v0.9.1 Content Direction | Patreon Poll #10 (Patreon)

Hey Patrons!

v0.9.1 will obviously feature tier two talents primarily, but I’d like to include something else on the side too. There are a few different directions I could go in, so I thought it would be nice to let you guys decide!

The winner(s) of this poll will determine my design direction for side content in v0.9.1! Depending on how support shakes out I might pick one or two winners from this poll. 

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Please vote for all the options that you like, not just for your one favourite! I allow multiple votes as it means that a higher proportion of people will end up voting for the winning choice. It also lets me gauge interest and lets polls be a bit more flexible, I might choose to implement the top 2 choices in some polls for example.

All patrons are encouraged to share their opinion by commenting and voting, but currently only the votes from Golden+ Supporters are counted when determining a poll winner. Votes from Shattered Supporters are worth double!

Levelgen Improvements

I still haven’t done a whole lot with the levelgen system that I added in v0.6.0, so there’s plenty of opportunity to do some cool things with the way the dungeon generated levels. This could include:

- Tweaks and refinement to existing rooms and level layouts, such as increasing the interconnectedness of rooms, more L-shaped rooms, and more large layouts for existing rooms.

- More general room types. For instantly I really like how distinctive sewer pipe rooms or caves rooms are, I’d love to add more like them.

- New level layouts. Currently all of the game’s depths are circle-based. It would be nice to make some layouts which use a different base shape.

- New or improved special/secret rooms. There are definitely possibilities for more variety here, in particular I’d like to make special rooms a bit more evenly balanced, as currently their spawn order has a big impact on a run. 

Another New Challenge

An obvious option is to just add another challenge in a similar fashion to v0.9.0. Stronger Bosses is the best candidate in my view, and nicely follows in theme from the champion enemies challenge.

Just to recap, A stronger bosses challenge would boost each boss by taking its existing mechanics and cranking them up a bit. Earlier bosses such as Goo would probably get relatively mild buffs, whereas lategame bosses would get cranked up to 11. Also, unlike champion enemies the player would be forced to fight amped up bosses.

Equipment Improvements

Just like in v0.8.1, I could add some improvements or reworks to existing equipment, or possibly add a new item as well.

In no particular order, here are some of the items that I could potentially adjust or add:

- The Ring of Tenacity still needs to be adjusted to the ring of protection. I appreciate that tenacity produces some cool niche strategies, but the core problem of the ring being very visually underwhelming still remains.

- The Master Thieves’ Armband still has the issue of high value at shops but zero value elsewhere. 

- The Wand of Transfusion is doing very well in terms of winrate but feels quite weak. I don’t want to make huge changes to it, but further incentivizing using it on allies would be a good start. 

- Thrown weapons as a category need work as very few people decide to upgrade them. 

- There’s room for a 12th ring, 11th artifact, or another weapon or two. I don’t have any solid designs for these at the moment, but I am aware people would like to see the cape of thorns return in some form.

- A bunch of items could use some smaller adjustments as well, mostly relating to balance.

Alchemy Improvements

Another area of the game that definitely needs work is the alchemy system. I can’t say exactly what I would improve here because it will depend on specific design work, but I can say for sure that it would go beyond simple recipe buffs and would have an emphasis on item recycling. 

Some things I have in mind are:

- Improvements to existing alchemy items, such as buffs, reworks, or adjusting recipes.

- A recipe that lets the player convert equipment into sellable scrap, or just converts items into gold directly (this would likely replace the merchant’s beacon).

- A recipe that lets the player recycle thrown weapons to increase the durability of other thrown weapons.

- A recipe that lets the player recycle a wand to enhance other wands in some way.

I am aware that the system itself has problems that need addressing too (mainly reconsidering the role of alchemical energy), but such changes would be too large to include in v0.9.1.