itch.io

Arrow storm a little sucks deeper in the crawl, especially in the Dark Temple where is usually fairly easy to duck around a corner or step out of range, and then that ranged attacker is incapacitated by it's own "buff".  Even worse when I can shoot around corners with spells, or have Perfect Aim.

I think the point of this is allowing every-other-turn shooters to shoot every turn, and so turning up their action economy.  Maybe in the upper dungeon the "and can't move" makes sense, so there is some limitation to their buff.

But perhaps it would be better (for those) for them to have the buff until they move, and that the cool-down would count from when the ability ends instead of when the ability starts.  (If it currently lasts five turns, and has a ten turn cool down, it would become a five turn cool down after it drops.)  (And perhaps similar for other range abilities that lock movement like Sniper.)

But even that is weak for deeper down, since you can cancel their ability by making them have to move to shoot you.  So, these guys should have a strafe option, where they can move and shoot.  This also turns up their action economy, since if you're kiting them from the limit of range, they can catch up and shoot you.  (Like Centaurs, but without being fast.)   Or have Perfect Aim, so they can shoot past their melee allies. (Or have both, but only one can activate at a time.)

You know, I was thinking of the flame vortexes from Stone Soup, where they leave a a short trail of flaming clouds.  So maybe something like this, with a random moving front end, instead of an ally version of the monster? Something that isn't a creature, doesn't have an attack or HP, something that will swirl around the character, at some distance with some randomness?

Burst of Flame is inconsistent because it relies on environmental fire sources (and because there are never torches on the south wall of a room, given the 3d texture of the map).

But when you had the flaming tempest epic talent (I don't remember what it was actually called) this allowed  producing your own enduring flaming effects, and then bursting off of them.

I'd love to see this kind of mechanic return, instead of the "summon ranged fire ally".  Maybe if flaming sphere made some flaming clouds, perhaps a bolt line of them or range targeted clouds (smite targeted?), instead of shooting projectiles this would bring the two ideas together.  

Or, tier three is Summon Flame Vortex, with level two increasing the number of fire melee allies summoned (from 1 to 2?  2 to 3?), and you can Burst of Flame off of them.  Probably, they would be need to be used up by this, to prevent *too much* synergy.

Chakrams are causing a freeze.  I think I used them fine with fire mage, but am having trouble when playing storm mage.  I can still get sound effects clicking on inventory items, but nothing happens. Reloading page takes me back to entering the level.

I also had a NAN hp Fire Yendor (as second Yendor, if that makes a difference). I think I was a playing fire.

(Edit: and now NAN on Cold Yendor, first yendor, playing Storm.)

No storm mage talents seem to be tier 3.

Probably pulled from Cold Mage with some coding not changed?

Perhaps the Goblin Swift Bow should give a speed points *recharge* effect, like the Goblin Battle Staff does healing, rather than just a speed point, which  is the same bonus as the Totem of Dexterity gives.  

(Also, perhaps the Totem of Strength  should give a bonus to encumbrance or protection.  Health is pretty well covered by the shield and axe, and I always feel silly when I equip it in the melee slot for a range-focus character who hasn't found a melee weapon yet--it's nice to get +2 damage for hitting monsters with a little statue vs punching them, but this one really only seems suited for range-avoiding melee characters.)

Since I'm posting some suggestions, I had another one for better mechanics.   I know you're saying you have a lot to do, so this is just for you to add to the "maybe" list.

Though this probably makes the game harder, it should be more interesting....

When I play fire mage, a key strategy is blast water then nuke all the ranges enemies while they can't attack me because I've one-sided broken line of sight.  (Or save my wands of fire for other ranged characters for opportune moments.) Seems totally unfair that I can "see" them and so target them when they're technically out of line of sight.  But also, it makes sense that if they're in range, not taking cover, I should be able to shoot at them.

So, I would say either (1) give an evasion bonus to the target for every square of fog or obscuring clouds that a ranged attack or ability has to cross, so firing deeper into unseen territory makes it harder to land a hit, and do this the same for both players and enemies so the advantage/disadvantage of clouds is symmetrical.   Perhaps moving in this context increases the evasion bonus further.   Beginning (dumber) monster archers would just hold their position, and advanced (smarter) archers would have to decide how to balance their success of hit and their odds of dodging, or to take advantage of the movement evasion bonus (if applied).

Or (2) stop displaying out of sight enemies on the game screen, and instead present tiles of each aggro-ed enemy between the map and the abilities panel (when mousing over something for description, this would be replaced with the description).  But we still want to try to attack those foggy enemies, so add the ability to target "unoccupied"  squares (attack ground) within range (perhaps A+click, or added to Z+click).  Added bonus, players with a fire staff should be able to target flammable ground with it anyway, and players with a storm staff should be able to target water and conductive/flammable clouds anyway, and any ranged character who found a hidden monster and backed away should be able to target that square.

I wanted to see the differences in the fire mage abilities, but the updates didn't really take.  I haven't really looked at the other ones.

Burst of Flame still has the 0% and 50% chance of exhausting the flame source.

Fireball level 2 no longer increases range, but doesn't give the +3 damage.  

I remember in the old days in RFiii when you switched it from +damage to +range because you wanted the second level to give something you can't get another way, at least for spells--so you went with +range instead of +damage.  How about either a square (1.5) AOE, or a dynamic + or X shaped explosion? (Click to target center, move mouse to shift explosion pattern.)

I think more "dynamic targeting" would be good for 2nd level spells.  Like, lightning bolt level two could target any square in range, then extended in a four or five square line from that point (probably staying within the range zone, so it doesn't extend out too far).  This way you can attack more arrangements of enemies, giving back *a little* of what was taken away with the old range-targeted conducts-to-adjacent-enemies spell.  (And not have the "more damage at the tip.")

Cone of Cold L2 could be like the briefly used version of burst of wind that began with a targeted space, and could be used orthogonally or diagonally in any direction.  (I thought that was one of the more interestingly different abilities when it was in place.)

The ranger triple-shot ability L2 could allow you to have the left and right arrows take different angled trajectories.  Mouse close to the player, and the angle is max wide (45 degrees?) mouse to max range (straight, center) and the angle is parallel/straight.