These are just some ideas I've been thinking of while cruising through the Spiral. I love this game, my favorite of the two KI games, and would love to see it flourish and prosper. So, without further adieu, here they are:

Quest Locator
Now, anyone that's played Wizard101 will know where I'm going with this. Since the worlds and zones are vast and time-consuming to traverse, it would be very helpful if we had a Quest Locator identical to the one in Wizard101 implemented here. If I'm not being clear enough, it's that option to go to your Quest log and click on "Find Nearby Quest" to see if you're missing any. This will help tremendously with leveling, time management and even the dreaded leveling of Companions (if you've missed a few side quests that granted Training Tomes). This is by far my biggest issue with the game at the moment.

Faster Companion Recovery (Membership Benefit)
We all know that agonizing feeling when your ace Companion is wiped out by 'too-smart' AIs, leaving us in a bit of a bind: wait forever for them to recover so you can continue or swap them out with a less-favored Companion (and cancel their current order if need be). For someone like me who favors the Bucc class, those who know about Kobe Yojimbo will agree with where I'm going. I run him cautiously, currently have Rough, Agile, Accurate and Tough on him and give him Valor's Fort (whatever it's called) ASAP to boost his longevity, but alas none of that will save him if hit with a few good criticals. That's the price we pay for a glass cannon, my favorite glass cannon. So where am I going with this? I'll cut to the chase: Members should have an added minute of recovery time equivalent to their level. Meaning? Example: A level 65 Kobe will take 65 minutes to recover. No more, always less if you take him to the doc. The Member's benefit would be cutting that time in half, meaning a level 65 Kobe would only take a little over 32 min to recover. I find that to be much more reasonable than a couple hours of recovery time, and it still carries a sharp penalty to the player should they send their Companion(s) off recklessly. An added bonus: you're promoting more Memberships as well.

Pet Orders
Yes, I'm well aware the pet system is still new and anything can happen with it, not to mention we don't want to have too much control over our pets otherwise the game becomes too easy/unbalanced. And I agree with all of that. My suggestion is more of a compromise between reliability and control. Our pets will still retain their 'random' attacking system while in combat, but allow us to tell them what ability to use next time they choose to use an ability. Or flip flop it, allow us to choose their target while they choose which ability to use. I honestly favor the latter, now that I think about it. It is your pet after all, you trained it, so shouldn't it listen to you? Otherwise, wouldn't it just be some stray thing you picked up along the way and called junior?

What do you all think?

Nightblood1995 on May 21, 2015 wrote:

These are just some ideas I've been thinking of while cruising through the Spiral. I love this game, my favorite of the two KI games, and would love to see it flourish and prosper. So, without further adieu, here they are:

Quest Locator
Now, anyone that's played Wizard101 will know where I'm going with this. Since the worlds and zones are vast and time-consuming to traverse, it would be very helpful if we had a Quest Locator identical to the one in Wizard101 implemented here. If I'm not being clear enough, it's that option to go to your Quest log and click on "Find Nearby Quest" to see if you're missing any. This will help tremendously with leveling, time management and even the dreaded leveling of Companions (if you've missed a few side quests that granted Training Tomes). This is by far my biggest issue with the game at the moment.

Faster Companion Recovery (Membership Benefit)
We all know that agonizing feeling when your ace Companion is wiped out by 'too-smart' AIs, leaving us in a bit of a bind: wait forever for them to recover so you can continue or swap them out with a less-favored Companion (and cancel their current order if need be). For someone like me who favors the Bucc class, those who know about Kobe Yojimbo will agree with where I'm going. I run him cautiously, currently have Rough, Agile, Accurate and Tough on him and give him Valor's Fort (whatever it's called) ASAP to boost his longevity, but alas none of that will save him if hit with a few good criticals. That's the price we pay for a glass cannon, my favorite glass cannon. So where am I going with this? I'll cut to the chase: Members should have an added minute of recovery time equivalent to their level. Meaning? Example: A level 65 Kobe will take 65 minutes to recover. No more, always less if you take him to the doc. The Member's benefit would be cutting that time in half, meaning a level 65 Kobe would only take a little over 32 min to recover. I find that to be much more reasonable than a couple hours of recovery time, and it still carries a sharp penalty to the player should they send their Companion(s) off recklessly. An added bonus: you're promoting more Memberships as well.

Pet Orders
Yes, I'm well aware the pet system is still new and anything can happen with it, not to mention we don't want to have too much control over our pets otherwise the game becomes too easy/unbalanced. And I agree with all of that. My suggestion is more of a compromise between reliability and control. Our pets will still retain their 'random' attacking system while in combat, but allow us to tell them what ability to use next time they choose to use an ability. Or flip flop it, allow us to choose their target while they choose which ability to use. I honestly favor the latter, now that I think about it. It is your pet after all, you trained it, so shouldn't it listen to you? Otherwise, wouldn't it just be some stray thing you picked up along the way and called junior?

What do you all think?

For the faster companion recovery, I wouldn't mind it if the current times stayed the same (around 6 hours) and was halved for member, (3 hours), but I wouldn't go much lower then that.

As for pet orders, I would like if we could just tell them where to not move so they dont mess certain things up.

Duke of Westminste... on May 22, 2015 wrote:

Yeah, especially the pets with the eagle eyes talent that you just want them to stay still next to your musketeer. Only one suggestion, sometimes you don't have enough time to order you and your companions. The timer goes out right before you can make that final click. Making pet's kind of like companions might be too much. I think there should just be three commands.

Stay - This order obviously makes your pet not move

Attack - Pet attacks any random opponent. (Like they do now.)

Come Back - Wherever your pet is on the battlefield, they try to get to you.

*Note - these commands would only last for the round so in the next round you could either do the command again or pick a different one.

I feel like this would be more balanced. Maybe that could add doubloons that grant you special orders to your pet. For example:

Throw me a bone - Click a specific target or square in the range of your pet and your pet will go there or attack whoever is on it.

I like it! That's an excellent idea! Simple yet very effective!

Nightblood1995 on May 24, 2015 wrote:

I find the recovery times to be a little too steep, I could compromise and go as low as 1 1/2 or 2 hours but still, that's a long time when you're trying to quest, and very debilitating to boot. Kobe is my heavy hitter, and since Buccs have very few Companions (compared to the other classes) you can run out of Companions pretty quickly. Also, keeping the level to recovery ratio 1:1 means Companions around the very high levels (in the future) like 80 will already have 1 1/2 hours to recover for members, 3 hours for Crowns/Free players. At the higher levels, where cheats make things a lot more tedious, losing your star Companion for practically the whole day pretty much means you're done progressing/playing, which forces players to leave the game until their Companion returns (or to go farm for gold to manually revive them).

But, I do like your thinking. Having a more set recovery time (3 hours for members when a Companion is over level 50, 6 for Crowns/Free players) makes the recovery time table more stable and eliminates the "Kobe leveled! Crap that also means he has another half/full minute to recover" mindset. I honestly find a little over half an hour (for the current lvl 65 Companions) to be pretty reasonable, considering the bosses you'll be fighting and difficult worlds you'll be in. Maybe they can reinstall the Life Fountain Companion heal factor from back when the game first released, but reduce the number of Life Fountains available to only the 'main hub' of each world?

I disagree with such a short recovery time. I think 2-3 hours is reasonable. The recovery time is almost like a "punishment" for using your companions wrong. I understand I'm still of a relatively low level but you should be forced to learn multiple strategies and ways of coping. I also like being able to instantly heal my pirate when I'm at a life fountain instead of scrounging for wisps/yum. Just my take.
-Sarcastic Samantha Kirk, Level 30 Musketeer

Yes, Max Degroot, the best thing for pirate101 people to do right now is to come out with the next update. At least give us some hints of what will be coming up. Like a picture or just some words, so we can figure it out.

Max DeGroot on May 25, 2015 wrote:

Frankly, the best thing that can be done to improve the game is to release a new world.

I agree, but not just a new world; we need new things to do as well. Adding in the Crafting or Gardening system(s) along with a new world would be great; it would keep most of everyone occupied. Considering how long the game has gone without any new content, I wouldn't be surprised if KI releases a huge update that satisfies everyone's hunger for a long while. We'll just have to be patient and see XD

Nightblood1995 on May 21, 2015 wrote:

These are just some ideas I've been thinking of while cruising through the Spiral. I love this game, my favorite of the two KI games, and would love to see it flourish and prosper. So, without further adieu, here they are:

Quest Locator
Now, anyone that's played Wizard101 will know where I'm going with this. Since the worlds and zones are vast and time-consuming to traverse, it would be very helpful if we had a Quest Locator identical to the one in Wizard101 implemented here. If I'm not being clear enough, it's that option to go to your Quest log and click on "Find Nearby Quest" to see if you're missing any. This will help tremendously with leveling, time management and even the dreaded leveling of Companions (if you've missed a few side quests that granted Training Tomes). This is by far my biggest issue with the game at the moment.

Faster Companion Recovery (Membership Benefit)
We all know that agonizing feeling when your ace Companion is wiped out by 'too-smart' AIs, leaving us in a bit of a bind: wait forever for them to recover so you can continue or swap them out with a less-favored Companion (and cancel their current order if need be). For someone like me who favors the Bucc class, those who know about Kobe Yojimbo will agree with where I'm going. I run him cautiously, currently have Rough, Agile, Accurate and Tough on him and give him Valor's Fort (whatever it's called) ASAP to boost his longevity, but alas none of that will save him if hit with a few good criticals. That's the price we pay for a glass cannon, my favorite glass cannon. So where am I going with this? I'll cut to the chase: Members should have an added minute of recovery time equivalent to their level. Meaning? Example: A level 65 Kobe will take 65 minutes to recover. No more, always less if you take him to the doc. The Member's benefit would be cutting that time in half, meaning a level 65 Kobe would only take a little over 32 min to recover. I find that to be much more reasonable than a couple hours of recovery time, and it still carries a sharp penalty to the player should they send their Companion(s) off recklessly. An added bonus: you're promoting more Memberships as well.

Pet Orders
Yes, I'm well aware the pet system is still new and anything can happen with it, not to mention we don't want to have too much control over our pets otherwise the game becomes too easy/unbalanced. And I agree with all of that. My suggestion is more of a compromise between reliability and control. Our pets will still retain their 'random' attacking system while in combat, but allow us to tell them what ability to use next time they choose to use an ability. Or flip flop it, allow us to choose their target while they choose which ability to use. I honestly favor the latter, now that I think about it. It is your pet after all, you trained it, so shouldn't it listen to you? Otherwise, wouldn't it just be some stray thing you picked up along the way and called junior?

What do you all think?

"Rough, Agile, Accurate and Tough"
Scrapper, anyone?
I give all companions Scrapper. It is one of the top talents.

PRIVATEERJACK10 on May 26, 2015 wrote:

"Rough, Agile, Accurate and Tough"
Scrapper, anyone?
I give all companions Scrapper. It is one of the top talents.

Yes, Scrapper is an option. However, that's also taking up a valuable slot for some other stat booster. Kobe (for example) is a pain to keep alive even with Tough added, and the more you 'up' a stat the better. I would give him Scrapper, but he's just too weak and defenseless for me to invest in that route. If I hit the max on those four stat boosts, then I most likely will start putting Scrapper on him (and all other Companions for that matter) but until then I don't see how it would be plausible on him.

Good point, though! I understand that having Scrapper on your Companions can help, but I see that as a waste of a slot (for me). I generally give every Companion 4 stat boosters, once those max out (I have no clue when I'll reach the Rank 6 version of those) I plan on giving them Scrapper to the max. Until then, though, it's a 'grit and bear it' scenario.

Nightblood1995 on May 25, 2015 wrote:

I understand, and I'm glad we have life fountains (such a life saver, literally XD), but with my Bucc at level 25 and a level 24 Kobe getting ganged up on (literally, he's ALWAYS generating more threat than me, even though I have Loud 1) every time I enter a fight. I, as stated, run him cautiously and he's built to kill before the threat has a chance to strike (which is really the only optimal way to run him, in my opinion) but even then he is so squishy it's embarrassing. There are plenty of Swashbuckler companions that have a much better lifespan than Kobe, with better armor and even better dodge than him (mine hardly dodges/blocks at all) but he continues to be my main heavy hitter, simply because he's the only good heavy hitter I currently have. When he's KOed (which is normally out of my control, since he usually has all enemies flocking to him) it takes him about 40 min if not more to recover, and I need him in my questing. I could wake him, and make my life harder by trying to keep a now weakened glass cannon alive, on top of completing the mission at hand, or I could waste precious gold reviving him (which will add up quickly, and is not easy to get at this point in time as I can't farm Friar Sand yet).

I completely understand, and I honestly agree; we don't want to make losing a Companion too light of a penalty. But we shouldn't make it too heavy either. 2-3 hours, at the level cap, I can dig that; having to wait that long when trying to progress through the story, not so much. I mean, it's already difficult to keep all your Companions near your level so as to replace them when one falls, adding in the recovery times and you've got a real mess there.

You point out that you kobe "hardly dodges/blocks at all". perhaps a way to remedy this would be to teach him "dodgy" as opposed to accurate.

Voodoo Cornelius on May 26, 2015 wrote:

You point out that you kobe "hardly dodges/blocks at all". perhaps a way to remedy this would be to teach him "dodgy" as opposed to accurate.

I would like to thank you for your suggestion, Kobe is definitely surviving better, though I switched up my strategy with him and started playing him as a kind of one on one fighter. Kinda difficult since he generates way too much threat, but the challenge is pretty nice so I have little quarrels there. Thank you!

FireMorgan13 on Jun 7, 2015 wrote:

Quest Locater: I can see why people would like that, but it's not something I'd use often unless I could search by reward, which would kinda remove the sense of adventure, but it's just a personal preference.
Pet Orders: I like the idea of the commands posted by the Duke. If they activate powers, I think the pet should activate the powers randomly upon attacking.
Faster Companion Recovery: This always comes up sooner or later. As it is, the recovery seems perfectly reasonable to me. I don't like it, but I understand why KI did it. It's punishment. If they didn't make it that long, you'd have no reason to train your other companions. The developers at KI spent a lot of time and effort on those companions, so to only use a handful all the time feels like a waste of effort making the other companions(Idk what they were thinking with Nurse Quinn, but that's for another time).
I understand glass cannons. I am a glass cannon. Many of my companions are (Sarah Steele, Fan Flanders and many more I won't tell you for sake of spoilers).The key is knowing their limitations. When they reach red or low orange health, pull them out of the line of fire and heal if possible. If not, keep them out of combat. If they pursue him, attack the enemy with other units. If this sounds ridiculous, the alternative is paying Miracle Mitch arm plus leg.

Fearless Dolan Grant lvl65

I'm a completionist, so I like to have every available quest completed. The locator (I think) was originally created in Wiz for that very reason, and since it's an option it doesn't really effect anything (adventure) as it's just a tool to be used when needed/wanted. I do understand your pov though, and even agree with the 'search by reward' idea, that would be very handy.

I understand why the recovery times are the way they are, I'm stating that it's a double-edged sword; yes it punishes you for being reckless with your companions but at the same time if all your companions are down and out then the player will most likely just quit the game until they revive. Yes, it's the player's fault but you're also losing valuable players. Maybe if we had more to do on the side there'd be no issue? If we had Crafting/Gardening/Fishing etc then that gives players plenty to do while waiting for their companions to return. As of right now, PvE and PvP is really all we have to keep us all 'happy'. Maybe a temporary 'fix' until later?

I'm a Bucc, I know how glass cannons (cough cough Kobe cough cough) work. They're meant to sneak up on an enemy and take them out quickly in a 1v1 setting. The big problem isn't the fact that they're 'too squishy', if they weren't they'd be way too OP, it's the fact that they draw way too much attention to themselves. I have like 40% threat generated at a constant basis and Kobe still gets targeted first over me, no matter if I attack first or not. It's really annoying, kind of makes the whole threat boosting talents worthless. I get that glass cannons generate a lot of threat cuz they hit like a semi, but they have the lowest accuracy in the game which makes landing those devastating blows extremely difficult. Add in their low health and armor and all they have in their favor is their dodge, which isn't guaranteed to always activate. Maybe if the glass cannons all got the Peaceful talent to reduce their threat by default they'd work a lot better?

FireMorgan13 on Jun 8, 2015 wrote:

I think I missed your problem earlier and I apologize severely for the misunderstanding. Now that I understand your issue, I agree. They do need some reduce threat from the start. I think that the AI are programmed to go after Swashes first due to their flimsiness and damage output. I, unfortunately, cannot give much better advise than I did earlier. I can only say perhaps have Kobe attack, then have a unit with hold the line move a space in front of Kobe to finish the enemy(illustration below). However idk how helpful that will be honestly. Crafting and Gardening would be great while waiting for companions to come back. Here's hoping the best for you in your future sailing.

X H
K

X-enemy
K-Kobe
H-Hold the Line

It's all good, I do appreciate you giving your time to help though! Your input is valued and greatly appreciated!

Yeah, I can understand the whole 'Swashes are assassins gotta take them out first' AI mindset, I mean I personally go after Swashes first too, then Privateers/Musketeers and I normally save Witchdoctors/Buccs for last since they're typically easy to take out. I run Kobe, Toro and Peter Quint (might switch him with Gortez soon) so I understand the need to keep them alive. I tried using Ratbeard, but his play style just doesn't suit my own.

Thanks for your suggestion as well! I'll be sure to give it a try here soon! Best of luck and wishes to you and your adventuring too, my friend!

Nightblood1995 on Jun 8, 2015 wrote:

I'm a completionist, so I like to have every available quest completed. The locator (I think) was originally created in Wiz for that very reason, and since it's an option it doesn't really effect anything (adventure) as it's just a tool to be used when needed/wanted. I do understand your pov though, and even agree with the 'search by reward' idea, that would be very handy.

I understand why the recovery times are the way they are, I'm stating that it's a double-edged sword; yes it punishes you for being reckless with your companions but at the same time if all your companions are down and out then the player will most likely just quit the game until they revive. Yes, it's the player's fault but you're also losing valuable players. Maybe if we had more to do on the side there'd be no issue? If we had Crafting/Gardening/Fishing etc then that gives players plenty to do while waiting for their companions to return. As of right now, PvE and PvP is really all we have to keep us all 'happy'. Maybe a temporary 'fix' until later?

I'm a Bucc, I know how glass cannons (cough cough Kobe cough cough) work. They're meant to sneak up on an enemy and take them out quickly in a 1v1 setting. The big problem isn't the fact that they're 'too squishy', if they weren't they'd be way too OP, it's the fact that they draw way too much attention to themselves. I have like 40% threat generated at a constant basis and Kobe still gets targeted first over me, no matter if I attack first or not. It's really annoying, kind of makes the whole threat boosting talents worthless. I get that glass cannons generate a lot of threat cuz they hit like a semi, but they have the lowest accuracy in the game which makes landing those devastating blows extremely difficult. Add in their low health and armor and all they have in their favor is their dodge, which isn't guaranteed to always activate. Maybe if the glass cannons all got the Peaceful talent to reduce their threat by default they'd work a lot better?

The only thing I'd like to add to this is, when you mention Glass Cannons, I'm fairly certain Old Scratch definitely fits into this category too, am I right? At level 62, with maxed out Tough, I feel like a good thing would be to give him a higher base Health, or to add Rank 5 to talents in the next update. Don't get me wrong, he's fun to use, but with him dying all the time he doesn't give me much reason to use him. I currently have Mojo Echo 2 [Relentless] and Improved Mojo Blast 2 [Which is the same radius as A BARRAGE WHICH IS INSANE] so he definitely has potential, but he doesn't have much survivability.