darkSpyro

Quote: CountMoneyBone

you know what, i think the next skylanders game will be a reboot and they ditch everything old... and activision dont care, there are always new kids that discover the game.

why would they do that

If they did that, it would actually lose customers. Customers that have gotten invested in the series. Customers who have spent well over 1000 dollars on the series. Doing something like that would completely destroy brand loyalty. Everything you say is completely stupid.

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: CountMoneyBone

you know what, i think the next skylanders game will be a reboot and they ditch everything old... and activision dont care, there are always new kids that discover the game.

why would they do that

If they did that, it would actually lose customers. Customers that have gotten invested in the series. Customers who have spent well over 1000 dollars on the series. Doing something like that would completely destroy brand loyalty. Everything you say is completely stupid.

This. A lot of kids (and not only) are already sucked in this franchise.
What other customers you think they would find, if they actually dropped all te already existing characters?
The ones that say this series sucks?

Oh, yes... Really logical.

they said they cant support the older figures forever, so at one point they will need to reboot it. you have 4 games to enjoy and play the olders in by now, it isnt that bad.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

they said they cant support the older figures forever, so at one point they will need to reboot it. you have 4 games to enjoy and play the olders in by now, it isnt that bad.

I think they might just end up removing some of the gimmick characters like the Swap Force and Giants. Core characters will probably keep going until the 7th game, at least, but the Swap Force is way too complicated to keep in for very long.

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: CountMoneyBone

they said they cant support the older figures forever, so at one point they will need to reboot it. you have 4 games to enjoy and play the olders in by now, it isnt that bad.

I think they might just end up removing some of the gimmick characters like the Swap Force and Giants. Core characters will probably keep going until the 7th game, at least, but the Swap Force is way too complicated to keep in for very long.

i dont think they will just drop a few, that will just be confusing for everyone...

I haven't heard they couldn't maintain the roster forever...only that it's challenging. I've heard more complaints out of TfB than VV at this point.

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: CountMoneyBone

they said they cant support the older figures forever, so at one point they will need to reboot it. you have 4 games to enjoy and play the olders in by now, it isnt that bad.

I think they might just end up removing some of the gimmick characters like the Swap Force and Giants. Core characters will probably keep going until the 7th game, at least, but the Swap Force is way too complicated to keep in for very long.

The bigger problem is that each development team has to develop and maintain all of the characters. It's a bit interesting we haven't seen not one Swap Force character demoed in Trap Team yet. The good news is once both teams have coded for the Swap Force, there's no "net new" development unless they change their development tools or platform.

^ Very true, the main pain point is when they have to change engines and have to tweak all the 3D models.

If they said that, I will be done with the series as soon as they reboot it. It's bad enough I can only bring new characters into new games, meaning older games feel downgraded (hence why I said in another post they should redo the first two games with Swap Force's graphics and make ALL characters compatible), but to one day make my thousands of dollars useless... yeah... that would be enough for me.

I am probably one of the biggest fans of Skylanders, but even I have my drawn lines. Heck, I see people who aren't even really fans getting better treatment by TFB than those who are hardcore fans, so why keep up this charade if they're gonna destroy the very reason why we bought these toys in the long run?

If it's because every game HAS (which it doesn't) to have a gimmick, drop the gimmick. If a game can't support itself based on just having new characters that are fun to play as, maybe it was a failed property to begin with. Skylanders can be fun with regular characters. It doesn't need a new gimmick and a new portal every year, or it's going the way of Guitar Hero.

TFB... PLEASE don't allow Acti to entice you with money over respect of your own brand. Keep the same trap next year. Add new enemies to trap, while allowing old toys to be usable. With all the space on the disc, you KNOW you can support characters forever. If small games on a Gameboy can hold enough data to store hundreds of Pokémon, don't tell me a game on a DVD/Blu-Ray can't.

If it's because of all of the gimmick Skylanders, stop the gimmick after Trap Team. If it's because of the Series 2/3/4, stop making those.

Man, I seriously hope they didn't say that. I never heard them say that, but if that's their line of thinking, I am done after they're done. I want my characters to be supported forever. It's the closest thing we have to a physical Pokémon.

Quote: GhostRoaster

Quote: Bionichute

Quote: CountMoneyBone

they said they cant support the older figures forever, so at one point they will need to reboot it. you have 4 games to enjoy and play the olders in by now, it isnt that bad.

I think they might just end up removing some of the gimmick characters like the Swap Force and Giants. Core characters will probably keep going until the 7th game, at least, but the Swap Force is way too complicated to keep in for very long.

The bigger problem is that each development team has to develop and maintain all of the characters. It's a bit interesting we haven't seen not one Swap Force character demoed in Trap Team yet. The good news is once both teams have coded for the Swap Force, there's no "net new" development unless they change their development tools or platform.

what if you cant do the body swap on the swappers in trap team?...

Quote: CountMoneyBone

what if you cant do the body swap on the swappers in trap team?...

Then they haven't provided forward compatibility.

To GM's point, I think they focus too much on the "gimmick". If they had half a brain they would focus equally on the gaming experience and innovate there (as DI 2.0 has) to provide a much more enriching experience.

I've often touted that for me, providing a Kaos FIGURE would mean much more to me than a plastic trap--and then innovate the gameplay mechanics to accomodate. Sounds low tech, but blends in much nicer than a disruptive toy aspect that they have no chance of keeping because of hardware and coding requirements.

Hopefully once the Wii is ditched it means that the larger capacity & DLC capabilities of the newer machines will allow for continued support of legacy characters if not "on the disc" then via download packs.

I don't think the games will get better until they do start ditching platforms. They have way too many platforms to support, and it constrains some design decisions in their game to develop to the "lowest common denominator". I don't necessarily think they'll do things specific to platforms however, but they could open up some of the constraints to provide a better experience.

Yeah the Wii has held them back from having the ability to sell late cycle adventure packs because the levels would have to be done when the disc ships. An extra adventure pack or two in the Spring/Summer would help with the long lull between cycles.

Quote: Zylek

Yeah the Wii has held them back from having the ability to sell late cycle adventure packs because the levels would have to be done when the disc ships. An extra adventure pack or two in the Spring/Summer would help with the long lull between cycles.

we have now a new "lowest common denominator" the tablets... so we traded that with the wii.

Quote: CountMoneyBone

Quote: Zylek

Yeah the Wii has held them back from having the ability to sell late cycle adventure packs because the levels would have to be done when the disc ships. An extra adventure pack or two in the Spring/Summer would help with the long lull between cycles.

we have now a new "lowest common denominator" the tablets... so we traded that with the wii.

Well at least the tablets will be able to support additional content and patches. I'm not certain how well it is going to sell either...a full price tablet game is a hard sell to people used to 99 cent apps. I mean I'm sure a lot of us will buy it, but I expect it will not meet expectations.

I wonder how many families will buy both the console and tablet version when it'll be $150 out of the gate just for the same game. That was always a selling point for the 3DS version, at least it was a completely different adventure.

I am not impressed with the slow pace of gameplay in Trap Team gameplay videos. Giants was too slow, and I lost interest. Swap Force has a great pace, but it is the only game by Vicarious Visions. Does any one else have concerns that the 4th time is not a charm?

I gotta ask, where did they ever say they can't support old figures eventually? Can someone find a link?

Quote: GinjaNinja

I gotta ask, where did they ever say they can't support old figures eventually? Can someone find a link?

This.

I don't remember that either.

It seems reasonable to assume at some point they'll eschew compatibility with older figures, because of storage space, but I'm also getting tired of hearing it so often.
There isn't more evidence than usual pointing to Skylander compatability being removed, so there's not much to base speculation on, so I don't think it's interesting to discuss. I can see Traps being dropped next game because we have no answers about such a simple question, and since they need a slot on the Portal they'll need to keep a physical slot on for them (I don't see why they'd have to make the Portal smaller by removing the slot, though). I guess you could argue because they might drop Traps that they wouldn't have an issue dropping Skylanders, either?

I finally watched the Rainfish Riviera video. Not much critical analysis. Just opinions.

0:00 Who- wow, Cali's taking us into this level! And we get to see her without Flynn for once! Hopefully this means we won't have Flynn with us all the freakin' time, I got sick of him in SF.

Hey, THE SPLASH! Definitely a good example of "flat" graphics if you need one, though even with jaggies being more visible, I prefer TT's graphics to SF's...

5:49 I have to say- I wanted to play Wild Fire before because I'm a Gryffindor on Pottermore, and it would have been fun to play using a gold and ruby lion, but he genuinely seems great to me from his upgrades. Actually, being able to pull enemies in with chains of fire and then hitting them with melee is a little reminiscent of Voodood's hooking ability, but I still like Wild Fire better.
And as for that Soul Gem, I noticed him running on all fours in one of the CGI cutscenes during the tablet trailer; glad we can actually use that as an attack.

9:01 I agree with whoever said it here that running through a level of Giants could be too slow. And Skystones matches were one of the biggest examples. And although the Smash version seems much more fun, it'd probably be even slower, so I hope there aren't many levels where you're forced to play them to get through.

12:36 I only expected them to make comments at key points in levels, it's nice to see a comment just for winning Skystones (and later on, for re-entering a shack).

Masker Mind's high-pitched voice. Would have been a nice strategy to stun him with the acorn if it actually affected him.

15:08 "Upgrade his nuts" *snicker*

I don't know much about Bushwack's gameplay, but it looks to me like the path could be good either way.

17:37 I expected Head Rush to have a stomp path and horn path... But she has an opera path? Will she also have a horn path?! I've been worried about her stomp being overpowered compared to the charge in damage potential, and having opera/horn paths could make it so it doesn'-- oh. She has a stomp path. Okay.
I'm guessing the stomp path will end up the most powerful because it does a lot of damage, while (down both paths) charging will be used for reaching enemies to stomp, more than for attacking enemies itself. Oh, wait, stomp path upgrades her charge too, though I had to pause to read that... Could be a nice upgrade, it's an interesting way to add extra damage. I still like the idea of Modulate Yodel, though I don't think I'll use the yodel path over the stomp path.

20:38 Woah! Even if they don't design anything around attacking during a jump, it'll just be nice to attack in midair again. Also, it's nice to see some old Skylanders in TT (though it doesn't look like these three got model/texture changes to me).

Thanks for the footage, info and bringing some old Skylanders to check them, FGTV!

Quote: GinjaNinja

I gotta ask, where did they ever say they can't support old figures eventually? Can someone find a link?

the developers talked about it in one of the familygamer videos...

Quote: GinjaNinja

I gotta ask, where did they ever say they can't support old figures eventually? Can someone find a link?

Quote: Epic popthorn

Quote: GinjaNinja

I gotta ask, where did they ever say they can't support old figures eventually? Can someone find a link?

This.

Quote: Zylek

I don't remember that either.

It's all very large assumptions of a paraphrase. Early videos indicate how difficult it is to keep having to do this. That statement is a very large leap of faith.
Keep in mind guys there's only 80 or so unique characters...the rest is cataloging variant colors, different series, etc. which may have added wow pows, etc. This is all about simple work to do all of the animations and testing. This has nothing to do with storage....from where I sit this is all about TIME.

Quote: Arc of Archives

It seems reasonable to assume at some point they'll eschew compatibility with older figures, because of storage space, but I'm also getting tired of hearing it so often.
There isn't more evidence than usual pointing to Skylander compatability being removed, so there's not much to base speculation on, so I don't think it's interesting to discuss. I can see Traps being dropped next game because we have no answers about such a simple question, and since they need a slot on the Portal they'll need to keep a physical slot on for them (I don't see why they'd have to make the Portal smaller by removing the slot, though). I guess you could argue because they might drop Traps that they wouldn't have an issue dropping Skylanders, either?

Here's my thing on it. S1 Spyro has most of the same coding as S3 right? Same as the Dark version, or the Legendary. There are or course skin and palette swaps on things. Higher series allow for path swapping. Little mini Spry is basically Spyro's coding again, with a small model attached to the attacks. Eon's Elite is going to be S1 Spyro with coding giving him some added stat bonuses. Thats like 7 figures right there, most of them sharing the same coding though outside a few minor variations. Lightcores are the same as their base counter part in terms of attacks minus the Lightcore attack, and dont have things like the wow pow. When you start hacking off the alt decos, the legendaries, the minis, etc because the primary coding in all of these is shared for the character the amount of upkeep starts to drop. Numbers are easy to change, its the modeling and coding for new attacks that is really the primary grunt work. The magic items are pretty much copy/paste. (yes I know its a bit more complex than just that) but they dont really change between games. The Adventure packs dont really hold any level info on them, the packs are already on the disk. The item serves as an unlock key. Its clear they havent had any intention of having the extra levels carry over between games.

So again, ignoring all the color variants, minis, lightcores, and what not we're really looking at around ...

32 Cores (Spyro's Adventure)
+8 Giants
+8 Cores (Giants)
+16 Swappers
+16 Core (Swap Force)
+16 Trap Team
+16 Cores (Trap Team)
____________

112 Actual characters being repeated after this game. *Note as I dont know what the ? characters are for the Skylanders, I'm not counting those four at this point in time.*

*IF* villains transfer over into Sky5, thats another 46 more characters. From the talk though while they can be upgraded and such, they arent as complex in terms of upgrading. So less coding to redo again. Now 112(158?) is certainly a lot of characters to continue to support. I'm not going to deny that. I do however think a lot of the coding would just be recycled though for things like the attacks. Maybe not? I'm not a programmer. I would think however as the games continue to support the information from the old games, that something has to be mostly repeated over and over again.

I think people just need to remember when they talk about total character to continue to support, that sometimes the number isnt as large as it might seem, as a lot of figures are going to be sharing coding. Hence reducing the bulk number of characters to be supported.

Another reason why I think villains won't return is that VV would have to code the current TT skylander army AND 46+ villains + whatever new is coming up. I honestly think they will have a tough time doing that AND coming up with a fresh adventure. Again, TIME. If they leveraged their IP from Swap Force I think they can do it...but just barely.

Don't forget VV would have to code ALL of the jumping attacks for ALL skylanders, too.

Is there a reason why TFB cant GIVE them the coding package? Assuming they dont already? They are all under the same umbrella. VV clearly is involved in the Tablet version. Shouldnt they already have access to the TT and villains code?

You would think, riight? Makes sense to me, but then what would make sense to me is that both development teams don't code each of these figures individually in their own package of choice--but clearly that is happening.

Also if you look at videos of Trap Team you can see Skylanders deal even higher damage than before (and look at the Minis, supposed to do the same damage as regular versions, and their damage numbers are redone)

Surely the power-scaling and nerfing and buffing they'll have to do to keep it fairly balanced would also mean more time spent on characters?

As I suspected, CoinOPTV interviewed VV and they were the technical minds behind the tablet version. Those guys are bringing their A game to the franchise, I must say. Virtual Applause and props to them. A clear winner is emerging in my eyes.

Quote: Arc of Archives

Also if you look at videos of Trap Team you can see Skylanders deal even higher damage than before (and look at the Minis, supposed to do the same damage as regular versions, and their damage numbers are redone)

Surely the power-scaling and nerfing and buffing they'll have to do to keep it fairly balanced would also mean more time spent on characters?

Playing with numbers might require some time for balance. In the end though its just a matter of going in and moving a number scale up and down. The graphics for the attacks is always going to be the same, and thats where more the work comes in. The damage it does it just an assigned number.

Any idea when all the characters will be revealed? Is there another game expo coming up?

Here's two points on the coding and character issue:
1) As someone said earlier, sorry I can't remember, this is all on a Blu ray/DVD disk. Pokemon can do with with 721 pokemon without counting all the alternate forms or shiny sprites, now there's character customization, it's in 3D, and all the moves animations and such. And all of that, and much, MUCH more, is all on a tiny cartridge. There is absolutely NO WAY a Blu Ray disk can't hold all the data.
2) For the coding, remember. This is the same company that does Call of Duty. Every year. With 3 studios sharing ideas and data and codes back and forth, not just 2 like in skylanders (at the moment). CoD developers share all their gun info, map info, and all that jazz because it's all just the same code, in a new disk. Sure there may be minor tweaks here and there to them, but that's to be expected as things evolve. The base code for the gins and everything is still there, just like TfB and VV share the base codes for figures.
That's my thoughts anyway.

Besides, Activision isn't stupid enough to stop bringing things forward. If they did they would lose A LOT of customers. All it would take, say there comes an ungodly amount of figures and it won't all fit into the disk somehow, it to have an installation disk that you have to install before playing the actual game. There, all the figure data is already stored on your systen, ready for the game to read when nees be. Problem solved.

That was me, and yes, it would boil down - in my opinion - to simple laziness, if they came up with the excuse that they can't keep supporting past characters.

I love this series more than any other game series, even Mario, and that's saying a lot. I'd hate to think they show disrespect to their own series, by pulling a move like not supporting past characters in a later game.

If it's due to the sheer amount of characters, stop releasing rehash characters like Series 2/3/4 and focus only on giving us new characters with each new game. I mean, it's not like the characters who need attention, are getting any. We keep getting a new Chop Chop, Whirlwind, Trigg, but characters that have been gone since the first game are still absent. Still no Series 2 Voodood, Ghost Roaster, Dino-Rang, Wham-Shell, Warnado, Sunburn, and Boomer. Boomer? Wasn't TFB having "big plans" for Boomer? We haven't seen him in years, yet we're already getting Series 4 characters, while some are waiting for a Series 2. If they can't respect all characters, don't even go through with Series 2/3/4 in my opinion.

I won't even let my daughters play with their Series 1 Ghost Roaster or Boomer, because this series has made it impossible for them to find, thus if they break or are lost, they may be lost forever. So, until GR and Boomer make a comeback, my kids can only play with 78/80 unique Skylanders, despite having all 80.

Someone might've already posted this, but Skylanders Game posted the full poster on their Facebook. Although, the Frito Lay Skylanders are missing.
https://www.facebook.com/Skyla...?type=1&theater

Here it is is high quaity.

Quote: HeyitsHotDog

Here it is is high quaity.

YUSSS!!

closer look...

Give me Enigma and my life is complete.

you just gotta hand it to the activision when it comes to marketing. skylanders got its first pony 'trail blazer', the bronies will be happy now and buy this game. more sales and money for activision.

- - -

Quote: CountMoneyBone

closer look...

Don't forget Fling Kong (new Air core). I don't think we've seen a good picture of him until now.

oh god i forgot him... okay here he is....

-----

Quote: GothamLord

-----

whoomp there it is......

Does anyone know the original source of the high res version of the poster?

Quote: wideawakewesley

Does anyone know the original source of the high res version of the poster?

skylanders facebook...

https://www.facebook.com/Skyla...cation=timeline

Now for a more serious response.

Given the old poster we know the ? characters that are now in Life/Water/Undead. Likely they converted them back to ? because of the stupid FritoLay contest. I frankly dont care which direction they go with HighFive or Flip Wreck. I just want Bat Spin turned back into Frightengale.

We are missing the one eyes-in-the-hands villain from the achievements images too for the ? villains side of things. If they are a lower level villain I would imagine likely Magic or Undead type to continue to even out the missing slots. If they are a Major boss type, I guess Magic, that way I can hold out for a non-elemental Glumshanks still to do 10 across the board. Or we'll get something along with "new" element type. Either way maybe another specialty trap similar to Kaos? As my gamer OCD refuses to except the fact something might be uneven on elemental types.

Quote: GinjaNinja

Here's two points on the coding and character issue:
1) As someone said earlier, sorry I can't remember, this is all on a Blu ray/DVD disk. Pokemon can do with with 721 pokemon without counting all the alternate forms or shiny sprites, now there's character customization, it's in 3D, and all the moves animations and such. And all of that, and much, MUCH more, is all on a tiny cartridge. There is absolutely NO WAY a Blu Ray disk can't hold all the data.
2) For the coding, remember. This is the same company that does Call of Duty. Every year. With 3 studios sharing ideas and data and codes back and forth, not just 2 like in skylanders (at the moment). CoD developers share all their gun info, map info, and all that jazz because it's all just the same code, in a new disk. Sure there may be minor tweaks here and there to them, but that's to be expected as things evolve. The base code for the gins and everything is still there, just like TfB and VV share the base codes for figures.
That's my thoughts anyway.

Besides, Activision isn't stupid enough to stop bringing things forward. If they did they would lose A LOT of customers. All it would take, say there comes an ungodly amount of figures and it won't all fit into the disk somehow, it to have an installation disk that you have to install before playing the actual game. There, all the figure data is already stored on your systen, ready for the game to read when nees be. Problem solved.

If your point is disk storage, which I've ridiculed profusely so far...then you better bring your facts to the table. How much storage exactly does a character take? Have you even bothered to see how much storage on Swap Force was used?

Here's some facts: Swap Force is about 16gb in size. Blu Ray single layer holds at a minimum 25gb, dual layer 50gb and the mother load can store 100gb. So worst case, we have ~40% capacity to explore. I would argue that characters take up as a percentage smaller foot print than you may think, although I admittedly have no data on that. I would argue the levels themselves take up the majority of the space.

I rest my case.

The decision to NOT include characters will be based on development man hours it takes to bring it over.

So we are missing the Magic super villain and the unknown second element super villain..

Swap Force on PS4 was 12-13 gigs, which differed from the 360 and PS3 versions. I attribute that to the upped resolution?

But even still, 12-13 gigs is hardly anything when these discs can be upwards of 25 gigs+.