Author Topic: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?  (Read 1437 times)

Offline Professor Paul1290

  • Sr. Member Mark II
  • ****
  • Posts: 395
I know this might be different depending on how you play, but I always seem to end up with far more health than mana potions.

I kind of feel that mana potions should be more common because mana has a wider variety of uses than health. With defensive spells like the shields it can now absorb damage and conserve health. Also, using mana requires the player to do something to make it useful where health just needs to be refilled every now and then.

Maybe it's the way I play that does this, but I often end up with a hundred or so health potions but only maybe thirty or so mana potions, and the health potions often end up eventually being dumped after I outlevel them.

Offline Mánagarmr

  • Core Member Mark V
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,272
  • if (isInRange(target)) { kill(target); }
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2011, 05:35:49 am »
*edited* Because I fail at reading comprehension.
Click here to get started with Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports.

Thank you for contributing to making the game better!

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #2 on: October 27, 2011, 08:38:25 am »
This is a tricky one, and mostly my position on it at the moment is "it's too early to tell."  I'm not precisely happy with how this is working yet, either, but I think more needs to be done with other aspects of the game before I'll be able to make it substantially better than it now is.

We're giving more health than mana potions intentionally at the moment because we want mana to be in a lot of senses more scarce -- if you can just cook off the high level spells and then restore your mana every 10 seconds, that's going to be a huge problem. 

Whereas with health if you have a ton of potions/scrolls you still can't just stay alive forever, because if you're getting killed more frequently than every 15 seconds or so it doesn't matter how many potions you have -- and unlike with mana, you can't just wait out that cooldown period, usually.

So the general rule of thumb I've been using is that it doesn't really matter how many healing potions you have, and we don't want to make it too tedious to get a goodly number of them, while at the same time you can definitely have too many mana potions, but you can definitely also have too few; the goal is having it be limited, but not survival horror limited.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline mrhanman

  • Hero Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 764
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #3 on: October 27, 2011, 09:31:00 am »
I've noticed this, too, but I just figured the problem would go away once there were more items to collect.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #4 on: October 27, 2011, 09:42:03 am »
That, too.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline zebramatt

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,574
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #5 on: October 27, 2011, 09:50:30 am »
I'm looking forward to having more non-magic based attacks, so I don't always need magic to get magic.

Offline Hyfrydle

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 587
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #6 on: October 27, 2011, 11:52:24 am »
I create loads of mana scroll and never have a problem. This has worked fine for me so far.

Offline Dizzard

  • Sr. Member Mark II
  • ****
  • Posts: 380
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #7 on: October 27, 2011, 01:47:02 pm »
Maybe you could make the gem dust that can create mana scrolls a bit more likely to appear in stash rooms?

That way, you're not straight up giving the player loads of mana potions but you're giving them more of the means to craft it.

Offline Hyfrydle

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 587
Re: Perhaps there should intentionally be more mana than health potions?
« Reply #8 on: October 27, 2011, 02:09:45 pm »
Quote
Maybe you could make the gem dust that can create mana scrolls a bit more likely to appear in stash rooms?

That way, you're not straight up giving the player loads of mana potions but you're giving them more of the means to craft it.

Good idea though sapphire gem veins are pretty easy to find.