Mages Rock

[oodyboo]

First, fun game. Thanks for recreating the epic video game adventures of my youth!

Still on my first play through - on Hard mode got 1 mino fighter 1 lizard rogue 2 insect mages (frost + fire!)

Now it took me a little practice to get comfortable strafing and clicking runes, but I enjoy challenge and find the mages are extremely fun and powerful.

My only comparison to ranged rogues would be when my mages are out of mana and I just have them throw stuff. It seems too easy and slightly boring in comparison.

So unlike all the people hatin' on mages because they can't handle a few extra clicks, I want to say keep them as they are.

If anything maybe add some complexity to rogue, e.g. make them draw the bow and fire. Maybe even make it so they hold down the attack to represent drawing the bow, and let go of right-click to release. Longer draw = attack bonus. Possibly a minimum draw time. Could be as little as 0.5 seconds to draw bow enough to fire and bonuses up to 1.5 seconds of draw time.

Another idea would be to require a click to load an arrow from quiver.

As for throwing, maybe a similar mechanic can be used.

Huge kudos.
The puzzles are great and the lack of bugs is really amazing given my experience with games lately.
I think the main areas for improvement lie in adding variety to itemization spells and skills, and of course the inevitable and ubiquitous skill/stat balance issues. I think Expansions/DLC/Sequels and community Mods will keep me playing this game for a long time.

Thanks again AH!

[Darklord]

Yes, yes they do! Glad you've had so much fun.

Daniel.

[t0tem]

First I was like "what have you been smoking?"
But as I gave it a second that's actually a pretty cool and, to my knowledge, completely original idea. Not saying it would actually work but it might. Imagine if holding down the mouse button longer could give higher attack power or accuracy or just temporarily increase the appropriate skill by +1/0.1secs. Of course, taken too far we might end up in Tekken territory where if you press S+C+M+1+4 you make a melee combo that kills everything in a 2 square radius (lol I'll shut up now).

[Draken]

im with the OP on this one, I generally LOVE mages, on any game that supports them, and i just dont understand all the mage-hating people in this forum, I specially love the complexity of having to click the correct runes, IN THE MIDDLE of a brawl with an Ogre... Even if you had to do it in a specific order... as in... Ice Shrads, you have to click Ice first then Earth; I would had loved it!

The only downside i've found on mages is #personal taste# that i like my mages knowledgeable, as in having TONS of spells to choose from, that's why in my first playthrough i didnt specialized my mage but spread the points (almost) evenly, until i realized the futility of this, but still managed to finish the game with no major problems #personal taste#

[Mystify]

My problem with mages is not the rune system, its that they are just weak. Spells run out too quickly, and they don't deal enough when they are active, and you have a horribly small selection of spells that don't do anything interesting. Its simply more useful having another guy using weapons than throwing spells.

[Keefy]

IMO, there was a real shortage of mage armor/clothes and mage-specific limited-use weapons such as wands. (I have 100% game completion so I believe that I have found everything). Mages are useful, versatile and deal great damage but they do have a short battery life.

I love mages but agree that they could do with an even larger pool of energy or faster energy regeneration or more mage-specific items.

Idea - How about being able to cast spells onto notes/pieces of paper found in order to make one-use only scrolls for later use? The original note would be destroyed in the process and replaced with a scroll of x spell. This scroll can then be used to cast the spell without energy cost but it is then destroyed. The scroll can only be cast by someone with the appropriate skill to cast the spell normally.

Idea 2 - A spell to cause health damage to the caster but then regain this damage dealt as energy. Adds a strategic choice that could backfire.

[Hachi]

Mages are ok, but honestly they need either more versatility or more power relative to the melee / ranged skills.

Running 2 mages 2 missile rogues, it's clear that against 1 target "packs" the rogues outdamage the mages about 2:1. If there is more than 1 enemy, it's more like 3:1 or worse. And that's not using Double Shot or Enchanted arrows.

I love the mage mechanics. But right now there are just a lot of disadvantages: Really slow energy regen, high energy cost for spells, spells that are more cumbersome to cast but do less damage than ranged attacks, needing to split points between 2 skills, etc.

I think they just need to be balanced slightly. Reduce mana cost on spells or increase regen would probably be enough. The ability to enchant missiles is huge, though.

[gronkdamage]

My complaint with mages is not being able to 'ready' a spell. Meaning here's the runes, cast only this... It made mages a pain in the ass - and I absolutely hate them because of it.

[Draken]

My complaint with mages is not being able to 'ready' a spell. Meaning here's the runes, cast only this... It made mages a pain in the ass - and I absolutely hate them because of it.

what do you mean not being able to "ready" a spell?... If i counted the times i've walked half-a-dungeon with my mage having the runes for Fireball ready, waiting for the poor sod who would dare and face her, i'd be out of numbers...

Anyways, most of your frustrations are sensible, Mages do seem to run out of energy pretty fast and end up being dead weight, but it's the same deal in other games, specially in the D&D universe, where parties tend not to rest on a day/night schedule but whenever the mage runs out of spells

I totally agree on the not enough spells issue, that really did hit home in me. Because, like i said, i like my mages being very knowledgeable.

Im sure all of our frustrations are not falling on deaf ears and i am almost too sure the devs are keeping notes on what did and what did not work out of the designing table. Hopefully, they'll address some of these issues in the patches to come, or even better, a DLC/Expansion pack.