A Few Quality of Life Suggestions
MattCorschach
Posts: 2 ✭✭
Hi,
I’m not sure if any of these ideas of mine have been pitched already, but I figure it might be helpful to throw these out there just in case it might help improve the quality of life for players and improve morale and the number of people playing :D
- Strategic Spell Energy
While I’m lucky enough to be able to access Spell Energy regularly, after reading more than just a few comments on Facebook, I feel that there needs to be an alternative route for obtaining it for those of us who aren’t quite so lucky. As such, here’s an idea: allow the use of Exstimulo Potions outside of combat, or, alternatively, create a new potable source of Spell Energy to be used tactically in situations where a rare Foundable is proving far harder to return than expected.
What I was thinking was that, if Exstimulo Potions could be used outside of Traces and combat, the different levels would grant differing amounts of Spell Energy: 5 for regulars, 10 for Strongs, and 15 for Potents - allowing players to start utilizing their Potion making to facilitate playing the game, even in areas of the world that are sadly devoid of Inns and/or Greenhouses, or if running precariously low on Spell Energy before engaging in a Wizarding Challenge in an isolated Fortress.
Alternatively, a new type of potion could be introduced to the game: either something that utilizes some of the ingredients for some of the less popular (at least in my opinion, anyhow) potions, such as Ginger or Valerian Root, or perhaps a new set of alternative Master Notes which could turn a currently-brewing Exstimulo Potion into a variant that grants Spell Energy - allowing players to choose between a regular Exstimulo Potion 15% faster or one at full time that could provide much-needed Spell Energy in a pinch.
This would also incentivize gathering ingredients further, as well as expanding Ingredient and Potion storage slots, and allow for players to make more tactical choices in their Potion brewing and very possibly improve rates of renting cauldrons and increase demand for the Potion packages
Either way, having a potable source of Spell Energy would most certainly improve the quality of life of players in general, but especially more so make the game actually playable for those in more isolated areas.
- A Wear-Down Mechanic
Most, at least, if not all of us, have pulled off Masterful casts against strong Confoundables in Traces, only to be resisted time and time again, especially during Brilliant events. I understand that oftentimes these Foundables are meant to be harder to succeed, but after making ten, sometimes twenty Great and/or Masterful casts and not succeeding and/or the Foundable being whisked away, it can get a bit frustrating, to say the least - even more so for players that have limited access to Spell Energy.
As such, a possible solution (and one that I had thought of back even when playing Pokemon Go) would be to implement a Wear-Down mechanic - with every successful spell cast, should it be resisted, the success chance would be increased per the final rating of the cast, stacking. For instance, while a Fair cast wouldn’t increase the chances (being easy to resist), a Good cast would improve the chances of overpowering the Confoundable by 1%, a Great by 5%, and a Masterful by 10%.
Lore-wise, this would make sense, as nothing can resist an unrelenting force forever and defences will weaken over stronger casts, and in terms of mechanics, it would add an incentive for players to go after more challenging Foundables (especially Event ones, which are notorious for being hard to return as it is), consecutively increase the demand for Dawdle Draughts (adding another tactical layer to our Potion brewing choices, as well as adding a slight buff to the Draught) and even more of a tactical element to the game, renewing and keeping interest.
- Higher Rewards for Event Foundables
Practically everyone remembers the first Potter Calamity Event XP bug, and how everyone scrambled to return Event Foundables once it was announced that it was indeed a bug that would get fixed. After it got fixed, numerous comments have mentioned that given the more difficult nature of returning Event Foundables (in terms of time spent and Spell Energy used), this unexpected boost was the main thing that really got them interested in participating in the Event and excited about it, and without it, returning regular all-year-round Foundables was more worth the time and energy (figuratively and literally) than participating in the special Event
Now, I’m not necessarily suggesting bringing it back up to the numbers it was at during the bug (although I doubt anyone would complain), but increasing the Wizarding XP and Family XP to a level between the bug and it’s current level would be a most excellent compromise - high enough to pique interest in returning the Event Foundables (made even better with the implementation of the previous two ideas in this post) and subsequently improving consumption and purchasing/brewing rates of Baruffio’s Brain Elixirs (especially the large pack in the store and rental cauldrons), but not so high that people would be hitting the level cap and gaining Scrolls too quickly as was most likely feared during the bug.
While these are the suggestions I have currently to help the game become even better than it currently is, I’m certain that there are many others on here that warrant a good look and consideration for implementation (such as the popular Adventure Sync one). All in all, I, for one, would be very happy should these ideas be implemented, and I’m almost certain that the number of people playing and people staying will improve.
Thanks for reading this long suggestion post, and let me know what you guys think! :D
-Matt
Comments
@MattCorschach thanks for sharing.
The idea of a potion for energy has indeed been floated. I don't recall seeing your variation of using the extimulo potion.
Your wear down mechanic seems intuitive but it almost guarantees you'll be able to overcome even the highest threat confoundable without even needing to use a potion. I think you should also look at the threads pertaining to the masterful spell casts.
I disagree with raising the XP on any foundables. Catching a brilliant foundable now takes very little time and resources compared to the equivalent effort needed to get that much XP in a fortress.
I agree with your points there - although the numbers pertaining to the wear-down mechanic can be altered to fit accordingly to strike the balance between a guaranteed return and a multi-attempt escape :D
Re- Wear-down : the mechanics of the game are just weird. I've thrown Masterful casts that were resisted, followed by some barely Good that managed to "overpower the confoundable", with no spells to help.
@DubiousAffairs Welcome to the glory of RNGesus, our savior from bad luck 😋
@Lucoire Savior from back luck, but killer of any kind of skill. Why bother to attempt a Masterful if doesn't live up to its name?
@DubiousAffairs Because there are stronger factors than "skill".
It's a level-based system so that'll obviously play a factor. Also, there's potions that (due to their relative rarity) will have to have a somewhat significant impact. And last but certainly not least, there's the overall rarity of the encounter.
From my experience (and hopefully correct understanding of the computation) the order of importance of these factors is:
@Lucoire Most of that is exactly my point.
Within the same encounter, not leaving it at any point, not taking any potion, no boost of any kind, no sudden level-up, a Masterful cast should always have a better result than a Great or Good. Yet, this is not the case. As yet again today a first Masterful went down the swirly red drain, while the next cast, barely in the Good, prevailed. That is illogical.
So it's either "Random" number generating, or just foul play to make the game last longer.
@DubiousAffairs It is mostly random. You can influence your chance though.
To give you a bit of a "hands-on" experience with this, I'd like to redirect you to a thread that I did on that very specific topic:
https://community.harrypotterwizardsunite.com/en/discussion/1574/spell-success-chance-and-how-to-improve-it