Everyone knows by now, the Arcade isn't that useful with missions out. You only use it to get to shadow lairs, and maybe to just do a non-boss stratum for a change. How do we make it useful again? With a little thing I call Gate Overloads.
What are Gate Overloads?
Every time a new gate is created in the arcade, there is a 10% (20 maybe?) chance that that gate will be overloaded. overloaded gates are different in one way, all of the stratums have one status theme.
How will this effect boss stratums?
The same way it effects normal stratums. The boss stratum will have all the enemies in them changed to that specific status, and the bosses reskined (a simple recoloring such as Darkfire Vanaduke) and their attacks cause the status the gate is overloaded with. So, lets say the Vanaduke gate is overloaded with poison, all the zombies become Drouls, the Red Rovers become Sick Puppies, etc. Vanaduke himself is recolored green, and his fire based attacks cause poison instead. This does not affect Shadow Lairs.
Wouldn't easier statuses make boss stratums exploitable?
No, since this feature is only available in the arcade, you spend roughly twice as much energy, making it not as farmable as missions.
Can player create these gates?
Yes. If players insert enough minerals into an unopened gate to change 3 or more stratums to a specific status theme, the rest automatically change.
Can gates be overloaded to a monster type?
I haven't thought of a way that would work yet.
Please leave any suggestions etc. in the comments as this idea could be built upon.
Not everything makes sense with a status change; imagine Vanaduke with freeze instead of fire. How would shadowfire work? Would all the Slags be their freeze variant? Would fire traps change to freeze traps? Imagine what would happen with Roarmulus, where the constructs like to shock and the Quicksilvers like to be pinballs. Would all of that change to another status, such as poison, and still make sense? Think of Jelly King; there are no statuses here. Would this mean Jelly King suddenly should have fire?
From the perception of an average player, I would rather have new bosses to get recipes for than derp up all the statuses; imagine if everything had shock, including things which normally do not have statuses.
Effort: 8/10
Creativity: 7/10
Detail: 7/10
Mechanical applicability: 2/10
Profits Three Rings: 5/10