MASTER STAGE ~ What the Ultimate Challenge should have been
ATLAS-Z
Member Posts: 2,834
I've had this idea for a while, but just been kicking it around trying to think of the "perfect pitch".
Sadly life and limited time getting in the way, so I'll just throw out there what I've got for you guys to love it or hate it.
PROBLEM #1 THE GRIND
it turns many away, but you cannot eliminate it, this is a grind-based game. many sheep love that grind and eliminating it will lose as many or more than keeping it.
The solution I have I've dubbed...
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THE MASTER STAGE CHALLENGE
**Six stages, same as now, but one stage, called the "Master Stage" is much harder than the others
**Master Stage difficulty will be +5 higher than the other 5 missions
**Defeating each of the other 5 missions will systematically reduce the difficulty of the Master Stage by -1
**Defeating the Master Stage will earn you the Stars for itself, AND any unfinished other missions
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What does this do?
Grind LOVERS can grind on the same as they do now without any real change at all, earning same rewards, same stars, same effort.
Grind HATERS can throw themselves at the FULL difficulty of the Master Stage to earn all the stars for one round all at once, progressing quickly to the highest difficulties if they choose.
There are flaws I've not worked out, like if the master stage were the same one mission every round that could be abused and get boring, so might be better if it rotated each round or was randomly chosen?
Anyway @Kaz @Shteevie and everyone, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Happy Hunting!
~BG
[EDIT - this could easily be the end of Round Passes as well]
Sadly life and limited time getting in the way, so I'll just throw out there what I've got for you guys to love it or hate it.
PROBLEM #1 THE GRIND
it turns many away, but you cannot eliminate it, this is a grind-based game. many sheep love that grind and eliminating it will lose as many or more than keeping it.
The solution I have I've dubbed...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MASTER STAGE CHALLENGE
**Six stages, same as now, but one stage, called the "Master Stage" is much harder than the others
**Master Stage difficulty will be +5 higher than the other 5 missions
**Defeating each of the other 5 missions will systematically reduce the difficulty of the Master Stage by -1
**Defeating the Master Stage will earn you the Stars for itself, AND any unfinished other missions
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What does this do?
Grind LOVERS can grind on the same as they do now without any real change at all, earning same rewards, same stars, same effort.
Grind HATERS can throw themselves at the FULL difficulty of the Master Stage to earn all the stars for one round all at once, progressing quickly to the highest difficulties if they choose.
There are flaws I've not worked out, like if the master stage were the same one mission every round that could be abused and get boring, so might be better if it rotated each round or was randomly chosen?
Anyway @Kaz @Shteevie and everyone, I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Happy Hunting!
~BG
[EDIT - this could easily be the end of Round Passes as well]
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66
Comments
Could be a very effective way of taking the grind out. Then players could always do maps one by one to benefit from more rewards.
As an extension of this idea, it would be great to have a sim button for say 4 to 5 scavenger missions at a time, available when you have 3stared it 3 or 5 times in a row at a given difficulty. In short, wake up in the morning, hit the button, get 5 times the rewards and off to work!
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I still feel like optional round passes would be a very easy fix , but this is some outside the box thinking and I would totally support it
My idea is that every player starts at level 15, regardless of their survivor level. Each level has 2 rounds, 15.1 and 15.2 for example. If a player gets all 18 stars in the 6 missions of 15.1, they get the rewards and stars from 15.1 plus the reward and stars from 15.2 and they move on to 16.1. If they get less than 18 stars, they would be able to move on to 15.2 or keep trying to get full stars on each mission of 15.1. Every 3 levels where full stars are achieved (levels 15-17 for instance) would provide a "skip". This skip may be used during the challenge (presumably later on in the challenge) on a mission where players are struggling to get all 3 stars. Use of a skip on a mission would award 3 stars and the mission would be treated as if the player actually achieved 3 stars by playing it. Unused "skips" expire at the end of the challenge and do not carry over to the next week (unless they wanted to do an event...I could see "skips" being sold in the shop for money, trade goods, or better yet...SUPPLIES). Rounds passes would be a thing of the past as "skips" would be the new equivalent. Gas cost per mission would be 3 gas.
This would allow us to compare players on a week to week basis as everyone would have the same starting point. There would be some high star counts and lots of rewards, which I believe is what most players are wanting. For those that feel it is a "grind", I believe that is because the rewards aren't worth their time, and in my opinion, this would help to lessen the grind. NG would be getting more money from this because players would be spending gold to heal survivors and to possibly purchase "skips".
If some feel that this would STILL be too much of a grind, then it would be possible for players to start at 2 different levels. One set would start at level 15 and the other would start at level 20(?). This would be based on survivor level, though I'm not sure of what the deciding factors would be. I dislike this, however, because it wouldn't allow us to compare one player to the next on an equal platform, and that's what I'm hoping to achieve...among other things like keeping the grind down and introducing strategy into the challenge.
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And as for your concern about the same mission being the Master Stage all the time, I think that having the same one be it all the time is the fair way to do it.
Some people would complain when they get the hardest map as the Master Stage and others continue to get the easier ones. If the Master Stage is the same all the way through, everyone is on an even playing field and no one can call foul/unfair RNG/NG screwing me because I didn't spend money/whatever other conspiracy theory that emanates from the tin foil hat brigade.
IMO boring repetition is the lesser of two evils when compared to perceived unfairness.
"Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain." - al'Lan Mandragoran, The Great Hunt, The Wheel of Time
Charging 20+ gas for one mission is not wise for NGs for several reasons, one being it puts players in game way too little. That seldom playing can easily turn into not playing as you too frequently find other things to do.
I don't think it would cause too much imbalance. Players are quickly collecting stars in the beginning, and some personal rewards more quickly, in the beginning, but these players will be high end players needing exponential amounts of resources so a few early rewards happening quicker won't be too big an issue.
My original pitch for gas, if one is needed (again I don't think it is) included this...
________________________________
**Six stages, same as now, but one stage, called the "Master Stage" is much harder than the others
**Master Stage difficulty will be +5 higher than the other 5 missions
**MASTER STAGE GAS COST WILL BE +5 HIGHER THAN THE OTHER 5 MISSIONS
**Defeating each of the other 5 missions will systematically reduce the difficulty of the Master Stage by -1, AND REDUCE THE GAS COST BY -1
**Defeating the Master Stage will earn you the Stars for itself, AND any unfinished other missions
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Mavericks Guild Family
NG's CEO mentioned that they moved more developers off this game in the first quarter. It's beginning to look like any major changes like this have little chance of making into this game's roadmap.
The number of players and the revenue NG is making from this game has declined significantly in the last year. None of this is good news for us players going forward.
They will milk the remaining players for any revenue they can. Player retention does not seem to be that important to NG.
Thanks a lot for the feedback from you and everyone else in this thread!
(and btw, the idea sounds really good and fun!)
It would be kind of hilarious on a free gas booster though. This plus round passes gets you hundreds of stars in just a few minutes,
I love this game, grind or no grind, but I'm always scheming reasonable ways to make it more fun.
I do want to say a very big thank you for the last hero call event. Got my 7-star Abraham halfway to 8-star.
Much apreesh. :-)
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