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 July 18 through July 24.
  • This is not an exhaustive recap of every answer. We've picked out answers to questions that we either felt were the most interesting, enlightening, 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.
  • If you want to read our previous Developer Discord Recaps, they can be found here.

Nexus Event

  • They are currently listening to player feedback, but Ben is unsure what exactly will change.
  • They understand that a lot of people are disappointed with the current version.
  • Their stance remains that new cards represent "more options" rather than "more power."
  • Once they get internal clarity and are able to make decisions, they will let players know what is going to happen.
  • They hope that Marvel Snap lasts for decades or more.
  • The name "Nexus Event" was supposed to invoke the multiverse from Marvel; in hindsight, the word "event" has a different connotation in games and they should have gone with a different name.
  • The upcoming Nexus Event (Hela and Valkyrie) is already in the system. They're not sure what their options are with it - they can't just disable it server-side.
  • Any Nexus Event changes would require a new patch.
  • Their plan is to add in cool opening animations for Nexus Events. They were left out of this one because they wanted to get it live and start receiving player feedback.

Collection Level Road Changes

  • The original Collection Level design had every card laid out in a predetermined path for every player; the developers had more fun with the system once cards were randomized.
  • The current system isn't final. They're going to gather feedback and find things to improve.
  • Ben feels it's more exciting to open something every 12 levels (even if a card is not guaranteed).
  • The new system still gives new cards more quickly after CL 1500.
  • Odds for the Collector's Cache:
    • 15% for 150 Credits
    • 5% for 300 Credits
    • 15% for 15 Boosters
    • 5% for 30 Boosters
    • 10% for 150 Gold
    • 50% for a New Card
  • Odds for Collector's Reserve
    • 15% for 200 Credits
    • 5% for 400 Credits
    • 15% for 20 Boosters
    • 5% for 40 Boosters
    • 10% for 200 Gold
    • 25% for a New Card
    • 12.5% for a Variant
    • 12.5% for an Avatar
  • The new system is not entirely random: there are a set number of cards "shuffled" among a set amount of caches/reserves. All players have the same number of cards within the same number of caches/reserves, but the order in which they open them is unique.
  • The problem of "targeted card acquisition" is not going to be solved by changes to the Collection Level Road.
  • We covered Ben's initial breakdown of the Collection Level Changes here.

Credits and Boosters

  • There are two Credit options to buy in the Shop: 150 Credits and 500 Credits. With the new patch, they each can be purchased once per 24 hours.
  • They used to be available to be bought three times per 24 hours, but that was temporary until the developers could get Nexus Events started.
  • Credits were designed as the currency that players can buy to speed up their progress. Boosters exist because they wanted something players got every game, win or lose. 
  • The developers feel the current problem with Boosters (many players find them useless) can be solved by adding in more things to spend Boosters on.
  • There are some players that don't have enough Boosters.
  • There's a lot of work to be done in balancing the two currencies.

Card Balance

  • Usage rate is one of the main outputs of unbalance, but the main thing they look at to determine if a card needs changing is drawn winrate.
  • Community feedback is also a big part of their consideration.
  • They don't consider the Pool a card is in when nerfing it because of matchmaking. A Pool 1 card getting nerfed affects all Pool 1 players equally, and no Pool 1 players are going to be matched against Pool 3 players with more powerful cards.
  • They can only do balance changes when client patches go out, which is every 3-4 weeks. Right now, players should expect balance changes with every patch.

Missions

  • Players can hold up to six Season Pass missions at a time; the UI is confusing on this one because, when empty, the game only shows two empty slots.
  • Players are giving feedback that some missions are too difficult to complete. Some of this might be because the missions are no longer tied to a daily challenge and are instead designed to be completed at a slower pace.
  • The devs are tracking completion rates of all missions so they can adjust them in future seasons.
  • They are planning on streamlining the flow of claiming rewards from completed missions, making it require fewer button taps.

Locations

  • Locations with similar effects (i.e.- Death's Domain and Sanctum Sanctorum) can show up in the same game.
  • Limbo is an ongoing effect, and can be overwritten by changing it to another location (including on turn 6).
  • Ben likes the idea of a flavor interaction between cards and locations they're associated with, but thinks that special mechanical interactions (for example, Death's Domain not destroying Death) is unfair and would force players to memorize them all.

Miscellaneous

  • Ben likes interacting with the community and answering questions. If he doesn't know an answer, he knows someone who does and double checks his answers about sensitive subjects. He tries to look at the #ask-the-devs channel at least once a week.
  • Things they're planning on adding:
    • artist credits on cards and variants
    • an in-game inbox
    • more deck slots
  • They're not going to add a win streak bonus because it would undermine the snap system.
  • Ben's favorite superhero is Green Lantern. Among Marvel characters, it's Hulk.
  • Ben's flannel shirts do not count as a business expense.

Team Answers Transcript

Quote From Snap Developers

Nexus “event” is really upsetting for the riddicolous card drop rate and the underwhelming rewards (boosters, really?). Do you plan to rework it in order to make it cheaper / make it a real event (game mode?) and not just a loot box?

Ben Brode: right now we are listening to the feedback - too early to say exactly what might change (Source)

Are you committed to transparency and communication on both positive and negative feedback? I know it's only been a day and a half since the Nexus Events launch, but the silence feels deafening - when can we expect transparent and honest communication regarding the cost (up to $700/mo to get four new cards if one is unlucky, equal to average rent in some flyover states), the advertising (the 4-star tagline beneath the two new cards that are 5-star rewards), and the contrast between previous SD statements ("it's really important to us that you're not paying for power") and the seeming commitment to gacha-style loot box mechanics? If this is the direction the game is going, I would ask for clear communication of that vision going forward so players can make informed decisions. Thanks. (edit: corrected math. 2 cards per event at 150 pulls - hitting the pity timer each time and getting a variant on the second 50 pulls - at 180g per pull is roughly $350/event, so $700/mo)

Ben Brode: Yes, communication is super important! I try and hit this channel every few days and we've absolutely been monitoring since the patch.

It's clear that a lot of folks are disappointed Nexus Events and we hear you. We're still absorbing the feedback and discussing it internally. I know that's not an immediately satisfying answer, but it's the true one. We want to let people know immediately once any decisions are made.

Regarding the 4-star tagline, that was a huge mistake. We identified that as a problem before it shipped and somehow the fix didn't make the patch. We are trying to work on an emergency patch to fix that and some other bugs, but we're not sure how feasible it is to get it out quickly.

On the "paying for power" thing - our stance has always been that cards represent options - you can build many powerful decks that are different. No card is strictly 'more powerful'. But I understand that the cost here feels quite different than the $10 Season Pass card, and that changes how it feels. This is super valid feedback and part of what we're discussing.

I'd love to be even more clear, but in order to do that, we have to get clarity internally. That's our big next step.

We're here for the long-run and we're focused creating a great game that's fair and players will love. More from us soon. (Source)

What is the expected longevity of this game? Or at least the longevity the devs would like to see. The current price point provided seems to suggest the game is being designed to be more of a quick project than a long-term mainstay in the market. Which is cool and all, mobile gaming in 2022 and whatnot, but just curious what to expect.

Ben Brode: Our goal is for this to be a game players enjoy for decades or longer. (Source)

It sounds like you, folks, decided to change course along the way in regards to Nexus "Event", did you plan it to be something else originally? All the communication prior to it hinted at something more akin to a new game mode (i.e. actual event) and in the end it's a new gacha-like shop entry. Why did you decide to call something like that an "event"? There would've been much less outcry imo if you didn't hype it as something special and exciting 

Ben Brode: The naming was originally intended to be very Marvel-flavored, based on the Nexus Events from the TV Show Loki, where the multiverse fractures and new realities appear. That fantasy is kind of what we were shooting for by introducing cool new cards and variants. In hindsight, the word "event" has a lot more connotation in games that the "Nexus Events" don't deliver on. We should have named them something else. (Source)

You stated publicly on Thursday that the initial implementation of Nexus Events "Missed the Mark". This seems to indicate that you are working on some changes, but obviously this work takes times.

In the meantime, will you be releasing the Valkyrie/Hela Nexus Event near the end of the current Thor Love and Thunder as planned?

Ben Brode: not clear just yet - I don't think we can disable that stuff on the server-side, so I'm not sure what our options are there just yet. (Source)

If changes are made to the nexus event, will it be able to be done without waiting for thr next patch?

Ben Brode: unfortunately not (Source)

Will there be a cool animation for opening caches or nexus events in the future? Other gacha games have an iconic animation or cutscene when opening boxes, but Snap's rewards anticlimactically pop up on screen without any bling.

Ben Brode: that was always part of the plan, but we ran out of time for this initial patch and wanted to make sure we got initial feedback as soon as possible. I'm glad we did, there's a lot to process here. (Source)

Do you all have data that players actually want more randomness and loot boxes? You keep referring to them as “fun” but I know that’s not my definition of fun…

Ben Brode: We actually used to have all cards on the collection track laid out sequentially, and everyone unlocked every card in the same order. You could scroll up the track and see exactly where Deadpool was, for example. The team felt it was much less fun because there was no hope. Knowing it would be exactly 1 month away was… predictable. When we made the change to randomize the order of cards in the Collection Level, we started having a lot more fun with the system.

This isn't to say our Collection Level and card acquisition systems are perfect right now; I know we've been getting a lot of feedback on targeting and that's still an opportunity for improvement. But I personally am having more fun having something exciting to open every 12 levels than knowing I'm not going to get anything exciting until 96 levels from now. None of this is "data" - i don't know how exactly we'd get data about "fun" in a system like this. So we're relying on people giving feedback like this. Overall the system gives more cards more quickly after 1500 - so hopefully the presentation + the speed ends up feeling better than before. (Source)

Yesterday Ben mentioned you “think the new system is more FUN” which stuck out to me because why do the collection rewards need to be fun? Isn’t the actual gameplay itself fun enough to allow the collecting to be more deterministic and straightforward? Does a fun collection road just mean RNG everywhere and more often?

Ben Brode: Once upon a time the entire collection road was the same for everyone and every card was revealed. The game felt much more grindy and less fun when you knew the card you wanted was super far down the road. Having the hope that it might be your next card, and having each player have a slightly different journey felt much better. One of our big learnings over the course of development is that there are times when determinism feels good and times when randomness feels good.

One piece of feedback we've been getting is that folks want some more ability to target specific cards - we think that's super valid and we've been talking about ways to improve that some amount. But I think that's a separate concern from making the Collection Level more fun to interact with, and can be solved separately. (Source)

Is it possible to get the same breakdown for Collector's cache? (Found one for Reserve, and Season Cache but not the normal one)

Ben Brode: 15% - 150 Credits
5% - 300 Credits
15% - 15 Boosters
5% - 30 Boosters
10% - 150 Gold
50% - New Card (Source)

For the collectors reserve the only info I can see is

25% card
25% cosmetic
50% (inferred) currency

What is the split on the cosmetics (varient or avatar) and what is the split and amounts on the currencies?

Ben Brode: 15% - 200 Credits
5% - 400 Credits
15% - 20 Boosters
5% - 40 Boosters
10% - 200 Gold
25% - Card
12.5% - Variant
12.5% - Avatar (Source)

So lets say I just updated and start openning reservers fron CL 1000 and above. I open 2 and get a card (which I got lucky and got a card in the first 50%. Does this resets my chances to get another one in the next 4 or ? (Talking purely based on %. I know that is a bit different)

Ben Brode: we take X boxes, and shuffle Y cards into them. X and Y are same for everyone, but your order will be unique. So you can get cards back to back to back, for example, or evenly spaced within X. (Source)

I may have missed this in the patch notes, but can you only buy the 150 credit and 500 credit options in the shop once a day now? I remember it being 3 times per day a week ago.

Ben Brode: yes that's correct (Source)

Why lower the cap of purchasable credits? Is this to incentivize getting credits through nexus events? Thanks

Ben Brode: We imagined folks who wanted credits would buy nexus events instead of the credits from the shop. The original increase of purchase limit was just to fix things temporarily until we could launch Nexus events (Source)

Not trying to be negative here, but what is the thought process for having two currencies (boosters and credits) which only have the purpose of leveling up cards and must both be utilized? It seems that this can lead to 1 of 2 scenarios. 1) they player gains the two currencies in parity, which makes having two redundant, 2) the player winds up with an excess of one currency (for the vocal portion of the base, boosters) and not enough of another, which leads to player frustration. I can't think of an upside, unless one of the currencies had a different purpose which requires player to balances their resources between upgrading cards and said 2nd purpose.

Ben Brode: Well we wanted to have something that you can gain even when losing a game (boosters) as well as something that let us control the rate of progression some amount, that you could pay to speed up (Credits). I think a lot of the current problems we are experiencing with boosters is that there are not enough booster sinks, and we've been discussing ways to add more. Just not the biggest issue, currently. looks at Nexus Events (Source)

Can we please stop pretending "boosters" that we just get for playing the game are something players want on the CL prize track? Every streamer I watch always groans when they mention boosters on the CL track and now in Nexus Event pulls. Thanks. Love the game, think the monetization effort is toxic.

Ben Brode: Streamers are especially vulnerable to this because they tend to play a lot - and we don't have enough sinks for boosters. It's something we've been talking about and have some ideas for how to improve. There are a bunch of players who are buying the fast upgrades because they don't have enough boosters as well. We have some work to do to balance out these currencies better. (Source)

How exactly do you determine what cards are balanced? usage rate? win rate? community suggestions? If you do balance based on win and/or usage rate do you consider them for all ranks or only higher ranks?

Ben Brode: usage rate is the output of unbalance, usually. We look at "win rate", but "draw" winrate, not "play" winrate. i.e. does drawing this card increase your chances to win? Some cards that isn't the best metric for (like America Chavez), but it helps for cards like Infinaut. Community feedback is also a big part of the consideration. We look at high ranks and all ranks separately to get a full picture. (Source)

I've been wondering, why directly nerf the cards in the Zoo decks everyone uses and not just buff the cards that directly counter them? Doesn't nerfing such cards just inconvenience newer players who don't usually have the pool 3 cards that are dominant?

Ben Brode: well, pool 1 players only play against other pool 1 players, so they should never have to worry about playing against pool 3 players. (Source)

Sorry if this has been asked before, but can we expect any regular cycle for the balance changes? I settled on a deck I feel is pretty good and trying to climb before the season ends, I'd feel pretty bad if a key card gets nerfed before the season ends and I'd have to recalibrate

Ben Brode: right now during the beta we can only adjust balance during client patches, and those are coming every 3-4 weeks-ish. It's likely we will adjust something in each patch, especially right now. (Source)

Haven't seen this addressed anywhere but is the only holding 2 missions thing a bug or a mistake or intended design? It seems like a step backwards from the idea of more flexibility to earn weekly rewards. 12 mission slots would still be less than competitors but 2 feels incredibly ill-thought.

As is, if you miss 1 day of play (6 of 42 weekly missions), you would have to complete every other set of missions in a week to hit the end. Compare this to the previous version's 6/7 days required and it's severely worse. There are also only 6 days this week, meaning that missing a single 8 hour log in window puts you out of weekly rewards.

Hoping it's just visual tho slight_smile

EDIT: I see your response above now slight_smile

Ben Brode: you have 6 missions you can hold at once. We only show you 2 empty slots so you can see where the next 2 missions go. Not sure we nailed the UI - likely will change it up in the future (Source)

Do you think changing the weekly challenge's requirements makes it too difficult for players to complete it? I've played for a few hours each day this week, completing quests when I can. I'm at 20/35 which seems pretty crummy given the playtime invested.

Stephen: After seeing the feedback, I am going to watch this super close. We wanted to give players flexibility to complete missions whenever they want instead of tying it to a daily challenge. Unintended consequence are some players feeling it's too hard now.

Definitely open to lowering it to be easier to complete! Going to keep watching feedback and data. (Source)

The season pass missions seem pretty wildly unbalanced, some being play a bunch of 1 cost cards(easy) too win a location with over 20 power 25 times(Mind-numbing) or win a location with 1 card 20 times. Those ones are pretty circumstantial and grindy too the point of just being off-putting. Has there been any thought of maybe tweaking those too be more manageable or reasonable for progression?

Ben Brode: We are tracking completion rates of all these and I'm sure we'll be adjusting future season passes as we learn what is too hard and what is not fun. The intention is not to have them all be equivalent, though. We want texture in there, and it's ok if some of 'em takes a few weeks to complete, since you have the whole month to get 'em done. (Source)

Can the devs add a way to one-tap claim rewards when the mission complete popup appears on the home screen after a game? Currently there are too many taps involved with claiming mission rewards. Taking me to the missions tab to tap and claim rewards is too many taps as I also have to tap, tap, tap again from the missions tab to begin the next game. I just want to grab the goods and start my next match.

Daniela: Thank you for the feedback! We are planning to streamline the mission claiming flow (Source)

Are there any measures in place to prevent certain locations from showing up alongside others with similar effects? E.g. could I have a game with both Death's Domain and Sanctum Sanctorum?

Ben Brode: no, that's allowed (and crazy!) (Source)

Is Limbo an On Reveal effect or does the location need to stay as Limbo for there to be a Turn 7? I just had a game where Magik was revealed first, but then the location was overwritten by a Storm I played the same turn, resulting in no Turn 7 when I thought there was going to be one. Is this what’s intended?

Ben Brode: it's not an "on reveal" effect, it's an ongoing (Source)

Will there be certain cards that have special interactions with certain locations? Like Death not being destroyed when played in Death's Domain for example (Since its weird she gets destroyed in her own location ).

Ben Brode: I don't mind flavor interactions, but mechanical ones might seem unfair if you don't memorize them all (Source)

Just curious about the setup whenever devs come around here. Is Ben Brode the primary spokesperson who gives answers that the whole dev team agrees on? Are other devs in a meeting watching while you are rattling off answers? Do you guys have consultations before or after you intend on answering questions here? Do you guys have a set time of the day to answer these questions or are we potentially interrupting something important?

Ben Brode: I get a lot of personal enjoyment from interacting with the community and because of my position I get a lot of visibility into a lot of decisions, so I'm capable of answering more questions than other folks might be able to. I often shoot questions to other folks on the team and they sometimes send me an answer to post, or sometimes come in and answer themselves.

If i'm going to write a long post about a sensitive topic, I'll often just double check that I'm not putting my foot in my mouth or being an asshat with some folks on the team who are better than I am at this kind of writing.

I usually just try and grab a few minutes to answer questions between meetings, or in the evening to cool down before bed. I try to get to this channel at least once a week. (Source)

Seemed to be received well in feedback so I figured I'd ask here.

Any way that we could get artists credits in the game for the base cards and variants (maybe with social media links if available?) would love to know exactly who did the wonderful art!

Ben Brode: this is something we plan on adding (Source)

Are there any plans to implement an Inbox 📥 system? Most games I’ve played use an inbox to deliver items like “I’m sorry” packages (ie Nexus events didn’t hit the mark so we’re gifting everyone 10 free pulls!) to the players as well as important info and updates. I know there is a news section in game but I think an inbox would better hit the mark.

Stephen: Yes! We have plans to add an inbox. (Source)

Any chance we could get additional deck slots?

Ben Brode: yeah i could use more more slots too - we'll take a look (Source)

Since cube gain/loss is zero sum (assuming no bots), are there any plans to add cube gains while climbing, such as win streak bonuses at lower ranks?

Stephen: We have no plans tight now to add win streak bonuses. We feel it would skew decision making about whether to snap or retreat (Source)

Ben Brode what was your favorite super hero as a kid?, would that influence in how many card variant youll but in the store?

Ben Brode: don't tell Marvel… uh… green lantern

but in Marvel it's HULK -. And no I don't choose which variants we make cards for (Source)

Does Ben Brode's iconic flannel count as a business expense?

Ben Brode: gawd i WISH (Source)