(Dev Really Wants Info) One Item You Most Want Changed This Week In AVWW, #1

[Wanderer]

This isn't a major issue really, but since I can't bring up anything major to my mind...

The thought in the back of my head throughout this thread has mostly been "seriously, that's the worst thing you can think of?".

I just hope the reviewers and potential customers come to a similar conclusion as you

No, but Chris did particularly ask us not to ask for game-sweeping or heavy-hitting changes.

[keith.lamothe]

This isn't a major issue really, but since I can't bring up anything major to my mind...

The thought in the back of my head throughout this thread has mostly been "seriously, that's the worst thing you can think of?".

I just hope the reviewers and potential customers come to a similar conclusion as you

No, but Chris did particularly ask us not to ask for game-sweeping or heavy-hitting changes.

I mean, "seriously, that's the worst bug you can think of?", mainly

[Wanderer]

This isn't a major issue really, but since I can't bring up anything major to my mind...

The thought in the back of my head throughout this thread has mostly been "seriously, that's the worst thing you can think of?".

I just hope the reviewers and potential customers come to a similar conclusion as you

No, but Chris did particularly ask us not to ask for game-sweeping or heavy-hitting changes.

I mean, "seriously, that's the worst bug you can think of?", mainly

OOOOOooooh, heh.  Those I shove into Mantis.

[darkchair]

Balance tweak for Energy Pulse


Hey, saw you guys at PAX on Friday. Had a great talk, it was great to meet you guys. Mentioned this to you, here it is thought out:


Basically I'm asking for a balance of Energy Pulse:

Context:

I've only gotten to tier 2 on the first continent, I'm not sure how Energy Pulse compares to all the other spells and if its scaling changes.


Problem:

The spell seems too efficient to me.
I play games for the challenge mostly nowadays, therefore I'm a fan of a balanced set of spells so I don't have to rely/feel like I should rely on one spell.
Based to what I've experienced the spell has huge advantages in multiple areas. It's very mana efficient at 0.7, it is cheap mana-wise so many characters can use it [an assumption about this mana-system revamp theory], pierces an infinite [I guess] number of enemies (increasing the value of the mana with every other enemy hit) which is obviously very useful, and is also extremely easy to use due to its amazing physical attributes (it has a large hitbox, has a huge range, and even tracks along the ground). It has pretty much every benefit a spell can give you over the others that I have experienced.
If Energy Pulse was more balanced, then I could use the rest of the set of spells as opposed to just ignoring the most useful spell (by far) that I can find. [I know this may sound silly but imbalance is a turn off and a subconscious source of boredom for some people]. (as in some people will look at the spell list, and then only use that spell, and then complain about how boring the game is and leave)


Suggestions:

Something has got to give, and there are a number of choices.

You could lower the damage further.
You could make it pierce a finite amount of enemies.
You could lower the range.
You could get rid of the ground tracking (racing-along-the-ground effect, not sure what to call it).
You could shrink the hitbox (make it smaller).
You could increase the base mana cost (so less characters can use it in the new mana-system theory).

Or of course some mix of these and others.


So yeah great work all of you and good luck with the release.

[keith.lamothe]

Hey, saw you guys at PAX on Friday. Had a great talk, it was great to meet you guys.

While I wasn't there: welcome to the forums

Chris handles the spell balance, but in general I'll say that Energy Pulse is not the spell I see everyone using (from discussions, saves I see when investigating bugs, etc).  There are certainly spells I don't see, and I imagine most of those will see significant revision, but there's a relatively wide set of "favorites" I see.

All that to say that it may not be as obviously preferable as it may at first appear   But yea, it's pretty cool.

[Wanderer]

Energy Pulse is cheap and very effective, and very few things are immune to it.

It's not my primary spell, but it's my go-to secondary, right behind the Forest Rage DPS Machine Gun... which STILL eats my mana pool away during boss fights, but a little of that is due to my build, the majority of it due to my build not counteracting it.

[zebramatt]

eRe4s3r -- hardcore modding of spells is definitely not the sort of thing for this thread, and isn't really something I have a lot of personal interest to begin with.  But... we'll see, at some point. 

Anytime I add a new spell or change anything in particles.xml you lose any mods you've applied, anyway.  My main reason for making it external was to make it faster for me to change things with it, and to allow players to mock up things that they want us to include and have it so that we (and you) could see it in action.  Not as actual true mod support, which isn't something I see ever focusing on in the game (fragmentary playerbases, yikes).

There's ways around that which I'd love you to explore way post-1.0 - but I understand your reticence.   



I've wished for a long time for an indication of where you last came from when you're warping or just leaving to the world map. It's not a massive deal but if it's trivial it'll help me remember what I'm up to, especially after breaks between play.

A similar Mantis: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=6538

[Hyfrydle]

Something I would like as a long time TAB targetter is a more intelligent target system. I've lost count of the number of times I've tried to target an Esper in front of me and the TAB target has chosen the one that can't actually harm me on the level below. Not sure how this can be resolved and I'm sure I posted a Mantis issue regarding TAB targetting earlier in development.

Also I would like to second the placing platforms issue when TAB targetting that still causes me problems from time to time.

Finally I want to say how much I'm enjoying playing the game at the moment it is really starting to come together and feel very polished. I genuinely felt for my last character after building him up to be a power machine only to get wiped by too close contact with a Skelebot Sniper.

Keep up the good work and thanks for this amazing game.

[MouldyK]

I was going to suggest making the enemy harder each continent, but looking at the notes for 0.931, you have already done that, so quite happy.

And other than that, some spell balancing might be in order, but I am sure you have that in mind maybe.

If I think of more problems, I will try telling in the nicest way.

[keith.lamothe]

And other than that, some spell balancing might be in order, but I am sure you have that in mind maybe.

Assume nothing

Do you have specific spells you think are underpowered (and in what way?) and specific spells you think are overpowered (and in what way?), or is it a more general thing than that?  Explain (intones the interrogator)

[Toll]

Hmm. One question about the health/damage-increase... Does that also apply to bosses/lieutenants/overlords? I'm assuming yes, but figured I'd ask anyway...

[Terraziel]

I have to say that I'm not sure I'm a fan of just increasing health\damage by continent, or rather a couple of concerns come to mind.

The main one is, despite not having personal experience with multiplayer, wouldn't this make it harder for new players to join old servers? If the server is on continent 5 then a new player starting with no enchants has to fight through some very tough enemies just to get up to speed (accepting that they would be getting enchants pretty quickly)

The other one is that it seems like it would make people tend toward certain types of enchant, namely Damage Reduction and Power Increase ones, simply to escape the sense of losing ground on the enemies (however backwards that might be in reality).

Something else that comes to mind, thought not really an issue, is how does this apply to enemies only unlocked on later continents? I get the sensation that you would never see the "base" version of those enemies (Obviously there are only two at the moment but I expect that to increase)

Obviously I'm not against the enemies ramping up but I just think there's got to be a better way to go about it, having read through the mantis of the elite enemies, I can say that they all sounded pretty good (meaning I had no wish to encounter ANY of them) and I feel like they are a better solution than the flat stat increases.

As an idle thought, how about decreasing the pop cap used by enemies as the continent increases? maybe combined with a lower rate of flat stat increases, so that for example, instead of continent 5 having 10 monsters with 220% health it would have 15 monsters with 150% health, my gut feeling is that the latter would be more fun to play.

[Toll]

Haven't played enough MP to know how it is exactly, but if you start on continent one, you will fight the base versions of the enemies no matter how many continents exist, so they'd be able to get enchants pretty easy that way. And if they start on the latest continent, they can just sail back to continent one to do the same (although that's less obvious, perhaps).

[Dizzard]

Wow, sorry if I wasn't harsh enough.

I still think there are some issues with bosses not seeding properly. Just the day before last I found a boss room that had no boss. (underground)

Truth be told I haven't had time to play much recently, I wanted to help anyway though.....

[keith.lamothe]

Wow, sorry if I wasn't harsh enough.

Sorry, I didn't mean it as a bad thing; I just find the general sorts of what the "my #1 gripe" responses to be low enough on the scale that it's comedic/positive to me   Definitely not complaining!