Why to merge EL to NE? As I found out from devs, EL mode was introduced to the game as temporary mode at the time when there weren't much players. Nowadays we got not bad population, so maybe its time to go back to more roguelikish experience?
1) First approach - make EL 'pre-normal':
Right now we got EL and NE modes. They are closer then we think cause there is a kinda 'mode' in between - Normal (3 lifes).
So we got atm:
infinite lifes ----> 3 lifes -----> 1 life
How we can merge this without ruining game economy? The most obvious - we could move this 'row' to the right gradually, for example:
5 lifes -----> 3 lifes -----> 1 life
So each current EL character would be given 5 lifes limit. 5 lifes its almost the same as 3 lifes, so it wouldn't influence economy/gameplay too much. In the same moment high lvl game would become more interesting.
2) Second approach - account lifes
Making certain limit of lives not to a character, but to account. So new players would be able to play more comfortable, but after certain amount of time (or deaths) they would have to play as other players.
For example:
each new account would have 'EL' mode with 20 lifes. When they would end, his characters would be transfered to 'normal' mode and account would become 'veteran' with common life amounts.
All current accouns could be given 20 lifes right now for their EL chars so transfer would proceed smoothly.
3) Another approach - merge modes as it is (permit trade/party), but give EL players certain debuffs in exchange for immortality
So if you play EL character - you could auto-ress. But at the same time you have to earn much more experience for lvl, deal less damage, has less stats & etc
Merging problems
If we would merge modes, current stash of items/gold @ EL mode would ruin NE economy.... Economy would reclaim in time, but maybe its possible to make something like: make certain items @ EL mode '0' lvl req (EX: give' 0' lvl to all PDSM if player account had more them 3 of them).
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Please add your ideas, approaches & solutions