Spiral Knights - Suggestions from a returning player.

Suggestions from a returning player.

4 respuestas [Último envío]

Sáb, 12/22/2012 - 12:53

Inflatablebeertent

It's been a while since I played, feeling a little burnt out from SK, but as the story goes, my Roomie wanted to check out the new guild stuff, and a week later I bought an E-pass. While it's astonishing the amount of work that's gone into the game, there's still a few things that bother me about SK. Instead of whining, here's my suggestions to improve on them...

Special levels, no bosses?

Quick, what does the Jelly Kingdom, IronClaw Munitions, and Gloaming Wildwoods have in common? They have a massive fight at the end of them, and they all span 2+ levels. I've noticed there's a lot of places like the Aurora Isles, and the Scarlet fortress, but these places only seem to be there to mix things up a bit, and the first few times, you feel like you're somewhere astonishing, only to be disappointed in the end. (Or, unless it's like the 1-shot levels like Candlestick, the feeling of "Phew, Made it!" doesn't wear off...) Coming back to the exact same levels when your 5-star warrants little more than a grindy feeling. What if we modified these levels to have a climactic battle at the end of them, a miniboss, perhaps featuring a tougher than normal zombie, and a wave of tougher-than-this-stratum enemies in there?

The Treasure Vault.

It's a joke. Every time I come here, I instantly think "Crap! I wish we ended up in the graveyard!" But like everyone else, to avoid sounding like a tool, I don't say it. When you're in the first stratum, alright the Vault's good news, but it's still nothing compared to the wealth in the Graveyard. If you've got 3+ Star equipment, you're likely prepared to make those Zombie problems disappear as well, as the Graveyard is sort of an "Easy mode" level, with the phantoms acting as the only level of difficulty in there. The main problem is the Vault though. It's more of a punishment than a good thing. The Vault should give you a LOT more riches than a normal level, and it should probably pass on the 20 mineral crystals.

What if we changed the level so that the pathways leading up to the treasure was longer? Has a mix of 10's and 5's for T1, 10's and 25's for T2, and mostly 50's with 25's at T3? Have about 12 minerals at the top with the Kleptolisk's trying to take your stuff, and the same 4-branch at the top with just red boxes? If, for example, you get 500cr from a clockworks level, you should get 1000cr and a teeny bit of heat from the Vault. There's so little combat here too, so why not make Heat a bit more rare?

Gremlins

I've noticed the little guys running around, doing damage with their wands that pertain to a certain element, but the Gremlins seem to be missing something... This is more of a thought, than a suggestion, but what if Gremlins expanded their technology and know-how to deal with the Spiral Knight threat? In ice deconstruction zones, we might see Cryo Gremlins, or for poison, we could see them deploying poisonous gas and running away while the Thwackers deal with the player. Electric and Flashbang grenades for the Demo series in Shock levels, or to mix things up elsewhere with stun. I also miss the Menders defending themselves. I've never been clocked up-side the head by them only to laugh moments later with a "Did that happen!? Did that really happen?!" I might be a bit of a fan of the little guys.

Visual Warning for Weak Knights.

I've actually wondered why this isn't in. No, no, I'm not talking about that weird red throbbing effect you see in FPS's, which would be kind of out of place for SK. (By, a lot...) But what about a slight blur at the edges of the screen? Weakened movement for a knight? In T1, it could be when they're below 2 pips of HP, T2 when they're below 4 pips, and at T3, when they're below 8 pips. This would be purely visual, and the only change would be the slight blur at the corners of the hurt player's screen, as well as animations to let other players know he's a bit low, such as a slightly lowered head, sometimes staggering movements, and a slower idle animation. Animations for attacking would remain unchanged, as I understand, those animations are employed by the weapons the knight uses.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts. Feel free to discuss them! :3

Oh! I poked around here too, I also think this suggestion is an awesome idea!
Water levels!

Sáb, 12/22/2012 - 13:05

Little-Juances

Since every level can appear at any depth its hard to put minibosses so randomly. Unless its a fixed chain of levels like concrete jungle. But it would remove said random-ness.

We have danger missions now with minibosses and small challenges

Sáb, 12/22/2012 - 14:02

Psychodestroyer

Some people have been trying to come up with new missions and/or Boss ideas, not all have been particularly successful.

I had one a while back. A long while back. Pretty much a Boss Endurance mission: http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/49662

As for Treasure Vaults, we've petitioned to Firestorm for those to get a buff, but it seems OOO wants to keep it as 'chill out and enjoy the low-level threat, the tokens, and the possibility of a gear drop from all the boxes'.

Otherwise pretty much every player in SK avoids them like the plague.

Cryo Gremlins would be a shade OP, IMO. Their mechanics would probably follow the Scorcher's, using a little 'torch' to fire off a Freezecloud. Considering that Freeze keeps you immobilized, and because Gremlins, especially in Decons, come in swarms, you're pretty much screwed when you get stuck.

Poison I don't have a particular issue with, really. Although the Gremliins usually have Mecha Knights to deal that for them.

Flashbangs? Ewnow. It's bad enough when you have trouble moving away from enemies, worse still when you can't see anything. You'd be dead within seconds if there were more than 3 enemies around you.

Demo's can stun anway; throwing their bombs at you gives you a chance of getting stunned.

IMO, the Mender nerf was a bit unnecessary, but eh, I'm neutral to it.

You should probably check out the Ghostmane Stalkers, which I believe you have not met. Ninja Gremlins. Found Operation Crimson Hammer, but if you haven't bought that, T3 Winterfest spawns them, slowly, with a Winterfest theme.

They're pretty cool.

As for the Visual Hurt, that would be difficult if not impossible to implement. It should be subtle enough it doesn't over interfere, but obvious enough you can see it's effect most of the time. Considering you're always swaying on your feet (unless not using a sword), running, hitting stuff and whatever else; there isn't really much room at all for them to add such a thing.

I admit, the idea sounds cool, but for the most part, I believe it will go unnoticed.

Eh, that's it for me.

Sáb, 12/22/2012 - 23:42

Inflatablebeertent

Lemme respond to some of

Lemme respond to some of this. I apologize for the misinterpretation.

"As for Treasure Vaults, we've petitioned to Firestorm for those to get a buff, but it seems OOO wants to keep it as 'chill out and enjoy the low-level threat, the tokens, and the possibility of a gear drop from all the boxes'."

My suggestion wouldn't change that. The enemies in the vault would remain the same, just a handful of Klepto's. I want players to actually WANT to get in there like a hot club.

"Cryo Gremlins would be a shade OP, IMO. Their mechanics would probably follow the Scorcher's, using a little 'torch' to fire off a Freezecloud. Considering that Freeze keeps you immobilized, and because Gremlins, especially in Decons, come in swarms, you're pretty much screwed when you get stuck."

TBH, hadn't considered getting frozen in place. I was thinking that this would be preventable by sticking together (4 knights) but going solo, this would be rough. Scratch that one then.

"Flashbangs? Ewnow. It's bad enough when you have trouble moving away from enemies, worse still when you can't see anything. You'd be dead within seconds if there were more than 3 enemies around you. Demo's can stun anway; throwing their bombs at you gives you a chance of getting stunned."

The object for the Flashes would be a new bomb that would cause Stun, and not damage the player. No other HUD Elements needed, and good god never blind the player. This would be awful for SK. I've never been stunned by a Bomber in the decon zones. As for Operation Crimson, I just recently bought it, but I likely will very rarely get to play it, as I don't enjoy being segregated from the people I normally play SK with. This was the main reason why I never touched it until the sale hit.

"As for the Visual Hurt, that would be difficult if not impossible to implement. It should be subtle enough it doesn't over interfere, but obvious enough you can see it's effect most of the time. Considering you're always swaying on your feet (unless not using a sword), running, hitting stuff and whatever else; there isn't really much room at all for them to add such a thing."

Adding a shader or vignette would be no problem at all. Also adding a variable check for HP would also be fairly easy. Making a shader with a subtle blur visible only in the corners of your screen, and that's not even necessary, considering the staggering animation while moving would also give away that you're not in top shape. Remember, this is 100% cosmetic, as we're not looking to kick someone when they're down. The stagger would not effect movement, or attack animations, just look different, or a little "off." Having a knight look a little tired when he's standing still, and mix-up the 7th or 8th step now and then would show the player that he's not in prime condition. We're looking to show the player he's taking an unnecessary risk unless he heals soon.

If (Stratum = X && Player_HP >Y) then; and so on. when HP changes value.

Dom, 12/23/2012 - 01:01

Psychodestroyer

Oh foo, by 'buff to the Treasure Vault', I actually meant in terms of payout. Some people suggested adding the Tortodrone back in there to justify the larger payout, but as I mentioned before, no changes have been made.

So yeah. It's been brought up, many, many times, but nothing.

As for the bomber stunning, the Demo-Grem actually has to throw his bombs at you to stun you, and it only has a chance of stunning. Although I think Demos are annoying enough, considering their bomb-spread already limits the time you get to attack, their attacks both damaging you and effectively shielding them. Adding stun to their arsenal (or even as another class) would just be a massive pain the the Culet.

Yeah, well the Ghostmane Stalkers are cool. Try and find one somewhere, they're just cool. Mehopes they'll eventually be added to regular CW levels somewhere. They're just awesome.

The Visual Hurt, well, I assumed your reason for implementation was a more obvious means to determined an injured ally other than checking the Party Status HUD, which I do on a regular basis mid-battle. In which case I find it hard to imagine a way a character could 'hobble' or just look 'off' without compromising gameplay or whatever in some way.

Unless of course, you include actual armour deterioration, which I believe has been brought up before. The idea itself, I like, but I'm not sure of the workload that would be incurred to implement it.

Playerside-HUD faults I think would look neat. Considering they're wearing power-armour, I would find it fun if the display elements of the HUD went a little statically periodically when 'critical'. Minimaps, Status-displays and whatnot.

So a general +1 to User-side 'critical' animations, although it shoudl probably need furhter thought and discussion.

"we're not looking to kick someone when they're down."

The moment I saw that I thought of all the times I've started spamming Grav-bombs at my fallen ally's corpse-side.

Ah, memories.

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Suggestions from a returning player.