darkSpyro

So a few people have said this (me included). A lot of people will be very unhappy if you cant use your trapped villains in Skylanders 5.
So I was wondering what would peoples thoughts be if in Trap Team your swappers lost their Swapability?

For example you can play as Blast Zone and Wash Buckler but not as Blast Buckler and Wash Zone.

I for one would not be too happy, I guess that if they keep Swapability in Trap Team then surely they should carry forward the traps for use in Skylanders 5.

What's your thoughts guys?

Don't swap them anyway honestly.

Wouldn't care.

And considering your "trapped" guys don't level, not much is lost.

I think activision has painted themselves into a corner. At some point it will be impossible to incorporate all previous gimmicks. Its going to be a rough spot for them the first time this happens.

Personally, I'm not overly concerned about traps moving forward.That is the draw for this game, and I can enjoy the game as a self contained unit. Hopefully the next game will have an even cooler draw that makes traps a moot point.

I've seen people discussing Swappers not being able to Swap, but isn't that simply a matter of coding? The Top/Bottom halves each have their own identifier chip right?

The coding for the current characters already exists, to transfer it to Trap Team would take much effort for professional coders.

I assume that the next time the game changes engine, we will no longer be able to play as swapped characters like Trap Buckler, the nightmare fuel that he is. I would actually be ok with this, but if we are ever unable to play as a complete toy character I'm done with the series. I would be pleasantly surprised if we can play as villains in Skylanders 5, but wouldn't be surprised if they turned some of the more popular villains into full Skylanders. The worrying thing I heard was in one of the interviews they said that all of you can play as all of your skylanders for one more year.

I dont think that would be a problem. I'd assume that as each game goes on, the power of the reader in the portal gets stronger, so its probably not a problem for the game to read swapped characters.


As for playing as Villains, I would highly doubt that that sort of functionality will carry over to the next game. Same way with the traps. If they have to come up with a reason, it'd probably be that "you returned them all to the jail and then everything is better in Skylands" or "all the previous villains went off to make their own league of Skylanders. Contextually, the plot of one game usually doesn't seem to carry over into the next game. Literally the only thing that's constant seems to be the character's personalities (aka, Flynn, etc) and usually whatever vehicle/hub they were at (ie, in Giants Flynn left the Core of Light and hopped into the Ship; in Swap Force, Flynn's ship crashes into the island until its fixed)

The reading of the swap force characters won't be the problem, it would be having to remake the animation technique that they talked about that would make any of the top and bottom halves look good together, as long as they use this engine they can just copy it over, but a new engine would require them to code it again, and I doubt they would want to put forth that effort for that result

Quote: talon4000

but a new engine would require them to code it again, and I doubt they would want to put forth that effort for that result

Skylanders would suffer from Pokemon Syndrome. It probably took them forever to port over the previous 600 some Pokemon over in old Pokemon games, but with XY they had to painstakingly remake every single Pokemon, AND give them special animations for certain parts.

If Skylanders doesn't it'd just be lazy to be honest. I mean, I can see a spot maybe down the road where certain figures wont be playable (Volcanic Vault has not worked in the last 2 3DS games, Im not sure if it unlocked anything in SF either) but I think they'd end up with too much backlash if that every happened.

Can't they just copy and paste the swap data?

Why wouldn't you be able to swap? I expect we won't see any issues as far as the next 3 games. I suspect there will be something you can buy to add functionality of the traps in Skylanders 5.

Quote: talon4000

The worrying thing I heard was in one of the interviews they said that all of you can play as all of your skylanders for one more year.

They can't keep using the same ones over and over so there's a big possibility they are going to change everything to the point of making a new skylanders series in general to start fresh. With over 200 + by the time trap team hits that is a lot of data to be read and recognized. The constant uses of new portals per game is going to wear thin. Companies love to cut corners for more profit so expect a great dumping of figures in sales after trap team if they do that.

By the time they change engines skylanders will have gone the way of guitar hero and rock band.

I hope we will be able to swap. I want to be able to use Nitro Magna Shift to make the game easier. But why wouldn't they make the characters swap? Remember people, this game was revealed later than the previous games. They may have done this to give TFB extra time to code older characters into the game.

Fpr $10-$15, I need future compatability, period.

I fully expect to be able to Swap characters.
- Unreall

Quote: talon4000

The worrying thing I heard was in one of the interviews they said that all of you can play as all of your skylanders for one more year.

That is something really interesting to know. Could you please post the lik to that interview? Not doubting you, just wanting to see the whole thing.

On topic, I dont think the trap crystals would make it to the next game. And thats ok, I have no problem with the traptanium thingy being only for this game. Also, depending on the gimmick they will add on the next game, maybe it wont need a new portal. Maybe it even works with a simpler portal, like the swap force one. It would be good for those who choose to skip Trap Team.

IF the next one still backwards compatible, it is.

I know we all want backwards compatability, but I wonder how much of the new game is played with old characters. Personally, SSA characters got very little play time in Giants. In Swap Force, I've pretty much only used the new characters. The old characters pretty much only get used when all the kids from the family come over for a skylanders PVP tournament.

That having been said, if my figs from previous games become completely unusable I will be very angry, possibly to the point of quitting the series (hypocracy?). If the reason they aren't usable is becouse the system has been overhauled and the new figs offer advanced capabilities I might be able to live with that. I don't know being unable to recombine swap force characters would matter to me though. In my mind, the spell would have been broken (or whatever), and they have returned to normal. Giants would be a different story.

Quote: Psychomancer

Quote: talon4000

The worrying thing I heard was in one of the interviews they said that all of you can play as all of your skylanders for one more year.

That is something really interesting to know. Could you please post the lik to that interview? Not doubting you, just wanting to see the whole thing.

On topic, I dont think the trap crystals would make it to the next game. And thats ok, I have no problem with the traptanium thingy being only for this game. Also, depending on the gimmick they will add on the next game, maybe it wont need a new portal. Maybe it even works with a simpler portal, like the swap force one. It would be good for those who choose to skip Trap Team.

IF the next one still backwards compatible, it is.

I looked for it again, but unfortunately couldn't find it, I don't think that the next one won't support the old toys, it just was slightly worrying when I heard that. I think that it was an interview with Eric Hirschberg, but I'm not sure

Yeah, I don't think that the next one will be when the backwards compatibility ends. Maybe on skylanders 6 or 7.

DaMadNes, about playing with old characters, I use them a lot. More than the new ones, in truth. In Giants i used the new ones too, got all of them, but on swap force I almost don't use the new guys.

And even planning on getting trap team (really excited with it) I don't plan on getting many of the new guys. Unless there are something like the heroic challenges of the first two games to unlock.

I use my old characters LOADS! Most of my favourite Skylanders are the dragon Skylanders from SSA, since i don't have enough money to buy reposes of characters I already have. When backwards compatibility ends, Im out!

Ok, so in one of the first interviews that Family gamer dude had with that director dude on the sticky thread here (sorry for all the unknown names.) But he said that they will continue to use backward compatability. But it'll go back as far as they think is reasonable (or something to that extent.

Like perhaps eventually, a game will come out, where all the S1 figures from S:SA won't work. and ect.


So, as for another thing, I think the topic person was refering to comparing, not being able to use the traps in the next game, in a way that similer to if you couldn't swap in TT or any game afterword.

Though granted, i believe that as long as you can still use the swapforce, they'll still be able to swap.

However, it's sounding like Swap Zones, will not be in the TT. Which is a bit sad cuz I like them. But even with Giants, how now you can't use their 'special features' (like the chain pulling thing) They Won't completely remove it's use.. as in they'll still be something in the game that you'll need that particular brand of Skylander to use. (like the giant chests in SF)

that being said, you can bet the Traps will be used in the furture games, but to what extent? we don't know yet.

They may even give us some villains we're allowed to capture and use for each game.


Besides, we still don't know the full extent of how the traps work coding wise.

Example. Say you trap the Chompy Mage with your Life hammer trap. Then you go to a friends house. Will the coding still register that Chompy mage is in the trap? Or 'is what villain is in the trap' code is actualy kept track of in the game/save file/Profile.

With that being said, they could still give you access to additional or other villains you can use in furture games, not nessisarly the same villians. Even if it's just 1 of each element now.

In one of the videos, the beefy Activision presenter guy with the beard clearly stated that you'd be able to trap a villain and then take the crystal over to your friend's house and play as that villain. It might have been the launch presentation video, not sure which one exactly.

yeah, that was in the launch presentation