Spiral Knights - Theme Passes

Theme Passes

7 replies [Last post]

Thu, 03/29/2012 - 14:36

Schattentag

This is a suggestion regarding an additional incentive to visit the Clockworks via the Arcade Gates.

Main concepts:

Theme Passes would be obtainable for a (somewhat large) fee of minerals and CE, and maybe crowns
Passes would have specific types that correspond to stratum themes in Gates
Passes would allow players to freely travel between levels in their respective themes
Passes would not work for missions or boss strata

TL;DR: Theme Passes would be Elevator Passes that only work within their specific stratum themes

Detailed explanation:

We all know that since the advent of the Mission System, the Arcade has become a neglected (if not obsolete) way to access levels in Spiral Knights. There have been a few suggestions made in the past with the intent of revitalizing the Arcade and its Gates, and this is another one. Onward.

From what I've heard and experienced, not a whole lot of people care about the Arcade and its dynamics. People deposit minerals usually for the sole purpose of getting crowns - people rarely do it to change stratum themes. I even wonder if people now simply forgo the Arcade altogether and have a huge stash of minerals that they've gathered from missions.

Theme Passes would address both of these issues.

Because they're restricted to a single theme, people would have more incentive to convince their friends and guildmates to work together to create certain themes in the Gates. For example, perhaps a certain guild's members had a lot of Dark Matter and Crimsonite. They could deposit enough of these two minerals into an inactive Gate to change a stratum or two to have Fiend themes. I have no idea why anyone would want to do that, but let's move on. Those guild members could then purchase Fiend Theme Passes and run through all the Fiend strata as much as they want for 8 days.

Fun, fun, fun! Everyone loves Fiends, right?

No? Well then other guilds may try to counter the creation of Fiend strata. Here's how guilds are advertised on the Spiral Knights website:
"Guild alliances allow greater influence over the world. Amass powerful minerals to transform the Clockworks!"
Theme Passes would give guilds more of an incentive to change the Clockworks to their liking.

As I mentioned earlier, Theme Passes would be available for some amount of minerals and CE, and maybe crowns. I think it makes sense that certain mineral combinations would be required for whatever theme fits that combination. Having a high mineral cost can also help to ensure that guilds don't really try to spam a certain theme for an extended period of time. A CE fee would obviously make it so these aren't a free ticket to unlimited crowns for 8 days. Then of course, adding a crown fee is never really a bad thing for the economy. I'm thinking Theme Passes would only work for 8 days, as this is the amount of time any given Gate remains active.

Potential issues:

People who have purchased Elevator Passes might be upset that with enough effort, the same effect can be achieved by purchasing one of every type of Theme Pass. Elevator Passes would still be the only way to run through missions without using energy, but I can still see some people getting angry.
Theme Passes would encourage people to only play a specific subset of content.

There's my idea, folks. Hate it? Love it? Let me know what you think. Just as a note, I came up with this idea at like 3 in the morning, so I apologize in advance if it seems ridiculous.

Thu, 03/29/2012 - 14:47

Juances

It simply makes energy less usefull. Elevator passes may do the same,but they cost real money.
Sure enough you wont be able to do ALL the levels, but all you will really need is an 'undead pass' to farm Vanaduke and maybe, whatever else is before him, if it doestn turn into undead strata too.

I might be wrong but at least dont make this work on Bosses.

Thu, 03/29/2012 - 15:08

Schattentag

@Juances

You have a point about energy being less useful. 3-in-the-morning Schattentag did not think of the impact it would have currency in the form of energy, only crowns. I guess my only argument against that point is that these things would only last for 8 days, and that the mineral cost might be balanced in order to avoid abuse - you would have to run through so many levels to get the required amount of minerals that it would be extremely difficult to gather that amount within the 8 day period. Of course, the easy fix would be to just require these things to be bought for CE instead of (or in addition to) minerals/crowns.

And yeah, I was thinking this would not work for boss strata, which of course includes Shadow Lairs.

Sat, 03/31/2012 - 10:53

Schattentag

Bump

I'm gonna give this one official bump.

Sat, 03/31/2012 - 11:41

Quasirandom

Two glaring problems: First,

Two glaring problems:

First, Three Rings gets their money from selling energy. If you give players more stuff without having to buy energy, then they don't make money. This is basically the objection that Juances brought up.

Second, artificially encouraging players to loop a small subset of content instead of getting more variety is terrible game design.

Sat, 03/31/2012 - 23:49

Schattentag

@Quasirandom

Like I said to Juances, an additional CE fee could be required for these. Perhaps I should add that to the OP.

Personally, I'm not seeing how the obvious subset loop is much of a problem. Again, in my response to Juances I said that Theme Passes would have a high enough mineral cost that it would be highly impractical to try to get the same theme twice in a row. Another counterargument is that not everyone would have a Theme Pass, and even those who did have one would not necessarily all be using the same theme. Additionally, the end payout of FSC is enough that lots of people tend to loop this subset of content already. Even people who are unable to do FSC will run RJP.

As a final note, perhaps one way to mitigate the energy-devaluing effect of Theme Passes would be to make it so that they don't completely eliminate elevator costs, but rather halve it. That way people would still be spending energy, but would keep some of the original incentive.

EDIT:
I added the CE fee to the OP, as well as the issue of content subsets. I'll also add that these would not work for boss strata.

Sun, 05/06/2012 - 13:20

Blandaxt

option.

this seems like a good option for players to do instead of the usual dumping all of the minerals in one gate just to maximize profit. like the idea.

Sun, 05/06/2012 - 19:43

Corrionos

Er...

Cool idea.

Least bought pass (if implemented):
Fiend-Shock

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