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Last edited by scud; February 4, 2011, 12:46. -
Slowing doesn't stack, but 2 attacks makes it twice as likely. So speed +20, hasted to +30 is reduced back to +20, perceptibly slower than speed +25.Comment
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For those complaining about this guy being strong: he's supposed to be strong! Killing one should be a major accomplishment, not a routine chore! And by the time you can kill one, any drop would be a disappointment unless it was forced to be rings of power or something, and you know how silly that would be. Finally, Celestial DSM would just be Pseudo DSM with higher AC...
On a side note, when I said "celestial" I was thinking "from the stars", not "from heaven", so I was a bit surprised to see the angel summon. Otherwise I like that monster. Should be fun...Comment
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It clearly needs to drop a Silmaril.Comment
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Pete's Dragon gave me an idea. Considering how immensely powerful the GCW is, only one should be generated per level. It is not a Unique, but as it stands spite of its rarity the RNG may still generate more than one.
Perhaps a new flag can be coded so that x monster can only be generated once when the level is created. Also, the creature cannot be summmoned if one already exists on the level. This can be applied to other monsters (GWOP, etc.) Thus we get mini bosses that are not uniques. [Elite flag?]
The only reason for there to be 2 of it's kind at any given place is that one has sought out the other one to fight for (intergalactic) supremacy!He once had an awkward moment with a Morgoth, just to see what it felt like. Should he ever be cut, rubies would spill from his veins.
He is: the most Interesting @ in the world.Comment
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And so the arms race gains speed. How depressing.
Ask any old time role player when the game stopped being fun. Chances are it was when the party got overpowered and they tried to boost the enemies and things spun out of control.
If the character is too strong in comparison to the enemies he faces, it is far better to change things to weaken the character than to indulge in the arms race of ever-escalating power boosts on both sides.Comment
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Eddie: back in the day, were there any non-unique enemies that were meant to be "optional challenge just for the sake of challenge" enemies? We didn't have GWoP, and pretty much everything else was possible to take on without too much trouble in the endgame. I think the only enemies I made a habit of avoiding were Nightwalkers and Titans...but that was more because I stupidly meleed everything in sight and they both have burly melee attacks with nasty side effects.
In other words, I don't view this as power inflation. It's just adding a new, hard monster to the set. That doesn't mean that power inflation isn't an issue, more that it's orthogonal to the addition of powerful monsters. We still intend to bring power levels down so that e.g. a Great Wyrm of Balance is as hard to kill as it used to be.
At this point I feel like you're looking for excuses to attack any change that isn't a reversion to the way things "should" be. What was the last change that you reacted positively to? I mean, your input is valuable, as a consistently contrarian stance if nothing else, but it's a bit sad that you seem to think the game is heading in completely the wrong direction...
The rule of thumb here should be: if you see a CGW on the level, tread carefully. If you see two...run!Comment
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Oh no. I never actually wanted to see one of those things. Let alone two.
But while revisiting the topic, I realizedS: S_HI_DRAGON | S_ANGELShould probably be:S: S_KIN | S_ANGELWhy settle for one dragon when you can have up to four?Comment
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I think the UI changes are good, but you are right that I am opposed to most changes. People keep taking things that weren't broken, and breaking them.
Do you remember when ...
(1) +15 damage per blow from a precious ring slot was considered a big number?
(2) if you wanted to heal more than 30 points, you needed to play priest or paladin [and might still have to deal with failure rates] or use dungeon-only healing potions? The changes to !CCW have made the paladin class irrelevant. Even 15% healing from !CLW may make paladins irrelevant. Oh no -- have I just inspired someone to add superpowered spells to paladins?
I could go on, but I'll just aggravate myself. Suffice it to say that game balance has been shattered.
When testing the gold drops recently, I went back and played 3.0. Even with all of the annoyances, it was a better game. So much so that I am currently coding changes to the nightlies to undo much of what has changed. I may never play unmodded V again.
The biggest problem with 3.0 was the need to identify everything. Identify to make things stack. Identify before you can squelch. Identify before you can sell. Get a copy of 3.0.9 and hack it to do *ID on pickup of every item, and I believe that you will have a game that is superior to 3.1 or 3.2 or the nightlies. This is my opinion even though ID-by-use is my personal hobbyhorse.Comment
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I remember when Rings of Damage maxed out at +22 and +15 was considered merely average. Rings of Damage were standard equipment for the entire game that were only ever swapped out for speed, and even then it was painful because your melee damage dropped so much.
I remember when Healing potions were plentiful enough that you didn't have to save them for endgame fights. You typically found at least two per level if you cleared it, which was frequent enough that burning them occasionally to win an only slightly hairy fight was entirely reasonable.(2) if you wanted to heal more than 30 points, you needed to play priest or paladin [and might still have to deal with failure rates] or use dungeon-only healing potions?
The issue I have with most of your comments is that you're issuing these blanket statements "X is a bad idea, you should undo it." Maybe X is a bad idea given Y, which will change, but it is not a bad idea in isolation. If we follow your logic we just end up going back to previous versions with only UI changes. Is Vanilla expected to be completely static gameplay-wise? That doesn't sound very interesting to me, and I guarantee that you would have difficulty finding developers who are willing to not mess with the game while adding UI improvements.When testing the gold drops recently, I went back and played 3.0. Even with all of the annoyances, it was a better game. So much so that I am currently coding changes to the nightlies to undo much of what has changed. I may never play unmodded V again.
I'll definitely agree with you that the identification game is pretty stupid. However, I'm more inclined to think of things this way: 3.0.9 (or whatever) was at a local maxima in terms of game quality. There were obvious things that needed to be improved (c.f. identifying everything, which is a side-effect of too much junk), but those improvements are hard and cannot be done all at once. While they're being worked on, game balance may suffer, but once they are complete, we can achieve a new level of game quality that was unattainable from our previous position.The biggest problem with 3.0 was the need to identify everything. Identify to make things stack. Identify before you can squelch. Identify before you can sell. Get a copy of 3.0.9 and hack it to do *ID on pickup of every item, and I believe that you will have a game that is superior to 3.1 or 3.2 or the nightlies. This is my opinion even though ID-by-use is my personal hobbyhorse.
In other words, as I see it I prefer to be hopeful looking forward to the future of what Vanilla can be, while you prefer to be pessimistic and look back to what it used to be. It's good to not forget where we came from, but likewise it's good to not mindlessly cling to old design decisions.Comment
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