Talents have been added! Kind of!
What are talents?
Talents are a new way to further customize your character, and will replace class-rank bonuses. Earning class ranks will now only serve to unlock spec and talent options. The downside here is obvious:
- it’s fun to gain power as your rank up.
The upsides might be less obvious:
- Game balance will be much easier, meaning I should be able to make the game feel much better.
- New players won’t feel as insignificant
- Strategy will matter more than ranks
What’s already in the game?
Currently there’s only one talent per spec. I plan to add one new talent per spec each month. I’d like to have 4 talent options per spec by Feb 1st, 2019. I can’t promise that will happen, but it’s the plan.
I’ve updated the Classes page to reflect the talent options.
Gems
Going along with the theme of “Strategy over Ranks”:
- The incremental stat increases from gem rank have been cut in half
- The base stats of each gem have been doubled.
- A rank 0 gem is now equal to an old rank 20 gem
- A rank 60 gem is now equal to an old rank 50 gem
Moving forward, I plan to make gems “drop” at a random rank upon beating a map as an incentive for beating higher difficulties. Don’t worry, you will keep your current gem ranks, and no one will be getting a 60+ gem drop anytime soon. Once that is implemented, I plan to rework shards to serve as a “player rank”; not giving any in-game bonuses, but instead as a way to show off your overall progress.
Other Changes
- No more rejoining/class swapping
- Allowing players to rejoin after leaving was creating some balance issues. Also, it seems rejoining was usually done to exploit the altar on Map 7. I know it’s a bit of a bummer, but I think it will allow me to improve overall game balance.
What’s Next?
Aside from more talent options, I also plan to add some rogue-like elements to the game
- The barracks level and other upgrades will carry over from game to game
- Upon losing, all upgrades (including the barracks level) will be reset, and the difficulty will revert back to Tier 1
I’m still working out what those upgrades will be, but here are some of my goals:
- Add back the feeling of an “Endless” run
- Make each game feel unique