View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0004624 | Valley 1 | Gameplay Idea | Oct 6, 2011 6:19 am | Jan 27, 2012 10:10 am | |
| Reporter | lisa107b | Assigned To | |||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | open | ||
| Product Version | 0.518 | ||||
| Summary | 0004624: More sense of reward needed | ||||
| Description | As a player proceeds through the game, they can increase their civ level without even realising. Although the new spells and equipment would come with a nice sense of reward it feels that they come at a high cost for the player (time/effort) for little return. Right now, things feel a little uninspiring, can produce a sense of Apathy for the game. Perhaps some more particle effects on level-up / collectibles will help? | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | Feature Suggestion | ||||
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I've been thinking that if the game were to pause on civ level up and a new window open in the middle of the view telling you you'd levelled up and highlighting some of the fancy new things you could do... well, that'd be MILES better than the message log just telling you. |
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Except that said window would only be helpful half a dozen times out of infinity, and only the first time round at that. also there's a fairly high chance that it would appear whilst you are still fighting a second boss Edit: In retrospect that seems fairly terse. My additional point would be that, as I see it, levels are almost supposed to be meaningless, the "real" benefit of levelling up is the ability to explore further, It's essentially just a content barrier. That and people like levelling up. |
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I don't think pausing during level-up would be a good thing, as Terrazil said, if it happened during a boss fight or micro-boss room, I'd imagine it would get very annoying, that said however - an indication of what you could aim for next would be a great idea, maybe some sort of info-box type thing that you could look at if you wanted to. I was thinking more along the lines of, dare I say it, a WoW type 'ding' effect and sound. |
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Pausing's not essential, nor really the crux of my point: I don't think the message log is a very satisfying nor effective way of informing players that they can now do more! |
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I kind of like that leveling up isn't a big deal. With the new balance changes, it has less of an immediate effect and more of an exploratory one -- more of the world becomes available. I've completely missed the level up notification a couple of times and discovered my new status by having some new regions open up while walking home to get healed. That was far more awesome than any kind of "ping!" notification I could have gotten. |
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The obvious point would be that without pausing you can't do anything that obscures that screen, and that eventually we would probably be left with the Message log again. The best you could do is making sure that the message log expands to show the message in full. Maybe, a translucent message in the centre of the screen saying "New content Unlocked" with the message log containing the detail EDIT: I feel it necessary to point out that we have sort of deviated from "all level ups being noted" to "important level ups being noted". |
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I'm all for that. In fact, maybe levelling up isn't the crucial factor - but just when you can do more; or, conversely, when you suddenly require higher level magic. Perhaps this could be solved by simply jazzing up the message log a bit? |
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Perhaps leveling up should be more indicated by more than just a bit of text the message log. "Ding!" When players level up in World of Warcraft, it is announced with a giant column of light, sound effects, and so forth. A bunch of dramatic eye candy, basically. But it works! Players quickly became familiar with the effect and started using the term "ding!" to refer to the action of leveling up. WoW is very much a different game from AVWW, but this seems like a good concept to borrow from. AVWW has a pretty fancy setup for particle effects. Combine a good glow effect with an appropriate sound, and I'll bet players will get more satisfaction when they gain a level (and it will be more obvious when they do so). |
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That's an interesting idea :) although I don't think it will ever be the case that you suddenly require higher level magic, especially since the balancing is still being tweaked for that. What I think is the most important point is the one I made with issue 4623, making it perhaps more obvious/straight forward to find the tools needed to level up the equipment/spells to match the civ level, as I said in that issue, I was at a point in my save where I was civ level 6 on the verge of 7 and still using the spells I made at the start. So it was like the level was just a number, with no other measurable benefits (hence the player reward issue) |
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To use the WoW example, when you level up your stats increase, you might gain access to higher level spells and something with which to customise your character. In this none of that is true. Now on a deeper level the systems are surprisingly similar, WoW is designed such that the overall effect is identical to AVWW, AVWW is just more honest. The point remains that the Level IS just a number, with stats the way they are now, there is literally no difference between a level 6 character and level 7 character, the difference is in which regions I can access, I can now feel more comfortable in level 8 or 9 areas, I can look forward to visiting that new region type once I hit level 10. The opening up of the Strategic Game, and changing of Spell Tiers are things worthy of note, but the little level ups in between are simply filler. |
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Agree with a lot of whats been said in general. Probably some of the ding effect Tarytahn mentioned of flashyness would help - but as I realize towards the end of this long note, it might not make sense as *you* (the character) isn't really gaining a level, its your civilization. I think if there was a place to do a pause/overlay, it would be the next time that the player went to the strategic map since you're going to warp out to it fairly regularly. Have a nice little list there, and its almost like in ARPG's where you are unlocking skills/ perks but instead its fun things you see you're getting in terms of strategic abilities, or even mentioning when you've gone up to the next tier of things. Heck technically you could do unlocks from a system like that, but I'm not sure it needs it to be more fun. It would draw things out more, but I don't think current content should be more drawn out. Hmmm, another thing that could be done from some sort of strat map popup (or even a dialog with an Ilari) would be some sort of item roll per level up, a bit like Darkspore. You could get a % chance to get a good item/ gem/ whatever or refuse to roll now, and keep going to another civ level and next time get better % on the roll to get something rarer - ie a gem 2 tiers higher or scroll for rare spell or whatever- but if you lose your character then you lose your chance for the roll, and everything is reset for your new character. Would even fit the lore in that your civilization might start saving stuff up for a particularly heroic player that's been doing a lot of things, but of course the new guy/gal wouldn't get that special saved gift if the old hero died. That's all getting much more complex, but just mentioned as a thought of a way that the system could become more reward-y in a standard sense for leveling. I don't know if it would need that complexity for a long time, but it might add in something interesting. Thinking more in the macro sense, I think one of the disconnects for me is that really its a *civ level* not a character level. But from a gaming perspective it feels like a character level in a MMO /ARPG, especially since I'm gaining EXP, so I expect more personal gain. So not having a "ding" on your character makes logical sense, but from the gaming experience it feels a little odd. In the very end, its not huge for me despite all I said, since I generally feel good about leveling, and getting to explore further and the like, but I know it can be something really important for a lot of people so had to toss in thoughts. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 6, 2011 6:19 am | lisa107b | New Issue | |
| Oct 6, 2011 10:00 am | zebramatt | Note Added: 0015879 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 10:11 am | Terraziel | Note Added: 0015881 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 10:22 am | lisa107b | Note Added: 0015885 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 10:25 am | Terraziel | Note Edited: 0015881 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 11:00 am | zebramatt | Note Added: 0015894 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 11:10 am | jerith | Note Added: 0015895 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 11:17 am | Terraziel | Note Added: 0015897 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 11:20 am | Terraziel | Note Edited: 0015897 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 11:55 am | zebramatt | Note Added: 0015901 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 12:00 pm | tigersfan | Internal Weight | => Feature Suggestion |
| Oct 6, 2011 12:00 pm | tigersfan | Status | new => considering |
| Oct 6, 2011 12:30 pm | Tayrtahn | Note Added: 0015910 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 12:35 pm | lisa107b | Note Added: 0015911 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 1:04 pm | Terraziel | Note Added: 0015918 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 1:12 pm | Terraziel | Note Edited: 0015918 | |
| Oct 6, 2011 1:43 pm | FallingStar | Note Added: 0015925 | |
| Jan 27, 2012 10:10 am | tigersfan | Status | considering => resolved |
| Apr 14, 2014 9:30 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Category | Suggestion - Gameplay => Gameplay Idea |
