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It’s easy to see why MSF has had so much doom and gloom talk over the years. So many of the best decisions in MSF came in direct response to some of the absolute worst decisions in MSF. Despite repeated claims of the game’s demise over the years, there have been some key decisions that helped save Marvel Strike Force from that fate.
(In order from least to most important)
10) Gold Gates:
There were several times gold and gold promo offers gave more than the devs intended. Instead of putting those offers back up for only spenders, the devs gave everyone those items as calendars. While not every time, there have been many occasions throughout the years where the devs have chosen to comp everyone (including f2p) over selling more offers.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/s/jbfVpWJW2F
https://youtu.be/_-pRIUdSZKQ?si=0CboYrlabzXx9RFy
9) Skillitary Reworked
In the past, if a new team like the “top tier raid team” Wakandans underperformed and didn’t live up to the hype, players who invested in that team were just out of luck. That really changed after the Skill Military team initially flopped. The devs made the decision to rework the team. Now, it isn’t uncommon for teams like Rebirth, Pegasus, and New Avengers to get immediately improved if they aren’t good enough at release.
https://marvelstrikeforce.com/en/updates/community-feedback-follow-up
8) Free Saved Squads
Initially, the devs were actually going to charge for additional saved squads. Yes, they actually tried to charge for QOL features. Thankfully, player feedback got that decision reversed almost instantly.
(This was addressed in Developer Update #7 (one of the worst blogs of all time) and Q & A mailbag #2, which was before Cerebro and they can only be found in cc videos from that time.) https://youtu.be/bq-VheSpDcM?si=o62cUvC1A1697svL
7) No Speed Mods
When players heard about a mod system coming to MSF (Iso 8), the largest concern was how speed mods made games like SWGOH worse. Luckily, we have not had to deal with speed mods (so far).
6) API
Alliance recruiting and inventory management have always been one of the biggest banes of MSF. It took a long time (and supposedly a lot of pushing by Cerebro), but we finally got API. API is moving in a direction to minimize those pain points.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/comments/utafw1/public_api_msfgg_updates/
5) Test Server Created (if underutilized)
For several months after the game launched, there was no test server. None. The devs used to give a content creator ingame resources to make their content on the live server. As you might expect, when that came to light, there was a huge scandal. The result of which was MSF finally got test servers.
https://youtu.be/i1F3ST9kSlw?si=gl6UAE9EL7dwpnzi
4) Cheaterboards Addressed
In the months leading up to the first horseman scourge event, the game had started moving towards leaderboards. Despite the lack of integrity of those leaderboards, the devs made the bold decision to tie MLF rewards to a leaderboard. Following the amount of obvious cheaters on the MLF leaderboard, the devs were no longer able to ignore the issue and appeared to finally start taking the integrity of leaderboards seriously. If this had not happened; I don’t feel it’s an exaggeration to say the game probably would have died.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/comments/uh18g7/banned_accounts_regarding_scourge_event/
3) Hired Cerebro
People often find the communication from Boundless lacking. That’s nothing to how abysmal things were prior to his arrival. Communication has done nothing but steadily improve under his leadership since he was hired.
Communication is still one of the biggest areas that need improvement, but that’s true of most games and businesses (except maybe ones like Marvel Snap).
2) Red Stars Rework
Probably the worst decision ever (and possibly the worst progression system ever) was the original red star system. There were too many problems with the original system to list here, but nothing used to be worse than finally getting an elite 7 and getting a minion. It took about 1 and a half years, but the devs finally made the decision to rework the red star system.
(Personally, I had taken a break from the game; and this was one of the primary reasons why I returned. I had 0 7 red stars prior to this and only 2 6 red stars.)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/comments/a6bi23/community_update_red_stars/ (Original Red Star System Nov 2018)
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/comments/fxbe7g/red_stars_rework_details/ (Reworked Red Star System April 2020)
1) Proactive Philosophy Change (MSFPV/Envoys/Ryan Jacobson)
In my mind, there is plenty of credit to go around for the seemingly new age MSF has entered since around May/June 2023. I’m not sure what the catalyst(s) was, but ever since GM Ryan Jacobson became more involved, the MSFPV submitted their report full of metrics, and Boundless has been more open to community/envoy input/feedback, the game has been on an upward trajectory, and it’s really hard to not be excited about its direction.
Unlike many of the reactionary decisions on this list, this was a decision to move to more of a proactive philosophy. In the past, when the devs were working on future features of the game, player feedback came at the end of that process.
Basically, Boundless was digging in a coal mine and had the canary way back near the entrance. Now that canary is closer to where the action is, so when there is a problem, some of them can be addressed before they even get into the game. We will still have some things that slip pass like the zuggs event, but overall, the game experience feels much better.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelStrikeForce/comments/14b7r0e/players_council_announcement/
Other Honorable Mentions:
Fixed Slots In Stores
Scourges (easier legendary unlocks)
Costumes Don’t Alter Abilities Or Stats
Complete Battle Pass (just by playing the game normally)
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