Dev Q&A - Post your questions here!

[Amarthir]

I best get to typing now. Let's see....

1. Obvious question, when will we expect new content to come out? Is there an approximate timeline for Guilds, Silent Planet, Isle of Avalon etc?

2. There are so many characters and talismans in the game, will we see a sort of library of every released character/talisman set and where/how to get them?

3. It's a shame that most of the old Eddie's are so behind the times compared to the newer ones. Back in the day, there would be big makeovers for the old ones to compete with the new ones. Will we see more tuning changes to old Eddie's soon? Meaning Viking, Vampire Hunter, Beast, Trooper, etc.

4. I think I can speak for all of us when I say that more work needs to be put into character and talisman management. Gauntlet is such a chore mostly because of the constant swiping around to find the Talismans you need and swiping around for the characters you want to use. Could we see something more akin to a search bar or a grid to drastically reduce the amount of time to move things around?

5. The Frontier keys have been a cool addition to the game, but with the high Sands of Time cost to play, it doesn't make the rewards worth it. Could we please bring down the cost to play from 15 to like 5 or 6?

6. I love the cosmic talismans, I think they're a fantastic addition to the game. But it's too difficult to max them out and when you get 3 or 4 or more per month and you can only max out MAYBE one of them. So how do you plan on tackling this issue with bottlenecking materials?



Now I'll take the time to answer your questions. I discovered this game from a Facebook ad a while ago and since I was new to mobile gaming and a fan of metal I decided to give it a go. I liked iron maiden but not enough to really officially call myself a fan. But after playing the game I started to really like the band and I went out and picked up the Ed Hunter compilation album that also happened to have a game of its own! I've played this game for 2 and a half years now and I expect to play till the game ends.


Leviathan Edit: Hi Amarthir! Matt has answered questions 1,2, and 4 here.

Kaz has answered questions 3, 5, and 6 here!

[Volrath]

Honestly, I don't exactly remember how I heard about the game. It was probably off one of the Iron Maiden social media accounts since I've been a fan for many years. I've been playing since the beginning.

My question is:

What is your process when it comes to the difficulty of the Gauntlet? I've had times where I have gone all the way to SS, and other times when a really tough fight in AA has stopped me dead. How are the opponents chosen? And I guess this is a follow-up...why do we sometimes see characters wearing talismans they couldn't normally equip? That seems unfair and believe me, it's hard enough already.

Thanks for doing this!

Leviathan Edit: Hi Volrath! Kaz has answered your questions here!

[zamasu]

I have gathered a few question that the Facebook Group community would like to be answered:

Guilds:

- Can you please tell us a little more about this feature?
- Do you have any time frame for the release of this game mode?
- and if you could give us an overview of functionality? (Ex. Member numbers, raids, basic plan of implementation, etc.)

New Worlds:

- What is the plan of the new worlds, how “soonTM” can we expect these new worlds to be released?

Game Future Plans:

- What is the expected game life? Can we expect the game to be alive for years to come?
- Is the game going to continue to be “Event based” or are there other plans for the game?

Old Characters and talismans:

- Is there any plans to rework old characters and talismans to bring them up to par to the current OP characters and talismans?

In-game functionalities:

- What are some of the in-game features you have been working on to make the inventory and character management easier to navigate?
- Any plans for an easier way to find character, move talismans around, check if a character is a duplicate or not, sacrifice more than 10 characters at the time, etc. ?

Some ideas that the community have include: having a new screen where you can view a list of all the talismans you have and where they are (inventory or equipped in a character) as well as which characters you have, how many of them and which one you’re missing

Arena and Gauntlet:

- I know this has been addressed many times, but player are still concerned about defense boosts in Arena, can you expand on that? Is there in fact a Defense boost in accuracy and power in Arena?
- How about the issue of talismans sets on Gauntlet? There are many, many instances of characters wearing 3 or 4 different sets of talismans in Gauntlet. Instances like The Nomad wearing Primordials and Vipers at the same which in normal game play is impossible since both are a 5 or 6-set and he can only wear Red Talismans.

Thank you in advance!

EDIT:

Answering your questions:

How did you find about the game? I Honestly found out about the game while browsing social media because a lot of my friends were excited about it. I did a little research and decided to give it a try. I got hooked since the first day I played it.
Were you an Iron Maiden fan first, or was the game an introduction? I have been an Iron Maiden Fan for 15+ years (I'm still on my 20's) I've seen the band play live about 30 times and adding 5 more this year.
How long have you been playing? I am a proud day 1 player

Leviathan Edit: Hi Zamasu! Matt and Kaz answered these questions in their respective posts! Be sure to check both of their posts because in some cases, they answered the same question, but from different disciplinary viewpoints. You can find Matt's answers here, and Kaz's answers here!

[Ironstyle]

Hey all, thanks a lot for this Q&A and for all your hard work. Despite the complaints, we're still here because we do actually like the game. We all know there's bugs and a lot we'd like to see fixed/implemented.

That being said, I'd like to know the plans for future story content. A three year gap between launch and Night City is a VERY long time to wait and I think most of us don't want to wait that long for Isle of Avalon and any other worlds in the works. Will we see shorter lengths between new worlds to play going forward?

Leviathan Edit. Hi Ironstyle! Matt answered your question in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

That's certainly the plan.

[Muzzleloader]

Is there a possibility to post time remaining for temporary in store purchases. I have missed out a few times by not paying attention to event end times.

I have been a fan of Iron Maiden since seeing them on The Number of the Beast tour. I am not much of a gamer, but came across the game in an article about Iron Maiden. Been playing at just 2 years, just missed the first year anniversary of the game.


Leviathan Edit. Hi Muzzleloader! Matt answered your question in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

Actually, yes! We recognize that this has been an issue in the past, but although we had timer functionality in the store, it was a real bear to configure and set up for every pack. however, more recently we have built some new tools to aid with store set up, and it should be manageable to bring the timers back as a component of these improvements.

In the mean time, we have been trying to make sure that any event packs stay in the store for at least 24 hours after the end of the events, so you have some grace period.

[druid138]

Also, since you mentioned LotB "comics, tour, figurines etc" . . .

It's cool that the LotB universe has grown to include real-world merch, and I hope it continues to expand. One question I have about that is related to the marketing side of things. In particular, there doesn't seem to be a single, authoritative source for all the related merch: comics, including exclusive variants, figures, apparel, even the pinball machine. See, for instance, my old post that I've attached below.

Is this intended? Or can we expect an easier time in the future finding out about all this stuff?



Leviathan Edit: Hi druid138! Llexi has answered your question here!

[shredder666]

The most frustrating thing about playing LOTB is keeping track of what talismans you have and what they are assigned to, there is nothing within the game to advise on how best to make use of your Eddies, Allies and Skills, Talismans when you announce challenges/achievements whilst you do offer some hints and produce some great advice on twitter with the character guide cards etc.. not all of them are covered and there is no guarantee you have one of the characters you promote. My current roster consists of 193 characters while i probably don't need them all if there was some sort of intuitive A.I that could advise on what you have at your disposal and how best they could be exploited, it could possibly give you a quick report across all your classes of characters and tell you have this many eddies/allies with those skills that compliment each other and you have those characters that have similar skills sets and advantages so put them into the sacrifice pot and give recommendations of which characters to get with the rewards to make your roster more balanced and varied!

Q1 How difficult would it be to incorporate those features (Advisory Summary Screens, Intuitive intelligence etc..) to help people out? I think this is better articulated by the user zamasu above in the section 'in-game functionalities'

Q2 If you couldn't implement these the next best solution in my opinion would involve developing some sort of API to access your details on the servers, say for example could i get my current details exported in a JSON file so i can ingest it into a platform like Splunk and get the answers to the questions i need answering - do i have a eddie or ally with this skill, do i have this talisman in my inventory if so is assigned or not etc.. Would an API call feature be possible?

Q3 Any plans to introduce band members as characters or notable people in the world of Iron Maiden such as Rod Smallwood as enforcer of the Underworld!

Q4 The band are almost all in there mid 60's how do you see the future of the game enduring if Maiden sadly decide to call it a day? I can't see them retiring in the next 5 yrs unless circumstances change (you never know) but they couldn't in my opinion do their stuff like the Rolling Stones in their 70's as it is far more demanding physically and technically.

Q5) I got into Maiden in the early 90's as i approached my teens but other people have been lucky to have been there from the start or at least the mid to late 80's. Arguably there most celebrated artwork and albums from the 80's is powerslave and Somewhere in Time. Do you have any plans to introduce a world based on the iconic Somewhere in Time cover in future releases.

Q6) A bit personal and of topic but if you are fans of the band (which i know some of you are) were you disappointed that the band have ignored the Kingdom of the Sands world on the LOTB tour in favour of keeping too many band personal favourites in the set focused on the War and Underworld themes! The consensus is that Kingdom of the Sands was left out to avoid the Alexander the Great debate! Powerslave is suited but has been played recently on the Book of Souls tour!

Q6) What game engine did you use to make the game and what tools do your artists use to build environments and design characters? How quickly could a non-artist learn to create some decent character art in Photoshop or Gimp for their own game? Can you recommend any online resources? I am learning Unity, believe it or not i used to enjoy games in the late 80's early 90's and at one point wanted to be a game designer/programmer but it's not the path i went down as i got older. However in recent years i've reflected more on my childhood and what i liked back then and have gone all retro and tools like Unity make it possible to make games with little effort especially 2D platformers. I loved the game Rygar (from Tecmo 1986 it was such a great game with loads of intricate parts for it's time and a classic i want to beat my high score game! i have it on PS4 as part of the arcade classics series it is still addictive and great to play in 2019) So my game will be heavily influenced on that using an Iron Maiden theme. Working title(s) are currently Chains of Misery (Live After Death eddie inspired) or Flash of the Blade Runner -(futuristic Eddie themed game based on SIT artwork and Blade Runner film)

How did you find about the game? Through the Iron Maiden Fan Club/Website etc..

Were you an Iron Maiden fan first, or was the game an introduction? I have a been a big Maiden since 1993 so i always show great Enthusiasm for anything Maiden related not just the music and live shows. I'm also not afraid to be critical Ed Hunter was crap i've only been learning Unity for a few months and i could probably make something better even in 2D!! LOTB though a mobile game is streets ahead of that abysmal effort even if it was the late 90's even the retro classics of the 80's were better than Ed Hunter

How long have you been playing? Like most fans i downloaded the game when it came out ordered one of the fantastic press kits. I didn't really play it for the first year but i was never one for playing games on my mobile anyway, however with the announcement of the LOTB tour i decided to spend some time on it and i now play it way more frequently and try to complete the daily challenges at least 5 times a week. I play if for free and have not spent any money on deals or packs etc but i still get enjoyment playing it free but obviously it will take longer to build up a formidable roster that way!

Can i just take the time to say a big thank you for making this game a success and making it an enjoyable experience as was mentioned above, of course we moan about things that are not perfect and are needed and don't expect those sort of features over night! but we say it cause we do actually care. I appreciate it is almost impossible to produce a perfectly working product and even the the biggest of modern games/IT projects are produced with many bugs and glitches when released and always have numerous patches and updates well after release date!

Leviathan Edit: Hi shredder666! Matt answered your questions here!

[DevilsEdge-7476]

Love the game, plenty of content

Couple of Issues i have

1. Event Dungeons
I love the event dungeons, i do the grind to get the max achievements, spending ironite to do so and have no problem with that
The Problem though is the rewards are woeful, i mean 500 fights is a lot of mega refills, to get enough frags for 10-15 souls which have a ridiculously low% chance of dropping the event character, to make it worse, the latest event (for an assassin event char) was dropping Warrior soul frags?! not even the right class
I would like to see event chars frags being included in dungeon drops - seems pointless having and EVENT Dungeon that doesn't give you EVENT Char frags! if people are prepared to grind 500-800 fights and spend alot of ironite on mega refills, at least reward them with the event char at the end of it (or as as minimum the chance to obtain more souls that might allow him to be summoned)

2. Souls and Frag cost increases
The Cost of Gold to summon souls was put up, i can sort of understand this to a degree but at the same time the number of frags to get the souls went up as well - very difficult for anyone that isn't a long time player with massive resources to get enough souls to get a good SAC event or for a BOS event (like the one we're about to get) - why were those increased and by such a large amount, without increasing the chances to get more to mitigate the increase?

3. Cosmic Talisman
Again i love the idea of the cosmic Talisman, gives another dimension to talisman usage, the problem is evolution, i must have amassed 20+ cosmics to date, but am barely able to evolve them, the mats are just too difficult to obtain - when you need so many of them, if we get a handful from an event were lucky, yet we need 20, and rare materials that almost never drop anywhere... take the Purple T3 in the store - mega grind for the frags to get that one (which i did) but since then i've been short of 1 material (Black rain) to evolve it - which has never dropped since and does not seem to appear in events.
it's like we can easily get 5 cosmics in a month, but evolve none of them - the concept is good, just needs a push

4. Gauntlet
Again another great concept, but sometimes it's just ridiculously impossible, class specific no duplicate chars (which then have massive limitations based on class) are being expected to fight all classes equipped with massive stat boosts and upper tier talismans, i don't expect it to be a walkover by any means, but fighting against a toon wearing 9 - 11 talisman (having a 6 talisman set passive with a 5 set or 3 set passive as well) is just ridiculous!
Also the enemy teams seem to be based on arena teams, and given that almost all of the top players run the same boring copycat teams and same toons, the upper levels of gauntlet seem to have the same repetitive fights, but you lose the ability to pick the most suitable chars to fight as you've already used them and can't run dupes, when every fight requires you to disable a passive but you can't use the toons that can, might as well give up and go home!
Coupled with the fact your fight can get into a perpetual loop if the last toons on either side cannot kill each other, there is no draw option and so you end up having to force lose to get out of the loop - thus losing the chars as it's a defeat - need to add in a draw option (which is not a loss so you don't lose the toons)
Finally if the game crashes mid fight or bugs out and you have to close the app - the moment you log back in you've registered a loss - again unfair, if you didn't get to the end and face the "DEFEAT" Screen then you haven't actually lost and as such should not lose the use of those toons

Again thanks for such a good game, just need to iron out the issues that stop it being a great game!

Thanks for listening - Up the Irons!

Leviathan Edit: Hi DevilsEdge-7476! Kaz has addressed your first 2 points specifically in his comments. Points 3 and 4 were answered previously so you should find answers for those there as well!

[Demoonchild]

Hello guys, I have been some time out of the forum because of the usual people which contaminates the whole the internet...
But I'm here because game is great and I wanted to make question to the devs:

Will you change your direction regarding In-game purchases with real money??
I mean, I have spend cash in some kind of razonable offers, like the Sirius Dog, some packs and etc, BUT the usual prices in the whole store have ridiculous prices for any player with just a little of integrity and morals...

I heard about the idea of adding in-game announces(of 3rd party stuff), if it's real, will this impact the actual costs of real money offers in the store??

Thanks for your answers!!

Leviathan Edit: Hi Demoonchild! Both Matt and Kaz have addressed your questions. You can find Matt's answers in this reply, and Kaz's answers over here!

[druid138]

You also requested character ideas . . .

Most are probably pretty obvious or covered elsewhere in the Forum already. But, I'm curious about the potential for Lovecraft-inspired characters.

In the context of Maiden, I think of the tombstone in the Live After Death cover art. Also, Lovecraft "reported" that The Alchemist John Dee allegedly translated the Necronomicon, but it was never published and only fragments remain.

Any chance we could see something Lovecraft-inspired in the game soon?

Leviathan Edit: Hi druid138! Llexi posted an answer to this in his reply at the beginning on this thread. I've also pasted it below!

Tonally it's a great fit and i'd love to do more with these themes within the LOTB universe, certainly it's about time Live After Death Eddie made an appearance!