Shoals Surfer
Posts: 312
Joined: Thursday, 9th June 2011, 19:12
Re: Branch ends and their rewards
jpeg wrote:Yet Another Stupid Noob wrote:So if one aspect of the problem is that poison resistance is very useful (arguably nearly criticical at certain times/branches) and then less so as the game progresses, why not add potions of cure poison.
Potion: Removes all existing poison and makes the drinker immune to poison for a short while. I think that 20-30 turns (actions) is about right. Enough time to take care of the immediate threat and not much more.
This potion has similar utility as healing potions (and should take some of those drop "slots") and remains useful for about as long. Once past orc/lair, the amount of poison being slung around (both offensively and defensively) drops noticably. This potion acts to make managable those few encounters where rpois changes the battle from "deadly" to "trivial" (and I'm looking at you transmuter ghosts). You use these potions like a wand; to act as a tempory bridge over a difficult encounter.
I don't think such a potion would be an interesting addition to the game. Currently, the player has to face the choice between spending a potion of healing to cure poison or to try to sit it out and save the potion for hp restoration at some later point. Of course, the potion of healing only cures a comparatively small amount of hit points but at the time where poison poses a large problem this amount is still highly relevant. It actually gets worse if the proposed potion both cures poison and confers temporary poison resistance because that reduces the usual trade-off to the normal "use now or save until much later" decision that applies to all potions. If an item only cures the effect (as healing does) it's in the player's interest to delay using it as much as possible, at the very least until the threat is eliminated, while at the same time doing so will make you rapidly lose hit points; conversely, an item that only provides in-advance resistance (such as the potion of resistance) needs to be used before the effect actually comes up. In both cases, the player has to weigh the chances and make a decision based on the situation.
I could see the addition of an early-game, more common version of the potion of resistance that only applies to poison. It would lose its usefulness at some point (but so do a number of wands), so there'd be some incentive for the player to use them early on. However, as long as they're not too common, using them wouldn't be a no-brainer either. For example, players might want to save them for the Lair and its poisonous sub branches, or the Hive (especially once the planned overhaul goes through).
Potions of healing are useful for a lot more than just poison; generally I will save them for the much more dangerous status effects (rot, confusion, etc). If a potion of resist poison cures poison and lasts for 30 turns, or just grants immunity but lasts for 300 turns, I think the effect is about the same. Personally I feel that both of them would be a balanced addition to the game (with a drop rate similar to heal wounds potions), and either one is better than adding a rotting intrinsic drop to specific monsters.