Suggestions

Dunno if anybody else has made this suggestion before, but here I go!

While I absolutely love having familars and the bonding with them... they're just kinda there, without any purpose besides making sure the dragon it's attatched to doesn't get posted in the AH or exalted.

But what if familiars could be used in the coli?

What if familiars, when paired with a dragon, gave that dragon stat boosts in the Coliseum? Sort of like Augment stones or RPG armor equips, except you can move them around without destroying them. Each familiar would boost certain stats such as:

-Dryads giving Intellect stat boosts
-Hardshells giving Defense stat boosts
-Gyres and Firebirds giving Agility boosts
-Wolves giving Attack boosts
...ect

It would really give the Coli a more strategic approach and give people a good reason to have teams with variety that do things besides use Eliminate on everything. It would also give the elemental differences more pronounced.

Of course there would be boosts for holiday familiars too:

-Sprites giving stat boosts to dragons and attacks of their own element, but the tradeoff is a drop in defense or vitality. So it kind of equals out and keeps entire teams of buffed up dragons from ruling the Coli with no opposition.
(Sort of like Shell Smash/Curse/Belly Drum in Pokemon)

-Bear sprites giving Defense/Attack boosts dragons of their own element for drops in Quickness/Agility.

..etc

The bonus being that the more you bond with your familiar, the higher the boosts get. Maybe they can actually be used on the battlefield once they become Awakened familiars.

I just really want the familiars to be used for something Coli-wise!

[quote name="Nenya" date="2014-10-14 17:18:34"]This would be an awful lot of coding; I can't support anything like this until the features that have been in progress for the last year (crafting, adventuring) are in place.[/quote] I agree, but this also sounds like a really neat feature. FR just has... a lot on its plate right now, and I think the things at the top of most players' wanted lists are bug fixes, long-awaited mechanics, and better communication with the staff. Were the suggestions forum full of fun little things like this, I'd be all for it, but tbh, I want the ability to play the Coli without pain first. TLDR: Great idea, not so great timing. But definitely keep this in your back pocket; you seem to have thought it through really well, without making it either pointless or OP.

Support, but I do agree with those above me. I want to see bug-fixes more so right now than a feature that could potentially introduce a ton more bugs.

Edit: The battle stones working off and on definitely needs to be fixed before introducing a new coli feature.

I actually had a somewhat similar idea regarding familiars in the Coliseum...

Dragons that have familiars equipped get two hits on enemies instead of one, the first being their attack the second being the familiar's attack. The familiar's attack wouldn't do as much as the dragon obviously but it would be enough to make it worthwhile and in addition, the familiar's element could come into play as well. For instance equipping...say a shadow dragon with an arcane element familiar would give a bit of strategic value when fighting a light elemental enemy, or equipping a light element familiar to a light element dragon would be all the more punishing to a dark element enemy. Of course there would also be neutral element familiars as well.

In addition, there would also be a correlation to the damage done by the familiar to it's bonding level. As in, the stronger the bond the more damage it will do.

I'd only support it if:
--All the coli bugs are sorted out (I don't want a new feature added, and causing more bugs)
--It's not given priority over features that have been in progress for the last year
--Gem, Limited or Retired familiars are not given more bonuses than normal familiars
--Familiars do not have a turn in the coli. They would slow me down and I don't want to be forced to remove the familiars from my coli dragons to avoid having them do a minor amount of damage that could have instead been used by a dragon.


It might be worth instead of having them useful in the Coli which with a good team is already fairly easy, have them play a roll in the the adventure feature (which I hope also uses stats and differently than the coli since the coli is essentially a one trick pony - Glass Canon)

This seems like a really cool idea.

Another aspect could be that dragons could use the familiar's power - like a dragon with, say a fuiran or a hainu equipped could use shred, even if that dragon doesn't have the battlestone for it. The dragon could use the familar's attack instead of one of its own attacks during its turn - only, maybe it wouldn't be as powerful as it would if it were the dragon's own attack?

I'd like there to be more of a purpose for familiars.

I will say support
This sounds really cool, although there WILL be a lot of coding if it does happen

[quote name="Nenya" date=2014-10-14 17:18:34] This would be an awful lot of coding; I can't support anything like this until the features that have been in progress for the last year (crafting, adventuring) are in place. [/quote] BUT - I do agree that this would be a really great feature. I'm not quite sure if it's really feasible at this point in time during the site, but later I'd give support 120%.