What’s up, doc?
Please find here the transcript of a looney Q&A that happened on Discord between different members of the development team and the community. You’re not on Discord, you say? Well, what are you waiting for!
Haruki (community manager): Hey there everyone, how are you doing? Thanks a lot for joining us today in this session! So today I have: @gossamur and @BarnyardDawg , roadmap managers; @PM_Rev , live operations manager; and @Sweeney Bugs, @martianduck and @leopold, game designers. They bravely volunteer to be here today.
We start quite hot on this one. Player Zozo asks: “When is the new arena coming?”
BarnyardDawg: There is some movement for the new arena. Right now, we expect to relaunch arena in late-March. That being said, you will see some arena events as part of upcoming events before then.
Haruki: You are still in for a podcast about this topic?
BarnyardDawg: Sure thing! Count me in for a podcast.
Haruki: Our very own @๐ ๐ซ๐๐พ๐๐ธ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐ ๐น๐พ๐๐ ๐ got a very interesting set of questions over here. First one: “Why don’t you eventually make event toons farmable?”
Martianduck: The short answer is: we want to have event-exclusive toons because we want players to engage with the game having clear long term goals, which is, in this case, unlocking and upgrading these toons.
Despite this, making event toons farmable is viable, and this strategy is called “Content Waterfall”. I do believe that having a specific toon being exclusive in the events have an “expiration date”, because the player base, no matter how long it takes, will eventually have this toon maxed out. New players will always have this long term goal if we never change it, but veterans will stop engaging with an event that rewards something they already have. That’s one of the reasons we release new toons and put them in the events.
Now, I do believe it has been a long time since we don’t change the event exclusive pool of toons, but also, we do have some cases where event-exclusive toon takes too long to have a re-run. I do believe we need to review our current strategy and make changes to please our design intentions, new players and especially veterans.
Haruki: And connected to that one, also from @๐ ๐ซ๐๐พ๐๐ธ๐๐๐ ๐ฎ๐ ๐ถ๐๐๐๐ ๐น๐พ๐๐ ๐ : “Why instead remove farmable toons and make them event only?”
Martianduck: Recent changes to the game (aka new campaign, reatomizers and wheels) set the base to have a healthy toon source distribution between features in the game, and it takes into account healthy game retention, which favors everybody (including veteran players). It is the first initiative to accomplish some of the goals that I have mentioned earlier.
We do understand that we still have a lot to do to make this right, but we cannot wait to release a massive big change without player feedbacks and data, that is why we released this first step. Feedbacks about the impact of having different toons available in campaign, reatomizers, and wheels are always welcome.
Haruki: Oki doki, let’s move to Quality of Life improvements. Player Duck sent us the following: “Instead of clicking 10x in the toon store for something, could we add a sliding scale from 1-10 items and buy once? It’s frustrating sometimes to click 10 times for something.”
Sweeny Bugs: Sure!! Yes! Quality of life stuff, please! AAAND this is a topic of one of our future updates, players will be able to multi-purchase to prevent the need for endless clicks…
BarnyardDawg: I was literally working on this improvement before this Q&A interrupted my flow!
Haruki: Yeah, sure… Now we move to a rather (in)famous toon in World of Mayhem. Player ShyGuyz is asking “Will there be any events to unlock Marvin?” (He was not in the events poll, mind you…)
Leopold: We actually just finished Marvin’s rework. I’ll say that we didn’t totally redesign the kit but brought it up to the power level of more recent toons. Marvin is the closest thing WoM has to a “big bad guy,” so it’s important that he feels like one.
PM_Rev: Well seeing as my avatar is Marvin I guess I should chime in. I really wish I could spill all the beans and tell you exactly when the event is but let’s just say I have a feeling you won’t need to wait much longer at all ;). P.S: MARVIN = BEST TOON EVER.
Martianduck: I hate Marvin, look what he did to my avatar…
Haruki: Ok, next question! We jump from EPIC to LEGENDARY… Player jadkins2263 asks “What will the path to acquiring legendary toon pieces be in the future? To this point I haven’t collected enough to unlock one, and even if I had one, being unable to task it seems like a fail.”
Gossamur: @martianduck already talked about this a little bit, but our intent with Legendaries – and most toons for that matter – is to offer a clear set of requirements along with a schedule of how to go after them.
Think of this as a map, that starts from the toons you desire the most and goes down to what teams you need to unlock them, from what feature and when. We’re actively working on this right now – the new Campaign is the first piece of the puzzle – and you will see more and more elements come through over the next few months.
Haruki: #soon then…
Gossamur: Hey, next few months is way better than “soon TM”.
Haruki: Let’s move forward with player Cabers TCE, who asks: “When can we expect the level cap to be raised higher than 59? Seems to be a shame letting all the XP from the new campaign going to waste…”
Sweeny Bugs: Hmm… Yeah, we are actively designing what’s the next step in the player journey and raising the level cap is a big part of that. There is a LOT that goes with it, believe me. We don’t want to just increase the number.
We aspire to create a meaningful journey with interesting content to play through. And, you all will start seeing the results of this work in the upcoming months.
Haruki: Player Lovebot (and others) wants to know: “What are your plans for extra pieces on maxed out toons?”
Gossamur: Oh boy, this is a big pain point and one that as loooong time player I get it myself too often. Just like extending the level cap, we consider extending the use for character pieces a significant part of the motivation to keep playing. I can’t share the specifics of the plan yet, though. I can say that:
1. There’s going to be used for all those excess pieces you’ve been collecting. 2. It’s coming in 2020
and 3. It’s not going to be Red Stars
Haruki: A very important one, from a Taiwan Teacher: “Will the Acme Store return? Will we have a chance to use our rockets and Bugs masks?”
PM_Rev: Yes. It will return! Canโt promise it will be new, but at the very least, a return of the older exchanges will appear so you can use all the currency you have inside your accounts. Sitting on tons of (acme) currency that cannot be spent isnโt fair to you all and you’ll absolutely be able to exchange those at some point soon.
We will also be better with our transparency and communication about things like this in the future. I will do my best to communicate to you guys (either directly or via Haruki), what additions or changes are coming to the events/stores with a fair amount of time for you guys to prepare/react!
Haruki: Question from WoodenWarrior108, “How often do you plan to do character reworks?“
Leopold: As often as our resources and event scheduling allow, to be honest. This game has many characters, and many of them were designed in eras we’ve meaningfully left, so people like @Han Sel and I are committed to bringing as many of those olds toons into relevance as possible.
For clarity, the content team (and many others on this game) hold team-building as a gameplay dynamic near and dear to our hearts. The more viable pieces exist, the more interesting that process can be.
Haruki: Player Toontown19 asks: “Can it be possible in the future to create a โclear brawl crate bankโ feature and just โtake the lossโ? Having to go through the motions of losing to a far superior opponent who has basically already stolen your crate just to clear the bank is very annoying.“
Sweeny Bugs: Oh! Let me be the quality of life guy here!!! Yes, we are working on the quality of life improvements, such as the surrender button, for example.
But, to be honest, the solution for the Brawl isn’t about “take the loss”, we are trying our best to find a proper way to use this feature, focusing on fair play and progression.
Haruki: I’ve got a question from Rambo, by the way. “What are you currently working on? Any beans you can spill?”
Gossamur: We have a few initiatives in flight, some will take longer than others to show up. A couple that are coming sooner and I am really excited about are.
1) Big push on stability and “snappiness”. Our goal here is to significantly reduce what we call “low-quality time”, which is the time where you have to stare at spinners and roadrunners when interacting with the UI. You’ll start seeing these improvements when claiming quests, auto-winning campaign battles, exchanging currency at the store, etc.
2) Alliance Wars is getting a new set of Maps to fight on – and I am talking about whole archipelagos, not just islands. This will allow alliances with fewer members to participate in smaller maps, while bigger alliances will have the chance to really lean into their strategies in more challenging, bigger maps.
Haruki: Jumping onto the next one. Player Jonathan asks: “I was wondering if building character attributes through their battling has been discussed? For example: the more I use Bugs Bunny in my battles the more he could grow in the skills department.”
Martianduck: I don’t think we ever discussed it, but looking at the battle design strategy and toon progression axis as it is, I don’t think it would really fit considering the current state of the game, at least not in the skill progression matter.
Maybe what you are looking for is to be rewarded by battling a lot with a toon that you love so much, and this brings to me some ideas. Not in the roadmap right now, though.
Haruki: And now a question about new modes, which is something that a lot of players wonder about, no doubt. Player Good looking (…) asks “Will there be a PvE raid for alliances?”
Gossamur: Short answer is: Definitely… at some point! Alliance and social activity is a big part of what’s fun in Looney. We see this every day in the game and browsing Discord and Reddit. I think there’s a lot more to do in that space. Although we love the competitive nature of Alliance Wars, there’s something about teaming up with a friend against a big bad, over the top boss that builds the camaraderie we are looking for.
Anyway, more Social and Alliance features? PvE Raids? Yes. When will each social feature be released? I can’t say yet.
Haruki: And connected to Alliance Wars, player Froppy asks “Are you going to reduce the time in the enlistment phase?”
BarnyardDawg: Since we launched Alliance Wars, we’ve been collecting a lot of feedback from players about every aspect of the game mode. We’re already working against some of the feedback we’ve received and I can say with certainty that you can expect some changes to the plunder campaign coming soon.
When it comes to designs we would like to iterate on, War frequency and phase durations are certainly on the table. That being said, these changes are further away from going live at the moment. I would not expect changes to the Alliance Wars schedule soon.
Sweeny Bugs: Now < Soon < Not Soon < End of time.
Haruki: And last one from my list, which is about… Taz. Player Bill asks “Will we ever be able to obtain Taz outside of a wheel? Can his legendary arena event come back?”
Gossamur: Taz will come back as an event or feature reward for sure.
Haruki: Let’s get some more questions from the #event-chat room. Quick ones, please. For instance: “what’s up with Cupid Elmer’s portrait?”
Gossamur: I had the same question when I first saw it. Turns out, that’s the intended style as it reflects the actual design from the source cartoon. Honestly, it’s grown on me and I want him more just because of his portrait now.
Haruki: Ok, another quick one: “K-9 character “soon”?”
Sweeny Bugs: No.
Haruki: “What about increasing the number of toon tasks?” Is this something you guys are contemplating?
Weeny Bugs: For the time being, no.
Haruki: Question about the events poll, @PM_Rev – “when will we implement the community winner?” I guess, next month?
PM_Rev: Yep! We have “Fan Vote” events scheduled into our timeline already. Expect to see the first one in March! Remember these are re-runs of a previous event so choose wisely! My spider senses are telling me that you want Outback Dawg… Weird.
