Further Updates to Consumable Acquisition (followup to revive farming/apothecary)

Overview

Hello Summoners,

After last week’s announced changes to revive farming in early-game content we have monitored the community conversation through numerous channels including these forums, our Content Creator Program, and various other social media and content creation platforms. We are aware of the community’s frustration and have been in constant discussion about how we want to proceed.

Adjustments to Revive Economy

The discourse over the last week and a half has not fallen on deaf ears. We understand this change will be jarring, but this has highlighted other areas in which the revive ecosystem should change. One of the most obvious issues is the amount of restriction imposed by the inventory cap.

Under the system announced last week, Summoners would be able to earn, on average, 5 Level 1 Revives per week from the Apothecary and 7 Level 1 Revives per week from the 22-Hour Solo Events. There are other sources of revives in-game, but these are the guaranteed, regular sources. With a 14-day expiry window, Summoners could hold around 2 weeks worth of these revives. Considering the 15 revive inventory capacity, Summoners would be able to stack approximately 39 Level 1 Revives (43 with Sigil) before they would start to expire.

We are adjusting this restriction to make accumulating revives a little easier.

The following changes may seem small individually, but taken together they will substantially increase the availability of revives. The end result is, essentially, pushing inventory capacity from 39 revives to 68 (78 with Sigil). Yes, it will still take longer to build up a large surplus of revives, but we think this is a fair tradeoff for what is considered a reasonably large stash of easily accessible revives.

So, what is changing?

• Keep the Apothecary open 7 days a week, instead of the initially intended 5, adding 2 more revives each week
• Increase the inventory capacity of all single PvE revives from 15 to 20 (19 to 25 with Sigil)
• Change the Level 1 revive in the TB and Paragon 22-Hour Event to a Level 2 Revive

The addition of Level 2 Revives to guaranteed regular rewards means Summoners can now stack two different levels of earned revives for their runs, taking advantage of the inventory limit for each. With 7 revives available per week from the Apothecary, and an inventory capacity of 20, Summoners will be able to stack 34 Level 1 Revives (20 inventory + 14 overflow = 34) for a single run. You will additionally be able to earn 7 Level 2 Revives per week from the 22-Hour Solo Event, so TB and Paragon Summoners will be able to stack another 34 Level 2 Revives. In total, this brings the stacked revive limit from 39 revives to 68 (78 with Sigil), a substantial increase. 

Timeline

The three changes mentioned above will exist on varying timelines.

When the Apothecary launches in April, it will be on a five day cycle. We are aiming to expand it to seven days in our May build (v39.0).

We are planning to increase the inventory cap and add the Level 2 Revive to the 22-Hour events to be implemented as soon as possible, we are targeting late next week. We will comment on this post once we have more information. 

Adjustments to Potion Ecosystem

This lengthy dialogue with Summoners has also put a spotlight on current potion inefficiencies. The game team has discussed a revamp to potions and are committed to overhauling the system. It’s best to consider this as tangentially related to the changes to the situation at hand, as the timeline on this will be much, much longer. We are hoping to see these changes implemented in 5-6 months time. As always, timelines can shift, but, considering the scale of the project, that’s what we’re hoping for currently!

Transparent Design Philosophy

We want to revisit and further explain the driving force behind these choices and what we mean when we say things like, “This frenzied revive farming trivializes difficult content like Carina’s Challenges and Eternity of Pain.”

We feel the best way to further explain is to provide additional design transparency in a way we often avoid due to the challenging (and often controversial) nature of managing the in-game economy.

We often avoid in-depth discussions surrounding the in-game economy. At its core, MCOC is a game designed to entertain, but each and every piece of content we release comes with goals for our game teams.

When we look to develop new endgame content, we set goals for that content. 

We set challenge goals: how hard should it be? We set progression goals: how powerful should Summoners have to be to tackle it and how powerful should they be once they complete it? We set time goals: how much active play time should it require and how many days/weeks/months should it take for Summoners at various progression tiers to complete it? And we set consumable goals: how many units, potions, revives, boosts, etc., do we expect players to use. 

The line in the original post about having to cancel development of end game content wasn't an idle threat or hyperbole. The game team has literally had meetings where they asked if we can still continue to develop Everest and end-game content in an environment where we know it won't meet our goals because of the availability of close to unlimited free revives. Those consumables make any content we develop easier than intended, makes the content accessible to less powerful Summoners than intended, results in the content being completed faster than intended, and with a smaller investment in items and resources than intended. It also removes the need for players to participate in other game modes and events to power up and diversify their rosters.

This type of content is designed to be difficult; it is designed to be aspirational. It should take skill, appropriate roster choices and preparation. It should be a north star for Summoners to work towards and fight to accomplish, it is not meant to be inevitable.

In-Development Content is at Risk

Bespoke, hand crafted Everest and end-game content is some of the most resource intensive and costly content for us to produce. It’s also some of the most popular content that drives Summoners forward. We can't continue to develop that content if it's at a net loss. Revive farming puts our ability to create this content at serious risk, especially because it doesn't just impact unit spend on revives. Revive farming also impacts the need to collect and upgrade new Champions, which is a fundamental part of the core of this game. 

Without these changes, Act 8 might be the last Chapter of Story content. Additionally, we wouldn’t see any more Everest content, such as our follow-up to Abyss (which is currently in planning stages), as well as other challenging content on which we have not yet started development.

Why is this change so impactful for Summoners?

The ease of access this revive farm provided has resulted in many Summoners being able to ‘punch above their weight class.’ With enough revives, Summoners can brute force any content. This means, over time, the community’s mentality toward endgame content shifted from the intended “aspirational” to feeling that it should be “inevitable.” It is an unfortunate side effect that directly contributes to the removal of the farm, to allow the game team to reliably create and balance new end-game and Everest-type content.

Keep in mind that this revive farming method has not always been present in MCOC. This was the result of a change that took place in November of 2021. Prior to this, preparing for content involved grinding mostly for units, not revives. Summoners would discuss content and brag about completing it with “X units or fewer”; it was, by design, a benchmark system. That narrative has slowly shifted to “how many revives should I farm?” Which leads us to…

“How is grinding for units any different than grinding for revives?”

It all comes down to design intention. For quite some time now, Summoner’s chosen utilization of Units has shifted away from the design intent; it’s something we’ve discussed before. Units are meant to be used to help Summoners progress through the game; they are a ‘catch-all’ solution. They can be hoarded and used for deals during sales, sure, but only at the cost of ignoring them as a solution to reviving and healing. MCOC provides a lot of access to free, premium currency. 

So to answer the question: this is different because, simply put: Summoners are meant to have access to units that are provided in specific, measured ways; Summoners are not meant to have access to revives in the current, overtuned capacity. Additionally, most Unit farming requires engaged play, such as in the arena. The Act 3 revive farm turned MCoC into something close to an idle game, which, again, is far from our design intent.

Conclusion

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading this whole post! We appreciate you taking the time to read up on our intentions, priorities and goals. We will continue our efforts to push the needle on transparency further and further.