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Snooze Cruise posted:turning a game into vampire survivors sounds epic win actually It's totally fun when the game leans into it, it's less fun when it doesn't really support the density needed to make that feel good Warm Snow generally does, just cuz making the screen explode in a variety of ways is pretty fun - but it raises the point that 'actually pressing buttons' is just needless hand fatigue in mass slaying games if there's no meaningful decisions involved in that button pushing, something VS will hopefully propagate to the entire industry Astral Ascent is basically 'mash MP attacks always' which is both fatiguing and lame because there's no decision making involved, all the decisions are made as you add gambits that gradually break the game (or don't, and you die and/or skill your way through the fights) Oblivion Override has abilities that do combo in distinct ways, and has upgrades that encourage certain simple usage patterns - a lot of weapon/mech abilities do need to be targeted to be most effective. BlazBlue is kind of a mix. On a lot of characters you spam summon/legacy x2/skill on cooldown, on others you may actually mix up your moves situationally depending on the terrain and enemy/boss type and what you specced into with your build. Figuring out where a horde slaying game of any stripe should fall is not an easy design problem to solve, because it's not a problem to a lot of people, some people *want* to just mash butan (lol diablo/poe), or mash build (VS/path of achra/poe), others want some form of skill expression, whether that's for intrinsic or extrinsic rewards (fighting games/character action games) It feels bad when the game doesn't put you up against a suitable challenge that feels fun to smash (most VS clones, much of D4), or if you feel like you're just doomed because you didn't luck or plan into the right scaling/gear/build (risk of rain 1, poe) I shouldn't write posts in the AM
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Feb 3, 2024 12:06
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Serephina posted:Oh yea shields are great, I just kinda steal them off of others in the endgame instead. I kinda ignored early defensive spells until trying to make mono-fire 'work' forced me to wake up. Ended up appreciating Holy Armour for some face-tanking while everything dies to meteor shower. But like the blue lion is dang expensive so early, I always assumed it was for buffing allies and if it was the only summon on the field it'd eat poo poo too fast. I just like poison sting; it's a pet card. It's a cantrip, it does okay damage, and it's great for dealing with those jerks who have no health and a billion shields (at least the ones that aren't poison immune). I do usually take blue lions much later; I took em so early this game because I do have more of an ally blob.
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Feb 3, 2024 15:08
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Blazblue needs harder stage enemies scaling with entropy (this is something Oblivion Override does really well) or at the very least some of their entropy modifiers need to add more enemies. Elites with enchantments would be good too because that worked in Hades.
No Wave fucked around with this message at 16:24 on Feb 3, 2024 |
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Feb 3, 2024 16:21
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Serephina posted:Wheren's there a bunch of people here who bounced off of Cogmind since the readability was poor on small screens? The dev's been making lots of noise about having redone the entire frontend to allow UI scaling, so it might be worth checking out again soon - I'll make more noise when it officially drops.
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Feb 3, 2024 16:26
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Serephina posted:Wheren's there a bunch of people here who bounced off of Cogmind since the readability was poor on small screens? The dev's been making lots of noise about having redone the entire frontend to allow UI scaling, so it might be worth checking out again soon - I'll make more noise when it officially drops. Oh poo poo this is huge. I was able to handle the small UI in Cogmind but this makes it so much more readable which will make playing it go more smoothly.
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Feb 3, 2024 16:32
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No Wave posted:Blazblue needs harder stage enemies scaling with entropy (this is something Oblivion Override does really well) or at the very least some of their entropy modifiers need to add more enemies. Elites with enchantments would be good too because that worked in Hades. Game good?
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Feb 3, 2024 16:54
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Jack Trades posted:More of these action roguelite developers should actually play Devil May Cry or Streets of Rage or something. Not to belabor the obvious, but Devil May Cry-style combat is not trivial to implement. There's a pretty tight relationship between things like: - How long attack animations take - How big the AoEs are on attacks - What can be cancelled into/out of what - How long each enemy takes to die - How fast the player can move etc etc etc and when you start fudging the numbers, things can easily fall apart. Consider Devil May Cry 3's "Dante Must Die" mode, where enemies gain devil triggers that make them take something like 10x longer to kill. It turns fights into unfun slogs (plus some tedious enemy health management to try to minimize the number of enemies that get to trigger). Typically you end up spamming jump-cancelled Killer Bee kicks, because that's your best DPS by a wide margin. And to contrast, consider the easy modes in most games in the series, where you can pretty much just do whatever, because enemies die too quickly to put up a fight. To put it another way: saying "just don't let powerups imbalance your moveset" is undercutting the difficulty of that task, when your moveset is tightly-tuned from the get go to avoid those imbalances.
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Feb 3, 2024 17:47
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action gameplay that feels right (e.g. doesn't devolve into either tedium or rocket tag) and RPG-style scaling are almost inherently antagonistic to each other. wish more devs realized this honestly lots of action games that have progression could stand to just... not. but if you must, take a page from metroidvanias and zelda and the like and make it about new capabilities instead of bumping the numbers up on existing ones. if there must be a random element, make it about the order, not the degree, of abilities you get, etc. Tuxedo Catfish fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Feb 3, 2024 |
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Feb 3, 2024 18:26
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:action gameplay that feels right (e.g. doesn't devolve into either tedium or rocket tag) and RPG-style scaling are almost inherently antagonistic to each other. wish more devs realized this Yeah, I totally agree. A beat'em'up roguelike's in-run progression being about what order you unlock your moves and maybe even having mutually exclusive moves, so that you are forced to improvise using a unique move set every run, might work well for that kind of game.
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Feb 3, 2024 18:38
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 lead a cult, its fun and profitable, make sure to lead your followers in prayer tho Ashem is fun with a cult
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Feb 3, 2024 18:43
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:action gameplay that feels right (e.g. doesn't devolve into either tedium or rocket tag) and RPG-style scaling are almost inherently antagonistic to each other. wish more devs realized this The pitfall with Metroidvania/Zelda design is that there's a tendency to devolve into lock-and-key patterns where you get a new ability that is used to progress past specific obstacles and is otherwise irrelevant. Giving new capabilities that are fun and impactful without upsetting balance is still a big design ask (which is part of the reason Metroids traditionally give up on "without upsetting balance" and just let the last few upgrades go OP)
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Feb 3, 2024 19:01
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The move diversity issue in Entropy Effect is mostly that they went with a shared mana pool between all skills instead of separate cooldowns like other action roguelikes (Dead Cells, Oblivion Override, Skul). Mana pools are fun in that you get to have more of a sense of going in and having a damage spike as you spend all your mana then back off, but sharing the mana pool between most moves means it only makes sense to spend all your MP on your best move.w00tmonger posted:Game good?
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Feb 3, 2024 19:08
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I played more Balatro. Holy poo poo this is good. I am now very glad I picked it up only now so I didn't have to wait what, six months? for release.
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Feb 3, 2024 19:35
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Path of Achra - Frenzied Chant updatequote:Added Frenzied Chant, fire, on game turn / prayer deal 25 psychic damage to self, then apply inflame and perform a number of extra attacks based on skill level Captain Foo fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Feb 3, 2024 |
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Feb 3, 2024 21:41
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Tuxedo Catfish posted:action gameplay that feels right (e.g. doesn't devolve into either tedium or rocket tag) and RPG-style scaling are almost inherently antagonistic to each other. wish more devs realized this I'm trying to avoid this by including a deckbuilder style hand of cards into my game. It'll have reloads and shield regen as well as abilities. That way, you still have to manage with your early choices and you have to be a bit more diverse in how you snowball
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Feb 3, 2024 21:53
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the description for it says nothing about it at all but i'm trying out the zealot class for the first time in achra and it's spawning these little Fanatic guy familiars on entrance, which makes it a lot more interesting than the "you get more prayers" description would suggest edit: oh it's from the starting equipment, okay, I should pay more attention to those
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Feb 3, 2024 22:36
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cock hero flux posted:the description for it says nothing about it at all but i'm trying out the zealot class for the first time in achra and it's spawning these little Fanatic guy familiars on entrance, which makes it a lot more interesting than the "you get more prayers" description would suggest yeah i think it's the hat that gives you the little dudes
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Feb 3, 2024 22:53
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No Wave posted:The move diversity issue in Entropy Effect is mostly that they went with a shared mana pool between all skills instead of separate cooldowns like other action roguelikes (Dead Cells, Oblivion Override, Skul). Mana pools are fun in that you get to have more of a sense of going in and having a damage spike as you spend all your mana then back off, but sharing the mana pool between most moves means it only makes sense to spend all your MP on your best move. it's actually even worse than that because some characters have SP skills that only charge off one move, meaning any other setup won't charge them if you use the MP elsewhere it's fixable, but requires them to acknowledge it's an issue in the first place I haven't seen entropy 20+yet, but so far it's just enemy health and boss behavior buffs - OO and AA both have more elites as part of their difficulty scaling again, easily fixable
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Feb 3, 2024 23:40
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Captain Foo posted:Path of Achra - Frenzied Chant update Frenzied chant is another big use case for Kairos Skirt it seems, sounds very strong. I finally cleared champion and martial purist, using a build that actually had anti synergy with champion. Apostate, skeleton, oros. Oros is very very good for constantly refreshing divine intervention, so I ended up with over 60 in each stat by end game. Having 2 range meant I got no bonuses from champion, but high pugilism, ruddy fist and those stats meant I healed for 5000 per attack, and I was attacking on block, shrug off, and dodge.
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Feb 4, 2024 00:58
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I love that achra is basically just smashing together a few key words and coming up with janky combos. Like it really has very little complexity beyond coming up with a combo, Hoping the items you find mesh with it and going from there. Love this dumb rear end game and it surprises me that it accomplishes so much with so little
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Feb 4, 2024 01:08
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It took me a couple runs to really get it but throwing another "Balatro is great" out there. Would love to have that game on my phone.
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Feb 4, 2024 01:11
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cock hero flux posted:the description for it says nothing about it at all but i'm trying out the zealot class for the first time in achra and it's spawning these little Fanatic guy familiars on entrance, which makes it a lot more interesting than the "you get more prayers" description would suggest Yeah every class starts with one unique piece of equipment that does something extra, it's the purple colored one on the setup screen
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Feb 4, 2024 01:21
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I just beat Blazblue Entropy Effect and while I still think the game is good in its current state its on the cusp of becoming something much greater I feel. The file boss battle was a nice call back to actual Blazblue. Hakumen carried me through on entropy 45 because I really abused his block and iframes afterwards. I take back what I said, if every character had a defensive as strong as Hakumen's block it'd be way too overpowered. It's active for a really really long time and if you get just a little bit of MP regen stuff it's up for pretty much everything you need it to be. But because of that, I think I'm permanently gluing Hakumen to my future runs to have a block option. I have no idea how to unlock the true ending though. Getting phenomena seems to be completely random. I'll be inheriting my save and trying to fill out the tactics tree next. The only entropy options that change up how you play are the ones that restrict your options at the end of each stage. Cutting off powerups and not being able to see all the options the next stage is really makes you have to figure out how to use every part of your character's kit and the other tactics because you can't aim for what you want with any sense of reliability anymore.
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Feb 4, 2024 06:34
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Hyper Inferno posted:I just beat Blazblue Entropy Effect and while I still think the game is good in its current state its on the cusp of becoming something much greater I feel. The file boss battle was a nice call back to actual Blazblue. Kiran was my win on D15 in Astral Ascent, and Conte was my first win in Oblivion Override - counters are completely op in games with clear incoming telegraphs.. That said I prefer Hakumen as a support, not a main  His moveset feels clunky to me, but I haven't done a full build on him yet, busy with other chars.edit: Ok OO gets some pretty sweet upgrades as you progress difficulty tiers, there's a whole mech upgrade system victrix fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Feb 4, 2024 |
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Feb 4, 2024 07:50
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Tarnished Blood is pretty cool. The combat reminds a little of Ronin, which I liked a lot, but more complex.
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Feb 4, 2024 10:25
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Perhaps the first time a Roguelike's official description has included "scuffed": Path to Slime https://slimeinspace.itch.io/path-to-slime quote:I'm a narcissist who made an entire game based on myself where the Slime is known as an immortal all knowing god. The goal of the game is to find... the path to slime, all the while fighting against corrupted beings, getting stronger in the process (as well as dying a few times). You may be wondering, what's the purpose of finding the slime...? Who knows. But I'm sure there are a plenty of reasons for wanting to finding an omnipotent being.
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Feb 4, 2024 13:45
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Stayed up til 230am playing Balatro this is gonna be a dangerous game when it's released
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Feb 4, 2024 19:00
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Slotducks posted:Stayed up til 230am playing Balatro this is gonna be a dangerous game when it's released It's also coming out on consoles, apparently, so now I have to decide if I want to play it on my PC or from the comfort of my sofa... Of course the PC version might also work well on the Steam Deck.
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Feb 4, 2024 20:17
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Balatro is going to be a game I’ll be playing every single day
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Feb 4, 2024 21:10
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This seems like a cool idea. Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow Reprise A romhack of the GBA original that has procedurally-generated roguelite features.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:00
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Slotducks posted:Stayed up til 230am playing Balatro this is gonna be a dangerous game when it's released The playtest from 6 months ago was even more fun than this demo is, I've been booting the demo up to get my fix and it's been reminding me of the playtest and making me want the full release even harder. I really hope they have a strong release, the game's so good that they really deserve it.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:00
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Shaman Tank Spec posted:It's also coming out on consoles, apparently, so now I have to decide if I want to play it on my PC or from the comfort of my sofa... Of course the PC version might also work well on the Steam Deck. I played the demo entirely on deck, works great.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:11
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Ofecks posted:This seems like a cool idea. Oh this is pointed directly at me, time to check this out.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:41
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Speaking of Roguelikes on the deck, the beta branch of Nuclear Throne that lets you set the frame rate to whatever feels GREAT at 90. Unfortunately it also crashed on me at least once on deck and another time on PC, so ymmv. I played a fair amount so it wasn't particularly often, but still feels slightly worse than the normal ways runs suddenly end.
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Feb 4, 2024 23:26
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Blazblu is a riot. Took me a minute to realize how ascension affected abilities. Initially I thought it was just levelling them up, but it's really nice that each bullet point is some aspect that you can slowly fill in our of order. No loving clue what half the things I'm collecting are, how buffs/rebuffs/tactics etc all work, but Im sure I'll get there
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Feb 5, 2024 02:30
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Advent of Goose aspected DiceCard doings: DICEOMANCER demo https://store.steampowered.com/app/2501600/DICEOMANCER/ quote:DICEOMANCER is a roguelike deck-building game. Despite aspiring to live a peaceful life, fate forced you to embark on an adventure. Make the most of your deck and dice in a world filled with swords, magic, and guns, all to restore the tranquility you once knew!
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Feb 5, 2024 03:08
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Echoing the love for Balatro. Playing it everyday basically. Spare Trousers is gonna work this time, bro. Trust me, bro. This is the run.
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Feb 5, 2024 03:34
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I suck at Rift Wizard and feel like I'm missing something. I keep getting overwhelmed in realm 8ish.
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Feb 5, 2024 04:06
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Agrinja posted:I suck at Rift Wizard and feel like I'm missing something. I keep getting overwhelmed in realm 8ish. Are you able to post build screenshots of failed runs? There's a lot of different ways to play and a lot of different things that can go wrong. My style of playing is a bit contentious but I will say this: buying level 2 spells at a discount circle for 1 SP is some of the best value in the game and there are a lot of handy level 2 spells that are very worth buying, even (sometimes especially) if they don't fit your build. RW's enemy design intentionally punishes going all in on one thing so having inexpensive, efficient diversity can help handle situations that your main build would struggle with. Plus, padding out your spell list helps you get more mileage from each mana potion since you get a lot of charges of filler spells to burn to preserve your more important spells. This is especially important if you're crashing and burning early on when enemies are still weak; instead of trying to stretch one good spell far enough to clear levels full of early game trash mobs you might as well pick up a bunch of low-level, high-ammo spells on the cheap to blow through them while you bank SP towards more scalable combos. Some highlights: -Blazerip can fire through walls and create new paths for you to use, letting you get to and shoot down enemy gates way faster, plus it does two damage types including arcane which bypasses a lot of problem resistances (e.g. metal enemies.) -Chain Lightning instantly solves a lot of splitting/summoning enemy problems. -Chaos Barrage and Annihilate both do solid single target damage out of the box (although Chaos Barrage takes some careful aiming to maximize it on 1-2 enemies.) -Fan of Flames is extremely efficient since a single cast can be repeated many times, and the AOE also "bends" around corners which can let you take enemies from safety. -Thunder Strike is an AOE stun and a fantastic panic button that can let you beat enemies that would otherwise murder you easily by alternating Thunder Strike with other more damaging spells, plus it upgrades to snipe through walls -Touch of Death instantly solves a lot of problems if they get too close. -Toxin Burst shuts down healing & shields for a huge AOE and if you give it any kind of damage boost it actually turns into great AOE damage.
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Feb 5, 2024 04:50
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I had a path of Achra build so entertaining I actually bothered to screenshot it, in case anyone wants to try it. You'll need to find the Robe of Dreams for maximum hilarity, but it's a psychonaut Qamar of Fawdaa, and it makes a Starjumper look stable. Robe of Dreams removes stasis from you on doing astral/psionic damage, and psychonaut is astral/psionic... You stand still, jump to the target, dump damage into it, immediately get teleported away because your status was removed, if you get a kill that triggers astrohunting again and the whole process repeats. Some screens I teleported 15+ times on a single button press. Cycle 22 cleared in 50 turns, King of Many Colours didn't land a single hit. 
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Feb 5, 2024 05:43
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