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Post by Daniel Everland on Oct 31, 2014 17:38:36 GMT 1
 News Announcement
In update 1.20 we're re-introducing experience points(XP), and adding the brand new feature of leveling. At the moment you can only gain experience points from a few set of events, however, in the near future we'll add many many more. It should also be noted that any interface that has anything to do with this release is not final.
This build has also not been tested in-house, so any and all bug reports are certainly welcome!
Events Client Pickup up a collectable (Star)
Web Receiving likes Selling models
Reset All experience points and levels will get reset within the next 2-3 weeks. |
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Post by Damocles Galles on Oct 31, 2014 18:23:06 GMT 1
Why levels will be restarted?
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Post by Jatsu on Nov 1, 2014 4:37:02 GMT 1
Thank you for the update and information. Some feedback if you're interested: - [Positive Feedback] The new profile bar looks nice. It is wider, but does have a slightly more simplified feel to it. I think it is a more uniform approach to displaying a player's account information. I'm glad the profile link is still on the right side of the bar, it feels natural to be there near the settings and language tools - although this might just be because we're accustomed its location already.
- [Positive Feedback] While not exactly part of this build, bringing the projects page up into the header links was a marvelous decision. Thank you for this! It's far more convenient to access projects with one link from any page. I also believe this new location for projects will help newer players understand where to find their projects and be able to start building right away. Additionally, the update of the help section is also wonderful. I'm glad the Terms and Conditions are now accessible again on the main website. And of course, the other sections moved there are helpful as well! To be honest, if the About section (Jobs/Contact) in the bottom header is also moved to the Help section, it could help reduce the website's length and therefore amount of scrolling. However, this isn't necessary since websites bottom headers are often used as legacy for developer and sitemap information.
- [Constructive Feedback] The XP bar ingame looks pretty standard. It's informative, yet not overly distracting. However, I would make an argument that it hugs the edges of the game window much tighter than other interfaces which might make it feel slightly out of place. It is potentially confusing that players need to be ingame in order to gain insight on how much XP is needed until their next level. There's no information on the website that gives the player this information. In order to be more consistent, perhaps including a similar progress bar graphic next the level icon on the player's profile bar could help alleviate this concern. Alternatively, the level icon could be sufficiently enough information that players seek and thus only a numeric value that represents how much XP until their next level is necessary. For example, "[4] 56 XP until next level | 400 Gold 5200 Silver ... "
- [Constructive Feedback] The notification message for XP gains is useful to have, but it is displayed in a bland manner. Text on a non-transparent white background feels inconsistent with how other information is displayed. It also displays its template when a player presses the 'M' key, which is odd since it doesn't display the templates of other interface. I assume all of this is for testing/placeholder purposes. I'm hoping this will be slightly redesigned later, possibly in a way that's less distracting. For example, if a player walks over a star, hears chimes play, and then see a "+5" text next to the current XP score, then they're very likely to associate stars to XP gain without the need for a larger text notification. This can apply to other objectives that might be added in the future, at least from an ingame perspective.
- [Possible Issue] The XP graphic on a player's avatar image cuts off the lower portion of the screenshot. If a player has a significant amount of detail on the lower part of their avatar, then part of this detail will be lost because of the XP graphic's overlap. However, this only appears to happen on a personal profile and not when viewing other player's profiles. It feels like there's an issue with where to place the XP information on player's profiles. Covering up the avatar does seem alright, but it ends up obscuring some other information as well as creating a pretty noticeable gap between other information. I'm not quite sure if the number display is necessary either, it could be displayed on hover like most other information on the website. Frankly, the level icon is justifiably enough information for a player to see (the internal XP amount isn't predominant). Perhaps if only the level icon needs to be displayed, a more appropriate place to display the information could be found.
- [Possible Issue] The XP graphic ingame may be distracting if it's constantly visible, though I suspect the reason I consider it being distracting is its size with respect to the player's nameplate. It's also been noted that the graphic's black borders are slightly disproportionate, with the bottom being longer than the other sides. However, given that this is apparent in all locations of it (ingame and website) it's probably an intentional aesthetic.
- [Potential Abuse] Players can easily farm XP when an objective is repeatable infinitely. This can apply to any of the game winning objectives, although they would differ in rates of completion. For example, if a game is won by stars or flags, then it could be easily exploited if that game spawned the player directly above those stars or flags. A potential solution could involve limiting XP on a per game or per time interval basis. Another would be to adjust how much XP is awarded for a particular type of award event. There are sure to be other methods as well, but of course it'll end up being your decision on how you want to proceed.
- [Discussion/Suggestion] Ultimately, I view XP as another goal players can strive towards - much like badges. I feel that the main audience of Kogama succumbs to the "ooh, shiny!" mentality which is great since it allows new updates and features to be actively sought after, although it does add an air of competitiveness. Therefore, it is good judgment to allow XP to be relatively easy to obtain because it will give the general community of players something to spend a lot of time working on. The problem is though, it shouldn't be exploitable to the point where XP merely indicates how much time a player AFK's in a spawn-fall-win game. From there, XP's value as a feature quickly drops and no longer becomes interesting or even fair to all players.
- It is my opinion that XP should be gained primarily through multiplayer interaction. So, objectives such as publishing usable content and receiving likes should be highly sought after. Ingame interaction such as player kills would also be challenging to exploit and therefore be another good option to pursue. NPC kills are also viable, if they become more unique and challenging. Winning game modes are an additional feasible option, since some do require a level of multiplayer interaction, though it would probably be best to adjust XP gains based on the relative challenge of those game modes. For example, winning a N stars/kills game awards 2*N XP. Perhaps instead of a proportional model, an exponential or logarithmic model could be used to ensure shorter games award less XP (thus minimizing fast XP exploitation) and make longer lasting games more attractive which could increase play time. This would work especially well with round games and flags - the shorter the round or the more quickly the flag is reached, the less XP the player overall receives (though a longer spawn-fall-win game would exploit this, an AFK redundancy like that used on the website would circumvent that workaround).
- As mentioned earlier, the main community is slightly competitive. So, it could be beneficial to introduce XP leaderboards and statistic tracking. This could potentially inspire both competitive and casual players to be more interested in XP and seek it more often, increasing play time. However, such a feature would be meaningless if the statistic it tracks is exploitable or not fair to all players.
TL;DR: XP seems like a fun and interesting concept that will surely captivate the main community of players. However, it should be reworked slightly to be less exploitable. My suggestion would be to have XP gain focused primarily on multiplayer interaction, sharing and rating content, and winning game modes. In addition, I think how XP is displayed could simplified a little - with hiding/removing numeric XP by focusing solely on XP levels or by simplifying the statistic to a "XP until next level" quantifier.
Some questions regarding design: - After reset, will already existing likes be factored into a player's XP?
- According to the old forums, it was mentioned that XP would be used to unlock advanced features - is this concept still planned?
I know I'm forgetting something, but this post is long enough as is... Sorry. |
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Post by Linkky on Nov 1, 2014 4:42:25 GMT 1
Here we go again, with the XP Farms.  Anyways, I am glad they brought this back after about 2 years. It's whatever makes the community happy.  |
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Cubik
Rookie
League of Legends: KXylo
Posts: 19 
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Post by Cubik on Nov 2, 2014 3:19:23 GMT 1
I remember the old XP days. haha
I'm curious to see KoGaMa grow.
Edit: I don't think allowing stars to give XP is a good idea. I just went into our empty US server to see 1 game with 1 guy farming XP (collect 115 stars) and he was level 15.
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Post by _ Guido _ on Nov 2, 2014 9:13:21 GMT 1
I remember the old XP days. haha I'm curious to see KoGaMa grow. Edit: I don't think allowing stars to give XP is a good idea. I just went into our empty US server to see 1 game with 1 guy farming XP (collect 115 stars) and he was level 15. Ya; I agree with you, but it would be great if xp could be given in killing people or Oculus. It would also be great that hats and other accessories give special things ( more of life by example ). This would be great for levels and it would give a meaning |
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Post by OmegaΩevolution on Nov 2, 2014 16:42:55 GMT 1
it seems pointless that we can level up and don't even get rewarded for doing so, so how about we could gain stat boosts such increased jump height or speed?
also how about you don't make stars as a source of xp,so we don't have tons of xp farms
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Post by Jatsu on Nov 2, 2014 23:51:00 GMT 1
Here's some more feedback, I think I'm still forgetting something, but I suppose it can't be helped.
[Positive Feedback] The connections status displayed while loading games is nice. It's very useful for players who have intermittent issues or low connection speeds. In other words, it's convenient to know if you have to restart because of a failed loading screen. Nonetheless, the general layout of the loading screen seems to have improved as well. Perhaps it's an odd preference, but centered text for important statuses is nicer to read and look at.
[Possible Issue] Other players and myself have been experiencing longer loading times when loading certain website pages for the first time. They've become especially longer for profile pages, for some reason. However, once the cache is filled it's not as difficult to reload the page or visit it again later. So, while it isn't a severe problem, it might indicate crowded or busy webpages that could potentially be minimized in the future.
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Post by raylsonweverthon on Nov 3, 2014 0:15:28 GMT 1
Alguém do Brasil?
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Post by jeangamesbr210 on Nov 18, 2014 18:41:11 GMT 1
This is very good, if I could voted on all maps of this guy! who made the update!
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