Early T4 Talent Design | Patreon Weekly #91

Hey Patrons!

Firstly, the VOD is up for the fourth patreon livestream! You can check it out here.

As for Shattered news, v0.9.2 released late last week! I’m planning on doing some patches for it while I start getting geared up for v0.9.3. The most significant content of v0.9.3 will be the final tier of the talent system, so lets talk a bit about that!

More Details on Tier Four Talents

As I’ve already mentioned a few times, t4 talents will focus heavily on class armors and their triggered abilities. I want to make the gameplay surrounding these armor abilities much more interesting and allow the player to make choices and investments into them just like they do with other equipment mechanics.

A big part of why I want this is because normally by floor 20 the player’s build is pretty finalized. That’s not entirely a bad thing, but it means that the satisfaction of progressing begins to ebb away at the end of the game. By deepening class armor abilities I can create a nice little endgame progression arc that lasts for just those final five floors.

The aspect of this design that I’m most concrete on is that I want each class to have multiple possible armor abilities. The player will select one after they defeat Dwarf King. The current four abilities will still exist (possibly with some changes), but I’d like to add at least two or three more options per class as well! Some of these might be tied to subclasses or might just be made to work bets with a certain subclass, I haven’t decided yet.

I want these abilities to offer interesting gameplay oppourtunities as well. Simple straight buffs or effects that tie into how the player will already want to play don’t do as much to vary up gameplay as abilities that give the player new things to do. Once the player has selected an ability they can use T4 talent points to power it up over the course of the demon halls!

I haven’t yet decided whether T4 talents will exclusively focus on armor abilities or if there will be some talents that are similar to T3s. I’m leaning towards most or all on armor abilities though, as the sort of effects T3 talents give are harder to design well in the lategame.

I’m also still uncertain of how many points each talent will take at this tier. It’s possible I will continue the trend of encouraging investment, and have each T4 talent accept up to four points! This furthers the goal of T4 talents encouraging heavy investment, and makes it easier for me to think up enough effects while focusing on just the armor abilities.