Proposal for instabilities

Sorry for such a huge wall of text...

TL;DR: Proposal: Make instabilities select-able and give increased rewards if you choose more than the minimum difficulty required at a given tier.

More detail:

I keep thinking about how the applications of instabilities affect the way fractals get played, and I believe that's their intent -- not only to make them a bit more difficult (although that's certainly one of the effects they have), but to force the group to adapt. I think that's a good thing, in general, but I also think there are up-sides and down-sides to that. Currently, the number of instabilities in a given fractal are driven by the fractal's tier (T1=0; T2=1; T3=2; T4=3). And the specific instabilities for a given fractal are randomized daily. This addresses both the higher-tier-more-difficulty aspect as well as introducing a bit of variance so they don't get boring. I think that's a good goal, especially for fractal-frequenters.

But I also keep reading posts how some folks feel the fractals need to be more difficult, others feel they are too easy, how different instabilities are terrible, and so on. After reading criticisms of the Deepstone fractal, I thought I would make this proposal, because I happen to really like Deepstone -- I don't think it needs to be made more difficult; I like the new mechanics; I really like that the design is more indicative of a mini-dungeon (i.e., "fractal") than a mini-raid. Others will disagree. That's fine. This isn't intended to be a discussion about any particular fractal or particular instability. It is a proposal for an overhaul of the instability mechanics.

Implementing this proposal would definitely be some work for the devs, but I think it could be very long-lived and introduce whole new levels of interest, challenge, and rewards to the fractal system.

My proposal has several parts:

• Each instability is assigned an associated difficulty that it adds to a particular fractal. The difficulty associated with a given instability could be different for each fractal.
• Optionally, combinations of instabilities in particular fractals would be assigned a supplemental difficulty (e.g., Hamstrung + Toxic Trail + Vindicators is a very nasty combination sometimes).
• Each tier will require a minimum instability difficulty rating for all fractals in that tier.
• In a way similar to how a particular fractal is selected at the control console, the particular instabilities for that fractal run are selected. They can be randomized yielding an appropriate instability difficulty rating, just like they are now, for groups that don't want to be bothered with this part.
• You can't enter a fractal until you've selected an instability difficulty rating that is at least what is required for the tier of fractal you've selected.
• You can select as many instabilities as you want, as long as the total instability rating is at least as much as required for that tier.
• If you exceed the instability difficulty rating beyond the minimum required for that tier, you increase your potential rewards.

So what this means is that if you want things to be more difficult, turn on all the instabilities in a CM and knock yourself out. If there are certain instabilities that cause you to skip fractals all together when they come up because they annoy you so much, then pick a different set (although you may need to have more active instabilities than you would have, so you can meet the minimum difficulty rating). If you want to use simpler mechanics but add more variety and overall difficulty, then run a T1 fractal with a bunch of instabilities.

As far as rewards go, increased rewards would be based on an increase in the percent difficulty rating. So some examples of how this might work:

• If you increase the minimum difficulty rating in any Tier by 10% you get an [additional] Fractal Encryption.
• If you increase the minimum difficulty rating by 30% in T2 or above you get a 20% chance for random loot drops.
• If you double the minimum difficulty rating at T3 or above you get a 10% increase chance for an ascended chest drop
• Etc.

I'm not sure if the extra rewards should be cumulative or not.

With this new feature, since instabilities would now be select-able, this opens the door for even greater challenges from instabilities, without putting off the people who like things the way they are:

• Any down == death.
• Rez-ing takes at least 2 people.
• There is an automatic knock-back if you get too close to a teammate.

I think this proposal will address the issues of people who think fractals are too easy/difficult, too boring/complex, hate particular instabilities so much they skip fractals that day, after doing the same fractals over and over things get boring, and that reward is commensurate with the challenge. Most importantly, it lets the users have a greater degree of selection of what is "fun" for them -- because that's very subjective and varies from person to person. And if there are certain instabilities that people seldom select, then the devs can increase their difficulty rating (i.e., increase potential rewards) to make doing them more attractive, rather than having to change their behavior (i.e., balance the challenge with the reward, rather than with the mechanics).