the other kind of challenge

[Armand Star]

for veteran players the game is too easy and they need a challenge, for other players the challenge is too hard and they get frustrated. others are in between.

the main challenges on the harder maps are:
1) hits that deal huge damage, have zero countdown, or both
2) seal

today we're going to focus on the seal.

there are two ways in which a stage can be more challenging:

1) you are weakened
2) the opponents are stronger

case 1 is what happens with the seal. in case 1, the opponent's aren't that hard, is only a challenge because you aren't that hard either.
case 2 is what i will talk about: you won't be restricted in any way, and the challenge will be that the opponents will also be tough.

in general gaming, is common knowledge that one thing players tend to hate is being restricted. players are vulnerable to frustration when they are forbidden from using their stuff, are severely limited on what they are allowed to do, or otherwise entering a "you can't play" state.

for those who have played Yugioh, you'll probably be familiar with the feeling you get when you fight an opponent with one of those decks that are exclusively built to counter your every move, stall, or flat out don't let you do anything.

on Dragon Era, something similar (though way less extreme) happens. even if just for a pair of turns, you are forbidden from using 2-3 cards, which doesn't sound that bad, but this include leaders, and the leader skills are a vital component to surviving the harder maps. most complains about seals are basically "i got sealed and died", right?

but i have an idea

today i did the insane wonderland map. i was surprized when i got to the reindeer and i got hit by a skill called Preemptive Strike. when i saw that skill, it hit me (literally), and then it hit me, an idea to make a harder challenge without the frustration of being unable to fight at 100%

i say give enemies special skills. instead of the enemies having skills to restrict the player, give them skills to improve themselves.
is the kind of style i like to apply in my pvp games: instead of focus on countering and weakening the opponent's team, i focus on improving and strengthening my own.

and here's what i have in mind: allow bosses to use their skills
i mean, the skills written on their card.
for example: Dorothy's active skill is Pure Heart, a shield that stays for 5 turns. during the earth wonderland map, when you fight against her, allow her to use that skill. let her activate her shield.

of course, this won't work for all bosses. for example, if Flaming Hecate was a boss, her skill would kill the player in one hit. Snow Queen also has a very high damaging skill. dying in one hit will frustrate players, so, not all skills are a good choice to apply this idea, but others are!
like dorothy. and not only limited to active skills. certain leader skills wold also make fun and challenging maps!

examples:

Dorothy and Mafdet: when you fight them, they have a chance of activating their shields (active skill)
Hell Marionette, golems, etc: they have Deathguard as a leader skill, it would be a better challenge if these cards can survive a hit that would otherwise kill them.
Healers: any card that has full heal as a skill, can heal itself during battle (though this one might be frustrating if they heal forever and the player can never kill them)
cards with life leech: when they attack you, they recover a bit of hp
cards with shield/wall leader skills: they take less damage from attacks of that element
etc

now, pushing this idea even further, i am going to mention the regular/advanced maps. you know how sometimes the boss stage has more than one boss? yeah, one of my favorite combos is deathguard + healing. i think it would be a really fun and challenging map if for example we had a stage where we fight against a Hell Marionette and Holy Priestess:
with the idea implemented, we would have:
*due to her leader skill (deathguard), Marionette unkillable if she has more than half hp
*due to her leader skill (healing light), Holy Priestess heals herself a bit each turn
*due to her active skill (heal), Holy Priestess can heal herself or Marionette

yes, having stages with 2 or more bosses will be a real challenge, and without seals, your team will be at full capacity to take them on.

again, this may not be applicable with all skills, but for those that are, i'm sure replacing the seals with the card skills will be a welcome change.
and by adding multiple bosses, the possibilities are endless!
just think of cards like Lilith that give boosts when at full hp, paired with a healer boss. or a shield/wall leader coupled with a 2.5x hp leader

players that want a challenge will have even better challenges. players complaining that their cards get sealed won't get frustrated, and overall it will be a more fun experience for everyone. opinions?

also, congratulations on the preemptive strikes, i was really surprised!

[pmsupport]

Hi Armand Star, thank you for such a detailed suggestion. It has been forwarded to the team.

[arcthelad]

Armand, very nice post! It will make the game more like an RPG than it currently is.

[CloudStrife11]

Then you can start selling haste potions to reduce the cooldown on your own cards, xpotions, antidotes (or ailment specific consumables), power source (to raise atk of entire team for a few turns), another for defense, and other items to make it a true rpg experience

but in all seriousness I like the sound of all those things

[david22]

Nice ideas I would be willing to try it being a mid lvl free player