How to Improve Endgame Content
MishHammer84
Member Posts: 30 ★
Hello Kabam and members of the MCOC community. In this post I will provide my opinions and ideas on how to solve the problems with game design that have been apparent throughout act 6 and most other endgame content.
I understand that there is a boycott and many people complaining in the same way, but so far I have seen little constructive criticism that gives kabam specific ideas on how to improve the game. This post may be lengthy, but i have a lot of ideas and am very bored so read as much as your heart desires.
The three major problems I see with the game are:
1. The quests are designed in a way that makes them repetitive and lacking creativity
2. The nodes and abilities within these quests make gameplay unenjoyable
3. The content takes very long to make but is cleared by top players in a few hours, leading to burnout
Notice how difficulty is never mentioned. If the game is difficult but also enjoyable, I believe that there is no problem with it. Also, i may be overly negative in my criticism and although i think that the more recent gameplay is bland and needs to be fixed, I still enjoy the core mechanics of the game.
1. QUEST DESIGN
To solve the first problem, people who make the quests will need to think outside the box with their ideas. Most quests in act 6 follow the exact same dull formula. There are 6-10 paths each quest that have 8-10 characters each which all come together on the boss. The only thing that sets these paths apart are the nodes. Every quest should feel different than the others. Try to switch things up and play around with the numbers of opponents and paths. Remember the venom boss in 4.3? Why is there nothing like that anymore?
Things can also be done to change some core aspects of the game. Why is it always 5 characters to a quest? Why not make easier quests and allow less characters, or make harder quests and allow more? You could also do things such as combining weak adaptoids, the slumber node, and life transfer to make a kind of heal station to add more strategy into quests. "Which character would benefit the most from the heal station?" Helping the player like this may seem bad for business, but the difficulty can be balanced by making quests slightly harder.
There have been some attempts to spice things up with gated paths in 6.2 and boosts in 6.3. All players can agree that the gated paths should not be repeated, because they severely limited gameplay. No content should be made that completely limits roster choices this much.
In my opinion the boosts were a good idea (that could be used again!) with only a few flaws: About 30% of the boosts did not even need to be used because they had very simple abilities that characters could do on their own. On the other hand, about 10% of boosts did not fully counter the node that they were designed for, making me use well designed boosts such as Intel more than once. If the boosts directly countered the nodes in a way that no other characters could, they should be used again in the future.
I have another idea to make quests more interesting: destructible nodes. They function the same as linked nodes, but when taken out will be gone forever. This allows for quests to be designed like puzzles that are solved as they are explored. It would also help players adjust the nodes in the quest through strategy to fit their roster better.
Also, why have incursion hacks not found their way into quests? Really? You spend all that time designing them and only use them for one gamemode? They obviously don't have to be the same buffs, but throwing these in some quests would definitely make the game more entertaining.
2. NODE DESIGN
Even if quests are made better, the nodes are what decide if the gameplay is fun. I honestly enjoy finding the best counters in my roster for act 6 nodes and planning how I will clear paths. However, the gameplay itself is typically tedious and boring. Additionally, there are many cases where 3 characters can be used for a path and the only one I have barely works.
In order to fix this, there have to be some nodes you legitimately just never use again. For example, all of the nodes that reduce attack by 90% unless a certain condition is met have to go. Even if you have the perfect counter or meet the conditions (mercy), you are just doing the regular damage, which means these nodes are never a positive influence upon gameplay.
Ability based nodes, such as biohazard, power gain, masochism, or buffet are good when used sparingly, such as throughout act 5. However, when three are placed on the same path, the gameplay very rarely improved or even affected. The only thing that changes is the amount of characters that can reasonably be used. In my opinion, only one of these major ability nodes should be used on each path.
On the other hand, skill based nodes such as aegis, inverted controls, or bane, make gameplay different and in many cases more enjoyable without limiting your roster (Seriously, if you hate on these nodes you gotta get good). The reason that the grandmaster fight was such a success was because you could use any character for it and more importantly because it was purely skill based. By the way, duel and coward are good skill based dungeon nodes that are never used in endgame content
To provide some constructive criticism I have made a list of node ideas that I think would make the game more fun. Notice that even many of the ability based nodes involve skill and directly affect gameplay in some way.
Ability/tag based nodes----------------------
Copycat
The defender and attacker share each other's abilities for the entire fight
Pacifism - (Bleed/Poison/Shock/Incinerate/Weakness/Fatigue/Exhaustion)
Every 2 seconds, if the attacker does not attack the defender, the attacker receives x debuff. One stack is removed every time the attacker strikes the defender
Infinity
Both the attacker's and defender's buffs last permanently
Pong
If either character blocks, all of their debuffs are transferred to the opponent
Lightning Rod
At the beginning of the fight, the attacker receives a shock debuff dealing 100% of their attack over 60 seconds. If they are a metal based character, they will gain +1000% attack as well. If they are immune to shock, they will not gain this attack bonus
Secret Lair
Villains receive a +100% attack bonus, while heroes and mercenaries receive a -50% attack penalty
Court of Justice
Heroes receive a +100% attack bonus, while villains and mercenaries receive a -50% attack penalty
Dark Alleyway
Mercenaries receive a +100% attack bonus, while heroes and villains receive a -50% attack penalty
Patriarchy
Male characters receive a +100% attack bonus, while female characters receive a -50% attack penalty
Matriarchy
Female characters receive a +100% attack bonus, while male characters receive a -50% attack penalty
No Excuses
All of both characters' buffs and debuffs are passive and none of their abilities can be prevented by any means
Physical Encounter
Neither character can take energy damage
Energy Encounter
Neither character can take physical damage
These ^ two nodes should be used with lower health pools in order to not make extremely long fights
Grudge match
Any synergies between the characters in this fight are reversed
(For example +7 attack becomes -7 attack)
Weight Classes
XL Champions cannot block or land critical hits but have 300% attack and their special moves are unblockable
L Champions have only half of their critical rating but also have 200% attack
M champions are unaffected
S Champions have -50% attack but have guaranteed crits on all attacks
Skill based nodes-------------------------------------
The Force
If either character whiffs or misses a basic attack, all of the damage that would be dealt is still dealt to the opponent
Perfection - Dexterity
If the attacker uses the dexterity mastery, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a normal dash back, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Parry
If the attacker performs a well timed block, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a normal block, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Light Intercept
If the attacker performs a light intercept, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a first light attack that is not an intercept, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Medium Intercept
If the attacker performs an intercept, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a dash attack that is not an intercept, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Specials
If the attacker hits the defender with their special attack, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they are touched by any of the defender's special attacks, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Baseball
The defender is passively unblockable, unstoppable, and indestructible at the beginning of the fight and every (30/60) seconds. If the attacker intercepts their dash attack with a heavy attack, these buffs are removed. Additionally, the attacker's heavy attack is unstoppable and gains up to +500% attack based on how long it is charged.
Equality
The defender's health will slowly passively regenerate or degenerate over 30 seconds to match the percentage of health the attacker has
Boxing Match
Both characters' basic attacks are unblockable for the entire fight.
Shield Poke
Both characters begin the fight with 4 shield charges. Every time they block an attack, a shield charge is removed and once they run out of charges their opponent becomes unblockable. If either character tries to block an attack without a shield charge, they will become passively stunned for 2 seconds and regain 4 shield charges.
Special Spam
The attacker's basic attacks all miss, but they constantly gain 1 bar of power every 10 seconds and their special attacks deal 200% damage.
Inverted Power
The defender begins the fight with 99% power. The attacker's basic attacks drain the defender's power the same amount they would usually give.
Any power drain, burn, or steal effects have the opposite effect as usual.
If the defender uses a special attack, they gain the amount of power the special attack costs.
Inverted Health
The defender begins the fight with 1% health. Any damage dealt to the defender by any means is healed instead. Whenever the defender would normally regenerate health, regardless of heal block or not, they degenerate it instead.
(This is mainly countered by heal reversal, but should be used on characters with regeneration effects)
Rampage (best used for a boss)
The defender begins the fight very agressive and with passive unstoppable, unblockable, indestructible, regeneration(1% every second), and power gain (5% every second) buffs.
The unstoppable buff is removed by intercepting the defender.
The unblockable buff is removed by hitting the defender with a special 1.
The indestructible buff is removed by stunning the defender.
The regeneration buff is removed by hitting the defender with a special 2.
The power gain buff is removed by hitting the defender with a heavy attack against the wall
The defender's aggressiveness is removed by hitting the defender with a special 3.
Slide to the left
The attacker gains up to +5% power every second based on how close they are to the left wall, or loses up to -5% power a secons based on how close they are to the right wall. The defender gains the same power bonus but inverted
Slide to the right
The attacker gains up to +5% power every second based on how close they are to the right wall, or loses up to -5% power a secons based on how close they are to the left wall. The defender gains the same power bonus but inverted
Leftovers
If the attacker takes damage that would immediately knock them out while above 25% health, they survive and regenerate the additional amount of health that would be dealt after the knockout
Quarrel
Both characters are passively unstoppable for the entire fight, except when struck by heavy or special attacks. Any damage taken while blocking or unstoppable is instead absorbed and can be released by striking the opponent with a heavy attack.
3. CONTENT DESIGN
Many top players clear new content within the first 24 hours of its release, regardless of the many months of work it takes kabam developers to create it. I have two ideas to fix this, both of which can be implemented in many ways.
Idea #1: Champion based rewards.
Once a quest is explored, there is no other way to get rewards from it, so it is therefore judged done by the player and never revisited. This idea would involve giving additional substantial rewards based on how many total characters the player beat the quest with. Basically, every character you take through this quest gives you a bonus. This would not only encourage players to replay quests, but also allow for many typically unused characters to shine in content and earn rewards for players.
These rewards can be used in addition to typical completion and exploration rewards, but if there was a major quest like the labyrinth that operated solely on character rewards, it would take a small amount of time to develop and a seemingly infinite time for players to fully complete. Additionally, if a system was designed to change the difficulty of said quest based on the characters the player brings in to it, the player could use their weaker characters as well.
Idea #2: Randonly generated quests.
This may seem difficult, but hear me out. If an algorithm to make logical quests with a fixed number of opponents was developed, and random nodes from modok's lab or island or whatever were used, this could be a thing. You would need to ensure that no node/character combinations are impossible, but if done correctly this could be another project that takes little time to develop compared to the amount of content it could output.
Although unusable for any permanent content, this algorithm could be used for weekly, daily, or monthly quests that would help make the game more enjoyable overall (as long as rewards are balanced and useful)
CONCLUSION
I doubt any of these ideas will be used, but it is my belief that if incorporated into the game they would make it more enjoyable. If you read this far and would like to see these ideas in the game, please spread this post around and maybe they will be used. Of course, if you have any ideas of your own to share or would like to agree or disagree these ones, please do so.
I understand that there is a boycott and many people complaining in the same way, but so far I have seen little constructive criticism that gives kabam specific ideas on how to improve the game. This post may be lengthy, but i have a lot of ideas and am very bored so read as much as your heart desires.
The three major problems I see with the game are:
1. The quests are designed in a way that makes them repetitive and lacking creativity
2. The nodes and abilities within these quests make gameplay unenjoyable
3. The content takes very long to make but is cleared by top players in a few hours, leading to burnout
Notice how difficulty is never mentioned. If the game is difficult but also enjoyable, I believe that there is no problem with it. Also, i may be overly negative in my criticism and although i think that the more recent gameplay is bland and needs to be fixed, I still enjoy the core mechanics of the game.
1. QUEST DESIGN
To solve the first problem, people who make the quests will need to think outside the box with their ideas. Most quests in act 6 follow the exact same dull formula. There are 6-10 paths each quest that have 8-10 characters each which all come together on the boss. The only thing that sets these paths apart are the nodes. Every quest should feel different than the others. Try to switch things up and play around with the numbers of opponents and paths. Remember the venom boss in 4.3? Why is there nothing like that anymore?
Things can also be done to change some core aspects of the game. Why is it always 5 characters to a quest? Why not make easier quests and allow less characters, or make harder quests and allow more? You could also do things such as combining weak adaptoids, the slumber node, and life transfer to make a kind of heal station to add more strategy into quests. "Which character would benefit the most from the heal station?" Helping the player like this may seem bad for business, but the difficulty can be balanced by making quests slightly harder.
There have been some attempts to spice things up with gated paths in 6.2 and boosts in 6.3. All players can agree that the gated paths should not be repeated, because they severely limited gameplay. No content should be made that completely limits roster choices this much.
In my opinion the boosts were a good idea (that could be used again!) with only a few flaws: About 30% of the boosts did not even need to be used because they had very simple abilities that characters could do on their own. On the other hand, about 10% of boosts did not fully counter the node that they were designed for, making me use well designed boosts such as Intel more than once. If the boosts directly countered the nodes in a way that no other characters could, they should be used again in the future.
I have another idea to make quests more interesting: destructible nodes. They function the same as linked nodes, but when taken out will be gone forever. This allows for quests to be designed like puzzles that are solved as they are explored. It would also help players adjust the nodes in the quest through strategy to fit their roster better.
Also, why have incursion hacks not found their way into quests? Really? You spend all that time designing them and only use them for one gamemode? They obviously don't have to be the same buffs, but throwing these in some quests would definitely make the game more entertaining.
2. NODE DESIGN
Even if quests are made better, the nodes are what decide if the gameplay is fun. I honestly enjoy finding the best counters in my roster for act 6 nodes and planning how I will clear paths. However, the gameplay itself is typically tedious and boring. Additionally, there are many cases where 3 characters can be used for a path and the only one I have barely works.
In order to fix this, there have to be some nodes you legitimately just never use again. For example, all of the nodes that reduce attack by 90% unless a certain condition is met have to go. Even if you have the perfect counter or meet the conditions (mercy), you are just doing the regular damage, which means these nodes are never a positive influence upon gameplay.
Ability based nodes, such as biohazard, power gain, masochism, or buffet are good when used sparingly, such as throughout act 5. However, when three are placed on the same path, the gameplay very rarely improved or even affected. The only thing that changes is the amount of characters that can reasonably be used. In my opinion, only one of these major ability nodes should be used on each path.
On the other hand, skill based nodes such as aegis, inverted controls, or bane, make gameplay different and in many cases more enjoyable without limiting your roster (Seriously, if you hate on these nodes you gotta get good). The reason that the grandmaster fight was such a success was because you could use any character for it and more importantly because it was purely skill based. By the way, duel and coward are good skill based dungeon nodes that are never used in endgame content
To provide some constructive criticism I have made a list of node ideas that I think would make the game more fun. Notice that even many of the ability based nodes involve skill and directly affect gameplay in some way.
Ability/tag based nodes----------------------
Copycat
The defender and attacker share each other's abilities for the entire fight
Pacifism - (Bleed/Poison/Shock/Incinerate/Weakness/Fatigue/Exhaustion)
Every 2 seconds, if the attacker does not attack the defender, the attacker receives x debuff. One stack is removed every time the attacker strikes the defender
Infinity
Both the attacker's and defender's buffs last permanently
Pong
If either character blocks, all of their debuffs are transferred to the opponent
Lightning Rod
At the beginning of the fight, the attacker receives a shock debuff dealing 100% of their attack over 60 seconds. If they are a metal based character, they will gain +1000% attack as well. If they are immune to shock, they will not gain this attack bonus
Secret Lair
Villains receive a +100% attack bonus, while heroes and mercenaries receive a -50% attack penalty
Court of Justice
Heroes receive a +100% attack bonus, while villains and mercenaries receive a -50% attack penalty
Dark Alleyway
Mercenaries receive a +100% attack bonus, while heroes and villains receive a -50% attack penalty
Patriarchy
Male characters receive a +100% attack bonus, while female characters receive a -50% attack penalty
Matriarchy
Female characters receive a +100% attack bonus, while male characters receive a -50% attack penalty
No Excuses
All of both characters' buffs and debuffs are passive and none of their abilities can be prevented by any means
Physical Encounter
Neither character can take energy damage
Energy Encounter
Neither character can take physical damage
These ^ two nodes should be used with lower health pools in order to not make extremely long fights
Grudge match
Any synergies between the characters in this fight are reversed
(For example +7 attack becomes -7 attack)
Weight Classes
XL Champions cannot block or land critical hits but have 300% attack and their special moves are unblockable
L Champions have only half of their critical rating but also have 200% attack
M champions are unaffected
S Champions have -50% attack but have guaranteed crits on all attacks
Skill based nodes-------------------------------------
The Force
If either character whiffs or misses a basic attack, all of the damage that would be dealt is still dealt to the opponent
Perfection - Dexterity
If the attacker uses the dexterity mastery, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a normal dash back, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Parry
If the attacker performs a well timed block, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a normal block, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Light Intercept
If the attacker performs a light intercept, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a first light attack that is not an intercept, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Medium Intercept
If the attacker performs an intercept, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they perform a dash attack that is not an intercept, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Perfection - Specials
If the attacker hits the defender with their special attack, 500% of their attack is dealt to the defender. If they are touched by any of the defender's special attacks, 100% of their attack is dealt to themselves.
Baseball
The defender is passively unblockable, unstoppable, and indestructible at the beginning of the fight and every (30/60) seconds. If the attacker intercepts their dash attack with a heavy attack, these buffs are removed. Additionally, the attacker's heavy attack is unstoppable and gains up to +500% attack based on how long it is charged.
Equality
The defender's health will slowly passively regenerate or degenerate over 30 seconds to match the percentage of health the attacker has
Boxing Match
Both characters' basic attacks are unblockable for the entire fight.
Shield Poke
Both characters begin the fight with 4 shield charges. Every time they block an attack, a shield charge is removed and once they run out of charges their opponent becomes unblockable. If either character tries to block an attack without a shield charge, they will become passively stunned for 2 seconds and regain 4 shield charges.
Special Spam
The attacker's basic attacks all miss, but they constantly gain 1 bar of power every 10 seconds and their special attacks deal 200% damage.
Inverted Power
The defender begins the fight with 99% power. The attacker's basic attacks drain the defender's power the same amount they would usually give.
Any power drain, burn, or steal effects have the opposite effect as usual.
If the defender uses a special attack, they gain the amount of power the special attack costs.
Inverted Health
The defender begins the fight with 1% health. Any damage dealt to the defender by any means is healed instead. Whenever the defender would normally regenerate health, regardless of heal block or not, they degenerate it instead.
(This is mainly countered by heal reversal, but should be used on characters with regeneration effects)
Rampage (best used for a boss)
The defender begins the fight very agressive and with passive unstoppable, unblockable, indestructible, regeneration(1% every second), and power gain (5% every second) buffs.
The unstoppable buff is removed by intercepting the defender.
The unblockable buff is removed by hitting the defender with a special 1.
The indestructible buff is removed by stunning the defender.
The regeneration buff is removed by hitting the defender with a special 2.
The power gain buff is removed by hitting the defender with a heavy attack against the wall
The defender's aggressiveness is removed by hitting the defender with a special 3.
Slide to the left
The attacker gains up to +5% power every second based on how close they are to the left wall, or loses up to -5% power a secons based on how close they are to the right wall. The defender gains the same power bonus but inverted
Slide to the right
The attacker gains up to +5% power every second based on how close they are to the right wall, or loses up to -5% power a secons based on how close they are to the left wall. The defender gains the same power bonus but inverted
Leftovers
If the attacker takes damage that would immediately knock them out while above 25% health, they survive and regenerate the additional amount of health that would be dealt after the knockout
Quarrel
Both characters are passively unstoppable for the entire fight, except when struck by heavy or special attacks. Any damage taken while blocking or unstoppable is instead absorbed and can be released by striking the opponent with a heavy attack.
3. CONTENT DESIGN
Many top players clear new content within the first 24 hours of its release, regardless of the many months of work it takes kabam developers to create it. I have two ideas to fix this, both of which can be implemented in many ways.
Idea #1: Champion based rewards.
Once a quest is explored, there is no other way to get rewards from it, so it is therefore judged done by the player and never revisited. This idea would involve giving additional substantial rewards based on how many total characters the player beat the quest with. Basically, every character you take through this quest gives you a bonus. This would not only encourage players to replay quests, but also allow for many typically unused characters to shine in content and earn rewards for players.
These rewards can be used in addition to typical completion and exploration rewards, but if there was a major quest like the labyrinth that operated solely on character rewards, it would take a small amount of time to develop and a seemingly infinite time for players to fully complete. Additionally, if a system was designed to change the difficulty of said quest based on the characters the player brings in to it, the player could use their weaker characters as well.
Idea #2: Randonly generated quests.
This may seem difficult, but hear me out. If an algorithm to make logical quests with a fixed number of opponents was developed, and random nodes from modok's lab or island or whatever were used, this could be a thing. You would need to ensure that no node/character combinations are impossible, but if done correctly this could be another project that takes little time to develop compared to the amount of content it could output.
Although unusable for any permanent content, this algorithm could be used for weekly, daily, or monthly quests that would help make the game more enjoyable overall (as long as rewards are balanced and useful)
CONCLUSION
I doubt any of these ideas will be used, but it is my belief that if incorporated into the game they would make it more enjoyable. If you read this far and would like to see these ideas in the game, please spread this post around and maybe they will be used. Of course, if you have any ideas of your own to share or would like to agree or disagree these ones, please do so.
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