[Rework Requests] A Noob's Collected Passionate Suggestions

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

I'm finally getting around to making this. Typically, I spam the discord channel with my ideas. But there are a few things I encounter that continuously irk me and thus continuously get shoved into the discord channel. It's rather redundant and unproductive. So I'm collecting the ideas that I consider particularly important into this post here. Some may be copied into the Arcade Rework post if they're significant enough. I do consider these ideas significant (that's why I've collected them here), but others may not. As I gather more ideas, I'll add them to this post.

Each idea is kept in its own post so that any kind of discussion that occurs stays relevant and specific.

Reworking Echoes of Madness
As things are, the echoes of madness have a major inconsistency in their attack patterns -- specifically their windup time and their direction of attack. This results in several unfair situations to the player in story and especially arcade. My comments on the matter are found here.

Resolving Problematic Temple of Seasons Synergy
Currently in arcade, the Temple of Seasons area has some rooms that don't have season orbs. This results in insanely powerful and unfair rooms that can easily siphon half your HP or even drive it to 0. My comments on the matter are found here.

Making Essence (and Loods) Meaningful Long Term
Arcade mode presents the player with beautiful rewards such as essence and lood eggs. These items are effectively used to get nice cosmetics and trick out your Arcadia. However, their value diminishes quite quickly for faithful players. There needs to be a way to make these items valuable for all seasons of a person's "arcade career". My comments on the matter are found here.

Making Present Bombs Fun and Fair
The present enemies in SoG can drop bombs. These bombs are fine and dandy...but they act as walls that absorb a lot of a player's strategic attacks and counterattacks...and attacks miss-aimed can allow bombs to harm the player. I figure a better idea for bombs would be to allow some counterplay. My comments on the matter are found here.

Reward Players for Pguarding Hydras
Currently, Pguarding a hydra causes it to be repelled a significant distance away from you. This is a major disadvantage to melee players, who do a large portion of their damage by swinging weapons. You can see my comments on the matter in the post...but it's rather short. Basically, I think Hydras should fall right next to the player if they're pguarded.

Scarecrow Jumping Rectification
Scarecrows are cool and well-balanced enemies in the game. However, their jumping makes them a little too fidgety at close range. My post can be found in the link, but it's another short one. Basically, scarecrows should only jump the distance necessary to reach the player when in a close enough range, like jumpkins.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Getting More out of Treats and Curses
This post is rather long for the sake of explanation, but the concept is simple. Treats and curses were an amazing addition to arcade. And they can be made even better by allowing 3 treats (capped at 3) and 3 curses (also capped at 3) to be held at once. This improves the game's customization potential. Most importantly, it improves the game's practicability -- a part where arcade is somewhat lacking right now. My post can be seen in the link above.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Resolving Projectile Shield Damage
Currently, certain enemies are able to hit you with projectiles head-on, even while you're shielding or perfect guarding the attack. The most notable culprits are the elite lantern jack, and the elite frostling scoundrel, and in some sense the summer mage. Another major issue is that enemies throwing 5 projectiles towards you at once can easily break your shield and deal major damage -- even if you have a good shield and pguard the attack. Finally, Smashie breaks your shield too easily in hardmode while you're perfect guarding. All of these are issues that I firmly believe should be resolved to make pguarding truly rewarding, especially for close-combat builds. You can see my comments and possible solutions on this in the post above.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Desyncing the Smashie-Bashie Boss Fight
The Smashie-and-Bashie boss fight in arcade mode is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, it allows Smashie and Bashie to sync their attacks in a somewhat unfair manner. Soon after the first cycle, players end up in a position where their primary form of safe and significant damage is merely pguards and nothing else. Something should be done to remove this syncing, so as to afford more opportunities to different players with different builds. My post can be found in the link above.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Reworking Autumn Enemies
Currently, the autumn enemies (Autumn Mage, Autumn Knight...and I guess the Autumn Fae) can be incredibly unfair. Most of this is due to tornadoes, which are inconsistent hitboxes that can stunlock the player for extended time periods and open them up to unfair amounts of damage. The Autumn Knights aren't that bad, but they could use a little reworking on their whirlslash to make them more melee-friendly. My full comments and suggestions can be see via the link above.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Truly Evolving Insect Swarm to Its Final Form
Insect swarm is a pretty interesting spell. It's very different from the others, and it requires some strategizing to get the most out of it in regular enemy rooms or arcade rooms. Unfortunately, its damage is a bit too low. I address many of the problems and give some potential solutions in my post on it. As usual, it can be found in the link above. (Warning: this post is unusually long.)

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

The Game Is Progressing Too Quickly for 2H to Keep Up
Right now, the game is progressing in such a way that the mechanics taught early on (such as shielding and pguarding) are becoming less rewarding, and close combat classes are becoming almost entirely unviable compared to their mage siblings. This is partially due to how enemies have been designed recently, and partially due to the lack of strength and options that close combat classes are given. In my final attempt to say something meaningful and impactful beyond "Please give melee attack power", I try to layout the problems with the late-game enemies, the reasons mages succeed, and the reasons close combat classes desperately need help. The post can be found in the link above. (Mega Warning: This post is probably the longest thing you'll see from me. ~4800 words. If you're passionate about the topic like a few others, read on. If you only wanted a brief read, just read the "Wrap Up" section at the end.)

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Making Berserker More Interesting (and Fair)
Berserker is probably one of the closest things to a balanced and useful skill that 2H melee has right now. However, it lacks aspects that make it interesting to players, and it has some concepts that are counterintuitive (like EP degen mixed with EP building). In this post I try to give some ideas to further improve and balance the skill.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Making Retaliating Basic Attacks Worthwhile
Not too long ago, "melee interrupts" were added to the game to reward players who use a melee attack after a pguard. In this post, I expand on this concept more to give all players strong rewards for retaliating with a basic attack after a pguard. It would make the game more exciting, and it would also give the player incentive to retaliate with basic attacks late game. (Currently, it only makes sense to retaliate with a spell or skill instead of a basic attack, which players shouldn't be forced to do.)

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Buffing 1H Wands
The projectile damage on 1H magic wands is a bit too small. 1H is already weaker than 2H in terms of physical damage. But the 1H projectiles are also smaller and weaker, despite the fact that they provide more vulnerability and require more precision. This post is about giving a little extra umph to 1H projectiles to make them more viable.

 

[XxX_MLG Noob_XxX]

Rethinking the Design of Shields
Shield breaks have been a fundamental aspect of Secrets of Grindea for a noticeably long time. The idea hasn't been thoroughly questioned or investigated...until now. I believe that the journey to greater balance for close-combat classes, the journey to a world where more players understand the usefulness of shielding, and the journey to a much better gaming experience lie behind the idea of making shields unbreakable. I dive deep into this issue in the link above.