‘Marvel Powers United VR’ Update Shakes Up Gameplay With New Enemies, Objectives, and More

Marvel Powers United VR today received its second patch which aims to shake up gameplay with new enemy types, objectives, and more. Oculus also offered a brief preview of an upcoming third patch which will introduce a consequential new objective.

Update (October 25, 2018): The second update for Marvel Powers United VR is now available for download. Oculus and developer Sanzaru note the following changes on the game’s official Discord server:

MARVEL POWERS UNITED VR PATCH 2 RELEASE NOTES

New Objective

• A.I.M. Signal Jammer
  • Random objective that occurs during the Shield Generator phase.
  • A.I.M. Signal Jammers deploy blocking players from using Ultimates, reviving other players, or picking up power cells.
  • Usually occurs during boss spawn event.
  • Players will receive text and VO notification that Signal Jammers are active and are blocking abilities.
  • When trying to use a blocked ability like an Ultimate, players will receive a notification the ability is jammed.
  • Players will have a tracker prompt on their HUD showing how many Signal Jammers are active. They will need to destroy all of them to recover their abilities.
  • Once all Signal Jammers are destroyed, Ultimates/Revives and power cells are once again accessible and progress should continue for the rest of the match.
  • If all players are downed with Signal Jammers active this is a fail condition and results in the loss of the match.

New Enemy Types:

• A.I.M. Seeker
  • The A.I.M. Seeker is a new flying enemy unit type. It will target a player objective like the S.H.I.E.L.D. Relay Towers or S.H.I.E.L.D. Generator and then launch itself at it, detonating on impact.
  • A.I.M. Seekers have a higher HP value than the A.I.M. Hunter, so it will take a few hits to destroy.
• A.I.M. Turret
  • The A.I.M. Turret is a stationary assault turret that targets players and player objectives. It teleports in and automatically begins firing on players when they are detected or objectives like the relay towers or generator.
  • The A.I.M. Turret has a higher HP value than an A.I.M. Hunter so it will take a few hits to destroy.

Polish

• Beginner mode is accessible in multiplayer. This can be set by the host. Beginner mode = no-fail state on losing relays / player and objective health buffs.
• Kick player options are accessible to the host. This can be accessed by the host.
• Secondary objectives are worth more points.
• Reworked single player and matchmaking shortcut descriptions in Alpha Flight station to be more accurate.
• Boss ultimate range is dynamic.
• Reworked enemy spawn waves for greater variety.
• The amount of relays needed to advance to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Generator is now randomized.
• The amount of power cells needed to activate the S.H.I.E.L.D. Generator is now randomized.
• Various tuning adjustments.

Bug Fixes

• Lots

 

Along with the update the companies offered a brief look at an upcoming third patch which will add a brand new objective phase called Planetary Assault. The phase will be “randomly triggered”, and force players to work together as a team to activate S.H.I.E.L.D cannons to destroy A.I.M ships overhead before their devastating attack. Oculus confirmed that if players fail to destroy the ships, the attack will result in a complete failure of the current mission.

Patch three will also including “ongoing tuning to bosses and heroes, ongoing bug fixes, continued wave iterations to add more variety in enemy setups, and improved VOIP function and sound quality.” We expect those points will be further fleshed out by the time patch three rolls out.

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Update (August 31st, 2018): The first update for Marvel Powers United VR (detailed in the original article below) is now available for download.

Oculus and developer Sanzaru Games further promise that they are “working on additional content that we can’t announce at this time. It is on a longer-term schedule than Patch 2.”

Original Article (August 8th, 2018): Marvel Powers United VR is one of Oculus’ biggest content bets yet, and the company has vowed to support for the game post-launch. The game launched to mixed reviews (ours is here) less than two weeks ago. And while the game’s first patch, due out in a few weeks, isn’t likely to make any drastic changes, the studio is promising that “bigger improvements” are forthcoming.

In the meantime, the first patch will bring some balance tweaks and a slew of bug fixes; Sanzaru revealed the details on their newly christened Discord server where they encourage the game’s community to gather:

Marvel Powers United VR Patch 1 Release Notes:

• Fix proper ramping of difficulty (X relays lost = game over).
• Shield Generator health tuning for challenge.
• Re-balance health and damage on heroes for challenge.
• Fix map select visual pop.
• Improve messaging for entering single player.
• Improve messaging for muting players.
• Improve messaging for inviting friends.
• Improve messaging for minority auto ready. Add timer.
• Support for private matches.
• Cut map roulette selection duration in half.
• Remove map select timer for single player.
• Let players move from the start of match. No more standing stuck in place waiting for Scientist Supreme to talk.
• Rocket soldiers should respond immediately & shoot. No more clumsy searching.
• Remove all chatter & other unnecessary soldier anims. They should always be moving to position or shooting.
• Remove all hero grenade timeouts.
• Lineup ultimate decal messaging to fit hazard volume exactly. There’s a small gap.
• Improve rocket soldier object vision/awareness. Many instances shooting objects in pathway of target (Asgard columns & Dark Dimension rock columns).
• Thor & Doctor Strange capes on occasion still obscure player vision.
• Fix Wolverine leap effects staying persistent in Alpha Flight Station from 3P.
• Make charging Captain America’s shield consistent. It’s always broken for first throw.
• Squeezing trigger on Captain America’s returning charged shield offsets the charge effect.
• Rockets impacting targets from a distance don’t explode & hover in place. Quickly enter a relay area from a distance. Observe floating rockets around the relay.
• Fix bug at the beginning of Prologue with Captain America’s shield hovering behind the player. Just suspended there in the air. Grabbing the shield removes the issue.
• Fix bug with grabbing two throwables in Alpha Flight Station & colliding them together, momentarily suspending them.
• Fix bug with the underside of Venom effects on catwalks & bridges. You can see his body pop in. Should behave like the Thanos hand effects.
• Fix bug with the crate button callout. Doesn’t display correctly when feeding Lockjaw.
• Fix bug with the end of match white results screen.
• Fix bug between gameplay & results where there will often be a momentary flash w/ a black cube.

• Fix bug upon returning to Alpha Flight Station as a team. Sometimes portraits won’t display on the team status UI.

The first three changes listed in the release notes address one of the key critiques of the game (a lack of challenge), but it’s going to take more significant changes for the game to address redundancy and immersion issues.

For Sanzaru’s part, the studio says, “We continue to work on bigger improvements to the game [beyond this initial patch] and will share details on those as soon as we are able to. We’re reading all of the feedback even if we’re unable to reply to every individual post. Thank you for your ongoing support!”

Oculus Studios, the publisher of Marvel Powers United VR, told us around the time of the game’s launch that they are committed to post-launch content, and suggested that player feedback would drive the roadmap.

“I think what we want to do [with DLC] is get the game out there, get it in the hands of the fans, and let them tell us what they want more of. Obviously we could come up with no shortage of cool scenarios that we could script and put people in, or stories that we would want to retell, but you have to fit it in a structure—you only have so much resources and time and ability to get stuff done,” the game’s Executive Producer, Mike Doran said. “This was the choice we made, we wanted to lean heavily into the multiplayer and the co-op social aspects; we’re going to see how the fans react and what they want more of.”