Spiral Knights - Replay-ability?

Replay-ability?

8 replies [Last post]

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 08:49

Arelic

I do not recall where I framed some semblance of this idea but here goes nothing.

Apart from approaching the same missions in a different manner, do you think the following would help make the game a bit easier to revisit?

1. With each rank or set of missions (for example, 3-1 vs 3-2), or specific achievements of the highest order (Gold Survivor) NPCs within and out of missions regard you differently, giving way to new key points about the overall plot within the game at least?

For example,
= begin a mission prematurely by invitation through a player of a higher rank and you don't get the regular dialog or you may get talked down to like "Who's the shrimp?" or "Are you sure you're ready for this soldier, recruit?"
= begin the same mission when it is of your ranking to get the same dialog as you'd get now with missions
= begin the same mission when your rank is any measure above the mission's ranking; certain NPCs will divulge more with the more you progress through the game, be it idle chatter or plot exposition.
= complete a shadow lair level (specific or general) and maybe there is praise or something not as kind in their tone of regard.

The only way to get the regular dialog when the mission ranking is below your ranking is to play on Normal Difficulty.

2. Once the regular campaign has been beaten to grant you the title of vanguard, you are granted access to a mode more difficult than the Elite Difficulty where the only place you can get consumables (vials and health caps if I have that right) are from NPCs in the spaces between hubs AND the crossroads, and where emergency revival is not available.

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 08:57

Dreamless-Reaper

let me get this right..

You are technically saying in short words that you want more interaction between the NPC's and the player itself such as saying different things depending on the difficulty in which you played the mission?

If so the 1+ from me and add this to the suggestion category :3
The only issue i see with that is that it will take a huge amount of time for the team to script all the things which you have described :/ so i might actually happen but no way near the future

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 09:02

Paintool

Is this the same thing as say

Is this the same thing as say T3 ad T2 versions of T1 missions?

That would be interesting.

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 09:21

Arelic

With the exception of normal mode upon matching or superseding the mission ranking, the difference in interaction ought to be dependent upon your ranking more so than the difficulty setting. For example, let's say that Arkus would first laugh at a Defender Elite but then be in disbelief of his defeat, yet he would address a Champion normally and see a Vanguard as a problem as reflected in dialog.

And as for a increased difficulty setting, I cannot fathom a greater difficulty other than changing the enemy's behavior to make them more difficult to handle with damage a bit more serious.

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 09:55

Fehzor

I'd rather they invest more time into level design for replayability, so that we can have more areas-- especially more randomly generated areas! The game was originally designed with replayability in mind, which is why we have such random generation to begin with. I'd really like to see that sort of thing carried on again... this just doesn't feel like something that would change the game so drastically in terms of replayabillity.

This would still be a very nice touch on the game though, so I'm all for it. It would really bring the NPCs back into the realm of people that know what they're saying. It'd be a cool way to reward certain amounts of prestige or more. Like, if you go to them with 1,000,000 prestige points, you could get some sort of secret armor unlock where they recognize you and are scared by how many prestige missions you've done.

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 10:10

Dreamless-Reaper

Fehzor

Thats actually a clean idea,but i rather have ' side-quests' by side quests i mean that while going in arcade there might be a chance to find a NPc spawned that asks for help or support,if you agree it will lead you into a new mission with your party .
If the mission is successful you will get some prestige and other small prices (the higher the difficulty the higher the price)

also there could be some variations for example some npc's will ask 3 energy in order for you to access the side quest while other npc's will ask you to give them some mats.

Also by having more prestige points you will be able to get a costume or armor from the sk order such as a special cobalt line armor.
I could talk more about prestige but lets not go off topic ;).

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 11:57

Fehzor

Lol, I'm all for those too... except maybe putting the random material/energy sink into the mix. I kind of think they should reformat those separately, and come up with more exact uses for them. Namely, they could separate out the energy system and redirect it into a sort of permanent flash sale type thing, whereas materials should really be redone to be the limiting factor when crafting gear.

Tue, 10/21/2014 - 20:34

Tropic-Storm

Yeah, I've always liked the

Yeah, I've always liked the idea of side quests, the only problem is that they might become pretty stale as well. A huge update I'd love to see is what quite a few games have done, keep the old clockworks system but also add in a small open-world section to the game. This game is sort of open world right now, but there's never a feeling of roaming. I'd like to see maybe some clockworks levels that are huge open spaces with different things to choose from, like the random NPC's or a separate mini-dungeon/level that has a small loot cache at the end of it, maybe adding a few mini-bosses and within these areas possibly doubling the player cap to 8, so you can have a larger group? They wouldn't have to change much, just reskin a few things, use similar assets and make a new level. Ta-da! Suddenly there's new and fresh areas (the compound was a TERRIBLE attempt at a "fresh" idea). Maybe reskin the fetch quest from the Vanaduke run to fetching some randomly hidden parts for a gremlin tinkerer who upon completion gives you a random reward. Maybe add gambling to the game, just reskin the elevator reward system into a slot machine. Maybe add some freakin mini-games for all I care, JUST RESKIN THE DARN TRAINING ROOM TARGET PRACTICE.

You might say "oh but how would this keep the game alive?" Well, after doing a clockwork run that you just got crap from, do you feel like doing another run? Hardly, it probably took 2 hours or so to do the run. So how do side quests, optional activities and gambling/minigames help? It keeps you playing the game but not getting tired and frustrated from it. What a lot of developers don't understand is that simple reskins can keep your game running. Case and point, Terraria, a LOT of that game is reskined and slightly changed but it doesn't FEEL like it's just a crap reskin.

Making an identical weapon that has an aesthetic reskin feels bad, may have taken more work but if they'd given us a reason to get that item i.e. different weapon stats then it would FEEL different. E.g. Shivermist buster, Ash of Agni and the christmas themed versions of those. The Shivermist buster and Ash of Agni look pretty much the same only with a pallet swap, HOWEVER, I want to get them both and once I do, I don't care about the christmas themed versions of them, there's no need to, they're pointless reskins, HOWEVER, if there was maybe a slight difference in how it worked then I would care about them but this is what OOO just keeps doing, adding more cosmetic crap without content making it feel deflated and empty.

Huge answer but I hope it covers all I need to say :P

Thu, 10/23/2014 - 11:36

Arelic

/wave

@Fehzor: I actually have in mind a means to incorporate level design as a suggestion into the game play but that is an idea for another thread involving guilds having their own floor to design and such, accessible from their own lift. However, I have yet to outline those details in mind and on paper. And I'd think that working with spiral spy could grant me some insight on how to build a clockworks floor. But again, another topic for another day for me. Yet I do feel like it's needed as you say. In those respects, I am more for puzzles than aesthetics.

And that idea of changing the interaction with the NPCs over the course of a player's progress is for the reason you just mentioned. In the same it leaves me reminiscent of RPGs when you visit your home town (or whatever place you are stranded in) and get a sense of change over the course of events that are not holiday themed.

@Dreamless-Reaper: Side quests are always welcomed. It is partially why I enjoy prestige and holiday missions when they come about. But with concern to how it would get stale, I'd pick at two things about the side quests themselves. If they were dependent upon random NPC appearances then the appearances themselves ought to be either as rare as scenario rooms or associated with them. And, similar to the Halloween event when you're searching for Jack, I'd like some variety about the missions as well, if that is at all possible.

Fetch, Defeat, Explore, Rescue... to survive long enough to make it to the lift has become something of an idea in compounds, the graveyard, and the candlestick keep that I have favored. But is variety about a mission even possible now a days? If so, an idea. Let multiple NPCs be involved for a few. Deliver the correct or incorrect material, information, results (by switches, etc) and you progress and are also rewarded accordingly. Literally GIVE an additional mineral to a Geo Knight who gives you a few coins more. Race an NPC that actually runs from one party button to another. Or decide to help one knight over the other. But involving NPCs and some manner of variety about the clockworks levels and missions can be fun.

@Tropic-Storm: You do have a great point about how reskins are still valuable, but let that be signatory of the chances in the level's mechanics as well or an enemy's mechanics as well as it has been. Sometimes. Such reminds me of an arena that happened to be Tordodrone-fiend-themed. Those vortexes and spiked walls made the experience different and enjoyable to where I could use SOME devices of clockworks to my advantage.

And to say, I do not think that reskinning aspects of the game are too great of an issue as that tends to happen from time to time. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I guess what would help is if the overall feel of the game had not only changed had an extra two limbs surgically attached and connected to your limbic system so that you can be that Goro from MK instead of coming up short a limb. For aesthetic asymmetry.

But as we wait, some degree of control I believe is in our hands to modify the experiences granted to us at present. As it often is.

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Replay-ability?