Spiral Knights - Create your Own Level/Server

Create your Own Level/Server

9 replies [Last post]

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 06:39

Mechanor

Legacy Username

I find that when I play Spiral Knights sometimes it can be a bit crowded and the levels seem repetitive.
Well, I propose that players should be able to make their own levels or servers. A player-made server would be similar to a normal server, but the creator can choose who to let in and he could also have some degree of customization over his server (i.e colours of buildings, npc dialog, etc..). It should cost about 250 energy to rent a custom server for 24 real-time hours. You could also have the option to permanently keep your own server for 2000 energy.

You could also make your own levels. The player could decide which enemies are in his level, what the theme is, what treasures are in boxes and if there are health boxes, bosses at the end of levels or merchants in the middle of levels. You would also have the opportunity to name your level. Players can rent a level for 250 energy for 24 real time hours. Just as with servers, you could permanently keep and customize your level for the price of 2000 energy.

So, that's my idea.

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 08:54

sabriath

Legacy Username

When I read that, all that came to mind is this....

"let us pay 250 energy to create a level where we can make a massive amount of crowns, get the best loot in the game, and buy up all the CE from the market"

Seriously?

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 09:05

Icee

Where greed and stupidity collide

$6 worth of energy for a permanent server?! Are you daft? (No need to respond to that, we all know the answer.)

Servers are expensive to run and maintain. Furthermore, OOO and Sega have their reputations on the line whenever anyone interacts with Spiral Knights. Allowing players to set up their own servers with uncontrolled customization, which could include offensive/illegal NPC dialogue or worse, would be a horrible business decision for these game companies.

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 09:12

Metaknight

theres absolutely, without a

theres absolutely, without a doubt, zero need to have your own private sever. ever.

are you familiar with instances? if the place you're in is too crowded, switch to another instance.

as for as level creation, it might be nice, but I don't think its realistic. Ifthey ever did it, I would think they'd have to review/approve a players level before they could activate it. And that sounds like a lot of work, let alone developing an editor for public usage.

I think more realistically, they could have a contest to design things for the game.. items, enemies, levels, etc. And the winners could be made into new content for the game. I think that might be as close as you can get to player contributed content (beyond what e already have, like gate creation, if that counts)

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 09:18

sabriath

Legacy Username

@Icee

> $6 worth of energy for a permanent server?! Are you daft?

What's wrong with that? It only costs anywhere from $500 to $4,000 per month to operate and maintain a server stack or server cluster (not including employee wages) for use with high-networked games....$6 is plenty enough as a payment for one of those, right? :)

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:08

Quiiliitiila

I like the idea of a level

I like the idea of a level editor where we can make our own levels, but it would have to come with a cap of items that can be dropped. If there is no cap then players will abuse it and make their own levels wot 10,000 crowns each, plus if there was such a cap it would eliminate the need for the levels to be checked over for abuses.

-Quiiliitiila

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 10:14

Metaknight

Theres more than one way to

Theres more than one way to abuse a level, though:

- dead end with no escape / inaccessible elevator
- no enemies / no rewards (waste players energy)
- only rewards (player created treasure rooms, oof)
- impossibly difficult levels
- crap level design that no one would want to play
- etc etc.

so yeah, if these are publicly available and cost energy (which they would have to, if players get to keep the rewards), then there would absolutely need to be a review/approval process.

also, item drops are randomized, no? so its not just a simple matter of saying "this box drops 100 crowns, this box drops fang of vog"

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 11:05

Quiiliitiila

Good point, and I guess I

Good point, and I guess I should have thought of this before. In STO (Star Trek Online) there is the foundry, which allows players to create their own missions, planets and whatnot. With the foundry any missions created are put out for player usage, but in the foundry section. They are kept separate from the rest of the game and players can scroll through them and choose what they want to play and rate the ones that are any good. It would be the same here, along with some restrictions to what (if any) rewards or drops that you can get, players can rate and choose the best ones they like and play only those. The crappy ones would just never be played and because it is kept separate from the actual game, it won't take away from gameplay.

Does that make sense? I guess I'm trying to say if we keep it a separate entity with no impact on the regular game, then this idea would be fine. I actually think there should be very limited rewards for completing these levels, if any. Maybe 100 crowns flat rate? 50? If we need to have them at all.

-Quiiliitiila

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 11:23

Metaknight

an idea that might be ok (to

an idea that might be ok (to humor the concept, though I'm not sure its plausible to begin with), would be to have tiers for user-generated levels based on player ratings:

entry level - no energy costs to play, no rewards are kept at the end. this is where a level would start off.

trial level - reduced energy costs, caps on rewards. levels escalate to here from entry level with enough positive feedback.

approved level - acts like a normal level as far as costs/rewards. for levels with high positive feedback and reviewed/granted approval by developers.

anything with a lot of negative feedback would be removed or added to some crap pile. still unsure about the exact conditions for each, but something like this might be OK. again, humoring the concept.

Tue, 04/26/2011 - 19:00

bigburst

Legacy Username

I think the create your own

I think the create your own levels would be fine. It should be like passing a Bill. If the level is good, it can be approved by the GMs and can be used as a regular level. The GMs should be the one to choose the monsters/loots though.

-Will

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Create your Own Level/Server