(Week of 19-Jan) Dev Updates Thread

13

Comments

  • Zarqa
    Zarqa Posts: 608 Critical Contributor
    edited 21 January 2026, 01:34

    And to be more detailed: just moving it to 30 minutes past the hour, when every slice begins at the top of the hour is probably sufficient in my opinion. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.

  • 49ers
    49ers Posts: 5 Just Dropped In

    Can you rotate costumes for VIP ?

  • toecutter3095
    toecutter3095 Posts: 124 Tile Toppler

    Not offer related per se but it does involve pop-ups, if you could bring the inbox-style delivery for rewards like you have in Gems of War, that would be pretty nice too. Especially if you can correct the rewards displayed from subs and events because that got completely busted with the move to Unity.

  • Hammer3001
    Hammer3001 Posts: 303 Mover and Shaker

    TheMigz:

    Are you planning on releasing new character announcements and monthly calendars like they used to?

    Are you planning to release the characters and related vaults similar to the old way or something new?

    Any chance you’re rethinking how incredibly limited 6-Star shards to get?

  • Chrynos1989
    Chrynos1989 Posts: 638 Critical Contributor

    @TheMigz normally there would be a 4* release this week, since atm nothing is normal (no critique towards you guys), is this still one the Plan or do you say postponed till the things go smoother again

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,915 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Chrynos1989 said:
    @TheMigz normally there would be a 4* release this week, since atm nothing is normal (no critique towards you guys), is this still one the Plan or do you say postponed till the things go smoother again

    Look at the pass graphic.

    Note the picture of Lin Lei as Iron Fist.

    Now ask yourself if a second costume for Sword Master is more or less likely than a new version of Lin Lei having different powers as the Immortal Iron Fist.

  • Spoobacca
    Spoobacca Posts: 5 Just Dropped In

    @TheMigz said:

    @Zarqa said:

    @TheMigz said:

    @Zarqa said:

    @TheMigz said:
    We will make a formal post about time-zone related changes for certain things in the lead up to the next Season. We didn't intend for the Season to go out at a different time to normal on this last one, but going forward, we will need to officially move it from 4am our time coz we generally like most of our devs to be fully awake when a key thing is happening.

    (The DDQ issue wasn't an intended time change either, but I don't believe we have any plans currently to change that timing.)

    Thanks again for the transparency. When you adjust timings, can you please make sure that standard quest and offer push out times do not overlap with the start time of any PvE or PvP slice?

    This has been a consistent feedback throughout the years and now is the opportunity to adjust it the right way.

    Sorry to make you folks repeat yourselves and/or state the obvious, but can you tell me specifically why you want the quest and offer times not to over lap with the PVP/PVE slice start times? I just want to make sure we have heard directly from you folks on this and understand.

    (MPQ has a pretty intricate relationship to time.)

    Currently, offers launch at 9am Pacific Time. This is at the exact same start time of Slice 2 of PvE. When offers launch, there are in game pop ups for each new offer, and those pop ups can only be stopped by visiting the Offer Tab in game or seeing each offer pop up individually. So this is a big distraction from playing PvE in that slice. Since a big part of the game is competitive placement, this interruption can take you out of the placement race for that PvE, since seconds can sometimes matter. And even if you don’t play for placement, seeing those offer pop ups appear every. single. time. you play your PvE node is just annoying.

    For PvP, there are ‘seed nodes’ that are available to attack if you join at the exact start time of the slice. This can usually get you 6-10 easy wins. If offers and their pop ups would overlap with this, it would mess with those seed teams at the start.

    New quests do not cause any in game pop up, so that is less important. But who knows, maybe you all want to add quest announcements in the future? Better to be safe than sorry and don’t have any automated launch tasks overlap with any PvE or PvP start times.

    Please let me know if the above doesn’t make sense. Happy to go into more detail.

    Ahhhhhhhh, the pop-ups.............
    Thank you, that makes a lot of sense. In future we'll push them to 30 minutes past the hour. (I think we have a few locked in at the moment, but after that, they'll have the new time.)

    That'll be the bandaid until we get around to fixing the more fundamental problems with things like how the pop-ups and menus work. At 12 years, MPQ is a pretty old gal as far as games go, and the way things are put together now vs how things were done (or could be done) back then is obviously pretty different, so it's a big job on our list.

    Not to mention that the new offers and popup push is at the exact time that Boss events start which causes players to have to keep trying to join the event due to the horrible lag of everything trying to push simultaneously.

  • Zarqa
    Zarqa Posts: 608 Critical Contributor

    @SaltnPeppa said:

    @TheMigz said:

    @Zarqa said:

    @TheMigz said:
    We will make a formal post about time-zone related changes for certain things in the lead up to the next Season. We didn't intend for the Season to go out at a different time to normal on this last one, but going forward, we will need to officially move it from 4am our time coz we generally like most of our devs to be fully awake when a key thing is happening.

    (The DDQ issue wasn't an intended time change either, but I don't believe we have any plans currently to change that timing.)

    Thanks again for the transparency. When you adjust timings, can you please make sure that standard quest and offer push out times do not overlap with the start time of any PvE or PvP slice?

    This has been a consistent feedback throughout the years and now is the opportunity to adjust it the right way.

    Sorry to make you folks repeat yourselves and/or state the obvious, but can you tell me specifically why you want the quest and offer times not to over lap with the PVP/PVE slice start times? I just want to make sure we have heard directly from you folks on this and understand.

    (MPQ has a pretty intricate relationship to time.)

    In other words, a certain group of people, I won't mention who they are- want to keep their advantage. Do it the way you're planning please. It's time for other timezones to get a chance. It's long overdue.

    I think we might have a misunderstanding here. I made no request or comment about when start times should or should not be. Just that whatever any new start times are, to avoid in game pop ups during the start time of PvE or PvP nodes. Do you disagree with that specific call out?

  • Grantosium
    Grantosium Posts: 150 Tile Toppler

    For what it's worth, I read that snark as being in good humour. I don't think there was a genuine attempt to start a grudge. I get that you could take offence, just saying as an impartial that it reads to me like friendly banter.

    He can defend himself if he chooses to, but if he doesn't hopefully an impartial POV helps you feel less insulted.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 8,076 Chairperson of the Boards

    I do think there's a very legitimate case for updating the slice start/end times. They were set up forever ago, by a team in the USA that was designing for players in the USA. Lots of players in other countries have been complaining for years about them.

    One suggestion was to add more end times/slices, but I don't think that was a real possibility, because you'd fracture the playerbase too much. But adjusting the current set of 5 would help a lot of players, and it makes more sense operationally now that the devs are in Australia.

  • toecutter3095
    toecutter3095 Posts: 124 Tile Toppler

    Without an understanding of where the issues with events originate, perhaps this doesn't make sense, but if they manifest when staging the event in-game, couldn't they just be loaded into the game at a time that is convenient in Australia and still have the same time slices right now? The pre-join oops you're in SCL1 problem would indicate that that issue at least is in staging rather than the event actually starting. So they would just appear in the game with a longer start timer than before but that's not really a problem.

    I mean the Events UI looks like it would support them loading up the whole season's events at the beginning of it and then they all just sit there waiting for their timer to hit zero. I don't think they would be able to run the same named event more than once in a season (so no 3 day Hunt and a 4 day Hunt), but that is not something that normally happens anyway outside of trying to correct for issues.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 8,076 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 21 January 2026, 20:01

    @toecutter3095 said:
    Without an understanding of where the issues with events originate, perhaps this doesn't make sense, but if they manifest when staging the event in-game, couldn't they just be loaded into the game at a time that is convenient in Australia and still have the same time slices right now? The pre-join oops you're in SCL1 problem would indicate that that issue at least is in staging rather than the event actually starting. So they would just appear in the game with a longer start timer than before but that's not really a problem.

    I mean the Events UI looks like it would support them loading up the whole season's events at the beginning of it and then they all just sit there waiting for their timer to hit zero. I don't think they would be able to run the same named event more than once in a season (so no 3 day Hunt and a 4 day Hunt), but that is not something that normally happens anyway outside of trying to correct for issues.

    I don't think they necessarily need to mess with the end times to fix whatever is happening now (although none of us have any idea what's happening behind the scenes).

    I just think it's a good opportunity to fix something that should've been fixed a long time ago, while making it slightly easier for them to troubleshoot in real time.

    And besides -- it's just an arbitrary end time for a phone game, right? Like, none of you have scheduled your entire lives around your chosen PvE end time for a decade, right??? That would be insane!

  • DashBC
    DashBC Posts: 36 Just Dropped In

    @toecutter3095 said:
    Without an understanding of where the issues with events originate, perhaps this doesn't make sense, but if they manifest when staging the event in-game, couldn't they just be loaded into the game at a time that is convenient in Australia and still have the same time slices right now? The pre-join oops you're in SCL1 problem would indicate that that issue at least is in staging rather than the event actually starting. So they would just appear in the game with a longer start timer than before but that's not really a problem.

    I mean the Events UI looks like it would support them loading up the whole season's events at the beginning of it and then they all just sit there waiting for their timer to hit zero. I don't think they would be able to run the same named event more than once in a season (so no 3 day Hunt and a 4 day Hunt), but that is not something that normally happens anyway outside of trying to correct for issues.

    I would suggest adding a time slot at the very beginning (or swap out the last) which would allow for an earlier start, but not change things for most players.

    I play slice 2, and a big reason is because it's the only one that works for me. If they change it, I'll have to stop playing somewhat competitively, and become a casual player...and honestly even that probably won't happen.

    I know I'm just one person, but it's been like this for a decade. Maybe best not piss off the few remaining players with dramatic changes to scheduling.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 8,076 Chairperson of the Boards

    @DashBC said:

    @toecutter3095 said:
    Without an understanding of where the issues with events originate, perhaps this doesn't make sense, but if they manifest when staging the event in-game, couldn't they just be loaded into the game at a time that is convenient in Australia and still have the same time slices right now? The pre-join oops you're in SCL1 problem would indicate that that issue at least is in staging rather than the event actually starting. So they would just appear in the game with a longer start timer than before but that's not really a problem.

    I mean the Events UI looks like it would support them loading up the whole season's events at the beginning of it and then they all just sit there waiting for their timer to hit zero. I don't think they would be able to run the same named event more than once in a season (so no 3 day Hunt and a 4 day Hunt), but that is not something that normally happens anyway outside of trying to correct for issues.

    I would suggest adding a time slot at the very beginning (or swap out the last) which would allow for an earlier start, but not change things for most players.

    I play slice 2, and a big reason is because it's the only one that works for me. If they change it, I'll have to stop playing somewhat competitively, and become a casual player...and honestly even that probably won't happen.

    I know I'm just one person, but it's been like this for a decade. Maybe best not piss off the few remaining players with dramatic changes to scheduling.

    This is a good case for adjusting the end times. Many players don't have ANY slice that works for them currently. Since end times are such a big deal, and not having an end time is a reason to quit, they'd probably gain players who weren't able to play before.

  • DashBC
    DashBC Posts: 36 Just Dropped In

    Sure, but do you think over the last 12yrs the game has attracted players who find the schedule works, or doesn't work?

    Is it worth putting off existing players with the hope of attracting new players?

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 8,076 Chairperson of the Boards

    @DashBC said:
    Sure, but do you think over the last 12yrs the game has attracted players who find the schedule works, or doesn't work?

    Is it worth putting off existing players with the hope of attracting new players?

    That's not for me (or you!) to decide -- the devs would have to weigh both options.

  • BriMan2222
    BriMan2222 Posts: 1,996 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 21 January 2026, 23:08

    @TheMigz

    Are you guys gonna fix the season vault? I have the 120 item one with magik and elektra, but I would much rather have the 70 item iron fist one, which I beleive is the correct one.

    Also, seconded on rotating the VIP costume

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