MPQ Developer Q&A November 2023 (ANSWERS)

MPQBlaine · December 2023

Hi everyone!

Here are the answers to November's Dev Q&A! We will provide the QA form for December in a couple of weeks, but with the Holiday in mind, there will be a small delay in getting those questions answered.

In the meantime, get ready to end the year with a ton of MPQ activities!

November 2023 Answers

@Bad [Official Forums]
Question: Many games have a web store which can be adressed in game. It's a win-win as it avoids Google/Ios and offers discounts and extra goodies for customers. Did you think about this?

Answer: We think it's a good idea, we'll take a look at what would would be needed to bring it to MPQ!
@bigjojo04 [Official Forums]
Question: With Champions 2.0 now in full swing, any chance saved covers could be added to 1* characters so we won’t have to sit on covers we can’t apply to ascended champ levels yet?

Answer: It's an issue at this very moment, yes. But with the rest of the characters rolling out soon, it'll cease to be one. The tech involved in intial championing and saving covers is a little wonky, and we're not sure the work in working out all the kinks and edge cases would be worth it when it would become a non-issue in less than 90 days max.
@Carnifex [Official Forums]
Question: Any updates on increased ISO? After double ISO ended, it really feels like a trickle to earn this.

Answer: Nothing to announce at the moment, but we're discussing/looking into various resources and how they're distributed overall. We definitely see the deficiency, and internally there are a decent amount of gripes about being in an Iso desert for a long time.
@Pwu [Official Forums]
Question: Lightning Rounds have been feeling kinda stale for a while. Can we get some new Lightning Round rotations? Perhaps a week of Class of 20xx events for the Lightning Rounds?

Answer: New lightning rounds are slated for next year when we more deeply address event creation / overhaul. They need some love and we plan on remedying that when we have sufficient tools in place to do it will and efficiently.
slack.g [Discord]
Question: Is it possible to modernise all/many old 5star characters' match damage and health pools? It feels so unintuitive to have to keep Omega Red 70+ levels below Okoye, just for her to be able to tank all colors - her main mechanic. It is about time IMO

Answer: This is part of our ongoing and rotating rebalance efforts. It is a process that is anything but fast, but we try to be judicious about the choices that are made (which is why a sweeping bump has not been applied).
@Bzhai [Official Forums]
Question: Medusa, Crystal, She-hulk and Spider-man would like their Fantastic Four membership recognized so they can take the Fantasticar out for a spin.

Answer: Affiliations are tough thing, as so many of them are transient. We try to apply affiliations that make sense for the incarnation of the character we are targeting, which can seem a bit jarring. It's our way of making sure that we do honor to the characters whilst preventing too many affiliation assignments.
@ShionSinX [Official Forums]
Question: Any chance that instead of covers we get 500x 5* shards for alliance/individual progression on Boss Events?

Answer: This is possible, but at this time there aren't any plans to make this move. We're always monitoring rewards and tuning the values accordingly. Will continue to keep this in mind!
@UnityGamer [Official Forums]
Question: Marvel has many IPs and relationships with other companies, but can't get in due to licensing issues and game's intent on keeping things all Marvel. Were there any plans for guests characters, and what is your view on crossovers in general?

Answer: Believe it or not this question comes up alot internally. The decision is currently no, in that we aim to keep the roster of characters strictly to those that are Marvel. I'm not sure that this will always be the case, but for now it is.
ReturnalShadow [Reddit]
Question: There's a "problem" in pvps for year: Some players want to win pvp matches with any teams. And, they want their teams to deter attack. If not, they would be "forced" to use meta teams as deterrence. How do you solve this?

Answer: That's part of the balance of PVP. Making considerations based on your team's offensive and defensive capabilities are part of the strategy, and it is not our goal to create characters that are universally good in offensive and defensive roles.
@StillMonsoon3 [Official Forums]
Question: Is there a reason that in Welcome To Shield, that for the new character solo nodes, stuns are disabled in the character kit? This really hampers one's ability to get a feel for the new power set. Could boosts and team-ups be disabled instead?

Answer: I think the origin of this design decision (which came way before the current team) was to prevent certain types of play that would lock out and undermine the experience. It's worth revisiting though, and will look into this.
@TimeMachineGo [Official Forums]
Question: We've got an understanding of when boss events occur and at least a t10 heroic reward (newest r5 support), could we know what the other 2 options will be ahead? These events take TONS of effort even for organized alliances and knowing would help

Answer: Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our What's New MPQ every month since that will be the most up to the minute calendar for event planning. S0kun and Blaine are keeping an eye out for whats to improve our communications so feel free to leave suggestions that they'll consider for future updates.
@Hilk49 [Official Forums]
Question: Can we get a proposed schedule for when the other characters will allow ascension (wave 3/4?), including if new characters will be able to be ascended, or will we continue to have waves?

Answer: There are two more batches on the way. One of them will be landing the 3rd week of December. The other is currently slated for a January release.
@CASSIDYFROST [Official Forums]
Question: Would Champions 2.0 be a way for you to add fewer repeating characters? For example, if a super powerful Mantis is released in the MCU and instead of creating a 5* for her, you just add the costume to the 4* we already have and she ascend to 5*?

Answer: Champs 2.0 has the potential to do this sort of thing, yes. With characters capable of moving across various rarity levels, we're definitely looking at the future of character creation differently!
@StrangeWitch [Official Forums]
Question: Is there any chance we'll ever get the Uncanny Spider-Man costume for our Nightcrawler one day? (and it will come with Silver Sable too, who knows....)

Answer: Devpool: If I have anything to say about it, YES.
@CarnageWing [Official Forums]
Question: There are some classic characters in the game that need a visual update, whether they are versions in the MCU or even in the comics, like Iron Man, Jean Grey, Wolverine, Thor, Spider-Man, among others. Are there any upgrade plans for them?

Answer: We have a backlog of characters we would like to redo art for. Originally we had hoped to perform these along with rebalances, but our artists continue to be slammed. Contrary to what might be popular belief, the art creation process for MPQ is immensely time-consuming. We do plan on getting through that backlog once we can further improve efficiency and get some more of these big features done.
phillsam [Reddit]
Question: With the end of LOKI, some very interesting perspectives of time and the multiverse emerged, now that we even "have" Sylvie in the game, is there any chance of you creating an event based on the series for the game?

Answer: Devpool: I think this would be amazing! Our goal is to have a toolset in place by mid-late 2024 that gives us the ability to create event content with enough efficiency that we can better align experiences in the game with those that are occurring in the broader Marvel Universe.
@OrorotheStorm [Official Forums]
Question: Assuming this is the last Q&A we'll get answers to before the end of the year, are there any spoilers or hints of things we can expect next year that you can talk about now? I hope it's a wonderful year and that the game grows more and more!

Answer: We're still wrapping up planning and getting things greenlit, but next year is slated to be huge! More content, more events, huge improvements to social features, more things for alliances to do, etc. If 2023 was the year of supports and characters, 2024 will be the year of alliances, social, and content at large.
@LOKI2355 [Official Forums]
Question: Could Dar-Benn come to the game one day? And with an ability of "Choose a tile and change all your AP in that color to what your opponent has in that same color"? I think it would be interesting and it also reminds us of what she does in The Marvels.

Answer: We've said it before, and we'll say it again: "never say never!"
@GHOSTCARD [Official Forums]
Question: Are we never going to have cover changes in the game again?

Answer: Yes, and we do have plans to blow this out into a bigger feature in general. Stay tuned!
@trewiltrewil [Official Forums]
Question: Please for the love of all things good and decent in this world can we have a filter for ready to champion 🙏?

Answer: Yes, we are looking into this!
@Dr Clever [Official Forums]
Question: Would you consider allowing characters for which no champ rewards have been claimed to be turned back into covers? The inability to do this makes the purchase of pre-ascended versions of those characters much less attractive than it'd be otherwise.

Answer: There are currently no plans for this feature.
mhdg8r [Reddit]
Question: It would be great to have a checklist for making sure we keep track of daily bonuses, special character points, etc.

Answer: If this is in reference to some sort of quick fact sheet to help keep track of the current state of things for both the game and the player, then yes, and the latter half of 2024 should see some of this manifested.
@kleussaroot [Official Forums]
Question: "best pet ever" is certainly not the tip for PETe Wisdom to enter the game, but if you were to include him, what would be the focus of his habilities, to make him match with someone already in the game?

Answer: Tough one, as we don't have much Excalibur representation in the game. Definitely something with his hot knives and avoiding protects (maybe even damage reduction avoidance?) Something support based to help the team with AP gain or maybe enemy AP cost gained (as the team knows what the enemy is capable of)... have to give a think on overall kit, especially something that could slot in with some other Excalibur-ites, but would be an interesting character!
@PHOTONrumbeau [Official Forums]
Question: What else limits you from releasing more frequent and simpler costumes like the first ones released? Like a simple Valkyrie with a suit, a Peter Parker with the yellow jacket from Homecoming, things like that for example...

Answer: Mostly just a factor of time. We love doing costumes, but in truth, the effort behind creating a costume is almost the same (or sometimes more) as the character itself. Unlike games that use 3D assets in which a certain core of the character can be retained and costume elements can be layered over the top, MPQ's art style tends to require us to start from square 1.
@Illusionist_KA [Official Forums]
Question: Can we at some point do new releases (4/5) on or during weekdays? I know many including myself would like a free weekend not tied to this unpaid part-time job.

Answer: Sorry to say it, but at the moment there are no plans to change the release timing and cadence on characters to that degree. We'll keep the ask in mind though!
@Scofie [Official Forums]
Question: Is the Daily Resupply going to get some love? We just had a great 10th anniversary run, but fixed rewards are less frequent than before (along with a repeat Rhino cover within 6 months).

Answer: We do plan on overhauling this, yes. Not ETA at the moment though.
@Chipster22 [Official Forums]
Question: Coordination is taking place outside of the game, like a spreadsheet to track PvE bracket flips. There are also more advanced PvP strategies managed on Line rooms. Does the team have an opinion, pro or con, of any of these external efforts?

Answer: We don't have plans to undo the great infrastructure that players have built outside of the game, but we do have strong opinions about how poorly the game conveys certain elements that have essentially forced players to engage this way. We plan on improving the game's ability to provide this information to our players while respecting the hard work that players have put in outside of the game itself.
@Codex [Official Forums]
Question: Overall, I think there were many positive changes made this year, that have kept me engaged this year. What is BCS thoughts/reflection on this past year?

Answer: Devpool: I think it certainly went a lot smoother than the first year, and we owe all of that to the community (THANK YOU!) With greater confidence in the fundamentals of running the game, this year we were able to be bold and continue to modernize, improve, and push on features that truly needed some love. There were tons of lessons learned that we're working to action to make 2024 an even better year. I think, undoubtedly, my biggest takeaway has been that we need to do better in all things communication. We know this, and we're working on it.
@leviticuschoms [Official Forums]
Question: Black Knight & Silver Samurai (FF winners) haven't made much of an impact on my roster, is the intent for next year's contest winner to be a 4?

Answer: Fan Favorites have traditionally been 4s, and our plans for next year are the same. Here's hoping for one that is a heavier hitter for your roster!
@Tony_Foot [Official Forums]
Question: Any plans for more 1* releases now that you have seen the popularity of people buying the ascended versions?

Answer: Plans? Yes! But they are early plans.
@St Bernadus [Official Forums]
Question: Can you give us an update on the feeder for Venomosaurus? When he was released, it was going to be Soon.There have since been several opportunities to give him a feeder not taken. So what is the plan?

Answer: Venomosaurus' Feeder went live with Moon Girl's Release!
@BlackBoltRocks [Official Forums]
Question: One of the best part of the in-game aesthetics is the use of comic book covers. There are tons of great comic covers; would you guys consider periodically changing up the covers for in-game characters, for variety?

Answer: Yes, 100%. We plan on making covers a bigger deal in the game. There's a feature tied to this that we'll talk about when we get closer to.
Seph1roth5 [Discord]
Question: Several years ago, rewards were lowered across the board (iso, HP, etc.). Are there any plans to change those? Getting 10hp as a prize is a bit underwhelming.

Answer: Especially with the advent of support shards and the revamping of Classic Legends earlier this year (which boosted the value of Classic Legends tokens) we have some right-sizing to do with rewards in general. We'll be doing a sweep soon and will keep this in mind.
@fight4thedream [Official Forums]
Question: Are there any plans to use Quandary further to help expand MPQ-lore? The game notably lacks an overarching narrative structure. I think Quandary would be perfect to help establish a narrative environment for the player to explore and operate in.

Answer: 1000% yes, but not very soon (hopefully mid to late next year). We're super excited about it and can't wait to share more!

Hilk · December 2023

…..
if new characters will be able to be ascended, or will we continue to have waves?

Bowgentle · December 2023

Feels a little like this has run its course by now.
A lot of "we'd love to, but", "it's on the list" and "maybe after we manage to build the new tools".
Still, thank you for taking the time.

Scofie · December 2023

@Bowgentle said:
Feels a little like this has run its course by now.
A lot of "we'd love to, but", "it's on the list" and "maybe after we manage to build the new tools".
Still, thank you for taking the time.

That's a fair point. But how do we get progress updates on tooling changes if we don't ask? Plus there will be some other stuff coming that we might want to ask about. Supports in PvP? Champions 3.0? Theme of 2024? I guess if nobody had any questions to ask, then fair enough but 34 people did last time.

Daredevil217 · December 2023

My question was completely skipped which sucks because it wasn’t a “when are we getting this” or “please give us that”, but rather a legit question on the rationale behind a game choice (I posted here and did the google form too).

Bowgentle · December 2023

@Scofie said:

@Bowgentle said:
Feels a little like this has run its course by now.
A lot of "we'd love to, but", "it's on the list" and "maybe after we manage to build the new tools".
Still, thank you for taking the time.

That's a fair point. But how do we get progress updates on tooling changes if we don't ask? Plus there will be some other stuff coming that we might want to ask about. Supports in PvP? Champions 3.0? Theme of 2024? I guess if nobody had any questions to ask, then fair enough but 34 people did last time.

Sure, but I can tell you the answers already.
Supports in PVP? Coming Q1, undergoing QA, details coming 3 days before the rollout.
Champions 3.0? Still evaluating 2.0, not easy to do with the current tools, but never say never!
Theme of 24? We have big things planned, stay tuned!

bluewolf · December 2023

The correct answer for “supports in PvP?” is always “6 months from now”.

There is not one single player out there who wants it. Just some that can talk themselves into “maybe it won’t be so bad”.

The only reason to add it is to increase pressure to chase Supports, hence monetize them more effectively.

DrClever · December 2023

I want supports in PvP.

Glockoma · December 2023

I want supports in PvP and anything else that could either derail or spice this game up.

KGB · December 2023

Me too. I'm dying to have my R5 Carols Communicator healing up BrB to save on health packs.

I suspect the only players who don't want supports are the highly competitive ones looking for T5 placement in events and season. Everyone else who just grinds wins or 1000 points doesn't care what does or doesn't get fired on turn 1.

KGB

entrailbucket · December 2023

Well, remember that they've also said that supports won't show up in PvP until they get rebalanced, and who knows what that means.

bluewolf · December 2023

They would have to rebalance them somehow since they've also said they would be defensive as well. Others have pointed out how with supports you can easily have turn 1 or turn 0 wins/losses if AP gain triggers, and many supports have greater than 50% odds of that.

Even if you're just chasing wins it won't be fun if yours doesn't trigger and the AI's does and you're eating powers.

Everyone has a Power Stone with a 9.19% chance of free power firing when a match is made - once per turn. Mthor cascades anyone? Free power odds go way up to occur with all her shenanigans when she fires her powers and has enough AP, with more matches. I mean i guess you can skip all the Mthor teams but then you're screwing up the vaunted data which determines nerfing too.

You'll be using a lot more health packs, wasting a lot more time with losses/retreats with defensive supports. Even if points are not important to you.

I absolutely get that PVP isn't great but adding supports - especially defense - is not the way as they are currently designed.

If they did offense only I guess it would make winning easier so you could get PVP over with faster with wins.

KGB · December 2023

@bluewolf said:
They would have to rebalance them somehow since they've also said they would be defensive as well. Others have pointed out how with supports you can easily have turn 1 or turn 0 wins/losses if AP gain triggers, and many supports have greater than 50% odds of that.

Even if you're just chasing wins it won't be fun if yours doesn't trigger and the AI's does and you're eating powers.

When you take a defensive loss you have no idea if it was a turn 0, turn 1 or turn 100 loss. All you see is the point loss. So why does it matter how defensive losses occur. The fact anyone cares about that means some players (ie those trying for T5 in events/season) obsess about their defensive team. For anyone grinding or playing to 1000 it doesn't matter at all.

As for the AI getting their AP and me not, I'm more than OK with retreating and trying again. Costs a small bit of health (way less than eating any power) and a few points. Since I am playing to 25 wins/1000 points I don't really care about retreats (as a FYI, I probably retreat 4-5 times during my normal PvP events because I'd rather eat a small loss of health than a big nuke that makes me use a health pack). With Carols Communicator healing me for 2K+ a turn I may be way ahead with supports on the battles I do win.

As for MThor, if turn 0 AP makes her OP then she can get a nerf. It seems we had a recent thread about that very topic so it should be no surprise if it gets revisited and it turns out she needs one

KGB

P.S. Anyway, it's all speculation till it happens. They could still make PvP only supports or simply add PvP powers to existing supports that are different than their PvE counterparts (toned down, or as I suggested long ago, 1 single perk on offense and 1 single different perk when on defense).

Borstock · December 2023

Why would you retreat in PvP if you're only playing to 25 or 1000? Can't you just Dr. Thor and Shang it? I rarely use healthpacks with that team because Shang heals himself and tanks early.

Adric1123 · December 2023

@bigjojo04 [Official Forums]
Question: With Champions 2.0 now in full swing, any chance saved covers could be added to 1* characters so we won’t have to sit on covers we can’t apply to ascended champ levels yet?

Answer: It's an issue at this very moment, yes. But with the rest of the characters rolling out soon, it'll cease to be one. The tech involved in intial championing and saving covers is a little wonky, and we're not sure the work in working out all the kinks and edge cases would be worth it when it would become a non-issue in less than 90 days max.

I think you guys misunderstood the question here. Whenever a player gets 6 of one color in a cover, they can only apply the first 5 to a character before it champs. The 6th is left hanging. On a 2* you can save it until you get the covers you need to champ, and I think most people have had bad RNG runs where they get 10-15 of one color. With 1*s those covers potentially go to waste. That won't go away when everything is ascendable.

It's actually worse with 1*s since you need to max out 2 copies before you can ascend and start applying any covers for champ levels.

Bad · December 2023

Imo supports in pvp just will enable a wider experience.
Also it could bring back old meta characters such apocalypse (who would eat Mthor any day of the week, with SS at the beginning), and of course combos like kang HE and ironman/ gargantos HE and ironman, and SC.

Pantera236 · December 2023

Lol old meta like apoc. My blues would beg to differ.

Bad · December 2023

Lol I haven't seen apoc in ages.

Theghouse · December 2023

@Daredevil217 said:
My question was completely skipped which sucks because it wasn’t a “when are we getting this” or “please give us that”, but rather a legit question on the rationale behind a game choice (I posted here and did the google form too).

Yes it's completely obvious they cherry pick the questions. You can go through the questions post and find a number of tough or critical questions completely avoided every month since they started.

DrClever · December 2023

@bluewolf said:

Even if you're just chasing wins it won't be fun if yours doesn't trigger and the AI's does and you're eating powers.
...
If they did offense only I guess it would make winning easier so you could get PVP over with faster with wins.

I just fundamentally disagree that games become more fun in proportion to how reliably and quickly the player wins.

The fastest way to "get PVP over with" is not to play it, but I really don't think that view of what's desirable places MPQ at the right end of the chore<->fun spectrum.

Games have a mix of player skill and chance - chess is all skill & zero chance, poker has high levels of both, and snakes & ladders is purely random.

We'll each have our preference from amongst these but all are games people play for fun and a large part of the fun arises from the possibility of losing.

Making MPQ a game where neither skill nor chance ever prevents or even delays victory is tantamount to removing it from the category of fun activities altogether and lining it up alongside something like peeling potatoes where the heartfelt desire of anyone who has had much involvement with it is for someone to make a machine to do it for them.

(With due apologies to those fans of food prep who would rightly point out that peeling spuds involves more skill and allows for a degree of meditative contemplation.)

Daredevil217 · December 2023

@Theghouse said:

@Daredevil217 said:
My question was completely skipped which sucks because it wasn’t a “when are we getting this” or “please give us that”, but rather a legit question on the rationale behind a game choice (I posted here and did the google form too).

Yes it's completely obvious they cherry pick the questions. You can go through the questions post and find a number of tough or critical questions completely avoided every month since they started.

I get why they skip some. They are clearly “leading” questions meant to get the developers in a “gotcha” moment where they can pounce on them as soon as they answer. I can see how mine could be interpreted that way I guess but it really wasn’t meant to be.

Mine was a question that players really don’t have an answer to and I’ve heard it cited both ways. Whether or not the “cover tax” was intentional or an oversight on max/max characters. It feels like it was unintentional based on the way the system was described initially, but the fact that it hasn’t been addressed makes me think maybe it was intentional. Or a third option, is that it wasn’t intended but it’s not breaking the game so they’re leaving it as is. I just thought since players really don’t know the answer it’d be cool to get some developer insight into the “why” behind something rather than:

“When is X coming?”
“Can we have Y in the game?”

And getting the same responses every month.

“Soon!”
“That’s a really interesting idea, Somethnt for us to consider”
“That’s not something we”re considering right now”
“Never say never!”

MPQ Developer Q&A November 2023 (ANSWERS)

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