Suggestions

In the coli i'm basically stuck in the Mire. It's the only lvl 24 venue, and that's the difficulty I'm comfortable level grinding at. So I have to chose between a) level and get a bunch of mire drops, or b) not level and get drops from anywhere else. But what if we had the ability to[b] change the level of a specific venue before entering[/b]? So, if I wanted to grind Scorched Forest drops and level dragons, I could set the Scorched Forest venue to lvl 24 and do both! EDIT: Thank you to those who have left comments! People have brought up really good points which I didn't even consider - that being able to [i]lower[/i] a venue's level would result in players being able to quickly grind higher-value items at low levels, which would be bad for the economy. Lowering a venue's level would also destroy the existing difficulty curve of the way the venues are organized! This didn't even cross my mind, because when I came up with this suggestion I was focusing on "what if we could grind at high levels at any venue?" and not "what if we could make the other venues easier?" So, I'm altering my suggestion! Players would be able to optionally [b]raise the level of a venue,[/b] but [b]not [/b]lower it any more than the current level. Alternatively, instead of changing it to a specific level you pick, some sort of "Master Mode" version of each venue could be made available, which could default to level 24 or 25 or something. There are videogames where enemy levels scale to player strength, or where you can change the difficulty of the game, and this would be something similar. There would still be the same enemies in each venue as there are now, they'd have the same elements (and even attacks?), but they would be scaled in strength to match the level selected. I am not a game designer, but I know this would take a [i]lot of work[/i] to design, build, test. Each venue having many different versions of itself depending on level chosen is a big job, it's not something I think the team could just crank out quickly. (more on this in discussion questions!) But, I think it would help solve [i]some [/i]of the coli problems. 1. Cheap drops from popular venues vs expensive drops from less popular venues would be fixed, or at least lessened, by people having the option to level grind at any venue. 2. The problem of "very specific eliminate strats are the only viable builds for higher levels" - right now, there are specific and limited types and combinations of enemies you can fight at higher levels. The variety did go up when they introduced new venues a while ago, but it's still not super high compared to the total amount of enemies. If that variety increases to include all the enemies in the whole coliseum, it could open the door to different strategies and builds being effective as well. This wouldn't be the whole solution, I think there needs to be changes made to the way stats work, types of stones available, etc, but it could be part of the solution. 3. Monotony of grinding. For me personally, it would basically be like adding a bunch of "new" venues - because I almost never go to most of the existing ones, this would give me a bunch of new options for places to spend my time! (Sorry if this has been suggested before, I tried to search the forum but didn't find a similar suggestion. If it has, hopefully I have still included some new ideas in these discussion questions.) [quote="DISCUSSION QUESTIONS"][b]1. [/b]If this is too much work based on the sheer number of levels, would it still work to reduce the number of levels available total while keeping a high amount of variety? For example, staggering the levels available: Forgotten Cave can be all even levels (12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24) Bamboo Falls all odd levels (13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25), etc [b]2. [/b]Would this be available to all players right away, or unlocked somehow once the player uses the coliseum enough? Once they fight a certain amount of battles in each venue? Once they get enough coliseum-related achievements (when achievements come out)? [b]2.1 [/b]Basically, is this option [i]a reward[/i] to help level grind once a player is strong enough, or is it also intended for players that are [i]new to the coli[/i] and/or in the process of leveling up a team? [b]2.2 [/b]If this is intended as a reward/unlockable option for higher level players, would the level variety even need to include the lower levels? Could the new levels available [i]just [/i]be the higher levels for all venues - say lvl 23, 24, and 25? [b]3. [/b]Evening out the prices of coli drops: Is having items from some venues be cheap and common, while items from others be expensive and rare, desirable? Do people [i]not [/i]want the prices for drops to be normalized? Would this change cause all the prices to even out, or would there still be more and less popular venues due to the elements and types of enemies? [b]4. [/b]Should there be any changes to the venue and enemies aside from enemy strength? Would the type or amount of drops change? Any exclusive items or enemies available in certain level difficulties? [b]5. [/b]For people who [i]use the coli:[/i] If this were implemented, would you use it? Why or why not? [b]5.1[/b] If you [i]wouldn't[/i] use it, do you think your experience on FR would be impacted by it anyways? [b]6. [/b]For people who [i]don't use the coliseum:[/i] do you think this would change your experience on FR in any way? For better or for worse? How? [/quote] I'd love to hear what others think of this. As you can see by all the discussion questions, I don't have a solid grasp on details yet. This isn't me saying "this idea is the best and it must be implemented", I want to hear what people think and what other related suggestions or improvements you might have! Please don't ping me, I will check this thread for replies.

I don't think this would be a good idea.

-There would be a large impact on the economy.
-How would bosses work? If their strength/vitality/etc. were scaled to, say, levels 1-3, that wouldn't exactly make them bosses anymore.
-Combining those two points, being able to easily grind boss familiars/items takes away some of the special-ness of those familiars. Right now, the cheapest Stone Borer is 4400 gems. Conversely, a Flowering Pohip is 100 gems.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head, but there might be other negatives to this.

Good point, when I made this post I was mostly thinking of the benefits of increasing the level of a coliseum for higher level grinding, rather than decreasing the level of a higher level venue to make it easier.

I suppose a simple solution would be to only allow changes to levels higher than the current venue level, or to only have the few highest levels available (ie from 23-25)

No support for reasons already stated. Economy stuff.

Besides that though, think of the hibden tasks. The hibden is set up to scale so that the tasks in the beginning are from the easier, lower level venues, while the ones at the end are from the harder, higher level vanues. It would make the scaling aspect of the hibden tasks pointless.

I also don't think this would be a good idea. First, being able to decrease the level of any venue would be a massive problem and have massive consequences for the economy- it would allow anyone with a high-level team to farm festival currency, high-point food items, and high hoardsell-value items [b]way[/b] quicker and easier. This would obviously result in players generating far more treasure than before, and a crash in food's AH prices, and draw any attention away from current low-level venues with cheaper and low-food-point loot, basically resulting in an inverse of the "Cheap drops from popular venues vs expensive drops" problem. But you've already said you didn't consider being able to decrease a venue's level, so I'll assume you'll only be able to increase a venue's level. [quote]1. Cheap drops from popular venues vs expensive drops from less popular venues would be fixed, or at least lessened, by people having the option to level grind at any venue.[/quote] I don't think this would really work, because although the main goal of fodder training is to farm exp, being able to earn food and items along the way is also a deciding factor in what venue you train in, especially when you have lots of dragons to feed. Assuming that the loot in every venue would not change with the venue's level, I would think that most trainers would still prefer Mire/Kelp Beds/Ghostlight simply because these areas offer loot with a better hoardsell value and food with more points per item than lower venues, meaning they would make more 'bonus' treasure from hoardselling, selling stacks of food on the AH, etc.

[quote]I don't think this would really work, because although the main goal of fodder training is to farm exp, being able to earn food and items along the way is also a deciding factor in what venue you train in, especially when you have lots of dragons to feed. Assuming that the loot in every venue would not change with the venue's level, I would think that most trainers would still prefer Mire/Kelp Beds/Ghostlight simply because these areas offer loot with a better hoardsell value and food with more points per item than lower venues, meaning they would make more 'bonus' treasure from hoardselling, selling stacks of food on the AH, etc. [/quote] I do agree that it wouldn't fix it, and that most people would still grind those venues more, but I think it would have [i]some[/i] effect to normalize prices - I think [i]some [/i]people would switch venues more, and even if the times spent in each venue isn't perfectly equal, it would change the amount of different venue drops on the AH at least somewhat. I think some people would switch more either for the variety, or because food and hoardselling isn't a priority so they'd go after different drops - I don't hoardsell, and constantly have way more Mire food than I could ever use, so level grinding in a venue with slightly lower food points every once in a while wouldn't be a drawback to me. Of course not all players are in my situation, but I don't think my situation is super rare among coli grinders.

I would love this, the main reason I don't hardly do coli anymore is because I'm soooOOOOoOOOOOoOoo bored of the upper tier venues. Sometimes I'll go back to the lower ones, but after one or two battles I remember that they don't provide the grind I need, and then I quit.

So I support this!

i would definitely switch venues more if i could make everything lvl 23-25, just for a change of scenery! i also think it would be very fun to be able to make fodder levelers for all venues :3 i love having specific trainers/teams for the different venues and it would give you more options.

i do think it should only take the levels up and not down - i dont think making the harder venues lvl 1 just to breeze through them would be a good idea.

Sounds good while it allow only increase difficult but not decrease

I would prefer new venues, but that's because I love collecting new items. Also, I would much rather see updates to the battle system overall.