Spiral Knights - More bosses on fewer gates

More bosses on fewer gates

14 replies [Last post]

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 10:29

Nicoya-Kitty

So with the addition of the Roarmulus twins a while back, we finally no longer have a boss-free gate, and are now facing a distinct shortage of non-boss Stratum 4 areas.

My suggestion would be to combine the bosses on a given stratum into a single gate, and have the elevator at Basil select between the different bosses. In fact, you could even fix up the elevator to the left of basil and have it so that, say, if you go down the right elevator you drop into the RJ levels, and if you go down the left you drop into the RT levels, or something like that, and more elevators could be added if the boss count increases. Given that the next level after basil is usually just another regular level or arena (with the exception of FSC, iirc) you're still left with plenty of time for your party to fill up or to invite friends before the boss levels begin.

In the arcade, instead of a theme icon for the boss (like beast for snarby, fire for FSC), the gate indicator would just have a generic "boss levels" icon at that given stratum.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:53

Oakgear

Hmmm

What you forgot is how people who press join party may not like that they'll end up in a different boss gate.
Your idea is bad
Who wants a normal gate?
I for one don't see an upside to your suggestion.
Besides there's going to be another boss coming and what will your idea fix then?
Absolutely nothing.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:57

Kwizzy

I was going to agree because

I was going to agree because more level variety available is always good (We had none of those Fiend/Zombie levels with totems during the last power surge :(), but Oakgear's first line changed my mind.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 11:58

Plaguerider

@Oakgear, kindness goes a

@Oakgear, kindness goes a long way, it was a suggestion, an idea. No need to be so negative.
I understand what kitty was trying to say. I would suggest that we create one more gate portal, or an alternative path that goes around the boss dungeon. I wouldn't suggest that now, because it's not like we go from depth one to the core on a regular basis, what I commonly do in this situation is find snarbys portal and skip him and play from there. But should we get one or two more bosses, I highly agree with an alternative route that allows us to pass up the boss if we so choose, or we could just return to haven and run through again.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:07

Oakgear

@Fowleravenged

So many flaws in your excitement
The only reason that an alternative path would work is that you go alone.
There is probably more than 75% who'd wanna fight the boss and if at least one gets in your party you've got a problem.
You can't just expect people to go along with you and take the alternative route.
And sorry if it seemed like I was being mean/rude with my last post, but I seriously wouldn't want to see a normal gate and I think it wouldnt go along with OOO's plans.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:18

Nicoya-Kitty

@Oakgear Well, I want normal

@Oakgear Well, I want normal gates. The boss fights are fun, but after 10 or 20 runs they get a bit boring and repetitive, and with only 2 non-boss S4 areas to pick from it can get kind of annoying if they're not themes I like. (granted the bosses might be more fun to run if they had multiple different options for the run-up levels, like 2 different ones per depth that rotate randomly like normal depths do, but that's a suggestion for another thread)

As for joining a random group and ending up on the "wrong" boss, well, that's a chance you take I guess? Add more peeps to your friends list or get in a big guild and join their parties instead if you want to make sure you get on the boss you want.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 12:47

Oakgear

You can't just assume

Sometimes I just randomly join in a gate and what if a wanna fight the twins and then I get RJ?
What if somebody brings the wrong gear?
How do people make 2 seperate gates with minerals?

You can't just ignore these problems and have others fix it.
YOU need to fix it this is your idea and if it doesn't work out then don't post it.
No offense or anything, but think long term next time.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 15:23

Nicoya-Kitty

@Oakgear perhaps you should

@Oakgear perhaps you should enlighten us all to which exact mineral recipe creates a boss stratum in the first place. (hint: trick question)

Bringing the wrong gear is always a risk when joining a random party. You never know if it's going to be before or after basil.

Equipping a set of gear that would work for both RJ and RT isn't all that difficult. "Don't equip a piercing sword" will get you 99% of the way there, and an elemental protection armor set will be more than sufficient for either set of levels, as both consist primarily of slimes and constructs (with a few gremlins tossed into RT just to annoy people who want to bring elemental-only weapons) and slime-family attacks are easy to dodge. So there you go, now you never have to worry about bringing the wrong equipment.

Wed, 09/28/2011 - 17:37

Antistone

Putting several bosses

Putting several bosses parallel in the same stratum sounds complicated and unsustainable. The game already has the ability for multiple levels at a given depth, but not the ability to link a specific level at one depth to a specific level at a different depth, so that's a significant new piece of functionality, and it doesn't play nicely with the current level-rotation or auto-join mechanics, not to mention the various UI elements that display the theme for a given stratum. It would also get unwieldly really fast if they started adding more bosses.

That said, the current system where every boss in the universe completely takes over 1/4 of gates at a given stratum is dumb and also unsustainable if more bosses get added. It encourages running identical levels over and over and severely skews the available materials, especially for people trying to craft 4-star gear to get access to tier 3.

I recommend that there be a policy that there will always be some boss available to fight on each tier, but not necessarily EVERY boss. JK and Roarmulus should each appear once every 6-8 gates instead of every 4, and whenever a new boss is added, the frequency of all bosses on that tier should be reduced to compensate (e.g. if we got a third tier 2 boss, each one should start showing up once every 9-12 gates). You could consider ramping up the overall frequency so that we get back to 50% of all gates having a boss on tier 2 once there are enough total bosses for that to not be so monotonous or skew material availability so much--it's not so much that we need more normal gates as that we need more non-JK/Roarmulus gates.

Also, new bosses should gradually be added (I assume that's the plan anyway). I'd probably start with a Gremlin boss on tier 3, just to try to spread out damage and defense types as much as possible, but whatever.

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 00:38

Niichi

Slight problem is that bosses

Slight problem is that bosses have unique tokens and rewards so I for one wouldn't like a system that makes those rewards completely inaccessible for periods of time.

I really don't see the problem with parallel level sets for boss themes. It allows us to keep all boss themes in use at any given time but helps to free up slots for other level sets. If random joining is a problem then just prevent randoms from joining once a level set choice is made. Still keep friend/guild joining open since then you can ask before you jump in (honestly, randoms actually joining in the boss levels is a very rare thing for me to begin with - it's happened but certainly not enough to make removing the option a significant shift).

Sure it's not a system that currently exists in the game, obviously because if it did the suggestion wouldn't need to exist. Besides, if content was only added if its functionality already exists in the game we wouldn't see a whole lot of new content. :\

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 07:40

#10

Starlinvf

Rotating a boss stratum out

Rotating a boss stratum out of the gate listing would break up the monotony. And if they add more boss stratums, I have no doubt this is how they are going to handle it. People will [tart] and moan about being denied access to tokens, etc.... but with unbinding gear, having a certain type of token out of rotation for a few days is a non-issue since you can still obtain the gear through other players. If you can't afford unbound gear, then you'll just have to wait.... its a basic principle of any game with a trade system.

But personally, I think a much broader fix would be to introduce mini-boss levels that can spawn randomly in tiers that lack a boss statrum. Even with a minor, but desirable reward, it'll add a target to areas of gates that rarely see traffic. As you increase the variety of activities, downtime in any particular activity becomes less of a problem.

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 08:56

#11

Juances

...

I do like non-boss lvels, but have you tried to find anyone playing for example any T3 strat outside of Vanaduke gate? it's almost impossible unless there are some arenas in a row. And the very few i happen to find there only go to basil.

Whit the idea of roitating bosses in and out: make similar themed ones drop the same token.
OR if they drop different tokens the reward you can get should be of similar power.

Thu, 09/29/2011 - 09:07

#12

Renpartycat

Not a good idea.

If you want to fight a boss, fight a boss.

If you want to go on a dungeon run without bosses, you're free to do that. There are plenty of gates that have two tiers without bosses. If you don't want to fight Snarbolax, try any other gate. If you don't want to fight Royal Jelly or Roarmulus, do another gate. If you don't want to fight Vanaduke, try another gate.

Fri, 09/30/2011 - 17:57

#13

Dragaroth

Personally

I find Oak talking to others about fixing suggestions funny... but thats not the point
the point is that having multiple gates, would create problems. the main thing is that, with random boss stratum, you have to be on your guard as to what to fight. You need to be prepared. ALSO it means you have to be patient if your looking for a certain boss for it to come around, if a multiple gate policy were instituted, the whole waiting or spending energy now thing would be worth diddly squat.

Fri, 09/30/2011 - 18:45

#14

Oakgear

@Dragorath

I saw you!

You changed hilarious into funny...
SHAME ON YOU I AM HILARIOUS

Search

More bosses on fewer gates