Make the Arcade fun again...
Fr, 05/04/2012 - 00:28
Every single time I log on, I see the exact same pattern in my social tab. All my friends are either in King of Ashes, Lockdown, or Haven (afk most of the time).
Then I noticed something that occurs once every month maybe. The strata before Vanaduke is a Beast strata! Not only that, but it ends with the Aurora Islands. You know, that one level with the two friendly lazor turrets! I had forgotten how much fun it is to dance joyfully amongst Wolvers in a game of "Wack-A-Mole: Spiral Knights Edition!"
I stroll over to the next Vana gate and guess what I see in strata 5? SHOCK! Who the heck wants a SHOCK strata? What makes matters worse is that its about 100 crystals short of a Gremlin strata (Actually it would completely randomize it due to purple becoming the third highest and being the anti to gremlin).
Spiral Knights is a video GAME. Games are suppose to be fun. Stop calculating the ideal ratio of energy spent to crowns acquired. That's for big corporations and financial experts to fret about.
Basically what I'm getting at is this: Can people just take a few more seconds of their time and be aware of what crystals they are placing in what strata? I'll even do some of the harder thinking for you:
Simplest step is DON'T PICK UP DARK MATTER (Purple) CRYSTALS! It's better to have no crystal than a purple one. Why? Let's look at the stratas Purple crystals make:
Purple + Yellow = Undead (Back-to-back Candlestick Keeps)
Purple + Red = Fiend
Purple + Blue = Shock
Purple + Green = Poison
With the exception of maybe poison, all of the stratas that use purple crystals are painful and hated by most (sane) players.
Now, spend a moment and think of what enemy you really like fighting. Then, figure out which two crystals make a strata of that theme: http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Gate_construction
I like beasts, so I pick up only red and green crystals. Maybe you like taking your favorite Acheron, and unleashing a single charge attack that flattens half the Deconstruction Zone (Or just love the music). So focus red and blue crystals to make a Gremlin Strata. Maybe you like the satisfying squish of a slime exploding into purple-blobs by a single Gran Faust swing. So focus on green and yellow crystals to make a Slime Strata.
Yeah people are going to keep grinding King of Ashes. Said people are also going to complain about lack of variety, lack of endgame content, etc. You can either grind yourself into a coma due to absolute efficiency... or you can actually HAVE FUN in a video game and play the levels you really enjoy.
Fr, 05/04/2012 - 08:26
#2
Im feeling lonely.
No one's at the arcade now... It's only me.
Fr, 05/04/2012 - 09:28
#3
YES
BUT... I'm F2P, and running T3 clockworks barely gets me enough to buy another 100 CE, if even that... I love having fun, but I'd like to have fun more then once a Day, 'Ya know?
New Italics Pending.
~Tsu
Fr, 05/04/2012 - 14:40
#4
~
So the gist of this thread is:
1) People should show a little more love to the arcade if they want variety.
2) People should stop dumping purple crystals into the arcade gates.
One definitely has a point, but you also have to realise that a large driving force in the game is earning crowns for energy or other things. So of course the most profitable areas of the game are going to attract the most players. The fact that most of the people on any given social tab are located in the King of Ashes mission isn't a problem with the players. It's a problem in other relevant Tier 3 areas not being anywhere near as lucrative.
As for two, I just pick up whichever is the biggest crystal. Don't even care what colour it is. Sure, I'm not fond of CSK levels (fine with the other themes though), but if I don't like one T3 gate then fine, I have three others to pick from.
Fr, 05/04/2012 - 15:13
#5
Someone who shares my pain.
I myself continuously try to make Stratum 5 Slime and Stratum 6 Beast in every gate I see and get the chance to, I'm so, SO tired of undead/fiend/construct/gremlin/elemental themed enemies killing me in 3 hits.
So I've been trying for ages to make the perfect T3 gate, but alas, not enough minerals.
Of course, the Emerald Lion gate was one of my works, I changed S5 into Beast for easy FSC/T3 Recipe runs, because it's fun to whack them all while making it to the core the RIGHT way.
You all understand, right?
Memories of Project uJelly. That was a good time.
We got a good part of the community at the time (it was in zone chat, in guilds, in multi-lingual forums!) to try to make a complete slime gate.
In the middle of the campaign, they released a patch that made it so there could only be 1 of each stratum type per tier (before this, there was a terrible issue of there being a full shock gate lol), so we did the best we could XD.
There are really still really fun things in the Arcade, and Stratum 6 will still give you 6.6k+ cr, if you can make it to the core and do danger rooms :)
Good luck to you, Trae.