My Criticisms and Suggestions for Player Appreciation Month and Future Plans
Ebbtide
Member Posts: 292 ★★
The first issue with the Appreciation Month is that it's broken into weeks. To really appreciate the players, it should be all of the these things for the whole month. It's odd and irregular to isolate some bonuses to select weeks, and divide the values to how much you appreciate us one week to the next.
There are other issues with the appreciation. XP boost is useless to much of your active audience. XP boosts are already in supply in Solo Crystals, and are of no use to those who are at level 60. For too long players have asked to have the level increased with appropriately scaled rewards for those higher levels. I have previously suggested even allowing us to Reset/Restart our level, like a Prestige system seen in other games. This allows the players the option to replay through their player level, re-earning the same rewards, and even losing masteries, making content challenging again and relying on building back up to level 60. Each Rebirth should get greater rewards, like Tier 4 basic and class catalysts, Tier 2 Alphas, or even additional Mastery Points for each reset. The effort for replaying the game should be recognized, and even displayed, as the recently introduced title setup could be used to offer titles in reference to the Marvel Comics, like "Rebirth" (from Phoenix), "All New, All Different" (Marvel's New Run on Comics), "The Mighty" (From Thor(s) and Captain Marvel), "Inhuman" (from the obvious), etc... The potential restart times are endless, and allow the player the option to decide to restart or not. No pressure to do so, but the rewards of it are worthy if they so choose.
The above would not require new maps, new fighters, or new extensive content design, and would have allowed players at the top to have more to do within the game, while also using stockpiled items that have no value to them. It would have shown effort and appreciation from the company to recognize that those at the peak are at a non progression stage, and offers them a new but familiar experience. But things like this are completely ignored.
New changes could also be applied to Awakening Stones, as the surplus of them for players who have Awakened their 2 and 3-stars is useless. If they could be sold for a scale that allows every 5 sold to form one for the next star-rank, that would make them more valuable. So something like for every 5 2-star Class Awakening Gems sold it would form a 3-star Class Awakening Gem of that class, and then for 5 of the 3-star Class Awakening Gem sold it would form a 4-star Class Awakening Gem, onto the selling of 5 4-star Awakening Gems would form a 5-star Awakening Gem. This would give use to the minor gems, while also letting players Awaken their 5-star fighters, which are harder to come by and are now less likely to be obtained as the 5-star Basic Crystal Roster has now been expanded. The same could be done with Signature Stones being up-converted to for the star-rank above with every 3 making 1 for the level above in a similar fashion to the suggestion to Awakening Gems. This would show more appreciation to players, instead of giving them items that many will not be able to use.
Another issue is in a later week of Appreciation Month is that there will be a 10% boost to health and damage. This will make Alliance War a nightmare. Unavoidable damage from Limbo and Coldsnap will now do 10% extra damage (and is this before or after the applied node boosts?). This is clearly a well intended idea, and one the community would appreciate, but it creates a massive imbalance in a competitive game mode. Limbo and Coldsnap attack damage scale to the nodes and boosts they gain. Unfair design gets worse, and the player experience is hindered. I have no doubt that the ability to have 10% more health and attack damage will be appreciated in Quests and Alliance Quest, but in Alliance War it will be a drain. Spider-Man and Nightcrawler's evading punches will also destroy attackers with 10% more effectiveness. Hopefully this is limited in how it works, as to not make Alliance War fights more overwhelming.
Limbo with Mystic Dispersion dominates the Alliance War. Repeatedly, many in the community have asked for Limbo to be changed, countered or redesigned, and posts like these are ignored by Kabam. It makes a fighting game boring when damage is completely unavoidable, where a needed mastery like Dexterity actually costs a player, where you're forced to either Evade and cause a repeat buff (and your skill as a player is actually detrimental) or take the hit while blocking and still take damage (worse now from recent updates adding things like Challenger Rating). Parry and Pacify are a maybe option to Limbo, but Parry isn't reliable in Alliance War. Frame-rate and latency make consistent timing hard to do.
The new announcement of the revive (just one?) being added feels like a disservice to the community. Alliance Quest Crystals previously gave Alliance Heals and Revives. Then the pursuit of Tier 4 Catalysts took priority and Kabam made the higher Map Crystals issue full catalyst or shards. This seemed deceptively beneficial at first, until prominent issues made Alliance Quest too difficult. Hits not landing, frame-rate issues, and now, in the 12.0 design, AI recover too fast; lengthy specials can now be blocked by the AI (like Loki's Special 2), the enemy AI can flow from combo to combo in some instances, meaning a player has to either take hits or block and still lose health due to Challenger Rating and other designs that were brought in with 12.0, and even well timed Parries still result in KOs that minor health revives offer. One of the appeals of the Glory Store was that it offered the option to buy Tier 4 Basic Catalysts and Class Shards, which are in short supply of the amount many would like to have at this late into the game. Now players are sacrificing gaining an item needed for Ranking to make their rosters stronger because of design issues and glitches. Map Crystals would be better if updated to offer 3 rewards; the standard 2 catalyst option, and a 3rd addition of health or revive items. The size of the health and revive items should scale with the Map Crystal.
Programming and mathematics are inconsistent. Cable can bleed and not cause degeneration all of the time (fight him with Black Panther to see this). X-Force Deadpool bleeds on every other hit, not 100% of attacks. Juggernaut still causes double Unstoppables, negating a stagger debuff if only 1 is applied. Masterminds Synergy for Loki seems to have zero effect. Critical hits seem inconsistent, and flat rates don't tell us much of any information relating to characters and setups. It would be great to see in detail the added benefit to Synergies and Masteries in our stats and info.
There are other issues with the appreciation. XP boost is useless to much of your active audience. XP boosts are already in supply in Solo Crystals, and are of no use to those who are at level 60. For too long players have asked to have the level increased with appropriately scaled rewards for those higher levels. I have previously suggested even allowing us to Reset/Restart our level, like a Prestige system seen in other games. This allows the players the option to replay through their player level, re-earning the same rewards, and even losing masteries, making content challenging again and relying on building back up to level 60. Each Rebirth should get greater rewards, like Tier 4 basic and class catalysts, Tier 2 Alphas, or even additional Mastery Points for each reset. The effort for replaying the game should be recognized, and even displayed, as the recently introduced title setup could be used to offer titles in reference to the Marvel Comics, like "Rebirth" (from Phoenix), "All New, All Different" (Marvel's New Run on Comics), "The Mighty" (From Thor(s) and Captain Marvel), "Inhuman" (from the obvious), etc... The potential restart times are endless, and allow the player the option to decide to restart or not. No pressure to do so, but the rewards of it are worthy if they so choose.
The above would not require new maps, new fighters, or new extensive content design, and would have allowed players at the top to have more to do within the game, while also using stockpiled items that have no value to them. It would have shown effort and appreciation from the company to recognize that those at the peak are at a non progression stage, and offers them a new but familiar experience. But things like this are completely ignored.
New changes could also be applied to Awakening Stones, as the surplus of them for players who have Awakened their 2 and 3-stars is useless. If they could be sold for a scale that allows every 5 sold to form one for the next star-rank, that would make them more valuable. So something like for every 5 2-star Class Awakening Gems sold it would form a 3-star Class Awakening Gem of that class, and then for 5 of the 3-star Class Awakening Gem sold it would form a 4-star Class Awakening Gem, onto the selling of 5 4-star Awakening Gems would form a 5-star Awakening Gem. This would give use to the minor gems, while also letting players Awaken their 5-star fighters, which are harder to come by and are now less likely to be obtained as the 5-star Basic Crystal Roster has now been expanded. The same could be done with Signature Stones being up-converted to for the star-rank above with every 3 making 1 for the level above in a similar fashion to the suggestion to Awakening Gems. This would show more appreciation to players, instead of giving them items that many will not be able to use.
Another issue is in a later week of Appreciation Month is that there will be a 10% boost to health and damage. This will make Alliance War a nightmare. Unavoidable damage from Limbo and Coldsnap will now do 10% extra damage (and is this before or after the applied node boosts?). This is clearly a well intended idea, and one the community would appreciate, but it creates a massive imbalance in a competitive game mode. Limbo and Coldsnap attack damage scale to the nodes and boosts they gain. Unfair design gets worse, and the player experience is hindered. I have no doubt that the ability to have 10% more health and attack damage will be appreciated in Quests and Alliance Quest, but in Alliance War it will be a drain. Spider-Man and Nightcrawler's evading punches will also destroy attackers with 10% more effectiveness. Hopefully this is limited in how it works, as to not make Alliance War fights more overwhelming.
Limbo with Mystic Dispersion dominates the Alliance War. Repeatedly, many in the community have asked for Limbo to be changed, countered or redesigned, and posts like these are ignored by Kabam. It makes a fighting game boring when damage is completely unavoidable, where a needed mastery like Dexterity actually costs a player, where you're forced to either Evade and cause a repeat buff (and your skill as a player is actually detrimental) or take the hit while blocking and still take damage (worse now from recent updates adding things like Challenger Rating). Parry and Pacify are a maybe option to Limbo, but Parry isn't reliable in Alliance War. Frame-rate and latency make consistent timing hard to do.
The new announcement of the revive (just one?) being added feels like a disservice to the community. Alliance Quest Crystals previously gave Alliance Heals and Revives. Then the pursuit of Tier 4 Catalysts took priority and Kabam made the higher Map Crystals issue full catalyst or shards. This seemed deceptively beneficial at first, until prominent issues made Alliance Quest too difficult. Hits not landing, frame-rate issues, and now, in the 12.0 design, AI recover too fast; lengthy specials can now be blocked by the AI (like Loki's Special 2), the enemy AI can flow from combo to combo in some instances, meaning a player has to either take hits or block and still lose health due to Challenger Rating and other designs that were brought in with 12.0, and even well timed Parries still result in KOs that minor health revives offer. One of the appeals of the Glory Store was that it offered the option to buy Tier 4 Basic Catalysts and Class Shards, which are in short supply of the amount many would like to have at this late into the game. Now players are sacrificing gaining an item needed for Ranking to make their rosters stronger because of design issues and glitches. Map Crystals would be better if updated to offer 3 rewards; the standard 2 catalyst option, and a 3rd addition of health or revive items. The size of the health and revive items should scale with the Map Crystal.
Programming and mathematics are inconsistent. Cable can bleed and not cause degeneration all of the time (fight him with Black Panther to see this). X-Force Deadpool bleeds on every other hit, not 100% of attacks. Juggernaut still causes double Unstoppables, negating a stagger debuff if only 1 is applied. Masterminds Synergy for Loki seems to have zero effect. Critical hits seem inconsistent, and flat rates don't tell us much of any information relating to characters and setups. It would be great to see in detail the added benefit to Synergies and Masteries in our stats and info.
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Comments
The above being that I wish Synergies were more distinct, with more abilities enhanced from them. Loki's Synergies show that you can have 3 characters on 1 Synergy chance, and Mordo has two Synergy options with Doctor Strange, so there can be overlap in an individuals Synergies. It makes team building more interesting if there's more options to consider.
Months ago I asked about a Beat the Boss mode, where you could introduce a new character in a super noded fight that could be scaled around team Prestige. This was coincidental with the NYCC Beat the Boss mode, so it is partially designed already. You could even intentionally use fighters that were non playable for players, like a Sentinel from the X-Men, or Galactus, or Mojo, or some other character that would be hard to program for player use, but still fun to fight. The fight could grant better rewards based around Prestige, and each player could take in one fighter every 24 hours (based around the in-game 24 like with Alliance Help Credit and not a literal 24 hours from when you last fought) to wear down the new character that week. Rewards like Catalysts, Units and Signature Stones could be given out in a new mode that lets players see how a new character fights.
I even wish there were global events. Things that literally all players contributed to for rewards. Like defeat X number of Mutants, or Techs, or Symbioids in a month, or win X Arena fights in a month, or level up X Fighter Levels in a Month. Things like that to encourage community effort.
There needs to be more variety and freshness to monthly quests. When there was the Civil War event there was at least the option to pick a side, with respective bonuses and quests to it. I had previously asked for a Mutant versus Inhumans Event, but that was also ignored. Having events where we pick sides and contribute to goals, competing against the other side would be exciting and add another level to the game. Using the Civil War Event for example, it would have been great if there was competitive events for each side. Something like competing for Arena Wins, or Ranking and Leveling Points, or for Quests or fights won. Both teams win prizes for milestones and some extra at the end, but the higher scoring side of Team Cap or Team Iron wins more prizes.
Captain and Ms. Marvel should have energy resistance and fly like Rogue, Ant-Man should be Magnetized like Yellowjacket, Loki should ignore Coldsnap, Ghost Rider should be immune to incinerate, Venom should ignore Spider-Man's evade (like Ultron ignores Cable's Degeneration on Bleed or like Daredevil ignore Hood's Invisibility), and I'm sure there are other inconsistencies.
I'm know that there is a lot I don't notice or understand, but the obvious things are what stand out. I might not be aware of coding or space constraints, or any performance problems with what is suggested, but if that is the case I'd wish someone from Kabam would explain that. Something like, "We'd like to make a fighter have animated electricity shock them as long a they are under the shock debuff, but are unable to do so because of limited animation space or it takes to much to animate that on X phone or tablet" is much more useful to know than silence. Clearly this recent update made menu performance a bit faster, which is great, and I know that not every update will be mammoth in what is addressed.
If any of these changes could be implemented I hope it would make the game more fun. If they cannot be done, then I hope there are reasons given as to why. There's so much potential here to make this game even better, and have more consistency to the history of the comics.
Great job ebbtide
I love all these ideas and I pray kabam listens for once
Don't think you've wasted your time writing this
I'm sure people reading your post would love it also
Great job again
Great idea's and so much can be done.
Once both are obtained, treat them like the same character with a switch to change "costumes" and abilities.
Then when you pull another dupe of either, it would increase the sig level of the "combined" champ.
You could add another stat boost when this happens. There are lots of options you could do with this.
Me personally, I don't want to have to level and rank up 2 Magnetos. Just combine them and let me choose on the fly, which I want.
Thank you.