I think the Pirate Island should be patrolled by ships.

[L. Ron Hubby]

I started a fresh Hard run by grabbing the boots from the starting house, going down the ladder, killing enemies for a few minutes, then making a pirate map.

Sailed out there, used the boots movement speed boost to get myself a pirate sword, and easily solo'd the first boss - no armour. I would use the sword to defeat the next 3 bosses quite easily.

If the pirate map had a bit more defences, especially in the water prior to actually getting to the island, I think it would seem natural to the game, and fix a balance issue.

Other than that, game is 11/10, can't stop playing and buying copies for friends.

[Stealth-Boy 3000]

I can't imagine beating him without armor and all other pirates after you. Also only 100 health and no trinkets? U playing on easy or sth?

[ElDudorino]

I think the pirate ships idea just sounds cool so +1 but I don't think there's a balance issue. You can already sequence-break in other ways and I think it's intended to be possible. Anyway, I don't think the cutlass or magic lamp are *that* good. I just give them to townspeople. I like the gear from entering the desert caves early instead.

[ElDudorino]

Originally posted by Stealth-Boy 3000:

I can't imagine beating him without armor and all other pirates after you. Also only 100 health and no trinkets? U playing on easy or sth?

He said he's on Hard but he didn't say he beat the pirate captain, just that he grabbed the loot lying around and then went back to do the other areas in order. Pretty believable to be able to do that.

[Stealth-Boy 3000]

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

Originally posted by Stealth-Boy 3000:

I can't imagine beating him without armor and all other pirates after you. Also only 100 health and no trinkets? U playing on easy or sth?

He said he's on Hard but he didn't say he beat the pirate captain, just that he grabbed the loot lying around and then went back to do the other areas in order. Pretty believable to be able to do that.

Ok, prolly got it wrong, thx!

[Faust]

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

I think the pirate ships idea just sounds cool so +1 but I don't think there's a balance issue. You can already sequence-break in other ways and I think it's intended to be possible. Anyway, I don't think the cutlass or magic lamp are *that* good. I just give them to townspeople. I like the gear from entering the desert caves early instead.

Personally, I'm convinced that sequence-breaking is good as long as it feels earned. If it's too trivial - it may end up making a playthrough feel unfulfilling. I still remember my cheeky arsehollery in New Vegas where I would get mid-late game gear by the time I hit level 2 by doing things that new players couldn't even fathom, or that time I would complete an endgame DLC with a character that entered it at level 1, and how much fun that was.

Like for example you can get full Tungsten gear before you beat the pirate king or before you even beat any bosses at all, technically, by going to desert undergrounds and looking for caveling oasis minibiomes, but the tungsten payoffs from that method are so abysmal that it balances out by the sheer amount of grinding that would have to be done to pull that off (at that point it's more worth it to just follow the standard progression path).

That Cutlass is scaled to be a sword fitting for the end of pre-deep-underground content and early deep-underground, and if a player can just spend a couple minutes to acquire it almost risk-free, that just feels trivial.

Raiding underground deserts early might have a similar problem, but at least in there a single skelly will likely rip you a new one in one hit (or at least it will on Brutal, which is what I played my first full playthrough on), so managing to survive long enough to sequence-break by acquiring desert gear while severely underpowered for that biome feels at least somewhat earned.

[ElDudorino]

I guess I agree with the notion that you should have to earn sequence breaking but how many people really use standard swords with no special? I would think the mage boss in the dungeon and even those swamp pea shooters would rock you if you tried to use the cutlass against them, then you wouldn't even be able to hit the vulture.

If you could just find overpowered ranged weapons there it would be another story but off the top of my head I think it's just the cutlass and then the lamp which is fast but weak and blows through your mana reserves. So it doesn't seem like you're really skipping much.

[Faust]

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

I guess I agree with the notion that you should have to earn sequence breaking but how many people really use standard swords with no special?

Not that many. Some bosses appear straight up unbeatable in pure melee. However, that early in the game, with how low the power levels are, it's gonna be an apocalyptically formidable and switzerland-ly versatile tool of murder.

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

I would think the mage boss in the dungeon and even those swamp pea shooters would rock you if you tried to use the cutlass against them

Not quite certain whether it'd be entirely viable for phase 2, assuming I'm playing on Brutal, but I can easily see myself cleaving through phase 1 of the Void Wizard with it. And truth be told, I'm more scared of stalling phase 1 due to how the projectiles from clones just never disappear, than I am of phase 2's rather sluggish projectiles. The swamp shooters would probably require a lot of finesse from me to beat them in pure melee, but still managable. Now the swamp boss, if not trivialized, then at least would be made noticeably easier for a melee user to beat.

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

then you wouldn't even be able to hit the vulture.

Admittedly, at that point it's only good against regular enemies. But hey, that's most of the biome anyway, and you're already through like 80-85% of the pre-deep progression with that thing.

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

If you could just find overpowered ranged weapons there it would be another story

Admittedly, I'm not sure how trivial it would be to use the cutlass to get a flintlock from one of the pirates, but somehow I have a hunch that I'd still manage rather well, given the amount of defensive geography in the form of buildings.

Originally posted by ElDudorino:

but off the top of my head I think it's just the cutlass and then the lamp which is fast but weak and blows through your mana reserves. So it doesn't seem like you're really skipping much.

Oh right, the lamp, which is also at least a solid weapon for its point of progression. A weapon of that power tier that has a ranged attack seems like it would trivialize anything and everything that the Cutlass didn't. Good point in favor of guarding the pirate village better, as far as I see it.