Marvel Avengers Alliance: Questions and Developer's Answers August PART II (13 September, 2013)

Part I
Part II

Development
Q. Do you have any plans to improve weapon management? Equipping/selling/slotting in pvp armory requires lots of scrolling and searching. It will be nice to have favorite list (for equipping), sorting and filtering
A. There is no such planned feature right now.

Q.  Do you plan to add Challenge Mode to Special operations?

A. We currently do not have any plans to add a Challenge Mode to the Special Operations.

Heroes and Villains

Q.  Do you have a list of heroes you are not allowed to put in the game? If you do, can you share it with us so we can stop suggesting and hoping for them to be in the game?

A. The list of characters that we are going to put in the game is built in collaboration with Marvel and takes into account both the direction we want to take the game and the storylines that Marvel wants to showcase in the near future.

Q.  I am a big xfactor follower. Thanks for releasing shatterstar. So is there more to come? Madrox? Yea or nay?

A. Any character is possible. Whoever thought we’d get Shatterstar or Squirrel Girl? How about Thundra? Anything is possible. Players need not ever ask if their favorite character is possible - the answer is always yes.

Agent and Items

Q.  In terms of debuffs, can we expect to see agents or hereos using gravity or water based debuffs?

A. We will craft new buffs or debuffs as new heroes appear when necessary.

Q.  What do you think about introducing special ISOs which in addition to stat bonus (or instead of) would grant some buff, like PvP armors?

A. That is something we have been considering.

Q.  4 slots for weapons is too few, especially when we consider current PvP meta, do you plan on adding more slots?

A. This is something we’ve wanted to do for a while. The first step in this process is offering players different loadouts for Missions as well as Offensive and Defensive PVP teams. After that is released and we see how it goes, we will consider further expansion to the agent’s gear.

Q.  Do you have plans to create something to limit the amount of Quick Actions an Agent can take per turn?

A. This is an idea that is being given serious consideration and may end up in a future balance pass. If we do, we will make sure it doesn’t break things such as Omega Sentinel and Punisher’s class change abilities.

PvP
Q.  Can you explain how in PVP you can be attacked twice in a row by the same guy?

A. There was an issue with the way we handled errors in matchmaking that caused players to fight the same opponents back-to-back. There are fixes to this in the next Tournament that should prevent this from happening.

Q.  What does the system actually use to select opponents in PVP?

A. Our matchmaking system separates players into pools based on player level and current tournament rating. Beyond that, the choice of opponents is purely random. Factors such as class composition and Agent gear are not taken into account.

We do have plans in future tournaments to better match players in Silver and Gold league based on the difficulty of the opponents (taking into account their total heroes owned and armory bonus) to provide a better PVP experience for new players as well as a more gradual increase in difficulty as players climb the leagues.

Q.  It was stated that the AI doesn't have any increased chance to proc any ability but from the testing from many of the players see about a 20% to 30% increase for the AI than the player on things like Cosmic Power. In practice mode during off season the proc rate appears to be the same but in a current live season this doesn't seem to be the case. Could this be some side effect in the proc rate between live and practice/testing that has been overlooked?

A. Not to beat a dead horse, but that is not the case. The testing done by the community, while thorough, is not correct in its conclusion. The AI proc rate is identical to the players’ proc rates across the entire game.

Q.  Since the revenge fight was taken away there is not means to see what heroes were used to beat you in PvP, is there some type of simple log that can be viewed as to what was used to beat you so you can design a better strategy to defend?

A. Such a system is under consideration, but not likely to happen in the near future. However, you can visit an opponent’s profile to see what armory items, Agent gear, and heroes were used.

Game Mechanics
Q.  Will you add a separate inventory for the Spec Ops items and the normal items? Or an update for the inventory interface? A system for searching by name, buffs and debuffs would be very helpful for us.

A. Many of our systems haven’t grown to accommodate the changes in our game and our inventory system is one of them. We’d like to put in improvements to these areas as we find the time. A search system as described is probably beyond any improvements we would make.

Q.  When adding items to your inventory can they be sorted or ordered by the total PvP bonus so you don't have to click through pages to find those items you are going to put in?

A. This is something we are considering.

Q.  Why are Mini and Epic Bosses in some chapter/mission a forced team-up but are not in others?

A. Generally mini-bosses and epic bosses aren’t forced team-ups, but there may be exceptions due to story reasons.

Q.  Is the chance to stun based on any other stats such as accuracy or is it purely a % based chance?
Are the odds for counter and protect depending on stats?

A. All status effect chances (including stuns, counters, and protects) are a fixed percent chance and do not depend on any character stats. This is, of course, assuming that the attack hits - which does depend on Accuracy.      

Source: Playdom

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Questions and Developer's Answers August PART I (13 September, 2013)

PART I
PART II

Development
Q. Are there any plans to release higher level health consumables?

A. We are considering releasing a version of the power ups that scales to player level the same way a Shawarma does. We are considering making this game-wide, so players only have to research these items once.

Heroes and Villains
Q. I've been reading all threads in this forum about Magneto's Reverse Polarity and still cannot understand how it works. Is it normal that Magneto Reverse Polarity takes off 400HP from enemy, then hit the enemy and then give back the 400HP the Reverse Polarity took in the first place? It doesn't make any sense. Also, why doesn't he magnetize all the characters who wear Metal?

A. There was a bug with our health bar display logic that gave the impression that abilities, such as Reverse Polarity, were either taking too much damage, or returning health back. There is a fix for this in the works that will be included in a future update.

As for why certain characters are not magnetized by Magneto, it was decided that only those characters carrying a “heavy load” of metal objects or made primarily out of metal would be considered targets for this effect. Those carrying small metal objects would be excluded to provide variation, otherwise most characters would be immediately magnetized and provide less strategy in Magneto’s implementation.

Q. Some Heroes are already Buffed or Improved but some of them are pretty weak. Like Mr. Fantastic, Wasp, Gambit, Henry Pym, Mrs Marvel or etc. So my question is Do they get another Buff or Refactor? Cause they are weak and not useful in PVP. I would like to make all heroes equal.

A. It is our intent to keep our characters current and viable always. Given that some of the characters may be a bit less powerful than others, we are working to keep our roster updated and relevant.

We will continue to refactor heroes that are not competitive with others. However, with over 60 playable characters it will take awhile to get through all of them.

Q.  Why does Vision is affected by Mental Attacks? Does his inorganic mind can be affected by mental attacks?

A. Visions’s brain patterns are based on those of a human - namely, Simon Williams, a.k.a. Wonder Man. So while Vision’s body may be artificial, he still has a mind, and is therefore vulnerable to psychic attacks.

Agent and Items
Q. What do the background colors for the Gears mean (The Red, Purple and Yellow ones)? The only thing I'm sure of is that the yellow ones are for the Challenge Mode Gear, but what about the other two colors?

A. The intent is to highlight the source of the gear. Normal gear is red, yellow gear is from Challenge Mode, and unique boss drops (particularly from Spec Ops) are purple. We are aware that this is not consistent across the game and are working to better communicate an item’s source and value in a future release.

PvP
Q. What do you plan to do in order to decrease the last day rush in PVP?

A. While there is an increase in PVP fights on the last day, with the PVP daily bonus we notice the average number of fights per day remains pretty consistent across the entire Tournament. Now that the reward cutoffs are specified by predetermined Rating numbers instead of a percentage, the rush on the last day is less important and fewer people get pushed out of the top leagues at the last minute.

Game Mechanics
Q. Since the 300's lose the ability to get free gold for each level and a full energy bar is there something that can be done to help those that have reached the max? Such as the possibility of unlimited energy? Every 4K XP you get gold and a full energy bar?

A. Reaching level 300 is an extraordinary achievement, and those of you who have reached it have achieved a truly demanding feat. Just remember that energy exists as a reminder to take a break from time to time. We have no plans to expand the level cap or increase rewards for the dedicated group of players who have persevered to the top.

Q. Have you guys thought about arranging heroes into waves? Perhaps a PVP tournament where everyone has 3 waves of heroes or something, or a Group Boss type of thing where the boss has a massive amount of Health, and you have to defeat it with all of your heroes/X amount of waves of heroes? Or maybe a ton of enemies?

A. We are brainstorming ideas for new but familiar ways of structuring combats that players should enjoy such as Heroic battles and Incursions. Ideas such as the ones suggested have been tossed around but it’s too early to say what the next new kind of combat will be. We will be sure to give players a heads up when we’re close to releasing new combat features.

Q. Have you ever thought about instead of 2 Heroes having 3 and the Agent in battles?

A. While such things are feasible from a technical standpoint, we run into presentation issues when we try to fit more than 3 vs 3 on the screen at one time. Some of our heroes (and villains) are very large, and there just isn’t room to comfortably fit any more at once. In the end, putting more in combat resulted in a less enjoyable experience.

Q. How is damage and damage over time calculated in the game? That is, how do the attack and defense stats work together? How much does boosting your attack level actually help you? Is there a formula?

A. To put it simply, a person’s attack is compared against a target’s defense to determine how much damage the attack does. The basic formula is:

Random( min_damage , max_damage ) * 6 * Attack * Attack / ( Attack + 5 * Defense)

The actual formula takes more into account, especially when it comes to calculating damage of Customized weapons and mid-combat buffs, but the same general scaling applies when comparing an attacker’s Attack stat and the defender’s Defense stat.

Q. Have you guys thought about Origin Mode? where the player plays as a hero finding out a little bit about a hero.

A. We love that the game serves as an introduction point to many players who are not familiar with the Marvel universe and are always looking for ways to present more of Marvel’s rich lore within the core gameplay of M:AA. That being said, no such mode is planned. However, Heroic Battles will offer us a vehicle to present more character-specific story and classic matchups.

Miscellaneous
Q. Do the devs have their own game accounts on which they play as a regular player (no dev tinkering)?

A. Most of the devs on M:AA play it in our free time as well. While we have accounts on test servers that have admin access (to test in-development features), our live accounts on Facebook are completely legit, and all of our accomplishments are hard-earned like everyone else. And yes, we do buy our own gold. We don’t even get a discount, unless we buy during a gold sale just like everyone else.

Q. When will the third and fourth part of the Behind The Scenes videos of Marvel: Avengers Alliance become available in MARVEL's official Youtube account? 1.b. And who is the hero drawn by one of the artists in the BTS videos? Is that Big Bertha?

A. We have concept art for many new heroes drawn up. There might be a few surprises in store yet.

Q. Could you please sell collection heros in non-gambling way? Many missed Magneto because lockboxes were super limited when he was around ( i did all side quests and still miss 2 covers ). You are aware of this issue this is why you increased lockboxes about 5x times for Sentinel. It was nearly impossible to get Magneto without spending gold. I do not have problem with spending gold but I have problem where i do not know 100% what i am getting and i am forced to gamble with gold.

A. The introduction of the lockbox mechanic was our way of letting players attain heroes by different means than just PvP tournaments or flat out command point purchases. While the mechanics of obtaining the comic covers contained in the collections is random, there are safeguards in place that will prevent you from getting duplicates indefinitely.

Q. Are you going to bring the old lockboxes back to the game so we can finish the collection?

A. It is not beyond the realm of possibilities.

Could you please make a feature that after certain time covers are sold for gold individually (example 30 gold each). I would gladly spend 60 gold on last 2 covers but i would not gamble with 60 gold .

Similarly to the above answer, there are safeguards in place to ensure players can’t receive duplicates indefinitely. We do not, however, plan to sell covers for any currency.

Q.  Will you change the marvel avengers alliance loading screen to something more cooler because there are so many heroes now?

While it is not outside the realm of possibility some day, that is not a high-priority for us We are focusing on keeping the new characters, missions, and tournaments coming.

Q. If (hypothetically) Nova were to be released in-game, would it be Sam Alexander or Richard Rider?

We can not comment on heroes that are not announced or released at this time.

Q. How much testing do you do before releasing new content? Is it impossible to spot all bugs before releasing them? Also, what's the rationale behind putting the feature of gifting random (non-ally) agents?

We attempt to complete as much testing as we can before releasing content to the servers you play on. Given the scope of the content that is currently in the game, it is possible that some issues slip past our test team. With that being said, we do keep our eye on the forums and monitor what people are reporting. The game services team also passes along reports from players which we attempt to address as quickly as possible.

Some players do not have huge numbers of allies, by opening this up to gifting strangers, we hope to do 2 things: First we want to give them the opportunity to get gifts, and secondly we hope to connect players of Avengers Alliance with other players who enjoy the game.      


Read More: PART II

Source: Playdom 

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Questions and Developer's Answers March/April (16 May, 2013)

Development

Can you update us with the future development plan Marvel: Avengers Alliance, such as Season 2? Any clue about Season 2 storyline and about the Villains we are going to meet?

We're excited to continue to the M:AA story in Season 2 by adding new gameplay and a lot of interesting new villains. We don't want to reveal them just yet, you know, spoilers. But look forward to some exciting additions to the missions and some big rewards for achievers to strive for.   We'll be bringing you more information as soon as we can.

Are you guys planning to increase the rewards for the sidebar tasks (for example the "Collect Distress Calls", "Finish X Remote Ops", "Train Character to level X", etc.). 30 XP isn't much of a dent, especially at later levels when 4,000 is required to level up. As it is, players at level  300 have no reason to even bother with them. 

Task rewards are meant to be a bonuses that are not so much a goal, but rather a reward that you get as part of your overall journey. That being said, we frequently evaluate and refining various parts of the game. We may address the task system in the future to make the gameplay deeper and rewards more substantial.

Are you guys planning to update the user interface when selecting heroes to send on flights and battles? 

It seems somewhat counter-productive to have to scroll through 9 panels of heroes if a player wants to send their low levels.

Are there any plans for further upgrades to the flight deck jets?

We’re upgrading some of the autopilot features on our existing jets, which our longtime and new players alike will probably find very helpful. Look forward to better sorting of heroes for sending out flight deck missions and other improvements to make it quick and painless to get the proper heroes onto and off flight deck jets.

Will the Agent level cap be raised in the near future?

Maximum Level currently is 300 (16.05.2013)

The Agent level cap is something that only a very, very small fraction of our player base has reached. While it is possible to raise the level cap, we would not be able to provide enough additional content to make these levels meaningful beyond bragging rights of the level itself. (PD: Won't be raising the Level ceiling beyond 300 for now).

Reaching the highest Agent level does not mean the game loses its challenge. Much of our mission content is now dynamic in level. You will see a continuation of this in Season 2. This means the experience is targeted at all players to be fun, even the top level Agents in S.H.I.E.L.D.

What are some of your criteria for picking a character to add to the game?

There are many criteria we use to prioritize which characters we add to our game and in what order. There are literally dozens of characters we have planned to add, but each one takes a good deal of time to build and tune. Some of the things we consider for the order to release characters include:

Are they central to the story of the current or future Spec Ops/Chapters?
How well-known is the character?
How important is the character to the current happenings in the main continuity (MARVEL 616) comics?
How well does that character’s powers translate into fun gameplay that will add depth to what we currently offer in M:AA?

We also want there to be a surprise or two out there for players so when we release their favorite character it feels very special while on target with what they’d expect their abilities to be.

Could you add an option to switch between dialogues for main storyline missions, i.e. between the dialogues from the first play through to the second play through? 

I'd like to play through the storyline all the way through again, but all of the dialogue seems permanently set to second play through.

That feature is not currently planned, but it is a good idea we may consider in the future. In the meantime, we suggest you take your time on the first playthrough and enjoy the dialogue.

What are the plans for dealing with refresh errors, CVE and otherwise?

We are working very hard to help assure players do not get these types of errors while we crack down on cheaters. We thank you for your patience as we work to make the game fun for everyone and a place where players cannot cheat.

Additional Notes:
Developer's Message regarding Combat Validation Errors

Many of you have expressed concerns regarding a recent increase in combat validation errors. We would like to assure you that we are aware that this is a problem for players, and are actively working to fix this issue. 

As some of you have noted in the forums, combat validation errors are a side effect of us tightening the belt down on players using hacks or cheats to exploit our game. We are closing vulnerabilities which will soon improve the game experience and assure PvP tournaments are fair. Rest assured that players who cheat or exploit the game will no longer be allowed to play and degrade the experience for honest players. 

For those players experiencing the issue, we apologize for the inconvenience while we finish up these fixes. We truly greatly appreciate your continued support as we continue to improve Marvel: Avengers Alliance.


Many of you have expressed concerns regarding a recent increase in combat validation errors. We would like to assure you that we are aware that this is a problem for players, and are actively working to fix this issue. 

As some of you have noted in the forums, combat validation errors are a side effect of us tightening the belt down on players using hacks or cheats to exploit our game. We are closing vulnerabilities which will soon improve the game experience and assure PvP tournaments are fair. Rest assured that players who cheat or exploit the game will no longer be allowed to play and degrade the experience for honest players. 

For those players experiencing the issue, we apologize for the inconvenience while we finish up these fixes. We truly greatly appreciate your continued support as we continue to improve Marvel: Avengers Alliance.

Spider-man has been pretty neglected for quite some time. Any chance we'll be seeing a Spec Op revolving around him in the near future?

Do you plan to introduce a symbiotic style Spec Ops? To introduce Spiderman characters, such as venom, carnage.

There is at least one person on this team that has been begging for that.
Heroes and Villains.

Will She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Deadpool, Iron Fist, Spider-Woman, have a chance to release an upgrade?

Will a character ever receive buff/improvement without introducing an
alternate suit? (She-hulk, Spiderwoman, Luke Cage for example)

We are aware of characters that are underperforming. While we are working hard to constantly create brand new content, releasing new heroes for Spec Ops, PVP and general recruitment, we want to make sure our older heroes are not falling by the wayside. 

Just as we have with the likes of Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and the new Iron Man and Iron Patriot armor, we will continue to bring our older characters up to the current standard for what makes a fun and competitive hero. 

In particular, when we get a new costume for any character, that’s a good time to take a second look at them to see if they need a turn up. We will continue to make time to go through the game and occasionally improve a hero we have already released.

Will Deadpool have a bleed effect on his Level 1 attack? And would you release his X-Force uniform, since the other X-Force members are already in game.
Deadpool's Level 1 Skill - Sharp Pointy Things.

We wanted Deadpool to feel different from the many other bladed bleed-causing characters. There’s a chance he may get a refactor soon, when we release his next costume. 

Hmm, what other costume is Deadpool known for wearing?

Note: X-Force is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero team, one of several spin-offs of the popular X-Men franchise, and the eponymous subject of the X-Force comic book series. Conceived by writer/illustrator Rob Liefeld, the team was formed in New Mutants, vol. 1 #100 (April 1991) and soon afterwards was featured in its own series.
 
X-Force
Current Members:
Cable Team
Boom Boom
Cable
Colossus
Doctor Nemesis
Domino
Forge

"Uncanny" Team
Cluster
Fantomex
Psylocke
Puck
Spiral
Storm

Why is Thor not immune to magic and electric attacks and debuffs like deathglow and chain lightning?

Magic works on Thor. After all, Loki and the Enchantress use it on him all the time.

Besides the agent will we ever see a MAA original character?

Phoenix Five Jean Grey was original! Some of our enemy factions are original. The AIM Power Armor is a M:AA exclusive. We focus on bringing known and popular heroes from Marvel Universe to players as quickly as we can build them, but would work to create ones in the future when it makes sense with the story.

Is Moon Knight going to be released this year?

I think it would be good to release him on a (seasonal) blue moon.

Are there any plans to introduce (insert your favorite unreleased character here)?

Are they Marvel characters? Are they awesome? Then there’s always a chance!

Hero Team-Up

• Why were the Ladies Man and Partners in Crime team-ups removed?
• Why aren't Black Cat and Storm part of Kleptomaniac (Bonus for bringing two heroes that are also thieves): Fantomex / Gambit?
• Why don't Vision and Omega Sentinel have the Aviary Team-up?
• Why was Quicksilver removed from In-Laws?
• Why doesn't Black Panther have Assemble!?
• Why doesn't Cyclops + Cable give the Team-Up Family Reunion (Bonus for bringing Cable and either Phoenix or Cyclops)?
• What is the deal with the Big Guns team-up? 

Punisher and Omega
Sentinel both seem to have it with each other, but not with any of the other members of the team-up (Cable, Deadpool and War Machine)

These are all very good catches. Sometimes bugs like these slip under the radar. Expect to have these fixed in a future release.

Why was Psylocke removed from the Fashionistas team-up? Why doesn't Fashionistas include Jean Grey? She was also a model.

Fashionistas is for heroes who designed their own costumes, not heroes that are models, which is why Deadpool qualifies. Just imagine him working the catwalk. (I’m sure he would). I think I just threw up a little in my mouth. (For the record, Wasp designed Jean Grey’s original costume, even if she “helped” a little.)

What is the difference between Mindbenders (Bonus for bringing two heroes with psychic abilities) and Mind Games (Bonus for bringing two heroes who use psychic powers)?

Originally we were trying to designate telekinetic as opposed to telepathic powers, but this turned out to be rather redundant. We’ll collapse these two bonuses in the future.

Why does Fantomex have Children of the Atom? He isn't a mutant.

Fantomex is most definitely a mutant, though it’s hard to say which of his powers come from his mutation and which come from the Sentinel  enhancements performed on him by the Weapon Plus program. As anyone who has read Uncanny X-Force knows, Fantomex isn’t exactly forthcoming with information about himself.

Is the addition of the First Class team-up a hint that we might see Angel or Iceman soon?

If Angel and Iceman were added to the game, they would qualify for this bonus. However, when we add a new team-up bonus to the game, it isn’t actually an indication that something will happen soon. It’s usually just because we like the idea of having a bonus related to that particular category. That is the case here.

Agent and Items
Do you plan on granting all players who got Frozen Hell the blueprint to research Grief afterwards?

Researching Grief from the Frozen Hell was part of a limited time quest with Spec Op 4. Though that isn’t to say we won’t make Grief available in some other fashion in the future. 

Note: It may be likely PD will introduce Frozen Hell/Grief as part of the Daily Reward Spin.


When will the updated reforging list be released?

We aren’t currently planning to keep a running updated list of reforging changes in the future. We did this initially because there were just so many weapons in the game, we wanted people to know where to look. Bet the community has been building something like this though!

There are any plans to ADD a mastery prize to 5 star all missions on the Spec Ops?

Would be nice have a option to choose 1 of the drop weapons of the spec op. OR AT LEAST, greatly increase the chance of get the weapons AFTER we reach 15 stars.

Spec Ops chapters often have a very steep requirement in terms of energy and Unstable Iso-8 in order to gain mastery. Because of the short duration, it would not be feasible for most players to successfully complete all five stars of mastery for all three chapters.

We learned this in the very first Spec Op, which required it to get Mockingbird. We don’t want this to feel like something that is required to stay competitive, as that leads to players feeling obligated to get 5-star mastery.

However, the idea of improving the boss drop rate for higher mastery is feasible, and is something we’ll consider for future Spec Ops.

Any chance of a deeper agent customization in the future?

As for visual customization, we don’t have any plans at the moment. Due to the considerable amount of animations the agent has, it is going to be a while before we can release this type of update.

We have a few ideas that we may add in the future that include different ways of customizing the Agent’s gameplay, such as new ways to use Iso-8 and additional means of choosing abilities. We also are investigating ways to allow the Agent to equip more weapons. Again, we have other releases planned ahead of these but they will be coming in the future. Thanks for your patience.

Will any PvP reward items be up for sale (aside from the reward heroes and currency) in the future?

Power armors are a source of interest for many and some Diamond rewards would be nice for others to have.

We have no plans at the moment to sell these items or uniforms. The exclusivity of these items is one of the reasons people work hard to win PVP. Having said that, it is possible that we may make new, different items inspired by popular PVP weapons. And, just as we have with past Spec Ops heroes, we may may bring back some items from Tournaments long gone in a limited time capacity before returning them to the vault.

Will future LE weapons or gadgets and spec ops gear get extra level customised (+15 or something)?

This is not currently planned.

Will agents ever have a flight ability? (i.e. a jetpack costume?)

I think you can expect that about the same time we get functional jetpacks in real life. (Water-based jetpacks don’t count.)       

PvP
Are there plans to improve the PvP system?

We have several plans to improve the experience of PVP. These must be approached carefully and timed around our other releases. In particular, we want to resolve the issue of how swingy the PVP ratings can get, especially toward the end of the tournament, resolve the issue of having difficulty finding new opponents to play against, and balance the number of defenses (aka “AFK fights”) each player receives.

Additionally, players at a high level currently have more fierce competition meaning it’s more difficult for these players to place highly in the tournament. We have plans that will address all of these issues and we want to do the job carefully and correctly so it will take time before they come out.

How is being chosen for a PVP fight done?

There seems to be something that allows me to attack the same person 2 or 3 times in a row, and I have had the same person 5 out of 7. Can you institute a temporary restriction on a player after attacking, something like a 1 hour limit before the same person can attack someone?

The system finds opponents in PVP by randomly matching players who are close to the same level and PVP rating. The problem is that if there are few players in your “pool” of eligible opponents, it is more likely that the same player gets chosen randomly in consecutive battles. We recognize this as a problem and would like to put some changes in place to minimize this.

PvP has 2 distinct categories: Players who spends hundreds of dollars per season, and get all the rewards, and the rest of us, who usually are stuck in Silver/Gold because everyone else has hundreds of dollars to blow and annihilate us. Can we expect some sort of balance in this?

There are several strategies that do not require spending a large amount of money, and there are posts on the forums from players who have  reached Adamantium without spending much gold. Most of these strategies revolve around maximizing the free daily spins, getting the rewards from Spec Ops, filling your hero roster by clearing easier missions for CP, and maximizing your armory bonus wherever possible.

Getting a good team of heroes fully equipped with researched Iso-8 will
get most people a long way.

Why won't you make two gear slots - one for PVP, one for PVE? It's really uncomfortable right now.

This is something that we were already planning to do. Look forward to this in an upcoming PVP tournament.

Will there be a Generalist Power Armor? Like the other Power Armors released as the previous PVP Rewards?

One of our goals with PVP rewards is to make them worth getting, but not so awesome that they mean you automatically do well in the next season. The uniform rewards are great, but they suffer from the weaknesses of that class, which helps balance them.

Generalist uniforms don’t have the weaknesses, which is why they are popular. Therefore it is unlikely that we will do a Generalist Power Armor.


Any chance of a Mirror Match function (i.e. fighting my own team) in Practice PvP? It'd be good for testing out a team and I suspect the resulting data would be interesting.

The use of a mirror-match would be limited at best, as it would not allow players to test builds that counter different popular builds. However, if you have someone to help you, we have considered the option of allowing friends to test their strength against each other.

Game Mechanics
How does chance to hit work in the game? Is dodging the same as
missing? How can attacks that are guaranteed to hit still be dodged?

In MAA dodging and missing are the same thing. There is only one roll - characters don't get a "dodge chance" that is different from another character's "miss chance." The final chance for hit, crit, and miss are determined at the time of attack based off of the attacker's Accuracy stat and the defender's Evasion stat, with potential modifiers based on the skill being used or any statuses on the attacker or
defender.

Basically, if a character with high Accuracy attacks a character with low Evasion, they will be more likely to hit, and the hits will be more likely to crit. Conversely, a player with low Accuracy attacking a player with high Evasion will have a lower chance to hit and a very low chance to crit.

The base case is when the attacker's Accuracy and the defender's Evasion are equal. This results in a 12.5% chance to miss and a 12.5% chance to crit, thus leaving 75% chance to get a normal hit.

Aside from the actual attack’s chance to hit, crit, or miss, there are status effects that can take whatever result was “rolled” and essentially ignore the results of that roll, making the attack a guaranteed miss. This includes effects such as Storm’s Protective Shroud, Nightcrawler’s Bamf, and Scarlet Witch’s Reality Warping.

These effects take precedence over effects that modify hit chance. This is why an attack that has a 100% hit chance might still miss, because the attack was negated. Attacks with True Strike, and targets that have a Pinpoint Target-like effect on them will not trigger these avoidance effects.


What does "chance" and "high chance" for something mean in terms of numbers?

A “chance” usually means somewhere between 10-30%, while “high chance” usually means between 50-70% chance. Note that these are not hard and fast numbers, because there may be many factors that can affect the final probability, and we may decide to change the base chance of certain effects for balance purposes.


What's the basic idea of how roulette tables work? Not looking for specific numbers, but do some items like weapons and Command Points have a significantly lower chance to drop?

The Roulette tables work similarly to the way loot tables work in other RPGs. While it has a different presentation, it is basically the same as looting a dead dragon. Sometimes you get item A, sometimes you get item B. The chance for each specific item to come up is not necessarily the same across the table.

Why are there different timers for everything? Why not have it all standardized? (times quoted in PDT/PST) .

PvP ends at 6 PM, Ultron shows up in allies list at 11 PM for this latest spec ops, gifts can be collected at 12 am, allies can be visited at 3 am, etc..?

Each time one of these timers rolls over, it creates a spike of activity on our servers. By spreading these timers out, we can reduce the load does increase to the point where we have stability issues. 

PVP specifically ends at 6 pm so that as many players can get home to participate in the last hours as possible while we still have coverage to deal with stability issues that may arise from the increased traffic the game generates at the end of a tournament.

Are there plans to make Shield Points more useful in the future?

As of now, they're easily gained but not many opportunities to spend them. Perhaps make certain things (very necessary things) purchasable with SPs?

You have to remember that if you’ve been playing the game for a long time and have a lot of friends, then it may be easy for you to earn  them. Meanwhile you have a buddy who has 5 and is hurting because he can’t train Iron Man! A lot of veterans have a lot of SP, but a lot of newer players or veterans with only a few friends don’t have that many.

Having said that, there are certain outlets for SP that can drain a  player’s SP reserve, such as researching the top tier Reactive Iso-8 and purchasing these Iso-8 for their new heroes and uniforms. Many Spec Ops come with at least one item that can be researched that costs SP primarily.

Story
Ever thought of going by books and chapters? This is book one where we find out the effects of the boss and book two will be the source of the pulse?

Instead of “books” and “chapters,” we have “seasons” and “chapters” and “missions.” Each season contains a single overarching plot, with chapters and missions breaking that into sub-arcs and specific episodes.

Spec Ops also have their own continuity that runs in parallel to the events in the story missions. It’s basically the same structure as books and chapters, and if we changed the names of everything now, we’d just confuse everyone (mostly ourselves).

Why doesn't the Agent talk? I continually find myself answering story-text and feel it would be nice if The Agent did this for me.

In the tradition of many famous video game heroes, The Agent is a stoic, silent protagonist, representing you in the game. If you find yourself answering story-text as the voice of The Agent, then hooray!
That is exactly what we wanted to happen.

Miscellaneous
Will the sound effects and soundtrack ever be updated/improved?

There just might be something in the very near future.

Silly question, but how did you come up with the names for the
(currently) 3 scroll gadgets you have introduced?

While Melsalam is not a direct reference, it sounds a lot like "Salami", while Oziroch and Angolob are "Chorizo" and "Bologna" inversed. Are you guys just in love with sausage?

What do you guys think is the best M:AA character, and why?

We love all of the characters for different reasons. It’s a cop-out answer, but the truth is that there is no one character that stands above all others. Some are better in certain situations, others bring unique abilities to the mix. Setting that aside, here are a few personal favorites from our team. (These are personal opinions, so take
them with a grain of salt).

Ben: I like Mockingbird. She was the first hero I built, and she's a great example of a relatively unknown hero who shines in M:AA. Plus, paragon exploiter.

CJ: I believe Union Jack is one of the best characters right now, specifically because of the strategy he brings to team building. His counter damage and rate at which he counters are both excellent, and finding team combinations and ways to maximize his chances to utilize his counters has added a fun level of depth I don't feel with many other characters.

Creighton: I would have to say Wolverine, hands down. He's fun, has great support, and great offensive capabilities. You might say he's the best there is.

Jim: Omega Sentinel. I like her character design, her move set, and she's useful in most situations.

Josh: Heroic Age Hawkeye is a favorite cause he has lots of trick arrows at random that are fun and can proc many extra attacks. (I had to stop him, because he literally listed 15 different “best” characters).

Justin (aka ProducerWoods): Captain Britain because his obvious weaknesses are easily offset by cheap Iso-8 and Britannic is absolutely devastating.

Zach: I think it’s a tie between Scarlet Witch and Dr. Strange. Both have a great mix of offensive and defensive capabilities, making them feel like real team players. Probability Field is probably my favorite button to click, just to see what will happen.

What's the official "snack" in the MAA office?

Police stations (well, stereotypical) is donuts, in my office it is Twizzlers, etc.

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Questions and Developer's Answers (15 March, 2013)

Hi Agents,
We know that it has been a while, but we have never forgotten about this Dev Q&A section. We apologize that due to the busy contents release schedule, we couldn't have had the answers up earlier. But here it is. We hope you will enjoy it. And we hope to bring this back more regularly.

Thank you all for understanding and patience 

Development process

• Q. Can you update us with the Marvel: Avengers Alliance development plan in the near future?

A. We are always working very hard on creating new, exciting content for our fans as well as brand new features like Lockboxes. I cannot go too far into specifics, but we are committed to continuing to make story content, new spec ops, and

improving the PvP experience.

• Q. Do you do some kind of scheduled weekly maintenance? During what time of the day do you do the game updates usually?

 A.We are always striving to get bug fixes, new features and content out to you guys as quickly as possible. While we do not have set days for our patches, you can bet that we will be delivering new additions to the game on a weekly basis (and sometimes up to 2-3 times in any given week). Generally brand new content will arrive once a week, but we will patch the game multiple times to make improvements.

• Q. Are there any plans to boost the story in future? Will we ever take the helicarrier to locations other than New York, like Genosha or Latveria?(I was intrigued by the idea of senators trying to take control of SHIELD, but nothing happens in the mission, just Iron Man talking. I was expecting a little more drama (as much as you can get with a character sprite and some text anyway), like maybe an actual senator character appearing and trying to justify their control of SHIELD and not just exposition from Stark.)

A. This is a great question. The game will most definitely be visiting other locations besides New York. Since this question was asked, we’ve already seen San Francisco added to the game (in Spec Ops 3 and 6). We also announced that Chapter 1 of Season 2 will spend a significant amount of time in London during our New York Comic Con panel. We actually have other exciting locations planned but nothing we can share at this time.

Also remember that both Marvel: Avengers Initiative (which takes place mainly in Colorado) and Marvel: XP both share the narrative universe of Marvel: Avengers Alliance. We call this the Marvel Gaming Universe. All of these stories are working together. For example - Loki’s story as the Epic Boss in the upcoming Spec Op 8, as well as his involvement in the Avengers Initiative Vault storyline.

We plan to continue to make the story a very important part of the MAA experience, and Season 2 (while we can’t say much about it) will show you just how committed to story we are. But keep your eye out for extra content on Marvel XP as well, such as the Constrictor One-Shot storyline, or all of the videos with Nick Fury, the Avengers, and Dell Rusk. All of which are important to the overall MGU narrative.


Marvel XP

• Q. When are you going to update Marvel XP with all these new characters?

 A. The Marvel XP roster should be current with our a game. If you believe you are missing a dossier for a character you own or have encountered, please send a ticket tosupport@marvelxp.com and the Marvel XP team can investigate.

• Q. Will you integrate the Marvel XP rewards with the game? Say earn all achievements unlock "x" character? Because having an account for the system seems irrelevant if it doesn't actually reward you in the game.

A. During the time this question was fielded, we were working diligently to integrate Marvel XP into M:AA. As of December, we are glad to announce that Marvel XP is now properly hooked up to Marvel: Avengers Alliance. Players have been receiving rewards in M:AA for their achievements in Marvel XP.



Heroes and Villains

• Q. With the development of a new Venom movie (Marvel & Sony) in the works, will there be a hero-type Venom character or a movie costume with special perks like the Avengers costumes available in the near future?

A. Where is all the fun in telling you all our future plans? I bet you shake the presents under your Christmas tree, don’t you? All I can say is that we have exciting content planned for the near future that I am sure will keep the fans excited for months to come.

• Q. You mentioned in a previous question session that you were considering a Shield rehabilitation program to make villains playable. Is that already in the works? Can we expect it soon?

A. With the introduction of our lockbox and collection mechanics in Spec Op 6, we introduced our first playable villain “Magneto”. Given the responses by the community to the new mechanic and the ability to play some of the iconic villains from the Marvel universe, it is safe to say that you will likely see more of them in the future. Our next lockbox will debut with Spec Op 8. As previously indicated there will be a new way to obtain these lockboxes.

• Q. Are you only planning to release real Avengers members, or other Marvel characters could get in, such as Armor?

A. We have released quite a few characters from the Marvel universe that were not original Avenger team members including several X-Men. I would go out on a limb and say that there will likely be more fan favorite characters released.

• Q. Are there going to be any new hero classes ever released?

A. We do not currently have any immediate plans to add another hero class to the game.

The Agent and Items

• Q. Will you make some of the old LE items available again, such as the Avengers movie uniforms and Coulson’s Revenge?

A. While nothing is currently planned, it is not outside the realm of possibilities for us to re-release some of our older LE PvP items. During our 12 days of Christmas sale, we re-released a whole battery of former LE items. And LE costumes have been re-released for other events such as the game’s anniversary and The Avengers DVD/Blu-Ray release.

• Q. Once your agent reached level 200+, the ISO shards contribute less and less to the stat bonuses, since their numbers will reflect as minimal addition to non existent. If we really want to make this game a very nice strategic game with the use of ISO, shouldn’t it be by percentage so that we can build heroes/agent according to their skill and weapons?

A. Fortunately, with our latest patch we introduced a new tier of ISO named “Reactive ISO”. These ISOs are customized and accurately scale to your level at purchase. They are available to agents that are level 125 and higher.



All About the Devs

• Q. How many people are in the development team? What are your names? (Any full, first, nicknames, etc, would be okay!)

A. Without getting too specific on numbers, our studio consists of 50-100 employees. Unfortunately I am unable to give you any personal information about our team members

• Q. If you were to pick a Marvel: Avengers Alliance mascot, who would it be? (You can't choose Captain, Agent, Maria, or Fury, that's not fair! xD)

 A. Clearly it is the Agent. Silly question (and a totally fair answer!)

• Q.Who are some of the heroes that you are most pleased with creating in the end and why?

 A. While I do not personally create the characters, I am particularly excited for heroes that feature awesome abilities that are radically different than others. For example: Mockingbird, Punisher, and Hank Pym.

• Q.What are some of your personal goals for the game, aside from making it fun for everybody?

 A. We have a lot of goals as a team. We obviously want to make it fun, but we also want to make it something that stays fresh. We want to introduce new features and new content that make people want to come back and play again and again for a long time. We love this game and we want to take the story and the universe a long way. That means keeping the gameplay fresh with updates as much as possible.


Game Mechanics

• Q. In battle, sometimes we get a message on the Agent or Heroes with the Name of the ISO slotted into their suit and a Stat described underneath the name. Can you tell us how it exactly it works?

A. The Iso-8 announcements that sometimes pop up let people know that one of the Iso-8 they have equipped made a difference in the outcome of the battle. The easiest example is Accuracy Iso-8. If this pops up, it usually means one of your attacks that was going to be a miss became a hit because of the difference in Accuracy provided by that Iso-8. Attack and Defense Iso-8 are a little trickier, but generally mean you survived what would have been a fatal blow, or you took out someone who otherwise would have survived.

These bonus notifications don’t have any effect on the outcome of battle. They aren’t giving you any extra bonus to the stat named; they’re just letting you know that the bonus they already provide made a difference.

• Q. How is the Damage calculated from Exploit based Abilities or Items, Weapons or Gadgets usable the Agent? When one of these has an Exploit "_____", but has either multiple stacks of it applied, or is a Paragon Exploiter, how does the damage scaling work? What are the formulas behind this?

 A. Exploits generally grant a +50% to damage done. Some are lower, such as Paragon Exploiter, which grants +25% damage for each debuff. Multiple damage multipliers stack with each other multiplicatively. So if you use Mocking Blow against a target that has Burning, Dizzy, and Slowed, your damage bonus would be:1.25 * 1.25 * 1.25 = approx 1.95Or 95% more damage than before. You can see how these are powerful abilities if you set them up correctly, as the benefits compound each other.

• Q.In PVP It seems like the AI gets a better chance for random effects to proc than the player. How much of a boost does the AI get for proc rates? Does this scale based on the rating of the opponent?

A. This is a myth that often gets repeated, to the point that it’s accepted as truth. AI-controlled opponents in PVP actually get exactly the same chance for every effect to trigger that players get. Both the client and server share the same data that controls what the chances are, and both use the same method for determining whether an effect procs or not.


Miscellaneous

• Q. Are there any plans for new battle music to be implemented?Stay tuned!Do you guys plan to change the Background for PvP? Can it be something new and cool we've never seen before?

A. When this question was originally asked, PVP fight always had the same background. Since then we introduced code to show a wide variety of random backgrounds for PVP fights.

• Q. Would it be possible to get decisions for the player to make that branch out each mission? For example, the player is defending a prison who is under attack by Green Goblin: when he leaves, do you chase after him or continue to guard the prison and its supervillain in-mates?

A. The amount of effort needed to alter our system in this fashion is huge. So great, that we would have to refactor all of our previous content and it would substantially slow down future development and content releases. That being said we are planning to introduce future features and improvements to the story gameplay that will keep it fresh and exciting. Stay tuned!

• Q. Could you possibly increase the recommended starting level for future chapters? Will there be an option to choose missions that are currently below your level to scale up to your current level, without necessity of 5-starring them first?

A. The recommended level is just that, “recommended”. If you are up for a greater challenge, try the “Challenge Mode” for chapters 4-11! And speaking of Challenge Mode, we are working on adding Challenge Mode to Chapters 1-3 as well. That way the entire game will have more challenging and rewarding content for all players. Not only does the mission get considerably harder, the loot and XP are scaled to be more inline with the effort to complete the missions.

Sourch: Playdom

Marvel Avengers Alliance: Your Question and Developers Answere: What is next on MAA

Developer Answers (response to 2012.06.20 questions)

Can you update us on your future development plans since the last Q&A?

We’ve been working hard on getting new content and features into the game on a regular basis.

The second phase of the PVP revamp has launched and we’ve made efforts to handle cheaters. - As of 01.06.2012, ability to drop weapons, gadgets not earned or released in the game was stopped. On 15.06.2012 - all 'Not Tuned' items were removed from PvP but leaving earlier Hacked Gold items i.e. Heroic Calls with 900+ PvP Bonuses untouched'.

We are working on “Phase Three” now - increasing the long term competitive gameplay and rewards of PVP - stay tuned for more information coming soon! 

We’ve made good progress increasing the stability of our game, but we still have work left to do - we have more fixes on the way to safeguard against players losing progress in the game. Thanks for your continued patience and support! 

Chapter 8 is live, and Chapter 9 is coming soon. We are also working on the next Spec Op mission. We learned a lot from the first Spec Op, and we are working hard to make sure it is a super-fun experience for all players and we’re keeping a careful eye on the balance and plan to greatly improve the rewards along the way.  

- If our sources are correct, 16.07.2012 will release the next Spec Ops #2 with Emma Frost. Subject to change.

We have a bunch of new heroes and costumes running, flying, and teleporting their way to the game very soon! Some classics and some fan favorites will be announced shortly at San Deigo Comic Con.

Do you plan to add more different Hero team up bonuses, such as Black Panther and Storm, in the future? 

Yes, we really enjoy showing off classic Marvel teams and character interactions in the game. We’re looking over the roster of characters and plan to add more of these in the future.  

- For now Playdom is re-introducing buffs and passives into its existing and new range of costumes and suits. So far - Ironman, Kitty Pryde, Colossus, Black Cat, Spiderman etc. had been boosted.

Are there any plans to develop any additional game modes?

We are always looking into ways to improve the game. We have a few big, exciting new features planned before the end of the year. Stay tuned for more info.

Are there plans to add a feature to upgrade weapons so the weapon matches Agent’s current level?

We have been looking into this, but are focusing on continuing to add new and different weapons to the game to give people rewards to strive for and add further variety and visual differentiation.

Will we be able to port our current character to the new version on playdom.com?

This is not currently planned. We encourage Facebook players who want to play on playdom.com as well to start fresh, try different heroes and strategies, and also take advantage of the features unique to the playdom.com version.

Player vs. Player

In PVP, is there any way we can preview the opponent’s team so you can put up your best against their best?

The asymmetrical nature of the PVP class system would mean that your opponent would always be at a disadvantage. We think that not knowing who your opponent is or their capabilities adds to the challenge, and to the fun.

I would love to see replays of PvP matches other players initiated. We have been looking into this idea. It would be really cool to allow players to share replays.

It’s something we’re looking at but want to focus on some of our upcoming releases first - like continued improvements to PVP gameplay and rewards and our upcoming Chapters and Spec Ops missions.

Heroes and Villains

Are there plans to release more female heroes, particularly a 90 CP female hero?

(Player comment: If so, can you please not introduce her via a scenario where she needs to be rescued. I hate putting Mockingbird into the same category as Daphne (Scooby Doo)).Yes!

We just launched Scarlet Witch at 90 CP. We have more upcoming female heroes as well, but for our next hero, it is best to look but not touch!I

- The current guess points to ROGUE. Possibily will be priced similarly to Black Panther, Scarlet Witch @ 90CP.

SO brings boosts to a Hero's stats, but will they be further customization for Heroes?

Like being able to put skill points to amplify certain abilities and their effectiveness, helping to make character builds per Hero more unique?

We are looking into ways to continue to customize your heroes. In the meantime, we want to make sure that the different heroes can work together in interesting ways, and that players have lots of meaningful choices and strategies when recruiting and assembling their strike team. We are also looking into adding additional power progression for the Heroes and the Agent in the future.

The Agent and Items

Instead of purchasing new outfits with specific ability sets on them, could we purchase "kits" that housed the buffs/abilities/different classes and then put it onto a uniform we want?

We have been discussing the possibility of this. For now we’ve decided to place passive buffs and abilities on Agent Gear that can be equipped.

Will you look at allowing us to have customized headquarters?

This is not planned for the immediate future. We think this is a very cool idea, but we feel we have a lot of really exciting new things on the horizon in terms of new Heroes, Agent items, and mission and PVP gameplay improvements. We’re tackling those first, but it’s possible that we’ll have something cool in store for the Flight Deck in the future. 

Game Mechanics

Can you tell us how points and XP are awarded?

XP is awarded based on the enemies you face. Each enemy has a set amount they will reward when they are defeated. If you are higher level than that enemy, you’ll get less XP - it scales to the challenge you are facing. You get 1/4th of the XP when you lose a fight.

You should be able to see how points are awarded if you look at the score details after a fight. The base score is calculated from enemies defeated, how fast you defeated them, how much health your team has left, and any special bonuses like team bonuses or overkill bonuses. Then we apply multipliers based on combat difficulty and survival.

Will there ever be some type of option to know the level of the ally before adding them?

Not at the moment, but we have done our best to make it easy to add and remove allies using the “Allies” tab at the top of the app.

Mockingbird

Will the Mockingbird Spec Ops be available again in the future for players who start the game later?

Have you considered having Spec Ops always be available and allow the timer to start only when the mission is activated? 

Right now, we have no plans to make Spec Op 1: “Don’t Say a Word...” available again. We will be releasing new Spec Ops missions on a regular basis though. Look for our next Spec Op mission very soon!

Development process What are your priorities for future development?
Before we answer that, understand that our roadmap of features extends well beyond the next six months. Any new features or content are competing for development time and while we would love to get many of these suggestions implemented, we have to be careful of the order and the timing.

When contemplating what to build and deploy next in Marvel Avengers Alliance there are two things we consider. The first thing we look at is what does our roadmap call for and second what is the community asking for. When they are perfectly aligned it is an easy choice. Here are some items we’re currently working on:

● Long-term improvements to PVP
● Chapter 8 and onward
● Future Spec Ops with exclusive heroes and boss rewards (working to make this more fun for everyone)
● More Heroes for sale (not just from Spec Ops)
● Fixing existing bugs & balance issues

We’re working hard to get updates out and respond to feedback from the community. We appreciate your continued feedback and patience.

How do you decide who or what to buff or nerf?
We try to look for when a character, weapon, or class becomes dramatically overused or underused. Usually this indicates that there’s something wrong with that character or some systemic problem that is holding them back, such as a strong metagame. For instance, when Tacticians are strong, Blasters naturally suffer.

We also know from playing ourselves when certain characters fall behind and need a little love to bring them back into the game. We’re looking at Thing and Nightcrawler right now.

Do you test new values internally before releasing them to the community?
We test new changes extensively. Of course, this can’t compare to the millions of industrious players looking for new ways to best use these changes. How much do forum suggestions or complaints factor into design decisions?

The forums are a good way to get a finger on the pulse of the player base. The players participating on the forums are always very passionate about the game and this often leads to great feedback and insights.

Could you give more warning on upcoming game changes or maintenance, and provide more release notes after changes?
We understand how unannounced updates can be frustrating to players, especially when they don’t know what changes are included in the updates. To this end, we are trying to improve our process for getting out comprehensive and timely patch notes as best we can.

Player vs. Player What is the future of PVP?
PVP is an area that we are always looking to improve. We know that PVP can be a great way to play the game, but we understand we have much room for improvement to make it more fair and competitive.

We are not currently satisfied with the ladder system, matchmaking, or AI. We are also looking into a Tournament feature with big prizes. Before we do that, there are some issues with our combat system that we are working hard to address.

Will there ever be “live” or “real-time” PVP?
This is one of the many improvements to PVP we are investigating.

Are there any plans to improve PVP rewards? I
n the short term, we are going to reward players much more experience points for the first few PVP battles they do each day. This is to encourage players to participate some each day without it becoming a grind.

In the long term, we plan to have significant rewards for our best PVPers when we release Tournaments. We will release more information as this feature draws closer.

Will you ever be able to use 3 heroes in PVP?
The short answer is no. We know that players feel particularly tied to their Agent and want to make sure that all the work players put in to leveling up and properly equipping gear for their Agent never gets diminished. In early pre-release versions of Avengers Alliance, we allowed hero-only teams, but it did not feel as rewarding.

Can you add a separate equipment page for PVE and PVP
This is an interesting idea. We will consider it in the context of future PVP changes.

Heroes and Villains Which new heroes will you be adding?
We have many heroes coming soon, both in Special Operations and permanently available for purchase. The next hero coming soon is Black Panther!

How do you decide which new heroes to add?
We started by throwing every Marvel character ever created in a hat and pulling them out one at a time. We already used this technique to decide the next hero we will release. I hope you guys are ready for... D-Man! (Just kidding)

Seriously, though, there are many considerations including the character’s popularity and prominence, as well as the direction of our ongoing story. While we launched with the flagship characters, we definitely have plans for some niche characters and many more fan favorites going forward.

Will Deadpool be in the game at some point?
We will if the little yellow boxes over our head tell us we can.

Will there be additional Villains in the future?
Yes! In future Missions and Spec Ops, you may find your Agent facing off against the likes of Red Skull, Sauron, and Kang the Conquerer, to name a few.

Will you ever be able to play as a villain?
S.H.I.E.L.D. has been known to institute rehabilitation programs. We are definitely looking into the possibilities here.

Will heroes be able to train past level 12 or gain new moves not yet available in the game?
This is one of the features on our roadmap we are pursuing but do not have an ETA at this point.

The Agent and Items Will there be more ways to customize your Agent?
We are always trying to diversify the available gear to provide more options for players to express themselves through gameplay choices. We are also considering more options for purely aesthetic customizations for your Agent.

Do you have plans to scale rewards by level?
We recently introduced “Customized” weapons, which scale to your level when you get them. This makes these weapons useful to any player that acquires them. This property will appear on Limited Edition items and rewards from Special Operations.

Will the Agents get more uniforms?
We definitely plan for more in the future, but we’re deciding the best way to make them feel special.

Will the Agent get additional weapon slots?
We will look into this. However, the constraint of choosing which weapons to bring to combat is an interesting choice players have to make in the game.

Will there be different kinds of Iso-8?
We are definitely looking at our options here to make Iso-8 more diversified and have additional gameplay effects.

Will there be class-specific weapons for the Agent?
It’s an interesting idea. We’ll consider it.

What does P.E.W., S.A., and A.R. stand for?
● Personal Energy Weapon
● Side Arm
● Assault Rifle

Game Mechanics Is there a max level?
Currently no player is close to the technical level cap. This can always grow as we need it to.

Does status effect damage scale with level?
Most status effects from weapons or Hero abilities scale with the level of the target that the status is applied to. For instance, using Bleeding on an enemy of a higher level will result in more damage over time than against one of a lower level. Similarly, if you use “Teresing Boost” to gain a heal over time, the amount will be in proportion to your own level.

Can you show the exact % increase on status effects like Strengthened?
This is possible but sometimes misleading, and can result in more confusion than clarity. The way that multiple stacking effects interact with each other is something we can’t easily communicate without blowing up in-game tooltips with information overload. When we have to choose, we usually prefer the more concise description.

Will there be any future changes to class balancing?
Yes, we have some ideas that should bring the classes more in line with each other and make class decisions more meaningful. We will release more information about this as these changes draw closer.

Are there any plans to increase max energy?
Not at this time.

Are there plans for a “do not show again” option for the maxed out XP reminder?
Yes. This is on the roadmap for a future release.

Will you add the ability to train more than one hero at a time?
We think that the difficult choices around how to use Heroes makes the game more interesting. Deciding who to bring, who to deploy, who to train, and who to send on the flight deck is part of the game. These choices reflect upon what kind of team the player wants to make. Keep in mind, that these restrictions don’t apply to PVP, where your Heroes are always available.

We do offer Rapid Training, which allows a hero to skip levels even while another hero is training. (Pay GOLD to play option)

Could you add a “Collect all” or “Resend all” option for the flight deck?
We already have a “Collect All” option. We have considered adding “Resend All” in the past, but want to encourage players to use their heroes carefully and balance between mission and training needs.

Mission and Story Will there be more than 10 chapters?
Definitely! We are working hard on new Chapters and new Spec Ops right now. Look forward to Chapter 8 soon.

Who is the man behind the dialogue?
Most of the writing in the game is from our lead writer, Alex Irvine, a Marvel writer who has produced such works as “Daredevil Noir” and novelizations of the Iron Man films. Thank him for the witty quips.

Social and Gifting Will there ever be an in-game message or chat system?
We do not have plans for this, but we encourage players to discuss the game on the forums.

Are there any plans to improve the Visit Allies feature?
We have several social feature improvements on the roadmap. The next one to launch is the ability to challenge friends to casual, unrated PVP matches.

Will you add the ability to sort gifts by type?
Good idea, we will look into it.

Will you add the ability to send return gifts even after hitting the gift cap?
This is a wonderful idea and we will consider the feasibility of this feature.

Are there any plans for cooperative raids?
This feature is currently not on our roadmap, but we are investigating it.

Miscellaneous Will players ever be able to reset an account or start a new character on the same one?
We do not have any plans to allow players to reset an active account. For those who are interested in playing a new character from the beginning or new players without a Facebook account, we will soon unveil a version of Marvel: Avengers Alliance that can be played on Playdom.com. Stay tuned for more information on when this version of the game will be live.

Are there any plans for an achievement system?
We love achievements and want to give players another way to engage with our content to earn rewards for time and effort spent in the game.

Many achievements in the game are already tracked in Marvel XP, a cross-game hub for the Marvel Gaming Universe. You can access this information by clicking the Marvel XP button above the game app and signing up.

Will there be more Avengers movie tie-ins?
We recently released Coulson’s Revenge, a weapon that was featured in a prominent scene from the movie. We also released a delicious, giftable item some people might recognize.

Do you plan to improve your sound effects?
We are planning to make some improvements here soon.

Do you plan to have a “light” animation setting to reduce loading issues?
This could be one of two different issues: long load times (with the loading widget, such as pre-combat) and the speed that animations play out in combat.
Load times are not necessarily tied to the animations. We’re always looking for ways to streamline our game and reduce load times. As for speeding up combat animations, we are aware of player concerns and looking into ways to speed up combat globally rather than having an option to turn animations off.