Educate me on interesting gates please
Di, 04/26/2011 - 06:22
I kinda suffer from, i don't know the mechanics well enough to feel informed. So i understand the autosell vs building a level well enough, or could easily review it and understand it well.
What i don't understand (from lack of experience in the game) is what exactly makes the gates that are launching now 'boring and homogenous'. Will someone explain why they are largely considered boring and all the same?
And furthermore, what would make them better? I really want to know.
@Skype @Magnus @others with an opinion-->if you could just choose the gate to have the strata you wanted, what would it look like so that it was interesting and put together in a manner you found entertaining?
I would like to know what to keep my eye on the lookout for when playing gates and develop an informed opinion of my own. I guess i'm still new enough that a gate is a gate is a gate is a gate. The only thing i get tired of is playing the same floor plans over and over. Where the switch is under the same block everytime type thing.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 07:24
#2
different foes for different folks
Personally I enjoy blowing up monsters of the Construct family and my wife enjoys smacking Gremlins around, so we focus on picking up Crimsonite, Moonstone and Luminite. Any Dark Matter and Valestone we pick up we deposit in T1 strata, all the rest goes into T2.
http://wiki.spiralknights.com/Gate_construction#How_Minerals_Affect_Stra...
Di, 04/26/2011 - 07:45
#3
my opinion
I find myself dumping my minerals in further-right gates based on "popularity" (or majority). The highest 2 mins get those colors and I work from second stratum down....because I know that boosting is too costly, I just don't want to mess up people's "plans" for a gate. However, as of lately, I've been just holding onto my minerals and not selling them at all....I'm hoping this gate crap gets fixed, the 4 new gates already have like 4 shock sections...how is that for variety? So like I said, I'm holding onto them for now, if they fix it, I'll have the minerals to help out wherever.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 07:58
#4
Save, save, save!
I've been saving minerals. And I really don't like shock levels so the time might be coming to do something, but, mostly I'm saving until someone else has a concrete plan or there's some material that I really want, or maybe just to make sure the stratum before jelly king isn't also slime. Nothing duller than a slime leadup to the jelly king stratum.
Making some of the types that haven't been seen since Beta (or rarely since beta if they've all appeared already) might be good. The Totem levels are fun and 'new' to those of us that weren't in beta or in my case, only in beta for a few days. I wonder what other levels we might not have seen yet.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 10:34
#5
"Totem levels"?
"Totem levels"?
Di, 04/26/2011 - 11:09
#6
Concrete Jungles.
Personally
Concrete Jungles.
Personally I hate those levels.
But part of it could be attributed to the Totems.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 11:29
#7
We still don't get it
None of this addresses the core question:
"What constitutes a good gate?"
I understand that autoselling is not valuable for deliberate gate construction. Or, at least, not unless someone has boosted a gate. I understand that T2 strata are more important to control than T1 strata. I understand that we have some information on how to deliberately influence the strata and I understand how to find out more about doing that.
What I don't understand is how to tell the difference between a "good" stratum and a "bad" stratum.
Are there map types that consistently give more crowns? More heat? Better chances at tokens? Is it that different maps drop different materials, and gate homogeneity has skewed supply and demand for the mats that drop from maps we haven't been getting?
Every time someone asks a question about what types of strata we should be trying to make, I get excited that maybe we'll see an answer. But every thread turns into complaints about autoselling and links to the Wiki page on gate construction, which does not answer the fundamental question of "What strata should we be promoting?"
If the answer is, as some have suggested, "Personal preference" then I'm going to continue to autosell. If everyone is working against each other to deliberately generate strata that match their own personal playstyle then we're not going to accomplish anything anyway and I might as well get crowns for my minerals.
I'm not dumb. I have a PhD. I can look things up on the internet. I scoured the forums before posting. I wasn't here for the beta and I don't know what properties we should be looking for in a stratum. I don't know what strata would compliment a power distortion. How are you defining a complimentary stratum? I feel like I'm missing a key piece of information; unless I can figure out what "good" gates I should be contributing to, I'm going to do more harm than good whether I autosell or not.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 12:01
#8
We should compile data about
We should compile data about what levels appear in what strata types. Thats the only way we'll have a guide as to what stratas to shoot for when looking for certain things.
I can't say what stratas are best. I like slime myself. And maybe construct. Not a huge fan of poison, not too big on the demons either (kinda boring).
However there are most certainly levels that are more profitable than others (though it will also depend on tier/depth, so your mileage may vary, but in general...):
- Jelly Farms I & II
- Any Arena
- Graveyards (though you don't really have much say in the creation of those from what I know)
- Jelly King and Vanaduke levels
And those I consider less profitable:
- Wolver Dens (pfft)
- Spiral Court I & II
- Treasure Vaults (again, not much say in this one from what I know)
Not that that helps much until we know which show up when.
Di, 04/26/2011 - 13:16
#9
I've found deconstruction
I've found deconstruction zones to be horrendous too.
Mi, 04/27/2011 - 10:06
#10
What constitutes a good gate
What constitutes a good gate to me is one that doesn't repeat itself, has a good sense of flow. Not all beast or fire or slime every week. Heck this week was the first time I ever seen undead in a gate since I started playing. A nice good mix of elements per strata and not shock here, beast there, and then later more shock. No, no, no, we need more variety and spice. IMO it would also be pretty cool if the levels were not static.
Also, and I know I'm going to get jumped for this, I don't think there should be a jelly king or a vanaduke every single week/gate shift or w/e. I think it should be random. It encourages more people to do other gates. I have noticed that if you start your own party, like, no one joins EVER. I think not having boss gates all the time would discourage this and we could actually start our own parties and actually have life in it.
On a completly unrelated sidenot you compared me alongside Magnus, that's awesome!
Mi, 04/27/2011 - 10:20
#11
As it is I'm waiting for the
As it is I'm waiting for the minerals to go up in price, for the day that they go higher then 5 or 6 crowns per mineral. So I've got roughly 250 of each mineral saved up.
Mi, 04/27/2011 - 10:43
#12
Maybe a good idea would be to
Maybe a good idea would be to impulse AT RANDOM one (or maybe two) mineral per strata, so it would encourage to not autosell the minerals and also a good way to really randomize the process of making a new gate.
There's too much Valestone going around.
That, and people autosell, not giving a crap about what kinds of levels are made.
The thing is that people just want money for their crystals.
And yes, having an opinion is great. It's much better than being a parrot trained to say one phrase.
For my stratums, I would not give a hoot about T1 Stratums, until there comes a T1 boss. I would pick stratums that well compliment power distortion stratums.