XaiJu
Shattered Pixel
Shattered Pixel

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Patreon Poll #2: Enemy Variants! - Discussion

(This is the discussion post for Patreon Poll #2. Poll choice descriptions are here, and discussion is welcome from all patrons. However, only golden+ patrons can view and vote in the voting post.) 

Hello Patrons, welcome to patron poll number two! In keeping with the theme of the next update (now called 0.8.0, as its ended up being so big), I'm letting you guys vote on some alternate enemy designs! 

I've already talked a bunch about new variants I have planned for floor-dependent enemies, but I've been a bit more tight lipped about enemies that can appear in any floor. It might be a bit much for every one of them to have a rare variant though, so I'm letting you guys decide which enemy should get the honor!

Below are four designs for rare variants of special enemies:

Phantom Piranhas
~1/50 piranhas will be replaced with a phantom piranha. These piranha are a reference to the phantom fish wandmaker quest from vanilla! In addition to their usual nasty bite, these piranha can phase out of existence, and might pop up again when you approach a different body of water! They'll never appear such that they immediately hit you, but if you're already busy it might be quite awkward indeed. When defeated, these piranha will drop phantom meat, which fully restores hunger and grants all of the bonuses from frozen carpaccio at once!

Tormented Ghosts
~1/50 wraiths will be replaced with a tormented ghost. These ghosts behave exactly as wraiths do, but will call out for help instead of attacking silently. Their spirits are not yet totally lost, and they can be freed by using a scroll of remove curse when near them. If they are freed, they will drop a random piece of equipment that is guaranteed to be uncursed. Tormented spirits can be treated just like regular wraiths, or they can be used to trade a scroll of remove curse for their equipment reward.
(To prevent farming, tormented spirits will not be eligible to spawn from corpse dust or a cursed rose.)

Armored statues
~1/10 statue rooms will contain a statue that is wearing glyphed armor in addition to their enchanted weapon! These armored statues boast increased health and defensive power from their armor, making them quite a formidable foe indeed. Because of their enhanced health, damage-rushing them will be less effective than regular statues, so good planning will be especially important. If they are defeated, they will drop both their weapon and armor, making for an increased reward that's worth the risk if you plan well!

Crystal Mimics
(Note that this will go along with the previous mentioned mimic rework, which means these mimics will have visual tells. I also already plan to add golden chest mimics, but they'll just be a simple reskin of regular mimics with boosted stats)
In ~1/10 crystal chest rooms, one of the chests will be a crystal mimic! These tricksy mimics would rather run than fight, and will dart away with high speed once they are discovered. Rather than dealing bonus damage if you try to open them, these mimics will instead steal an item just like thieves. If crystal mimics are able to gain enough distance they will escape permanently. Their speed is offset by the player having complete control over when to engage them, and seeing as they won't need a key to open they give players the chance to get both crystal chest room items! 

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.

Comments

It's worth noting that crystal mimics only steal something if you bumble into them. If you trigger them by attacking first (i.e. you see their tell) then they'll just try to run.

Shattered Pixel

alright, here's my reasoning: fish: i like the idea of a nod to vanilla, and the odd buff with very interesting reward is something i'd want to play against. voted for. ghosts: i just don't find these interesting. lore-wise they're cool, but gameplay-wise they seem rather hollow. use a SoRC, get a piece of equipment. imo that's a rather boring mechanic, and not worth giving up one of the other, cooler enemies for. did not vote for. statues: while statues already can have a problem of being a bit too deadly occasionally, a skilled player can maximize damage done to them and minimize damage taken. the armor will provide a very powerful reward: enchanted, cleansed, and identified gear, but also make a very powerful tradeoff by giving them potent damage resistance and a glyph effect. choosing to engage these will be a much more entertaining and rewarding, but also risky, fight. voted for. while i love the idea of crystal mimics and i like the part about getting both rewards, the thief mechanic is honestly just annoying and i don't think is very interesting or fun to play against. if this were something else, these might be worth voting for, but not now. did not vote for.

Lassoloc

Statues and mimics did have a bit more room for interesting effects, as they're more rare in general. For piranhas the intention was to make thrown effects and displacement tools less effective as they can pop out of existence rather than dieing out of water or just dieing because they can't reach you.

Shattered Pixel

Crystal mimics likely will be a buff to crystal chest rooms if the player is smart, as they won't require a key. My plan is to try and make it so the player has to spend resources to be able to ensure they kill the mimic without it getting away.

Shattered Pixel

I voted for everything but statues, but honestly all sound fun to me. The fish/ghost in particular are great because they change up0 meta. I think trapping crystal chest mimic to be easy so I don't care for it too much. Statues sound fun but I couldn't vote for everything :)

James15350

Voted Statues and Mimics. I've always wanted an armour counterpart to statues so this would be great. I've never liked fighting fish since it seems optimal strategy relies on displacement tools or abundance of thrown weapons and wand charges. Using Scroll of Remove Curse for combat purposes seems unintuitive, and getting a random piece of uncursed gear seems less enticing than just holding onto it for use when you finally get desired gear but it's cursed.

s9menine

Voted statues and mimics, some identified enchanted armor would be cool, plus being on the other side of those glyphs would be awesome. The mimics would be interesting! Would it allow for 2 drops per crystal chest room? If you opened the mimic chest, would it consume the key? The mimics have to be crazy difficult to kill or not show their tongue so it doesnt just buff crystal rooms.

KylePop39

i vote fish and mimics. phantom meat sounds awesome as fuch

whamola9000

voting for fish and statues - i'll explain why later, right now im really tired

Lassoloc

Yes, it would be a standard randomized equipment drop, just forced to be uncursed.

Shattered Pixel

Would Tormented Ghost drops be able to be upgraded?

Zrp200

The specific stats haven't been decided yet but In all likelihood yes. I don't want it to be impossible to effectively damage them with physical attacks but they would be quite tanky.

Shattered Pixel

Is the natural statue armor applied on top of the worn armor?

Zrp200


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