By request from a friend, a tl;dr: How difficult should Spiral Knights be overall (in your opinion), and who exactly should the game be targeting with it's difficulty (in your opinion)?
While reading up on my daily quota of forum drama, some guys brought up an arguement about how difficult the game should be. While mulling over how silly those two looked and munching some more popcorn, I realized they have a point, in some ways.
Problem now is, I have no way to prove either one of them correct unless I harvest more information. So now, here we are.
If your still reading, could you please type up a reply to a few of these questions?
- Describe to me how the overall difficulty of Spiral Knights should be (in your opinion), and for exactly whom. Should every Clockworks stage be a hard challenge for even the most highly and properly equipped knights, or can even Knights with the wrong defenses and weaponry be able to squeak by in full health?
- If a newbie started today, and by the end of his Spiral Knights career, he has learned to use quite nearly every weapon in the game appropriately, then quitting immediately after that, how long should he take to learn all these skills? Two years? Eight months?
- Is the skill curve given as new knights advance in Tiers sufficent? Should any of the Tiers be tweaked in difficulty to accomadate new Knights or old? How long do you think the "average" (use your own definition of average) gamer would play Spiral Knights before he would get bored of it?
- How long do you think the "average" (again, your own definition, please) gamer COULD play Spiral Knights, if it was going up to it's full potential (what that is, is your own opinion), before he would get bored of it?
- If the game was reverted to before missions, how do you think the Arcade could fit both inexperienced and experienced players?
Many of these questions are intended to invoke subjective responses. Please do not get angry at someone because they have an opinion that does not line up with yours. I wish to ask more questions involving subjective matter with the fanbase, but knowing forum drama, I'll probably disappear in a hour after a pile of rabid haters and lovers fall in here and squabble over their stubborn opinions. That being said, please post responsibly, try to be civil, and don't maul anyone's faces.
1) I think the game should be more difficult, at least pre nerf difficulty, but then again no one does SLs or danger missions anymore, so I would likely be playing by myself most of the time. Which might be why they keep nerfing the game...
2) Not sure how long it takes for most to get good at the game, but it took me awhile to not be terrible.
3) The skill curve is not smooth at all. RJP and The Gauntlet are both much more difficult than previous content. Then there are levels like Devilish Drudgery and CSK which are much harder than similar content( I'm looking at you Wolver Den). Otherwise things don't get much more difficult as you progress as most enemies don't really change.
4) Who knows.
5) Danger Rooms and going to the end in arena just doesn't cut it anymore. I vote for Shadow Lair version of T3 Arcade. Have two elevators or something so you can choose which content you want to do.