Hey guys!

I just got back from a 3-month hiatus playing other games (chilling out here making a new SK character, quite fun actually). From these games, I got some pretty good ideas relating to this game and how it can be made better through small updates, as well as some bigger ones.

NOTE: I will add to this over time, give me time and I will fill out everything. Thanks!

Achievements:

-Why not more achievements? One of things many players love to see is that pop-up Achievement Unlocked! So why not enhance that experience for new players as well as older players by adding new achievements? Here, I'll give you a possible list of achievements that would add to the gameplay:

-Killing monsters. The main premise here is, from my experience, actually common in games, and gives people something to grind hard towards. How about I show you a list of achievements that would go in this category. How about wolvers? (Additionally, I would appreciate feedback on achievement names that would make them sound a little better than mine)

First Steps: Wolvers: Kill 10 wolvers,
Wolvers Know You: Kill 25 wolvers
Barely-Known Wolver-Hunter: Kill 50 wolvers
Known Wolver-Hunter: Kill 100 wolvers
Well-Known Wolver-Hunter: Kill 250 wolvers
Feared Wolver-Hunter: kill 500 wolvers
Insane Wolver-Hunter: Kill 1000 wolvers
THE Wolverine!: kill 5,000 wolvers
Lord of the Wolverines: kill 10,000 wolvers

Apologies if the names are bland, I'm not the most creative person. Also, among my list here, these should be fairly easy to input into the game.

-How about prestige-related achievements? Let's theorize some achievements for the bosses in the prestige missions:

Ghost-Adventurer: Defeat the “Ghosts in the Machine” Prestige Mission 10 times
Ghost-Master: Defeat the "Ghosts in the Machine" Prestige Mission 25 times
Ghost-Rider: Defeat the "Ghosts in the Machine" Prestige Mission 50 times

And so on for the other Prestige Bosses.

-Now how about a challenge for the end-game players looking for something to do? How about the arcade-achievements..in overdrive:

Tier 1 Tank: Complete a Tier 1 Arcade run, taking no damage
Tier 2 Tank: Complete a Tier 2 Arcade run, taking no damage
Tier 3 Tank: Complete a Tier 3 Arcade run, taking no damage
Cradle's Experienced Adventurers: Complete an Arcade run of Tiers 1-3 while only taking 10 hits
Cradle's Outrageous Adventurers: Complete an Arcade run of Tiers 1-3 while only taking 5 hits
Cradle's Finest: Complete an Arcade run of Tiers 1-3, taking no damage

Also, there would be additional achievements for completing these on Normal, Advanced, and Elite. The reason for this is while the chance of getting hit is about the same, the monsters in rising difficulties have more health, and while its not a lot, it makes more room for players to make mistakes, and take more hits. This section I personally like as it would challenge end-game players, as your gear might be extremely overpowered, you still will be on your toes the whole time, especially on the last achievement, as a single mix-up could ruin the run.

-Or maybe some more fun challenges for players revolving around this same concept? Well, let's do that:

Tier 1 Proto Boss: Complete a Tier 1 Arcade run with only proto armor and shield and 2-star weapons, with up to one
death
Tier 2 Proto Boss: Complete a Tier 2 Arcade run with only proto armor and shield and 3-star weapons, with up to two
deaths
Tier 3 Proto Boss: Complete a Tier 3 Arcade run with only proto armor and shield and 4-star weapons, with up to three
deaths
THE Proto Boss: Complete a full Arcade run with only proto armor and shield, following the above specifications for Tiers.
You are Out of Your Mind!: Complete a full Arcade run with only proto armor and shield, using any weapons you want, with
no deaths

-Now some mineral achievements. Since the old ones are no longer attainable, how about we make some new ones?

First Steps in Valestone Geology: Collect 15 Valestone (same kind of achievement for other minerals)
Beginning Valestone Geologist: Collect 25 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Learning-Grounds: Valestone: Collect 50 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Advanced Geology: Valestone: Collect 100 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Experienced Valestone Geologist: Collect 250 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Senior Valestone Geologist: Collect 500 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Professor Valestone: Collect 1,000 Valestone (same for other minerals)
Head Professor Valestone: Collect 2,500 (same for other minerals)
Valestone Mastermind: Collect 5,000 Valestone (same for other minerals)
THE Valestone!: Collect 10,000 Valestone (same for other minerals)

-How about some more relaxed random achievements other games have you can earn almost without knowing? Let's see:

Destructive Nature: Break 50 Breakables
Quite Destructive: Break 100 Breakables
I don't think this is deserved: Break 250 Breakables
What are you doing?: Break 500 Breakables
Can you please stop?: Break 1,000 Breakables
This is absolutely unneeded: Break 5,000 Breakables
I give up: Break 15,000 Breakables

-Want some rewards for your puzzle-solving mastermind? Lets see about that!

I love puzzles: Solve 5 puzzles in the Clockworks
Beginning Puzzler: Solve 15 puzzles in the Clockworks
Learning Puzzler: Solve 25 puzzles in the Clockworks
Accepted Puzzler: Solve 75 puzzles in the Clockworks
Experienced Puzzler: Solve 150 puzzles in the Clockworks
Master Puzzler: Solve 250 puzzles in the Clockworks
Mastermind of the Puzzles: Solve 750 puzzles in the Clockworks

I have a few more ideas as regards this but I will bring them up later.

-How about more challenges in Prestige missions for the end-game players. I gotchu, but it will not be easy at all:

Ghost-Buster: Complete the "Ghosts in the Machine" Prestige mission, getting hit only 10 times on Elite difficulty
Ghost-Smasher: Complete the "Ghosts in the Machine" Prestige mission, getting hit only 3 times on Elite difficulty
Invincible Ghost: Complete the "Ghosts in the Machine" Prestige mission, taking no damage on Elite difficulty

The same goes for the other Dangerous Prestige Missions. How is that for a challenge?

-That is mostly it for my ideas in regards to achievements, except one thing. Players like these kind of challenges for either the craziness of the Boss achievements I have just shown, or the relieved feeling after completing a grindy achievement like the mineral achievements. But, to make these fair to those who do not see the appeal to the grind and are satisfied with the lower achievements? Well, I have a solution for that: rewards!

This has been brought up many times, from prestige rewards to other ideas, but how would it appeal to the playerbase if you added a whole rewards system to the achievement grind? Well, I certainly would be attracted to it; lets think about some possible rewards for these achievements that would appeal to the everyone. I will only touch on a few of the achievements, as I do not want this to be too long.

-The Wolver-Killing achievements: First Steps: 5 beast scales
Wolvers Know You: 5 Bushy Tails (Quite nice for those following the Wolver Armor-line
Barely-Known Wolver-Hunter: Swift Flourish Recipe
Known Wolver-Hunter: 20 Warp Dust (Also nice for those following the Wolver Armor-line)
Well-Known Wolver-Hunter: Dragon-Scale Shield Recipe
Feared Wolver-Hunter: 30 Dragon Scales
Insane Wolver-Hunter: 25 Bushy Tails, 50 Warp Dusts, and 100 Dragon Scales
Think these rewards are lame? THE Wolverine: Wolver Rapier (This achievement-specific weapon, similar to final flourish)
Lord of the Wolverines: Wolverine Shield (Shield similar to BTS (Barbarous Thorn Shield) but with wolvers carved
all around. Gives major weapon damage boost, heavy piercing resistance, green shockbolts coming off
shield)

This is simply theoretical, but I honestly think that this is a fair system that gives players something really worth grinding for (especially the 2 final pieces)

-I'll do one more. How about the Challenge Prestige mission achievements?
Ghost-Buster: 25 Storm Chasers
Ghost-Smasher: Token of Electricity (You will see why in a sec)
Invincible Ghost: Triglav of Storms (Electric Triglav, needs the token for transmutation)

-Here is a cool idea for the puzzle achievements: Every time you complete an achievement in the puzzle tree, you get puzzle pieces. Now, after completing all of the achievements for the puzzle tree, you get a pop-up saying "talk to Hailoh about your achievement, he may have something for you!" Going to talk to him, he gives you a scroll, containing a map portal! This takes you to the "Land of Puzzles," similar to the caketastrophe where there are small puzzle pieces and large puzzle pieces roaming the map, and you have to defeat them all. These puzzle pieces drop, instead of crowns, "Bits of the Puzzle." After this, two portals open, one to the "Puzzler" and one to "Continuing the Puzzle." The Puzzler is a merchant that sells you two recipes, the "Shield of Puzzles"and the "Axe of Puzzles," both for 50,000 crowns. In order to craft one of them, say the shield, you need the Barbarous Thorn Shield, Dragon Scale Shield, and 500 "Bits of the Puzzle." For the "Axe of Puzzles," you need the Fearless Rigadoon, Combuster, and 500 more "Bits of the Puzzle." Cool, huh? Now the reason for a portal continuing the puzzle area is because each area only gives you about 15-25 "Bits of the Puzzle." So some grinding is necessary. On a thought, to, I already have an idea for the "Axe of Puzzles." It has two varying normal attacks, one similar to a flourish attack and the other more of a downwards chop similar to the Combuster normal attack. Now its charge attack is also split two ways. One is a Combuster-like charge attack, but instead of the pylons of flame, it is more like the Obsidion Edge, but with many puzzle pieces coming out of it in a three-way moving attack, like the Combuster charge attack, but with two more attacks branching two different ways! The other charge attack would be more of the flourish charge attack, but instead of the dash-dash-swing typical of the flourish (its an axe not a flourish!), how about swing-swing-SLAM! So like to flourish swings and then a smash attack similar to the Triglav, but also with an effect of exploding puzzles! For the Shield, it is basically like carrying a puzzle piece, but when you shield, it has the blue effect, but with an added effect of faint puzzle pieces circling around it. Also when the shield breaks, how about an effect for that? Well, the effect for that would basically be like a bunch of puzzle pieces falling down, with a sound effect of falling pieces, kind of similar to falling dominoes.

Remember, these are just the scrapings of what I have thought up. Will update as much as I can for this reason. Over time I will add full achievements and rewards system.

ALRIGHT, we are done with the achievements section of this lets move on, eh?

NOTE: These are mostly random suggestions that I have thought up over time.

Game Add-ons:

-Player-based modding: I know that this can be extremely complicated to add to the game, but I honestly believe that the game would go miles if it allowed the players to add to the game using their skills. This idea mainly comes from Torchlight II where, if players do mod the game, it is published separately. This could be shown similarly to TL2, by having a boot-up screen asking if you would like to play "vanilla" or play with mods.

Honestly, how cool would it be for there to be a legit end-game story, all by players. Or how about danger rooms that involve bosses? I mean, BOSSES, like fighting the Snarbolax and JK together? Or new pieces of armor and new weapons? Or completely unique rooms, built by the players, that give a whole new aspect to the game. Also, by mods, the GMs can see players creations, and use them as inspiration for updates.
I understand how hard it can be for this to be implemented, but, wow, the opportunities it would open up are incredible. Also, as a side note, it would probably be best if modding only allowed for levels, monsters, and bosses, that way, people can not make mods that allow them to give unfair advantages from the start, such as 5-star gear unlock (5-star gear can be worn by a recruit) or monetary advantages, such as giving a player 1,000,000 moneys from the start.

-THE DARK MERCHANT: Alright, I believe that this might have been brought up before, but I do think it would be quite suddenly find "The Dark Merchant" when you are randomly grinding the arcade. Although, if this was to be consider, I do have some ideas on how it would work.

The Dark Merchant will not be just sitting around in his own little side room for you to walk into and buy stuff from him. I think there should be a whole twist to it. Something to challenge all players, including the maxed out ones, beyond what they have every fought. It will be something like this:

As you wander the Arcade, you will randomly come across a small elevator shrouded in purple mist effects. It is unknown where this leads, it is simply labeled ??? Next to this elevator will be a knight, who is obviously bad injured. I personally think that, for old times' sake, Rhendon would be a good choice. You talk to he, and he explains that him and Feron, along with a squad of knights were ambushed by an unknown, never seen before monster, as well as knights, who seem to be long dead knights, but turned evil. Feron and the knights were taken where the elevator leads, and Rhendon was barely able to escape with his life. You receive a quest from him to save Feron and the squad of knights from whoever took them, at all costs.

This elevator leads to a place similar to the level after shadow lairs, but shrouded in purple mist same as the elevator. As you progress, dark in color knights attack you from all sides. These knights would have very powerful attacks not only very similar to actual knight attacks, but also deal massive amounts of damage even to the most overpowered knights, which would present a challenge for end-game players, no matter their gear.

The map is randomly generated, and your goal is to find a portal to Feron and the monster keeping them captive, which also randomly spawns throughout the map, making players have to fight their way to it, as there will be no set place that it spawns. Upon reaching it, you are transferred to a large room, where a large monster, I imagine similar to Herex, but larger and more powerful, stands next to Feron, who seems to be changed into one of the dark knights as well. The fight to save him will go something like this:

FIGHT: Both the monster and Feron attack you at the same time, the monster with long-reaching AoE attacks with razors, also similar to Herex. At the same time, Feron fights a very in-your-face, flourish-style battle, with varying attacks that make him hard to predict. In order to damage the monster, you need to damage Feron to a point where he flees for a short time. During this time, you need to attack the monster, but are also besieged by knights, who seem to be the knights who were with Feron and Rhendon.
You have a period of 30 seconds to attack this monster, afterwards, Feron comes back, but now is beginning to look more light in color. This goes on for 4 phases, more depending on how much damage can be wrought on the monster, which is not easy, because as I mentioned, the knights' attacks hurt quite a bit, and the monster's more so. After these phases, Feron seems to return to a normal look, and, not only that, turns and becomes an ally to help you fight the monster! The monster now is free to be damaged, but he also becomes very hard to hit, constantly moving as well as AoE attacks becoming stronger. After some time, his health is now zero, but he comes back! But now the player has another advantage as well: the knights who were attacking him the whole time also become normal, and join with you to attack the monster! This is the last phase, which, after draining his health once more, finally sees the end of the monster, and the whole scene becomes normal, with a similar atmosphere to the sprites on the 2nd floor of Vanaduke. Feron thanks you for freeing him, and mentions that there also was a wandering merchant who was caught on the way to this place. Feron gives you a key, which, after some exploring, unlocks a gate containing a figure in the full nemesis costume, with some very rare accessories on, like the dread wings, snarby slippers, and dreadful aura. He thanks you for freeing him, and makes his wares open to you in return for freeing him.
Here comes the cool part to all this. You just finished an incredibly stressful fight, and more than likely died quite a bit, but the Merchant makes your time worth it, as he sells awesome accessories and gear for very cheap. Let me give you some examples: Prismatic Valkyre Wings: 90,000 crowns OR 900 energy, Snarby Pet: 800,000 crowns OR 8,000 energy, Shadow Key: 70,000 crowns OR 700 energy, Silver Key: 20,000 crowns OR 200 energy, and how about this, his most expensive item: Sword of the Shadows: 9,000,000 crowns OR 90,000 energy, reason being it deals more damage than the Acheron and Gran Faust combined, dealing shadow and elemental damage at the same time, curse, poison, and freeze chances 100%. Cool, huh? I'll make a full list of what I think would be fitting for this merchant, but this is just a peek at what he could give. Makes it quite worth your time I would think.
To balance this out, though, the only way you can get this is through running around the Arcade, with the chance of this spawning incredibly low, lower than the Book of Dark Rituals, lets say 0.01% chance? (Give me your opinions on this, not to sure about drop rates in this game)

Alright everyone, that is mostly it for the time being, but trust, I have many more ideas, both realistic and outlandish, that I will bring to this post. I also sincerely hope that the Admins take a look at this, as I do feel that some of these suggestions really can be done without to much trouble. If you have any suggestions for this post, from adding details to better names for achievements, feel free to post here or contact me here or in-game @ Sa-Dude.

This is Sa-Dude signing out, have a good day everyone!