1) A mana-less spell does 1/2 damage and can't take advantage of any spell upgrades (for instance, Magic Missile ignores More Missiles and Potent Missiles if shot without Mana). So it's still viable to fight without mana, just inconvenient! 2) Acid Rain does more damage than ring of fire, but spreads it out more (and in 2.0, Acid Rain's damage has been kicked up a notch too). A lot of people use Acid Rain + teleport to telecommute to work. 3) It's all purely random rolls... during playtesting I've had situations where I'd play three games and Channel Mana would NEVER show up, to the point where I'd go through the code and double check to make sure it wasn't broken. So it's just bad luck! 4) It's just the main spells. They'll fire faster. In the case of lightning, which is constant, you'll just use x% more mana and do x% more damage while firing. 5) It actually puts the game into "bullet time" just like when you level up, for effect. Like a slow-motion nuke blast. 6) Gotta go to settings... didn't have space for it anywhere in-game without adding to the clutter! 7) It doesn't QUITE double mana use, it's a little lower. But it is prohibitively expensive if you don't have some way to recovering mana or using less mana. It's set up through a damage-to-mana equation system assuming the second missile will hit about 75% of the time, so...
The current plan, always subject to change, is to add a Rogue, first, then a Warlord, and then, depending on how long it all took and how badly I want to move on to the super-fleshed out Win/Mac/iPad version, an Acolyte character (which is Solomon Dark's traitor assistant). Each will have their own skill tree and own weapons and own storyline with the wizards, but the game will remain functionally the same. For instance, the Rogue will play a little like the Mage (two thumbsticks) but the Warlord will simply attack by running into things, with the firing thumbstick space replaced with special move buttons.
Well, it was going to be more like what you'd see in Diablo or Titan Quest... play the same game through with a different skill set, weapons, and character. If it was different worlds it for sure would have to be different Apps, for texture memory alone! But I've got some of that stuff going in the Win/Mac/iPad version.
I would love different environments in the same app. You load all game data at the start, before the title screen, it seems. Wouldn't it be possible to have a load screen in-between worlds? Hopefully optimize it a bit more so that it loads a little faster. After ten floors, the main thing bothering me was that, with so much variety in skills and monsters, the dungeons started to feel a little stale...
Count me as one who'd buy additional characters for the iPhone version in a heartbeat (I've already played through three times, and am likely to start a fourth later today, maybe this time without using Ring Of Fire) but would be a lot less interested in an expanded non-iPhone version. I'd also like to see, as someone suggested elsewhere, having you pick your main weapon at the start of the game and then not having levelup/item slots wasted on things you're not going to use. ("oh look! I have a choice between a first-level Acid Rain when I've already got L2 Ring Of Fire, or first-level Fireball, or first level Lightning!" yeah, that kind of sucked.) Awesome game in general, though!
Hey, thanks a ton for the answers to my game mechanics questions! Much appreciated. I have another couple though (see what you encourage??): A) If you have maxxed a particular skill, then don, say, a ring that adds +1 to it...is the effective level 5? Or is it still the maximum 4? B) Does a ring of +1 damage apply separately to: - each missile in a magic missile volley? - to both a fireball's direct damage and to its splash and to embers? C) What items do you want to look for in a fire build? Thanks a ton, and once again....terrific game! And we all, I know, really appreciate your close involvement with the community!
I can answer two of these questions. A) The "maximum" means the maximum your character can attain without the help of items. Items allow you to add additional levels past what your character has. For example, Battle Mage grants -75% Mana cost when it's fully upgraded. Add a +2 to Battle Mage ring, and you suddenly have -85% Mana cost. And the Skills screen will still show the item bonus. I'd imagine it would work the same for Rush, Mana Up, etc., but the dev will have to answer that. A question that I was thinking about that was related to this one: if you fully upgrade Battle Mage, then manage to get +5 to Battle Mage through equips, would you have infinite mana? C) It really depends on what's available and what skills you happen/want to get. My last Fire build, I used all of my level-ups to buy one of the following abilities: Fireball, Explode, Channel Mana, Battle Mage, and one time Telekenesis. This build worked pretty reliably. My equips were all focused on mana recovery, plus I found a +1000% Gold Epic Staff from the boss on eighth floor. I switched from a +75% mana recovery to that staff whenever I saw treasure chests. Honestly, aside from that, there are many, many options available for you to try. I suggest trying different stuff and finding ways to make different set-ups work for you.
I just got my first Epic Ring. +2 to Magic Shield. This marks the first time I've used Magic Shield, too. I'm loving it so far. Question: would it be possible to add some bar, possibly a temporary add-on to the health bar, to indicate how much life is remaining on the shield? Or is the mystery of its duration part of the intended gameplay? Also, does the character's resist score apply to the Magic Shield as well?
Just quickly stopping in to give some 2.0 teasers... I'll be back to answer questions in a little bit, I'm tweaking bone daddy to foil the people who sit on either side of him and just shoot him to pieces... 2.0 Teasers! What happens if you pick up the "Creativity" skill... http://www.solomonskeep.com/teaser/creativity.jpg A dark wizard never rests! From the laboratory... http://www.solomonskeep.com/teaser/monculus.jpg And for mages looking for a little more flair... weld your primary skills! Here's "Ball Lighting," which is what you get if you weld Magic Missile and Lightning... http://www.solomonskeep.com/teaser/balllightning.jpg
A) This answer's somewhat complex. Most skills can go several levels past their "cap" but each skill also has a "max." For instance, Life Up and Mana Up max out at 4, regardless of items. So they'll never go over four, even if you wear a ring of +5000 to Mana Up B) It applies to any damage done. So, yeah, your splash will do +1 damage, and each ember will also do +1. It also works with lightning, but the +damage is spread across one second. C) Fireball doesn't need much damage up, so it really depends on whether you're going to have access to a lot of mana recovery. Fire is sort of the "no need to amplify" skill, so you can play around with stuff like life recovery or convenience things like walk speed or gather orbs. So for fire, I'd say, first get yourself in a good mana place, and then just use any skill whose effect you want. Unlike, say, lightning, where you should be looking for damage+ items. Some of these answers will be obsolete in v2.0...
Magic shield health bar: I've wobbled back and forth between showing and not show the health of it. I could do it easily enough, just overlay it on the normal health bar, but there's a part of me that doesn't want to for dumb artistic reasons... i.e. magic in unpredictable and mysterious. Note that magic shield resists ALL damage until it pops. So if you have one hp of magic shield, and a fireball that does 40 damage is rolling toward you, the shield will absorb all of it and pop-- it will NOT take one damage, and send 39 on to the player. So use that to your advantage! Resisting: No, only to the player. The magic shield always takes full damage.
I thought that was a chicken in the top right corner at first glance. My thought process: "YES! We get to torch CHICKENS now!!!" oh well...
Magic Missile + Fireball = Fire Missile Magic Missile + Lightning = Ball Lightning Lighting + Fireball = Flame Lash Basically you get a combined skill that uses some of the attributes of each. For instance, Flame Lash produces a rope of fire which explodes the enemy on death (if you have the Explode skill when you weld them).
D'oh, I didn't know this was in high demand, or I'd have thrown it in. I guess 3.0 will have "Poultry Mastery" available at level 20.
... we always start with the magic missile. i just finished a playthrough focusing on lightning, so i had both magic missile & lightning, but i only got a regular lightning bolt. how do i make them combine?
