So we've had a lot of chatter about the five* month gap that will be coming between the releases of episodes 26 and 27. I've taken some time today, after the livestream, to have a little think about it and I've come up with a theory. Let me preface though by saying that we've seen this kind of pattern before where the devs reveal something, people complain about some specific issue for weeks and then the devs reveal they had a plan to combat this particular complaint the whole time. I'll use the release of Home Turf and the Lair system as an example. 1. Home Turf was released. 2. People complained for weeks that it was too expensive to maintain Tactical Mods and Orbital Strikes and Sidekick/Accomplices etc. all at once. 3. The devs reveal they had planned for this in advance by unifying the T1-T4 marks and changing them all to Marks of Triumph, thus making it much easier to maintain everything you wanted from you lair. So what do we have now? We have Episode 26 coming either the end of July or the start of August. After that is Episode 27: Amazon Fury Part III. The catch? It's several months away. People think there will be nothing to do in that gap. Well...maybe there will. Here is a theory I have of how they may have planned to combat the boredom people may have during the gap. 1. End of July/Start of August: Episode 26 releases - Keeps people busy for a couple weeks (unless they blitz through it with RBs - their own fault) 2. Start-middle of August: Belle Reve PVP map and Deadshot inspired PVP gear releases - I'm assuming that the map itself will bring along a few feats for people to work towards, and the gear itself will of course give a feat for collecting all of it. 3. End of August/start of September to end of October/start of November - Space (& Time) Capsules are released - We've been told that we will be able to earn the Stabilizers require to unlock the capsules in game. When asked in the livestream how we would acquire these Stabilizers in game, there was a bit of a pause. This probably isn't going to be some RNG drop or crafting thing. Jackster said, and I quote,: "We're puttin' something special together for you to be able to get the keys that's thematic to this particular month." He also said they're going to do another livestream talking about it closer to the time. They also mention that Loche was probably building it at that very moment in another room. Loche is the guy that puts together SM and LPVE as far as I'm aware. First I was thinking, maybe it's a 4-person version of SM, but then I thought maybe not because they said that the method of earning the keys would be accessible to all players of the game, not just members or premium players. So maybe...it's a special, Wonder Woman themed LPVE or some such. Jack also mentioned that they're thinking of maybe running the capsules for around eight weeks, but that that wasn't a final decision. 4. Middle of October - Halloween event comes. It comes every year, no surprise there. 5. November - Water power and weapon pass. I believe Mepps said recently, although do correct me if I'm wrong, that they want/need some of the new combat improvements to be in game before they release Water. I have my own personal theory on why I think that's the weapon pass, but I won't get into that here. I think the weapon pass will be here with us by/before November. 6. December - Amazon Fury Part III and CR differential removal. This is the big one. Wonder Woman first appeared in December 1941, so December would be the absolute perfect month to release Amazon Fury Part III to the masses to bring an epic conclusion to the, in my opinion, excellent Wonder Woman themed storyline we've had. The devs also said, and again please correct me if I'm wrong, that they want basically all the combat changes to be in game for AF3, meaning CR differential gone, weapon pass done etc. This also ties into why I think Water will come before AF3; because Water only requires some of the planned changes while AF3 requires all of them. So, that's my theory on the plans for the gap between episodes 26 and 27. I'm sure the Nature and Electricity changes could be in there somewhere too, but not sure where. Share your thoughts and opinions below if you'd like. *When I say "five month gap" I know that it could be longer, but I honestly feel that they were being generous to themselves with the timeframe by saying it could be the end of this year or early next year, just how they say the servers could be down for up to 8 hours for a GU but it is almost never even close to 8 hours. The devs know this community. They know it's better to give an overestimated timeframe than an underestimated one so as not to incur the wrath of the aforementioned community.
A couple of things to add, not only will all players be able to collect keys and boxes, you can collect the boxes on any level since they drop from anything, not just bosses, so it adds more that it will be some kind of daily even to give away keys, like current events are but not stat clamped, maybe it will be something like "kill 10 magic related adds in Metropolis", you know something very easy to do by all members. Another thing, Water wont come before AF 3, also stats will be done probably a month before AF 3 to work out all the issues so it's not the mess GU47 with HoP 2 was, also what Mepps said is that stats need to be done before Water, weapons are needed to give Pets and Dots powers their mid range, which btw also comes before stats, so the way I see it is this Water-2017 Adding to what you mentioned but with some alterations September-Weapons pass October-Pets mid range November-Dots mid range December-Stats January-AF 3 They could also do Pets along with DoTs since I don't really see much to do on Pets, either way stats will come before AF3 to give them time to work out any issues on Live, and so give way to Ep 27 (and probably GU 67 to commemorate the death of GU 47 which will probably take that long to fix).
It'd be a big win for the developers if they could get the next episode out before December. I really hope the gap is your typical Mepps "servers will be down for up to 8 hours" line, when in reality that's just a padded statement to give them extra time to get things working, if necessary. Whilst the new updates are nice, I still think they won't be enough to maintain long term interest. There has to be something meaty in there to tackle, because the new raid is evidently not going to be a challenge which means it's not going to leave a mark on the community and keep people engaged. I live in hope of a new Survival Mode. Specifically a new 4-player Survival Mode with 1 boss per round. Maybe set in Wonder Woman lore to continue the theme, but personally I'd like to see a Flash themed Survival Mode.
I will believe it when i see it happen. The benefit of the doubt is over for me. I need to see things be live. Announcements and words mean nothing to me at this point. Take today for example. Why announce these capsules w/out the most important details which are how we earn the keys in game and the cost on the MP. It leads me to believe something funky will be going on when we get that info. I hope not but past history tells me otherwise. There have been some great ideas over the years but they get implemented poorly. I need to see things implemented the right way and things they say are going live actually go live before they will get my $ again. Also the halloween event isnt going to keep people busy for a month. Past has shown its usually 2 new feats that can be finished in 24 hours if u have alts. Which most people do.
Lol at four player survival mode. Well, they already did open episode for premiums and free players. Pretty sure they will cater to the causal audience again, further 5lapping the faces of the vets.
