I'd like to start this topic by saying that I really like playing Game of Crowns. It's been one of my favorite things to do in Glitch since a couple of months after I joined almost a year ago. I've recently completed all the badges for it, yet I find myself playing GoC more than ever before. I kinda like it this way. No pressure. Just fun. No more anxiously wondering "Will I finally get to 100003 seconds today?"
So it's fairly safe to say that GoC is a topic that I'm passionate about. This is why I'm here on behalf of the Game of Crowns group, to appeal to Tiny Speck something that has recently begun to grieve us. Yesterday, members of the group began to notice that triple jumps were no longer working in Game of Crowns. At first, I thought it was just a random thing, until today, everyone in a four-player instance confirmed they had the same issue. I've never reported a GoC bug before. It's so full of bugs, and I'd imagine these reports would be duplicates; people have been complaining about them for ages. And most of these, we've worked around. But this one fundamentally affects our gameplay style and strategy, and it's new, so I figured I should report it. I did, and was then informed that this is the new intended behavior. The idea is that it makes GoC fair by allowing everyone to have the same abilities regardless of purchased upgrades. And this is an admirable goal. But I think TS has gone about it the wrong way. Allow me to explain why.
Here in Glitch, we don't have many options as far as movement is concerned. Which is just fine for practically every other element of the game. But in Game of Crowns, the more elements with which we can use in our strategies, the more fun it is. Triple jumping was a pretty major thing for us. It allowed for all kinds of strategic maneuvering, and GoC feels a little watered down without it.
I'm not entirely sure I understand the logic which was used to determine this "standard" set of abilities. Triple jumps seem like the only thing that's been changed (as in removed completely). But I think there's four walk speed upgrades and four jump height upgrades, and if anything, those each have been knocked down only one increment in GoC. I don't think new players leave the tutorial with no triple jump and three each of the walk speed and jump height cards (then again, I haven't actually gotten to try the new tutorial, so I could be wrong here; please correct me if I am). Considering this, disabling the triple jump in GoC seems a little... arbitrary, at least to me.
Additionally, I won't dwell too much on this one, but GoC being insurmountable for new players is a bit of a moot point. After all, hasn't TS gone to great lengths to make sure new players don't unknowingly step into GoC not knowing what they're getting into, which is why the only two booths in the game are in fairly obscure locations? Furthermore, I have all the upgrades in question, and I've still been systematically beaten by a player who was lacking a few of these. This change won't really make a difference in who wins the games; it just takes a lot of the fun out of GoC.
Finally, I'd like to propose a solution that was discussed in group chat earlier (and actually long before this; back when we first heard things like movement speed upgrades were a future possibility). What we'd like to see is for any player in Game of Crowns to behave as though he or she possesses all movement/jump upgrades while playing GoC. This would both reflect the case most common among GoC players, and allow us to enjoy the maximum opportunity for use of strategy. It would also allow GoC to be fair for everyone, as all players would then be on an equal level, and winning would fall as it should based solely on the skill and dedication of the players involved.
-- Signed,
Concerned members of the Game of Crowns group