Accomplished my mission of getting paragon 600 in D3. Initially i thought i would start farming for hellfire amulet materials. But i guess it is immaterial now, as it is too much hassle and i'm not aiming for leaderboards anymore.
Stopped playing Heroes Charge as well. Managed to clear crusade 15/15 for 2 straight days with the help of my guildmate's LOA. LOA = king of crusade. For today's crusade though, i'm facing teams with 2 level 1s and 3 level 48s. Got wiped in a instant. They got to take into account the variance of team power instead just simply average team power. Not quite sure why anyone would field such a lineup, but it's definitely irritating.
Failed crusade = low gold = low skill levels = low crusade/arena ability = failed crusade.
I see this as a design flaw (bad matchmaking), thus I think it is quite pointless to continue with the game. Nonetheless, it is a good game overall, just that it hinges on whether you can get a DK early or not.
Played my first match of Dota in a long while. Intense 1 hr experience where my team got owned early but somehow we managed to push back and win in the end. I find 1 hr to be a little too taxing for me. GRs are 15 minutes and I don't enjoy them either. But I guess Dota requires no grinding, though you have to play constantly to grind your skill. Something good to keep in the pocket and play once in a while.
For the longest time, I have no games to play. Good to know.
Showing posts with label game design. Show all posts
Showing posts with label game design. Show all posts
Monday, October 27, 2014
Monday, October 20, 2014
Heroes Charge - How to make it better
Been playing Heroes Charge for the past few days. It's one of those f2p mobile games where u collect heroes, upgrade them, then send ur customised team to pvp against other in the arena for leaderboard rankings.
iOS Android
What I like about it:
1) Heroes and skills resembles those from DoTA. So there's some sense of familiarity as to what you are getting from each hero, without referring to guides.
2) Lots of free stuff and you get rewarded for doing stuff. Everyday you can open some treasure box 5 times, and doing so gives u some exp. Every 2 days, you can open a better box for free to get heroes and some other cool stuff. Daily quests gives you exp for simply playing the game
3) Heroes feel attainable with sufficient grinding. Most heroes have a particular quest which you can grind for their souls. When sufficient souls are collected, the heroes can be summoned to join your team. Assuming a 33% drop rate for heroes, on average you can get 1 soul per hero quest (3 attempts each day). There are other good sources of attaining heroes as well.
For perspective, the game gives you 5, I have 12 now, and I've only played for less than a week.
4) Auto combat and raids. When you can clear a quest with 3 stars, you gain the option of auto combat and raid for that quest. Raiding simply means you clear the quest immediately, and they give you the item looted for that run, as well as the exp you can get if you were to fight the mobs yourself. Auto combat is used if you wished to level certain characters. Both are time-savers imho.
5) Good timings. The game resets at 5am daily, so there's plenty to do during my morning commute. At 12 pm, you get your first dose of free stamina, which gives you something to do during lunch. Then the next dose comes at 6pm, for the commute home. And the final dose at 9pm, for after dinner. I think it's a very beautiful system to entice players to keep playing at regular practical intervals throughout the day.
What can be better:
1) Assuming all heroes are balanced, players should be given a choice to choose their starting hero from the pool of heroes. Or at least have a choice to pick a tank, a dps and a support.
2) Players should also be allowed to gear their heroes as they please, within some restrictions. If I want a tanky party I should be allowed to do it.
3) Players should be allowed to rearrange their hero formation as they please, to add further diversification in strategy.
4) More diversity in skill effects. Probably a little harder to balance, but right now almost every character has a stun, a dps skill, and a support-ish skill. Slightly bland for now.
5) Right now everyone attacks at almost the same speed. Or at least I can't tell the difference. Let agility boost attack speed, so that at least agility heroes make sense in this game. Also adds to more complexity in the game, i.e stack nukers or stack agi carries?
Not quite sure how to fix this, but it's essentially a P2W game. Players who can cash will have more stamina, which translates to higher team levels and therefore higher max hero levels. And levels are everything in a PVP game. So that's that.
Personally, I just enjoy the collection of heroes for now, knowing that the arena is way out of my league. Just clear 3 for my daily quest.
iOS Android
What I like about it:
1) Heroes and skills resembles those from DoTA. So there's some sense of familiarity as to what you are getting from each hero, without referring to guides.
2) Lots of free stuff and you get rewarded for doing stuff. Everyday you can open some treasure box 5 times, and doing so gives u some exp. Every 2 days, you can open a better box for free to get heroes and some other cool stuff. Daily quests gives you exp for simply playing the game
3) Heroes feel attainable with sufficient grinding. Most heroes have a particular quest which you can grind for their souls. When sufficient souls are collected, the heroes can be summoned to join your team. Assuming a 33% drop rate for heroes, on average you can get 1 soul per hero quest (3 attempts each day). There are other good sources of attaining heroes as well.
For perspective, the game gives you 5, I have 12 now, and I've only played for less than a week.
4) Auto combat and raids. When you can clear a quest with 3 stars, you gain the option of auto combat and raid for that quest. Raiding simply means you clear the quest immediately, and they give you the item looted for that run, as well as the exp you can get if you were to fight the mobs yourself. Auto combat is used if you wished to level certain characters. Both are time-savers imho.
5) Good timings. The game resets at 5am daily, so there's plenty to do during my morning commute. At 12 pm, you get your first dose of free stamina, which gives you something to do during lunch. Then the next dose comes at 6pm, for the commute home. And the final dose at 9pm, for after dinner. I think it's a very beautiful system to entice players to keep playing at regular practical intervals throughout the day.
What can be better:
1) Assuming all heroes are balanced, players should be given a choice to choose their starting hero from the pool of heroes. Or at least have a choice to pick a tank, a dps and a support.
2) Players should also be allowed to gear their heroes as they please, within some restrictions. If I want a tanky party I should be allowed to do it.
3) Players should be allowed to rearrange their hero formation as they please, to add further diversification in strategy.
4) More diversity in skill effects. Probably a little harder to balance, but right now almost every character has a stun, a dps skill, and a support-ish skill. Slightly bland for now.
5) Right now everyone attacks at almost the same speed. Or at least I can't tell the difference. Let agility boost attack speed, so that at least agility heroes make sense in this game. Also adds to more complexity in the game, i.e stack nukers or stack agi carries?
Not quite sure how to fix this, but it's essentially a P2W game. Players who can cash will have more stamina, which translates to higher team levels and therefore higher max hero levels. And levels are everything in a PVP game. So that's that.
Personally, I just enjoy the collection of heroes for now, knowing that the arena is way out of my league. Just clear 3 for my daily quest.
Monday, October 13, 2014
Nimble Quest - How to make it better
Nimble Quest is a cute little mobile game that is similar to the snake game in old Nokia phones, with a slight RPG twist. You start with your hero (head of the snake), and you walk around the map to collect other heroes to extend your conga line. Each hero has his/her own attack move that will shoot/slash at nearby monsters when in range. Monsters move about freely in the map, and they have their own attacks as well.
Can learn more about it here: iOS Android
At it's current iteration, the game is a little simple, and there's nothing much to do after you max out every single character in the game. Which isn't a hard thing to do. I find the gameplay and idea solid, and it's a pity to leave this game at its current state.
My suggestions to improve the game with more content :
1) Change the leveling/character system.
Right now, each hero has only 3 levels. Change it such that heroes can level almost infinitely, but only via kill exp. Let each hero have a character sheet where you can view the stats of the hero, like damage, hp and armor. Upon leveling, players can pump x points of stats into damage/hp/armor/ and maybe pump 1 skill point to improve the heroes' attack move. Throw in a skill tree while we're at it.
2) More interesting attack moves, improved by skill points.
The attack moves right now are not very varied amongst the heroes
Possible alternatives include:
- Chain lightning (more skill points more chained targets)
- Split shot (more skill points more targets)
- Piercing shot (more skill points more pierce)
- Homing shots (more skill points better homing)
- DoT attacks
- Thunderstorm attack (no projectile, more points more targets)
3) Auras
Heroes can have auras that buffs/debuffs nearby heroes/monsters, like more attack speed for party members adjacent to the hero, or slows the movement speed of monsters within x radius.
4) Passives
Heroes can have leader and member passives. Leader passives trigger when they are selected as the head of the snake, while member passives trigger only when they are party members. Maybe unlock them as the keystone skill in the skill tree.
5) Boss Fights
Nuff said
6) Items
Let each hero wear some item to improve their stats. Legendary items can introduce new attacks, or simply like a +1 to all skills.
7) More mechanics
Monster/Hero effects on kill, on death, on hit etc, like monster leaves a cloud of poison on death, heroes that passes through this cloud take damage.
8) More heroes.
Nuff said x2.
---
But of course, these are just some ideas of mine. For hypothetical discussion's sake.
Can learn more about it here: iOS Android
At it's current iteration, the game is a little simple, and there's nothing much to do after you max out every single character in the game. Which isn't a hard thing to do. I find the gameplay and idea solid, and it's a pity to leave this game at its current state.
My suggestions to improve the game with more content :
1) Change the leveling/character system.
Right now, each hero has only 3 levels. Change it such that heroes can level almost infinitely, but only via kill exp. Let each hero have a character sheet where you can view the stats of the hero, like damage, hp and armor. Upon leveling, players can pump x points of stats into damage/hp/armor/ and maybe pump 1 skill point to improve the heroes' attack move. Throw in a skill tree while we're at it.
2) More interesting attack moves, improved by skill points.
The attack moves right now are not very varied amongst the heroes
Possible alternatives include:
- Chain lightning (more skill points more chained targets)
- Split shot (more skill points more targets)
- Piercing shot (more skill points more pierce)
- Homing shots (more skill points better homing)
- DoT attacks
- Thunderstorm attack (no projectile, more points more targets)
3) Auras
Heroes can have auras that buffs/debuffs nearby heroes/monsters, like more attack speed for party members adjacent to the hero, or slows the movement speed of monsters within x radius.
4) Passives
Heroes can have leader and member passives. Leader passives trigger when they are selected as the head of the snake, while member passives trigger only when they are party members. Maybe unlock them as the keystone skill in the skill tree.
5) Boss Fights
Nuff said
6) Items
Let each hero wear some item to improve their stats. Legendary items can introduce new attacks, or simply like a +1 to all skills.
7) More mechanics
Monster/Hero effects on kill, on death, on hit etc, like monster leaves a cloud of poison on death, heroes that passes through this cloud take damage.
8) More heroes.
Nuff said x2.
---
But of course, these are just some ideas of mine. For hypothetical discussion's sake.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Global Quests
Today I shall talk about something called "Global Quests". It's a mish-mash of ideas based off my experience in gaming.
I think every MMO should have something called Global Quests, where the current server population is given a quest like "Collect 100X flowers " where X is the number of people online at the current moment.
Some qualities of a Global Quest
- Only one is active at a time
- Randomly chosen from a giant pool of quests so players cannot game the system
- Quests should be tied in the stuff that players do regularly like "Do X dungeons", "Do X Henry
Quests (Forsaken World)" "Win X PVP matches (Neverwinter)" for example.
- Quest objective is proportional to the current server population size
- It is completely optional to do, but,
- It has a server wide buff that should be worth doing (like 2x EXP for 1 hour, 10% more dmg for 1 hour etc), regardless of participation
- A new one begins once the current quest is completed, thus encouraging players to keep completing them to maintain several beneficial buffs.
- It has a leaderboard to show who's achieved the most for this Global Quest, and top ranked players will be rewarded (preferably with non-power items, or powerful consumables?)
- Players who participate and fulfill y% of the quest requirements will qualify for some form of reward (maybe a cache of random stuff, like in Neverwinter)
- Players who participate will receive Karma/Fame/Reputation/Influence/Community points (probably proportional to the % of quest requirements this player has achieved) . These points indicate how helpful a player is to the community. High points = player participates frequently and intensely in GQs, which benefit the community. Low points = you are either new, or a leech. Guilds can easily make good recruitment decisions based on this attribute, and judge player activity.
- Players may need to attain certain level of points to acquire cool stuff. Like need Z points to buy a cool unique mount, fashion, dye, consumable. Non-power stuff.
Why Global Quests?
- Bands the server together to achieve a common goal (like Uber Diablo in Diablo 2).
- Top players can compete for Karma points, rewards and bragging rights.
- New players/Alternates can leech on beneficial buffs that help them level up quicker.
- Gives players a reason to re-play certain content.
- Can design GQ to be a item/gold sink as well (Craft X items)
- Can design GQ such that lowbies have an edge for certain GQs, like donate X mats from a lowbie area. Lowbies will have a ready stockpile of lowbie mats ready for donating.
- Players generally like big buffs. 2x EXP, 2x gold, 2x drop rate. And rewards
- Keeps players playing to receive the buffs
- Leechers and helpful players can be better identified and recognised by the community.
Neverwinter has similar small events that occur in each zone, but they are additional quests on top of what needs to be done, which I think adds to the tedium of the game. And judging by the rewards and the rate of participation, people generally do not bother these events.
But let's say if I log in, and I only have time for either PVP, dungeon, or daily quests. If there is a global quest that says complete X dungeons, it may jolly well steer me towards dungeons for today, for a shot at the participation reward. Because the reward is random, it may turn out to be some good stuff. If I find a good party, then I might run dungeons all night to get onto the leaderboard for this GQ to win some cool stuff.
If I log in and have no idea what to do today because I'm completely maxxed and awesome, then GQ can nudge me one direction and maybe I will choose to be nice today and top the leaderboards and get some bragging rights. Like maybe the game system will announce "Thank you Chang for doing 50% of the work to trigger this 2x EXP for the whole server". How awesome is that for a maxed player?
Just some ideas. Anyone knows if there's any MMO that has a system like this?
I think every MMO should have something called Global Quests, where the current server population is given a quest like "Collect 100X flowers " where X is the number of people online at the current moment.
Some qualities of a Global Quest
- Only one is active at a time
- Randomly chosen from a giant pool of quests so players cannot game the system
- Quests should be tied in the stuff that players do regularly like "Do X dungeons", "Do X Henry
Quests (Forsaken World)" "Win X PVP matches (Neverwinter)" for example.
- Quest objective is proportional to the current server population size
- It is completely optional to do, but,
- It has a server wide buff that should be worth doing (like 2x EXP for 1 hour, 10% more dmg for 1 hour etc), regardless of participation
- A new one begins once the current quest is completed, thus encouraging players to keep completing them to maintain several beneficial buffs.
- It has a leaderboard to show who's achieved the most for this Global Quest, and top ranked players will be rewarded (preferably with non-power items, or powerful consumables?)
- Players who participate and fulfill y% of the quest requirements will qualify for some form of reward (maybe a cache of random stuff, like in Neverwinter)
- Players who participate will receive Karma/Fame/Reputation/Influence/Community points (probably proportional to the % of quest requirements this player has achieved) . These points indicate how helpful a player is to the community. High points = player participates frequently and intensely in GQs, which benefit the community. Low points = you are either new, or a leech. Guilds can easily make good recruitment decisions based on this attribute, and judge player activity.
- Players may need to attain certain level of points to acquire cool stuff. Like need Z points to buy a cool unique mount, fashion, dye, consumable. Non-power stuff.
Why Global Quests?
- Bands the server together to achieve a common goal (like Uber Diablo in Diablo 2).
- Top players can compete for Karma points, rewards and bragging rights.
- New players/Alternates can leech on beneficial buffs that help them level up quicker.
- Gives players a reason to re-play certain content.
- Can design GQ to be a item/gold sink as well (Craft X items)
- Can design GQ such that lowbies have an edge for certain GQs, like donate X mats from a lowbie area. Lowbies will have a ready stockpile of lowbie mats ready for donating.
- Players generally like big buffs. 2x EXP, 2x gold, 2x drop rate. And rewards
- Keeps players playing to receive the buffs
- Leechers and helpful players can be better identified and recognised by the community.
Neverwinter has similar small events that occur in each zone, but they are additional quests on top of what needs to be done, which I think adds to the tedium of the game. And judging by the rewards and the rate of participation, people generally do not bother these events.
But let's say if I log in, and I only have time for either PVP, dungeon, or daily quests. If there is a global quest that says complete X dungeons, it may jolly well steer me towards dungeons for today, for a shot at the participation reward. Because the reward is random, it may turn out to be some good stuff. If I find a good party, then I might run dungeons all night to get onto the leaderboard for this GQ to win some cool stuff.
If I log in and have no idea what to do today because I'm completely maxxed and awesome, then GQ can nudge me one direction and maybe I will choose to be nice today and top the leaderboards and get some bragging rights. Like maybe the game system will announce "Thank you Chang for doing 50% of the work to trigger this 2x EXP for the whole server". How awesome is that for a maxed player?
Just some ideas. Anyone knows if there's any MMO that has a system like this?
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