Spiral Knights - Randomly generate AI knights in the clockworks... and fix arms appropration!

Randomly generate AI knights in the clockworks... and fix arms appropration!

4 replies [Last post]

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 02:26

Fehzor

So you're going through the clockworks, and you run into a random AI directed knight, say, at a gate or something waiting with a recon hacking a lock, and he may or may not have a randomized name to give him style. BUT- heres the best part- he has a weapon from arms appropriation! Thats right! A weapon that YOU gave him! Here is how it should work-

You donate your stuff to arms appropriations and researching of mats and all of that fun stuff. The more you donate, the higher the chances get that you find a random knight- the chance would be very small to find one, but would max out at about 1/25th of all levels after a large amount of donations, though the first encounter should have a higher chance, to help showcase the feature.

Donating weapons/equipment = more knights/gear for knights
Donating minerals/materials = higher chances of a knight appearing on a stratum that you donated for.

To make this work, allow for ALL weapons to be donated by any rank of knight- I should be able to donate a 2* item on occasion, not just straight up log in> make 5* gear> give to knights in need. That doesn't work, as people have continuously said.

Optimally, the game would save the knights you find, and add them in as random characters. Then, once you donate more stuff, you can get another random character wearing your old items that is attached to your account. By "attached" I mean that the new AI character will only appear when you're in a party, although others will still be able to meet them. perhaps even have a few dozen different personalities- which would be defined by selections of text that the knight would say. The first knight to have an item should probably greet the player with a nice "Oh hey, you're [name]! You gave me my [X]", obviously, the knights should be able to fill in some of the items that you haven't given them, like armor/shields etc... they'd get it appropriate to the stratum, or appropriate to the weapon.

What do you guys think????

Pros-
-Fits into the game easily as a scenario room type situation
-Fixes or helps to fix arms appropriation being a complete scam
-Adds charm to the arcade gates to help them fit in with the story intensive

Cons-
-require further development of AI software for knights, as they'd have to use strange items like pepperbox and polaris, although most would be simple alterations of code.
-Arms appropriation wants YOUR nitronome/Annoying weapon! > Knight: "THANKS FOR THE NITRO :]" > Players: "Nuuuuuuu"

TL;DR
-Equipment donated becomes knights in the clockworks that help you
-Minerals and equipment donated raise the chance
-Somewhat like scenario rooms, but on all non-boss levels

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 05:42

Hexzyle

Beautiful, just beautfiul.

The server could have say, 300 stored knights. Everytime a player donates an item, it goes and get's equipped to a random one of these knights. If a knight has not yet recieved a corresponding weapon, he will use the cobalt version that matches the strata instead (cobalt for strata 3, solid for strata 4, Mighty for strata 5 and Azure Guardian for strata 6. Weaker versions of the weapons/armour would appear for Tier 1)

Then, out of these 300 knights, one that holds an item given by either you or one of your party members will appear.

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 06:10

Shoebox

Gotta stop giving these guys ideas.

Arms Appropriation shouldn't effect the NPC knights, but I think that if they do have a weapon you have donated recently it should be an acknowledged thing, sort of incidental thing rather than effectual. It would be unfair to lower tier players to not be able to have NPC Knights appear if they couldn't spare the gear for them during the missions.

This is definitely something I would like to see. Not just with randomly generated Knights, but also NPCs. I think heading into Crimson Hammer and bumping into a fighting fit Lt. Feron would be quite cool to see. It could still be a rare thing, but it would another facet to the game's structure.

It adds to the immersion and makes it more believable if you can run into Knights on missions in the same area as you, even if it's just only briefly. And I think there are a lot of things that could effect their appearance rather than just a random number popped out at the start of a level's generation. Player performance, crown count, damage taken, damage dealt, etc. Things that would effect who you meet or if you meet them.

On a similar note, the injured knights you see every know and then, you should be able to give them spare health capsules to revive them. That's a really positive thing to experience in a game, saving an NPCs life and watching them repay you with their life.

It's a level of immersion that you should be able to experience in a game that's about a world that shifts continuously. You should be able to see it working without you there, to make it feel more persistent rather than the purely instanced system that it is.

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 07:18

Fehzor

Given that it is a rare

Given that it is a rare occurrence, it would not actually influence the skill level of the players very much- it'd be more like a scenario room. Taking away their weapons would kind of kill the idea of giving a point to arms appropriation, but it would be a nice touch if making AIs for them is beyond reason... though said AIs could be incredibly useful to future missions as welll.

On another train of thought- It should be possible for knights to only appear in the tier that they are equipped for, and possibly the one above them if they are able to upgrade the weapon you gave them after a while. I dislike the idea of global knights, because it is less personal than having knights tied to your account.

Mon, 03/26/2012 - 07:44

Shoebox

The point is that when you do

The point is that when you do missions it's typically portrayed as you being the only knight that does anything.

That's why making them more dynamic would be good.

I understand where you're coming from I just don't think having AI partners that sporadically appear when you're running the clockworks would be as worthwhile as persistent NPC spawns that will react differently to your presence and be entirely optional to interact with.

Because to be honest, you should be forging personal experiences with other players, not with NPCs that steal your gear in exchange for Gamersco- I mean Prestige.

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Randomly generate AI knights in the clockworks... and fix arms appropration!