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[2020] Crusaders Community Q&A #188 with Kevin


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(Actually this is 187! That's a good start!)

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Q&A, where you bring the Q's and I try to rustle up some A's.

For those unfamiliar: I'm Kevin, the developer working on Crusaders. I'm responsible for adding new things to the game, fixing bugs, and breaking things. I also have more human roles like writing the names and text you see on loot, and helping decide what new Crusaders ought to do.

I'll be around actively for about an hour, and will check back on things over the course of the next couple days. I'll do my best to be quick and candid, but we'll see! I'm no good at using Reddit, so please bear with me.

Per tradition, a code for free chests: DEVK-EVTA-LKSI-DOLS(Awards 2 normal Jeweled chests. Expires at 9:59:59am Pacific, Tues March 10th )

The previous Q&A can be found here

And if you're curious what I'm working on right now:

  1. Wrapping up the Premature Party event (March 5th)
  2. Sneaking in whatever miscellany I can, before...
  3. Getting ahead on the Superhero Spring event! (March 26th)

Have at it!

External link →
about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Luigi_B13

Hi Kevin,

I missed last weeks Q&A when Erika asked us what we would like to see for upcoming talents. I had an idea I wanted to suggest, so I thought I would put it forth today.

I would love to see a talent that would allow active abilities to be used even when the corresponding crusader was on the bench rather than in the formation.

I feel like this talent would be a perfect fit for a Tier 6 Active tree, which is currently pretty bare.

This is a good idea! We've been meaning to decouple a handful of things from bench slots, and abilities are one of them. I think in a perfect world, this wouldn't even require a talent. As for what to do with things like loot which buffs those abilities (making those Crusaders more or less essential for the ability) that's in the air right now. But we've had some cool player suggestions on that front.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by XZlayeD

hey Kevin!

how are the new talents shaping up, and can you give us a hint as to what we're going to see?

Elloello,

We were just discussing new talents yesterday, so I would describe progress as "contemplative". But, there are some ideas in there. For now, what you can expect is: they'll cost more! Sorry, that's about all I've got right now.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by nobeat01

Hi

great game I have a question

can we buy pack via the google play store?

Glad you're enjoying the game!

But sorry, Crusaders is no longer available on Google Play or the App Store. However, packs are available on all the other platforms, if you enjoy playing on PC.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by AnnaMarieDDG

Hi Kevin!

Any chance of The Desert Bus getting a non-binary tag? The affix feels like comes up in a lot of my missions, but it's currently only available on four high tier/high seat crusaders.

Alternatively, could the frequency of NB quests be tuned down a little for those who haven't unlocked fourth/fifth tier objectives? Thanks for considering :D

Hello!

I wouldn't add the NB tag to The Desert Bus, as we generally consider robots to be genderless (with some exceptions where they are obviously gendered).

The requirements for getting those newer missions are stricter than the old missions, but maybe they should have been a little more tailored to the tags they involved. Still, aside from gear/recruitment missions (which are generally harder), there are only 3 requiring nonbinary, so it's unfortunate that you've gotten these missions enough to be bothered by them. Sorry that it worked out that way for you.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by DragonFuhrer

Do you have a timeline of releasing new or improved talents? In addition to the ideas presented last week, one thought would be to increase the levels in the current talent tree by 2x or 3x. One focus I would like to see is a way to increase more materials via chests, talents, etc. Going from lvl 10 to lvl 11 and above appears to be a grinding nightmare. Thanks for the consideration.

I'm a bit wary of increasing material drops, as players already earn quite a lot of them in their Free Plays. I understand feeling stymied around the level 10 mark, but this is more or less the intent, given how Legendary items scale. As a fun fact, Justin's original design for them had balanced things around reaching level 5 or so, whereas high level players are at 14 or 15 these days.

The hope is to introduce a new way of boosting your Crusaders, whether that be with crafting materials or some other currency. We're still pretty far from that, though.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by schaikie123

hi Kevin,

I had an idea for a new talent.

its for upgrading the gold buffs so every lvl increases the effect bij some % because now they are not that usefull.

keep up the good work.

schaikie123

Hey schaikie123,

I like the idea of boosting the gold buffs, but I think that's sort of covered right now. We have the Lingering Buffs talent to let you stack up your buffs multiplicatively, and ways of getting more/better chests (Ana and the Jeweler talent, for now) that enable you to stack that up even higher.

It might be that I'm being too cautious here. Definitely something to think about.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by JuJuBee2006

I would really love to see some talents that increase gold. We have a ton of dps increases but nothing that increases gold earnings. I often find myself stuck on challenges before maxing levels on my highest seats because my gold earnings can't keep up.

Well, in a sense, increased DPS is increased gold. If you can beat monsters on higher areas, you'll earn more gold.

But yes, I can certainly see more gold-oriented talents in the future.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by egrutz2

Hi Kevin,

Thanks for the chests and all your hard work on the game.

I had a thought on the "what to do with all those rubies" issue. Perhaps you could introduce Sprint Buffs, purchasable only with rubies. One buff automatically advances you to the next boss. I, for one, would be willing to shell out some rubies to get to the end of a run faster on occasion.

Instantly sprinting to the next boss is a cool idea. I'll have to jot that one down. There should even be room for something like that around the map UI.

Another we had kicking around was using rubies to accelerate, cancel, or expire missions. In general, spending small amounts of rubies for daily niceties is something I'm very in favour of.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Daurakin

Hey Kev!

Just a thought I had lately:

How's your opinion on projectiles vs clicks (and arguably vs passive damage, including splash and pure-DPS scaling nukes like that on Aegis, Polly, Skeletom, Holddoor etc)? Currently, projectiles completely overpower direct clicks (while clicks overpower passive damage, which I guess is fine), which makes talents like Sniper and Omniclicking basicly pointless (this is moreso true if a Crusader has legendaries capable of boosting its projectiles).

If nothing else, maybe a change to Sniper and Omniclicking?

Hey Daurakin,

My hope with how projectiles behave now was that they would outdo your other forms of damage in situations where they are practical (nearing your wall), whether the higher outgoing damage was CLK or DPS (hence scaling off both). In the case of 43G1S and co, they should probably be altered to behave similarly.

That does leave Sniper and Omniclicking in an odd spot, to be sure. I don't think they're wholly without use (well, maybe Sniper...) but yeah they could probably use a re-think, whether that's a change to them, or to how something else interacts with them.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by muppafireflower

Hey Kev! So, which program and programming language you use for developing Crusaders ? Is there some sort of engine it's built on like Unity ?

Hi!

Crusaders is made using Flash, which lets it run in browsers (for now...) and the Steam version uses Adobe AIR, which lets a Flash program behave like a normal desktop application. The programming language for this is ActionScript, which is much like JavaScript but with some more OOP-ish tendencies, like the ability to give things static types.

Since it's Flash, we can lay out interface elements in a graphical editor, which saves a lot of time in making UI elements (though it remains the slowest kind of task for me to do.) For example, this is the Skins window in the editor: https://imgur.com/a/vrY0QQn

It's a decent paradigm. Not without problems, but generally quick to work with.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by RedTweatherly23

Oh! Hey there Kevin! When WAS the last time you manned a Q&A anyway?

Well, besides that, it's kinda cool that the person actually developing things for the game is here this time, since I have an idea that I came up with during the last Q&A involving a potential concept for a future Crusader.

Now then, this concept comes in two parts, with the idea being that you could have both in one 'Sader or split it between two different ones.

First, how does the idea of a crusader that has every formation role tag possible sound? You know, DPS, Click, Heal, Tank, Gold, and Support. So that way whenever there's a formation that only allows Crusaders with at least one of those tags, there will still be a Crusader available that can also do other things when necessary.

Second, following your inclusion of the rather complex Alacrity, plus recalling a few 'Saders from the past, I got the idea of a 'Sader that has abilities that have different effects based on the literal location they're placed in the formation. Specifically, having 3-4 of their abilities having three possible effects, one when their in the back of the formation, one when in the front, and one when anywhere in the middle.

The overall idea with these two together was for the Crusader to fill out any possible niche in the formation based on whether you could use a DPS, Tank/Healer, or Support/Gold-Find Crusader more (one of the non-changing abilities will always give Click) but the other 'Saders that you currently own aren't cutting it at the time.

That's all I have to suggest at the moment. Hope you've having a good day, and also that it'll continue to be great!

I can't think when the last one was. I do remember forgetting to add the chest code, and someone took that as me saying "having me host the Q&A is enough of a treat, no chest for you". I had a good chuckle at that.

I'm definitely fond of things that can fit different roles depending on circumstance or choice. One idea that's been on the backburner for ages is upgrades that let you cycle through their effects. That could be something that targets the column in front versus the column behind, or a different ability altogether. As for filling allll roles, that might be a little much, but I'd very much like to add one that fills two or three.

As an alternative/addition, it would be fun if Skins did this, eg swapping in a tanky-looking version of someone to give them tank abilities.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

I think this is more an oddity than a decision we've made. For a number of such objectives, those Crusaders aren't "locked" but "asleep", which goes back to the Sleeping Beauties objective in Grimm's Idol Tales (predating me!) The main difference here is that those sleeping Crusaders may become available later in the objective, so it makes sense for their levels and upgrades to be retained.

It hasn't been a focus of ours, since Idols from objectives/challenges are usually pretty negligible compared to Free Plays. From another angle, you might consider the reduction a sort of cost for doing the objective.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Kodi4k100

hi Kevin, nice to meet you. thanks for the chests :)

You're very welcome!

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by piperlover

Howdy Kevin!

So last week a lot of us were saying we'd like some way to get more materials so that our Legendaries can be leveled higher more easily. Any thoughts from you on the feasibility? A new talent? An extension of another talent?

Susan

Hi Susan!

For now, I feel our focus is more on other means of progression (talents, higher caps, more T5 supports) but it's something to think about. Certainly for the moment we don't want material amounts exploding, as a number of things are balanced around the kinds of legendary levels that people have (or can expect to have) right now.

As a fun fact, I think Wrena might break with a level 23 legendary amulet.
(Edit: Oops wires crossed, we're clear until the early 30's)

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by don_keeballs2

Hi Kevin! Welcome back to the Q&As!

  1. In a past appearance, you mentioned taking a look at the Geocaching idol mission and the overly long cool down it has in comparison to the other idol missions. Is this still on the radar?
  2. Speaking of idol missions - any chance you'd be willing to throw in a pity timer for consecutive Hidden Stash missions?
  3. Are the slot differences (crusader level-wise) intended to be larger for slots 32 and 33 than for 21-31?
  4. Most importantly - is there any possibility we'll see an in-browser version of this game (without someone releasing a Flash emulator) after December?

Thanks for your great work!

  1. Good memory! Looking at it, all the Idol missions except A Hidden Stash have the same cooldown, though some belong to the Rare group and others the Epic group. If only that particular mission is taking ages for you, I'd chalk it up to chance. That said, I do want to overhaul mission timers in general.
  2. A Hidden Stash has a much much higher weight than the other ones. I don't think that's making anybody very happy, so I might reduce it. Even better would be moving that into its own mission group, to let you have longer Idol missions regularly. This is me spitballing, but I'll pitch it to the others.
  3. Yep, their costs are meant to be 400x those of previous slots rather than 40x. I understand that base costs and upgrade levels are one of the more inscrutable areas of the game.
  4. Sadly, I don't think that's on the cards. We can certainly commit to being on Steam, and the hope is to be available by other means as well, but for browsers that's a no.
about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Andjoks

Hello Kevin,

I was thinking of a new feature which could be quite creative. It was the "Challenge Milestones" as I call it. Every unique challenge will have a special one time milestone every 1000 areas. The milestone would be either rubies, mats or challenge tokens. However for every milestone reached we would have a guaranteed milestone token and sprint boost (possibly 5 areas each time). Now the milestone tokens would contribute to a milestone path which will also have some creative rewards. For example, 15 tokens boost sprint by 50, 35 tokens unlock possibly a special crusader. Of course, these are just ideas but I think it would be quite interesting to implement.

Milestones are fun! I shouldn't spill details, but we've been thinking about something pretty similar to this. (Sorry to be so brief!)

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by dimitrius5naj

Hi Eri ... ugh, Kevin!

Huge request - add more talents and opportunities to beginners to the game. All these new talents, taskmasters, trials - are designed for experienced players, with a huge number of idols, enchantment points, legendary equipment, for which achieving a level cap even in campaigns is a couple of hours task.

And newcomers look at all this, see a layer of content that they can research and explore, try and often drop out, seeing how far those who started playing earlier have gone.

Maybe if you add a few more levels (for example, 15) to the Storm Rider amplification, or add some kind of talent that, when you take it, adds the number of EPs, beginners will only thank you.

Well, like ...

Level 1 - if the amount of EP for the crusader is from 50 to 100 - it increases to 100.

Level 2 - from 100 to 150 - 150.

...

Level 8 - from 400 to 450 - increases to 450.

This will not turn them into an imba, but will help in the DPS race and facilitate the implementation of many missions designed to check the number of EPs.

PS. Tnks 4 code!)

Hi!

Catching up on EP can be pretty tough, I know. I like the idea of a talent to add to your base EP, or to reduce the EP required for missions. I'll make a note of that.

And you're right to think about whether it's imba! One thing we always have to keep in mind when adding lower-level talents, is that for higher level players they are essentially free. But you're right, it wouldn't really affect balance.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Jothda

Hi Kevin,

are there any plans for an alternative usage of catalysts and rubies? For challenge tokens there are plenty of options you can buy with them, but catalysts and rubies are getting quite worthless at a certain point of the game...

Thank you for the code!

Catalysts might be a ways off, but Rubies I can see happening pretty soon. I mentioned elsewhere that they might be used for missions, or as u/egrutz2 suggested, something to help speed up your runs.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Jaester67

Hi Kevin,
I would like to bring up the issue of the cluttered mission crusader tray. It would be so nice if there was a little tray of tags under the crusaders that we could click to sort our way to a particular crusader. The favorites system doesn't work through refreshing and doesn't always apply for each particular mission. If I could say, click a combination of tags and have only saders shown that fit those tags, it would be much easier to get to the one I want to send. After collecting so many saders, it becomes a grueling process to get over the underdeveloped saders to get to the ones that you want to make stronger, like the ones that are full E or L or a dps slotter. Please prioritize some type of fix to ease the mission interface.

Thanks,

Ginnae

This seems like a pretty common sentiment. I remarked elsewhere in the thread, but I'll have to squirrel away some time for adding options to this. Thanks for the feedback!

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Not too late!

  1. Yup, agreed. Part of the motivation for making the bulk chest contents display the way they do was to provide a more general rewards display that could be used elsewhere (particularly missions)
  2. Also yes. I'd like to separate it from the bench slot entirely. There should be room somewhere or a big red button. I remember when we first added slot 25, I could no longer fling the scroll wheel to get the reset button. Heartbreaking.
  3. We could probably have something like this... I think more likely would be replacing the "always scientific" option with something to select a number at which to start using scientific notation.
about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by FarmBoy1970

One emergent feature of the game is that over time, the best crusader to use for deep runs may change occasionally when a new crusader comes in who is clearly better (usually the ones in the highest slots/newest). This leads to somewhat repetitive gameplay. There is now a mechanism which encourages doing different free plays at least, which is something. Perhaps we need mechanisms to encourage multiple lead crusaders too.

One idea towards that goal is a concept of crusader fatigue. Say if a crusader has been highest DPS in a formation for long enough (time or number of levels cleared perhaps) then they become fatigued and need to be rested for the next 24/48 hours. Leave them their formation abilities but disable their DPS only, optionally, or just don't let them be used at all.

Another idea along those lines is to have the weekend events do more than trivially buff 5 crusaders (even when I started, those buffs were never good enough to merit changing formation for, and only occasionally useful when a crusader was in my formation anyway). If instead they took one DPS crusader and buffed their DPS and/or max level enough to rival the current meta DPS crusader, then they could be interesting.

It was interesting (in a mildly frustrating way) to have to buff the hermit enough to clear that T11 objective, and it might be fun (in a masochistic sense) to have similar sorts of challenges more regularly.

I like the idea of having to swap out primary DPS, though I don't think it would be in the form of a penalty. In general I prefer incentives over disincentives (even if they're equivalent.) That said, Bonus Idols' scaling might turn this into a tick-tock cadence of good runs and poor runs, if one DPS is significantly better than the other. Another problem to solve.

I think weekend buffs can still shake things up for players who aren't thoroughly decked out. Lately when setting them up I've tried to buff more abilities or buff them more, but there's no sensible number that's going to, say, make Squiggles beat Wrena. Certainly something to think about for the next time we have a tier 4 or 5 Crusader in the weekend buffs.

And yep, I enjoy silly things like having to use Hermit too. You can expect similarly framed objectives in the future.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by [deleted]

[deleted]

Missions' cooldowns and availability are a strange beast. Before adding much more that affects them, I think we're more inclined to overhaul them. Ideally they'd be more predictable, so that when we do add things like reduced cooldowns, it's easier to tell that something is actually happening. Timeline on that is... TBD!

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Lamon72

bring back the original phase skip in the next talent update please

That incarnation of Phase Skip was quite unpopular, but I think with some adjustment we could make it good. I'll make a note of it.

about 4 years ago - /u/cne_kevin - Direct link

Originally posted by Hehulk

Hey Kevin

Couple of questions regarding click damage. With the fifth task master now taking up more screen space and the columns of buffs also eating space, actually using the sniper talent buff is getting very difficult.

Any chance this could be changed to either apply automatically, apply with x number of TMs on the field or just allow it to register through the buffs and TMs?

Sniper needs some re-thinking in general, but having it apply automatically with X taskmasters is a good idea.

And those buffs have taken up too much room for too long. I've been meaning to redo that bit of the UI.

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