How has 2018 been to LotB?

So, this year has been quite a crazy ride, with a lot of good and bad. True, there is still more to go, but I wanted to quickly take a look at what we've gone through in the year 2018.

Content in 2018 (so far)

Characters: We have gained quite a lot of new characters, both Eddies and other interesting additions. For Eddies, this year has brought us Seventh Son, Iron Eddie, Piece of Mind Eddie, Alexander Eddie, Clansman Eddie, Beast Eddie, Doomsday Eddie, and the most recent Eddie released was Benjamin Breeg Eddie. As for other characters, we got the Sentinel Corrupt Rescuer, The Chopper/Trickster/Hellraisers, the 4 "The Bird" characters, The Cannoneer, the 5 Liliths, the Assassin Hellhound, the Warrior Allied Soldier, The Beast, The Gemini Twins, the Angel of Mercy, the Assassin Desert Sniper, the Warrior Death Dog, and 5 Gods of Powerslave. All in all, that tallies up to 40 characters as of September 4th, 2018. Not a bad amount whatsoever, however not all of these characters were technically "new", as some had their assets ripped from other characters. For instance, Osiris and Set both share the same base animations as Horus, and Benjamin Breeg Eddie's idle pose is the same as Clansman Eddie.

Talismans: We had a lot of new talisman sets this year as well, including Power, Soul, Necropolis, Shadow, Steel, Sacrificial, Heal, Valor, Destiny, Primordial, Eclipse, Eternal, Redemption, Oracle, and I believe Titan, Trap, and Force were also released in this year, but that may be incorrect for those last 3. Though I will go into this more later, I will mention that a few of these talismans also came with new effects such as Shroud, Physical/Magical/True Invincibility, etc.

Features: We've barely gotten anything in features aside from the new Gauntlet Beta and the Temple Of Powerslave, but that was temporary. There were some UI overhauls, but actual new content has been extremely scarce this year. We also got Relics, which I will address more later but are interesting to say the least.

Other: We have had (mostly) consistent balance changes to fix the problems found in the Arena, and overall a lot of work has been put into the game this year so far when it comes to polish. We also got that huge update to the arena, it looks great with the cathedral look. The biggest "other" change I can think of is auto-play.

The Reality of the Content Added in 2018

Many of you may know that the game has gone through several issues in this year related to balance, content, and overall as a business model. With balance, it seems that every new Eddie (aside from Beast) and most of the new toons have caused a major meta shift and frustration among the playerbase. It started with Seventh Son, and then just started tumbling down. Rather than balance the old characters, the devs decided to release characters that countered the past release. The Valkyries were released in 2017, all extremely powerful in PvP. Since then, characters have been released to counter them and just overall shift the meta with each major release. Now, we're at the point where there is a character who is literally unable to have any negative effects inflicted on him (Alexander Eddie). That is not a safe way to balance anything. The talismans are no better. I personally struggle against Destiny and Primordial Talismans in PvP, but it is extremely difficult to counter a lot of the new talismans.

There were also some very questionable business practices during this year, with 3 particular incidents coming to mind. 1. Primordial Talismans being nerfed. Even though I believe it was warranted, some people said that the devs overtuned the talismans to get people to buy them, then nerfing them at a later point to restore balance. I can see that being the case, but the next two issues are really the ones that I think matter more. 2. The Beast's release. The entire playerbase only had 3 days to get the Beast in a very shitty and low chance way. Infernal Souls had a pitiful drop chance, you could only earn 10, it was all around a mess. He came back during the 2nd Anniversary event, but the damage was too great for that to repair it. Plus, you could purchase him for 1500 exquisite soul frags. Each anniversary soul only dropped 10 frags. The souls were 100 ironite each. Assuming you got him purely through frags, you'd need 150 Souls opened, and that's 15,000 ironite. Way too expensive. Finally, number 3. Alexander Eddie. All I need to say is that he is 2,500 FC, when he was released there was a mystical soul pack that was 100 USD, and the soul pack had 1,250 FC. Therefore, at the time, you could take the short route and pay 200 USD for an overpowered Eddie.

Finally, new content. We've gotten barely anything. Night City has basically been "in the works" for a few years. In addition, Silent Planet was also supposed to be released this year. I doubt that will happen. If the gauntlet took this long to put into beta, then I truly doubt Silent Planet will go anywhere. Night City and Killers Eddie are looking like Christmas presents more than they are a big release.

Now, this isn't to say I hate the game or I'm quitting, but I think it's important we point out these milestones. From what was mentioned in http://forum.ironmaidenlegacy.com/sh...he-Nation-2018, we haven't gotten much of what was promised in this entire state of the nation. Also, they mentioned a "Guilds" feature, which I think just completely fell off the map. So, what do you guys all think?

I do see your points, and they do seem interesting. Thanks for the info, I'll keep them in mind as I continue.

I think the company are very limited in resources - they are a small team and there in lies the issue - I cant see them having more than 10-15 people. I think they are likely doing there best with what they have because they game is not making enough money to warrant more staff or outsourcing. There is the issue for new content I think. They can stick out characters and tallies with relative ease seemingly as this can be classes as new content to a degree (sort of) and anything else they have done is likely heavily based on existing builds - gauntlet wont be all that far away from what we have already in arena. Any new levels were really old levels tarted up.

I thin k it takes most of the resources they have just to keep the game working and to do the updates they do - I still think the team are trying hard but my reading between the lines radar smells that they struggle to get real new content out. I tend not to dig at the team as it is a pointless task - I am sure they are trying their best. Sure there has been a lot of messy updates this year but for me it makes sense that they have this issue - not a big enough team to do things right every time or nearly every time.

Like you I am not looking to quit at all but the game had lost much of any shine that it had. It is more of a grind now and auto based mostly. I still love the game though, but if I was not a Maiden fan I would not even be here!

Great posts by Grim and Scott! Maybe one should also add the fact that they still have to deal with problems relating to the old code structure from the former company. It would be great if there were great programmers in the team setting up a completely new code that fits better to the structure of buffs/debuffs/passives/Talis interactions. This would also prevent those severe problems when new meta shifts need to be integrated. The heal-killing issue from Aset is a prominent example for that. Would be great to do a one-day maintenance shut down and move everything to a new code environment. But I guess this must be very complicated. Especially as new characters, buffs and Talis are added in this high frequency...

This game embodies Iron Maiden lore and animates it. We can customize and live through them in the fantasy worlds, packaged up conveniently on a mobile device allowing intermittent play constantly throughout the day and on auto play overnight for events. 2018 is a great year-The new characters, talismans, and Gauntlet format to force the use of all team resources makes for novelty and generates interest in playing. Arena can be monotonous and all worlds can be autoplayed, but the Gauntlet makes you work and keep up with new talismans/characters to remain competitive. Making this environment is NF working smart instead of hard: rearranging the parameters of existing components to induce fun into playing you vs enemy. Creating a new playable world requires so much expense and look what happened when BNW was released. Shot storm of valid complaints about excessive cost with low rewards. Months of programming and artwork shitcanned in a day or two because it was a ripoff. I think they do what they can and what works for continuing the game, the new characters and talismans make us spend resources and generate revenue. Facelift the Arena and set new rules of engagement for Gauntlet, right on. And this time they give out worthwhile rewards compared to BNW. Who uses the super rare Zone, Lightning, Quake, Comet talismans and how much ironite was spent to get them? So they open up Brave New World and Night City, after a few days top players will be done and posting auto play teams to farm loot. I want them open, sure. But quickly it will be just another BNW.

2018 has had some excellent programming mistakes. So many people complained about Primordials, oh man what a great blunder! Part of what makes this game entertaining is when things don't work right. 2 vortex gave 24 of these, I powered them up asap and finally could mow over all the hardest competitors in the Arena. Fun while it lasted. Then the hearts and gold one, over 100 skill shards later and being dizzy from the purple ring going around and around. A few months before this the Warrior Undead Rescuer with Counterstrike talismans was attacking his own team when he absorbed their damage from his passive. So awesome. Now the Magus God of Powerslave is exploding? Yup, I am glad I dont have her and feel sorry for you. Maybe sacrifice?

On a different note, the defectors from the game seem to go in patterns. Nothing new, nothing left to do or get, anger at NF for not making them happy in return for their investment in Legacy. I feel sorry for the defectors, good luck coming back trying to catch up with all the overpowered talismans/characters along with maxed relics. This game and how it is run is fun and entertaining, been hooked since day 1. Thanks to this community and my troopers for making it that much better-Edsel

I think the company is focused on revenue... players are focused on playability.. there's a dichotomy which will always exist. NF jsut wants to do enough to keep people playing and hopefully spending, that's all. I doubt they are overly concerned with expanding playability beyond the point of maintaining interest. Night City/Silent Planet will most likely NOT be great revenue ventures for NF. So, they'd rather focus on things which have an increased probability of players spending money.. i.e. Gauntlet, characters, talismans. It's business... but often I think players forget that.

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Originally Posted by Blade

Great posts by Grim and Scott! Maybe one should also add the fact that they still have to deal with problems relating to the old code structure from the former company. It would be great if there were great programmers in the team setting up a completely new code that fits better to the structure of buffs/debuffs/passives/Talis interactions. This would also prevent those severe problems when new meta shifts need to be integrated. The heal-killing issue from Aset is a prominent example for that. Would be great to do a one-day maintenance shut down and move everything to a new code environment. But I guess this must be very complicated. Especially as new characters, buffs and Talis are added in this high frequency...

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Don't buy too much into the legacy code hype. Many in NF are former Roadhouse employees. So, blaming it on the old company is just a way to deflect blame when in reality it's very likely the same programmer.

So with the most recent addition of Crusader Eddie, and that terrible IOS 24 hour update, I think there is more to add here. Crusader Eddie sounds broken, but I don't know since I haven't gotten him or played against him. His abilities seem to work together very well, and the fact he's a 4 star is a bit concerning (since in the past, the 4 star eddies seem to be able to destroy everything). As for that IOS update, that was just horse crap. The update was small, and not even really important when it came to the tuning either. If I can add anything else to the discussion, I'd like to point out how a lot of the older Eddies have not been updated to fit the current meta, instead the developers have decided to release better versions of them. Though I love Rainmaker Eddie, there are just better options for single-target damagers. Hell, single target damage is kinda useless anyway unless it's a guaranteed kill (which is why so many people use Clansman Eddie). So, why not just release a better option? Hence Beast Eddie was born. Yes, Rainmaker did get a rework, but there are still many old Eddies which have suffered, including Carriage Rider, Tailgunner, Fear of the Dark, Shaman, Mystic, Soldier, Vampire Hunter, Hallowed, and Pharaoh have all fallen short when it comes to facing off against the newer Eddies. They just can't keep up with the newer effects Eddies such as Beast, Piece of Mind, Alexander, and Iron Eddie can all apply. It kinda sucks seeing the same old Eddies in the arena every time; the game becomes stale.