Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

[bigosaur]

Crazy over mad I guess... though I'd rather give a more different name/version, I can't help feeling that Santa will be great as a Christmas thing but then feel kind of odd the rest of the year.

Well, it's a snow/ice level. It should work.

The healing staff is, I think, overpowered at the moment. 8 damage + poison removal and heal, given how dangerous poison is, makes it a no-brainer as my main attack staff any time there's a shop I can rob one from on 1st or 2nd level (which is a fair chunk of the time). It's frustrating because I like using the others, like shepherd and turret especially, a lot, but at the moment, in most games the healing staff is just always the better option. I'd drop it to 6 or even 5 damage, so people will still cart it around as a curing tool but it's not automatically the best fighting-power option around if you find one on first level.

Agreed. Will do it for the next version.

Why is the lightning from the staff so weak compared to the lightning from the sword?

Compared to other staves, lightning staff is similar. I find it especially OP with some bosses because lightning can do a lot of damage. Perhaps the sword is OP compared to other weapons - however, when it was weaker it felt weak and I would rarely use it (although it's mean to be one of the best swords). For example, if you got a VioleNt sword there would be no reason to use the Lightning sword. Since I upped the damage, it's usable again. Note that lightning is rage based, has short range and no dash attack, so it's really not that great - thus very high lightning damage to compensate. Compare it with the Rogue Sword for example, which can also deal 300-400 damage with rage attack but also allows you to sneak out of tough situations.

This doesn't make a huge deal of sense to me, especially considering how high-mana the lightning staff's ability actually is.

Well, I guess I could lower the mana cost. Actually I'm thinking to do the same for Fireball staff as well - to make it more fun.

Is there any way at all for the skeleton archer character to get rid of curse effects like distraction and avarice, given that they can't drink dragon fire potions?

Currently, no. I planned to have some items or altars that remove all negative status effects but still haven't decided what exactly it would be.

I've not had this come up, but what happens if you try long-jumping while riding a boar?

This can never happen, because those two rooms (boars and long-jump) are mutually exclusive, i.e. they can never get created in the same game. However, if you would be able to create it (via cheat codes) the boar would simply run through the spikes while you're jumping above. And if you tried to walk onto spikes while mounted, you would fall off the boar.

Are you meant to be able to resurrect Undead King Salamis and have him follow you around?

Yes. Vampire Lord too. It is a bit OP and I will probably reduce the drop rate for Staff of the Dead, so necromancer drops it rarely and those runs when you do get them feel special.

[Jubal]

Hmm, I guess. I suppose I associate the modern style red-clad "Santa" with quite a modern/American version of Christmas (the older English "Father Christmas" is still more normally the one referred to in my family), so for me personally I find it jars oddly with fantasy settings. That's just me, though - I think you're right, it will probably work fine for most players (and I can always reskin him for myself at least if I want to...!)

I think fireball staff is balanced atm - dropping the mana cost on the lightning staff would make that a better choice though, certainly.

I like the idea of altars that remove some status effects, that would definitely be a good addition!

Btw, I'm compiling a three-part guide to the game in the rest of this subforum, so if you ever get a chance to check I haven't said anything stupid in those threads please do take a look

[bigosaur]

Btw, I'm compiling a three-part guide to the game in the rest of this subforum, so if you ever get a chance to check I haven't said anything stupid in those threads please do take a look

Oh. I don't know how I missed that. Going to read it now.

[bigosaur]

Btw, I'm compiling a three-part guide to the game in the rest of this subforum, so if you ever get a chance to check I haven't said anything stupid in those threads please do take a look

I few things you can add:

Goblin Bomber can occasionally drop a bomb right next to him if you're sticking too close to him for a longer period.

The "official" goblin unit names are: Goblin Defender (sword+shield), Goblin Berserker (axe), Goblin Warrior (club), Goblin Shaman, Goblin Blaggard (bombs). I'm not sure if Blaggard is a good name, what do you think about it?

The "official" dungeon unit names are: Thug (mace), Thief (twisted knife), Brigand (shielder). I'm not sure these are the best? Maybe I should switch to the names you used.

A good weapon to take down Orcs are the bombs or melee weapons with knockdown ability (Warbreaker, Earthquake Staff, Twisted Knife). The same weapons are also useful against shielded enemies (Goblin Defender, Guard Captain and Brigand).

The get the thief off your back you can try to get hit deliberately (buy an enemy or a trap) or use a dashing rage attack with a melee weapon. With some precise positioning, you can get the floor spike trap to only hit the thief. In co-op games, the other player can hit the thief. Thieves are very useful if you have the Avarice curse. You can use them to get rid of unneeded weapons and items.

Skeleton Sword has a "tetanus infecion" attack that manifests in poison+muscle spasm effect. Hiccups also result in muscle spasms.

Skeleton Archers have no negative effect, except really high arrow damage that can often one-shot the player.

Vampire is actually a Vampiress. They don't have any boosts. They have a two-stage attack (hit + uppercut) which triggers if the initial attack succeeds.

One of the simple ways to kill a Bushido is to use the Meteor Staff + Voodoo doll. Drop a meteor on the shop keeper. As soon as Bushido comes out, mark him with the doll and drop it. Then just keep dropping meteors on the doll until he's done.

[Jubal]

Thankyou! Will add those notes on thieves etc (and of course some of the other guide parts are very much incomplete so far, as you'll notice).

That's interesting tactically, personally I almost never use knockdown weapons on the orc etc unless I have the horse so I can reliably kill them on stomp - I just find they catch me unawares too often when they get up slightly faster than I expected.

I am very much in favour of "Goblin Blaggard", that's an excellent name for them I'll change the others to their official names later (I wonder if "soldier" might be better than "defender" though, given they're mostly trying to attack things throughout the game!).

In terms of dungeon unit names, I think my idea of Bandit maybe works better than Thug (I feel like thug implies they're stupid, whereas these guys are quite smart given they flank you, run shops, etc), but your name of Brigand for the shielders is probably better than my suggestion of Assassin (because assassins with shields/defense capacity is a weird idea).

[bigosaur]

I wonder if "soldier" might be better than "defender" though, given they're mostly trying to attack things throughout the game!

I used "defender" because of the shield. But maybe this isn't a good connection?

In terms of dungeon unit names, I think my idea of Bandit maybe works better than Thug

Ok. Updated.

I have finished reading the unit part and added some more comments to my previous post (see above).

I'm going to read the boss guide now and make a new post for that.

[Jubal]

Defender does make some logical sense - I guess I'd associate "defender" with defending something else/external, though, beyond just shielding themselves, which is why I'm a bit less sure about it?

Thankyou! For the equipment & general gameplay guides, it's probably not worth looking through them yet - the monster manual is by far the most complete of the three.

[bigosaur]

Golem hand slam does 60 damage if the hand hits you.

Cyclops do 60 damage for the club attack (you probably got 30 if you were playing with a knight and had 50% damage reduction due to the shield). The hand-slap does 30.

For boss enemies who are regular humans (Violent Knights, Crystal Wizard, Necromancer, Ringleader) there's a good melee tactics: just stay close to them spam the light-attack to keep them stunned. I have actually designed these bosses to be easier for a melee character to offset the fact that most other bosses are much easier for a ranged character to fight.

[bigosaur]

Defender does make some logical sense - I guess I'd associate "defender" with defending something else/external, though, beyond just shielding themselves, which is why I'm a bit less sure about it?

Understand. Not sure about "soldier" though. I feel like "soldier" would be a profession for someone who made that choice in life and doesn't feel like something goblins would have as they are warrior race and they all fight? Or maybe it just doesn't translate well from English to Serbian so I got a wrong impression?

[Jubal]

That's a good point, yes, soldier usually does imply professional/regimented or at least specifically trained/kitted out - a conscript is still a soldier despite not having it as their profession, for example.

I guess "Goblin Swordsman" would be another option, or you could rename the goblin warrior to "Goblin Thug" or "Goblin Grunt" (both of which would I think imply low skill), and then rename the defender to warrior?

[bigosaur]

Swords don't all have the dashing rage attack. Most of them do, but not all: The Rogue Sword makes you disguise as a barrel and then sneak-attack for 100+ damage per hit. The Thunderstriker shoots lightning instead of the dash attack.

I have changed the Firestarter for the next version to have 100% burn chance, i.e. enemies are always set on fire.

You probably know this, but a couple of weapons are missing: The Fake Excalibur, War Axe, Dual Bloodblade (Vampiress weapon), Twiligth staff, Demonic staff and Staff of the Dead (raising undead).

The weapons with backstab bonus are usable in single-player games against the big bosses who don't turn after they start attacking (Ogre Mama, Golem, Executioner, Dragons, Butcher, etc.) and also when you freeze enemies and then attack from behind.

The War Sheep boss can easily be defeated with a Meteor staff, Stormbringer or a simple voodoo doll. Since the sheep does not move, make sure you use the Shepherd staff when the boss is near the spawning "hut" so the spikes hit it instead of covering the whole screen. Then stand below the hut and just attack from range or via voodoo doll. The hard part is only getting the boss to stand in a position that's good for turning him into a war sheep.

Medusa arrows are useful against Bushidos.

A typo, this should probably be "rage" up instead of "range up":

The ranged secondary on throwing weapons generally doesn't build range up

Going to read the potion section now...

[bigosaur]

You could rename the goblin warrior to "Goblin Thug" or "Goblin Grunt" (both of which would I think imply low skill), and then rename the defender to warrior?

Awesome. I like the Grunt + Warrior idea. Will change it now.

[Jubal]

I had the others noted down, but I'd forgotten the bloodblade, thanks for the heads up (and thankyou for the info on the war sheep, I'll add that to the monster manual!)

Also, I decided to make another little extra skinpack, which isn't very good but it's a useful excuse to practice doing some digital art etc
https://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5401.0

[bigosaur]

The Winter is coming...



A new version of the game is up with the Ice Mountain level:

- slide and glide across the snow as you fight - unless you have a mount
- 3 new enemy units
- 2 new ice weapons
- 1 new boss (Crazy Santa throwing exploding presents)
- added music and sfx volume adjustment to the pause screen
- fixed Mom Books drops for altars to match the achievement unlock description
- lightning now shoots through metal shields
- adjusted mana cost and base damage for some magic wands
- Fire sword now has 100% burn chance
- spawning minions no longer give you mana via Warbreaker (this is to prevent getting infinite number of points in daily challenge)
- fixed a couple of translation related bugs

[Jubal]

Just defeated crazy Santa for the first time, as the chanter (well, I kinda defeated him - I basically just kept out the way and let my friend Undead King Salamis do 80% of the work).

A couple of thoughts:
- Could we get a visual dark version of the snow orbs? It looks really weird when a pogonip staff (of which I really like the name - it's not a word that's used in the UK at all, it's quite a fun one) is firing a mix of regular dark orbs and snow orbs.
- Mounts are currently super important, especially I think for archers, on the new level, I managed most of it as an archer but lining up for shots with the sliding effect is hellishly tough (the whole level is much easier for mages because you usually have some spread-shot effects by then) - some extra possibility of removing the sliding effect might be helpful (maybe a "snowshoes" item that occasionally turns up?). I guess maybe also I need to be using the multishot on the bow more and change my tactics...
- I was thinking of status effect removal stuff for the undead archer too - what about a rare item "mind focus amulet" that provides protection from hypochondria, avarice, extravagance, and distraction?