Nov 26 2015

CATCHUP

Cardinal Quest 2’s out on Steam!Β And everyone’s being super nice. Β β™₯

For the past few days I’ve been fielding bug reports and lots of emails and generally playing catchup. Now that’s out of the way I’ve got a little time to think about what I’m doing next.

The latest Kongregate and mobile patches were several months ago. Since then I’ve fixed quite a few bugs and performance issues in the process of making the Steam version, so my plan for early December is getting those fixes out to all versions. I don’t want to just push a bugfix update though, that’s really boring! Give me until next week and let’s see if I can fit a new item or two in there.

Any suggestions for spells or items? It’s gotta be do something new and be balanced for most classes, but I’m willing to try some ideas that are a bit weird πŸ™‚

30 Comments on “CATCHUP

  1. A new legendary item that when consumed, transports you back 15-20 turns, and assist your past self! But you can really only help him by distracting enemies and causing to save more HP.

  2. We have some many items that they do everything and buff every stat except heal over time lol.
    You can make a Scroll of soul-catching (tier 4 scroll). It collects the souls from every killed enemy but I don’t know you can do with them.

    A legendary giant sword with -2 speed, good damage, and “Savage Assault”: After every melee attack, you have a 40% chance to uncontrollably attack again. Savage Assault can work its own combos as well, meaning you have no control to heal until the enemy is dead or Savage Assault stops.

    Grips of Demonic something: Heavy Legendary gloves that gives +2 minimum damage and -1 attack but every attack drains 1 health. Every kill empowers you with a shield or defense buff that is 10% of the killed enemy’s health.

    For skills: A physical skill which lays down a trap adjacent to the player that snares enemies when stepped on, good for ranged classes.
    A magic skill that throws a copy of your weapon but recharges from int and your speed.
    A holy skill that extends the reach of your weapon by 1 square, allowing you to slam your weapon on those 2 squares.

  3. Darn I was hoping you would ask for suggestions for a new act.

    You could make a knockback item, like a Jar of Gust that knocks a single target (similar to Teleport away).
    A Viscous Potion that has the same area of effect as the powder bomb but can be used anywhere and inflicts -2 speed and -2 attack. Probably has to be rare.
    A passive item similar to the ankh that absorbs up to 3 ranged attacks and then breaks.
    Even a item that acts as a flare that can be thrown anywhere and reveals a 9 square radius for a few turns.

  4. These are some great ideas! Swapping positions is interesting, traps are a great idea for a physical skill, Viscous Potion is lovely. I’m currently nursing a cold so my brain is made of fog but I’m gonna go over everything as soon as I’m coherent, review the legendary ideas (that need a little more thought!) and figure out what I can work into a patch.

    simple: A new act is several months’ solid work, unfortunately, so I’m not sure I can commit to that unless CQ2 really takes off on Steam πŸ™‚

  5. One thing that has been on my mind:
    The paladin’s perk “Devotee” only switches your weapon but nothing else, for that reason it should be a gear perk. The wizard’s “Fencer” perk switches your weapon but also gives extra stats.

    Shouldn’t the Devotee perk get something extra then? It can just be a +1 stat increase like magic resist.

  6. For some reason I’m always thinking of things to suggest when playing the game, but when they’re actually being solicited I draw a blank. xD

    Anyway, here’s another idea for the pile: a spell that lets you switch current health with a target. Bosses immune. Some caveat to prevent it from being abused– long cooldown, or only works 100% of the time on allies? Probably swapping % health would be overpowered, so switches actual health instead. The player usually has more health than normal enemies (save ogres, academy guardians & whatnot) so it’d be useful for defeating single high-hp monsters, but is less useful against crowds of low-health enemies that it wouldn’t be helpful to switch health with unless you’re really beat-up.

    I suggest this mainly as another toy for Summoner Wizard as a way to sustain your minion army alongside Leech, but I could also see it being used with Ranger to save Dog or yourself from death– or with “red” Paladin as a way to make your mana burn productive– cast a bunch of Magic spells to ~2 HP, then switch health with an enemy to weaken them before finishing them off.

  7. @gniK I never even noticed that.

    My idea is that you could make the Devotee perk give either a small advantage against magic users, get a reward after killing a number of magic users, gain a random stat increase every level up, or gain a divine blessing when you reach low health.

    However mana burn will deal 5 damage instead of 2.
    (You’re devoted to eliminating magic users, so you shouldn’t use magic)

  8. Give the Paladin “Plague of Locusts.” A large swarm of bugs appears. They do little damage and die quickly but distract the enemy.

  9. Congratulations for the amazing Steam release and wish you lots of lots of revenue from CQ2!!

  10. Pan Flute- briefly dazes surrounding enemies without damage, allowing the player to escape

  11. Lunar Curse- transform a selected enemy briefly into a werewolf who attacks everyone (including the player)

  12. Scroll of Socrates- nearby enemies stop fighting to briefly debate fine points of philosophy. Effect is nullified if monsters are attacked.

  13. Necronomicon Scrap- when read, this scroll summons a horror which attacks enemies but dazes the player. If pits or lava are nearby, the character may feel the urge to suddenly jump into them.

  14. Planet of the Apes- this scroll populates the floor with apes armed with rifles.

  15. Stormbringer- This sword combines features of restless blade and weeping blade, but if it goes too long without a kill it attacks the player.

  16. I also think the pugilist should have some sort of venomous Buddha fist strike. It might branch off from Chi Mastery.

  17. Some more legendary items:

    Emerald Tablet (amulet)- increases chance of enemies dropping gold and healing potions. It enables the alchemist to use his crafting skill to enchant weapons and armor.

    Saint George’s Lance- Attack/ damage bonus vs. dragons, basilisks, and horrors. Gives the Paladin a faith and defense boost.

    Chameleon Cloak- Stealth bonus and allows player to blend with nearby vegetation or other structures, remaining invisible, provided he does not move (wait until enemies walk away).

    A consumable (or maybe a skill):
    Whistling Arrow- Attracts enemies where it is shot, provided they have not been alerted to the player yet.

  18. Wow, that’s a whole bunch more comments! Hi πŸ˜€

    gniK and tofu: Sounds perfectly reasonable! With the Paladin, I wanted to focus the Gear slot on additional starting spells, so I guess I ended up putting Gear-like things into the Perk slot to make room. I guess I should give Devotee a permanent stat twist, and making Magic Burn worse is certainly interesting…

    Mistwalker: I like that HP swapping, that’s really exploitable. Even generally it could be a nice alternative healing skill. I think that has potential. I’m not a fan of making bosses immune to stuff but I can think of a few ways to limit it against enemies who truly have masses of HP.

  19. Ryan: Lots of neat ideas, cheers! I *really* like the Pugilist venom strike concept, I’m seriously wondering if that’s cooler than Fatality…

    mercy: Thank you. πŸ™‚

  20. A consumable that enchants one your currently equipped armour/weapon with a random enchantment, obviously you’d get the better enchantments latter on though.
    Also more tier 4 dry and wet items, since after 4 carapace potions they do nothing and theres no point making them i end up creating tons of invincibility potions.
    Also the xp based skills do get harder to hard in the loop, its not as awful as it was, but craft definitely gets a hit since there isnt a way to make it charge faster, hint hint, but that would be better than the “upgrade” craft gets which simply give more potions and less of everything else, and gets rid of the small healing potion.

  21. The tier 4 paper item could turn all enemies into chickens temporarily.

  22. 😁😁😁 I’m really excited for this upcoming update.
    I’d like to reassert my suggestions from months ago:

    Fairy’s Wand: +inspiration; 0-1 damage
    Thor’s Hammer: +knockback; -speed -attack

    I’d love to have contributed to this game somehowπŸ˜†

  23. I’d like have a kind of bow like normal weapon (not legendary) can do a small distance attack like pistol but -attack & -speed, it doesn’t match with hunter class skill, but hunter can also equip to improve overall damage (and can’t do melee attack). can design as a skill when armed the item, so can have some legendary item adhere with new skill when equip by player (the skill can be drop for someone like to forgot πŸ˜‰

  24. Also, unlike casting magic (or use pistol to fire) on enemy will alert others, bow weapon can deal sneak hit on enemy who not in sign on player (it would benefit to thief for gaining morale). even without bow the ranger can do longer distance to shoot enemy but with bow the ranger can do sneak attack without alert other enemy.
    For tower run, I would like to have new enemy with small chance of ability to instant kill player (or other if charmed), on later level of tiers (I hope not include boss πŸ™‚ )

  25. aaroyd, that idea of the bow dealing sneak attack damage, why doesnt the regular bow get the stealth bonus regular daggers get, id love +1 minimum and 25% higher damage and it would make sense, also being able to shoot enemies behind bushes with sense danger would be nice.

  26. Thief can’t dealing sneak attack using fireball on enemy for gaining morale, that I think bow should more like melee attack than spellcast damage. it seem game design issue even using ranger/hunter fire with arrow the enemy wake from … no matter how high stealth you have

  27. Thanks for the extra ideas! A regular knockback weapon would be a lot of fun, some stealthy bow stuff would make a lot of sense (with tweaks so Ranger doesn’t get any stronger!) and I definitely want to add more tier 4/tier 5 items to make crafting more varied.

    Aaroyd: An instant-kill enemy would be incredibly evil, I don’t think I’m that mean πŸ˜€

  28. Perhaps it’s too evil, how about enemy has ability like nova to make you health crit to 1 point, since you can have chance to get magic skill to swap enemy health. such monster should be aware and carefully to deal with when in tower run i think.

    Thank for you reply and looking for you new update πŸ™‚

  29. I have some suggestions, since you seem to be reading this section for new ideas I would love to contribute! First of all I would like to congratulate you in making this deceptively simple game. It went beyond my expectations in many ways and I insisted on buying a Morale pack if only to show my appreciation. Thank you for your work! Now the ideas:

    Weapons
    The Mistblade: A backstabbing sword which increases stealth and/or speed, has medium-high damage, and has a “Mist” proc. “Mist” either has a 10% chance to proc on hit, or a 100% chance to proc on a critical, and instantly makes you invisible as if you had used Shadow Mastery.

    Magebane: An axe or mace with high damage that casts Dispel when it crits, stunning casters and banishing summons. Could also have -speed and +magic resist.

    Soul-Seeker: A dagger that will sometimes randomly strike enemies from afar. This only happens if they’re unaware, and will count as a backstab for full damage.

    Heart’s Desire: A sword that gives you a 20% chance ON KILL to force the enemy to drop EITHER gold or a health orb. You must have killed the enemy with a normal weapon attack for the proc to occur.

    Demon-Eye Staff: +intellect and a “Inspiration” effect with 10-15% proc chance. On a character that already has the talent, it only increases the chance by 5%

    Iceweaver: An athame/runesword with +intellect and a chance whenever you cast an Intellect-based spell to gain the “Coldstrike” buff. While the buff is active, your next normal attack will be a guaranteed hit and will reduce the enemy’s speed.

    Spells and Skills:
    Chain Lightning (Intellect): Strikes an enemy with lightning that bounces onto an additional enemy for every 10 intellect you have.

    Toxic Cloud (Intellect): Poisons enemy in a 3×3 area, slowing and dealing damage over time.

    Telekinesis (Intellect): Pushes an enemy back a few squares, dealing damage to it if it hits a wall or another enemy.

    Force (Faith): Pushes all enemies around you back a square for every 10 faith you have (minimum 1) but deals no damage.

    Zeal (Faith): Strikes an enemy in melee range for a guaranteed hit with bonus damage based on faith,

    Righteous Reprehension (Faith): Damages a single enemy in short range (like a pistols range). Stuns it if it has more HP than you.

    Sermon of Silence (Faith): Enemies in a large circle around you can’t cast spells and neither can you. Enemies have reduced speed around you.

    Cheap Shot (Physical): Damages an enemy in melee range and stuns it. Deals increased damage if he is unaware (like a backstab).

    Pain-Fueled (Physical): Gains temporary attack and speed based on missing health.

    Terrorize (Physical): Strikes an enemy for heavy damage and causes Fear is he has less than half his HP after the attack.

    Classes
    Rune-Caster: Can write invisible glyphs on the floor that trigger effects when enemies step on them and can buff his weapons and equips with “runes” to become stronger in direct battle. A Warrior-Wizard hybrid with an unique twist.

    Demonborn: Can breathe fire, charm enemies, cast curses, drain life and cause a ton of damage, but has very little HP and will die quickly unless used wisely.

    Cultist: Can stealth and backstab, has high speed and reasonable damage. Plays like a Thief, with some Faith-based tricks up his sleeve to harrow enemies while he attacks from behind

    Here are some suggestions. I hope some of them can give you new ideas for game content! Good luck with the game, brother!

    Best regards from the Mad Mage

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