Dormammu said: Why does Demi do this? Why do they 're-balance' their characters into unrecognizable versions of themselves? Do they not understand that this alienates players who love that character?
bbigler said: I'm almost convinced that the people in charge of new character design don't actually play the game (or at least they don't play competitively).
Dormammu said: @bbigler - I believe they do listen to the forums, very much so. You cited many examples as evidence of that.
Dormammu said: ...When it comes to balancing characters, the developers of MPQ completely baffle me. In every other (online) game I've ever played if a character/class needed to be balanced to prevent one character from being over/under-powered, adjustments are made to their existing abilities. Does a character/class do too much damage? Let's tweak it down a little. Does a character/class have a defensive power that isn't performing as well as others? Let's beef it up a little. In other words, the balancing comes from adjusting the numbers up or down - not giving them entirely new abilities.But when D3 'balances' a character, more often than not they reformat the character entirely into something that doesn't even resemble the prior build. It's mind-boggling. That's why it's so hard to call what happened to Reed (and many other characters before him) a nerf. Technically, a 'nerf' would be a lessening his previous abilities, which didn't happen. D3 just gave him an entirely new set of abilities! And a lot of us were like... what? What was wrong with Reed?To me, it's insulting to the player base to do what D3 Demi does. Imagine if an MMO developers did this - just throw away the entire build of a character/class and gave them a completely different build. Everyone who played and enjoyed that character/class would feel spit on, especially if they had invested money into the game....Why does Demi do this? Why do they 're-balance' their characters into unrecognizable versions of themselves? Do they not understand that this alienates players who love that character?
Dormammu said: I support what happened to OML. He was actually nerfed in the true sense of the word. It can (and has) been debated if he deserved it, but at least he wasn't rebuilt from the ground up.
Jaedenkaal said: Also worth mentioning that, for a very long time, it's been clear that Demi considers the original version of the character "on budget". By which I mean, it's been an extremely long time (Sam Wilson, maybe?) since a character redo was a complete upgrade. In basically all cases, there are tradeoffs. Sometimes the new "on budget" version lines up with what players like (Wasp). Sometimes, not so much (Kingpin).
Straycat said: This game can't really make those small tweaks that other games do. I mean, I guess they could, but it wouldn't work the same way as it does in other games. Other games can generally fit each character into more of a defined role, and each action is (probably) more defined. Overwatch, each character has a primary attack, and their specials are on timed cooldowns. Fighting games each character has their moves, speeds, damage etc. Here, a well aimed cascade, or a random one, could set you up for multiple attacks. Since there are no real time action, small tweaks don't work the same.
HoundofShadow said: The only thing true are:1) whatever the devs do, they can never satisfy every single player. One group of players will be happy, and the other groups unhappy. If you were in their shoes, what would you do? Do nothing?2) Many still think that their opinions represents the majority of the MPQ players; therefore, the devs don't listen to the players or they don't understand how 5* players play if their suggestions have not been implemented. The devs addressed something about speed many years ago. So, I doubt it's a case of not understanding 5* gameplay, but they simply aren't going the route of every or majority of new releases have to be stronger or better than previous characters.Here it is:At the top of the leaderboards, Versus is geared towards playing fast (to avoid being hit while unshielded) rather than playing creatively with diverse rosters. The 'fastest' teams dominate. Are you comfortable with this element of the game?A: Yes and no: In any multiplayer game, high-end competition is going to be a somewhat different game than what most people are playing. There are fewer viable strategies and they’re typically a little less expressive and creative. We’re comfortable with the fact that some of the characters we release won’t find a role in that environment and are just there to be fun and interesting for folks that are less focused on being at the top. We do want the top of the leaderboards to be an interesting place to be, and intend to continue shaking things up with new characters and balance changes when we see a single team composition dominating. But speed will probably always be more important at the top than it is for most players.
Straycat said: This game can't really make those small tweaks that other games do. I mean, I guess they could, but it wouldn't work the same way as it does in other games. Other games can generally fit each character into more of a defined role, and each action is (probably) more defined. Overwatch, each character has a primary attack, and their specials are on timed cooldowns. Fighting games each character has their moves, speeds, damage etc. Here, a well aimed cascade, or a random one, could set you up for multiple attacks. Since there are no real time action, small tweaks don't work the same. For the most part they have been good about keeping what works and fixing what doesn't in their rebalances. And the changes they do make aren't that mind boggling to me. They are often a product of the recent trends. What's hot right now? Tile based conditions (Nebula, Dazzler, Prowler, etc) and repeaters that make tiles (Emma, Nebula, Panther, etc). When Mordo was done, ap based powers were hot, so thats how he got his new purple. Tho I personally enjoyed his previous version better
TPF Alexis said: There are still tons of tweaks that can be made. Adjust AP costs. Adjust damage dealt. Adjust Character Health. Adjust Match Damage (almost exclusively a 5* thing so far, but there's no real reason for it to remain so). Adjust the strength of special tiles that are created. Add or remove Fortification for tiles that are created. Shift how a power improves with different numbers of covers so there are decent builds other than 5/5/5. All kinds of ways to adjust abilities without completely rewriting them.
Straycat said: TPF Alexis said: There are still tons of tweaks that can be made. Adjust AP costs. Adjust damage dealt. Adjust Character Health. Adjust Match Damage (almost exclusively a 5* thing so far, but there's no real reason for it to remain so). Adjust the strength of special tiles that are created. Add or remove Fortification for tiles that are created. Shift how a power improves with different numbers of covers so there are decent builds other than 5/5/5. All kinds of ways to adjust abilities without completely rewriting them. Still tho, those aren't minor tweaks. Look at Mr Fantastic, 7 ap stun to 8. 1 ap, yet it makes a world of difference. I think about 5* Loki. If his repeater was 2 turns instead of 3, that would be a huge change. Adding fortification or increasing specials would be stealth nerfs/buffs to characters that create or utilize fortified tiles or that steal specials. AP/ countdown turns are big changes, conversely damage numbers are small changes. The same reason why the "ignore protect tiles" power is largely unnoticed. Its rare to set up a nuke or AOE and KO them by a small margin. A character is good or bad mostly on their kit/ team synergy vs raw ouput, IMO.
Straycat said: AP/ countdown turns are big changes, conversely damage numbers are small changes.