Concerns and Hopes for Season 3 – My Last Shot for Illuvium

[tulip geyser]

Dear Illuvium Team,

I’m writing this letter to express both my concerns and my cautious optimism about Season 3. I’ve been invested in this project for some time, and for me, Season 3 is truly the make-or-break moment. If this season doesn’t deliver, it will be my last attempt at engaging with the game. I believe a lot hinges on how Season 3 is implemented, and I wanted to share my thoughts in the hope that they can be of some value.

Let me start with the Beta pre-launch. I didn’t get to play as much as I would have liked, but from what I experienced, it felt like it dragged on too long. This created a false impression about some game modes, and because it didn’t cost anything to play, it was impossible to understand how these modes would actually feel when real financial stakes were involved. A lot of judgment was passed on these modes during that time, which probably wasn’t fair to the game.

Season 1 Launch, on the other hand, had its own issues. The introduction of scanning was a major disappointment. What should have been an epic, week- or even month-long hunt for World First turned into a mess because scanning was added just days before launch. This felt rushed and poorly thought out. The excuse about "hackers doing it anyway" was frustrating—map hacks are not new, and preventing them is something any experienced developer should be prepared for. It honestly made me question whether the team behind this are truly game developers.

The reward structure also seemed off, especially with Survivor Mode needing to have its points nerfed. Did no one anticipate that a streamer could just show everyone how to get to a million points? Isn’t that something a game economist should have considered from the start? To top it off, the Season 1 rewards took far too long to appear. That delay was inexcusable for something that should have been ready at launch.

On top of that, the constant nerfing and changing of fuel from lands during Season 1 felt knee-jerk and reactionary. It swung from too much fuel to not enough fuel, and as a landholder, this was incredibly frustrating. It seemed like there was no consistent direction, and the reversal made things worse. Missing features like blueprints not even working added to this frustration. It often feels like you promise the moon and then get distracted and move on to something else.

Moving on to Season 2, the goal was to stop bots and multi-accounting by removing the milestones. But instead, the changes encouraged even more multi-accounting. I’m baffled by this oversight—how did that not get caught in the design process?

One of the bigger issues that seems to have been overlooked is the role of Illuvial stats. It may not have been a big deal when building the game for Ascendant Mode, where bad-statted Illuvials had a purpose. But with Gauntlet as the primary mode now, the design doesn’t fit. Something needs to be done to bridge the gap between Casual Gauntlet, which is free-to-play and contributes nothing to the game economy, and Leviathan, which is so expensive that many players won’t even bother playing it if they have poorly-statted Illuvials.