Table of Contents
Hello all! Welcome back to this week’s breakdown of what’s happening over on the Marvel Snap official Discord! This week, we get answers to questions such as: are there cheating bots in Deadpool’s Diner, when is compensation being sent out, are the devs even listening to player feedback, and more! If you want to stay up to date with what’s coming and what answers developers have for the community, make sure to check back here each week!
This week’s edition comes after the launch of new Series 5 card Fenris Wolf! If you don’t know if this card is worth Spotlight Caches, make sure to check out our weekly Spotlight Cache guide, as well as our Bonus Challenge guide!
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, and Questions From You!
Remember, you can check out our new Marvel Snap Developer Tracker to see all questions and answers in real time! Topics can also be searched, filtered, and sorted.
Card Specific Questions
Q: Was Rescue considered to be buffed with Jessica Jones? Or is she limited be the early Series for new players?
A: Glenn “It’s related, but we’ve had some ongoing debates about Hawkeye and Rescue that aren’t resolved yet. We knew we wanted to improve Jessica, and the timing seemed right.”
Q: Is it intended that you can play Viper, activate a card, and have that card activate after it swaps sides?
A: Glenn “Yes, this is a product of the basic function.”
Q: We know that Magik was changed because it was bad she could surprise Limbo on turn 6. How is it ok then for Legion to surprise swap all locations to Luke's Bar or Death's Domain?
A: Glenn “The issue with original Magik was that any deck could play it and that forced players into a trap decision where they either maximize their Power on turn 6 and risk being blown out—often with no remaining spaces to play in—or hold back, and lose to the opponent letting the game end naturally (or just not having Magik at all).
That’s a very different dynamic than Legion. Legion’s frequency of impact is lower; he requires cooperation from a randomized set of locations to have game-changing impact. He also doesn’t create a constant ‘will they/won’t they add a turn to the game’ because his influence isn’t enough to be playable in every deck—Magik was actually just the best card in the game, as she often let you take turn 7 ‘alone’ because your opponent was out of options.
Players having cards that can turn a loss into a win in turn 6 isn’t fundamentally imbalanced. In fact, it’s key to healthy balance in a wagering game that the conclusions not be foregone. Magik wasn’t changed just for doing that—she was way too good at it, in every deck, and doing it in a really frustrating way.”
Q: Also, why does Enchantress say her own name like a Pokemon? (cute but WHY)
A: Glenn “I believe Killmonger is saying ‘I want the throne!’.
Enchantress is just being polite and introducing herself.”
Q: Agatha is Activating Fenris Wolf, but I thought she didn’t know how to Activate?
A: Glenn “Agatha has mastered the activating arts.”
Q: It was interesting reading the recent Balance Update, which said that Shang-Chi doesn’t make 9 power better than having 10 power in any test that you’ve measured.
That’s very different from the position taken in the November 9, 2023 Balance Update (when Shang-Chi was adjusted to hit cards with 10+ power). In those notes, you said that a major factor in raising She-Hulk to 10 power was keeping Shang-Chi as one of her counters. You also said that raising Jessica Jones to a 4/5 (with a +4 on reveal) was to give her a power boost while avoiding Shang-Chi’s effect. Similarly, with Strong Guy, you said that changing from a 4/4 (with an ongoing +6) to a 3/3 (with an ongoing +6) was in part to move it out of Shang-Chi’s range.
Specifically with Jessica Jones (who recently had a minor nerf by removing synergy with Storm), does increasing the potential power to 10 reflect a change in design philosophy, a change in your understanding of Shang-Chi’s interactions, or a combination of factors?
A: Glenn “I didn’t say Shang-Chi was meaningless, just that it was overall an increase in card strength to be 10 Power than 9. To be explicit: if your opponent has Shang-Chi in their hand, a card at 10 Power is weaker than one at 9. However, that situation is outweighed by the many games in which they can’t (or won’t) use Shang-Chi yielding an extra Power.
She-Hulk wouldn’t be stronger at 9 than she would be at 10. However, because duplicating a card with Cost reduction mechanics is a uniquely strong way to ‘generate’Energy, having Shang-Chi able to counter multiple She-Hulks is a meaningful asterisk on using her this way.
On the original Jessica Jones Power raise, this was largely to a) create gameplay separation between her and other early Series cards like War Machine, and b) because Jessica gains her Power in a uniquely predictable way, making her a bit more vulnerable than other cards. However, we’ve since decided that neither of these outweigh giving her some extra strength for competitive purposes, in part due to the Storm change.
So no, no change. Just slightly different context.”
Other Questions
Q: Is the Fud cardback obtainable?
A: Glenn “No, it’s an employee exclusive (and only for employees after 2+ years).”
Q: If Ego is going go take over your cards, why not just make him play well too?
A: Glenn “If Ego played well, there wouldn’t be much point to having it at all—the game would largely play out normally.”
Q: Have you considered giving Activate cards a cost? Like “costs 1 energy” or “must discard 1 card”
A: Glenn “We did, but we found the design space on these fairly small.”
Q: The Collector’s Vault is open for half the duration this time, why is that?
A: Griffin “The Collector’s Vault won’t refresh. We’re just experimenting with the length it’s available based upon our engagement data as well as player feedback. Let us know your thoughts! We plan to keep iterating and improving as we go.”
Q: Right now, new players have an ever increasing gap of time between starting the game and building a viable meta deck. Is the team aware of this issue for new players?
A: Glenn “We want to shorten the described gap and ensure that players can immerse themselves faster in the gameplay elements they find enjoyable as those elements are discovered.”
Q: It seems like countless content creators are looking into other games and talking about retiring from Snap. Does this concern the team?
A: Glenn “I’ve always been of the mind that a rising tide is great for all boats in this industry. Now’s an awesome time to be a CCG player and, by extension, content creator. We’ve got plenty of improvements and advancements to SNAP coming up, as we’ve talked about, and I’m as excited as ever for the future of the game.”
Griffin “I’ve worked on many big games in my career. I’ve worked along side some of the biggest content creators as well. It’s in their professional interest to see if there are other opportunities elsewhere. I’ve chatted with countless creators over the years who are considering pivoting to a new game, genre, or even a new career. I encourage all of them to do what’s best for them and their families.
I echo Glenn’s sentiments exactly. We’re incredibly excited about the future of SNAP and we’ll keep working along side old, new, and future returning creators.”
Q: You recently mentioned compensation is coming, but do we have a timeline?
A: Griffin “I’m working on them right now! This is the largest, and most complicated, rewards delivery to date so I don’t want to promise any dates right now. It’s absolutely a priority for me to get these out ASAP. Stay tuned!”
Q: It was mentioned previously that the team had listened to feedback regarding the last diner and was going to make improvements, could share what those improvements are?
A: Griffin “The team was incredibly happy with how Deadpool’s Diner went the first go-around so we didn’t want to change much of the core mode.
We made some UI changes, obviously the tables are now themed differently, matchmaking has been adjusted at higher tables, stuff like that.
We shared an infographic after the first time showcasing some pretty cool numbers.”
Q: You have stated the team is happy with Deadpool’s Diner, but a large amount of players are giving mainly negative feedback. How does that factor in to a mode you seem satisfied with?
A: Griffin “We’d push back on your assumption that sentiment around DD has been predominately negative. There are many different ways we can measure sentiment and satisfaction. Community hubs like here, Reddit, and social media platforms are one. Surveys are another. Data is another way you mentioned.
Players may prefer one game mode over another and that’s totally okay. Our goal is to make sure there’s something for everyone.
That said, if the sentiment and data changes, we’ll be listening!”
Q: When you are measuring data and feedback for Deadpool’s Diner, do you consider players who “hate play” the mode just to get rewards?
A: Griffin “Yep. This is all being considered.”
Q: Why did you schedule Deadpool’s Diner at the same time as the Infinity Conquest week?
A: Glenn “The end of the month is a time when many players are looking for new play goals–they may have completed the Season Pass, for example. This makes the end of the month an ideal time to position game modes, as they fill that void with another rewarding activity. Conquest is also a place for players to pursue new goals, but it’s not the ideal place for everyone.”
Q: Why isn’t there fair, CL based matchmaking in Deadpool’s Diner? For new players especially, it feels like a handicap being paired against veteran players so we can grind out resources.
A: Glenn “New Player Metagames: When we talk about making decisions based on newer players’ collections and games, that tends to be in reference to players in the 0-500 CL range who aren’t yet deep in S3. For these players, each S1/S2 card they own is a big part of their collection, and the metagame can change radically from just one card. That makes the gameplay experience difference larger when comparing CL3000 to CL300 than to CL30000, even though the numerical difference is larger.
CL Matchmaking in Diner: We do have CL-based matchmaking in Diner, and we’re evaluating it in future modes too because we’ve heard how valuable it feels to players. For Diner, the limitation isn’t strict, though–it widens over time and relative to the player’s CL to prioritize finding a timely match.
Diner is already a game mode putting players into separate matchmaking queues. Its capacity to tolerate thinner and thinner slicing is thus fairly low, which means it’s important we widen the pool of potential opponents over time for satisfying games.
Losing: I understand that early on, Diner can feel steep–that is an element of the mode’s reliance on exponential growth as you raise the stakes. Avoiding bub bankruptcy is the goal, but you always get them back for free–so I don’t feel the mode punishes losing heavily. As we saw last time, the rewards are achievable to players who put in the time.”
Q: Can you respond to the large number of creators saying that Deadpool’s Diner is loaded with “cheating bots” that know your plays and rng before they make their plays?
A: Glenn “There are no bots in Deadpool’s Diner that use how you’ve played your cards for next turn or the outcome of random effects to try to win games against players.”
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!
Q: When can we expect Series Drop announcements?
A: Griffin “Our stated goal is two weeks from when the Series Drop will take place. So you can expect the announcement on Monday the 25th!”
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!
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