Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25730832-20150715144558/@comment-26410416-20150716081608

Nicky008 wrote:

OatMealFriend wrote:

Now, a solution to this would be to include more difficulty settings: that is easy, normal, hard, very hard, ultra hard... and well, pretty much every now and then a new setting would be added to accommodate the oldest players, while the previous settings remain more or less equal for the rest of players. Naturally, each difficulty will come with its respective rewards. Now, this method while functional is just too problematic for the developers: defining and balancing this difficulty settings is just way too much work and will clutter things quickly.

My original proposal was something considerably easier to implement and balance. Basically, by adding more routes in the maps the developers could accommodate far more people under the current 3 categories.

Naturally there are some basic ideas of the overall challenges you should expect from the event. For example, existing maps could be used for reference for what to be considered the basis for "hard" settings. The additional routes could bring better rewards with higher challenges. - More difficulty level selection (more then 3).

- More complexity in map route (and each map).

I also think these additional would help enhancing player's experience in this game, from the newbie to the veteran.

There is an interesting thing to say about the player "career" of this game: Normally, free-to-play (or in reality pay-to-win) game models allow players (with money) to more or less catch up with the "veterans" of the game or at least easily catch up with the "free players" that are normally stuck on the artificial paywall created by these models. Such thing doesn't really exists here, and while there is a theoretical ceiling at the moment it's unrealistic to expect anyone but the most committed players to reach it.. In other words, there is basically no way to skip the immense amount of effort required to lvl and gather valuable items in this game and there isn't a real end game.

So, this creates an interesting situation where the player base is segmented by the point where they joined (to simplify things, let's use events). And each new event "creates" a new segment of the player base. (I believe the power difference is big enough to justify this classification)

As you can imagine, on average, the users of every segment will improve and reach the previous "power level" of the segment that came before them. However, this behavior is also observed in nearly every single segment of the player base.

In other words, an average player will never really catch up those that were before him. (More committed players could, but only if they can invest serious amounts of time and effort)

So, with this in mind, let's return with the segment concept. We are talking about 9-10 segments  of average players. (1 for every event)... and the game currently implements only 3 difficulty systems. This is another way to see why I believe the need for more options for the players.

Of course, at some point the difference between the segments sort of vanish, but with the current game mechanics (virtually endless grinding), it's hard to say where it could start applying. (Perhaps those fellow ttks from 2013 could be grouped together)

Ar-cen-ciel wrote: @OatMealFriend Didn't they implemented this already with the manual routing? Not to mention, the last two event's E1 has Reppuu and a prototype 35.6cm gun. Even a veteran couldn't mass produce enough of these to throw them away, and it's pretty much out of reach for novice players, so they've offered a pretty nice reward already. Anyone who says these rewards aren't enough for the begineers, I would say they're basically like Dutch asking for more land (and yes it's a real idiom).

Correct, manual routing in fact comes to solve this problem: give options to the players. That's why I said that the developers seem to share my concern about the current segmented user base and the need for more variety/options.

Think about it, the manual routing not only gives them the chance to implement complex maps with different challenges (and rewards) for the players, it also opens the possibility to have maps that can be challenged with different play styles or even preferences. For example, you love your carriers? Let's have routes designed to test (and reward!) those carrier loving tkks.. while keeping routes for other compositions. You like testing your luck? let's have maps that can be challenged with luck or by brute force (Something like 3-5)

Basically what I have been saying over and over again: a game that accommodates the different players that play it with prizes that properly reward the challenge.

Now on the other hand, I'm not entirely sure why you raised the E-1 rewards point, did I say something about it? Those are indeed pretty good rewards, did I say otherwise? (Honest question)

Oh and just in case, please forgive the walls of text... I just can't contain myself in this subject, game design is one my passions.