Maelström of Chaos revisited

Deep down the problem isn't that maps are rare, but that if you are out of maps, you are out of things to do.

I like the rareness of the maps. It makes them precious, it makes you want to burn currency on them, it makes you really enjoy them, and it makes you feel very rewarded if you manage to get a 1 level higher map during a run. I don't really want that feeling to go away.

There's also the fact that maps are the only way to get the best possible items in game. I also believe this should remain, coupled with the rareness of the maps, to make obtaining a near-perfect item in-game a real achievement.

But...

There needs to be something else. Another thing to do so that when you run out of maps as intended, you don't run out of content.

That's why I suggest reintroducing a slightly modified version of Maelström of Chaos.

The idea of the Maelström was to have a completely random area (much like maps) that you could clear over and over and over. Mobs inside were distributed randomly (much like maps), and had a "Chaos" appended to their name, making them much stronger overall. It was completely removed when maps were introduced.

So here's a draft idea of Maelström 2.0 :

* Works like Eternal Lab., you waypoint in and are presented with 6 portals, each of them leading to MoC.
* Portals lead to a level 66 Maelström. Just like before, an entirely random map with random mobs.
* Every Maelström has a portal (similar to Piety's teleporter) to a new, one level higher Maelström.
* Portals works like in the Eternal Lab. If you die or go back to town, you loose a portal.
* Once all portals are gone, you cannot enter the Maelström anymore, and have to reset to a new level 66 one.
* You can theorically go all the way to level 77 (or maybe even more) if you keep on clearing it and don't run out of portals.

Now, Maelström must not replace maps, and that is why it would come with this one big drawback : Drops in the Maelström are ALWAYS calculated as if the zone had a monster level of 64. Even if you managed to make it to a level 75 MoC, the drops are still those of a level 64 zone. That means you can't get maps higher than level 66, and most importantly, you can't get good gear.
XP wise however, a level 75 MoC would give the same XP as a level 75 map.

The idea behind MoC 2.0 is to give a grinding alternative to people who run out of maps, and even a good challenge to see how high of a Maelström level you can go. It would also allow maps to remain the rare thing they are, without depraving people of end game content, and without watering down the economy.


Comments welcome.

Yeah, either given to you by Gemling Queen in Merciless or after you kill Piety.

Well, you get the Lab after the spool thing in Merciless, right?

Why not get this MoC only after you beat Dominus in Merciless? He is yet to be added, but the point is Piety won't be the final boss of Act 3 for long, so getting it after her won't make that much sense, and getting it at the same time of Eternal Lab is... unnecessary I think.

Yeah it makes sense, I was actually surprised to see that you get Eternal Lab before you're done with Act 3.

As it's meant to be slightly harder than maps (because you get greedy and enter a too high level Maelström), it wouldn't necessarily have to be introduced before them.

+1

would be cool if you had a boss-mob in each MoC that you must find and beat to get to the next higher MoC

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SunChaos wrote:

would be cool if you had a boss-mob in each MoC that you must find and beat to get to the next higher MoC

Too similar to the maps then, though.

if i didnt missunderstood it the MoC 2.0 is supposed to be a weaker/limited alternative to maps, or?
why not have a mob or more that can drop better loot than normal mobs do (and kill you faster) to get some "life" into it

I don't know about bosses, they weren't in the MoC we had in closed beta so it never crossed my mind.

Also shameless self bump.