Poll re: upcoming Killer App Mod v1.2 - Correcting a level design flaw, or tampering too much?

[LDSO]

So I've implemented something that I consider to be a correction, to a flaw in one of the levels of TRON 2.0. It will be a part of the upcoming v1.2 of the Killer App Mod. (Sorry, still don't have an ETA for the release date.)

But I'd like to know everyone's thoughts, through a poll. Before I provide the link to the poll, I'll explain what's been changed.


I'll try to be vague while I describe the change, for people who haven't finished the game yet, so I don't spoil things for them.

On the level called Alan's Desktop PC there's a point early in the level where you're asked to use an I/O Node. There are two of them you can access at this early stage.

I've seen countless people getting stuck here. The program that asks you to use an I/O Node to continue, is right beside one. Yet, you can't use that I/O Node because you don't have the permissions. This leads players to believe they need to find permissions for that I/O Node before they can continue.

Which is not the case. You actually need to use another I/O Node, that's very close by. But the program asking you to use a Node - while being right next to one - understandably leads to confusion.

The solution is to allow the player to use either I/O Node. I don't consider this to significantly impact the gameplay, and will help avoid frustration caused by a poor level design decision.


Here is the link to the poll:

http://strawpoll.me/4980783


What do you guys think? Let me know via the poll, or replies to this topic.

In your replies, please keep spoilers to a minimum, for the benefit of those who haven't played the game yet. Thank you. :)

[Oniell Ford, Kaiju Expert]

Voted. I did think that it was confusing, but for a while, it didn't seem to cause me much trouble. Then again, I play it too much! lol

[schmatzler]

I never got confused by that, it's not that tricky to walk around a level and find the thing you're looking for. IO Node doesn't work? Look for another one! ;-) I always want people to think at least a little bit before doing anything, so I voted No.

Looks like I was the only one. Great :D

[schmatzler]

But with that said, you could also fix this bug :D

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=326819132

[Zoz]

I'm not going to vote, because I have no strong opinion either way. I will say that I never had any trouble with it personally, but at the end of the day it's not going to alter anything huge.

[LDSO]

Thanks for all the votes and replies, so far. :)

Also, everyone feel free to add any other bugs or issues you have with the game. Maybe I can do something about a few, if I haven't already implemented fixes for them in v1.2.

Originally posted by schmatzler:

I never got confused by that, it's not that tricky to walk around a level and find the thing you're looking for. IO Node doesn't work? Look for another one! ;-) I always want people to think at least a little bit before doing anything, so I voted No.

I kind of agree with you. But, the program doesn't say "Jet, activate an I/O Node" or "Jet, find an active I/O Node". Rather, that character is right next to one and even says "Jet, activate the I/O Node". Players end up wasting their time hunting around for permissions for that I/O Node, when all they needed to do was use the other one (which they may not have seen yet). I count that as a flaw in the level's design, which adds unnecessary confusion.

Originally posted by schmatzler:

But with that said, you could also fix this bug :D

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=326819132

Haha. Well, I've not encountered that one before. It must happen when you try to exit the level, correct? I'll see about fixing that. I'll also probably have to apply the same fix to the DM-02 Derez map, since it's based on this single player level.

[schmatzler]

Yeah, it may be a little misspelled. And it's not a huge impact after all like Mrzozelow said :)

The bug happens when exiting the level, yes. I haven't tried to reproduce it yet but I think I tried to jump into the end level trigger and maybe overjumped it. :P

You can't go that far down in the multiplayer version, I think. The access to the path that goes down is blocked, so you cannot jump in there ;) If I'm not mistaken about that...

[LDSO]

All right, the poll seems to have petered out after about 48 hours. Thanks again to everyone who voted and replied. :) I'll be implementing the fixes mentioned in this topic.

If anyone has any additional fixes they'd like to suggest, I will try my best to see if they can be done.

In the video below, are examples of some other fixes that I've already completed. (NOTE that this video has minor spoilers if you haven't finished the game yet.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTD1pGwRPkk

[Oniell Ford, Kaiju Expert]

I approve of the changes. They'll really help with gameplay. IF I do make a walkthrough, the polishing will look great! Keep up the great work!

Funny fact: From playing the game for so many years, I've never looked at the ground on the fCon ship before. The pool was a surprise to me! lol

[Strangerhand]

I say: In this case, make the change AND give the player a switch or something to optionally reverse the change to simply leave it as it is.

These votes about individual changes are cool, and a great idea! hehehehehe

[v00d00m4n]

I dont like game being dumbed down in favor to dumb players who getting confused because of their own irrational ideas. Leave it as is. Its not a bug or flaw of game, its a flaw of some people's brains. You know what happenes when devs cares to much about people brain's flaws? Call of duty generation of gamers and games happens, where most of gameplay sutations solved kinetic way of mashing x button when "press X to win" appears.
And it all started from considering situations that requires thinking and that some people cant solve due of stupidity - a flaw of game, when it is not.