Post for Devs. About the future of Eternium.

[BAgate]

Huh? What's wrong right now?

Story mode is pointless (easy with no rewards), gameplay is repetitive (no variety). If you like crunching numbers to create the perfect build, which is the same as everyone else, and button mashing for gameplay in the generic randomness of a trial, then nothing is wrong. But that isn't a recipe for a lasting game.

[GrauGeist]

I think the upcoming changes will be fine to rebalance things, but if I were doing anything more sweeping:

1. Legendary Story should be harder and give significantly better rewards (blue or better; NO grey, NO green).

2. Misty Island should almost always give at least 1 Named or Set item per run, so that the keys are meaningful. Sure, they might be low quality (green on Normal/Heroic, or blue at Legendary), but at least you get something cool. Misty Island is gated by Keys / 100 gems, so make it exciting to farm. Just getting non-Set/non-Named Legendary item is just garbage.

3. I like the idea of adding Dungeons on the other planets - that would be a nice change of pace, especially if one were biased more toward Set items, and the other biased toward Named items.

4. Adding Nightmare Mode is interesting, if it doesn't allow you to Revive at all.

5. Add the giant Lizard from planet 2 to the Ladder!

6. Allow players to Reforge Adventurer gear from one Class to another. It's exactly the same stuff, so pay the Reforge fee to make the Mage version into the Warrior version.

7. Allow players to Reforge Set items to get another Set item of the same type (and Set). It's dumb that they just get trashed. Just force confirmation for each Set / Named item being put in the hopper.

[giecomo]

I think it is more important to get things right now and then add to it, rather than add to it and leave all the problems as is. Sort of like the bugs that have existed for years...

Huh? What's wrong right now?

[BAgate]

Absolutely not. New act(and hero) is imperative. Playing the old content again and again(and again) gets old. I've been waiting for Act IV for forever...

But you play trials over and over again, is that getting old? And once new content is added, how long until that gets old? I think it is more important to get things right now and then add to it, rather than add to it and leave all the problems as is. Sort of like the bugs that have existed for years...

[giecomo]

The idea just came to me, but I think it should be an easier addition to the game. Instead of adding a 4th part in story mode, devs could add Celestial Story Mode in which the difficulty is TL80-90 level but with no time limit just like regular story mode.

Absolutely not. New act(and hero) is imperative. Playing the old content again and again(and again) gets old. I've been waiting for Act IV for forever...

[mattks1]

And it isn't much effort. Just letting difficulty level of story mode scale up as well as down with corresponding rewards would solve 90% of the issues. And how hard would that be?

That's how I saw it, because instead of creating new programing devs just has to copy and paste the existing story mode program template and modify in the likes of legendary story mode but increases enemy stats to make it more dificult. I relize it might not be that simple or it is that simple but very tedius to implement. I have a basic understanding on programing and the logic flow and that is why I can say what I am saying based off my experience.

[BAgate]

Rytrik, you miss the point. First, how is running trials, over and over and over any different from running story levels over and over? It is all the same, except trials actually keep increasing in difficulty while story mode is capped. Combined with the fact that Trials give greater rewards and story mode is irrelevant. Add new content (act 4) and you will run that a few times, get bored, and be right back where you started. As Arionthe has explained, it is about getting the structure right, then content can be added.

And it isn't much effort. Just letting difficulty level of story mode scale up as well as down with corresponding rewards would solve 90% of the issues. And how hard would that be?

[Rytrik]

The could do both, adding another Part in Story mode and adding a new Difficulty Level in Story Mode. I do see your point, because Story 1-3 has been played over and over and over again and we are pretty bored with it already.

The reason it would be harder for them to do both is because now you're also asking them split focus between creating new content AND creating balance in this new difficulty level. To tweak it so that it's the right level of difficulty, as well as the right level of gear drops & gems & stuff. That's a bunch of extra work and focus to add a new difficulty level. Work and focus which could be better put to new content.

Remember, the entire dev team is only 4 people...

Which do you care more about: NEW content, or rehashed old content at a higher difficulty? As I said, it's 4 people on the dev team.. who also need to live their lives BEYOND making the game. I'd be hoping that they're each having ample time to go home and have intimate time with their partner. I'd rather have that & new content vs a higher difficulty level.

[mattks1]

No. We don't need to run the 3 acts ever again. They've been run enough. NEW content is more important than higher difficulties of the same content.

After running story mode multiple times on multiple characters, plus another 3 times during New Beginnings... please devs, do NOT listen to matt's suggestion. New content must be a priority. Add a new difficulty only after you've added a great deal more new story content.

The could do both, adding another Part in Story mode and adding a new Difficulty Level in Story Mode. I do see your point, because Story 1-3 has been played over and over and over again and we are pretty bored with it already.

[Mrdiymfkr]

Maybe add some enviornmental/ground damage from land mines etc etc etc lightning strikes/weather damage etc etc etc...closest thing that i've seen so far is the tornados in the dungeon

[Mrdiymfkr]

Nightmare story mode: Each level in the story becomes proportionally harder relative to the characters capacity. Along with proportional rewards.

Good Idea!

[Rytrik]

The idea just came to me, but I think it should be an easier addition to the game. Instead of adding a 4th part in story mode, devs could add Celestial Story Mode in which the difficulty is TL80-90 level but with no time limit just like regular story mode. The exp earned and gear drops would increase but not at the same level as TL90+ to keep Trial Mode playable for those who prefer it over story mode. Also in Celestial Story Mode only you would be offered rarely a chance to find a Teir 3 gemstone drop.

Just Guessing at the numbers here and they are not stating what is necessarily current but a suggestion:
Normal Story Mode Lv70 = TL10-20
Heroic Story Mode Lv70 = TL20-30
Legendary Story Mode Lv70 = TL30-40
Celestial Story Mode Lv70 = TL80-90 (Yes a suggested drastic increase in difficulty but greater rewards and exp)

No. We don't need to run the 3 acts ever again. They've been run enough. NEW content is more important than higher difficulties of the same content.

After running story mode multiple times on multiple characters, plus another 3 times during New Beginnings... please devs, do NOT listen to matt's suggestion. New content must be a priority. Add a new difficulty only after you've added a great deal more new story content.

[Arionthe]

Flushed out End Game Dungeon Idea:

Dungeon entry: Portals created in hometown, using the new crafting system. Ingredients include a rare drop (how rare depending on the Devs) from certain map stages. Story wise it should make sense. I will give an example dungeon later in this post.

Co-op max: Each dungeon has a max player limit, for example 4 player max, 8 player max etc. However a dungeon can be attempted with less than max players.

Dungeon difficulty: Multiple difficulty settings for the dungeon. This can be controlled by the crafting process. For example: rare drop plus common gem gets normal difficulty, rare drop plus teardrop gem gets heroic difficulty, and rare drop plus brilliant gem gets legendary difficulty. Dungeon difficulty will control how tough the mobs are in the dungeon as well as how good the final rewards will be.

Dungeon setup: could be single map or multi map/stage. However each stage is timed. The difference is that when the timer is up, you don't fail. All mobs for the stage is respawned with a 10% increase in Dmg and HP compared to before and 5% DECREASE in XP earned. The meter to summon the boss is also reset to zero thus forcing the player to effectively redo the map while dealing with tougher mobs. The map/stage timer is also reset to original number. This continues so the mobs get tougher and tougher and exp shrinks. Multiple failures at clearing the map in time will render the dungeon raid effectively impossible.

Timer impact on boss: Each failure at clearing the map in time will also result in a buff to the Boss, similar to what happens to the trash mobs.

Dungeon boss: each stage has its own boss and if the dungeon is multi stage, a final boss. I think it could be fun for the boss fight to be more than just the boss. Boss should have its helpers. Boss needs to have some kind of healing mechanic that players will need to proactively disrupt. This is so without correct strategy, any boss should not be possible to be taken down.

Special Boss mechanic: When boss's HP drops to certain %, there is a chance (increased with the dungeon difficulty) for the Boss to go berserk. For lower level dungeons, the dungeon boss essentially respawn as its one tier higher boss equivalent. Ie normal final boss becomes heoric final boss in terms of stats. This actually should be welcomed as the boss drop table will correspondingly improve to that higher tier boss drop table. If it's already the highest tier dungeon and the boss goes berserk, then the boss stats essentially increase by 50% (or whatever finetuning the devs feel like). The benefit will be the drop % for the rarest item (boss specific) gets doubled or tripled.

Boss drops: Each Boss should have its own unique item in the drop table. Different tiers will have different possible stat ranges for the drop. For example normal tier will drop 80-90% of stat max for that item, heroic will drop 90-95% of stat max, legendary will drop 95%-100% of stat max. Legendary tier dungeon and the boss goes berserk will drop 99%-100% of stat max plus the drop chance increases, see above. There is no 100% drop rate for the boss kill of that boss specific item. Also any custom/celestial boxes should not be able to make boss specific drops. Reserve those to the truly heroic amongst us.

Example dungeon:
The Jailer: Ragadam didn't just send the TBD to Elderath. He sent one of his most trusted lieutenant, the Jailer, as well. His job is to periodically reinforce the pain and the suffering TBD feels so that her mind stays broken and chained to Ragadam's will. When players defeat TBD (legendary mode only), there is a very small chance, 2%?, for a key to drop. This is the Jailer's Key, the rare ingredient that can be crafted into a portal stone to open a pathway into the Jailer's Dungeon.

Dungeon setup: Single map stage. Skeletons and undead roams the dungeon. Normal difficulty ~TL90. Heroic difficulty ~TL100. Legendary difficulty ~TL110. Stage timer is 15mins, 3 Player Max. Dungeon difficulty is also scaled by # of players entering the dungeon.

Boss reward: a way for players to roll for the rewards using in game dice.

Jailer's unique drop: Jailer's Painstick/Anal probe.
Type: Weapon
Subtype: Staff
Stats: blah blah, 4 random stats plus 5th stat that is always 90Power
Special: Upto 10% chance to summon a Skeleton archer to fight for you whenever you perform an attack plus upto 5% SKILL CD reduction.
Basically a better version of Murk and mages want meatshields and faster spam of abilities.

Ideally all the best gear should be boss specific drops, not even celestial.

[mattks1]

The idea just came to me, but I think it should be an easier addition to the game. Instead of adding a 4th part in story mode, devs could add Celestial Story Mode in which the difficulty is TL80-90 level but with no time limit just like regular story mode. The exp earned and gear drops would increase but not at the same level as TL90+ to keep Trial Mode playable for those who prefer it over story mode. Also in Celestial Story Mode only you would be offered rarely a chance to find a Teir 3 gemstone drop.

Just Guessing at the numbers here and they are not stating what is necessarily current but a suggestion:
Normal Story Mode Lv70 = TL10-20
Heroic Story Mode Lv70 = TL20-30
Legendary Story Mode Lv70 = TL30-40
Celestial Story Mode Lv70 = TL80-90 (Yes a suggested drastic increase in difficulty but greater rewards and exp)

[Rytrik]

Hi people. About the daily quests. Nobody is asking them to delete. It's about changing and diversifying tasks. All questions to Dyoma , this is his idea.

Right. But they don't need to be changed. How they are, right now, is a perfect & easy way to acquire 100 gems without spending tons of time doing so. Merloks, 100 enemies, archers, elites, sisters. What else needs to be added? And how is 20 gems for 10 dead elite enemies 'too simple'? Realistically, 20 gems is <2 minutes of ad boxes, so each quest should reflect that level of difficulty via time investment. Should it be 20 dead elites? 30? 40? This creates a time bottleneck for new players. I say leave it as is. It's fine.

If you don't want to blow it apart with a TL110 character, keep a low level character around to do your 5 dailes with. Give yourself a challenge.