New Upgrade List

[ErikMcClure]

IMPORTANT: Upgrades need to move to using well-defined IDs instead of relying on an array or we can't remove them

Standard upgrades for buildings are going to be implement after the game rebalance, along with a few others related to the end-game pinkiepocalypse, but there is still room for other upgrades. This list captures any new upgrade ideas people might have.

• Trade-off upgrades, for example giving ponies +0.05% SPS for every friendship linking them to another pony, but -0.1% SPS for every connection they are lacking.
• Conditional upgrades, like one that grants +2% SPS, but is only active if the number of friendships is fully saturated.
• Saturation bonus upgrades for upgrading buildings past 200. Maybe each building can have a series of overkill upgrades that increase SPS for every building over 200.

[Abion47]

There could be thematic upgrades for the buildings, like one that increases smile output from concerts for the number of recitals, for instance.

There aren't currently any upgrades that touch on the achievements. Maybe a +0.1% SPS upgrade for each achievement, or a +0.5% SPS for every number-of-buildings related achievement, or +1% SPS for every achievement with a muffin worth of 5 or greater.

There could also be some trade-off upgrades, like one that makes ponies give +0.05% SPS for every friendship linking them to another pony, but -0.1% SPS for every connection they are lacking.

There could be conditional upgrades, like one that grants +2% SPS, but is only active if the number of friendships is fully saturated.

Or perhaps some over-achievement upgrades for upgrading buildings past 200, since currently it only seems like the early buildings are worth it to upgrade to 200 for the muffins, then afterwards it isn't terribly cost efficient to upgrade them further. Maybe each building can have a series of overkill upgrades that increase SPS for every building over 200.

Another possibility is to keep higher levels of achievements locked behind upgrades. Like maybe once someone reaches at least 1 septillion SPS or something, it unlocks another tier of achievements that deal with getting octillion and nonilion smiles, 300 of buildings, 200k boops, and so on.

Related to the last one is locking higher tiers of buildings behind upgrades as well. Like once a building reaches 200, it enables an upgrade that, when purchased, unlocks a more powerful version of that building. For example, 200 concerts could unlock the ability to build symphonies, festivals into celebrations, raves into mosh pits, elements of harmony into rainbow powers, etc.

And then of course, whatever upgrades make the Pinkiepocalypse more interesting. }:)

[ErikMcClure]

There aren't currently any upgrades that touch on the achievements. Maybe a +0.1% SPS upgrade for each achievement, or a +0.5% SPS for every number-of-buildings related achievement, or +1% SPS for every achievement with a muffin worth of 5 or greater.

Achievements give muffins, which in turn give a global SPS bonus

There could also be some trade-off upgrades, like one that makes ponies give +0.05% SPS for every friendship linking them to another pony, but -0.1% SPS for every connection they are lacking.
There could be conditional upgrades, like one that grants +2% SPS, but is only active if the number of friendships is fully saturated.
Or perhaps some over-achievement upgrades for upgrading buildings past 200, since currently it only seems like the early buildings are worth it to upgrade to 200 for the muffins, then afterwards it isn't terribly cost efficient to upgrade them further. Maybe each building can have a series of overkill upgrades that increase SPS for every building over 200.

These are some really good ideas.

Another possibility is to keep higher levels of achievements locked behind upgrades. Like maybe once someone reaches at least 1 septillion SPS or something, it unlocks another tier of achievements that deal with getting octillion and nonilion smiles, 300 of buildings, 200k boops, and so on.

Achievements are already hidden, but additional achievements should probably be added.

Related to the last one is locking higher tiers of buildings behind upgrades as well. Like once a building reaches 200, it enables an upgrade that, when purchased, unlocks a more powerful version of that building. For example, 200 concerts could unlock the ability to build symphonies, festivals into celebrations, raves into mosh pits, elements of harmony into rainbow powers, etc.

This will be partially addressed by some of the upgrades the rebalance introduces, which doubles the effectiveness of a building or grants it bonuses for having more of them, etc.

[Abion47]

Achievements are already hidden, but additional achievements should probably be added.

I meant that the achievements aren't even added to the list until the upgrade unlocks them. So before the upgrade, anyone who doesn't know better wouldn't know there were more achievements to be had.

[ErikMcClure]

I'm not sure actually hiding achievements is a good idea, because there's an achievement for getting all of them.

[Abion47]

That can be a hidden achievement too. :P

[pjjmd]

What are the benefits of hidden achievements? Can't we duplicate the
discovery element with upgrades, etc.
On May 21, 2015 6:48 PM, "Abion47" notifications@github.com wrote:

That can be a hidden achievement too. :P

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[Abion47]

The benefit of having certain goals initially hidden from the player is that it adds longevity to the game in a sense. At some point, the player will have achieved almost everything there is to do in the game, so if they discover more to do as they play, they will generally get reinvested. If everything that is possible to do is given at the start, then the player will know exactly at what point they will have "beaten" the game. Sure, the same effect can be had with discovering upgrades, but I see nothing wrong with there being even more to discover.

I'm not saying to add secret achievements that can only be obtained by an untold and convoluted process or arbitrary means (like having the game open on Tara Strong's birthday or something), because those are annoying. Just that an extra tier of objectives that gets collectively revealed once certain conditions are met could merit a rush of fresh excitement on the side of the player.

[ErikMcClure]

I am against hiding achievements unless we want to include unfair shadow achievements that do not give muffin bonuses (like the ones in cookie clicker)

[Abion47]

Very well, then.

[ErikMcClure]

An idea for an end-game achievement that is related to the mirror pools could be "Each building of type x gains +15% SPS for each building you own over 200". The purpose of this would be for late game balancing. If we make all building functions sub-exponential and rely on upgrades to continue boosting SPS, at some point we run out of upgrades, and the cost function will overrun the SPS because of it's faster growth rate (this is the same issue cookie clicker has). Instead of relying entirely on soft resets, this upgrade would allow each additional building purchased after a given point to provide a cumulative SPS bonus, which would equal the cost curve, thus preventing the cost curve from outpacing the building SPS (or at the very least allowing us to control how quickly it outpaces it)

EDIT: This upgrade is now largely obsolete since the elements of harmony are a superpolynomial function. A weaker form of it may still be viable, though.

[hi21508]

How about an upgrade that makes pinkie clones give, but not take, more smiles? You could also add prestige upgrades that make cupcakes more powerful, or giving you a "starter kit" when you reset, like the Cookie Clicker heavenly chip system.