Spiral Knights - SoL suggestion (for player retention)

SoL suggestion (for player retention)

4 replies [Last post]

Tue, 07/02/2013 - 17:59

Coelydragon

I know, I'm breaking a rule by suggesting unreleased content. Down to business now.

Sparks of Life are going to be used to revive. However, in beginning missions a player will have no chance of reviving unless given a SoL (as they won't have much of a chance to gain a SoL previously otherwise), and even then they'll most likely use them up quickly. This leads to frustration at not being able to revive. Thus, a new player will most likely quit.

Sparks of Life should be categorized by Tier. T1 SoLs should only be used in T1, T2 SoLs in T2, etc. T1 missions would have a higher chance of dropping SoLs, whereas T3 missions will have lower chances. Why? In the beginning, the player will have many chances to revive, thus enjoying the game. As the game progresses, they will gradually receive less SoLs but by then they'll already understand and enjoy the game and keep playing. This will also increase T3 difficulty in comparison to T1.

Tue, 07/02/2013 - 18:31

Waffleconecake

Good idea, bad for the game.

No. we don't need another way to rev, this issue is already dealt with the fact earlier tire revs start out cheaper for revs. This way in tire 1 if you have to rev you often make the mist back that you ended up spending before you get 2 more levels done. I get the idea here but it really isn't needed.

Tue, 07/02/2013 - 19:46

Little-Juances

A 'hardcore' gamer new to this game might as well say "Damn, they give me unlimited lives, WTF is this crap?" and quit too.

Tue, 07/02/2013 - 20:49

Luguiru

If they can be used to revive teammates the whole system can be introduced by having a NPC knight follow the newbie around in the starting missions and showing the NPC reviving them. Before this happens there can be a scripted scene where two NPC knights are standing behind some cover while something shoots boolits on the other side, one of the knights being downed while the other uses a revive on them. The latter is an example of a tutorial showing instead of telling since players usually prefer seeing how things work than reading a huge block paragraph which will get skipped anyway.

Not that I expect Nick and friends to be clever enough to make tutorials show-and-shut-up since only players intelligent enough to figure out the game is teaching them how to play will be able to understand and survive. Meanwhile one out of twenty or so newbies are struggling with keeping their health increasing batteries in place so apparently Nick has to hold their hand by pouring super glue down all of our pants.

Tue, 07/02/2013 - 21:02

Waffleconecake

<3s at Luguiru

I love you luguiru (nonsexual, currently). I wish they did the "show not tell with wall of text that everyone will skip but the few" system when missions first came out and instead had it function as a tutorial that ends with the player getting a foreshadow level of the gloaming woods. "but were would the story be?" in the game, like the arcade. You would find random events that SHOW or at least tell the stories of the game in the game, not in a wall of text most will skip but in short sentences in a conversation format with a random npc you may find.

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SoL suggestion (for player retention)