Over at the Brogue forums there's a regular tournament called the 'enchantment challenge' (I think?) where a seed is picked out that has a specific item near the start of the dungeon, and you have to dump at least half your enchantments into that item.
Since enchantments are how you specialize and become an endgame-ready character in Brogue this is an effective way to make you rely on that item's powered up nature (and synergize well with your remaining half enchantments) or die.
It also encourages looking into items you would never otherwise use (since scrolls of enchantment are strictly limited and it's tempting to just stick with what works) and discussing uses you found for them, as well as indicating if an item is not powerful enough (= if everyone finds the challenge difficult).
Well, with the recent topic 'Which ability is the worst in Sil?' and a lot of discussion and debate on it that's purely theoretical, why not get some actual data? I propose a 'build challenge' which would be something like weekly and force you to get a specific ability and use it. Now, how to force that ability's use needs to be ironed out:
-I think that a save file should be released that starts you out reasonably deep into the game, with the skill selected for the build challenge, as well as the rest of the exp allocated in a way that makes sense for someone trying to use said skill. Makes retrying faster and makes it so different players' attempts are more consistent (unlike in Brogue, you can't pre-determine the whole dungeon in advance, so this is the closest we can get)
-But that still leaves the problem of how to force reliance upon the selected skill. The honour system is one thing (having to talk about how you used it, I guess) but possibly builds and abilities that can be used to cinch a win no matter how your exp is otherwise allocated might need to be banned...
The above two points mean I don't have any idea how one would actually run this, but I think it would be a really great way to explore the game's abilities, especially ones that aren't so often taken. Thoughts?
Since enchantments are how you specialize and become an endgame-ready character in Brogue this is an effective way to make you rely on that item's powered up nature (and synergize well with your remaining half enchantments) or die.
It also encourages looking into items you would never otherwise use (since scrolls of enchantment are strictly limited and it's tempting to just stick with what works) and discussing uses you found for them, as well as indicating if an item is not powerful enough (= if everyone finds the challenge difficult).
Well, with the recent topic 'Which ability is the worst in Sil?' and a lot of discussion and debate on it that's purely theoretical, why not get some actual data? I propose a 'build challenge' which would be something like weekly and force you to get a specific ability and use it. Now, how to force that ability's use needs to be ironed out:
-I think that a save file should be released that starts you out reasonably deep into the game, with the skill selected for the build challenge, as well as the rest of the exp allocated in a way that makes sense for someone trying to use said skill. Makes retrying faster and makes it so different players' attempts are more consistent (unlike in Brogue, you can't pre-determine the whole dungeon in advance, so this is the closest we can get)
-But that still leaves the problem of how to force reliance upon the selected skill. The honour system is one thing (having to talk about how you used it, I guess) but possibly builds and abilities that can be used to cinch a win no matter how your exp is otherwise allocated might need to be banned...
The above two points mean I don't have any idea how one would actually run this, but I think it would be a really great way to explore the game's abilities, especially ones that aren't so often taken. Thoughts?
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