MPQ Developer Q&A December 2023 (ANSWERS)

MPQBlaine · 12 January 2024, 23:58

Hi everyone!

Here are the answers to December's Dev Q&A! We hope you all enjoyed your holiday and are ready for another great year of MPQ.

December 2023 Answers

@MaríaPazAñazcoV [Discord]
Question: ¿Is there the possibility to include Galactus as a playable character in the future?

Answer: Never say never!
@wretchedrichard [Discord]
Question: Whatever happened to that massive 32 x 32 board prototype that was made? Can we have a go on that one day?

Answer: Not spoiling too much, but you might see some variable board sizes and arcade modes in the future
@ThisisClemFandango [Official Forums]
Question: Do we have an ETA on strange's rebalance?

Answer: Currently slated toward the middle of the year.
@loose5682 [Official Forums]
Question: is there any update on potentially expanding either the max boost per round past 5 or the total boosts (for color damage) past 30? On a related note, has auto-replenish of boosts been discussed as well?

Answer: Yes! We hope to have this implemented by Q3 of this year.
@Zarqa_nl [Official Forums]
Question: You’ve acknowledged the Iso-8 drought. But with the new Support system, I find myself also in a Red Iso drought: I’m gaining supports faster than I can level them. How are you planning to address either resource scarcity?

Answer: We're still retooling the economy following the introduction of the Classic Legends revamp and Support shards. While I don't know that we have a catch-all solution in the works, I do know that we'll be moving in a direction that makes these currencies more accessible.
@meadowsweet [Official Forums]
Question: The Roster "Ascend" filter shows Max characters but I need a new view that sorts all versions of the Ascendable characters together to see which ones already have duplicates, what level the duplicates are at, who I can actually Ascend right now, etc.

Answer: This is something we've seen the community asking for and we'll get it added as soon as we have the cycles. Probably a Q1 2024 thing.
@Xception81 [Official Forums]
Question: Is it possible to shift offers back one hour (from 9am to 10am PST) so they don’t overlap with the start of PvE/PvP slices?

Answer: We will take this into consideration.
@Jash735 [Official Forums]
Question: Can the in-game team chat function be improved to allow links to be posted, as well as allowing more characters to be typed so we can write bigger messages?

Answer: We're working on overhauling chat to make it a more modern and feature rich experience. We're still in the process of getting the priority of this greenlit, but as it stands we hope to have this all revamped by end of year.
@Scofie [Official Forums]
Question: As a player of the game, its there anything that frustrates you about the experience and what is the thing you enjoy most?

Answer: Devpool: Probably content. I want to see new events and game modes! I'm thrilled that we have things moving in the direction that will make this sort of thing possible later this year. As for what I enjoy most: the community for sure. Seeing this group of players working together in and out of game to solve its challenges and collectively improve it is what gets me up in the morning.
@Seph1roth5 [Official Forums]
Question: You guys have mentioned wanting to bring new milestones out, specifically in regards to ascensions. Is it possible to make them retroactive so they count ascensions made before new milestones? Longtime players lost out on a ton of milestones before

Answer: This would be the idea wherever possible, yes. It'd be a huge bummer to have surpassed goals and not see the rewards!
@Bri-Man2222 [Official Forums]
Question: Now that support shards are here, are you found to introduce more ways to earn support tokens? I think I've earned like 3 tokens through random vaults and a couple through the puzzle gauntlet since the system went live.

Answer: Yes! We're working on it! Over time we hope to decouple the relationship between supports and puzzle gauntlet and make support upgrading much more part of the general reward structure of the game.
@BlixTheFrog [Official Forums]
Question: Hi team! We all noticed that ascended 4 stars are capped when we encounter them. Is that a temporary thing, will it stick or will it be a combination of the two depending on the character?

Answer: Devpool: I think this is related to PVP. If so, the answer is that we are working on and is not as intended. In PVP, players should encounter the correct levels of their opponent.
@NBPerp [Official Forums]
Question: Can there please be someplace in the game to go to see what daily rewards are available and which characters allow you to qualify for each?

Answer: Yes, this is part of a UI overhaul that we aim to release later this year.
@Dr Cheese [Official Forums]
Question: Can I suggest new game modes/features: i. play as 1 character + 2 minions; ii. rewards for accomplishing something within a match e.g. not taking any damage gets you a heroic token, etc

Answer: Thanks for the suggestion!!
@cmej [Official Forums]
Question: Is there any chance we could get a daily random boosted 4/5 character? It would make a big difference for me to be able to incentivize switching up teams throughout the week

Answer: That's an interesting idea that could certainly spice up day to day play. We will take it under advisement and pass it along to the team!
@Turbomoose [Official Forums]
Question: I have millions of ISO purple and red, I will never be able to use all of it. I can’t convert it to CP or HP is there a way you can allow us to gift it to our alliance members instead. We can send team ups so why not a request ISO button

Answer: Gifting currencies such as this could create some serious issues in the economy that we would much rather avoid. Congratulations on the wealth and I hope you find something in the game to spend it on!
@bluewolf19 [Discord]
Question: Back in March, there was a blog post saying that existing Supports would be updated. Maybe to reflect the newer support breaks in ranks/max effects. Have any been updated? Are there plans to do so?

Answer: This year plan on supports seeing the same sort of rebalance treatment that characters have been enjoying for a while now. Stay tuned!
@Tom7883 [MPQ Game]
Question: First world problems, but have you considered upgrading the current max S.H.I.E.LD. Rank from 300 to higher levels? I think it would be cool to add Advanced or Master support tokens into the mix if the level is increased eventually.

Answer: Yep, we'll give this some thought (along with expanding milestone rewards, etc).
@leviticuschoms [Official Forums]
Question: I began play 9.5 years ago and chose a screen name that well, seems really stupid nowadays. Would there ever be an opportunity to change it?

Answer: Good question! We have plans for some upcoming "social" improvements and this might fit into that overhaul very well. I'll raise it with the team!
@TDTMF [Official Forums]
Question: Can you add an in match info button that would show the hit rates for each color gem with the team you are using? May the screen could also show the round you are in on multi-round battles.

Answer: Team performance-related UI could be a nice touch! We don't have any present plans for it, but we'll bring it up with the team!
@Sithshaft [Official Forums]
Question: When new 5* characters are released, their shards take the place of an older 5* in the rewards for PVE. In addition there is a much larger roster of 5* characters. Any chance you can make the 5* shard rewards in PVE a choice of 3 characters?

Answer: This reward structure is part of the core progression of the game, but you are right in that as the roster grows, more agency is doubtlessly valuable. Let me think on this; thanks for the suggestion!
@Bdubs8807 [Discord]
Question: Can you please add a way to sort the roster by HOW MANY covers (out of 10 or 13) we have for the characters? That's how I look for a character to make a favorite to collect shards for that character, trying to collect enough covers to champion it.

Answer: Yes!
@Heartbreaksoup [Official Forums]
Question: Is it possible to rotate the opponent characters in DDQ? I swear we have to fight Nick Fury and Scarlet Witch 6 times a week.

Answer: DDQ changes aren't on the docket any time soon, but we have talked a bit about increasing the dynamism so that they more vibrant as the days go by. File this as a 'maybe!'
ReturnalShadow [Reddit]
Question: How do you solve this challenge where some non-competitive players say that MPQ demands too much time (more than 10-15 minutes per day) from them to get full progression and node rewards in pves/pvps?

Answer: That's probably the toughest thing about a game like MPQ. The longer a game has been around, the more divergent the interests of its players become. Any game seeks to grow with its players, but it simply isn't feasible to serve every player completely all the time. What we aim to do is strike a balance. We have a sense for what we feel is "right for the game," and we also have what we generally call the "player voice." Every decision we make tries to balance the sometimes conflicting ideals that come from both of those sides. It isn't easy, and we certainly don't make perfect decisions, but we do our best!
@Glockoma [Official Forums]
Question: How about choosing your boosted characters from a batch or perhaps another method of allowing a bit of “dealer’s choice” to boosted characters? This way we can setup some actual teamwork based on inherent synergies.

Answer: Devpool: This is a really cool idea that I'm absolutely going to go to bat for. Thanks for it!
@Enzo6612 [Discord]
Question: Will Norman Osborn (Iron Patriot) ever be added to the game since he existed in the console of MPQ?

Answer: Devpool: Mayyyyyyybe
@Daredevil217 [Official Forums]
Question: Say I have two max-champed Rockett & Groot and a third copy at level 300. If I ascend the max/max will I eventually be able to apply the third version as covers to the ascended version?

Answer: There are currently no plans for that, no.
@Carnifex [Official Forums]
Question: Roughly, what percentage of the player base are playing which Clearance Level? Are the majority at SCL10? From varying forums, everyone appears to be an advanced player and just wondering if this is actually the case?

Answer: As of yesterday, approximately 29% of active players are in SCL 10
@Azumi [Plays the game]
Question: How will I ever champ Spider-ham if he's not even featured at Christmas? Is it too hard to schedule limitted characters? Maybe they should stop being limited?

Answer: We're revisiting limited characters (as some of you might already be seeing). While we understand and respect the idea of limited characters, we feel it is time to loosen the restriction on at least a few of them.
@skittledaddy [Discord]
Question: There appears to have been a recent shift to featuring more Classic 5s in the 5E rotation of PVE (at the sacrifice of Latest 5 occurrences). Is that an intentional attempt to help with Classic dilution and will it continue?

Answer: This was actually unintentional. We're still investigating the cause. Typically tools generate these rewards and when things don't go as expected it's worth looking into.
@CASSIDYFROST [Official Forums]
Question: Returning to the answer to my question from November 2022, does Banshee now have some space to arrive in 2024 or are we still going to wait a little longer?

Answer: I am sorry to report that Banshee is not on the calendar for 2024...but 2025 is another year and we'll push hard for it!
@StrangeWitch [Official Forums]
Question: The second season of What If coming out and nothing in the game yet, will we hear news about it soon or no plans? Kahhori, Hela, Nova Corps Nebula, Wanda Merlin, etc, so many good things that could be included in the game...

Answer: There was definitely some cool stuff to drop in What If. If there are some openings in the year to squeeze something in, we'll keep this in mind!
@CarnageWing [Official Forums]
Question: Will free rewards and offers and costumes launched in the game during the period that Facebook login was offline be relaunched recently? I can't believe I lost the costumes of Blade and Polaris just because of this.

Answer: We're less than happy with the Facebook outages and will be working diligently to move the game over to supplementary login systems that aren't quite so erratic.
@phillsam [Official Forums]
Question: Do you intend to one day make the game full of equipment and features to make our heroes more powerful beyond supports and ascend, leaving the game almost like Future Fight? (which, by the way, got boring because of that...)

Answer: There are no plans for this. At present we feel this shifts the game too far into the RPG category, and that's not where we want MPQ to be right now.
@kleussaroot [Official Forums]
Question: Of all the characters released in 2023, which were the developers' favorites? What conclusion do you draw from this year's additions and what can we expect in 2024 given what we had last year?

Answer: 2023 saw lots of new additions in the character space. The year started with a big drop: Kang. With these character we explored what we could do with alternate win conditions and deeper changes to the underlying structure of the game. Kang became a big hit with players, and the devs too! High Evolutionary is a strange character that let us play around with power in a new way, serving as a character who could break some rules in the right compositions. Also a fave. Omega Red. Enough said. For this year, we're looking to do a few things with the lessons learned, focusing primarily on the state of power and continuing to shift the meta. We're more comfortable with the game's capabilities than ever and we hope this year gives us room to flex that.
@OrorotheStorm [Official Forums]
Question: With Fall of X coming, it's quite possible that we won't have any more Hellfire Gala's... Could you continue over the months and years to put costumes on characters that don't yet have them? Even inventing some like Shang Chi's which is incredible...

Answer: Hellfire Gala gives us a cool event to plan around, but with or without it you can expect to see exciting and experimental costumes come to MPQ. How could we not?
@LOKI2355 [Official Forums]
Question: During this year we had related to the spiderverse: Spider-Gwen, Spider-Rex, Vulture, Mister Negative, Peni Parker, Miles Morales and Spider-Man: India Can we have releases like this, but related to What If or any other major group like mutants?

Answer: At a glance, this year has an amazing roster of upcoming character releases that span a wide variety of Marvel properties. We think you'll all be pleasantly surprised with what we have in store!
@TimeMachineGo [Official Forums]
Question: Character art was one of the big strengths I noticed when I started playing this game and I feel it's gotten worse overtime: it seems like you work with the same few artists consistently, will you be "opening up the ranks" in the future?

Answer: Devpool: All of MPQ's art is done internally. It is true that there are a set number of artists. Honestly, some of my favorite work in MPQ has come out over the last couple of years. Off the top of my head are standouts like Magik, Kamala Khan, Gwenom, Hunter, the Skottie Young-styled Deadpool / Gwenpool costumes. The list goes on! I will admit that not every piece makes my jaw hit the floor, but I think a lot of that is a matter of personal preference. Stay tuned, though. There's some cool stuff dropping soon that I'm absolutely in love with and I think you will be too!
@Hector83 [All of them ]
Question: Can you add rewards between 25 and 50 PvP wins. Currently I always stop once I reach 25 wins. It's hard for me to reach 50 wins, but if I try and achieve, say, 45 wins, I get very frustrated that there was no reward along the way.

Answer: We've heard this comment from a few players. Will certainly consider throwing another bracket in there!
@fight4thedream [Official Forums]
Question: There's a notable dearth of female villains in the game. Any chance we see some of the more notable ones like Enchantress, Spiral, Typhoid Mary or Lady Deathstrike this year?

Answer: Sadly none from that list, but you can expect to see a couple of villainous females this year!
figzilla [Reddit]
Question: When will we see a 4* reward cover in DDQ? are there any plans in the pipeline to update DDQ in 2024

Answer: There aren't any plans or talks of changes to the rewards for DDQs this year, but you never know!
@Theillusionist [Official Forums]
Question: Why did you move away from having Boss events on holiday weekends? Can you offer the new character again for people who were actually on vacation and deserve a break?

Answer: Boss events were never really intended to fall on holiday weekends; sometimes it just happens that way. At one point we ran into a patch where seemingly every holiday had a boss event, so I can see where the connection comes from. Generally these seem to have been unpopular because they place an added pressure on players during a time when they might choose to spend their time away from MPQ.

KGB · 13 January 2024, 02:32

Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

entrailbucket · 13 January 2024, 02:44

@KGB said:
Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

Well, I don't think you need a champion 5* to qualify for CL10. It probably makes it much easier, but I think it's possible.

I also wonder what they mean by "in" CL10. Is that just eligible for CL10? Or actually playing it every PvE/PvP? Don't they let you drop down a level still?

BlackBoltRocks · 13 January 2024, 03:20

Regarding Qn 40. I really hope we’ll get a 5* Agatha Harkness.

Zarqa · 13 January 2024, 03:33

@KGB said:
Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

I think the notable difference might be between ‘players’ in the first answer about champed 5s, and ‘active players’ in this answer about SCL 10.

KGB · 13 January 2024, 04:34

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:
Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

Well, I don't think you need a champion 5* to qualify for CL10. It probably makes it much easier, but I think it's possible.

I also wonder what they mean by "in" CL10. Is that just eligible for CL10? Or actually playing it every PvE/PvP? Don't they let you drop down a level still?

If I remember correctly from his posts, BBigler got his first 5* champs before he qualified for CL10. Now obviously he was a unique case because he was racing to get to 3 5 star champs.

But, unlike everything else in this game, you can't short cut CL levels by spending money (or I don't think spending gives you CL points). You only get there by playing the game itself. These days you can technically buy a 5 star for $20 bucks (the ascended 1 star characters as 5 stars).

So what it tells me is that there are a lot of veteran players who've been playing a long time and still haven't reached 5 star champs (based on the answers we got a few months ago) for whatever reason (soft capping or just not gotten there).

KGB

Domitronas · 13 January 2024, 07:13

@KGB said:

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:
Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

Well, I don't think you need a champion 5* to qualify for CL10. It probably makes it much easier, but I think it's possible.

I also wonder what they mean by "in" CL10. Is that just eligible for CL10? Or actually playing it every PvE/PvP? Don't they let you drop down a level still?

If I remember correctly from his posts, BBigler got his first 5* champs before he qualified for CL10. Now obviously he was a unique case because he was racing to get to 3 5 star champs.

But, unlike everything else in this game, you can't short cut CL levels by spending money (or I don't think spending gives you CL points). You only get there by playing the game itself. These days you can technically buy a 5 star for $20 bucks (the ascended 1 star characters as 5 stars).

So what it tells me is that there are a lot of veteran players who've been playing a long time and still haven't reached 5 star champs (based on the answers we got a few months ago) for whatever reason (soft capping or just not gotten there).

KGB

Spending gives you covers which retun gives you CL XP, so technically you can "spend your way up".

Godzillafan67 · 13 January 2024, 15:23

I started playing SCL 10 with a partially covered BRB and his pal Polaris. Partial Kitty would join in alongside 4* Juggs and Grocket. I'd play throughout the day, earning as many node rewards as possible and getting full progression. I jumped to SCL 7 before I could fully handle it to get the 4* rewards, and I likewise leapfrogged to SCL 10 for the 5* rewards.

I'm looking forward to revamped daily quests and milestones!

entrailbucket · 13 January 2024, 17:49

@KGB said:

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:
Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

Well, I don't think you need a champion 5* to qualify for CL10. It probably makes it much easier, but I think it's possible.

I also wonder what they mean by "in" CL10. Is that just eligible for CL10? Or actually playing it every PvE/PvP? Don't they let you drop down a level still?

If I remember correctly from his posts, BBigler got his first 5* champs before he qualified for CL10. Now obviously he was a unique case because he was racing to get to 3 5 star champs.

But, unlike everything else in this game, you can't short cut CL levels by spending money (or I don't think spending gives you CL points). You only get there by playing the game itself. These days you can technically buy a 5 star for $20 bucks (the ascended 1 star characters as 5 stars).

So what it tells me is that there are a lot of veteran players who've been playing a long time and still haven't reached 5 star champs (based on the answers we got a few months ago) for whatever reason (soft capping or just not gotten there).

KGB

That probably makes the most sense. It's pretty interesting that for us, 5* seem devalued and much more common lately, but the rest of the game doesn't seem to have caught up. I guess it's just another example of how far ahead we all are.

ThisisClemFandango · 13 January 2024, 18:49

neversaynever

DAZ0273 · 13 January 2024, 19:17

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:
Excited to see that Iron Patriot is likely coming this year. Hopefully as a 5* with those crits

Interesting to see 29% of players are in CL10. That says 30% of the players are in the late game stage. Doesn't exactly compute with the answers from a few months ago about the number of players with at least 1 champed 5* (only a few percent). But on the other hand we can easily estimate the number of players actively playing by figuring out how many players are in the CL10 brackets.

KGB

Well, I don't think you need a champion 5* to qualify for CL10. It probably makes it much easier, but I think it's possible.

I also wonder what they mean by "in" CL10. Is that just eligible for CL10? Or actually playing it every PvE/PvP? Don't they let you drop down a level still?

If I remember correctly from his posts, BBigler got his first 5* champs before he qualified for CL10. Now obviously he was a unique case because he was racing to get to 3 5 star champs.

But, unlike everything else in this game, you can't short cut CL levels by spending money (or I don't think spending gives you CL points). You only get there by playing the game itself. These days you can technically buy a 5 star for $20 bucks (the ascended 1 star characters as 5 stars).

So what it tells me is that there are a lot of veteran players who've been playing a long time and still haven't reached 5 star champs (based on the answers we got a few months ago) for whatever reason (soft capping or just not gotten there).

KGB

That probably makes the most sense. It's pretty interesting that for us, 5* seem devalued and much more common lately, but the rest of the game doesn't seem to have caught up. I guess it's just another example of how far ahead we all are.

Bizarrely the 5* tier now seems split in 3 - 550, people who can ascend 4s and other 5* players. The ascenders are a whole new group.

bigjojo04 · 13 January 2024, 19:46

@BlackBoltRocks said:
Regarding Qn 40. I really hope we’ll get a 5* Agatha Harkness.

I’m very curious to find out as well which couple of female villains are going to drop this year if not the ones mentioned in the question. Lilith(either one)? Madame Masque? Selene? Deathbird? Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor as a 5/3?

DAZ0273 · 14 January 2024, 14:48

@bigjojo04 said:

@BlackBoltRocks said:
Regarding Qn 40. I really hope we’ll get a 5* Agatha Harkness.

I’m very curious to find out as well which couple of female villains are going to drop this year if not the ones mentioned in the question. Lilith(either one)? Madame Masque? Selene? Deathbird? Goblin Queen/Madelyne Pryor as a 5/3?

Viper/Madame Hydra? Titania? Deathbird? 5* Moonstone? Callisto? LADY STILTMAN?!?!!

fight4thedream · 14 January 2024, 16:40

One can only hope that the two female villains we are getting this year are not a 3/5 star set but rather two separate releases.

bigjojo04 · 14 January 2024, 18:16

A Deathbird/Lilandra 5/3 would be nice

Daredevil217 · 14 January 2024, 18:17

Typhoid/Bloody Mary please!

CASSIDYFROST · 16 January 2024, 01:21

thinking about Agatha Harkness because of her series and Madelyne Prior because of X-Men 97 🙏

MPQ Developer Q&A December 2023 (ANSWERS)

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