Self-PR'd here, both for feedback and because I had to bounce commits back and forth between desktop and laptop:
https://github.com/chaosvolt/cdda-arcana-mod/pull/122I've been working on rebalancing spells and in general tying more stats to a function of how much mana/fatigue/HP they cost. Main objective is making spell damage and debuff duration more consistently scale up depending on how much the spell costs. Just like how energy cost and casting time scales up and down towards different mulitpliers depending on the type of spell, the same concept applies: Dragonblood spells will start off beefier, achieve fast gains due to a much lower level cap, but will max out to become overall weaker than Magic Signs and Arcane Blessings of comparable cost. Conversely, this magnifies the game mechanic where Paragon of the Veil spells scale up slowly but steadily, starting off weaker than average before eventually eclipsing their counterparts.
A notable balance change for almost all of these offensive spells is a form of damage falloff. Since the internal math I hashed out makes the eventual max damage rather powerful, this would be obviously a bad thing if the entire AoE (which can often cover a wide area) dealt the full damage. So instead the total damage that internal math gives me is split in half, with the other half of it applied via a subspell that targets a much smaller area. A single point (potentially becoming a much-smaller AoE at higher levels) in the center of target_attack spells, a line running down the center of a cone_attack, etc etc. This also encourages the player to aim the spell with an eye towards prioritizing targets.
Finally, a noteworthy warning: Standard offensive Magic Signs are no longer as discriminating about what they hurt! Having them leave swathes of fire and lightning was already a feature that made them more destructive than most Kelvinist and Stormshaper spells, but now being able to avoid harming yourself and your allies with splash damage has been made a feature of Paragon of The Veil spells instead (which already notably swap out fire for harmless plasma effects). Player-centered AoEs like Shockstorm will still, rather obviously, leave the player unharmed while still endangering allies, since dropping a potentially-lethal AoE on yourself that you can't aim would be a bad idea.
Converting other buff and debuff spells to use the math I've cooked up will be saved for part two, while item spells will be rebalanced accordingly either with part two, or as part of a separate part three.
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Topic: Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead (Read 124902 times)