So I decided to open this discussion in case someone (most likely me) wants to suggest some QoL thing without flooding the discussions.
A port of Terry Cavanagh's Dicey Dungeons · By
I've been trying frog lately and I can't help it but feel as if the character was really underwhelming, so I decided to change his revolver with something a little bit more unique:
| Frog Pistol,Do [] damage,@s(Reusable)@w,2,-1,attack:d|sfx:sndFrogPistol,,,,EVEN,,RED,upgrade,noreusable,1,-1,0 |
| Frog Pistol_upgraded,Do [] damage,@s(2 uses this turn)@w,2,-1,attack:d|sfx:sndFrogPistol,,,,NORMAL,,RED,,,1,3,0 |
Also I noticed the poison is not really worth even trying, I mean at the end it's just a max of 6 damage when you have to spend 9 points on it, and if you try and stack it up you'll get a max potential of 21 damage I think, but you'd have to wait 6 turns for that to happen, it's just not really useful at all and more often than ever I just ignore the ability entirely.
Maybe increasing the amount of poison, or lowering the amount of points you need to use the ability could make it somewhat more reliable, even if the amount just increased by 1 it would make a tremendous difference.
UPDATE: I've already made a modpack adding these into the game; https://agentcucco.itch.io/rebalance-pack-dw.
There's many other characters that feel kinda overwhelming too, I'll just post a table listing some of the stuff:
| Character | Skill issues | How to improve without being overly complicated (imo) |
| Fish | Fish is perfect as he is right now. | N/A |
| Crystal | Crystal is perfect as she is right now. | N/A |
| Eyes | Eyes is perfect as he is right now, maybe even the best in the roster. | N/A |
| Melting | I think Melting is great, the only "issue" I have with him is the fact that I can't reuse his skill, I know having the option to destroy every die but one may be a bit too op, but still. | This one is hard for me, I'd say it could be nice if you were able to reuse his skill, with the downside that every time you use it that turn, it takes one extra hp from you per use. I don't really know, as I said he is great as it is, this one's just on me, not really need to change anything. |
| Plant | His skill is not really worth using at all, since just stunning one piece of equipment is usually not better than using 2 dice for rather anything else. | Maybe if his skill required just one die, but with more restrictions I'd see myself using it more, but right now I just don't see his skill useful, even if it shocked 2 pieces of equipment it would still be pretty niche. |
| YV | His ability is more often than ever, rendered useless, since it basically just allows you to use an ability one more time, but in most cases you don't even have the dice to do so. | My idea would be to make this ability similar to Fury on Dicey, in the way that when you use it, your next card gets used twice, you could even go as far as to call it Pop! Aside from this nitpick, I think the skill's cost is fine as it is. |
| Steroids | Steroids is fine when you are starting, since you can deal more damage, but it often ends up turning underwhelming around the third floor, since he lacks any sort of special ability. | My idea would be, instead of granting him a second revolver, being able to hold two more columns of equipment (with the revolver being in one of them), but having to use your dice to unlock those extra spacesfor the rest of the battle (maybe 10 points). This could give place to more interesting setups in which you could place more supportive items on those colums in case you require more assistance, or just expanding your total possibilities by quite a lot. |
| Robot | I haven't messed much around with robot yet, so I wouldn't be able to tell. | N/A |
| Chicken | I think chicken is pretty good at the start, like steroids, but in the later game, her skill ends up rendering useless in the same way, as she'll be using all of her dice most of the time, and when she doesn't, the chances of her having doubles left are slim to none. | I don't really know how to change this, her ability is good but pretty much useless by floor 3-4. |
| Rebel | I have a tough spot for Rebel, she has a pretty cool skill but I almost never end up using it, the fact that it takes so much hp and also requires 4+ makes it pretty hard for me. I get it is an actual extra die and it can come really handy in the later game, so I don't think it needs any changes, but I still won't use it as much, or ever. | Changes are unnecessary, but if it was up to me, I'd lower the amount of hp it takes from you or just completely remove the Min4. This is just me nitpicking though, I think it's balanced as it is. |
| Horror | Horror is weird, I like his gimmick but it's pretty hard to use right, like most of the time you just have to play as if you didn't have a skill, and just save it for the times in which you really need it, which I guess might be intended, but not precisely as fun. | I'd say it would be more fun if you did Rads*2 dmg to the enemy, or something like that, it would be tough to change it. Another idea would be for it to have something to do with radiation, maybe you could inflict radiation to yourself depending on the [ ] die, with the plus that you would deal more damage, but of course get damaged over time, similar to poison. This one is tough to change. |
| Rogue | I haven't actually played as Rogue yet, at least not a full run, but for the little I saw I think she is a great and pretty gimmicky character, I like how she's designed and I woudln't change a thing. | I'd just change her starting weapon for something a bit more unique, rather than a revolver. |
| Skeleton | Skelly seems good, but the fact that you don't get to keep the die for the rest of the battle bugs me, and I get it's meant to replicate the 'blood' effect from weapons, meaning you can use it one and stuff, but still, after gambling hp away, just getting one extra die for a turn seems underwhelming. | First, please make him faster, it's a pain to move around the map, lmao. Second, I'd say it would be more fun and more rewarding if the die stayed for the rest of the battle and not just the turn, but that's up to you. |
| Frog | I've already ranted enough about frog. | Read the post above this one. |
Overall I think that most of these skills could get a neat redisign to make characters more enjoyable, I think for example you did a great job with the first four characters, since the majority of their gameplay revolves around their unique abilities, however for the rest of the roster I couldn't say the same.
Still, even if this seems a little bit ranty, I want to congratulate you on the mod, it is pretty great and it's just the sort of mod I love for any game, basically creating an entire different game within another game :P
Keep up the good work!
Also, it would be kinda better overall if the dice grabboxes were a little bit bigger, and so the placeboxes for the cards. It's kinda fine as it is, but it bothers me a bit to have to be more precise than usual for that, I think just making the dice easier to grab and place would be a nice quality of life change.
Another quality of life thing (I played several runs until I realised I could interact with this.)
#define draw
for (var p1 = 0; p1 < instance_number(Player); p1++) {
for (var p2 = 0; p2 < maxp; p2++) draw_set_visible(p2, p1 == p2);
var p = player_find(p1);
// Your other stuff
with instances_matching(CustomObject, "name", "DungeonUpgrade") if (image_alpha > 0 && "usefloor" in self) {
if (place_meeting(p.x, p.y, usefloor) && (inuse == 0)) {
draw_set_halign(1);
draw_set_valign(1);
draw_set_font(fntChat);
draw_text_nt(x, y - 24, "Press @y [ Pick ] @wto#upgrade equipment");
draw_set_halign(0);
draw_set_valign(0);
draw_set_font(fntM);
}
}
}
I just realised there's a typo with Melting's description, it says DESRTOY instead of DESTROY :P
To avoid flooding I'll just edit this one.
I don't really know how much work would this take (rather than hard, it being tedious), but it'd be nice if we would use the two lines of description, and then have an extra argument in the csv file for the code to say the amount of uses left on the item, or if it's reusable or once per battle and so. Right now I'm struggling with a couple of descriptions for some items since I require both lines of description, but I can't tell the player that the item is reusable then and so.
Edit: I know I can do #@s(Reusable)@w at the second line, but it looks kinda unfitting. I'm willing to help reorganizing stuff if needed be, I really like this mod and I want it to become the very best it can be.