Playing as a Summoner, it seems that the equilibrium counter is largely irrelevant. Sure, if it gets high enough, it can cause your summons to fail, but it's SO easy to reset in a few turns - just use Meditation, or (as of b38) simply REST!
I think the simplest way to solve this would be to bump up the equilibrium costs of summons - say, by a factor of 5 or 10? This would both reduce the number of summons necessary to cause further summons to fail, as well as mitigate the overpoweredness of Meditation/resting.
Oh, and by the way... why does having LESS equilibrium mean that you're MORE in balance with nature? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I suppose you're going for a different mechanic than the standard "mana meter which runs out", but in that case why not give the meter an opposite name which actually reflects its behavior? Say, "entropy" or something...
Summoners' equilibrium counter irrelevant?
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Summoners' equilibrium counter irrelevant?
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Re: Summoners' equilibrium counter irrelevant?
I've not tried summoner recently so I can't comment on it not getting high enough to be an issue when summoning but for the less equilibrium being better I see it like this: at zero you are perfectly in balance, the further away from it (positive or negative) the more out of balance you get and the more likely things go wrong
Re: Summoners' equilibrium counter irrelevant?
I don't generally care for the equilibrium mechanic. The player has very minor control over the number of opponents engaged at once, which is the main reason equilibrium skyrockets, and in most situations the standard in-combat recovery methods keep totals pretty low. Further, ability failure is not a fun mechanic, especially when the only alternative is bump attacks. It might be more fun if it was more like a saturation effect (more equi = longer cooldowns) or if the effects weren't just talent failure (see TW/PM).
I do like how ToME's out-of-combat gameplay has become more and more streamlined.
I do like how ToME's out-of-combat gameplay has become more and more streamlined.
Sorry about all the parentheses (sometimes I like to clarify things).
Re: Summoners' equilibrium counter irrelevant?
Something more interesting could be done with Equilibrium I agree. The base theme feels to me like it was borrowed from T2 mimics but didn't get fleshed out to the degree that did (Mimic failures could turn you into an abomination for a few turns which was really really bad). I personally liked the mechanic though so here's what I'm thinking...
Imagine for a moment, that Equilibrium is how in tune you are with nature i.e. the higher it gets the more in tune you become. Unfortunately becoming in tune with nature means being more in tune with your more primal and base instincts. Your Willpower and Cunning would steadily decline as EQ went up while your Strength and Dexterity would go up (which conversely would lower your willpower for controlling EQ checks as well).
To take it a step further, we'd replace the current failure check with something else. Instead of failing the character would 'Succumb to the Beast' when an EQ check is failed. The talent would fail to go off but in a much more spectacular fashion, as Nature takes over in all her glory. For the next EQ/10 turns the AI would take over for the player (tactical melee AI). The character would gain 100% Fear, Pin, and Stun immunity and regenerate EQ/2 Hit Points every turn. Finally all Wild-Gift talent costs would be inverted for the duration of the effect (so when the AI uses wild-gifts, it would lower the current EQ score rather then increase it).
Going this route, we could also rework some of the more boring generic talents.
For instance, Earth's Eyes could be replaced with a Savage Beast talent, that would further buff the character while the Succumb to the Beast timed effect is active. Meditation could reduce the Willpower and Cunning penalties for higher EQ scores. Nature's Touch could increase the character's regeneration rate while in 'Beast' mode.
Granted, EQ in it's current state is probably to easy to come by and somewhat irrelevant (not so much for Wyrmics if they don't go anti-magic). Nerfing the gains on the Jelly and Resolve (Swallow might also be to high too, killing high level monsters with it can give back over 50 EQ easily which is pretty crazy.. probably just divide the target level by 2 on the EQ gain to get this more in line) would probably be good now that in combat EQ regen is available (draw back or not) through Meditation.
Imagine for a moment, that Equilibrium is how in tune you are with nature i.e. the higher it gets the more in tune you become. Unfortunately becoming in tune with nature means being more in tune with your more primal and base instincts. Your Willpower and Cunning would steadily decline as EQ went up while your Strength and Dexterity would go up (which conversely would lower your willpower for controlling EQ checks as well).
To take it a step further, we'd replace the current failure check with something else. Instead of failing the character would 'Succumb to the Beast' when an EQ check is failed. The talent would fail to go off but in a much more spectacular fashion, as Nature takes over in all her glory. For the next EQ/10 turns the AI would take over for the player (tactical melee AI). The character would gain 100% Fear, Pin, and Stun immunity and regenerate EQ/2 Hit Points every turn. Finally all Wild-Gift talent costs would be inverted for the duration of the effect (so when the AI uses wild-gifts, it would lower the current EQ score rather then increase it).
Going this route, we could also rework some of the more boring generic talents.
For instance, Earth's Eyes could be replaced with a Savage Beast talent, that would further buff the character while the Succumb to the Beast timed effect is active. Meditation could reduce the Willpower and Cunning penalties for higher EQ scores. Nature's Touch could increase the character's regeneration rate while in 'Beast' mode.
Granted, EQ in it's current state is probably to easy to come by and somewhat irrelevant (not so much for Wyrmics if they don't go anti-magic). Nerfing the gains on the Jelly and Resolve (Swallow might also be to high too, killing high level monsters with it can give back over 50 EQ easily which is pretty crazy.. probably just divide the target level by 2 on the EQ gain to get this more in line) would probably be good now that in combat EQ regen is available (draw back or not) through Meditation.