Sometimes I have a very busy schedule and can't play an hour at a time but instead around 20-30 minutes at a time.
What annoys me is when I log out or close the game window I'm immediately teleported back to Haven.
So instead of being teleported, I suggest that we be able to play where we left off. If you can spot any problems with this, just post here. Constructive criticism is very welcome.
I agree, it would make the game a lot easier to play a little bit at time. Right now, we are stuck doing the first couple of levels.
It would be nice to be able to pause the game when not playing in a party too. (And have the game automatically pause if you lose connection?)
Thank you.
As for the Pause option, you're right, if there is one, it should definitely be limited to when you're playing Solo. I don't know how Pause could be worked into Multiplayer without a huge problem arising...
Any ideas? Keep this bumped, I'm serious about this suggestion xD
This never ceases to amaze me.
Pause CANNOT be incorporated into a multplayer game people, however going solo they might be able to but not during parties, that's just ridiculous.
Pauses CAN be put into a group.
It activates if everyone in the group is in pause mode. If someone hits pause, it doesn't pause the game then, but notifies everyone else that so-and-so wants to pause.
Chat is still active, so you can chat to see when someone gets back from the little [s]pirate's[/s] planet invader's room.
After all, even bad guys like us need a break when killing the honest defenders of their homes.
What about my main reason I posted this topic lol? Pause is worth talking about but I feel the original reason for this topic would benefit the community more. No offense to "pause".
What do you guys think of playing where you left off?
I love the idea of resuming where you left off. I have been asking for it since preview.
Don't expect to see it. Not waiting for it.
Checkpoint save spots would be nice! So I could leave off where I am at next time I go on and play instead of starting all over again! I mean come on! I have 28 depths to go through! I don't have 24 hours to go through all the depths in one sitting!
There's a problem with this suggestion. It's exploitable.
Example: Make an alt account, leave it in floor 27 of Firestorm citadel.
Then whenever you want to kill Vanaduke you just log into your alt, invite yourself, kick yourself, and go to duke.
How about an option to go to a "waystation" at lifts? This would be a waiting area with options to return to Haven or go further, but you would start out in the waystation if you disconnect in it.
Advantages:
— Makes it clear that stopping and resuming is an option.
— Meshes well with the segmented design of the depth system. It doesn't feel like pausing a large task and resuming; rather, it's a natural fit with the bite-size casual experience Spiral Knights is already good at (and would be even better at, with waystations).
— Not tied to a specific "run", so it's flexible and works well with parties. If you coordinate schedules, you can have the whole party pick up where it left off. Even if the rest of the party goes on without you, you can just jump back in on another run when they get to your level. You're also free to continue on solo when you get back or form a new party with others at the waystation.
— If you can't jump straight to a waystation, it avoids the issue Pupu pointed out. The alt would have to leave before you could invite yourself down, so waystations wouldn't add any potential for abuse.
Disadvantages:
— There may be others, but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is that it might diminish the feel of the existing inter-strata points. I figure the healing points and the ability to switch gear are sufficient to make the inter-strata areas feel like rest areas, as waystations would do nothing to help you survive the next depth.
I like AscendantOat ideas, but I'd change it to not creating waystations but instead making rest areas the waystations, so if you have to leave you may leave at halfway @the rest areas and then return to it, it'd be simpler and would be harder to abuse it. Altough people with few time might have to rush it a little bit to reach there in time to leave, but you can do it in like half an hour, it's doable :)
What if you could buy a tent or something, from a vendor for some crowns. When you use the tent your mist energy stops regenerating but you can re-enter the game where you left off. (suggested cos it's for people who want to 'resume playing' not start again but from further down)
Just a quick idea that could be built upon. I gotta go back to work cos lunch is over :(
Changing the halfway rest-areas to waypoints is a sensible option. Question, though: should waypoints be communal like Haven, or instanced like the rest of the clockworks? Instancing matters because minerals are instanced per-party; they wouldn't work in a communal setting (the vendor lists are already instanced per-player so they're not an issue). If they're communal, the options I'm seeing are to drop minerals from rest areas or to make a waystation separate from the instanced area — in which case it's not really using the rest areas as waystations anymore. Moorcroft Manor and Emberlight could become communal waystations without any change to their services.
What potential for abuse are you seeing with per-depth waystations? It would be good if we could patch those up.
Instanced rest-area waypoints:
— Pro: Requires no change to existing rest areas and structure. Least intrusive into existing game.
— Con: Poor resuming options. Instanced waypoints work well for soloing or a fixed party with a coordinated schedule, but what about the other cases? Instancing makes it the hardest to form a new party, since you can't see any other players.
Communal rest-area waypoints:
— Pro: Best resuming options. Rest-area waypoints, being mandatory, would provide a steady inflow of players for people looking to pick up with a new party.
— Neutral: Makes runs less lonely and provides opportunities for mid-run trading outside of the party. This isn't necessary good nor bad. Personally, I like the dichotomy of instanced runs; they have a more adventurous, exploratory feel than they would with a mini-town every stratum. I wouldn't mind if it changed, though.
— Con: Rest areas can't have instanced content like minerals.
Per-depth waystations:
— Pro: Allows more schedule flexibility.
— Pro: Non-exclusive. There's no reason we couldn't have rest-area waypoints as well.
— Pro: Explicitly a waystation. Since these have no other purpose, players cannot miss that quitting and resuming is an option. Not that big a deal, since a sign or loading screen tip would be enough to inform players of rest-area waypoints.
— Neutral: Changes the granularity of runs. There isn't the same pressure to finish the stratum/tier, so reaching the end of one doesn't feel as important. On the other hand, there isn't the same pressure to quit mid-depth because you don't have time to finish the strata/tier. Overall positive, I think.
Tent:
— Pro: Explicit pausing that makes sense in-universe.
— Pro: Could work for parties; everyone just gets into the tent / their own tent.
— Pro: Could co-exist with per-stratum/tier waypoints. There wouldn't be much point if there are per-depth waystations.
— Pro: Doesn't require any change to rest points.
— Con: Exploitable, as Pupu explained.
I'm down with AscendedOats waystation idea.
Nothing's perfect but this is as close as it can get.
The tent idea was just a quick thought. Nothing really in depth. But it's good to know it has the potential I thought it could have.
So the main problem (only problem; according to pros v cons) we are facing is abuse by people having an alt camping at the depth before a boss and being used as a permanent free teleport to the boss.
The simplest solution I can see is to make it so that you can only hold 1 tent at a time (tents are consumed on use). Also make tents 'bind on pickup' so that they cant be mailed. This way, the alt would have to go back to haven to buy a new tent and then go through the clockworks again to get to where they camp.
Sure, a main could do a boss run, then log the alt, teleport themselves to the alt and fight the boss again, but essentially the same number of depths have still been traversed in total. The only difference being that the main gets 2 boss kills and the alt gets 0. But both characters have to do the same amount of depths as one player doing 2 boss runs.
However, the alt could get there using mist energy meaning the main gets a 0ce boss run, saving themselves at least 60ce.
Is this any different to using an alt for crafting? I don't know.
Also, is the player actually gaining anything considering they could have just logged the alt, ran through the clockworks and then ported to it?
I said before that the tent should not allow mist energy to regen (there has to be a cost right? Crowns aside) so unless I've missed something, I don't see how someone who already has an alt for this type of thing is going to gain anything :)
I wasn't sure what order to put the last couple of paragraphs. On one hand it appears the player is saving themselves from buying ce but then on reflection, perhaps they're not. Tent use to me seems ineffective for alts if implemented with the restrictions outlined above. But it's still a great option for someone who needs to logout for a bit. They just have to be sure they will have time to make it to the next rest point when they log back in (Basil, Moorecroft Manor and Emberlight could all sell tents).
Tents would also become a small crown sink for the game I think.
I think this thread deserves more justice than page 2
Tents would be a great crown sink though the waystation is still a bit better IMO.
The problem is, how many people are gonna complain about prices when tent prices go up? Or will they stay relatively the same since you can only have one at a time?
Last I checked, you can't join a party, go down a few depths(alone), and then rejoin that exact same party.
If you have the time, give it a try, go to any level, then send your friend down to the next level (you stay there). And then see if they can rejoin your party.
Anyway, I kind of like some of the suggestions here, the only problem no one mentioned (though I did skim so maybe they did) was the gates shifting out. You can't continue in a gate the next day if it doesn't exist :o
But that's easily solved really (Warning, you may be returned to Haven if you do not resume playing while the gate is active).
Warning for the new gate shift would be good.
But when the warning's over they should just send you to one of the equal depths on another gate. Personally, getting switched over to a different gate isn't that big of a deal though it may be different for others.
I would be game for the playing where you left off idea... on 3 conditions. I'm calling it quicksave just to give it a name.
1) To quicksave you must be going solo... meaning either you boot yourself or were already going solo. Quicksaving asks if you want to quicksave, if you say yes then you are automatically logged out and where you are is saved. Quicksave can not be used unless the floor is clear of enemies (excluding immortals).
2) Quicksave can not be used if you are invited to a party. This is to prevent massive exploiting.
3) It can only be used once per tier, per trip into the clockworks. Meaning you could activate it 3 times if you work all they from Haven to the Core, once per tier. If you activate it say... the floor before Vanaduke. Work all the way there, invite your alt (as another person pointed out would be a major exploit) boot yourself then quicksave. You sign back in and are taken back to that floor, and now the option to quicksave is removed until you return to Haven since you have already quicksaved on that tier of the clockworks once.
Is it still exploitable? Yes, but its a controlable exploit. Allowing you to get a different character to a lower area twice before you have to restart from an outpost.
~Gwen
Ok the suggestion about being left as you were if you were to log off is a smart idea but for the pause idea.. yeah right.. impossible for a online multiplayer game. BUT what you can do is if you were to disconnect or log off during a fight you should be teleported to a safe zone right before that battle so you can just run back to where you were and finish it off.
What happens if you're online and the gate shifts? It'll come up more often if you can be stay offline in the Clockworks, but they must have it partially solved already. I'm wondering how much whatever the online solution is would apply to waypoints.
It'll be figured out. We need more contributors to this thread so more genius ideas can be shared!
I really doubt that this is something which would happen often outside of solo play. So the simple dodge around exploits would be that the option to save is a SAVE PROGRESS & EXIT option, and when you log back in with that character, you will be prompted "Continue? Yes/No" And then if you select YES you are prompted again "Warning, your party will be permanently locked, do you still wish to continue? Yes/No"
So saving forces you to quit (leave any party you might be in) and returning to a save forces you to solo. I suppose it could just be a party lock, meaning that if you were with a group and the entire group logs back in at (roughly) the same time, they can continue together, but if any one of them leaves (or already logged back in before the others) then their spot cannot be replaced.
If it were an option, it would happen all the time in parties too. I have a set party and we always get on together, and we won't even start a run unless we have enough mist energy and time to hit the profitable depths. We would use waypoints almost every session if we could, whenever we run out of energy.
Save and continue / party lock
— Pro: Simple for solo runners.
— Pro: Requires no new areas / change to terminals.
— Con: Doesn't work for non-synchronized parties; some people play with different parties each time.
— Con: Vulnerable to Pupu's exploit, unless we limit saves per depth (which would feel arbitrary to those who don't know about the exploit).
bump