Special levels. They're there to give a little extra reward, a little extra fun, and (sometimes) a little extra voluntary challenge. Some of them are way harder than the regular levels, and some of them are pretty much just freebies. I think they're well-designed for the most part, but I have a few ideas that would help balance them out, and make sure all of them are worth visiting, on almost any challenge mode. Please note that most of these changes are very minor--I think the levels are good the way they are, but some tweaking here and there could improve things.
And just to see if anyone else shares my view of things, I attached a little poll. Please respond to the poll on whether or not you agree with me, and the changes I suggested.
Hell's Arena:
The reward on the standard game is absoutely perfect. Enough to be worth the challenge, but not so much as to be gamebreaking or anything. I like that it gives special rewards on certain challenge modes, but maybe some of the challenge mode rewards could use a little tweaking.
AoB: The difficulty just seems way out of proportion to the rewards, especially now that demons have been buffed. It seems impossible in most games unless you're really lucky, or at least Blade-level skilled. And what do you get for toughing it out? A few med-packs that barely make up for the ones you'll probably use, and a homing device. Give me a break. Either the reward should be better--how about increasing the medpacks, and adding in plasteel boots with an agility mod? And a bulk mod for your chainsaw? That would make Hell's Arena worth the trouble. Either that, or keep the rewards weak, giving us a berserk pack after each round.
AoMk: Again, this one is considerably harder than the standard game, but the rewards are a lot weaker. Power mods aren't all that great with pistols. A blaster would be a nice reward, but maybe too overpowered. Agility mod + boots, like in AoB, might be better. Oh, and how about a phase device, for people attempting Brick Silver?
AoS: Double shotgun as final reward is good. It's not that powerful, but definitely very handy,and anyway Hell's Arena is pretty easy on AoS so the reward doesn't need to be that great. But how about, after the first round, you get a combat shotgun instead of a useless chaingun? AoS games where you don't find a combat shotgun for 5+ levels are REALLY annoying.
AoP: Why do we even get a supercharge when we can't use it? Just give us another large medkit instead.
AoRA: HOMING PHASE PLEEZ KTHXBYE.
The rest of the challenge modes are probably fine as-is.
Chained Court:
Getting a chainsaw is perfect--makes AoB much more doable. But I think the double agility mods really need to change, because they make Ammochain games way too easy. More about it in this topic:
http://forum.chaosforge.org/index.php/topic,3011.0.htmlHow about two random mods instead? With chance of getting one unique/exotic mod pack if you're lucky.
Second idea: one agility (or random) mod, plus one pair of boots. This wouldn't overlap my Hell's Arena ideas, since you would only get the boots on challenges where the secret rooms are almost impossible to enter.
The Wall:
More or less perfect, but how about a homing device in the backpack room? That way people attempting Brick Silver would only need a single phase device.
Hell's Armory:
I think it should have more weapons. This is supposed to be an armory, right? So why is it that almost every time I go there I wind up finding something like two pistols, a shotgun, and a chaingun? I say it should have one of every regular (non-exotic) ranged weapon. Nothing but blue and green armor is kinda weak, too.
How about a secret area with a motherload of guns and armor? I think you could fit some stuff over on the right side of the map. You would need to cross the lava and step on a certain spot, opening the door to two rooms guarded by Mancubi (Arachnotrons on easier difficulties). The rooms would contain lots of random weapons and armor (with high chance of exotic/unique).
Halls of Carnage:
No changes necessary.
Hellgate:
No changes necessary.
Uholy Cathedral:
No changes necessary, other than fixing the zerk armor bug. ;)
City of Skulls:
How about throwing shotgun/pistol users a bone and giving some ammo? Doesn't have to be that much, just enough that careful players will just about break even. A mod pack or two might be nice, too, to make it more worthwhile for players who don't need the BFG.
Spider's Lair:
I think it would be cool if this were kind of like an arena level. After defeating the spiders, you get a message like "You hear the sound of something terrifying crawling out from the webs!" and the Spider Mastermind appears right in the center, along with ammo and weapon(s)--maybe a nuclear plasma rifle?--scattered all over the map. Final reward would be same as before.
The Vaults:
This is another one where the reward isn't worth what a pain it is to get the treasure. It seems like most of the time there isn't even a single exotic or unique in either of the side vaults. The one time I got to the middle I didn't see any either (although there might have been some--I was fried almost instantly and so I didn't get a chance to see).
Is it possible to make it so that the left and right vaults have a guaranteed exotic (one total, not per vault) without specifying which one? And one exotic plus one unique in the middle? That would be nice. Also, it's been said before, but how about a couple phase devices? One per side.
The Mortuary:
This one is perfect as it is--super hard, with super items as your reward for finishing.
The Lava Pits:
I think everyone complains of the same thing: it's a pain in the ass to get through, and the rewards are piddly at that point. At that stage in the game, you're probably set to win already, so how about something fun? How about you get two random pieces of gothic / phase equipment? Maybe one time you'd get two gothic boots, and the next time you'd get 1 of each armor type, but the next time you get a phase armor set. All right! A chance to try out a gothic/phase set would make mucking through all that lava worthwhile.