Spiral Knights - Bugs and unintended features - where should the line be put?

Bugs and unintended features - where should the line be put?

4 replies [Last post]

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 14:39

Krakob

I know this is more of a general game design question but I'm wondering what people think about it for SK in particular.
A bug is something that does not work as intended in software. It could be a button that does nothing, an error in the code that causes said software to crash when certain things happen, or a giant sending your Dovahkiin. I think the SK community is rather familiar with bugs, no matter.
The concept of an unintended feature is perhaps not as widely known but is rather simple. A bug is found but it's of no real harm and can remain as it is because it does no harm or even be expanded upon.
An example of the former is the giant club smash shown in the video I linked to above (although I'm not sure if it's still in Skyrim). By the time you're hit, you're already dead and where your body goes doesn't really matter. If it happens to go a hundred meters up in the air, it might give the player a good laugh however.
An example of the latter can be found in a game that a friend developed. It was a platformer that had a bit of water involved. The water was a kind of notable to the gameplay so it wasn't just a one time thing. The developer soon noticed that there was a bug involved, though. Upon touching the water, you had the ability to jump on it but only for a fraction of a second. He thought this was pretty cool so instead of trying to get rid of it, he expanded upon it and made jumping on the surface of water a real feature.

Spiral Knights has a ton of bugs that have been around for ages. Some of them are plain terrible but some are just strange or funny. If I do a talky mission in the Ready Room, my sprite will appear behind my back (at least the last time I checked). If you change Haven while standing on some stairs in some strange manner, you can clip through them and appear inside of the ground. Another example of this is, perhaps the most notable, is switch shooting/swinging. I like the idea of my knight juggling two Alchemers and it's lots of fun to execute but it's very overpowered. Similarly, one can argue about internal ricochets.

So where should the line go? Are there any specific bugs you think really have to stay or go? Please, discuss. I'm tired of seeing threads about Radiant Fire Crystals on the top of General Discussion.

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 15:04

Qwote

all of the bugs you've mentioned are unintentional, except for the radiants.
I would like it if they fix the unintentional bugs.

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 16:18

Rezzler

@Krakob Isnt switch shooting

@Krakob

Isnt switch shooting just a special use of regular mechanics?

It goes:

Attack (normal mechanic (NM for short))

To Shield Canceling (NM

to weapon switching while shielded (NM)

To unshielding (NM)

To attacking again (NM)

Where does the bug lie? Or were you thinking that the reload animation that gets reset when you change weapons should be time based alone instead of based on use of the weapon?

For example, if an asi max gunner shoots Nova, then switches and shoots umbra and switches and shoots nova again, the nova should reload if the second nova shot was fired in X amount of time?

Thats the only possible fix I can think of. If it were set halo style (reloads based on your clip only), then you would fire one shot, then wait 5 mins and fire another (nova shot) and have to reload. Then this would call for a reload function. Way too much work for a small development team.

But yeah, the only way I could see weapon swiching ending is to use the first option and have reload/second swing animations time based, or set the time when you can shield equal to, rather than less than, the time it takes to complete the attack animation. (In essence, remove shield canceling)

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 18:01

Zeddy

"Way too much work for a small development team."

Here, I'll do the work for them:

public class Gun{
/*
variables, already present
*/
byte maxAmmo;
byte ammo;

public Gun(maxAmmo, args...){
this.maxAmmo = maxAmmo;
ammo = maxAmmo;
/*
creation code, already present
*/
}

public void attack(args...){
/*
shooting code, already present
*/

if (--ammo <= 0){
reload();
}
}

public void reload(){
/*
animation related code, already present
*/
ammo = maxAmmo;
}
}

WOW I SAVED COUNTLESS MANHOURS

Mon, 11/04/2013 - 18:13

Grimranger

OOO

Hire Zeddy pl0x.

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Bugs and unintended features - where should the line be put?