Hello guys, I was taking a look at the outstanting Gator / Chernobog miniatures and their profile ... and I couldn't prevent me from comparing them to older models such as Szalamandra or Jotum. It looks like the more time passes, the more we have to increase the complexity of a model to make him "shiney". I'll take the Gator as example : he got lot of tool for a similar price range as Szally. He's defined by a whole loadout of mines/ECM/CC while Szally is just "the HRMC TAG". I'm not talking about playability of efficiency, just the amount of rules required to make a unit pop-out in the game, feels "unique". This increase in model complexity can be explained by the already big stack of profiles that we get. At some point, adding new profiles even might hurt the game (some older units might not keep up with new profiles : we have a lot of MSV / shock immunity due to this effect, making mimetism/shock ammo less powerful than before) That being said, I notice that CB makes a lot of these reworks (Morats, Steel phalanx, Baram, Corregidor..etc) and that the current situation is a mix of these two approaches. Thus my question : do you want infinity to evolve towards new profiles or reworks ?
Reworks, they seem to be slightly more balanced. And that is the most important thing in a game that revolves around tournaments.
From a costumer standpoint I feel reworks always more satisfying for various reasons: -once "useless" profils get a little love and will be seen more on the gametable and are not limited to "i like them, so i play them, no matter what" -there is way less "buuhuu this and that faction always gets another profile" (and lets be honest: its always nomads getting the good new stuff) -I tend to run my lovely painted "old" miniatures although there will surely come fancy new modells (soon™ ) -the options every army and sectorial has does not get bloated, and there are not as much loadouts u have to compare your options to. Units will have a purpose, and there is less chance to "This modell does the same, but better / cheaper / with more extras" But the POV of a company, whose major income is selling miniatures, reworks of already existing units comes with greater risk. -There are existing modells, why should i buy it the moment they are released / why should i buy them at all? A better design is always a good point, but i am honest: imho a lot of the "older" miniatures are very well designed. Tomcats for example. I dont need another to the 3 I already have. Same with Hell- and Wildcats. "Maybe" the veterans will buy the new modells although they already have them. But "maybe" is not smth u want to calculate with as a company. -the backslash of "why do they have this and that equiptment/skill now?". How to explain changes with already existing fluff. It can be well done (like the change from the Raiden to the Ryuken Unit-9). But i could imagine thats more complicate than just create new fluff to fit new units (just my uninformed opinion as a costumer) -New is always better. I could imagine that the majority of the players want NEW fancy stuff, not already-there-but-different stuff. I can be wrong with that, i am hyped like sh*t for the new myrmidons, but.... same here: i have 5 of this guys already, and they dont look ...."bad". Same with Alguacils. I have 19 Alguacils. I´m not gonna buy any more. No matter how mimetism MSV ARM6 2W NWI their profil will become in the future. -also: its not an infinity problem. It´s not even a Tabletop-problem. Looking at some online games, ne units/champions/charakters/modells come way more frequently than old ones beeing reworked. In conclusion: I realy like modells beeing updated. Not just having their costs crushed down to auto-include (looking at you, moran massai), but fine and well-deserved, good-feeling reworks. I was not a big fan of loosing Magisters and Teutonics, but the solutions was fine for me. I did not need fancy named Fusiliers and OS beeing limited, but it feels ok. I also think its a good idea to delete some loadouts from time to time. Either to have them completly erased (diomedes, Patroclos, ...) or having it reworked into smth new (Ko dali, Kisaragi, KothS, Raiden,...). That has smth to do with "expanding the universe". Stuff is happening. Sometimes that is shitty stuff (like Bit and kiss becoming CA,...), sometimes its good stuff (YuJing loosing half of their loadouts to NA2). That makes a universe feel alive, unlike other systems stagnating with a corpse sitting on a throne for more than 2 decades and 6 editions you play the system and not a single year advance in the universe.
Glad to see I'm not the only one having this feeling. I think that as players we have a big role in this. How we react to new releases is a huge part of how the company will behave towards rework. As players, we ahve to buy only what we want to see in the company and that's the difficult part of the thing. From company side, a few things that could be done to release new minis with old profiles : - ITS exclusive : miniatures exclusive to an ITS season. They have unique pose and are thematic (maybe adding some terrain on the mini). They trigger the "collection" side of the hobby and allow to have some wild poses that wouldn't be possible on a regular basis. This could be either a simple mini or a whole pack, maybe selling packs with fireteams or skins just like in Aristeia (keeping the infinity universe theme of course) - missing models completion : you see what I mean - dig the NA2 : mercenaries and hybrid factions are a great deal ! As long as they keep the sectorials balanced, creating new sectorials composed of existing ones gives a player opportunity to buy new things without starting a whole faction nor creating new profiles.
