Spiral Knights - Survey: How difficult do you think the game should be? How difficult do you think the game is now? [CLOSED]

Survey: How difficult do you think the game should be? How difficult do you think the game is now? [CLOSED]

30 replies [Last post]

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 09:48

Autofire

Hi, everyone! I'm going to host a survey because some of us can't really seem to agree on the difficulty of the game. This is to help give all of us a better view on what the community wants as a whole, and what the players think right now. (This was inspired by the Arsenal Survey by Eurydice.)

Please do NOT base your opinion on boss levels. These levels tend to get very easy because they are done several times. The spawn locations are easily memorized, making it easy to know exactly where to plant bombs and release Brandish charges. I would prefer you base your opinion on the randomized levels. (Clockworks, Deconstruction Zones, Wolver Dens, etc.)

The survey will close at midnight of May 12, a week from posting this. When the survey closes, I will release some bits of the results, such as the amount of votes on the difficulty of each monster family. EDIT: The survey now ends on May 14th.

Sadly, I was limited to 10 questions because I'm using a basic account. It is probably better that it's kept short, though. I'm also going to re-host this survey after major, game-changing updates, such as Battle Sprites.

@Dev team: After crunching numbers, I'll send you a summary of what the results are, including the paragraph text boxes. (I'll send one out of several similar ones, and say how many similar answers I got.) If requested, I'll find a way to send the raw results. Also, if Eurydice was planning on making a survey like this one, I hope this lightens her load somewhat. ^.^

Here is a link to the survey.

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 10:21

Klipik-Forum

Filled. :)

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 12:02

Mentlegen

Sorry I didn't answer most of

Sorry I didn't answer most of the things, laziness.

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 12:58

Magnicth

Filled out. I'm glad players

Filled out. I'm glad players like you are doing things like this. If the devs don't reach out to the players, then the players can reach out to the devs. They have the information from the arsenal survey, lets just hope they use it accordingly, as well as using the information from this as well.

~Magnicth the Magical Bush

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 13:04

Neodasus

d28 is actually difficult the

d28 is actually difficult

the problem is releasing d28+ content

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 13:10

Spold

I did the survey.

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 16:38

Immortous

Filled it out! Thanks for doing this Autofire!

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 16:46

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Sorry I didn't answer most of the things, laziness.

That's fine! That's why I didn't require all the answers to be filled. Only two of them are actually needed, and the rest are for additional info you may want to put.

@Magnicth

That's not really the point. They could be "reaching out", but just with looking at stats, i.e. how many players get hit by attack x of monster y. The difference here is that it's asking the players what they see (or at least what they think they see) and what they'd want to do about it. For future posts, I ask that posters don't think "This guy is doing the right thing" or something. I don't want to cause that reaction. This is more a community project aimed at getting a pool of opinions. Mostly something to settle those "Everyone can beat X and Y" vs "This is too hard!" arguments. (Or at least give some ground for those countering them.) While it doesn't really prove difficulty, it says what people think. (Your survey results will be kept anonymous, especially if you don't say your knight's name.)

(And_I_may_be_trying_to_steal_your_IP-adresses.png)

/joking

Seerusly, I'm not going to do that.

EDIT: Also, I'm already at 50+ responses. Thanks to anyone who's filled the survey!

Sun, 05/05/2013 - 17:54

Magnicth

@Autofire: Yeah, I

@Autofire: Yeah, I understand. I still think these survey's are good ideas and that you are doing a good thing by trying to settle the arguments and such, but that's just me.

~Magnicth the Magical Bush

Mon, 05/06/2013 - 04:24

Dream-Harmonics

a few things

Firstly, the question "5. How much equipment do you which is appropriate for each monster family?" needs to be checked and more specific, do you mean gear that actually has a Damage Bonus on it (e.g. Divine Veil/WHB/Sun Shards) or gear that could be classed as "appropriate" simply due to it's crits against the monster families (e.g. Blitz/BTB against Fiends)?

Regardless, I've filled it out trying to include as much detail and remembering as much stuff as I could manage at the time! ^^

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 08:56

#10

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

First off, I need to say I've been sick, so I haven't been able to reply or bump this thread. (Hack hack cough cough sneeze blow...ok you get the idea.) I'm thinking I'll push the expiration date on this survey by a day or two because people might have not been noticing it when it's off the first page.

@Razorlined

Not just weapons, but defense too! A weapon which is appropriate for a monster family crits it, and gear which is appropriate defends against that type and/or gives a damage boost. At the same time, I know bombers have only elemental defense, so its more a bit more of if you have the right bombs in that case.

However, this is more of a general thing. It can be viewed by how the person filling the survey feels like it should.

And we can't forget this part...

Inserts a big fat BUMP

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 09:02

#11

Neodasus

An increase in HP/decrease in

An increase in HP/decrease in dmg output does not make a more diffcult game.

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 09:06

#12

Autofire

You are experiencing a PEBKAC ERROR!

@Neodasus

Um...I don't follow...

While I do agree that increasing those things doesn't make things harder, (unless things are easy because they can always hit you but do next to no damage) are you saying what shouldn't be done?

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 10:34

#13

Hero-Of-Cheese

cheese

I filled out the survey about a week ago.Hope I helped.

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 12:19

#14

Aveond

filled

filled out the survey.

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 12:25

#15

Neodasus

Everything d28+ is difficult

Everything d28+ is difficult and has great level design. Look at the Shadow Lairs for instance, that stuff is really designed well! Designed to annoy you haha

Thu, 05/09/2013 - 15:19

#16

Aveond

Neo, tons of people

Neo, tons of people (including me) have never been to a shadow lair, so they've never seen GOOD level design (exept the beta promo... DX)

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 02:32

#17

Thunder-The-Bright

@neo

everything depth 28+
practically only SLs. nothing else is d28+ and everyone can access it. yes, OCH, but whatever.

Fri, 05/10/2013 - 20:34

#18

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC *barf* drat...

Still sick, just so you know.

Anyway, SLs are an exception because they are extra expensive. Even if you find 3 others who will do it with you, you still need 400 CE to play it. This almost twice as much as going through the whole Arcade. (230 w/out deaths twice = 460. Of course, once you're T3, you won't be doing this often unless you like achievements, but you'll only do it once at that.)

@Aveond

Level design didn't change at all. As a matter of fact, it wasn't much better. The enemies where harder though. I remember the time I almost wanted to scream at wolvers. They were one beastly pack...Alpha wolvers couldn't be dodged at all. @.@

@Thunder-The-Bright

This isn't true. I think that OCH starts at the same depth as FSC, and it's 5 levels long just like OCH. The Aftermath level is at the depth of the core, and this is just a prize room. (Akin to the ones in danger missions.)

And a one, and a two, aaand...

BUM- *cough cough cough cough*

Smashes head on table.

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 04:33

#19

Clwnbaby

2 1 word answers for both your questions in order

VERY!
NOT!

Sat, 05/11/2013 - 11:59

#20

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

I laughed, Clwn.

Insert non-original laughing animated picture.

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 01:44

#21

Kaerise

Not sure if I get question 9

I tried answering it anyway, but for anyone else that might take the survey:

"9. Which is the hardest combination of 5 or less enemies? (With about 10 of each one)
First enemy
Second enemy
Third enemy
Fourth enemy
Fifth enemy"

Does this mean you should name 2-5 monsters that would make a deadly combo (e.g. oil slimes and fire gunpuppies)?
Or name 2-5 monsters that are hard to deal with (and so would make a deadly combo)?

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 07:08

#22

Shamanalah

my 2 cents

Filled the survey, glad someone outside OOO is making survey, if I had time to crunch the data I would do one.

Like I said in the survey:

There need to be a higher difficulty/tier for high-end player, SL is nice but cost too much to simply "grind"

Like Invincibleqc said in the suggestion section...

If OOO would take away the Shadow key to access shadow lair but instead you NEED the SL key to access/craft in the sanctuary...

Meaning you COULD do a SL FSC for cr if you want to (and if you CAN) grind and make money, while being in the highest, hardest strata/tier...

I don't even FULLY equip myself anymore unless there is devilish to fight... The only time I fully equip myself is for Danger missions, devilish and SL's...

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 15:20

#23

Fading-Dusk

I don't want the game as it

I don't want the game as it is harder, maybe a small bit easier for people like me who basically brute forced their way through the game, trying over and over again without any actual skill. I mean, I try, it's not like I'm asking for the game to play itself for me, but I want a decent chunk of game for more casual or unskilled players left alone, while bigger challenges are made to lengthen the game. Not everyone enjoys an absurdly difficult game. (Especially due to lag)

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 18:27

#24

Klipik

For the "what's the hardest combination of enemies" part, I basically put the contents of all the monsters in the gauntlet arenas, minus the turrets and the lumbers.

...Gauntlet is hard. :3

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 18:35

#25

Fading-Dusk

Oh yeah, forgot about

Oh yeah, forgot about turrets. Turrets suck.

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 09:52

#26

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Here is what I'd put for hardest combo:

Red Rovers
Toxioils
Vilewoods (Poison Lumber)
Gremlin Menders
Blarfuls

EDIT: This would be a very painful combination. The poison theme keeps the poison tactic from working, so 10 gremlin menders would have to be singled out. Blarfuls add pressure to the situation, being quick projectile spammers. Vilewoods can't be poisoned and are pretty good tanks. Toxioils would add to the projectile spam, and Red Rovers would enable them to trail fire. Red Rovers would also obscure the view pretty good. This would be very chaotic and would kill me pretty quickly, even with my Dragon Scale Mail.

This won't help much, though, because the survey ends in an hour! I thank all of you so much for filling out the survey, and if you happen to have not and there is still time when your reading this, please do so!

EDIT: Fail...it ends this Tuesday, not the original Sunday.

Sun, 05/12/2013 - 23:27

#27

Klipik-Forum

Oops

I forgot to add shocking deadnaughts to my list. Oh well.

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 00:56

#28

Shidara

Question #5

Due to the poor wording I'm not sure what it is asking. Is it asking if I own equipment to deal with each family or whether I use said equipment when I know what I'm going to deal with on the level? For the time being I'll treat it as the latter, but clarity would be nice.

Mon, 05/13/2013 - 09:47

#29

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

@Shidara

I'm assuming it's that you use it. The reason for asking is because many fiend haters don't own any good shadow resistant gear or good piercing weapons, so that really does help play a role. I've usually seen people use the equipment they own when the need arises, so that's where I was coming from.

Oh, and the survey ends Tuesday, not Sunday like my last post said.

Tue, 05/14/2013 - 07:28

#30

Autofire

You are experiencing a PICNIC ERROR!

Thank you all for filling out the survey! It's now closed, so it's time for number crunching!

Well, crap. The last 76 responses got removed because I have a free account...I guess we only have 100 replies to work with because that's all it'll show to me. I can't get a paid account for various reasons, so...

Hurp can't even download the info! I think I'd be better off making my own survey site next time I try to do this.

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Survey: How difficult do you think the game should be? How difficult do you think the game is now? [CLOSED]