Please, enough with gimmick tiles, Hazard tiles, etc.

JSP869 · February 2018

For me, I think one of the features, or lack thereof, that has kept me playing this game for so long is the lack of gimmick tiles present in so many other Match 3 games. My wife plays these games all the time, Candy Crush was big for a while, and most recently it was Gardenscapes. I played them along with her because she wanted me to send her lives (so she could keep playing) and for a short while these games were fun. But the more you play them, the more gimmick tiles are introduced and the game very quickly becomes very frustrating.

Unfortunately for me I'm an explorer/completionist and so once Candy Crush, Gardenscapes, etc. got their hooks into me, I always felt compelled to beat them, even though I wasn't enjoying playing them. Sometimes I'd be playing the same damn level for days on end before finally managing to beat it, and when I finally did, I was like Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones (no satisfaction). My sole thought on beating a difficult level in Candy Crush, etc., was always "F**k you, game!" Now I admit there are MPQ matches where I've had the same thought after winning (or losing) but those are few and far between. For the most part I do get a lot of satisfaction out of playing MPQ. Lately I've been playing SCL9 and on some of the harder nodes, from time to time I will have to replay them a couple of times until I beat them. And when I do, it's very satisfying! I get a sense of achievement and accomplishment.

I've been playing MPQ for at least 4 years. I'm currently on Day 1466. My wife typically only plays her Match 3 games for maybe 6-8 months before moving onto a new game. Why? Because eventually the levels get so ridiculously frustrating with all the gimmick tiles that the game is just not fun to play.

If you continue to introduce more and more gimmick tiles to MPQ then it will stop being fun too, for me and others like me, and we will stop playing. (I don't have any delusions of grandeur, I've spent a few hundred dollars playing MPQ but I'm not a whale or even a shark, you won't even notice I'm gone.)

There was a PvP event not too long ago where tiles entering the board had a chance to be a counter tile. The description for the counter tiles indicated they didn't belong to you or to the AI team, but they did, belong to the AI team that is. Because they would count down at the beginning of the AI's turn so people were running Carol with Grocket, Daken, Bl4de, etc., and when those counters counted down, the AI's Carol would buff her team's Strike tiles, even though the counters didn't belong to the AI team. That was not a fun event and it was not fun solely because of those gimmick counter tiles.

Please, enough with the gimmick tiles. I really like this game and I want to continue playing it. As I said earlier I'm playing SCL9, I'm getting more 4* champions (up to 35 now), I'm getting more covers for more of my 5*s and I can see myself having 1-2 fully covered 5*s by the end of the year. I'm finally feeling like I'm playing MPQ's "end game". It's like Raiding in EQ or WoW. All MMOs have exploring and leveling and dungeons, but the pinnacle of MMos are the Raids. That's the stage I feel I'm finally getting to with MPQ, and I'm loving it! Obviously I've always enjoyed playing MPQ or I wouldn't have continued playing for 4+ years, but I'm really starting to enjoy the game now, more than ever.

Except you're about to destroy that by introducing more and more gimmick tiles which, for me, will make your game just another Match 3 clone, and then it won't be fun, and eventually I'll stop playing. Please don't do this. Absolutely introduce more characters, even 6*s, we know they're coming eventually, but please no more gimmick tiles.

Sim Mayor · February 2018

I want to say I get your frustration, I really do. If this makes you leave the game, I for one will definitely miss you, since you have a record of insightful, cogent posts. But speaking as someone with 2+ years and maybe $150 invested in the game, the truth is I'm enjoying the new hazard tiles. I can't wait for tomorrow's event to see how those tiles play. My wife and I both play, and we talked this morning about the strategies we would use to minimize their impact on us while still damaging the enemies.

And that's exactly why I really don't see this game being "just another Match 3 clone." Having all of these characters to choose from gives you the opportunity to work out solutions to each challenge the game puts in front of you, instead of just hoping the offending tile appears somewhere near two others of the same color.

So while I understand that you are only speaking for yourself (and I applaud you for it, since a lot of regular posters here try to claim that "no one likes" whatever it is they don't like), please understand that other people are having a different experience from you.

And besides, for now at least, this is something that's only occurring in this one event. Put it in the same mental category as Venom Bomb, where you say "Oh, that one. Ugh. Ok, I better remember to play so-and-so." Or just play at a lower level for a smaller reward and be thankful that it's only a 3-day event

JSP869 · February 2018

Thank you for a polite response and not "Good riddance! Don't let the door hit ya!"

I hope you do enjoy this event. Having completed my initial clears just now I can tell you that it's not one of my favorites. I'm also glad that I dropped down to SCL8 and didn't try to hang in SCL9 because I burned through all of my health packs doing my initial clears, and this is in spite of my having fully cleared SCL9 on multiple occasions, where I'd maybe use half of my health packs.

Fortunately I do have a varied roster, and equally fortunate is that I recently fully covered both Vulture and Nightcrawler. Fortunately, because my Quake is not very well covered, and Vulture and Nightcrawler were the only reason I was able to do my full clears in one go. Vulture was able to go airborne to avoid the bomb damage and remove some of them, and instead of hurting Nightcrawler the bombs just sent him airborne. But whoever my thirds were, well, they just had to take what whatever was coming to them. Some were able to heal through some of the damage, but the required characters on their nodes took a real pounding.

My concern is not with the event itself, it's for the trend towards having gimmick tiles like this event's bomb tiles. On the plus side, at least they're hitting everyone on both sides, and it's not a one-sided affair. This meant I was able to run Daredevil with Medusa, stun two of the other team just before a bomb went off, and Daredevil would deal bonus damage on top of the bomb damage to the two stunned opponents.

So I am definitely trying to use my roster to work around this new challenge. I'm not just throwing my hands up and saying, Well, that's it for me, I'm done, I'm outta here.

I don't want to be 'done'. I want to keep playing this game, but more importantly I want to enjoy playing it, not be frustrated by it.

Thank you for reading, and commenting.

JSP869 · February 2018

I just crushed several Medusa, Gamora, & R4G teams in Balance of Power. I feel better now

SocAccPsyc · February 2018

Yeah, these hazard bomb tiles are a special kind of garbage. As stated previously, they are not neutral since they count down on the AI turn - with all the extra damage and AP issues associated with that. Also, they're just cheap, annoying damage to my characters forcing me to churn through health packs faster (not very subtle, are they?). Other incarnations that didn't deal damage but wiped out rows or columns added an extra layer of strategy, but these just frustrate.

And of course they are on every freaking node...

MunitionsFrenzy · February 2018

The newest character, who they are of course trying to advertise, makes tons of Protect tiles. Vision's boosted and his Yellow shrugs off Exploding Tech damage. Plenty of other characters here make Protects. Any of these options will turn the tiles into assets instead of problems.

And, I mean, dealing with constant POTENTIAL damage, that can be matched/destroyed, isn't even half as infuriating as fighting against Medusa or R4G in PvP, with their constant GUARANTEED damage. You can just clear these tiles before they hurt you.

I'm really not sure what the issue is here.

Bowgentle · February 2018

EternalLurker said:

The newest character, who they are of course trying to advertise, makes tons of Protect tiles. Vision's boosted and his Yellow shrugs off Exploding Tech damage. Plenty of other characters here make Protects. Any of these options will turn the tiles into assets instead of problems.

And, I mean, dealing with constant POTENTIAL damage, that can be matched/destroyed, isn't even half as infuriating as fighting against Medusa or R4G in PvP, with their constant GUARANTEED damage. You can just clear these tiles before they hurt you.

I'm really not sure what the issue is here.

The issue is that one tile does 9500 damage at level 515.
Good luck using protect tiles against that.

ZeiramMR · February 2018

Bowgentle said:

The issue is that one tile does 9500 damage at level 515.
Good luck using protect tiles against that.

I played down on this one to SCL 7, and since I am in a late slice, I haven't noticed the peak damage yet from final clears. Thanks for explaining just how bad they can get on higher SCLs.

FWIW, I got hit by about 6-8 and didn't need to use any health packs on my initial clears. That WAS with a team change which helped on spreading the damage, using Black Bolt/ChampGambit on the Essentials and Gamora/R&G/Medusa on the rest. I realize a lot of that is the lower SCL and some of that may have been luck. It shows how bad they can get at higher damage when in one round I did a match-4 to clear one hazard and 3 more dropped in.

MunitionsFrenzy · February 2018

Bowgentle said:
The issue is that one tile does 9500 damage at level 515.
Good luck using protect tiles against that.

I happen to know that OP is in SCL8, not SCL9, and defensive teams are totally fine against Exploding Tech there. I can't comment on how it is for you SCL9 guys, though.

GByeMPQ · February 2018

MPQ in SCL 9 may as well be called MBQ, Marvel Bomb Quest. No chance to clear them as fast as they come. Huge damage. Completely silly. I loathe them. Takes the puzzle (and fun) out of it.

So, make me use all my hpacks expecting me to buy them for pvp? I quit pvp because the rewards stink for what a pain that gambit filled nightmare has become. Now you want to add an element to pve that disrupts the rythm as well as feeds ap to the enemy, countsdown automatically from 3 to 2 in the middle of appearing in a cascade, and appears multiple times in one turn... and does 7-9k each bomb... NO THANKS.

Quester42 · February 2018

I'm there with people's frustrations.

d3go: At the very least, post in-game as part of the pre-event description that you're going to hamstring it with environmental **** so we can decide to give the week a pass beforehand.

JSP869 · February 2018

EternalLurker said:

Bowgentle said:
The issue is that one tile does 9500 damage at level 515.
Good luck using protect tiles against that.

I happen to know that OP is in SCL8, not SCL9, and defensive teams are totally fine against Exploding Tech there. I can't comment on how it is for you SCL9 guys, though.

While I have been playing SCL9, and enjoying the challenge it brings (I have to concentrate more and play a more strategic game, and not just try to brute force my way through) after reading the very first reports here and on Reddit, and after hearing from Alliance mates who started early (I waited for the second Flip), for Wakanda I did drop down to SCL8 and I'm very glad I did. The Exploding Tech tiles were frustrating enough on 8, in SCL9 they would have been 1-2 shotting my entire team.

JSP869 · October 2018

I'm still here, in spite of the hazard tiles. Still disappointed to see you haven't made them more neutral, but I guess that figures into the "Danger Room" theme where the player's team is fighting perhaps a hologram team in a simulation, and so any computer-generated hazards will not only not hurt but will even favor the computer-generated team. So that makes sense when thinking of Danger Room in that context.

It doesn't make the hazard tiles any less frustrating though.

So I see from my original post that my year-end prediction was spot on. I now have fewer than 10 4*s not fully covered, I have two Champion 5*s, one fully-covered 5* (not championed), and two other 5*s just 1-2 covers from being finished. I'm playing PvE regularly in CL9 now and having a lot less trouble with it, and I really like the new wins-based PvP system. Since it was introduced I've gotten the 4* cover in every PvP event, and in a few events even pushed on and got the 75-wins CP, thanks in large part to my two new 5* Champions, Okoye and Jessica Jones.

With Danger Room I had to force myself to get the 16-wins CP, then foolishly pushed on and after several (more than 3) very frustrating matches I finally got the 19-wins token. I hated it though. I love MPQ but I hate Danger Room's hazard tiles.

I will say that I am very glad you chose to not make Danger Room part of a PvP season, so thank you for that.

But my original plea still stands. Please, no more gimmicky, hazard tiles.

MPQ already has a gimmick. It's that we're fielding a team of superheroes/villains against the AI's team of heroes/villains, and because we take turns making matches we cannot just set up moves for future matches or the AI team will take advantage of that. So we have to make matches that benefit our team to get the colors we need while simultaneously trying to deny the AI team the tiles/colors it needs.

But with the hazard tiles, they cannot all be matched away, some of them will survive to count down to zero, and when they do they almost inevitably give the AI a cascade (observational bias FTW

then all of our careful planning goes out the window and the AI spends its ill-gotten AP to nuke us from orbit.

MPQ should not be trying to be like every other match 3 game out there. No more hazard tiles, please.

Please, enough with gimmick tiles, Hazard tiles, etc.

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