Universal Solomon's Boneyard (by Raptisoft)

Sweet! can't wait for the Ice Powers, will defenitely buy them yeah that makes sense with the healing spell, it also makes the game more challenging which is a good thing.

 

So I'm reading this thread about the difficulty of the poison archers, and as I am tweaking an update right now, I have a few questions:

1. Are you sure it's poison killing you, and not just being hit by a lot of arrows? Poison is pretty darn weak in Boneyard, and even so, you can get a resist poison skill to cut it even further.

2. With Morth, are you upgrading Chill Wind? Chill Wind blows arrows away... having a large Cone of Frost and sufficient Chill Wind will basically make you laugh arrows off.

3. Are you using Magic Shield at all? Magic Shield should give you more reaction time to the arrows.

4. Magic Circle, upgraded sufficiently, throws everything into slow motion within it, including arrows...

I do need the game to get too hard eventually (it's a high score shooter, and Solomon Wins, man, there's a sequel) but there should be, more or less, spell counters to all kinds of "piss you off" behaviors in the skill system... in a way this works like Starcraft or something, where each type of challenge has a somewhat specific counter attack. Zombies bugging you? Lightning + Stun is a good counter. Too many arrows? Chill Wind or Magic Circle. Mobs in your face? Ring of Fire. Too many carriers? Use scourges.

So I want to double check that there's an actual "difficulty" wall, and it's not just an issue of someone who upgraded only one spell and never mixed up their playstyle to include the counters.

 

I think the difficulty level is fine, I don't have any problem with poison, and since my favorite person to play is Morth I don't have many problems with arrows. The one thing I still think would be cool is to have the wave 20 (or so) save thing that I mentioned earlier, if you choose that, then when you start you level up a bunch of times, allowing people to test out different setups without going through all the lower waves.

 

I don't like this idea.

And I also have no problem with the poison arrows. I've died on them once or twice, but I've also gotten through them. I think the difficulty ramp doesn't really need tweaking.

Also, I should mention that I haven't played enough to accumulate the good perks so the game should get even a little easier when I start off with +2 to skills and random rings and whatnot.

 

Yeah, I guess I can see how it could be a good or bad thing, although it would be up to the person playing the game.

 

I just beat Solomon's Keep. Worth the money!!!!!!! Time to start this game, who should i use.

 

Oh, yeah, I'm putting together a whole awesomeness formula-- trips to town was going to be one of them, as well as how much you're worth when you kill Solomon (gold + value of items) but I didn't want to factor time into it because I hate rushing through games.

I'll have to check out Shiren the Wanderer, maybe I'll get some ideas.

 

It seems that poison is the issue. I was using Magic Shield level 3 and within 10 seconds of a wave starting I had 0 HP from poison archers. The entire wave was at least 50 or more poison archers at the start. I understand that it has to end, but that seems like overkill. Poison has been nerfed a lot from Keep, but in large numbers it still seems too powerful. Maybe Magic Shield should stop poison arrows from poisoning you? It makes sense seeing as they have to make physical contact to poison. Other than that, the difficulty is fine.

 

I just had an awesome game, I had a score of 2123, and was finally killed by like 20 lighting mages (just couldn't get to them fast enough and my magic shield just didn't hold out but man it was awesome blasting them with ice, I had upgraded the ice wave thingy so I had a 140 degree ice blast, with like 6 damage and a faster casting ring on so I don't know how much damage a second. that and a magic shield made for a very epic game, waves 33-35 were fought with no health, and only a magic shield keeping me alive.

EDIT: I'm way to addicted to this game, I bought it this morning and have already played over 4 hours (253 minutes to be exact).

 

Mine does not have a DLC option and I can play as any of the four wizards.

 

Okay, another few hours of playing under my belt...still a fantastic game!

That said: less projectiles! More damage per projectile! The rain of arrows thing is, imo, ludicrous if you don't have, or are unable to acquire, a "counter" to it, as you suggest.

Another thought: if the arrows were the tiniest bit slower, that could also inject a bit more tactical play, as you would again be able to dodge them, a la a bullet-hell style shooter.

As it is, magic circle and the ice wizard seem (at least, to me) to be significant advantages.

Also: I found that the 'counter' to zombies of using Stun either isn't a 'hard' enough counter, or isn't all that worthwhile. In SK, you can get Stun up to a level range (without sacrificing precious other skill choices) where it's quite effective against zombies and friends.

In SB, though it may be intended as a counter, I'm finding +dmg to be a more effective counter. Lightning takes FOREVER to kill those guys. In SK, you could often use the architecture of the castle to train zombies effectively, so the time they took to kill was well-balanced. Stun helped in that case.

Another thing I feel strongly about (but that you're unlikely to agree with!) is the difficulty in finding and picking up coins.

I understand why gold is so slow in coming. As irritating as it is it's understandable given the DLC model. But does it have to be so darn hard to pick up? That always bothered me a tiny bit in SK, mostly because it's needless thumb abuse. You have to really do a lot of thumb-wrenching to pick every coin from between chests and such, but at least you could see them all. Now, there's a similar amount of thumb-strain, but the coins are also often hidden or just plain hard to see for people with deteriorating eyesight.

I would LOVE to see the Telekinesis ability (for coins only) become a universal static addition to all characters. If for no other reason than that it puts less physical strain on your thumbs and eyes. I'd rather be able to play MORE SB and SK for longer, than to bask in the pure gaming joy that is couch-diving for pocket change.

 

It's a buyable perk!

 

The "DLC" isn't really DLC. If you go in the perk list and scroll all the way right you can buy 10,000 gold. There are also three additional wizards you can purchase in the perk shop, and the total cost for all three is 8,000 gold, iirc. So a lot of people are buying the 10,000 gold for 99 cents, and then using that gold to unlock the three extra wizards.

 

Damn, I wish I had money in my account.

 

IMO every wizard except the ice wizard is underpowered. I wasted 99c unlocking the other wizards

 

Could someone please tell me all the abilities of the 3 other characters please

 

The other three each start with two primary skills (i.e. Magic Missile and Fireball) and every five levels can weld their two spells together to make a new combo spell (i.e. fireballs that explode, but are guided like magic missile).