A way to make the runic dome relic more viable to take (quality of life change)

[Sharktrexer]

Runic dome is honestly pretty bad, and unless you have a deck where you always have block, you're going to die pretty quickly, and probably choose another energy increasing relic instead (or any other relic for that mater). A way to actually make this relic viable is to change how you see enemy intents in general, and how runic dome hides them.

So to change how you see intents, as you know instead of knowing what the enemy is specifically doing, you'll see them doing things like "Enemy is doing a powerful negative effect" or "Enemy is buffing" etc. enemies should instead state what that buff, debuff, or block amount is. So for example for the Chosen, instead of it saying "a powerful negative effect" it will instead say "Hex" and tell you what that is. On top of that enemies blocking should always show how much they block.

Now for the relic, instead of it making it so you never know what the enemies are doing at all, you instead never know specifically what they are doing. So you will see that "powerful negative effect" and not "Hex" from the previous example. On top of that you won't know how much an enemy is blocking or attacking, but you know that they are doing that.

I think it's a decent quality of life change in general and the runic dome relic will still give somewhat of a challenge for its energy increase.

EDIT: A lot of people are saying you can predict/memorize the patterns of some enemies, but there are still a lot of enemies that aren't very predictable (For example I have seen the chosen do Hex first round many times, but then I have also seen him attack 3 times in a row before doing hex). I still think Runic dome is not worth it, and it has more risk than the reward is worth.

[iangoth]

Runic Dome is actually quite good if you know what the enemies can do to you. It's only bad for your first, say, dozen playthroughs. As for your changes, I think it's a little drastic making the entire game easier so that you can make the penalty from one particular relic take you back to baseline.

[Sharktrexer]

Originally posted by iangoth:

Runic Dome is actually quite good if you know what the enemies can do to you. It's only bad for your first, say, dozen playthroughs. As for your changes, I think it's a little drastic making the entire game easier so that you can make the penalty from one particular relic take you back to baseline.

Hmm I do see what you're saying. I don't think this change would really make the game that much easier if at all, and my "quality of life" change was more for the game than just the relic itself because I think it would be nice to know the specifics of what an enemy is doing. It is not like knowing the specifics would really change how you would deal with combat since you can't really prepare/do anything different for knowing how much an enemy will block for example.

[robofish126]

Runic Dome's effects are kind of variable. There are a lot of fights where enemies follow a 100% predictable routine, in which case you lose basically nothing. Others simply have their super attack firing at a set interval, in which case you know when its critical to put down block but not other times. But others are pretty much random.

Runic Dome is obviously least harmful if your deck simply doesn't care. You alpha strike your opponents, or get a huge sustained defense built up, or your best attack cards also give you block anyways, or you play every card in your hand every turn. However I'd actually have to play a game with it to judge, but seeing as I'd never pick it up...

[doomswell]

What if it gave a simple "Attacking" or "Not Attacking" icon with no numbers or difference between de/buffs and defending? Then another question would be, does the Attack icon still change from a sword to an axe for heavy damage?

[crate]

The thing I hate about Dome is that it's good, because not being able to see intents is annoying. Having to remember the damage numbers for every fight is really obnoxious.

[Sharktrexer]

Originally posted by robofish126:

Runic Dome's effects are kind of variable. There are a lot of fights where enemies follow a 100% predictable routine, in which case you lose basically nothing. Others simply have their super attack firing at a set interval, in which case you know when its critical to put down block but not other times. But others are pretty much random.

Runic Dome is obviously least harmful if your deck simply doesn't care. You alpha strike your opponents, or get a huge sustained defense built up, or your best attack cards also give you block anyways, or you play every card in your hand every turn. However I'd actually have to play a game with it to judge, but seeing as I'd never pick it up...

Although some enemies are predictable, why would you pick it up anyway? All the other energy increasing boss relics have not as much of a downside as runic dome does.

Originally posted by doomswell:

What if it gave a simple "Attacking" or "Not Attacking" icon with no numbers or difference between de/buffs and defending? Then another question would be, does the Attack icon still change from a sword to an axe for heavy damage?

I think that could also just make runic dome viable too. Knowing if an enemy was attacking but not by how much would still keep the challenge the relic wants to have. Still though why take it when you could take any other energy increasing boss relic?

[crate]

Originally posted by Sharktrexer:

Although some enemies are predictable, why would you pick it up anyway? All the other energy increasing boss relics have not as much of a downside as runic dome does.

Sometimes you don't get offered another energy relic.

[Sharktrexer]

Originally posted by crate:

Originally posted by Sharktrexer:

Although some enemies are predictable, why would you pick it up anyway? All the other energy increasing boss relics have not as much of a downside as runic dome does.

Sometimes you don't get offered another energy relic.

Oh true I didn't think of that for some reason. However I could then make the argument that why not just take any other boss relic in general? Sure you wouldn't get that energy but you'd have to be desperate for it. Unless, like how another person stated it, where you have a deck that could allow you to not care what the enemies do to you, it becomes a relic of "why not take it, the negative effect wouldn't matter anyway," and I think the runic dome relic should be more than that.

[crate]

Having 4 energy is just too powerful, so you take dome. Eternal feather is sometimes better, but the other non-energy boss relics just can't compete with having 4 energy.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by Sharktrexer:

Runic dome is honestly pretty bad

No, often it's good.

[iangoth]

Originally posted by Sharktrexer:

However I could then make the argument that why not just take any other boss relic in general? Sure you wouldn't get that energy but you'd have to be desperate for it.

You *are* desperate for it, unless you already got an energy relic previously.

[King Smizzy]

I've actually won a run with Runic Dome before. By no means is it a good relic and if you dont have an amazing deck you probably should never choose it. but if you've done a dozen runs and already have the enemys patterns memorized and even know the damage numbers by heart then you're already mitigating a lot of the downside. There are many enemies in the game that have a set pattern of "attack defend attack defend" or "attack attack debuff". So on the first turn you make a 'guess' or the safe play is just defend. Then you see where along the pattern the enemies have started, and you pretty much know what they'll do from that turn onwards.

As to changing the relic, i kind of agree. I wish the relic had two symbols instead of none for enemy intents. just a blank sword to indicate they might be attacking or debuffing or hexing you and a blank shield to indicate they're strengthening themselves or blocking or buffing someone. That way you dont spend an entire turn blocking only for them to armor up...

[doomswell]

"have the enemys patterns memorized and even know the damage numbers by heart"

You shouldn't have to do that, in any other game I'd call that bad design. This game just happens to be good though.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally posted by doomswell:

"have the enemys patterns memorized and even know the damage numbers by heart"

You can also look them up in guides. You don't literally have to remember them.

I don't agree that enemies having patterns that you take into account in your strategy is bad design. It makes the game a lot more interesting.

[doomswell]

Patterns can be taken into account, but you should never have to memorize or look up guides for anything in the best games.

Radiant Historia DS (3DS remake next week) for example, was a game with a lot of time travel sidequests but it was always obvious when/where you had to fetch/deliver items or information to people. Easy to 100% all 236 moments without a walkthrough.