I wrote a similar thing on a different post but the post was taken down. It applies for here too though so here goes:
The community has been rightfully frustrated but the community is partially at fault as well. The community, including myself, tends to open forum posts directed at mods and the entity of "Kabam" and yet we see little to no improvement. The mods can't do much, their job is to moderate the forums. Nothing more. This is out of their hands, the most they can do is bring it to the game team but other than that, their hands are tied.
Here's the real problem. Kabam is a business, so we need to speak the only language they will understand: Money. Is the game extremely buggy? Yes. Is the game a shadow of it's former self? No doubt. Are people still spending money? You bet. In other words, Kabam is still making money despite the game being very much in a state of despair. From the perspective of the Kabam business team, the game is generating a profit so they have no problem. Now if profit beings to shrink, that's when they get concerned.
How do we get the Kabam team to actually start making changes? We speak their language. If you are truly unhappy with the game, don't spend money. Simple. The Community shouldn't wait on Seatin or any other YouTuber to wave the MCOC Boycott flag for us to do something. I'm not trying to start anything, this is just something to think about. I technically wouldn't be part of the spending strike since I don't spend but it is something to consider for you spenders out there.
I am very concerned for the future of the game. I dare say that the game was better at launch than it is now, and that is not a good thing. I love this game, it has beautiful graphics, fantastic mechanics and is a fighting game that is very unique and yet it all goes down the drain cause of bad decisions. The Kabam team has shown they know how to make and run a game, but they have stopped focusing on the community and began focusing more on money. I truly hope this game does a 180 turn, cause it's trajectory right now is headed for a complete disaster.
I don't know if anyone has mentioned this but here is my take on this.
Kabam is just terrible at character design. Really, just think about it. Each new champ they introduce is either 'God Tier' or 'Trash Tier'; there's barely any in between (with the except of Science class eg. Captain America).
Then when Kabam realises that this character is too good a defender or too good an attacker, they inevitably get nerfed, as demonstrated back in v12.0 with Thor, SW, DS etc.
If they had a bit more consistency with their character design there wouldn't have been a v12.0 in the first place.
They are claiming that 5 stars will become more available. Well, where are the shards then? I was hoping this month would have some shards in the calendar, but nothing. Typical. Act 5 is a joke in terms of 5 star shards. They are willing to give out a 5 star awakening gem, but hardly any shards. Makes no sense. Let's face it, as of now the best way to get 5 stars quicker is through the store. I remember when Kabam sent us 5 star shards in a summoner appreciation mail. Those don't exist anymore, all you see now is offer after offer being pushed in our faces.
There were a few unit purchase bundles of 5-star shards.
That's all they ever meant. They are definitely not giving out 5-star champs for free, it is just politically correct wording to make it sound like that. Their legal department must have been heavily consulted before they spew out borderline statements like that.
Hey everyone, there's a lot of great critique and feedback here, and I very much appreciate that this is for the most part a respectful and honest discussion surrounding how everyone feels about the game.
With that being said, I've had to clean up a couple of posts there to make sure this doesn't get derailed, so please do try to keep the thread constructive. Thank you!
Honestly it's been a few things making the game less fun.
1) the content has become a bit stagnant. We need something truly new. Maybe an alliance quest type of thing that nets better rewards the faster you complete it?
2) the slowed advancement of characters. You can't really max out guys fast enough.
3) and this is the real kicker. It seems as though lately, everything is geared toward FORCING you to spend. Now, I'm nowhere near a whale, but I'm an occasional spender. And I personally feel better about spending money when I don't feel like I have to. I enjoy supporting a game that a love. And im more likely to spend if I'm compensated for poorly performing content.
When's the last time we saw "recently my contest wasn't performing...." with a gift to say "hey sorry about the bugs, guy, but heres an energy refill, some shards and a few potions."
We felt like we were a part of a community.
The fun may have gone for those who have well established accounts. I started all over again a few months ago and have enjoyed growing my junior account and not spending, obviously this is my personal experience and I wonder if the newly created accounts in the last 5-8 months would also agree.
How to make this game "fun" again for those well established accounts seems to be a rather difficult task, other than the obvious of fixing bugs, what would you like to see that is new and exciting again where you can't wait to log in, check forums, watch youtube etc etc etc?
New chars, been there done that, same same but different.
Revamped existing content, yeah nah, as above.
Time to go next level in mobile gaming, we need immersion, where I can duel a top dog with my 3* AA or SL and they physically feel my power Mwahahahahahaha.... yeah dreams are free but it would be cool.
Hey everyone, there's a lot of great critique and feedback here, and I very much appreciate that this is for the most part a respectful and honest discussion surrounding how everyone feels about the game.
With that being said, I've had to clean up a couple of posts there to make sure this doesn't get derailed, so please do try to keep the thread constructive. Thank you!
Holy smokes Batman. Did you see that instead of shutting down the thread that the mod just asked us to keep on track? I actually gained a spec of respect for you. Thank you for not shutting us down.
The fun may have gone for those who have well established accounts. I started all over again a few months ago and have enjoyed growing my junior account and not spending, obviously this is my personal experience and I wonder if the newly created accounts in the last 5-8 months would also agree.
How to make this game "fun" again for those well established accounts seems to be a rather difficult task, other than the obvious of fixing bugs, what would you like to see that is new and exciting again where you can't wait to log in, check forums, watch youtube etc etc etc?
New chars, been there done that, same same but different.
Revamped existing content, yeah nah, as above.
Time to go next level in mobile gaming, we need immersion, where I can duel a top dog with my 3* AA or SL and they physically feel my power Mwahahahahahaha.... yeah dreams are free but it would be cool.
I have been a long time player, I recently started a second account and enjoy it more at the moment. Mind you I am still in beginner bracket. My other account had 12 5*s and 7 4* 5/50. I cant be bothered with Act5 right now.
The fun may have gone for those who have well established accounts. I started all over again a few months ago and have enjoyed growing my junior account and not spending, obviously this is my personal experience and I wonder if the newly created accounts in the last 5-8 months would also agree.
How to make this game "fun" again for those well established accounts seems to be a rather difficult task, other than the obvious of fixing bugs, what would you like to see that is new and exciting again where you can't wait to log in, check forums, watch youtube etc etc etc?
New chars, been there done that, same same but different.
Revamped existing content, yeah nah, as above.
Time to go next level in mobile gaming, we need immersion, where I can duel a top dog with my 3* AA or SL and they physically feel my power Mwahahahahahaha.... yeah dreams are free but it would be cool.
I have been a long time player, I recently started a second account and enjoy it more at the moment. Mind you I am still in beginner bracket. My other account had 12 5*s and 7 4* 5/50. I cant be bothered with Act5 right now.
Nice!! I've just done Act 4 and decided to take on ROL with my 3* Guillotine, it was actually fun, now I'm thinking about RTL and then maybe one run through 5.1-2, need to get those extra mastery points.
Best thing they can do is fix the bugs. When your constantly mad because you died from a bug the anger get amplified concerning other parts of the game. When your constantly fighting bugs as much as opponents it's a recipe for disaster. Cornflakes...nope want frosted flakes...
Probably the biggest thing that's killed the fun for me is the constant re-learning of fighting techniques. Parry, evade, intercept, baiting, etc. I don't mind needing to learn a new technique or methodology (like how to beat 4.2.6 Magneto), but it should be in addition to the foundation I can rely on.
After each update, we spend countless fights re-learning the timing, just to get back to "business as usual."
After a while, it just seems like these "bugs" are deliberate. Why make content harder when they can simply adjust some of the in-game timings and effectively "nerf" the player. I've posted this elsewhere, but it's like a race car driver (the player) getting too good for the track (battlerealm). Instead of building a better, more challenging track, the game developer changes the car's steering and transmission gear ratios. So now, the driver is focused on the fact that he has to effectively relearn how to drive instead of focusing on the fact that he's just running the same track, lap after lap after lap....
Kabam has done something with this type of game that Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter haven't: they provided a progressive story that the player can control. I will get bored with MK and SF after a few weeks because it's the same thing over and over, but Kabam had something really good in that we can pick from more champions and so an array of ever-changing "missions." It's a shame that in their quest to make bigger, better, more-enjoyable content that they killed the foundation of what made it so good.
I honestly think that's this company would never hear us the way we deserve I'vr being playing since the game came out on 2014 or 15 I used stay up late playing this game because it was incredibly amazing none stop action when 5stars champions came out i was super pump up about opening crystals even tho I always get the worst champions that their is I still stood by it but after I heard about 6stars then I realize this game isn't for none spender like my self this game is made for those who are in the top alliances who's spend massively amount of cash on this game those are the only ones that have a voice in MCOC . But for the game it self now a days is the worst of all the years I have played it .
I'm 6 months in so I joined after the 12.0 update. Ive ran into a few problems here and there. But never up until now has the game been almost unplayable for me. Ive been able to manage and get by with a couple extra heals and revives whatever.
But this discussion isnt about what's wrong with the game really. It's about people who want to play a game as it's intended to work. People are passionate about this game enough to write mini novels expressing their needs.
I've played other games in the past where developers respond directly to their players. No offense to our mods, they've been great, but I need to hear the answer stem directly from developers and the decision makers. We are in the dark about so many issues and it's getting increasingly frustrating. This is my perspective from the community
But I've got two things that really irk me about this game. First is that there's unplayable content. Bases. Take it out until it's ready. It doesn't need to get loomed over everyone and quite frankly it's making kabam as a company look worse. Secondly, nothing new has been created. Seriously. Nothing. It's the same month after month. Week after week. AQ for 5 days. AW for 5 days. Same arenas. Same grind. 3 paths in event quest 1.1, 4 in 1.2. 5 in 2.1. 5 in 2.2. kabam releases 2-3 characters when the old characters don't work right or are virtually all the same. Add a star to an existing champion make em stronger. Add maybe a little mechanic. Player doesn't move any different. How many Champions do the same flip kick or multi round house kick. Same thing. Over and over again.
The game development should be taken over by Netmarble , i play the other Marvel game they have , Future Fight and it's way better run .Few bugs , decent offers , you get the character you pay for not IP instead of Iceman, not to mention Dr Strange is still a good champ in there
Thah How ther Roll. Ther game im dont like there game Becasse im like to get a cystal and just hops for the Best. And agerd DS in ther game is poverfull. Ther game is not Thah greet Thah just me
The game development should be taken over by Netmarble , i play the other Marvel game they have , Future Fight and it's way better run .Few bugs , decent offers , you get the character you pay for not IP instead of Iceman, not to mention Dr Strange is still a good champ in there
Doc strange isn't good, strange is a god there and way more decent offer. And honestly I agree with you, I have been playing future fight for a month plus, and honestly their game is much less buggier than this, they need to take over mcoc before it dies out, because this current development team is driving this game to it's death
No beta testing, bugs take ages to fix, new content are geared towards money expliotation(example current state of war)and the worse of them is that they continually slap our faces with stupid offers.
I believe we all love the game and try to help Kabam by showing them what needs to be fixed(not sure they are listening) but i will say my opinion too:
- So i believe the updates like 12.0 have to be made from time to time,I mean that its sometimes good to change things when new ideas come up,as for example the unique synergies could be implemented to old champs and other new ideascan also be implemented.BTW i really love to play the simple characters(e.g wolvie,SL) but i am stating that i can accept such changes.Also making all champs more equal is good although its inevitable that some of them will eventually be preferred instead of others.I can also understand not having real God-tier champs,like Thor killing WS in 9 hits.. mvince videos,and i am saying this having a 4* Thor(obviously not capable of 9-hitting WS though ) ,or a 100%+ black widow sig which will not even demand any skills to apply etc. but i don't agree on taking from them the possibility to be greater by playing better..e.g capping Star Lords ability is surely stupid...afterall if you can do 400+ hit streak thats good for you(and it will only affect LoL/RoL)!
- About AW i think problems are obvious and pointed at every day!Yes defender kills need to be brought back,thats the only real way to measure skills anything else is just short term solutions.About difficult and easy nodes,i believe there should be difficult nodes even annoying ones(e.g Hyperion on a strong power gain node!,that will need skills as well as specific champs so more planning and strategy between which path each player will take depending on their champs,obviously i am not talking about impossible ones!
- New Content should be added as well,and i am not talking about new Story Quests because they will be finished in a matter of time,but content like bases etc.
- Finally i liked the idea of customisation as also said by @Cuteshelf - e.g special items or outfits for each character to customise!Customization is what differentiate each player form the other one and gives that mostly needed touch of uniqueness and its Very Important!!!!
P.S its good to absorb all the data from this kind of AW because there might still be things to take and i understand the right solution has to take time to be found...but please try your best to fix it before its TOO LATE!!!
I have continued crashes without a fix in sight. My only option seems to be to buy an iPhone just to play the game.
I did just that. I’ve be an Android player for 2+ years (started with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, then switch to Galaxy S7 in July ‘16) and knew that my game was suffering because of it. In September, I switched to iPhone (7plus) and there is a considerable difference in game speed, execution, response, etc...
I had to relearn the mechanics of the game because characters movesets are so much more defined on an iPhone. There are even graphics showing that I never saw on the Android.
The difference in support for the two OS’s is staggering. I’d recommend everyone switch.
It's because the core reward loop has been broken in the late-game stage.
MCOC basically works this way:
1. You play the game.
2. Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.
3. These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level.
4. You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs.
Everything else is built around this loop. You can spend money to jump to a more advanced loop but you'll still be doing the same thing e.g. you buy mutant t4cc so you can R3 your 5 star AA, so you are able to get out of the 5-star R2 loop. You move to the 5-star R3 loop where t4cc and 5-star shards are easier to acquire and you keep going round and round until you move to an even higher loop (like your first 5-star R4).
This loop is now fraying though.
Part 1 (You play the game) lots of bugs making this a very unenjoyable experience.
Part 2 (Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.) The rewards are no longer as exciting as they used to be because of the 6-star announcement. The excitement of 4-star crystal openings is gone, getting a 4-star from a PHC is ho hum. There's less and less incentive for late game players to grind for 4-star champions in the arena. Even if you get a god tier champion, will that really help you? Or have you already reached the point where having more 4-stars won't help you?
Part 3 (These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level) is getting weaker and weaker. Mephisto is a great AW defender! But so what? In the state AW is at the moment, he's worth about as much as a She Hulk or Karnak on defence. Whatever defender kills he gets won't count. This also affects the excitement of part 2 - it's getting hard to be excited about 5 star crystals because the number of great 5 star characters has decreased. Characters that you'd be happy to get because they were outstanding defenders are now kind of meh.
Part 4 (You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs) In the late game, if not the end game stage, what's the next "loop"? It ought to be 6-stars, but 6-stars in themselves are not very exciting, first because it's just more of the same, second because they make your 4-stars obsolete and third because they're not even here yet.
Really the game has a very bad late-game state now. 4-star characters are not very exciting because 6-stars are coming, 5-stars are not very exciting because only a handful of them are now considered great pulls, and 6-stars are not very exciting because they're not here yet and when they do, we'll all have to throw away our 4-stars and start again.
On the other hand, I can imagine that beginners are having a great time because the core loop is still intact at low levels. There are still many loops ahead of them, and lots more to do besides AW. They can still look forward to getting 4-star Starlord twice and a Guillotine and attempting ROL. They can still look forward to getting a 4-star X-23 and being able to clear AQ more easily. They can look forward to getting a group of core characters to 3/30, then 4/40.
I am pretty sure Kabam wanted late-game players to rediscover that joy by introducing 6-stars, and I think it was indeed a good move to warn us many months ahead of time. Unfortunately, 6-star champs, along with AW, did not have the desired outcome.
I imagine this is why you enjoyed the game enough to spend in earlier stages to escape the "lower loops" but now that you are at a more advanced stage, you start to wonder whether there's a point to reaching a "higher loop". And if not, why you would want to continue going round and round the loop you are in now.
My biggest problem with the game is the 5 star champion pool. Hear me out, I know they can't all be winners, but I've played an insane amount to try and advance and after acquiring 17 5 star, some from featured, I've landed zero dupes and zero champs I ever hope to dupe. It's all colossus, hulkbuster, spidergwen, iron patriot etc...
I recently put up a combined total of close to 40mil in arena to dupe my 4 star falcon and xbones multiple times. They were both already awakened but I wanted the 5 star shards so I could hopeful get someone lol worthy. Instead I pull spidergwen.
Why are the games design team so resistant to making all the bottom tier champs viable. Is this diversity thing really supposed to lessen the sting of another trash champ? It's just gut punch after gut punch when I open these 5 star crystals and I don't know how much longer I can keep trying...
Actually, this feeling is pretty dangerous because it threatens the core mechanic of MCOC.
At its heart, MCOC is successful because of this gambling mechanic. Every 10,000 5-star shards is another time you get to play the slots in hope of a jackpot. It's the same with Magic: The Gathering. Why do they only sell packs of random cards and not all the godly cards in one pack? They make far, far more money selling "a chance" instead of "a sure deal".
In MCOC, god-tier champs are like the jackpot. And mid-tier champs encourage you to keep playing, allowing you to still clear enough content to stay interested.
When you're just starting out, a 3-star Black Bolt is still very valuable. He can help you clear some content and keep progressing. In fact, getting this mid-tier champ encourages you to try again to get someone godly, because now you can get more shards. Even if you fail a few times, it doesn't matter, because you know 4-stars are in your future so maybe you'll get a godly 4-star! But even if you get a mid-tier 4-star it'll still be very helpful!
If you don't pull that Starlord or Wolverine, it's okay. There are a variety of things to do, from AQ to Act 4 to Event Quests to ROL, and the pool of champions that is useful for at least one of these is very broad. One day you're going to get a godly 4-star and your alliance mates will congratulate you and you'll be able to be like those amazing players you see on YouTube. Until then, your 3/30 Iron Fist is fine. At the very least, one day he'll be good for arena to grow your 4-star roster.
Once you're at the 5-star stage, though, things look very different. You start by celebrating any 5-star you get, because they're worth arena points. but then you realise, why am I grinding for a 4-star champ when I'm already at 5-star stage? So you just grind for 5-star shards.
You don't want to waste catalysts on mid-tier champs because they're so hard to come by. You want champs that can handle all the end-game content. If you rank a 5-star mid-tier champ to rank 3, it's not even going to be good for arena because you don't care about grinding for 4-star champs anymore. And spending those catalysts will set you back weeks.
So mid-tier champs don't keep you hooked anymore. You need god-tier champs to go "hooray!". So how many god-tier champs are there?
There were a few in the old AW system. You wouldn't mind taking a good defensive champ to r3 if it helps your alliance. Opening a crystal and getting a duped Juggernaut or a Mordo was a bit of a consolation prize, like a small prize on the slot machine. They weren't fabulous for attack, but they made you feel special on defence.
But now, pulling a great defender gives exactly the same feeling as pulling trash. So the pool of champs that make you go "hooray!" and keep you hooked for another spin have shrunk considerably.
So what kind of champs will make you go, "hooray!"? Only god-tier attackers. You'd rank those to r3. But there are so few of them! Plus, once you have your core attackers at r3, you realise you only get 1 rank 4 with Act 4 completion so you'd better choose wisely.
That rank 4 champ needs to handle the hardest content in the game, and that's LOL. LOL is so challenging there is no such thing as a mid-tier 5-star. It's champs that can do it and champs that can't. Eventually, when you open a 5-star crystal, the only champions that give you that feeling of joy are the small number that can do LOL.
This number is so small that instead of getting hooked on spinning, you get discouraged. It's like trying to hit the jackpot with no consolation prizes. When you don't feel like having another spin, you find the 5-star shards worth less and less, and then grinding arena for them becomes pointless.
And one day you wonder, why do I want to open another 5-star crystal anyway?
So I agree, I have played this game for 2 years now and I lost interest, I am still playing because of my team but I don't know how long I will continue only for this. Indeed, 6 stars heroes are coming which means (normally) 4 and 5 stars heroes would be more available. I have opened more than 100 heroïcs during those 2 past weeks and I received 3 3stars heroes, that's all. Moreover, OK, it 's fun to add new character again and again, but what is the interest for players if existing heroes are full of problems? Please Kabam, fix existing bugs instead of creating new ones by adding heroes each month, I'm sorry but it's sure that you are not able to do both of those actions.
I'm working in IT, before making upgrade on our programs, we fixed the existing one, it's a basic so do the same please and make this game fun again.
I apologize for my English, I'm French but the subject is interesting so ...
@Thestoryteller6 You are spot on with your analysis of "the loop."
There are other mini-loops within the overall game loop as well--the AQ loop (5 days on, same path, same opponents, check back when energy refills, move clear move), the arena loop (set up streak, run to milestones, build shards, pull champs, repeat), the event quest loop (run through Heroic, repeat same path on 3.2 to get Completion points, move to Master, repeat same path on 3.2 to get Completion points), and so on and so on.
The problem you highlight is that there has to be some incentive to keep players running the same loops over and over again. Once the reinforcement mechanism of the alliance feed no longer has any effect, you're pretty much left with loyalty to alliance friends being the main driver for continuing to play, and even that has its limits. Only the addict or the idiot continues to run the loop as incentives get less and less appealing.
The only thing that really bothers me right now is the lack of 5* shards. For the last 2 months I've been saving my 5* shards so that I can open them all at once on December 1st when a large majority of the better champs in the game will atleast be possible pulls. At present I have 32k shards. I'm hoping that by December I'll have 60k.
I know I'm not alone in this strategy. And the fact that it is happening should be a MASSIVE awakening for Kabam. It's a clear indication of a fundamental flaw in how this game works right now. We literally cannot afford to just consume our 5* shards right now. If we do and for example we pull a Winter Soldier then we have gained nothing. We have not increased our overall team strength in any meaningful way and the content that we were unable to complete before remains so. Locked away from us we save another 10k shards in 3 weeks.
This was not how it was during Act 4 with 4* champs. At that time we could easily pull a new 4* champ every 7-8 days. And we also could get lucky from PHC shard collection. It was easily possible to run arenas, do events, etc and earn 10-15 PHC shard crystals each week. Between those two sources everyone in the game could feel some hope week to week of seeing some progress in their roster. If there was a piece of Act 4 content that was making you crazy you atleast knew the wait wouldn't be too long until you found a champ that could help.
So here we are as a player base saving our 5* shards for months and months on the pure hope that maybe one or two of out 6-7 crystals will end up being a champ with some real power. Maybe I'll get lucky and dupe my Starlord and get a Gwenpool as a bonus. Or maybe I'll get 6 good for nothing champs like Luke Cage, Venom, blue Cyclops, Civil Warrior, Iron Man, and Red Hulk. At which point I'll have nothing significant to show for 4 months of saving. I'll have 24 5* champs, with only 5 dupes.
Kabam you really need to stop milking these 5*s and let us start truly building our roster. Right now I have 18 5* champs, with 5 dupes....but lets subtract the duped UC because I had to earn him the hard way. So I have only had 21 5* crystal pulls since they were released. I would expect that in another 6 months that my roster needs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 5* champs with 10-15 dupes. That would be somewhere in the range of 35 crystals to achieve.
I hope someone is taking these posts seriously and is working on solutions. You need to make the game fun again and you need to do it soon. Because if you think any of us are going to grind hardcore over the next 6 months just to barely increase our 5 roster and then you drop 6* champs on us while we all only have ~30ish 5* champs then you are crazy. And you will lose your player base.
Hey OP and everyone else...they don't care. If they cared they would have made significant improvements to the game experience like eliminating bugs months ago.
It's because the core reward loop has been broken in the late-game stage.
MCOC basically works this way:
1. You play the game.
2. Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.
3. These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level.
4. You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs.
Everything else is built around this loop. You can spend money to jump to a more advanced loop but you'll still be doing the same thing e.g. you buy mutant t4cc so you can R3 your 5 star AA, so you are able to get out of the 5-star R2 loop. You move to the 5-star R3 loop where t4cc and 5-star shards are easier to acquire and you keep going round and round until you move to an even higher loop (like your first 5-star R4).
This loop is now fraying though.
Part 1 (You play the game) lots of bugs making this a very unenjoyable experience.
Part 2 (Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.) The rewards are no longer as exciting as they used to be because of the 6-star announcement. The excitement of 4-star crystal openings is gone, getting a 4-star from a PHC is ho hum. There's less and less incentive for late game players to grind for 4-star champions in the arena. Even if you get a god tier champion, will that really help you? Or have you already reached the point where having more 4-stars won't help you?
Part 3 (These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level) is getting weaker and weaker. Mephisto is a great AW defender! But so what? In the state AW is at the moment, he's worth about as much as a She Hulk or Karnak on defence. Whatever defender kills he gets won't count. This also affects the excitement of part 2 - it's getting hard to be excited about 5 star crystals because the number of great 5 star characters has decreased. Characters that you'd be happy to get because they were outstanding defenders are now kind of meh.
Part 4 (You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs) In the late game, if not the end game stage, what's the next "loop"? It ought to be 6-stars, but 6-stars in themselves are not very exciting, first because it's just more of the same, second because they make your 4-stars obsolete and third because they're not even here yet.
Really the game has a very bad late-game state now. 4-star characters are not very exciting because 6-stars are coming, 5-stars are not very exciting because only a handful of them are now considered great pulls, and 6-stars are not very exciting because they're not here yet and when they do, we'll all have to throw away our 4-stars and start again.
On the other hand, I can imagine that beginners are having a great time because the core loop is still intact at low levels. There are still many loops ahead of them, and lots more to do besides AW. They can still look forward to getting 4-star Starlord twice and a Guillotine and attempting ROL. They can still look forward to getting a 4-star X-23 and being able to clear AQ more easily. They can look forward to getting a group of core characters to 3/30, then 4/40.
I am pretty sure Kabam wanted late-game players to rediscover that joy by introducing 6-stars, and I think it was indeed a good move to warn us many months ahead of time. Unfortunately, 6-star champs, along with AW, did not have the desired outcome.
I imagine this is why you enjoyed the game enough to spend in earlier stages to escape the "lower loops" but now that you are at a more advanced stage, you start to wonder whether there's a point to reaching a "higher loop". And if not, why you would want to continue going round and round the loop you are in now.
This is the best summary of the current state of the meta I've seen. End game players are bored. They should have made t5 basic catalyst available the week they announced 6 stars. That would have prevented most of the staleness (excluding AW).
What bothers me is that theyre making it inpossible to get basic material like a t3 cc shouldn't be impossible to get. What is it like 200 for running the map 2 times its just rediculous. I'm a hugh fan of Marvel and love the fights scenes but theres nothing fun about getting a 4 star medusa on the first day of her release and just now be able to get her to 330. At the very least they should keep a way to work towards any type of material even if its hard. 1 200-300 a week is ****.
What bothers me is that theyre making it inpossible to get basic material like a t3 cc shouldn't be impossible to get. What is it like 200 for running the map 2 times its just rediculous. I'm a hugh fan of Marvel and love the fights scenes but theres nothing fun about getting a 4 star medusa on the first day of her release and just now be able to get her to 330. At the very least they should keep a way to work towards any type of material even if its hard. 1 200-300 a week is ****.
that's nothing to really complain about. That's just the progression of the game. I have plenty of catalysts from running map 2 4 times a week. It's not difficult to build them up. Just wait until you're building up T$CC(yes the typo is intentional...do the algebra), or T2A's. the grind gets ever so long.
Comments
The community has been rightfully frustrated but the community is partially at fault as well. The community, including myself, tends to open forum posts directed at mods and the entity of "Kabam" and yet we see little to no improvement. The mods can't do much, their job is to moderate the forums. Nothing more. This is out of their hands, the most they can do is bring it to the game team but other than that, their hands are tied.
Here's the real problem. Kabam is a business, so we need to speak the only language they will understand: Money. Is the game extremely buggy? Yes. Is the game a shadow of it's former self? No doubt. Are people still spending money? You bet. In other words, Kabam is still making money despite the game being very much in a state of despair. From the perspective of the Kabam business team, the game is generating a profit so they have no problem. Now if profit beings to shrink, that's when they get concerned.
How do we get the Kabam team to actually start making changes? We speak their language. If you are truly unhappy with the game, don't spend money. Simple. The Community shouldn't wait on Seatin or any other YouTuber to wave the MCOC Boycott flag for us to do something. I'm not trying to start anything, this is just something to think about. I technically wouldn't be part of the spending strike since I don't spend but it is something to consider for you spenders out there.
I am very concerned for the future of the game. I dare say that the game was better at launch than it is now, and that is not a good thing. I love this game, it has beautiful graphics, fantastic mechanics and is a fighting game that is very unique and yet it all goes down the drain cause of bad decisions. The Kabam team has shown they know how to make and run a game, but they have stopped focusing on the community and began focusing more on money. I truly hope this game does a 180 turn, cause it's trajectory right now is headed for a complete disaster.
no, it won't
Kabam is just terrible at character design. Really, just think about it. Each new champ they introduce is either 'God Tier' or 'Trash Tier'; there's barely any in between (with the except of Science class eg. Captain America).
Then when Kabam realises that this character is too good a defender or too good an attacker, they inevitably get nerfed, as demonstrated back in v12.0 with Thor, SW, DS etc.
If they had a bit more consistency with their character design there wouldn't have been a v12.0 in the first place.
my 50c
There were a few unit purchase bundles of 5-star shards.
That's all they ever meant. They are definitely not giving out 5-star champs for free, it is just politically correct wording to make it sound like that. Their legal department must have been heavily consulted before they spew out borderline statements like that.
With that being said, I've had to clean up a couple of posts there to make sure this doesn't get derailed, so please do try to keep the thread constructive. Thank you!
1) the content has become a bit stagnant. We need something truly new. Maybe an alliance quest type of thing that nets better rewards the faster you complete it?
2) the slowed advancement of characters. You can't really max out guys fast enough.
3) and this is the real kicker. It seems as though lately, everything is geared toward FORCING you to spend. Now, I'm nowhere near a whale, but I'm an occasional spender. And I personally feel better about spending money when I don't feel like I have to. I enjoy supporting a game that a love. And im more likely to spend if I'm compensated for poorly performing content.
When's the last time we saw "recently my contest wasn't performing...." with a gift to say "hey sorry about the bugs, guy, but heres an energy refill, some shards and a few potions."
We felt like we were a part of a community.
How to make this game "fun" again for those well established accounts seems to be a rather difficult task, other than the obvious of fixing bugs, what would you like to see that is new and exciting again where you can't wait to log in, check forums, watch youtube etc etc etc?
New chars, been there done that, same same but different.
Revamped existing content, yeah nah, as above.
Time to go next level in mobile gaming, we need immersion, where I can duel a top dog with my 3* AA or SL and they physically feel my power Mwahahahahahaha.... yeah dreams are free but it would be cool.
Holy smokes Batman. Did you see that instead of shutting down the thread that the mod just asked us to keep on track? I actually gained a spec of respect for you. Thank you for not shutting us down.
I have been a long time player, I recently started a second account and enjoy it more at the moment. Mind you I am still in beginner bracket. My other account had 12 5*s and 7 4* 5/50. I cant be bothered with Act5 right now.
Nice!! I've just done Act 4 and decided to take on ROL with my 3* Guillotine, it was actually fun, now I'm thinking about RTL and then maybe one run through 5.1-2, need to get those extra mastery points.
After each update, we spend countless fights re-learning the timing, just to get back to "business as usual."
After a while, it just seems like these "bugs" are deliberate. Why make content harder when they can simply adjust some of the in-game timings and effectively "nerf" the player. I've posted this elsewhere, but it's like a race car driver (the player) getting too good for the track (battlerealm). Instead of building a better, more challenging track, the game developer changes the car's steering and transmission gear ratios. So now, the driver is focused on the fact that he has to effectively relearn how to drive instead of focusing on the fact that he's just running the same track, lap after lap after lap....
Kabam has done something with this type of game that Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter haven't: they provided a progressive story that the player can control. I will get bored with MK and SF after a few weeks because it's the same thing over and over, but Kabam had something really good in that we can pick from more champions and so an array of ever-changing "missions." It's a shame that in their quest to make bigger, better, more-enjoyable content that they killed the foundation of what made it so good.
But this discussion isnt about what's wrong with the game really. It's about people who want to play a game as it's intended to work. People are passionate about this game enough to write mini novels expressing their needs.
I've played other games in the past where developers respond directly to their players. No offense to our mods, they've been great, but I need to hear the answer stem directly from developers and the decision makers. We are in the dark about so many issues and it's getting increasingly frustrating. This is my perspective from the community
But I've got two things that really irk me about this game. First is that there's unplayable content. Bases. Take it out until it's ready. It doesn't need to get loomed over everyone and quite frankly it's making kabam as a company look worse. Secondly, nothing new has been created. Seriously. Nothing. It's the same month after month. Week after week. AQ for 5 days. AW for 5 days. Same arenas. Same grind. 3 paths in event quest 1.1, 4 in 1.2. 5 in 2.1. 5 in 2.2. kabam releases 2-3 characters when the old characters don't work right or are virtually all the same. Add a star to an existing champion make em stronger. Add maybe a little mechanic. Player doesn't move any different. How many Champions do the same flip kick or multi round house kick. Same thing. Over and over again.
Doc strange isn't good, strange is a god there and way more decent offer. And honestly I agree with you, I have been playing future fight for a month plus, and honestly their game is much less buggier than this, they need to take over mcoc before it dies out, because this current development team is driving this game to it's death
No beta testing, bugs take ages to fix, new content are geared towards money expliotation(example current state of war)and the worse of them is that they continually slap our faces with stupid offers.
- So i believe the updates like 12.0 have to be made from time to time,I mean that its sometimes good to change things when new ideas come up,as for example the unique synergies could be implemented to old champs and other new ideascan also be implemented.BTW i really love to play the simple characters(e.g wolvie,SL) but i am stating that i can accept such changes.Also making all champs more equal is good although its inevitable that some of them will eventually be preferred instead of others.I can also understand not having real God-tier champs,like Thor killing WS in 9 hits.. mvince videos,and i am saying this having a 4* Thor(obviously not capable of 9-hitting WS though
- About AW i think problems are obvious and pointed at every day!Yes defender kills need to be brought back,thats the only real way to measure skills anything else is just short term solutions.About difficult and easy nodes,i believe there should be difficult nodes even annoying ones(e.g Hyperion on a strong power gain node!,that will need skills as well as specific champs so more planning and strategy between which path each player will take depending on their champs,obviously i am not talking about impossible ones!
- New Content should be added as well,and i am not talking about new Story Quests because they will be finished in a matter of time,but content like bases etc.
- Finally i liked the idea of customisation as also said by @Cuteshelf - e.g special items or outfits for each character to customise!Customization is what differentiate each player form the other one and gives that mostly needed touch of uniqueness and its Very Important!!!!
P.S its good to absorb all the data from this kind of AW because there might still be things to take and i understand the right solution has to take time to be found...but please try your best to fix it before its TOO LATE!!!
I did just that. I’ve be an Android player for 2+ years (started with a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, then switch to Galaxy S7 in July ‘16) and knew that my game was suffering because of it. In September, I switched to iPhone (7plus) and there is a considerable difference in game speed, execution, response, etc...
I had to relearn the mechanics of the game because characters movesets are so much more defined on an iPhone. There are even graphics showing that I never saw on the Android.
The difference in support for the two OS’s is staggering. I’d recommend everyone switch.
MCOC basically works this way:
1. You play the game.
2. Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.
3. These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level.
4. You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs.
Everything else is built around this loop. You can spend money to jump to a more advanced loop but you'll still be doing the same thing e.g. you buy mutant t4cc so you can R3 your 5 star AA, so you are able to get out of the 5-star R2 loop. You move to the 5-star R3 loop where t4cc and 5-star shards are easier to acquire and you keep going round and round until you move to an even higher loop (like your first 5-star R4).
This loop is now fraying though.
Part 1 (You play the game) lots of bugs making this a very unenjoyable experience.
Part 2 (Your reward is to gain chances to acquire amazing champs/rank up amazing champs.) The rewards are no longer as exciting as they used to be because of the 6-star announcement. The excitement of 4-star crystal openings is gone, getting a 4-star from a PHC is ho hum. There's less and less incentive for late game players to grind for 4-star champions in the arena. Even if you get a god tier champion, will that really help you? Or have you already reached the point where having more 4-stars won't help you?
Part 3 (These amazing champs allow you to play the game at a higher level) is getting weaker and weaker. Mephisto is a great AW defender! But so what? In the state AW is at the moment, he's worth about as much as a She Hulk or Karnak on defence. Whatever defender kills he gets won't count. This also affects the excitement of part 2 - it's getting hard to be excited about 5 star crystals because the number of great 5 star characters has decreased. Characters that you'd be happy to get because they were outstanding defenders are now kind of meh.
Part 4 (You then gain more chances to acquire/rank up even more amazing champs) In the late game, if not the end game stage, what's the next "loop"? It ought to be 6-stars, but 6-stars in themselves are not very exciting, first because it's just more of the same, second because they make your 4-stars obsolete and third because they're not even here yet.
Really the game has a very bad late-game state now. 4-star characters are not very exciting because 6-stars are coming, 5-stars are not very exciting because only a handful of them are now considered great pulls, and 6-stars are not very exciting because they're not here yet and when they do, we'll all have to throw away our 4-stars and start again.
On the other hand, I can imagine that beginners are having a great time because the core loop is still intact at low levels. There are still many loops ahead of them, and lots more to do besides AW. They can still look forward to getting 4-star Starlord twice and a Guillotine and attempting ROL. They can still look forward to getting a 4-star X-23 and being able to clear AQ more easily. They can look forward to getting a group of core characters to 3/30, then 4/40.
I am pretty sure Kabam wanted late-game players to rediscover that joy by introducing 6-stars, and I think it was indeed a good move to warn us many months ahead of time. Unfortunately, 6-star champs, along with AW, did not have the desired outcome.
I imagine this is why you enjoyed the game enough to spend in earlier stages to escape the "lower loops" but now that you are at a more advanced stage, you start to wonder whether there's a point to reaching a "higher loop". And if not, why you would want to continue going round and round the loop you are in now.
Actually, this feeling is pretty dangerous because it threatens the core mechanic of MCOC.
At its heart, MCOC is successful because of this gambling mechanic. Every 10,000 5-star shards is another time you get to play the slots in hope of a jackpot. It's the same with Magic: The Gathering. Why do they only sell packs of random cards and not all the godly cards in one pack? They make far, far more money selling "a chance" instead of "a sure deal".
In MCOC, god-tier champs are like the jackpot. And mid-tier champs encourage you to keep playing, allowing you to still clear enough content to stay interested.
When you're just starting out, a 3-star Black Bolt is still very valuable. He can help you clear some content and keep progressing. In fact, getting this mid-tier champ encourages you to try again to get someone godly, because now you can get more shards. Even if you fail a few times, it doesn't matter, because you know 4-stars are in your future so maybe you'll get a godly 4-star! But even if you get a mid-tier 4-star it'll still be very helpful!
If you don't pull that Starlord or Wolverine, it's okay. There are a variety of things to do, from AQ to Act 4 to Event Quests to ROL, and the pool of champions that is useful for at least one of these is very broad. One day you're going to get a godly 4-star and your alliance mates will congratulate you and you'll be able to be like those amazing players you see on YouTube. Until then, your 3/30 Iron Fist is fine. At the very least, one day he'll be good for arena to grow your 4-star roster.
Once you're at the 5-star stage, though, things look very different. You start by celebrating any 5-star you get, because they're worth arena points. but then you realise, why am I grinding for a 4-star champ when I'm already at 5-star stage? So you just grind for 5-star shards.
You don't want to waste catalysts on mid-tier champs because they're so hard to come by. You want champs that can handle all the end-game content. If you rank a 5-star mid-tier champ to rank 3, it's not even going to be good for arena because you don't care about grinding for 4-star champs anymore. And spending those catalysts will set you back weeks.
So mid-tier champs don't keep you hooked anymore. You need god-tier champs to go "hooray!". So how many god-tier champs are there?
There were a few in the old AW system. You wouldn't mind taking a good defensive champ to r3 if it helps your alliance. Opening a crystal and getting a duped Juggernaut or a Mordo was a bit of a consolation prize, like a small prize on the slot machine. They weren't fabulous for attack, but they made you feel special on defence.
But now, pulling a great defender gives exactly the same feeling as pulling trash. So the pool of champs that make you go "hooray!" and keep you hooked for another spin have shrunk considerably.
So what kind of champs will make you go, "hooray!"? Only god-tier attackers. You'd rank those to r3. But there are so few of them! Plus, once you have your core attackers at r3, you realise you only get 1 rank 4 with Act 4 completion so you'd better choose wisely.
That rank 4 champ needs to handle the hardest content in the game, and that's LOL. LOL is so challenging there is no such thing as a mid-tier 5-star. It's champs that can do it and champs that can't. Eventually, when you open a 5-star crystal, the only champions that give you that feeling of joy are the small number that can do LOL.
This number is so small that instead of getting hooked on spinning, you get discouraged. It's like trying to hit the jackpot with no consolation prizes. When you don't feel like having another spin, you find the 5-star shards worth less and less, and then grinding arena for them becomes pointless.
And one day you wonder, why do I want to open another 5-star crystal anyway?
I'm working in IT, before making upgrade on our programs, we fixed the existing one, it's a basic so do the same please and make this game fun again.
I apologize for my English, I'm French but the subject is interesting so ...
There are other mini-loops within the overall game loop as well--the AQ loop (5 days on, same path, same opponents, check back when energy refills, move clear move), the arena loop (set up streak, run to milestones, build shards, pull champs, repeat), the event quest loop (run through Heroic, repeat same path on 3.2 to get Completion points, move to Master, repeat same path on 3.2 to get Completion points), and so on and so on.
The problem you highlight is that there has to be some incentive to keep players running the same loops over and over again. Once the reinforcement mechanism of the alliance feed no longer has any effect, you're pretty much left with loyalty to alliance friends being the main driver for continuing to play, and even that has its limits. Only the addict or the idiot continues to run the loop as incentives get less and less appealing.
Dr. Zola
I know I'm not alone in this strategy. And the fact that it is happening should be a MASSIVE awakening for Kabam. It's a clear indication of a fundamental flaw in how this game works right now. We literally cannot afford to just consume our 5* shards right now. If we do and for example we pull a Winter Soldier then we have gained nothing. We have not increased our overall team strength in any meaningful way and the content that we were unable to complete before remains so. Locked away from us we save another 10k shards in 3 weeks.
This was not how it was during Act 4 with 4* champs. At that time we could easily pull a new 4* champ every 7-8 days. And we also could get lucky from PHC shard collection. It was easily possible to run arenas, do events, etc and earn 10-15 PHC shard crystals each week. Between those two sources everyone in the game could feel some hope week to week of seeing some progress in their roster. If there was a piece of Act 4 content that was making you crazy you atleast knew the wait wouldn't be too long until you found a champ that could help.
So here we are as a player base saving our 5* shards for months and months on the pure hope that maybe one or two of out 6-7 crystals will end up being a champ with some real power. Maybe I'll get lucky and dupe my Starlord and get a Gwenpool as a bonus. Or maybe I'll get 6 good for nothing champs like Luke Cage, Venom, blue Cyclops, Civil Warrior, Iron Man, and Red Hulk. At which point I'll have nothing significant to show for 4 months of saving. I'll have 24 5* champs, with only 5 dupes.
Kabam you really need to stop milking these 5*s and let us start truly building our roster. Right now I have 18 5* champs, with 5 dupes....but lets subtract the duped UC because I had to earn him the hard way. So I have only had 21 5* crystal pulls since they were released. I would expect that in another 6 months that my roster needs to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 5* champs with 10-15 dupes. That would be somewhere in the range of 35 crystals to achieve.
I hope someone is taking these posts seriously and is working on solutions. You need to make the game fun again and you need to do it soon. Because if you think any of us are going to grind hardcore over the next 6 months just to barely increase our 5 roster and then you drop 6* champs on us while we all only have ~30ish 5* champs then you are crazy. And you will lose your player base.
This is the best summary of the current state of the meta I've seen. End game players are bored. They should have made t5 basic catalyst available the week they announced 6 stars. That would have prevented most of the staleness (excluding AW).
that's nothing to really complain about. That's just the progression of the game. I have plenty of catalysts from running map 2 4 times a week. It's not difficult to build them up. Just wait until you're building up T$CC(yes the typo is intentional...do the algebra), or T2A's. the grind gets ever so long.