Team-Up Feedback and Changes

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IceIX
IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,314 Site Admin
edited September 2014 in MPQ General Discussion
Thanks for your feedback about Team-Ups! We've heard your comments and frustrations. We believe that Team-Ups add an exciting new element of strategy and new ways for abilities to work together, and will continue to see that vision through. We realize we have a ways to go, and in the mean time, we're going to make some changes to reduce the randomness that Team-Ups can add to the game. The changes will be rolled out over the next few releases.

For an initial start, and upcoming soon:
    - Adding the ability to delete Team-Ups - Reducing the number of Team-Ups that can be used by the AI from 3 to 1 - Making it so AP theft and destruction abilities (like Black Widow's Aggressive Recon) will also steal Team-Up AP. - Taking another pass on which abilities can be used by the AI in Team-Ups. The AI should no longer use Sentry or Juggernaut. - Fixing a bug that allowed AI teams to Team-Up with a character on their team.
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Comments

  • Unknown
    edited August 2014
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    They all sound like positive changes. I am however skeptical of thus new "on patrol". I suppose it could turn out really cool to some smaller alliances but to me personally I don't see myself ever wasting the time. Seems like design time that could have been better spent elsewhere. All in all, things are looking better.

    Edit: another suggestion; you are on the right track only allowing the AI 1 team up at a time. This should be true for the player as well. It is super annoying navigating past the TU
    Screen to get to boosts, especially in PvP where time us of the essence. Please add a 4th, TU specific box, that is separated from the boosts. Also, once a TU is equipped to this 4th box, it should remain until expended. Remaining until expended is probably the only thing you could do to get me consistently using TU.
  • BearVenger
    BearVenger Posts: 453 Mover and Shaker
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    Those are some good starts, Ice. I am a big fan of TUs, and find them more strategic and appropriate than the previous environmental tiles. Would you be able to guesstimate when or on which patches these would roll out?

    I don't mind the AI having an equal number of TUs, but sometimes, I do question the "home-cooking" on the AP count.

    I like the idea of managing our TUs. Speaking of managing, would there be a way to see the effect of our specific TUs before we carry them into battle? The ones I have at 5-covers and lvl 166 are easy to calculate, but if I have an under-covered or overpowered TU (from PvE), I'd love to see what its effectiveness is.

    (Also, could you let us see and equip health packs without having to start a fight? Unrelated, but it's on my mind.)

    Why Juggernaut? I haven't seen much outcry on him. Is it just that his Headbutt does self-damage? His board-shaking green is less-powerful or comparable to Hulk's green.

    There are some sneaky countdown-based TUs (like Modern Hawkeye's arrows) that have no warning, such as a title bar. Are there any plans to change that?

    And bless you for removing Sentry. Supernova is nuts to face and World Rupture is all kinds of quonky.
  • NorthernPolarity
    NorthernPolarity Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited August 2014
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    Are unused TUs becoming deselected after every match a feature or a bug? Either way, its incredibly annoying and should be fixed.

    I remember discussing with Lyrian in some thread that people are somewhat reluctant to use their good team ups ala megalixirs, resulting in a natural tendency to just hoard the TUs and not use any. Are there any plans to address this issue? TUs that give you a random ability or expiration dates on the TUs might be a good way to entice players to actually utilize the feature: I'm curious about the stats regarding what portion of players actually bother to use the damn things, because I haven't used a single one in weeks (although this is largely due to not being able to delete them and the deselecting annoyances).

    Edit: Thanks for listening to our feedback!
  • Wow. This is potentially going to completely turn these around and make them truly useful and devastating attacks once everyone starts filling their team members up with their best TUs. On the other hand, people are going to start getting attacked in pvp even more often and more viciously, so that should sort of balance it out in theory. Will be interesting to see how this affects things.
  • Nemek
    Nemek Posts: 1,511
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    Are unused TUs becoming deselected after every match a feature or a bug? Either way, its incredibly annoying and should be fixed.

    I remember discussing with Lyrian in some thread that people are somewhat reluctant to use their good team ups ala megalixirs, resulting in a natural tendency to just hoard the TUs and not use any. Are there any plans to address this issue? TUs that give you a random ability or expiration dates on the TUs might be a good way to entice players to actually utilize the feature: I'm curious about the stats regarding what portion of players actually bother to use the damn things, because I haven't used a single one in weeks (although this is largely due to not being able to delete them and the deselecting annoyances).

    These are two things that stop me from using them, too. I just can't possibly justify the time it takes to select the team ups every fight. When I do actually select one, I pick a mediocre one to "save" the good ones for the rainy day that will never come.
  • yogi_
    yogi_ Posts: 1,236 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Gotta say, overall, still a little underwhelmed by TU's and can't really say that they have particularly enhanced my gameplay.

    Also are boosts getting the chop? given you ninja stealthed stopped giving them out.
  • OnesOwnGrief
    OnesOwnGrief Posts: 1,387 Chairperson of the Boards
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    If Hood starts stealing Team Up AP then it's going to start dancing in the streets despite the bad weather that's happening.
  • Oh wait. What about this invisible TU casting character business? Is it going to be fixed that AOEs from either side can magically break countdown based TUs?
  • turul
    turul Posts: 1,622 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Reducing the number of Team-Ups that can be used by the AI from 3 to 1
    - makes enemy to fragile again, pls reset to 2-3.
  • Tharos
    Tharos Posts: 129
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    That's a good start, maybe I will start to use TU now:
    - with delete, I can now remove my 15+ useless TUs
    - with strike tiles affecting TU matches, I will no longer avoid them with Punisher!

    One more thing that would be really nice to add: if you do not use a TU during a game, please, keep it pre-selected for the next battle (just the same as boosts). One of the main reason I do not use TU is because I want to play, not do use this ugly interface 3 times per match to select TU I can barely launch.
  • over_clocked
    over_clocked Posts: 3,961
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    Ha, nerf to modern Storm/Mohawk again, if Hood, Widows, Daredevil, Psy and She-Hulk will be now able to steal/destroy TUAP.
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
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    If Hood starts stealing Team Up AP then it's going to start dancing in the streets despite the bad weather that's happening.
    Yes indeed, been waiting for that one. It's only logical.
  • Pylgrim
    Pylgrim Posts: 2,296 Chairperson of the Boards
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    turul wrote:
    Reducing the number of Team-Ups that can be used by the AI from 3 to 1
    - makes enemy to fragile again, pls reset to 2-3.

    Troll detected.
  • Nemek wrote:

    These are two things that stop me from using them, too. I just can't possibly justify the time it takes to select the team ups every fight. When I do actually select one, I pick a mediocre one to "save" the good ones for the rainy day that will never come.

    Exactly the same here. And on the rare occasion I get rid of one, within 5 minutes I've won another TU that was worse than the one I got rid of icon_e_smile.gif So they just sit there and I have an extra pop-up to dismiss every fight telling me I'm full....

    Incidentally I was just hit by a chemical reaction TU three times in successive turns by the AI - I hope they can only use their single team-up once in future!
  • Kelbris
    Kelbris Posts: 1,051
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    Oh wait. What about this invisible TU casting character business? Is it going to be fixed that AOEs from either side can magically break countdown based TUs?
  • Phew, I'm glad Sentry is being removed. I know it's not true, but it sure FEELS like every other Team-Up the AI uses is World Rupture! icon_e_surprised.gif
  • Can't wait for the update
  • AznLyte wrote:
    Phew, I'm glad Sentry is being removed. I know it's not true, but it sure FEELS like every other Team-Up the AI uses is World Rupture! icon_e_surprised.gif

    AND Supernova...
  • IceIX wrote:
    Thanks for your feedback about Team-Ups! We've heard your comments and frustrations. We believe that Team-Ups add an exciting new element of strategy and new ways for abilities to work together, and will continue to see that vision through. We realize we have a ways to go, and in the mean time, we're going to make some changes to reduce the randomness that Team-Ups can add to the game. The changes will be rolled out over the next few releases.

    For an initial start, and upcoming soon:
      - Adding the ability to delete Team-Ups - Reducing the number of Team-Ups that can be used by the AI from 3 to 1 - Making it so AP theft and destruction abilities (like Black Widow's Aggressive Recon) will also steal Team-Up AP. - Taking another pass on which abilities can be used by the AI in Team-Ups. The AI should no longer use Sentry or Juggernaut. - Fixing a bug that allowed AI teams to Team-Up with a character on their team.

    Fixing bugs, updating the features... is absolutely normal.

    I just feel that if we were to Beta Test Team-Up (because this is what we've been doing), then, maybe we could have been asked if we were willing to (just like in other games), meanwhile, the boosts could have still be rewarded/received/earned so that we could still enjoy something.

    On a side note/suggestion, I'd be more than willing to use my Green GSBW, and have been trying for at least 20 matches, with no success.

    So, maybe capping the costs of some Team Ups or finding a way to use them, would be cool, OR they aren't available at all if they cost more than X. But if Hood an steal Team Up tiles too, that can be a solution.

    Also, acknowledging your mistakes by explaining why they were made would be a good way of showing some respect to us. Apparently you did not have time to Beta Test Team Ups yourself. So just a little note :

    "We are launching Team Ups, we wanted you to test it early so that we can make further improvements. We thank you for your patience and cooperation."
  • HairyDave
    HairyDave Posts: 1,574
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    arktos1971 wrote:
    Apparently you did not have time to Beta Test Team Ups yourself.
    That's a bit presumptuous.

    Even if it was tested (and it probably was), opening something like this up to the world at large will always find new bugs that got missed by the testers. It happens with every software release.