"Odyssey of The Summoner" is OUT!! Find it here...

[nekarcos]

So a lot (and I mean easily 50%+) of all enemy attacks hit me for either 'healing' type or (more rarely) 'nourish' type damage. No idea what's causing this. I have both Bloodcaller and a parasitic mindstar equipped, but AFAIK these only apply to damage I do.

What class are you? Who is doing it? What zone are you in? Etc...

More importantly though, link me to your character so I can investigate. Although, somehow, I don't think this is an add-on conflict...

[tabs]

So a lot (and I mean easily 50%+) of all enemy attacks hit me for either 'healing' type or (more rarely) 'nourish' type damage. No idea what's causing this. I have both Bloodcaller and a parasitic mindstar equipped, but AFAIK these only apply to damage I do.

What class are you? Who is doing it? What zone are you in? Etc...

More importantly though, link me to your character so I can investigate. Although, somehow, I don't think this is an add-on conflict...

Edited last post to include a screenshot. Character link:http://te4.org/characters/190198/tome/7 ... cad152aa93

[nekarcos]

So a lot (and I mean easily 50%+) of all enemy attacks hit me for either 'healing' type or (more rarely) 'nourish' type damage. No idea what's causing this. I have both Bloodcaller and a parasitic mindstar equipped, but AFAIK these only apply to damage I do.

What class are you? Who is doing it? What zone are you in? Etc...

More importantly though, link me to your character so I can investigate. Although, somehow, I don't think this is an add-on conflict...

Edited last post to include a screenshot. Character link:http://te4.org/characters/190198/tome/7 ... cad152aa93

I see, I see...! I know exactly what's happening here-- And you'll be pleased to hear it's all normal!

You see, ToME is weird in that when you use "Life Steal", it refers to "the target" as "healing" you if they're also damaging you at the same time (that is, the "battle log" attempts to cluster it all into the same place)... So all that "healing" that you're receiving... Is the huge amount of damage you're causing via your individual head attacks+life steal!

As for the "Nourish"-- That's due to "Metalbolism", from what I can see... You're being "nourished" for all the armor that you're eating (check it out, you ate a bunch of that Fire Drake's armor). The difference between "Healing" and "Nourish" is that "Nourish" ALSO restores Equilibrium, as well as Life.


PS: Find some "Eclipse" amulets and maybe the "Crown of the Elements", and then you'll REALLY see pain and carnage!

PPS edit: OI! You should use "Deadly Poison"! That poison can STACK, while the others CAN'T!

[phantomglider]

I tried this out, and it seems interesting, but...am I missing something or is the Ritch early game completely miserable? Especially in the first fight: you start with no P Power or Accuracy, so you can't use melee combat at all, so if you want to contribute in any way you are obligated to unlock and use Flame Spit. But that costs 5 equilibrium a pop and does little enough damage that I wouldn't want to use it even if it were free.

Even after that, the way durability works is just a load of busywork. Having your weapons break in the middle of a fight is a big nerf to your damage, and in the beginning of the game you may not pick up enough stuff to be able to replace it on the regular. I get the intent, but it comes down to "check your equipment every time you clear a bunch of trash." Durability ought to have a resource indicator like equilibrium, and I don't think it ought to be decreased by basic bump attacks unless you're using the sustain. Having to dig through your inventory every time you plow through a pack of rats or whatever is just bad design.

[tabs]

I tried this out, and it seems interesting, but...am I missing something or is the Ritch early game completely miserable?

Nope. It is miserable. Play hydra instead.

[jenx]

@sadisticnerd
@jenx
Be nice.

Yes, it's being changed... However, I need you (and everyone else) to be clear that YOU take responsibility for whatever happens to you when you play this add-on in a non-developer mode. I am making absolutely no promises that you won't suddenly bump into a difficulty spike due to something unforeseen, or something blowing up and behaving unexpectedly, leading to loss of playtime and/or character corruption. In this case, Tannen's Tower, where you are apparently stuck, heheheh...

I appreciate that you ONLY play online (NOT developer mode), and I will ALWAYS give said players special, first-priority treatment. However, I would ALSO appreciate it if you weren't so bitter about every issue you encounter in this UNFINISHED add-on. I'll fix these problems, but I might get a bit "lazy" about it if it starts to feel very thankless, you get me?

So, to reiterate: Be nice. Considering the nature of your previous post and this last post you just made, it's pretty evident you are mocking me now. Less of that, alright? It's inappropriate and I'm just here to help!

not mocking, and i'm not bitter at all about every issue. this particular one though really annoys the heck out of me

you say to take drakelings, but despite endless hours of playing, I still can't get them to any decent level of ability in the latest version, and to even try doing this burns up too many generics. hence my preference for building a character without drakelings.

and the 10 con penalty is HUGE impost at early levels, because con is the last stat you want to ever invest in in tome. no high level player ever invests in con.

[nekarcos]

@phantomglider
Aye-- Ritch has, indeed, been a difficult thing to find a good spot for. As you can see from the VOLATILE changes, I'm experimenting with ways to make standard Ritch play a little smoother, but without handing over too much power. But anywho-- Let's get to responses!

RE: Ritch Early Game
I would STRONGLY encourage using your other tools first, and your impermanent weapons last! Remember, even though Ritch has some powerful melee tools, it's still considered as a Ranged Avatar and prefers to be at a distance if possible.

RE: Power and Accuracy too low!
Power is not too much of a problem-- Ritch has plenty, but endurance it does not. As for "Accuracy", you pretty much always want to get "Eagle Eyes". However, if you DON'T want this to be your first discipline, you might be best off getting some Dexterity or sticking to a non-Wild-Child talent tree...

... Oops. What am I saying?? I have no place trying to tell you HOW to play the game. If it wasn't obvious at a first glance, then I am DEFINITELY doing something wrong. I definitely want to hear more about your first experience-- Every frustration you had-- All the things that just didn't "click" for you. These are what I definitely want to correct in the future.

RE: Flamespit is weak
-- But it has a 0 cooldown, instant 100% hit, and is VERY spammable! Don't write this talent off too quickly now!

RE: Durability is lame
It is, but necessary.
I'm still trying to mediate the balance of weapon durability... You see, the weapon drop rate is VERY low during the first half of ToME, while the drop rate is very HIGH in the second half. This kinda throws my durability formula for a loop (since more talent points improves weapon durability-- This becomes REDUNDANT later in the game, where you end up with more weapons than you can get rid of).
For this reason, I feel the easiest solution would be to have EVERY weapon have the same durability-- But flavor-wise, this makes no sense, and it bothers me to do it. Long story short: I'm still pondering over how to "elegantly" deal with the durability issue, such that weapon breakage is ALWAYS a threat-- But without completely "starving" the player of weapons. Particularly, I was hoping to make non-melee talents look VERY appealing at the start of the game, but then have them fall off in effectiveness near the second half of the game. This SHOULD smooth out the durability issue at the start, whilst nicely transitioning them into melee combat during the second half.

... But alas. This is all just fancy-smancy theory-developer talk. Nothing is being done, is it now? Grrr... If only I had more Ritch players to observe... I can't come up with any reasonable numbers without some firsthand experiences!


RE: Resource meter
I've talked about this in the past, but the nature of Impermanent weapons mean there would be an "unlimited" amount of possible UIs-- Which is nightmarish from a programmer/developer standpoint. What I need is a nice elegant solution for keeping the player aware of their durability situation, but WITHOUT shoving the numbers into their face (such that those who aren't paying attention will encounter a nasty surprise).
I've already thought about making a message pop-up-- But THAT tends to get utterly CONSUMED by the huge deluge of combat log junk that tends to pour in. A screen message would get obnoxious-- And a custom UI... Well, a custom UI is problematic, as I described above.

... I suppose all I can really say about this for now... Is... Well... Keep an eye on that "Impermanence" icon you have in your status list. It tells you the durability of ALL your weapons.


RE: No durability loss from basic attacks
They need to wear and tear SOMEHOW... Unless you're suggesting they just automatically fall apart over time...?

RE: Plowing through a pack of rats
This is what your "Wild-Heart" talents are for, hehehe...
Also, keep in mind: Ritch's weaponless attack is VERY potent, it shouldn't be underestimated...



@tabs
RE: Don't play Ritch
Ooooh... Don't be like that! It's never going to get better unless we can pinpoint precisely where its weak WITHOUT just saying "make everything better"!



@jenx
RE: Tannen's Tower sucks
Don't worry, I'll un-suck it! ... Wat?

This is supposed to be a fun part of "OoTS", where I hand over A TON of power to the player (20 points worth of special talents), and you get to go absolutely nuts with them without restriction. The only small trade-off is no activated wild powers (but you really SHOULDN'T need them, as long as you make use of the blighted talents you get-- Particularly, Hydra gets an EXTREMELY powerful AoE breath, Fire Drake gets extremely strong nukes and an irresistible hard CC, and Ritch gets a bunch of anti-death abilities and a TARGETTED heal).

But yeah, I want you, the player, to have fun here! However... The way you sound about this... It seems I still have a lot of work to do, hehehe...


RE: Drakelings are difficult to raise
A good start would be telling me exactly what's going wrong. It doesn't help me to help you a single bit when you sit around and rant about your frustrations WITHOUT explaining what is bothering you.

I would love to make Drakelings a little easier for you and everyone else, but at the moment, I don't even understand what your difficulties currently are. Are they dying? Are you having trouble understanding them? Do you hate the way they behave? Seriously jenx... An important part of play-testing is CORROBORATION-- Something that you never do for me. I always hear you complain about Drakelings, but you have never once explained exactly what's been going wrong. I KNOW you have used Drakelings, because you've played COUNTLESS Fire Drakes, and you always start with 3-- So you MUST have some sort of story about your experiences with them...

... Why don't you share them...?


RE: 10 Constitution penalty is harsh
If there is one thing I WILL NOT allow the player to do on Fire Drake... It is this: The player WILL NOT create Drakelings, "dismiss" (kill) them, then summon another Drakeling. They are disposable-- Yes. However, they are not plenty. They are "ammunition". They are "scarce" in some way-- And YOU MUST play in a way which will require you to PRESERVE them.

RE: Never invest in Constitution
If you recall, one of this add-on's credos is turning Constitution into a viable, semi-offensive stat. You are using STANDARD ToME knowledge to play this add-on-- Which does not entirely apply for these classes/races (IE: "Ego/Serpent", "Wild-Heart/Lumbering Beast", "Wild-Heart/Stinger", etc... all benefit from Constitution investments).

In general, "Constitution" is what makes Drakelings stronger and tankier OVERALL. Constitution is a necessary stat on Fire Drake and is required for MANY things. If you aren't making any CON on Fire Drake, then you are going to have trouble making powerful Drakelings, producing new ones, or even learning most of the utility talents for TRAINING them-- And ALL of this, in the long run, HURTS your overall damage, because this is a PET class that requires 3 helpers to deal the utmost damage it can. I really can't imagine how you intended to play Fire Drake if you felt Constitution was completely pointless!

[jenx]

@phantomglider

@jenx
RE: Tannen's Tower sucks
Don't worry, I'll un-suck it! ... Wat?

This is supposed to be a fun part of "OoTS", where I hand over A TON of power to the player (20 points worth of special talents), and you get to go absolutely nuts with them without restriction. The only small trade-off is no activated wild powers (but you really SHOULDN'T need them, as long as you make use of the blighted talents you get-- Particularly, Hydra gets an EXTREMELY powerful AoE breath, Fire Drake gets extremely strong nukes and an irresistible hard CC, and Ritch gets a bunch of anti-death abilities and a TARGETTED heal).

But yeah, I want you, the player, to have fun here! However... The way you sound about this... It seems I still have a lot of work to do, hehehe...


RE: Drakelings are difficult to raise
A good start would be telling me exactly what's going wrong. It doesn't help me to help you a single bit when you sit around and rant about your frustrations WITHOUT explaining what is bothering you.

I would love to make Drakelings a little easier for you and everyone else, but at the moment, I don't even understand what your difficulties currently are. Are they dying? Are you having trouble understanding them? Do you hate the way they behave? Seriously jenx... An important part of play-testing is CORROBORATION-- Something that you never do for me. I always hear you complain about Drakelings, but you have never once explained exactly what's been going wrong. I KNOW you have used Drakelings, because you've played COUNTLESS Fire Drakes, and you always start with 3-- So you MUST have some sort of story about your experiences with them...

... Why don't you share them...?


RE: 10 Constitution penalty is harsh
If there is one thing I WILL NOT allow the player to do on Fire Drake... It is this: The player WILL NOT create Drakelings, "dismiss" (kill) them, then summon another Drakeling. They are disposable-- Yes. However, they are not plenty. They are "ammunition". They are "scarce" in some way-- And YOU MUST play in a way which will require you to PRESERVE them.

RE: Never invest in Constitution
If you recall, one of this add-on's credos is turning Constitution into a viable, semi-offensive stat. You are using STANDARD ToME knowledge to play this add-on-- Which does not entirely apply for these classes/races (IE: "Ego/Serpent", "Wild-Heart/Lumbering Beast", "Wild-Heart/Stinger", etc... all benefit from Constitution investments).

In general, "Constitution" is what makes Drakelings stronger and tankier OVERALL. Constitution is a necessary stat on Fire Drake and is required for MANY things. If you aren't making any CON on Fire Drake, then you are going to have trouble making powerful Drakelings, producing new ones, or even learning most of the utility talents for TRAINING them-- And ALL of this, in the long run, HURTS your overall damage, because this is a PET class that requires 3 helpers to deal the utmost damage it can. I really can't imagine how you intended to play Fire Drake if you felt Constitution was completely pointless!

Tannen's Tower - the talents you provide and the restrictions imposed make the multihued dragon and final two bosses very difficult to beat.

Drakelings - don't say things like "Something that you never do for me". it's (a) not true and (b) insulting. and i explained exactly in the last post the problem - to make fir drakes survivable, even on NORMAL, you have to invest in generics in wild power, the race talents, consuming/clasping and the drake skin talents, which requires all available generics up until about level 45 or thereabouts. You have to have accuracy, physical power, armour, mental/spell save, physical save, stamina regen, increased stamina/encumbrance, poison removal, increased crit chance, increased defence, consuming/clasping to level 5 each, and max out resists (i take lightning and arcane, and hoard cold resist for shade of telos). so there are no generics left to raise drakelings. I start with them but rarely create new ones.

constitution - then make is MUCH clearer in talent descriptions which talents scale with which stats and/or phys/mind power. For example, it took me trial and error to work out mind power doesn't boost talents that say they are mind powers!!!! (which is totally bizarre). So I don't invest in mind power as it seems to have no effect that I can find. The main game has DRAMATICALLY improved ALL talent descriptions to make it explicitly clear WHAT causes scaling and WHAT contributes to crit and IF a talent can crit (or not). PLEASE put this info in your talent descriptions acrsoo the board.

[nekarcos]

@jenx
RE: Multi-hued Dragons
Hrrrm... I'll need to hear more recounts about this. They're problematic (like ALL multi-hued dragons), but definitely not impossible if you're clever about luring them out (especially for Fire Drake, since it can just use "Night Hex" on whatever is standing at the door way and get completely free, uncontested hits).

RE: Tannen and the Drolem
Because of "what happens" with the Drolem, I have actually placed a 20% reduction to ALL damage it deals-- So just have faith that you can handle it!
(And again-- If you're a Fire Drake, you can just use "Night Hex" to completely incapacitate one of them while you wail on the other!)

RE: Don't say I don't!
Fine. I might be exagerating a little bit-- But sometimes, that's pretty much how it feels...

RE: Fire Drake requires...
... Somehow, I don't think you need things like Defense, Critical Hit Rate, Saves, Accuracy... Heck, you don't even need Poison Removal (because of your various heals, naturally-high HP, damage shields, optional resistances, so forth). Personally, I think you just need to figure out how to work with Drakelings-- As painful as that might be. It's a work in progress-- Just be patient with it!

RE: Shade of Telos?!?!
... You DO realize he's optional... Right? RIGHT?!
I mean... What kind of Fire Drake would choose the ice-slinging ghost over the fire-wielding imp?? Wouldn't you rather go to Fearscape and fight something you're almost completely immune to instead?? There really is NO need for you to fight THAT guy!

RE: New Drakelings?
"New" Drakelings tend to be stronger than "old" ones, since Drakelings "imitate" your current stats at birth (such that if you had high STR, they would have high STR too). This is ESPECIALLY true for "Constitution", since that stat increases the "minimum" threshold for each parameter (if you only had 1 CON, then Drakelings will sometimes birth with near-to-1 in their stats as well).

RE: These Mind Powers don't Mind Crit!
The truth is, I never intended most of the "Mind Power" talents to crit, but I wanted them to operate CORRECTLY with things like "Meteoric Crash" or "Crown of Burning Pain". I never thought this would be so misleading, however... Kind of a complicated situation this. I wonder how I could make this clearer without explicitly slapping a sticker onto everything...?

RE: Mind Power doesn't boost Mind Talents?
I wish you mentioned this sooner...
To be fair, pretty much NOTHING in OoTS scales unless I explicitly mention it in the description. I'm not entirely infallible-- But at the same time, don't make any assumptions about what can and can't scale.
... That, and you can always just ask me to check it out myself, heh...

RE: Does this crit?
How does ToME normally indicate that something can mind crit without explicitly stating it? Is it anything considered as "a Mind Power"...? I never caught on to that if that's the case...



*** To everyone...
-- Overall, this touches upon something jenx brought up in the past-- And that's the distinct lack of indication about what talents CAN and CAN'T crit. For me to rectify this, I would need to go over EVERY single talent, one-by-one... And THAT would be VERY time consuming... So, if you could, help me out and just point out the talents you think should be able to crit and I'll see what I can do, alright?

[phantomglider]

@phantomglider
Aye-- Ritch has, indeed, been a difficult thing to find a good spot for. As you can see from the VOLATILE changes, I'm experimenting with ways to make standard Ritch play a little smoother, but without handing over too much power. But anywho-- Let's get to responses!

RE: Ritch Early Game
I would STRONGLY encourage using your other tools first, and your impermanent weapons last! Remember, even though Ritch has some powerful melee tools, it's still considered as a Ranged Avatar and prefers to be at a distance if possible.

RE: Power and Accuracy too low!
Power is not too much of a problem-- Ritch has plenty, but endurance it does not. As for "Accuracy", you pretty much always want to get "Eagle Eyes". However, if you DON'T want this to be your first discipline, you might be best off getting some Dexterity or sticking to a non-Wild-Child talent tree...

... Oops. What am I saying?? I have no place trying to tell you HOW to play the game. If it wasn't obvious at a first glance, then I am DEFINITELY doing something wrong. I definitely want to hear more about your first experience-- Every frustration you had-- All the things that just didn't "click" for you. These are what I definitely want to correct in the future.

RE: Flamespit is weak
-- But it has a 0 cooldown, instant 100% hit, and is VERY spammable! Don't write this talent off too quickly now!

RE: Durability is lame
It is, but necessary.
I'm still trying to mediate the balance of weapon durability... You see, the weapon drop rate is VERY low during the first half of ToME, while the drop rate is very HIGH in the second half. This kinda throws my durability formula for a loop (since more talent points improves weapon durability-- This becomes REDUNDANT later in the game, where you end up with more weapons than you can get rid of).
For this reason, I feel the easiest solution would be to have EVERY weapon have the same durability-- But flavor-wise, this makes no sense, and it bothers me to do it. Long story short: I'm still pondering over how to "elegantly" deal with the durability issue, such that weapon breakage is ALWAYS a threat-- But without completely "starving" the player of weapons. Particularly, I was hoping to make non-melee talents look VERY appealing at the start of the game, but then have them fall off in effectiveness near the second half of the game. This SHOULD smooth out the durability issue at the start, whilst nicely transitioning them into melee combat during the second half.

... But alas. This is all just fancy-smancy theory-developer talk. Nothing is being done, is it now? Grrr... If only I had more Ritch players to observe... I can't come up with any reasonable numbers without some firsthand experiences!


RE: Resource meter
I've talked about this in the past, but the nature of Impermanent weapons mean there would be an "unlimited" amount of possible UIs-- Which is nightmarish from a programmer/developer standpoint. What I need is a nice elegant solution for keeping the player aware of their durability situation, but WITHOUT shoving the numbers into their face (such that those who aren't paying attention will encounter a nasty surprise).
I've already thought about making a message pop-up-- But THAT tends to get utterly CONSUMED by the huge deluge of combat log junk that tends to pour in. A screen message would get obnoxious-- And a custom UI... Well, a custom UI is problematic, as I described above.

... I suppose all I can really say about this for now... Is... Well... Keep an eye on that "Impermanence" icon you have in your status list. It tells you the durability of ALL your weapons.


RE: No durability loss from basic attacks
They need to wear and tear SOMEHOW... Unless you're suggesting they just automatically fall apart over time...?

RE: Plowing through a pack of rats
This is what your "Wild-Heart" talents are for, hehehe...
Also, keep in mind: Ritch's weaponless attack is VERY potent, it shouldn't be underestimated...

It was not at all clear to me that Ritch was intended to start as a primarily ranged class. Everything they start with unlocked is melee and most of their talent trees talk about melee attacks or bleeding, which they can only apply in melee. If anything, Flame Spit looked like a supplemental thing you could do while waiting for melee enemies to close or watching ranged enemies run away. If you want Ritch players to start at range, you should probably have Flame Spit unlocked and talent pointed by default.

Second, Flame Spit really is weak period, much less weak for its cost, especially at the beginning of the game. Yes, it's spammable, yes it's 100% hit rate - compare it to anything similar. Flame also does fire damage, also starts out hitting a single target, also does damage every turn. An enemy might juke out of the way once in a while, but it's quite a fast projectile and if you learn to aim past your opponent doesn't often miss. Flame is only castable once every 3 turns, but this character does 95 damage per cast compared my Ritch's 19 per cast, which is a rate of about 32 damage per turn, over 1.5 times as much. It also costs 4 mana per turn to Flame every time it comes off cooldown, and Mana generally is a much cheaper resource than Equilibrium is. Flame also gives you 2 turns out of every 3 to do whatever you like - running away, healing, casting other stuff. Flame wins hands down, and that's not even getting to the way it starts beaming after a couple more points.

It's pretty much the same with every other early damage spell, even the ones on the hybrid characters. Acidic Spray does 95 damage on a 7-turn cycle, for 14 damage per turn, but does it at 3 equilibrium per cast or less that 0.5 equilibrium per turn. Bone Spear does 75 per cast on a 4-turn cycle, just about 19 a turn, beams right from the very beginning, and costs ~3 vim per turn which is not unlikely to get refunded. Sun Ray does about 60 damage every 9 turns, for about 7 damage per turn, but it can hit things past obstacles and costs negative light energy - this is the recharge ability you don't want to use if you can help it, not a primary damage source. Most damning is Summon Ritch Flamespitter, which does exactly the same thing as Flame Spit, but does it for 8 turns on end without further input from you and at a cost of 0.25 equilibrium per turn.

On Power and Accuracy: If Ritch is intended to start out casting Flame Spit at everything and essentially never melee attacking, it's fine. But every other class that's intended to bump every once in a while starts with a point in at least one of the Generic Combat talents that boost accuracy or physical power.

On Durability: I don't think UI would be too difficult for it. Just have the meters measure durability of your currently equipped weapon/s the same way that the ammo counters for ranged weaponry and alchemist bombs do.

I would suggest that basic bump attacks not cause damage to weapons, but that all of the abilities and sustains do. For example, Cut Loose would add durability costs to attacks during it, Dismember would have a durability cost, Strong-Arm's durability damage would be something like "+75% durability damage from all other sources and an additional 1 durability damage for each attack". That way you can scythe through chaff without worrying about it, and you only take durability damage if you're in a fight that's hard enough to actually notice.

If you're having a hard time with the way weapons get more durable late game, you might try making durability loss based on the amount of damage the attack does. That way it automatically ramps up as the game goes on.

[nekarcos]

@phantomglider
RE: Ritch is not ranged?
Actually... They DID start out with that... In fact, EVERYTHING that you're mentioning was true. However, a recent experiment I started (called "Volatile" changes) caused Ritch to start with several talent trees locked, but also having more category points to choose from. This was to determine what talent trees people prefer, and where they would magnetize given the greater deal of freedom-- All in an attempt to figure out where to go with Ritch next.

... However, it turns out you came at a bad time, and so, this didn't make any sense to you at all! That said though, I kinda expect players to read up on my Patch Notes so that mix-ups like this don't happen...


RE: Flamespit is weak
At first glance, yes. However, it only truly shines when mixed with melee combat and later Firestarter talents. Otherwise, it's mostly useful for peppering down foes with all the Equilibrium you PROBABLY won't be using anyways (Ritch is very light on Equilibrium usage, so it MOSTLY goes to this talent).

Damage-wise-- It scales QUITE effectively on Willpower. However, I can't allow it to have the same power level as "Flame" or "Acid Spray" because of its 0 cooldown and increase in speed/power later on. Besides, the base 14 damage is A LOT at the beginning of the game when you're encountering tiny little rabbits and mice, or large tufts of poison ivy. Really, you should see it more like that, heheh...

As for that 95 damage stuff-- Those are "mage-y" types of classes though. It's not really fair comparing them to something that relies a bit more on melee combat than usual. Also, the reason a summoned Flamespitter Ritch even does that kind of damage is because it's a TEMPORARY source of damage output that relies on line of sight. If you've played enough Summoner, you'll know Flamespitters reward you for good positioning with high damage-per-turn, but do absolutely NOTHING otherwise.

... But yeah, this is not a temporary summon. This is a playable class. I can't just make it behave EXACTLY like its counterpart-- For balance reasons. At the very most, I can "imitate" its behavior-- But you will need to build in a VERY particular way if you want to be as powerful as what its imitating, as well as sentient.


RE: The equilibrium cost?
A summoned ritch shouldn't encounter equilibrium failures, because SPAMMING flame spits is its whole purpose!
However, for a "real" Ritch", the cost needs to be high so that you will very quickly encounter equilibrium failures (which is a MUCH "softer" limitation than the exhausting of conventional resources, such as Mana or Vim). Equilibrium needs to be expensive to encourage minimal usage-- But NOT limit the usage. That said, you can get more than 15 Flamespits out before the failure rate really becomes any kind of hindrance... Isn't that enough?

But anyways, the only thing holding a Ritch back from going absolutely nuts with Flamespit is their Equilibrium Drainage rate-- Which is something that improves with Wild Power-- Which improves with your level. After much experimentation, I determined the current cost was a sweet spot where it could still be useful in early game WITHOUT allowing the Ritch to endlessly decimate everything in sight later on.


RE: Combat Accuracy freebie??
"Natural Combat" is a bit special because it gives you 1 free Generic Point every level. I would say 50 Generic points is a much better gift than 1, don't you think?

RE: Basic attacks shouldn't reduce durability
Wouldn't that be nice? The dream, really!
But sadly, no. Ritch will never be as competent at handling weaponry as a humanoid would. This would allow you to "rely" on weapons you find-- Which defeats the flavor of this class. Remember: You're an animal-- Not a human. You can't really wield blades that well, if at all. You can go ahead and use the weapon-- But it will break, and then you will have to rely on your own natural abilities-- Hence: "Impermanence".

... Besides, if you need a weapon to cut down worthless enemies, look no further! Use your unarmed hookclaws! You have a quick-swap set for that exact reason, after all!


RE: Durability UI
That's asking a lot from a solo developer... Let's just leave it at that.

RE: Durability loss based on damage
... Three problems:
- Durability loss would become inconsistent and harder to describe. You might accidentally break a weapon because you hit harder than expected.
- Why exactly would damage affect durability loss? If you ask me, attacking someone clad in armor would probably break my weapon without hurting them at all.
- This would PUNISH the player for having good damage output! That and weapons would turn into "damage potions" since there would be a very particular amount of damage each weapon could cause before breaking. This is something me and nsrr talked about already.

Overall, Impermanent Weapons are supposed to be "extensions" of your already-existing claws. They're not intended to "improve" upon your standard attack-- But rather, provide a new flavor for your standard attack. For example, "Projection" weapons are easily my favorite, because they give me a 10-range melee attack every 8 turns or so-- Which is INCREDIBLE for Ritch!

[emblempride]

I suggest having Hydras start out with one of their class points already in Breaths, as currently a blighted start is impossible

[nekarcos]

I suggest having Hydras start out with one of their class points already in Breaths, as currently a blighted start is impossible

Hrrrmm... I always knew about this, but I'm not entirely sure how to deal with it, to be honest-- Especially since 1 talent point in tri-breath really won't get a Hydra anywhere...

To elaborate-- This whole "blighted start" thing is HIGHLY experimental and last-second, but it's intended to cut out the middle man if a player wants to do "blighted" stuff WITHOUT having to jump through the hoops it involves (you know, getting hit by blight a lot, running back, etc...)

Unfortunately, it means you're gonna lose A LOT of stats at the start of the game, such that it might actually be impossible to... Well, learn anything AT ALL (and therefore, VERY hard to advance to higher levels to learn something).
This said, because of the +20 Magic you're getting from it, the VERY simple solution would be UNLOCKING the blighted talent tree at the start as well... But therein lies the difficult, balance-begging question: What exactly would the player be giving up in exchange for this additional Category Point I would be giving them...?


... Decisions... Decisions...



Addition: ... A thought would be reducing the talent category proficiency by 0.2-- But then this would mean you'd be capped out at x1.00-- Which is sort of lame if you want to go to x1.20...

[nekarcos]

"Odyssey of The Summoner" has been updated!! (Version 0.4.5)
*** Version: 0.4.5 ~ "Now with less overloading!"

*** I am proud to say I have dealt with ALL "overloaded" behavior I am aware of! "Odyssey of The Summoner" should now play nicely with ANY add-on whatsoever! ... However, how nicely add-ons will play with IT is a completely different story...

[STORY]
(BUFFS)
- Significantly improved the bonuses given by "Orb of the Hydra".
*** Unfortunately, this change is non-retroactive. As such, I will instead increase your CHARACTER stats by the difference! Get your butt to the Wilderness!
- "Blighted Feed" no longer sets Wild Power to 0 (but it still blocks usage of activated Natural Combat effects)

(BUGS)
- Drakelings are now ALSO protected when "a certain magical thing" happens. Sorry!
- Made some "corrections" to the event as well (since I, indeed, discovered ways of "foiling" it).


[GENERAL]
(CHANGES)
- Reworded "Life cost" to "Bleeding", correctly representing how the cost is paid.

(BUFFS)
- Changed the way special information is displayed for individual stats. This will allow me to put "detailed" information about exactly what EACH stat is doing for you!
- Fixed an issue with how "Manaburning" works on the Blighted... WHOOPS!
- Also added a damage log for said "Manaburning", making it a little clear what's happening.

(NERFS)
- Cleared away some remnant code which allowed Fire Drake and Ritch to clasp headgear... Unintentional, sorry!

(BUGS)
- This add-on SHOULD no longer disrupt "Embers of Rage" gameplay, nor several other things (though this still requires confirmation and investigation).
- Believe an issue with "Sturdy Heart" causing overencumbrance should be fixed now.
- "Wheel of Fate" now interacts CORRECTLY with the "Clasp" talent, heheheh... (thanks Tirien66!)


[HYDRA]
(BUFFS)
- "Splitting Woiunds" now grants ALL resist (instead of PHYSICAL resist).
- The duration of "Splitting Wounds" is now ALWAYS 20 turns (instead of 12~20).

(BUGS)
- A TYPO in "Splitting Wounds" erroneously described the resistance gain as 5%, whereas it actually provides 5~15%!
- The size of "Splitting Wounds" is now based off your Maximum Life at the time of its activation (no more infinite growing).


[FIRE DRAKE]
(BUFFS)
- Doubled the healing to Fire Dragons provided by "Fiery Breath" (reflected in description text)

(CHANGES)
- Corrected some text in "Fiery Breath" which described the Drakeling version as "Fire damage"


[DRAKELINGS]
(CHANGES)
- Drakelings now have a custom level up fanfare. More importantly, the game will no longer ask you to select them and press buttons.
*** Unfortunately, this change will not be reflected for old Drakelings, as it is not simple to implement it onto them as well.

(BUGS)
- Placed a short delay on how frequently Drakelings can "shove" other drakelings. This will prevent them from being hung up, but the problem has not yet been "resolved", per se...


~~~ VOLATILE ~~~
[Hydra]
> Recuperate is coming to a close. Any conclusions?

[Fire Drake]
> Fire absorption is still on-going

[Ritch]
> Free Cold Blood is still on-going
> Locked trees is still on-going



PS: WHOA... Midnight update?!?! Zzzz...

[jenx]

basically, all dmg should crit, based on your crit chance, be it phys, spell or mind power. some talents crit on other factors, but that is rare.

i think you have to beat shade of telos to get back to the east with the orb. so you can get back to the west for merchant gear. i've never even tried playing without getting my orb back.