What could IS introduce as a standing game mode for long term appeal?

[Arcphoenix]

At the moment the only interesting game I have on my phone is Heroes. I figured I’d be fine going out with just my phone today, but no. I’m not feeling motivated to do tap battle nor Arena. I’m out of Aether (and that mode’s more stressing than fun sometimes). TT+ is meh and VG has time between each battle. Also, I just really, really don’t want to grind through the abundance of TT stratum quests.

Anyway, the point. 

What do you think IS could add to the game as a mode that’s accessible (Doesn’t cost Stamina (or at least much stamina) nor has long time intervals between sessions), more laid back than the competitive modes, and replayable without getting dull very fast?

Or just talk about your dream mode that you would personally play over and over. Either works

I’m part bored, part curious what everyone else can come up with, and part fishing for ideas to send into support.

Regardless I thought it’d be an interesting topic for discussion and for getting creative

Edited January 7, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[thecrimsonflash]

tower defense with aether raid structures seems to be the only notable thing I can think of.

[Anacybele]

The town building mode that they asked about in that survey a long time ago is what I'd want. Especially if you can keep improving it over time and adding new stuff to it.

[Arcphoenix]

I think I’d like to see a sort of endless mode that’s like Tempest trial but without an upper limit where you take in one team and see how far you can go. Score will either be from maps cleared or enemies defeated. An alternative to this mode where you pick a certain number of units from your barracks and can change your team set-up before each map could be interesting too. You lose when all your units have been defeated.

They aren’t too different from our current modes, but this is all I can of atm

[Arcphoenix]

8 minutes ago, thecrimsonflash said:

tower defense with aether raid structures seems to be the only notable thing I can think of.

So on a single map with endless reinforcements and a sort of wave-like format where you can fix up damaged structures, perhaps move some around, and restore a bit of health? That could be really fun

[Mercakete]

This question seems to not really have an answer, I think. It's largely based in individual preference, which varies widely. For some, they would never get bored of Tap Battle and could go on and on on that for days. Others couldn't care less about rhythm games, but love challenging themselves in the arena. Personally, I think IS is doing a great job at covering a wide field of gamer types. I'm the sort who really enjoys story, but I understand that it takes time to write one up, so that's not quite an answer to the query. A sound room would be fun, I think. We can already rewatch theatrics, but listening to your favorite tracks on the go would be nice, too (even on low quality.) So, that, I guess? I keep saying this, too: I would love to see support conversations in this game. I know it'd be a stupidly daunting task, and they kind of supplement it with Forging Bonds (which I was pleasantly surprised by) but again, realistically, it takes a while to write things, and they're busy with many other aspects of the game (like introducing new heroes, which in turn creates more work on this front.) Hmm maybe something like a place where you can see your units interact? Like the main plaza in your castle, except the units are animated, like the animations that show up when their support ranks go higher. They can jump and emote, and they'd interact with one another in ways that make sense (like PoR Ike and Soren being mad at the BK.) That might take more time than scriptwriting, but that could be nice. Just watching the social atmosphere of the barracks... Ah, and you can choose between several locations, like at the summoning altar, in a courtyard, or in a training area. :)

[Arcphoenix]

21 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

The town building mode that they asked about in that survey a long time ago is what I'd want. Especially if you can keep improving it over time and adding new stuff to it.

I’d like this myself. In fact, it could be interesting if IS changed the way some of the menu works to be in a town as an alternate choice for menu layout, with buildings opening traditional submenus when tapped. Units from the barracks would be walking around the town. A friend can also view one’s town to see some of the units of his or her barracks. The design and layout could be customized as well I imagine.

14 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

A sound room would be fun, I think. We can already rewatch theatrics, but listening to your favorite tracks on the go would be nice, too (even on low quality.) So, that, I guess?

Spoiler

Hmm maybe something like a place where you can see your units interact? Like the main plaza in your castle, except the units are animated, like the animations that show up when their support ranks go higher. They can jump and emote, and they'd interact with one another in ways that make sense (like PoR Ike and Soren being mad at the BK.) That might take more time than scriptwriting, but that could be nice. Just watching the social atmosphere of the barracks... Ah, and you can choose between several locations, like at the summoning altar, in a courtyard, or in a training area. :)

 

I’m surprised IS didn’t make a sound room as a feature of the game. Your second idea is something I never even knew I wanted. I think I’d spend time refreshing the home castle just to see the possibilities. (I can see a lot of jokes coming from it as well). (I don’t know why this text shrunk... Mobile is weird)

Edited January 7, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[Ice Dragon]

Tower Assault:

• Similar to Chain Challenge or Tempest Trials (not the Assault game modes, but I didn't have a better name).
• About 100 floors with a "boss" floor every 5th floor. Props if the floors are based on the layouts of the tower or ruins floors in FE8.
• Difficulty scales up from "Hard" on Floor 1 to "Abyssal" by Floor 16.
• Floor 11 and higher will use curated enemy builds instead of the garbage random builds found in most other PvE game modes.
• Team is locked after entering the Assault. You can bring 4 units in the team plus 2 units as a "side deck" to be swapped in after previewing a floor.
• Units are healed after every boss floor.
• A run can be paused to be returned to later due to the potential duration of the run.
• Rewards tokens of some sort based on the number of floors cleared. Tokens can be exchanged for various things like resources and combat manuals.
• Weekly leaderboard for highest floor reached (ties broken by fewest turns) to satisfy their hard-on for every mode needing a competitive ranking. Rewards for placement are feathers and tokens and nothing else.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, Arcphoenix said:

I’d like this. In fact, it could be interesting if IS changed the way some of the menu works to be in a town as an alternate choice for menu layout, with buildings opening traditional submenus when tapped. Units from the barracks would be walking around the town. A friend can also view one’s town to see some of the units of his or her barracks. The design and layout could be customized as well I imagine.

That wouldn't be a bad idea either. A town mode would also provide a reason to add a skill shop or other places to use certain currency that we're drowning in, like crystals and badges.

[XRay]

21 minutes ago, Arcphoenix said:

replayable without getting dull very fast?

I do not think that is possible. I like Aether Raids and all, but I will get pretty sick of it if I have to play it consecutively seven times in a row like old Arena. What Heroes need is variety so we are not doing the same thing over and over and over again.

6 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

This question seems to not really have an answer, I think. It's largely based in individual preference, which varies widely. For some, they would never get bored of Tap Battle and could go on and on on that for days. Others couldn't care less about rhythm games, but love challenging themselves in the arena.

I agree. I personally dislike endless modes because I can never win or beat the mode. I still want it to be included for variety's sake, but I would not touch it after I get all the rewards.

[Arcphoenix]

21 minutes ago, XRay said:

 I would not touch it after I get all the rewards.

This here I think is probably the biggest issue. For the most part, all the current modes follow similar structures, just vary in rewards. (Forging Bonds = Training Tower, for example) Once the rewards are collected, the mode itself doesn’t have anything too out of the ordinary to offer. Most of the motivation is extrinsic rather than intrinsic. I think if a mode had consistent rewards or was just introduced as a casual mode with few or no rewards it might be fun (playing a mode too much dulls the activity, especially when there are no rewards. Playing when the player is just in the mood for it leads to things getting old less fast. Consistent rewards can at least give a purpose to playing it more, even when the intrinsic motivation’s mostly gone).

An alternative way of gaining SP could be interesting IMO aside from battling and merging. SP grinding is painfully tedious for sone units, especially the ones that aren’t well suited for general combat like dancers, low defense melee units, low attack units, etc. I’m not too sure what style or mode would best fit it, though it would have to be something with less emphasis on combat for the unit itself 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[Fabulously Olivier]

Skinsh-

I mean how about a war mode in which players will represent a world of their choice (like Tellius or Magvel) and have to constantly push territory Grand Conquests style. But with regular maps, not Rival Domains maps. This mode would have daily/weekly rewards and refresh each week with higher rewards based on winning worlds.

[Mercakete]

41 minutes ago, Arcphoenix said:

Your second idea is something I never even knew I wanted. I think I’d spend time refreshing the home castle just to see the possibilities. (I can see a lot of jokes coming from it as well). (I don’t know why this text shrunk... Mobile is weird)

Oh, and maybe there could be seasonal locales, too, where matching units are more likely to show up. (I.e., beach map as a background, swimsuit seasonal units are more likely to show up.) And the background could affect the units' moods, too. Like, aforementioned sample beach map would incite happier moods in the units, while, say, a Helscape would make the units in it more somber (and maybe make users of dark magic or something more likely to show up.)

[Arcphoenix]

@Ice Dragon That sounds like a very fun mode and like something that would fit very well in Heroes without the dev team having to create too many new mechanics. I can see that as a really great way to evaluate different team and unit builds as well as being fun in the mode itself. A player can also measure his or her own ability quite well in how far he or she is able to progress in a much better way than in any other modes. Your side-deck idea is also a perfect balance between the way chain challenges and squad assault teams work. I’d really like IS to make that a mode in the future.

30 minutes ago, Etheus said:

Skinsh-

I mean how about a war mode in which players will represent a world of their choice (like Tellius or Magvel) and have to constantly push territory Grand Conquests style. But with regular maps, not Rival Domains maps. This mode would have daily/weekly rewards and refresh each week with higher rewards based on winning worlds.

I’d prefer this over grand conquest any day. Rival Domains were something that looked great on paper, but were more messy than strategic and didn’t really give much of a chance to see friends’ units in a practical manner. One thing I feel hurt the mode was not being able to choose a side (and the side changes that can occur between rounds making any significance of allegiance pointless). If you get to choose a side you care about, you’ll be much more motivated to support it. I get why IS randomized it (to keep things balanced), but I still feel it was missed opportunity for “fun value”

@Mercakete Definitely. I’m almost reminded a bit of the “realms” from PMD Red Rescue Team from your comment to be honest - or even Pokémon gyms to a degree. This would be neat though to have a personalized theme and a bit more variety to the units’ interactions and overall “liveliness”

 

I thought of another idea. There could be a mode where you go through a number of maps. Before this, however, you select a number of units from your barracks (perhaps it remembers your last selection and preselects for you some units so that it is less work for you). The more units you pick, the better your rewards will be. Your team will be either randomly selected upon starting the map or you’ll be given a few randomly selected units (5-7) to build a team from from the overall selection you chose. There’s a sort of risk versus rewards to this and you need to be adaptive to do well in this mode.

Edited January 7, 2019 by Arcphoenix

[Hilda]

a true co-op mode

and Fire Emblem heroes maker: you design your own GHB maps you can share with other people. You have access to all skills etc to built the units, you can even set reinforcements. You can even set rules like: "Dance" not allowed, or "Cavalry only" or "Cavalry excluded", or Askr Trio has to be in the Team etc etc.. In order to upload the GHB you need to beat it with your own units first (ala Mario Maker). To make it more interesting you can if you want upload a reward (unit you have no use for, or sacred coins, or feathers etc.)for clearing the map. The person with the least turns used, least skills used, least merges etc. (basicly reversed Arena scoring) gets the rewards. For compensation and effort to create wonderfull GHB maps, the creator gets 50 feathers free per new user that tries out his map (not for retries).

[thecrimsonflash]

it seems really hard given the general nature of heroes to make a mode that is compelling enough to offer much more than a few hours of play honestly.

1 hour ago, Etheus said:

Skinsh-

this should be ban worthy

edit: @Hilda that sounds great honestly.

Edited January 7, 2019 by thecrimsonflash

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, thecrimsonflash said:

this should be ban worthy

Headpats for days.

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 hour ago, thecrimsonflash said:

this should be ban worthy

Admit it, you laughed. I know I did at the thought of it.

[Zihark11]

I like tempest trials and voting gauntlet (cause they give best rewards), tap battle is super easy so i like the free rewards. i dont think a lot about Aether Raids tbh you only get two play 2 times a day basically, im like in limbo on Tier 15. 

 

its hard to think of a new game mode but i wish there was like castle defense. you like just position your units in the castle/fort/building etc and have to hold out for a certain amount of turns or get a certain kill count. Kina like Survive 4-6 turns in story mode but with a higher emphasis on "Holding the line" 

[Dandy Druid]

I would take a page out of Granblue's book and add character quests/stories. For characters you've unlocked, you can explore their backstory or a part of their original game when they were center stage. This way players can get to know their characters better and know a little bit more about the worlds they came from. Alts won't get an episode, but they can be featured in one of the levels of their original version episode. Rewards for completing their storylines can be either orbs or feathers.

[Fabulously Olivier]

7 minutes ago, Dandy Druid said:

I would take a page out of Granblue's book and add character quests/stories. For characters you've unlocked, you can explore their backstory or a part of their original game when they were center stage. This way players can get to know their characters better and know a little bit more about the worlds they came from. Alts won't get an episode, but they can be featured in one of the levels of their original version episode. Rewards for completing their storylines can be either orbs or feathers.

This would actually be pretty cool at 100-200 feathers per episode and 1 orb at the completion of the last episode.

[Arcphoenix]

9 minutes ago, Dandy Druid said:

I would take a page out of Granblue's book and add character quests/stories. For characters you've unlocked, you can explore their backstory or a part of their original game when they were center stage. This way players can get to know their characters better and know a little bit more about the worlds they came from. Alts won't get an episode, but they can be featured in one of the levels of their original version episode. Rewards for completing their storylines can be either orbs or feathers.

I would love this. It would probably take some time to get them all out, but this has great potential. I'd love to do Lon'Qu or Henry's.

Perhaps their Hero Catalogue entry is updated in some way, such as recieving a star on their icon or something after completing the episode

[Dandy Druid]

4 minutes ago, Etheus said:

This would actually be pretty cool at 100-200 feathers per episode and 1 orb at the completion of the last episode.

That sounds like a reasonable reward. The real prize is getting to know the characters better anyways. I'm not sure how many levels or the length of the character episodes, but I do think it will give us a good idea on how they were like.

EDIT: @Arcphoenix A star would be nice. It would show who's completed and who's not. Yeah, with where Heroes is now, it would take some time to get them all out. I would start with the lords from each game and then have a monthly goal of getting x amount of character stories out.

Edited January 8, 2019 by Dandy Druid

[XRay]

3 hours ago, Etheus said:

Skinsh-

You make it sound like it is a bad idea. I will let you know that it is super fun to turn up your phone's volume and rapidly tap a character's battle sprite in the Catalog of Heroes, especially for Heroes like HNY!Camilla, SF!Lucina, YT!Olivia, etc.

Edited January 8, 2019 by XRay

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 minute ago, XRay said:

You make it sound like it is a bad idea. I will let you know that it is super fun to turn up your phone's volume and rapidly tap a character's battle sprite in the Catalog of Heroes, especially for Heroes like HNY!Camilla and SF!Lucina.

Oh no. Jokes aside, from a money making/advertising perspective, it's a brilliant idea and I'm nothing short of baffled by the fact that they haven't done it already.