September 2021 Questions from Players
We compiled the questions from the Questions for PerBlue thread and have organized them together! In some cases, if there were multiple instances of the same question, we’ve consolidated it down to a single question, or summarized it so we can give a more general answer. If you don’t see your specific question, we may have combined it in with another one on the same topic.
There are some questions that we can’t answer. We won’t talk about datamined heroes - there are sometimes bits in the game data that aren’t finalized or approved, and we can’t talk about heroes until they’re announced.
There’s a lot of questions asking about future heroes. Unfortunately, we can’t talk about heroes that haven’t been approved yet.
There was also a lot of feedback or requests that were not questions so you will not see them here. We do watch your requests, and we work to fit as many as we can into the roadmap.
Due to time constraints and wanting to make sure this was up prior to the Live Q&A some questions were not answered.
Guilds
- Any thoughts of maybe increasing guild sizes to 60 people and increasing checkin results for maybe more gems or a badge crate or two?
- [Polaris] - We feel like the guilds are right sized now. It’s more difficult to manage larger groups of people, resulting in more guilds that aren’t full, or have a lot of inactive members. Also having a larger guild size leads to fewer active and competitive guilds, which will have a very negative effect on war and contests.
- Thoughts of a guild help but with friends for the game? Or just removing the help guild caps?
- [PBLudwig] - Really like the idea of expanding the Aid feature to friends, definitely something we’ll consider. As for the Guild Aid caps, we probably won’t be removing those but can certainly look into expanding them.
- Are Guild Level 6, updates to existing perks, and new Guild Perks going to come to the game?
- [PBLudwig] - We’re always looking to expand our features so new Guild Levels and Perks are always a possibility.
- Is anything going to be done about war matchmaking? My 15th-ranked guild has lost 14 of our last 21 wars, yet we’re still in the top 10 in MMR and as a result have over half our matches fighting guilds with more than twice our power. We just can’t win those matches, and they’re keeping us from getting to Challenger, much less to Legendary. This is the one area of the game that genuinely makes me angry, and I’m honestly on the verge of leaving the game entirely because of it.
- [PBLudwig] - War matchmaking is something we’ve started to discuss internally and are definitely looking to make some improvements there. With our lower resources and the scale of adjusting a matchmaking system, we unfortunately haven’t had the ability to prioritize this at the moment but are hoping to be able to work on it soon.
- When will you allow players to have the choice to share resources with guild members or friends of their choosing?
- [PBLudwig] - We probably won’t open the economy in that way ever but we’re definitely interested in expanding on the Guild Aid feature to give players more opportunities to help out their guildmates and friends.
Heroes Related
- Any plans to make red skill chips easier to gain or any adjustment to red skill cost?
- [PBLudwig] - We are currently in the process of reevaluating our entire economy so this is certainly on the table for discussion.
- Any plans to make disk power easier to gain?
- [PBLudwig] - [same answer as above]
- Will the monthly number of heroes released increase?
- [Polaris] - We’re hoping so yes! As we said in the State of the Game post, our team is down a few members right now, but once we’re back up to full capacity, we should be able to release more heroes again. It probably won’t be 5 or 6 a month like we’ve done in the past, but likely more than the 2-3 average we’ve done recently.
- Any plans for an extra full hero refresh?
- [PBLudwig] - We are getting back into the swing of things here with committing to 1 Hero refresh in some of our releases. We’re also planning to try some other types of refreshes, mainly focusing on stats adjustments. If these go well we’ll certainly consider doing more
- Could we get some buffs on older heroes?
- [Polaris] - We are planning to do some stat buffs on heroes in the 3.5 update.
- Will costumes ever come back?
- [Coach] - This is unlikely! We love a good Hero costume but due to a multitude of reasons, they are not feasible for us to continue making.
- Is it possible that in the future a third friendship campaign be added to characters?
- [PBLudwig] - We have actually talked about this recently so it’s a possibility!
Heroes Specific
- Are characters from National Treasure (aka mainly Nicolas Cage playing Ben Gates) and some Jetix shows´ characters possible? (mainly asking about Super Monkey Team Hyperforce Go, which to my knowledge was made together with Disney Animations). Will there ever be anyone from the Owl House coming in the game?
- [Coach] - We can’t give our Hero list away, but if it’s made by Disney, we’ll consider it!
- When will we see a hero collection for Big Hero 6?
- [Coach] - ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
- Are there any plans to add Disney junior’s characters?
- [PBLudwig] - No current plans for this but worth considering!
- Are you planning to add new infected heroes to the main and friendship campaigns?
- [PBLudwig] - Yes!
- Why weren’t the Kim Possible characters added to the campaign as enemies?
- [PBLudwig] - No particular reason, but they will be added soon!
- Can we get a hint of some characters coming to the game?
- [Coach] - When looking ahead, you can look to the past!
- Are there any plans to refresh the Friendship campaigns as some of them are very difficult?
- [Polaris] When we did the refresh for the Friendship system in November, we added missions that allow you to collect power ups for that friend pair. If you find a campaign that’s too difficult, level up your heroes and gather up some power ups!
- When will New Hero Information come to the game?
- [Polaris] We have the design for this almost completed, but it was put on the back burner when we lost a few team members. It’s still on the list to do, but I don’t have a clear time right now.
- Why do some heroes just have 2 elite stages?
- [Polaris] - Newer released heroes are put into the more recent chapters in the campaign. As they get older they’ll be added to more locations.
- Are there any policies on live action characters, or is it case to case?
- [Coach] - We do have policies, and they vary case by case!
- What is the threshold for new Collections? Are themes possible - like pirates, for example?
- [PBLudwig] - We currently add collections based on IP and game mechanics but have started discussions for other possible groupings.
- Is there a specific time frame or waiting period for characters based on newly released movies?
- [Coach] - It all depends on how much information we receive, and when. Sometimes film content can be a moving target until very close to the release, so final decisions might take a while.
- Can Elsa’s first costume be unlockable?
- [Coach] - Elsa seems pretty comfortable in her current attire, so I don’t think so!
- Is it possible to add DuckTales 2017 characters?
- [Coach] - We are very conscientious about the versions or timelines of characters we add to that game who are from the same IP or franchise. Sometimes Disney will make the timeline/version decision for us. With that said, the version of our current DuckTales characters is not considered a part of the ‘2017 Ducktales universe.’
Badges
- How do you decide what references to include on badges and such?
- [Coach] - Our very lovely writers choose which content our new Badges will reference. Sometimes they’re inspired by recent shows, films or shorts they may have seen, and sometimes they’re just random!
- Does the process for making badges take a long time? Especially art.
- [Coach] - Time is relative! The process for making badges does not take very long – relative to our process for making characters, that is.
- Could you retire the old Red Badges (now Yellow) system of needing another Red/Yellow badge to craft and Orange/Red badge to craft with 2 new Bits? Can it be changed for only needing one Yellow badge and 3 bits (with presumably the 3rd one being one of the two needed for the last badges of the rank)?
- [PBLudwig] - We’re taking a look at our whole economy at the moment including crafting recipes.
Crates / Contests / Invasion / Events / City Watch
- Why do new heroes not go into Diamond Crates anymore?
- [Polaris] - They will eventually! We know that Diamond Crates aren’t that exciting for some players, so the Prize Wall is a way to introduce new heroes into the game that’s a more rewarding experience. New heroes will move through the process and be exclusive to the Diamond Crates at some point.
- Wish Crate and new Invasion boss update?
- [PBLudwig] - You might be seeing the Wish Crate sooner than you think!
- Can you include invasion or heists in a contest? Can you change Fortify the Network to include something other than just stamina and gems? Can FTN contests be a guild contest? Can we get special invasions that have better rewards then normal week of invasion more often?
- [Polaris] - We can pass those requests along to the Live Ops team to think about!
- When opening diamond crates and you have heroes that are already unlocked, why are some 30 hero chips, some 7 and some 13?
- [Polaris] - The number of chips awarded is based on the starting star level of that hero. One star is 7 chips, two star is 18 chips, and three star is 30 chips.
- Could you scale the contest requirements for everyone by their total power, team power, whichever mechanic there is to keep an even chance for all players? Why doesn’t the Fortify the Network contest have a stable range of diamond requirements that is not detrimental to other diamond expenditures in the game?
- [Polaris] - When the Live Ops team sets up the contests, they look at the resources currently in the game among the active players to determine the points requirements.
- You guys mentioned in the last Q&A that you will refresh the Market, simplify crafting trees, and implement Invasion boss quick fight, is that still being worked on?
- [Polaris] - There is quick fight for Invasion Bosses. Also Auto Quick Fight for the Breaker Quests. Updating the Markets and simplifying crafting trees are on the back burner at the moment.
Economy
- Will there be another way to get XP drinks outside of the Port and raiding the campaign sometime in the future?
- [PBLudwig] - We don’t have plans to offer Hero XP in new modes as of right now, we’re mainly focused on adjusting the amounts given out in current modes to make sure they are keeping up with progression.
- Why does it take so long to scale mega bit drops?
- [PBLudwig] - With our reduced resources on the team this unfortunately had to get deprioritized in the short term as people shifted into new roles and responsibilities. As we’re scaling back up here this is a top priority item to review and adjust by end of the year.
Game Design / Production
- Any new exciting game modes (like invasion/codebase) planned to be released?
- [Polaris] - Not anything that I can talk about yet!
- Hardest character currently in the game to design skills for and why?
- [Polaris] I asked the character design team this question and they said there are some doozies coming next year!
- How much of the game’s profit goes to its developers and how much goes to Disney?
- [Polaris] - This is a confidential part of our contract with Disney and not something I can share.
- Can you post your stats you say you review to be more transparent?
- [Polaris] - Posting the data without all the context that we use to look at it isn’t going to make things more transparent but make things more confusing. We collect data on everything for every player, and I mean every single thing that happens in the game, and we have a team of analysts that manage and review that data to inform all our decisions.
- Why are account mergers only done when servers are merged?
- [Polaris] We only allow account consolidation when servers are merged because players shouldn’t have more than one account on a single server. We recognize that after a server merge, players might not want to maintain 2 accounts on the same server, so we give a window of opportunity to consolidate resources into a single account.
- What makes you decide what is a priority and what isn’t to bring to the game?
- [Polaris] - There’s a lot of things that factor into the decisions of if something is added to the game and what the priority is. We have tons of great ideas, but we just can’t add some of them due to code limitations, or the amount of time it would take to implement or maintain. We have a roadmap that plans out what we’re going to work on for the next 6 months. Most of that is based on keeping the game fun and engaging. We do like to take player feedback and add that into our adjustments - keeping space for Quality of Life improvements is important! Also, anticipating or reacting to changes in the market. Our first priority is making sure the game is stable, sustainable, and a fun experience. If something doesn’t meet those expectations, we won’t put it in the game.
- Why are updates done around 12 pm est and not the night before?
- [Polaris] - We schedule the updates for when we’re in the office! Work/life balance is very important to us so we don’t ask our teams to work evenings or weekends. Sometimes there’s an emergency that needs attention outside business hours, but overall, we try to keep work and life separate. We also try to do the updates in the first half of the day so we can react to any bugs or issues that might pop up.
- How do you plan to maintain the health of the game?
- [Polaris] - We plan to keep adding new heroes, refreshing old heroes, making quality of life improvements to make the game more fun, adjusting economies and rewards as needed, and introducing new events to keep things interesting. We are dedicated to keeping the game growing and fun for many years to come.
- It’s commonly believed that developers have certain months that tend to feature themes - like villains for October - do you try to hit themes? Is there a favorite new character theme?
- [Coach] - We do like to try and plan for a thematic nod to seasons, film or show releases, Disney celebrations, or even world events like the Olympics! Our schedule sometimes can’t align perfectly, but we do put the effort in.
- Why did you decide to change the hero rotation schedule recently to remove the Sign in → VIP → Guild crate → City watch shop rotation?
- [Polaris] - Before the rotation change, there had been heroes “stuck” in event exclusive slots for months longer than we planned. We want to keep those heroes fresh and moving, so the team created a new rotation system that will keep them moving!
- Any plans for updating Heists?
- [Polaris] It isn’t on the short-term roadmap, but I do know this is a game mode that players have given us a lot of feedback about. It’s on the list!
Random
- Favorite Disney character?
- [Coach] - Raya!
- [Polaris] - So many to choose from I can’t pick one! Pascal is for sure my favorite side kick!
- [Loutre] - Dug!
- Favorite non-Disney character?
- [Coach] - Eleven, from Stranger Things
- [Loutre] - Marty McFly
- Favorite food?
- [Polaris] - Chocolate
- [Loutre] - BLT
- Last video game played besides DHBM?
- [Loutre] - Apex and It Takes Two
- Best Disney park food or snack?
- [Coach] - The seasonal Dole Whip Float, always!
- [Loutre] - Mickey pretzel!!!
- Which Disney or Pixar franchise is your favorite?
- [Loutre] - I don’t know if it counts, but all things Haunted Mansion
