Spiral Knights - Food for thought

Food for thought

16 replies [Last post]

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 17:22

Possiblespy

Here's some mechanics I'd like to see:

A gun that jumps to hit two enemies, similar to those quills, at the cost of doing around 55%-65% damage.

A gun that, on hitting an enemy, queues that enemy to take damage as soon as a different enemy is hit. Should deal a bit of extra damage to reward the complicated aiming, maybe 10%?

A gun that picks up any loot it shoots over. Attack pattern should be at least similar to a Pulsar with a clip of one, so it can pick up a whole lump of treasure without being spam-able.

A bomb that swaps the user's health percentage or status afflictions with whatever's closest to the center of the blast. Dramatic, but potentially harmful. Looong fuse.

A mist bomb that inflicts enemies with any status infliction they already have.

An ENORMOUS Troika sword that does, like, 200% damage at the expense of slowing down turning speed.

Monsters that are flat out immune to everything but fire damage. Needless to say, they have more treasure than health, and can't hold monster gates closed unless a fire pot is nearby.

Monsters that deliberately inflict more move speed boost than anyone could know what to do with. Make sure to throw some environmental hazards into any level they inhabit.

Bonus enemies that escape and/or disappear quickly after being first hit, but stay still until then, don't attack, and carry plenty of treasure.

Something that grants the ability to change direction mid-dash, via a smaller dash.

Treasure caches in rooms held closed by switches only alchemers or difficult vial throws can reach.

Bouncy plates that let vial and pot throws bounce through convoluted passageways towards switches, and gunfire bounce around arenas in fun ways.

Special treasure blocks that only drop treasure if destroyed simultaneously.

A status effect that removes enemies' invulnerability to environmental damage.

The ability to detonate one's vitapod to spray glittery red "heal goo" on allies, based on how full the extra health granted by the vitapod was.

More forks in paths that give a choice between two arenas, similar to what's in FSC.

A weapon that has a higher percentage of its damage piled onto the last swing/shot of the combo than usual.

Has been suggested before, but underwater levels, featuring debuffs for attack speed, sword and gun damage, and movement speed, along with buffs for bomb radius and damage, plus fire immunity for everyone underwater. Gremlin forcefield generated air pockets can be placed as need be, so sword and gun users can get all their stuff back in some areas. I think knights would be able to breathe underwater fine.

A flamethrower that does minuscule damage at high speeds, for interrupting things.

Buff the Iron Slug so that it's INCAPABLE OF RUNNING OUT OF AMMO. The lack of mobility would be a reasonable limit on how many shots knights can safely shoot, right? Right?

Give Basil the ability to communicate with the Auction House, mainly for price checking reasons. Being able to post auctions would be debatable.

Install old, rusty forges at the start of each boss level, that only function in return for all your vials, barriers, and vitapods. 'Cause, you know, people can functionally do this already.

De-instance the coins on the ground in treasure vaults, since it's a pain to collect them all on both paths. Alts won't be dead at this point to, since it's the start of a new level.

Sprites should be able to digest the materials from Mount Krampus, to deal with all the extra giftwrap.

In Lockdown, it would be cool if recons and guardians had some way to access heal pads as quick as strikers seem to be able to. Maybe strikers could let other classes grapple onto them and waterski behind them. Maybe a bomb with a short fuse that deals BaB style knockback to the user. Maybe teleports back to base for recon, and increased self-healing for the shield. Maybe I should just get gud. Who knows.

Here's some stuff that I think would be pretty:

Accessories visually being knocked off knights' armor as damage is taken, without actually deleting the accessories off the gear of course.

Enemies should give each other high fives, sit down, or just go to sleep whenever all knights present are dead.
Or, if the knights are wearing edible armor, like jelly and frosted helms, nibble on them.

If knights have mustaches equipped, twiddling them should be added to their idle animations.

Strangers and enemies should be vulnerable to snowballs.

A stack of books, reskinned from a Snarby bomb during a Black Kat event, that explodes into a barrage of paper that inflicts paper-cuts AND cures unliteracy.

A shotgun, reskinned from a Snarby sword, with a bayonet on it to explain why it's piercing. Should still be categorized as a sword, not a gun.

It would be complicated to get it to look right, but cutters reskinned to nunchucks or punching weapons would probably make a lot of people happy.

Feel free to respond to only a couple of things, rather than the whole list.

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 17:29

Mayaura

invisibility

something that renders us invisible similar to the chromalisks would be cool

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 18:48

Dibsville

Opinions on the whole list because Big Angry Bomb you that's why

"A gun that jumps to hit two enemies, similar to those quills, at the cost of doing around 55%-65% damage."

http://bit.ly/1etbVf9

"A gun that, on hitting an enemy, queues that enemy to take damage as soon as a different enemy is hit. Should deal a bit of extra damage to reward the complicated aiming, maybe 10%?"

Chain Catalyzers.

"A gun that picks up any loot it shoots over. Attack pattern should be at least similar to a Pulsar with a clip of one, so it can pick up a whole lump of treasure without being spam-able."

No, this could easily be abused. -1

"A bomb that swaps the user's health percentage or status afflictions with whatever's closest to the center of the blast. Dramatic, but potentially harmful. Looong fuse."

Sounds interesting, I like it. +1

"A mist bomb that inflicts enemies with any status infliction they already have."

Useless except for Curse, which lasts long enough already. +0

"An ENORMOUS Troika sword that does, like, 200% damage at the expense of slowing down turning speed"

Haha, no. -1

"Monsters that are flat out immune to everything but fire damage. Needless to say, they have more treasure than health, and can't hold monster gates closed unless a fire pot is nearby."

If you're suggesting new monsters, then -1. If you're suggesting new mini-bosses, then +1.

"Monsters that deliberately inflict more move speed boost than anyone could know what to do with. Make sure to throw some environmental hazards into any level they inhabit."

As someone who thinks that the movement buff orbs should be removed completely, I'm going to say -1 to any more needless movement increases, even if they are harmful.

"Bonus enemies that escape and/or disappear quickly after being first hit, but stay still until then, don't attack, and carry plenty of treasure."

Bonus enemies sound nice. +0, though.

"Something that grants the ability to change direction mid-dash, via a smaller dash."

As someone who used to play Kickabout League and abused Slalom to death, I'm gonna say -1 to dash control.

"Treasure caches in rooms held closed by switches only alchemers or difficult vial throws can reach."

-1. Alchemers aren't the longest guns, by the way.

"Bouncy plates that let vial and pot throws bounce through convoluted passageways towards switches, and gunfire bounce around arenas in fun ways."

This is one of those things that hold the idea of "The concept is cool, but the way it's implemented is not". I can only see this being an annoyance, so -1.

"Special treasure blocks that only drop treasure if destroyed simultaneously."

-1, it's impossible to destroy things simultaneously. Even if it were, that's just bad trolling, something people aren't too fond of right now with all the things going on.

"A status effect that removes enemies' invulnerability to environmental damage."

I'd like this, but as something other than a Status effect. +0

"The ability to detonate one's vitapod to spray glittery red "heal goo" on allies, based on how full the extra health granted by the vitapod was."

...

"More forks in paths that give a choice between two arenas, similar to what's in FSC."

"A weapon that has a higher percentage of its damage piled onto the last swing/shot of the combo than usual."

I love specialty weapons, so +1.

"Has been suggested before, but underwater levels, featuring debuffs for attack speed, sword and gun damage, and movement speed, along with buffs for bomb radius and damage, plus fire immunity for everyone underwater. Gremlin forcefield generated air pockets can be placed as need be, so sword and gun users can get all their stuff back in some areas. I think knights would be able to breathe underwater fine."

Interesting, +1. Would like a more thorough idea, however.

"A flamethrower that does minuscule damage at high speeds, for interrupting things."

See: Antigua lines.

"Buff the Iron Slug so that it's INCAPABLE OF RUNNING OUT OF AMMO. The lack of mobility would be a reasonable limit on how many shots knights can safely shoot, right? Right?"

Oh hell no. -1

"Give Basil the ability to communicate with the Auction House, mainly for price checking reasons. Being able to post auctions would be debatable."

I like the concept, but I'd prefer it not be added. +0

"Install old, rusty forges at the start of each boss level, that only function in return for all your vials, barriers, and vitapods. 'Cause, you know, people can functionally do this already."

Hmm, would save time as people already do this. Just as long as it's not in an un-joinable room. +1

"De-instance the coins on the ground in treasure vaults, since it's a pain to collect them all on both paths. Alts won't be dead at this point to, since it's the start of a new level."

Ahh, -1. It would just feel weird, and it might confuse newer players. It would also possibly make people start freaking out about others' taking their loot again.

"Sprites should be able to digest the materials from Mount Krampus, to deal with all the extra giftwrap."

+1, they should also be able to eat Apocrea materials and Seerus Masks.

"In Lockdown, it would be cool if recons and guardians had some way to access heal pads as quick as strikers seem to be able to. Maybe strikers could let other classes grapple onto them and waterski behind them. Maybe a bomb with a short fuse that deals BaB style knockback to the user. Maybe teleports back to base for recon, and increased self-healing for the shield. Maybe I should just get gud. Who knows."

Just gonna say -1 to all these and be done with it.

"Accessories visually being knocked off knights' armor as damage is taken, without actually deleting the accessories off the gear of course."

Yes! +1! (only if it's toggle-able, however).

"Enemies should give each other high fives, sit down, or just go to sleep whenever all knights present are dead.
Or, if the knights are wearing edible armor, like jelly and frosted helms, nibble on them."

Yip, +1.

"If knights have mustaches equipped, twiddling them should be added to their idle animations."

Why, yes, this would be amazing. +1

"Strangers and enemies should be vulnerable to snowballs."

Eh, +1.

"A stack of books, reskinned from a Snarby bomb during a Black Kat event, that explodes into a barrage of paper that inflicts paper-cuts AND cures unliteracy."

Yes, beautiful. +1.

"A shotgun, reskinned from a Snarby sword, with a bayonet on it to explain why it's piercing. Should still be categorized as a sword, not a gun."

The idea is kind of cool, but I like my Snarby as is. +0.

"It would be complicated to get it to look right, but cutters reskinned to nunchucks or punching weapons would probably make a lot of people happy."

Meh, -1. Too much reason to make people want something that's just going to be a let-down to most except faithful Cutter users (which there isn't all that much).

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 18:56

Pipipipipi

why have I only done 2 and talked about threads I made on both?

I remember once I suggested a underwater undead tier 1 boss, now that I look back on it, it was REALLY bad

but I still like the idea of underwater levels, so 1+

It would also be cool if my list of lockdown suggestions got more attention, it was good.

I really want to waterski on a striker now

Wed, 01/08/2014 - 19:00

Dibsville

"I really want to waterski on a striker now"

>Guardians moving from Point 3 to Point 1 in like 2 seconds.

"It would also be cool if my list of lockdown suggestions got more attention, it was good."

Wha..

Sat, 01/18/2014 - 22:42

Possiblespy

More thorough idea, you say?

First of all, this whole thing hinges on the idea that bombs are best at area damage, but don't have much effect before everything has already been cut to bits, and tries to negate that, simply because what goes op must come down.

Shallow water: The most important part of a water level is water. I suggest that standing in shallow pools of water should have the following effects for the following reasons: (applies to enemies as well)
-MSD low, because water resistance slows stuff down.
Slight dodge range decrease, because of water resistance.
-Sword ASD, because of the water resistance slowing down knights' feet when they try to lunge around with the sword.
-Bomb damage increase vs minis, devilites, and maybe a few other things, because they're short enough to be completely affected the extra shockwave conductivity of water. (debatable)
-Fire resistance, because water puts out fire.

Deep water: After you go down an elevator, you end up on the floor below. What's below water? More water. I suggest that standing in the deep water everywhere on underwater levels should have the following effects for the following reasons: (applies to enemies as well)
-MSD medium, because more surface area underwater means more water resistance.
-Noticeable dodge range decrease, because of water resistance.
-More Sword ASD, now because of the water resistance on the sword itself.
-Sword damage decrease, because sword would be doing much of their damage because of their momentum.
-Bomb damage increase, because of water's good shockwave conductivity.
-Projectile defense increase, because any projectiles hitting something underwater will have been slowed by water resistance.
-Fire immunity, because more water puts out more fire.

Forcefields: Gremlins apparently dislike drowning, and have built forcefields to keep the water at bay. Functionally, this decreases the amount of water in the totem's range by one level. Deep water becomes shallow, and shallow water becomes dry land. They can be moved around similar to Grim Totems.

Air Tanks: Dropped by gremlins who were using it. Functionally identical to a regular forcefield, except with a radius of only a block or two, and stored (while still functioning) in the same section as vials and barriers when lifted.

RC Tanks: basically, a construct glorp drop with a slowed down turning speed. High defenses, because it's a tank. Move speed is not affected by water; slower than a glorp by MSD low. Inflicted repeatedly with a status analogous to sleep when not under gremlin control.

Gremlin Tanker: Can tank a lot of damage because of thick armor, carries an air tank, can control a group of RC tanks. Never spawns without RC tanks to control.

Shallow water level layout: Shallow water levels precede underwater levels, and would basically be any other level, with the difference being that water has built up in the geo-dome-thing to the point that the lowest plane of the level is covered in a layer of shallow water. Here's some cases that don't quite fit this pattern nicely:
-Deconstruction Zones are flat, and require a lot of walking, which wouldn't be that fun with MSD. Luckily, there's plenty of gremlins, so plenty of forcefields are justified.
-I have another idea for what Rotting Metropolis could be when mixed with water, so it won't appear as a regular shallow water level.
-Arenas would only have water in the starting room, since everything afterwards would be up a flight of stairs. The simple solution is just to remove the stairs.

Underwater level layout: Ideally, we could get new levels here. Some elements I suggest including are:
-Long hallways every so often to promote carrying at least one force field.
-A large room with a maze made of indestructible blocks, blocked off by bombs. When the bombs are destroyed to let the knights in, a chain reaction is set off that evaporates the maze and the prize boxes on the other side after a while. Again, promotes the extra move speed from the forcefields.
-Small pillars for Gremlin Tankers to control RC Tanks from in relative safety.
-Large clumps of melee-focused enemies, so that bombers can really have fun with the extra damage while underwater.
-Buoys tied to the floor could float out of the way underwater, acting as solid blocks only when a forcefield is present.
-Groups of exploring gremlins, inside a forcefield so that the players can defeat them and take it.

Flooded Metropolis: New danger mission. Just like the Rotting Metropolis mission, but starting with a shallow water level, and ending in an underwater level. The catch: the water is toxic, and inflicts irresistible poison near constantly. No heals. Be careful. Grim Forcefields are present to repel water and zombies' deaths. At the finale, the party must fight the huge, poisonous lumber-plant that's polluting everything. The boss is immune to all damage types except fire, and relies on common enemies instead of attacking.

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 15:03

Pipipipipi

The 4th wall shall be shattered!!!

Gremlins apparently dislike drowning, and have built forcefields to keep the water at bay. Functionally, this decreases the amount of water in the totem's range by one level. Deep water becomes shallow, and shallow water becomes dry land. They can be moved around similar to Grim Totems.

how is part of a underwater place going to become shallow?

Sun, 01/19/2014 - 16:59

Possiblespy

Forcefields would work...

Like so. The forcefield clears out the water in a hemisphere above itself, but doesn't bother with the lower hemisphere because of how likely it is to just be metal or other flooring. Since the whole sphere is centered about halfway up the machine generating the forcefield, this means that a shallow layer of water can creep in under the upper hemisphere.

When already in shallow water, whoever's holding it just carries it upside down, so it clears the water at their feet instead trying to clear water where there is none.

Thu, 01/30/2014 - 20:33

Possiblespy

Oh hey, this again.

Here's some more mechanics that I think would be fun:

A four star Swiftstep Buckler, trading more defense to add MSI low to what already exists.

Overload mode, because people are bored and powerful. Created in arcade levels as a wave of core-energy or whatever rotates around, adding the option of Overload mode to a single gate at a time. Rotates the opposite direction as gates. Cannot, therefore, be used to sit back and farm FSC with little effort.
Doubles enemies' health, damage, status resistances, status strength, etc. Removes caps and diminishing returns from boosts on knights, so you can use double max ASI or walk through traps with hardly a scratch. Probably should increase prizes somewhat, but not too much.

Marshmallow sword, doing damage heals the user IF the user is on fire. Not great damage. Because marshmallows become edible when toasted.

Mirror shield, that has less than stellar defenses, but reflects projectiles. Makes projectiles 'friendly' of course, damaging enemies instead of allies. Highest star version can even reflect FSC wheels.

Mind control pickup, thrown like a vial, that makes the affected enemy attack and be attacked by other enemies. Wears off after a while. May or may not work on bosses.

A shield that, when instructed to shield bash, blinks the user forward instead. Higher star versions could create a shadowy trail, which inflicts a status or damage.

Sticky bombs, covered in jelly. Swung like a short range sword, enemies that are hit explode after a delay. Explosions would need to be weaker than normal bombs, to account for how fast bombs could be stuck to enemies. Affected by bomb boosts, not sword boosts. Charge attack could be that mythical thrown bomb.

Dragons: Chromalisks with Drakon wings, that move like Gorgos and breathe fire like Zombies. Appears in place of a regular chromalisk.

A bomb that teleports the user back to the center of the blast whenever it explodes.

Weapons that gain boosts based on how many attacks have been successful in a row without missing.

A level in which zombies revive UNLESS they're in range of a totem. Obviously, the totem will have a divine color scheme, and the rest of the level would be something scary. A graveyard, maybe.

Gongs, held over one's head like a pot, that you can use to smash and stun things with. Not thrown, smashed with.

A trinket or armor that cures another party member's curse affliction when the user becomes cursed. If more than one party member is cursed, the curse with the longest remaining time is cured. Gran Faust spam, it'll be great.

Devilites could drop office supplies on death, that knights can pick up and use. Similar to vials.

Trap chambers added to the clockworks, similar to that one mission near the beginning.

A gun that takes the antigua's idea of "not great damage, but lots of bullets" even further. Would be great for breaking blocks and cloaks, and getting aggro. Maybe two antiguas? In one hand, if course, or it'd be dual wielding. Can't have that.

Do we have attack speed orbs? If not, let's throw those on the list. Also, status resistance orbs. Unless defense orbs cover that...

A ball and chain sword, where swinging the handle makes the spiked part jump towards (and then past) the user. How fast/far it jumps and how much damage it does will depend on how far the user is. After a certain distance, the spiked part bounces along to follow, keeping at maximum distance. Maximum distance would be somewhere around the range of a Nitronome. When swapping to the weapon, the spiked part begins at the knight's feet. If the spiked part gets caught on a wall or gap, after stretching a bit past the following distance, it will fly back towards the user as if they had swung the handle. It will pass through walls and gaps until it passes the user, after which it won't.

Boomerang, a sword that is thrown and comes back. Swap to another weapon while it's out to keep doing damage as it flies back through the crowd to you. Only passes through enemies (and walls) on the return trip. Having it equipped while it's out flying around is the same as not having a weapon equipped.

Pill vials. Heal your friends. Because everything's better as a vial.

Amplifier rings, that increase the damage and/or range of bullets that go through them. Either found as part of a level or deployed from a pickup. Shooting through three rings and hitting a player wielding a troika line weapon will grant that player a chance to inflict shock for the rest of the level, or until they start using a different weapon. c:

A weapon, pickup, sprite ability, something that creates a totem or block from nowhere, for use in blocking stuff. (But not weighing down switches)

Randomly scatter some dead NPC knight through FSC, it's a bit dull to have the exact same scenery every time. Blocking one or the other options at the fork in the third level might also be fun, make some people try the other side from time to time.

Gremlin pyros' bullet launching attack should do more damage and knockback after a certain range.

A gun with a short range, relatively slow speed, and knockback. Basically, a sword that's affected by gun bonuses, not sword bonuses.

New undead monsters: the zombified gunslinger priests from the gunslinger gear descriptions. Zombies with hats and guns, what could go wrong?

Cautery sword, or maybe some other weapon, cures the user's status effects after defeating a monster with it?

A pickup that signals the same people who run the artillery strike to send in a mini arsenal station, so gear can be changed. Does not drop in boss missions. Not super common, just an occasional backup if you rush into a candlestick keep or something without changing from your jelly stomping loadout.

A weapon, probably similar to autoguns, that gains boosts based on what percentage of the charging time the user was stationary for. Would have slightly better stats after a complete standstill, and slightly poorer stats after having been moving the whole time.

Frankenpuppies, gun puppy trojan mixes. Shoots bullets while relentlessly trudging towards you, and laughs at your puny blitz needles. Never stops facing its target, or holds a monster gate closed. Gotta use teamwork. (or a shivermist buster.)

Leaking vials. Trades most of its range and explosion radius to leave a trail of status effect in its wake. If put in a nearby respawner, could potentially let the above monster hold monster gates closed.

Sleet. Absolute(ly) zero traction. Presumably great for slide-y puzzles, if you limit diagonal movement.

If there are going to be any more battle sprites, before you announce what they are, add the recipes for [adjective] motes, dust, stones, and stars a week or so before the announcement, so people can speculate on what sprite would use a(n) [adjective] [food type]? Might be fun.

Laser sights. Aiming at an enemy causes damage or statuses, because lasers. Also, I suppose it would have the side effect of showing exactly what you'd hit if you were to shoot. Doesn't do spectacular damage, either inherent to certain guns or applied temporarily with a pickup.

Windefinite, an upgrade to the Winmillion. Does not scale up in stratum six like other five star weapons, but projectiles now retrieve items that can be held from afar. Totems, minerals, etc.

Trinket apocalypse! Possible effects include, but are not limited to: Move speed, knockback resistance, luck at finding certain pickups, flaming trails, sleeping at random, flammability, invisibility when standing still, +25% vitapod effectiveness, increased vision range, the ability to see marks on the ground denoting where enemies are set to spawn, a constant draining of health in exchange for a fistful of rewards at the end of the level, extra pill/vial stacking skills, and the ability to use weapon slots to hold even more trinkets.

Fri, 01/31/2014 - 00:15

Dibsville

More, you say? Commenting on the stuff I feel like 'cus why not.

"A four star Swiftstep Buckler, trading more defense to add MSI low to what already exists."

As someone who has this, I'm just gonna say -1 and be done with it.

"Overload mode, because people are bored and powerful. Created in arcade levels as a wave of core-energy or whatever rotates around, adding the option of Overload mode to a single gate at a time. Rotates the opposite direction as gates. Cannot, therefore, be used to sit back and farm FSC with little effort.
Doubles enemies' health, damage, status resistances, status strength, etc. Removes caps and diminishing returns from boosts on knights, so you can use double max ASI or walk through traps with hardly a scratch. Probably should increase prizes somewhat, but not too much."

I actually think this is quite interesting, though I think you should be a little bit more descriptive on it. +0.5.

"Marshmallow sword, doing damage heals the user IF the user is on fire. Not great damage. Because marshmallows become edible when toasted."

I don't even what is this +1.

"Mirror shield, that has less than stellar defenses, but reflects projectiles. Makes projectiles 'friendly' of course, damaging enemies instead of allies. Highest star version can even reflect FSC wheels."

By 'less than stellar' I hope that means 'It's going to break no matter what on Elite'. +1 if so, -1 if not. And -1 to reflecting FSC wheels...

"Mind control pickup, thrown like a vial, that makes the affected enemy attack and be attacked by other enemies. Wears off after a while. May or may not work on bosses."

+1 if it doesn't work on bosses and has an acceptable time-limit (nothing like 30+ seconds or anything, but nothing like 5 seconds either).

"A shield that, when instructed to shield bash, blinks the user forward instead. Higher star versions could create a shadowy trail, which inflicts a status or damage."

+3, sounds really interesting. Me wants it for a Snarbolax costume.

"Sticky bombs, covered in jelly. Swung like a short range sword, enemies that are hit explode after a delay. Explosions would need to be weaker than normal bombs, to account for how fast bombs could be stuck to enemies. Affected by bomb boosts, not sword boosts. Charge attack could be that mythical thrown bomb."

Yay for more niche weapons. +1.

"Dragons: Chromalisks with Drakon wings, that move like Gorgos and breathe fire like Zombies. Appears in place of a regular chromalisk."

I like all but that part... +0.

"A bomb that teleports the user back to the center of the blast whenever it explodes."

Hmm... +1? Sounds interesting... what type of bomb would it be? Would it do no damage and only be used for teleporting? Would it be like a blast or mist bomb?

"Weapons that gain boosts based on how many attacks have been successful in a row without missing."

As long as it starts out exceptionally weak and doesn't get too powerful, +1.

"A level in which zombies revive UNLESS they're in range of a totem. Obviously, the totem will have a divine color scheme, and the rest of the level would be something scary. A graveyard, maybe."

+1.

"Gongs, held over one's head like a pot, that you can use to smash and stun things with. Not thrown, smashed with."

Can't really comment on this, but +1.

"A trinket or armor that cures another party member's curse affliction when the user becomes cursed. If more than one party member is cursed, the curse with the longest remaining time is cured. Gran Faust spam, it'll be great."

-1. Too bad Gran Faust's charge time is too long to be worth it in most cases anyway.

"Devilites could drop office supplies on death, that knights can pick up and use. Similar to vials."

+1 if they disappear or are replaced with Vials when you leave Devilite areas.

"A gun that takes the antigua's idea of "not great damage, but lots of bullets" even further. Would be great for breaking blocks and cloaks, and getting aggro. Maybe two antiguas? In one hand, if course, or it'd be dual wielding. Can't have that."

Autoguns are basically that, except without the "not great damage" part.

"Do we have attack speed orbs? If not, let's throw those on the list. Also, status resistance orbs. Unless defense orbs cover that..."

As someone who hates orbs being dropped in general, -1 to both of these.

"Boomerang, a sword that is thrown and comes back. Swap to another weapon while it's out to keep doing damage as it flies back through the crowd to you. Only passes through enemies (and walls) on the return trip. Having it equipped while it's out flying around is the same as not having a weapon equipped."

Hnng, +1.

"Pill vials. Heal your friends. Because everything's better as a vial."

+1, just as long as they don't heal too much...

"Gremlin pyros' bullet launching attack should do more damage and knockback after a certain range."

While I hate Gremlins to death, +1.

" gun with a short range, relatively slow speed, and knockback. Basically, a sword that's affected by gun bonuses, not sword bonuses."

Kinda like the Magnus lines, but shorter and more knockback? +1 if so...

"New undead monsters: the zombified gunslinger priests from the gunslinger gear descriptions. Zombies with hats and guns, what could go wrong?"

Haha, no. /look

"A pickup that signals the same people who run the artillery strike to send in a mini arsenal station, so gear can be changed. Does not drop in boss missions. Not super common, just an occasional backup if you rush into a candlestick keep or something without changing from your jelly stomping loadout."

-1 because Acheron works fine against Undead and I don't know how someone can possibly make a Jelly Stomping Loadout without Acheron. Only place I can see this working is bringing Piercing gear to Jelly areas, and most of them have plenty of knockback so it would simply take more time.

"Frankenpuppies, gun puppy trojan mixes. Shoots bullets while relentlessly trudging towards you, and laughs at your puny blitz needles. Never stops facing its target, or holds a monster gate closed. Gotta use teamwork. (or a shivermist buster.)"

Haha good luck with that one. +0 because Solo-play.

"Windefinite, an upgrade to the Winmillion. Does not scale up in stratum six like other five star weapons, but projectiles now retrieve items that can be held from afar. Totems, minerals, etc."

-∞ to anything that lets you receive items without having to walk up to them.

Fri, 01/31/2014 - 06:06

#10

Akuryo

o....o)

one flaw i see in the water levels: if you say these clockworks levels are (first level is) on top and slightly submerged in water then the next level is submerged then would that not imply that there would be water continuously flowing and or covering the core and visible through lower levels?? you guys didnt think of gravity's effect on water and the fact that clockworks doesnt have a fixed level.

the definition and source of water in clockworks is still undefined. where does it come from? surely there is a water cycle in said planet. i dont have proposals as to how to fix/explain this but i do like the concept of a water level.

so far that's my only comment for the water levels

as for the other suggestions, making another long list of a commentary would be annoying and Dibsville has more or less reasoned things out

Sun, 02/02/2014 - 18:23

#11

Striateds

Dibsville said it perfectly

cures unliteracy

*illteracy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony#Situational_irony

Tue, 02/18/2014 - 23:51

#12

Possiblespy

That was the joke.

Here's yet more mechanics that I think would be fun:

A level completely full of blocks. The elevator is next to the start, but behind some unbreakable blocks. Monster blocks abound. No ghost blocks except one at the far end of the path behind a party button so that everyone must participate. Unbreakable blocks line edges of the level, going all the way back to unblock the elevator when evaporated. Several puzzles involving setting up blocks the right way so treasure boxes will be exposed after the ghost block goes off. A couple completely random monsters will spawn in the way back, to imitate a last few monster blocks having opened as the player passes by. Possibly exclusive to elevators marked with a '?'. Which leads into...

'?' Stratums. Instead of a monster or status theme, all elevators in these stratums are marked with a '?' and lead to a different level every time. Marked on the gate map as simply leading to '?', rather than how current '?' elevators are displayed. Treasure vaults and graveyards in this stratum would have nowhere near as high a chance as normal, since they're still only two levels, but the number of other options has increased.

The moooooon!
Reason: scientific exploration, checking for new mineral flavo- I mean, colors.
Gameplay Gimmick: dashing has doubled range, dramatically decreased cooldown, grants invulnerability to traps, can be initiated while charging bombs, and no longer stops you from attacking. To balance this, MSI of all knights not in mid-dash is dramatically decreased. Magnus lines, and only Magnus lines, have enough force to redirect dashes.
Mode of transportation: the Spiral Order can get knights up to the moon by building a shuttle powered by the power core in the lab.
Result: A new mineral color, unlike any other color or combination of colors! That way another batch of three sprites would fit nicely, instead of only having two. Originally found in the moon's core, to provide the same amplification effect as Cradle's, moved to and now appearing on Cradle.

A weapon that does nothing but generate a vial held above the user's head whenever you swing it. Vials may either be randomized, or organized into different versions of the weapon, like alchemers. Organized curse vials would be a no, but might work in a randomized one. Sleep also wouldn't appear. Not effected by any boosts other than perhaps a swiftstrike buckler.

A weapon that, when used once, drops a marker. Every time after that, it drops another marker and teleports you back to the previous marker, destroying it. Small blast on arriving, so you can still make progress if it's your only weapon. Does not qualify as a weapon in the Hall of Heroes.

A alternative branch to an existing gun whose bullets, after traveling a portion of their distance, tunnel into another dimension and sit there until the next bullet is fired, at which point they tunnel back and travel the rest of the way. If the next bullet had already been fired by the time the reach halfway, they don't tunnel and act normally instead. Possible charge attack gives the next x extra attack speed, and makes them not trigger other bullets' reappearance. Meaning, when you fire x+1 bullets, you get a whole blitz of bullets all reappearing at once. A good number for x would be somewhere around one clip of bullets. Gun should glow when charged, and glow brighter when all charge bullets have been fired and the next shot will set the whole thing off.

A pickup that, when used, moves the user into a slightly different version of the level: one where the rest of the party doesn't exist. The user gets their own copies of each enemy to fight, unaffected by anything the rest of the party does, their max health lowered to what it would be while solo. Killing one of these enemies kills its counterpart back with the rest of the party. Meanwhile, the rest of the party views the user and their set of enemies as ghosts. If the rest of the party kills an enemy on their side, the user sees that enemy as marked with a blue X, but otherwise perfectly fine. These effects all wear off after a short time, maybe 20 seconds? All enemies defeated will remain defeated, and the user will not be required for any party button they'd already pushed while solo. (Don't you hate it when your party alerts rocket puppies, spams high knockback weapons at random, or simply won't get on the button?)

Invisibility orbs. Does not break on attack or damage. Only drops on normal difficulty.

Gremlin Reanimator, a Mender gone mad who revives EVERYTHING in sight, granting shadow resistance in addition to extra life. Creates Bombies when there's nothing else to do, up to a cap of probably four Bombies alive at a time. After that, maybe even goes to work healing as well, but that's really low on his priorities. Mainly seen alongside zombies or other gremlins, but works on any monster family.

Cutters could be usable without breaking cloaks. Ghost blades would still be visible to other knights. Negating knockback done while cloaked would be awesome, but possibly a bit too much.

A pickup or trinket that shows the user the an arrow or line indicating the path to the elevator, without going through walls and stuff. Would not be visible to party members.

Low chance of surprise kleptolisks, anywhere, just to keep people on their toes. This includes Moorcroft, Emberlight, and all terminals.
Kleptolisks appearing this way will not spawn close enough to the entrance to become aware of the player before they move.

Here's some sprite ultimates I think could be made less one sided:

Swap around disintegration ray and dazzling ray so that they do extra damage vs everything, and strip away defenses from fiend/undead.

Instead of trying to hurt things, which they're clearly not good at, the souls created by haunted haze should heal the user.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 19:54

#13

Flame-Shinobi

I didn't read in detail

I didn't read in detail but...
Enemies immune to all damage but Fire? I believe you're looking for these.

Honestly they are simply painful to kill.

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 20:39

#14

Possiblespy

a) Can't a damage type be used against more than one enemy?
b) They can't rotate while firing. Wait until they fire, Archeron charge, done. Most if not all mist bombs help too. I think they might drop thier shields when inflicted with anything, like gremlin demos drop bombs.

Sun, 03/23/2014 - 09:53

#15

Dibsville

bump

Mon, 03/24/2014 - 15:43

#16

Possiblespy

Ah, this thread! Thank you!

More mechanics that I've had written down for a while, but forgot to post:

A trinket or such that enables an alternative system for picking up keys, statues, totems, and minerals: one input picks the noun up and holds it over your head, and another input picks the noun up and places in on your back. One more input, possibly reusing one of the first two, would be needed to put down things carried on one's back.

A replacement/alternative for the orb system: pickups instead of powerups, that deploy frogs that buff knights in a small-ish, immobile, temporary radius. Yes, frogs, flags are overused.

A status effect, "stickiness," that restricts either movement OR rotation. Takes three hits to clean off, compared to ice's one. Inflicted sometimes by advanced slime family monsters, and frequently by elite slimes. Heavily resisted by jelly armor, very effective against chaos, basically neutral against all other armors.

Chaos armor, when inflicted with a status, drops a corresponding mist bomb blast that only affects allies and the user. Radius based on stratum depth, and is bumped up a star level when both the cowl and cloak are used.

Oiler armor that grants sword CTR low per piece, and drops an automatic Ash of Agni blast whenever the user catches fire. Wearing the full set allows the user to ignite themselves with fire vials and barriers. For use with with the fang of vog. Probably should have some fire resist too, I suppose.

Absurdly low chance for any given level to grant all its inhabitants mustaches. Wolvers? Yep. Grimalkins? Yep. The Ice Queen? Yep. Make sure to use mustaches the same color as the monster.

A shield meant for shield bashing, that consumes a lower percentage of shield health per bash. Enough to do two or three consecutive bashes.

A whip, long range but very narrow angle. Charge pulls enemies close, because that's what whips do, just so the charge will do something. Piercing would be pretty useful, to catch dodgy fiends and wolvers.

Enemy coordination on higher difficulties! Gremlin pyros or demos lining up to hit an entire area, new minis that don't attack but intentionally surround knights, yellow lichens noticing and deliberately speeding up to merge with low health colonies, that kind of thing.

Floating construct enemies that hover at a constant distance from knights, and fire projectiles. Use a weapon other than swords for best results.

Craziness could be an interesting nerf for chaos gear. Imaginary copies of enemies are thrown in randomly with the real ones to distract and confuse users. Monsters have predictable enough behavior that a copy could think on its own, and enemy players could show up as being in a shifted location in addition to where they actually are. Imaginary monsters take no damage, deal no damage, and don't collide with anything except the level and other hallucinations. Wearing the full set of Chaos could either add more hallucinations, or allow them to deal damage to the user.

Chaos armor could just block off a damage low per piece, meaning that very high is the most damage a full chaos knight could get.

Bullet repulsion technology, on a shield that only repulses when shielding. Cannot, therefore, be used in Lockdown. Effectiveness scales with party size. The risk of more friendly targets to hit means more rewarding defense for yourself.

Gorgos could be made easier by having them move first, THEN bite. Right now, it seems to me that they bite the space they'll be, then move there. I don't know if they need to be made easier, but if they do.

A pickup for treaure vaults: for five or so seconds, crowns are worth x% more crowns, certain other drops are converted to crowns if picked up before the effects wear off, and all enemies and blocks turn gold and cannot be damaged.

Winmillion rotates victims. Minimal influence on knights and constructs because gyroscopes.

A area/room in haven where the camera drops down really low, for taking pictures of one's knight. See the entrance elevator at Vanaduke's throne room.

Cutters start without ghost swings, and gain one per star level. A third cutter ending that, instead of getting beast med or poison, gets another extra ghost swing, for a total of four.

Change all brandishes to deal pure piercing. Zombies get a bit of relief, there's another option for fighting fiends, and using swords against Lord Vanaduke is abruptly viable. Cautery swords could stay as they are, possibly giving them some usefulness.

More wheel launchers, those things are so great. Maybe even take them a step further and make some that inflict statuses. Like curse, curse would be great on wheels.

Undoubtedly suggested before, a lichen that divides instead of dying. Recombines just fine, regaining full health every time. Not compatible with regular lichen, or as strong as regular lichen.

A pickup that reverts the level to the way it was five second ago. Good for losing the attention of turrets, or granting second chances to dead party members. Not a common drop. Collected items like crowns or equipment are neither removed nor dropped a second time. If they drop, but are not collected, they will drop again from the same source.

On lockdown maps with snowballs, grenchlin snowballs have a low chance of spawning instead. Victims are not only slowed, but take minicr- I mean, lose defenses.

Fiddle with heat levels on 5* gear so that level ten is the new level five, and the new level ten is the old level twenty. Heating an item to the new level five costs the same as heating a weapon to the old level five, and heating it to the new level ten costs, like, thousands. Newer players don't get walloped as hard with penalties for having upgraded to 5*, players who already heated their gear have a reason to buy/hunt radiants, and knights are one step closer to that day when they already one shot everything and have no need for chaos.

Add a bookmarks tab to the mission menu, which is the default screen when opening that menu instead of prestige or rank. Bookmarking a prestige mission bookmarks all identical missions when they show up. This way we don't have to scroll through all those pages when we need elite orbs from the royal jelly palace, plus it could be useful for a few other things.

Time trial mode: One knight. One preselected and generated depth. One set of preselected gear. All the variables are controlled, except player skill. Resets on a daily basis, changing the level and gear options. Preselected weapons can be moved around, in case people have habits of having certain kinds of weapons on a certain button (third weapon is always elemental, for example). The level should include at *least* one monster gate, so it doesn't turn into a walking contest. Pets are either disallowed, or preselected along with gear. Replayability optional, changing how much luck and observing the background factors into it.

Stampede mode: the Arcade, for the impatient. Taking damage kills you, not damaging a monster for A seconds kills you, standing still for B seconds kills you, not having died for C seconds kills you. Self inflicted fire damage does not count for the first one, party buttons and sub-towns grant immunity to the second two. The starting elevator grants immunity to the second two as well, but for a limited time. Non-offense oriented armors grant you an extra hit or two. On death, you are returned to the back of a queue, and replaced with another player from the queue. Players in the queue spectate the run, to avoid load times. In the event that the player at the front of the queue is still loading, they don't appear in the level until they're done loading. Payout should be considerably more than normal, to compensate for the extra time spent dead if nothing else. Dying D number of times on the same floor kicks you out of the run. My thoughts for for the variables would be A = 60, B = 5, C = 300, and D = 3. Sparks of life could be consumed to add to D?

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Food for thought