Capping the Amount of Each Illuvial & New Overworld

[ionic hollow]

I agree with the ideas of introducing a prestige system and consolidating fuels into a single universal fuel, which I note because the primary focus here is on capping the number of each illuvial that can exist at one time, and these two things play a role. For instance, if we cap Ramphyers at 100,000, once that limit is reached, no more can be found or minted until one is burned through the prestige system, fusing, or the new game mode I’ll be discussing. This scarcity will drive the value of illuvials and help stabilize the in-game economy.

Eventually, we will reach the cap, meaning there will be a 0% chance to find that illuvial until one is burned. To keep gameplay exciting even as illuvials become capped, I propose a new game mode inspired by the Hunger Games. In this mode, players start at the center of a map (a safe zone) and have three minutes to gather loot, weapons, and engage in battles with wild roaming uncapped illuvials, similar to what we do now.

Once the initial phase is over, players can continue finding illuvials or engage in third-person combat using guns. If a player is defeated in gun combat, their character turns into a blue orb, similar to how illuvials do. The orb will last for 60 seconds, and during this time, the defeated player can either be removed from the match if the timer runs out or, if any player engages with the orb, it then becomes a 1v1 arena battle with only one round. The winner can steal an illuvial from the defeated player, while the losing player is eliminated from that match, even if they were the initial winner of the gun combat.

If you lose, not only do you lose your stolen illuvial, but you must choose 50% of the illuvials you brought in to be burned. To add a layer of safety and peace of mind, players can have "safe slots" for their illuvials. For example, if you bring in four illuvials, one of them is automatically protected in a safe slot, meaning it can't be stolen.

More below....

The game ends with a storm gradually pushing players back toward the center of the map, where the extraction zone is located. The extraction zone acts as a safe zone, and players can choose to exfiltrate at any time, securing their illuvials/loot and ending their run safely.

This brings me to why we need to get rid of the three fuels. I believe it’s best if this game mode, aka doing an overworld run, is 100% free, breaking the barrier to entry and allowing free-to-play (F2P) players to work their way up by outplaying players who have better illuvials. If players want to improve their chances of winning against others, they'll need to invest in curing higher-quality shards to capture better illuvials. I still believe that having to pay for better shards is essential and that T0 shards can only capture T0 creatures, as we have now. However, if an F2P player beats you with their T0, they can steal your T1-T5 illuvials.

I understand this would make the game more competitive, so I propose that, in addition to this mode, there’s a story mode/campaign where you have to pay fuel for each chapter. In the chapters, you would have the chance to capture uncapped illuvials. You would be able to replay chapters for the fuel cost and deal with the fact that you may not get the chance to find a capped illuvial. The only way to obtain a capped illuvial would be to steal it from another player.

That's all—feel free to add on, upvote, or downvote. I'm really curious to see what people think of the idea of capped illuvials.