Dev Diary: The Future of Quests

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  • Nick_Caine_32Nick_Caine_32 Member Posts: 587 ★★★★
    LJF said:

    All of this is outstanding information except for one somewhat large issue: there is no helpful information about when the changes to Act 6 difficulty will occur.

    You mention that they will happen, hopefully, before Act 1 Book 2 releases in December 2020. That's 6 months from now. In the meantime, should players continue doing Act 6 content and hope the compensation is sufficient for their over-expenditure of resources? Should they stop completing and exploring Act 6 for weeks... but maybe months... or longer, in the hope that the Act 6 attack decrease will be worth the wait? What should the players do in the meantime with overflowing stashes and less content to complete?

    Between now and December 1, anyone working on Act 6 is caught in limbo. I really hope Kabam considers giving more information about when the attack value decrease will occur so players can plan accordingly.

    Perfectly said and I’m in the exact same position. While I’m excited for everything they said in this, I’m still a little baffled why this wasn’t immediately set into motion and the new “focus group” wasn’t put together a month ago. My biggest comparing the last year was that the timetables for everything in the game kept getting longer and longer (variant, champion reworks, etc) and now from the wording it seems like a reasonable target date for this act 6 change is closer to November or December.

    That’s half a year more we have to wait, while I am in limbo with act 6 knowing it’s going to be changed. I have zero incentive to push now and the only other things to do are the monthly event quests (which are honestly very hit or miss) and a new variant. At the very least some kind of timetable for the changes would give me motivation to spin my wheels and have patience. Others might not have as much, and from the general feedback thread and social media - there were a lot of people on the verge of leaving anyway, who were bored and felt things are stagnant.

    My wish? Do it piecemeal and implement the stuff you know you can do without feedback AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. You know the champion fight changes as you just announced, so roll them out next update. You know you want to delete some paths at least - get to it! We as a player base have been more than patient. While this is a good start and I’m happy to see you’re listening and trying to make the game better, I don’t want to wait half a year to do the main content in the game because you didn’t start the process soon enough when you knew it needed to change.

    I remain cautiously optimistic but I would love to get a somewhat solid date for when you’re going to do this part. It would go a long way for me and a lot of others.
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  • GkeveryGkevery Member Posts: 44
    edited June 2020

    ItsDamien said:

    gsil6374 said:



    They gave a tentative for what they have. They can't give time frames for what they don't have yet. It's a detailed look into what they're working on. It isn't an itinerary.

    Dude, movies can get a timeframe when a script is just being written. Your going to tell me they can't give one from the development team here. I find that very hard to believe.
    I've worked in movies, and I can tell you that this is not how that works. Game Development is also a very different beast and you can't compare. We don't have timelines yet because we don't have a final list of what we want to do. Exploration of Data takes time, and then so does coming up with what changes we need to make to address those issues, and depending on the scale... we could be looking at weeks or months just to implement them.
    My counter argument of "Exploration of Data takes time", is that any sort of road map shouldn't be announced publicly before you've had time to review that data. No games company I've worked for, or with, would announce without the proper data to hand so they can provide a thorough expectation for their community.

    What has been provided so far, is the road map of the road map, with the hopes of filling the blank spots as you go.
    We thought about that, but we also knew that our players wanted information now. If we wanted to wait to give more information, then you would be waiting for months, because that's how long it takes. I won't be asking the team to change our future Roadmap posts, and there will be more information without definite timelines. There are a lot of people that enjoy these glimpses into the future and understanding what is on the far horizon.

    There are definitely lots of Game Companies that share priorities and insights into things that are way in the distance without timelines. From speaking vaguely on new features, to talking about future priorities that don't have any action items. We've done this in the past as well, and I feel it gives players a better understanding of the shape of the game to come so that when there is new content or changes made, you already understand where that fits and why.



    now yes i can relate to some of that. but has it been explored on a staggered “over-haul” sorta speak, on act6. to me there are the quick fix, gap closers that can be addressed, mainly the high attack values, starting in 6.3/6.4, with those updated and tuned it releases a slightly better experiance for the players to attempt and very well turn out that the “pain points” arent so much of a pain point.
    Fights like acid wash mysterio/ do you bleed Rouge will still be no brainers, but the rest of the act may open up and provide a more enjoyable experiance as the list of pain points rise. even personally the decrease in raw attack on 6.2 champion i think would already make the fight much more managable. atleast to 80% the quest or whatever to when/if “no retreat” and other so-called nerfs are implemented

    isnt everyones experiance already an altered experiance? if playerX does a fight with stark spidey, and player Y does fight with void. the experiance is going to differ.

    now yes there will be those who have already completed 100% pre-balance change, those that complete during balance change (as changes are impletmented and staggered), and those who complete post-balance.

    to me it’d seem like a real attempt to sit down, and say, “ok, whats an issue we can resolve?” attack? ok by september have the implentation of that.
    checked off bucket list. and not sure as to how the staff/devs/coders whatever are allocated, but by the time the attack-decrease team has done their thing, The Champion rework team may be done with their overhaul and ready to roll out. its going to be a continous improvement issue at this point seems how it has gone this long already.
  • Silver_SagaSilver_Saga Member Posts: 363 ★★★
    edited June 2020
    Interesting and promising read... that's going in the right direction. Still haven't completely understood that "quests will be wiped" thing about act 2 and how many small energy refills will be granted, 10 only once or 10 for each quest ? Anyway, it all sounds good to me and as a mid-range uncollected player, those changes in act6 are making me reconsider my decision of not touching that piece of content !
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  • LibertyPrimeV1LibertyPrimeV1 Member Posts: 4,179 ★★★★★

    FineDog said:

    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.

    I would argue that this means the MOST to our Uncollected Summoners. The step after that is becoming Cavalier, and that opens up another big world for you. That may not be right now, but when you get to it, these improvements are going to make it a better transition for you.
    So will the Events Quest's Uncollected Difficulty Level be reduce to it's original state once the Cavalier Difficulty is released?

    Because right now Uncollected's Difficulty Level is trying to give challenge to someone who Just beat the Collector and someone who Just beat 6.1 or the Grandmaster which is an ENORMOUS Difficulty Level Gap and it shows...
    Who the hell is Disagreeing, it's a Question how can you even Disagree with it?
    I'm asking if the Uncollected Difficulty Event Quest will be easier once the Cavalier Difficulty is released, because then UC EQ would only be tailored to UC Players and not UC+Cavalier Players like it is right now.
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  • Doomsfist79Doomsfist79 Member Posts: 922 ★★★

    TugaDav said:

    I welcome these changes for the benefit of the community and understand you're currently exploring options to compensate players who already explored Act 6.
    However, regarding compensation my skepticism compels me to share my experience.

    I'm missing 3 paths to 100% Act6, having interrupted exploration a few weeks ago trying to save units for the 4th of July deals.
    I always explored most end content with minimal costs, relying mostly on skill and strategy. However, the design of 6.2, 6.3 and specially 6.4 forced me to spend an astronomical amount of resources.

    I had to explore 6.4 without a quake or ghost. I don't have them despite having 108 5star champs (some naturally duped to 200), and it made no sense waiting for a quake to complete important content. I haven't gotten one in more than 5 years playing the game and frankly, it might not ever happen.
    Exploring 6.4 without a quake was simply an exercise in spending resources.
    I'm not even going to speak about all the mixes of nodes you have to deal with, bound to 15k attack values, for which there were no good counters besides quake. I mean, p.e. if bane switched during the opponent's special animation I was pretty much death on those seconds.
    I'll just refer the blocking damage and the amount of unavoidable passive debuff damage which were bound to those 15k attack values. Most of those could be ignored by quake or even ghost players.

    Reducing the attack values to less than half of their original values, will make this content content manageable and approachable by a vast array of champions, not only quake or ghost. And will make it possible to be explored with minimal costs.

    Underestimating, I spent about 40K units and several hundreds of saved potions exploring 6.2, 6.3 and 6.4. The amount of arena grind I had to do for units spent on 6.4 led to the greatest burnout this game ever gave me.
    At the moment I don't have enough resources to try to complete my first path of the Abyss neither units for the 4th of July unit deals, they were all burnt on Act6.

    I hope you take all this into consideration while calculation Act6 compensations.

    You do realize they stated that if you completed the content more than 3 months before they implement the change.. then you won't receive compensation right? The amount of data to analyze beyond 3 months is too much. So if you completed act 6 a few months ago.. you won't be seeing any compensation when they implement the changes discussed..

    This is wrong, few pages back Miike confirmed they'll look into expanding for Act 6, lower acts its just a reward buff to bring up to date - Act 6 is still recent, and is a complete rework
    That would be great.. Can you tell me which page that is on? I'm not able to find it. Interesting that they can do data analysis further back than 3 months for act 6 but not other content.. I suppose maybe just less people have done it 100%.
  • GroundedWisdomGroundedWisdom Member Posts: 36,580 ★★★★★
    gsil6374 said:

    I've worked in movies, and I can tell you that this is not how that works. Game Development is also a very different beast and you can't compare. We don't have timelines yet because we don't have a final list of what we want to do. Exploration of Data takes time, and then so does coming up with what changes we need to make to address those issues, and depending on the scale... we could be looking at weeks or months just to implement them.

    So what I got out of this was; 1; you guys don't fully know what your doing as far as changes. 2; you guys are in the early stages, so I shouldn't expect 'weeks', but instead 'months.' Thanks Mike


    Movies have their setbacks, and they also don't have to deal with people being disappointed when those goals aren't met like this community. There are also some things they don't know yet. Things don't happen overnight.

    Guess you weren't around when 12.0 hit. Kabam argued, listened, tested and then added changes within two weeks. Gotta give them credit for that fast turn around. But yes, big changes can happen sooner rather then later. And yes, people do get upset when movies are postponed. I get this industry has more delays then movies, but we still get timeframes for a release.

    I was here during 12.0, and the major bulk of the changes they planned, months ahead of time mind you, had gone ahead. There were some minor tweaks after the reactions, but what we're talking about here is not minor tweaks. These are significant changes that require significant time to implement.
  • GroundedWisdomGroundedWisdom Member Posts: 36,580 ★★★★★

    gsil6374 said:



    They gave a tentative for what they have. They can't give time frames for what they don't have yet. It's a detailed look into what they're working on. It isn't an itinerary.

    Dude, movies can get a timeframe when a script is just being written. Your going to tell me they can't give one from the development team here. I find that very hard to believe.
    Movies have their setbacks, and they also don't have to deal with people being disappointed when those goals aren't met like this community. There are also some things they don't know yet. Things don't happen overnight.
    What are you on about lol
    They release the film and if the public don’t like it they lose ££££££££
    They can’t go back and change it like kabam can.
    And yes they have strict time frames for release times as an over run cost ££££££
    And not being ready for when the film will make the most money being targeted at there optimum audience ie a Halloween film being late and coming out over Christmas rather that Halloween.
    Movies get pushed back all the time. They're announced and planned during production.
  • ESFESF Member Posts: 2,014 ★★★★★
    As for the Dev Diary post, I am extremely upbeat and positive.

    I am easily one of the most impatient people around. It takes a lot for me to dial it down and trust a slower process instead of asking why things can’t move quicker.

    But in this case, and with the details provided over the last few weeks and today, I am very willing to be patient and allow the game team to implement what they have described.

    Before — my opinion — I was very concerned that this player base was being taken for granted and ignored. I truly did not feel that this game team understood that where they were headed, players just weren’t gonna follow.

    My primary enjoyment from the game comes from collecting characters, testing them. I have said that repeatedly.

    But I was extremely concerned that Kabam didn’t recognize how unpleasant the endgame content was becoming to play.

    In reading that Dev Diary, I feel comfortable that they understand and will make the adjustments in a reasonable timeframe to Act 6, as well as tuning content in the ways they described.

    Just my opinion. I am really excited for the next six months
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  • JadedJaded Member Posts: 5,477 ★★★★★

    gsil6374 said:

    I've worked in movies, and I can tell you that this is not how that works. Game Development is also a very different beast and you can't compare. We don't have timelines yet because we don't have a final list of what we want to do. Exploration of Data takes time, and then so does coming up with what changes we need to make to address those issues, and depending on the scale... we could be looking at weeks or months just to implement them.

    So what I got out of this was; 1; you guys don't fully know what your doing as far as changes. 2; you guys are in the early stages, so I shouldn't expect 'weeks', but instead 'months.' Thanks Mike


    Movies have their setbacks, and they also don't have to deal with people being disappointed when those goals aren't met like this community. There are also some things they don't know yet. Things don't happen overnight.

    Guess you weren't around when 12.0 hit. Kabam argued, listened, tested and then added changes within two weeks. Gotta give them credit for that fast turn around. But yes, big changes can happen sooner rather then later. And yes, people do get upset when movies are postponed. I get this industry has more delays then movies, but we still get timeframes for a release.

    I was here during 12.0, and the major bulk of the changes they planned, months ahead of time mind you, had gone ahead. There were some minor tweaks after the reactions, but what we're talking about here is not minor tweaks. These are significant changes that require significant time to implement.
    Oh that is not true at all, after 12.0 the changes made WERE significant.
    12.0 was a mess, they made huge changes after the outcry. They aren’t giving us much more than we already knew. I can’t even consider this a “glimpse” into the future. Because we already knew these aspects.

    Tell us when act 6 is going to be toned down. So we can play our game effectively.
  • Doomsfist79Doomsfist79 Member Posts: 922 ★★★
    edited June 2020
    Thank You.
  • RiderofHellRiderofHell Member Posts: 4,665 ★★★★★
    edited June 2020
    Honestly i am glad i didnt bother working on Act 6 after 6.1 moment ppl were complaining bout 6.2 and 6.3 i knew right there and then it wasnt worth working right away and i would eventually get around to it and variants would keep me busy in meantime along with monthly quest
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  • Kade7175Kade7175 Member Posts: 304 ★★
    So is it too soon. Or stupid of me to read into that reducing the attack values in act 6 might mean the cav difficulty might not be as barbaric as i think? I know its a ways off and there is probably little to go on. But i just got cav and to the point i could complete uc eq. Save the git gud comments. With work eq war im spread thin so completing with 3rd string roster is pretty good in my eyes. But the crossbones fight sucked such a pain in the ass sentinel too was not fun for me. And if there isnt a rewards buff or refresh at the uc level i may be fd in the a here.
  • PandayPirataPandayPirata Member Posts: 23
    DNA3000 said:

    @DNA3000

    DNA3000 said:

    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.

    If that's what you think just *some* of the resources you spent on Act 6 are worth, why did you do Act 6 in the first place? I mean this is arguably comparable to and within a small radius of Act 6's completion and exploration rewards combined. If you think the difference between what you did spend and what you would have spent is that high, you arguably spent more to complete the content than it was worth to you in the first place. You can't be rewarded for spending excessively to complete content.

    Compensation can't be based on what everyone spent to do it, because that's saying the more someone spent, the less skillfully they completed it, the more they deserve to be rewarded for that. That's simply illogical.
    How is it illogical to base compensation on how much units or resources someone spent? Whether someone is superior in skill or less skilled, the resources they would have used would be less because of the drastic change in attack rating and other changes to bosses like The Champion. A player who used 1000 units might use 600 units with the nerf. A player who used 10K units might use 7K units with the nerf.

    If Kabam did not collect info on how much everyone spent to 100% Act 6, then it is impossible to compensate us individually. But Kabam can create testbeds to established baseline of how much on average is spent for Act 6. For example, testers can complete a normal path and then the same path with the nerf and see the difference. If the test or experiment is done scientifically and with honesty, the difference in units use would be a good starting point for the compensation.
    I don't think my post was clear to you. In the context of the rest of the post, what I intended to convey was that specific individuals cannot assert that the compensation for Act 6 changes should be based on their own personal expenditures because that would then mean, as I said, that people who spent more would think the compensation should be higher, and those who spent less would think the compensation should be lower. If we set compensation to the average, say, like you seem to be suggesting, then every single player above the average expenditure who thought that way would say the compensation was too low, and for the players who spent way over the average they would think the compensation would be ridiculously too low. So you can't judge by just your own expenditures, because if everyone did that almost no one would judge the compensation as appropriate. There needs to be a compensation metric that is independent of individual anecdotes of expense, that all reasonable people can agree is logical irrespective of whether it returns comparable resources to them personally than they spent.
    Even is people are asserting that compensation be based on their individual expenditure (even if it can’t be implemented because Kabam might not have the data), it doesn’t make it illogical. That is actually fair to receive back a proportional amount you spent. If It is now easier because of nerf and if on the average people would spend 30% less, then returning back 30% is fair. It’s not illogical.

    If there is no data to give back proportional amount to everyone, then having some compensation metrics is the next fair thing to do. And of course, when we use the average, some will get more and some will get less.

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  • SparkAlotSparkAlot Member Posts: 957 ★★★★

    gsil6374 said:



    They gave a tentative for what they have. They can't give time frames for what they don't have yet. It's a detailed look into what they're working on. It isn't an itinerary.

    Dude, movies can get a timeframe when a script is just being written. Your going to tell me they can't give one from the development team here. I find that very hard to believe.
    I've worked in movies, and I can tell you that this is not how that works. Game Development is also a very different beast and you can't compare. We don't have timelines yet because we don't have a final list of what we want to do. Exploration of Data takes time, and then so does coming up with what changes we need to make to address those issues, and depending on the scale... we could be looking at weeks or months just to implement them.
    While it is true that some things can't be nailed down until you get the final details, that doesn't mean that everything is still up in the air does it?

    For example, there was no mention of any kind of reward boosts at all for the event quest, even though everyone knows they badly need a boost, the same with arena rewards, and basically everything in the game needs a reward boost. They are all stuck in 2017 levels.

    The Calendar is way outdated as well, but no comments on that either?

    All Kabam has to do is say for starters, we are increasing 4* & 5* & 6* shards, T1A, T2A, and whatever else at a minimum (based on tiers). We might make further adjustments down the road as we near release date, but we can guarantee at a minimum the rewards we have posted are part of the progress you will see throughout the Contest.

    Instead, we get silence, so, it is just kicking the can down the road.
  • StellarStellar Member Posts: 1,089 ★★★★
    Thank You Kabam !

    Thank you for listening your summoners concerning act 6, cavalier difficulty etc...
    Thank you for all the creativity you have and the way you use it to better all the already existing content.
    There are probably a lot more to do, like arena, champions rework....but at least you are working on it and now we know it.
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  • StuchStuch Member Posts: 45
    Here are the act 6 bosses that I would classify as “pain points” (Mostly the fights I HAD to use quake for): 6.1.2 (Ultron), 6.1.5 (Crossbones), 6.1.6 (Sentinel), 6.2.2 (Sinister), 6.2.5 (Mordo), 6.2.6 (The Champion), 6.3.1 (Medusa- big pain point), 6.3.4 (Iron Man), 6.3.5 (Mysterio), 6.4.3 (Darkhawk), and 6.4.5 (Hydra Adaptoid)
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Member, Guardian Posts: 19,693 Guardian
    SparkAlot said:

    For example, there was no mention of any kind of reward boosts at all for the event quest, even though everyone knows they badly need a boost, the same with arena rewards, and basically everything in the game needs a reward boost. They are all stuck in 2017 levels.

    Everyone doesn't know this. I don't know this, for example, and I know many people who also don't know this, but have better things to do with their life than accumulate anonymous disagree flags and have people say they are out of touch.

    I'm already on record as saying just randomly boosting rewards causes problems, and what's more I've been right twice in a row in the past: when the devs boosted 5* shards to the point of forcing 6* champs into the game, and when they opened the floodgates on T4CC, which put us into a permanent catalyst arms race that is still ringing today, with people saying the game's gold rewards are broken because they can't use the hundred T2A they have expiring.

    Saying rewards are stuck at 2017 levels is like saying the ladder you own has steps still stuck in 2017 levels, and you now need a ladder where the steps are now three feet apart instead of eighteen inches apart. Rewards should be balanced around the content and progression of the game, not around humans who need increasingly shiny things.

    Are there reward issues? Sure. There's obviously a problem with champion acquisition at or higher than UC: the game doesn't give enough of the right rewards to fuel player's roster progress into Act 6. There's obviously a problem with champion rank up rewards for Cavalier players because the devs want players to be experimental and broaden their champion use, but rank up rewards for 5* champs are still balanced around having a few high ranks and not broadly ranked up rosters. There are certain specific targeted reward issues that need specific targeted solutions.

    But the event quest, the arena, the calendar? The main complaint about those rewards is that they are "outdated" not that they fail to serve the progress requirements for them. Progress requirements don't change over time. Players expectations do, but we can't satisfy the people who demand more and more and more just because they got a new free calendar at the bank. Nor should Kabam even try, if it comes at the expense of a more reasonable future of the game for everyone else. I'm not looking forward to Kabam racing through the last two ranks of 6* champs and introducing 7* champs that restarts the top tier power arms race again. No player in the game is more than one rank higher than me, because rank 3 is the only rank above me that even exists. And I myself am not that much higher than any other Cavalier player, although my roster is probably a bit wider. And the game is much better that way for everyone, with a compressed progress range.

    So yeah, everyone doesn't know that Kabam should just be announcing reward increases everywhere. Increasing rewards just because of what year it is causes tremendous harm. It is just hard to point to that harm because it is spread out over all the players, and because anyone that points that out gets slammed in public. I just don't care as much, and I'm a less easy target to try to portray as not understanding the game.
  • LeNoirFaineantLeNoirFaineant Member Posts: 8,672 ★★★★★
    FineDog said:

    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.

    What were you hoping for? They aren't changing act 5.
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