Hello everyone!
I'd like to share with you guys some of my ideas with you!
Lets get started :)
This post is still WIP, some things might get changed or added! Always check bottom of this post to find out what's new
Passive Monsters
Years after crash of skylark you feel kinda... well lonely, but look! Over there! Can you see him ? It's a young wolver! There's no sign of any other nearby. He seems to be scared and afraid you being here, I wonder if he could follow me back to haven if I feed him his favored food!
Yes passive with friendly intentions and fully tamable monsters with a bit of escort type mission inside :)
How could it work ?
Passive monster will not attack you and they cannot be attacked by you, they will ignore everything and everyone, but you can interact with them like with sprites in firestorm citadel or like with any npc in haven.
Upon interaction you will receive 3 options.
this (Monster/Family name here).
You can access this menu only once! To prevent last option to happen every time.
After choosing 1st option
Monster will act like other ones but with several buffs applied to him.
Damage Boost 25%
Attack Speed Boost 10%
Defense Boost 10%
Health Boost 100%
[Numbers could be whatever best for certain depths/tiers/stratums]
After choosing 2nd option
Monster will follow you! There's catch for it though, you need to deliver him to subtown/core to use next item Monster Cage on him!
Yes you allied monster for rest of the tier will ally you in battle, it might or might not take your battle sprite place for that time! All monster will act like he's enemy for them [including same family/monster type]. Boost would be the same like in 1st option but, your allied monsters will pick up hearts if he's lower than 30%, if he have more hp than that he will regenerate additional 20% every depth.
After choosing 3rd option
Nothing happens or monster will act like in option number 2.
New Items
Ugh... it seems I need bigger cage and stronger berries for this one!
Yes monster cages and their favored food!
You can find them across clockworks ONLY!
Chances would be like for gun puppy from Gremlin Prize Box!
1% to drop cage.
1-2% to drop favored food.
Every monster have his own favored food [Family based] and might need and more suitable cage!
There's also addition for that, every passive monster might drop food pieces! Chance for it are low though. If you wonder here's answer! It's 5%!
After I got everything and I managed to get my allied monster to the core. What I have to do now ?
It's simple, if you have T3 wolver and professional beast cage with you, you can just left click cage and click "Catch your monster", if you don't have your monster with you, it will say "You don't have correct monster to catch"
And yes!
Cages would be tier based!
T1 - Basic [Monster/Family Name] Cage
T2 - Advanced [Monster/Family Name] Cage
T3 - Professional [Monster/Family Name] Cage
What now ? I have wolver inside my cage but I can't use him and he's bound to me!
Here's next great part!
New NPCs and alchemy machine designed for monster food only!
New knights have visited haven and decided to stay!
You can find them in Monster Training Hall in garnison.
What they do and how are they called ?
Hey mate let me finish!
I have no idea at this moment how would they be called but I know what they will do.
1 of them will be designed to provide unbinding assistance!
Yes only he can unbind your Caged Monster!
Price will be same as 1* [T1] 3* [T2] 5* [T3] unbind cost. [Or other, I don't know.]
Second knight will provide training assistance!
You will have 2 options.
1. To freely follow you in haven.
2. To appear only in guild hall! [If you don't have guild hall or you get kicked/leave your current one, cage will reappear in your inventory or you get mailed by Spiral HQ]
And last thing I want to mention is Monster food machine
If you found 5 bits of favored food you can turn them into random favored food!
Let's Submit Everything
Passive monsters can be found randomly and have same chance as rare monsters to be found maybe lower.
You have 1% and 1-2% to find both cage and favored food making it 0.01% to find matching combo!
You have to grind a lot to make your freshly caught monster free or unbound.
THIS IS ONLY ARCADE RELATED IDEA
If you have any questions or suggestion to this suggestion catch me in-game or post below: Calyos
It's a good idea in general, but taking it through the levels down to the core might be a bit much. It might be frustrating for players who randomly find the monster and suddenly have to commit to a different game plan in order to keep/catch it - and they would pretty much have to change plans, for something that rare. As far as I can tell, with this method, you have to encounter the monster, and have it follow you down to the core in order to have a chance at keeping it. If I'm freshly crashed on Cradle and I find a potential puppy pal, this scenario seems unfair - getting to the core, or even the first subtown, as a freshly crashed recruit? Hmm. Unless each cage is sort of like a save point? Correct me if I'm wrong.
THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO - SKIP TO BOTTOM to avoid my rambling:
What I would do - have a rudimentary "cage" catch the monster as a sort of vortex bomb-like animation OR scented food-bait cage (a USABLE type of item in your arsenal - available expensively from the Supply Depot, and the rest is up to chance finding the rare neutral monster). After using the cage near the monster, the two together (the cage and the monster) combine into a "drop", which you then walk over and pick up like materials and other things. A lower-star Rudimentary cage would be likely to fail on a higher tier monster - so buy a higher star Rudimentary cage for deeper areas. I can hold a baby mewkat in my fabric monster pocket pouch, but an adult would just phase out of it! And proceed to bite me. Of course, this drop would only show up for the user of the cage - other party members won't be able to pick it up. After that, you would go to OP's designed area in Haven and attempt to be better friends with your monster catch, buy improved cages, make food, and so on. Would this food take minerals? IMO, it should have a bit of lore - chromalisk pets might really enjoy some gel cores.
You'd have to have some sort of duality for the following: an arsenal tab slot for your pet, whom you can call upon any time. But it is a living thing (unlike a battle sprite, which are highly sophisticated scenario-calibrated robots) - so your pet monster would "live" in the Haven area you've described (a sort of kennel/run area I suppose) - but it would immediately go into the cage, which has warping capabilities, when you "call" it by equipping it in your loadout for a level.
The Rudimentary Cage would come in 0-5* form, and then turn into a monster-class cage once occupied (I visualize it as a sort of force field energy that conforms to the occupant) with a star level that matches the current maturation level of the monster you caught (rudimentary USABLE cage star level, again, only affects the catch rate vs. monster tier math). You can raise a "lower tier monster" in an upgraded cage (A comfier cage, or roomier, whatever, would be available as an upgrade to the Rudimentary cage to allow maturation, and that would be the only reason for a cage upgrade) until it reaches adult size simply by letting time pass, or catch an adult and have it ready, full-star, right away (a monster will not mature in a Rudimentary Cage - allowing tier configuration for loadouts). Instead of constant (and then never again) feeding to increase combat level as with battle sprites, you'd have the option of increasing Friendship with food - more friendship, more boosts like Attack speed and such. Friendship decreases over time if you don't feed the monster, but it will never hate you. Instead of hanging out in your arsenal, it could "live" in that area of haven with other clockworks sprites while your knight is away on vacation IRL. So the NPC caretakers there would feed it pretty "meh" food, am I right? But it wouldn't die of starvation without you. You can always use the monster in combat without giving it treats, but it won't have those lovely boosts.
So, spend time with a baby monster as it grows? Or hunt for a big boy and use it in high-level combat that very day?
END WHAT I WOULD DO
What about monster classes? Wolver, chromalisk, greaver...sure. But some of our clockwork buddies are smart! Like a gremlin! So...we wouldn't put those guys in cages...hmm. We could offer them "safe lodgings" in Haven! Yes! So the "usable cage" for the smarter monsters would be more like a vacation ticket. *Waves brochure under a trojan's nose." Didn't you dream of being a Spiral Warden when you were a foal? No? you were always an evil possessed statue? OKAY THEN! *Runs away*
Another thought: constructs. Can we...construct/repair/reprogram our own! :D? Like that one NPC knight in the Bazaar, "Bosco" is his name, he's always got a mecha knight he's working on. Sure, we have mecha knight kits...
A negative for this idea: hmm... makes me think: oh god, some monster buddies would make the battlefield a really awful place. Stop breaking Vana's ice! STOP IT! Lots of things to consider.
I think we could somehow incorporate Nonna into this. Pet adoption - more than accessories? Hmm!