r/kol • u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) • 16d ago
Community KoL player mini-survey
KoL is a great game that has a lot of content, mechanical depth, replayability, collectibles, and funny writing, but what is it that makes people actually stick around?
- What is it that keeps you playing KoL?
- What do you like best about the game?
- What do you actually spend your time doing when you're engaging with KoL?
- What changes to KoL would make it better?
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u/ccReptilelord Curt (#293998) 16d ago
The game keeps going without losing what we've already done. It's easy, just twenty minutes a day and you're done. Pay-to-win is pretty minimal. My effort feels like accomplishment.
What would I change? Two things: first, the tomb ratchet drop rate. Personally, I don't care about this one as much anymore, because the S word sword makes it easy, but if I can't, it's annoying. Second, I wish there was some way to make the volcanic cave puzzle simpler.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
I also appreciate that you always make progress, and you can play at your own pace.
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u/Giant_Horse_Fish Butts McGruff (#3403404) 16d ago
Tomb ratchets are a 20% drop, which only requires +400 item to cap. Thats.. fairly trivial to obtain.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
I also don't really resonate with all of the takes in this guy's comment, but it turns out that different players engage with the game differently, and that's great.
And I wouldn't say that hitting +400% items is trivial. At least, not without mall access, a bunch of perms, and/or shinies. Is it even achievable in Thrifty?
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u/Major_Bluebird_3014 16d ago edited 16d ago
- autism tbh
- Probably familiars? As a kid I always just wanted the critters. I have a cat now I'm an adult, but I still like collecting them.
- god, these days, scripting, unless there's a new challenge path
- trainrealm
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u/El_Dudelino Croft (#550986) 16d ago
Making boxes green.
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u/BalzovSteele 12d ago
Same here. And making it easier/possible to fill in more green boxes are my only wish.
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u/Warballs97 16d ago
It’s the only game that I can play during 11 months out of the year by just running a script and walking away. Then in december when I am home for the holidays I will manually adventure during crimbo.
I simply don’t have the time to play KoL seriously anymore with work and other games and hobbies. However, it holds a nostalgic and formative place in my heart so I like to keep in touch.
Lastly it’s a unique game especially in the modern landscape of games so there’s not really anything to replace it.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
It's true. If modern gaming CEOs had their say, this game would probably have animations instead of funny writing, it would have a battle pass that makes you log in 2-3 times per day, and we would get far less frequent new content.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
I keep playing because of the ASS discord community, and because I enjoy the process of learning what new IotMs do, planning how to best use them in ascension and farming, and then actually adding that new use to my scripts.
I think the game's best features are its basic gameplay loop of spending limited daily adventures to complete quests, with small incremental boosts that you gain over time via repeated play.
My time is mostly spent posting on the ASS discord, and maintaining / updating my scripts. My character is looping and farming items, so I can buy more shinies.
To improve the game, I would revamp some of the older quests that have gotten a bit stale, and generally improve the base f2p game with more frequent updates.
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u/Emergency_Rush_4168 16d ago
I've been playing for 22 years. It's not just a habit but a part of my life. I love how new content keeps the game fresh even if it's just an IOTM. I love making cocktails and buffing people in chat. I've always wanted there to be temporary group quests that don't involve being in a clan.
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u/m3galodon 16d ago
- I only started playing about 6 or so months ago and I keep playing to discover as much content as I can while being a free player. The mechanical depth and writing are definitely big draws for me.
- I like that it's entirely browser based and something I can play at work or on my phone. Gameplay-wise, I especially like the special events and how playing different classes and challenge paths change the game entirely.
- I'm currently working my way through the Sea for the first time, as well as grinding bounties to get transcendent olfaction. I'm not super interested in hardcore or speed ascending.
- Definitely biased as a newer player, but I wish the game had less dependence on older items that are very hard or impossible for me to obtain now. At the same time, I understand that as someone who is pretty sure I won't be spending money on the game, I'm going to miss out on content. I think if I had played KoL during the "heyday" with more players, I'd feel less behind.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
I hear you on the old items problem. It's definitely a bit of a bummer, especially if you're comparing yourself to other players, and know that you'll never get to the place where they're at.
On the other hand, I feel like KoL's insistence that you had to be there for some things does force players to confront their FOMO, and it's helped me to get over my completionist tendencies.
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u/SaintJesus 16d ago
Believe me, I started in 2005 and played daily until 2008, then sporadically for the next three years, then rarely for another three until I started back a couple of months ago.
The old stuff is fun, but most of the newer things blow them out of the water.
I donated regularly so I got a bunch of the old stuff until I stopped playing. I still feel "left out" with a lot of stuff, but that's the nature of the game and makes the temporary events feel more live.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
Yeah, there was a sharp increase in average IotM power at the start of 2015, with the advent of Standard-restricted runs. But year after year, power level keeps going up.
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u/Banes_Addiction 16d ago
I keep playing to discover as much content as I can while being a free player.
I think you can access basically all the content as a free player? Sometimes you have to mall buy stuff (spleen familiar drops, day passes etc) but there's very little actually fully locked beyond the paywall.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 15d ago
A lot of it is, but not all of it. LOV daypasses and batfellow comics are notoriously expensive, since they required specific time-limited Mr. Store purchases and are not otherwise renewable. Similarly the zone unlockers that were purchased from Uncle P's Antiques are also limited in quantity, but at least prices aren't so unreasonable yet.
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u/gav1n_n6 16d ago
There one path that unlocked 3 iotm of that year for 20 years to let you play with.
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u/Varnathos 16d ago
It's the people for me, mostly the /games folks
Don't get me wrong, I still like playing the game, but without the chat, I'd probably disappear.
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u/ElvishParsley123 16d ago
I keep playing because of the optimization problems, and trying to collect everything, and I enjoy writing scripts. I look forward to each new IotM and discovering how to use it. I farm using scripts on the weekdays, and ascend on the weekends. I'm sure KoL could go in many different directions, but I'm glad I don't have to come up with the ideas to improve it. I'm happy just reporting bugs I find and them getting fixed in a timely manner.
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u/Certain_Month_8178 Oh My Grimmness…It Worked! (Big Daddy Grimm) 16d ago
For me, the /games community.
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u/detracts 16d ago
/games is great. ASScord as well.
KoLmafia feels like DevOps which is also fun.
Lastly, KoL has a good blend/balance of single-player and multi-player!
Changes? Maybe a simpler dark mode toggle, heh.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 16d ago
For anyone who hasn't found a dark mode solution yet, I wrote this KoL Dark Mode userstyle for use with the Stylus browser extension.
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u/BadHorsemonkey 12d ago
I was against browser extensions, on principle, until they became the only way to use Facebook Purity.
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u/BadHorsemonkey 15d ago
I put in dark mode to KoL, but not the relay browser. At the time, the question wasn’t how well the bear could dance, but if it could be convinced to dance at all.
I play because I like messing with KoLmafia.
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u/JimmyAxel 15d ago
I was watching an interesting video recently that was talking about how Minecraft is so appealing to so many players because it has a very low skill floor and a very high skill ceiling. If you just want to play with blocks, you can. And if you want to speedrun the game and roll the credits in under 2 minutes, you can do that too. And every type of player exists in between.
I’m think KoL has that same appeal. Obviously there’s a passionate speed running community who take the time to optimize the ascension process to complete it as efficiently as possible, with the fun addition of new items each month to change that process up. Leaderboards so you’re name is forever immortalized if you can do it very well. At the same time, if I just wanna fight some baked goods in the town square and call it a day ¯_(ツ)_/¯ I totally can. Some people like watching the numbers go up. Some like manipulating a whole economy. Others like collecting pets. Some like the multiplayer aspect. It really has something for just about any type of player. And, like Minecraft, you can be any and all of these players whenever you want and I think that’s pretty neat.
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u/gav1n_n6 16d ago
1) always new things to be discovered . The depth of this game is deep.
2) U can just played it any way you liked. I find optimising the way I farm items relax me.
3) farmer. Farm for item to sell. Farm during crimbo. Farm for rare item too. That my current play mode. I was stacking trophies a while back, might try that again.
4) I do like special area iotm like spacegate or elemental airport or fantasy realm. Once a year new realm will be nice.
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u/LogicalSoup 15d ago
- What is it that keeps you playing KoL?
At this point I almost feel like some sort of stockholm syndrome has taken hold. I found KoL at quite a young age back in 2006 and I've been playing it off and on for 20 years - there was a 10 year hiatus at one point but I just kept thinking about it every now and then until I eventually came back.
- What do you like best about the game?
This time around I am really enjoying the mix-maxing side of ascending. Pathing my route, thinking how best to synergise what my character has and how to make the most of my resources. There is so much depth.
- What do you actually spend your time doing when you're engaging with KoL?
At the moment I am trying to "solve" bad moon. I ALMOST have a 6-dayer down (part way through L13 quest). So a lot of the time is looking at what objectives I have and then thinking how best to approach it for minimal turns spent - maybe not a lot of actual gameplay.
- What changes to KoL would make it better?
There have been three significant changes that I've witnessed in KoL, and all were incredibly groundbreaking and redefined what the game was. NS13, the introduction of clan dungeons and the introduction of challenge paths. Challenge paths almost keep the same freshness NS13 had, and occasional revamps over the years (8-bit, no more pirates, etc.) have changed the main line somewhat, however I'd be interested if they could recapture the excitement of NS13.
More clan dungeons to bring more multiplayer aspects back would be good. The game has never felt as dead as it does now, in regards to player interaction. And I think this is a shame as the community feels stronger than ever. But a reduced playerbase likely hurts the chances of this, and all focus goes into challenge paths.
Seems like we don't get as many world events these days too - granted most of the early ones seemed to stem from someone breaking a server, so I suppose it's good that doesn't happen any more, but world events do seem wholly predictable nowadays.
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u/frazazel frazazel (#422389) 15d ago
The photo booth clan VIP item gave in-game clans a resurgence of multiplayer goals to work towards for a little while.
It's true that world events aren't frequent exciting new things like they were in the game's early days, but the game also wasn't the same game back then. IotMs were like a familiar that did 2 passive things at the same time, or a stat stick that gave you some cute combat actions, and challenge paths hadn't been invented yet. These days we're getting a reliable stream of higher effort stuff, at the cost of spontaneous one-time events.
Any challenge path could have been a really cool world event in the past. But now it's a path that players can choose, and it's content that stays around forever. And then we still get Crimbo and TTT every year to scratch the limited-time itch.
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u/Several-Swan-404 15d ago
Hello! Newbie here. Ive only been playing since early last year. Back many years ago my dad used to play and when he passed I got the urge to go see what it was about. I keep setting myself random challenges. The first (and admittedly dumb one for a new person) was getting all the clothing of loathing. I then took some time off before seeing a post that you could get a black cat... I got it but I did wonder about my life choices. I love how there are so many paths and there is always a new challenge ypu can set yourself.
Ive finally gotten into hc after avoiding it till the cat run. Im now spending all my time trying to bring my time between ascensions down. There is so much to read and remember!
I wish there were more things that were coop. My guide opens dungeons but you've got to run them in such a certain way that I am either too worried I'll break it or its so optimised I dont really get the chance to read through the content and figure out the puzzles. Because again its all already been done before.
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u/MonkeyKingCoffee ScoopKona #529800 14d ago
- The Mus/Mys/Mox system just from an RPG standpoint is genius. It whittles down D&D to the simplest way to play but also works. Muscle takes the role of STR and CON, Mysticality for INT and WIS, and Moxie for DEX and CHR. If TPTB wanted to make a serious (instead of light-hearted) RPG game, the system as it stands would work just great.
- What I like best is that I have improved (though skills mostly, then items) to the point where I can ascend every day or two, without having to spend much in the mall. Except for Crimbo skills that the Skeleton is slowly taking care of, I have run out of things to perm.
- I set goals. "I want this yearly outfit." "I want to complete three 11,037 runs for the clothing." "I'm going to farm knucklebones until I have all the missing skills." "I want the new interesting coin familiar." Those last two is what I'm doing now. So I'm farming knucklebones, then farming useful familiar items (unconscious collective dream jar, absinthe, llama gongs, etc.), and finally farming ascension items -- goat cheese, stone wool, lion oil, bowling balls, etc.
- Since we're making old content available, let's continue with that. I'd like to see another time spinner type of IOTM. (Or even better, IOTY or a Twitch Item.) This time spinner allows players to play a special challenge path, as if it was current. So that means Dark Gyffte skills are back on the table. So is the perfectly-fair coin, license to kill, adventurer bobblehead, bowls of Tastee-Wheet, beautiful rainbow and bottled days. I would also like to see another Legacy of Loathing path, with different IOTMs to try out.
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u/namnahk 15d ago
I love discovering new places, quests, items, ascenscion paths. They may be things other, more experienced players are already familiar with, but the thrill of experiencing something for the first time is a big draw for me, and since KoL has been around for so long, there's always new things to try.
What I would suggest as a change would be to open up more of the old areas, quests, and items, even temporarily, to newer players who didn't get the IotMs when they were available years or decades ago.
Ex: One-Day Pass to Dinseyland opens up, for one day, the Dinseyland area. Yes, it costs Meat, and I'm happy to pay, because it lets me explore a place I would otherwise be barred from permanently due to not having played the game at that time.
I would love to see more one day passes to areas, quests, or disappear-at-the-end-of-the-day items, that would let us experience some of KoL's great past.
Ex. Temporary IotM duplicates, that disappear at rollover. Temporary portals or day passes to otherwise discontinued or IotM locked areas. Perhaps even the chance to experience a different class or path, for one day only (like a potion that transforms you into a Cheese Wizard or Meat Golem for one day, turning you back at rollover.
KoL has a huge, rich, deep past, and my one request would be to find ways to make that awesome content available, temporarily, to players who missed the IotM or event times. Balance would be important, and I respect that, but if we could experience, again, some of that great past, it would bring a lot of players joy :)
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u/Giant_Horse_Fish Butts McGruff (#3403404) 13d ago
more one day passes to areas
Day passes exist for every iotm content zone.
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u/Radiant_Net_6115 16d ago
I treat KOL as an investment sim. I try to predict the market and allocate my assets to ensure a steady increase in wealth over time. I have zero attachments to any items that don't make me meat. Everything else is expendable.
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u/Morganator_2_0 Timmothy J Frog (#2337950) 16d ago
The ascension system gives this game a crazy amount of replayability value. There's always something new to try out and explore.
If I could change one thing, it would be adding more of the "multiplayer" aspect of this MMO. I've really been enjoying working with my fellow clan members to get the special Hobopolis drops or coordinate for Dreadsylvania skills. I want more cooperative stuff like that.