March 2nd Livestream - Upcoming AW/AQ Features!

Join us over at twitch.tv/Kabam at 9am PST on March 2nd as we talk to a member of the dev team (Kabam John) about upcoming features planned for Alliance War/Alliance Quest!

Additionally, we'll discuss content, coming to the contest for March, including the two newest champs, and set aside time for viewer Q&A!

Come hang out!

Comments

Mik81

Just wanted to say that the Stream was very well done, kudos to the team behind for planning it so well. @kabam Jax did a very impressive job in front of the cameras, keep the good work guys.

Crine60

Thanks LilMaddogHT!
Not having the time to watch livestream or dig though update notes I’m hopeful your post is on point.

One thing I will suggest to Kabam is this:

While overall I LOVE the things you’re working on, I dislike that it puts, or insinuates, more work/brainpower on officers to pick fights & paths rather than members taking responsibility for themselves.

That’s already a HUGE factor in officer burnout.

Speaking as a former leader & longtime officer, I’d like to suggest offering these roles access to exclusive content/rewards.
Maybe you're not forced to pick the paths and fights. But the option is there if you want to
Yeah I copied that. I still think if it’s only officers who can do it it will create or encourage another laziness among members.

I’d love it if this feature allowed multiple members to raise a hand for fights on shared paths- like “I want/can do/have counters for/am comfortable with 21, 26, & 53” then it allowed officers to assign them- or someone completely different.

I think giving members participation in this feature will encourage interaction and accountability, and also help train members to become officers.

Again, my main point is that I think Kabam should offer something to the officers & leaders who pour countless hours into managing the cooperative aspects of the MCOC community.

There have been many weeks when I’ve spend more time recruiting and doing the behind the scenes work logging data to design war defense than I actually spend playing the game.

I think this work that keeps the community healthy and vibrant should be rewarded with more than a voting event and a “true team player” title.
(I cherish the title and profile pic, don’t get me wrong)

I absolutely agree that regular members should be able to call or designate that they are planning on taking specific paths or nodes on paths. It seems like a big oversight to not allow that because while it may be more complicated it is of much less use if they don't allow that. They could even just have 2 separate parts of the function that would show where officers would like someone to go but also have something that allows different players to indicate their preferred paths/nodes as well.

It doesn't make sense to me to give officers special benefits unless it is just cosmetic stuff like titles or profile pics that don't affect gameplay like getting more resources or champs or energy would. In a lot of alliances there is a huge variation in the number of people who are made officers and what they actually do. Why should people who are just arbitrarily made an officer get benefits other players don't get? There is nothing that forces officers to do extra work so you can't guarantee they will have "earned" the extra rewards you are suggesting you/they should get.

pseudosane

Enjoyed the livestream fellas. Loving this new setup of livestreaming. My full support behind this.

Crine60

One thing I wanted to clear up is the availability of Champions on AW Defense:

When we move to the 2 Day Attack phase, Alliance War defenders will no longer be locked from Solo Content. That means that you can use your AW Defenders in any mode EXCEPT AW Attack or Alliance Quests.

There is no change planned for AW Attackers or your Alliance Quest team at this time.

I don't understand what the 2 day attack phase change means because I already have an attack phase that starts on 1 day and continues on a 2nd day. Can you clarify what this change actually is?

You said you weren't providing details written up now and can't really answer a lot of questions because this was just a roadmap now. Does that mean that whatever these changes you talked about are, they won't be occuring for a long time, like potentially 6 months or a year or more away?

You said a similar thing about the 7 star champions, relics and ascension (or something like that) a while ago and then unpinned the thread with all our questions and never answered any of them or even provided any more information I am aware of yourselves (we have seen a few new striker relics but you said those are only the 1st type yet haven't provided any info on what other types there will be even though many people seem disinterested in the striker ones). Will we really be getting answers to things or is this just going to be another thing that gets ignored until shortly before it is ready to launch?

pseudosane

One thing I wanted to clear up is the availability of Champions on AW Defense:

When we move to the 2 Day Attack phase, Alliance War defenders will no longer be locked from Solo Content. That means that you can use your AW Defenders in any mode EXCEPT AW Attack or Alliance Quests.

There is no change planned for AW Attackers or your Alliance Quest team at this time.
I don't understand what the 2 day attack phase change means because I already have an attack phase that starts on 1 day and continues on a 2nd day. Can you clarify what this change actually is?

You said you weren't providing details written up now and can't really answer a lot of questions because this was just a roadmap now. Does that mean that whatever these changes you talked about are, they won't be occuring for a long time, like potentially 6 months or a year or more away?

You said a similar thing about the 7 star champions, relics and ascension (or something like that) a while ago and then unpinned the thread with all our questions and never answered any of them or even provided any more information I am aware of yourselves (we have seen a few new striker relics but you said those are only the 1st type yet haven't provided any info on what other types there will be even though many people seem disinterested in the striker ones). Will we really be getting answers to things or is this just going to be another thing that gets ignored until shortly before it is ready to launch?

There is no placement phase mate. Everything is attack day now. You can finish in one day or two, your choice. Instead of "placement phase" the attack phase immediately starts.

SummonerNR

I don't understand what the 2 day attack phase change means because I already have an attack phase that starts on 1 day and continues on a 2nd day. Can you clarify what this change actually is?

Current system of a 24 hour Attack day is considered to be 1 day. (depending on timezone, yes, it could be 12 hrs from end of a clock day, into the first 12 hrs of the next clock day, but that doesn’t make the current system a 2 day attack system).

Now it will be 48 hrs (or probably 44 hrs, if there is still a 4 hr matchmaking window first).
So actually 2 days (by hours) for Attack now, no matter how that crosses over any clock midnight's for people (even though that might be “portions” of 3 days worth on the calendar).

Crine60

One thing I wanted to clear up is the availability of Champions on AW Defense:

When we move to the 2 Day Attack phase, Alliance War defenders will no longer be locked from Solo Content. That means that you can use your AW Defenders in any mode EXCEPT AW Attack or Alliance Quests.

There is no change planned for AW Attackers or your Alliance Quest team at this time.
I don't understand what the 2 day attack phase change means because I already have an attack phase that starts on 1 day and continues on a 2nd day. Can you clarify what this change actually is?

You said you weren't providing details written up now and can't really answer a lot of questions because this was just a roadmap now. Does that mean that whatever these changes you talked about are, they won't be occuring for a long time, like potentially 6 months or a year or more away?

You said a similar thing about the 7 star champions, relics and ascension (or something like that) a while ago and then unpinned the thread with all our questions and never answered any of them or even provided any more information I am aware of yourselves (we have seen a few new striker relics but you said those are only the 1st type yet haven't provided any info on what other types there will be even though many people seem disinterested in the striker ones). Will we really be getting answers to things or is this just going to be another thing that gets ignored until shortly before it is ready to launch?
There is no placement phase mate. Everything is attack day now. You can finish in one day or two, your choice. Instead of "placement phase" the attack phase immediately starts.

So does that mean you absolutely have to have pre-set defenders if war starts immediately in attack phase? How would that work for alliances that don't run 3 groups and cycle people in and out of 1 or 2 groups that are run because if the makeup of the players in a group is constantly changing it seems like that could be an issue with diversity and unintentional dupes if you have to have your defenders set in advance but don't know who else might be in your group to know their defenders?

Also, someone posted on the previous page that officers will be able to pick what attackers you use along with the paths. Is there any indication of if that means it is just "informational" like battle group assignments where you can see where you are assigned but still join where you want or will they actually be allowed to force our champions into war attack preventing us from picking our own if we think someone else is better to use or need someone for other content?

Pikolu

One thing I wanted to clear up is the availability of Champions on AW Defense:

When we move to the 2 Day Attack phase, Alliance War defenders will no longer be locked from Solo Content. That means that you can use your AW Defenders in any mode EXCEPT AW Attack or Alliance Quests.

There is no change planned for AW Attackers or your Alliance Quest team at this time.
I don't understand what the 2 day attack phase change means because I already have an attack phase that starts on 1 day and continues on a 2nd day. Can you clarify what this change actually is?

You said you weren't providing details written up now and can't really answer a lot of questions because this was just a roadmap now. Does that mean that whatever these changes you talked about are, they won't be occuring for a long time, like potentially 6 months or a year or more away?

You said a similar thing about the 7 star champions, relics and ascension (or something like that) a while ago and then unpinned the thread with all our questions and never answered any of them or even provided any more information I am aware of yourselves (we have seen a few new striker relics but you said those are only the 1st type yet haven't provided any info on what other types there will be even though many people seem disinterested in the striker ones). Will we really be getting answers to things or is this just going to be another thing that gets ignored until shortly before it is ready to launch?
There is no placement phase mate. Everything is attack day now. You can finish in one day or two, your choice. Instead of "placement phase" the attack phase immediately starts.
So does that mean you absolutely have to have pre-set defenders if war starts immediately in attack phase? How would that work for alliances that don't run 3 groups and cycle people in and out of 1 or 2 groups that are run because if the makeup of the players in a group is constantly changing it seems like that could be an issue with diversity and unintentional dupes if you have to have your defenders set in advance but don't know who else might be in your group to know their defenders?

Also, someone posted on the previous page that officers will be able to pick what attackers you use along with the paths. Is there any indication of if that means it is just "informational" like battle group assignments where you can see where you are assigned but still join where you want or will they actually be allowed to force our champions into war attack preventing us from picking our own if we think someone else is better to use or need someone for other content?

You set the defense in advance, so basically you're going to just have to be communicating who is going to be in the next war and get them situated in anytime between the start of matchmaking for the current war, and the matchmaking of the next war.

As for the AW planner, Idk, but top tier alliances would probably enjoy that because then they have an in-game way to do what they were doing anyways. I do hope it just serves as a plan and not force you to do it because then some salty officer who wants to screw over their alliance can assign everyone groot for attack in war and then leave.

Dude17

Exactly my question as well.

Is each person gonna have a hard cap on the # of days (4) they can enter ? (in cases where Ally doesn’t just set the SAME 4 days for ALL their BG's).

Without hearing more specifics, seems like the general design changes were thought about primarily from the perspective of FULL 3 BG Ally's with SET BG Assignments (for both these AQ changes as well as the AW changes).

Could create an interesting option especially for alliances where AQ is optional or they have less than 30 players. Gives interested players the choice to play all 7 days if they love AQ.

pseudosane

Kabam, love the changes to war/aq. They are amazing.

The only thing is, this necessitates the need for mastery decks (kind of like in BGs). Is there a plan like this for war? @Kabam Miike @Kabam Jax

BowTieJohn

I enjoyed the stream and I appreciate the new changes coming.

JockJonny

I just wanted to add a couple things to something’s said by the game team here

You keep saying this is a game and is meant to be fun. This is true and people need to continue to view it as a such.

However first and foremost this is primarily a business. The goal of Kabaam is primarily to be profitable and sustainable. That is the way the world works.

Prime example Disneyland Happiest place on earth and meant to be fun but at the end of the day it comes down to the almighty dollar.
No judgement because as I said this is how things work.

Which leads into and adds to my other point regarding statements of transparency.
When drastic changes are made to the way AI interacts as well as game speed variations and decreased chances to parry, dex etc

Wouldn’t transparency mean that these changes are communicated?

Example: in this update defenders AI now can special intercept you.

If changes are made that increase profit or meet financial goals for the company that is absolutely fine because this is a business but I feel the transparency you guys mention is sorely lacking.

Which circles back to the first point …these hidden changes can make the game very very frustrating…not fun.