TL;DR: Much simpler incarnation of the council god. If you want to go straight to what will be the new mechanics, click on the last spoiler tag.EDIT: The rework is done and shoult hit CBRO soon!
First of all, apologies for opening a new post for what I'm sure some people would think belongs to the other Ieoh Jian Council thread. However, I hope I make a good case for this topic requiring a different discussion, because it involves a set of changes so radical that the god would be quite unrecognizable, so the thread would be immediately out of context.
We've been testing IJC in one form or another for around three months now. I've tested, tweaked and hopefully improved the formula, and in exchange had a lot of fun spectating testers. The feedback has been quite positive, with most players reporting the god as being quite fun. People have been enthusiastic about the idea, and some devs such as dpeg have expressed their intention for the god to be in trunk soon. If nothing else, I can claim that the god is fun to play!
Fun is not everything I'm looking for though, and everything hasn't been as great as I've wanted. There are some inelegant mechanics, substantial inventory fiddliness, and balance issues. The more advanced players and devs in particular have been focusing their criticism on the god's complexity. While it took me a while to agree (partially because of, I must admit, a bit of attachment to the design), I don't mind accepting my mistakes and I now wholeheartedly agree. For the past two weeks I've been cutting superficial mechanics, like stealing, tiered wrath, piety prompts on divine weapons... But it just isn't enough. The god needs a more substantial overhaul.
I think I've found a possible new incarnation of the Ieoh Jian Council that is
radically simpler than the former while retaining the elements that people have liked the most. I'm quite sure this is the direction I want to take the god in, but I want to run it through you guys first, specially those who have taken the god to the endgame.
Major change #1: There are no summoned weapons.Wait what? Isn't that the whole point of the god?
A week ago I'd have said yes.
My initial god proposal, years ago, revolved entirely around collecting and summoning weapons. However, developing this god has been an organic process and people have expressed time and again that the fun part of IJC is the dynamic combat, so the focus is going to be squarely on that.
Under the new model, you won't spawn weapons when hitting enemies at all, and the weapon swapping mechanic is gone. Divine weapons remain but tied to a completely different mechanic. There are multiple reasons for this change; when inspected closely, spawned weapons don't add enough to the god to warrant their multiple issues. Balance, in that you're given too much of an advantage in terms of positioning and body blocking. Fiddliness, in that your inventory management is complicated by the constant flux of weapons, and finally the unpleasant situations that arise from having a too strong or too weak main weapon.
Naturally, this change means Recall Weapon is gone, but Project Weapon remains essentially unmodified (and you'll still be unable to wield a different weapon when yours is projected). I'm renaming it to Steel Dragonfly because nostalgia + theme.
Major change #2: Pressure Points and Afterimage are no more.These two passives don't exist anymore, and their mechanics are instead merged with the martial attacks (see the next point).
Major change #3: Martial attacks rework.First off, the martial cross-training from 0 piety remains, so you'll be able to use any weapon you pick as usual. Martial attacks remain, although their properties and how you acquire them changes significantly. To begin with, they're separate passives obtained at different levels (lunge at *, whirlwind at **, wall jump -formerly pole vault- at ***). They apply on all weapon types, as well as unarmed. These are their new descriptions:
- Lunge (*): Deal a powerful lunging strike when moving towards an enemy. Lunging attacks deal extra damage against distracted or slowed enemies.
- Whirlwind (**): Attack all adjacent monsters by moving around them. Whirlwind can slow down enemies by hitting pressure points in quick succession.
- Wall jump (***): Jump against a solid obstacle by moving towards it, damaging all enemies near your landing spot. The maneuvre can cause nearby enemies to be briefly distracted.
My reasoning for these changes comes from the realization that it isn't necessary (or desirable) to tie different martial attacks to different weapons. Instead, the martial attacks can be designed to naturally lead into each other regardless of your weapon type. The debuffs applied by the abilities are meant to minimize tedium and kiting. Whirlwind gets a non-stacking debuff to discourage whirlwind spam, while Lunge is optimal only when the enemies are already unable to follow you, discouraging excessive kiting. This new method of obtaining passives is more streamlined and can be explained better in the UI, rather than forcing you to look at weapon descriptions. Finally, the kit now works with unarmed, which is something that people expected from a god themed around martial arts.
Major change #4: Divine weapon rework.If there's anything I can take from spectating testers, is that divine weapons are a complete hit. People love the infrequent combat boost in the form of a mobility based weapon, and since the god is in dire need of a late game piety sink, I decided to change the divine weapon mechanic while keeping the weapons themselves. Divine weapons are now summoned via an active ability gained at *****:
Heavenly Blade(active, 6 MP, 12 piety) Unequips your current weapon, and summons a random divine weapon from Ieoh Jian's vault to aid you in combat for some time. They can be projected as normal, but unwielding them manually will cause them to be recalled by the Council.
Major change #5: Dragon Palm for unarmed users. Not really necessary.
Unarmed combat worshippers can't use Steel Dragonfly (formerly project weapon) so they get a different active ability. Technically it applies to weapon users too, because you can cast it after projecting your own, and it can apply to off hand strikes and kicks.
Dragon Palm (Active, 3 mp, 4 piety): Your dragon tatoo comes to life, granting your limbs the Electrocution or Flaming brand for a period of time. Unarmed attacks apply the effect of that brand for the duration of the buff.
Final god ability list:Piety level (-) "Young Dog"
- Substantially increases the effects of crosstraining. All weapon types + Unarmed Combat crosstrain at 80% rate.
Piety level (*) "Young Crane"
- Lunge: Deal a powerful lunging strike when moving towards an enemy. Lunging attacks deal extra damage against distracted and slowed enemies.
Piety level (**) "Young Tiger"
- Whirlwind: Attack all adjacent monsters by moving around them. Whirlwind can slow down enemies by hitting pressure points in quick succession.
Piety level (***) "Red Sash"
- Wall jump: Jump against a solid obstacle by moving towards it, damaging all enemies near your landing spot. The maneuvre can cause nearby enemies to be briefly distracted.
Piety level (****) "Golden Sash"
- Steel Dragonfly: (Active, 4 MP, 6 piety): If you have a weapon equipped, you project it to an enemy or a target tile, dealing damage and animating the weapon at the target location, making it capable of attacking for a brief period of time.
Piety level (*****) "Red Dragon"
- Heavenly Blade(active, 6 MP, 12 piety) Unequips your current weapon, and summons a random divine weapon from Ieoh Jian's vault to aid you in combat for some time. They can be projected as normal, but unwielding them manually will cause them to be recalled by the Council.
Piety level (******) "Golden Dragon"