I cannot recommend this game in good faith.

56 replies [Last post]
Lesliechow

Ever have a show or song or whatever you really enjoy, but you don't recommend it to anyone cause you know they wouldn't like it? Because it's inaccessable (Example. Community became extremely self-aware mid season 3.)

Let's be clear on one thing. I enjoy this game very much, and it sucks that I can't bring my IRL friends along for the ride. I have invested time and money into this game and therefore have a vested interest in seeing its success.

I have just come back from a very extended vacation. I started when SK came to Steam, quit around Lockdown release.

When I started, it was reasonably easy for you to bring a new friend in, and help him get started. Even so, at 3500CR/100CE, it would take him a while to get up to speed. An established 5* player bringing in a noob? You're eventually going to have to let him catch up on his own. 

Which brings me to this.

The community blows. (Don't stop reading yet)

In any other game I can think of, I can log on, put out a global message, and get some people together for the equivalent of a run. For example, in Global Agenda, plenty of people talk in global chat. Noobs ask questions, pros answer. People (my guild) talk crap after Mercenary matches. In ACE Online, war chat is constantly active. These games I use as examples because they are also F2P, lesser known with smaller communities than Spiral Knights.

 In Spiral Knights, nobody uses Zone chat. It *is* global, right? The past few days I've been asking for runs, looking for people to do runs... Nobody wants to. There were 1500 people on yesterday, what was everyone doing? The idle period is not that long before it logs you off. Nobody is ever chatting with random people, nobody wants to pub. The one person that expressed interest in FSC decided I wasn't as good as the guy with wings on his Vog. I guess he can use those wings to carry noobs through Vana?

Going through arcade elevators, I harpy ever find parties. Not that it's worth it.

This community is just not active. 
I think I know why nobody wants to play games with random people (and you know be social). At 8k CR/CE., if you land a noob and screw up, it seriously sets you back.

Anyway, this brings me to the mission system. Bravo to OOO for trying to bring in focused progression. I mean it.

However, the problem is fourfold. 
1. If you bring a new friend, it's very tedious to sit him through. Tier one blows. And elevator costs don't scale so it's also a goo way to waste energy.
2. Going solo as a first time player is hard. As I just came back, I had to go through the missions. I'm on 8-2 now. Some of them were actually respectably challenging. For an experienced 5* player. Not optimal gear, but still. Challenge is good. But new players will invariably die a lot. And have to energy res or give up. Why?
3. Nobody parties. You can't join missions in progress, and people don't spend much time in lobby. When I unlock a new mission tier I spend 10 minutes trying to Join Game. Up to 8-2, only 2 parties. Was I just unlucky?
4. The missions make Arcade obsolete, which means I can't jump into an elevator and find 3 other people with Vog/DA like I used to.

The game has always suffered an extreme case of Borderlands-itis. You join a higher levelled friend's game, you get owned, you go through story without progressing your own. Higher level joins you, he owns everything, gets no reward, boring for both of you. In Borderlands, the solution is really to make another character. But there's classes in Borderlands, you can experiment and have fun with variety. In Spiral Knights, experimentation costs $$ or time or both, and you can easily dump that into crap gear.
Also... Dump time into an alt, can't trade gear back to main. Gear is the only form of progression so... Wasted time? (Prestige does even less than in Call of Duty. That's genuninely impressive, as CoD's is actually actively counterproductive after a certain point)

Which leads me to gear. You are simply not competitive without the right gear, be it PvP or PvE. Yes, many can run FSC in proto now but everyone starts somewhere. The wiki is nice, more T3 boss stratas would be nicer. Or have the Hall of Heroes npcs not wearing Vog say "my gear is crap, don't make it".
Add a "why" button and a "Because only FSC is economical to play" button.

And seriously? 4k unbind cost? I can't think of another RPG where I can't give my friend some rockin' gear without having to eat ramen noodles for 2 weeks afterwards.

Doesn't help that gear doesn't drop during levels either. Months of playing, I've only seen a Frost Gun looted. And I wasn't even the one that got it.

Also, there is no endgame. SL is cost prohibitive for the reward and you only have to do it once to get everything. So the only endgame is farm Vana for energy for gear for more farming of Vana. And sitting in town. Which is a really sad endgame. It reminds me of Ace Online towards the end when both sides would just log on, farm Barren Lands (a shared map) and not even attack each other. Just grind to the max, and mass quit. 

And for a high level player, why invest $$ in CE? I don't know how recent promos are but I see no reason right now to spent actual money.
Besides cosmetics, there's a lot of dead weight in this game. And only one major threat to defend against in T3 (fire/shadow)
Then again you can't just rebalance all the time (League of Elementz), given that people invest so much in their equips. 

I don't know how to fix anything, but I'm not collecting a paycheck either. Oh well.

Oh wait, CE cost. I personally don't care. I have all the gear I want. I use CE to run for the sake of running. A noob can't do that though.
Yes, free-to-play is a very lucrative and profitable business model. (Or is it? Firefall Forever...)
But out of 1500 players yesterday, pretty much zero of them were active. Tons of them were AH alts. My own guild members didn't want to run once they ran out of mist. And a new player absolutely cannot get any headway in this game by himself.

This is a casual, free to play, rated-E game with an atmosphere not unlike Maplestory. I'm assuming many players are under the age limit.
To be successful it requires a lot of care and research. Revive too many times? You'll never have money for gear. Etc etc.

TL;DR I'm a busy guy, and for multiple reasons I can't even log on during my breaks and get a quick run. And I can't play with my friends.

Anyway, there you have it. Take it as you will. See you at FSC (not). 

P.S.  As for Ldown, only improvement is to remove aimbot. I thought everyone was super pro then I went Recon and realized the truth.

Tersakaff's picture
Tersakaff
Disgusting.

Zone is not global. It's zone. I stopped reading when you thought it was. But then I picked back up to see what other stupidity have you spit out.

You seem like the offensed Cobalt clone cause he didn't get picked for FSC. Go solo if you're so good.

The community is very active, sir. If you knew where to look. Arcade is dead. Zone chat goes to few people. Try Haven 1 zone chat and /2, but /2 is for selling.

People don't leave their parties open because they don't want little cobalts joining. If you get killed by scuttles- get better.
Check the wiki for tactics or watch videos of experenced players rather than whining.

You can experiment in proto too.

Vog is not crap. Gear matters very little if you manage to get skill and experience.

Don't like the prices-don't buy.

There's no endgame because the game isn't supposed to abruptly end.

Gear is supposed to be crafted.

You can do T3 runs just as well, it's not like you're chained to FSC.

If I wanna give OOO my money I will. If I wanna be fancy I will.

Again, you've only looked in the zone chat of a half-empty Haven.

No, it's not "aimbot". It's auto-target and it's a feature of the game. It will not be remove because you are bad in LD.

This thread and OP left a sour taste in my mouth.
OP tl;dr= "I'M NEW HERE GUYZE LOLZ"

Lesliechow
Congrats, you picked

Congrats, you picked something totally irrelevant to nitpick.

Now that I know it's not global, I'd suggest... Take a wild guess... Global chat!

Also, you can call me bad if it makes your epeen bigger, but my point still stands.

Sunless's picture
Sunless
The community blows. Welcome

The community blows.

Welcome to every MMO ever.

Trobolta's picture
Trobolta
What Ters said ^

The chat's arent all global. It's mostly zone.

Peeps in Bazaar 1 talks to and listens to Bazaar 1 chat

Haven 5 talks to and listens to Haven 5 chat.

The only exception of zone talk is when you address to your Guild, which is by /g. And when you actually use the global chat functions.

Also, if you're going to write a complaint, please learn how to spell. Or at least double check before posting it and making all the Grammar Nazis (including me, sadly) cry.

Lesliechow
Like I said, don't stop

Like I said, don't stop reading. My issue is with the inactivity of the players, not the players themselves.

Now that I know there is no global chat, I know part of the solution.

Also... what did I misspell? And does it really matter that much to you?
Teach English or something.

Sirenblue's picture
Sirenblue
Congratulations, 9gaggers

You stopped reading the whole thing because of a common misconception.

*slow clap to the forehead*

Tersakaff's picture
Tersakaff

Edited my post, replying to every paragraph. It was a disgusting read. I have 0 tolerance for such uninformed people.

Trobolta is wrong.
Zone in Haven 5 goes to everybody in Haven 5, wheter Bazaar or Town Square.
Trade in Haven 4 goes to all English Havens, to people with /2 turned on.

Psychodestroyer's picture
Psychodestroyer
Chat systems:

Zone: Speaks to everyone within your Haven Instance.
Trade: Speaks to everyone across all Haven Instances of the same language setting. 30 second 'cooldown period' after each use.

Each Chat type except normal chat can be 'turned off' by simply leaving the channel, otherwise players would get annoyed at the spammage of their chat logs.

Having a Global Chat would be useless because 1) People would have conversations over it, and fill people's chat history with unwanted messages i.e. they can't read anything because there's 20 other people speaking at the same time. 2) All normal players would turn it off, and it's become disused. Only people tuned into it would likely be newbs who don't know anything and ask questions they really should know the answers to already, or beggers, both of which would be probably be ignored anyway.

Trobolta's picture
Trobolta
Ouh

Thanks Ters for correcting me.

Lesliechow
Likely I'm being trolled, but

Likely I'm being trolled, but I'll take the bait.

Zone is not global. It's zone. I stopped reading when you thought it was. But then I picked back up to see what other stupidity have you spit out.
- Good one!

You seem like the offensed Cobalt clone cause he didn't get picked for FSC. Go solo if you're so good.
- No, I'm the experienced pre-LD Vog/DA/AP FSC runner. Did you even read my post?

The community is very active, sir. If you knew where to look. Arcade is dead. Zone chat goes to few people. Try Haven 1 zone chat and /2, but /2 is for selling.
- I went around in Haven 1 town. And Arcade being dead was one of my points.

People don't leave their parties open because they don't want little cobalts joining. If you get killed by scuttles- get better.
Check the wiki for tactics or watch videos of experenced players rather than whining.
- Lol.

You can experiment in proto too.
- I just love taking forever to kill zombies in FSC and dying in one shot. So fun! Might as well call it a game mod- Lag and die.

Vog is not crap. Gear matters very little if you manage to get skill and experience.
- Read the sentence again

Don't like the prices-don't buy.
- Great solution! /s

There's no endgame because the game isn't supposed to abruptly end.
- Do you understand the meaning of "endgame"?

Gear is supposed to be crafted.
- ... and?

You can do T3 runs just as well, it's not like you're chained to FSC.
- Not for the same money. Did you read?

If I wanna give OOO my money I will. If I wanna be fancy I will.
- You can, I won't.

Again, you've only looked in the zone chat of a half-empty Haven.
- Addressed.

No, it's not "aimbot". It's auto-target and it's a feature of the game. It will not be remove because you are bad in LD.
- Addressed.

This thread and OP left a sour taste in my mouth.
OP tl;dr= "I'M NEW HERE GUYZE LOLZ"
- Lol.

Also, yes I know I was wrong about Zone chat. My other points still stand.
I guess since everything is centered around that point nobody has different objections.

Good-Spirit's picture
Good-Spirit
I kinda agree with this post.

I kinda agree with this post. I join random LD matches for the social fun I used to get joining or starting random t3 runs. Loved helping out new people and giving them something to strive for. Now when I log on.. i get mass invites to either do JK or Vana...
Guess there are too few of us left that just run clockworks?
More of a variant at end-game sure would help - and not something like SL which cost a crap ton of money and effort just to attempt.

Sunless's picture
Sunless
- I went around in Haven 1

- I went around in Haven 1 town.

Yeah, just to, like, point out the fallacy in this statement... Haven 1 isn't automatically the most populated Haven. Everyone is sent to a specific Haven based on who they have in their Guild and their Friend List.

Shoebox's picture
Shoebox
I don't even get why you would defend this game. It's bad.

You can get a full set of 2-star gear and Tier 2 clearance just by doing the beginner missions.
With the bonus Mist Tanks you should also get enough Mist without dying or opening gates to do it in about an hour solo.
It isn't especially difficult to do.

Jelly King is easier than Snarbolax even in Cobalt with the Calibur.
Plus I think you get a Brandish from the missions too to turn into a Nightblade, so it's even easier.

I definitely agree with the community sucking.
But I can't say there are any MMOs that are much better.
There's just very few that can give Runescape and League of Legends a run for their money when it comes to terrible people.

The tutorial missions are complete rubbish.
I haven't rerun the new newbie zone yet, because I just don't care, but I assume it still just tosses walls of text at you instead of letting the player do things. Show don't tell, the golden rule.

And I guess for everything else, more T3 content and Gear Balance are an ongoing battle that has been waged pretty much since Spiral Knights started.
Don't expect too much headway.

Xylka-Mkii's picture
Xylka-Mkii
I'm just gonna put this idea

I'm just gonna put this idea out there because I think it might be a reasonable solution to Clockwork running.

Use your mist to do Arcade runs with friends, the you can use the CE you bought to grand FSC. You know, since it pays double what you pay for it considering no deaths?Also even if you die, a maximum of 2 revives still let's you profit.

Tell me why you're using mist now-OWAIT. You want a ton of cr...

I agree with the OP (to an extent). Many of his points are valid, and so far I've yet to see the solutions in game for the majority of what he's said.

Fehzor's picture
Fehzor

You should read my book. It talks about this kind of stuff.

http://forums.spiralknights.com/en/node/53465

Arquebus's picture
Arquebus
Agree with data, disagree with conclusion.

I can understand a lot of your frustrations. In particular, I believe the community suffers greatly without the active Arcade, because everyone's isolated from one another. In all the time since the missions came out, I haven't had a single new friend that wasn't either already connected with a current friend or guildmate, or someone I actively sought out by shouting "Who needs mission help?!" in Haven. That's OK for me since I had a bunch of friends to start with and spare time to assist people, but for a little newbie, finding people to run with (especially older, more experienced players) is very difficult. I've heard the same observation from many of the newer players I've met and from all the RL friends I've introduced here since the missions dropped.

Despite all that, I still recommend Spiral Knights to many, many people, because the core experience (cruising through levels killing things) is still fun. If I know the person is going to be focused only on getting the best gear and making the most money, I'll steer them to something else, for exactly the reasons you describe. But if they're going to have fun with the weapon variety and the cute graphics and the interesting economy and the amazing music and the open-ended character development and everything else there is to be had here besides the funny money you can pretend to earn, I'll have them make an account, give them a hat and a few thousand crowns to start with, and we'll be on our way. A lot of girlfriends (excuse the stereotype) absolutely LOVE this game because it's accessible and cute and doesn't feel like the kind of "evil" MMO that will take their boyfriends' lives away, and use it as a way to bond over something they can both enjoy, which is beautiful.

@Shoebox, do yourself a favor and try the newbie mission. It's very showy and interesting, and feels a lot like Arkus' zone.

Tersakaff's picture
Tersakaff

I don't care.

It's dead because of missions.

Proto armor and shield, not weapons. Full proto is stupid, not brave.

No.

No, do YOU?

And don't complain about it not dropping.

If you care about money then stick to FSC.

Okay, don't.

You're aggrivatingly annoying.

Bopp's picture
Bopp
poster raises good points

The original poster raises some good points, which get lost in his huge text. So many (not all) of the responders have not responded to these key points.
* Due to missions, the Arcade is nearly dead.
* Due to the highly restrictive nature of missions --- you need to do them almost in order, you need to join a party at the very start, most are not worth doing a second time --- the mission system is nearly dead too.

As a result, Spiral Knights feels a bit like a ghost town, with the social aspects looking really grim, even though the player base may be as large as ever (?). This is a real, structural problem in the game. Three Rings needs to listen to this kind of critique and work on bolstering the social aspects. And not with stuff like the Event Hub --- with real opportunities to play with friends, guildmates, and randoms, doing a play style that you can't do solo.

Davjo's picture
Davjo
Umm...

The one person that expressed interest in FSC decided I wasn't as good as the guy with wings on his Vog. I guess he can use those wings to carry noobs through Vana?
Just sayin', do you IRONICALLY mean me? cuz i take T1s and T2s to vana...

Trobolta's picture
Trobolta

Sadly it's not a ghost town. It's just filled with beggars, AHers, and people that just runs up to your face and asks you to join their guild. Everyone else is probably busy with actually playing the game.

But seeing that less cluttered points, I agree. I mean, I dont have to waste all my mist energy just so i can run down to Snarby from the Arcade. I can just go through the missions and mow him there 3 times a day.

Merethif's picture
Merethif
My two crowns

I've finished reading at post #10 and have two comments:

- You can do T3 runs just as well, it's not like you're chained to FSC.
-- Not for the same money. Did you read?
--- You play games for money or for fun as a leisure aactivity?! Simple solution: find a balance between fun and profit. One day you do profit run, another you do run for fun in the level you find most enjoyable.

-Gear is supposed to be crafted.
-- ... and?
--- and it's not supposed to be dropped. Dropped gear isn't supposed to be your main gear source (or even secondary gear source). I'm playing regularly since April and have seen 5 drops so far (two 1*, two 2* and one Rock Jelly Helm).

Pepperonius's picture
Pepperonius
+1 OP

You made excellent points. I cannot say that I disagree with you in the least. I as well love SK, and have invested many dollars into this game, but I cannot tell my friends to play it. They try it, and then are gone within days.

WIth regards to locking parties, it has to do with another point you raised: it seems that many players are underaged/under maturity level. The last thing i want is to deal with an immature fool in an FSC/Clockworks run. I don't care if you come down and die one thousand deaths, more heat for me. Come down and be a beggar? Immature? That can ruin my gameplay.

As an anecdote to this, one of my officers brought a 5* into our guild yesterday. THe 5*'s first words were "who can give me CE to make bombs?". I explained the rules of no begging, and get to know us first. He says ok, and continues begging. This lasted half the day, until one of the officers removed him from teh guild. a full 5*, begging. From his speech, under 13.

To the OP, if you want fun people to run with, add me in game, we can run the clockworks together, open a party, find nubs in haven and help them out etc. This is something i also enjoy doing.

Eltia's picture
Eltia
OP is right about a couple of things

He is right about the lack of functions to help bind people together to do runs. Right now the most common used feature is guild chat. And we all know Guild functions in SK are pretty lacking. (Yes I know it's a WIP but who knows what exactly is WIP.)

The other thing is how do you bring in new blood onto the server with ease. Since CE unbind cost still stay in the 2011 price range (and we are already half way through 2012), veterans who want to donate gears to new players hit a brick wall. And when the new players want to just bite the bullet, they hit another brick wall (IT'S OVER 9000!). Result: they resort to begging and deteriorate the quality of SK population. (Do you want to be associated with a game known to be Beggar's Heaven? I don't.)

Then there are recurring problems, like "let's go raid the poor Duke for money". I think the problem here is that FSC design is a bit too good, resulting in it outshining most of the new contents. And when OOO tries to nerf FSC, they risk a lot of rages and rambling among the population.

But yea Nick, please look through OP's post. He has some solid points you guys need to think through.

The-Rawrcake's picture
The-Rawrcake
OHMAGASH Original Poster

OHMAGASH

Original Poster PLEASE answer my questions!!!

Is Global Agenda still alive? As in, I can play it and get on my drobo and actually get into a mercenary match because there is enough people???

Have the devs in Global Agenda ever updated the game or did they just quit and give up on it???

I would like to know these things, however, I will be finishing downloading the game (since I uninstalled it) and hopefully remember my account name on it xD

Lesliechow
- You can do T3 runs just as

- You can do T3 runs just as well, it's not like you're chained to FSC.
-- Not for the same money. Did you read?
--- You play games for money or for fun as a leisure aactivity?! Simple solution: find a balance between fun and profit. One day you do profit run, another you do run for fun in the level you find most enjoyable.
---- Fun is subjective. Solo blows. People only do FSC generally. Also, for many, fun also = steady progression.

-Gear is supposed to be crafted.
-- ... and?
--- and it's not supposed to be dropped. Dropped gear isn't supposed to be your main gear source (or even secondary gear source). I'm playing regularly since April and have seen 5 drops so far (two 1*, two 2* and one Rock Jelly Helm).
---- if it's not supposed to drop, remove it entirely. What's the point of having so-so gear drop at such a low rate we can't even begin to calculate it?

It's partially my fault for making such a long post but I'm seeing people assume I said certain things or meant certain things.

I'd like to clarify that my beef with the community is solely based on the isolation and activity level.
Perhaps a huge cooperative event?

Anyhow, Tersakaff, reading comprehension please. Don't troll this thread, you are looking like a child and it's embarrasing for me to read. I'm gladly taking personal attacks at my ingame inbox. That goes for anyone else that wants to.

There's a lot of good ideas and points coming out of the calmer posts.

@Rawr- I have absolutely no idea, it's been a while for me. Anyway, SK talk here! :P

Narfle's picture
Narfle
hmm

I'm always fascinated by threads like this: the cognitive dissonance of "I love this game, but wouldn't recommend it to others." Kind of like, "I hate this game; this game is doomed to fail" (while still continuing to play, collect promo items, etc.)--not the OP's assertion, just another example.
I do think there are valid points raised on both sides of this argument (particularly the structure of the mission system being at odds with the social experience of the game, and specifically for starting players/players without an active group of friends or guild), but they're points that have been reiterated over and over again in many previous threads, both in general discussion and suggestions. In the end, if you like the game and community, you stay, if you don't, you go--and I personally don't see the point of arguing most of the points in-between, and especially in threads with broad, inflammatory titles like "I cannot recommend this game in good faith."
@OP: I hope that you find (or help to build) the kind of community that you're looking for, as that would go a long way toward fixing most of the complaints that you have. There are a lot of players (myself included) who would have quit playing a long time ago if they hadn't found a friendly/social guild or group of friends to run with. I think it's also important to note, however, that finding said group probably won't come out of declaring "the community blows," or simultaneously complaining that you can't find a PUG in the arcade or for a mission, and also that helping a friend just starting out is boring/sets you back as a player--you can't really have that one both ways.

[slight edit]: Perronius beat me to it.

Thich's picture
Thich
My biggest issues with the

My biggest issues with the game have been brought up by others in this thread.

The game feels like a Massively Singplayer Online game. The structure just isn't in place to bring people together easily. Missions have made the Arcade a ghost town, and it's hard to even find parties for missions, outside of Jelly and FSC.

Secondly, jesus christ that unbind cost. I have a friend who started this week, and I'd like to give him a couple of things to start out, but nope. Unbind cost is WAY too high.

Marvintheandroid's picture
Marvintheandroid
YOU ARE EXPERIENCING A CAR ACCIDENT.

First off, change the title of this thread to: I HATE THIS GAME NO ONE DOES ANYTHING. At the very least, tell us what you actually think.

I will admit that the arcade tab in the missions is detrimental to the community and that it should be removed. BUT! I will say that I actually have found several people while going through regular missions.

Now then, to address your post in order.

It's been beaten to death by a dead pencil, but there is no global chat.

In haven, I constantly see people swarming around the auction house. But almost every day, there are 3 or 4 knights hanging out in the garden to the left or around the fountain asking questions. And it brings me great satisfaction to answer them.

Usually, after going down 3 or 4 elevators in tier 2, another guy joins me. It's fun and it brings more rewards.

I've only had one instance where the other members of my party were bad enough jerks to not revive me.

My friends are at the same level as me, so I can't really address that.

I blasted through the Missions up until the 5-2 area with only 2 and then 3-star gear.

That's odd. Like I said, I can find parties all the time. Maybe you're getting on at the wrong time?

I've actually managed to work on the same level as a 5* during the Roarmulus twins mission. You can do it if I can.

The demo suits are not crap.

Binding needs to go, I will admit.

If I'm reading endgame correctly, then try to have some fun! Do fan-made challenges! Kill buddies by bumping lumbers into them!

I prefer Roarmulus Twins because of their puzzle nature. I can actually stand grinding if it brings fun with it.

No, a noob can't run for the sake of running, but he'd probably fail in the first place.

I'm F2P all the way

I find a lot of active players.

There's nothing you can do about underage players in a F2P game. Just look at TF2!

Blah.

Hollafamer's picture
Hollafamer
hmm

Yea I can't recommend spiral to my friends either so i agree with you there. I disagree with you big time about the community I have played a few MMOs and Spiral blows all their communities out of the water. Majority of times people are looking to run. I never have a problem with finding people to run with. You made some good points and some bad ones overall I agree with the thread.

Sypsy's picture
Sypsy
Get a (better) guild

I did a search for "Guild" and noticed it only came up once in your posts, OP, and it was referring to guild chat in another game.

Generally, it works like this:

Being in a guild is fun.
Being guildless is difficult to get a sense of community.

Anyway, everything you were complaining about (lack of advice between pros and noobs, getting ppl together to do runs, and general community chit chat) all occur in guild chat. A "global" chat would be annoying because different people talk about different things. At least you can leave a guild that has very different interests than you.

The reason there is no global chat is because the chat system for SK is horrendous. Do you notice how trade, zone, guild and local chat are all put together? Having idle zone chit chat can annoy a lot of other people, so they would be told to be quiet. You can change zones to get away, but it would be annoying if you had it follow you in global chat. Until they segregate the chats into a tabs and have a global chat you can jump into and out of, it won't happen.

You can have a pseudo guild by having a bunch of friends on a friend list you constantly do runs with. To get these people, when you make runs and talk (because the norm is to not chat and just hack), you can get along with some ppl and then go from there.

Kive's picture
Kive
+1

stop acting like jerks guys. I love this guy he brung up some very good points that he didnt like. He gave his unbiased opinion of the game, so respect it whether you agree with it or not.

overall I love this game, but I am fully open to people telling me why this game isnt good or how it can be improved, pretty sure the devs would agree. so stop hating on him for being honest

Byas's picture
Byas
-Gear is supposed to be

-Gear is supposed to be crafted.
-- ... and?
--- and it's not supposed to be dropped. Dropped gear isn't supposed to be your main gear source (or even secondary gear source). I'm playing regularly since April and have seen 5 drops so far (two 1*, two 2* and one Rock Jelly Helm).
---- if it's not supposed to drop, remove it entirely. What's the point of having so-so gear drop at such a low rate we can't even begin to calculate it?

Your chance of winning the lotto is also pretty low, let's just ban it (an example of how silly you sound).

It's an extra, you can't count with the drop but it's a nice surprise when it comes. Just because you hadn't been lucky yet don't try to spoil other people fun.

Lesliechow
If you're too lazy to read

If you're too lazy to read the thread, don't respond.

I see many people have fixated on the line "this community blows" without actually reading on and seeing that in fact it doesn't mean what you think. Or reading one of the instances in which I actually spelled it out.
Ask yourself- why do the people that actually took the time to read it largely agree with me?
I won't retcon it because that would be insulting the intelligence of the people who paid attention.

Also, "so and so feature is impossible because X"... You're not a dev.

@High School AP Psych student- "I love this game and can't recommend it" is not cognitive dissonance.

Remember, my objections are because I cannot get my IRL friends in game, not because my social skills are stunted. Again. Personal stuff to PM.

Eurydice's picture
Eurydice
Community Manager
Let's pull back from the

Let's pull back from the personal insults, everyone. :)

Xylka-Mkii's picture
Xylka-Mkii
Hi Eury :)

Hi Eury :)

Tsubasa-No-Me's picture
Tsubasa-No-Me
Fufufufufufuuuu

Tsu Glomps Eury. Glomp!

Wait, How did I get here?

Narfle's picture
Narfle
LOL

It seems to me that a lot of the responses here already picked up on your central problem--"I cannot get my IRL friends in game"--and responded with a practical suggestion that you immediately dismissed: finding a group of people already in-game to play with, whether friends or guildmates. There are byproducts of the mission system, such as it being difficult for players just starting out to find full parties to run with--which I, and many others, have agreed with, despite your suggestion that people aren't reading your OP--and we're suggesting that you compensate by making friends with active people who are already in-game. Your guildies are already out of mist? Ok, what about your friends list?
Lastly, again, what's new here? All of your arguments as to what's wrong with SK are old, old news--that's why people get frustrated and respond with snark instead of taking your OP seriously (well, that and some strong word choice).

[edit]: thanks, Eury! :)

Thimol's picture
Thimol
-----

I cannot recommend this game in good faith.

What does this even mean?
Okay, if you can't recommend the game, then don't. You aren't being ordered to do it and your moral and professional integrity are at stake here.

Deltikon's picture
Deltikon
You two (or 3) stop kissing admin booties.

I know all of you like that, but please stop it. Only makes you look bad.

As for the thread, I pretty much agree with almost everything. I'd be more specific, but I don't have time or patience to. Sorry.

Tennis's picture
Tennis
"And seriously? 4k unbind

"And seriously? 4k unbind cost? I can't think of another RPG where I can't give my friend some rockin' gear without having to eat ramen noodles for 2 weeks afterwards."

Lol, I love what you said there.
You make some good points, but being gone for a few months and just coming back, you can't expect everything to be the same.

To be honest, asking for runs in zone chat or publicly at all is a major turnoff for many players. Rarely anyone understands or expects the person to be just looking for some fun in company. I haven't ran with random players for a very long time, and the same goes for many other players. With a long friends list and an active guild, you have all the company you need.

Like others have said, maybe you could give this game another chance and join an active guild. Playing Lockdown is a good place to start. And by the way, don't get discouraged by the auto-target flourish spammers. Once you know how to outmaneuver them, you'll be better than the average crowd. And then you'll begin to notice who actually is good at LD.

Best of luck!

Thimol's picture
Thimol
-----

I know all of you like that, but please stop it.

They're just greeting the forum mod.

Iron-Volvametal's picture
Iron-Volvametal

"...stop kissing admin booties."

Not even if they get a Boo-Boo?

Deltikon's picture
Deltikon
"just"? Seriously?

Posting on a thread solely to greet the admins is considered sucking up, if you want to know. And I'm pretty sure It's not just me who agrees on that.

And no skull, not even if they get a boo-boo. Thei'll be fine...

Also, my apologies for off-topic posting.

Thimol's picture
Thimol
-----

Posting on a thread solely to greet the admins is considered sucking up, if you want to know. And I'm pretty sure It's not just me who agrees on that.

I'm pretty sure it's just you.

Lesliechow
[I]It seems to me that a lot

[I]It seems to me that a lot of the responses here already picked up on your central problem--"I cannot get my IRL friends in game"--and responded with a practical suggestion that you immediately dismissed: finding a group of people already in-game to play with, whether friends or guildmates. There are byproducts of the mission system, such as it being difficult for players just starting out to find full parties to run with--which I, and many others, have agreed with, despite your suggestion that people aren't reading your OP--and we're suggesting that you compensate by making friends with active people who are already in-game. Your guildies are already out of mist? Ok, what about your friends list?
Lastly, again, what's new here? All of your arguments as to what's wrong with SK are old, old news--that's why people get frustrated and respond with snark instead of taking your OP seriously (well, that and some strong word choice).
[/I]
I *have* been finding friends and guildmates. But why should I have to? Why should a pug be so difficult to put together? Why are the social aspects of this game so gimped?
Remember, this isn't just about me, it's a very unfriendly atmosphere for newer people.

Also... old arguments? Would you be happier if I made about CE prices?

Also, title means what it means. Don't look too hard into it.

Slayzz's picture
Slayzz
@OP I honestly agree, this

@OP I honestly agree, this community is starting to take a turn for the worse. Way back when, where lockdown nooks roamed the Cradle (October 2011), one was able to join a party almost 100% of the time in any gate. You were rarely kicked, and people didn't mind what stuff you used, just as long as you contributed to the progress of the team through the level. People were newbies at lockdown, double swinging and using full combos everywhere, as well as using armor like skelly.

Fast forward 7 months.

Missions have taken over players' time, leaving the Arcade a desolate wasteland. Pros who spend inordinate amounts of money on thus game dominate lockdown, with clones of them with less skill filling the other spots. Every competent player there has a flourish. Bombers and Gunners are relatively rare to find. T1, T2, T3 all dominated by rich players with UVs: Not even T1 is safe. IMPOSSIBLE to join a T2 or T3 LD without seeing a skolver somewhere.

Point? People are becoming more separate and individual in this game, when it was supposed to be a social game. New players have an extremely hard time doing anything before running out of mist and crowns. It's like throwing a person who has never played before straight into a God of War game on God mode, or something like that.

Basically, new content needs to be added. New content = older players won't be bored; they will spend crowns, therefore buying CE and selling it to make more crowns -> Lower CE prices -> New players get better chance to level themselves, etc. New content could be added clockwork levels and clockwork monsters and clockwork bosses or minibosses exclusive to the clockworks to promote the social aspect of the game.

@Tersakoff Get your [heavens to Betsy] out of your mouth and quit being [a hindquarters] to everyone who suggests an idea you don't approve of.

The-Rawrcake's picture
The-Rawrcake
Tersakaff's a pretty tough

Tersakaff's a pretty tough guy on the interwebs.

Anyways, to brighten our days up, I took Eurydice's post and translated it into Spanish. Then into German. Then into French. Then into Japanese. Then back into English. Using a trusty Google Translate, of course.

"The Company will be deleted, insult anyone personally."

And as we can see, translators work SOOOO well.

Shoebox's picture
Shoebox
I always knew the company would get deleted.

"The Company will be deleted, insult anyone personally."

Well, with Eurydice's Spanish-German-French-Japanese-then-back-to-Englishish permission.

ur a butt

The-Rawrcake's picture
The-Rawrcake
And now you just hurt my

And now you just hurt my feelings :,(

Valorai's picture
Valorai
Tagtag!

Very interesting statement. I agree with some of the things you said in there. As SK does not have an ending, I do hope it will come soon. (Yeah, right.) I joined this gamer almost exactly a year ago, and I'd say it veered off a little. It was a lot of fun. My favorite thing to do was make new friends while going on a run. Now you'd be lucky to find a party of two that you never met before.