In game objectives reduction suggestion?

Reducing the number of artefacts and plans should definately be considered. On uk4, all active players pretty much got a large or unique each, which has had a pretty large impact in itself, since it was that much harder to threaten them. A quick estimate says half the large/uniques are sitting in pseudoactive accounts by now.

On the other hand I believe that artefacts should be reworked and integrated in the hero mansion / hero equipment based on quests. Simply make daily quest points a resource to purchase adventures and other stuff, and make large / uniques part of epic adventures that are crazy expensive, and requires troops to follow the hero. Small artefacts should just be merged with hero equipment, and of course reworked to fit better. The recruitment hats are stupid, as an example, since you basically equip them, queue troops, then switch back to whatever, they should obviously have a passive effect that only worked when equipped. For large / uniques, there are also incredibly many options to make them more interesting, by basing them on buildings that already exist. An example could be that light cavalry is invisible in the defender's rally point like scouts, or that attacking scouts would kill defensive ones in a proper ninja battle, or something that affects merchants, constuction speed, resource production, whatever. Uniques would truly feel unique this way. But maybe these are ideas for a new variant, and not something to consider in legends.

It was a unique artefact, that allowed spy battles to work like regular battles with losses on both sides, and both sides got a report. At least that's what I imagined. Balancing would probably be needed anyway since it would be a massive overhaul of several systems. On the other hand, equipment have barely been touched since it was introduced with T4 8 or 9 years ago. Artefacts, apart from a few nerfs, are exactly like they were when introduced in T3.6. And there's plenty of room for balancing and variety in both categories. At the same time, the hero mansion is obsolete as a building after they introduced the new heroes in T4, that's why I suggest combining Treasury and Hero Mansion to a single building, and integrate daily quest, adventures, artefacts, all of it. This would probably require the ability to move artefacts between own villages without attacking yourself though, but that should be simple to implement and balance, both costwise and regarding duration.

Uniques could probably be done with a hard timer like uberdiablo. Assume buying an artefact mission costs 100 daily points, then a unique artefact spawns every 1k times. Then put it in everyone's hero mansion to discover and make something hardcore about it. Could be that you send your hero with troops on a mission, then all troops fight to the death 24 hours later, and the earliest arriving hero with adequate treasury/hero mansion from the surviving alliance walks away with the artefact. This way it would also ensure game balance relative to population. A new category of consumable artefacts could also be created, that would give permanent updates but be crazy expensive to research. Imagine getting a permanent speedbuff to your EI's, or a permanent combat value bonus to the village, or whatever you can imagine. Do you start researching right away and hope for defenses, or do you move it around some, waiting for the enemy to stop faking it. Choices have to be made.