New Boss Event: Quandary Info

revskip

I really liked this event. I hope they run it again. > @Borstock said:

I love the Quandary boss event. shrug

I also really enjoyed it. You are never going to make everyone happy with an event, some folks will always be unhappy with it but this one was fun for me and well received by those in my alliance. I hope that a vocal group of those who disliked it don't get it shelved for those who did like it.

Punisher5784

@ct451 said:
They need to add an in-game like/dislike button to gauge the true feelings of the whole player base. All this trying to make the game more challenging by adding roster restrictions and power usage restrictions and what have you is just annoying.
They need to stop listening to the hardcore players in here. They are ruining the game.

This would be a cool idea to ask in the next upcoming Q&A

entrailbucket

...can't they measure that by the number of players playing an event, and how much they're playing it? I'm fairly sure that's how they do this now. What's wrong with that approach?

Bubba3210

@entrailbucket said:
...can't they measure that by the number of players playing an event, and how much they're playing it? I'm fairly sure that's how they do this now. What's wrong with that approach?

Some play not to let their alliance down. I’d suspect a lot more would skip it if they could. About 1/3 of my alliance is done with it already. We are in round eight on the normal boss and we aren’t even off done with round six on the heroic side.

entrailbucket

@Bubba3210 said:

@entrailbucket said:
...can't they measure that by the number of players playing an event, and how much they're playing it? I'm fairly sure that's how they do this now. What's wrong with that approach?

Some play not to let their alliance down. I’d suspect a lot more would skip it if they could. About 1/3 of my alliance is done with it already. We are in round eight on the normal boss and we aren’t even off done with round six on the heroic side.

That's exactly what I'm asking though. You say they'd skip it "if they could." Why on earth CAN'T they? Are they afraid to miss out on rewards? Is it because there's nothing else to play and they need to play something?

How might they run this event in the future for the people who like it, without upsetting those who don't?

allen_koholic

How do you run an event that people are complaining about without them complaining? Is that a rhetorical question? Close the forum and Facebook page down so don’t have a place to complain?

The answer is either change the mechanics of Quandary, or substantially up the awards or, just run a **** event that’s got low engagement and not care about the low engagement.

Now, we all know what they’ll do - nerf Boss Quandary so she’s quicker to beat and probably take those stupid puzzle nodes out of rotation. And that might be enough to keep people from vocally hating it. But it will be just another dud boss event in what should have been a marquee boss event that brings new players in.

It ain’t that.

entrailbucket

@allen_koholic said:
How do you run an event that people are complaining about without them complaining? Is that a rhetorical question? Close the forum and Facebook page down so don’t have a place to complain?

The answer is either change the mechanics of Quandary, or substantially up the awards or, just run a **** event that’s got low engagement and not care about the low engagement.

Now, we all know what they’ll do - nerf Boss Quandary so she’s quicker to beat and probably take those stupid puzzle nodes out of rotation. And that might be enough to keep people from vocally hating it. But it will be just another dud boss event in what should have been a marquee boss event that brings new players in.

It ain’t that.

No, it's not a rhetorical question.

If this event gave out no rewards, and there was another PvE event you could play instead of it, you'd still be here complaining about it? Seriously? Why?

entrailbucket

Here's another one: I HATE the Balance of Power PvP. Hate it. It's random, everyone wins as much as they lose, and my roster gives me no advantage. But it's pretty popular among lower tier rosters.

Does that mean I'm wrong to hate it? Are they wrong to like it? If I came here and made a thousand screaming posts about how "BALANCE OF POWER IS AWFUL ITS THE WORST THING EVER THEYRE KILLING THE GAME ITS OVER!!!!!11!!!!" would I be correct?

No. It's not a bad event, it's just not for me.

Other people can like things that I don't like. They're not wrong and I'm not wrong. I choose not to play that event because I hate it, and I'm not in the habit of playing games that I hate during my rare, valuable free time. But I'm not going to scream at the developers about it because others do like it. They can have their event, I'll play the next one.

sinnerjfl

I was fine with the event until round 8. Now it has turned into a chore.

90% damage reduction, needing to empty all of her AP to turn that off, only two turns to do damage.
Also she now use her dumb puzzles in the middle of the fight.

NOPE NOPE NOPE. Not having fun at all.

Daredevil217

I feel like the “hate” has been pretty tame with few exceptions. Many people who expressed their dislike made salient points, gave constructive feedback or made sure to let the developers know the impact they’ve seen on their alliance and not just that they hate it, but WHY. Some people went as far as to say they LIKE the event but still feel it’s bad for the game overall due to the impact they’re seen. If they’re not supposed to give that feedback to the developers in an official thread on the official forums… then… like… where?

KGB

@entrailbucket said:
@allen_koholic that's not what I was asking though.

How could they run this event, exactly as it is, without any complaints?

If they ran it alongside some other event would that be ok? If it was an extra thing with no rewards, would that be ok?

It might be best if on the re-run the regular Boss part didn't have her puzzle side nodes. In other words it just had regular side nodes with her as the boss (her in round 7 / 8 will be enough challenge).

The the heroic side can use her puzzles on the side nodes. You don't need to do the heroic boss part since there are no alliance rewards (well, there are some placement ones, but not progression ones). That way players who hate her puzzle stuff can ignore the heroic boss part.

That and make a few minor mods to the puzzles (for the hue one, I think once you figure out a color it should show you the color you need next time she's in that hue. In other words, once you manage to damage her when she's Black it should show you the color required to damage her because you figured it out. Then no need for pencil and paper, just match till you find the correct damage color).

KGB

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:
I feel like the “hate” has been pretty tame with few exceptions. Many people who expressed their dislike made salient points, gave constructive feedback or made sure to let the developers know the impact they’ve seen on their alliance and not just that they hate it, but WHY. Some people went as far as to say they LIKE the event but still feel it’s bad for the game overall due to the impact they’re seen. If they’re not supposed to give that feedback to the developers in an official thread on the official forums… then… like… where?

Yeah, except that's not really what I was after.

Galactus v1, Boss Rush, and now Quandary are all big swings the developers took. They're all "difficult" events that were too difficult for some people, but other people liked them. I really enjoyed all 3, but the first two have never returned, and this one almost certainly won't either. They've been replaced by largely cookie-cutter, trivially easy boss events that I find boring and repetitive, but aren't as "controversial," I guess.

I'm trying to figure out a way that we could have these difficult or puzzle-y events, the sort that upset a lot of players, without causing such a problem for players who don't like this stuff.

Why do players feel these are mandatory? If "just ignore the stuff you don't like" is unacceptable for some reason, what strategies could the devs use to make both groups happy?

Daredevil217

Do you really find this event difficult? I don’t at all. I’ve yet to use a health pack and the “puzzles” are pretty easy to solve. I think a lot of folks are confusing tedious with challenging. Like it’s a complete chore to do 75 red matches everyday but it’s not particularly hard or challenging lol. I don’t remember the other two events you mention TBH. Wish I could’ve tried them. You can add gauntlet to the list of never returned. At least we have heroics/restricted rosters back (which again, I LOVE, but know I may be in the minority there).

I think one way to do this is to have the two concurrent events. Entering one locks you out of the other. Equal team points in both. But better rewards are given to those who enter the more restrictive event. It won’t do anything for the people who hate just to hate but it will do a lot for the newbs who this events slogginess may be turning away.

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:
Do you really find this event difficult? I don’t at all. I’ve yet to use a health pack and the “puzzles” are pretty easy to solve. I think a lot of folks are confusing tedious with challenging. Like it’s a complete chore to do 75 red matches everyday but it’s not particularly hard or challenging lol. I don’t remember the other two events you mention TBH. Wish I could’ve tried them. You can add gauntlet to the list of never returned. At least we have heroics/restricted rosters back (which again, I LOVE, but know I may be in the minority there).

I think one way to do this is to have the two concurrent events. Entering one locks you out of the other. Equal team points in both. But better rewards are given to those who enter the more restrictive event. It won’t do anything for the people who hate just to hate but it will do a lot for the newbs who this events slogginess may be turning away.

It's "difficult" in the sense that you can't just brute-force it, you have to engage with the puzzles. The color swap one is a memory game, the bottom row one is about board manipulation, even the 3-card-monte one requires some board skill to get the right tile in position to be matched.

I'm sure the milestones are tedious but I've just been ignoring them.

The other two past events were different -- they were just HARD. You took tons of damage. You could win but it took really careful play and team construction. But the reaction to this has been similar to those.

Simultaneous events was one thing I considered. But do you think players would be ok with getting worse rewards for the "easy" version? Would they feel this same FOMO pressure that's forcing them to do this one?

Mike4003

This is the worst boss event ever. If this becomes the norm, I’m hanging it up.

Daredevil217

@entrailbucket said:

@Daredevil217 said:
Do you really find this event difficult? I don’t at all. I’ve yet to use a health pack and the “puzzles” are pretty easy to solve. I think a lot of folks are confusing tedious with challenging. Like it’s a complete chore to do 75 red matches everyday but it’s not particularly hard or challenging lol. I don’t remember the other two events you mention TBH. Wish I could’ve tried them. You can add gauntlet to the list of never returned. At least we have heroics/restricted rosters back (which again, I LOVE, but know I may be in the minority there).

I think one way to do this is to have the two concurrent events. Entering one locks you out of the other. Equal team points in both. But better rewards are given to those who enter the more restrictive event. It won’t do anything for the people who hate just to hate but it will do a lot for the newbs who this events slogginess may be turning away.

It's "difficult" in the sense that you can't just brute-force it, you have to engage with the puzzles. The color swap one is a memory game, the bottom row one is about board manipulation, even the 3-card-monte one requires some board skill to get the right tile in position to be matched.

I'm sure the milestones are tedious but I've just been ignoring them.

The other two past events were different -- they were just HARD. You took tons of damage. You could win but it took really careful play and team construction. But the reaction to this has been similar to those.

Simultaneous events was one thing I considered. But do you think players would be ok with getting worse rewards for the "easy" version? Would they feel this same FOMO pressure that's forcing them to do this one?

Id say it’s different. But not difficult personally. But a big part of the allure is using the characters we love. Aside from health there is zero difference between playing a Wolverine or Thanos since none of their powers are of use. I can see how that would irk people who play this game for that reason. If it’s “too different” then it may not feel like the game they love and is something else entirely.

What im hearing from a lot of people is they play because they don’t want to let their alliance down. This solution could at least remedy that. I like the both events personally because you know… double rewards! And I play it all. Even the stupid bounties. I’m a completionist in every game I play. I’d probably quit completely before scaling back. I think there are more players like me out there than you think. And when it gets too much, they will chose the exit. They won’t make a big grand gesture on the forums. They’ll just… leave.

allen_koholic

@entrailbucket said:

@Daredevil217 said:
I feel like the “hate” has been pretty tame with few exceptions. Many people who expressed their dislike made salient points, gave constructive feedback or made sure to let the developers know the impact they’ve seen on their alliance and not just that they hate it, but WHY. Some people went as far as to say they LIKE the event but still feel it’s bad for the game overall due to the impact they’re seen. If they’re not supposed to give that feedback to the developers in an official thread on the official forums… then… like… where?

Yeah, except that's not really what I was after.

Galactus v1, Boss Rush, and now Quandary are all big swings the developers took. They're all "difficult" events that were too difficult for some people, but other people liked them. I really enjoyed all 3, but the first two have never returned, and this one almost certainly won't either. They've been replaced by largely cookie-cutter, trivially easy boss events that I find boring and repetitive, but aren't as "controversial," I guess.

I'm trying to figure out a way that we could have these difficult or puzzle-y events, the sort that upset a lot of players, without causing such a problem for players who don't like this stuff.

Why do players feel these are mandatory? If "just ignore the stuff you don't like" is unacceptable for some reason, what strategies could the devs use to make both groups happy?

No one liked boss rush.

Galactus had been in semi-regular rotation before the new devs came along.

—-

You keep asking the same question and getting answers and you just don’t like the answer. So here’s one - if you want to play more difficult bosses, just use sub-optimal characters and make it difficult on yourself and stop try-harding for the developers. This event is a dud. There’s not interesting mechanics, it’s just a lady that tanks a lot of damage and some really obnoxious nodes.

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:

@entrailbucket said:

@Daredevil217 said:
Do you really find this event difficult? I don’t at all. I’ve yet to use a health pack and the “puzzles” are pretty easy to solve. I think a lot of folks are confusing tedious with challenging. Like it’s a complete chore to do 75 red matches everyday but it’s not particularly hard or challenging lol. I don’t remember the other two events you mention TBH. Wish I could’ve tried them. You can add gauntlet to the list of never returned. At least we have heroics/restricted rosters back (which again, I LOVE, but know I may be in the minority there).

I think one way to do this is to have the two concurrent events. Entering one locks you out of the other. Equal team points in both. But better rewards are given to those who enter the more restrictive event. It won’t do anything for the people who hate just to hate but it will do a lot for the newbs who this events slogginess may be turning away.

It's "difficult" in the sense that you can't just brute-force it, you have to engage with the puzzles. The color swap one is a memory game, the bottom row one is about board manipulation, even the 3-card-monte one requires some board skill to get the right tile in position to be matched.

I'm sure the milestones are tedious but I've just been ignoring them.

The other two past events were different -- they were just HARD. You took tons of damage. You could win but it took really careful play and team construction. But the reaction to this has been similar to those.

Simultaneous events was one thing I considered. But do you think players would be ok with getting worse rewards for the "easy" version? Would they feel this same FOMO pressure that's forcing them to do this one?

Id say it’s different. But not difficult personally. But a big part of the allure is using the characters we love. Aside from health there is zero difference between playing a Wolverine or Thanos since none of their powers are of use. I can see how that would irk people who play this game for that reason. If it’s “too different” then it may not feel like the game they love and is something else entirely.

What im hearing from a lot of people is they play because they don’t want to let their alliance down. This solution could at least remedy that. I like the both events personally because you know… double rewards! And I play it all. Even the stupid bounties. I’m a completionist in every game I play. I’d probably quit completely before scaling back. I think there are more players like me out there than you think. And when it gets too much, they will chose the exit. They won’t make a big grand gesture on the forums. They’ll just… leave.

The alliance thing is weird to me because I've run or helped run an alliance forever, often a very competitive one, and our message was always "if it's not fun don't play it." We never had minimums or requirements, even when we were top 10.

Forcing people to do stuff they don't like, either explicitly or implicitly, just leads to burnout, in my experience. No rewards are worth alliancemates quitting.

entrailbucket

@allen_koholic said:

@entrailbucket said:

@Daredevil217 said:
I feel like the “hate” has been pretty tame with few exceptions. Many people who expressed their dislike made salient points, gave constructive feedback or made sure to let the developers know the impact they’ve seen on their alliance and not just that they hate it, but WHY. Some people went as far as to say they LIKE the event but still feel it’s bad for the game overall due to the impact they’re seen. If they’re not supposed to give that feedback to the developers in an official thread on the official forums… then… like… where?

Yeah, except that's not really what I was after.

Galactus v1, Boss Rush, and now Quandary are all big swings the developers took. They're all "difficult" events that were too difficult for some people, but other people liked them. I really enjoyed all 3, but the first two have never returned, and this one almost certainly won't either. They've been replaced by largely cookie-cutter, trivially easy boss events that I find boring and repetitive, but aren't as "controversial," I guess.

I'm trying to figure out a way that we could have these difficult or puzzle-y events, the sort that upset a lot of players, without causing such a problem for players who don't like this stuff.

Why do players feel these are mandatory? If "just ignore the stuff you don't like" is unacceptable for some reason, what strategies could the devs use to make both groups happy?

No one liked boss rush.

Galactus had been in semi-regular rotation before the new devs came along.

—-

You keep asking the same question and getting answers and you just don’t like the answer. So here’s one - if you want to play more difficult bosses, just use sub-optimal characters and make it difficult on yourself and stop try-harding for the developers. This event is a dud. There’s not interesting mechanics, it’s just a lady that tanks a lot of damage and some really obnoxious nodes.

I couldn't care less about these developers and I've criticized them a ton, both today and in the past.

I liked Boss Rush. Saying "nobody" liked it is wrong, a bunch of us did. But a bunch of other players came here and cried because it was so unfair, it was just too hard for them.

If you want every event to be "make one move, instantly kill all enemies," and anything else is too hard for you to figure out, that's fine. They can make boring easy events for you and interesting events that require actual thought for everyone else.

Why does every single event have to be boring and easy just because some people can't figure out the hard ones?

Daredevil217

Is that really the predominant feedback of those who don’t like this event? That it’s too hard? Has anyone in here said that they want one move victories all the time? Come on now…