darkSpyro

Would someone give me a thorough explanation on the technology behind the traps? This is completely different compared to the RFID-based Skylander figures...

If you look you can see a small black dot in all of the traps. This is the chip that allows it to store data.

The traps use a chip that has exactly the same properties of the tags used in the skylanders. Only difference is the trap chips do not have an antenna. This is why the trap has to be placed in the slot of the portal. At that point in the portal field there is enough power to activate the trap chip.

I understand that you can trap multiple villains in the same trap and that you can switch between villains in Skylander Academy but what about in the middle of a level ? I reached a part where I needed to play as the Chompy Mage but he was not the villain that was last activated in the trap. Could I have switched villains at that point or do I have to go all the way back to Skylanders Academy to switch it and then play the level again ? HELP !!

Quote: jtl8259

I understand that you can trap multiple villains in the same trap and that you can switch between villains in Skylander Academy but what about in the middle of a level ? I reached a part where I needed to play as the Chompy Mage but he was not the villain that was last activated in the trap. Could I have switched villains at that point or do I have to go all the way back to Skylanders Academy to switch it and then play the level again ? HELP !!

I don't believe you can switch villains using the Villain Vault when in a level. You'd have to go back to the Academy and switch, then replay the level.

So this is one more way for the makers of Skylanders to make money buy making it hard to move through the game smoothly unless you are willing to buy one trap for each villain. Ridiculous I think this will be my last purchase from this franchise. enough is enough..

Quote: jtl8259

So this is one more way for the makers of Skylanders to make money buy making it hard to move through the game smoothly unless you are willing to buy one trap for each villain. Ridiculous I think this will be my last purchase from this franchise. enough is enough..

Once you've captured a Villain, a hint to find their quest appears on the Most Wanted poster in-game, so it's not like they aren't telling you where to find the quest and giving you time to switch the villain before levels.

Quote: Wolfgang

Quote: jtl8259

So this is one more way for the makers of Skylanders to make money buy making it hard to move through the game smoothly unless you are willing to buy one trap for each villain. Ridiculous I think this will be my last purchase from this franchise. enough is enough..

Once you've captured a Villain, a hint to find their quest appears on the Most Wanted poster in-game, so it's not like they aren't telling you where to find the quest and giving you time to switch the villain before levels.

^ This.

They don't MAKE you buy more than one trap of an element, and they give you a heads up on which villains you might want to bring with you (in fact you can access the Wanted Posters directly from the Pause menu). This is WAY less evil than the Swap Zones requiring you to buy 8 expensive Swap Force figures to open them all, or the Traptanium Elemental Gates requiring you to buy 8 expensive Trap Masters to open them all. You essentially get 3-6 entertaining characters to play for less than the price of a single core figure, and the rare occasion where you want to switch which villain is in a trap in the middle of the short-but-sweet story missions is not a particularly large push to buy more traps, IMHO.

I completely agree, you don't need to buy more than one trap to play as all of the villains. I have 10 traps myself, one of each element, one Kaos trap, and a second Undead trap because I always want to have access to one of my Undead villains while not ruling out the possibility of playing as the others.

You all are drifting off the topic. Can someone thoroughly explain to me the technology behind the traps & how it is read on the portal. I understand that the Skylanders are RFID-tagged & read by an the portal, which is an RFID-reader. What I want to know is how the traps are read & what technology reads them...

Draicen already answered your question:

"The traps use a chip that has exactly the same properties of the tags used in the skylanders. Only difference is the trap chips do not have an antenna. This is why the trap has to be placed in the slot of the portal. At that point in the portal field there is enough power to activate the trap chip."

Answer from Draicen

lordexodus,

Do you have further questions that I haven't answered?

You have evidence to backup your words "the trap chips do not have an antenna"?

The traps do have a small antenna of sorts, just not nearly as big as the one as found in the Skylanders, making the distance they can function from the portal's coil much, much shorter than that of a Skylander.

Radio-Frequency Identification are many different size's ...the ones used in figures are the wafer type...the ones in the Traps are the micro version's ...refered to as the "grain of rice" RFID's they are the same...just the size of the chip itself is smaller.
The picture below is of my Hot Head i tolk apart when it died on me(got a new replacement already). I wanted to get a closer look at the chip...so i tolk the base apart....(had to break it...didn't want to come apart) look close ...see the 2 black rectangles next to where the wires are? Those are the chips.


And yes the "Grain of rice" RFID Chips have a antenna....look at the pic below. This one is for pet's, but its the same thing thats in the Traps.

Get a strong flashlight(LED is the best) if you have the Light Rocket Trap look at it...being clear plastic/pvc you can see the chip in it the best....roll it around and you can see the copper wire wraped in there...thats the antenna.

To more answer your question...it is a storage device...like that of you memory chip in your smart phone...if you tolk that micro SD Card out and tolk it apart you would see the same small black square or rectangle inside.


Pictures always help

It's smells like mustard!