wowdah
04-24-2018, 04:45 PM
Several Ideas That Would Simply Make AL More Enjoyable
Below are several detailed ideas that would make the game much better in my view. After playing this game for over 5 years, I have come to the conclusion that the following ideas are necessary to make AL play more enjoyable. Of course, as always, this is just my opinion, but feel free to comment on what you agree/disagree with. I recall devs saying that they read every post here, and always respond when there is clearly detailed/constructive comments, so I do my best to address everything down below.
Here is a list of the ideas I propose in the following post:
1) A Remap Button
2) "Trade" with Offline Players
3) Pet Swap Button
4) Trade multiple items (trade window reform)
5) Mass Sell/Collect button on Auction
Idea #1 : A Remap Button
Explanation of the idea
What this entails is implementing a so-called "remap button" for each map that could be accessed from the world map. Let us use an example. Consider the timed map "Elite Brackenridge Forest." If a player starts the time, and presses the remap button, they would spawn in a new Elite Brackenridge Forest map, just as they would have if they went to town, went to the world map, pressed elite timed, and went back. This remap button saves the few seconds in between (which is a lot if a player wants to keep rerunning a map). This could also be implemented for untimed maps, where if you press it, you get sent to a new, clean map.
Why Having a Remap Button is a Good Idea
This button would appeal to several people. For one, this would appeal to farmers, a significant portion of the AL community. To give an example, many players farm Elite Southern Gates for gold. I hear time and time again how annoying it is for players to leave the map, do some party stuff, press avatar, world map, and elite, and map again. I floated the idea of having a remap button, and every single one of them loved it. By having this buttons, players would be happier, and could farm with ease. The main point is that the current remap scheme is unnecessarily tedious.
This button would also appeal to timed runners. Of course, I'm a little biased since I'm a timed runner, but this would save a LOT of time for us because we can simply press the remap button when we have a less-than-optimal run, which would save a lot of time rerunning maps. It would also make gameplay much more fun. If memory is a problem for STS, it could be implemented such that only the Party leader can remap (to prevent 4 new maps from being created).
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
In my view, there are no clear objections to this idea. Since someone can already remap-if the map is timed, just go to town, and back to the timed map, and if the map is untimed, do "/partyL, and /partyi asdf" and when you rejoin the map you will be in a new version of it.
Possible Objection: What if someone disconnects and wants to get back to the map they were just doing?
Rebuttal: The remap button would not impede this in any way. If a player disconnects, they will be sent back to the map they were just in until a certain time (this is what already happens now).
Possible Objection: Wouldn't this create an unnecessarily large amount of maps which could cause problems for STS, since their memory space is finite?
Rebuttal: No, because if it did, the current system wouldn't be in place. The current system ALREADY allows players to go to new maps, simply by creating ghost parties and leaving them. And for timed maps, after starting the time and leaving, you get sent to a new, clean map when you remap.
Implementation Difficulty: 3/10
In my view, this would be relatively easy to implement. Because players can already remap, this involves simply cutting out the fat of the process. The only new implementation would be the design/place of the remap button, and the backend creation of a copy of the same map (which is the same as pressing it on the world map, so shouldn't be too hard). Because the process is already possible, it most likely isn't very hard to implement. Currently, a map "resets" either when a player does the annoying party commands above, or kills the boss, so it should be feasible. Of course, things like checking whether a player inventory is full is necessary.
Idea #2: "Trade" with Offline Players
Explanation of the Idea
What this would entail is the following:
1) A system for players to gift items to offline players. This would involve typing in an in game name, selecting an item, and pressing gift. Of course, there would be confirmation boxes to deter any typos or mistakes in the username.
2) A more ambitious extension: A system for players to TRADE items to offline players. What this would involve is Player A sending a Trade "request" to Player B. This would be some User interface allowing Player A to select items and gold from his/her inventory, and request his/her items to be traded with certain items and gold that Player B has. To deter frivolous trade requests, it could be implemented such that if Player A requests a trade for items/gold that Player B does not have, the trade request will not go through.
Why a System to "Trade" with Offline Players is a Good Idea
Time and time again, I see on the traders market, or in game, that players always complain that their potential buyers are offline. This is without a doubt one of the most prevalent problems irking much of the merchant and even non-merchant community. Players wait for hours, even days, until the person that posted on their thread logs in, to make the trade.
People have busy schedules, and cannot always log in at the same time (especially if timezones are different). By having this system, all Player A has to do is send a request, and once Player B logs in, he can accept the request (even if Player A is sleeping), and the trade will have been successful. Of course, inventory capacities etc. should all be accounted for.
With regards to the gifting, I am not suggesting that gold be allowed to be "gifted" (as I detail later on). However, for items, I think it should be possible for Player A to gift item(s) to Player B, even if player B is offline. Once Player B logs in, they can then claim the items they were gifted.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Because this has to do with trading, there are many possible objections to this system, which I will address.
Possible Objection: Ok, on the surface this idea seems like it will benefit the trading community. But you forgot about scammers. Wouldn't the gifting system make it easier to scam?
Rebuttal: The short answer is no, it would not. Here is why. Gifting has been controversial ever since early 2013, when I first started this game. The argument of the people against it was that it makes it easier for scammers to cajole/lure innocent players into gifting items to them, and then running off with them. However, STS has decided to keep gifting, since it provided an invaluable resource for players that want to simply give items to another. If a player is offline, that simple fact will not increase the ease of scamming in any way. I cannot think of a way in which scammers could abuse a gifting system for players offline that they couldn't abuse in the current system.
Possible Objection: Fine, but surely the trading system will be sketchy/allow scams?
Rebuttal: While it is an ambitious extension of the current system, I believe that no, it would not. Several other games have trading systems/request systems for offline players, and they work without any scams being possible whatsoever. I don't see how someone can scam just by sending a request to someone offline. As always, BOTH PARTIES must confirm the trade. This is the exact same as the current trading box, where both parties put in items/gold they want to trade, and both confirm.
Possible Objection: Hmm, ok, but what if players want to change their request?
Rebuttal: I concede that this is a valid objection. It would be tough to make a trading system with offline players that allows for the alteration of requests. What I propose is that there be no alteration system at first. This system should first only be for trades that either a) both players agreed to on the forums or elsewhere but can't login at the same time or b) where Player A wants to see if Player B will trade items for their request, so they make a request and either get accepted or denied by Player B.
Possible Objection: Ok, I guess I'm satisfied that scammers can't take advantage of this system more than they can the system that's already in place but... you forgot about gold sellers. Wouldn't this make it easier for players to engage in illegal activity such as moving huge amounts of gold around to fool STS?
Rebuttal: Nope. Note that I did not suggest gold to be allowed to be gifted. The reason for this was simply because of this problem — gold sellers could easily gift massive amounts of gold to accounts and spread it out etc. to deceive STS. The trading system I outlined above, however, would not allow this. Note that both Player A and Player B have to accept a trade, just like the current system. Gold sellers wouldn't be able to abuze this proposed system more than they can abuse the current system.
Implementation Difficulty: 8/10
I'm not going to sugarcoat this - this would probably be pretty hard to implement. Not only does STS have to ensure that the system doesn't make it easier for scammers to abuse (though I outlined why it doesn't above, the UI could make it the case), but they also have to make a new UI that allows offline trades. And given that things such as the glitchy confirm trade button that takes 5 clicks to register haven't been fixed, I assume that it is quite hard to fix/make things relating to trade. But I cannot stress enough how beneficial this would be to the community. People would simply just be happier.
Idea #3 : Pet Swap Button
Explanation of the Idea
This button could be implemented in several ways. For one suppose I have two pets A and B. And suppose I have A summoned currently. A pet button could be placed on the HUD (perhaps above the inventory quick slots), and once pressed, it would summon B. And once B was summoned, if you press it, it would summon A. Of course, this would require the user pressing it at first and selecting 2 pets to put. Moreover, the pet regulations would still have to be in place, i.e. you can only summon when the pet aa isn't active etc.
Why Having a Pet Swap Button is a Good Idea
From a small survey of 64 individuals in the AL community (Random people in towns), I asked them the following question. How many pets do you use daily? The responses were as follows: A staggering 50 responded that they used 2, 10 responded that they used 1, and 4 responded that they used 3+. From this small server, it was clear to me that many people used 2 pets. A frequent combination was those who used nekro/glowstik, or magma/nekro, etc.
In my view, players would definitely enjoy having a pet swap button. Although the stable is much cleaner than the previous one, one things it lacks is the "ease of summoning." Frequently I hear complaints of how long it takes to summon a pet - you have to click stable, select preferences, click pet summon. And to summon another, you have to do the same thing. A pet swap button would take care of all that clicking and make it easier on the user.
To elaborate on the 2 pet thing - it would be useful if one pet you could select none, and one you could select a pet. In numerous scenarios, players unsummon their pet in towns, or houses, or guildhalls for several different reasons. This would make it easy to do this, as well as swapping between pets. And it can't be abused because of the pet aa active restriction.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: Sounds cool, I don't really have any possible objections, and I've racked my mind.
Rebuttal: Yeah, it does.
Implementation Difficulty: 6/10
I don't claim this would be easy to implement, but I think it is something that many many players would want. Since you can already summon a pet and then summon another, it would really just be the implementation of the button and the swapping.
Idea #4 : Option to Trade Multiple Items (more than 4)
Explanation of the Idea
This has been one of the most outdated things in AL in my opinion. The trade window. What this idea does is simply reform the entire trade window as follows. First, make the box allow more than 4 unique items. 6 would be nice, 3 in each column. Second, allow the option to trade many items of the same kind. For instance, 70 red eggs. Or 15 locked crates. You get the idea. This would be invaluable to players who want to trade multiple items, rather than going 4 at a time, one by one (with a glitchy confirm trade button as well).
There should be an option to click an item, and select a quantity, and put it in the trade box. It should be clear how many items should be traded - bold or something - to ensure no abuse.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: Can't scammers quickly switch the quantity of items to fool the other?
Rebuttal: It is easy to prevent this, one way being to simply have that pop up window saying the person changed the quantity. And of course, the end confirm screen, to make sure you really know what you're getting.
Implementation Difficulty: 7/10
This would require changing the existing trade window UI, but honestly, this is a change we need. The trade window is severely outdated, and clunky to use. And the confirm button hardly even registers. And the fourth item isn't completely visible. With a refurbished trading window/system, players would love to trade and just play the game in general.
Idea #5: Mass Sell/Collect on Auction
Explanation of the Idea
This is a simple implementation of a feature. What this means is if you have 100 sales that you just made on the auction, there should be a button to collect all your sales at once. Furthermore, say you have 200 red eggs, there should be an option, given the appropriate number of auction slots, to sell all at a certain price, at once.
Why Having a Mass Sell/Collect Button on Auction is a Good Idea
This would make it much easier on people selling to the auction, since they wouldn't have to click 300 times to sell their items. They could easily sell them all at the same price, with no stress. Moreover, after making the tough sales, they wouldn't have to spam complete sale, and instead, could just complete all of them at the same time. I have talked to several players and all of them think that this would be a great idea to implement.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: But I love clicking 938492834 times on the screen.
Rebuttal: There's an app called cookie clicker. Download that instead.
Implementation Difficulty: 2/10
This just involves implementing the button(s) and making some small tweaks. It's a type of quality of life addition that STS has been making in the recent past, so it should be easy to implement.
Below are several detailed ideas that would make the game much better in my view. After playing this game for over 5 years, I have come to the conclusion that the following ideas are necessary to make AL play more enjoyable. Of course, as always, this is just my opinion, but feel free to comment on what you agree/disagree with. I recall devs saying that they read every post here, and always respond when there is clearly detailed/constructive comments, so I do my best to address everything down below.
Here is a list of the ideas I propose in the following post:
1) A Remap Button
2) "Trade" with Offline Players
3) Pet Swap Button
4) Trade multiple items (trade window reform)
5) Mass Sell/Collect button on Auction
Idea #1 : A Remap Button
Explanation of the idea
What this entails is implementing a so-called "remap button" for each map that could be accessed from the world map. Let us use an example. Consider the timed map "Elite Brackenridge Forest." If a player starts the time, and presses the remap button, they would spawn in a new Elite Brackenridge Forest map, just as they would have if they went to town, went to the world map, pressed elite timed, and went back. This remap button saves the few seconds in between (which is a lot if a player wants to keep rerunning a map). This could also be implemented for untimed maps, where if you press it, you get sent to a new, clean map.
Why Having a Remap Button is a Good Idea
This button would appeal to several people. For one, this would appeal to farmers, a significant portion of the AL community. To give an example, many players farm Elite Southern Gates for gold. I hear time and time again how annoying it is for players to leave the map, do some party stuff, press avatar, world map, and elite, and map again. I floated the idea of having a remap button, and every single one of them loved it. By having this buttons, players would be happier, and could farm with ease. The main point is that the current remap scheme is unnecessarily tedious.
This button would also appeal to timed runners. Of course, I'm a little biased since I'm a timed runner, but this would save a LOT of time for us because we can simply press the remap button when we have a less-than-optimal run, which would save a lot of time rerunning maps. It would also make gameplay much more fun. If memory is a problem for STS, it could be implemented such that only the Party leader can remap (to prevent 4 new maps from being created).
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
In my view, there are no clear objections to this idea. Since someone can already remap-if the map is timed, just go to town, and back to the timed map, and if the map is untimed, do "/partyL, and /partyi asdf" and when you rejoin the map you will be in a new version of it.
Possible Objection: What if someone disconnects and wants to get back to the map they were just doing?
Rebuttal: The remap button would not impede this in any way. If a player disconnects, they will be sent back to the map they were just in until a certain time (this is what already happens now).
Possible Objection: Wouldn't this create an unnecessarily large amount of maps which could cause problems for STS, since their memory space is finite?
Rebuttal: No, because if it did, the current system wouldn't be in place. The current system ALREADY allows players to go to new maps, simply by creating ghost parties and leaving them. And for timed maps, after starting the time and leaving, you get sent to a new, clean map when you remap.
Implementation Difficulty: 3/10
In my view, this would be relatively easy to implement. Because players can already remap, this involves simply cutting out the fat of the process. The only new implementation would be the design/place of the remap button, and the backend creation of a copy of the same map (which is the same as pressing it on the world map, so shouldn't be too hard). Because the process is already possible, it most likely isn't very hard to implement. Currently, a map "resets" either when a player does the annoying party commands above, or kills the boss, so it should be feasible. Of course, things like checking whether a player inventory is full is necessary.
Idea #2: "Trade" with Offline Players
Explanation of the Idea
What this would entail is the following:
1) A system for players to gift items to offline players. This would involve typing in an in game name, selecting an item, and pressing gift. Of course, there would be confirmation boxes to deter any typos or mistakes in the username.
2) A more ambitious extension: A system for players to TRADE items to offline players. What this would involve is Player A sending a Trade "request" to Player B. This would be some User interface allowing Player A to select items and gold from his/her inventory, and request his/her items to be traded with certain items and gold that Player B has. To deter frivolous trade requests, it could be implemented such that if Player A requests a trade for items/gold that Player B does not have, the trade request will not go through.
Why a System to "Trade" with Offline Players is a Good Idea
Time and time again, I see on the traders market, or in game, that players always complain that their potential buyers are offline. This is without a doubt one of the most prevalent problems irking much of the merchant and even non-merchant community. Players wait for hours, even days, until the person that posted on their thread logs in, to make the trade.
People have busy schedules, and cannot always log in at the same time (especially if timezones are different). By having this system, all Player A has to do is send a request, and once Player B logs in, he can accept the request (even if Player A is sleeping), and the trade will have been successful. Of course, inventory capacities etc. should all be accounted for.
With regards to the gifting, I am not suggesting that gold be allowed to be "gifted" (as I detail later on). However, for items, I think it should be possible for Player A to gift item(s) to Player B, even if player B is offline. Once Player B logs in, they can then claim the items they were gifted.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Because this has to do with trading, there are many possible objections to this system, which I will address.
Possible Objection: Ok, on the surface this idea seems like it will benefit the trading community. But you forgot about scammers. Wouldn't the gifting system make it easier to scam?
Rebuttal: The short answer is no, it would not. Here is why. Gifting has been controversial ever since early 2013, when I first started this game. The argument of the people against it was that it makes it easier for scammers to cajole/lure innocent players into gifting items to them, and then running off with them. However, STS has decided to keep gifting, since it provided an invaluable resource for players that want to simply give items to another. If a player is offline, that simple fact will not increase the ease of scamming in any way. I cannot think of a way in which scammers could abuse a gifting system for players offline that they couldn't abuse in the current system.
Possible Objection: Fine, but surely the trading system will be sketchy/allow scams?
Rebuttal: While it is an ambitious extension of the current system, I believe that no, it would not. Several other games have trading systems/request systems for offline players, and they work without any scams being possible whatsoever. I don't see how someone can scam just by sending a request to someone offline. As always, BOTH PARTIES must confirm the trade. This is the exact same as the current trading box, where both parties put in items/gold they want to trade, and both confirm.
Possible Objection: Hmm, ok, but what if players want to change their request?
Rebuttal: I concede that this is a valid objection. It would be tough to make a trading system with offline players that allows for the alteration of requests. What I propose is that there be no alteration system at first. This system should first only be for trades that either a) both players agreed to on the forums or elsewhere but can't login at the same time or b) where Player A wants to see if Player B will trade items for their request, so they make a request and either get accepted or denied by Player B.
Possible Objection: Ok, I guess I'm satisfied that scammers can't take advantage of this system more than they can the system that's already in place but... you forgot about gold sellers. Wouldn't this make it easier for players to engage in illegal activity such as moving huge amounts of gold around to fool STS?
Rebuttal: Nope. Note that I did not suggest gold to be allowed to be gifted. The reason for this was simply because of this problem — gold sellers could easily gift massive amounts of gold to accounts and spread it out etc. to deceive STS. The trading system I outlined above, however, would not allow this. Note that both Player A and Player B have to accept a trade, just like the current system. Gold sellers wouldn't be able to abuze this proposed system more than they can abuse the current system.
Implementation Difficulty: 8/10
I'm not going to sugarcoat this - this would probably be pretty hard to implement. Not only does STS have to ensure that the system doesn't make it easier for scammers to abuse (though I outlined why it doesn't above, the UI could make it the case), but they also have to make a new UI that allows offline trades. And given that things such as the glitchy confirm trade button that takes 5 clicks to register haven't been fixed, I assume that it is quite hard to fix/make things relating to trade. But I cannot stress enough how beneficial this would be to the community. People would simply just be happier.
Idea #3 : Pet Swap Button
Explanation of the Idea
This button could be implemented in several ways. For one suppose I have two pets A and B. And suppose I have A summoned currently. A pet button could be placed on the HUD (perhaps above the inventory quick slots), and once pressed, it would summon B. And once B was summoned, if you press it, it would summon A. Of course, this would require the user pressing it at first and selecting 2 pets to put. Moreover, the pet regulations would still have to be in place, i.e. you can only summon when the pet aa isn't active etc.
Why Having a Pet Swap Button is a Good Idea
From a small survey of 64 individuals in the AL community (Random people in towns), I asked them the following question. How many pets do you use daily? The responses were as follows: A staggering 50 responded that they used 2, 10 responded that they used 1, and 4 responded that they used 3+. From this small server, it was clear to me that many people used 2 pets. A frequent combination was those who used nekro/glowstik, or magma/nekro, etc.
In my view, players would definitely enjoy having a pet swap button. Although the stable is much cleaner than the previous one, one things it lacks is the "ease of summoning." Frequently I hear complaints of how long it takes to summon a pet - you have to click stable, select preferences, click pet summon. And to summon another, you have to do the same thing. A pet swap button would take care of all that clicking and make it easier on the user.
To elaborate on the 2 pet thing - it would be useful if one pet you could select none, and one you could select a pet. In numerous scenarios, players unsummon their pet in towns, or houses, or guildhalls for several different reasons. This would make it easy to do this, as well as swapping between pets. And it can't be abused because of the pet aa active restriction.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: Sounds cool, I don't really have any possible objections, and I've racked my mind.
Rebuttal: Yeah, it does.
Implementation Difficulty: 6/10
I don't claim this would be easy to implement, but I think it is something that many many players would want. Since you can already summon a pet and then summon another, it would really just be the implementation of the button and the swapping.
Idea #4 : Option to Trade Multiple Items (more than 4)
Explanation of the Idea
This has been one of the most outdated things in AL in my opinion. The trade window. What this idea does is simply reform the entire trade window as follows. First, make the box allow more than 4 unique items. 6 would be nice, 3 in each column. Second, allow the option to trade many items of the same kind. For instance, 70 red eggs. Or 15 locked crates. You get the idea. This would be invaluable to players who want to trade multiple items, rather than going 4 at a time, one by one (with a glitchy confirm trade button as well).
There should be an option to click an item, and select a quantity, and put it in the trade box. It should be clear how many items should be traded - bold or something - to ensure no abuse.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: Can't scammers quickly switch the quantity of items to fool the other?
Rebuttal: It is easy to prevent this, one way being to simply have that pop up window saying the person changed the quantity. And of course, the end confirm screen, to make sure you really know what you're getting.
Implementation Difficulty: 7/10
This would require changing the existing trade window UI, but honestly, this is a change we need. The trade window is severely outdated, and clunky to use. And the confirm button hardly even registers. And the fourth item isn't completely visible. With a refurbished trading window/system, players would love to trade and just play the game in general.
Idea #5: Mass Sell/Collect on Auction
Explanation of the Idea
This is a simple implementation of a feature. What this means is if you have 100 sales that you just made on the auction, there should be a button to collect all your sales at once. Furthermore, say you have 200 red eggs, there should be an option, given the appropriate number of auction slots, to sell all at a certain price, at once.
Why Having a Mass Sell/Collect Button on Auction is a Good Idea
This would make it much easier on people selling to the auction, since they wouldn't have to click 300 times to sell their items. They could easily sell them all at the same price, with no stress. Moreover, after making the tough sales, they wouldn't have to spam complete sale, and instead, could just complete all of them at the same time. I have talked to several players and all of them think that this would be a great idea to implement.
Possible Objections/Rebuttals to the Objections
Possible Objection: But I love clicking 938492834 times on the screen.
Rebuttal: There's an app called cookie clicker. Download that instead.
Implementation Difficulty: 2/10
This just involves implementing the button(s) and making some small tweaks. It's a type of quality of life addition that STS has been making in the recent past, so it should be easy to implement.