Feedback on the Anvil Update

[Pizzarugi]

I originally posted this in the respective feedback thread in the official Crab Champions discord, but not everyone goes there for game discussion, and in the hopes I get more attention on the feedback, I wanted to share my opinion here.

1. Enemies and particularly elites seem overpowered due to their scaling rework. The first biome is fine, but past that point, things spiral wildly out of control the longer you go. This gets especially problematic if the game keeps giving you upgrades that simply don't work well together.

Suggestion: All enemy health and damage scaling needs to go back to what it was before.

2. I feel like a lot of weapons don't fit in the game's current balance. Enemy damage is absurd and the closer you are to them, the more likely you are to get deleted. This makes some weapons like the flamethrower difficult to use due to its limited range combined with poor damage. Like the first point, this problem only gets compounded if the game heaps upgrades that don't work for the weapon (ex. +% damage mods).

Suggestion: The solution to the first problem should resolve this. It alleviates the feeling of being punished by bad RNG.

3. The above two points combined overall make the game feel excruciating to play. I understand the reasoning behind why some changes need to be made such as cutting down your access to health in order to keep you from going godmode, but the combination of enemies scaling harder, weapons mechanically and/or statistically feeling weak, and some useful mods becoming rarer may have nerfed the players way too harshly.

Suggestion: The solution to the first problem should resolve this. Alternatively, reverse the mod rarity nerfs.

4. I feel like build variety took a nosedive with this update as a consequence to all of this. You're stuck having to make due with whatever the game throws at you and if you're lucky, most will synergize to make something that works. Some players, or at least myself, might not find this enjoyable as it means that your choice of weapons/abilities/melee is pointless since RNG decides what mods you get.

Suggestion: The solution to the first problem should resolve this. It alleviates the feeling of being punished by bad RNG.

[trunoob413]

First couple points I personally haven't noticed much difference other than fire seems stronger feel like fire has been messing me up more than before whereas before I never noticed it. Could just of been me standing in it too long or something not noticing it though.

Other than that mostly just the new beam skulls got hit hard by one of their moves that has like homing spheres and wrecked by the lasers when he shoot like 6 of them all at once.

3: Not sure which mods specifically you're talking about I mean I do miss being able to get ring of wisdom almost 100% of the time first crit chest I open but it's fine being buffed/ turned epic. Also feel like on average I've been getting more epics in regular chests.

4: Personally feel like build diversity is up but only due to enhancements. Had a fun run where 95% of my damage was just from thorn shot that I kept enhancing at anvils. Also RNG always decided what you got so nothing changed there.

[0xB105F00D]

Originally posted by Pizzarugi:

Enemy damage is absurd and the closer you are to them, the more likely you are to get deleted.

Originally posted by Pizzarugi:

You're stuck having to make due with whatever the game throws at you and if you're lucky, most will synergize to make something that works.

These are true before the update, esp. in True Nightmare loops. I cancel runs or scum the key totem to justify risking time. The mandatory elites added to the difficulty totem at least give me a way to measure my performance before the first post-shop elite, but that means more time pulling the Skinner box lever. Is skill alone is enough to reliably win True Nightmare? If skill alone cannot compensate for a poor build, then the game is not balanced.

My only gripe with the enemies in this update is in making them larger in already tight maps. You must keep moving, and to do that, you need room. I want bad movements to be my fault. Falling off a cliff or into lava is my fault. Getting jumped by Snorlax-sized shotgun crabs that spawned into my narrow escape route? If that's my fault, then what's my play? 180 into the nonsense I was in the middle of dodging?

My last ~40min solo TN sniper run ended in a loss. 3x king skulls in one of those cramped circular maps. Same problem: suffer bullet hell and creature hell problems, where RNG says whether your map gives you room to dodge.

I'd say most problems with the game can be solved by making the small maps larger. Let me move. Let me dodge. Let all of my failures be my fault.

[Dopey Shepard]

Off topic question, but is steam actually getting better discussion traffic than discord? Because that somehow is hardly believable. I know reddit is almost non-existent, posts only get a few upvotes here and there and few replies and that's all, but discord is supposed to be huge, at least on paper

[cammy]

I used to find that True Nightmare was a satisfying level of challenge for me. Since the update, I've found myself really struggling to put a build together and ultimately die due to a lack of damage. It seems a lot harder to scale with the enemies, especially elites. I used to be able to make do with the items I'm offered, even with sub-optimal item drops, but I'm either having a string of really bad luck or something is whack with the balance in this update.

[Light]

Originally posted by cammy:

I used to find that True Nightmare was a satisfying level of challenge for me. Since the update, I've found myself really struggling to put a build together and ultimately die due to a lack of damage. It seems a lot harder to scale with the enemies, especially elites. I used to be able to make do with the items I'm offered, even with sub-optimal item drops, but I'm either having a string of really bad luck or something is whack with the balance in this update.

True Nightmare became a gambling simulator. Pray to RNG for stupid build

[UnknownMaster21]

Originally posted by Dopey Shepard:

Off topic question, but is steam actually getting better discussion traffic than discord? Because that somehow is hardly believable. I know reddit is almost non-existent, posts only get a few upvotes here and there and few replies and that's all, but discord is supposed to be huge, at least on paper

I do not think steam or anything else is a better discussion platform, but because Crab Champions is being on sale under steam platform, it is somewhat "default" to bring people over here in steam forums and start some discussion.

I think it has always been like dancing on waves... in future, something new is created which takes a popular route and we discuss things like this on there, but steam forum always stays on. ( as long as it exists, that is. )

[fascinatedbox]

Quite a few runs, before and after the patch, I've given up on if I don't get anything. Random chest that gives glue explosion, bigger explosion, time claws? yeah that's basically nothing, I ain't into any of that. If I'm soloing and I can't get anything out of the first biome, I just drop out.

I used to try out-hping enemies, but I've found it helps tons to go all in on hard target. It seems to scale nicely. There's an epic ring that gives 40% reduction, always go for it.

I'm a sucker for personal space, but if it's later in a run I skip it in favor of mangos. I like personal space and then going for hordes so that I can stack up hp, but only after I hard target any time I can see it.

[Brtzlmo]

I dislike that all enemies have similar levels of tankiness and dps. elite crabs are very fast with long jumps on top of insane reach. would like to see some balancing for example fast enemies get lower hp, tanky enemies are slower etc.

also how about extra chests or totems that can only be unlocked with x amount of keys. like 100 keys for some legendary or something. also items that give chance to drop armor would be cool. maybe even have armor as separate thing like green health crystals instead of items?

[Dopey Shepard]

Originally posted by Brtzlmo:

I dislike that all enemies have similar levels of tankiness and dps. elite crabs are very fast with long jumps on top of insane reach. would like to see some balancing for example fast enemies get lower hp, tanky enemies are slower etc.

also how about extra chests or totems that can only be unlocked with x amount of keys. like 100 keys for some legendary or something. also items that give chance to drop armor would be cool. maybe even have armor as separate thing like green health crystals instead of items?

Literally no to literally everything you said

The game is perfectly fine as it is

[Brtzlmo]

Originally posted by Dopey Shepard:

Originally posted by Brtzlmo:

I dislike that all enemies have similar levels of tankiness and dps. elite crabs are very fast with long jumps on top of insane reach. would like to see some balancing for example fast enemies get lower hp, tanky enemies are slower etc.

also how about extra chests or totems that can only be unlocked with x amount of keys. like 100 keys for some legendary or something. also items that give chance to drop armor would be cool. maybe even have armor as separate thing like green health crystals instead of items?

Literally no to literally everything you said

The game is perfectly fine as it is

so getting dozens of keys per run after you unlocked everything you okay with them just being useless? except for spending 1 in the hub, you literally okay with that though :D? make them useful somehow, otherwise why do they even exist? 100 keys are quite the grind so why not?

also armor is super important and right now its pure rng if you can get any at all. there are whole runs that don`t give you any. and if you never get the armor ring and just buy one bronze armor that tanks a single hit by an elite instead of buying usefull skills/perks...how is that perfect?

[Dopey Shepard]

Ok so first thing's first

1) You can re-roll the home totem by pressing ESC key and existing the lobby. That way you can re-do the home totem to get the stuff that you want. I do it all the time tbh because many epic drops are garbage

2) Home island Totem requires 2 keys, not 1. With enough re-rolls you will be spending all those keys you've acquired in your last run

3) Armor is not a necessity to win games. It's good when you have it, so you can focus on your combo and getting Damage/Crystal Combo, as well as getting +3 Combo (8x) Relic

4) the way you described armor is to provide items that have a chance to drop armor, to which i said "literally no" because it kinda makes no sense

What you are complaining about, though, is low spawn rate of armor which is true

Items dropping armor, I'm not sure what you even meant by that

Armor drop is an armor drop, that's it

5) I wouldn't advise to be stacking up armor if you don't have "Ring of Reinforcement". Armor is easy to lose. Basically focus on maxxing out your hp instead

[splendifaras]

Originally posted by Brtzlmo:

Originally posted by Dopey Shepard:

Literally no to literally everything you said

The game is perfectly fine as it is

so getting dozens of keys per run after you unlocked everything you okay with them just being useless? except for spending 1 in the hub, you literally okay with that though :D? make them useful somehow, otherwise why do they even exist? 100 keys are quite the grind so why not?

also armor is super important and right now its pure rng if you can get any at all. there are whole runs that don`t give you any. and if you never get the armor ring and just buy one bronze armor that tanks a single hit by an elite instead of buying usefull skills/perks...how is that perfect?

The thing about keys is you use them at the home totem before you do harder tier runs and if you don't get something you want/useful you can reload the lobby and do it again until you get something tolerable. You use keys everytime you do this, which when tryng to get certain weapons to diamond you might reroll quite a few times, like more than 10 sometimes.

While armor is important its not the end all, just did a diamond run with no armor but I went the take less dmg route when combined with self heal no issues. Armor is rare for kind of a good reason, its pretty easy to coast if you get a lot of armor, great example is the legendary ring that gives armor every round, once you have that you pretty much coast.

[Dopey Shepard]

To be honest, I like the idea of less armor. This way, you are less incentivised to build damage combo/crystal combo which may be totally game breaking if you keep them at 5x combo, making them basically the best common drops. With HP being the priority, you still can benefit from combo, but you are always aware that if you get damaged, your combo is over, making it a lot more fair

Also, just FYI, this major is about maxHP and regeneration, with the latter being the top focus. Noisestorm (developer) focused on regeneration stuff extensively in beta branch

And since you can't really regenerate armor, HP is the focus

[Casurin]

Some way to regenerate a bit of armor would be nice. Not just "here have 1 full bar of armor" but more along the line of "On kill get 5 armor-points" or the likes.

As for keys: if you are not a good player and not just playing with the loadout you are good with then just keeping your key-stock level is already hard enough.
Trying lightning and Bomb for the first time initially tanked my keys noticeably.

[Dopey Shepard]

Originally posted by Casurin:

Some way to regenerate a bit of armor would be nice. Not just "here have 1 full bar of armor" but more along the line of "On kill get 5 armor-points" or the likes.

As for keys: if you are not a good player and not just playing with the loadout you are good with then just keeping your key-stock level is already hard enough.
Trying lightning and Bomb for the first time initially tanked my keys noticeably.

the way armor works, especially right now, is just OP for all purposes. Now Noise made it so that you don't even lose your combo when your last armor plate breaks - you have to get hit an additional time (HP hit) for that to happen. Also, picking up armor is cheap as you know it - if you have 5% remaining of an armor bar, you pick up bronze armor, not only do you get 1 whole armor plate, you also regenerate your existing armor plate to its full 100% condition

In order for "armor-points" system to work some nerfs to armor need to take place first. Maybe armor is gonna be the focus of the next major