Developer Update for the Week of September 13, 2023: Alioth Edition (40+ Questions)!

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 why we are getting Spotlight Variant repeats, will Rescue or Ronan see a buff, lots of Infinite Rank questions, 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 the new card Alioth! If you aren’t sure if it’s worth opening caches for this week, make sure to check out our weekly Spotlight Cache guide!

Answers and questions may be slightly rephrased for more clarity and ease of reading. This weeks topics will be divided into Card Specific questions, Other questions, and Infinite Rank questions.

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: If the Blade change goes well, will cards like Sword Master get targeted discards?
A: Glenn “We don’t want all discard to “target” but Blade was doing particularly poorly, and we think he has more potential than that.”

Q: Are you aware the Silk base art is upside down?
A: KentErik “it’s a fun little thing you only notice if you look hard enough 🙂 also, that orientation does a great job of showing off just how acrobatic she is, while still letting her be “upright” so you can recognize the character”

Q: Can we get an update to Agatha to make her a bit smarter? Maybe comprehend locations?
A: Glenn “It’s unlikely we’ll make changes that increase the winrate of Agatha’s AI. Cards that are fun to play with in Agatha decks are fair game though.”

Q: Does Loki copy cards from opponent’s deck randomly, or in the order they got it? The card doesn’t specify. And if it is random, was the card ever considered to be set based on draw order of the opponent?
A: Glenn “It is random. We have many effects in the game that are random without specifying it—I intend to standardize this in some way in the future so that only cards that need extra info to understand get the word.

I didn’t consider that implementation, because it would make a less fun card. Variance is healthier with effects that generate lots of cards/Energy.”

Q: What will cards cost if both opponents play Mobius and Wave is played?
A: Glenn “Original costs.”

Q: How did you find the solution for Snowguard? Did you consider making her a merge card or a bounce?
A: Glenn “We did consider merge, but it was excessively complex. Bounce mechanics, we’ve learned, are one of those things that sound great in theory, but often don’t play out as well. We’ve burned a lot of playtest time on bounce cards we ultimately killed, so we didn’t do that here.

Her powers do include “aurora manipulation” and she specifically forms them in the shape of animals, which we decided was consistent enough with the art and VFX.”

Q: What led to the decision to make Iron Lad copy cards when he doesn’t have any mimic abilities?
A: Glenn “Creatively, Iron Lad’s story has a huge focus on who he’ll grow up to be, and whether that fate is malleable or not. We thought this mechanic was a cool way to nod at that, which is a difficult thing to do within our design space. Once we knew the card was fun, that made it easy to run with.”

Q: Since Swarm’s discard says “add a copy with 0 power”, will Mobius make Swarm copies cost 0 or 2?
A: Glenn “The copies have cost modifiers, they’ll cost 2.”

Q: I know devs won’t touch Series 1/2 cards, but since Blade got adjusted, can Electra get a buff?
A: Glenn “We haven’t said we won’t touch S1/S2 cards—just that we’ll do so carefully. And we have, multiple times.

However, the touch-ups we’ve explored for Elektra have a very small impact on her competitive play, but a huge impact on her S1/S2 experience, where she is already a strong enough card. That’s the sort of trade we don’t want to make.”

Q: Is a Ronan buff possible, either via him directly or by supporting cards like Baron Mordo or Master Mold?
A: Glenn “Yes, we expect to find a healthier spot.”

Q: Any plans to buff Rescue?
A: Glenn “We have some thoughts on that brewing.”

Q: Why would you make Alioth function so similar to Spider-Man (open to debate) when Spider-Man was changed because he was a polarizing card?
A: Glenn “I don’t consider the cards similar, though I won’t be debating it 😉 Spider-Man’s character and themes were the major compelling factor in his rework, because we want the freedom to make our most popular characters among our most popular cards.”

Other Questions

Q: Will the new Loki mix of the Snap theme be avaliable online?
A: TheChrisAlan “Hello!  Very similar to how we released the game’s soundtrack on Spotify, iTunes, Youtube, etc, once there is another albums worth of music (it’s getting close) we will be working to get that released on all streaming platforms as well! 🙂  Vol. 2 🤘”

Q: Is there any plans to let the new music being available in other areas like the collection tab? And is it a bug that the original music will sometimes play instead of the new one?
A: TheChrisAlan “We are looking into some ways to bring this new seasonal music to more places in the menus!  We are hesitant though to bring it into areas like the collections screen, as this could be distracting to players focusing on deck-building.

As far as the in-game music, that’s a much more complex music system, which requires a lot more music content and implementation complexities, regardless, we’re also exploring a few different options to enhance that as well!

Regarding the music bug that plays the normal menu soundtrack, that actually isn’t a bug!  We didn’t want the original menu music to go away entirely, so that original piece has a small chance of being played when you first enter the game instead of the seasonal menu music.”

Q: Will there be more pixel variants added for cards that currently don’t have one, like Jeff or X-23?
A: Glenn “If I can keep sending these posts to @impulse hopefully so!”

Q: Now that the card has been reworked to just make two tokens, are there any plans to recycle Snowguard’s “transform in hand” mechanic for something else, or is it considered a failed experiment?
A: Glenn “I’m sure we’ll see it again.”

Q: Is the team looking to improve playtesting? It seems like new cards pretty often will have bugs that launch with them, like Loki and Gamma Labs interaction.
A: Glenn “I think you’re confusing playtesting and QA, but we’re always working on improvements to both. In my role, I work with both groups, but do different work in each case.

Playtesting is focused on measuring the appeal, strength, and applications for new cards. We want to make sure they’re awesome game pieces players will be excited to use. We build and play decks based on how we expect the world to use the card, and as playtesters encounter unusual interactions we report them and fix them. We put some effort into potentially weird interactions, but the focus is primarily on the player and their experience with the card. For example, is the interaction consistent with what they’ve learned, what would they prefer to happen, etc.

Our QA team focuses on reviewing how new content achieves its goals and intersects with existing content, and reviewing corrections to be sure the problem is solved. It’s a lot of documentation and recreating game states. Among design’s duties is to help build a list of interactions to check, and help review the full list to verify the expectations are accurate. And you also have to factor in how corrections work–fixing one bug can potentially cause another to occur, but you might’ve already checked for that one.

As you can imagine, this is an exhaustive task that gets larger with every new release, so QA and Design are both looking for ways to make it more efficient.”

Q: What comes first, the character or the ability?
A: Glenn “We have a small stash of abilities we want to find homes for, but mostly it’s the character first. When we pick a character, if an ability in ‘the vault’ works, we usually just start there.”

Q: Is it intentional that discard characters wield swords and discard by slicing the card?
A: Glenn “The decision predates me, but yes, it was intentional.”

Q: When creating new cards, how do you keep a good balance between an easy to understand effect and something that is fun to play?
A: Glenn “We have some useful practical heuristics, like keeping cards at 3 lines or less and avoiding multiple sentences/abilities. We have killed cards for being too complex—in fact, that’s one of the reasons we didn’t like the ‘temporary Leech’ idea popular among some players when that card had On Reveal. None of the text options we had met our standards.”

Q: Would you ever allow players to playtest and QA new cards on a test server?
A: Glenn “We’re a ways from being able to manage such an endeavor on our end, but we know it’s worked for other games and have some ideas about how to explore it in the future.”

Q: Will we be able to do anything useful with all these extra splits we acquire?
A: Stephen “Right now splitting a character multiple times unlocks new split types like ink and gold foil and Krackle flare.  We have some plans on how having a lot of splits for a character can further benefit you.  More to share in the future.”

Q: It was mentioned that Spotlight Variants would never run twice, but High Evolutionary is scheduled to re-release his last Spotlight Variant. Why are you changing this policy?
A: Glenn “A combination of factors left us short on art for a new Spotlight Variant this month, which was not our intent. We know High Evolutionary is one of our most popular cards, so we decided to rerun him with a previous variant to give players another chance at the card. For those of you looking forward to a brand new variant, we’re sorry we didn’t deliver on that expectation.”

Q: What will happen if a player rolls the Spotlight High Evolutionary variant, but they already own it since it’s a rerun?
A: Stephen “The fallback when you already have the base card and the spotlight variant is a premium mystery variant.  You will see the premium mystery variant in the set of 4 rewards in the spotlight preview at the top of the CL track instead of a High Evo card”

Q: Any update to booster Magnets being added?
A: Stephen “We still plan to add more ways to target boosters in a future update.  It’s designed but not prioritized to be developed yet.”

Q: Are you still planning on changing the time of day new releases launch? So more players have access to try the new card and it not be so late?
A: Glenn “We’re still planning to make a change in this area when we can.”

Q: Will there ever be cards that have the ability to chose another card to effect?
A: Glenn “It’s possible, but I’m inclined to preserve using location choice as the primary decision around how a card applies. Adding a single modality doesn’t take our cards from 1 choice to 2, like many other games; it’s basically always multiplied by 3.”

Q: When designing Season Pass cards, do you hold them to a different standards compared to a regular new release?
A: Glenn “We don’t have different thresholds, but we may play the cards more and choose effects that are safer to risk being strong than we would for different effects. For example, Daken isn’t supposed to be stronger than X-23, but we wouldn’t have made Lady Deathstrike a Season Pass card at any rate, or push her strength a risky amount.

We prefer not to weaken Season Pass cards lightly, as we both have faith in our testing as well as the added consideration of how many players are enjoying their new card. We’re stewards of the content, and players should feel safe trusting that we take it seriously.”

Infinite Rank Questions

Q: What is the status of bots in post-infinite ladder now that the leaderboard is live. Are they in infinite or is it only real players?
A: Stephen “Only real players in infinite”

Q: With no bots in infinite now, does that mean longer que times?
A: Stephen “Yes that is possible. We are trying it out to see how everyone responds to no bots at infinite which is one of the most common requests we have seen since the games release.”

Q: Do SNAP Points reset after a season ends?
A: Glenn “SNAP Points purposefully don’t reset to 0, but we do adjust them at seasonal reset to reduce the impact of past seasons’ results and give players room to aspire to higher standings. We’ll use this season’s data with the feature live to improve that tuning for subsequent seasons and ensure they’re appropriately competitive.”

Q: Why do some players not have listed ranks in infinite when I match them?
A: Glenn “Great question, and one that’s meaningful now that more people are Infinite. Your leaderboard standing is actually only visible to your opponent if you’re in the Top 5000 players, and vice-versa. It’s a little bit of prestige for that accomplishment.”

Q: I had a match where me and my opponent tied an 8 cube match, but my infinity rank went down despite being a tie. Why?
A: Glenn “If the disparity in SNAP Points is high enough that one player is a clear “favorite” to win the game, then a tie is a negative outcome for that player (and a positive outcome for the other). In those cases, SP can be lost/gained even though the result was neutral.

However, your own SP isn’t the only way you could lose standing during this time. Other players near your placement could’ve simply outgained you while your game was playing out.”

Q: Why doesn’t infinite leaderboard track the highest cube count (the highest rank)?
A: Glenn “The leaderboard is a measure of skill, which is more than who has the most time to gather cubes. Cube gain rate is a part of the skill we want to measure, but not the whole of it, so SNAP Points calculate it alongside other variables.

For example, if the #1 chess player was just the person who won the most chess games in a year, that wouldn’t have the same meaning as the #1 player on ELO.”

Q: Is there a website or something that lists the global Infiniten Rank leaderboard?
A: KentErik “it’s something we are exploring. no timeline, however”

Q: Can you explain the Snap Point system? I could win 2 cubes and I get a (hypothetical) +7, and I could lose two cubes and I get a – 9. Rank drops real hard when you lose. Doesn’t pump when you win. And if you don’t play for 12 hours, you go from +\- 2300 to +\- 5500. How does this system work?
A: KentErik “great questions! the amount you gain / lose is influenced by a few factors, not just how many cubes were at stake. most significantly, it cares about your mmr vs. your opponents mmr, and ergo, who in theory should come out on top.

as for the not playing for 12 hours, what you’re probably experiencing is that a lot more players started getting to infinite in that time (as we’re still early in the season) and have higher snap points, thus bumping you down. (for example, imagine you were the first person to hit infinite after the season roll. you would be #1 on the leaderboard! … but then after another 1000 people hit infinite, they may have more snap points than you, and thus bump you from being #1 on the leadboard)”

Q: Can you explain why you lose SNAP Points after a win sometimes?
A: Glenn “You can’t lose SNAP Points after a win, but we have discovered a relatively infrequent visual bug that replays a previous game’s animation after you win, which can make it look that way. In every instance we’ve checked, the win was recorded correctly in the actual value, however.”

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: Why is Snap one of the very few digital CGs that don’t refund for nerfs?
A: Ben Brode “We want to be fairly aggressive with balance changes which means we are often nerfing the best cards. If we gave refunds, that means often the cards folks are buying end up just being free (they get the card and the 6K back).  This kind of inflation will result in the currency being somewhat useless.

We also want our designers to just nerf cards when it’s the right thing and not to have to worry about what this could do to the in-game economy.

Finally, when we nerf cards we aren’t trying to make them unplayable, just bring them into a fair position.  They should still be useful and you still have the card.”

Q: Are there plans in the near future to improve Collector’s Reserves, specifically regarding Gold and Tokens?
A: The developers have still mentioned they are watching feedback. They lately opened up a dedicated thread on the Discord feedback channel for players to put their thoughts and issues with Collector Reserves due to the high volume of complaints. So while no response yet, they appear to be taking notes.

Q: Would you ever release another big batch of cards (like when Series were released) for a new Series or an expansion?
A: Glenn “We have no plans to do anything like that again.”

Q: How are cards in the Token Shop shown? Is it random or a rotation?
A: The unowned section rotates through every card you don’t own until one of each is shown. After it reaches the end of every unowned card shown, a new rotation begins with a new shuffle.

Q: Why does Mister Negative only modify deck cards and Sauron works with both hand and deck cards? In addition to being easier to play because it costs 3, its effect “saves” cards you bought in advance.
A: No dev response, but I think there is a clear answer here. Sauron’s ability may make cards better, but he doesn’t make them free like Mr. Negative can. If Negative could transform your hand and deck, you would just play Negative on turn 5 and dump your hand of all cards on turn 6.

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!