Well, first off, I don’t have any artistic talent. So while looking at the images just imaging that they are looking better. The Weaves themselves together with their respective gameplay addition are quite fun but their presentation and accessibility have a serious problem. I made previously a suggestion to improve the accessibility but it is only a bandaid. So this time, I will try it with a different approach mainly adressing the presentation of the Weaves. As it is some work to implement such stuff, earliest this would be possible is Season 2. With this said I want to introduce
Weave Boards - How they work
Similar to now, you start at the first Weave of the board. After beating it, the next Weave will be accessible (green line). Different to now, the boards have the possibility to have split paths. So you can go either the upper route or the lower route.
In order to unlock the next board(s) you just need to beat one of the main paths (green line, upper or lower path). In addition to the main path, there are “secret paths” (light blue lines) which only unlock after meeting special criteria like for example beating a respective Weave solo.
Which Weave has a secret path and what special criteria it has should not be seen on the Weave Board. This adds some kind of exploration elemen to the boards. People who don’t want to search for the secret paths themselves, there will be guides for this. After finding the secret paths and beating all secret Weaves, you will have access to the heart (or the soul) of the respective Weave Board. By beating the Heart you will have completed the respective Weave Board.
The pathways leave a lot of options and there is possibility for multiple crossways. It is just a matter of imagination. For reference I show a second example with two starting points.
Special criteria are open for discussion. But looking at Okri’s challenges and what all is tracked by the score boards in the main game, there are a lot of options: Killing a boss with lightning, killing no specials, not using range, not killing bosses, not getting downed, etc… there are better ideas than those boring ones.
Weave Boards - General
In comparison to the current mode, multiple Weave Boards should be selectable from the get-go. One for Recruit, one for Veteran, one for Champion. An additional one for Legend could also be unlocked from the start or unlocked after beating (not completing) the Weave Board for Champion. Cataclysm boards will be unlocked after beating Legend board. In order to give people some choice there should always unlock two or three boards which can be worked on in parallel.
With multiple boards accessible at all time, people are not bound to lock for that one specific Weave they cant beat. This should soften the problem of not finding a match. The search for special criteria also leads to replaying of earlier Weaves which should also soften the problem.
Each board should have each type of Wind of Magic. Currently, in order to see all 8 winds you need to beat 35 Weaves with a difficulty up to Legend. So a lot of people haven’t even seen all Winds. This would also be solved with this.
All in all with the Weave Boards more content is available for the people.
Weave Boards - Rewards
Personally, I couldn’t care less for rewards. But apparently, gaming is work nowadays. And without getting paid (loot) people cant be bothered to do something.
Luckily, the Heart of the Weave Board helps here. Rewards should be tied to unlocking and beating the heart of a respective Weave Board (all conditions must be met to get the reward in order to avoid abuse by someone just hosting the Heart Weave). There are two possibilities here:
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One time rewards per board: This has the advantage that the reward can be truly special and it pushed player to higher boards to get more rewards. Problem is that Fatshark has to create these truly special rewards
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Repeatable rewards per board: After completing a board, the player has the choice to reset it. As such he can claim a reward over and over again but has to beat 10-12 Weaves in order to do so. As the reward is obtainable repeatably it should be less special as one time rewards. Options would be
- Recruit: Green dust (100 for example)
- Veteran: Blue dust (100 for example)
- Champion: A random red weapon for the main game (100 for example)
- Legend: A specific red weapon for the main game, chosen at the beginning of the board (100 for example)
- Cataclysm: A random Weave weapon skin for the main game (100 for example)
- Cataclysm 2: A specificWeave weapon skin for the main game, chosen at the beginning of the board (100 for example)
Bonus of the Weave Boards reset would be replayability of lower Weaves, softening the match making problem. Alternatively, there could also be obtained currency for Lohner’s Emporium or Art if they ever add it.
I probably have forgotten half of the stuff i wanted to say and I hope you didnt scratch out your eyes after seeing the images. If you have questions, feel free to ask. Or discuss in general. I think this would make the Weaves more interesting, presented better and more approachable. All without actually hurting the competetiveness of the higher Weaves (they are still available) and the difficulty of the Weaves.