darkSpyro

Whenever a new Skylanders game comes out, a major complaint often stated is that the new corelanders will not work in previous games. Now, starting with Swap Force, what if there was...

Some sort of Volcanic Vault-like piece, only it's a true expansion. The game has coding that allows it to receive the data stored in the expansion. What is the precious data in this?

The data to be able to accept newer Skylanders. To keep things from getting too complicated, it would not include the ability to upgrade them in the shop (but they would still retain their upgrades when back-ported). Back-ported (TM :P) Skylanders would still retain their upgrades, and could gain coins and XP, but again, could probably not be upgraded while back-ported (TM).

This expansion would need to be pretty big, but the size of the top of the new 3DS portal would likely be enough (it'd probably at least an inch high).

All succeeding games after this could have this mechanic, (to a degree, probably wouldn't go beyond 2 or 3 games at most), Back-porting (TM!), and I think people would be willing to pay quite a bit to have forwards and backwards compatibility. Perhaps the characters with the killer new mechanic wouldn't be included, but the normal corelanders aught to be!

If this is used, I forsee a Skylanders: Time Cross!

More info coming soon.

^ awesome!

I would definitely be interested in this.

I'd gladly pay a small fee for a device to allow previous skylanders to bridge over into new versions with all of the capabilities of their latest incarnations---problem is this would kill their character sales. And the biggest critics would be the shareholders. Don't see this happening.

BUUUTTTT-----

Having an expansion pack like Infinity's playset that EXTENDS the current game with additional content (like the adventure pack--but more pervasive) would be a sure fire hit. Problem is, these RFID readers can't store data of this magnitude---it would almost have to be a download from the store and then it gets exposed with the playset addition.

I for one think their games need to be longer, and/or they need to continue providing content months after the game is released...the only thing the character controls is the character's content--but no game content. We need adventure packs on the next level really. Imagine an adventure pack that adds 20% more content to the game---NOW we're talking. Better yet, like someone else said--expose additional content based on number of newlanders you buy---that would help justify the cost of these buggers--provided the content was large enough.

Looking at the OTHER side, I can also see MORE critiques for this because they'll say "well, this content should've been just included with the game"---so the content would have to have individual merit outside of the main campaign. Kinda like Ada's mission in the RE series. Parallel content, but separate.

^ better and more adventure packs.

Would you be willing to pay $30 for it if it adds another 10 hours of gameplay to the game and can use all of your skylanders? I know I would!

Well seeing as how starting with Swap Force all the main games will be for the PS£, 360 and Wii U, all consoled that support patching, they could always offer a patch in the games when the next game is released. The Wii version will be left in the dust though, but seeing as how it's being developed by a different company then I don't see that as being too big of a loss.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Would you be willing to pay $30 for it if it adds another 10 hours of gameplay to the game and can use all of your skylanders? I know I would!

I'd probably do 40$ lol

Quote: Nroc-Nuika

Well seeing as how starting with Swap Force all the main games will be for the PS£, 360 and Wii U, all consoled that support patching, they could always offer a patch in the games when the next game is released. The Wii version will be left in the dust though, but seeing as how it's being developed by a different company then I don't see that as being too big of a loss.

I'm more than annoyed about some of the glitches in the PS3 version of SSA that should've gotten patches but didn't.

Quote: Nroc-Nuika

Well seeing as how starting with Swap Force all the main games will be for the PS£, 360 and Wii U, all consoled that support patching, they could always offer a patch in the games when the next game is released. The Wii version will be left in the dust though, but seeing as how it's being developed by a different company then I don't see that as being too big of a loss.

and that is why I bought a Wii U.

you're unnecessarily limiting your idea.

let's take a theoretical Skylanders 4 character. Let's call her Lava. Lava has 2 basic skills, 4 upgrades and then 2 paths of 3 then a soul gem for a total of 13 possible skills. Now let's take Lava back into SwapForce using the proposed expansion that allows new characters in older games. The RFID chip on the toy has the information stored about which of the 13 skills the character has. The expansion would need to include:
the character mapping
variations of the character skin based on which upgrades are selected
animation for all 13 skills
a way to egister progress in the characters individual quest

since all skills and all skins for the character would have to be there anyway, there is no reason at all that buying upgrades wouldn't also be available.

I'm not shooting down your idea at all. I'd love for there to be a way to take newer 'Landers into older games (I can foresee some issue with Giants in SA or Swappers in Giants however - perhaps this would only work for corelanders whose basic functions would already be part of the earlier game code). For this to truly work, Activision would have to allow true downloadable content since it would impossible to have future skylanders as DLC, and I sadly, don't see that happening.

I'm kinda pissed that the enemies and the attack damages are way higher than Skylanders giants, much harder to compare.

Ok, here's a short of idea I had been thinking about to allow for backward compatability or atleast be able to make it to where Activision (or whoever makes the games) to come out with new Characters/new levels. However, it'd be based on Internet/DLC.

Basically, Activision will have like a server or whatever you'd call it on the internet for the games. They update this server with all the extra levels/adventure pack and characters. Then they'd launch the new toys/adventure packs. When you get it when you put it on the Portal of Power for the first time, It'd check the internet for they data needed, like character model or level design ect. THen bring it into the game. So it'd work similer to DLC but instead of downloading the entire "new" collection of characters it'd only download the characters you add through the toy.

Example: Say you have a new skylander named Lava (Yes using the same as above), Before Activision releashes it they'd update their server with all the data for the Characters. Then they'd releash the Lava toy for people to buy. Then say you purchase the Lava toy. You'd take it home and place it on your portal of Power. Then the game will notice it's a new figure, so It'd go online for the information on Lava, download it, then proceed to bring the Lava into your game.

So that's one way I thought of. For some new characters types, like lightcore, the game could also download the new stuff. But like said earlier some characters, like Giants and Swap force, would be a little harder with backward compatibility.


But they main problem is simply you must have internet access... with PS3/4 and Wii U and 3DS, it's not much of a problem since wifi is free... but with Xbox Live you have to pay for it.

Also, Non-Japanese Asian-bought consoles (I'm aware that a good deal of consoles aren't authorized for sale in China, but that doesn't stop anyone!) can have some... problems using Wi-Fi (as in, it can seriously mess with your system). Games that rely on it really get on my nerves, as I can't use it. That's what's nice about skylanders, like Pirate Seas, you get DLC-like content without requiring Wi-Fi or a credit card.

I would love it - but sadly, I think the data-transfer rate and the amount of data that can be stored makes the idea impossible. I think it's more likely that patching would be the way forward.
I'm holding out hope for a Spyro's Adventure HD at some stage, the older game with newer graphics and all the new models.

When I saw this I thought it would be pretty cool if you had to go into the previous games to complete some of the objectives.

I've been thinking that a better idea for "annual"-ising the franchise than releasing a new game every year would be a digital only DLC expansion for giants (or swapforce) along with an update that supports a small wave of ten or so new characters.

Seems like that would strike a nice balance between keeping interest up, and flooding the market.

I'd like to see MORE games every year.
I have thirty characters sitting there, let me use them in as many games as I can!

I really want the 3DS games to come out on PSN/XBLA.

I think DLC is a good idea. The adventure packs are only one level. They claim that "Instead of buying new games, you can get adventure packs to expand your adventure!". But that isnt enough. The games need more built in levels.

DLC wouldn't be a great idea, think about Wii owners. They would be left due to the Wii's hardware limitations on DLC.

I know, that's why this eliminates the need for DLC!

What if they remade the entire collection of games, only with improved graphics, and the ability for all of the new core Skylanders to be played with in SSA, SG, and SSF!

Well, there'll probably be a 5 or 10 year anniversary game or something. Of course there had better be some new content because I'm not going to pay a ton of money just to have giants in SSA.