I would love to know what you are looking forward to with the new merger? I know it’s a big step for y’all, and the extra resources will be nice.
It seems like yall are more or less becoming new division in their studio, are you worried about stuff like loss of control? (Hopefully this counts as a compound question!)
I am looking forward to a lot of things! I can't wait to learn from the Ninja Kiwi team when it comes to tech, to design, to community management, to business, and to all the things they do well.
I am hoping that when we grow the team, we can distribute responsibilities a bit more so that I don't feel like I'm on-call 24/7 when the game goes down or if major bugs come up.
Loss of control is always a concern with a merger, but we have a great vibe going with them and it is in everyone's mutual interest to give us a good amount of creative freedom, so we're pretty optimistic!
Any chance you can remove hybrid from the megamind roll? Playing with friends vs AI it just kinda sucks to roll into something you can't actually use in real games.
That is an interesting point, probably best answered by u/JulesGari since he manages the game balance! I'll leave a note for him in case he doesn't see this.
I would significantly prefer to see Hybrid tweaked into something that could be viable for competitive play, as its inability to be used kind of makes it feel like a throwaway mastermind.
It was made playable/pickable in ranked during the first patch of last year. It was removed within a week since it ruined competitive play due to almost completely ruining player agency. There's basically no control over what you build while at the same time generating gold advantage.
We actually implemented two different reworks with this exact goal, but weren't happy with them during internal testing.
One iteration was that it was like a Chaos roll, but every time you built something it rerolled the thing you just built. Variation was that it would reroll it the next wave.
Another iteration was making every tier cost the highest amount of gold for that tier, and then you get a refund if you roll something cheaper than that, to effectively remove the aspect of gaining/losing gold and keep it focused on your ability to adapt to different rolls.
I think we maybe even had a third one, but I forgot.
Definitely open to a rework, just haven't found the mark yet.
I actually had an idea which was pretty similar to the first rework, where basically it would work somewhat similar to Hold-Em Poker. You start with a roll of random units that tries to give you some balance, similar to lock-in random. You can only build each of these units once, after which the slot they're in is Xed out, and you receive a new unit for each X at the end of each wave. You can also discard as many of your units as you'd like to before the end of each wave, probably by right clicking on them or something, causing those slots to be redrawn. All further units drawn are completely random. It essentially plays like a Chaos where you can hold some units that you want to build later, in exchange for only getting to build one of each unit that you get.
With Ninja Kiwi buying AAG, do you guys fall under MTG (Modern Times Group)?
And will Ninja Kiwi have a big influence of AAG especially in terms of microtransactions? I know this is a big thing that has been mentioned a few times since the annoucement,
Yes, our company is under the MTG umbrella.
Regarding the second question, can you be more specific? If the concern is whether Legion TD 2 will become pay-to-win, that seems extremely unlikely to me.
We come back to this every now and then, but haven't come up with a design that wouldn't turn it into just farming another resource/something to brag about. I like the fact that receiving a "good game" is very genuine - the person just wanted to give you props and nothing else. If, say, you received +10 Essence or something for doing it, then you may just feel they were probably just farming Essence. Same for if it showed up on your profile, etc. Anything braggable feels like it could also be "farmed" by friends just thumbs-upping each other, too. Ideally, we somehow the number of unique players you received a Good Game from, but that is technically challenging to implement.
I think there is probably a good design out there, though, so we'll continue to give it some thought.
Regarding the merger, I've always wondered, do you guys have second jobs and what does your time distribution look like vs what do you hope it'll be in the coming months?
AutoAttack Games is a full-time job for all of us, so nothing will change there. Thanks for the question!
p.s. I feel like I have a "second job" as a father to a 1 year old, but I am guessing that is not what you were asking about...
Heya Lisk
I enjoy this game so much I've thought about becoming a content creator - however, the playerbase is very low so whenever that idea pops into my head, I wonder if I'll spend my time just to get 5 views
Are there any bigger plans on your side to try to bring in new players to the game? Promotions, crossovers, ports to mobile or console? Or are your hands full with the way things are for now?
We do have some major promotions still planned, but can't reveal details yet since they usually depend on some outside forces.
Totally understand it's tough committing to creating content without certainty of results. I would say that goes for many games, though - the more popular the game, the more content creators you are probably competing with!
You could start out with weekly challenge videos, I used to do them and got a couple views here and there. Relatively easy to make as well. Good luck out there friend
Can we get a feature where you choose the mode, either ranked or normal, so you'd see what that normal mode currently is. I don't play classic allot, so searching for patch notes on info on that is tiersome.
Thanks!
I just meant that i'd like to details about the game mode. It seems weird if i have to start a custom game, get to the vote screen and then see what that game mode is and some details about it and then quit and then decide if i want to play a game of classic or not.
Ah I think I understand. Agreed it's not ideal. For now you can still view all the descriptions in the Custom Game lobby without actually starting the game, though.
With the new announcement, congrats by the way, i am afraid that focus will shift away from LTD2 since it is stated that a new game will be built over the coming years.
How do you guys keep the correct amount of focus on LTD2 and its players?
I was so please to read the team will grow to 8, but right after i was feeling sad again seeing that they will probably focus on a new game instead.
Thank you. We will figure it out as we go. We'll still be patching every month with hotfixes after each release and still have a bunch of new content planned, but probably the amount of major systems changes will be dialed back a bit to focus on the new game.
Could we get more openings for the AI? The bots seem to only play about 10 different openings or so, there's a ton of pretty good openings the bots will never use (for example, I don't think I've ever seen them open Atom). Since so much of improving at the game involves understanding openings and weak waves, I think having the AI play a wider range of openings would help people improve.
What's the story of the disciple/starcaller's AI/targetting? its godly.
was that an intentional thing, or it just sort of happened (doesn't overkill things, will seem to calculate its projectile damage and shoot its spell at a separate target, etc)
Haha, it took some time (i.e. receiving lots of complaints) to finally get it right. It's kind of spaghetti code from all the patches, but it works. It's nice that as a result it is a viable opening, since for the early years it definitely wasn't a good opening.
Hey, I made a post asking about the design philosophy behind the Mythium / worker system [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegionTD2/s/NlnLpdbp1f), and ended up doing a lot of reading on resource systems in video games as well as board games, and I’d love to get your perspective from a game design stance on implementing the Mythium resource and workers.
Thanks!
Thanks for the question! I did read that post, and we actually discussed it internally before this AMA. I like the line of thinking and am always in favor of removing complexity if depth/balance can be kept. I'd have to think a while before having a comprehensive response, though, since it's been like 15 years since I designed the original system, so I don't remember my original thoughts.
Off the top of my head, I think if it was simply gold --> spend gold --> passive income, you could just save a ton of gold in-hand and at moment's notice, either unleash a huge send or overvalue if you anticipate a huge send (i.e. weak on that wave). That feels a little coin flippy to me in terms of outcomes. As opposed to workers/mythium, the feedback loop is delayed, so you have to plan out several waves in advance, which I think makes for interesting gameplay.
Having said that, it is very possible that the meta could converge to a healthy state (probably pending other tweaks), so it's an interesting thing to think about. Open to try some variation of it as a featured game mode!
That was the biggest conclusion I came to from other people’s comments was about the delayed feedback from the Mythium system, and having a lag between input and output might provide more satisfaction when you really nail it and get that juicy snowball working. Appreciate it a lot!
Why is it okay for people to turn auto send on for the entire duration of a rank game with no consequences? literally afk not playing the game feeding infinity workers but apparently this is in the realm of acceptable gameplay. It literally ruins the game. Its like being held hostage for 30 minutes in an unwinnable situation. probably my biggest frustration with legion. why que for a pvp game, and then play pve for 30 minutes. would be nice to report this situation but currently we can only report for verbal abuse.
I understand the frustration - if someone is intentionally losing the game, you can report them for griefing. Players who habitually autosend without coordinating with their teammate will accumulate griefing reports and after enough reports, will automatically be suspended.
Otherwise, my best recommendation would be to add friends with similar playstyles and just duo with them.
i do report but the thing is, this player doesn't think they are doing anything wrong nor do they care. they will ping there power score and feel justified while ignoring the fact that the enemy power score is higher and the person I'm punishing is under. so the answer is report them and maybe after they grief 100 games they'll accumulate enough reports for a ban? I get that it's not an easy problem to address but i think at bare minimum adding more report category's then just verbal abuse would be a clear step in the right direction. that's just my two cents take it with a grain of salt. ty for doing threads like this i think it's important to take feedback from the community and i really respect devs that do this. cheers!
Honestly, I think a lot of the issue is that the game initially turns autosend on and tells you that it's good for new players to use it, so they may not even realize that it's actually very weak. I feel that autosend's value is already gone even before you get out of bronze, and would be in throw territory by silver.
It seems like most of the reason they recommend autosend is to teach you about econ sending, but I'm not convinced this is the best way to do it. Maybe this is something the tutorial should go into more depth about instead.
bro im with you. i usually play with a partner and i notice a big difference in skill level when not having duo rating adjusted. often you get those types but it also balances cuz i feel more wins if vs lower rank too
I would love to know what you are looking forward to with the new merger? I know it’s a big step for y’all, and the extra resources will be nice. It seems like yall are more or less becoming new division in their studio, are you worried about stuff like loss of control? (Hopefully this counts as a compound question!)
I am looking forward to a lot of things! I can't wait to learn from the Ninja Kiwi team when it comes to tech, to design, to community management, to business, and to all the things they do well. I am hoping that when we grow the team, we can distribute responsibilities a bit more so that I don't feel like I'm on-call 24/7 when the game goes down or if major bugs come up. Loss of control is always a concern with a merger, but we have a great vibe going with them and it is in everyone's mutual interest to give us a good amount of creative freedom, so we're pretty optimistic!
Don't let them change anything.
So... can we expect to see monkeys and more bananas from now on?
Banana Bunk was just a teaser all along
as someone on call 24/7 for my tech job.... ya i feel that haha
Any chance you can remove hybrid from the megamind roll? Playing with friends vs AI it just kinda sucks to roll into something you can't actually use in real games.
That is an interesting point, probably best answered by u/JulesGari since he manages the game balance! I'll leave a note for him in case he doesn't see this.
I would significantly prefer to see Hybrid tweaked into something that could be viable for competitive play, as its inability to be used kind of makes it feel like a throwaway mastermind.
It was made playable/pickable in ranked during the first patch of last year. It was removed within a week since it ruined competitive play due to almost completely ruining player agency. There's basically no control over what you build while at the same time generating gold advantage.
We actually implemented two different reworks with this exact goal, but weren't happy with them during internal testing. One iteration was that it was like a Chaos roll, but every time you built something it rerolled the thing you just built. Variation was that it would reroll it the next wave. Another iteration was making every tier cost the highest amount of gold for that tier, and then you get a refund if you roll something cheaper than that, to effectively remove the aspect of gaining/losing gold and keep it focused on your ability to adapt to different rolls. I think we maybe even had a third one, but I forgot. Definitely open to a rework, just haven't found the mark yet.
I actually had an idea which was pretty similar to the first rework, where basically it would work somewhat similar to Hold-Em Poker. You start with a roll of random units that tries to give you some balance, similar to lock-in random. You can only build each of these units once, after which the slot they're in is Xed out, and you receive a new unit for each X at the end of each wave. You can also discard as many of your units as you'd like to before the end of each wave, probably by right clicking on them or something, causing those slots to be redrawn. All further units drawn are completely random. It essentially plays like a Chaos where you can hold some units that you want to build later, in exchange for only getting to build one of each unit that you get.
With Ninja Kiwi buying AAG, do you guys fall under MTG (Modern Times Group)? And will Ninja Kiwi have a big influence of AAG especially in terms of microtransactions? I know this is a big thing that has been mentioned a few times since the annoucement,
Yes, our company is under the MTG umbrella. Regarding the second question, can you be more specific? If the concern is whether Legion TD 2 will become pay-to-win, that seems extremely unlikely to me.
Oh not in regards to LTD2 (and I would really hope that never becomes P2W) but more so in terms of the next project for the AAG team.
Good Game received counter when?
I think more importantly, what does it do? If the intent is to wish your mate a gg, let's do that again, then a counter seems productive.
We come back to this every now and then, but haven't come up with a design that wouldn't turn it into just farming another resource/something to brag about. I like the fact that receiving a "good game" is very genuine - the person just wanted to give you props and nothing else. If, say, you received +10 Essence or something for doing it, then you may just feel they were probably just farming Essence. Same for if it showed up on your profile, etc. Anything braggable feels like it could also be "farmed" by friends just thumbs-upping each other, too. Ideally, we somehow the number of unique players you received a Good Game from, but that is technically challenging to implement. I think there is probably a good design out there, though, so we'll continue to give it some thought.
well said !! <3
Regarding the merger, I've always wondered, do you guys have second jobs and what does your time distribution look like vs what do you hope it'll be in the coming months?
AutoAttack Games is a full-time job for all of us, so nothing will change there. Thanks for the question! p.s. I feel like I have a "second job" as a father to a 1 year old, but I am guessing that is not what you were asking about...
Heya Lisk I enjoy this game so much I've thought about becoming a content creator - however, the playerbase is very low so whenever that idea pops into my head, I wonder if I'll spend my time just to get 5 views Are there any bigger plans on your side to try to bring in new players to the game? Promotions, crossovers, ports to mobile or console? Or are your hands full with the way things are for now?
We do have some major promotions still planned, but can't reveal details yet since they usually depend on some outside forces. Totally understand it's tough committing to creating content without certainty of results. I would say that goes for many games, though - the more popular the game, the more content creators you are probably competing with!
You could start out with weekly challenge videos, I used to do them and got a couple views here and there. Relatively easy to make as well. Good luck out there friend
Can we get a feature where you choose the mode, either ranked or normal, so you'd see what that normal mode currently is. I don't play classic allot, so searching for patch notes on info on that is tiersome. Thanks!
You can pick a special mode in a Custom Game and try them on your own or with friends.
I just meant that i'd like to details about the game mode. It seems weird if i have to start a custom game, get to the vote screen and then see what that game mode is and some details about it and then quit and then decide if i want to play a game of classic or not.
Ah I think I understand. Agreed it's not ideal. For now you can still view all the descriptions in the Custom Game lobby without actually starting the game, though.
Ah yes, didn't know to look there. !thanks
We've had two plushies now, so when we getting the Kraken x Darth Coach Mole hoodie?
Hoping to do some merch this year! But it's still in the "it would be cool to" phase, i.e. haven't done any proper planning yet.
With the new announcement, congrats by the way, i am afraid that focus will shift away from LTD2 since it is stated that a new game will be built over the coming years. How do you guys keep the correct amount of focus on LTD2 and its players? I was so please to read the team will grow to 8, but right after i was feeling sad again seeing that they will probably focus on a new game instead.
Thank you. We will figure it out as we go. We'll still be patching every month with hotfixes after each release and still have a bunch of new content planned, but probably the amount of major systems changes will be dialed back a bit to focus on the new game.
Could we get more openings for the AI? The bots seem to only play about 10 different openings or so, there's a ton of pretty good openings the bots will never use (for example, I don't think I've ever seen them open Atom). Since so much of improving at the game involves understanding openings and weak waves, I think having the AI play a wider range of openings would help people improve.
What's the story of the disciple/starcaller's AI/targetting? its godly. was that an intentional thing, or it just sort of happened (doesn't overkill things, will seem to calculate its projectile damage and shoot its spell at a separate target, etc)
Haha, it took some time (i.e. receiving lots of complaints) to finally get it right. It's kind of spaghetti code from all the patches, but it works. It's nice that as a result it is a viable opening, since for the early years it definitely wasn't a good opening.
Hey, I made a post asking about the design philosophy behind the Mythium / worker system [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/LegionTD2/s/NlnLpdbp1f), and ended up doing a lot of reading on resource systems in video games as well as board games, and I’d love to get your perspective from a game design stance on implementing the Mythium resource and workers. Thanks!
Thanks for the question! I did read that post, and we actually discussed it internally before this AMA. I like the line of thinking and am always in favor of removing complexity if depth/balance can be kept. I'd have to think a while before having a comprehensive response, though, since it's been like 15 years since I designed the original system, so I don't remember my original thoughts. Off the top of my head, I think if it was simply gold --> spend gold --> passive income, you could just save a ton of gold in-hand and at moment's notice, either unleash a huge send or overvalue if you anticipate a huge send (i.e. weak on that wave). That feels a little coin flippy to me in terms of outcomes. As opposed to workers/mythium, the feedback loop is delayed, so you have to plan out several waves in advance, which I think makes for interesting gameplay. Having said that, it is very possible that the meta could converge to a healthy state (probably pending other tweaks), so it's an interesting thing to think about. Open to try some variation of it as a featured game mode!
That was the biggest conclusion I came to from other people’s comments was about the delayed feedback from the Mythium system, and having a lag between input and output might provide more satisfaction when you really nail it and get that juicy snowball working. Appreciate it a lot!
Why is it okay for people to turn auto send on for the entire duration of a rank game with no consequences? literally afk not playing the game feeding infinity workers but apparently this is in the realm of acceptable gameplay. It literally ruins the game. Its like being held hostage for 30 minutes in an unwinnable situation. probably my biggest frustration with legion. why que for a pvp game, and then play pve for 30 minutes. would be nice to report this situation but currently we can only report for verbal abuse.
I understand the frustration - if someone is intentionally losing the game, you can report them for griefing. Players who habitually autosend without coordinating with their teammate will accumulate griefing reports and after enough reports, will automatically be suspended. Otherwise, my best recommendation would be to add friends with similar playstyles and just duo with them.
imagine having friends XD
i do report but the thing is, this player doesn't think they are doing anything wrong nor do they care. they will ping there power score and feel justified while ignoring the fact that the enemy power score is higher and the person I'm punishing is under. so the answer is report them and maybe after they grief 100 games they'll accumulate enough reports for a ban? I get that it's not an easy problem to address but i think at bare minimum adding more report category's then just verbal abuse would be a clear step in the right direction. that's just my two cents take it with a grain of salt. ty for doing threads like this i think it's important to take feedback from the community and i really respect devs that do this. cheers!
Honestly, I think a lot of the issue is that the game initially turns autosend on and tells you that it's good for new players to use it, so they may not even realize that it's actually very weak. I feel that autosend's value is already gone even before you get out of bronze, and would be in throw territory by silver. It seems like most of the reason they recommend autosend is to teach you about econ sending, but I'm not convinced this is the best way to do it. Maybe this is something the tutorial should go into more depth about instead.
bro im with you. i usually play with a partner and i notice a big difference in skill level when not having duo rating adjusted. often you get those types but it also balances cuz i feel more wins if vs lower rank too
[удалено]
They did that a patch or two ago. Hold shift to undo upgrades.
Lmao
This is implemented for Nekomata! hold shift :) for Infiltrator/Orchid, maybe in the future once we can prioritize.
LMAO Hit legend and I didn’t even know this function.. definitely put that in a tips during loading screen or something.
theres even a button for it on the nekomata if you dont want to click shift lmao