Patch suggestions

[hyperme]

Mothership is the only way to complete the COG chain with a crysknife and gives you two extra levels to collect treasure in, so I think it's appropriately hard.

This doesn't surprise me, but why is this the case? Is worm/moai generation involved somehow?

You have to enter the worm from either 2-1 or 3-1, and leave into 2-4 or 3-4. If you enter from 2-1, you can't get the Black Market. Presumably, the Moai Head doesn't spawn in 3-4. Since the Mothership goes up instead of down, you have to replay levels. This means a Moai Head can appear.

[OtherPlanes]

You have to enter the worm from either 2-1 or 3-1, and leave into 2-4 or 3-4. If you enter from 2-1, you can't get the Black Market. Presumably, the Moai Head doesn't spawn in 3-4. Since the Mothership goes up instead of down, you have to replay levels. This means a Moai Head can appear.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but in XBLA I'm fairly certain the worm shows up outside of 2-1 and 3-1, and when you exit you simply progress to the next level; for instance, you find the worm in 2-1, go through the worm, and exit into 2-3.

[PyroZombie]

How about instead of decreasing the darkness, or brightening the torch by default, maybe add something to temporarily brighten the torch, something rare in the pot, in dark levels.

or perhaps collecting the golden scarabs, have that brighten the torch for a bit.

[Lagoon7]

How about instead of decreasing the darkness, or brightening the torch by default, maybe add something to temporarily brighten the torch, something rare in the pot, in dark levels.

or perhaps collecting the golden scarabs, have that brighten the torch for a bit.

I was thinking they could make Cobra's luminescent and boomerang guys have a torch attached to their mask in dark levels.

That way they can keep the rather awesome atmosphere of the dark levels and make it so that you got get utterly destroyed by things you couldn't possibly see.

[k0rruptid239]

cobras need no change since they make a very noticeable sound, boomerang guys however are completely silent.

so id agree with lighting the boomerangs up as they are more deadly that traps easily.

[Nathan Cash]

Lighting up the boomerang men is a great idea!

[Lagoon7]

cobras need no change since they make a very noticeable sound, boomerang guys however are completely silent.

so id agree with lighting the boomerangs up as they are more deadly that traps easily.

Some people play with no sound and listen to music (not me personally, but a few of my friends do). Audio should aid you, but not be required.

[Nathan Cash]

Its not required. Having it play would aid you. It does not take away any large game mechanic

[El Cuajinais]

In light of me being schooled in the ludicrous amount of money Microsoft asks for recertifying a game after a patch, the most important patch suggestion then becomes:

1.Work for at least 6 months on the patch so it is a mammoth patch. Gamers that passed on the game due to difficulty are not coming back due to a patch anyway so there is no rush. The more fixes/features  you can put in the better. Those gamers will take another look at the demo when the game drops to $5. (They can’t ignore the rave reviews, so this game will always be in their back burner).

As for gameplay patch suggestions, here is what I have:

2. I emphatically support all the claims that the darkness needs to be toned down. More so because you can’t carry another item while holding the torch. If the designer does not want to increase the torch radius, these are some other options to consider: A) The torch is carried on the other hand, when you press X you use/throw whatever you are carrying. If you are carrying nothing extra you throw the torch. B) All dark areas spawn a new shop type right next to the entrance. There you can buy 4 different tiers of a firefly matrix to be spread evenly throughout the level.  The most expensive one ($10,000) will create a matrix so dense that it would be similar to having a fully lit level. These fireflies emit a green glow to distinguish them from the original ones. They need to be differentiated because they net you considerably less gold. Each green firefly you collect gives you its equivalent cost back, so that if you were to collect them all after spending $10,000 you would recover the full amount back.  When you make a purchase, you see an animation of the fireflies spreading out evenly throughout the level. As they are spreading, they go through walls like the psychic blasts.

3. Again, I empathically support all claims that the shopkeepers should not be angered by stuff happening offscreen, and that have nothing to do with the player. Suggestions #2 and #3 fix what I feel are cheap deaths that the game unjustly dishes out at you. These issues  somewhat discredit the whole game. Kali should not be angered by non-player events also.

4. I really think the honeycomb and ice tiles should to be redone. They are too blocky and the art is poor compared to the rest of the game. They stand out as poor quality in an otherwise beautiful game.

5. A way to unequip/equip ANY piece of active equipment you own. Catcher’s mit and stickybombs especially.

6. Scepter and teleporter misfires should do 2 hearts of damage, not instakill. Otherwise all the effort that the developer put in creating these items was wasted because they will not get used.

7. Implement a post game summary: At the end of every run, a sideways bar chart animates to summarize the run. The bar starts at 1-1 and ends at 5-4. (To further taunt us players who will never see hell). Or it starts at the corresponding shortcut you took, but all 20 levels are always displayed. (this may require three horizontal lines, one for 1-1- to 2-4, one for 3-1 to 4-4, and one the last one for hell. As the bar is animating, you see how much $ and which items you picked up in each level. It also show $ spent and items that were left behind. Finally it shows the hearts, ropes, and bombs at the start and end of a level. Most likely it would take up the entire screen, but you would have a record to study your entire run. It would be the Spelunky equivalent of a play by play summary from  American football. These post game summaries can be saved to your hard drive and you can download the summaries from the leaderboard too.

That is all I have for now. Some of these changes make the game tiny bit easier, but I feel it they are just common sense.  So what if these changes make the ultra elite 1% percent of players complete the game more frequently? But it would give the other 99% of us more incentive to try to get to hell; because for the average gamer, at the moment the prospect of getting to hell seems so unachievable that we aren’t even motivated to try.

[Lagoon7]

1.Work for at least 6 months on the patch so it is a mammoth patch. Gamers that passed on the game due to difficulty are not coming back due to a patch anyway so there is no rush. The more fixes/features  you can put in the better. Those gamers will take another look at the demo when the game drops to $5. (They can’t ignore the rave reviews, so this game will always be in their back burner).

I agree, if micro$oft really does gouge hard on the cert pricing, then try to playtest the hell out of it and really get a lot done with it. You really don't want to have to patch the patch because of a single gamebreaking bug that snuck in.

I wonder if he could piggyback patches on DLC? Some optional stuff like more character unlocks and some more secret levels? I would personally love some more random events, and randomly appearing risk/reward places like shops/goldidol/kalialtar.

2. I emphatically support all the claims that the darkness needs to be toned down. More so because you can’t carry another item while holding the torch. If the designer does not want to increase the torch radius, these are some other options to consider: A) The torch is carried on the other hand, when you press X you use/throw whatever you are carrying. If you are carrying nothing extra you throw the torch. B) All dark areas spawn a new shop type right next to the entrance. There you can buy 4 different tiers of a firefly matrix to be spread evenly throughout the level.  The most expensive one ($10,000) will create a matrix so dense that it would be similar to having a fully lit level. These fireflies emit a green glow to distinguish them from the original ones. They need to be differentiated because they net you considerably less gold. Each green firefly you collect gives you its equivalent cost back, so that if you were to collect them all after spending $10,000 you would recover the full amount back.  When you make a purchase, you see an animation of the fireflies spreading out evenly throughout the level. As they are spreading, they go through walls like the psychic blasts.

No. This would make dark levels trivial, juggling two items to get through a dark level is what you are supposed to do if you want to keep your first item. The only thing that needs change is the multitude of things that can kill you out of torch viewrange. I also want to add scorpions to this list (the second you see them they are already attacking, and these guys move FAST when they attack) and the flying scorpion thing in the temple (name escapes me). These wouldn't be a problem in PC cause of the increased viewrange on the flares.

5. A way to unequip/equip ANY piece of active equipment you own. Catcher’s mit and stickybombs especially.

I can see how this would help, but at the same time, part of spelunky's charm is its simplicity.

6. Scepter and teleporter misfires should do 2 hearts of damage, not instakill. Otherwise all the effort that the developer put in creating these items was wasted because they will not get used.

Agreed somewhat, teleport misfires on your end should kill you, using the teleporter in the first place is high risk high reward. But getting telefragged by crocs shouldn't happen, sometimes its completely unavoidable (you have to take that path, the second the croc sees you he tele's into you, you die).

7. Implement a post game summary: At the end of every run, a sideways bar chart animates to summarize the run. The bar starts at 1-1 and ends at 5-4. (To further taunt us players who will never see hell). Or it starts at the corresponding shortcut you took, but all 20 levels are always displayed. (this may require three horizontal lines, one for 1-1- to 2-4, one for 3-1 to 4-4, and one the last one for hell. As the bar is animating, you see how much $ and which items you picked up in each level. It also show $ spent and items that were left behind. Finally it shows the hearts, ropes, and bombs at the start and end of a level. Most likely it would take up the entire screen, but you would have a record to study your entire run. It would be the Spelunky equivalent of a play by play summary from  American football. These post game summaries can be saved to your hard drive and you can download the summaries from the leaderboard too.

Agreed.

[livebyfoma]

I have two patch suggestions. Both might relate to it being more like "old Spelunky" and therefore dismissed, but I think they are reasonable enough still.

1. In the PC version, you would only grab a ledge/wall with climbing gloves IF you pressed towards the ledge or wall. I found this perfect since it was still intuitive/accessible from a control standpoint and gives you more maneuverability options. In the XBLA version, you grab any nearby ledges/walls no matter what you're pressing, even if you're holding down. I understand the reasoning behind auto-grabbing to make it more accessible and prevent less WHY DIDN'T I GRAB THAT LEDGE deaths with new players, but honestly, it has caused more mess ups in plans than it has prevented. There are times when I just wanna drop when I'm close to a ledge and I shouldn't have to grab the ledge first in order to do so. Like two tiki traps one tile apart, I should be able to jump and drop down the center into the exit door without hassle. Or if I have climbing gloves, I should be able to drop whatever length of wall I wish and then press towards it when I want to regrab instead of shimmying down the whole time.

Suggestion: A "classic-hang" or "precision hanging" option in the menu, or vice versa, an "easy hang" (the current system) that is on by default.

2. Item pickup priority needs tweaking. In Spelunky PC this was rarely an issue, but almost seems like the priorities were reversed for XBLA. If there was a knocked out caveman and a shotgun on the same tile in the PC version, you would pick up the shotgun. In Spelunky XBLA, you pick up the caveman. It's kind of humorous when I pick up a teeny tiny frog instead of a shotgun or a knocked out damsel, but it gets irritating, and in some positions, deadly. Think like a knocked out shopkeep and a shotgun at the exit, a small vertical shaft that is two tiles wide. It is almost impossible to pick up the shotgun and leave without the shopkeep waking and tearing you a new one if the two are close enough. Or in a tikiman village event, jumping on one to disarm him, then I toss his body around the small room several times just trying to get his damn boomerang, when it's common sense I intended to get the weapon in a vast majority of the cases.

Suggestion: Create a hierarchy of pickup priorities based on usefulness/value. I doubt it's random (it seems to prefer living things over weapons or objects, for example), but there are some no-brainers that it misses if you ask me. If not a patch, I'd at least love some insight as to how this is decided in the current build.

[Lagoon7]

1. In the PC version, you would only grab a ledge/wall with climbing gloves IF you pressed towards the ledge or wall. I found this perfect since it was still intuitive/accessible from a control standpoint and gives you more maneuverability options. In the XBLA version, you grab any nearby ledges/walls no matter what you're pressing, even if you're holding down. I understand the reasoning behind auto-grabbing to make it more accessible and prevent less WHY DIDN'T I GRAB THAT LEDGE deaths with new players, but honestly, it has caused more mess ups in plans than it has prevented. There are times when I just wanna drop when I'm close to a ledge and I shouldn't have to grab the ledge first in order to do so. Like two tiki traps one tile apart, I should be able to jump and drop down the center into the exit door without hassle. Or if I have climbing gloves, I should be able to drop whatever length of wall I wish and then press towards it when I want to regrab instead of shimmying down the whole time. Suggestion: A "classic-hang" or "precision hanging" option in the menu, or vice versa, an "easy hang" (the current system) that is on by default.

Agreed 150%! Also make it so that it is impossible to grab a two block or higher wall when your feet are still on the ground, there is no good reason to, and running against a wall accidentally while avoiding something can lead to death pretty easily.

2. Item pickup priority needs tweaking. In Spelunky PC this was rarely an issue, but almost seems like the priorities were reversed for XBLA. If there was a knocked out caveman and a shotgun on the same tile in the PC version, you would pick up the shotgun. In Spelunky XBLA, you pick up the caveman. It's kind of humorous when I pick up a teeny tiny frog instead of a shotgun or a knocked out damsel, but it gets irritating, and in some positions, deadly. Think like a knocked out shopkeep and a shotgun at the exit, a small vertical shaft that is two tiles wide. It is almost impossible to pick up the shotgun and leave without the shopkeep waking and tearing you a new one if the two are close enough. Or in a tikiman village event, jumping on one to disarm him, then I toss his body around the small room several times just trying to get his damn boomerang, when it's common sense I intended to get the weapon in a vast majority of the cases. Suggestion: Create a hierarchy of pickup priorities based on usefulness/value.

Agreed!

[k0rruptid239]

cobras need no change since they make a very noticeable sound, boomerang guys however are completely silent.

so id agree with lighting the boomerangs up as they are more deadly that traps easily.

Some people play with no sound and listen to music (not me personally, but a few of my friends do). Audio should aid you, but not be required.

I also play sometimes with music, but you can hardly use that as an excuse, if you choose to play music loudly so you can't hear anything in game.

I mean those sound cues are there for the very reason to help you in the dark levels, not using them you are only making things harder on yourself.

They will never attach torches to bats so you'll never be able to hear them coming, but again, that's your choice.

Whenever you see a dark level simply consider pausing the music you're playing. When you choose to do it you can hardly complain that it makes it harder.

[Nathan Cash]

I Love dark levels

[livebyfoma]

Bump because I secretly hope Derek will respond to my patch suggestions :x