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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 20, 2019 8:20:51 GMT -6
Your description seems more like a blue shard to me but I like the idea. I think in that case it should be blue, especially since in the early game you have no blue shards at all. I use plenty of red shards from beginning to end. There are many really good ones. We have very few blue ones though. Alternatively since the morte form usually takes over other stuff (morte cannon, bone morte, bomb morte), maybe a shard could also let you take over enemies or even certain objects like chairs with a black goo you throw at them. They then attack enemies for you. Only works on enemies who aren't resistant. Doesn't last forever. My two reasons for not suggesting it as a Manipulate (blue) shard were this; - For utility options in the Conjure (red) slot, there's Blood Steal, Summon Chair, technically Summon Buer, and that's basically it. None of them are defensive, and every other shard type has a defensive option of some kind. Even Skill (white) shards have defensive options, since High Jump and Double Jump grant i-frames.
- I don't think the effect is well suited to a Manipulate shard. Manipulate shards have effects that are held or toggled, but that's not what you'd want here. A shard that eats MP over time to make your character invincible, but slow, wouldn't be a fun effect to play with, and would definitely be an overpowered one to have. It's better to have it be a fixed cost and a set duration, which is what Conjure shards do.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 20, 2019 5:42:58 GMT -6
I get that Mortes are supposed to be the generic canon-fodder enemies that are too weak to give anything useful. However, I have two problems with that. First of all, they don't really end up filling that role. There aren't too many places where you encounter them, honestly. In the tutorial level, the first and most common enemy you encounter is Seamas. Mortes have generally lower stats than Seamas, yes (though strangely higher resistances overall), and thematically act as a generic "everymob" that has several variants throughout the Hellhold. So, they do manage to kind of serve the role of both Zombie and Skeleton...but also not, due to their overall rarity. Which brings me to my second problem. I don't think the idea of them being a "nothing special" mob that has nothing of its own to offer really works in the first place. The equivalent would be the Zombies in Castlevania (and a certain secret area, I guess). However, Zombies didn't fill that role. In Symphony of the Night, the Zombie could drop a piece of armour, and in Aria of Sorrow it not only still had that armour, but gained the baselard (which didn't carry over to Dawn of Sorrow) and a unique soul (which did...sort of). So, it's not really precedented, and Mortes stand out for being the only demonic enemy not to give a shard, let alone to not have drops at all.
Item-wise, I wouldn't do anything too fancy, but there are a few alchemy materials only sold by Dominique (Saltpeter, Sulfur, Mercury, and Sulfate). I'd give at least a couple of those - Sulfate and Mercury in particular, and possibly just all four with low rates - to Mortes. First off, it offers a way to get those items without having to buy them, and secondly, as enemies that serve as the "building blocks" of other demons, it makes a kind of sense. Since none of the four has tremendous use (Mercury is probably the most valuable for making Gold, and takes huge amounts to do so), nor a particularly high gold value, this wouldn't be terribly unbalancing.
As far as shards go, it would have to be something unique. However, there is both a unique ability of Mortes that I'd like to see Miriam take on, and a particular empty niche I think that ability perfectly fills. When I think about my own loadouts, I have favourites that I commonly use for Directional, Manipulate, Enchant, and Familiar shards. I don't have as many favourites in the Conjure category. Maybe I could call Summon Ghost a favourite, but as much as it helps me early on, the slot seemed to go unused by the end. What can I say? I'm just not a "myself and my shadow" (and shouldn't that line have gone to Shadow Tracer?) kind of person. I mostly use Directional shards for offence, which eliminates a lot of Conjure shards from the running, and Blood Steal is too situational for me (plus, I went through my first playthrough thinking that absorbing blood all the time would negatively affect my "purity" in the end). What I think is missing from Conjure shards, though, is a purely defensive option.
This is where I see Mortes coming in. Think about what Mortes do. They always come out of a little puddle of dark goo on the ground or ceiling, and are initially not hittable while forming. That ability would be a great option for Miriam to have. Call it something like "Liquify" or "Discorporate" and make it an ability that lasts a second or two during which Miriam's form darkens and she sinks into an inky puddle. While in this state, her speed is greatly reduced, and she can't be hit by anything. While liquid, Miriam can't attack or activate another shard, but jumping immediately ends the liquid state. As a balancing factor, I would have the invincibility take effect immediately (avoiding frustrations with difficult timing), but have Miriam remain in a vulnerable state where she can't use attacks for a few frames after the effect ends. Higher Rank would make it last longer, while Grade would slightly increase the speed at which you can move. To prevent cheese, make it where traps can still hit you, and knock you out of the puddle state. With a moderately high mana cost (at least for early game) this would give an option for avoiding damage other than just backstepping, but not completely overpower other strategies, and would provide a tool to let less skilled players deal with difficult to avoid enemies/attacks, at a cost. Also, it could potentially introduce the idea much earlier that shards can do things other than help you hit stuff harder.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 20, 2019 4:29:27 GMT -6
I'm okay with nerfs of clearly overpowered abilities. If it was only Welcome Company and maybe Dullahead that got nerfed, it would make a lot more sense. The negative reaction I think comes from the sheer number of nerfs there are, the nerfs to abilities that were clearly not overpowered in any way (Craftwork), and the complete and utter lack of buffs aside from one item drop becoming more common. It gives the impression that the designers can, at a moment's notice, just nuke the parts of the game we like without warning. It turns the sense of discovery and exploration into a sense of unease, as now that the precedent of nerfing has been set, nothing is safe any more. It's an incredibly significant precedent to set, as we had no reason to believe any of the numbers would ever change before this. Now we have no clue, and with how temperamental the developers have been as of late (with the paid DLC survey coming out of nowhere when there's still a ton of performance/stability work to be done with the existing game), there's not much reason to trust that they'll do the right thing. I think this hits the nail on the head. The big problem isn't just that there are nerfs, it's not even just that some of the nerfs seem arbitrary and pointless. It's the general philosophy that seems to be at work here. There's no effort here to make anything else more viable. A bunch of options that people enjoy are being taken away, and the goal seems solely be to make the game harder. If that's all that's desired, well... Nerfs are never needed, just make a higher difficulty! Plenty of people have expressed their satisfaction with the current Normal difficulty. Some have even expressed a desire for an easier difficulty. It might be a bit more work, but if the goal is to address concerns about the game not being difficult enough, it makes more sense to add more difficulties than to change something many people are perfectly happy with and (more importantly) would not be happy having changed. ...and if simply making the game harder isn't the goal, then they've done a poor job showing it. Let's say the goal is just to get people to use more than just the "optimal" strategies, though. Would people be as upset if instead of a sweeping list of changes, it was confined to just a handfull of the biggest offenders? If it was just the Welcome Company changes, making Dullahammer Head a bit less powerful, and...say...Heretical Grinder changes, that would be easier to take. Doubly so if there were say a 3-1/3-2 ratio of buffs to go along with those changes. Maybe add a couple points of damage to Spiral Sword, which is a mechanically unique weapon that makes a good option for a short ways on when you can first get it. Make the Summon Rat shard have a bit of homing when it gets close to an enemy, so it won't walk onto them and then walk right back off again like it currently does. With the drop rates and the fact that you basically have to go looking for rats to farm to get it, this would be pretty reasonable, as it's currently just a worse version of the Summon Giremund shard for most purposes. Or, make the Flytrap shard inflict slow, so that it's a viable trap. We're not being given any alternatives here. It's just, "These are the options people use the most. We think you shouldn't rely on them so much and we're taking your toys away." which comes across as a bit antagonistic. The devs don't have to never nerf anything, ever. It's just that when you're only taking things away and making things harder, that's a slap in the face to people who enjoy the game in its current state and think the balance is fine as is. They could meet these people halfway, and instead of dumping a bunch of subtractions all at once, actually do something about the options that nobody wants to use at the same time. It would show that they care about "more fun", and not just "more difficult". EDIT: It's a little off-topic, but I want to address this... Although: unlocking Hard (and Nightmare) from the start would also fix this, by making appropriate difficulties available from the start. (The 30% replay statistic is entirely due to most people not replaying any game... not to do with hard mode itself.) Technically, Hard and Nightmare are available from the start. They just chose to make these a cheat code (enter NIGHTMARE as your file name - yes, all caps). It seems to me, though, that based on the number of people that wanted this option and don't know about the code, this was a mistake. Even if the retro strategy booklet - which details this code in the back of the book - were made available to everyone, I suspect that wouldn't fix the problem, because how many people read the manual? If they want an easy change to satisfy people's desire for more difficulty, maybe they ought to make at least Hard unlocked from the start. Perhaps they could even make the cheat do something else, like more enemy spawns regardless of difficulty.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 19, 2019 14:52:50 GMT -6
Instead of just dismissing them as crazy for nerfing Craftwork, try to think about how this works from a game development standpoint. The devs, like everyone else here, probably didn't think that Craftwork mattered very much, and likely didn't think much about it, but once the players get the game in their hands and start experimenting with it they can often find some unexpected uses or combos. I don't know what that is in this case, but if Bloodstained is like every other game nowdays it's spying on us constantly, and the devs will be able to see what people are doing with it. At a guess: Craftwork consumes so little MP that you could have it out almost all the time, and it doesn't interfere with anything else that you do. So it could work as a permanent damage booster if you're willing to hold down the button constantly. That's just annoying. It means that if you're not willing to hold down the button constantly then you're not playing at your full potential. The rest of the stuff is similar, albeit less annoying: a large part of the game is about finding powerups and getting stronger. Some of those powerups are shards, some are equipment, but whatever they are they need to get more powerful as the game goes on. Otherwise it's meaningless. If the stuff you get early is so good that you never switch it out then you've lost a big part of the appeal, and if, when the devs spy on us, they see that people get Welcome Company early on and then never use anything else, they know that they made a mistake. "But," you say, "you can always just refuse to use the good stuff. Why don't you limit yourself to only great swords and sliding attacks? Wouldn't that be fun and quirky?" Sure, that would be fun and quirky. That's a great way to get some replayability out of a game which you've otherwise played to death. That's an absolutely terrible thing to ask people to do on a first playthrough though. For the sake of fairness, I decided to test this. I got out my Rank 9 Craftwork (due to how NG+ works it can never have a higher grade than 1) and compared it to my other shards. It was easily one of, if not the weakest shard I had. Even ones available from the start of the game. Just as an example, it was doing half as much damage, if not less, than my Gale Crawler...which I only had up to Grade 6, since I hadn't really bothered to improve the grade. Surely, though, the fact that it's only 2mp/sec makes it viable, right? Well, again no. See, Craftwork only deals damage when it initially comes out. The clenched fist doesn't do contact damage, nor does an enemy that's hit get grabbed for continuous damage. Could you spam it, though? Again, no. Craftwork is slow. Slower than using a spear or greatsword, which will also out-damage it well before endgame. So, in short, what my test determined was that Craftwork needs to be buffed.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 19, 2019 14:00:26 GMT -6
So you're basically saying: let the hardest bosses/enemies shards be the useful ones and objectively superior, while the rest is useless and objectively inferior. The end result of your suggestion is: people are going to only use those shards and equipments you're labeling as "more difficult" to obtain and that's it. I think the system we have now is way more fun because the player can use whatever shard they want without feeling underpowered, even if it's an early game shard. As I said earlier, the game never forces you to change your play style, and that's awesome. Boy you sure pulled a lot of subtext out of your ass there. What I'm saying is: Keep extremely OP stuff out of the early/mid game. It's not hard to get OP in this game despite the nerfs. What exactly is the difference between, "Endgame shards should be the most powerful." and "Early and mid-game shards shouldn't be the most powerful.", pray tell?
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 19, 2019 12:15:09 GMT -6
Woah...woah? You're proposing a possibility that they nerfed things to help sell items that you need in the game because it's now too hard without that help? Woah dude, that's a reach a mile too far for me This game...isn't very hard, even without the busted shards. And I mean from an average perspective, not just experts. I am explicitly not saying that, and was very clear on that point. What I am saying is that the timing sends a poor message, and given that balance on these items was already what I believe to be a high area of concern, it is all the more reason for them to be making sure these item packs are not going to serve as a way to buy power, so as to avoid giving that impression.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 19, 2019 11:59:56 GMT -6
That's a bit of an...extreme reaction to the latest update announcement, but I agree with the general sentiment.
Leaving aside that the Rhava weapons and Flying Edge didn't need any nerfing, as they already trade lower stats for their unique benefits, I don't think that nerfs in general were needed. Though while I'm on the subject of unnecessary nerfs... Craftwork needed a nerf? Who was using Craftwork for damage? However, even if nerfs were need, they certainly shouldn't come without buffing other things. ...and I'm not talking about the Dullahammer Head and Malediction, which absolutely did not need a buff of any kind, and especially not an HP buff in particular. If those enemies are any harder to kill, the rooms that contain them will be pure torture.
Seeing a changelog full of nerfs for absolutely anything people currently like using is...well, it's just horrible. With changes like this, I'd rather just keep the bugs. I don't need "fixes" like these.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 19, 2019 11:15:02 GMT -6
Not to bring up negativity, but I want to reiterate how important I think it is to add cosmetic slots and make these items statless.
The announcement that just came out includes nerfs to many of the most poular build options in the changelog, and buffs to the two styles of Dullahead, which are among the most annoying enemies. I'm not going to get into my personal feelings on these changes here, but I do need to talk about the general trend of making the game exclusively harder, and not improving any of the less popular options. Now, I'm sure it wasn't the intention, but making changes to increase the overall difficulty of the game at the same time that they're working on DLC that will let players buy items...if those items offer a mechanical advantage, it's going to look like they're trying to push up the challenge to "encourage" people to buy the items. Keeping the cosmetic items as only cosmetic hurts nothing, and is the best way to avoid having their balance changes viewed with suspicion.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 18, 2019 13:40:48 GMT -6
I do have to agree with XombieMike that the "13 Free DLC" framing was entirely a marketing move. It sounds better than, "planned content withheld", which is in essence what was done. The core story mode of the game was pushed out to get a release. I couldn't tell you whether it was due to concern with the unrest that was growing over delays and a lack of concrete release date, or due to going over budget and needing to start bringing in the sales numbers so that they could afford to finish the project, but that's definitely what happened. There's signs that suggest things were cut to get the product in a saleable state by a deadline. Saying that they're offering a lot of DLC for free just sounds better than saying that they released the game before all the planned content was finished. ...and despite the lack of openness, there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with them putting a marketing spin on things, nor with looking for a way to capitalize on the success of what's being called one of the best Kickstarter games of all time. However, if they end up burning the good will that their smart marketing has garnered, that is a problem. Being able to accurately convey to them what the community finds perfectly acceptable, totally unacceptable, and divisive is important to maintaining that good will, and not becoming the company that made something great, and then blew it while trying to make more money. So I think that even the most rude comments in this thread have their place, and hope that Question and others on the development side are paying close attention to people's reactions. Over half of the community seems to be against this DLC, and I see a number of people (myself included) saying that even if they're willing to make one purchase, they wouldn't be happy with it...or at least not without some serious restructuring of how things would work.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 18, 2019 6:33:10 GMT -6
You probably want to put this in bug reports, not general discussion.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 18, 2019 2:26:21 GMT -6
It's a graphical bug that some people get. Not sure what causes it.
EDIT: That chest marker in particular is a bug, I mean. The markers in general are something that the game adds to help you find things you missed. They don't work consistently.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 18, 2019 1:54:46 GMT -6
On the subject of microtransactions, I define it like this; A DLC is something that you pay for once, and it's yours permanently. A microtransaction is something that you are expected to buy multiple times, usually because it only offers a temporary benefit, but can also include things with a gatcha mechanic, where the permanent item is random and may require multiple purchases to get the desired one. I'm okay with DLC as long as they offer a reasonable value, but microtransactions have no place in a game that is being sold. The only place microtransactions are acceptable is in a free game, where that is the sole method of paying for the game. As soon as there's a purchase price, I expect that price to be able to cover the cost of the game. As far as the poll there is not (at time of posting this) an option that covers my feelings on this. I covered this already on Discord, but what it boils down to is that cosmetic items will have to be done one of three ways to not unbalance the game and ruin the progression and collection aspects. - The items are balanced around the early game, and becomes useless later on.
- The items are balanced for endgame, and must be bought or crafted.
- The items start out weak, and can be upgraded as the game goes on.
None of these is a satisfying option. If they're just starting items, then you get them right away, but can't really use them. So you're basically paying for something that they don't get any benefit out of having - you're paying for the ability to take vanity screenshots, more or less. If they're not available until end game, then people who haven't beaten the game have to work to get them. Not terrible, but not ideal. However, this creates the problem that while you can actually use them, they end up invalidating the build you put time and effort into creating. Making them like the 8-Bit Weapons? Well, that's honestly the worst of all worlds. It makes getting other stuff in the early game pointless, eliminates a middle where you'd use something else, and invalidates endgame builds. ...and those are the best possible ways to implement the vanity sets. The only way I could see these working is if the suggestion to add cosmetic slots was implemented, and the vanity sets had absolutely no stats associated with them. This would mitigate the issues I have, though not totally eliminate them, because I frankly see a single outfit as a poor value at any price. Also, the plan is for vanity sets to include a shard, which wouldn't work with cosmetic slots and has its own associated problems. For one thing, the only way to 9/9 them would be if you can craft the shards or buy them from the shop. So now that has to be balanced for. Again, though, if they're too powerful they remove the reward for putting effort into farming shards, and if they're too weak you have no reason to use the thing you paid money for...and this time there's no option to make them a mechanics-free item. To keep them from unbalancing the game, you'd pretty much have to make them functionally identical to existing shards, and probably crafted from the shards they mirror...and there's not many guaranteed shards that it would be okay to make variants of. So, you'd probably think I'm completely against the vanity sets, but honestly no. There's several on the poll that I'd love to have. Nor do I begrudge the devs making a little extra through DLC, as long as its done well. If the devs implement cosmetic slots and find a way to keep the shards viable without overpowering other options, then that's great. As I said, though, I feel like getting a single set of cosmetics just isn't a good value at any price. It doesn't add anything significant to gameplay (or at least, can't without ruining the collection aspect of the game) and you're basically obligated to use just that one outfit all the time, or you're not getting what you paid for...which also slightly devalues the collection aspect, as some people pick gear based on looks. I'd honestly rather buy a collection of three to five thematically related outfits for a bulk rate than buy outfits piecemeal, if outfits is all I'm getting. That would encourage mixing and matching more, at least. Better still, though, add a bonus area to earn the items. It just needs to be a single room ( maybe with fixed equipment) where the player must complete a challenge. It could be killing difficult enemies, completing a race, some sort of puzzle, or an obstacle course. The specifics don't matter. Just a themed room from the extras menu that takes a couple minutes to complete, and earns you your cosmetics out of a chest at the end. Do that - and avoid all the balance pitfalls I mentioned - and it's actually extending the gameplay, and not taking aspects away, or offering nothing but the same game in different clothes. TL;DR - My answer is "Yes, but only if it's done right."
Special Edit Section: Regarding the "Free for backers only, the rest should pay." sentiment...no. Just no. I was a backer, and no. Don't be an elitist.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 18, 2019 0:50:54 GMT -6
So, to get onto other minor suggestions...
I've mentioned this before, but it would be nice if when you looked at items in the Bestiary that you've gotten out of a blue chest, it would tell you what areas you've found them in before, and what the drop rate from chests for each area is.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 15, 2019 20:33:48 GMT -6
Here are some suggestions: Health bars for bossesThis has been missing on all Metroidvania-style Castlevanias and I don't see why as most other Castlevania games have it (and most other games, too) . I understand that this may be a deliberate design choice so that players won't know how much health the boss has left, so perhaps it could be an optional feature? There's an item in the game that lets you see enemy health, so having boss healthbars would take away from its functionality. On the other hand, I'm not keen on how it currently works. Which is replacing the damage numbers with health remaining numbers. It also comes a bit late into the game, IMO. If the effect of the Gauge Glasses was changed to showing health bars, and they were relocated nearer to the start of the game, I think that would do a better job of satisfying people's desire to see boss health.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 15, 2019 11:55:56 GMT -6
I'd say that the solution might be to let familiars level up in Nightmare mode, just at a slower pace, but that only increases the issues with Dullahammer Head, since you get it so early. However, changing the behaviours of familiars on Nightmare does seem like a viable option, honestly. Enemy patterns are changed on Hard and up, so it's not as though it would be unprecedented. Letting Carabosse be faster and Bloodbringer maybe actually absorb blood to empower itself on Nightmare doesn't seem that bad to me.
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 15, 2019 9:53:38 GMT -6
I almost never remember to check my email.
I am terrible about checking all the Discord groups I'm in.
My presence on other forms of social media is a ghost.
I still managed to keep up to date on the project.
Blame yourself.
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 15, 2019 9:39:55 GMT -6
This is from one of the April Fools backer updates; Now, the cryptocurrency mining options were a joke. I get that. Can we talk about what's up above them, though? Those are display toggles for the Headgear, Accessory, and Scarf slots. I have no idea if this was a mock-up or actually existed in the game at one time in development, but this does show that - at least at one time - including toggles for cosmetic visibility was considered. Maybe it was even planned to happen. It didn't make it into the final version, though, and now exactly this functionality is something that I frequently see as a requested feature. What happened here? Is it possible to get these options in the release build of the game? Anyway, posting this to Suggestions because it is a highly requested feature, and I think this makes a strong case for it being added (as it possibly almost was).
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anonthemouse
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 15, 2019 9:23:59 GMT -6
As far as shards go...
I think a drummer might set off several shockwaves along the ground, similar to Gale Crawler but in both directions. As it ranks up, it goes for longer, and releases more. With higher grade, they get bigger and do more damage. Actually, make it lightning based, and have the shockwaves be crackling with electricity. There's some allusions to Japanese mythology that can be drawn that way. Make the drummer an allusion to the thunder spirit Raijin, and call the shard "Raging Tempo" (its subtle, but this is a play on "Raijn" and "temper").
For the bassist, we've got to go with an ice theme. That way the members with instruments represent all the basic elements. The first two are an overhead arc and straight shots along the ground, so have this one fling out ice shards in random directions, maybe with icy explosions.
For the vocalist, I'd avoid elements altogether, and instead have them be status based. Slow doesn't get enough use in the game, so probably an AoE slowing field. Either make it short-range, or have it be in pulses with a short duration and high chance of being resisted, so it doesn't make Lethargy completely useless.
I'd have them combine into either a conjure shard that does an all-elements screen nuke, or some kind of familiar that takes the form of a gold record or something like that, and summons the band members to attack, with the aforementioned full-band attack being a rare super attack.
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anonthemouse
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 14, 2019 23:31:19 GMT -6
I'd like to see some of the not-dullahammer familiars brought up in usefulness. Like have the fairy's beams fire more often, fire multiple in one cast, maybe make them course-correcting by rank 9, fired without moving into position, and have them pierce terrain. Buer is actually fine as-is, because its power lies in the shenanigans it lets you get up to rather than direct automated assault. I think that all of the familiars have their own niche already. - Carbarose points out secrets and can use healing items automatically.
- Bloodbringer the familiar powers up the Bloodbringer sword.
- Silver Knight has a screen nuke at high levels, and can block projectiles at any level.
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anonthemouse
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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[TI2]What lies in wait behind the walls?
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Post by anonthemouse on Jul 14, 2019 23:25:19 GMT -6
Shouldn't this be in Suggestions?
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