Improvements and Various New Feature Ideas

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06-17-2010, 02:08 PM
JavaJax

Improvements and Various New Feature Ideas

Respectfully, I'd like to submit the following ideas for improving the community interactions and game play in Pocket Legends. Forgive me if any of these features have been previously suggested, announced, or are implemented and I just don't know about them. These are off the top of my head in a single sitting, so this is obviously not an exhaustive list and the ideas are not all fully "baked" yet. Special sauce is encouraged.

Armory

Similar to the Armory in WoW, I'd like to see a web-accessible link that shows character stats such as K/D ratio, equipment, etc. Ideally, this section would not require a login, so that users unfamiliar with the game can view a profile. If logged in, however, I'd like to see the following possibilities:

* Compare your character to the one being viewed
* Compare your K/D ratios, etc.

Also, the following functionality should be available:

* Show best upgrades by spec, based on character, and where they drop
* Show achievements (see below)

Achievements

Many games incentivize the completion of specific tasks -- some of which are very easy, others are complex or even zany and off the wall. These achievements give players something to do as they grind away the levels and also provide a bit more end-game experience at the top end. It'd also be nice if these achievements could be auto-posted to Facebook or Twitter.

Possible suggestions:

* First Blood (Very Easy) - Make a kill in the opening campaign
* On the Mend (Very Easy) - Use a health potion
* Cashin' In (Easy) - Sell 10 Items
* On Death's Door (Easy) - Kill a Mob with less than 15% health
* Leapin' Lizards (Medium) - Knock a mob back 10 ft. or more
* Roll 'Dem Bones (Medium) - Kill 100 Skeletons of any type
* Hearts Aflame (Medium) - Kill the King of Hearts
* Welcome Wagon (Medium) - Wave at 100 people
* Lone Wolf (Hard) - Solo-kill the King of Hearts
* You and What Army? (Hard) - Solo an entire level where you get XP
* We Don't Need No Stinkin' Bandages (Hard) - Complete a level where you get XP without potting or being healed
* Bring Out Yer Dead (Goofy) - Die 100 times
* Town Gossip (Goofy) - Be the recipient of 100 private tells

Quick-Chat Text

The quick-chat text should be longer, allowing for more robust communication. For example, if a strategy is commonly employed for a boss, this can be saved and punched up as needed.

Crafting Skills

By allowing users to craft weapons, armor, and stat-items (improvements to existing weapons, such as enchantments or jewels), this necessitates interaction between players. Mobs would also begin to drop reagents, which would encourage further trading as well as spice up the variety of drops. I'd suggest the following:

* Weapon Makers - These craftsmen and craftswomen would produce weapons of varying qualities, with semi-random stats/attributes. Reagents could be used to influence (but not guarantee) the crafting of a particular item. These skills might also have to be "learned" through special drops.
* Armor Crafters - Creating armors of varying types might require specific pieces of armor, specific locations (bring this armor to the frosty wastelands to forge it), etc.
* Potion Alchemists - These potions would include all of the currently available elixirs, plus new ones.
* Jewelry Setters - Jewels could be set into metal and worn as earrings, pendants, etc. (another armor slot), put into weapons and armor (with varying colors, sizes, and quantities accepted), or combined with other jewels to make meta-gems.
* Enchantment Weavers - Enchantments would improve resistance versus frost, fire, etc (see below, "Type-Specific Damage")
* Psychologists - These specialized professionals can teach players new emotes for the right price and the right reagents.

Player-Run Stores

By allowing players to "set up shop" in designated areas of town (or perhaps designated instances), it may cut down on spamming, and encourage trade. These shops might have the following features:

* Ability to set price on specific items
* Custom welcome message
* Guild-specific discounts (after guilds are implemented)

Type-Specific Damage

Damage of specific types (i.e., frost, fire, nature) can be implemented, as well as resist-specific gear to mitigate said damage.

Crowd Control

Polymorphing (Enchantress), sapping (Archer), or knock-outs (Warrior) would allow parties to more effectively manage crowd situations.

Guild Banks

Allowing a guild to access a bank for reagents, weapons, and armor would improve guild functionality once implemented. These banks should be able to be restricted by player level and/or guild level.

Social Networks

In addition to automatically (or selectively, based on a button press) being able to post achievements, levels, etc, to Facebook and Twitter, an application for Facebook may be an effective promotional device. It might allow a user to post their stats as a box on their page, touting their character and Pocket Legends itself.

Referral Bonus

Players may be further enticed to bring their friends into the game if they are rewarded with Platinum or in-game items.
06-17-2010, 02:22 PM
PvP

Armory - They will have leaderboards. This may not be as specific as what you want but it will be our "armory" showing all the statisitcs you need to know.
Achievements - This would be nice...But I'm not so sure about the "goofy" ones, because I have an account I don't want any deaths on. How would I get the 100 deaths achievement if I was after achievements too?
Quick-chat Text - Well it is meant to be short and simple, not a long command. I think this is fine either way, and its more for things like "Help, I'm dead!" or "Look out for the boss!"
Crafting Skills - This has been suggested time and time again with numerous requests. I really hope the devs do implement this but I haven't heard any word on their opinion. I want us to keep trying but I'm just not so hopeful about this one.
Player-Run Stores - This is something I wanted to suggest a while back, I've seen lots of people suggest this also. This is a must but some people will argue that the auction will solve that. Until then, player-run stores will be nice. However, I'm going to say the devs will just wait for the auction house.
Type-Specific Damage - I've thought about this too and it would be neat. However if you mess with this you will change many aspects of the game-play. In a way, the game will have to be minorily re-invented to suit all these statistics with weapons and armor and mobs and so on...
Crowd Control - Be a bit more speicifc and detailed on this subject. I think the 3 classes can handle themselves in most situations other then over-powered bosses.
Guild Banks - This is a good suggestion, hopefully they will have something along these lines when guilds do come out.
Social Networks - This would require more work then it sounds like. I don't know, this is more of a dev thing to answer.
Referral Bonus - I don't agree with this suggestion. I've seen people do everything they can to abuse this and get what they want out of it and cheat out the game. I think it would start a false motivation for "free stuff."

Good suggestions, PL is always looking forward to improvements.
06-17-2010, 02:41 PM
JavaJax

Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate you taking the time to check out my list.

Is there currently a community representative to be the "go between" for the devs and the community? We don't need that function at the current time, likely, but as the game scales, the devs will be unlikely to be able to keep up with the volume of posts. The cream needs to rise to the top.
06-17-2010, 02:47 PM
PvP

Quote:

Originally Posted by JavaJax

Thanks for your feedback! I appreciate you taking the time to check out my list.

Is there currently a community representative to be the "go between" for the devs and the community? We don't need that function at the current time, likely, but as the game scales, the devs will be unlikely to be able to keep up with the volume of posts. The cream needs to rise to the top.

A middle man? No not really. The devs are very active in the community and sometimes will allow people to host certain challenges like the PvP tournament going on now. There was a writing contest a while back and I'm sure you've heard about the art competition. That is all dev-sponsored. If you mean people like forum supervisors, the devs might implement that when the need be. Then again, maybe they like it how it is.
06-17-2010, 02:57 PM
xJoey

All of it sounds great=)
06-17-2010, 02:58 PM
JavaJax

Quote:

Originally Posted by PvP

A middle man? No not really. The devs are very active in the community and sometimes will allow people to host certain challenges like the PvP tournament going on now. There was a writing contest a while back and I'm sure you've heard about the art competition. That is all dev-sponsored. If you mean people like forum supervisors, the devs might implement that when the need be. Then again, maybe they like it how it is.

I have some specific experience in why that "I'll always want to be directly involved with the community, no matter the size" idea doesn't always work, unfortunately. My background is with applications that have gone beyond a small user base. Case in point, I was involved in the original Everquest (at RedEye/Verant), and was on the team that created the programming language Google was originally written in. In both cases, we intended to stay focused on the community as the applications grew, but scalability is a harsh mistress.

I think the idea of any one person being "better" than another on the forum (i.e., supervisors) creates an inherent disconnect and distrust between a community and its advocates. What I'm suggesting, more or less, is that as the game scales, a community-elected or developer-appointed representative can aggregate the sum of the suggestions and present them to the developers. Then, after deliberation, said representative can bring word back to the community. This provides a single mouthpiece and funnel of information. Other games have implemented this based on specific classes (i.e., an Archer rep, an Enchantress rep, etc).
06-17-2010, 05:42 PM
Dizko

Hmm some Mr. Sommers is being very cheeky and deleting his posts :P

Anyway I was going to suggest instead of hiring a middle man, to perhaps consider a player-set up organisation. A by the players for the players thing. Who take suggestions and then present them to the Dev's.

That is when the community becomes so large.
06-17-2010, 09:44 PM
JavaJax

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dizko

Anyway I was going to suggest instead of hiring a middle man, to perhaps consider a player-set up organisation. A by the players for the players thing. Who take suggestions and then present them to the Dev's.

Totally. That's what I meant by "What I'm suggesting, more or less, is that as the game scales, a community-elected or developer-appointed representative can aggregate the sum of the suggestions and present them to the developers." Same thing, different words, I guess. You know what they say about great minds, eh, Dizko? ;)