Wider time frames between expacs - reasoning

[snowshot]

For a while i wanted to give my idea regarding the better side of longer time spans between xpacs, now seems to be a good time.

Until now we got used to 2 - 3 xpacs a year, it seems like times has changed, cpg became banco and banco is bigger with less pressure for income thus - less pressure to release an expansion.
It seems to me like a good move, duelyst has TONS od potentiel which can be used to make duelyst one of the biggest even without big marketing budget.

Longer waiting times between expansion is a gift for f2p player due to longer peried of time in which they can gather their collection without spending any money - resulting in a wider doors for f2p player to flood in.

We can actually take a look at the meta we had (we never actually had something like it), started with the shock of rerotation to first impression of mythrons into wanderer everything into somewhat balanced meta.
If we had getting a xpac we would never get to this point and the meta will be stained just like the previos ones (maybe wider perieds of time was the answer back then too?).

The playerbase can now point to what they want pretty accurate due to forum comunication, and the devs had a farther deadline to push for more precise expansion in order to not only generate funds but widen deck creation space by supporting unsupported archtypes and playstyles for more players, which works as marketing by itself.

That’s it.

[melkorita]

Well, more than any other things duelyst needs (imho) real promition, marketing, expand the playerbase.

Then more than expansion we could just use some balance patches to shift the meta without introducing new cards (and bring wanderer ragnora to a bearable level)

[atheistmantis]

I like this way of thinking.
I prefer waiting longer for an expansion to come, and give space and time for other kinds of improvements like game balance or development of other game modes, giving the chance for the player base to collect more cards and get acquainted with the game.
I wish CPG and the devs would focus now on making the game bigger and more known, and then come out with a nice, tested expansion that doesn’t need too much fixing.

[rhacker93]

Just to clarify CPG did not become Bamco, they are just partnered where Bamco does marketing and manages the Duelyst community stuff (and all general publishing things). Also I’m pretty sure the reason for the slowing of content creation is linked to it being a fairly small studio and the majority of their team working on their next game (project Aperion).

[deathsadvocate]

Balance patches are good, and should keep happening until we get a healthy meta. Only once we have had time to enjoy a healthy meta should there then be new content. There should not be more then two xpacs a year. Giving us basically four quarters to work with:

Balance for the first quarter.
Xpac second quarter.
Balance for third.
Optional Xpac on Fourth if we achieved a healthy game.

Quality not quantity. For awhile though quantity was more important just to make sure everything was supported. But now that we have a large cardpool the situation is reversed. Having a slower release schedule gives time for promotion and making quality expansions.

Simply releasing a new expansion when we have a meta as unhealthy as it is now does not fix the issue, it only exasperates it. And as you have pointed out Bandai should not have this pressure and making a quality product will be more profitable then milking it until it dies with cheap cash grabs.

[snowshot]

I feel like we’re getting there one step at the time.

[alplod]

Simply releasing a new expansion when we have a meta as unhealthy as it is now does not fix the issue, it only exasperates it

While I support the general idea of your message, this particular phrase is what I disagree with. New expansion can actually shake the meta in a positive way without power creeping just by introducing counters to specific playstyles. Like the mere existence of Night watcher will never allow Rush decks to be Tier 0, or Magesworn doesn’t allow the same to Mantra.

Not necessarily we need such hard counters, but a softer way could also work. Theoretically.

[deathsadvocate]

Generally I agree with you on this point. The exception being when you have powerful things that are flawed by design because they warp the meta into rock paper scissors positions, lack counterplay, or edge out healthy decks.

No amount of tech will ever make wanderer, kha, or 8gates/mantra healthy and they will continue to be problems until addressed, often growing stronger with an expansion short of there being major powercreep which is another way a game can collapse.

Now Rag, Ziran and the like could easily be left alone if a new expansion gave other factions a boost or added good tech against them.

Overpowered things can be fixed with new stuff, but unhealthy things can not be. And we are currently saddled with an extremely unhealthy meta.

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Edit:

Perhaps there could be tech released to help with these, but I can not think of a way to counter trials without crippling them, and overly specific tech is rarely useful because when you include it it hurts your other match ups to much, and or hinders your own deck to much to be worth it.

So I think I still standby design issues needing to be addressed, but I may just not be creative enough to come up with an alternative solution.

[zerounderscoreou]

While I like this way of thinking and I also feel like current meta became much more diverse then the initial Wanderer/Khault, I think this has a lot of wishful thinking.

Saying that Bandai is a big company and they don’t rush with cashing in new expansions is like saying capitalists don’t care about money. Delay in release and lay offs are hardly good signs either.

And, most importantly, to be able to let the meta hang in there for some time devs need to do some balancing of the current issues first. That way it will be actually game-balanced and not player-balanced where you don’t see the strongest stuff simply because everyone got tired of playing it over and over. And I think you know perfectly well that rather then balance anything Counterplay Games would release something to counterplay whatever is OP, and currently they don’t release anything.

[eurasianjay]

Not to be that guy but id have thought the primary reason for said slowdown might have something to do with laying off more than half of the Dev team.

[alplod]

Not to be that but guy

You are always that guy, m8

But I agree with you, that’s the most obvious reason and Occam’s razor principle tells us that the most obvious should be considered true until proved otherwise.