Five Things to Improve the Game

[Trashbag]

This game is pretty damn fun. The balance is a little lopsided at times, but I think that's part of the charm - as it's usually in your favor, and you can raw skill through the few parts that aren't.

But there are several bugbears I have with the game. I just beat Mega Death, and over the course of all my runs, there are a few game-wide things that have bugged me.



#1). Intelligence is Basically Useless on non-Mage Classes

In the tutorial, you are told that even if your weapon doesn't scale with a stat, you still have good reason to pick it up, because it will provide other benefits to your character.

But unlike Stamina or Strength, you have no global reason to collect intelligence if you aren't a Mage. Only Magic Weapons can profit from the mana star system. Int does have some good level-up options, but nothing so exceptional that I'd deviate from my build for it.

...maybe Mageblood. Mageblood seems a tiny bit broken.

Please consider: give all weapons access to mana stars, and balance them accordingly. Make non-Int weapons obviously have 1 or maybe 2-star values, but let me have a reason to pick up Int and scale that damage. Pick up a petrified mana star and have it mean something for my Berserker.



#2). Give Second-Phase Bosses A Second of Pause When they Transition

It doesn't happen too often, but every now and then, I'll have a boss run right into me right as they start their second phase, and I have no time to react. This obviously happens a lot more often on strength builds that spend more time in the enemy's face. Having a moment to position yourself as the phase starts would be a really, REALLY nice QoL.



#3). Shrines Kinda Suck

They're basically just potions you have to use in the moment. They don't really have a longer effect time (unless it's a Blood Shrine), and they don't have any kind of upgrade that helps them scale better. I'd only ever take them if they're curse shrines, or if they show up on the very last floor. Otherwise, they do absolutely nothing for your long-term scaling.

I implore you to roll all the shrine categories into one, and make their effects permenant as a standard. Cursed Shrines would be the most common, with Blood Shrines having weaker effects for trading a heart instead of taking a curse (but idunno, maybe you could trade two hearts a second time for a double dose? That'd be neat), and the occasional free Shrine with no drawbacks but weaker effects.

That would do a lot for the Pyromancer too - since he doesn't have a lot of great ways to scale off of curses when he's basically doomed to be 1hp the entire run if you want to build that.



#4). Not a Huge Fan of Item Rooms

This one I don't feel as strongly about, but item rooms feel like clutter that keeps you from getting the things you actually want. Potions are nice for Mageblood (until you get all the effects), and Infusions are also nice (especially with Focus), but they also feel like easy paths for those builds to walk to get all the possible effects.

And the fact that single heart rooms are a thing? That hurts. Like I know they can be rare, but...I'd rather just take the gold pile on 1hp since I probably still got a res.

Could we like...roll these into bonus potential rewards in chest and rock rooms? Have chests and rocks have a good chance to contain potions, powders, random consumables, and maybe the occasional heart, and make the chance for more of those special rewards scale with luck. Chests and Rocks often feel a little lackluster too. I might go out of my way for them if I know they're going to have a little more oomph than just the keys or bombs or gold I could get in a key or bomb or gold room. It also means Mageblooders and Fusionists have to gamble more on finding their potions and powders - which I feel gives them a little more balance. A little.

This would streamline the rooms a little more though, and taking like four room types out of the pool could potentially lean things in the player's favor, but I think it would be worth testing out.



#5). Tweak the RNG for Classes

It really sucks when I'm playing the Knight, and I CANNOT find a SINGLE armor equip or Petrified Shield the ENTIRE run. Could you maybe take those classes that really want to find certain things in their run and...maybe sneak in some soft guarantees that they'll find them? Classes like Knight, Pyromancer, Berserker - ones that really want to scale off of certain items, it really sucks when you can't find them.

Also, maybe some code to lean you more in favor of finding certain food items based on the proficiencies of what weapon you're holding. There was one time I was going for a Strength build and I found just TWO BEEF all the way up to Floor 5 (I then died to getting drunk because I did not, in fact, read the sign. That was on me.)

[Jeff]

#6) A visual option that has less distortion for players who have a hard time reading the text with lines through it. Also to remove the blur lines that pass through the screen periodically that only detract from enjoyment.

[Trashbag]

Originally posted by Jeff:

#6) A visual option that has less distortion for players who have a hard time reading the text with lines through it. Also to remove the blur lines that pass through the screen periodically that only detract from enjoyment.

Definitely a good one. It never bothered me, but I totally agree with that for accessibility options.

[piecewise66]

Originally posted by Jeff:

#6) A visual option that has less distortion for players who have a hard time reading the text with lines through it. Also to remove the blur lines that pass through the screen periodically that only detract from enjoyment.

Can't you already turn off the CRT effects? I did.

[Jeff]

oh nice! yes you can. I did not remember wtf CRT meant so I didn't mess with it much. the game visuals just got much better.

[Trashbag]

Oh yeah! Some other QoLs before I forget!

>Remove the fail to fire sfx (at least while I'm holding the mouse button) on guns and crossbows. It gets a little irritating to use for prolonged periods of time.

>An indicator - some sort of small aura, maybe - for when you have I-frames after your dash might be nice. You get a feel for it after some time in the game, but having something concrete to help you understand just how deep into enemy fire you can go might be a nice feature.

[Trashbag]

One other thing:

I've had the spinning arcane blades from arcane elementals spawn directly on top of me a couple times. Never been a run-ender, but it'd be much appreaciated if they had some kind of telegraph where they were spawning.

[Trashbag]

Additional suggestion:

Don't give players access to EVERY perk available in the perk store at the campfire. Maybe 3-5 base. BUT, let them purchase one-time-use extra slots for perks. Now you have something for lategame players to spend souls on when they've bought everything, and you can nerf player meta-scaling a bit.

I might make certain perks universal though. Like the +1 level or the perk rerolls. Stuff that players are likely to pick every time over other options.

[pi73r]

That 5th suggestion tells me that you are playing the wrong genre. Your suggestion will kill the fun.

[Trashbag]

Originally posted by pi73r:

That 5th suggestion tells me that you are playing the wrong genre. Your suggestion will kill the fun.

The fun of the game is dampened a bit when I can't find a single thing necessary for my build. At the very least, maybe tie it to luck.

[Deeeeniiiiss?]

one thing i'd want to add as a suggestion is an option to disable your own projectiles visually, some weapons literally fill the entire screen by default and slaughter FPS on low end PC's (not to mention you can't see what's an enemy attack and what;s yours)

[kay]

I agree on all points but the first: there are some busted int skills for all chars. The lightning strike ability with any fast attack speed build is cracked, especially early, as a great example. I think the stat balance isn't perfect but it's actually giving me choices.

[kay]

Originally posted by Denis:

one thing i'd want to add as a suggestion is an option to disable your own projectiles visually, some weapons literally fill the entire screen by default and slaughter FPS on low end PC's (not to mention you can't see what's an enemy attack and what;s yours)

ALSO ALSO THIS. This game does a FANTASTIC job at making the visuals clear despite being a 'bullet hell' of sorts - I usually hate bullet hell games but this one has felt incredibly clear and fair, but some weapons make it impossible to see enemy projectiles.

[pi73r]

Originally posted by Trashbag:

Originally posted by pi73r:

That 5th suggestion tells me that you are playing the wrong genre. Your suggestion will kill the fun.

The fun of the game is dampened a bit when I can't find a single thing necessary for my build. At the very least, maybe tie it to luck.

If you can't find it it's either ultra extreme bad luck or most likely skill issue. Atm you can easily havev 100% win rate in this game without being that good.

[Deeeeniiiiss?]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Originally posted by Trashbag:

The fun of the game is dampened a bit when I can't find a single thing necessary for my build. At the very least, maybe tie it to luck.

If you can't find it it's either ultra extreme bad luck or most likely skill issue. Atm you can easily havev 100% win rate in this game without being that good.

yep, it's just about adapting to whatever build the game gives you regardless of character,instead of the build you we're meant to play with it

[Trashbag]

Originally posted by pi73r:

Originally posted by Trashbag:

The fun of the game is dampened a bit when I can't find a single thing necessary for my build. At the very least, maybe tie it to luck.

If you can't find it it's either ultra extreme bad luck or most likely skill issue. Atm you can easily havev 100% win rate in this game without being that good.

I have 100% achievements, not skill issue.

It's not a matter of WINNING. It's a matter of wanting to play to my class. I want to BE the Pyromancer. I don't want to have to keep picking up Beef to try and search the death defiance perk so I can stack Curse while PRAYING I see a curse shrine this run. Or a fire weapon, for that matter. I've gone like four Pyromancer runs without finding a single one.