Here’s a quick fun game to play while you read this post: take a shot every time you read “power creep” Last person to die wins. *
Power creep is a problem that plagues games that are continually expanding and creating opportunities to get loot, and this most certainly includes Rotmg.
Power creep definition
“Power creep is a process that sometimes occurs in games where new content slowly outstrips the power of previous alternatives. This leads to players abandoning previous options in favor of the latest and more powerful alternatives, resulting in an inevitable increase in power throughout the game.”
Rotmg is a game that will have to be in constant development for the player base to stay fresh and not stagnate. This means that Deca will have to add new content periodically to keep the gameplay entertaining.
Now, this doesn’t mean Deca can only add more and more difficult dungeons, but they will have to raise the difficulty level at some point and add a more difficult dungeon than the Lost Halls. When that happens, they will have to add UT items and Tiered items that are more powerful than the previous items.
Slowly but surely, the high-level skilled players will gain items that will allow them to do more and more damage faster and faster. This is a problem because high-level players will be able to take soulbound from lower level players with less and less effort.
Because Rotmg can’t stagnate, and not adding harder dungeons and better loot means stagnation, how can Deca fix this problem? I have a suggestion that I think is interesting, but I’d also like to see you guys discuss how much of a long-term problem you see power creep being, and how you would solve it if you saw it as a problem at all.
My solution
Add “High Realms” that are only accessible by orange star ranks and above. These realms will function radically different from normal realms. High Realms will be where all endgame content after the LH resides. Almost all overworld enemies will gain new behaviors and get their damage boosted significantly, and completely different sprites to mix things up. Setpiece bosses will be changed, and the difference will be like the difference between O1 and O2, aka much more dangerous and difficult.
Tiered and Untiered items that originate from the High Realms will function normally, but when the items are brought to the normal realms, they will suffer a damage reduction to make them function similarly to normal realm items, but they will retain their unique properties if they are UT.
The fame system will be replaced in High Realms by the Glory system, which will function fundamentally differently.
Glory will be awarded at the death of quests which will vary for all players with the exception of setpiece bosses. Glory will be awarded according to a few different factors.
If you achieved your personal damage threshold on the boss, which will vary from class to class, you will be awarded a set amount of glory according to the difficulty of the boss or quest you vanquished, and you will qualify for other bonuses if they apply. Only a set amount of Glory would be awarded for each boss according to how many people are present, so generally, the larger the group, the smaller your chance at the Glory pool, but the smaller the group, the more Glory you might be able to hoard for yourself. Bear in mind that these are just examples and that you would only be able to recieve one Glory bonus in addition to hitting your SB Glory.
Bonus 1: Glory awarded for berzerking allies
Bonus 2: Glory awarded for healing allies
Bonus 3: Glory awarded for attack boosting allies
Bonus 4: Glory awarded for armoring allies
Bonus 5: Glory awarded for being the first to arrive at the event or boss
Bonus 6: Glory awarded for being the first to damage the event or boss
Bonus 7: Glory awarded for landing the killing blow to the event or boss.
Of course, the amount of bonus glory you receive would vary from bonus to bonus, for example, being first to arrive at the boss would reward less than healing three of your allies.
This would solve the fame training epidemic and make Glory an actually desirable commodity.
Glory could be used for exclusive skins and pet skins and would be immediately spendable, rather than only spendable when your character dies.
Anyways, that about sums it up.
Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think! Discuss and debate!
