The Developers at Second Dinner have been answering player's questions over on the Marvel Snap Discord. We've gone through to find the most interesting answers from the past week and summarized them for you here.

  • This recap covers answers given on the Discord from June 27 through July 2.
  • This is not an exhaustive recap of every answer. We've picked out answers to questions that we either felt were of the most import or provided additional context to previous answers.
  • The transcript below covers the full answers given to the points we've summarized; for the full experience you'll have to scroll through the Discord and see what we haven't covered.
  • Don't forget to brush your teeth.

Balance Patch 2.0 and Nerf Refunds

  • They've updated their patch notes with two additional items.
  • Destroyer got buffed to a [6/16] (Was: [6/14]).
  • New location: Attilan: On turn 4, shuffle your hand into your deck. Draw 3 cards.
  • If you missed the patch notes, we got those for you here.
  • They have no plans to compensate players when cards get nerfed.
  • Their reasoning is that upgrading a card still benefits your account by moving you up the Collection Road.

Eventual Release Plans

  • There is no ETA for the game's release in the USA.
  • When Snap comes to PC, it will be available on Steam.
  • iOS players can play Marvel Snap as soon as it becomes available in their region.
  • With most release questions, it's still too early to answer.

Booster Limit

  • The Booster Cap only applies to Boosters gained from playing games.
  • They've always planned on having a Booster cap; it didn't make it into 1.0.
  • Moving up your Collection Level requires both Boosters and Credits; Credits already had a daily cap on them.
  • The problem was that some players were playing a lot and gaining more Boosters than they could ever use with their Credits to up their Collection Level.
  • There's consideration for getting rid of Boosters and just using Credits to boost CL, but they want a currency players get win or lose.
  • They're discussing other options to keep the two currencies in balance.
  • The Booster Limit reset is currently offset from the daily mission reset; they will tie it to server reset in the future.
  • If they change the Booster Limit, they can hotfix it; it won't require a client update.

Season Pass

  • The current season (and Season Pass) is ending on Monday at 8 PM PST. Future seasons will likely end on Tuesdays at 12 PM PST.
  • The next season will have a brand new card in the Season Pass.
  • Cards available from Season Pass (like Wave right now) will become available on the Collection Road one month after the Season Pass ends.
  • The original design of Season Pass included exclusive art pages; they hope to add it in the future.
  • Purchasing the Premium+ Pass gives the player ten levels above their current level (i.e.- if they are at 30 it will take them to 40).
  • Players can earn season XP from Season missions, Daily missions, the Weekly Challenge, as well as 10XP for every location won and 1 XP for each turn played.

Nexus Events

  • Nexus Events will cost Gold to enter.
  • Nexus Events are still a ways down the road.
  • More details are coming soon.

MMR

  • MMR is hidden from players because it involves a lot of inputs that make the calculations non-obvious and subject to frequent inexplicable changes. If it was public there would be more focus on why the numbers change.
  • Bot games do affect your MMR. Bot decks are matched based on collection level; bot difficulty is tied to MMR and rank.
  • The number of cubes won or lost in a game impacts the MMR adjustment.
  • Season reset adjusts using your current rank, not your highest.

Regions and Global Matchmaking

  • They assign a player's region based on which one is fastest.
  • Currently players are only matched within their region.
  • They are working on global matchmaking.
  • Timeline is "over the next few months."

Friends

  • Playing against friends is still a few patches away.
  • They want to do cool social stuff in the future. This could include a clan system.

Cosmetics

  • All of the base art and most of the variants are art that was made specifically for Marvel Snap.
  • They are working on adding more avatars to the game.
  • There are other types of cosmetics that they hope to add in the future.
  • There were early pitches for announcer voicepacks, and it's something that some members of the team really want to push for. The biggest roadblock is localization.
  • They won't be translating or changing card logos for non-English speaking regions; their initial tests indicated players preferred the stylized English logo with a cool subtitle.

Future Patches

  • They have a schedule they'd like to follow for patches, but expect things won't always go according to schedule.
  • They still have to do a client patch for balance updates; hotfix capability is not live.
  • A bug involving Infinite Split counts of a base card not carrying over to a Variant will be fixed in the next patch.
  • Next patch will also give players more control over FPS and graphics quality.
  • A future patch will also separate volume controls for music, sfx, and voiceover.

Ben Brode's Snap Experience

  • Developers do not have access to every card, and they do not get any gold or items for free. They have to earn (or buy) things just like every other player.
  • Ben has recently been rockin' Korg to great effect.
  • The funniest bug he's seen is when he played Morph against an opponent whose only card in hand was Morph, and they just kept copying each other.

Team Answers Transcript

Quote From Snap Developers

What happens to nerfed cards that I've spent a lot of credits upgrading? Will any of those credits be rewarded back?

Stephen: We currently have no plans to compensate for nerfs. Our reasoning is that the upgrades still benefit your account and do not impact your ability to compete (Source)

hi. did you intend to buff destroyer and just left it out of patch notes by accident?

rada: Buff intended and absence from patch [notes] was a mistake (Source)

Do you have a eta for the game in the USA

Ben Brode: Not yet be we are crankin' as fast as we can! (Source)

I haven't seen this answered by a dev so, will the game come out on Steam when the PC port comes out?

Stephen: Yup! (Source)

When will iOS be able to play this game?

Ben Brode: When the game becomes available in your region! (Source)

Will there be an option to sign in via iOS when the game launches on Steam or PC?

Ben Brode: still workin' on PC - too early to answer, sorry! (Source)

RE: Booster cap situation

Ben Brode: Hello friends!

We had always been planning to add a booster cap but it didn't make the cut for our 1.0 build.

The reason is because if you have 2 currencies, a capped one, and an uncapped one, eventually the uncapped currency can become just 100% useless over time for the most engaged players, since in order to realize any actual value (collection level), you need the capped currency, but you can't get enough of it to convert your boosters to CL. What we were seeing was that most players are gaining enough boosters per day to stay in balance with credits, but a few players who were playing a LOT were increasing their hoard of boosters in a way that would end up with them having thousands of boosters they'd never be able to use. It's clearly a broken system, and we never intended for it to work that way.

If boosters are useless, we could just remove them and make upgrading just use credits. However, we think it's important that there's a currency you get win or lose, because it reduces the sting of loss. Therefore we need to find a way for boosters to remain a desirable currency. The booster cap is one approach we knew we could implement quickly in the short time we had to prepare this patch. We're also discussing other options to keep our currencies more in balance, and both consistently desirable.

One thing that we didn't make very clear - the daily booster limit only applies to boosters you gain by playing games, not ones you've claimed from other sources like Collection Level. (Source)

Just started getting boosters 2 hours before the day resets. Was the cap made larger / removed or is it on a different reset time than daily missions?

Stephen: It is currently offset. We will tie it to server reset in the future. We have made no changes to the booster cap yet. We are still actively discussing it internally and looking at data and feedback. (Source)

Will you need to patch the client again to increase the booster limit or will it just happen once you decide on what the change should be?

Stephen: We are still discussing it. If we change the limit, we can hotfix it so it won't require a client update. (Source)

With the battle pass ending tomorrow will the new one instantly begin, and if so will there be a brand new card like wave?

Stephen: Yes there will be a new season when Atlantis ends. It will have a brand new card in the season pass as well. (Source)

It's Monday at 8pm PST for this season. We will probably shift it a little for future seasons to Tuesdays at 12pm pst to make. it easier on the team to be in the office at season change. (Source)

Is there really no other way to obtain Wave but to forcefully buy the Season Pass? I'm finished with the Season Pass but sadly I don't have a job and money to buy Wave and get all the other exclusive rewards. I sure hope we get the Dream Ticket Feature just like in Duel Links where we can use it to get any card we want.

Ben Brode: She will be entering the Collection Level Road 1 month after the Season Pass ends (Source)

You said Wave won't enter the collection path until after the next season.

Is this going to be the pattern for all season pass cards or just during the beta/Wave?

Ben Brode: That's the current plan. (Source)

Not a question per se but rather a suggestion to spice up future season passes with either an animation or a mini comic? If those will cost too much in terms of time and finances, then a simple splash page page will suffice. It will be nice for a visual art to go together with each of the chapters ie. we could see art of Wave on a Surfboard for Ch1, Garganto sunbathing for Ch2 or Namor stepping on an urchin for Ch3 etc

Stephen: Want to do this so bad! It was part of the original season pass design. Hope we get to do it in the future! (Source)

If we purchase the premium+ pass, will it give you 10 additional levels on top of your current level? Such as, if you are level 30 the pass will bring you to 40, or is it only the first initial 10 levels?

Stephen: It will give you 10 levels above where you currently are, so in your example it would take you to 40. (Source)

Sorry if this is a "newb" question (and I checked pinned and searched).. Other than the season pass quests, how do you get season pass points? I'm at 675/1000 to get 50 but I've done all of the season pass quests

Stephen: You can get season XP from:

-Season missions

-Daily missions

-Weekly Challenge

-Winning Locations

-Turns Played (Source)

Will Nexus Events cost money or will players be able to participate with Gold?

Ben Brode: Gold (Source)

Are we gonna get a head up as to the gold pricing/frequency of nexus events before they start happening? I wanna know how much I should be hoarding my gold

Ben Brode: We're working on stuff but they're not in this next patch so it's going to be a little bit! (Source)

Can we get any juicy deets on how nexus events might work? I'm sitting on a pot of gold over here, itching to use it to get as many new cards as possible

Ben Brode: Nexus event deets coming soon! (Source)

What's the reason for keeping MMR private if you internally have that information?

Ben Brode: in other games we often have to "renormalize" MMR so that new players entering the system are matched approrpriately. This means that MMR may change frequently and suddenly without notice or obvious public reasoning. It's also often calculated in ways that use other hidden information (other players' MMR's, and our confidence in your MMR, for example) that make the calculations non-obvious. If it's public then there will be a lot of focus on how exactly the numbers change and we don't think it'll feel very good. (Source)

Do bot games affect your MMR?

Stephen: Yes they do! They affect it differently than players though

Follow up: are the bot decks you face based on MMR or collection level (or some combination thereof)?

Stephen: Bot Decks are based off collection level. Bot difficulty is more complex but has some correlation with mmr and rank (Source)

Does an 8-cube win boost my MMR more than a 1-cube win, or are all wins/losses weighted equally regardless of cubes?

Ben Brode: yes, cubes won or lost have an impact on MMR adjustment

i believe 8 cubes = 8x the MMR impact (Source)

im not sure if this was asked previously..let's say you reach infinite rank but drop to a lower rank by the end of the season. Will the system record the highest rank attained or use your current rank as basis of your placement un the next season?

Ben Brode: Current rank but I believe there is a rank floor at Infinite (Source)

would you be willing to provide any more details on how players are currently being split into different shards/server pools for matchmaking? is it by location (e.g., NA/EU/Asia)? by launch type (PH release/closed beta)?

Ben Brode: yes, we assign you a region based on which is fastest for you. This can be affected by VPN. You are currently only matched against people in the same region. We are working on "global matchmaking" which should make your "home region" much less important. Timeline for that is "over the next few months". (Source)

When we can add friend and play with friends??

Ben Brode: playing against friends is still a few patches away but it's important and we are definitely going to do it! (Source)

Will there be an alliance/ clan system with weekly objectives?

Stephen: We want to do some awesome social stuff in the future! (Source)

Do you have artists making new art for some cards or do they all come from already made comics/other works?

Ben Brode: All of the base cards and a huge number of the variants are art we created exclusively for Marvel Snap! (Source)

Who do I need to bribe for a Gambit Avatar being added to the game? (or a better question, is there a plan to have avatars for all the characters eventually?)

Stephen: We are working on ways to get more avatars! Coming soon (Source)

Are there plans to include accessories ("pets", game boards, profile customizations such as titles, ect.) down the road?

Stephen: We want to do a bunch of cool cosmetic types in the future! (Source)

Are you planning to do announcer voicepacks and put them in the store? Like, a Lizard announcer would sound great or a Spider-Man one or even joke ones like a baby announcer

TheChrisAlan: This concept was suggested before actually and I personally really love the idea of doing something like this! It's definitely something I plan to bring to the team for more thorough discussion and exploration! I must say though, the biggest challenge with something like this will be localization… So I can't say for sure whether or not we will definitely do this someday, but I can say that I would LOVE to find a way! (Source)

Since Christ mentioned localization I wanna ask how you guys plan to localize card names since all of them are stylized. I guess for popular characters this wont be a problem, since most likely their solo comics already have versions of stylized logos for their names in other languages, but what about cards that never had a solo comics run, so you had to come up with your own logo for them. Will you also make stylized logos for them in other languages? This sounds like a lot of work.

Ben Brode: We did some tests in different regions and it seemed like most folks preferred the english logos with a cool subtitle, so that's our plan (Source)

During the beta are you going to do patches on a set schedule or will they mainly align when everything is wrapped up?

Ben Brode: we have a desired schedule but also we are working on our processes so things are not likely to go according to schedule all the time (Source)

Were you folks able to get the hotfix capability in with this new patch?

rada: Sadly not yet (Source)

Hi Stephen, you were looking into split counts not being carried over onto variant (ie if someone split iron man 4 times, then split an iron man variant once, the variant would just get the initial split). Was this fixed in the patch?

Stephen: Looks like it didn't make this patch but it should be in the next one. (Source)

Can we please have more graphic options in the settings? sometimes i like to play on max graphics low fps, sometimes its low graphics max fps to have some type of control over battery consumption

Stephen: We are working on separating out the FPS and quality. Should be in the next update I think (Source)

Will an option be added in a future patch to disable the voice cues for victory/defeat/escape?

TheChrisAlan: Yes! Not sure exactly when this will get implemented but we plan to give you control of the volume for music, sfx, and VO all separately. (Source)

Having faced Ben Brode in the game, I'm curious. Is he building his collection like the rest of us, or does he have access to all of the currently released cards? Same question for the rest of the devs as well.

Stephen: We are all playing like everyone else. We do not get any gold or items for free. We have to spend our own money if we want something as well. Our goal is to experience the same thing as everyone else as much as we can plus we love playing the game too. (Source)

What are your goals in terms of balance moving forward? Will current mediocre Cards like Hulk or Korg ever have a chance to be viable? Or are they just stepping stones?

Ben Brode: Korg is actually not bad according to our balance numbers. I've been rockin' him to great effect (Source)

What’s the funniest or strangest bug you’ve come across while making the game ?

Ben Brode: I played Morph and my opponent only had Morph in their hand. Morph copied Morph who copied Morph who copied Morph….. Some say that game is still resolving to this day (Source)