As we've all seen, CE prices have shot through the roof since gameplay became limitless. Less risk of failure in levels meant more people grinding for money to buy things with. Meaning, more money in circulation.
Now, I'm no auctioneering genioos. I'm perpetually broke, as a matter of fact. But that hasn't prevented me from realizing exactly how this inflation could be quelled, and that's by ramping up the "risk" factor in order to make crown farming harder. That is:
Make EVERYTHING harder. The Clockworks is a death trap, not a strolling path where you can play Whack-A-Goblin at your leisure. And that's what it's become. That's why Grinchlin Assault is so unmanageable for most of us: Rogue Darkfangs can somehow create battle environments surpassing those of an immortal King of Ashes. We're so accustomed to beating up inferior enemies that half the people I've done runs with freak out when they see a Greaver duo.
I realize I've done a complete 180° from the thread topic, but it's all tied together. The entire game's population needs more of a challenge when they venture into the unknown. Being uncertain about coming out of a battle alive needs to be more common, so that it's harder for just anyone to waltz out of a level with a heavy wallet. If we are truly Knights, we should be battle-hardened as such. We need more of the level design that kills us time and time again until we git gud. More Whitespace, more Grinchlin; more using Elite-style, hard-to-kill enemies such as Mecha Knights and Greavers instead of relying on a single Trojan or a swarm of Scarabs in order to get the point across.
Levels, and by extension the Arcade, need more difficult enemies and enemy combinations. But they also need scarier battle environments, as well. An Arena's third level has four spike plates in the cardinal directions. Dreams and Nightmares has four unkillable turrets with chain orbitals spinning around them and Souls popping into existence every which way while hordes upon hordes of unorthodox combinations of monsters try to shred you to bits. King of Ashes' Charred Court has multiple small rooms with Trojans, Slag Walkers, and spike plates in them. Shadowplay throws Crusaders, Deadnaughts, every other type of Undead, Misery blocks, healing totems, and Souls at you in what was once the same environment.
Bit of a difference there, no? That's the difference between a grind and a challenge. And it's the difficulty wall that we need. If you, the developers, were to place the "grind" profits in the levels that deserved them, you would immediately see a playerbase with actual, concrete skill.
After that, you could level-design without ever worrying about it being "too hard" for the community, because we'd be used to it.
Oh, and a couple small requests for game balance.
-decrease rocket puppy firing frequency
-make Souls react to Magnus charges like normal enemies
-make Souls less prone to getting "stuck" on players
-and maybe make Mini enemies killable in a single hit from a sword. It's not that hard to squash a bug.
thanks much
I think a problem is the fact that so many of the "cool new blocks" that have been introduced don't have a place in the arcade right now. The two variants of the explosive blocks (vortex block and gloop explosive block) only show up in missions or event-themed rooms. Making more organic use of these would be great.
The gloop explosive could replace standard explosive blocks (that are not part of a puzzle), misery blocks could replace unbreakable blocks, etc. It would make levels more dynamic and interesting as a result.
Additionally, we need more enemy variety. We need a second gremlin "grunt" enemy (knocker tier), a shadow themed "brute" enemy (lumber tier), a piercing themed "elite" enemy (mecha knight tier), a pierce themed healer (silkwing tier), and an elemental "giant" enemy (trojan tier). As it stands, we have to borrow from other monster families quite often just to fill in the gaps, or sometimes there's just not enough variation to make enemies a challenge (ie, knockers being the only gremlin "grunt" enemy).
I especially welcome the idea of a "land shark" beast-tier elite enemy, which would burrow like the snarbolax, bite at you, flop towards you when it's not burrowing (as standard movement), or even have a "dolphin-esk" leap attack. It would be themed off of a hammerhead shark.
Ultimately, I agree that the game needs to be more rewarding to those who go after more difficult areas. Grinchlin Assault is the only piece of the game that I can look to and say "yes, I need a good team to beat that". Everything else I can pull off without much issue, therefore causing me to gain crowns at an alarming rate. However, having unique and fun crown sinks also would aid in this. Something like a "wishing well" we can throw crowns into, and the more crowns we throw in at once the higher chance we get at getting a good item. Make the highest tier item a "surprise box" promo box and you've got a golden crown sink.