Hey guys, and hey Caboose! I made an account recently to post this up because I’ve been playing a lot of trivia and I feel that I’ve played enough of it to make a few assessments (as politely as possible)
- There is an overabundance of trivia about anime and video games
- The trivia has the lowest pay-out out of any of the minigames, despite its popularity
- The API is has a lot of potential with it
I understand the focus is based more on making an environment that everyone can enjoy, and I should be speaking on behalf of everyone that the work you chaps have done so far is fantastic. But as far as the trivia goes it has a lot of untapped potential and could spark a sense a friendly competition among your community.
So here I’ve been labouring all evening to write up a few of my ideas that I think will help make trivia a minigame more people will go to to earn money and have fun.
Suggestion 1: New Modes
The trivia game at the moment revolves around a series of ten questions, where players answer questions within a time limit and earn points depending on how quickly they answer, where incorrect answers reward nothing. There is nothing wrong with this model and it is perfectly fine and it is proof that the API is working as intended.
What I would suggest is three new modes to replace the existing base game:
- Classic: This is the standard trivia game you already have – The winner is the player with the highest score and will convert that score into units. (further explanation down below)
- Head to Head: This mode is a contest between the players to get the correct answer the fastest. Incorrect answers lock out the player. First to five correct answers wins a fixed prize amount.
- Lightning: This is a quick-fire round where players are given questions in rapid succession. The player with the most correct answers wins a fixed prize amount
Head to Head Concept
- Before the round starts, players can vote on a question topic (i.e. geography, history, books etc.) and the topic with the most votes gets picked for two questions (fig 1)
- The objective is to answer the question on screen correct the fastest, with the disadvantage of being locked out if you get the answer incorrect. (fig 2)
- The winner of this gamemode is rewarded 2500 units. Runners up get 800 units consolation prize.
Lightning Concept
- The game will pull 40 questions from the API and a time of 60 seconds is given to complete as many of them as possible
- The players own screen will display the questions, the player will answer them there (fig 1)
- The main screen will display who is in the lead during and after the round is concluded.
- The winner is rewarded 2500 units prize money. The others get 800 units consolation prize.
Suggestion 2: Classic Rebalancing
At the moment you are rewarded a “Thanks for playing” bonus of 200 and a set prize, maximum being 700 units. So you get a total of 900 points for winning first, regardless of how well you do. The new scoring system I’d like to suggest rewards players that a) win with a larger score b) do consistently well in streaks and c) answer correctly quicker. In short, I would like to see a system that rewards the winner generously but it’s possible for the runners up to achieve bonuses for the way they play so they don’t feel their efforts were wasted.
I have made the following hypothetical changes and additions to the current scoring system to help my balancing.
- The maximum points one can score for a correct answer is nerfed to 300, with that figure decreasing by 10 every second, the first second is missed to give people time to read the question properly.
- The winner of the game will receive the total points they score in the game. For example, if someone scores 2000 and wins, they get 2000 units.
- The runners up will receive 40% of the total points they score as a consolation prize. For example if a runner up scores 1500, they get 600 units.
- One player can receive a bonus for having the most correct answers (100 for each correct answer)
- Each player will receive a bonus for their streak (100 per count)
So with this new math, let’s apply the scoring to a few of the games I played earlier tonight and see how much I’d make.
The first game I did, I was fairly lousy. I got only four questions right, but I managed to get three questions in a row right. I still won the first place prize against another single opponent.
230 + 270 + 280 + 0 + 260 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 WIN
= 1040 + 300 streak
= 1340 + 200
= 1540u
So in total, I receive a prize of 1040 units. In addition to the 200 unit “thanks for playing” bonus and the new 300 unit bonus for my streak, that means I now have a total prize of 1540 units. This is not an awful lot more, but still. Let’s assume that I played got the exact same result with the same maths again but lost.
230 + 270 + 280 + 0 + 260 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 LOSS
therefore 1040 * 0.4
= 416 + 300 streak
= 716 + 200
= 916u
So I lost and only made 40% of my units, but on top of the “Thanks for playing” bonus and the “Streak bonus”, the total payout is 916. Now I’m hoping it won’t feel like a waste of time to the player because we pointed out that he had a streak and he did a GOOD!
The next game I play is a belter! I knock everyone out of the park because I’m well on form and I’ve memorized all the anime trivia.
300 + 0 + 280 + 0 + 260 + 280 + 290 + 290 + 260 + 0 WIN
= 1960 + 500 streak
= 2460 + 700 most questions right
= 3160 + 200
= 3360u
So the base prize is 1960 units, plus the 200 “Thanks for playing” and the “500” streak bonus, let’s say that I got the most answers correctly out of everyone as well so that earns me another bonus of 700. In total I would earn 3360 units for this game of trivia, and given that a round is quicker than bowling that puts it in around the same sort of level.
Let’s say that I’m the God of anime now, just for fun.
300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 + 300 WIN (obviously)
= 3000 + 1000 streak
= 4000 + 1000 most questions right
= 5000 + 200
= 5020u
As you can see, there’s no way people are gonna give up grinding casinos and bowling, unless they love trivia ofc.
Suggestion 3: Curation
I understand that Tower Unite is a big game and the trivia is only a small part of it, and I don’t really have any experience that can help you code. But what I can do is curate the database and do the legwork and research trivia and add more questions.
I hope you guys take my suggestions into consideration, I’ve been a big player of GMod Tower back in the day and I’m so happy you’ve got this project now! 
