Hello everyone.
I’ve been catching up on the streams and noticed that Stephanie has been working on creating “tension”.
The game is pretty early in it’s combat system so i’m sure that things will turn out just like TR want, but i wanted to suggest some things that might help with creating the tension, before, during and after the fights.
The changes done to the health and damage of the monsters and hearthlings turned out really nicely, creating a demand for the herbalist; however as soon as the cleric enters the picture the fights become less challenging. Initially it looks like the cleric’s healing is too strong so i’d like to suggest some things that might have been overlooked.
1- have the cleric’s heal have a long cooldown before it can be used again.
2- have the cleric’s heal only be cast on unit’s below a specific HP threshold.
3- give the cleric mana or another resource that the cleric needs to manage.
4- reduce the potency of the heals.
5- have the cleric not heal, but instead cast a protective shield that absorbs damage (or have both).
6- have the shield spell or healing spells be a channeled spells.
7- have the cleric serve more of a support role when their spells are on cooldown, where they hit enemies with spells that deal low damage but apply a debuff such us reduced damage, reduced accuracy, slowed movement etc.
For the Knight, the level requirements and class requirements for gear are some very nice changes that create an urgency to get the Knight and train them; and their tanking role will make them invaluable for the protection of your town and hearthlings but i have some suggestions for their perks that will make them stand out more from the footman class.
1- Knights get a perk that stops them taking damage that exceeds a percentage of their total health (that way they can avoid taking fatal damage from very strong monsters before the cleric can heal them)
2- Give the knights a stun attack
3- Give the knights a perk that falls into the “RPS” triangle of the knight countering the footman type monsters, maybe a damage reflect for melee enemies.
4- below a certain HP threshold the knight stops attacking and focuses purely on protecting themselves (increasing protection or reducing a percentage of the damage they take) to buy time for their healer to heal or damage dealing partners to eliminate the threat.
These changes might help to create much stronger foes without fear of them rolling over the knight who will take most of the damage.
As for monsters. adding more varied miniboss type monsters can help create the threat that makes you want to prepare before the fight, and the pressure that can be created during the fight, holding true to the RPS system why not add monsters that are strictly weak to 1 type of damage.
1- A Metal Golem that is immune to melee attacks and magic attacks, and have a weakness on their head that’s weak to arrows, so the knight and cleric must try to keep the golem at bay while the archer’s do their part.
2- A Varanus Queen that has a swarm of Varanus flies that make it impossible for arrows to penetrate, meaning magic and melee is needed, the archers in this scenario must keep shooting at the swarm so the other classes can get close without taking too much damage.
3- A plague spreader type undead that causes damage over time attacks, that requires a healer to take on safely.
Just some suggestions, i know the programming involved in these suggestions might be alot, but maybe this can help guide some brainstorms that’ll help with the path of creating a fun and challenging fighting aspect to Stonehearth without compromising the sense of “fairness” in the game.
If anyone else has ideas please share and thanks for reading.
