Galactus and Spider-man Cosmic shards

no1amerioca

So, will there no longer be any free options to obtain shards for Galactus and Cosmic Spider-man? Haven’t seen any during game play in a while.

LuxAurae

Because they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6star rewards. They’ve posted this between the lines.

DAZ0273

Button, button, who's got the button?

bluewolf

@LuxAurae said:
Because they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6star rewards. They’ve posted this between the lines.

So they can’t figure out how to rotate just the 6* shards in the reward table, but can rotate all the other tiers.

And they can add a wildcard shard selector for all 3 6s to an old Namor costume bundle. I think that’s the first time we saw all 3 6s in the selector.

The selectors, of course, are only being offered for cash.

They can do that. But they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6* shards?

Or are they doing their job in a free to play mobile game and creating and maintaining scarcity of rare things so that we might consider buying them?

I am not saying they’re stupid or evil or mean. I’m saying they seem to be catching on to all this and the game has a long history of making chase items hard to get for free. That’s how it stays in business.

DAZ0273

@bluewolf said:

@LuxAurae said:
Because they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6star rewards. They’ve posted this between the lines.

So they can’t figure out how to rotate just the 6* shards in the reward table, but can rotate all the other tiers.

And they can add a wildcard shard selector for all 3 6s to an old Namor costume bundle. I think that’s the first time we saw all 3 6s in the selector.

The selectors, of course, are only being offered for cash.

They can do that. But they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6* shards?

Or are they doing their job in a free to play mobile game and creating and maintaining scarcity of rare things so that we might consider buying them?

I am not saying they’re stupid or evil or mean. I’m saying they seem to be catching on to all this and the game has a long history of making chase items hard to get for free. That’s how it stays in business.

Why would they favour pushing one over another? If they want to stall players getting Galactus, why not swap GR for Spidey? Dunno, as conspiracy theories go this seems really weak. I genuinely think they haven't figured it out yet?

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:

@LuxAurae said:
Because they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6star rewards. They’ve posted this between the lines.

So they can’t figure out how to rotate just the 6* shards in the reward table, but can rotate all the other tiers.

And they can add a wildcard shard selector for all 3 6s to an old Namor costume bundle. I think that’s the first time we saw all 3 6s in the selector.

The selectors, of course, are only being offered for cash.

They can do that. But they can’t figure out how to rotate the 6* shards?

Or are they doing their job in a free to play mobile game and creating and maintaining scarcity of rare things so that we might consider buying them?

I am not saying they’re stupid or evil or mean. I’m saying they seem to be catching on to all this and the game has a long history of making chase items hard to get for free. That’s how it stays in business.

How many Lin Lie events have we had in a row? Didn't we have Zola a bunch before that?

Also if they wanted to create scarcity, why would they specifically create scarcity of Galactus and Spiderman but create an overabundance of Ghost Rider? If that was their actual goal, rotating shards makes the most sense. I think they just can't figure it out.

bluewolf

A new 4 star is not in any way special. There are 167 of them. Unless they make them gamebreaking like OG Sidewinder, no one cares much about getting another say 12 covers for Lin Lie but it DOES create a strong incentive to make sure you immediately roster the new character. Which is the MAIN POINT of new characters, really, make a new thing you need to use resources on to build (roster slot, maybe you fave them, pull for them, use iso, maybe HP for swaps).

6s - as things stand - take a year to cover if you only have one in rewards. 3 years for 3. Add another 6 in a month or so, add a year to the amount of time to cover that new one if they rotate all of them in PVE one after another. Also you add months onto just covering the first ones you're already working on.

I don't pretend to know the answer or plan or if there is one but I can also easily imagine the dev thought process being:

"When a new 6 releases we only put the new one in rewards so that people can make progress on them from play. If we shift every 3-4 months with a new one, then a high level player might get up to like 4 covers max. Then we remove them from rewards and only offer them in offers until at some point we start to think about it differently when we have maybe 6 6s in game.

We cannot make it too fast to cover 6s because they'll just take over PVP once a critical mass of players have 13 covers on 2 or 3 of them and the game will become extremely boring to high level players, because we cannot ever nerf them, thus they will often be your best choice in many or most matches.

They are a thing players keep playing for, a thing that people will spend money on, hopefully. We can tweak things slightly but need to be very careful because you can't undo what was done on these things. The longer it takes to finish 6s the longer you can keep some players around who want to finish one or more.

Finally, making it very hard or impossible to get specific 6s from play makes buying them more appealing. See: costumes and how we used to treat supports (well, support tokens remain rare and buying them directly is thus more appealing to unlock ones they don't have). Thus, hopefully, people keep buying 6* shards and offers trying to finish their 6s, or at least those who spend. We can adjust in the future if we want to."

It's the business. It's a free to play video game. You need rare, desirable, and hard to get items to sell to players that they will buy to stay in business.

You'll say they will increase rewards and make 6s easier to cover but I am not sure they are strongly incentivized in a 12 year old game to make the Ultimate Chase Item easier to complete when players are dropping out like crazy.

entrailbucket

I don't think they should make 6* easier to cover by increasing rewards. I think they should make them easier for spenders to cover by selling more of them.

Until they actually offer these guys for sale, the scarcity isn't making them any money at all.

bluewolf

Granted their sales approach is baffling, but it definitely creates a demand for them when you can't earn them from play.

I just find it hard to believe it's impossible to change out GR shards for G or CSM shards on the reward table at this point.

Of course, many things in the game are partially a test or experiment to find ways to increase engagement or spending.

In their shoes I think it'd be worth trying "only give them CGR shards for 6 weeks and see if they buy MORE CGR shards, or G or CSM shards, when offered some in a low cost 9.99 offer, and see if offering half a Galactus in a $100+ bundle chain after you can't earn him at all gets some nibbles" etc.

DAZ0273

@bluewolf said:
A new 4 star is not in any way special. There are 167 of them. Unless they make them gamebreaking like OG Sidewinder, no one cares much about getting another say 12 covers for Lin Lie but it DOES create a strong incentive to make sure you immediately roster the new character. Which is the MAIN POINT of new characters, really, make a new thing you need to use resources on to build (roster slot, maybe you fave them, pull for them, use iso, maybe HP for swaps).

6s - as things stand - take a year to cover if you only have one in rewards. 3 years for 3. Add another 6 in a month or so, add a year to the amount of time to cover that new one if they rotate all of them in PVE one after another. Also you add months onto just covering the first ones you're already working on.

I don't pretend to know the answer or plan or if there is one but I can also easily imagine the dev thought process being:

"When a new 6 releases we only put the new one in rewards so that people can make progress on them from play. If we shift every 3-4 months with a new one, then a high level player might get up to like 4 covers max. Then we remove them from rewards and only offer them in offers until at some point we start to think about it differently when we have maybe 6 6s in game.

We cannot make it too fast to cover 6s because they'll just take over PVP once a critical mass of players have 13 covers on 2 or 3 of them and the game will become extremely boring to high level players, because we cannot ever nerf them, thus they will often be your best choice in many or most matches.

They are a thing players keep playing for, a thing that people will spend money on, hopefully. We can tweak things slightly but need to be very careful because you can't undo what was done on these things. The longer it takes to finish 6s the longer you can keep some players around who want to finish one or more.

Finally, making it very hard or impossible to get specific 6s from play makes buying them more appealing. See: costumes and how we used to treat supports (well, support tokens remain rare and buying them directly is thus more appealing to unlock ones they don't have). Thus, hopefully, people keep buying 6* shards and offers trying to finish their 6s, or at least those who spend. We can adjust in the future if we want to."

It's the business. It's a free to play video game. You need rare, desirable, and hard to get items to sell to players that they will buy to stay in business.

You'll say they will increase rewards and make 6s easier to cover but I am not sure they are strongly incentivized in a 12 year old game to make the Ultimate Chase Item easier to complete when players are dropping out like crazy.

From what I have seen over the years playing, the Devs seldom have these grand plans. If it isn't working they normally cop to it (which they have done in this case) or they say nothing at all. But sure, devious underhand manipulation, hey, it's a Friday, why not?

DAZ0273

These are also (in 505/D3go's case) the people who gave us so many vaults with so many roster slots that they essentially eliminated the need to buy HP for many players - even a player like myself who is hardly top tier and I have had no need to buy HP in I would guess at least years. So if they are top level secret genius, then I haven't personally seen it so far. But sure, giving us Cosmic Ghost Rider shards is a secret plan of grade A maleficence.

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:
Granted their sales approach is baffling, but it definitely creates a demand for them when you can't earn them from play.

I just find it hard to believe it's impossible to change out GR shards for G or CSM shards on the reward table at this point.

Of course, many things in the game are partially a test or experiment to find ways to increase engagement or spending.

In their shoes I think it'd be worth trying "only give them CGR shards for 6 weeks and see if they buy MORE CGR shards, or G or CSM shards, when offered some in a low cost 9.99 offer, and see if offering half a Galactus in a $100+ bundle chain after you can't earn him at all gets some nibbles" etc.

Sure, and that would make sense, and would be good business...except I don't think they've ever offered half a 6* cover, at any price. It's really dangerous to assume intent with a lot of this stuff, because we just get proven wrong over and over again.

Like if your dog keeps chewing up your favorite shoes, it's tempting to assume that he's an evil genius, targeting your best stuff to antagonize you. But it's important to remember that he is a dog, and sometimes dogs do things that don't make sense to us.

entrailbucket

Oh, just to make it clear -- I am absolutely not claiming that the MPQ devs are grotesque dog-human hybrids who eat shoes.

That would be ridiculous...right?

bluewolf

@entrailbucket said:

@bluewolf said:
Granted their sales approach is baffling, but it definitely creates a demand for them when you can't earn them from play.

I just find it hard to believe it's impossible to change out GR shards for G or CSM shards on the reward table at this point.

Of course, many things in the game are partially a test or experiment to find ways to increase engagement or spending.

In their shoes I think it'd be worth trying "only give them CGR shards for 6 weeks and see if they buy MORE CGR shards, or G or CSM shards, when offered some in a low cost 9.99 offer, and see if offering half a Galactus in a $100+ bundle chain after you can't earn him at all gets some nibbles" etc.

Sure, and that would make sense, and would be good business...except I don't think they've ever offered half a 6* cover, at any price. It's really dangerous to assume intent with a lot of this stuff, because we just get proven wrong over and over again.

Like if your dog keeps chewing up your favorite shoes, it's tempting to assume that he's an evil genius, targeting your best stuff to antagonize you. But it's important to remember that he is a dog, and sometimes dogs do things that don't make sense to us.

They offered 300 shards for Galactus like....a week? 2 weeks? ago in a chain bundle. The Pants one with his costume, you could get a total of 300 shards for like $110 or $120. The one player who has him at 13 covers finished his Galactus thanks to the offer.

EDIT: Their business is selling us stuff. Last year they made $5.6 on mobile doing so. This is the thing they try hardest to manage correctly. It's how they keep their jobs.

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:

@entrailbucket said:

@bluewolf said:
Granted their sales approach is baffling, but it definitely creates a demand for them when you can't earn them from play.

I just find it hard to believe it's impossible to change out GR shards for G or CSM shards on the reward table at this point.

Of course, many things in the game are partially a test or experiment to find ways to increase engagement or spending.

In their shoes I think it'd be worth trying "only give them CGR shards for 6 weeks and see if they buy MORE CGR shards, or G or CSM shards, when offered some in a low cost 9.99 offer, and see if offering half a Galactus in a $100+ bundle chain after you can't earn him at all gets some nibbles" etc.

Sure, and that would make sense, and would be good business...except I don't think they've ever offered half a 6* cover, at any price. It's really dangerous to assume intent with a lot of this stuff, because we just get proven wrong over and over again.

Like if your dog keeps chewing up your favorite shoes, it's tempting to assume that he's an evil genius, targeting your best stuff to antagonize you. But it's important to remember that he is a dog, and sometimes dogs do things that don't make sense to us.

They offered 300 shards for Galactus like....a week? 2 weeks? ago in a chain bundle. The Pants one with his costume, you could get a total of 300 shards for like $110 or $120. The one player who has him at 13 covers finished his Galactus thanks to the offer.

EDIT: Their business is selling us stuff. Last year they made $5.6 on mobile doing so. This is the thing they try hardest to manage correctly. It's how they keep their jobs.

I guess we'll see. If they start offering lots of Galactus or Spiderman covers, that'll go a long way toward proving your theory.

I wish they would do this -- I would buy them! Galactus completely turns off turn0 wins, and I'd pay quite a bit to get him before everyone else does. But I'm not going to buy 20 shards at a time, once every few weeks.

WampaX

@entrailbucket said:
Galactus completely turns off turn0 wins, and I'd pay quite a bit to get him before everyone else does.

Kinda - he mainly just dies more slowly after the rest of his team is KOed on turn 0. I have faced some Galactuses in PVP already (not fully covered, but at least 1 of each color) and with some careful management of who he hits, its a slow victory, but is also a fun challenging wrinkle for pvp.

LuxAurae

@WampaX said:

@entrailbucket said:
Galactus completely turns off turn0 wins, and I'd pay quite a bit to get him before everyone else does.

Kinda - he mainly just dies more slowly after the rest of his team is KOed on turn 0. I have faced some Galactuses in PVP already (not fully covered, but at least 1 of each color) and with some careful management of who he hits, its a slow victory, but is also a fun challenging wrinkle for pvp.

Ehm.. yeah. The fully covered one is a bit different.

Don’t base your assessment on a 3 cover one, just like you wouldn’t base it on that amount of covers for 5 or a 4.

bluewolf

A 700 G with May has a bit over 770k health.

I forget the dmg limit, but it’s 8-9 turns he survives.

Obviously kill May first or you’re taking like 54-42k match 3 dmg from strong colors. Even after she dies it’s 21900-16800 per match 3 without any strikes etc.

WampaX

@LuxAurae said:
Ehm.. yeah. The fully covered one is a bit different.

Don’t base your assessment on a 3 cover one, just like you wouldn’t base it on that amount of covers for 5 or a 4.

I wasn't - The stronger of the two I fought was a 1/1/5 I think, definitely black heavy and over 100K HP after pre-match boosts. The post power fire AP drain was the hard part to deal with, but he still has the AI running him. Baiting him into making bad matches, working on controlling the board, making sure my defensive character was in front, and having not bad luck on the tile fills were the keys to victory.

A fun challenge - better than boosted purple man has been the last few pvps. The post-fire AP tax vs the pre-fire AP tax is a world of difference for turn 0 teams. Not insurmountable, but definitely a different flow when you need to match some AP the first few turns before you can get your defenses up and some offensive powers firing.

entrailbucket

@WampaX said:

@entrailbucket said:
Galactus completely turns off turn0 wins, and I'd pay quite a bit to get him before everyone else does.

Kinda - he mainly just dies more slowly after the rest of his team is KOed on turn 0. I have faced some Galactuses in PVP already (not fully covered, but at least 1 of each color) and with some careful management of who he hits, its a slow victory, but is also a fun challenging wrinkle for pvp.

It's a slow victory though, and that's really all that matters. He doesn't kinda turn off turn0 wins, he 100% shuts them off. It doesn't matter if he doesn't do anything, because it takes a bunch of turns to kill him.

bluewolf

@entrailbucket said:

@WampaX said:

@entrailbucket said:
Galactus completely turns off turn0 wins, and I'd pay quite a bit to get him before everyone else does.

Kinda - he mainly just dies more slowly after the rest of his team is KOed on turn 0. I have faced some Galactuses in PVP already (not fully covered, but at least 1 of each color) and with some careful management of who he hits, its a slow victory, but is also a fun challenging wrinkle for pvp.

It's a slow victory though, and that's really all that matters. He doesn't kinda turn off turn0 wins, he 100% shuts them off. It doesn't matter if he doesn't do anything, because it takes a bunch of turns to kill him.

Honestly one has to kind of think that it's at least a slight possibility that they made Hawkeye able to kill anyone, sort of kind of with supports etc, on purpose to make Galactus more appealing.

In any case, a nightmare scenario would be if the AI was really good at using Hawkeye and could play forever trying to kill your Galactus, and it has no "retreat" or "eff it, I guess my turn's over" option so you were forced as a player to retreat yourself or watch an infinite turn of Hawkeye futilely trying to win.

Thank goodness the AI sucks, huh?