Content Poll #6 - Choose a Rework, Second Chance!
- Footwear of Nature 10
- Master Thieves’ Armband 8
- Ring of Wealth 11
- Wand of Magic Missile 12
Hey Patrons!
Over the last month we’ve had a poll for artifacts, and a poll for rings/wands. Originally my plan was to do one poll each for artifacts, rings, and wands. However, rings and wands ended up getting merged into their own poll instead, so what do we do with our third poll?
To quickly recap:
- The Talisman of Foresight won the first poll with a commanding 80% Support.
- The Wand of Regrowth won the second poll with 64% Support.
- In the middle ground, four items got moderate support ranging from 40% to 57%.
- Both the Horn of Plenty and Ring of Might placing last, at just 30%/34% respectively.
There were a good number of choices in both polls that received decent support, but not enough to won. So, for this last poll I’m going to give those four items a second chance! Just as before, for each option I’ll share the item’s current state and some general ideas I have for improving it. The winning choice will have these ideas developed on and will be reworked in v0.8.1!
Right now the footwear of nature suffers from a good passive and a poor active. Generating more seeds and dew is quite useful, but the current active is just earthroot… that’s it.
I’d like to improve the footwear of nature by giving them an active ability that’s more than just an afterthought. I’m currently considering options that tie into feeding seeds to the footwear; perhaps the footwear will have an ability that’s based on the most recently fed seed. semi-random seed effects are also a possibility.
The Master Thieves’ armband is perhaps the strangest artifact in terms of balance at the moment. When the player is at a shop the artifact is incredibly powerful, and its a waste of an equip slot otherwise.
I’d like to improve the artifact by giving it some new abilities which give it more general power versus enemies or the dungeon environment. One promising idea is to have these abilities be fueled by the player’s gold supply. This way the artifact would simultaneously help you retain the gold you find, and then also give it new uses outside of shops.
The ring of wealth’s current focus is on providing extra loot when enemies are killed or containers are opened. While that works well in theory, that loot just isn’t worthwhile, and wealth is the worst ring by a fair margin as a result.
I think the core design of wealth is good, but I’d like to significantly rework the existing drops and add more items that have high value, especially when the ring is upgraded. A long time ago the ring increased the upgrades the player could find at high levels, I might like to try giving it some of that power back, though with bounds on the RNG and limits on farming.
The wand of magic missile is both the mage’s starting wand, and a regular wand that can drop in the game, which puts it in an awkward spot. It can’t be strong on its own or the mage becomes too strong/boring (remember the boomerang?), but it’s undoubtedly too weak at the moment.
I’d like to give magic missile a new ability which lets its shots briefly empower other wands. The empowered buff would likely increase wand power and might also do things like conserve charges or let the wand shoot instantly. This way magic missile can have some unique utility, while also not allowing the mage to just win the game with it alone.
I’d want to be careful with how it’s balanced though, so that dumping magic missile with one wand on the side isn’t a super consistent way for the mage to win.
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Please vote for as many options as you like, you don't need to vote for just one! 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!