Challenge Mode - Any ideas?

[Doomguide2005]

13 hours ago, ArchVileTerror said:

I dunno.  Friendly Fire has some potential.

. . . but also the potential for grief.

 

And really, to program Friendly Fire, I don't know what approach they'd take.  Flag all entities in instances as universal targets?  Change AoEs so that they have a flag to hit both enemies and allies?  I see a lot of potential glitchiness in either method.

 

This.

 

Sounds great 'on paper'.  Implementation is an enormous can of worms. How do you distinguish between true friendly fire, griefing and PvP in a PvE mission?

 

The best solution to difficulty most likely involves the foe and currently sees minimal playerbase support ... as a whole we don't seek harder foes.  See radio missions preferred foes, speed run +0 TF's etc..  You don't see Immunes Surgeons running Leadership toggles, while using Fortitude and Adrenaline Boost on the Boss/EB's (or each other while using a blast set).  You could do that in AE however.  And some relatively difficult content did and does exist now in AE.  Maybe we should be solving some of this itch ourselves,  perhaps starting a thread of 'nasty' hard AE content.  No it wouldn't be quite the same as 'canon' content but it can be a lot of fun if your itch is for a challenge while the Devs work on solving the very knotty problems involved in created new high end content of the 'elusive' appropriate difficulty.

 

 

[Six-Six]

wouldn't it be cool if "friendly fire" behaved not like burning your allies with rain of fire or any aoe, but with ST attacks aimed at an AV, but missed and hit your teammate instead? I mean that stuff happens all the time in cartoons. 😃

[Doomguide2005]

1 minute ago, Six Six said:

wouldn't it be cool if "friendly fire" behaved not like burning your allies with rain of fire or any aoe, but with ST attacks aimed at an AV, but missed and hit your teammate instead? I mean that stuff happens all the time in cartoons. 😃

That might work, at sub 50 (or even 40) content anyway.  After that ... well melee guys engaging AV's sounds more like 'redirect, then miss' 🤪

[InvaderStych]

On 5/22/2020 at 10:16 AM, Bopper said:

New Challenge Mode: Lasting Impact.

You enter this mode, there is no reverting back. You play as if the game had actual consequences. If you die, there is no rez, you are locked out of the character forever. However, for every badge you get while in this mode, you get a duplicate badge indicating you were in Lasting Impact mode. 

 

Why would people do this?  Vanity...those who like badges will get bragging rights for having the most badges, I suppose. Also, for those with Alt-itis, they have a legitimate excuse to make a new toon.

 

Is this a good idea? It's a great idea. 

 

But is it really? Nah, probably not.

 

 

As a former Diablo 2 & 3 Hardcore mode player I fully endorse this excellent idea.

Edited May 25, 2020 by InvaderStych

[Alchemystic]

On 5/25/2020 at 4:49 AM, ShardWarrior said:

None of these make the game more of a challenge, just more tedious.

Unfortunately we're bound to the scope the spaghetti code allows for, so 'tedious' is as good as a challenge as we're gonna get.

[ShardWarrior]

38 minutes ago, Tyrannical said:

Unfortunately we're bound to the scope the spaghetti code allows for, so 'tedious' is as good as a challenge as we're gonna get.

Not necessarily.

[Sakura Tenshi]

This one one might be a bit far off in terms of 'doability', and slightly off topic, but one thing I'd really like to see if to take the bosses of each enemy faction and basically make EB and AV versions that you can fight in newspapers/radios and tip missions. Actually, related to that, let's throw in EB and AV versions of the generic heroes and villains (like Mangle, Desdemona, Savage Siren, Doc Quantum, Etc.)

[ShardWarrior]

1 hour ago, Sakura Tenshi said:

This one one might be a bit far off in terms of 'doability', and slightly off topic, but one thing I'd really like to see if to take the bosses of each enemy faction and basically make EB and AV versions that you can fight in newspapers/radios and tip missions. Actually, related to that, let's throw in EB and AV versions of the generic heroes and villains (like Mangle, Desdemona, Savage Siren, Doc Quantum, Etc.)

I can only speak for myself here, but making generic bosses into AVs for radio missions is not what I would consider a challenge either.  I can already defeat EBs and some AVs solo with little to no chance of being defeated.  That is not "challenging", just tedious. 

[Galaxy Brain]

So, one thing to think of is like... what are we actually challenging people with?

 

Throwing stats at players helps, but as mentioned it can just create tedium.

 

What about changing objectives? A timed mission that requires you to actively navigate a map and really avoid combat to complete a goal, having hostages that can actually be defeated and need guarding, needing to actually check the clues dropped by enemies for hints to solve a puzzle, etc. Anything that takes you out of the "faceroll" gameplay is immediately harder.

[ShardWarrior]

34 minutes ago, Galaxy Brain said:

What about changing objectives? A timed mission that requires you to actively navigate a map and really avoid combat to complete a goal, having hostages that can actually be defeated and need guarding, needing to actually check the clues dropped by enemies for hints to solve a puzzle, etc. Anything that takes you out of the "faceroll" gameplay is immediately harder.

Exactly.

[Akisan]

I've a couple ideas for challenge modes that I'd love to see implemented (named after the various comic book eras, because why not?):

 

Silver Age:

  Drops:

    Incarnate Shards/Threads are as they were on Live (Shards only outside of Incarnate areas, Threads only in Incarnate areas)

    Veteran Levels don't award components (just the badges)

    Common IO recipes can't be bought at workbenches

    TO/DO/SO drops/availability are as they are now (assuming the changes to early enhancements goes through)

  Content:

    "Exploits" like /enterbasefrompasscode, /ah, and the temp P2W buffs no longer function

    Only your alpha slot functions outside of Incarnate content

    Set bonuses have half effect

    Receive reduced (no?) xp while teamed with characters not running these challenges (to prevent being carried, could be a toggle-able option)

  Perks:

    Get a nice, shiny, silver playername (toggle-able, because, sadly, some people are elitist)

    Set bonuses function all the way down to 1 (like Purples do now)

    2x inf. at 50 (since 50s are hit the hardest by this)

 

Golden Age:

  As above, with the following additions/modifications:

    Drops:

      No incarnate drops (anywhere)

    Content:

      No non-cosmetic P2W powers function

      No incarnate powers work

      Fitness is no longer inherent

      IOs have no effect (use SOs or HamiOs)

      Reduced xp while teamed with Silver Age characters, and NO xp while teamed with non-challenge characters (again, could be an option)

      Null the Gull can no longer change your alignment

    Perks:

      A nice, shiny, Golden playername (again, toggle-able, for the same reason)

      Legacy (SG base) salvage drops (I miss the flavor those added to the mobs)

      3(4?)x Inf. gain at 50

     

 

These are, of course, just rough outlines, and can stand to have values tweaked (or entire rules added/removed).  The goal of these is to "legacy" a character, and make it feel as if you were playing an older version of the game.  Silver Age is supposed to feel like you're playing after Incarnate content was introduced, but before the Praetorian War really heated up.  Golden Age is supposed to feel like the game did before IOs were introduced (waaay back in Issue 9), but after CoV was released (so ED is still around).

 

Also, a note on badges/veteran level rewards -

While I'd love to see badges for these, there's no way any Badger (myself included) would be OK with that unless you could "opt-in" with an existing character.  I'd say Null would enable these settings if you meet all prerequisites (like having no IOs equipped on a Golden Age worthy character).  Doing so would cost you as many Threads and Empyrean merits as you got from your current Veteran Level.  When you Opt-Out (and leave the challenge) by speaking to Null again, you will be granted as many Threads/Merits as you would have gained through leveling (as if you weren't on the challenge).