Yeah, I'm always for making more strategies viable as opposed to just a few select ones. Like, as it stands, Teleport is a STAPLE of all of the best skill sets...perhaps it needs some clever balancing so it isn't the wonder skill that it is now. Like how about it not getting rid of specials (since almost all of the other skills don't work on them)?
The problem is, if the classes are hardly different at all, and not any better than the base class, then if I've exhausted my interest in the base game, they aren't going to make me any more interested. I thought the point of adding a lot of new content was to stimulate new interest among people who already liked the game concept but who felt they had exhausted most of what they could do with the existing game. But from my point of view it is not doing that. I had mostly played out the basic game, and the new game isn't doing much to engage my interest. The idea of perks and flaws is a good concept for adding new powers that can be strong but with offsetting flaws. But allowing players to pick and choose their perks and flaws, and having many flaws that are so trivial they are irrelevant, means that you have the problem that you can't have strong perks either because they would be OP. Maybe pairing perks with flaws in an unchangeable way would have been better, because then you could at least pair a strong perk with a strong flaw. Or maybe some kind of points system where you have strong/medium/weak perks and flaws, so if you want to take strong perks then you also need to take strong flaws. I just think as currently constituted the perks/flaws system seems to add significant complexity but almost nothing more to the game.
I suggested that many pages ago. Or else a much longer cooldown (since it's faster than many skills that are significantly worse). Going from 20 to 30 would make a pretty big difference (i.e., only usable half as often, at level 10). But it's hard to nerf skills that are OP, because people adapt their strategies and enjoy using them. There is a temptation to power up the alternatives instead. I do think that nerfing Teleport is probably a better idea, though. It's also an issue that some foes, like late-game Spiky, can be so impossible to deal with that currently Teleport is the only real solution. I guess Banish or Exorcise would be alternatives, if Teleport were nerfed.
At 5% life leech, you need to do at least 20 damage to get any gain. Maybe you just haven't gained enough power yet? If you have 5% life leech, and you do an attack that does 20+ damage, then the screen will display that you're gaining 1 HP, along with the damage that you're doing. You only gain 1 HP even if you attack many skulls for 20 HP each. It would seem more natural if it gained a percentage of all of the damage you inflict, but of course the percentage would have to be much lower than it is now.
Looking forward to this list/guide, as ArtNJ's feedback and tips have been really helpful to me in getting a handle on this game. I have 8 of the 10 classes unlocked but have been focusing on that rather than trying out the new classes. 2nded.
1) Racial bonuses are passive skills that just happen automatically. Helpful bonuses that come at the cost of a certain reoccurring suped up special (and some of those are just nasty). 2) Mage's Runes only work if the icons in the midst of the loop are completely surrounded AND that the start and end point are adjacent. While kind of a neat idea it really rarely feels that useful. It is neat in theory that you could be grabbing potions, shields, and coins all in one move is clever, but I rarely can setup a situation where I'm surrounding more than maybe some 4 icons (leaving a fireball, while not targetable, a lot more handy). 3) Life leeching is entirely based on the damage you do and at 5%, it will only mean 1 hp every 20 points of damage you do rounded down.
If it works on specials it seems like it could be pretty useful in the late game. If the specials are immune, not so much.
I agree. This is exaclty how I look at the leveling up. Its just a way to make the game even more varied and interesting.
Or, how about if the cooldown time increased by one every time the spell was used. So it could start at 20, go down as quick or the spell leveled up, and then went up as the spell was used.
Perk: Halves the chance of mortal enemy appearing Flaw: Special Monsters appear one turn sooner (iirc, don't have the game in front of me atm) Skill: Last Stand, active for the turn you use it, if you die while it's active you're healed to full. Race: Dragon. After using a skill you put a flame on a random skull, the flame hits for your base damage after the current turn ends. Bit of a double edged sword though, since like with the Burning Skull special, you can hit yourself if you trace a path over the flame. Mortal enemy: Freezing skull. While in play base damage is halved. And for something different, I've died twice now to the Orc Barbarian mortal enemy, and not gotten the appropriate achievement. Not sure if this is specifice to this race/class only, can't say I've been trying to get myself killed by other mortal enemies
Well the Raider class special "Masochism" which turns all coins into skulls helps with that a lot. Played an interesting game to about 30k with Masochism/Magic Sword/Boost Damage/Heal. Masochism makes an interesting alternative to Dazzle since it similarly gets rid of coins but has the benefit/risk of gaining more XP. Ultimately though, armor becomes rather useless in longer games.
While you're at it, can you post the normal skill set for each of the classes? I'm too lazy to and always forget what skill set I'm trying to get on these new classes.
I like the update and how the developer wants to add small variance to maintain the feel of the original game. I also like the idea of increasing the effect of the perks and flaws to force players to change how they play thus adding much more replayability. Currently the perks and flaws are okay but really after 5 minutes into a game, there is no difference any longer. Here's my idea. Have another option called "condition" or "mind-set". Have 3 choices: 1 - Stable - have the perks and flaws exactly as they are now. 2 - Unstable - increase the perks and flaws effect by double (ie. instead of 5% it's a 10% bonus/detriment) 3 - Desperate - increase the perks and flaws effects by triple or even quadruple
Apologies for not properly quoting, but I'm fond of these suggestions people made: 1) Teleport -- raise cooldown with each use. Similarly, it could just lose a level with each use. If it was at 1, it wouldn't get any slower, but once you put updates into it, those upgrades get erased with each use. Still must have, but maybe more balanced? 2) perks/flaws - I like the idea of either tieing them together or a point system to offset, and offering some slightly more powerful ones on each side. 3) mimic just doing normal damage and revealing when matched. On a side note, I like the warrior skill of clearing all tiles on the outside of the board. Clears much more then fireball and the other one that does a row, and also isn't random. You know exacty what it's going to clear.
On your last point the reverse is true too, since you leech life regardless of how much damage you actually do if you're hitting one skull with 1 life left and you link every sword on the board and do 100 damage, 5% life leech will give you 5 life...so yeah somehow you leech more life out of the skull than he actually had, hehe. Also a bit odd but it's good to keep in mind if you're relying on the leeching to top up.
Exploitable Bug Found Blunting is not working properly on poisoned enemies w elf racial. I had 6 blunting, worked fine but if I poisoned a 46 attack boss he should go to 23-6 or 17. Instead I was getting inexplicable drops, like from 46 to 6 in one turn. Eventually, poisoned skulls went to 0 attack, when I believe 1 is the intended minimum. I am going to try and exploit this for a high score, but will let you know if I succeed so the score can eventually be cleared.
I don't get how you guys are getting such sick scores! I get overwhelmed by enemies around 250 turns. I guess I just need to get more damage... I always try for a max defense/spikes strategy because I feel it works so well. Until the enemies start doing way too much damage. What are you strats for getting 20k scores!?
Many people go for Teleport, but I prefer going for the skills that grab all of an item. For example, get Repair, Heal (or Exp Potions), Treasure and one other skill, and now it's easy to always "shift around" the board whenever things are unfavorable for you.
If you are getting overwhelmed at 250 turns, I would say perhaps your max defense/spikes strategy is not working so well.
