Why would you ever pick anything other than "Streak"?

[FroBodine]

If you don't pick "Streak" after each round, you won't get five stars on a mission. I realize the other choices give you actual stuff, though.

Is the five stars important enough to forgo picking the other bonuses? What does five stars on a mission give you?

It just seems like you try to get five stars, or you forget that and pick stuff that actually helps you during the missions. Please advise.

[devxx]

getting 5 stars is more than just an ego thing ("a game well played"). see upper right section of the scenario selection part. unlocking all the characters is predicated on NUMBER of stars. getting 5 stars advances those unlocks faster but getting 1-4 stars also contribute. so, if you want to open all the characters faster you pick the Streaks and forgo the "actual stuff". once you reach 5 stars with a certain character in a specific scenario you can't go higher so you can go back and just select the stuff. or, if you don't care about the stars and want to win the scenario, select the stuff that helps you achieve that win.

[FroBodine]

Ok, thank you. I guess that makes sense. But, after I beat a mission with five stars in any character, I don't think I would have the desire to play that same mission again with that same character. I already beat it as best as I could. I want to move on.

Also - I beat the first scenario with the Cleric. I got four stars. The max stars on that mission is 40 ( I think, maybe 50). So, do I get the other stars by beating that same mission with the other characters? It was a pretty easy mission. Does it start getting harder? Otherwise, playing that same first mission to get all 40 (or 50) stars would get a bit tedious with how easy it is.

Am I missing something?

[devxx]

each scenario has a star max of 50 (all 10 characters getting 5 stars each). you got 4 stars with the Cleric. so obviously you will not get to 50 unless you go back and get 5 stars with the cleric (and 5 with the other 9). if you don't get 5 stars on replaying the Cleric you don't get any stars. you gotta beat your previous total up to 5. getting 5 a second time gives you nothing as getting 4 a second time gives you nothing. i don't really care about every character getting 5 stars for every scenario, all i care about is "opening" all 10 characters. after that i'll just mess around playing this and that with different characters.

[lufia22]

I personally don't like the score system. It seems the only way to get 5 stars is to go for score streaks. The only time you wouldn't go for this is if you're playing for survival...but I assume the game is designed to make every level beatable without needing after-battle rewards. Choosing rewards is fun, and this game basically tells you not to take rewards.

I think there needs to be some sort of incentive for finishing a run other than stars. That way if you're forced to heal or something after a battle, you still have a reason to finish the run even if you aren't going to score well.

[Mechalibur]

I'm not a huge fan of it. I get the design reason behind it, but from a player psychology standpoint it just kinda sucks seeing all the bonuses you aren't allowed to take so that you can unlock more content.

I think my preference would be for scenarios to be a bit harder, but remove the point system altogether and just get credit for beating scenarios on each class.

[doctordynamo]

Getting five stars without picking score every time is harder, but not actually impossible. You get a 10 score bonus for every coin you have left at the end; just having 10 coins will get you an entire 100 added to you score. Add that, there's also the dream saver relic which I think you get just for beating moonwood, and that allows you to still get score for beating waves without picking streak, it just won't add to your streak. (It won't count against it either.) These two things combined, I was able to beat a level while skipping streak twice and still get a score 100 above what's needed for five stars. Hope that helps some.

[thefollowingcharacters]

I like the game, but came here to complain about this 100%. Score should not be tied to unlocks, but to achievements or something pointless. You're exactly right. There is no decision making if you're trying to unlock everything. This part is badly designed, because I don't even bother looking at the other choices now.

Why not ties certain unlocks from completing the mission in hard instead? I suppose the game is fairly well tied to points at this point, but its a real shame it is.

[FroBodine]

Someone is deleting posts in this thread. I sure hope it's not the developer. Anyway . . .

I have to agree with the other folks in this thread. I also really don't like the current implementation of having to either take the streak award, or something actually useful in the run award. It just isn't a good design, and makes the choice either enjoy the game, or go for full score and have a hard time at it.

I hope this gets reworked and redesigned.

[sanny]

We're definitely not removing posts, we love getting feedback whether it's positive or negative. Reading everything that gets posted here with interest!

[Melestav]

Echoing this - would love to see score removed and scenarios just be more difficult to the point that picking optimal rewards is necessary for winning. It is currently a "no-brainer" to just pick streak every time.

[sanny]

As mentioned - I love getting this type of feedback on the game's mechanics! The streak/score system isn't going away since it's pretty core to the game's design and balance, but everything can be tweaked. Keep it coming!

I just wanted to mention some of our design goals with the system. It's not meant to be a counterargument to anything written here - I agree with most of it! - but I thought it might help to clarify what we were attempting.

First, we wanted players that are experienced with this type of game to more or less be able to go streak-only through normal mode. This allows them to quickly unlock stuff while getting acquainted with the mechanics. If you get *very* unlucky during a run, the rewards are there to help you salvage some stars, and they're also a way to help newcomers to the genre to get through easy mode, albeit with a slower rate of unlocks.

For hard mode - especially hard campaign - we wanted it to be a real choice. If variance isn't on your side you probably need to take non-score rewards every now and then to get through a scenario. I would be very impressed if someone were to beat the hard campaign with only streaks (there's a challenge for you hardcore players ;)).

Again - not saying that we necessarily succeeded with this and I totally get that it feels bad to pass up on good stuff again and again. That's definitely a lesson learned for upcoming projects :). But that's an explanation of what we were aiming for at least!

[Melestav]

Good points and explanations, I agree that running "streak only" through normal was very easy as someone well versed in the game style, but would still allow a "safety net" for folks that would consider letting a map go un-5 star'd. I'm still seeing that in hard single scenarios, but will take you up on the challenge and see how it goes lol.

Its also a point of consideration that, despite being the "obvious" point scoring method, there will be certain (extremely mathematically hard to determine before picking your first streak) situations where an ability will allow you greater score growth (through $$) than defaulting to streak.

[Heroes Of Tomorrow]

Picking streak might be almost always the right choice normally, but you may want to get other rewards during Chaos Realm, as depending on the modifier you may REALLY need the extra help

That's why the Dream Saver is absolutely useless during normal scenarios, but practically a must have for every class in endless: during a scenario skipping the streak reward makes it very hard to get all stars, even if you don't lose the streak; but in Chaos Realm you can afford doing that as long as you keep the streak and avoid running out of time, simply because your streak potential is technically infinite.

[devxx]

Someone is deleting posts in this thread

realize people can delete their own posts. say, if they change their mind or say something they regret or just want to opt out. devs usually don't unless you're an azzhole.

[FroBodine]

Yes, of course I realize that, devxx. I was just hoping it wasn't the developers, like i stated. And it wasn't. Huzzah! It was just odd that two people both deleted their posts. So I was wondering. Anyway . . .

Heroes . . . what is Dream Saver and Chaos Realm? Is this a game mode that unlocks later in the game?

Oh . . . and how can you keep the streak if you don't pick the streak reward? I'm confused about that statement.