darkSpyro

That preview was cool, but wow how cheap is it to recycle the previous characters in there instead of putting more characters in this game? They have Dune Bug, Grim Creeper, and even some of the Swap Force there, but not Thunderbolt, Trail Blazer, Cobra Cadabra or even Short Cut in that preview. Like come on we saw the poster and it's only six weeks til the game comes out.

Quote: GhostRoaster617

That preview was cool, but wow how cheap is it to recycle the previous characters in there instead of putting more characters in this game? They have Dune Bug, Grim Creeper, and even some of the Swap Force there, but not Thunderbolt, Trail Blazer, Cobra Cadabra or even Short Cut in that preview. Like come on we saw the poster and it's only six weeks til the game comes out.

They still haven't "Officially" revealed any of those characters yet. If the the characters are on the website, then they are "Officially" revealed.

Artwork of BlasterMind from Skylanders Trap Team loading screen.

Video Link:

Quote: spyrocrash

Artwork of BlasterMind from Skylanders Trap Team loading screen.

Video Link:

He looks kind of... eh? He's probably my least favorite Trap master. Also confirmation that you only need 8 traps.

Watch the video it shows slam bam and the villain vault!!!

Is that a Kaos Mode option on the "choose play" screen to the left of the story option? Assuming that the right option is the PVP mode.

Edit: Actually, I think that unknown gate is more interesting. I would assume it was cut out for the demo, but I can't help but feel that if they recorded dialogue for it that we might not see what it is at the launch of the game. It might be provided by an update a few months after it's launch.

But, it does confirm that the unknown skylanders in the unknown elements are trap masters.

Edit II: Actually, no, what am I talking about. Then we'd have a character poster with unknown skylanders on it.

Lots of firsts for me:
1. First time an elemental gate was opened in Trap Team on video
2. Unknown Trap Master....wwhhhuuuu?
3. Seeing Slam Bam and Flashwing in game play
4. Loading Screens (might be demo)
5. Villain Vault (loading and seeing villains
6. Number of stars in Story Mode is 100

Huh curious now. Now this is a mystery that needs to be answered. What is an unknown element and who are these unknown element Skylanders?!

It would be interesting to know that anything in ? means you can't play or find them until the NEXT TIME you play the game, or in Kaos mode. -Or- this is a timed release for later in the year and they are locking EVERYTHING out related until then. (I hope their Xbox file system security is good hehe)

Man, that video actually got me less excited. I'm becoming more curious about Kaos Mode now (wouldn't it be awesome if it were a completely different storyline, from the villains' view? ), but I still dislike the idea of a ninth Element and I don't like how the level design seems so similar to Giants'.

.....everything i know is wrong

Quote: Arc of Archives

Man, that video actually got me less excited. I'm becoming more curious about Kaos Mode now (wouldn't it be awesome if it were a completely different storyline, from the villains' view? ), but I still dislike the idea of a ninth Element and I don't like how the level design seems so similar to Giants'.

I actually was very much hoping for that in a traditional figure sense, but if it's even a hint of that I'll admit that might make some additional purchases warranted. I'm still distancing from the element concept for now.

Gameplay and level design and how we interact with the environment is long overdue for a bottom up re-design. It's officially lipstick on a pig at this point. Maybe the destruction of Cloud Cracker prison will mean dark times ahead for Skylands and the entire bright, sunny environment we've been exploring should not come to an end. Bigger worlds that force us to interact between them to solve puzzles would be appreciated. If Super Mario Galaxy can do it, so can Skylanders.

From a story standpoint, I'd love Activision to have the fortitude to end the game on cliffhanger note, to be continued in another game. It worked great for Star Wars V, why not this game? They should consider introducing multiple story arcs and concluding some but not all since they are churning these out in a yearly fashion.

I forgot to mention in my last post, somehow: they got rid of the feature from SF where there would be gold where collectables you got used to be! There's supposed to be a treasure chest next to the first soda vat



but the spot is completely empty in that playthrough, so they must have collected it. Bummer. It made it worthwhile to explore areas you already had when revisiting levels in SF.

Im guessing the '?' Gate is for villains or Kaos. I guess we'll find out in 6 weeks.

Edit: Never mind just saw the text at the top.

Maybe the unknown trap masters are what those question marks are at the top of the poster.

As much as I'd like to think that the unknown Trap Master gates are due to the ? boxes on the poster, I am not going to get my hopes up and just say that it's probably a gate where you have to place a Trap Master that it specifically wants in order to open it. That's fine and all, but I'm hoping it has to do with the two boxes on the poster that have ? in them.

Man I hope GM78's idea is correct and they go "pokemon" with the trapped villains and make it a main stay concept. I would be more than happy to drop some coin on more traps and actually spend time upgrading them. It just stinks that I probably will not know until like March 2015 for sure, but I'm just not willing to support any money at all to traps if they are a one and done. Since they've never shied away from ensuring future support before it just sends up red flags.

I agree which is why we need an answer. Maybe GothamLord can re-tweet Lou on this point and say we need some 'splainin.

Quote: GhostRoaster

I agree which is why we need an answer. Maybe GothamLord can re-tweet Lou on this point and say we need some 'splainin.

That would be REALLY appreciated!

Great idea, GhostRoaster!

Also can i just add,
Does the dark edition come with the regular poster unlike swap force when we just got the big one that the stickers wouldn't fit on.

By thoughts on this game might be real
One thing is I think kaos mode might be a more harder mode or a mode where you can only play as kaos
Another thougt is that maybe you can go back to certain levels and trap a villain you didn't trap
Also they should have a battle mode where one player is skylander and the other is a villain
Also maybe kaos mom might be trapable

^ I do in fact believe that this "Unknown Trap Master / Element" is either on replay or only after the game progresses to a point or a certain character gets registered.

i just heard when you hit pause and go to the menu in trap team. you will now find all the traps. you say you only need 8 but activision is trying really hard, to remind you about all the traps your missing and need to buy.

Quote: GhostRoaster

^ I do in fact believe that this "Unknown Trap Master / Element" is either on replay or only after the game progresses to a point or a certain character gets registered.

I would doubt it's a registration thing as the gates are still elementally aligned and you only need a Trap Master of a specific element rather than specific Trap Master. For example, having played the demo, there's a Traptanium Elemental Gate which I couldn't unlock as we didn't have a Trap Master of that element, but it didn't show anything like the message being shown in this video. I think these gates are bound to the hidden characters on the poster and that TfB have some cool stuff still up their sleeve.

I think that both this mystery/unknown gate and the mystery/unknown figures are represented by black and white question marks, and that the official response when asked about it appears to be the same, it's highly likely that the two are related. Assuming they are related, then it would make no sense for the mystery figures to be classifiable in one of the existing elements. I wouldn't say that means we have a new element though, as they could easily create a character without an element. I also think it would be unlikely for them to create a previously unknown character, since they could fit a new character into the existing element scheme, they certainly have stretched the boundaries before. So I'm thinking it's either a known villain (chaos, glumshanks, etc) or it's one of our NPCs (Flynn, Callie, etc).

It feels like Activision is pulling out all the stops on this version, throwing in minis and tablet version being examples. They aren't saving ideas for later if they can possibly fit it into the game. Making some of the NPCs and making them playable wouldn't surprise me.

I'll give them full props on the tablet version (our tech geeks at VV are continuing to shine in my opinion), but everything else has been more of the same. Only now, when there's less than 10 characters left, do we REALLY have something to talk about.

Not to bring my Ermit Dark Evil Cloud into the mix, here's the "pull out all of the stops" they've given us:

• Great character designs, but too many to collect - double SSA's count (check)
  
• New trap mechanic that compels over 30% of added new cost to game if you buy one for each villain (check)
  
• Standard level romps (check)
  
• Reheated game elements to go with reheated skylanders (check)
  
• Gimmick is underwhelming compared to last year (check)
  
• Still missing features fans requested and competitors have (check)
  

Their mis-steps both in lack of communication and giving out FLAT OUT BAD information has been the franchise's lowest point; I hope this catapults them over the top, but I think that's putting all of my eggs in a basket. So to say they're "pulling out all the stops" is a little overzealous. I do appreciate the element of mystery here, no doubt. But I think it will underwhelm us. After all, we've been told that they have a GAME CHANGER. Nothing to date has been even close to that statement than perhaps this.

As Palpatine said (paraphrased), "I'll be watching with great interest" to young Anakin. As will I as the final veil of mystery unfolds...and maybe the folks that care about replay and game modes can get more scoop in the next 60 days. Honestly, that's all I ever wanted. I know their toys are awesome, I know the game is generally fun....it's the stuff that I need to know to help justify the cost that keeps being avoided.

But is there two new elements as it appears the two lots of question marks on the poster. This means that there is two trap masters and two cores for these two question mark areas on the poster.

I don't think they have a game changer left to share, I think the game changer is capturing and playing as the villains. That may seem old hat at this point, but that announcement was pretty massive. I genuinely think kids are going to love it.

Quote: GhostRoaster

I agree which is why we need an answer. Maybe GothamLord can re-tweet Lou on this point and say we need some 'splainin.

I tweeted him yesterday and he answered all other questions except mine, not good! The old ignore it and hope they go away.

Quote: GhostRoaster

I'll give them full props on the tablet version (our tech geeks at VV are continuing to shine in my opinion), but everything else has been more of the same. Only now, when there's less than 10 characters left, do we REALLY have something to talk about.

Not to bring my Ermit Dark Evil Cloud into the mix, here's the "pull out all of the stops" they've given us:

• Great character designs, but too many to collect - double SSA's count (check)
  
• New trap mechanic that compels over 30% of added new cost to game if you buy one for each villain (check)
  
• Standard level romps (check)
  
• Reheated game elements to go with reheated skylanders (check)
  
• Gimmick is underwhelming compared to last year (check)
  
• Still missing features fans requested and competitors have (check)
  

Their mis-steps both in lack of communication and giving out FLAT OUT BAD information has been the franchise's lowest point; I hope this catapults them over the top, but I think that's putting all of my eggs in a basket. So to say they're "pulling out all the stops" is a little overzealous. I do appreciate the element of mystery here, no doubt. But I think it will underwhelm us. After all, we've been told that they have a GAME CHANGER. Nothing to date has been even close to that statement than perhaps this.

As Palpatine said (paraphrased), "I'll be watching with great interest" to young Anakin. As will I as the final veil of mystery unfolds...and maybe the folks that care about replay and game modes can get more scoop in the next 60 days. Honestly, that's all I ever wanted. I know their toys are awesome, I know the game is generally fun....it's the stuff that I need to know to help justify the cost that keeps being avoided.

Admitted, pulling out all the stops is probably too strong a phrase. I meant to imply that some of the features, like mini's, could have been held out to the next version. The could have made mini the whole gimmick instead of making it an extra gimmick.

As far as the gimmick being underwhelming compared to swap force, I disagree. I really didn't get much out of the swapping gimmick at all, and really only used it to get through dual gates...and it was annoying to have to do so. I think I'll like traps much better.

Not exactly sure what features you're referring to, or who you are considering their competitors. If you mean DI, there isn't really anything in that game that I'd want in Skylanders, as far as I can tell. I am only used to the wii version of DI 1.0, so I don't have much to work with their. There are some features I would like to see in Skylanders, like online features, absolutely true. I'm not going to say that they have failed by not providing that data, as I really don't know what marketing data they have, or what their cost structure is.

I've been down for the count for medical reasons. I'll give it a whirl later this weekend again if no one manages to get any headway. As many have said though, Lou has his hands tied in some of the things he can and cant say. If he can spin an answer, like a politician to say a bunch of words and still not really answer he will. If he cant come up with anything at all, then he's likely to ignore it completely.

@Mel: Experimenting with different character abilities was pretty awesome. Loading a character into a read/write portion of an RFID chip on a plain looking piece of plastic...meh. I will say the sheer NUMBER is staggering, but I think most will be forgettable villains. I respect you like this gimmick better, ymmv.

Quote: GothamLord

I've been down for the count for medical reasons. I'll give it a whirl later this weekend again if no one manages to get any headway. As many have said though, Lou has his hands tied in some of the things he can and cant say. If he can spin an answer, like a politician to say a bunch of words and still not really answer he will. If he cant come up with anything at all, then he's likely to ignore it completely.

@GL: Sorry to hear that--Hope everyone is doing ok and feeling well. Thanks for attempting to get some answers.

Quote: GothamLord

I've been down for the count for medical reasons. I'll give it a whirl later this weekend again if no one manages to get any headway. As many have said though, Lou has his hands tied in some of the things he can and cant say. If he can spin an answer, like a politician to say a bunch of words and still not really answer he will. If he cant come up with anything at all, then he's likely to ignore it completely.

That again is what scares me, why would his hands be tied if they were following precedent and supporting them in the future? If you asked if you can use Trap Masters in future games I bet you get an answer.

Doesn't seem like there's anything too interesting to discuss about TT right now, aside from the search for answers (I agree it's worrying), so I'd like to raise the issue of online multiplayer.

I wrote a post about it: //forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...78&post=5268102

How big of an issue do you guys think it is? The lack of online doesn't completely ruin the games for me, but does make me much less interested in replaying them, and it'd probably be big enough to sway me into buying a Skylanders game with it.

Quote: Arc of Archives

Doesn't seem like there's anything too interesting to discuss about TT right now, aside from the search for answers (I agree it's worrying), so I'd like to raise the issue of online multiplayer.

I wrote a post about it: //forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...78&post=5268102

How big of an issue do you guys think it is? The lack of online doesn't completely ruin the games for me, but does make me much less interested in replaying them, and it'd probably be big enough to sway me into buying a Skylanders game with it.

There are two reasons why we don't have online yet:

1. The Wii version. The Wii doesn't exactly have online that matches the level of the PS3, PS4, XBox 360, XBone, or even the Wii U. They have the whole philosophy of making every version being almost exactly the same, so releasing a version of the game that's missing a major feature wouldn't slide with the,.

2. It's a game for kids. This is the most obvious one. Kids like that don't really understand online, but the biggest risk is safety. Having online would mean that thousands of kids would be interacting with people they don't know, and some of those people include pedophiles. There's a reason why some parents don't want their kids going on the internet for a long time, and having that in a game meant for kids would probably not result in nice thins.

Quote: Bionichute

There are two reasons why we don't have online yet:

1. The Wii version. The Wii doesn't exactly have online that matches the level of the PS3, PS4, XBox 360, XBone, or even the Wii U. They have the whole philosophy of making every version being almost exactly the same, so releasing a version of the game that's missing a major feature wouldn't slide with the,.

2. It's a game for kids. This is the most obvious one. Kids like that don't really understand online, but the biggest risk is safety. Having online would mean that thousands of kids would be interacting with people they don't know, and some of those people include pedophiles. There's a reason why some parents don't want their kids going on the internet for a long time, and having that in a game meant for kids would probably not result in nice thins.

I see #2 brought up all the time but I can't fathom why they don't allow pre-made messages to be exchanged like Skylanders Universe allowed you to do. There was nothing wrong with those online interactions because people couldn't exchange messages with each other. Or even then, they don't need to have messages especially since I would assume the online functions would mostly be a battle mode.

As for #1, I think we'll maybe see the Wii version disappear for the Skylanders 5 so hopefully that'll allow them to do some more things by not having to focus on that version of the game.

The only bad thing about online (which I don't necessarily want badly, but wouldn't mind having) is that it depends on what you have. Say you have have an Xbox 360/One, and you want to play with a friend. Though, he has a Playstation 3/4. Then what?

@Bionichute I honestly think for online they should make an exception for the first. I heard some areas/collectables were missing from SF Wii (though haven't played it myself), so that wouldn't be a new thing either. And I think they'll drop the Wii version for 5 as well (though I wouldn't be surprised if they kept it).

I agree with the second; I'd argue parents should just supervise when their kids use the net, but I don't think that'd be very fun and they'd be busy anyway. Don't have much to say about creepers, because you can't really stop them unless you already know about them.
Plenty of games kids play like Mario Kart already have online, though. I don't know if creepers are a big issue on them and they start contacting kids playing through their NNID/XBL/PSN. I already went over what I thought could improve with online in my other post, and I honestly think some kids would play and enjoy online, and that overall it'd offer a lot to the game.

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: Arc of Archives

Doesn't seem like there's anything too interesting to discuss about TT right now, aside from the search for answers (I agree it's worrying), so I'd like to raise the issue of online multiplayer.

I wrote a post about it: //forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...78&post=5268102

How big of an issue do you guys think it is? The lack of online doesn't completely ruin the games for me, but does make me much less interested in replaying them, and it'd probably be big enough to sway me into buying a Skylanders game with it.

There are two reasons why we don't have online yet:

1. The Wii version. The Wii doesn't exactly have online that matches the level of the PS3, PS4, XBox 360, XBone, or even the Wii U. They have the whole philosophy of making every version being almost exactly the same, so releasing a version of the game that's missing a major feature wouldn't slide with the,.

2. It's a game for kids. This is the most obvious one. Kids like that don't really understand online, but the biggest risk is safety. Having online would mean that thousands of kids would be interacting with people they don't know, and some of those people include pedophiles. There's a reason why some parents don't want their kids going on the internet for a long time, and having that in a game meant for kids would probably not result in nice thins.

To add a third point..

3. Hackers. Online games are flooded with them. We still have no clue what hackers could do to their characters (presumably the typical health hacks and damage output ones), or what they could do to the Portals/figures of other players.

Quote: Rickorio

The only bad thing about online (which I don't necessarily want badly, but wouldn't mind having) is that it depends on what you have. Say you have have an Xbox 360/One, and you want to play with a friend. Though, he has a Playstation 3/4. Then what?

I believe Cross-Platform Online Multiplayer is possible but it's not used a lot as far as I know/what I've heard. I think generally the companies try to keep it between their own systems. If I remember right, I thought I heard that Cubemen 2 was going to utilize it.

I apologize if this has been mentioned or heard before but Funny Bones catchphrase is "I have a Bone to Pick".
Thought I'd put that here.

Quote: skylanderkids

I apologize if this has been mentioned or head before but Funny Bones catchphrase is "I have a Bone to Pick".
Thought I'd put that here.

no, that's new. tthanks!

@Matteomax Good point. I still think it'd be better to have the option, because you could play with people you knew were legit, although you could get tricked by people who might ruin your figure...

And another point nobody rasied yet, which I disagree with: trolls removing their figure from the Portal/disconnecting their Portal. This could be punished by kicking the troll from the match if they do it more than once or have the toy/Portal disconnected for too long, or it could give the player being trolled an option to quit if they've been hanging for 15 seconds or so. There would still be people who remove the Portal/Skylander to troll, but they could put some limit on that.

Activision has a ton of experience implementing online services to their games so they could do it if they wanted to.

The kids and online safety excuse is a cop out if you ask me, DI and Minecraft both have online play and there doesn't seem to be any huge crisis there.

Quote: Arc of Archives

Doesn't seem like there's anything too interesting to discuss about TT right now, aside from the search for answers (I agree it's worrying), so I'd like to raise the issue of online multiplayer.

I wrote a post about it: //forum.darkspyro.net/spyro/vi...78&post=5268102

How big of an issue do you guys think it is? The lack of online doesn't completely ruin the games for me, but does make me much less interested in replaying them, and it'd probably be big enough to sway me into buying a Skylanders game with it.

That was invariably what I was speaking in my comment above...but I've killed that horse.



Quote: skylanderkids

I apologize if this has been mentioned or heard before but Funny Bones catchphrase is "I have a Bone to Pick".
Thought I'd put that here.

How apropos. But the bone we're picking isn't being listened to. I still recall how you and Rob @ CoinOpTV lamented the lack of this feature. You have to admit the huge sinking feeling when you heard this.

Quote: Zylek

The kids and online safety excuse is a cop out if you ask me

ymmv, but I agree. No need for people to step in front of Activision to support why it isn't there. Time for them to consider ch-ch-ch-changes and turn and face the strain.

So, using deductive reasoning, I'm going to assume that this guy:



Is a Doom Raider. I say this for a few reasons. The first reason is because we don't have a magic Doom Raider yet, and if a Troll in a jetpack can be water, then this guy can be magic.

But my more logical reasoning comes from looking at the achievements. If you look at the achievements, you'll notice that all the Doom Raiders (Besides Gulper) are separated by a normal level or two. The only two Doom Riders who go beyond having one level separating them are Dreamcatcher and Krankcase, who each have two levels to separate them, but then there's the Golden Queen who apparently has 4 levels separating her from Wolfgang. Another thing I noticed is that each group of levels also has a theme, which I will list off:

Gulper: Field
Chompy Mage: Mountains
Chef Pepperjack: Sky
Dreamcatcher: Water
Krankcase: Forest
Wolfgang: Time(?)
Golden Queen: Desert

If you look, you'll notice that there is an outlier there, with some sort of military/rocket theme going on, right where that bird is placed. Of course, I could always be completely wrong.

Another thing I noticed was that all the wooden robots like Shield Shredder, Scrap Shooter, and Krankenstein, are probably Krankcase's minions, due to two of the appearing on his set of levels.

Quote: Bionichute

So, using deductive reasoning, I'm going to assume that this guy:



Is a Doom Raider. I say this for a few reasons. The first reason is because we don't have a magic Doom Raider yet, and if a Troll in a jetpack can be water, then this guy can be magic.

But my more logical reasoning comes from looking at the achievements. If you look at the achievements, you'll notice that all the Doom Raiders (Besides Gulper) are separated by a normal level or two. The only two Doom Riders who go beyond having one level separating them are Dreamcatcher and Krankcase, who each have two levels to separate them, but then there's the Golden Queen who apparently has 4 levels separating her from Wolfgang. Another thing I noticed is that each group of levels also has a theme, which I will list off:

Gulper: Field
Chompy Mage: Mountains
Chef Pepperjack: Sky
Dreamcatcher: Water
Krankcase: Forest
Wolfgang: Time(?)
Golden Queen: Desert

If you look, you'll notice that there is an outlier there, with some sort of military/rocket theme going on, right where that bird is placed. Of course, I could always be completely wrong.

Another thing I noticed was that all the wooden robots like Shield Shredder, Scrap Shooter, and Krankenstein, are probably Krankcase's minions, due to two of the appearing on his set of levels.

Hmmm....that's actually a pretty convincing theory....but what about that eye-hand guy?

Quote: Rickorio

Hmmm....that's actually a pretty convincing theory....but what about that eye-hand guy?

He's probably just an unannounced normal villain, due to him appearing right before Dreacatcher's level.

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: Rickorio

Hmmm....that's actually a pretty convincing theory....but what about that eye-hand guy?

He's probably just an unannounced normal villain, due to him appearing right before Dreacatcher's level.

Though what element would he be in?

Quote: Rickorio

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: Rickorio

Hmmm....that's actually a pretty convincing theory....but what about that eye-hand guy?

He's probably just an unannounced normal villain, due to him appearing right before Dreacatcher's level.

Though what element would he be in?

Definitely Magic. We're still missing 8 dudes, so it's not a stretch to say that each element will have around 5 villains.