Crucible Rework Idea (Something I think would be good for ROTMG)

One of the things I notice that sometimes ends up pushing players away from Realm is the way its seasons are designed. With each season, new things are introduced, and things from the previous season are removed. Some of the things that get removed aren’t necessarily bad for the game—for example, dungeons, items, events, Crucible mode challenges, etc.

Well, in this post I’ll focus on one specific thing: the Crucible. The Crucible, the way it currently is in the game, is… cool “sometimes.” Emphasis on “sometimes.” It changes every season and always comes with good points, like stat boosts, loot bonuses, etc., and bad points, like reduced healing, debuffs, and so on.

One of the downsides of this way of playing Crucible is that, each season, one class will be more overpowered and fun to play than another. Sometimes specific classes are extremely penalized for playing Crucible. I know its proposal is to be a challenge for more “hardcore” players, with extra loot and XP as a reward for the brave. But the truth is that most people who play Crucible are just looking for new ways to use the beneficial modifiers to create extremely strong builds—whether through wisdom buffs, dexterity, mana regen, or other types.

Because of this, each season Crucible becomes something very “all or nothing,” even though… it doesn’t have to be that way. Here’s my proposal for creating a system that would encourage players to be more active and creative in how they play the game.

First, I would change Crucible from a temporary challenge into a core game mechanic, where players would have several “paths” to choose from when creating their character. When creating a character—or when interacting with some kind of “guide” NPC, like a master or something similar—the player would see a menu with multiple available Crucibles, each with its own buffs and debuffs. Once a player chooses one, their character would be locked into that Crucible mode until death. To unlock all the buffs and debuffs, the player would need to earn fame or “Path XP” by killing monsters. Here’s an example of a Crucible:

Path of the Magus:
Level 1: Wis +5 / Vit -5
Level 2: Ability Mana Cost -10% / Damage Taken +5%
Level 3: Ability Stat Multiplier +20% / Health Regen of All Sorts -10%
Level 4: Mana Regen of All Sorts +25% / When hit, bleeding for 2 seconds

This is just an example, and the numbers and effects were not tested by me with any balancing intent.

As the player progresses in “Path XP,” they would unlock Crucible levels. They could choose to stay at any unlocked level or even go back to previous levels, but it would be impossible to change their chosen path.

Another interesting mechanic would be the ability to choose a secondary path and level it up to a maximum of level 2. This would create a really cool build-crafting system.

A nice way to unlock these “Paths” could be by earning stars with certain classes, for example:

5 Stars with Wizard = Path of the Magus unlocked
or
3 Stars with Wizard + 3 Stars with Sorcerer = Path of the Magus unlocked

Anyway, I think that with what I’ve explained here, you can understand where I’m trying to go with this. If you’d like, I’d love to hear your ideas for this kind of system as well. Recently, I feel like Deca has been spending too much development time on things that don’t really add to the game’s longevity. Although, of course, the new class and the hardest event/dungeon so far are welcome additions… at least when they arrive.