Author Topic: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters  (Read 1481 times)

Offline zebramatt

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More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« on: May 06, 2012, 05:25:03 am »
From Mantis:

Quote
There's been some discussion on the forums about how killing monsters often feels like it's penalised more than it's incentivised - what with a 'Kill x monsters to unlock more powerful monsters' gate for every monster type, it seems, but not an equivalent reward for same (apart from the slightly more incidental recently introduced money drops).

More widespread gameplay incentives directly linked to number of monsters of certain types killed would help redress the balance.

It occurs to me, however, that I don't have any strong specific ideas of what incentives might be linked to killing specific numbers of specific types of monsters - so I'm throwing it open to the floor!

Offline Misery

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #1 on: May 06, 2012, 05:28:39 am »
From Mantis:

Quote
There's been some discussion on the forums about how killing monsters often feels like it's penalised more than it's incentivised - what with a 'Kill x monsters to unlock more powerful monsters' gate for every monster type, it seems, but not an equivalent reward for same (apart from the slightly more incidental recently introduced money drops).

More widespread gameplay incentives directly linked to number of monsters of certain types killed would help redress the balance.


If they were to perhaps come up with some totally new enchant types/abilities, or new spells that require special new ingredients, those things could perhaps be unlocked along with each enemy unlock.

Of course..... the moment this is put in, is the moment when you start to get players doing things like grinding bats, because 200 bats gets them something.

It occurs to me, however, that I don't have any strong specific ideas of what incentives might be linked to killing specific numbers of specific types of monsters - so I'm throwing it open to the floor!

Offline Quaix

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #2 on: May 06, 2012, 05:59:43 am »
Monster unlocks should absolutely not be tied to kills. Have only basic monsters on continent 1, introduce new ones on continent 2, and add in elites on continent 3.

As for what to unlock with monster kills -- it could be anything. New enchant types, for example. There's already a precedent in the game: You unlock triple jump enchant by killing 5 utahraptors.

Offline Misery

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #3 on: May 06, 2012, 08:12:24 am »
Monster unlocks should absolutely not be tied to kills. Have only basic monsters on continent 1, introduce new ones on continent 2, and add in elites on continent 3.

As for what to unlock with monster kills -- it could be anything. New enchant types, for example. There's already a precedent in the game: You unlock triple jump enchant by killing 5 utahraptors.

I actually like the monster unlocks as opposed to "unlock via continent" for one simple reason:  It didn't take bloody forever to meet the new monsters.

I like the ideas behind it:  the game retains/increases challenge as you get used to each enemy type.  Once you've killed 100 bats, you should be familiar with their attributes and attack patterns;  so now's the time to throw in a new type of bat, which is pretty similar but with a couple of improvements to make it stronger).  And it doesnt matter what continent I'm on, it can still happen.

It's true, I could have just RUSHED through the first continent, but I'm not the type to do that, so I spent a good deal of time there.   And it was nice to see some new monsters show up so I wasnt JUST fighting the very limited early-game selection of foes that entire time.  Before I'd even gotten to the overlord, there were all sorts of crazy things that could appear, including all of the elites.  It made things INTERESTING.   Particularly the boss unlocks.  Having JUST the robot and the blue blob as bosses on the first continent would have been...... very boring.

By the time I got to continent 2, I was familiar with all of them, enemies and bosses, which is good, because continent 2 adds piles of new stuff as it is; dont have to absorb ALL of it all in one huge blob, if you did enough fighting on the first continent.


Also, one thing I thought of:  Players might be less inclined to just AVOID killing things now, since the store was popped into place.  You get the shards by doing that, so more new players might be willing to brave the new monster unlocks, since it's getting them shards. 

Offline omegajasam

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #4 on: May 06, 2012, 07:01:46 pm »
After restarting to get a decent start (tutorial has sweet loot), we tryed a diffrent approch of trying to unlock lots of stuff fast.

The VERY poor early game selection of mobs/missions was actulay made us desire unlocking new creatures.

Honestly, I think this will be better when theres a lot more enermy types in general, both early and unlocked. Your overall rate of unlocking new types would be slower due to the greater distrabution, and there shouldn't feel much need to prevent new mobs.

Other then the sea worms, the nastyest stuff i hear about seems to be gated to continent two anyway.

We've rapidly teird up the first continet just trying out the new missions and spells and such we unlock. The more content the bettr honestly :)

Offline steelstiletto

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #5 on: May 07, 2012, 10:20:49 pm »
I thought that monster type unlocks were changed in a recent patch to be similar to AI War, where the overlord gets "upgrade points" for each civ tier that he uses to buy monster unlocks, and then each unlocked upgrade has a chance to convert a spawn of the base unit into the upgrade...

Was this change reverted, or was I just dreaming the entire thing?

Offline Misery

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #6 on: May 07, 2012, 10:59:21 pm »
I thought that monster type unlocks were changed in a recent patch to be similar to AI War, where the overlord gets "upgrade points" for each civ tier that he uses to buy monster unlocks, and then each unlocked upgrade has a chance to convert a spawn of the base unit into the upgrade...

Was this change reverted, or was I just dreaming the entire thing?

If I recall correctly that's related to Elites only, not normal unlocks.

Offline tigersfan

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Re: More widespread incentives for killing x monsters
« Reply #7 on: May 08, 2012, 10:06:57 am »
I thought that monster type unlocks were changed in a recent patch to be similar to AI War, where the overlord gets "upgrade points" for each civ tier that he uses to buy monster unlocks, and then each unlocked upgrade has a chance to convert a spawn of the base unit into the upgrade...

Was this change reverted, or was I just dreaming the entire thing?

If I recall correctly that's related to Elites only, not normal unlocks.

Yep, elites.

 

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