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QCF Design Community • View topic - "Spike" definition ?


"Spike" definition ?

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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby Lujo on Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:11 pm

I almost got pwned by Shifty Brickwork!
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby Darvin on Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:31 pm

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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby Lujo on Fri Jan 31, 2014 7:36 pm

I almost got pwned by Shifty Brickwork!
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby flap on Fri Jan 31, 2014 10:08 pm

"salted popcorn", I like it.
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby FDru on Sat Feb 01, 2014 8:20 am

Buttered popcorn is better. I mean, the butter has salt in it anyway.
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby flap on Sat Feb 01, 2014 8:32 am

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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby FDru on Sat Feb 01, 2014 12:25 pm

Well I would consider spiking to be simply expending a not-insignificant amount of resources to do a lot of damage in a short amount of time (like Reflex + Dodge + Strength potion damage spikes) or sailing through several levels at once.

So you have level spiking and damage spiking, but everything else is more or less normal progressive play and doesn't count as spiking. Or else it just gets confusing...
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby Lujo on Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:47 pm

^ Agreed :) (what's below is not confusing, I hope, even though it's a bit long)

"Spiking" and "Striking", are two different things. This might be what's confusing Dislekcia about it - Spiking is a game phase. It describes a time period (potion spike = time I stop hording them and turn them into damage). Thinking in terms of efficency and spiking helped me look at the game as a whole. There are basicaly 2 phases in the game:

- "The setup" - where you scout, gather piety, slow monsters, convert stuff, stack stable buffs (resists, damage, mana), explore, move monsters around, set up for whatever.
- "The execution" - ("Spike" for short) which is when you turn resources into damage. You have small ones for leveling, and big one for the boss fight. If you're efficcent enough you only truly spike for the boss fight (if even then).

But the spike can include many different actions: munching popcorn for a level up, converting for piety, casting buffs, regenerating either health or mana while the fight goes on, picking up boons... Striking implies the act of doing damage, the spike is rather a phase where your actions are guided towards damage on the boss (or whatever) rather than setup (because you have the whole resource fund / transformation plan set up at that point).

But both setup and spike are part of every run. You don't have to be a "spiker" to spike - even tanks spike at some point, it's just that their efficency is high enough that they don't burn as much resources as others do. A resist stacker makes his health "worth" more, translate into damage better, a healthmonster gets more health to get more damage at a worse "conversion rate". So the resistance stacker is more about efficcency, and a healthmonster is more about overwhelming and obstacle by throwing health at it.

The reason I originaly came up with it (though I didn't invent the term "spike") was because DD has a ton of features. Learning about them one by one and thinking of them as stuff that you need to learn individually was giving me trouble because it created fake "comfort" zones where I'd feel comfortable with a class but uncomfortable with another class which plays in a very simmilar fashion. Or I just feel overwhelmed. Understanding that whatever you play the game plays along the same lines as long as you can clearly see your objectives helped. "Kill the boss" is too general, "What can this class go for?", "What's this race good for?", "How does this god help me explore/level/kill the boss?", "What level do I start the boss fight at (when do I spike?)", "What is the least number of resource types I need to pay attention to?" whish leads to the very important:

"What's my endgame with this race+class+badge setup?". I played a LOT od PQI. You need to understand what a god is good for, what a god is bad for and exactly how a god helps you kill something. And what sinergizes with it. So when PQI requirements cut you off from stuff, you can bypass it with a god, but you need to know what PQI cut you off from. Parched Halfling = no potion spike. My CP and potions are denied. How the devil do I spike? GG piety spike uses potions and CP as fuel - ha, gotcha! Elf Monk? My human/orc damage boost is denied, but I'll have a mana pool, which gods have a mana spike? Mystera, or EM! Miser fighter, no shops to boost my blandish class features and nothing to spend gold on? Prep crystal ball and TT, dump gold into help for the XP spike (and a use for health potions :) )

I also played a ton of endurance runs (VGT and NC). How to understand when and why to join / convert out of a god? Why leave a piety farm? Because he/she doesn't help you with the spike you're looking for. Why join Drac last? Because he needs remarkably little setup - get piety with Taurog, stack up your resists to get your health worth more, convert and spike like a boss. Why stick with Binlor to the end? Because he has a health spike in Stoneskin! Why leave JJ eventually? He's more setup than spike. When can you ride Mystera for the whole game? When your only plan is a mana spike anyway and everything she has helps...

It's just a way of clearly looking at resource management with the end game in mind. "Spike" and "Spiker" doesn't mean anything very specific by itself, it's just part of a graph. It's how you plan to cause it, or even being aware of all your options and their sinergies that gives it meaning.

Q: "For reason whatever I'll have an excess of A, what allows me to turn that into damage?"
A: "Whatever uses A to fuel a spike, or helps a spike fueled by A."

So the term is more useful as a plan, a method. An "X spiker" = someone who prioritizes fuel/setup for X spike during prep/setup time or has an easy time setting one up for execution. Or even no choice but use it. It's only an action in the after-action report :D
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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby dislekcia on Sun Feb 02, 2014 8:14 pm

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Re: "Spike" definition ?

Postby Darvin on Sun Feb 02, 2014 9:24 pm

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