What happened to AToE?

[SovTech]

Hi Everybody!

So its been a while. Just finished my Masters, just moved together with my gf, just became unemployed All in all, a lot of changes have kept me away from my favorite forum. But now, I am back!

My first initial thought about AToE have always been that it compares to Arkham Horror, a lighter version, with possibilities of exploring some game mechanics that AH doesnt have. Actually I like AToE better than Arkham, especially the competitive version, but I wish the Avian Amphibian would focus more on Elders, how the villains differ from each other and the competitive version.

However, lately it seems that AToE have gotten too little attention from our lizardlike friends. In the beginning they were very good at creating web expansions, which filled the waiting time for the box expansions for their games. The web exclusives have taken a lot of heat, but I really liked that it kept the game fresh. Now it seems like there havent been anything about AToE for a long time, and I really miss hearing about it.

So this thread is about 2 things: What would expand AToE well, and please if anyone from FFP sees this, give us a hint about future expansions

To sum up, I believe that AToE needs some things to differ it more from Arham Horror, as well as some things to prolong the replayability:

1. More cards for the corner locations.
The base game needs cards which are not just make a check and pick up clue tokens. Something Wicked just needs more cards!

2. Expand the Elders mechanism.
The Elders are a great idea, however they arent used enough. This really sets the game apart from other likeminded games, but why not expand what you can do with the elders, and what impact they have on the game, and especially the finishing game?

3. Expand the Villains mechanism.
Every game of AToE should be different with each villain. I miss some cards that trigger more on the different villains - full moon is a perfect example. Personally I would prefer that each villain had its own deck, but I dont see that happening right now. Or is it?

4. Quests, or triggers for the villains, and hidden villains.
These are mostly ideas from this forum or bbg, but are very interesting ideas that would expand and differentiate the game well: Quests to give the heroes bonusses, or prevent the villains from becoming stronger. Triggers for each villain, which are cards that come into effect when the shadow track crosses some specific points. Hidden villains, which are only revealed when the players use a certain amount of clue tokens? All of these are just loose ideas, and the credit for them should go to the different authors of different threads here and on bgg, but all of them would help differ a great game more, and make it unique.

What do you guys think that AToE needs?

Cheerio,
ST