Reworking Chronomancy ver 2

[donkatsu]

Did the clones spawn when Temporal Fugue failed to remove you?

Yes, the clones spawned and it switched control to them, but I could see my real self, the one with way more hp, still standing there. I didn't see if I could control it.

[Parcae2]

Some of the low-level anomalies Disentangle can generate are way too harsh. For example, it can freaking TURN YOU TO STONE. Yeah, it turns your neighbors to stone too ... within a narrow range, and only if they don't resist. The chance of what amounts to being instantly killed means that there is no point in ever using Disentangle until you get Bias Weave.

[donkatsu]

Calcify is the only one I can think of that's basically instant death, but yeah stoning, I mean stoning in any form anywhere is pretty awful, the only reason there aren't more complaints about it is that it's so rare.

It looks like killing with braided damage from Trim Threads doesn't count as a kill for paradox recovery. Currently I have no idea how braided damage priority works so I don't know how to plan around this. Would it be possible for normal damage to always happen before braided damage? Or would that be OP? I know I miss out on a significant amount of braided damage during AoEs like Trim Threads because some things are dying to braided damage before they get hit by the AoE, meaning other things take less braided damage.

Fun anecdote time: Ran into a paradox mage rare that used Dimensional Anchor on me. That sucks because I rely on Dimensional Shift for effect removal, and obviously that's not an option anymore. So I thought okay, I'll just not teleport. No big deal, I have a movement infusion in case I need to escape. Then I got a minor anomaly... blink. 12 turns of Dimensional Anchor damage was more than I could regenerate or block with shields, so even after I ran away I died a slow, painful death, and meanwhile all I could think was "oh man this is awesome".

Can we get Spacetime Tuning to lower paradox when simply passing a turn with no enemies in sight? Sometimes I know it's dangerous to rest for too long because something is about to come around the corner, but I need to lower my paradox, so I'll tap the rest button and then quickly escape out of it to rest for only a couple turns at a time. It's a silly reflex-based minigame that I could do without.

Energy Absorption's scaling could use some adjustment. At the massively high talent levels that npcs get, it's going to do a huge amount of burst damage because it's basically double dipping into talent levels: the base damage increases, and the multiplier increases. There are other talents like that but Energy Absorption's scaling is steeper than the others. Even ignoring its utility, its raw damage alone outpaces Trim Threads, which already does a ton of damage to begin with. Maybe it was justified when it was a class category, but I don't like the idea of a generic talent being the strongest nuke.

[Parcae2]

Energy Absorption doesn't really need damage at all, let alone such high damage.

Leveling up (and equivalent events, e.g. during the Grand Corrupter fight) doesn't reset your paradox, which it should, since it resets every other resource.

The message for when Preserve Pattern stops costing you paradox is "stops taking damage over time," even though it stopped being actual damage when it stopped being Damage Smearing.

[edge2054]

I'll make Calcify a major anomaly and have Braided damage happen at the end of the game turn. Fixed the description on Preserve Pattern's timed effect too.

I'll think about the rest but I'm hesitant to give chronomancers a free Paradox reset, even if it's just once per level. I understand that it's perfectly justified because of other resources but it's still a really gamey mechanic. Tuning when you pass a turn could probably work but it might require quite a bit of rewriting because of how it's coded.

Energy I'm still waffling rather to keep it generic or class. I know Energy Absorption doesn't strictly need a damage component but it does help justify the damage on Entropy and Phase Pulse (which is also becoming generic). Regardless the number of talents affected should probably have a limit on it so high level Energy Absorption doesn't lock out every one of a players talents. I'll look at the scaling and push a commit.

[edge2054]

Alright, I decided to let Paradox reset on level up since Hate, Life, and Equilibrium do. Spacetime Tuning now triggers when you wait as well as when you rest and breaks when you move, use an item, a talent, or bump attack.

[Parcae2]

I just died immediately upon coming out of Temporal Fugue, and I'm not sure why. I think that my fugue clones hit me somehow, possibly via some weird interaction with Time Skip or possibly Iceblock.

Code: Select all

Deleting shader 38 (is clone 1)
[LOG]	Suicide uses Infusion: Wild.
[LOG]	Suicide stops burning.
[LOG]	Suicide is cured!
[LOG]	Suicide lessens the pain.
[LOG]	Suicide casts Temporal Bolt.
[SPELL CRIT %]	24.3
checkHit	4.7951242521969	45.836881006737
=> chance to hit	0
[LOG]	Veluth the white crystal has regressed.
Adding entity	35479	after	35158
[LOG]	#UID:35158:0##fbd578#Suicide#LAST# hits Veluth the white crystal for #LIGHT_STEEL_BLUE#35 temporal#LAST# damage.
[SPELL] friendly fire chance	100
[LOG]	Veluth the white crystal casts Ice Bolt.
[SPELL CRIT %]	5.0254150676267
Adding entity	35480	after	31611
Projectile slowing down from	6
Projectile slowing down to	3
[PROJECTOR] after static reduction dam	22.288592135501
[LOG]	#LIGHT_BLUE##UID:35318:0#Suicide converts damage to paradox!
[LOG]	Burning from Veluth the white crystal hits Suicide for #LIGHT_RED#(10 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#(6 fatewever)#LAST#, #LIGHT_BLUE#(5 converted)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#7 fire#LAST# (7 total damage).
[LOG]	Suicide casts Time Skip.
[SPELL CRIT %]	24.3
checkHit	45.147726017615	31.60794654994
=> chance to hit	84
[LOG]	Veluth the white crystal looks a little pale around the edges.
[LOG]	Veluth the white crystal has moved forward in time!
[LOG]	#UID:35318:0#Suicide hits Veluth the white crystal for #LIGHT_STEEL_BLUE#64 temporal#LAST# damage.
[PROJECTOR] after static reduction dam	22.288592135501
[LOG]	#LIGHT_BLUE##UID:35476:0#Suicide converts damage to paradox!
[LOG]	Burning from Veluth the white crystal hits Suicide for #LIGHT_RED#(10 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#(6 fatewever)#LAST#, #LIGHT_BLUE#(5 converted)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#7 fire#LAST# (7 total damage).
[LOG]	
[PROJECTOR] after static reduction dam	22.288592135501
[LOG]	#LIGHT_BLUE##UID:35318:0#Suicide converts damage to paradox!
[LOG]	Burning from Veluth the white crystal hits Suicide for #LIGHT_RED#(10 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#(6 fatewever)#LAST#, #LIGHT_BLUE#(5 converted)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#7 fire#LAST# (7 total damage).
[LOG]	#00ff00##UID:1058:0#Talent Rethread is ready to use.
[PROJECTOR] after static reduction dam	22.288592135501
[LOG]	#LIGHT_BLUE##UID:35476:0#Suicide converts damage to paradox!
[LOG]	Burning from Veluth the white crystal hits Suicide for #LIGHT_RED#(10 dissipated)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#(6 fatewever)#LAST#, #LIGHT_BLUE#(5 converted)#LAST#, #LIGHT_RED#7 fire#LAST# (7 total damage).
[LOG]	
checkHit	33.8	45.836881006737
=> chance to hit	20
[LOG]	Suicide has regressed.
[PROJECTOR] after static reduction dam	128.10907126873
checkHit	33.8	39.542358446044
=> chance to hit	36
[LOG]	Suicide is encased in ice!
Loading tile	player/human_male/base_shadow_01.png
Loading tile	npc/iceblock.png
[LOG]	Suicide stops burning.
[LOG]	#LIGHT_BLUE##UID:35476:0#Suicide converts damage to paradox!
[LOG]	Veluth the white crystal's Ice Bolt hits Suicide for #1133F3#(55 dissipated)#LAST#, #1133F3#(35 fatewever)#LAST#, #LIGHT_BLUE#(31 converted)#LAST#, #1133F3#43 cold#LAST# (43 total damage).
[LOG]	#00ff00##UID:1062:0#Talent Temporal Bolt is ready to use.
[LOG]	Suicide's fate is no longer being spun.
[LOG]	Suicide stops burning.
[LOG]	
[LOG]	Suicide casts Time Skip.
[SPELL CRIT %]	24.3
[LOG]	#{bold}#Suicide's spell attains critical power!#{normal}#
[LOG]	Suicide is surging arcane power.
checkHit	49.713390837644	37.65
=> chance to hit	81
[LOG]	Suicide looks a little pale around the edges.
[LOG]	Suicide has moved forward in time!
[LOG]	#UID:35476:0#Suicide hits Iceblock for #LIGHT_STEEL_BLUE#307 temporal#LAST# damage.
[LOG]	
[LOG]	Resting starts...
[LOG]	Suicide retunes the fabric of spacetime.
[LOG]	#00ff00##UID:1080:0#Talent Warp is ready to use.
[LOG]	Suicide feels pain again.
Added unique	mod.class.NPC/Veluth the white crystal	::	2
[LOG]	#PINK#Your summoned Suicide disappears.
[LOG]	Rested for 1 turns (stop reason: died).
[LOG]	#MOCCASIN#Character control switched to Suicide.
[PROFILE] filtering save of 	deaths	 to profile 	online
[PROFILE] mounted 	online	on /current-profile
[PROFILE] unmounted 	online	from /current-profile
[SOUND] loading from	/data/sound/actions/death.ogg	:=:	sound "/data/sound/actions/death.ogg" : <static>
[LOG]	#{bold}#Suicide the level 15 cornac paradox mage was battered to death by an unknown on level 1 of Scintillating Caves.#{normal}#
[LOG]	#LIGHT_RED#You have 4 life(s) left.

[Parcae2]

Gravity Locus protects friendly targets (specifically, Temporal Fugue clones) from Gravity damage, but not from knockback. WAD?

[edge2054]

Gravity Locus protects friendly targets (specifically, Temporal Fugue clones) from Gravity damage, but not from knockback. WAD?

It's a bug. Should be fixed.

[edge2054]

Also made fugue clones timetravel immune to prevent the time skip bug.

[Parcae2]

Temporal Fugue does weird stuff to talent levels. The actual damage seems about right [NO IT ISN'T], though I haven't calculated it or anything, but my clone has talent level 14 in Repulsion Blast. It might be the same bug that afflicted Deeprock Form a while back.

Edit: Also, when you complete the Arena quest (and presumably also alch and escort rewards) when Fugued, you get a message inviting you to pick which party member should get the reward, but with no options to select.

Edit edit: Yeah, Temporal Fugue clones are also doing too much damage. To be precise, they're doing 1/3 of the increased damage from having ridiculously high talent levels. I think that maybe they're getting the boosted talent levels from Madness [Edit: I confirmed this, they have the right talent levels on Normal.)

Edit edit edit: I am not a huge fan of the "pick the kind of anomaly" aspect of Bias Weave. It seems to me like anything that cuts down on the variety of anomalies should be avoided.

[edge2054]

Fixed the talent level bug. Taking a look at the other one.

*edit* The other bug should be fixed too.

[donkatsu]

For my part, I do like the option to pick my kind of anomaly, although physical seems relatively underpowered. Teleport anomalies have good synergy with Dimensional Shift and Phase Pulse, but can potentially put you in a bad position, while temporal has great effects like Invigorate and Temporal Clone. There's still plenty of randomness within categories, and the bias isn't 100% so the full spectrum of anomalies is still possible. However, no bias in the type of anomaly means that you wouldn't have to worry about balancing anomaly categories against each other.

[Parcae2]

Balance feedback:

Even without too much use of Temporal Reprieve and Temporal Fugue, the class seems very powerful. The main culprit is the trifecta of Preserve Pattern + Fateweaving + the first skill in the Energy tree. That reduces most attacks to about a third of their original level, give or take. Couple that with a class with an abundance of utility talents, and the class starts to feel extremely solid in the early teens. I haven't played much past the early teens, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

Physical PMs seem pretty weak right now, although that might change with the new tree. One thing to bear in mind is that it is quite a bit harder to find +phys damage items than +temporal damage items - which, of course, could be solved with an item rework, but as of right now, physical spells should have base damage a bit higher than temporal ones.

[edge2054]

I'll probably go through and add some more anomalies once all the other talents are done. Physical is one I've been struggling a bit with as far as unique effects go.

I feel like Gravity is a really solid tree right now but I hear what you guys have been saying about poor itemization. Going through the item code is on my todo list already and I'll be sure to make chronomancer egos and artifacts less focused on temporal damage.