The Big Ideas
1) Nightmare difficulty for events
"Nightmare difficulty" is an addition to each of the events that's geared towards the top players in the game. This means that the event itself can stay balanced for the general playerbase but there's an additional challenge for those looking to stretch themselves. Generally this will come in the form or extra battles to do past the normal "final" battle in the event where there are additional rules or conditions and the rewards are a small number of gems and/or a crown.
Here’s how it would work in each event:
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Ultimate Challenge = at level 2050, 2100, 2150, etc. the game will match you against an opponent’s team which people lost against lots either this UC or from the previous UC (depends which is easier to code). This will help distinguish top leaderboard positions
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Whale’s Treasure = level 5 where all monsters are the element boosted and only SE+Leg+Myth, Finns given as rewards
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Showdown Tower = floor 13 where every battle is a trainer (le reconquista - guys from the online story) and 5th, 10th and 15th battles are against the bosses of them. All battles are sleep/stun immune and buffed. Rewards are consolation prizes 2 gems, 2 gems and 3 gems + crown for beating the 1st, 2nd and 3rd bosses
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Dungeon Challenge = floors 100-110 where enemies are sleep/stun immune and it takes from the entire pool of monsters in the game (assuming floors 1-100 get a restricted pool to make it easier), rewards a crown and 5 gems
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Survival of the Fittest = battles 151+ have the buff turned back on (if “easy mode”) and become sleep/stun immune. Rewards are 5 gems at 175 and crown at 200
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Game of Hordes = nightmare difficulty unlocked once all other battles are completed. All enemies are sleep/stun immune and battles are 40, 45, 50, 55, 60 monsters. Rewards 1 gem for each of the first four and crown for the fifth
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Island Challenge, Balancion’s Trials, Time Attack and Okkult’s Invitation = All fine, these events already have stretch goals or are challenging enough
NOTE: Sleep/stun immune is just an idea, as well as the crown being an idea as something aspirational. “Nightmare difficulty” in each of these events would not be required for achievements and in each case just give a few extra gems and a crown. This would hopefully offer some extra challenge for the most experienced players without affecting the general player base negatively.
2) Power creep fixes:
Power creep in a game like this is inevitable. For the long term survival of the game it needs to be kept in check. The Devs surely have plans for this already, but here are some radical thoughts from me about how the game could be changed to allow for power creep to more easily be controlled in the game..
a) Monster cost overhaul
As the name suggests, this idea is to change the costs of all the monsters. It could work as follows:
1-3* monsters = same as current (1-7)
4* monsters = 8-10
5* monsters = 10-18
6* monsters = 15-25, with up to 30 including secret skill
7* monsters = 20-30, with up to 35 including secret skill
(secret skills add anywhere between +2 to +5 cost)
Here are some of the benefits of this cost overhaul:
- Giving a larger range of costs to differentiate the monsters (more than 14-16)
- Allowing some SEs to cost more than legendaries (their power creep will exceed weaker legendaries, especially when considering combos)
- Allowing further expansion of max legendary (and mythic) cost, because the numbers are larger overall (currently increasing it to 17, 18, etc. will be proportionately quite high compared to 30->31,32,etc)
- Allowing the starting cost (pre-SS) to be different and in many cases higher than other monsters who have secret skills, which means secret skills can be properly costed rather than them simply creating the “true cost” of the monster
- Tweaks (minor or major) to the costs of specific monsters will be easier and more effective because there is a larger range of costs it can be set to and the overall cost of a team allows for far more customisation rather than picking “X number of 13 cost monsters and Y number of 14-16 monsters with Z 10 cost or below” as it currently is
Unfortunately this change would make things more complicated as monsters will no longer have a formulaic cost structure. Team building will become complicated and people may get confused. However, for balance in the game this could do SO MUCH and be a good way to control things as time progresses. I personally think there’s a bit of an issue right now with strong monsters which don’t require a secret skill so you can have an “overpowered” monster at only 13 cost. Also, some SE monsters are excessively strong compared to some of the older legendaries.
b) Create “standard” format for PvP
This might be very foreign to Neo Monsters players but “standard” is a format of the card game Magic the Gathering whereby only cards (monsters) released in the last two years are legal for use. What this does is it allows for almost complete control over power creep because each year the Devs are not so forced to create new monsters that are stronger than previous ones. Instead, the focus can be on creating new, interesting mechanics and combos that people want to pick up and play with.
To talk specifics a bit more. Here’s how it would work…
- In PvP, players are only allowed to use teams which include:
- Limited monsters released in the last, say, 12-18 months
- Monsters which are not limited (in the normal egg pools) or are freely available to everyone in the main game like Chronozeros or Noxdragon
- A small selection of Limited monsters which changes every 2 months (all are clearly listed)
- A free legendary is given out to all players every 3 (or 4) months related to the meta and lots of new super epics are designed with regards to the meta. These legendaries will only be allowed in PvP for the next 12-18 months then never again in standard.
- There is still an “old school” mode where players can use anything, but the rewards are small. The focus is on the “standard” mode.
- Every, say, 3 months there are 10 days of “masters PvP season” where it’s old school mode with proper rewards and ranked for the second half.
What this does overall is…
- Keeps PvP interesting with the meta shifting frequently.
- Gives each monster a time to shine while it is a good one for the current meta.
- Keeps certain overpowered/dominating monsters or strategies controlled. Either by excluding those monsters most of the time or excluding one of the key components of the combo at any one time so it’s impossible to create. This can also work for any unpopular monsters, for example Deathgazer, by keeping it excluded from PvP a lot of the time.
- Allows the Devs to design monsters specifically for unique metes, that are strong in that setting but are not very useful unless you go all-in on a particular strategy. This is what the free legendaries given to all players can be like.
- Encourages players with a large collection of monsters to keep obtaining the new ones because there is more opportunity to make niche strategies work with restricted lists for each PvP.
c) General tips to the Devs for monster design
After lots of research into the topic and having knowledge of Magic the Gathering (a card game which is the closest thing to this game and the most successful card game of its type) I have come up with a few suggestions for monster design in order to avoid any future issues…
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All stand-alone strong monsters that add excessive amount of value to any team are given restrictions of some sort or enough counters are introduced that their value drops significantly below what combos can achieve.
(e.g. for shockers, when they enter the field all your teammates have the time until their next turn increased by 40s or stun counter/converter becomes more commonplace on new monsters so a shocker is less valuable as all it adds to a team is the stun, which is no longer helping) Note: this was written long in the past and the Devs did exactly this… adding more stun counter/converters. -
Every monster that focuses on trading at better than 1-for-1 is designed so at a later date it can be countered quite easily with the right tools.
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Some new monster combos are designed to rely on specific super epics rather than only legendaries/mythics, to make them more accessible and desirable for players who already have great combos with their monsters.
(e.g. mortar monsters tried this except the SE Botanic was limited and not a core part of the strategy, the mortar legendaries work without it being there. Instead it should’ve been Botanic being more crucial and able to tank so the combo was only super strong when it was there and once removed the legendaries are just average) -
To re-vamp old monsters, new ones are added which create strong combos with them. Doing this can make these older monsters viable without actually “buffing” them as it simply creates a combo which can be balanced in power against the other combos.
(e.g. a monster that changes roulette moves to have a higher chance to hit an opponent, 100%?, or literally works with a specific monster like how Solblaze and Lunartic do - best to do that with a secret skill)
3) Mythic backstories
This was originally designed as "Legendary backstories" and it was all about unlocking the secret skill on the monster. Since the release of mythics I've decided to take another spin on this idea and make it designed for mythics and about awakening them + unlocking their secret skill. Depending on what the Devs plan to do with 7* tickets and mythic dupes this may work slightly differently but this would be my preferred way to do it all.
Here’s how it works:
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There is a section in story missions called “Mythic backstories” which unlocks when you hatch your first mythic. There is a section for each mythic which unlocks when you get that particular mythic evolved into its second form.
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For each mythic there are 3 battles to do. The first two are easy battles, intended for reasonably new players to do. The third is a preset battle where you use the awakened monster and it’s revolved around winning with its moveset.
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Battle number 1 and 2 can be repeated as a much harder version for 1 gem each as a reward.
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Battle number 3 gives you a duplicate of the mythic monster, giving it a +3 bonus. If the monster is already +9 and awoken then it unlocks the secret skill. If the secret skill is unlocked or it is +9 and not awoken then there is no reward.
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IMPORTANT: Completing the third battle for ANY mythic monster locks you out of all third battles for 1 month (it resets on the 1st of each month). Also, this will be the ONLY way to unlock secret skills on mythic monsters. They will no longer have them unlocked using an Ocarino.
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Battles 1-3 have a short storyline which is a backstory to the mythic monster. It’s up to the Devs how much effort is put into this.
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Each story will start with you, the bard and the mythic monster. The bard tells you that the mythic has far more power to awaken in it and you must travel into its mind to venture into its past and help it remember. He plays an Ocarino and sends you both to sleep, where you enter its mind. Additionally, it could cost you an Ocarino to open up the battles for each mythic (my original idea when this was simply for unlocking secret skills).
However, that’s not it. There is more to this idea! I’m never going to write the request for more game content without also giving them a monetary reason to do so. They’re a business after all.
(Where this earns money):
Every 10 backstories you complete, you will return to find yourself holding a strange urn. You give the NPC an Ocarino (costs you one) and he plays into it then gas comes out and puts you to sleep. You then fight a boss battle (like the first ones) that you can return to whenever you like. Beating the boss will get you out of the dream and you return to find the monster in its final (and only) form, which automatically gets captured.
Basically every 10 backstories completed you pay an Ocarino to do a boss battle and get a unique mythic (only acquired here). These will be preset mythics at 10, 20, 30, etc. What’s unique about them is their secret skill is multi-use and always on, they are each 18-20 cost, they are automatically +9 and they only have a single form (no need for evolving/awakening). These monsters are intentionally made strong (not overpowered, just no weak ones people won’t be happy with). What this does is encourage spenders to keep gathering as many of the mythics as they can because every 10 they will unlock the next unique one (you can also view it as rewarding the biggest spenders).
Summary:
Each mythic monster gets its own little storyline which unlocks when you get the monster in 2nd form. Completing the final battle for a mythic (which is preset and revolved around the specific mythic) gives a +3 bonus to the monster or unlocks the secret skill. You can only do the final battle for one mythic per month. This is the required way to unlock a secret skill on a mythic. You can still get +3 bonus from duplicates of a mythic and awaken it as normal. Every 10 unique final battles you complete unlock a special boss battle (like first ones) which completing gives you a unique mythic that is 18-20 cost and has only one form. These monsters have a reusable secret skill (basically 5 skills).
4) Clan system
Clans, guilds or whatever you like to call them are in many games and there are various pros of having them in the game. Here's how I would personally like to see them implemented if the Devs ever choose to take this route.
A few functions in a clan to make it add more than just chat:
- dueling between clan members
- clan leaderboard in PvP which adds the top 10 players’ scores in a clan together for the leaderboard points
- a weekly gem
- the clan has a level which increases by exp gained from members, at certain levels it opens up new rewards
- 1 exp gained from a mission = 1 clan exp for your clan
- each 100k clan exp you make gives you personally 1 reward point (nothing to other clan member), which you can use to purchase clan rewards
- rewards are SEs, gems, rare gems and potions. The gems, rare gems and potions can be claimed multiple times but increase in cost each time.
e.g. A gem clan reward may cost 1 point the first purchase then 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. - might be obvious already, but higher clan ranks will gain access to “1 gem” as a possible reward again but this will be great because it will not cost many reward points compared to previous ones you’ve claimed many times
- (possible addition) clan leader can set a “clan bonus” which is an additional skill people get as a one-time use each battle. e.g. “heal monster currently with turn”, “purify a teammate”, “shield monster currently with turn”, “boost attack stat of monster currently with turn”. These bonuses are unlocked with clan level (really spread out) and can only be changed once per month.
As for how it brings in money… it simply makes people play more and engage with the game.
5) The Cave of Myths
In the past I shared an idea where we'd have an extra event added to the 16-day cycle of special ingredients. Every other cycle (32 days) there would be another event added where we get an item called a "shard ticket", which works like a 7* ticket in the shop but only allows us to buy shards for the mythics we already own. There would probably be a new section of the shop made which displays all the mythics you own and that's where you spend the shard tickets. The idea is that all people can awaken mythics with enough time, but it'll be about 9 months to buy all 3 shards for a mythic if you've only hatched it once. Shard tickets could also be given out in a few other places as a super rare item.
This idea below is similar to that idea, but turned into a combination of a couple of ideas…
The Devs have previously expressed in the future they’d like to give us one or two more “free legendaries”, like Chronozeros and Noxdragon. I’d like to combine that with the idea I have above.
The event
This is an event in the “monster hunting” section that unlocks after beating the champion in the offline story. There are a few battles with a story line which has you following rumours of a cave that is said to be the home of the most powerful monster in all the land. You find the cave but the monster is nowhere to be found. However, the crystals filling the cave seem to have a life of their own and begin attacking you. After the battle the crystals come together to form a mythical creature, who explains it is not one creature but actually the fundamental building blocks of all mythical creatures and there are many mythics out there in distant lands. It tells you to defeat it in battle then you can claim a crystal for yourself. You then fight a boss battle against the mythic. Afterwards it collapses into individual crystals again and you take one as a trophy.
Once this is completed, the final battle becomes possible to repeat once a week, giving a crystal each time.
The crystal you get is a 5* monster.
To evolve it to 6* you need 6 copies (1+5).
To evolve it to 7* you need 4 copies of the 6* monster (24 in total).
However, the 6* form can also be used an ingredient for any other mythic in place of a “shard”.
Hence, every six weeks we get the equivalent of one shard for any of our mythics we already own or something that works towards this mythic. If this is deemed too frequent, the battle can give a percentage chance of a crystal when you repeat it (e.g. 60% each time, like the monster hunting for the starters). In fact I’d recommend it is lower chance then it can be increased in the future or for some seasonal periods as a bonus.
The monster itself…
Visually: Crystals bonded together by electricity, constantly reforming into different beast-like shapes.
5 star form
storm, 47%, rounded, beast
actives:
(-) Gigathunder (200TU)
(-) Natural selection (160TU)
(-) Stealth (100TU)
passives:
(-) Stun immunity
6 star form
storm, 47%, rounded, beast
actives:
(-) Ultrathunder (250TU)
(-) Natural selection (160TU)
(-) Stealth all (130TU)
(-) Healing light (100TU)
passives:
(-) Stun converter
(-) Crystal construct [poison immunity and when >50% HP, def +50% but when <50% HP, def -50%]
7 star form
storm, 47%, rounded, beast
actives:
(-) Assisted thunder (250TU)
(-) Natural selection (160TU)
(-) Purifying mist (130TU)
(-) Healing light (100TU)
SS: Eject crystal (50TU) [piercing one-shot, lose 50% of max HP]
passives:
(-) Stun counter
(-) Crystal construct [poison immunity and when >50% HP, def +50% but when <50% HP, def -50%]
The idea is it’s a stun counter support monster. Therefore everyone can have a stun counter but it’s nothing too crazily powerful and takes a long time + a trade-off over awakening other mythics in order to get it.
6) Island exploration event ideas
“Return to the islands”
What we do is we’re given some starting monsters then go out and explore to find the powerful monsters, catch them, and build our team to progress through the islands. Each time they vary which are the powerful monsters available and where they’re hidden. Monsters are automatically trained/evolved when we catch them and we don’t get them outside of the event. There will be one new SE in the event somewhere which if we catch it then we get it gifted to our reward box.
There are trainers we need to beat for rewards, checkpoints only at towns (death sets us back to the last we healed at) and at the end of it all is a series of, say, 5 challenging battles that require different approaches to beat.
I think this would be a great way of encapsulating what the original offline story does in an event that can come out every few months for us to enjoy each time, rather than releasing another island which we go through in a couple of hours and never play again.
"The mythical isles"
Here we use our own teams and have to explore around increasingly tough islands, beating trainer battles to progress. At the end of the final island is a super boss version of a mythic.
We don’t get rewards for beating the trainers. Instead, we’re tasked to hunt down all the monsters (it’s a scientific expedition we’ve been sent on to study monsters by the professor). We need to find and kill each monster that exists in the wild and at milestones we get rewards. We have a counter on the screen for the island we’re on (e.g. 14/80) so we can see how many we still need to find.
The way team building is made interesting is you can only save your progress and heal if you make it to a checkpoint. These are towns around the place. It’ll be similar-ish to Dungeon Challenge for team building but you don’t have to go quite so extreme for survival and when it comes to the trainer battles you’ll need to be prepared for that challenging fight while also being able to both travel to and back from the trainer to the safety of a town.
This event idea has slightly more focus on exploration than the one above.
7) Sideboards
- Each team has an extra set of 4 monsters you add to it.
- Max cost of the sideboard is 30 (they don’t add to the normal 206).
- We can add one of these monsters next in line during any of our turns, after 250s has passed from the start of battle.
- Only one can be added each battle.
- It passes the current monster’s turn by 130s (reduced by pots/acceleration).
The idea is, giving some more viability to those “silver bullet” type monsters as well as opening up design space for lower cost monsters that can be amazing in certain situations. People could use it for simple things like a monster of a certain element to turn link back on in a match or they could use a monster like Centaureon or Chromera to counter the opponent’s strategy. However, with the 30 cost it’s really tight so if people want legendaries/mythics in their sideboard they can only have 1-2.
I thought carefully about whether this would ruin strategies like sleep lock because everyone could have something like a Centaureon in their sideboard. However, I think the restrictions keep it in check and in fact it’s good when we can have more chances to swing a game back in our favour. Also, over time more monsters could be designed for use in the sideboard (especially SEs and below) so there would be a number of viable options for how to use the sideboard rather than just counter-play.
I think this would be really nice for developing PvP in the long run, as well as opening up more design space for the Devs (especially with SEs and below). It would add quite a bit to PvE too. The Devs could make some events “no sideboard” if needed.