Expansion/Major Patch: “The Time-lost Travellers”
- One of the npc’s near the Monolith of Fate has a new quest for us. He explains that he has felt a disturbance in the timelines within the Monolith, and he is hearing voices of men and women trapped in time. He sends you in to explore this new phenomenon.
- Each Echo you complete brings you closer to finding out what these voices are about. After completing 2 Echo’s, the next time you open up the Echo Web map, a new Echo will appear with a special reward type, a silhouette of a person with a question mark inside them. Once you reach the Echo and enter it, the quest markers will direct you to the first of the “Time Lost Traveler’s”, Kairos.
- Once you save Kairos, he explains more about what’s going on. He says that he is a part of a band of men and women who are Hero’s in their timeline. They come from the Divine Era and have been imbued with special powers from the God’s.
- Some “force” suddenly ripped all 10 of them from their timeline and suspended them in a time loop within the Echo’s of the Timeline Web. He thought he would be lost forever.
- You complete the Special Echo and return to the End of Time, where Kairos is waiting for you. He explains that his brothers and sisters must still be stuck somewhere in the timelines within the monolith and asks for your help in getting them all back.
- The first member of the “Time Lost Traveler’s is “Kairos” – The Timekeeper. His special gifts from the Divine Era allow him to manipulate the Timeline Web in the Monolith of Fate.
Time-Lost Travelers Powers:
Once players have discovered a Time-Lost Traveler, they can bring 1 of the Traveler’s buffs into an Echo. The players gain the powers possessed by whichever Traveler they choose, but at a price. Bringing along these travelers garnishes the attention of evil forces within the timelines of the Monolith of Fate, increasing the power of the monster mods and corruption in each Echo. Players must choose wisely which Travelers powers they wish to utilize and whether or not it is worth the risk.
Kairos, The Timekeeper: (Always the first Traveler you find)
- Allows you to skip 1 Echo on the Timeline Web and gain access to adjacent Echo’s it was connected to.
- Increases all experienced gained by 5%.
- Increases timeline stability earned by 40%.
Arkanian, The Forger:
- Prior to entering an Echo, reveals the final boss encounter, allowing the player to change that encounter for another random boss/encounter, or add an additional boss/encounter to the final fight.
- Increases final encounter/boss item drop rates by 35%.
- Increases unique/set drop chance from final boss/encounter by 50%.
Sercator, The Merchant:
- Increases gold dropped in the Echo by 100% and item drop rates by 25%.
- Increases the sell value of all items found in the Echo by 100%.
- ONCE PER ECHO: The Merchant will reveal a valuable rare item on the map that sells for 10x the normal amount.
Ductu, The Guide:
- Adds additional chests and shrines to the Echo.
- Doubles the effectiveness and duration of combat shrines in the Echo.
- At least 2 of the Shrines in the area offer non-combat rewards. (Gold, Uniques, crafting mats, etc)
Malleus, The Smith:
- Increases crafting material drop rate by 50%.
- ONCE PER ECHO: The first craft you attempt on any item is guaranteed NOT to fracture. (Does not work on items with 50 or more instability)
- All crafting instability reduced by 2.
Hamma, The Guardian:
- Touching shrines and chests grants you invulnerability for 4 seconds.
- Increases health and resistances by 10%.
- ONCE PER ECHO: Upon receiving a fatal blow, instead The Guardian protects you, making you invulnerable for 4 seconds and restoring you to full health.
Nue, The Shaman:
- Grants access to a separate Idol slot. You may only place 1 additional Idol in this slot and its effectiveness is increased by 50%.
- Increases Idol drop rate in the Echo by 40%.
Kharita, The Cartographer:
- Allows you to change the reward type of an Echo to 1 of 3 random options.
- Increases chosen Echo reward drop rate by 35%. (If unique or set item is chosen as a reward, you gain a 50% chance to receive an additional unique or set item).
- The first time you start or reset the Echo Timeline Web, it begins 50% more revealed.
Baradin, The Collector:
- Increases item rarity in the Echo by 30%.
- Any unique or set item that drops can be swapped with the Collector for a random unique or set item of the same level. Can only swap each item once.
- The final encounter in each Echo is guaranteed to drop a random Exalted item.
Orthrac, The Warrior:
This is the final missing member of the “Time Lost Travelers” group. He does not offer rewards to you, instead, he is a final boss encounter.
The Mechanics:
- The first Time-Lost Traveler you will encounter will always be Kairos the “Timekeeper”. Completing 2 Echo’s will reveal Kairos’s location on the Echo Timeline Web. After you rescue Kairos, he explains what he thinks happened to the group and that you must go find his friends.
- Finding the rest of the group takes an ever-increasing amount of Echo’s.
- Revealing Kairos’ Location = 2 Echo’s.
- Revealing the next 3 members = 3 Echo’s each.
- Revealing the next 3 members = 4 Echo’s each.
- Revealing the last 2 members = 5 Echo’s each.
- Once 9 of the members are found, the only one remaining is always The Warrior. After the last member is retrieved, back in the End of Time, the group is all together and Kairos has a quest for you.
- Kairos has spoken to the other members and now knows what has happened. The Travelers had all been pulled into a time loop by an unknown force.
- Kairos said he could feel the spirits of each of his brothers and sisters in the Timeline Web, but that Orthrac’s spirit feels different. It feels distant and cold. He fears something terrible has happened to Orthrac and asks you to investigate.
- Once you return to the Echo Timeline Web, Orthrac’s location will be revealed and you can make your way to his Echo. Once you find the Echo, Kairos automatically comes with you to find Orthrac. Once you reach Orthrac in the Echo, Kairos speaks to Orthrac and soon discovers that the brother that he once knew, is gone. What remains is a savage shell of what Orthrac used to be. Orthrac banishes Kairos from the Echo, sending him through a portal in time, and the fight begins!
- Once you defeat Orthrac, you break him out of his savage trance he’s stuck in and some of his memories start to come back.
- Orthrac remembers coming out of the time loop 40 years before his brethren, long enough for him to forget everything about who they were and who he was. He descended into savagery and became a Warlord, using is Divine powers from the gods to destroy anyone in his path.
- Orthrac’s boss fight is a unique one. Orthrac is a master of time and can channel his divine power into powerful attacks that alter time itself. Orthrac can change the timeline during the battle, calling forth minions and performing devastating attacks linked to each Era.
- Once you defeat Orthrac, the 9 other members join you and banish him from whatever timeline you are in (Say the first fight is always The Imperial Era, for example).
- Once Orthrac is banished from an Era, you must seek him out again in other Era’s. As you continue progressing through the Timeline Web, occasionally special Echo’s will appear with the reward of fighting Orthrac again in a different Era then the last time.
- Once you defeat Orthrac in each of the Era’s of the game, a final Uber boss fight will open up in the End of Time. If you defeat Uber-Orthrac, his boss fight resets and you will begin to find his normal encounters in the Echo Timeline Web again.
- Orthrac has a special drop pool consisting of special uniques that only he can drop.
Conclusion:
- I believe this expansion/patch would be a really fun concept that would create a new goal for players to look out for when exploring their Echo Web Map.
- It introduces a new time-based story that fits within the lore of the game.
- It introduces new buffs that players can bring into their Echo’s that create more deterministic rewards that players have agency over. Players get to choose whatever buff they want to bring to an Echo and have to deal with the extra difficulty that might bring.
- This mechanic creates a new end-game boss that can be fought 4 times, plus an Uber Boss afterwards for additional challenge and reward.
- This would create a new boss for people to farm for its specific rewards.
- This mechanic would introduce more diversity into the End game Echo Web system already in place, helping to refresh the end game experience.
except I think their resources might be limited and some proritisation would be in order at this stage.