View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0004896 | Valley 1 | Gameplay Idea | Oct 17, 2011 1:20 pm | Dec 13, 2011 11:17 am | |
| Reporter | goodgimp | Assigned To | |||
| Severity | minor | ||||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | fixed | ||
| Summary | 0004896: Reduce quantity of starting gems. | ||||
| Description | I feel that starting out with two of each gem and dust type really limits exploration in the early game, at least as things currently stand now. Why hunt for tier 1 gem veins when you have all the gems you need? I'd rather see you start with 3 or so random gems and a small stack of basic scroll types (healing, mana, emit light). Rightnow tier 1 feels like just a miniboss grind until you can get to tier2 and upgraded gems. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
| Internal Weight | Discussion Only | ||||
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I dunno, personally, I think that having all or most of the starting materials you need helps the learning curve. You don't have to go looking for things that you might not no where they are right off the bat, just to have more than a couple decent spells. |
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I agree with this wholeheartedly! |
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I agree with tigersfan, taking the perspective of a new player, the prevalence of materials means you can't screw up. That said, I get your point, but would argue that levelling up your spells isn't a goal of the game, the first 10 levels should be you getting acclimated to the various functions of the game, with the second tier gems coming in to play roughly as you are getting into the swing of things. Obviously as it stands there isn't a great deal to do in the game. so people have no choice but to focus on grinding gems |
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I strongly agree with goodgimp in this issue. |
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I actually think the abundance of gems is a hindrance to new players as it's all a bit overwhelming when you're overloaded with a bunch of abilities before you've even set foot outside the settlement. Not only have you crafted around 10 spells or so, but you don't know what they do, understand how they work, or have a feel for what differentiates them. On top of that, you then have to sort through your inventory and try to decide on how to sort your hotbar. But lets say instead of two of each gem, you start a player out with Fire Touch, Fireball, and a supply of health, mana, light scrolls, and platforms. Now a player steps outside a town and understands quickly that "Ah, I have a mana free melee ability and a basic ranged spell that consumes mana. I also have some scrolls to heal myself and some platforms to get around." As they explore through the first ten levels, they find bosses and gem veins. The tooltip on the gem explains that it's to craft new spells, and they are also finding a supply of dust and other materials. Now when they head back to town, they discover how to craft and have new abilities added to their arsenal. The difference is they're now ready to experiment with those abilities, as they've had time to get a feel for the game and for how the basic abilities work. As things stand right now (Caveat: I know it's early beta, a lot of the features aren't even in yet, I'm not trying to imply otherwise :)) we dump a big pile of abilities on a new player, shove them out the door, and have them sort it out. Worse, there's no actual reason for them to explore anything as they already have all the gems they can use for the first ten levels. The game would have grabbed me a lot more at first if I had the thrill of discovering a gem mine and thus gaining a new ability. Meanwhile, having 10 or so abilities out the gate was a bit much when fire touch and fireball do the trick! Given that this is an exploration title, I think it's important to introduce exploration rewards early! |
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Yeah, I think that it's too much to start with, too. This is already part of my plan to change things, but with the "intro mission" that is planned you'll be starting with basically zero inventory anyhow, and picking up what you need as you go through that first mission. To be honest, the current way of giving a bunch of starting gems was more of a testing thing that got left in, anyway. Not that we ever intended to give NOTHING, but we left it as so many of each gem so that new players and press at the very start would be able to experiment around and customize. Longer-term that's less of an issue, clearly, as rather than there being too little in the first 5 minutes of play, there's instead overwhelmingly much. |
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Intro mission? That sounds awesome :D |
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Yeah, I've been working on that off and on for the last good while. Time consuming thing! |
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We don't get anything for free anymore (stingy bastards), so this has been kinda solved, I suppose. |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 17, 2011 1:20 pm | goodgimp | New Issue | |
| Oct 17, 2011 1:24 pm | tigersfan | Note Added: 0016698 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 1:28 pm | zebramatt | Note Added: 0016699 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 1:46 pm | Terraziel | Note Added: 0016700 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 5:11 pm | Spork | Note Added: 0016718 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 5:12 pm | Spork | Note Edited: 0016718 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 7:38 pm | goodgimp | Note Added: 0016723 | |
| Oct 17, 2011 7:40 pm | goodgimp | Note Edited: 0016723 | |
| Oct 18, 2011 6:47 am | tigersfan | Internal Weight | => Discussion Only |
| Oct 18, 2011 6:47 am | tigersfan | Status | new => feedback |
| Oct 18, 2011 8:20 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0016731 | |
| Oct 18, 2011 5:29 pm | Spork | Note Added: 0016751 | |
| Oct 18, 2011 6:18 pm | Chris_McElligottPark | Note Added: 0016753 | |
| Dec 13, 2011 11:16 am | Toll | Note Added: 0017812 | |
| Dec 13, 2011 11:17 am | tigersfan | Status | feedback => resolved |
| Dec 13, 2011 11:17 am | tigersfan | Resolution | open => fixed |
| Apr 14, 2014 9:30 am | Chris_McElligottPark | Category | Suggestion - Gameplay => Gameplay Idea |
