What happened to the buff program?
Age_of_Luca2000
Member Posts: 58 ★
I've been wondering this for quite some time, but what happened to the buff program? It has been several months now that no buffs have been announced for the old characters, already last month after the balance update of ant man future and cassie I had this question in mind, but I wanted to wait and see if something changed this time but nothing yet .
The buff program is one of the few things that makes all players happy but maybe I should say it "was", I understand that it takes time, ideas and passion to improve a character and that it doesn't earn as much as a new character recently released, but removing this program and replacing it with the new balance update or with bug fixis by passing them off as improvements is a ridiculous maneuver from my point of view (and I think not only).
Let's not forget that we are still waiting for the black panther cw buff, and it's been a year since it was announced or even for the venom the duck buff said during the 7* announcement live and never talked about again, we know they're coming, but I start wonder if the wait will be worth it.
I hope to receive an answer, not only for me but also on behalf of all players who probably wonder the same, it would be a real shame to lose this aspect of the game.
The buff program is one of the few things that makes all players happy but maybe I should say it "was", I understand that it takes time, ideas and passion to improve a character and that it doesn't earn as much as a new character recently released, but removing this program and replacing it with the new balance update or with bug fixis by passing them off as improvements is a ridiculous maneuver from my point of view (and I think not only).
Let's not forget that we are still waiting for the black panther cw buff, and it's been a year since it was announced or even for the venom the duck buff said during the 7* announcement live and never talked about again, we know they're coming, but I start wonder if the wait will be worth it.
I hope to receive an answer, not only for me but also on behalf of all players who probably wonder the same, it would be a real shame to lose this aspect of the game.
38
Comments
Yes, there are other champions that need a buff, but these four are in a situation where they are barely usable in the arena.
Groot, Sentry and Beast do not have an alternate version and are very beloved champions.
Yes, Psycho-Man has already been buffed, but let's face it: If they multiplied his damage by 3, he would still be bad. For me, in terms of damage, he is the worst champion in the game, even losing to groot. Not all champions need to be good, some are bad but are usable with synergy, but these ones are in an unfortunate situation.
The least worst of the 4 is the Sentry, which can be minimally usable and despite having serious problems in construction, it manages to achieve damage and reasonable utility.
They haven't 'stopped' as such.
However, the communications team have - in a variety of posts - made it abundantly clear that the resources previously used for buffing older champions are now prioritised for balancing new ones. And only where no balancing changes are required at all to new champions will they consider devoting any Developer time to reworking an older champion.
But the fun thing about these buffs of mine is the challenge I give myself... finish them within 2 hours of starting to create them, and so far I've always achieved that goal but most of all I have to put passion into creating them, be fun to use, useful in various contexts and more.
In short, if there is passion in what you are doing, the work itself takes a back seat, at least in drawing up the ideas on how to create a unique character in its own way, I know that the effort is in the programming side and in making it work as you have to, but hey... it's always a start.
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There was a time when I was just as excited for each month’s buffs as I was the new champs, not because the buffs were anything broken or OP, but because it felt good to see new life breathed into underperforming champs. Personally, I really hope we see an uptick in buff announcements before the year is out, but if the past few months have been any indication I feel like I’m gonna disappointed.
Like others have said, it was nice to see who would be buffed and all the curiosity and maybe even the hype that a pg could bring.
It would be nice to see a dedication to two buffs/balances each month. Either two balances of new champions, two buffs to older champions, or one of each. Part of me feels that this might be an unreasonable request, but another part feels like they probably have that two-buff time scheduled already since there's always the possibility that both champs on any given month might need to be balanced.
Regardless of that, we'll hopefully see a string of champion releases where no changes need to be made, which would automatically free up some time to buff older champions.
Behold, the (quite aspirational) announcement from July 2020's "Dev Diaries"
https://playcontestofchampions.com/news/dev-diary-champions-of-the-contest/
First twelve months of the buff program: 23 champion buffs
- Magneto
- Magneto HOX
- Punisher-2099
- Gambit
- Falcon
- DDHK
- Kingpin
- Howard the Duck
- Masacre
- Angela
- Civil Warrior
- Yellow jacket
- Odin
- Mr Fantastic
- Vulture
- Black Panther (Classic)
- Crossbones
- Nova
- War Machine
- Ultron
- Bishop
- Ronin
- Diablo
July 21-June 22Second twelve months of the buff program: 17 champions
- The Hood
- Gamora (twice)
- Miles Morales
- Venompool
- King Groot
- Karnak
- Nebula
- Thor (Ragnarok)
- Guillotine
- Joe Fixit
- Hawkeye
- Psycho-man
- Storm
- Mordo
- Thor (Jane Foster)
- Deadpool X-Force
- Yondu
July 22 - June 23Third twelve months of the buff program: 7 champions
At least communicate with us on things, even the roadmaps have gone, there used to be so many encouraging posts about being open with us and so forth and I’ve no idea what’s happened.
I wouldn't especially expect a forum mod to comment any time soon.
It's conceivable, if a few threads like this got traction (and there are YouTube videos by people like KT1 on this subject too, recently) that the perspectives shared in it might come up at a meeting some time, and there might be some kind of update at some time, or maybe in a Livestream, or something.
I wouldn't expect anything more than that: the mods will monitor this kind of conversation, but don't expect them to get involved unless/until they've got something to say.
Currently people care about relic for just prestige & to extend combos.......the general feeling about relics is not positive
They get backlash for relics based nodes only so making them important enough to be considered as champion buff will attract a pretty big backlash from the community
They will do that, but after relics have been here long enough to be considered indispensable
To be 100% clear: I don't wish for that to sound like a complaint or criticism: clearly the game has a very effective business model which isn't positively impacted by turning developer time to improving champions that can easily be 'put off till later' (ignored) when there are more pressing things like massive bugs to fix, cheaters to catch, etc.
And despite my fervent wish for the classic champions to be playable, the longevity of the game should be our primary concern.
I don't know how to monetize the process, so surely the answer is to reduce costs, basically centering on: reduce the developer time required (and our expectations) -
- Build on existing abilities
- Keep designs simple (particularly bearing early players in mind)
- Use mechanics already in game (e.g. hit counters, abilities that trigger on critical hits, dodges or well-timed blocks; nothing fancy. Don't give Symbiote Spiderman a funky new webbing ability - just repurpose the one you've just used for Classic Spidey)
- Avoid graphics changes (or copy/paste animations from another champ, if they're really necessary)
I've got my own thread of reworks in the Suggestions thread here, working from those principles, if anyone fancies a read: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2252246/#Comment_2252246So, reduce costs by reducing the developer load required, and then reduce the beta load by having potentially 4-6 of those buffs per month, and a really interesting beta trying them all out at once.