Spiral Knights - Crystals, Quests, and Energy

Crystals, Quests, and Energy

4 replies [Last post]

Fri, 06/24/2016 - 11:51

Elder-Bunny

1) Crystals

Currently, there is only one crystal that really helps each knight, which is the crystal they can feed to their battle sprite. Everything else just clogs up your inventory, because you can't sell it to NPC's or trade it away. Moonstone and Valestone are totally useless.
First of all, you should be able to sell and trade excess minerals. But Moonstone and Valestone could be used to upgrade equipment. I was thinking of a gem system like other MMO's have, where you can upgrade items by putting gems in them. Moonstone could be a speed gem, for example, and Valestone an attack gem. With this system, they would have a purpose, and new crystals could be added to the game.

2) Hall of Heroes

This isn't as much a suggestion as a complaint, but I'd like to see this.
I don't think there's a single non-paying person on the game who hasn't had trouble with this at some point. Hall of Heroes takes *ages* to complete because after the two or three items you can upgrade with the orbs that you get, you need to get orbs with energy. (note that you can use crowns at the auction house, but it costs more). The current rate is around 10000 crowns for 100 energy, and you can't get enough orbs with that. Personally, I've been stuck on 4* Hall of Heroes for around three months. The amount of money you need is just ridiculous, and while you can get alchemy orbs as drops, they're super rare. I think either Alchemy Orbs should cost less or you should get them more often as drops.

3) Energy and Inflation

Sure, I'm still not a 4* knight. But I've been on this game for quite a while, and the cost of energy nowadays shocks me. I remember when it used to be 5000cr for 100 energy. Since then, the price has skyrocketed-- it's doubled to 10k+. There should be safeguards against inflation: i.e. NPC energy sellers that sell for a fixed price, or system offers whenever the cost gets to high, or changing the energy cost of items in the depot so they cost approximately the same amount of crowns (i.e. pikachu hat (totally made up item) costs 500 energy, and 100 energy = 5000 crowns on average. Later, average price of energy goes up to 6000 crowns, and pikachu hat now costs 417 energy.)
The algorithm I used for that example is extremely simple. Take base cost of energy, convert to crowns, divide by current average cost of anergy, sell. And yet this would effectively counter inflation.

Please tell me if you think there should be any changes to these ideas.

Fri, 06/24/2016 - 13:24

Corporal-Shade

I'm a Wizard

1 - We have a thing called Unique Variants. We dont need weapons getting more powerful. But we still haven't decided a use for Moonstone and Valestone. If you want to deal with your useless minerals, then you can make Sprite food and trade them or something.

2 - I'm not sure how to help you with that. Check the Orb rates on the wiki for a good orb farming mission.

3 - I'm not an economical pro, but that just sounds bad.

Fri, 06/24/2016 - 14:29

Triplescrew

1) Valestone and moonstone

1) Valestone and moonstone are prolly reserved for 2 extra sprites... If not though, i would rather make it possible to use both as a food too.

Pretty simple concept...By mixing Valestone and Moonstone you create Appetite pills. Feed it to your sprite to make it hungry again.

2) Cheaper energy will kinda solve this problem. Market is very harsh now to newer players. Hell, I have all 5* gear one might need...But i still find it too hard to get CE with current cost.

3) With that "algorithm" depot costs can be lowered to 1CE for everything.

You simply stack up some CE, then guys-who-control-market-prices rise CE cost to 999999999 aaaand boom! Depot prices drop, but everyone already have CE to spend.

Fri, 06/24/2016 - 23:31

Fehzors-Forum-Alt

1. Crystals

The crystals were put in so that you can build the arcade. This has been abandoned because.......... of battle sprites? We don't really know but most of us old-timers really want this arcade building back and in a way that works. There are plenty of things to try and fixes to be had but for whatever reason the developers hate our suggestions and want us to.. farm the same thing? Just not care? I don't get it either buddy. I'm trying to be helpful and supportive but the dream I came to is gone now and I'm still hanging around for whatever reason.

The issue of excess minerals is solved by way of the fact that you can create and sell sprite food you don't need as well as buy sprites you don't have yet. I mean I could say more but unless something serious changes in terms of development i.e. the servers get moved developers get hired, players start playing, good decisions need I say more then well, nothing will ever change. I'd rather be optimistic about it and I mean there is a chance since Grey Havens and all but they're more interested in casinos and other content that was scheduled way back when than in making changes we actually need.

2. Hall of Heroes

The game used to actually cost more and have you progress much slower (imagine no mission rewards) but since then has taken a more narrative based approach that doesn't work and that's why the hall of heroes is a "problem". You're going going going and then you get stopped for a week. And then you're going going going stopped for three weeks. It's a hassle, but it has little to do with the hall of heroes itself- the game has next to no content and it needs you to really master what it does have before moving on, and to play it in a less focused manner.

The solution to this is as follows:

A. Tie missions to the arcade so that players don't rush through into the wall
see http://forums.spiralknights.com/es/node/95121

B. Implement larger daily rewards, so that hours played count less than days played. Get stuck for a three weeks? You shouldn't.

The real issue of course is radiant fire crystals. You think orbs are rare? It's literally 4 hours of grinding with a perfect setup to heat a new 5* item. For you that's about 3 months of casual play. You literally cannot afford the endgame and are going to quit, but just haven't realized it yet. I want to bribe the developers into changing this because it's where you'll stop and that hurts man.

3. Energy

To be honest the game should get rid of energy completely, or at least phase it out further than it already has. Saying that you can go buy orbs is just mean, when playing the game and finding them at a slightly increased rate would keep you around, make more money, all of that. It's an antiquated system that the game doesn't need.. if it were up to me I'd make it entirely for flash sales, prize boxes, and possibly sort of meta function- like forcing levels into gates, raising drop rates of orbs or item drops for all, cool things like that that aren't really progress.

If however, you just wanted to lower prices, you could easily sell things for crowns on the featured auctions in bulk. Say there's a new prize box. 100K a pop on the auction house. That's Petater's idea and I stand by it. Want to whale? Buy energy, trade for crowns, whale on the boxes. F2P get energy, you get boxes, we're all happy.

Sat, 06/25/2016 - 19:58

Elder-Bunny

Energy & inflation

Sure, the algorithm I picked isn't the best. I took two numbers as data points, and those numbers were points at the game. But there's no reason it shouldn't ignore outliers-- can you imagine being able to afford 100 energy for 9999999 cr?

It doesn't seem that I clarified enough. I'm not proposing that the algorithm I gave is used-- I'm saying we need some algorithm at all. Just having an NPC that sells energy at a certain price, maybe 6k would be good-- then whoever wants to sell energy can sell it a bit cheaper than that.

Also, @Blazecat-Percival-- I was thinking boosts less for weapons specifically and more like buffs. Kind of like the speed, attack, and defense buffs you can already pick up from enemies, but smaller and permanent. They'd have to cost quite a bit but they'd be really useful.

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Crystals, Quests, and Energy