0008651: More Depth for Journey to Perfection Missions: Limited Shots - DEV Arcen

ID	Project	Category		Date Submitted	Last Update

0008651	Valley 1	Suggestion - Mission Ideas		Jun 23, 2012 5:44 pm	Jul 5, 2012 6:38 pm

Reporter	darkchair	Assigned To
Status	considering	Resolution	open

Summary	0008651: More Depth for Journey to Perfection Missions: Limited Shots
Description	A way to make this mission more interesting and less easy would be if at the entrance of the mission, you had to declare which spells you are going to use, and how many shots of each. Better spells (spells with piercing/homing/sliding) would be more expensive. Worse spells (spells with less range and lacking in the advantages) would be less expensive, so you would be able to use them more overall. This would again make the mission more of a "journey" rather than a spam fest of just blowing everything up and running for the end. A rough balance of expenses IMO: All better spells: 4 Energy Slice, 2 Cleft Smoglet(They are banned now I think? I'd allow them back in), 5 Ball Lightning, 8 Earth Rage. All worse spells: 6 Luminance Arc, 12 Fireball, 15 Miasma Whip, 30 Death Touch. A balance of spells: 2 Energy Slice, 1 Cleft Smoglet, 7 Fireball, 6 Luminance Arc, 10 Miasma Whip, 5 Death Touch.
Tags	No tags attached.

Internal Weight	Feature Suggestion

BenMiff Jun 23, 2012 8:41 pm reporter ~0026047	The problem with this is that journey to perfection has indestructible monster spawners, so limiting spells is a quick way to leave the player unable to clear the way ahead. In addition, mana is already the limiting factor - adding a second limit unnecessarily complicates things. That said, I wouldn't object to an achievement for completing journey to perfection with less than <x> shots, and one for completing it while only using "weak" spells (no piercing, no sliding, no homing), but I'd want it to be entirely optional.

darkchair Jun 25, 2012 3:50 pm reporter ~0026055	The only time I've ever had to deal with (what I assume were) spawned enemies was in The Deep. With the absurd amount of enemies it was possible to be stuck long enough to have to deal with reinforcements. I only have 1.5x enemy spawns now, maybe its more significant at 2x. A possibility would be to get rid of the spawners along with this change.

Pyrrhic Jul 5, 2012 6:38 pm reporter ~0026340 Last edited: Jul 5, 2012 6:42 pm	I agree that the indestructible monster spawners work against this idea. Eliminating the spawners, as well as having a 'X monsters left in this region' notifier, would make this more doable (keeping in mind that you wouldn't have to kill all of the monsters, just reach the end of the region - same as it is now). Then again, this would make these missions especially challenging for players using keyboard/controller only, since they can only aim in at most 8 directions. This would also require a careful balancing of how much each spell was worth (1 shot of creeping death should cost more than 1 shot of energy slice), versus how many shots each enemy would grant the player before the mission started (I should get more shots if the map will have a lot of Sea Worms, versus if it will have a lot of Skelebot Ankle-Biters). This balancing would have to be worked into the mechanics of the game, and it would probably be really difficult to get the algorithm just right - considering that some weaker enemies are harder to hit, enemy elemental weaknesses/resistances would ideally affect how much spells cost (since these would make spells more/less powerful against certain enemies), and the fact that maps have multiple types of enemies. It seems like the only way to keep these missions from being too hard, then, would be to give players more than enough shots to fire - and if you're already doing that, why not just give players unlimited shots?

Date Modified	Username	Field	Change
Jun 23, 2012 5:44 pm	darkchair	New Issue
Jun 23, 2012 8:41 pm	BenMiff	Note Added: 0026047
Jun 25, 2012 9:37 am	tigersfan	Internal Weight	=> Feature Suggestion
Jun 25, 2012 9:37 am	tigersfan	Status	new => considering
Jun 25, 2012 3:50 pm	darkchair	Note Added: 0026055
Jul 5, 2012 6:20 pm	Pyrrhic	Relationship added	related to 0008717
Jul 5, 2012 6:38 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Added: 0026340
Jul 5, 2012 6:42 pm	Pyrrhic	Note Edited: 0026340