AVWW Post-Release 1.019-1.020 "Streamlined Continental Progression" Released!

[Singularity125]

I use the shields like this because they are really heal spells. They absorb all damage, therefore they work exactly like health, but health does not regenerate, and mana does.

With a permanent shield you can go through any windstorm area, and as long as you're careful, you can survive just fine with 1 health, since the health that you care about is in the shield, and it takes no damage from windstorms. This makes all windstorm levels the same, and you can farm some serious shards this way.

I try to use them the same way. I don't know if they need to be nerfed, but I wouldn't mind a second kind of shield, either. Perhaps a "generic" one that doesn't specialize in an element. In fact, here's a suggestion:

Add a generic shield that is meant to be sustainable, unlike the current ones which were meant to be burst. It would probably not offer a bonus against any element, to keep things simple. This new shield could have a set buffer amount of HP based on Tier, and would drain mana slower than the current one. However, it could also regenerate its HP (no toggling the shield to refresh it.)

The downside? The shield would drain extra mana while recharging, at a fairly high cost (10 mana per HP or something). And you cannot turn this feature off. The shield would also regenerate fairly slowly (maybe 10 seconds to get up to full HP). This causes two cases for the shield to fail. If you take a lot of burst damage, the shield crumples on you, and the extra damage left over goes to your HP. If you take a lot of small hits at once, your mana drops down to zero and your shield deactivates, leaving you vulnerable. These drawbacks are very similar to the current shields, but you're a bit less resistant to burst damage and a little more resilient to pea-shooter damage.

To buff the current shields for burst use, you could change the added resistance by element from 25% to say, 110%. This means you can actually heal from enemy attacks if you're tactical about it. Probably more of a novelty than anything else, but it would make boss fights more interesting.

This is quite a wall of text, and I know it belongs on Mantis, but I wanted to dump my thoughts out here. Off to repost it!

[Gemzo]

I see shield discussion going on! I have to throw my ideas out in, then.

A lot of the time I do try to only put the shield up very briefly, but sometimes enemy attacks just keep pouring in and I have to keep it up. If you do add some sort of time limit to the current "burst" shields, you should make the time limit increase or refresh when you do block hits with it. Also maybe make it so the shield's total damage taken affects the cooldown of the shield when you turn it off. No damage or a small hit blocked would let you use the shield again almost right away, but if the shield takes a beating you won't be able to use it again for a while. Alternatively, make it so that the shield's durability recovers over time, and if you bring it back up before it has fully recovered, it will still be damaged when you bring it back up. If it breaks, it will be unusable until fully recovered.

In practice, this would let you block either a hit to a string of several hits, but you have to dodge too, rather than just timing the shield as it is now. Otherwise the damage will overwhelm the shield.

Also, I always found it weird that I couldn't use a fire shield to block lava damage, or water shield against acid water. I know this is clearly not the intended use but it just seemed strange.

[Oralordos]

Is it weird that almost no-one talked about shields for the longest time, then I mentioned Fire Shields as being good against Overlords in the small room to Wanderer, and now a couple weeks later just about everyone is mentioning shields? They are starting to sound a little bit overpowered.

I would love to see a shield designed for sustained use. More spells are always better!

Too bad I won't be able to try this update for a while. My laptop hinge broke through multiple layers of plastic on the top of my computer. Good thing I know how to replace those things. Still, I am stuck on a weak netbook with Linux until the new pieces arrive. So no AVWW for me. 

[Coppermantis]

Maybe a placeable shield wall that would be larger than the current shield but be static. It would affect all incoming spells from all sources, so hostiles in the shield are protected as well as the player, but things inside the bubble can hurt eachother as if it were outside.

[Nethellus]

Is it weird that almost no-one talked about shields for the longest time, then I mentioned Fire Shields as being good against Overlords in the small room to Wanderer, and now a couple weeks later just about everyone is mentioning shields? They are starting to sound a little bit overpowered.

I think I remember that post. I never used shields at all until I read that and later had to kill the overlord in that room. It was after that I realized how powerful they could be. =)

[LintMan]

I haven't gotten a chance to play with this latest beta yet, but wow it sounds great.  Lots of awesome changes there.

Thanks, guys!

[Wanderer]

Also, I always found it weird that I couldn't use a fire shield to block lava damage, or water shield against acid water. I know this is clearly not the intended use but it just seemed strange.

To help de-wierd it:
"Here's a nice suit for when working in the 500 degree boiler room that will keep you alive."
"Cool, I'm gonna go test it out in that volcano over there."
"That's a tad bit hotter."

[TechSY730]

Going a bit off topic, but is anyone else feeling that hitboxes are a bit off in this version, particularly fire touch?

I just started a new world (due to the tier progression changes), and of course, began trying to harvest stuff. However, when using keyboard control, I couldn't hit background objects by standing over them and pressing down and the fire key mapped to fire touch. I distinctly remember being able to do that in my previous game.

Not sure if this is firetouch only or if other things got shifted too. Also not sure if it is just firetouch Mk. 1 or if it is all the firetouchs.

Just wanted to confirm if others have seen this before and make sure it is not intentional behavior before posting a report on mantis.

[NyQuil]

With this patch changing the way continents and such level up, I noticed something in the new system.  The "NPC" that you speak to change difficulty, the new strategic option doesn't work.

I was playing around with this:

Number of tier orbs (spells you can craft) available at each tier. The limits per difficulty are:

    Forgiving: 50 tier orb limit per tier
    Restless: 35 tier orb limit per tier
    Wily (default): 25 tier orb limit per tier
    Vicious: 15 tier orb limit per tier
    Absurd: 8 tier orb limit per tier

And no matter what I change it to, it immediately resets to Wily.    If I hit escape immediately after changing this and saving, it says wily, if I talk to this npc again, it is back on wily.  I tried adjusting both harder and easier.

[Brandon402]

I had to adjust one of the other difficulties to get the tier orb max to stick.

[NyQuil]

I had to adjust one of the other difficulties to get the tier orb max to stick.

Didn't think to try that, got it to stick fine, Thanks! 

Might still stick this in the bugs pile.

[7foot_sativa]

Going a bit off topic, but is anyone else feeling that hitboxes are a bit off in this version, particularly fire touch?

I just started a new world (due to the tier progression changes), and of course, began trying to harvest stuff. However, when using keyboard control, I couldn't hit background objects by standing over them and pressing down and the fire key mapped to fire touch. I distinctly remember being able to do that in my previous game.

Not sure if this is firetouch only or if other things got shifted too. Also not sure if it is just firetouch Mk. 1 or if it is all the firetouchs.

Just wanted to confirm if others have seen this before and make sure it is not intentional behavior before posting a report on mantis.

For the last couple of patches Ice Burst has been working differently than it should and also now goes through things instead of along them, so your fire touch is probably doing the same, and is now attacking in the ground instead of along the surface.

[KDR_11k]

I liked the first iteration of the shields (active for one second when triggered, fixed mana cost per use), that was kinda like a block move in other games and worked pretty well for blocking shadow bat attacks and such.

[omegajasam]

Sheilds have become popular as a side effect of the proportional upgrades e.t.c. the only way to make a 22hp character viable is with shields (too many undogeable situations in the game atm for anything else)

Early on they are prohibitly expensive too. But as you get more and more regen, they suddenly reach more and more practical levels.

In order for them to be 'quick blocks' you would need a fixed mana cost limited duration block (that perhaps blocks all damage regardless of value). It would have to be cheaper too to be usable

I think the /current/ shields should have a hefty upfront mana cost, that way you could sustain them, but if you let them break due to mana loss it would often be game over. Would make for a very high concentration style of game play for the high mana characters.

I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of damage reducing/absorbing aura that has a lesser cost to maintain as well. Might just be a way of fleshing out sheilds.

[TechSY730]

Going a bit off topic, but is anyone else feeling that hitboxes are a bit off in this version, particularly fire touch?

I just started a new world (due to the tier progression changes), and of course, began trying to harvest stuff. However, when using keyboard control, I couldn't hit background objects by standing over them and pressing down and the fire key mapped to fire touch. I distinctly remember being able to do that in my previous game.

Not sure if this is firetouch only or if other things got shifted too. Also not sure if it is just firetouch Mk. 1 or if it is all the firetouchs.

Just wanted to confirm if others have seen this before and make sure it is not intentional behavior before posting a report on mantis.

For the last couple of patches Ice Burst has been working differently than it should and also now goes through things instead of along them, so your fire touch is probably doing the same, and is now attacking in the ground instead of along the surface.

Hmm, sounds like I am not alone. Sounds like one for mantis.