MPQ 12th Anniversary Celebrations

12357…13

Comments

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,298 Chairperson of the Boards

    @SnowcaTT said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    Say they sell Red Skull for $100, and even the best 550s literally can't beat him. Now any noob willing to spend $100 can totally own your 10-year, meticulously-planned, spreadsheeted, free to play roster.

    What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

    Didn't this already happen? Buy yourself all the 1* deals, grind away like crazy for drops, 10x 550 within a few months for ~$200 and they're always boosted since there are so few.

    First thing I saw was some big buyers supplementing with the 1*, and now I see plenty of 1* only 550's. They paid, they win; and I agree with you, it's always been that way [and the game is built do do that, and must be.]

    It also might be what drove many that spent years getting the 550's the old way leaving, since now they're against multiple 650 every match. And now those 1* boosted going to face similar levels of modern/stronger characters, maybe they leave next. We'll see!

    You're still here (and so am I!). There is nothing new under the sun.

  • bbigler
    bbigler Posts: 2,187 Chairperson of the Boards

    @scottee said:

    @bbigler said:
    I've been playing this game long enough to remember when 5*s were introduced and people freaked out. Relax everyone. This is a good thing. Don't be afraid of the unknown. The only constant thing in life is change.

    I was around when 4* was introduced. Shoot, I was around when 2* BW was meta. The problem with 6* is that they have to make it rarer to obtain than 5*, and a tier more powerful than 5*. If it happens that only whales can get a usable 6* and regular folks don't get one until two years in, then the experience will be one of regular folks getting crushed and giving up from 5*s being useless.

    The best way to implement right now might actually be, no ascensions, and make 6*s so rare that you can't buy them. You can only get shards in events, or go back to the olden days where only 1st place gets a cover. So that whales can't instantly buy them and have to actually play to win. That would create more activity in both PVE and PVP.

    People made the same arguments about 5s. Look, "regular" players can get 6 shards or tokens from the new scl 9 & 10 rewards. Or ascend a 550. Nowadays, it's not hard to get 550s. I'm absolutely sure that not just the "whales" will be able to get them. So relax and don't be pessimistic.

    I'm glad you remember when 2*Widow was meta because I think I was responsible for putting her there. I started playing her in pvp all the time when no one else did. Everyone thought she was too weak but I saw her usefulness. Later I started seeing other people playing her too.

  • bbigler
    bbigler Posts: 2,187 Chairperson of the Boards

    @LavaManLee said:

    @bbigler said:
    I've been playing this game long enough to remember when 5*s were introduced and people freaked out. Relax everyone. This is a good thing. Don't be afraid of the unknown. The only constant thing in life is change.

    Curious how you know it is a good thing. Because 5* worked out? Just because it is change doesn't mean it is automatically good change. Not everything that is different is good. Just like not everything different is bad.

    Since the beginning I've seen the introduction of countless changes to this game and about 95% of those changes have been good. Shall I list them all? How about the major changes then?
    Boosted characters,
    Shields,
    Team Ups,
    Progression rewards,
    Champions,
    5*s & LTs & CP,
    Elite & Mighty tokens,
    Vaults,
    Alliances,
    SCLs,
    Seasons,
    Shards,
    Supports,
    Costumes,
    Ascension,
    Unity

    The overall track record is good.

  • bbigler
    bbigler Posts: 2,187 Chairperson of the Boards

    @entrailbucket said:
    @Seph1roth5 they should nerf/buff based completely on usage rates. The best characters get used the most, the worst get used the least. It's really easy to figure it out on their side.

    They need to actually do rebalances frequently though. In the past they'd nerf someone good into the ground then let them sit at the bottom forever.

    I'm a fan of small, frequent changes. If they're hitting m'Thor, hit her a tiny bit, and if it doesn't reduce usage but her again the next month. Repeat until her usage rate looks like everyone else.

    I agree in theory but not in practice. If you make small changes to a character, I bet most people won't notice, therefore, usage rates don't change. If you loudly announce the nerfs with in game pop ups, then it should work though.

    The only team I think is "overused" is JuggSam, at least in Lightning Rounds.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,710 Chairperson of the Boards

    @Zarqa said:

    @entrailbucket said:
    What would those players do? They're not going to quit, ever. The game's been a buggy disaster for months and they're all still playing, and complaining about it. They didn't quit when their swaps got taken away. They certainly won't quit with 6*. They'll pay, because they don't want to get passed by.

    But they did quit?
    Flips are happening slower. PvP numbers are down. Forum and Discord have considerably less people posting. It’s so (so!) much harder to recruit people for alliances.

    This is where we probably disagree. The game has lost a huge amount of players since Unity. And certain Dev choices will lead to more people quitting. I’m not the one tracking, but I trust those who do and have posted about it here and on Discord.

    Your stance (I think?): people won’t quit no matter what they say or do!
    My stance: we recently lost a core part of the long term player base and it’s really hard to replace them with new blood.

    Players might have left, my alliance lost several solid players but let's be honest - the games current problems are a lot to do with the Devs using a new engine that requires much better device specs than previously. This might present problems for some players but the top players are either already using high end devices to score optimally or can afford to buy them if they are Whales. I looked at leaderboards recently and the names are familiar and I am in no way connected to anybody. I've seen these same names for years and they are still there. I suspect the middle got squeezed but at the top things are not looking too different.

  • Bustapup
    Bustapup Posts: 231 Tile Toppler
    edited 27 September 2025, 09:53

    I think the only characters that need needing are Ju> @Zarqa said:

    @Bustapup said:
    ​Every single 5-star should be viable and competitive on the right team, but that's just not the case right now, and that's a big design problem.

    Strong disagree here.
    There always has to be a specific meta for the game to be healthy. It should not be stagnant, which it is now. That’s bad too.

    But making every single 5 star viable for end game is a really bad design decision for the longevity of a game like MPQ. There just wouldn’t be enough incentives for people to invest (either time or money, or both).

    I completely disagree with that. I think if every 5* had worth and viability, it would completely eradicate any "stagnant meta" because there would be infinitely more variety and you'd have to think to put together a good team to beat your opponent.

    Any game that has a "meta" is in a bad place in my view and it's always a result of poor design/balancing.....overwatch, marvel rivals, magic the gathering....all suffer from "meta" teams or decks and it is not good or healthy for the game because it stifles competition, variety and creativity

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,298 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 27 September 2025, 14:48

    @bluewolf said:

    @bbigler said:

    @LavaManLee said:

    @bbigler said:
    I've been playing this game long enough to remember when 5*s were introduced and people freaked out. Relax everyone. This is a good thing. Don't be afraid of the unknown. The only constant thing in life is change.

    Curious how you know it is a good thing. Because 5* worked out? Just because it is change doesn't mean it is automatically good change. Not everything that is different is good. Just like not everything different is bad.

    Since the beginning I've seen the introduction of countless changes to this game and about 95% of those changes have been good. Shall I list them all? How about the major changes then?
    Boosted characters,
    Shields,
    Team Ups,
    Progression rewards,
    Champions,
    5*s & LTs & CP,
    Elite & Mighty tokens,
    Vaults,
    Alliances,
    SCLs,
    Seasons,
    Shards,
    Supports,
    Costumes,
    Ascension,
    Unity

    The overall track record is good.

    So, your argument is that the game made many changes before and it they were good. Fair enough but most of these changes occurred within 6 years of game launch. Supports are 7 years old and they never really figured out what to do with them; they added them to PVP last year and it utterly ruined the meta until they pulled 4 of them out with vague unrealized promises they'd be tweaking them.

    Ascension is 2 years old.

    Unity? Don't make me laugh. No one is having a better experience with Unity than the old engine; the most positive comment is one of the many people asking "when will the game be like it used to be", representing optimism they'll figure this thing out and not just stumble from bug to bug.

    Look, it's marginally possible that doing all this stuff - nerfing metas, shifting SCLs to make the game harder (and confuse casuals who barely understand stuff and will wonder why SCL8 got so much harder suddenly), adding 6s - will turn things around a bit. But the game has lost players, no question, no doubt. It's inarguable. The revenue is down. Previous changes kept the thing going, maybe added more revenue on top of current, but the game plateaued years ago and has been on a downslope and a whooooole lot of players are comfortable with things and won't like the game suddenly becoming uncomfortable so that when you make your 1.5 millionth match 3 it takes longer to finish the battle because now you're fighting L988 opponents. So that MAYBE some people will lots of extra cash in their bank account spend it on the game again and keep it afloat.

    The fact that the game is pushing in a huge number of changes that in the old days would have played out for months or years (nerfing metas, shifting SCLs, adding a tier) does not reflect a careful plan which the game seemed to basically have in the old days. It reflects a five-alarm fire situation where this better work AND FAST or they will definitely shut everything down in a few months.

    I'd disagree that they had a careful plan in the old days. They just did stuff randomly, and everybody basically hated all of it. Every single one of those positive changes was met with outrage.

    I agree that this much change at once is going to upset the playerbase they've cultivated through years of inaction -- players who enjoy playing the exact same game (at the same time every day, with the same characters, etc etc). That's their own fault for cultivating that kind of playerbase though, and it's boxed them into a corner.

  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 11,710 Chairperson of the Boards

    Or…Jesus let’s just see.

  • bbigler
    bbigler Posts: 2,187 Chairperson of the Boards

    @bluewolf Every month (probably every week) for the past 10 yrs people have been saying that if they don't fix X thing then the game will die immediately. That’s overreacting; the game is still here after 10 years of naysayers. I've seen these complaints 100 times over and know not to listen to them. 6* tier will be good & exciting for players. Matches will not take longer because 6s will fight 6s.

    I said 95% of their changes were good. I've seen bad ones that they later removed, and the Unity change is one of the bad ideas, but they're not going back. Someone pushed them or sold them on Unity, so they rolled it out despite tons of bugs. That's my complaint. Nevertheless, after a year they should have worked out the bugs and the Unity change will be an overall improvement.

    But those Unity growing pains are hurting the game now & players are leaving. So, yes, the health of the game is in trouble but it's no where near critical. Don't overreact - be level headed - this message is for everyone on this forum.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,298 Chairperson of the Boards

    @bbigler said:
    @bluewolf Every month (probably every week) for the past 10 yrs people have been saying that if they don't fix X thing then the game will die immediately. That’s overreacting; the game is still here after 10 years of naysayers. I've seen these complaints 100 times over and know not to listen to them.

    What these people are really saying when they say "X thing is KILLING the game!!!" is "I don't like X thing," but they're trying to add some metrics or justification or something for why they're objectively right about not liking it.

    I'm not sure why they can't just say "I don't like this." This happens every time they change anything. If you don't like some change, say you don't like it. Your opinion is valid, and it's just as valid as mine, or anyone else's!

  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 6,507 Chairperson of the Boards

    At one point they said somewhere that 30% of players are in scl10. Based on tracking flips the number has dropped from 12-13 flips to approx 10 across all slices since May-ish. So, 2000-3000 players in SCL 10 as a ballpark. Extrapolate that to be about 1/6 of all players over this year.

    I don’t give a fark what various players have said needed to be fixed or the game will die because obviously they’ve been wrong up to now. The thing that matters is really just how much money it brings in vs how much they spend to run it (labor and servers).

    It seems clear they wouldn’t push all these changes if they weren’t in a dire situation financially. Because it’ll make people upset.

    People may have gotten too comfortable, but regardless, they are comfortable with short scl10 clears. And the only effective way to make people want to spend money is to make short scl10 clears again about 1.5 to 2 years away without spending thousands of dollars.

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,298 Chairperson of the Boards

    @bluewolf said:
    At one point they said somewhere that 30% of players are in scl10. Based on tracking flips the number has dropped from 12-13 flips to approx 10 across all slices since May-ish. So, 2000-3000 players in SCL 10 as a ballpark. Extrapolate that to be about 1/6 of all players over this year.

    I don’t give a fark what various players have said needed to be fixed or the game will die because obviously they’ve been wrong up to now. The thing that matters is really just how much money it brings in vs how much they spend to run it (labor and servers).

    It seems clear they wouldn’t push all these changes if they weren’t in a dire situation financially. Because it’ll make people upset.

    People may have gotten too comfortable, but regardless, they are comfortable with short scl10 clears. And the only effective way to make people want to spend money is to make short scl10 clears again about 1.5 to 2 years away without spending thousands of dollars.

    Players will still have short cl10 clears -- they're moving the existing 10 down to 8. I assume 8 will now have 10's rewards, and 10 will have some new, better rewards. If what folks want is the PvE that exists now, they'll be able to play that forever. If they want the best rewards...well, it's going to take longer than 10 minutes, probably. But they're giving all of us the choice.

    I don't understand how you can look at 10+ years of "the game is dying" overreactions to every single change, dismiss them all as obviously wrong, and then go on to conclude that this time they're right and the game is really dying. Plenty of those previous takes had similar metrics/tracking/whatever associated with them.

  • Grantosium
    Grantosium Posts: 61 Match Maker

    I feel the need to weigh in that while Ice's post definitely sounds like a PR Statement everything in the announcement sounds good to me.

    My team is softcapped in the 4* land. I have winfinites that let me beat anything in game on offence. I'm not bothered about enemies getting stronger because infinite is still infinite. There's a chance some of my winfinites get nerfed out of existence, it seems unlikely because they're not meta, but I'm stoked to be able to experiment with teams that won't get wiped turn 1 and play some characters who badly need buffs. This of course assumes that MMR is working, and I think it's turned a corner recently, once I've done 28ish wins I am getting mainly opponents not more than 100 levels above me, which is kind of where it was, if not better than, before Unity.

    New ways to play sounds great. Any new ways to play will be an absolute blessing. The goal of making team building more creative and nerfing the front runners is great. Just hope it's actually achievable! Still, best news in well over a year in my opinion.

  • MgoBlue51
    MgoBlue51 Posts: 121 Tile Toppler

    I just want to chime in that, years ago, a forum user asked "when will we see 6 stars?", and everyone seemed to agree that would be terrible and possibly break our backs. Now, the game has changed since then, but I'm worried that it will have the same impact now. It won't kill the game, but it has the potential to really shatter what we've been working on for years. Of course, without more info, this is all a guess. But, I was more excited chasing the newest good 5* and trying to get it close to 500... Than I am chasing a whole new tier. Not to mention that, when 5s were first introduced, they accidentally ruined MMR to the point where you were better off NOT rostering them until you were ready to have 2 or 3 of them at a high level. So, we chased with no end in sight. Granted,.that "end" eventually came when we broke through and eventually were able to roster and build many of the 5s. But I remember taking like a whole year of not opening a single token, watching my roster get stagnant and boring. I was ready to quit, but I finally decided to jump at 5s and was able to get Jessica Jones and BRB, and that finally started the wheels turning. I'm terrified because I don't know if I have that in me again. I have all classic 5s champed (many are baby champed), but I shouldn't be concerned that my roster is about to be moot.

  • TriSentinel
    TriSentinel Posts: 151 Tile Toppler

    @MegaBee said:
    I hope Cosmic Ghost Rider is the first 6-star.

    The “Spirit Family” hint made me think Infinity Warp Ghost Panther.

  • NMANOZ1
    NMANOZ1 Posts: 171 Tile Toppler

    With the 6 stars, they just need to be standalones. So no accending 1 to 5 stars to 6. This would save them a huge amount of times trying to rebalance every character in the game (plus the many issues that will occur).

  • entrailbucket
    entrailbucket Posts: 7,298 Chairperson of the Boards

    @NMANOZ1 said:
    With the 6 stars, they just need to be standalones. So no accending 1 to 5 stars to 6. This would save them a huge amount of times trying to rebalance every character in the game (plus the many issues that will occur).

    This would be awful. We've finally got some variety. If they keep the current ascension the way it is, the game will be dominated by 1 or 2 6* characters.

  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 3,067 Chairperson of the Boards

    Watch the 6* characters end up being something bizarre... like they have multiple support slots or something.

  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,857 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited 28 September 2025, 03:50

    @entrailbucket said:

    @NMANOZ1 said:
    With the 6 stars, they just need to be standalones. So no accending 1 to 5 stars to 6. This would save them a huge amount of times trying to rebalance every character in the game (plus the many issues that will occur).

    This would be awful. We've finally got some variety. If they keep the current ascension the way it is, the game will be dominated by 1 or 2 6* characters.

    Well if they don't delay ascending 5s into 6s then it will be dominated by 1A6s since every semi top player has dup 550s of the 1 star tier and will ascend minute 1.

    I'd be very surprised if u can ascend current characters into 6 stars day 1 or anytime soon.

    KGB

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