Dang. So going for high turns, teleport still isn't the best way to go? What about Wish > Charge? The whole one time use thing is the kicker, right? Having to get it over and over again with a level-up, having to wait until level-up to get it when you're using the combo of your other skills... Which do you prefer? The shield or coin collecting method?
Unfortunately, I haven't played this game in months because I don't like the mechanism for having to unlock all of the features. It's also a bit frustrating that there are old scores on the leaderboards (from different versions) so it's hard to tell how you're doing relative to other players. I liked collecting shields, because you can use Dazzle to make coins into swords, use swords as necessary to kill enemies, and then use Scavenge to turn the rest of the swords into shields. This way you can easily get to a point where you're collecting 30+ shields, doubled, every 5 turns. Which is about 5 upgrades every 5 turns. But I can see how focusing on coins could work also. I think both have merit.
How do you divy up the armor/weapon damage ratio? It seems I was offered spikes a lot, but they aren't damaging enough in general on Normal and up I believe... Plus I'd be sacrificing wep damage/armor. Hmm. What about skill elixir vs charge? Charge will have like 8/9 cooldown at level 10, slash can be 1/2, skill elixir is like 7/8...?
Personally I always chose weapon damage (not base damage) over just about anything else, except for blunting (and things like armor durability that you max out quickly). Increasing weapon damage also means you gain more HP with life drain (even if you're doing way more damage than needed to kill enemies). I have not had great luck with Skill Elixir, I just find I need potions for healing, even with life drain maxed out and lots of weapon damage. And it doesn't help clear/manipulate your tableau, so it's a poor use of a slot. And, in the long term, once you have maxed out your pluses, level-ups aren't that good. I do think there is a lot of experimenting I could do if I had the patience to unlock everything first. But I don't.
It takes all the potions off without using a turn, though. Wish is a one use skill that (I believe you can keep getting back) that clears all tiles. Charge clears all around the edge of the board. I mentioned the cooldowns in a previous post.
That is not it. 100% bonus chance will only kick in for the pieces 10+. So that perk is actually much less useful than it sounds. If you match 14 tiles, only the last 4 tiles will have 100% chance applied, the first 3 tiles won't get a bonus, and tiles 4-10 will have regular bonus.
Well, the simple graphics help distract from the poor scaling and I try to ignore that most of the time.
My highest score so far on hard is around 70k and 1100 turns with charge-treasure chamber-double coins-dazzle. Dazzle is an odd choice with the other three, since it takes away coins, but I was playing as the dwarf fighter, and with the chaotic enemy that can only be hit with uppercut, dazzle is a life saver. Since i've unlocked charge now, I wanted to try changing the dazzle to treasure for even more doubled coin collection, combined with the trait for the 100% over 10, so hopefully by the time things get rough, I'll have a REALLY high weapon damage. But, I haven't been able to get that combo quick enough to get going, and I've been playing other games, like dungeon saga. Overall, it's a good combo. You activate TC, then double coin, then charge gets you any coins around the outside (doubled), with 20 coins refilling. Then treasure takes those 20 (doubled, plus bonus over 10?) plus any coins you had on the inside of the board is also taken doubled, and then all those coins are refilled with a last set of coins that you take manually at bonus 10+. It's a LOT of coins!
Do my mode ideas really suck that bad? No one said anything about any of them I don't even care if you say they suck, just give a tiny bit of feedback... (you might have to go back a few pages to find them)
Well since you asked for some feedback Alchemy: seems very complex. It's an interesting idea but I imagine a lot of people would be put off by it's complex and seemingly random rules. I know you explained they wouldn't truly be random but the average user would not know that and it would definitely seem random. Even if you did know the rules it'd be very complicated. EDIT: I suppose if you added some interface that showed the effect the chain would have (as you're making the chain so you can see what will happen before it does) then this mode would become more reasonable... but that'd be a lot of coding for fireflame, might clutter up the screen, and would still be very complex. Boss Rush: I don't think this would be fun. If every skull was a special you would die fast... real fast... Maybe have it so there is always one boss on the screen for the first 100 turns... then 2 for the next 100 turns etc... even then I don't think I'd want to play that mode but atleast it'd be a more reasonable challenge that I think some might enjoy EDIT: If you did go with my suggestion... then I'd say have set stats (no levelling etc) and have the skulls not increase either. Just make it so whoever lasts the longest (most turns) wins with a static setup. Last Stand: this one i could see working. You'd definitely have to use your abilities sparingly. The only modification I'd make is to let your class ability not go away (so that one ability could be reused throughout the game with it's regular cooldown at maxed level). That way the class has at least some bearing on the mode EDIT: I could almost see this being combined with my idea in the previous one... so you get to use each ability once... and every 50-100 turns you have one more boss on screen at all times... and both you and skulls have set stats that don't increase... It's all about how long you can survive... I could get behind (and probably enjoy playing) that type of mode! Mimic: If every skull is a mimic then it's not going to be hard to find them as you're always going to be looking for them (especially since there is almost always going to be one on screen) so i don't think this mode would be much fun as you'd constantly have to scan the whole board and identify the mimics. The whole point of the mimic is you're not expecting it and thus not looking out for it. The only way I see it working is if you have a very short timer the person has to make moves in so they can't take their time looking at the board... but that too would not be fun in my opinion. it would be quite frustrating. A speed mode could be fun though (with the timer idea I just mentioned) but without the mimic rules. It'd be like speed chess... only for dungeon raid...
(@eflin) You have very solid points in all of your feedback, so here are my responses: Alchemy: It sounds much more complex than it really is if you're just looking at the mechanics I posted. The basic rules are that: #1. The more tiles you match, the bigger the chance that something bad will happen to you. and #2. The more different tiles you match, the bigger the effect on you (either positive or negative). Much more simple than my description made it sound Boss Rush: I agree that it would be a very hard mode, and I tried to give an example of something that could be done to help the player last longer, but as I said, I can't really come up with an accurate set of stats and stuff to do that without playing the mode. Your take on it is like an entirely different mode, but I could see it working as an alternative to my idea. (Maybe make it every 75 turns instead, to make it slightly shorter/more difficult.) Last Stand: That addition you suggested is interesting; it'd probably be a good addition, but you can't be sure w/o testing it. Mimic: I admit that this was just a feeble attempt to try to get Mimic back into the game (Didn't have the game at the time that he existed.) I'll try to think of a better way to get him his own mode. (I need to fight one. It's now one of my life goals )
Alchemy: That is indeed a lot simpler. It's not a mode I'd be interested in playing but I definitely understand the appeal more. Boss Mode: Short of reducing the number of skulls on screen (or making them all very low level compared to you) this will get out of hand very fast and be VERY luck based (i.e. some combos of specials are going to be much worse than others). I definitely like this idea (and would play it if balanced well) but it needs some definite tweaking which was were my random suggestions came to mind. They weren't very thought out I admit but they were just initial reactions to your modes afterall :- ) Last Stand: like i said i still like the idea of this and boss mode combining into one mode. Mimic: I've been a long time mimic supporter in this thread. My suggestion has always just been to make him a toggle in the menu (with the default set to off) with a pop-up message explaining it the first time it shows up. So the first one would be a gimme but then people will understand it and even then they will only show up if people decide to turn it on (like I would). It's such a fun special :- ) but i definitely see why fireflame removed it (he got ALOT of "glitch" reports that were just people not getting what the mimic was). Keep up the great thoughts though. It never hurts to give fireflame more ideas as he is very good at picking the right ones in my opinion. Just don't expect to see him for a bit still as he is taking a hiatus at the moment (atleast per the last update i saw on his situation).
So I remember that fireflame was going to do a graphics overhaul on this. Any news on how that is coming along?
Check a few pages back. Fire flame gave a small update. The artist is working on it and he hopes it will be his next update I think.
New record! ~1100 turns, 100k points in normal. Charge, treasure chamber, treasure, boost gold (not the exact order).
i use raider halfling..combination of masho with treasure chamber used after each otherwith help of boost damage and teleport gives me immortality within limitis ! i cant reach the immortality in the harder mode..the only 2 things that i believe the dev put to prevent which i believ is a sick way to prevent the immortality 1-non continuous upgrade in sword ( so he continuously show defense upgrades to force you to be weak and not upgrade your sword..WTH..i demand that always a sword upgrade is available..its so sick in many games seeing in the shop all the 3 items is to upgrade your defence to force you to be weak and lose)its so unfair..give me sword upgrades and i dont care about all this defense upgrades..especially i get very big defence from masho followed by treasure chamber..as for every 15 skull u get 1 defence..give me always the option to upgrade my sword!!! 2-the monster with spikes..that monster is extremely overpowerful at late levels to force you to lose..he comes like with 250 health and force me to lose when u hit him. this monster should be removed or weakened..it so unfair
