MPQ 12th Anniversary Celebrations

@DAZ0273 said:
Well that's a lot to take on board!
Nerfs - Well we had been warned so can't really complain too much. I hope they can achieve this via Chasm level rather than other past instances. You are gonna have to be especially careful with Polaris because she has been left for so long she now underpins massively a lot of lower tier play. I'll be sad to see Jane or Shang on the block but hey ho.

I hope they're not just using usage as a means to buff/nerf people though. Shang's powerful, and useful, but by no means a problem. If anything he's more of a starter character for people new to 5* land to use lol.

Mthor has been a problem forever, but I hope if they do "balance" her it's just a small nerf. Limit her board smash to once at the start of her turn, and once after using a power (not after EVERY one) maybe. She's fun to use, but can be a giant pain in the **** to fight against. Luck plays a waaaaaay larger factor in how badly you're getting your **** kicked when mthor's on the other team.

I don't think polaris is that big an issue too, but I can see her coming up on high usage metrics as well. It's more her partners/supports that can make her go off a ton. If they do nerf her, I hope they also take it lightly. Rather than just hitting her with a nerf bat of only triggering once, scale it a bit to have a limit of 2-3-4x or something, based on the level of the power.

I'm more for limiting Mthor's trigger because her triggers lead to cascades, which lead to more matches and possibly more crits, so more powers and more cascades, etc.

4-5 Juggs...that's a tough one too. Like mthor, he's fun to use but can be a giant pain in the **** to fight. I wouldn't mind if his DR was reduced some, from 90 to 75% or something. He'd still be a powerhouse, but wouldn't quite shrug off all match damage. His match damage could be reduced SLIGHTLY also, but I wouldn't want it to drop more than 25-30%. An important part of his kit is to have him make the matches. If you neuter his match damage too much, then his DR becomes pointless and he goes in the trash.

I would also hope any rebalance isn't ALL nerfs. Juggs' blue could definitely use some love.

Personally I think that they should only introduce 2-3 6-star characters a year.

1 during the anniversary season; 1 at New Year’s: 1 in the summer.

They should keep the current 2-week release schedule.

And do some truly game changing Supports!

The Infinity Gauntlet
The Cosmic Cube
The Power Cosmic

@Seph1roth5 they should nerf/buff based completely on usage rates. The best characters get used the most, the worst get used the least. It's really easy to figure it out on their side.

They need to actually do rebalances frequently though. In the past they'd nerf someone good into the ground then let them sit at the bottom forever.

I'm a fan of small, frequent changes. If they're hitting m'Thor, hit her a tiny bit, and if it doesn't reduce usage but her again the next month. Repeat until her usage rate looks like everyone else.

4* Jugg was never much of an issue until Sam showed up and started pumping up his passive damage. Just change him so that it can't be boosted at all, it already can't be boosted by okoye or apocalypse.

Say they sell Red Skull for $100, and even the best 550s literally can't beat him. Now any noob willing to spend $100 can totally own your 10-year, meticulously-planned, spreadsheeted, free to play roster.

What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

What's really funny about this (and OMG it's really, really funny) is: I'd bet a decent amount of money that we're only getting 6* because of the revenue decrease associated with the boycott.

Just a reminder that when you choose to play "players vs devs," you cannot ever win. They're in charge, it's their game, not yours, and they can change the rules any time they want. You can either keep playing or walk away, but you have no agency beyond that choice.

@entrailbucket said:
What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

But they did quit?
Flips are happening slower. PvP numbers are down. Forum and Discord have considerably less people posting. It’s so (so!) much harder to recruit people for alliances.

This is where we probably disagree. The game has lost a huge amount of players since Unity. And certain Dev choices will lead to more people quitting. I’m not the one tracking, but I trust those who do and have posted about it here and on Discord.

Your stance (I think?): people won’t quit no matter what they say or do!
My stance: we recently lost a core part of the long term player base and it’s really hard to replace them with new blood.

@bluewolf said:

@Zarqa said:

@entrailbucket said:
What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

But they did quit?
Flips are happening slower. PvP numbers are down. Forum and Discord have considerably less people posting. It’s so (so!) much harder to recruit people for alliances.

This is where we probably disagree. The game has lost a huge amount of players since Unity. And certain Dev choices will lead to more people quitting. I’m not the one tracking, but I trust those who do and have posted about it here and on Discord.

Your stance (I think?): people won’t quit no matter what they say or do!
My stance: we recently lost a core part of the long term player base and it’s really hard to replace them with new blood.

Based on SCL 10 flips we’ve lost like 1/6 of players (10 flips now vs 12 flips back in May). Odds are a lot of those were among the least engaged players who barely played and didn’t place well.

I think it’s true that highly engaged players who say they’re going to quit usually don’t. I think the people who are less engaged are more likely to quit, people who play like 15 min a day or something, can’t place well due to life schedule etc.

I think this is another inflection point for the game where upsetting habits and practices could disrupt player engagement further.

Players who are less engaged are also much, much easier to replace. Nobody's tracking flips sub CL10, so we have no idea what those look like. I've had absolutely no trouble filling open slots in my (public) alliance (with no requirements).

Basically, they need players, but they don't need any specific player. We're all replaceable.

@entrailbucket said:
Say they sell Red Skull for $100, and even the best 550s literally can't beat him. Now any noob willing to spend $100 can totally own your 10-year, meticulously-planned, spreadsheeted, free to play roster.

What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

Didn't this already happen? Buy yourself all the 1* deals, grind away like crazy for drops, 10x 550 within a few months for ~$200 and they're always boosted since there are so few.

First thing I saw was some big buyers supplementing with the 1*, and now I see plenty of 1* only 550's. They paid, they win; and I agree with you, it's always been that way [and the game is built do do that, and must be.]

It also might be what drove many that spent years getting the 550's the old way leaving, since now they're against multiple 650 every match. And now those 1* boosted going to face similar levels of modern/stronger characters, maybe they leave next. We'll see!