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.
Read moreHi 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...
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.
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!)
Hi Kevin! Welcome back to the Q&As!
- 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?
- Speaking of idol missions - any chance you'd be willing to throw in a pity timer for consecutive Hidden Stash missions?
- Are the slot differences (crusader level-wise) intended to be larger for slots 32 and 33 than for 21-31?
- 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!
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)
hi Kevin, nice to meet you. thanks for the chests :)
You're very welcome!
[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.
Read moreOh! 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 li...
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Not strictly a Clive question, but I think I asked this one late two weeks ago. Any chance of Grahame recipes up to the level we purchased being awarded to make the crafting screen look less bare?
No, nothing to announce on that front right now :)
Probably not something you would know about, but why does the mobile app crash so often? I'll be completing a mission and it'll crash. Buy max levels, loading up the game, watching an ad, even selecting a different tab will cause it to crash occasionally.
I've read in a prior AMA that crashing from the ads wasn't on your end, but surely all the other issues are? Or am I the only one this happens to?
There is a limit on the lowest RAM the game can support. If it's under a certain threshold, the game (like other games too!) will struggle to cope...
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