Cocytus Succeeder
Posts: 2229
Joined: Sunday, 18th December 2011, 13:31
My 2 cents on new gods
First of all, generally speaking I don't really understand why there's this urge of add a couple of new gods every version.
I loathe this idea most of all because they are often rushed into the game in a clearly unfinished state both flavour-wise that balance-wise. Gozag iswas the biggest offender, but at this point I think there are also other gods who'd still need some balance\rework, like Pakellas, but who most probably won't be touched for the next 4 versions, because there will be another 10 gods in queue.
Secondarly, because at this point it's evident new gods needs to fill very niche gameplay style that often are convoluted and sometimes doesn't work very well with DCSS gameplay.
Thirdly, sometimes - again e.g. Pakellas - they step into already existing gods' territory, and I still don't understand the necessity of this kind of addition - as currently the number of available god for common races is so huge I don't think it's really necessary to have multiple gods who do same things. This also because it's going to be extremely confusing and hard to learn for new players.
Now, some not yet totally developed opinions about the two new gods.
The dance one: I've played a bit with a melee guy and with a enchanter one. I admit don't get him really well but ugh it's bad for me both gameplay-wise that powerwise. I find him extremely bad, to the point he doesn't really work right now.
The main problem is that the idea of fighting lot of things at same time, fucking your positioning in prolonged combat doesn't cope very well with the objective of winning in DCSS.
At the current powers' balance, I think the god is pretty much useless: the easy pack you're going to fight in that dance style - you would kill those anyway. The hard pack or dangerous monsters you're going to fight normally, because the powers aren't strong enough to give up the most important thing in the game (positioning and control of the enemies in LOS).
Probably there is a grey line about packs of monster tough enough you'd need to kill separated\with 1 in LOS at same time instead of together if playing godless, but that doesn't mean much.
The thing I believe need more rework is the dance and confuse ability: it totally fuck your positioning, I think it should *add* piety, not suck it a lot. Maybe causing exhaustion to avoid to be spammed. The confusion thing on the paper would be nice for a stabber but actually it is hardly working - at least with normal invo.
The stomp ability seems weak enough to me that doesn't justify its use over 'tab' with a good weapon\spell.
The 'finish him' ability on the paper looks great but in reality it's 'meh'. Against pack of same kind of monster it doesn't work: if I've killed already 4 of those, instant-killing the 5th isn't going to be a situation of live-or-death, otherwise I'd already run away. If there's a dangerous enemy, I'm not going to fight him with other shit around, and if somehow I'm going to fight with others nearby, I'm kinda prioritizing to hit him asap, and not wasting precious turns to beat some rats around. Actually, the only occasion where I could "successfully" use it was in Lair, when hogs started to appear inside a "chess" styll walls: I knew Kirke was nearby, but she wasn't yet in LOS (and I could easily manage to keep outsite of LOS, in that area if I wished) so I could hit and kills the kinda harmless hogs party until I managed to get enough piety get a free kill on her. Actually this is open a new series of abuse at least around some vaults - where you could lure weak enemies to pump your piety to finish strong uniques in one hit, like hell\pan, 27hydra and so on. I don't think it's a good thing however.
The paralysis thing is also 'meh': if I'm fighting a pack it means not much, because if I'm fighting a pack together it means that pack isn't actually dangerous . Against a single opponent it is probably neat if playing a stabber, otherwise I don't think is so important.
Overall, I do like the idea of a God who change the core-playstyle of DCSS, but I don't think this Dance guy can success at it, at all, at least if trying to win the game.
Not because I'm comparing to other gods - his powers obviously are good early on because they start to work immediately but fall off very quickly, at least in comparison to fedhas, trog, etc - but because 99% of times it would be still much better to play the game like always. I do think his powers and strength need to be improved, a lot, to balance the fact he's asking to fuck up the most important things in the game. Like adding much more paralysis, maybe according to the number of monsters in LOS, giving some vamp effect, and so on.
About the permanent ally god: why does he exist? We have already of summons and ally of something in the game, why was he necessary?
I've tried a single game with a battlemage ancestor while playing a melee guy. It was like having a semi-permanent spellforged servitor \ battlesphere\ orc warlord\ whatever.
Power wise he's okay - probably very good if you're going to abuse at most him with positioning, luring, kiting etcetera.
The swap power is kinda interesting to use, to fuck up some enemies - like summoners.
I don't get why there should be an active 'heal and power up' button. I think it would work much better if passive, like Beogh's buff, giving health and maybe temporary effect light agility, swiftness and so on.
I mostly think there should be some improvement over the usual command interface, because it doesn't work for a permanent ally, if a permanent ally is now (again) a thing in DCSS. For example, the necessity to 't'ell to attack every single dangerous enemy who appear in LOS is most annoying and stupid. It would be much better if it would be possible to set a standard behaviour - like "rush to everything appears asap", "stay close to me but attack with spells asap", "don't attack until I do" and so on.
Overall, ally's god seems to me decently developed and with a good balance - but again, what does he add to the game? It's pretty much possible to get the same things with at least three different magic schools, another skill, two already existing gods, so why he is necessary?