Knowing what anything is...

[cricketlenny]

While I'm having a great time so far, I'm finding myself lost as to what anything is when it comes to new items or mechanics. I tried out the second playable character and had no idea that they had no health recovery. I had an item that said "Solar Flare" for the description, and nothing indicating what it was or how I would use it. The item I would have needed to trade it for was "Double Damage", so my choices were "What on earth is that?" or a really good item. Same goes for the differences between playable characters. Even just a simple little stat box for the characters, or a section on the main menu that explains the effects of items after you've gotten them would be helpful.

[FungusMouse]

It's my biggest issue so far. Fun game, but Solar Flare, Cleaving, "Deals Percentage Damage." None of those things have any explanation as to what they actually mean/how they function.

[Goblin Queen]

Solar flare = Shoots firey bolts whenever you fire your gun

Cleaving = Hit multiple targets that are close together

Deals percentage damage = Deals damage to enemies based on a percentage of their health. The more health they have, the more damage it deals (so very good for bosses with a fast firing gun)

[Hackdeen]

But that's the issue. The game should be conveying this info, Im only now learning what these items mean too and from a player!

[Tuhnu]

To me learning what all the items do and figuring out mechanics is part of what makes roguelikes fun. Some items are really vague and very difficult to figure out (I just learned what the "rotate ability slots" does from another topic here) but we're only newbies once and I personally don't mind some runs going to hell because I wanted to test out something new and it didn't work out.

That said, I wouldn't mind all that much if items had clearer descriptions, just wanted to bring up another point of view.

[Hazard]

"Deals percentage damage" is a particularly vague and stupid one I agree alot.

Someone will make a guide at some point but I can see why ppl hate it.

[AMURKA]

Yea but if you have to Google something, or hit pause to go look for Guides in Steam just to play the game, then there's something wrong with the game design. Would some tool-tips really have been so effing hard?

[cricketlenny]

Originally posted by Tuhnu:

To me learning what all the items do and figuring out mechanics is part of what makes roguelikes fun. Some items are really vague and very difficult to figure out (I just learned what the "rotate ability slots" does from another topic here) but we're only newbies once and I personally don't mind some runs going to hell because I wanted to test out something new and it didn't work out.

That said, I wouldn't mind all that much if items had clearer descriptions, just wanted to bring up another point of view.

That is fair, but compare this game to Risk of Rain 2, where you get a description of what an item does after you've picked it up. Then in the menu, you have logs which give specific numbers and percentages. I don't need too much as far as handholding, but in my circumstance, I didn't want to give up a known advantage of double damage over whatever solar flare would be.