XaiJu
Shattered Pixel
Shattered Pixel

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Patreon Poll #6 - Choose a Rework, Second Chance!

Hey Patrons!

Over the last month we’ve had a poll for artifacts, and a poll for rings/wands. Originally my plan was to do one poll each for artifacts, rings, and wands. However, rings and wands ended up getting merged into their own poll instead, so what do we do with our third poll?

To quickly recap:
- The Talisman of Foresight won the first poll with a commanding 80% Support.
- The Wand of Regrowth won the second poll with 64% Support.
- In the middle ground, four items got moderate support ranging from 40% to 57%.
- Both the Horn of Plenty and Ring of Might placing last, at just 30%/34% respectively.

There were a good number of choices in both polls that received decent support, but not enough to won. So, for this last poll I’m going to give those four items a second chance! Just as before, for each option I’ll share the item’s current state and some general ideas I have for improving it. The winning choice will have these ideas developed on and will be reworked in v0.8.1! 

Footwear of Nature

Right now the footwear of nature suffers from a good passive and a poor active. Generating more seeds and dew is quite useful, but the current active is just earthroot… that’s it.

I’d like to improve the footwear of nature by giving them an active ability that’s more than just an afterthought. I’m currently considering options that tie into feeding seeds to the footwear; perhaps the footwear will have an ability that’s based on the most recently fed seed. semi-random seed effects are also a possibility.

Master Thieves’ Armband

The Master Thieves’ armband is perhaps the strangest artifact in terms of balance at the moment. When the player is at a shop the artifact is incredibly powerful, and its a waste of an equip slot otherwise.

I’d like to improve the artifact by giving it some new abilities which give it more general power versus enemies or the dungeon environment. One promising idea is to have these abilities be fueled by the player’s gold supply. This way the artifact would simultaneously help you retain the gold you find, and then also give it new uses outside of shops.

Ring of Wealth

The ring of wealth’s current focus is on providing extra loot when enemies are killed or containers are opened. While that works well in theory, that loot just isn’t worthwhile, and wealth is the worst ring by a fair margin as a result.

I think the core design of wealth is good, but I’d like to significantly rework the existing drops and add more items that have high value, especially when the ring is upgraded. A long time ago the ring increased the upgrades the player could find at high levels, I might like to try giving it some of that power back, though with bounds on the RNG and limits on farming.

Wand of Magic Missile

The wand of magic missile is both the mage’s starting wand, and a regular wand that can drop in the game, which puts it in an awkward spot. It can’t be strong on its own or the mage becomes too strong/boring (remember the boomerang?), but it’s undoubtedly too weak at the moment.

I’d like to give magic missile a new ability which lets its shots briefly empower other wands. The empowered buff would likely increase wand power and might also do things like conserve charges or let the wand shoot instantly. This way magic missile can have some unique utility, while also not allowing the mage to just win the game with it alone.

I’d want to be careful with how it’s balanced though, so that dumping magic missile with one wand on the side isn’t a super consistent way for the mage to win.

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Please vote for as many options as you like, you don't need to vote for just one! I allow multiple votes as it means that a higher proportion of people will end up voting for the winning choice. It also lets me gauge interest and lets polls be a bit more flexible, I might choose to implement the top 2 choices in some polls for example.

All patrons are encouraged to share their opinion by commenting and voting, but currently only the votes from Golden+ Supporters are counted when determining a poll winner. Votes from Shattered Supporters are worth double! 

Comments

The reason I don't have a list is that it could be very long and clutter up the item's description. Greying out the seeds which have already been fed is more feasible though.

Shattered Pixel

while footwear are being adjusted, a spellbook-like list of which seeds can't be fed would be very helpful for QoL, or even graying them out on the selection menu

Lassoloc

The problem with giving magic missile direct power like that is it would become overpowered in the context of being the mage's starting wand.

Shattered Pixel

What if the Wand of Magic Missile would have a multi target ability at higher levels or the ability to charge up for a stronger hit using fewer charges?

Robert Pommrich

Some ideas for footwear of nature: When worn, furrows grass instead of tramples (like Huntress). Increases movement speed though grass, like Armor of Flow for water. Another possibility is rooting enemies for one or two rounds during melee. Even though none of these are great offensive ideas they would make the footwear more dynamic.

Hank Stanglow

Figuring out exactly what the armband could do for an active is definitely tricky, as there's a lot of items that fill a similar spot to it thematically. As mentioned I think it makes the most sense for abilities to consume coins, as that both works well as a gameplay mechanic and opens up lots of thematic possibilities. This the sort of thing I'd spent a lot of time thinking on after an item wins the poll, in order to come up with good specific mechanics.

Shattered Pixel

I'd rather have the base mechanics of the item not encourage juggling, instead of adding in extra mechanics to punish it. The armband was more of a band-aid fix and I'm not very happy with it having that mechanic.

Shattered Pixel

The ring already drops a few alchemy items, like exotic potions/scrolls, and likely it would continue to focus on those higher-value items as far as consumables are concerned. Having the direct quality of what the ring drops (not just the chances for a drop) increase as the ring levels is sort of what I was describing when I mention allowing the ring to drop upgraded gear.

Shattered Pixel

I guess that the proc chance should decrease if the ring is removed, like the armband loses some of its power as well

Fulvio

The problem with a mechanic like that is it would encourage the players to only wear the ring during or at the end of the boss fight, and unequip it otherwise. I want the reward to be more evenly distributed so players aren't encouraged to juggle the ring with another misc item.

Shattered Pixel

What I feel about ring of wealth now is that I can use it until I get another ring or artifact, doesn't really matters the gap in the upgrades. Maybe interacting with a boss fight could be a way to get an extra scroll of upgrade without giving the chance to farm it?

Fulvio

Ring of wealth could have like categories of items for each upgrade or the upgrades could just adds up more drop rate percentage for some rarer items. (Don't know if you can understand me) At higher upgrades there would be not just more possible items, but also higher valuable items that can drop. And... There are plany of unique items in alchemy system. Why don't use some of them? ;)

ObisMike

Any ideas for the armband active powers outside of shop? There was an idea for pickpocketing, but I honestly can't imagine how that would work. My quick thoughts were around invisibility options (you now, thieve theme ability), but then we have shadow cloak. But that's only for rogues... Another ability that came to my mind, was that whenever enemies can't see player, armband gives you options like speed boost or invisibility that gets cancelled if you move. Of maybe option to hide inside a grass (like in the garden)

ObisMike

Go Team Ring of Wealth!

Zrp200


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