Challenge Discussion Thread

For large social games such as Survivor where the primary mechanic is social interaction.
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Post Post #25 (ISO) » Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:17 pm

Post by NotAJumbleOfNumbers »

In post 0, Aronis wrote:Meanwhile as a player I don't really try in most challenges and even throw them sometimes-they're very much an afterthought until late in the game.
but challenges are fun :(
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Post Post #26 (ISO) » Sun Mar 14, 2021 3:19 pm

Post by NotAJumbleOfNumbers »

also sounds like you got bad challenges
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Post Post #27 (ISO) » Sun Mar 14, 2021 10:51 pm

Post by Sirius9121 »

ive played in exactly 2 survivor games and 3 challenges
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Post Post #28 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 7:42 am

Post by Cephrir »

I try to make as many pre-merge challenges involve teamwork or collaborating in some way as possible. They're like team-building exercises, and it's just more fun than the "best average time" type. Besides, you'll have plenty of those player-vs.-challenge things postmerge. If I have a limited number of actual teamwork type challenges I tend to want to have one right after each swap.

I have a tremendous dislike for social and diplomacy challenges for individual immunity. If you want to have those, I feel they should be reward challenges so that you can get the whole "hierarchy revealing thing" without presenting the problem where players who actually need immunity have no chance of winning at which point you might as well have not bothered having a challenge at all.

I think new challenges or twists on old challenges are good to have as many of as you can, especially since some of the classics are kind of so-so on entertainment value anyway. I get that mods are not unlimited wells of creativity though, and ~18 original challenge designs can be a lot.

It's certainly true that there is a backwards relationship between the amount of time mods have to spend designing challenges and how much players care about them, but I don't have an answer for that. I do think players will enjoy the game more if the challenges are good, even if it's not a 1:1 mod effort to enjoyment ratio.
In post 11, Snakes wrote:Can we get rid of the challenge where you have to pick numbers on a pyramid and every time someone always says they'll do 1 for every level?
I wouldn't use it, so yes!
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In post 10, VashtaNeurotic wrote: To be fair, I also don't see the problem with a jigsaw aside from the fact that jigsaws are a little basic as a challenge and should probably have another twist to be memorable. But like all the show's challenge at least have the time are just do this obstacle course and then do a puzzle, and I don't think the contestants spend a lot balancing balls on plates outside of that immunity comp. So I feel this might just be something that's hard to do.
Also like, what's the MS equivalent of firemaking, a skill which everyone on the show should have if they've made it that close to the end.
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Post Post #29 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 8:04 am

Post by Haschel Cedricson »

Re: Jigsaws

I'm a big fan of the "do a task that determines how big your jigsaw puzzle is, THEN do the jigsaw."
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Post Post #30 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 10:05 am

Post by Shrek »

i dont really have any input but i think that that one challenge where you have to assign three attributes to yourself and your teammates should be removed entirely. i've played two games with it and it has been a crapshoot both times. definitely one of my least favorite challenges in an LSG atm

that bomb defuser challenge from PD was probably one of the best (if not the best) ive played. shit was hilarious and catered to social interaction without being unfair. besides that i really liked that one challenge where you had to make the mod avatars ugly in barely survivor. that was pretty funny and also skill-based
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Post Post #31 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 10:16 am

Post by Fluminator »

Although I don't like the forced fire twist in survivor in general, I thought the idea of revealing what the firemaking challenge at 4 would be at the start of merge in Equestria was pretty clever. Gives players a lot of time to hypothetically practice if they want so anyone could be good at it. (similar to actual firemaking)
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Post Post #32 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:05 pm

Post by DeathNote »

Yeah I would like to see some survivor games reveal more info instead of trying to with hold everything. It's ok to have a couple twists but is it so bad to know when swaps are coming? Or exactly how many idols are in play? Or what the fire making challenge is like flum is suggesting?
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Post Post #33 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:49 pm

Post by Skelda »

In post 31, Fluminator wrote:Although I don't like the forced fire twist in survivor in general, I thought the idea of revealing what the firemaking challenge at 4 would be at the start of merge in Equestria was pretty clever. Gives players a lot of time to hypothetically practice if they want so anyone could be good at it. (similar to actual firemaking)
This was also fun in RPG, although a different situation obviously with no challenges. But yes, if we're gonna have F4 firemaking, I like it to be as known an element as possible so players can plan.
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Post Post #34 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 12:53 pm

Post by Skelda »

In post 32, DeathNote wrote:Yeah I would like to see some survivor games reveal more info instead of trying to with hold everything. It's ok to have a couple twists but is it so bad to know when swaps are coming? Or exactly how many idols are in play? Or what the fire making challenge is like flum is suggesting?
Especially if it's an F3 or F2...but this the challenge thread, let's not. Maybe we need a "Should you reveal if it's an F3 or F2 and if so, when?" thread next. Although alternatively we can continue all agreeing that we should reveal it and then not doing it
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Post Post #35 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:30 pm

Post by NotAJumbleOfNumbers »

In post 30, Shrek wrote:i dont really have any input but i think that that one challenge where you have to assign three attributes to yourself and your teammates should be removed entirely. i've played two games with it and it has been a crapshoot both times. definitely one of my least favorite challenges in an LSG atm
yeah this deserves to go. a breaking strategy of submitting an alphabet's going to emerge eventually too
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Post Post #36 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:35 pm

Post by NotAJumbleOfNumbers »

like even without communication people will still remember things from the last attempt at the challenge
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Post Post #37 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 5:53 pm

Post by xofelf »

In post 35, NotAJumbleOfNumbers wrote:
In post 30, Shrek wrote:i dont really have any input but i think that that one challenge where you have to assign three attributes to yourself and your teammates should be removed entirely. i've played two games with it and it has been a crapshoot both times. definitely one of my least favorite challenges in an LSG atm
yeah this deserves to go. a breaking strategy of submitting an alphabet's going to emerge eventually too
That was the old norm people went for, until for some mysterious reason people stopped doing it, and the people that *do* then don't get nearly so many points or anything. But either way, it's a little too random or luck based. I did like the versions where you designated somebody to be isolated while the rest of the tribe theorized together on how best to match what that person was going to submit, that at least took some doing. But it's still not really a good option.
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Post Post #38 (ISO) » Tue Mar 16, 2021 6:07 pm

Post by Skelda »

In post 37, xofelf wrote:
In post 35, NotAJumbleOfNumbers wrote:
In post 30, Shrek wrote:i dont really have any input but i think that that one challenge where you have to assign three attributes to yourself and your teammates should be removed entirely. i've played two games with it and it has been a crapshoot both times. definitely one of my least favorite challenges in an LSG atm
yeah this deserves to go. a breaking strategy of submitting an alphabet's going to emerge eventually too
That was the old norm people went for, until for some mysterious reason people stopped doing it, and the people that *do* then don't get nearly so many points or anything. But either way, it's a little too random or luck based. I did like the versions where you designated somebody to be isolated while the rest of the tribe theorized together on how best to match what that person was going to submit, that at least took some doing. But it's still not really a good option.
I really like that version!

I'm here for luck-based challenges though, or at least challenges which don't require specific skills. There can still be strategies, but I think it's fun for there to be some challenges in theory anyone could win. Not every challenge, but some of them.
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