MCInfected Ideas To Help w/ Player Retention

[Nitromaniac]

Hello everyone who still uses the forums, I was playing MCInfected earlier today and I had a few ideas to *sort of* revamp the game and make it a more cohesive, exciting experience, as well as hopefully keep players interested in the game for longer periods of time.
These are just a few ideas I had while playing, and of course, they are simply my opinion and I am no game developer, so I don't know how easily they can be implemented. However, here they are, divided up for easy consumption:​

Weekly Map Rotation​

This idea has been brought up in the past, but nothing has ever come from it. The closest thing we've gotten to a steady map rotation are the occasional map updates, which bring in new maps and take out others. However, I feel like MCInfected could really benefit from a stiff map rotation every week.
Despite there being over 50+ potential maps for MCI, still the majority of maps feel static and the same. If we cut the wide range of maps down into pools of 10-15 different maps per week, with the map pool changing every Friday, that would make coming back each week more exciting. Throw in a few tank-heavy maps, a few camp-heavy maps, and a few even mix maps, and you've got an even mix of maps, all prompting different playstyles. And, once Friday comes, 10-15 different maps are dropped into the game, replacing the current pool.
This also opens the door for more variety when it comes to the maps in each wave. We could release different versions of fan-favorite maps (f.e. Erosion (classic) and Erosion (revamped) in different waves. That good also open the door for new twists on other maps, such as maybe 1 mirror-mode map per week, that's been completely flipped.
The builders could compile a giant list of maps that would work (both maps currently in game, maps currently being built, and maps that have previously been removed for various reasons) and draft the map pools from there.

PROS:
Could make MCI a more cohesive game. Players can look forward to new and old map drops every week.
CONS:
Could potentially be a lot of work to pull off, depending on how its executed. Players may get bored with less maps.​

Infected Waves​

The key behind this idea is the concept that infected will get stronger as the game progresses.
As I said above, MCInfected rounds are very stiff right now. All it takes is 3-5 Command Campers, and you've got yourself another boring game of MCInfected. To try to fix this, I present to thee 'Infected Waves'.
Infected Waves are essentially boosts for the Infected Team, that come at certain times during the match. This would be sort of like Instinct, but would effect all Infected with permanent enhancements for the rest of the round. All players would be able to see when these waves would come, from a custom-wither health bar at the top of the screen, like so:

The bar would track how much time is left in the game, and would mark when Infected hit each mark below. Of course, this is all subject to change, but I think a could starting point would be:

Round is 50% over : all infected receive Speed I
Round is 75% over : all infected receive Strength I
Round is 90% over : all infected receive Speed II
(speed would stack with baby zombie speed)​

I would suggest making these effects come later, but this idea is to change the way players play, and if Infected didn't receive these bonus effects until the very end, nothing would change.
Commander Campers will probably complain about this idea, but I think at times, humans are too over-powered currently, and these turning points each game could make it more interesting, both for tankers, and for campers.

PROS:
Would make gameplay more interesting for most players. Makes infected stronger as the game progresses, giving them more chances to chip away at the survivors. Also gives them more reason to keep playing, rather than die a few times and then simply give up and AFK.
CONS:
Could greatly impact MCI gameplay, possibly have negative effects.


Map Missions​

I would also like to introduce another familiar concept with a new twist on it. Most of us have seen the Infected Missions and Battle Pass Missions MCI has given us. I feel like, however, Infected Missions are sort of confusing to use, and the Battle Pass Missions were impossibly difficult (more on that down).
Thus, the idea of a daily challenge, or, Map Missions, was born. Basically, Map Missions would be daily challenges that tie into the current map pool for that week.
Each day, log onto MCI and see your daily challenge from a text-bubble somewhere in the lobby. These challenges would be fairly easy (the hardest part would most likely be getting your desired map to be played, but granted, if this idea were to be implemented along with the map rotation, there would be far less maps to vote for).
As stated above, each week there would be anywhere from 10-15 maps in the current pool, and I figured each map in rotation could get two potential Map Missions -- 1 PVP-related mission, and 1 exploration-related mission. Here are some example draft missions:

Slay 2 infected on Erosion (reward: 150 cookies)
Infect 1 human on Rush (reward: 200 cookies)
Get a kill while swimming on Riverbend (reward: 150 cookies)
Find Bigfoot's Cave on Redwood (reward: 50 cookies)​

These missions would be fairly easy, and would only result in a bonus of cookies probably ranging somewhere around 100~250 cookies. Since these missions would strictly be for cookies, there would be no specific reason to commander camp to complete them.
Of course, these missions expire after a day and a new one will appear the next day.

PROS:
Would incentivize players to get on every day to complete their mission.
CONS:
May be a hefty workload to develop unique missions for every single map, especially if the weekly map rotation idea were to be implemented.



At that concludes my massive thought dump for this game. I really would love to see this game pick up, especially with how popular it was around Easter last year. I can envision the first weekly map rotation with 15 different maps, each with a hidden easter egg to find for the Easter Egg Hunt. But most of this is just me daydreaming.
Feel free to leave feedback about the ideas you support and ways we can fix the ones you don't quite like. I feel like MCI has some issues with it right now and that, if solved correctly, we could have a really good game in our hands once again.
Thanks for reading o/​

 

[Nitromaniac]

Battle Pass​

While I feel like the Battle Pass was a pretty good idea (and pretty well executed, for the most part), I'm not sure if it truly fits MCInfected.
We received 2 battle passes, and personally, I felt like there were a few issues with them. Two of the biggest problems I found while playing for both seasons is that 1, some of the battle pass missions were frustratingly hard and outlandish, and 2, the battle pass GUI layout was confusing and clunky (this isn't necessarily MCI's fault, Minecraft's set GUI's don't really lend themselves to a battle pass format like the one we saw).
That being said, if there were to be another battle pass, I think it should be considerably shorter, with maybe 10 tiers and a new kit at tier 1 and tier 10. 1 possible weekly mission could move you up one tier, unlocking a new cosmetic or cookie booster. That way, by unlocking a kit as soon as you buy the pass, it will motivate players to still get the pass, despite it having way less tiers. I appreciate the developers working so hard to give up many cosmetics in the past battle passes, but IMO, MCI doesn't really lend itself to a cosmetic-oriented play style, and from the people I talked to, most only cared about the kits at the end of the pass. Trust me, I care very much about cosmetics in other games, but I feel like they're just not a very good fit for MCI.
Now that I got that out of the way, I also wouldn't be opposed to scrapping the battle pass concept. While it was fun and I enjoyed the summer challenges, I feel like a battle pass is not necessary, and we could go back to the holiday bundle packs instead. But, like I've repeated several times this thread, this is all my opinion and at this point I'm very biased by how annoyed I got at the battle pass missions the past 2 go arounds.

PROS:
Less tiers to work with means it will be easier to use. 2 kits per pass would also ensure players' money is going to good use.
CONS:
Less cosmetics for players who care about those. Less BP missions to do per week.​

 

[Keldricc]

If Nitro could type his messages in white he probably would've because some of this shit is ILLEGIBLE

 

[WatermelonOfDoom]

I like the idea but the map pool should be bigger, maybe 25 per pool and only having 2 rotations?

 

[TheQuick0ne]

I agree with everything except the infected waves.