YAM&TD (Yet Another Mummy & Tarantella Death)
Posted: Sunday, 5th February 2017, 04:32
Maybe this is just me blowing off steam right now, and I'm certain the devs probably don't take this forum too seriously (I've seen my fair share of awful suggestions here), but this one seems pretty straightforward.
Some context: I've been playing this game since 0.2, and for me, one of the things that keeps me coming back, unlike all the other roguelikes I've played, is its fairness. In all the thousands of deaths I've accrued, 99% of them, at the very least, have been my own fault. I could look at it and go, "Oh, dang, I messed up. I'll have to do better next time." The other less-than-1-percent have been pure RNG: walk around a corner and get 1-shot by a hill giant before you can react kind of thing. Frustrating, but a necessary evil in any game with an RNG element.
Today, however, was the first time in all my years playing DCSS where I felt like I died due to unfair game design.
A few weeks ago I posted a YASD when I ran into a single Tarantella as a Mummy, missed 4 venom bolts in a row, and then it singlehandedly whittled me down from 100% to 0 over about 50 auts as I flailed around hopelessly. And I was okay with that. That was due to a lack of caution on my part: I could've blinked away at any time, but I didn't.
So, today, I walked down to the Spider's Nest with a secret weapon under my belt: Olgreb's Toxic Radiance! If I run into any of those purple bastards, I'll just fire off one of those and it's dead before it ever gets to me. I just have to keep a decent reservoir of mana. Simple enough, right?
...Well, not when the place has the occasional [INDETERMINATE SEXUAL ORIENTATION] MANA VAMPIRE invisibly floating around. And when you're dealing with one of those and you're at 0 mana within a couple of turns, and a Tarantella walks around a corner. "lol looks like I'm already dead".
Granted, there is still potential counterplay here, but the fact that these ubiquitous, 15 speed enemies effectively 1-shot you if they ever get into melee range is just ludicrous. At best, you have to blow through a scroll of blinking every time you see one while you're in a sticky situation. At worst, your situation is so sticky that any reaction would also potentially lead to death.
TL;DR: Here are 10 ways that this interaction could be balanced:
EDIT: I'd like to mention that the only reason this interaction stands out is that the game is so fair in almost every other way. In most other roguelikes this kind of shit wouldn't seem that out of the ordinary, but DCSS has a high standard of fairness.
Some context: I've been playing this game since 0.2, and for me, one of the things that keeps me coming back, unlike all the other roguelikes I've played, is its fairness. In all the thousands of deaths I've accrued, 99% of them, at the very least, have been my own fault. I could look at it and go, "Oh, dang, I messed up. I'll have to do better next time." The other less-than-1-percent have been pure RNG: walk around a corner and get 1-shot by a hill giant before you can react kind of thing. Frustrating, but a necessary evil in any game with an RNG element.
Today, however, was the first time in all my years playing DCSS where I felt like I died due to unfair game design.
A few weeks ago I posted a YASD when I ran into a single Tarantella as a Mummy, missed 4 venom bolts in a row, and then it singlehandedly whittled me down from 100% to 0 over about 50 auts as I flailed around hopelessly. And I was okay with that. That was due to a lack of caution on my part: I could've blinked away at any time, but I didn't.
So, today, I walked down to the Spider's Nest with a secret weapon under my belt: Olgreb's Toxic Radiance! If I run into any of those purple bastards, I'll just fire off one of those and it's dead before it ever gets to me. I just have to keep a decent reservoir of mana. Simple enough, right?
...Well, not when the place has the occasional [INDETERMINATE SEXUAL ORIENTATION] MANA VAMPIRE invisibly floating around. And when you're dealing with one of those and you're at 0 mana within a couple of turns, and a Tarantella walks around a corner. "lol looks like I'm already dead".
Granted, there is still potential counterplay here, but the fact that these ubiquitous, 15 speed enemies effectively 1-shot you if they ever get into melee range is just ludicrous. At best, you have to blow through a scroll of blinking every time you see one while you're in a sticky situation. At worst, your situation is so sticky that any reaction would also potentially lead to death.
TL;DR: Here are 10 ways that this interaction could be balanced:
Spoiler: show
EDIT: I'd like to mention that the only reason this interaction stands out is that the game is so fair in almost every other way. In most other roguelikes this kind of shit wouldn't seem that out of the ordinary, but DCSS has a high standard of fairness.