Spiral Knights - Do NOT be discouraged!

Do NOT be discouraged!

18 replies [Last post]

Thu, 09/24/2015 - 19:44

Particled

I myself play with a consistent 1 bar (#auslife) on a Macbook Air. And I can firmly say that it is entirely possible to play well, and most importantly it is still very much enjoyable - for the most part. I made this post with one simple message. Do NOT be discouraged to play LD just because you don't have a godly 4bar connection or a a decked-out gaming machine.

Of course, these are real issues and can certainly limit your enjoyment, but simultaneously they are perfectly conquerable.

Naturally, I don't expect all of the Australian and Asian players to throw themselves into LD after this post, but hopefully this will give some inspiration to players who are hesitant to play because of their suboptimal conditions. People who say: 'I've got two-bars, I'll get destroyed every time.' No! Only sometimes. Trust me, you'll be surprised with what you can do with some practice - 1 bar or 3 bars. So give it a shot!

Because what's the aim here.
It's to get new, and more players into matches.

Not only will that bring more life to LD, but will increase its longevity and diversity. So here's to hoping we'll be seeing some new faces in the LD community!

Edit: Here's another vid. This time 29k.

Thu, 09/24/2015 - 19:54

Wqkipedia

/clap

Wqksayi applauds.

Thu, 09/24/2015 - 20:41

Kneeanderthal

Nice job man

The number of bars definitely matters, but when the ping actually changes, that is impossible to deal with. You can learn anything that remains constant, but it becomes much more difficult to impossible to learn it if it is fluctuating without any pattern.

Thu, 09/24/2015 - 21:09

Particled

Agreed.

I completely agree. Playing ability is based on habits and practice. So even if you've mastered your skills with a certain connection, your game may be thrown off if, like you said, the latency fluctuates irregularly.

But this itself can be an issue for any player, not just inherent in higher ping. Besides, unless it happens regularly, this issue is fairly trivial when it comes to overall performance and enjoyment.

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 12:04

Deleted-Knight

I want to add that raw ping is much less important in Lockdown than in PvE.

For example:
Gran Faust guy at 2:29. The second hit of the combo should have landed if it was anything close to the ping of the first swing. However, your flourish swing got to his server first, so the GF hit was canceled.
Pulsar Guy at 4:17. Whose flourish hit him? Yours from 1 second ago! Now look at the hits he makes in the 1v1 starting at 4:22. His prediction seems to be based on that 1 second latency difference. But it doesn't work for him.
Gran Faust guy at 4:44. This time, his hit got botched for no reason at all. You can see his uber latency kick back in at 4:46.
At 6:47, how did you hit one guy but miss the other even though both passed straight through your swing in the hit interval. It's because they are playing on difference servers. Your hit reached one of their servers in time, but by the time it reached the other guys server, he had moved out of range.

It's the relative ping that screws players in Lockdown. The "best" server is one that has a bad download link and a good upload link to the other servers, and a very good download and upload link between the server and the player This lets a player spam hits with high success rate, while having the advantage that hits from players on other servers are often delayed.

There is such a thing as latency that makes Lockdown not playable/fun. However, there's no way for a person to tell until they actually try and see how well they can do.

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 14:05

Skeptics

I'm discouraged

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 14:30

Cyphereau

Lockdown should stay dead, so please be discouraged

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 18:13

Particled

@Deleted-Knight
I was wondering the exact reason as to why I only hit one of them at 6:47, so thanks for the explanation. I'll be honest, I'm no good with the finer details of servers and connections and whatnot, so thanks for the analysis!

@Rebel and Cyphereau
That's the spirit!

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 18:59

Deleted-Knight

Yeah no problem. Thanks for proving that bad ping is not the end of the world for Lockdown.

Rebel-Ex and Cyphereau, why you do this.

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 19:15

Erlandr

LD combat feels and plays

LD combat feels and plays more like a simplified dota third person shooter hybrid than whatever its considered and I believe that this game winning formula makes it so addictive. Lockdown is so bad that even most of the godly 4 bar players quit, so the problem is not restricted to the bad pingers. The longevity and diversity will always be low because as we all know, SK is balanced accordingly to PVE. The game is dominated by skolver/BKC/chaos and the occasional gunner. These gears are the meta for most of the playerbase with the other gear relegated to purely aesthetic purposes.

I've seen players become fanatical to the point of delusional about trying to overcome the odds of bad ping where they lose sight of the fun aspect and this becomes quite contagious. They'll ramble about AT (ridiculous in all pvp), good UVs, Ping, OP gear etc., outsiders can easily see they're just going to be tearing themselves apart until they come full circle and this can become a deterrent for new blood.

As an aussie player, I dont think ping is that much of a crutch if you're using swords. Bombing and gunning however, are harder to be successful with but have more variety.

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 20:08

#10

Particled

You're right, Erlandr, LD (and I suppose SK in general) has many flaws which would definitely have led to quitting players. Honestly, that's perfectly fine. After all, it's just a game and you're here to have fun. Because if you're not, then what's the point?

However, I personally still enjoy it so I'll stick around. Again, the point of this thread is to encourage people to play - if they hate LD or simply don't enjoy - that's fine.

Fri, 09/25/2015 - 21:53

#11

Kneeanderthal

LD is 2% skill, 49% ping, and

LD is 2% skill, 49% ping, and 49% UVs.

AKA useless. It is fun if you have ping and UVs, but it still remains a communiy of garbage.

Sun, 09/27/2015 - 04:55

#12

Leekcoco

You can still have fun in LD without UVs and ping. It's just about the mindset and learning. While it's frustrating and hard, it's not impossible (maybe unless there is a Laglaris in the game). Don't be discouraged if you have bad ping or gear!

Sun, 09/27/2015 - 14:21

#13

Bonjourhippo

Come on Knee, you should know

Come on Knee, you should know that LD is a lot about skills; that video alone proves high ping isn't necessarily the end. Plenty others have shown in the past variants are dispensable too. Check out all the videos and threads about switching, double switching and all the other LD must have skills before saying it's only 2% skills. Maybe in the process you'll even learn some cool tricks for clockworks too!

Mon, 09/28/2015 - 18:11

#14

Skeptics

@(-.-@-)

Wed, 09/30/2015 - 23:24

#15

Bleyken-Forums

@Leekcoco frustating and hard? I had asi vh and defensive uvs and I can tell you that I have more fun with worse gear. It depends on the person.

Thoranhippo has 0 skill and is stupid but I recognize that he's right with what he said.

After all, there are people with two bars or no asi killing everyone. But I'm not saying asi doesn't help, it makes your attacks faster. That's all.

Wed, 09/30/2015 - 23:53

#16

Cyphereau

'...is stupid...'

Reported. Enjoy your ban

Thu, 10/01/2015 - 00:34

#17

Bleyken-Forums

@Cyphereau

You're stupid as well

Tue, 10/20/2015 - 23:47

#18

Particled

Hey all, I know it's been a while (and the coliseum forum has been fairly quiet lately), but I feel like I should share this vid. While I used a fairly standard high tier loadout last time, I just wanted to showcase that a non-traditional set, like 'no AT acheron', is still viable for us 1-2 bar scrubs.

Lots of dying admittedly, but still completely doable.

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Do NOT be discouraged!