Energy woes.
Fri, 01/28/2011 - 21:41
First off, I really enjoy the game. It's fun and cosmetically good.
I could see myself spending a lot of time playing and enjoying it.
My only major problem: the energy system.
Though it is a nice tool to make it so that people don't kill themselves playing for 48 hours straight, it REALLY limits playtime and detracts from the game experience.
For example...
I can play for a while, spend all of my energy, and then suddenly have a friend ask to play with me. Why would I say no? I want to play with him after all. But, I don't have any energy left.
So at that point, my friend has to pay for me AND himself as well. It definitely doesn't make me feel good to know that I'm draining away my friend's energy, and it makes the game a lot less enjoyable for me.
You might suggest buying energy crystals, but I really don't have any money to be able to spend on the game, even on micro-transactions.
I'm just a teenager, so I don't have a credit cart to buy energy with. And I'm not about to go bug my family to buy it for me.
My suggestion is to add an energy reward for completing a dungeon.
That way, if you spend energy doing your own thing, you'll get a bonus when you finish that'll let you play with your friends or do other activities.
It also makes the above situation a lot less annoying because we'd both get energy back.
Fri, 01/28/2011 - 22:28
#2
the devs really need to put
the devs really need to put something in explaining this to new players =/
but really the first thing i did when i started this preview was click on every npc to see what they did. does no one do this anymore?
Fri, 01/28/2011 - 22:52
#3
Actually...
Actually, I did talk to every NPC. And I do know that you can buy energy with crowns.
However, I'm just starting out... I don't have 5,000, or even 2,000 crowns.
I'm sure a lot of other people who are just starting out and wanting to play with their friends are facing the same problems.
Another solution could be to give new players a maximum of 200 energy for their first three days.
Fri, 01/28/2011 - 23:01
#4
Yeah
I think a lot of new players have this problem. New players should get a discount on elevators for their first days I think, it would really help.
Sat, 01/29/2011 - 01:21
#5
There's a bit of a new player
There's a bit of a new player hump at the moment. The energy cost trade off in the beginning of the game is rather steep compared to the later game. A re-balance is expected to tweak things in the far future, until then the only to real options are buy energy or exercise some patience.
Sat, 01/29/2011 - 01:58
#6
I think having mist start at
I think having mist start at 200, and then not start regrowing untill it was under 100, would be a decent solution. It would allow people to make new accounts craft their 2 star gear, but anything higher would be very difficult to level before it wasn't worth it any more.
However for not having a credit card, its not hard to get a gift card from a convenience store, if you've got 20 bucks. And the money you don't spend on micro payments, you can spend on pretty much anything.
Wed, 02/02/2011 - 14:34
#7
I like the idea of doing
I like the idea of doing something for new players to make it easier to get into the game (hooked on the game) ... whether that be bonus energy for the first three days of their account, or an elevator discount for a few days, or a one-time bonus of an extra hundred energy.
However, in response to the original poster: The developers of this game need to make money in order to stay in business (and keep making awesome games like Spiral Knights). They have made a wide variety of payment options available, and a few bucks will buy you a nice reserve of crystal energy to help you out on those days when you want to play with friends, or you want to do some Alchemy after you've done a bunch of levels.
Thu, 02/03/2011 - 18:28
#8
><
hey mlepinski, if the dev's need to make money from this energy system, how come when i go into options then info, it says 2005-2011 and they're not even in beta.
is this because they're energy system keeps failing and every player gets turned off and stops playing eventually?
i think so, they need to add another way to get people to spend money on this game rather then to actually play the game.
Thu, 02/03/2011 - 18:40
#9
This is the Third Preview
This is the third Preview Event that has been hosted. That copyright extends to before any public knowledge of the game and likely covers codebase from earlier Three Rings Design projects that were integrated into this game (My web browser is copyright 1998-2011 for example). They never had all players stop playing, the earlier Preview Events showed up and ended with no (as far as I can find) time-line announcements. There's a whopping seven people dedicated to this game on an independent studio... things take longer.
Thu, 02/03/2011 - 21:03
#10
damn, only seven made this
damn, only seven made this awesome ass game?
now thats a life achievement, they just really gotta fix the energy, which i hope they do in the near future, because most games dont have systems like that and they get by just fine.
Thu, 02/03/2011 - 21:37
#11
The Devs mentioned that the
The Devs mentioned that the energy system will get another pass at some indeterminate time in the future. I'd expect more balancing to occur as opposed to an outright change, but that's just my hunch. There seems to be a big focus on content and fleshing out the art right now, so there's not much more to say other than you've got to be patient.
You can buy energy off the exchange with crowns.