CommentStreams:C4c4cd262fadbc5a9318c317492d1b24

I've been around long enough to remember waiting impatiently for new maps to be released, so I can't believe I'm going to say this: The long-term fix is to stop making new maps, and maybe more generally stop spending all their time pushing new content in general, until they have somebody actually playtest this game and understand how all of the old content works together.

It's not like this is the first time we've had this exact same situation. The end of Rivers was originally very close to being enough for an infinite gold cycle, which necessitated a "tweak" (by which I mean a panicked overcorrection followed by an eventual fix) when Islands was released. Then again with Castle. Each time the problem was completely preventable, if only the guys designing the drop tables for the new map had even the most rudimentary idea of basic game mechanics. Yet somehow, they never learn from their mistakes, and worse, this time around they screw up an event right before the finish line.

For whatever reason, the morons on staff seem to think that the best way to fix game-breaking, late-game maps is to change fundamental game mechanics to work around the new content. Instead of adjusting the new content that broke things to begin with. Apparently, their map designer is 12 year old who thinks "MOAR LOOTZ" is the only way to make the new maps more appealing than the old ones and refuses to scale things back.

So, no more new maps until that preteen designer learns to stop breaking the game. Instead of more gold, maybe have maps that drop low-star items. At this point in the game, most of my gold goes to cycling boxes so that I can level up cards for events anyway.

The worst part of their current design "strategy" is that it's hitting the point where they have to nerf the game for everybody in order to prevent exploits from an increasingly small group of players. Before Islands, a smart, dedicated new player could have been farming Rivers within a year. Islands had a tough difficulty curve before Castle came out, but veteran players only needed Soulbind to get within 10% or so of the top gold farming rate.

Things started getting bad with Castle. You could get most of the way to the end with the Excite mechanic, but the proportion of players who could get 10 stars and Level 40+ was much smaller. Worse, farming the end of Castle was a little iffy even with Level 50 Souldbind 12 decks. Unless you had good artifacts--questionable for newer players since many of the best blue/black/red/white artifacts were the very first to come out--farming Castle 27 was dicey.

This last update is the one where I'm on the wrong end of the veteran line. Judging by the numbers, this one will take some crazy stones to farm without an event bonus. Maybe the new goal of events will be to farm three stars so you can raid-ticket farm the new map. True farming, I'm guessing, will be largely limited to pay players and the lucky ones who got their perfect stones before the WoF was nerfed. For everyone else, the game will be continually nerfed as new maps become potential exploits for an increasingly small group of players.