New Minion Thoughts

There's been chatter about the various things the game could use, smoothing out some problem areas (dilution, Supports), breathing new life into the game (making more of the roster matter, both in changing the meta and rewarding roster depth, new events, etc), and I'd like to start a discussion in a new direction, keeping in mind the same general theme of "ways to make the game better."

I think the game could use some new minions. Our last new ones were the Mindless Ones back in 2016. We've had new uses of existing characters (totally a good thing, especially with some of the thematic nodes like the 1v1 fights), but no new minion type.(you can skip the next paragraph if you don't want to hear me re-hash what's already in the game for reference)

Most minions in the game use countdowns. You've got some variety here and there, Hammer are pretty run-of-the-mill effects, stuff that's good for a tutorial but not very nuanced for the rest of the game, a solid "default" option. Shield are just reskinned Hammer dudes. Maggia are very blue/yellow/black, ISO-8 Mutants drop purple countdowns and have numerous effects that get stronger if there are enough on the board (and some self-destruction to boot). Hand has some punishment effects, steals tiles, traps, attack generation when downed, bonus damage if allies alive, Konran even hurts his allies. Mindless Ones focus on single special tiles and buff them, and have high health and a strong team attack, making them pretty brutish compared to other minions. Ultron drones generate special tiles and cascade effects (one destroys tiles if there are few specials out, the other two destroy if there are enough specials out, the first directly with a heal and the second via critical tiles). Symbiotes mix countdowns with passives, focusing on special tiles and countdowns that do something every turn and deal damage when expiring, with a couple that trade the every-turn effect for something else that combos into their kits (AP generation and bonus damage for having specials out).

Oh, and Doombots. Technically they exist.

So...

What could we add? Both from a mechanical standpoint, and from what Marvel character(s) could be represented with those mechanics. In broad terms, we could use minions that provide something different than the types above, minions that encourage new or broader playstyles, and thematically minions that could be used in more story modes (Mindless Ones as generic alien monsters for Honor Among Thieves is kinda stretching things, if you ask me). Anyways, here are my ideas/ramblings to start things off

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First, my thought is to have minions that interact with team variety. Say, Sentinels that punish you for having multiple X-Men on the team (then you stretch the fiction to apply to Avengers or Sinister Six or Guardians or whatever, then decide if huge groups like "Heroes" count, etc). You'd want them strong enough to make you consider changing your team, but not so strong that it breaks the flow if you DON'T switch. Something that makes character selection part of the "puzzle." Thematically, I imagine Sentinels having a "Scan" power (to detect Mutants), drop an "increment" tile (like, a "count up" instead of a "count down"), and have it increase based on team composition (so if you're running Storm and Patch and Thor, it drops a counter that starts at 3, 1 to default and +2 for the X-Men on your team). Then maybe a subsequent scan boosts that tile. Then you could have attacks more like traditional characters, countdowns that do damage, or destroy an area, or do team damage, and their strength is based off of the level of the Scan counter (with a cap so it doesn't get too out of hand). So the power would work against any team, but would scale up faster against teams based on a matching team affiliation.

Of course, that immediately makes you wonder what kind of mechanic could be added to benefit using teams of the same affiliation. A few characters have powers that work off of affiliation, but it would be cool to have a bonus for using a team of X-Men that doesn't care which three you have, for example (kinda like all of the team bonuses on the old Marvel Ultimate Alliance games).

My second thought is something like Strange's yellow. Something that triggers on a certain action, to cause you to not take that action (or to be more careful about when you take it). REALLY, I think having a minion that reacts when a Passive goes off would be interesting. Passives started becoming more dominate around fall of 2016 (early hints with Blade and Luke Cage, then a winter/spring full of Medusa, Carol, Agent Coulson, Rocket & Groot, and the 3/5 releases of Strange, Thanos, and Hawkeye). So what about an enemy that lashes back when passives are triggered (maybe some do damage, maybe some drop special tiles, maybe they naturally make countdowns and special tiles and when passives are fired they speed up countdowns or buff special tiles? just some thoughts). Suddenly a countdown heavy team like Hawkeye, Coulson, and Carol, will feed the enemy as much as it helps yourself. Kitty/R&G or half-health Thor will buff enemies going straight into the match. And suddenly old heavy hitters like Jean Grey and Iceman and Red Hulk and Bucky and Thing and Nova and Hulkbuster and so on, characters with heavy hitting powers, become more viable in the general meta again. Both to breathe value into those older characters, and to make general nuke powers more exciting on newer characters. Thematically, my best idea is a version of the Adaptoid. A character that gets stronger as you use abilities because it learns from them. Maybe it could have two separate powers, one that triggers off of passives, and one off of actives, so either option provokes a reaction? That might step on the toes of my idea to make higher-cost powers viable again. No idea if there's a better thematic choice from the comics.

Both could be used for a normal PVE and maybe a Boss (Master Mold and the Super Adaptoid?). Both could theoretically be used as weapons by other characters, so "Osborn modifies Sentinels to send after Spidey" gives you an excuse for an event that mixes Sentinels with Hammer dudes, maybe a dash of Sinister Six as well. I could see an Anniversary that features a new PVE one week, a boss with the same minions the next week, and then a winter event (whether Christmas or the following Jan/Feb) mixing those minions with existing minions and characters potentially going well. It doesn't sound as exciting as an entirely new game mode, but that's okay if it makes existing game modes more enjoyable to play, you know?

I think I had a third idea, but I've been typing this off and on all day as I've had free time, and can't remember what it was right now... Generally speaking we don't have a lot of repeater use, but I think that's something you add to an above idea. Like "This minion is designed to promote team variety, and their powers do so by using repeaters." A more daunting challenge, but maybe a new minion in each of the existing types, and re-tinkering the existing events to throw in the new minions, could be a welcome change. Similar thing for a few named characters. Dark Avengers events wouldn't be so bad if we had one or two new Hammer dudes and maybe Osborn as Iron Patriot and then Skaar (Hulk) or US Agent (Cap) or that lady that was the DA Scarlet Witch. I would kinda rather drop a 3* Osborn and do one final "Fall of the DA" event and then never put them in new events ever ever ever again, but going back to add new stuff to the existing events could help fix the problem that everyone finds them boring (and it would be an excuse for another Doombot or ISO-8 Mutant, or more "elite" dudes like Gorgon and Ultron Prime). Probably not worth it from a cost-benefit standpoint, but it's an idea all the same.

So, what do you think? New minions in MPQ, goal is to use new Marvel characters and breathe some life into the game, what would you do, why/how, etc?