Return prep gold after crash?

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Return prep gold after crash?

Postby stufff on Thu Dec 27, 2012 10:01 pm

I've been getting a lot of crashes today, and while absolutely understandable due to the game being in beta, I'm wondering if it would be possible to mitigate the annoyance it causes by returning gold used to prep for the dungeon after a crash.

Every time the game crashed today I got kicked back to town with no gain from my time in the dungeon but I lost the gold I used to prep for the dungeon, which seems unfair. It seems that if I'm going to lose all progress I made I should at least be compensated by having my prep gold returned to me (and in the event I consumed one of the items, I shouldn't have to pay to restock it in the fighter's guild.)

I'd think this would be possible by keeping a snapshot of my gold and items prior to starting the dungeon and returning to that state in the event of a crash.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby dislekcia on Sat Dec 29, 2012 11:16 pm

Unfortunately an approach that allowed players to return to a previous game-state would also allow players to scum for successful runs - closing their browser windows when they felt they were going to lose in order to avoid the gold spent on preps being "permanent". We can't really tell the difference between that sort of thing and a crash, unfortunately.

I understand that losing progress to a crash is annoying, but crashes aren't intended behavior ;) We'll nuke them all as soon as we can.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby Almost on Sun Dec 30, 2012 9:04 pm

Regardless of whether the game crashed or was closed, you could theoretically record the state of the dungeon every so often (every time you level up, as an example), and restore to the last saved state when the game starts up, which would allow people to quit in the middle of a dungeon and it would also allow crash recovery.

Such a dungeon state would be removed and no longer usable after you leave the dungeon or after you die, so it can't be used to undo too much.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby harfatum on Mon Dec 31, 2012 6:16 am

I think the reasoning there is that you could quickly explore the dungeon, screenshot it, and then close the browser. When you restored, you'd know exactly where to go, defeating the whole "dark unknown dungeon" mechanic.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby FDru on Mon Dec 31, 2012 7:22 am

And I say if people want to cheat, that's their loss. Let's not make it everybody else's as well, eh?

Lost about 2000g from crashes yesterday and I'm pretty annoyed. Yes, you'll eventually fix most of the crashes (maybe?) but it's quite unfair for something that's (probably) a simple fix.

At least do it for the actual official game crashes that redirect you back to the kingdom screen.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby Lujo on Mon Dec 31, 2012 11:05 am

I see where Dislekcia (and the rest of the devs, I guess) is coming from, and agree in principle, but there is something else to consider which needs more elaboration.

When the recent crash plague started I allready had PQI and the burning dungeons unlocked, and the only reason my game didn't break down completely was because I was able to grind them purist. With the influx of newbies the holidays brought (I've seen more "Wow, this game's awesome!" posts then I've seen in a while), theres a bunch of people getting their economy hit by the bugs, and gold management is a big deal for newbies and for the general gameplay. I've given up on profiles that've run out of gold before, but in case of a lot of people I can see them giving up on the game for months or for real due to a crash plague. Also, it's one way for a game to get a bad word of mouth, even if it's just a temporary thing - "Game's not playable ATM, better spend your money elsewhere and check it out later", all that jazz...

Now, I'm not askig for a faux savegame feature, but if we allready have a screen that sayes "Oh, no! Shit crashed!", maybe you could add the function to restore gold to the "Return to kindgom" button on that pannel. That way the only way to "cheat" would be to actually get the crash - so if you have any Balkaneeze trolls looking to exploit it - they'd be tryign to replicate the bug. And if a random troll can do it, chances are good any of the crazy vets can, and we've been known to whine about stuff that can be seen as mataphorical exploits. This would be a litteral exploit, so we'd be quick to report it.

Anyway, please do this. You'd have trolls trying to replicate crash bugs, and you'd also remove what is probably the biggest objective annoyance with the game. If it were possible, I'd say I've lost about as much gold on crash bugs then I've earned in my career.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby ChasGB on Sat Jan 05, 2013 9:24 pm

Yeah I keep crashing on Shifting Passages as a sorceror. It' literally brought my gold from 2,800+ down to 1. Even having done the Horatio quest chain, the prospect of doing a lot of purist grinding just to be be able to attempt Vicious dungeons for the first time is daunting.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby harfatum on Sat Jan 05, 2013 10:07 pm

Shifting Passages has always been the most crashy level for me.
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby dislekcia on Mon Jan 07, 2013 9:18 am

We can probably just give you some gold if the game crashes...
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Re: Return prep gold after crash?

Postby Lujo on Mon Jan 07, 2013 10:21 am

Would be very wellcome. As long as we only get gold/refunds for crashes, we'd either not give up on the game during crashstorms (as I have recently), or go around actively trying to replicate bugs.

I'd prefer refonds if in any way possible - and I guess you guys know what you are talking about on that subject. However, if there is a way to store the "gold you went in with" ammount somewhere where a crash wouldn't kill it, and link the button on the crash screen to give you that ammount back it would probably work out better than (al less exploitily) than a fixed ammount would.

EDIT: And I've had a lot of crashing happen in Ick Swamp and Naga City (allthough I think I never crashed in the Naga City lower level). Staying away from slowing effects in general seemed to help 100%, if it's any help.
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