This is my favorite solo game of all time. I love how recently they have recycled cards from other expansions and used them in the new adventures. Great move and I'd like to see more of it.

Any word from the devs on when they plan on winding this game down and ending it? I for one hope not and i hope that as long as people continue to buy product, they'll keep pumping it out. This game seems to have a pretty strong customer base even as they've dialed down releasing packs as frequently as they used to

I am aware of no statements by developers on when they plan to end the game -- if they plan the end at all, which may not be the case. IMO, it's more likely that FFG would pull the plug or lose the license for financial reasons, rather than the developers doing a grand wind up. For the same reason, though, I don't expect developers to promise a certain amount of content; it's not ultimately under their control.

I'm highly confident there will be *at least* one more cycle after this one, since there's two heroes in the limited edition that haven't been released in a regular cycle yet, and there's only room left for one of them in the current cycle.

Good, keep it going. It appears to still have a lot of active players

1 hour ago, dalestephenson said:

I am aware of no statements by developers on when they plan to end the game -- if they plan the end at all, which may not be the case. IMO, it's more likely that FFG would pull the plug or lose the license for financial reasons, rather than the developers doing a grand wind up. For the same reason, though, I don't expect developers to promise a certain amount of content; it's not ultimately under their control.

I'm highly confident there will be *at least* one more cycle after this one, since there's two heroes in the limited edition that haven't been released in a regular cycle yet, and there's only room left for one of them in the current cycle.

if the pattern of 2 heroes per sphere holds, there's no room for any of them in the current cycle. Personally, I just hope we get to see Radagast and Saruman heroes in the game before it ends, as well as Tom and Goldberry encounter allies, since there's no representation at all of Goldberry in the game (so much for FFG created female characters huh). I will die happy only if that happens.

Like the other 2 responses, it seems likely from many clues we will see another cycle when this one wraps, beyond that it is anyone's guess. If that holds true it could take another 2 years and another deluxe and 9 more adventure packs at the current rate, maybe longer. But it is anyone's guess

The miss also 2 nightmare saga box. They are not in a hurry to stop this game but the release pace has drammatically slowed down, which should not be itslef worrying nor unexpected.

On the ohter hand the quality of contents have hugely increased over the time.

I think they need to address the distribution mechanism / packaging for the older cycles. As the number of cycles increase; buying mission packs becomes increasingly awkward. I think it is very tough for FLGS's to keep a huge stock around, and shelf space will inevitably be taken by newer products.

One idea might be to package the deluxe and the mission packs as a single 'big box', rather than seven separate boxes.

Second, maybe the game would benefit from 'pre-made' decks; for example - one corresponding to each of the 'big boxes', potentially with a sideboard. Something that highlights the set in question, and can solo it (with suggested changes from the side board!) ( dwarves, outlands, rohan, rangers, noldor, silvan, ... ) The only real benefit for the smaller packs is to pick/choose player cards; maybe just move that demand over to pre-built decks. I think there would be pretty good demand for pre-mades anyway: it's useful to keep a couple decks around to hand out to friends who just want to drop in on a game, and it's a good way to slot in specific 'challenges'

I can see downsides with both ideas as well, but it feels like the smaller packs just don't work well a couple years after the initial release.

11 hours ago, ColinEdwards said:

I think they need to address the distribution mechanism / packaging for the older cycles. As the number of cycles increase; buying mission packs becomes increasingly awkward. I think it is very tough for FLGS's to keep a huge stock around, and shelf space will inevitably be taken by newer products.

One idea might be to package the deluxe and the mission packs as a single 'big box', rather than seven separate boxes.

Second, maybe the game would benefit from 'pre-made' decks; for example - one corresponding to each of the 'big boxes', potentially with a sideboard. Something that highlights the set in question, and can solo it (with suggested changes from the side board!) ( dwarves, outlands, rohan, rangers, noldor, silvan, ... ) The only real benefit for the smaller packs is to pick/choose player cards; maybe just move that demand over to pre-built decks. I think there would be pretty good demand for pre-mades anyway: it's useful to keep a couple decks around to hand out to friends who just want to drop in on a game, and it's a good way to slot in specific 'challenges'

I can see downsides with both ideas as well, but it feels like the smaller packs just don't work well a couple years after the initial release.

Oh man! Yeah I would love for them to release some of the old cycles in big boxes. Take my money!

Not sure if They see any Profit on that... by selling individual packs They can ask more of them. In big box people Expect some discound... my two sents... but yeah, the bigger the pool gets the longer reprint cycle.

As much as I'd like a big box with Deluxe plus all AP's, those would only sell to new players who have no part of a given cycle. Existing players would probably not consider buying it if they have even one piece of the cycle.

The only way I figure existing players would buy it is if it were discounted enough to warrant double dipping a bit, or had a really nice storage box. The other downside, and it would be a BIG downside from a business perspective, is this would temp both existing and newer players to not buy anything from the current cycle until it was complete, which would severely delay cash flows. It would have to be appropriately marked UP not down to account for that, which would be justified with a really nice storage box.

The existing model lets both new and existing players buy what they need from a given cycle, without slowing cash flows. (Well at least not slowing it more than their reprint schedule has)

Oh but a big box with proper storage would be so nice...I'd buy it if they just sold the box alone.

10 hours ago, TheGuardian118 said:

As much as I'd like a big box with Deluxe plus all AP's, those would only sell to new players who have no part of a given cycle. Existing players would probably not consider buying it if they have even one piece of the cycle.

The only way I figure existing players would buy it is if it were discounted enough to warrant double dipping a bit, or had a really nice storage box. The other downside, and it would be a BIG downside from a business perspective, is this would temp both existing and newer players to not buy anything from the current cycle until it was complete, which would severely delay cash flows. It would have to be appropriately marked UP not down to account for that, which would be justified with a really nice storage box.

The existing model lets both new and existing players buy what they need from a given cycle, without slowing cash flows. (Well at least not slowing it more than their reprint schedule has)

Oh but a big box with proper storage would be so nice...I'd buy it if they just sold the box alone.

They could add new campaign mode cards, boons and burdens, errataed cards, the cycle's NM packs, and perhaps even one or more new scenarios per box to sweeten the pot and make it somewhat akin to the "Return to" Arkham Horror LCG boxes (I know that what I have described has gone well beyond that!).

7 hours ago, TwiceBorn said:

The existing model lets both new and existing players buy what they need from a given cycle, without slowing cash flows. (Well at least not slowing it more than their reprint schedule has.

I think that given the amount of people upset with the stock situation; the current approach isn't working very well (for older products), and that really hurts new players joining the game.

Also, when people 'buy what they need', it's almost certainly picking up specific hero cards, not specific missions. That is an opportunity to sell them something better suited (like a pre-built deck.)

6 hours ago, ColinEdwards said:

I think that given the amount of people upset with the stock situation; the current approach isn't working very well (for older products), and that really hurts new players joining the game.

Also, when people 'buy what they need', it's almost certainly picking up specific hero cards, not specific missions. That is an opportunity to sell them something better suited (like a pre-built deck.)

Given the stock situation, adding more SKU's would just slow the reprint schedule down even more. Until they somehow expand their printing capabilities, I don't see anything like this taking off.

I think you'd have to do the cutover to the new model; not run it in addition: replace 7 SKUs with one.

Maybe, but I don't see that flying with the existing player base. I know personally I'm only missing one or two AP's from three cycles, and four AP's from Dwarrowdelf. If I had to rebuy everything else from those four cycles because they stopped making the individual SKU's I'd be unhappy.

Iit would be great for new players to have the option, but not at the expense of the existing players.

Moving the individual packs over to print-on-demand when you convert to big-box format for reprints feels like it addresses that easily enough.

If POD was viable to print the same quality as their normal printers, I think they would have already started using that. POD quality isn't bad per-say, but I can tell the difference in my collection between my POD quests and my normal player and quest cards.

2 hours ago, TheGuardian118 said:

If POD was viable to print the same quality as their normal printers, I think they would have already started using that. POD quality isn't bad per-say, but I can tell the difference in my collection between my POD quests and my normal player and quest cards.

I think the main reason they don't do more print on demand is a desire to not compete with local gaming stores for product. (Print quality is probably more important for tournament games like L5R, but they will run into similar aging issues there as well.)

Based on literally every game I've played by FFG, the quality of prints, minis, mats, dice, and tokens are one of the most important things to this company, whether it's a tournament game or something you'll only ever play on your kitchen table. If lower quality of a main product line was acceptable, they'd already have signed on with more printers to pump out the out-of-stock product, or used their internal POD system.

On their POD page, they call out how to have your local store use it to order you something so competing with local stores is not an issue. I know my local store has asked if I wanted any of their POD products when I've had them special order something from FFG.

10 hours ago, ColinEdwards said:

I think that given the amount of people upset with the stock situation; the current approach isn't working very well (for older products), and that really hurts new players joining the game.

Also, when people 'buy what they need', it's almost certainly picking up specific hero cards, not specific missions. That is an opportunity to sell them something better suited (like a pre-built deck.)

@ColinEdwards, just letting you know that one of your responses above misattributed a quote to me ("The existing model lets both new and existing players buy what they need from a given cycle, without slowing cash flows. (Well at least not slowing it more than their reprint schedule has...)".

No big deal, but just wanted to make you aware.