Duelist Concepting | Patreon Weekly #178

Hey Patrons, Happy Halloween!

Firstly, this weekly has an audio Q&A in it! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly, sorry for forgetting them last month.

In this weekly I’m going to cover some various concepting work on the Duelist! Things haven’t total solidified for her yet, so I’m mostly focusing on filling in various detail gaps as I go. Expect things to get more focused in the coming weeks.

Weapon Abilities

As mentioned before, the main trait for the duelist is her ability to use weapons in ways other heroes cannot. Each weapon will gain a special ability that expends charge which builds over time. I don’t have complete concepts for this yet, but here are a few promising ideas:

• I often see suggestions for effects on weapons that just aren’t really within the scope of weapon stats. For example, people have wanted the runic blade to have bonus enchantment power for a while now. I don’t plan on doing that, but the duelist’s runic blade ability could absolutely fill that niche.
• Utility effects seem like a pretty good idea too, for example the dagger weapons might get a move which performs a sort of lunge attack, damaging a target while also moving the duelist several tiles.
• Some effects might work based on positioning, such as an effect for the spear that only works when the enemy is 1 tile away, but deals bonus damage by spiking them with the tip.
• Some effects might also be duration-based and let the duelist double down on the effect of certain exotic weapons. Perhaps an effect for the round shield that self-applies weaken, but also boosts defense.

Talents

I also have partial ideas for some duelist talents:

• Like the other heroes, the Duelist will likely get a T1 talent that grants a mild bonus effect triggered by her unique ability.
• For her identifying T1 talent, I may just give the Duelist armsmaster’s intuition, like with the warrior. The talent fits both of their themes and splitting it into a weapon or armor talent is probably too specific.
• To play into hero weapon abilities, I will probably give the duelist a T2 talent that lets her instantly switch which weapon she has equipped. The talent might have a cooldown which gets reduced or removed at +2.
• I haven’t yet decided if the duelist will have an upgrade transfer mechanic that applies to weapons. If she does though, she will likely get a T2 talent that plays into this, like the ones the Warrior and Mage already have.
• At T3, I will likely give her a talent that grants bonus charge speed for lower tier weapons. The idea is to help keep these items useful for her due to their effect, without just giving them bonus damage.

Subclasses

Lastly, I’ve been thinking on potential subclass ideas as well.

• Initial feedback when announcing the Duelist has made it pretty clear that players want her to have some form of dual wielding mechanic. This sounds like the sort of thing that fits best as a subclass feature, and also nicely allows the duelist to double-down on her weapon effect abilities. The tentative name for the subclass is the champion, and it will let the duelist use two weapons at once! The specific mechanics and requirements for doing this have yet to be decided, as obviously just letting the player use two weapons outright would be absurdly overpowered.
• I’ve also had some fun with concepting a subclass I’ve tentatively called the spellsword. This subclass would let the duelist get another bonus ability that’s dependant on a weapon’s enchantment. While I like this idea a lot, it’s a bit similar to the battlemage, and also extends her class ability just like the champion would. Currently each hero has one subclass that extends their base class power, and another that adds something of its own. Because of this I might shelve the spellsword for the moment and think up something a bit different for the duelist’s release.

Audio Timestamps

• 0:09 "do you ever play shattered pixel dungeon casually between work sessions? or is it mostly to test things and find bugs?" - RadiantChaos
• 0:55 "Why is the Lloyd's Beacon and the Cape of Thorns still in the game if the saves for before 0.7.0 aren't supported anymore for quite a while? Do you have any plans for these items?" - Fcelon
• 1:47 "The new lore additions have me wondering; what happens when the amulet leaves the dungeon? Does the curse break? Does it start to corrupt the surface? Will you develop a sequel, "Shattered Pixel Tower" where a new here ascends the tower to reclaim the amulet from the hero of the Dungeon? Is anyone doing Shattered Pixel fan fiction yet?" - PunStar
• 3:23 "Have you considered adding more basic (non-exotic) potions or scrolls to the game? Or are you worried that this would increase game complexity too much?" - heyseth
• 5:08 "how do you feel about designing/balancing game mechanics towards different skill levels (like new players, moderately skilled ones, and absolute tryhards like myself)? do you look at all of them equally or favor one over the other?" - RadiantChaos
• 6:50 "Do you ever feel that you have made the game almost too "easier", such that it has lost some of the "difficult and unforgiving" reputation that rougelikes, including the original PD, are known for?" - Cake
• 8:30 "how was your day?" - Depresbian
• 9:02 "What has been the most difficult thing to design/concept for in shattered pixel dungeon, and how did you settle on a final implementation?" - heyseth
• 11:12 "Have you ever played Team Fortress 2? If so, what is your favorite class." - Cake
• 13:39 "who is your favorite character in shattered pixel dungeon? this doesn't have to be a hero, it can extend to any character, npc, or monster" - RadiantChaos
• 14:42 "if you could take any item from shattered pd and bring it into the real world, what would you take? (barring the amulet of yendor of course, no hacking reality with that lmao)" - RadiantChaos
• 16:08 "what kind of soap do you use?" - RadiantChaos
• 16:36 "Why do you think runic blade does so well in practice despite being strictly worse than a longsword before +5? Is upgrade dumping past +5 that prevalent for it?" - Zrp200
• 19:33 "what quality of life features should real life's devs add in patch 2023?" - Depresbian
• 21:36 "What is the difference between the LibGDX classes and the java.util counterparts?" - Zrp200
• 23:29 "How has development of the duelist been progressing? Has concepting/implementation been going as planned or have there been hiccups?" - Zrp200