Despot's Game - In Depth Overview and Findings.

[Desert Orchid 1]

First Of all I would like to say that I love This game Its very Fun although its limited in Content to be expected - the Music is great Too.

feedback based on my Runs so far - Beat the Game 2Hrs In.

Combat and Movement

Combat Feels Good it is an Auto-battler Rogue-like type combat with abilities that trigger automatically once you meet the prerequisites, I've not noticed any issues with abilities not triggering or not acting as they should.

Movement you can Decide on placements of your Units placement does matter to an extent, placements work well Individually However Highlighting More than One Unit at a time Can be finicky and you can only move a limited amount in a group.

Body-Blocking and Path-Finding The Classes; Healer - Eggheads - Cultist and Mage Can suffer from these Things both the EGGHEAD and CULTIST Require 3 of that Class type to Activate their abilities summoning Cthulhu or Creating the Emitter however when placing more than 3 Units In the titles around them can cause one unit to get stuck inside another unit Unable to move I've had this happen with both the EGGHEAD and Cultist as well as sometime taking long or weird paths to get to one another.

Cultists have another problem – in certain formations the summoned tentacle gets body-blocked from the cultists themselves.

The healer and mage suffer from path-finding problems in which the Healer will walk up past the fighters or will walk too far up and block other Units finding a target, only to find a vulnerable spot in your front line and be killed, Units seem to clip on top of each other trying to find melee space as-well.

Healers Specifically Plague Doctor has a gimmick In Which he will Not Heal Anybody Unless he deals damage but he is just too weak and dies too fast to make use of it.

Classes and Balance

Tank - The front-line who uses a shield High Hp low mobility Early 2 levels they are Actually Not too Bad However They fall off really Hard, I wouldn't really advise Investing in them They seems to die too quickly after that and the effect To taunt While great I think should be lowered to 3 > 1/2 with lower Taunt times at those levels cause as it stand now the AI will sometime just Ignore the Tank especially in boss Fights. They have a good mutation Reflective Damage but due to the fact tanks are too weak its not worth investing in. Major BUFF?

Fighters - Fast Attacking Fast Moving Units With Slightly below average Hp These Units on there own are Ok I wouldn't rely on them Till You get enough for Pain Linked In which case in a large Group these guys become Quite Tanky However This only Goes well with one unit Fencers who get pain linked and can use the Mutation amp-irism to heal any of the Mitigated Damage. There Mutation +10 damage per attack is great and Pairs very well with the Fencer/Fighter Combo.

Fencers - Good all Rounders Average mobility and Hp I think theses guys can be great on all floors specifically if you build for them as I think the Vamp-irism Mutation is Way too strong and when maxed can end up pretty much nullifying any damage they take paired with their ability Crit they can do some Insane damage.

Lancers - Very Good Stats Very High Hp high damage and Good mobility Honestly these guys can be pretty great on most floors its best if they are paired with Range having not much else to be said their ability dodge is pretty sub-par I think it should be changed to a more damage reflective ability? and their is no mutation tech for them.

Shooter - Fast fragile High damage fast attack weak early game but another contender for top Unit snowballs Incredibly well paired with mages or fencers Eggheads even strong weapons although the BFG is lacking great later on too and Their ability is pretty great it just Buffs Attack speed goes well with literally any Other Unit Shooters + Fencers is really OP! Rubber bullets mutation pretty good allows for more damage.

Throwers - Good Hp Good damage OK mobility Short Range Honestly these Guys are lackLuster they feel like a worse version of shooter with more Hp I feel like a slight range buff is in order because as of now they are just outclasses the only good thing is the AOE ability BOMB which is nice but due to the lack of grouped enemies you face as of now they take too much set up for not much pay off. BUFF?


Mages - OMG Mages Low stats High damage fast firing Probably one of the best Units in the Game just absurd they snowball so well and their ability ThunderBolt is Just really Strong The damage is way too high and The Cool-down is too Low to top it off mages seem to appear more often than not in the shop. The bonus Mana Mutation is Nice if you build them. slight NERF?

EGGHEADS - The best Class/Unit In the Game you want in on the Leader board EGGHEADS Slow Fragile High range High damage Snowballs super hard if protected Has the best ability in the Game buffing units attack and defence with the emitter the emitter also takes agro as well!! also some of the lowest cost units and has some of the better weapons later on too. no Mutation tech NERFF!!!!

Healers - Weak all around Weak No Tech That buffs them and Not really useful the heal is way too weak and in their current state with path finding issues and the fact that Units either Die too fast or aren't in any danger this unit just isn't worth picking up it's heal ability is too low and requires too much investment you could be putting in DPS add to the fact that it's mutation is entirely useless 40% Evasion - Healers back-line anyway.

Cultist's - By Far One of the worst Classes sub par stats across the board way too Long to set up and Invest in and not really that Great for floors the ability to summon a Cthulhu takes too long requires protection and Isn't really that strong It requires too much investment in the Tech mutation Tree Line for them and is just surpassed by many other Classes. Major Buff?

Mutation Tech Tree

I mention mutations above but The tech tree is very weird as it cheaper to get mage tech and Shooter tech but to buy fencer tank healer or just MAX HP you also have to buy the sale mutation and Metabolism Mutation.

I would say as of Current Game State useless Mutations Include;

Evasion - Just not worth it healers too weak to back line.
Metabolism - Not much pay off healing too weak.
Rubber Bullets - slight Damage Increase.
Thick skin - Completely useless Newbies usually get one shot or just get a class straight away.
and all of the Cthulhu tentacle tech - Cultist's are too weak and not viable no point in investing in this tech maybe make them spawn units like a necromancer?

I would say as of Current Game state Most useful Mutations Include;

Sale - Cheaper Upgrades for later on no brainer
Vamirism - Scales very well and just makes fencers almost Unkill-able
Health Bonus - Probably one of the best Mutilations you can get just unfortunate it's locked behind a lot of Sub Par Mutations I try to always Max it out before the last Boss.
Mana Bonus - Mages are good more spells is good Just a nice boon.
Blitz - Fixes the issues with Throwers somewhat.

The Random Mutation Rooms are a nice Boon wish they had a re-roll Option maybe with a higher Cost or sacrifice or fight?

Floors and Bosses

For the Most part their isn't much Content so most of the floors are pretty cut and dry with just more units than before However Some Notable Bosses are The Giant Flamer Robot Hits Pretty Hard and Can absolutely wipe out melee teams who clump.

The Giant Green Cabbage who can almost one shot most units maybe vary his attacks and tone damage down? as he can One shot Lvl 5 Units.

The Giant Cerberus Dog surprisingly Weak if you have a few levelled front line units then you will make work of him he needs a buff I feels he is too weak in his current state to be a boss.

Notable Mini Boss Units. The teleporting Robots that Knock you back are pretty strong.
The Illuminati Pyramids very weak and I feel like they deal no damage and are never really a threat
The Big green smashing robots are really good barrier for progress I like them.


I think the shop design is good and I have 1 Quarrels think there should be a sell feature to sell items back at half value. I like the food Rooms and I like the mutation rooms with re-roll.

The Zombie event room Is fun And I wish there where more room like that One.

as far as the Ui goes I think It need more details and Info its pretty bare-boned and we don't even know what floor we are on maybe like an encyclopedia for info on stats and damage and enemies ect?

Anyway I hope my feedback can be of use to The DEV and any player reading. If you have any additional info or quarrel's leave a comment.

[Galroche]

don't criticize the almighty giant green cabbage, people will tell you they are perfect and that you only need to learn the game.

IMO everything you said is on point, especially the class balancing issues need to be looked at.

[Tigris]

Necromancer with temporary Zombies would be great.
Or some sort of summoning class that doesn't come from a synergy bonus.
Nothing drastic, just enough to keep things busy.

[Desert Orchid 1]

Originally posted by Galroche:

don't criticize the almighty giant green cabbage, people will tell you they are perfect and that you only need to learn the game.

IMO everything you said is on point, especially the class balancing issues need to be looked at.

ahah Yeah That boss reminds me of CUPHEAD lol

[Desert Orchid 1]

Originally posted by Tigris:

Necromancer with temporary Zombies would be great.
Or some sort of summoning class that doesn't come from a synergy bonus.
Nothing drastic, just enough to keep things busy.

I agree more of a necromancer vibe would be cool.

[Scary]

I agree with most of what you said. Just a few points where I have to object:

1. You can already see the floor you are on when you press TAB to expand the map.

2. I am not sure if you know that you don't have to get all the Mutations in the tech tree that lead to the later, good mutations (namely the health buff). It is enough to have any of the prior Mutations. I usually choose the Route via Shooters- Mages-Throwers buff, just because I always bring shooters along for the attack speed buff anyways. I guess it should be made more clear in the UI that you don't need all the prior mutations to get the next one, for example by making purchasable mutations stand out more with a sparkling effect or the likes.

3. Healers are quite strong already, they especially with the 60% to dodge. They can easily carry your team to the PvE victory. They just have two problems keeping them from being competitive:
Firstly, the Plague Doctor is basically useless and always tries to suicide (especially the mighty green cabbage likes to kill him right before the game comes to an end). But you need to have at least one alive to get the massive healing increase from 30 to 100 for all of your healers. I usually place him all the way in the back and hope that my other units will body block him long enough so that he only reaches the enemies once the fight is already over. I would like to see this unit completely reworked, as nobody cares about him as a damage dealer and he is way too squishy to be a front liner. He is just frustrating and not fun to play with at the moment. Alternatively it would be good to rework the heal ability to maybe something like 20/50/80 instead of the current 15/30/100. That way it is less punishing if he suicides once again.
Secondly, Mages counter healers too hard in PvP as they just oneshot their targets, including the healers. But since mages need a nerf or rework of the Thunderbolt ability anyways, this issue could be addressed on their end.

I would also like to expand on your analysis of the cultist class. You already summarized it pretty well though: They themselves are kinda weak, they summon the tentacle too slowly and even once the tentacle has been summoned, it isn't even all that strong - even if you put your money into the tentacle perks.

I tried going for a cultist run but the main issue I was facing right from the start was their slow summoning speed: The opponents (especially ranged opponents) will start attacking your cultists before they can finish summoning their tentacle, even if you place them all the way at the back. This means you need to invest into a frontline to protect your cultist, but that also means that you loose the ONLY advantage that the cultist class offers: a replenishable meatshield that saves you money on heals and reduces the risk of your permanent units dying. The tentacles don't deal much damage, in addition the three cultists that summoned the tentacle stop attacking. I think they would do more damage if they just hadn't summoned the tentacle and had went for their own attack instead. So the tentacle does not tank anything and ends up costing you dps - right now the cultist class would be better if it had no ability at all. This shows you just how messed up this class is at the moment.

I suggest a number of possible fixes:
1. Make tentacle spawning basically instantaneous, and preferably line up the summoner's to the left of it. Also you have to get rid of the body blocking issues involved with the tentacle. That way, the tentacle could at least function as a meatshield, and with the right mutations maybe even deal decent damage.

2. Alternatively, you can give the tentacle a taunt ability like the current ability that tanks have, but of course one tentacle would be enough to cast it. That way you would still need a frontline, but it could be much smaller because it would only have to tank for a second before the tentacle takes over. Although I would prefer the first option, because if tentacles contineu to take ages to be summoned and thus force you to tank the first few attacks with actual humans, that will force you to have some kind of healing in your build. Then the question becomes "why even bother with cultists?", as you could just get tanks or lancers right away. It would be nice to have Cultists frontline as the way to make a build that does not need healers. Currently the only other viable way to avhieve that is by playing fencers, and they get annihilated by mages in PvP.

3. If you are not going for solution nr 1 or 2, you should greatly increase the tentacle's damage to give it the identity of a damage dealer instead. If it is not going to tank anyways, at least let it be useful as a high dps unit that nobody will shed a tear for should it get eaten by the great green cabbage.

4. Regardless of the options above, PLEASE, let cultists continue to use their attack on enemies in range - maybe even increase their attack range for this. Or make it so that they can shoot their attacks from where the tentacle is. Or that their attack stats get added to those of their tentacle. Right now, the game offers you a bunch of random mutations for cultists that are absolutely useless because your cultists almost never attack anyways. Please - let them attack even with the tentacle summoned!

[Desert Orchid 1]

Originally posted by Scary:

I agree with most of what you said. Just a few points where I have to object:

That is why we need a better Ui and Tutorial for that kind of Information Unless I Missed the tab part?

To answer You 2nd Point No information is Given On the tech tree and the way in which It is set up so that Lines connect the mutation makes one assume It's a linear teach tree require the Mutation before to obtain the ones after, Unless I missed that In a tip?

Again maybe a more In depth Tutorial and Ui or Encyclopedia?

I disagree On the Healers with their current AI Issues with Path-finding and with the fact this Game state seems to be a more DPS focused "Build" I wouldn't really advise Investing in them, over much better Options Shooter - Eggheads - Mages and to top it off you have to put points into dodge I don't think healers should be so front-line and I think they should re-work the Plague master Into like a potions or buff/de-buff type Unit?

I think healers should be Changed to a more Ranged healing style with More options on which c;lass they heal or which unit maybe and I agree change plague doctor.

His synergy is good its the fact hes melee and just dies to quick its not useful enough.

P.s Nerf Green Cabbage


As for Cultist Fixes -

1) Increase Tentacle damage and summoning speed, allow Cultist to attack after it is summoned.

2) Make it so Instead of one tentacle it summons weaker but faster smaller tentacles which can be buffed in the mutation tree.

3) Make tentacles more tanky less DPS go for tank tentacle build so they can be a meat shield, make them summoned further up so they are More Useful.

3) Re-work Mutation tree for Cultist and maybe make them m ore of a necromancer class summons minions Rather than a tentacle

[Desert Orchid 1]

I know this for sure Ranged needs nerfing and Melee Needs buffing, Mutation tree Needs re-work and Clarity, Stats and Level up need Clarity and More Information, Tutorial Needs Updating, More Information, More In depth.

Also Leader-boards it's Not even Fun to get on them It's all Egghead spam its not really an achievement.

[Xaverok]

Considering you can clear the game with less than 10 melee units but you cannot with less than 10 ranged units make your statement about buffing melee and nerfing ranged seems a little off. Also when the option appears you'll see the top 5 are basically fencer focused with backup mages and a blob of level 1 eggheads for the tower buffs.

You can clear the first 2 and a half levels with a single melee unit who remains at full health by the time you actually start to add other units, you cant do that with any ranged unit

[Desert Orchid 1]

Originally posted by Nyek:

Considering you can clear the game with less than 10 melee units but you cannot with less than 10 ranged units make your statement about buffing melee and nerfing ranged seems a little off. Also when the option appears you'll see the top 5 are basically fencer focused with backup mages and a blob of level 1 eggheads for the tower buffs.

You can clear the first 2 and a half levels with a single melee unit who remains at full health by the time you actually start to add other units, you cant do that with any ranged unit

I already said how strong the fencers and Fighters are and how OP the VAMPIRISM mutation is and I'm not doubting that you can do that. but that Isn't strong melee but broken mutation.

[Xaverok]

It is very easy to pick and choose information that supports ones claim to something but how can you claim one thing is OP compared to others when you are picking and choosing specific elements as opposed to everything that is available?

Ok so remove mutations and 1 vs 1 each classes best unit compared to the other, melee wins, taking both places in the final with cloud strife fencer vs pitchfork lancer, coincidentally both those units have more health and i think more damage than almost every other unit in the game, the only close fights are against sailor moon mage because - closing the distance. The same applies even more so for 10 vs 10 of the same units, ranged units do not spread out their fire particularly well so waste alot of shots hitting the same enemy.

So what you are actually talking about is the set bonuses not the units themselves where yes you are correct, thunderbolt and attack speed buffs are OP compared to the other set bonuses but that isnt an issue specifically for or against ranged or melee is it, thats an issue with the mage and shooter set bonuses as opposed to the units is it not?

Much like you needed to clarify that your argument is excluding mutation bonuses you conveniently forgot to mention that you are only talking about the set bonuses whilst applying this to ranged units. Change the poor cultists to have thunderbolt and they are suddenly strong instead of being weak as well, same applies to throwers, their set bonus isnt exactly good outside of PVE and they get wrecked by melee but give them thunderbolt and they will start wrecking.

In terms of leaderboard fights what is killing the majority of units is thunderbolt which isnt a ranged unit but a perk of a ranged set. In closing, all the units are comparable with one another however the set bonuses are what is making specific things OP compared to others, change those around and bring them all in line with one another whilst sorting out the tech tree to include a more meaningful mutation to each class will enable alot more variation in builds as right now the majority of the top builds are the same, eggheads specifically for their class bonus which provides utility, mages specifically for damage, mostly coming from their class bonus which is the only direct damage dealing bonus and fencers for the frontline with maxed out lifesteal for tanking, sustainability and damage (no other class has lifesteal easily available to them). Occasionally you will shooters for more DPS but it isnt anywhere near as consistent as mages and occasionally you will see fighters from people who understand the game mechanics a little better with their painlink spreading out the damage which your other frontliners are going to heal up with one hit. Cultists, Tanks, Healers and Lancers are not used because well their set bonuses suck and so does the options in the tech tree.

In closing, change the elements impacting the units (IE mutations and tech tree) and this will drastically change the game without touching a single unit so no, I do not agree that ranged needs a nerf and melee needs a buff.

[Desert Orchid 1]

Originally posted by Nyek:

It is very easy to pick and choose information that supports ones claim to something but how can you claim one thing is OP compared to others when you are picking and choosing specific elements as opposed to everything that is available?

Ok so remove mutations and 1 vs 1 each classes best unit compared to the other, melee wins, taking both places in the final with cloud strife fencer vs pitchfork lancer, coincidentally both those units have more health and i think more damage than almost every other unit in the game, the only close fights are against sailor moon mage because - closing the distance. The same applies even more so for 10 vs 10 of the same units, ranged units do not spread out their fire particularly well so waste alot of shots hitting the same enemy.

So what you are actually talking about is the set bonuses not the units themselves where yes you are correct, thunderbolt and attack speed buffs are OP compared to the other set bonuses but that isnt an issue specifically for or against ranged or melee is it, thats an issue with the mage and shooter set bonuses as opposed to the units is it not?

Much like you needed to clarify that your argument is excluding mutation bonuses you conveniently forgot to mention that you are only talking about the set bonuses whilst applying this to ranged units. Change the poor cultists to have thunderbolt and they are suddenly strong instead of being weak as well, same applies to throwers, their set bonus isnt exactly good outside of PVE and they get wrecked by melee but give them thunderbolt and they will start wrecking.

In terms of leaderboard fights what is killing the majority of units is thunderbolt which isnt a ranged unit but a perk of a ranged set. In closing, all the units are comparable with one another however the set bonuses are what is making specific things OP compared to others, change those around and bring them all in line with one another whilst sorting out the tech tree to include a more meaningful mutation to each class will enable alot more variation in builds as right now the majority of the top builds are the same, eggheads specifically for their class bonus which provides utility, mages specifically for damage, mostly coming from their class bonus which is the only direct damage dealing bonus and fencers for the frontline with maxed out lifesteal for tanking, sustainability and damage (no other class has lifesteal easily available to them). Occasionally you will shooters for more DPS but it isnt anywhere near as consistent as mages and occasionally you will see fighters from people who understand the game mechanics a little better with their painlink spreading out the damage which your other frontliners are going to heal up with one hit. Cultists, Tanks, Healers and Lancers are not used because well their set bonuses suck and so does the options in the tech tree.

In closing, change the elements impacting the units (IE mutations and tech tree) and this will drastically change the game without touching a single unit so no, I do not agree that ranged needs a nerf and melee needs a buff.

Good Points I see. I agree with most actually.

[Desert Orchid 1]

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