still being treated like gold, even though they aren't super rare anymore. There needs to be a more reliable way to acquire the OLD ones. My silver surfer still isn't anywhere near champing, and though his power level is not good enough to compete these days, it hurts to see one of my favorite characters from my childhood be sitting as completely useless. I've been playing for way too a long time (not from launch, but started within the first year) for this. We need a mechanism that makes characters 3+ years old (or some age related line in the sand) easier to acquire.

With favorite mechanism, bonus shards 4* feeders and recent vaults with fav shards... It's not hard to cover any favable 5* as long as you are not expecting to cover characters while hoarding.

ThisisClemFandango

Preach dianetics, preach!!!

MgoBlue51

@pepitedechocolat said:

@MgoBlue51 said:
I definitely didn't expect an answer (mostly because I know $$ is the driving factor), but still bummed they didn't even attempt to acknowledge that 5 star characters are still being treated like gold, even though they aren't super rare anymore. There needs to be a more reliable way to acquire the OLD ones. My silver surfer still isn't anywhere near champing, and though his power level is not good enough to compete these days, it hurts to see one of my favorite characters from my childhood be sitting as completely useless. I've been playing for way too a long time (not from launch, but started within the first year) for this. We need a mechanism that makes characters 3+ years old (or some age related line in the sand) easier to acquire.

With favorite mechanism, bonus shards 4* feeders and recent vaults with fav shards... It's not hard to cover any favable 5* as long as you are not expecting to cover characters while hoarding.

I dunno. Shards for 5* don't go fast either. Without the bonus shards, you get what? 3 shards per LT? Even using a 4* feeder doesn't go fast. Now, I'm sure there are plenty of players who accomplish this goal a lot faster than I do, but for me it still takes a while. It obviously hasn't ruined my game play, but it does require me to pick and choose which 5s to chase. I have very rarely been able to get 14 covers for a single 5* without hoarding first. The tier is bloated, and while it's better than it used to be, it's still harder than the sheer quantity says it should be... At least IMO. I'm willing to be wrong, but at least personally it lowers my enjoyment with the game. Give me a carrot to chase, don't make it easy per se, but do make it reachable.

entrailbucket

@LavaManLee said:

@entrailbucket said:
Silver Surfer is absolutely good enough to compete, since his recent buff.

I don't think that is a binary statement. He might be good enough to compete in some things but not all. I couldn't see recommending Silver Surfer as one of your two in high end PVP. You will get slaughtered. But he might be fine in SCL10 PVE if you don't have other 5s champed (or just a few). And even then, your placement won't be great because he isn't fast.

During his boost week, I use him at 672 and I'm basically invincible -- his red oneshots a 550 Chasm for 7AP and he has 450,000 health. The hoarders who wasted all their resources maxing out Chasm have no way to deal with him, and they can't win fights against him.

When he's not boosted, I wouldn't use him, but I don't use anybody who's not boosted. In fact, I believe that characters should not be usable when unboosted.

BriMan2222

@ThisisClemFandango said:
Huh, so it seems that beast and fury actually ARE better now despite what we think.
Incredible.

MPQ players: I think you actually made Dark Beast and Fury worse with your rework

BCBS:

Seph1roth5

I don't think a lv 672 boosted 5* is a good example of...well anything lol. Can say the same about a lot of 5* vs chasm. Though by the time you have 7 red ap he's probably ready to res anyway.

Scofie

@dianetics said:

@Scofie said:
But it raises a valid question: I played Dark Beast when essential and at no other time. I kind of wanted to use him again after the change to see what the impact was, but didn't. His nerf, or update our whatever we are calling it, had no impact on my use of him. But I struggle to think what they could have done to him that made him worth me using, and under what circumstances.

I used him a lot more after his rework just to try and get a handle on what the rework did for him. He is less good as a team member and much slower in general. Overall, he is much worse.
His old kit changed 4 basic tiles (any color) to blue charged tiles. Which let him work really well with a variety of characters. The change completely changed how he works and the AP generation is not worth it.
His blue generates attack tiles, and his green will give blue for every 2 attack tiles on the board. But, the attack tiles can only be blue or green and the CDs can only be red.
The engine tops out quickly, and I ended up just black matching and having him tank over America.

Sorry, I wasn't really very clear on my point. I wasn't suggesting DB is better now, I was thinking what they could have done to him to make him usable and under what circumstances. So if he was "OK" before and I never used him, what update makes him usable when compared with Polaris/R4G/ Juggs etc? Would it have been more charged tiles? Numbers buff? I'm just not convinced he was ever going to be anything other than essential-only. That's not a criticism - 95% of the 4* tier is.

My other thought was sometimes it's better to rework other characters to establish great teams. R4G aren't particularly great on their own but they work because others make them great in 4* and 5* land by boosting strikes. Perhaps underused characters just need a situational synergy with characters in the tier above to make them more usable to more people. So a boost to Apoc perhaps, like a passive synergy perk. Perhaps affiliations is the way to do that?

entrailbucket

@Seph1roth5 said:
I don't think a lv 672 boosted 5* is a good example of...well anything lol. Can say the same about a lot of 5* vs chasm. Though by the time you have 7 red ap he's probably ready to res anyway.

Actually...you can't say that about a lot of other characters. I've got 18 550s, and at least half of them are completely worthless against Chasm, at lvl672.

entrailbucket

@Scofie said:

@dianetics said:

@Scofie said:
But it raises a valid question: I played Dark Beast when essential and at no other time. I kind of wanted to use him again after the change to see what the impact was, but didn't. His nerf, or update our whatever we are calling it, had no impact on my use of him. But I struggle to think what they could have done to him that made him worth me using, and under what circumstances.

I used him a lot more after his rework just to try and get a handle on what the rework did for him. He is less good as a team member and much slower in general. Overall, he is much worse.
His old kit changed 4 basic tiles (any color) to blue charged tiles. Which let him work really well with a variety of characters. The change completely changed how he works and the AP generation is not worth it.
His blue generates attack tiles, and his green will give blue for every 2 attack tiles on the board. But, the attack tiles can only be blue or green and the CDs can only be red.
The engine tops out quickly, and I ended up just black matching and having him tank over America.

Sorry, I wasn't really very clear on my point. I wasn't suggesting DB is better now, I was thinking what they could have done to him to make him usable and under what circumstances. So if he was "OK" before and I never used him, what update makes him usable when compared with Polaris/R4G/ Juggs etc? Would it have been more charged tiles? Numbers buff? I'm just not convinced he was ever going to be anything other than essential-only. That's not a criticism - 95% of the 4* tier is.

My other thought was sometimes it's better to rework other characters to establish great teams. R4G aren't particularly great on their own but they work because others make them great in 4* and 5* land by boosting strikes. Perhaps underused characters just need a situational synergy with characters in the tier above to make them more usable to more people. So a boost to Apoc perhaps, like a passive synergy perk. Perhaps affiliations is the way to do that?

I don't think there is anything they could have done that would make people use him over those other characters. That's not his problem, though -- because those other characters are so good, they make everyone look awful in comparison.

ThisisClemFandango

@BriMan2222 said:

@ThisisClemFandango said:
Huh, so it seems that beast and fury actually ARE better now despite what we think.
Incredible.

MPQ players: I think you actually made Dark Beast and Fury worse with your rework

BCBS:

This is spot on, nice work mate

LavaManLee

@entrailbucket said:

@Seph1roth5 said:
I don't think a lv 672 boosted 5* is a good example of...well anything lol. Can say the same about a lot of 5* vs chasm. Though by the time you have 7 red ap he's probably ready to res anyway.

Actually...you can't say that about a lot of other characters. I've got 18 550s, and at least half of them are completely worthless against Chasm, at lvl672.

Either way, your original post did not say a Max Champed Boosted Silver Surfer is absolutely good enough to compete. You said a Silver Surfer is good enough to compete. Two different statements.

entrailbucket

I mean, I'm using very high level characters but I'm also fighting against very high level characters. Do you need a character who can repeatedly stomp 550 Chasms? Or are you fighting against enemies 100 levels lower than that?

ElectricVasting

@Scofie said:
My other thought was sometimes it's better to rework other characters to establish great teams. R4G aren't particularly great on their own but they work because others make them great in 4* and 5* land by boosting strikes. Perhaps underused characters just need a situational synergy with characters in the tier above to make them more usable to more people. So a boost to Apoc perhaps, like a passive synergy perk. Perhaps affiliations is the way to do that?

So you mean kind of how Nick Fury was useful in certain 5* teams, before the devs nerfed him?

Scofie

@ElectricVasting said:

@Scofie said:
My other thought was sometimes it's better to rework other characters to establish great teams. R4G aren't particularly great on their own but they work because others make them great in 4* and 5* land by boosting strikes. Perhaps underused characters just need a situational synergy with characters in the tier above to make them more usable to more people. So a boost to Apoc perhaps, like a passive synergy perk. Perhaps affiliations is the way to do that?

So you mean kind of how Nick Fury was useful in certain 5* teams, before the devs nerfed him?

Yes, like that. 🙂

LavaManLee

@entrailbucket said:
I mean, I'm using very high level characters but I'm also fighting against very high level characters. Do you need a character who can repeatedly stomp 550 Chasms? Or are you fighting against enemies 100 levels lower than that?

I don't need either. If Silver Surfer were so great at any level, we would see him everywhere and there would be lots of hints/tricks all over about using him. If he works for you, great. I'm disagreeing that just having some kind of Silver Surfer (the OP of this said his wasn't even champed yet) is good enough to compete. It's not.

entrailbucket

@LavaManLee said:

@entrailbucket said:
I mean, I'm using very high level characters but I'm also fighting against very high level characters. Do you need a character who can repeatedly stomp 550 Chasms? Or are you fighting against enemies 100 levels lower than that?

I don't need either. If Silver Surfer were so great at any level, we would see him everywhere and there would be lots of hints/tricks all over about using him. If he works for you, great. I'm disagreeing that just having some kind of Silver Surfer (the OP of this said his wasn't even champed yet) is good enough to compete. It's not.

Since the buff he's absolutely usable, at any level. Nobody uses him because:

1) he's old, and thus hard to get if you don't spend CP into classics.
2) he was really bad for a long time, so tons of people never bothered with him.
3) chasm etc exist and are far, far better than everyone else, so there's no reason to ever use anybody besides them.

ThisisClemFandango

Been trying to understand how beast and fury are more usuable now. Furys yellow is cheaper which means you can fire it more often but does the decreased damage make him useful?
Beast, I've said before, I will die on this hill. His creating charged tiles to further his "experiments" ie more powers completely fits, his new power creates specials to what? Improve his black?
Also interestingly this is the 1st month my question has been ignored, they should stipulate that some questions will not be answered in the original post.
Bit disappointed that the team decide what to answer and what to ignore but it is their game and we are but players.