Reworking Chronomancy ver 2

[donkatsu]

Physical is just turning out to be really lacking. Repulsion Blast damage is very low. Even with the collision damage, which is dependent on a lot of conditions (physical save, knockback immunity, the presence of a wall, correct positioning) it does less damage than Trim Threads, or a Temporal Bolt that hits twice. Rethread and Energy Absorption, both of which are primarily used for utility and not damage, still outdamage Repulsion Blast without collision. Gravity Spike is even worse, requiring 5 targets that can be moved in order to catch up to Trim Threads damage, and you're typically not even fighting that many things.

Physical's inferiority to temporal can be helped from both directions. First, certain temporal talents are too good, and second, Repulsion Blast and Gravity Spike are too weak (Gravity Well is fine).

Proposals:
-Bump Repulsion Blast's base damage up to Rethread's current damage, and make the collision damage half of that.
-Cap Gravity Spike's additional target damage to 5 targets so it doesn't get crazy in tightly packed vaults, and then increase the base damage, by a LOT. Even if the base damage were tripled, that's still less damage than Trim Threads against a single target. Maybe more damage at the center of the ball, so that Gravity has at least one single-target spell?
-Turn Trim Threads back into a DoT.
-Remove temporal damage from Cease to Exist.
-Somewhat lower braided damage, like just a tad. It was fun, but actually, 30% braided damage against a boss and 5 normal mobs means that the boss is taking 2.5x damage from AoEs, possibly even more because usually the normal mobs have less resistance.
-I don't think Rethread really needs the cooldown reduction component. You're already encouraged to use it against multiple enemies because of Braid Lifelines, and it's just too much utility on a spell that actually deals decent damage on its own and hits around corners and nails multiple spread out targets with no need for setup or positioning or anything. If anything I would put the cooldown reduction on Temporal Bolt instead of Regression, because Regression is sort of boring and Temporal Bolt is awesome and should have all of the good things. No I'm not biased at all! It makes sense, see, because Temporal Bolt is about doing stuff backwards and that's kind of in line with cooldown reduction.

[Isotope-X]

For those of us who are stupid about the whole git thing (meaning, primarily, me), can you direct to step-by-step instructions for accessing the new version of the Paradox Mage? I'd love to try out the new evolution of my favorite class.

[edge2054]

Assuming you're on windows this is the program I use for git.

http://git-extensions-documentation.rea ... arted.html

And this is the repo

http://git.net-core.org/edge2054/t-engine4

[Isotope-X]

Hmm...I'm plainly doing something wrong because I'm getting a 403 Forbidden every time I try to download the .zip from the repository. I'll just be patient, or else Time Skip myself into the future and get it there.

[donkatsu]

1. Rather than download directly from the repository, which will result in a 403 Forbidden error, download Git Extensions here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/gitextensions/

2. Install and run Git Extensions.

3. Just hit 'OK' when the Checklist window pops up.

4. Start > Clone Repository. In the 'Repository to clone' field: paste

Code: Select all

http://git.net-core.org/edge2054/t-engine4

5. Choose or create a folder for the Destination field.

6. For the Branch field, choose paradox_mage.

7. Hit 'Clone'. It should download everything to the folder you chose for the Destination field.

I sort of fumbled through this myself so I'm not expert but hopefully this helps.

[Isotope-X]

I suspect the problem is that I'm on a Mac, and I haven't been able to convince Mono to work right. I'll keep poking at it when I don't have a hungry 2 year old nearby. Thanks.

[edge2054]

Ideas...

I like these ideas and I'm working on getting them implemented this morning.

Gravity Spike I'm not so sure on. Say I give it Trim the Threads level damage, then double it when five targets are hit. The AI often doesn't care so much about hitting friendlies. I foresee a lot of one shots.

*edit* Anyway, I made Gravity Spike imba for now. I'll probably nerf it before I submit a merge request.

[edge2054]

Still considering what to do with Spatial Fragments. The summoned NPCs is a neat idea but I think the first one will hit and block the rest of the projectiles. Thinking of having them beam, shoot out shrapnel, or something of the sort.

[donkatsu]

Gravity Spike I'm not so sure on. Say I give it Trim the Threads level damage, then double it when five targets are hit. The AI often doesn't care so much about hitting friendlies. I foresee a lot of one shots.

Oneshots from npcs are most threatening on turn 1, immediately after you've used your energy on movement, bringing you into LoS of said npc, which then proceeds to oneshot you before you can even do anything. After that, there's a lot more leeway. Once the player has at least one turn to hit a heroism infusion and pop whatever buffs they have, they become much harder to oneshot, which is why it's okay for spells to hit hard if they require at least one turn of setup.

From an npc's point of view, Gravity Spike needs a bit of setup. Stuff has to get within range of the player first, and I don't think they're smart enough to say, center a ball spell so that it hits the maximum number of targets. The condition for getting blown up by Gravity Spike is something that the player can do something about as well. They can prioritize killing the most enemies in the shortest time, rather than prioritizing the ones that have the highest damage output or the most dangerous effects. They can reposition or move if there's too much stuff close to them. It is going to be a problem for Doomed players who invest in that fourth shadow though; they might get nuked on turn 1 with no setup.

I'm going to be honest and say I'm not a big fan of the "do more damage to each target when there are more targets" mechanic, because it isn't something the player can really control, it just happens. Unless the player can somehow summon more valid targets, hence the Spatial Fragments summon suggestion.

Edit: Nevermind, I just saw Gravity Spike and the epicenter mechanic adds an interesting tradeoff between hitting more stuff and dealing more damage to a priority target.

[edge2054]

I really liked the summon idea. But I figured it would be a pita. Your post convinced me to try it anyway and it was. I might try it again sometime but I basically ran into similar issues as Hammer Toss + Night Terrors.

Anyway I'm really close to a merge request for Paradox Mages. I'll do one more as I work on particles, npc talent lists, items, and further balancing. Aside from Redux, which I plan to do tomorrow, are their any other glaring issues or bugs I should look at before things are merged?

[donkatsu]

Gravity Spike says it does 105 damage, and less damage away from the epicenter, but when I target something with the center of the ball directly over it, it only takes 78 damage. If the target is exactly 1 tile away from the center of the ball, it takes the full 105. That's all I have so far.

edit: well, the target taking full damage 1 tile away is expected, since it's getting moved to the center then taking damage. But I don't understand why just centering the ball on the target isn't doing full damage. And for what it's worth, the old Gravity Spike wasn't dealing damage correctly either. Against knockback-immune targets, rather than doing the base damage with no bonus damage, it did the bonus damage (for 1 target) with no base damage, regardless of how many targets were hit.

edit edit: Temporal Bolt is lowering its own cooldown.

Repulsion Blast and Gravity Spike are super fun with Temporal Bolt. Cast Temporal Bolt from maximum range, Repulsion Blast them back past the bolt for the first hit. Gravity Spike them towards you, past the bolt for the second hit. Then the bolt travels forward and through the target for a third hit, then the target walks forward into the bolt for a fourth hit. That's triggering the cooldown effect 4 times on a single target, and you haven't even used Dimensional Step yet. It's almost like Temporal Bolt is more of a physical spell than it is a temporal spell, because of how much better Gravity is able to exploit its mechanic. I really like the non-obvious synergy there.

[edge2054]

Because of how it pulls. It looks for an empty tile and moves you to that. So if you occupy that tile it moves you to the one next to it. I'll either fix it's pull mechanic or expand the epicenter to radius one.

[edge2054]

Rewrote redux this morning and submitted a merge request. Bugs/balance issues I'll still be fixing as I work on the final branch (equipment, monsters, particles). But talents are set for awhile.

As far as the rest...

I plan to go through all artifacts and egos
Temporal Horrors
Time Spiders
Chronotwins
Make Unhallowed Morass more interesting without making it harder (the boss especially is boring)
I'd like to add a new time zone (but this is last on my list)
And touch ups on TW and PM talents (particles, sounds, bugs, balance)

If any one has anything to add let me know

[Kiba333]

Redux level 5 + Matrix on Dimensional Step + Hidden Resources = infinite instant phase door casts and also potentially infinite damage dealt via phase pulse without any turns passing.

But please don't just give phase door a fixed cooldown to fix this. I think too many spells have it by now and much of the synergy is lost with every spell that gets added to the list.

[0player]

And touch ups on TW and PM talents (particles, sounds, bugs, balance)

Don't you mean anomalies though.
(I'm completely happy to hear these news and wanted to thank you again for your valiant efforts to twist an engine of this game to do timey stuff!)

Redux level 5 + Matrix on Dimensional Step + Hidden Resources = infinite instant phase door casts and also potentially infinite damage dealt via phase pulse without any turns passing.

But please don't just give phase door a fixed cooldown to fix this. I think too many spells have it by now and much of the synergy is lost with every spell that gets added to the list.

Maybe make Hidden Resources to have an action counter instead of turn counter? Does anyone know any builds that'll break because of that?