Let's Talk About the Sticker Dilemma!

Hey everyone, I figured I'd make a new post opening up more discussion regarding stickers, as I have a number of ideas on how things could be handled, all of which come with their own pros and cons. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts and other ideas!

Getting Stickers

Firstly, after taking in everyone's feedback I do feel like having Baldi drop stickers isn't the best route, but that begs the question, what is?

The reason I initially had Baldi drop stickers was because I didn't want sticker packets to just be another item that generates in levels. I thought it would make sense for stickers to be a reward for doing well in the game, but just giving players stickers for getting notebooks/solving activities seemed a bit too static. Those are things you already have to do to progress, and since the amount per-level doesn't change, you'd end up with the same total every game unless you go for bonus questions. Having Baldi drop the stickers alleviates this issue by making it so that more effort is required to get them than just doing what you already do, but as I and you, the others, have found, this has its own problems.

One idea I had earlier in development, but scrapped, was giving players special objectives that they could complete to earn stickers. I like the idea of Baldi giving players stickers as a reward for completing assignments, so this idea seemed to have potential, but I quickly realized forcing specific goals onto players wouldn't really be fun for a variety of reasons. Mainly, trying to get very specific things to happen in Baldi's Basics (Instead of just playing to win while rolling with the punches) is really really annoying. I know because that's what I had to do to get good shots for the new Baldi's Basics Plus Gameplay Trailer and let me tell you, never in my life have I hated this game as much as I did then haha.

For example, if I gave players the task of "Get Dr. Reflex to squish Baldi", you'd first need to find Dr. Reflex, make him angry, then try to get Baldi in-between you and Dr. Reflex. Sounds easy on paper, but there's a billion things that can ruin your setup. Gotta Sweep could show up and take Baldi away, Beans could launch gum and hit Dr. Reflex, a whirlpool could show up and ruin everything, or maybe Dr. Reflex just doesn't see you at some point and goes the wrong way. A failure would require waiting for Dr. Reflex to reset and setting everything up again. Not fun.

A couple other ideas that have crossed my mind are allowing the player to choose either YTPs or a sticker packet upon completing an activity, or allowing players to deposit collected notebooks into a device somewhere in the level to exchange them for stickers. I could even just keep them exclusive to the store and expand that section to give players more options for buying stickers (Multi-sticker packs of variable sizes, being able to buy specific stickers at higher prices, stuff like that).

I'm open to hearing other ideas though! I'd really like to make stickers more interesting to earn than just finding them like items or buying them in the store.

Applying Stickers

Currently, stickers can be applied at any point, but it seems to be that people aren't taking advantage of this feature and that it may break up the flow of the game too much, so I think for the public release I'll change it so that stickers can only be applied in the pit stop by interacting with the Packet-O-Matic. However, if I go this route, I'm definitely thinking of making an item that would allow you to modify them at any point when used so there would still be some opportunities to change things mid-run, it would just be very limited.

In conjunction with this change I'd also like to make it so the pit stop will show what the next level type will be so you can select stickers accordingly before entering the level. Though I may not be able to get this working in time for the public release.

I still plan on keeping sticker packets earned during a round sealed until the player reaches the pitstop. By keeping them sealed and causing sealed packets to be lost when a round is lost I can prevent players from grinding stickers by earning all the stickers in a level and then losing on purpose to play the level again and get even more (Though the new safety scissors functionality can still allow this in its current state unfortunately).

Sticker Rarity vs. Permanence

My initial plan was to make the odds of different stickers different so that more powerful stickers are less common, but I think I might actually take a different approach. One big concern I had about this feature was that, if players managed to get four of a particularly powerful sticker, they could stack them all and keep them applied for the remainder of a run. Instead of just making some stickers significantly rarer however, I think I might make it so that applied stickers are lost after beating a level.

I like this idea for a number of reasons. Firstly, I believe it will encourage players to be more strategic with their stickers. Currently when you get a sticker you like you can just apply it immediately and keep it forever. By making it so applied stickers are lost once a level is completed, you will probably be more inclined to save certain stickers for certain levels. In the meantime, you can use other stickers at your disposal that you otherwise may not typically go for.

Secondly, it will prevent overpowered combinations from lasting forever. You can save all four of those "Great Job!" stickers for one level, but afterwards you'll need to find a new strategy! This will allow me to keep sticker odds fairly equal without worrying too much about balancing issues.

Thirdly, it will encourage players to use more stickers. Currently players can get a lot of stickers, but if they're not applying new ones their inventory fills up quite a bit. Clearing applied stickers after beating each level will encourage players to use at least 4 stickers per-level.

The downside, of course, is that players will lose some stickers every level, but if the stickers you applied for a level helped you out, they've served their purpose.

With this change your applied stickers would still remain after losing a round, but you'd have an opportunity to change them in the pit stop if you'd like to change your strategy.

In endless mode, applied stickers would last for a certain number of notebooks before being lost.

Conclusion

So uh yeah I hope you don't mind me rambling a bit haha. I want to make sure this feature really fits the game and that I give it the best chance possible to work out well. There's a non-zero chance that it ends up getting removed at some point if I determine it bloats the game too much, but that's a scenario I hope to avoid. For now, I'll do what I can to make it as good as possible. Thanks all for the feedback and support!