MPQ 2025 Dev Update #2

S0kun
S0kun ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 767 Critical Contributor
in MPQ General Discussion

It’s time for our next Dev Update of the year and after talking about some changes to our character release cadence, we wanted to shed some light on a few topics that those with a keen eye may have noticed. Most notably, certain things that are missing from our upcoming activities that would normally be a part of our regularly scheduled program.

Events and Unity Engine Upgrade

While some may see this as scaling back, it’s actually not the case because behind the scenes, the long awaited Unity Engine upgrade is in its final stages of development and we’re shifting a few dev resources towards ensuring that the project reaches the finish line as soon as possible.

These are the current parts of the game that are affected by the aforementioned shifts:

  1. Character Releases
    Starting with 5 Star Sam Wilson (Brave New World), we’ll be doing single character releases every two weeks instead of our usual 4 Star / 5 & 3 Star releases. Expect to see a 5 Star release followed by a 2, 3, or 4 star character.

  2. Heroic Boss Events
    Upcoming boss events will run as Regular versions with an updated reward schedule of support specific items.

  3. Rebalances
    On hold for now until further notice, but we still have costumes that will be released during the expected release windows.

  4. Shard Cover Exchanges
    This unfortunately will have to wait until after Unity gets shipped in order to not add any new features that need to go through another round of QA testing in both engines.

Feature Parity

In addition to the shifts in our schedule, we also need to ensure that both versions of the game are identical versions of each other. Bringing both versions of the game to parity will minimize the risk of new bugs being introduced and ensure the most seamless transition possible for you, the player.

Hopefully the above explanation helps shed some light on the current status of the game. We’ve put in a sizable investment into this modern engine upgrade and while it may not appear all that exciting, this lull that you’re seeing is actually a very exciting time for us because we’re finally near the home stretch! Unfortunately it’s always the last bits that seem to take the longest, but we’re nearing the finish line and we’re excited to see where MPQ goes beyond it - especially once we begin to tackle some QoL updates and new features!

FAQ

1. Why couldn’t you just get added resources onto the project to parallel path building Unity while maintaining the current live-ops schedule?
Considering we’re so close to the finish line, it made more sense to shift internal teams over instead of spending precious resources onboarding new hires and acclimating them to our current developments. This would’ve actually taken more time than pausing a few in-game developments.

2. When will the Unity Engine upgrade be done?
Soon🤞! As we mentioned, we’re in the final stages, but these are also the most important steps where something new can surface and cause some unwanted cascades (pun intended) down our dev stream. If all goes well, we’re hoping no more than a few months until we return back to our regularly scheduled program.

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Comments

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 885 Critical Contributor

    Who doesn't love a new costume
    Retro graphics for all characters!
    Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.

  • Waddles_Pines
    Waddles_Pines Posts: 1,245 Chairperson of the Boards

    1) is this what broke Facebook on iOS currently (Android is fine)
    2) will the engine update include a "fix" for this and playing on both Android and iOS?

  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,331 Site Admin

    @Waddles_Pines said:
    1) is this what broke Facebook on iOS currently (Android is fine)
    2) will the engine update include a "fix" for this and playing on both Android and iOS?

    1) Related, but also not. Facebook is finicky at the best of times and we're working on keeping it up for the time being. Unity makes this easier, as Unity is pretty ubiquitous, so there's MUCH better support for implementation and upkeep in Unity.
    2) Funnily enough, one of our testers was specifically testing the matrix of cross play test cases today. Couple of bugs, but the vast majority of stuff went without a hitch when switching devices between the same platforms and different ones.

  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,331 Site Admin

    @ThisisClemFandango said:
    Who doesn't love a new costume
    Retro graphics for all characters!
    Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.

    Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the "normal" full work costumes.

  • Zarqa
    Zarqa Posts: 383 Mover and Shaker

    Thanks dor the update. I appreciate these posts to give us insights in the process and status of things.

    @S0kun said: If all goes well, we’re hoping no more than a few months until we return back to our regularly scheduled program.

    Have to admit that I was hoping it would be a few weeks if all goes well. Of course it won’t all go well, which is as expected, but this also reads we will have to wait quite some time still for things to change.

  • BriMan2222
    BriMan2222 Posts: 1,405 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 8 February 2025, 02:35

    We're not gonna make the bad characters stop sucking, but you can pay us to make those bad characters look different while they suck.

  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,331 Site Admin

    @KGB said:
    Most important of all to me is will this new engine give us finer control over game speed?

    That's the things we need to know.

    KGB

    Not at the outset, but it allows us much finer control over individual items like that. So it's something we can tweak more easily down the line.

  • Seph1roth5
    Seph1roth5 Posts: 449 Mover and Shaker

    Too bad about the pause on rebalances though. Maybe work on them and then you guys can release a bunch when the new system comes out, and more frequently than the 1 every month or so

  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 2,812 Chairperson of the Boards

    Explains a lot, actually. Thanks for the update.

  • Carnage1484
    Carnage1484 Posts: 23 Just Dropped In
    edited 8 February 2025, 06:56

    “Rebalances
    On hold for now until further notice, but we still have costumes that will be released during the expected release windows.”

    @IceIX

    Are these on hold because of the new engine as well or other reasons? If its new engine related, will rebalancing be more frequent since its going to be easier to implement?

  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 4,019 Chairperson of the Boards

    It sucks 5* Daredevil will miss his most obvious rebalance window when Born Again drops in March.

  • concillado
    concillado Posts: 78 Match Maker

    Getting the engine up to speed and being able to optimal implement future changes and releases is DEFINITLY the best investment no matter what. And again this game is, as we all now, about the long run, and all the pleasures and rewards hereoff! :)

  • Scorpion201
    Scorpion201 Posts: 69 Match Maker

    Can we get some real villains to fight against, tired of Dark Avengers, Mindless ones, aim, etc .

  • Hellblazer666
    Hellblazer666 Posts: 216 Tile Toppler
    edited 8 February 2025, 17:44

    @KGB said:
    Most important of all to me is will this new engine give us finer control over game speed?

    For example turning off animations doesn't really speed the game up because the delay to play the animation is still there (after I fire a Polaris stun, the game still locks me out from doing anything for 3-4 seconds which is the animation time).

    Also will the incredibly annoying tile placement of Mindless Ones and Sentinels moving their CDs be sped up to like 10x speed?

    That's the things we need to know.

    KGB

    Don't forget the AIM Soliders I could make a sandwich in the time it takes them to do their abilities😂. they need to be sped up too

  • Tac
    Tac Posts: 40 Just Dropped In

    @S0kun said:

    Feature Parity

    In addition to the shifts in our schedule, we also need to ensure that both versions of the game are identical versions of each other.

    Maybe it's just too all-encompassing of a word but I'd hope one of the main reason for the new engine would also be to fix core bugs like strike / protect tiles overflow?! (and maybe un-nerf agatha3 then)

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 885 Critical Contributor

    @IceIX said:

    @ThisisClemFandango said:
    Who doesn't love a new costume
    Retro graphics for all characters!
    Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.

    Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the "normal" full work costumes.

    This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
    Nicely played ice
    I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister

  • rainkingucd
    rainkingucd Posts: 1,468 Chairperson of the Boards

    @ThisisClemFandango said:

    @IceIX said:

    @ThisisClemFandango said:
    Who doesn't love a new costume
    Retro graphics for all characters!
    Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.

    Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the "normal" full work costumes.

    This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
    Nicely played ice
    I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister

    Is this pimp cane-y enough?

  • ThisisClemFandango
    ThisisClemFandango Posts: 885 Critical Contributor

    @rainkingucd said:

    @ThisisClemFandango said:

    @IceIX said:

    @ThisisClemFandango said:
    Who doesn't love a new costume
    Retro graphics for all characters!
    Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.

    Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the "normal" full work costumes.

    This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
    Nicely played ice
    I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister

    Is this pimp cane-y enough?

    Perfect. Take my money.

  • slidecage
    slidecage Posts: 3,536 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 12 February 2025, 16:59

    This new engine will that mean more power will be needed to play the game or will mins remain the same

    It says both versions of the game does that mean they are dropping steam

    Wonder how bad this will work on steam

    Also says every 2 weeks so will it be so we still get 5 every two weeks

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