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Beta Unlocks

Discussion in 'Suggestions' started by Seria-Myouna, May 14, 2013.

  1. Seria-Myouna

    Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

    Just a suggestion, but since the Beta is mainly for bug fixing, I think there should be an option to have everything unlocked from the get-go. Having all content accessible to all beta testers would allow them to maximize the efficiency of their playtime.

    Not that I need it in general, but I noticed several people saying they would use fresh saves for each new build and them working their way back up and unlocking things seems counterproductive for the most part unless there might be issues with the unlocks themselves..

    Of course, this option would not be mandatory, as some people would regard it as cheating.
     
    • Ygdrad

      Ygdrad Void-Bound Voyager

      Having them locked lets people offer feedback on the accessibility of items. Having it as an easily-accessed option(you can already unlock everything by editing your save file) will see the people who want their rewards right now use it. Unfortunately, those people would have been the ones who can tell you if things are too hard to get to.
       
      • Seria-Myouna

        Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

        Too hard to get to? I unlocked pretty much every item except the stopwatch(Unlocked it, but hadn't found it yet) on the first day along with all the Bandit. Most of the "locked" items were trivial tasks to complete. I'm just talking about an in-game option so that people don't have to mess with their save files in order to unlock things(As that may cause issues as well).
         
          Restarter000 likes this.
        • Tojo

          Tojo Existential Complex

          If you can unlock all item you could also have an option to relock everything so that you can retest the requirements to unlocking items to make sure it completely works or needs to be harder
           
          • Treadlight

            Treadlight Existential Complex

            I was thinking of just asking to be able to run the game in Game Maker's debug mode. This let's you watch variables, and execute code as the game is running. Essentially allowing for easy testing of later areas, or certain items. We would need to know the names of some resources and variables, however.
             
            • Ygdrad

              Ygdrad Void-Bound Voyager

              At least, in its currently unencrypted state, unlocking all the items is as easy as putting in something like "item38=1" anywhere in the file at the moment(or you could just remove the 8 lines of "record" if you want to reset your scores, I can't see it causing issues. Things might have been easy for you to unlock, and for the most part I didn't have too much trouble unlocking things either, but that's not everyone. Then there's the other side of things, you've got to ask yourself if it's a good thing for everything to be so easily unlocked in a game relying on replayability. You can't underestimate the appeal of an "easy button" on most people, and in a lot of cases, people getting into beta only do it to play the game early, not give feedback. According to the kickstarter page, there are only 543 beta testers, and from what I'm seeing here so far, only a handful of them give feedback.

              I'm not saying having an option to easily test stuff is not a good idea. Hell, I'd love to have one so it saves me the trouble of opening the save file with notepad. The potential problem is the loss of already limited feedback on the unlocking of items itself and the potential drop in testing time put in by some players due to the decrease of replayability(because a lot of people WILL push the easy button just because it's there... tempting).

              TLDR: Access to items is currently easy as you said, but already limited feedback and testing volume will get affected by the addition of the option. The option is a useful one to have, but chances are the net result on testing and feedback will negative at the moment.
               
              • Burby

                Burby Phantasmal Quasar

                Ygdrad, your concern that the items are so easy to unlock right now is something I didn't even take into consideration yet. I guess this is a good amount of items to have that unlock easily, though. There will probably be more difficult requirements for different items once development progresses. Character specific ones, perhaps? Hell, there could probably be a separate thread for unlocking requirements, and if applicable, which item they're the most appropriate for.
                 
                • needsomemiracle

                  needsomemiracle Scruffy Nerf-Herder

                  Don't worry about that. If someone pays for the CBT only to play the half-baked game earlier, it's their problem. This game is in beta. Betas are for testing, and enjoyment comes second. Noone has to cater to people who never give feedback. If they don't voice their concerns, from the organizational point of view that means there are no concerns.

                  There's always a thing such as focus-testing. All the devs have to do is give a shout. "Hey guys, we want you all to try playing the game from scratch and tell us how easy you think it is to unlock N". I'm sure people here would be happy to oblige.

                  And some of us, like me, don't even have access to beta :p
                   
                    Treadlight likes this.
                  • Sizzle

                    Sizzle Phantasmal Quasar

                    I think the beta testing will be aimed at the way the game is played, so allowing people to have everything instead of them going out and playing the game as it is intended will probably be not as productive as the devs hope. It's a nice idea though, but I don't think it'll be an option :3
                     
                    • Shrooblord

                      Shrooblord Void-Bound Voyager

                      Besides, does it really matter? It doesn't take that long to unlock everything you need. Usually one normal run already gives me the Bandit, the Gasoline, Paul's Goat Hoof and possibly two other items.

                      From a tester's point of view, having or not having unlocked an item doesn't really matter that much; once you unlock it has a chance to show up, but that doesn't mean it will. It's still random chance.
                       
                      • Engio

                        Engio Space Penguin Leader

                        It is honestly really easy to unlock all the items. I had some bad luck getting the 4 drone achievement (curse them all dying) but once I decided to go for it with the commando it happened no sweat. I find it kind of silly to request everything be unlocked, no offense intended.
                         
                        • Seria-Myouna

                          Seria-Myouna The Last Moderator IRC Operator

                          It was mainly for the people that would be starting a clean save every update(since they are happening quite frequently). Also, the request isn't for me, as I mentioned before. It's more of a general thing.
                           
                          • Daimera

                            Daimera Cosmic Narwhal

                            So far I've been able to transfer my Save.ini to other versions without any glitches or problems. Maybe this'll change in the future when more items and classes get added, but if you play through enough to unlock everything once (preferrable, since it lets you check unlock progress and it just feels -right- to go through the progression at least once legit), then you can just transfer the save to new versions to test the items straight up for any bugs, or delete the save to check for unlock issues.
                             
                            • Treadlight

                              Treadlight Existential Complex

                              Due to the syntax of save files, the only issues that should arise if the existing items, classes, or monsters get different ID's. So yeah, little to no issues.
                               
                              • Shrooblord

                                Shrooblord Void-Bound Voyager

                                Having used save file myself in Game Maker, I can easily see how issues could arise between versions, depending on which functions they used to read the files and what coding they have in place to check for certain values. For example, if it's a simple function that searches for the first occurence of something in the file, then there's no problem. But if it searches for a value at a specific location in the file, there could be issues if a newer version is expecting certain values to be somewhere.

                                However, with the game in its current state, the biggest issue would be that instead of unlocking all items, you might accidentally unlock all Monster Logs, for example, if what I said applies.
                                 

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