Table of Contents
Welcome back to this week’s Developer Update! This week’s edition comes after the launch of the new Series 5 card Thaddeus Ross, as well as the Character Mastery patch! If you don’t know whether Thaddeus Ross is worth Spotlight Keys, make sure to check out our Bonus Challenge guide for a post-release review of the card and new decklists!
This week, many questions reference the OTA, so be sure to read about the changes and our analysis so the answers make more sense.
Answers and questions may be slightly rephrased for more clarity and ease of reading. This week’s topics will be divided into Card Specific Questions, Other Questions, Sanctum Showdown Questions, Character Mastery Questions, and Questions From You!
See all individual questions and answers updated in real time!
Card Specific Questions
Q: If you have 4 copies of Rocket and Groot on Bar Sinister, why does RnG trigger after the location copies my opponent’s card? Is this a bug?
A: Glenn “This is working as intended. When cards and locations trigger the same way, locations go first. There are only a couple exceptions, like Nico and Iron Fist, which stash their effects on the player since they can’t know they’ll be around for a future event to trigger. However, this is dissonant enough that we’re considering ‘nerfing’ them so that everything will have consistent timing rules.”
Q: (Follow up) Why possibly nerf Nico and Iron Fist as a solution instead of buffing the other cards?
A: Glenn “The reason we would value reducing the number of cards changed is because players have already learned this way. There isn’t really a default intuition here—some people expect cards go first, some people expect locations, and we largely hear from the former because the latter get what they expected. If we change the most cards, we maximize the downside: confusing everyone who expects locations first and everyone who has already learned this way; whether it was their first expectation or not.”
Q: When will we see new game boards that were teased on the last roadmap?
A: Griffin “Our first new ‘game board’ is actually coming soon with Sanctum Showdown!
As for the future beyond that, we don’t have any anything to share at this time.”
Q: Will there be any compensation for players who get Nebula in the current Spotlight Cache, since she is moving to Series 3 in a few weeks?
A: Griffin “We’re not planning any compensation for Nebula in the Spotlight Cache.”
Q: If you ever make another Captain America like Bucky Barnes, will Cap's Shield also buff them?
A: Glenn “If we make a third card named ‘Captain America’ I imagine we’ll add them to the Shield’s list.”
Q: Why was America Chavez nerfed because she helped draw consistently, but you made Thaddeus Ross help thin your deck? And since he isn’t performing well, is he just meant to be a “fun” card like Bruce Banner, or was he meant to be competitively viable?
A: Glenn “Drawing cards isn’t a crime, it just needs to be carefully managed and drive our gameplay goals. America Chavez, like most effects that benefit the player without requiring a game action, was a pretty different story. And all the cards are made for fun! If it turns out Thaddeus doesn’t find a home at his current rate, we’ll look at an adjustment.”
Q: Why did you nerf Wiccan for just being played too much?
A: Glenn “The purpose of our balance updates is to maintain a diverse and healthy metagame, not explicitly to reduce strength. We softened Wiccan for the same reason we buff weak cards, to encourage that diversity. It’s also not the first time we’ve made such an adjustment—Arishem was another notable example.”
Q: Where do you draw the line between reworks that alienate players vs soft reworks? Like Adam Warlock rework versus Kingpin‘s rework?
A: Glenn “It’s a tough line to draw every time. There’s no hard and fast rule that’s applicable to every card.”
Q: Did you consider that Doctor Doom 2099‘s change would make him unable to be targeted by Red Guardian or Lady Deathstrike?
A: Glenn “Yes, we did consider this aspect of the change. However, it’s not our goal for the metagame to become reliant on Guardian or Deathstike as release valves—they should be effective options, but not required. We felt reducing the total Power in all games would offset being less vulnerable to those two cards.”
Q: Why did you nerf Surtur so hard?
A: Glenn “Over the last few weeks, the Surtur deck had the highest winrate and cuberate, with only one slightly bad matchup among the best 25 decks in the metagame. It was also one of our most-played decks. That means it was exceeding every balance threshold we use—a rare thing these days.”
Q: Why wasn’t Iron Patriot nerfed?
A: Glenn “Neither the winrate nor usage rate met the criteria for a nerf. He’s a strong card for sure, and does pressure games in a unique way, but that pressure is also an intentional aspect of the design.”
Q: Why does only moving Cap's Shield not count as “skipping your turn”?
A: Glenn “Taking any of those actions does not count as skipping a turn. Skipping a turn doesn’t mean ‘spend no Energy.'”
Q: How did you settle on Surtur‘s 2 time limit? Why not just reduce his power increase?
A: Glenn “Surtur and Skaar were overperforming on winrate and cubes in addition to being the most-played cards in the deck, while the rest of the cards were about the same. So it was a given we needed to address at least one of them. Surtur was the stronger of the two and the more one-dimensional—he just adds too much Power—so we aimed there.
We had basically two directions to go:
- Reduce the base Power or the buff
- Cap the buff
The former was problematic, because while it was the more conventional and elegant fix, any significant change in that vein would damage the core promise of Surtur in the deck—enabling Skaar. While that would balance the card effectively, we wanted to try and keep the core relationship of the deck intact and keep Surtur enabling Skaar if you were able to curve out 10-Power cards. So we explored different forms of capping the Power, and arrived at this one.
As for why he got the 5th Power, most of that was just softening the impact. It was also a minor hedge against our Scorpion buff, to ensure that you could still get to 10 Power with Surtur by playing the 10-Power cards drawn after turn 2 against the little green guy.”
Other Questions
Q: What is the new “Banish” section in the graveyard tracker?
A: Glenn “Good eye! ‘Banish’ is an incoming new keyword that puts cards in a different zone—truly gone for good. You can expect to see it on new cards, and maybe even a couple old ones, in the near future.”
Q: With an increase lately in new cards being based on variants of existing cards (Thaddeus Ross / Red Hulk or Falcon / Sam Wilson), should we expect this to be the new normal? Or is there a cutoff of repeat characters?
A: Glenn “We do intend to continue revisiting characters. We don’t have ‘firm cutoff’ right now for what that means, but my line is that each card needs to have its own story to tell creatively and mechanically.”
Q: When you are designing new content, do you draw things out on paper first? Or is everything designed in game?
A: Glenn “Yep! We’ve ‘papered’ several game modes, and we also often mock game ideas up digitally—just not in the actual SNAP client.”
Q: The webshop isn’t allowing me to buy a bundle that is about to expire. Is this being addressed, and will the bundle still be available then?
A: Griffin “We’re working on a fix. And yes, we’ll extend the dates when it’s fixed.”
Q: Will we ever see a new permanent game mode?
A: Glenn “We don’t currently have a permanent new game mode planned. Not saying we’ll never have one, but for now our focus is on using limited time modes to iterate on our ideas and gauge players’ interests in different approaches and gameplay.”
Q: Does no new permanent game modes mean draft mode was canceled?
A: Glenn “The vast majority of successful draft modes in CCGs are time-limited game modes, as new cards and sets sunset old ones.
As I specifically said in the referenced post, my reply isn’t locking out the possibility of permanent game modes—just stating that as of today we aren’t developing one.”
Q: The past two or three OTAs have been dropping later than usual, around 4-5 pm EST. Is this something we can expect going forward, or will they resume dropping earlier as we have been accustomed to?
A: Griffin “Our current plan is for that time to remain the norm for now. We recognize that earlier is best for most players but right now that time is difficult for the team to execute.
We’ll reevaluate this timing in the future as our processes change and evolve.”
Addison “Just to piggyback a bit on this,
Because internally most of us work on PST hours, later deploys give us some flexibility in how we schedule and prioritize testing, specifically our last-mile testing on our staging environment.
Yesterday we had a critical fix to push out for Hela‘s non-English ability strings causing folks’ clients to hang. We were able to revert the pending balance-and-other-stuff changes (that had just been deployed for testing unfortunately), prioritize that fix to get it deployed for testing, and get that out yesterday afternoon while then still having time overnight and this morning to finalize testing on the balance patch before deploying to you all.
Had we been committed to an 8am deploy, there’s a world in which we delay pushing out the Hela fix due to weird logistics challenges with the data patches which would not have been great for those players affected.
I think when it comes to timing, there doesn’t have to necessarily be a hard rule especially around OTA patches, but because of the way that they work and how that deploy process is structured it does tend to make our lives easier to have the later deploy times.
Client releases by comparison we tend to want to have as much time as possible to respond to issues or concerns that may arise, so pushing those out earlier in the morning make a ton more sense! As a result, multiple timezones get a little love from us when it comes to release timings! 🙂”
Q: Will we get another Valentines day imbalance update this year?
A: Glenn “No, we would’ve announced such an event. It’s a pretty packed February as-is!”
Q: Does favoriting an album make those variants more likely to appear in the shop?
A: Glenn “Favoriting an Album has no affect on the Shop. It’s just a way to keep it at the top of the list for now.”
Sanctum Showdown Questions
Q: Why does the dev video say Sanctum Showdown starts the 18th, but the new update says the 25th? Is the event still 2 weeks long?
A: Glenn “The dev video was filmed in advance of our decision to shift the date. The new date (25th) is correct. And it’s still 2 weeks”
Q: Why did you make Sanctum Showdown require an entry ticket when Conquest tickets are already disliked?
A: Glenn “We’re not unique from other mobile games in that our modes need a business case—they require time and resources to create, too. In order to dramatically increase the quantity and quality of rewards available as we did with Sanctum relative to past modes, we designed a soft ticket that’s easy to earn, often free, and cheap if you do want to play a bit more.
Our goal is to find a system that feels fun to engage with and offers very exciting content, so you can expect us to continue trying new things or tweaks to old things until we find the right ones for a great experience.”
Q: Will newly released Spotlight cards be able to be pulled in the “unowned Series 4/5” reward in Sanctum Showdown?
A: Glenn “Yes, cards released each week to Series 4 and 5 will join the ‘unowned’ pack reward upon release.”
Q: What is the conversion rate for scored points to charms?
A: Glenn “Points convert directly into Charms, but also offer opportunities for additional Charms the more you earn.”
Q: Is there a limit to the number of scrolls you can have at once?
A: Glenn “I think we have a cap of 99, partially for display reasons.”
Q: Will Arishem‘s random cards include banned cards, or have those been removed?
A: Glenn “It’s already automated that banned content in a game mode isn’t randomly generated by other content in that game mode.”
Q: New game modes should be fun to play and have good rewards. Does the data from High Voltage and Deadpool’s Diner make you feel confident the point system and a scroll entry cost will be a good balance of fun and rewarding?
A: Glenn “We are agreed about the ideal state for game modes: fun to play, with good rewards. As you note, finding the right mix can be a challenge, which is why we’re continuously experimenting in this regard to try and do so.
We consider possible Gold sinks for game modes in design, because modes cost time and resources to make. They all have one—even High Voltage. We build rewards later, based on what we’d like to learn and players’ feedback on previous efforts. Previously, players have had to grind modes for ~every reward to get the one(s) they want—this time they’ll choose everything they get. I look forward to better understanding which players prefer and why.
One piece of feedback we were sensitive to while building Showdown was the lockout in Diner. That was always a painful moment, because you’d lose your reward progress and your ability to play, plus the gold wall to get back in felt steep. And that could happen in just a game or two after refresh.
In Sanctum Showdown, you’ll retain all of your points in lost games and you’ll get more than just the games earned every 8 hours from systems like the Sorcerer Rank. It does seem we may have underestimated how many games players will want to play, but we kept the Gold cost low to guard against that too.
Am I confident we have the right balance? Definitely not! I would never say that about any feature we’ve never put live. However, I’m excited for Sanctum because we built it to be modular for future runs on a level that DD and HV are not. So while I hope it’s a great first run, I look forward to improving upon it either way.”
Q: Can you retreat in Sanctum Showdown?
A: Glenn “You can retreat, but there’s no reason to do so since the loser will still earn any points they can grab as the game ends for the store. If they want to give up their chances at those points to spite a stranger for a few, that’s a decision, I guess.”
Q: Why do you insist on making game modes that lock you out for losing? Why not make it unlimited entry, but raise the prices on rewards?
A: Glenn “Raising the prices of the rewards would negatively impact the elements that using a ticket supports. One of those is our ability to balance offering better rewards against fewer games played, so that a much larger percentage of players can receive a meaningful prize within the game mode.”
Q: Why not add a separate “free mode” to Sanctum Showdown that lets players try the mode without using scrolls, but without rewards?
A: Glenn “The primary issue is it would further split matchmaking queues. We already split matchmaking by Infinite ladder, non-Infinite ladder, Conquest, and the game mode itself—another split is another slice that weakens the strength of matchmaking across every other game mode.
A secondary element is that ‘free Sanctum’ might not actually be enjoyable enough or necessary. I understand players experiencing some anxiety around the Scrolls, especially given how often Deadpool’s Diner led to lockouts. As I’ve said elsewhere, we have deliberately structured this mode to reduce that friction. This system is helping us offer some really awesome rewards. Since that trade is something the game mode is actively testing, we’re going to need to see the outcome of that experiment to learn from it.”
Q: Why do your new modes incentivize winning over just playing the game for fun?
A: Glenn “Figuring out how to win a game is a form of fun that many players enjoy. As our namesake mechanic is about identifying a winning advantage, and demonstrating mastery of our game is a motivating factor for many players. Not all, but a great many.
Sanctum Showdown is a different game mode than High Voltage, so it’s going to have different systems and appeal, and we iterated accordingly. Showdown is about tactical maneuvering—if you didn’t track goals in football, the game would hold much less meaning for its players and fans. Similarly, we want players to feel proud of what they achieve in Sanctum Showdown.”
Q: If Sanctum can go all the way to turn 15, would that mean you would have 15 energy?
A: Glenn “Yes, although we really don’t expect games to go that long. We just instituted a cap as a technical safety and set it high enough to not interfere with the integrity of a game concluding appropriately. I don’t know that any playtest game exceeded 10 turns, and probably ~95% of them were 7 or less.”
Q: Are ties possible in Sanctum Showdown?
A: Glenn “If two players have 16 or more points, the game ends and the player with the highest point total wins. If both players cross the 16-point threshold on the same turn and the score is tied—or if players somehow make it to turn 15 with a tied score—it’s a true tie and no one gets the Scroll, just their points.”
Character Mastery Questions
Q: Why are you less likely to get an ultimate flair at Mastery level 20 than at level 10?
A: Griffin “The Rare/Super Rare/Ultimate chances listed in that chart take into account all the Finishes and Flares that would be acquired and available in your infinity split pool at those Character Mastery levels. Each effect does have a standard weight based on it’s rarity, which by itself wouldn’t tell the whole picture without knowing how many effects are in your pool, so this chart helps communicate what your chances of seeing any of a certain rarity are given the bigger list of possibilities. This is also why Super Rare Finish is N/A because there are no Super Rare Finishes at Character Mastery Level 1.”
Q: Is there a way to opt out of Mastery rewards so you don’t dilute the split chances you want?
A: Griffin “We’ll be monitoring split outcomes closely, and looking for ways to give players more control over their split outcomes in the future.”
Q: Are character albums being replaced by Mastery since they include all character’s reaction sets?
A: Griffin “Character Mastery is not intended to be a replacement for Albums. Reactions sets rewarded from Character Mastery and Albums are unique, so some characters will have more reaction sets than others.”
Q: Do album variant rewards count towards character mastery?
A: Griffin “They do count! A Variant from an Album reward counts for 125XP towards CM progress.”
Q: Why doesn’t Character Mastery give missions or challenges to reward XP?
A: Glenn “We have many features already rewarding those activities, and will no doubt have more in the future. Character Mastery is a different kind of feature, and we want our features to reward a variety of engagement with the game.”
Q: With character mastery now live, is there only a 3.6% chance of getting inked splits at Mastery level 30?
A: Griffin “We have protections set up for this:
Gold, Ink, and Krackle Protection
Once you have Infinity Split a character 4+ times, you will unlock an additional way to earn Gold and Ink Finishes, and Krackle Flare from Infinity Splits. Starting with your fourth Infinity Spit per character, each additional Infinity Split for that character has a 10% chance to earn a Gold or Ink Finish + Krackle Flare combo. This 10% is fixed regardless of how many Character Mastery Finishes and Flares have been added to your Infinity Split drop table. You will also still be able to earn a combo of a Gold or Ink Finish plus a Krackle Flare from a split even if the 10% roll fails.
When you perform a split, the rolls will trigger in this order:
10% chance to trigger a combo of Gold or Ink Finish + Krackle Flare combo
If the 10% roll fails, then the standard roll for a Finish + Flare combo will trigger with its outcome dependent on rarity weighting, and the amount of Finishes and Flares available per rarity that are unlocked for splitting”
Q: The new split options are great, but why bananas??
A: Griffin “Banana SPLIT! (I literally just figured this out today 🤦♂️)”
Q: How will the team utilize feedback from character mastery?
A: Griffin “We realize that major changes to a system can cause some waves. We’ll monitor the data and player feedback to continue to make the system better.”
Q: The web page marvelsnap.com/cmhighlights to access the sharing mastery submissions to earn 100 credits does not work. It says the event runs from February 11-17, does anyone know if this will be fixed?
A: Glenn “The dates on that were incorrect. It should have been adjusted to Feb 18-24 when the Patch was delayed a week. The site will be live then.”
Q: Was getting XP for having character avatars cut from the design process, or was there a technical limitation?
A: Glenn “I believe that was mentioned during the development of the first iteration of Character Mastery. That hasn’t been a part of the design of this latest version when we brought it back last year.”
Q: Will we see more flares and finishes added in the future?
A: Griffin “Perhaps!”
Q: Why isn’t there a “claim all” button for Mastery?
A: Addison “Keep in mind that I’m only able to really talk from a QA perspective, so there may be other totally valid design or technical reasons why we opted to forego a Claim All button, but there are two considerations that I’m familiar with:
First is that it would have been an enormous lift technically for what is essentially a feature most players will use just a single time (the first time they interact with Mastery). ‘Claim All’ as a concept within our game is one of those things that is really easy to understand conceptually as a player (just a big ol’ button that gets me all the stuff) but really, really hard to do on a technical level. There’s all sorts of reasons for this, but just know that this one feature would have been humongous and challenging and, at least from my perspective, risky (validating hundreds if not thousands of items for an account is very much a “trust me bro” type feature… and I’m risk-averse!)
Second is that there were concerns that our backend infrastructure would be crushed on the initial rollout day where everyone is claiming tons of stuff all at once. Speaking of being risk averse, I was personally worried we’d unintentionally DDOS ourselves lol. By structuring it the way it is, it added some delay between each reward claim and staggered them out a bit. Easier to absorb the load.
Other folks on the team may chime in with more reasons, but I feel like these two at least give a good foundation for why it wasn’t a thing we did!”
Questions From You!
Each week, I ask readers of the weekly dev update to leave their questions down in the comment section. That way we can ask those questions on your behalf, or let you know the answers if those questions have been asked before! I read each comment you leave, so I will be adding this section at the end of each week’s edition to highlight your questions that you asked last week!
We didn’t have any questions from you last week! If you have any questions you would like to see answered that haven’t been already, make sure to leave those in the comments!
Keep Your Questions and Feedback Coming!
That’s all for this week’s update! Be sure to check back here at Marvel Snap Zone for next week’s update! If you enjoyed the amount of content in this edition, make sure to keep asking your questions to the developers by submitting it in their official Discord in the “#ask-the-team” channel. If you have questions and don’t use Discord, leave your questions for the developers in the comment section here, and I will make sure your question has been answered by the devs!
If you have feedback or changes you would like to see with these weekly updates, also let us know in the comment section!
More Content