Team Answers Recap for Dev QAs - 11/10
Hello and welcome back to Glenn Jones' Diary, your look at the most interesting and important questions and answers from the game developers on the Marvel Snap discord. We've got questions about upcoming cards, Shang-able cards, and more generally about the future of the game.
Q: so WOW. talk about a major shakeup. hats off to the team for taking a big swing in this OTA. I love that Shang having a slightly reduced target pool allows for more current cards to see play and allows for more breathing room for future cards/balance changes.
I noticed y’all made a change to Jessica Jones, which totally makes sense to me and I think she was due for the adjustment. Were there limitations on how many changes you could/wanted to push? Are cards like Drax and Crossbones going to see a similar 1 power adjustment?
A: We targeted cards we felt confident needed the boost. That's not to say we won't buff others, but just that we're starting in our highest-confidence spot. Both Drax and Crossbones have enjoyed brief moments in the sun in recent months, in contrast to Jessica, and her drawback is often enough more severe.
-Glenn
Q: Why was Chavez not buffed to a 6/10 how she used to be with the OTA as we saw a lot of other old cards get to 10 power but Chavez was left? Is it because of her hyper use mostly in combo decks? If not what is the reason?
A: People fairly rarely use 6 Energy to play Chavez at all in competitive play--pretty much just Dracula-based Discard. When playing her is a consideration, we felt ducking Shang-Chi would probably be more meaningful than the 10th Power. It's a close decision, could turn out either way. But either way, I don't expect a large uptick in "Americas played on turn 6."
-Glenn
Q: Asking for clarification because MarvelSnap.com lists the Thanos Momoko variant as releasing during the 11/15 Takeover, and it also lists it in the US-based app News; but the Variant is omitted from the news section of the French app.
A: Hey there, we're sorry for any confusion experienced and we'll update our channels accordingly. The Thanos Peach Momoko variant will **not** be included in the takeover date on 11/15. Keep an eye out for that variant releasing at a later date.
-Chris
Q: Lots of people posting after the patch about having shops of all one artist or category was that intended?
A: It is intended. We are experimenting with random personal takeovers to see if you guys like it.
-Stephen
**I like it. Seems like there's no real downside.
Q: Is the double gold a limited time thing or is it planned to be a permanent thing until you purchase that tier of gold?
A: Permanent until you purchase that tier of gold. We wanted it to be an awesome bonus as a thank you for continuing to support Marvel Snap as we move into year 2 of the game
-Stephen
Q: Now that cache keys are a collectable currency will we be expecting bundles featuring them in the future?
A: We will add additional ways to get keys beyond the collection track. We will use them as high value rewards in new features and sometimes for purchase in bundles
-Stephen
Q: With how many recent and upcoming cards seem to be pushing movement as an archetype, are there any plans to create a card that can help control or counter some aspects of movement? Like how Armor can protect a location from destroy effects, something that prevents movement into or out of a location would be nice to have for those of us that like to play more control or lockdown oriented deck types, but are stymied by cards that jump around all the time.
A: Yes, we have some things planned.
-Glenn
**It looks like the February season might be based on the Black Order. Perhaps one of those characters will have a movement hate ability.
Q: It’s been mentioned previously that you will be adding additional ways to obtain spotlight keys besides just the collection track. Is the intention to eventually phase out tokens so the only way to obtain new cards in the future is by obtaining the new spotlight keys?
A: We have no plans to phase out tokens. We still think they are a great way to target cards you want outside of spotlights
-Stephen
Q: The main issue with custom Avatar / Titles / Card Backs is that its super annoying to go in and change them every time you make a new deck. I as hoping this new feature to add a favorite version of each would make them "defaults" but it doesnt.
Why not just go ahead and make newly created decks default to having the favorite of each already in place?
A: It is intended to do a random roll of your favorited card backs, avatar, and titles when you make a new deck. Unfortunately that barely missed this patch but will be in the next one.
-Stephen
Q: As someone who enjoys playing Shanna, is Martyr going to be on her list of cards she can spawn? I feel the thought process when putting Martyr into your deck is a lot different than the mindset of a Shanna player.
A: Martyr will appear for Shanna as long as she’s a 1-Cost. They actually have a fair amount of synergy, depending what you’re trying to do.
-Glenn
**It seems Glenn is implying that Martyr will be playable in a Shanna/Dazzler deck. I don't know if 1/4 is good enough, but we'll see.
Q: The team recently mentioned that WWBN “needed the card” in order for him to trigger. Why does he work then with the goblin cards since they technically aren’t there either?
A: I believe you may be conflating different responses, or maybe I was unclear. Werewolf By Night doesn’t need the card to be physically there. For example, he can jump to Death’s Domain.
But for effects like Lockjaw and Luke’s Bar, they unfortunately have a quirk where they change “where” the card is considered to be resolved. Werewolf’s trigger sees that the card “resolved” in the deck or the hand, and doesn’t jump. We’re working on making our triggers more robust to avoid this, but auditing all of our triggers for function takes some time.
However, the Goblins are easy. You play them there, their On Reveals resolve there, and they’re still there—just with a different owner. But WWBN only cares about who put the card down, not who wound up with it.
-Glenn
Q: This new Tarnax location is interesting! If you play a 5 cost there, can it transform into Kang? And if so, would you get Kang again if you make the same play on the restart? And would any other card transformations (from either player) be the same after the restart?
A: Nope, Kang is default excluded from random card generation pools.
-Glenn
Q: Last month, Glenn said:
> Updating any card text other than the numerals requires localization into other languages, and those updates (at least currently) need a full patch to implement.
Does the Mobius revert mean that this is no longer true, or is reverting Mobius's text a special case? If arbitrary changes can now be made during an OTA, do you plan to utilize that?
A: This change relies on brand new technology we haven't used in the live client yet. We're glad to (hopefully) have gained this capability, and we're not sure how often we'll use it. For now, we're planning to continue OTAs as usual and consider this a test.
-Glenn
Q: Have there been any thoughts to look at changes to Professor X? It’s been top of several formats at this point and its text box is significantly more restrictive in the old Spider-Man, which was cited as being reworked because it was not a design that was fun to be everywhere
A: We keep a fairly close eye on Professor X, specifically because his effect is so restrictive. However, his balance has not created a cause for concern on our end, in part because (unlike Spider-Man) his Ongoing is not one-sided and thus vulnerable to a much wider range of counterplay and risk.
-Glenn
Q: When ongoing cards like Devil Dino or Darkhawk are addded to the board or moved from one location to another, there is a small delay when they are at their base power before their effect kicks in and their power increases.
If Gladiator pulls one of these cards, will his on-reveal just check their base power or take their post-ongoing power into account?
A: Post-Ongoing.
-Glenn
Q: Will Gladiator allow the On Reveal effects to trigger before the card gets destroyed, or will he destroy before that?
A: Yes, On Reveals will fire.
-Glenn
Q: Marvel is great for the fact that there are so many characters available. Still some notable characters have gradually come out or remained unseen.
Is the team directed to hold off on certain characters like Loki or Ms Marvel to better match with release of Marvel Film content? Are there certain characters the team holds off on using because you believe it *could* better match future IP content?
Take a character like Tombstone; could no sign of him be due to SD is directed to wait, or the team believes he may appear in Spiderman-4, or maybe just doesn't fit any abilities on hand?
A: We decide to hold characters for future seasons on a regular basis. Loki and Ms Marvel have existed in some form since pre launch. We want each season to feel thematic with a central character people have heard of / love whenever possible so we will hold characters until it makes sense to add them. Tombstone will make it into Snap at some point I’m sure.
-Stephen
**I agree it's important to have at least one recognizable or exciting character per season. Who are some of the most prominent characters that aren't in the game or datamines yet? Personally I'd like to see Banshee, Kate Bishop, Dormammu, the Beyonder, or Lockheed added to the game.
Q: The previous season we could unlock some special rewards if we spent real money in a few bundles. I was wondering if this might be back or not?
A: We hope to bring it back in December.
-Stephen
**This is referring to the rewards track that was available in the Nuverse web shop. It's really only important for those who spend a lot on the game (or those of you who can't resist FOMO), but I'm not going to complain about extra cosmetics. Make cosmetics as expensive or exclusive as you want. Make the actual game pieces (new cards) cheaper.
Q: How does the fast forward function work? I feel like recently the only time I see the fast forward animation is when someone plays MODOK (a time where I absolutely do not want it to fast forward...) and never when a wong/odin combo occurs (a thing that takes far longer).
A: we have on the docket upcoming taking a look at fast forward, as we agree, it's not always proccing when we think it should, and sometimes proccing when it shouldn't.
-KentErik
**I'm really glad to hear this because the fast forward feature really needs a change. I have noticed a fast forward several times recently where it was definitely unnecessary.
Q: I noticed that I wasn't getting the free card for the past 2 months so I posted a question on reddit and found out that I was series 3 complete. I was surprised that this wasn't mentioned in the game.
Why doesn't the game notify the player when they complete series 1, 2, 3 etc?
A: we have some updates planned for that "series 3" section of the shop for S3-complete players
-KentErik
**Hmmm. In addition to not actually answering the question, another change to that section of the shop doesn't bode well for the prospect of series drops returning. Hopefully I'm wrong and it's a positive change that also involves the return of series drops.
Q: I just lost a game where I had played prof x on Asteroid M turn 5 locking it down. But on turn 6 they played Iron Lad which copied jeff and then it got moved to asteroid M. Jeffs text does not imply that the game can move him to locations he cant be in. Only that the player can. Is this interaction supposed to work this way?
A: Yes, nothing can stop Jeff from moving.
-Glenn
Q: Would the team consider an undo turn mechanic?
A: Yes, we're actively interested in adding this feature.
-Glenn
**Yes, please! There should either be an option to unlock your end turn button or it should unlock automatically if your opponent snaps. This is one of the features I think the game most needs currently.
Q: Why don't we have a refund of tokens when a card is nerfed?
A: We made a decision early on to focus on frequent balance updates that would buff and nerf cards regularly. Refunding nerfs results in minimal to no balance updates because of the economic impact to the game. We try to be as upfront about this as possible with multiple moments in the game to inform we will not refund card ownership.
-Stephen
**This is clearly the best policy. More balance updates is a good thing, and the team not feeling like they can't make them is important. However, the issue with the Mobius nerf is one that will take Second Dinner time to recover from, from a consumer confidence standpoint. It would be in their best interests to ensure that things like that don't happen again.
That's it for this edition of the Diary. Come back next time for more questions, answers and analysis. Head over to the Marvel Snap discord and ask a question for a chance to have your question featured here!
Repping Marvel at my wife’s company Halloween party pic.twitter.com/usys3II1RW
— Glenn Jones (@Glenn_Jones_) October 28, 2023