Dev Diary: The Future of Quests

Summoners!

Part 1 of our Roadmap is live! Head over to our blog to read thoughts on the past, present, and future of Quests in Marvel Contest of Champions! Our team goes over what we've learned from the Book 2 Act 1 Beta Test and how we'll be moving forward revisions to Act 6 and the Champion Boss Fight, and much more! Read all about it on our Blog! Click here!

As we mention in the post, we'd like to hear from you, our players, on what your Act 6 Pain Points with certain bosses were. We have some of our own plans and targets in the works, but they’re still early on and we don’t want to limit the possibilities by talking specifics just yet.

We're going to set up a player focus group with a selection of 20-30 Summoners from across The Battlerealm and work with them to do some discovery surrounding what made some of the more troubling fights problematic. We're looking for players that have attempted Act 6 and can identify areas in which they felt they faced a challenge that was more difficult than they expected.

Apply to be part of the Act 6 Pain Point Player Focus Group here.

Comments

KnightZero

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.

I'm not saying that compensation has to be small potions and revives lol. In fact, in every post that has been there, I've said that Act 6 guys should get compensation. No matter what. Compensation must be given. That's a definite. And it should be good. But I'm just saying that what you posted, is more than what you get from exploration, excluding the awakening gem.

Mercury79

Tanks a lot kabam for new features and changes...it's look game is changing a lot...but can we get an alternative of arena couse I can't manage time for arena and always my gold seems like this...

Timone147

Definitely interesting and sounds like solids steps in the right direction.

Potatolegion

This is a step in the right direction, definitely better then whatever you were thinking with the aw rewards. Please buff those, but I love this.

Lvernon15

This is a step in the right direction, definitely better then whatever you were thinking with the aw rewards. Please buff those, but I love this.

That aw stuff was decided before all of this happened I think, hopefully they’ll announce some good changes on Thursday

VectorMode

And for those of us who only finished 6.4, will there be any compensation? The opening of the 6-star crystal and the nexus crystal was disappointing. Invest time and effort in the game so that the prize results are disappointing

AbdelazizMahfouz

No gates removal and 4* will stay restricted in act 6? will you reduce attack values for variants too?

ChriissR

Really hoping there's some good compensation for people who have Act 6 100%. Lots of time, units, potions and money when dealing with crazy attack values in Act 6 and a ton of time farming potions to deal with it.

Hopefully it's a decent return back and not just potions and revives that will go into overflow and expire.

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KnightZero

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.
Agreed. Given how much they are nerfing act 6, the compensation for people who completed it and especially for those like me who explored it needs to be substantial. With these new attack values, Exploration will be a walk in the park compared to original.

What is considered substantial is the thing? I agree that it needs to be worth it and not useless, but getting to that point is the issue. I don't agree with those posting rewards that are practically the same as Act 6 exploration. That's too much.

Horror_punk

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.
I’ve 100% act 6 10k units is too much 4K would be a more reasonable amount

Lol 4k units consume by a single quest man
I doubt you did 100%
Sometimes a single path took 1k units.

Mattstafari

As a player who is on a break from the game this is great news and makes me excited to play the new content.

I really hope the other roadmap releases are equally as impressive. I haven't done alliance play for 18 months now and 6* champs are just boosted 5*s so I hope they have something to make them interesting in the same way that they have refreshed the quests.

Well done Kabam team, even the music announcement is exciting. I haven't had music or sfx turned on for a very long time but, with something new it will be worth checking out, even if I end up turning it off again

SparkAlot

So, Act 6 is still going to be gated?

GroundedWisdom

So, Act 6 is still going to be gated?

Yes, but less specific.

Cliffordcan

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.
I'm not saying that compensation has to be small potions and revives lol. In fact, in every post that has been there, I've said that Act 6 guys should get compensation. No matter what. Compensation must be given. That's a definite. And it should be good. But I'm just saying that what you posted, is more than what you get from exploration, excluding the awakening gem.

Not for Exploration of each Chapter and full Explration of Act 6. It’s way less than 1/2.

DNA3000

What the hell? They want to hear from us about pain points and set up a focus group? Have they not read any of the feedback over the last two months?

Players have been saying various things about Act 6. But there hasn't been any real opportunity to dialog with them. You also can't dialog with a thousand people simultaneously. Creating smaller focus groups allows the Kabam developers to not just get direct feedback on the content, but discuss it in more detail, back and forth, to find ways to address the root cause of the problems with solutions that don't themselves have *other* problems players might spot.

I said this in a live stream I was invited to recently, but I think the problem with communication with Kabam isn't just a simple one of not listening or not getting feedback, it is about not having enough opportunities to dialog with the players, where the conversation has back and forth, give and take. Things like the early access previews and the closed betas they do from time to time create opportunities for that kind of communication, which things like the forums are less capable of doing in a focused manner. Opening those channels to more players, and focusing them on specific issues with the game, can only improve the state of communication between the devs and the playerbase at large.

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BigPoppaCBONE

And yeah, what does RPG team mean?

It means a team made knowing their capabilities, weaknesses, and strengths. Not cape coolness or something else of little practical value.

GinjabredMonsta

I'm excited after reading that. I'm looking forward to the upcoming changes and challenges.

Kabam Miike

Will the "No Retreat!" global node be removed in Act 6.1 or only the Champion boss fight?

Right now, the plan is only to remove it from the Champion Boss fight

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TangerineBalls

Some interesting and exciting news this.... But we still don’t have an idea of when you plan on reducing the act 6 attack values. You have given us an outline of the values you plan to reduce these values by, but haven’t said a rough date when these changes will take effect. You mentioned you plan to bring these changes before Book 2, but state Book 2 Chapter 1 is planned for December 2020... so are we expecting to see the act 6 changes in the next couple weeks? Next couple of months? Or even waiting as long as til October, November.? Some clarity on this be great, thanks

FineDog

This is disappointing for Uncollected players. There was almost nothing in this post that is relevant for mid-game players. I imagine the future posts about champion buffs and arena changes and stuff like that might be more relevant, but if you're still grinding through Act 5, all the stuff about Act 6 is basically meaningless, all the stuff about new Variants isn't particularly useful, the Summer of Pain isn't even something to think about. As an Uncollected player, the only thing here that I can do anything with is go replay Act 2 for the rewards after it gets reset.

DNA3000

And yeah, what does RPG team mean?

Traditionally, "RPG" stands for "role playing game" but the term gets used more generically to describe the kinds of things associated with RPGs. In the context of champions in MCOC, that probably refers to the fact there's a team at Kabam responsible for designing how the champions work, what kinds of strengths and weaknesses they have, and how they interact with each other - i.e. which champs are designed to counter the strengths of other champs, which champs are designed to be better at certain kinds of content challenges, which champs have weaknesses to certain situations, etc. They probably design the "shape" of the champion capabilities, as opposed to more mechanical system engineers that implement the specifics of how individual abilities work in the game engine say.

This is consistent with how Kabam has used the term "RPG" in the past in the context of MCOC itself.

Horror_punk

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.
I’ve 100% act 6 10k units is too much 4K would be a more reasonable amount
Lol 4k units consume by a single quest man
I doubt you did 100%
Sometimes a single path took 1k units.
I did 100% and if it cost you 4K units per quest I’m sorry but you weren’t ready for that content if your telling me you spent 96k units on 100%

I said “Sometimes” and i did 100% and know the pain. Spent units less than SEATIN but more than MUNASH. I’m in that bracket if skills are in question . So yeah 4k units isn’t anywhere

Go check his stream and units he using then you’ll find out the actual costs

KnightZero

New content (that actually has release dates) looks exciting. A lot of words for a few tidbits in information was very annoying tho.

Super annoying that Act 6 and 7 related content has no dates or time frames, the longer this takes the more stagnated the game will get.

Damn, that is a big nerf to Act 6. Like huge. I honestly think compensation should be huge as well.

I'm thinking:
4 T5C
12 T2A
4 12.5% T5CC crystals
1 50% T5CC crystal
1 12.5% Selector
1 6* R1>2 Gem
50,000 5* Shards
25,000 6* Shards

That or literally 10,000 Units.
Rather them give units than what you said. I agree that the attack value reduction is quite a bit and a lot of units would have been saved on revives, but the compensation you've written is too much imo.
Have you 100% Act 6? Tell me how these changes will not lower Exploration by 10K units? I blew 2000 units and a decent stash on the first try of No Retreat Champion, then had to go back in and used more units. That is at least 2500 units I wasted on one fight in ALL of Act 6.

Act 6 was so bad I boosted through at least 80% of the paths. 50 paths of boosts is 7500 units alone (assuming full boosting of 150 units).

If they don't want to give Shards and Resources they need to be 10,000 units or what that is worth. Not some revives and potions.
I'm not saying that compensation has to be small potions and revives lol. In fact, in every post that has been there, I've said that Act 6 guys should get compensation. No matter what. Compensation must be given. That's a definite. And it should be good. But I'm just saying that what you posted, is more than what you get from exploration, excluding the awakening gem.
Not for Exploration of each Chapter and full Explration of Act 6. It’s way less than 1/2.

I'm talking about exploration rewards of Act 6 overall(what is shown on the page. Not per quest/Act rewards). Compensation can't be equal to that. Relatable to it, yes. Should definitely be.

unknown

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Buttehrs

So after reading that essay of mostly words I gather 2 things. First, I'm glad you guys basically took everyone's suggestions on act 6 and just gonna implement that essentially. Second, in this whole laundry list of words, all you did was regurgitate what we have said and have said yourselves. Very few hard dates or timelines. Very few specifics of any kind honestly. We waited for a month for you guys to go through our massive feedback and all you did was basically say "Yes". We already basically knew everything said here, so, what was the point of this at all?

OGAvenger

Will the "No Retreat!" global node be removed in Act 6.1 or only the Champion boss fight?
Right now, the plan is only to remove it from the Champion Boss fight

I’m good with that! Any time you guys just wanna hit the “delete” button that would be amazing. You could even use one of these fancy new “buff deleters”!