Update 0.12

Hello again everyone!

Was getting pretty tired this last week after doing all the major zone revisions this past month. It feels like its getting to be 'that time' of the project with the release to the web coming up sometime in mid November. I'm just sort of head down grinding at this point trying to prioritize what I feel is most needed to get a stable, solid and fun web release that can stand on its own once the game moves into EA.

I've been pretty quite on Discord lately, first due to my finger not working (its better now), but also simply due to being at that point where I mostly know what needs to get done for the web release and its mostly just a giant pile of grindy work and polish. I'm still keeping up with reading most of the conversations especially anything that's relevant to the current state of the game, run reports, general feedback on updates etc. I'll admit though that for now my brain is sort of shutting down to all longer term balance, content, ideas etc. Really looking forward to getting into EA and having the time to get to work on all the fun and interesting features, content and changes we've all been dreaming about. So all feedback is definitely still appreciated, but its much more helpful if the more focused stuff is sorted into the 'suggestions' threads so that I can mine them in the future when I get to that stage. For now, this is sort of that unsung phase of game development where its just work work work.

So as I was feeling a bit beat up this week I figured now was not the time to dive into another zone rewrite on The-Iron-Forge. I ended up getting a ton of Level-Gen work done both on the back end code and also by adding a ton more content to The-Sewers and The-Core. Besides the cave generation needing some attention (smaller and tighter), both these zones are pretty close to content complete for the web version. About half the remaining zones are reasonably close to complete, and the other half still need a fair bit of work. I also ended up doing a pretty serious rework of item stats which I'll explain in more detail below.

LEVEL-GENERATION:

• Sewers-Generator-Tunnel: approximately 2 x vaults
• Sewers-Generator-Room: approximately 2 x vaults
• Sewers-Generator-Water-Bridges: completely reworked from scratch
• Sewers-Generator-Tunnels: less tunnels to keep the size of the map smaller
• Sewers-Generator-Flood-Tunnels: completely new generator
• Sewers Challenge Vaults: a bunch of improvements and additions
• Core-Generator-Lava-River: approximately 2 x vaults
• Core-Generator-Cavern: approximately 2 x vaults
  
• Core-Generator-Lava-Bridges: completely reworked from scratch
• Core Challenge Vaults: a bunch of improvements and additions
• Upper-Dungeon-Ravine: a bunch of new vaults
• A new Yendor level model with enemies slowly teleporting into a central location. Not really finished with this one yet but its working.
• A bunch of back end work on the generators controlling how many and what type of challenge-vaults to place.

BALANCE AND MECHANICS:

• Tracks are now conductive and will spread shock.
• Jump, Disengage, Lunge, Dash-Attack are all now unusable when slowed. I believe this completes the transformation of slow into a total counter to all movement abilities.
• Discord damage is no longer blocked by protection. Uses a new damage type that may be usable elsewhere.
• Reverted the changes to statues i.e. they will no longer summon when out of vision.

BUGS AND CRASHES:

• Stalagmites and other solid objects will now show as solid on the mini-map when in water.
• Bridges and tracks now show over pits on the mini-map
• Confused enemies will no longer lunge back at the player when they are in melee range with a valid target. This looked like they always targeted the player with lunge but really it was just that the player would be the only valid lunge target since the nearby enemy is not valid. So basically NPC-Lunge will not be used if there is a valid target in melee range.

ITEM BALANCE:

So this ones been a long time coming and this is really only a first pass. More work is needed in this area prior to the Web-Release. I'm planning on a massive increase in the number of items beginning in EA. Massive as in I'm planning at least a few hundred more items by the time the game reaches full release status. So I'm trying to establish some basic rules and constraints and such with the smaller item set we currently have. 

This first pass of item balancing is focused completely on balancing the item system internally i.e. I'm not really paying attention to how all of these changes effect the overall balance of the rest of the game. Similar to balancing talents, I like to first get these systems working well with respect to themselves before integrating the changes into the overall balancing of the game. I've said it before and I'll say it again. The final balancing is not really a priority or even possible until literally the last week or two before the Web-Release.

What I was thinking about during this balancing:

• I wanted to reduce the total number of attribute points coming from equipment quite a bit. Attribute points are very powerful. They have multiple derived stats with high values per attribute point and these stats are the most important in the game. They also are the main constraint on the talent progression system. So I think attribute points need to be treated as very rare and special. The previous item stats had attribute points on nearly all of the end game gear and anything without attribute points tended to simply be sub-par.
• Despite the reduction, many pieces of equipment still have attribute points and so items without attribute points need to balanced so that they are at least as powerful as an equivalent attribute item. Basically I'm using 'An attribute point' as the basic unit of measurement and trying to set stats accordingly.
• In breaking up the attribute items I also want a much wider spread of other stats. I don't want players so totally defined by their attribute scores and I want a lot more specific specialization to be possible. This will be more relevant later as more equipment is added. As an example instead of a char simply having high STR I'd prefer to see builds that prioritize massive HP pools and protection vs builds focusing on raw melee damage.
• I've tried to balance the 3-tiers of equipment the game uses so that each one is a pretty definitive upgrade. Tier-1 equipment for example should be pretty weak since its guaranteed to be an upgrade (filling an empty slot). Tier-2 and Tier-3 should then be pretty smooth upgrades so that the player is generally improving their equipment across the full course of the game.
• I've tried to balance equipment within each tier to be roughly equivalent to each other so that different specialization routes are all valid.
• A lot of changes to HP since most of it hasn't been updated to reflect STR changes since RFIII.

This list is not nearly complete as there were a bunch of minor changes and tweaks:

TIER-1:

• Cat Lord now drops a simple Ring-of-Speed instead of Dexterity.
  • I don't think attribute gear should be dropping prior to Fortress/Temple
• Totem-of-Strength => Totem-of-Might: +2 Melee DMG
• Totem-of-Dexterity => Totem-of-Speed: +1 Speed Point
• Totem-of-Intelligence => Totem-of-Cunning: 10% Ability Power

TIER-2:

• Ring-of-Flight: moved here from Tier-1
• Ring-of-Stealth: moved here from Tier-1
• Plate-Armor: moved here from Tier-3 (magical plate is the tier-3 upgrade)
• Metal-Shield: moved here from Tier-3 (magical shields are the tier-3 upgrades)
• Two-Hand-Melee-Weapons: moved here from Tier-3 (magical two-handers are the tier-3 upgrade)
• Mushroom-Cap-Shield: HP 6 => 12
• Shield-of-Health: HP 12 => 16
• Crystal-Armor: Protection 3 => 2
  • Similar to Crystal-Golems being 'made of glass', reflection is quite a powerful property and so associated armor should have lower base protection.
• Noxious Carapace: rToxic 20% => 30%
• Entwood Armor: HP 6 => 12
• Heartwood Bow: HP 0 => 8

TIER-3:

• Heavy-Brass armor now has high HP instead of STR
• Shadow-Silk armor now has speed points instead of DEX
• Wizard armor now has high MP instead of INT
• Lock-Jaw-Hide-Vest: 12HP => 2 Melee Damage
• Clockwork-Power-Armor: 2STR => 1STR and +8 Max ENC
  • With the STR and the armors own weight this works out to adding +6 Max ENC when worn.
• Turban-of-Flames: 1INT => 20% Ability Power
  • I'm planning on a whole set of flaming silk core equipment that is the AP equivalent of Arcane Towers mana focus.
• Helm-of-Power: 2STR => 1STR and 10% Ability Power
• Spirit-Bow: 6HP => 6MP
• Beast-Masters-Gloves: now has +2 Melee DMG
• Boots-of-Sprinting now has +2SP
• Gloves-of-Vampirism: 0HP => 8HP
• Hammer-of-Crushing: removed the STR
• Drachnid-Web-Bow: now has speed points
• Scyth-of-Reaping: now charges a 50HP heal after 10 attacks
• Heavily nerfed the Greater-Staff-of-Poisons damage (I think it never got reduced after I changed the way total poison damage works).
• All poison weapons reverted to work automatically on 25% of hits (poison is not a fun ability to have to manually target).

From the testing I've done. Most characters tend to end the game with 1-2 less attribute points but have a lot more options in the later game to really max out certain key stats. So the idea going forward will be to keep attribute points scarcer on equipment and make up the difference by pushing specific stats or by adding triggered abilities to items. The long term goal is to just get a lot more build variety possible and get away a little bit from the really static 3 attribute arch-type system.

ENCHANTMENT CHANGES:

I've changed the way that enchantment adjusts stats quite a bit as well. Generally what this does is improve the degree of upgrade for a lot of non-attribute stats. Again everything sort of has to be balanced around attributes here. So as an example a +8HP item will always enchant to +16HP and then +24HP. Mana will go 3,6,9 etc. Speed points just 1,2,3. So items that have multiple stats will get bonuses similar to enchanting a single attribute item but with different stats.

I'm also experimenting with capping enchantment to +2 for Armor, Shields, Weapons and Wands and +1 for Head, Gloves, Feet, Rings and Charms. With all enchantment rebalanced around the value of attribute points, enchanting in general is quite a bit stronger. I'd also like to be able to drop more enchantment scrolls and give the player more chances to enchant their equipment without having things get completely out of hand. This change is intended to:

• Create more interesting choices. Even if one piece of equipment is clearly your best piece you cannot just keep sinking enchantment scrolls into it. As enchantment levels quickly cap you have to keep re-asking yourself which is the next best piece to enchant.
• A single item dropping is not enough to pivot a whole build around. Its more a matter of putting a build together from the various pieces you find.
• Helps to reduce extreme end game power bloat as the player blows up a few key items with enchantments.
• Helps to keep newly found equipment relevant. The player should not feel so overly invested in his equipment. As soon as you've sunk 2-3 enchantment points into an item its unlikely anything is going to come along that improves on that.
• I can design stronger base equipment without having to consider what happens when its upgraded 3 times. Also obviously the value of each upgrade can be made stronger and more impactful.
• Can drop more enchantment scrolls (2 more should now drop per run on average), without messing with the balance as much.

CONCLUSIONS:

I'm hoping next week will go a bit smoother for me. Still not sure if I'm feeling up to tackling The-Iron-Forge yet or if I'll do another week of filling out the rest of the dungeon. Maybe 'complete' a few more zones. I've got a bunch of class changes and additions I also need to get to so that might come next week. Will have to think about it over the weekend.