F2P Stage 0 Overworld Needs to Feel like Stage 1+

[raw oyster]

Long story short, I've entered a paid region 3 or 4 times now, and each time I spend about 2.5 hours because the stakes/consequences of my actions feel more impactful.

• I walk more cautiously to shoot morphopods before they can get to me.
• My heart races more if I fall into an acid pool and start draining my health
• I'm much more selective in the rocks I choose to shoot.
• It actually feels worth hunting ergon rifts and placing travel shortcuts to them for quick access at the end of my run.
• I am incentivized to explore the entire map for that rare holo or high stat illuvial.
• The stage run feels more engaging even though nothing has really changed (aside from not having limitless runs and seeing cool new illuvials I haven't seen 100 times in stage 0).

**I'm looking for constructive ideas on what can be done to make stage 0 more engaging so that f2p feels less stale with endless speedruns. **

Reasoning:

• When paying players run out of money, using your captured illuvials in a more immersive stage 0 still adds value to playing the game more and wanting good illuvials.
• f2p is most peoples first exposure to the game. If stage 0 is fun and immersive, they will be more likely to try stage 1+, but the experience currently is night and day (IMO).
• More f2p players is like free marketing, gets more eyes on the project and some will become paying players over time.
• Reducing speedruns and disincentizing capturing every free illuvial possible with bad stats will help the minting delay issues.

tbh I don't have any good ideas for this atm, but I'm looking forward to hearing yours. Or maybe the consensus is that stage 0 is already fun speedrunning and you leave my f2p alone sir.

[lost geode]

IMO we need to have 3 stages of T0's.

[marsh lagoon]

Interesting thought....

So:
TIER 0 - STAGE 1
TIER 0 - STAGE 2
TIER 0 - STAGE 3

What would the difference be between them? Higher % chance for higher stage illuvials spawn?

Also could have a timer which forces quicker gameplay - but thst only makes illuvial hunting intense and more stressful

Doesn't resolve the speed runs issue where you can wipe your energy out in less than 5 minutes

[small roost]

Higher difficulty stage 0 runs should have: Higher level, multiple enemies, more mods. I would say aim at a 20x in difficulty of the current T0 Stage 0

Remove experience gain after an illuvial is lvl 10 though. Or you'll have people bot it for xp.

It would purely be to get max stat (DH) illuvials more easily. As it is just a waste of time now 😄 "Aha an illuvial, place one illuvial myself and guaranteed win." It is too easy which makes it feel like a chore to do as you basically have to turn your brain off while playing.

[lost geode]

I don't get what's the problem with speed running honestly.

And yes like Garf said it would be basically like the paid version but with T0's.

[dense coyote]

What about having something linked to Sanctum Mesa on the map, as a region with 3 stages like the others, which is entirely free, which makes sense as you dont need fuel to travel to something linked to Sanctum Mesa. Make it equivalent to actual stage 0 run, and with each hier stage of this region, a raise in possibility to find a T1/2/3 Illuvial ( capped at T3 on a "free" stage 3 run on the free map ) and put an entry fee in illuvial burning. That way all the bad stats caught can be used to enter fuel-free runs with lower rarity than a fuel-powered one, and free to play players can by chance catch a T1/2/3 ilv to sell for a paid run, or keep for arena

For exemple : Free map Stage0 : same as other Stage0, Free map Stage1 : burn 5 illuvials and you have a chance of some of the Tier0 ressources become Tier1 , and so on, with a T0 basis always. like a stage 0.5 if you will