Preparations
Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2012 8:36 pm
A lot of the game's preparations still need work. They're either overshadowed by better options or are nothing more than novelties with no practical application. I'd like to make a couple of suggestions:
Bet on the Boss
With its payout benefit greatly diminished and a hefty 50 gold charge to prep it, this has become largely useless. I'd like to propose this change:
One extra boss (randomly chosen) is created on the level. This boss has normal unboosted stats, regardless of which level it is used on.
A weaker boss can actually be a benefit to a player, giving a nice source of easy bonus XP and also dropping gold that can be used on shops to aid the fight against the other bosses.
Black Market:
Now that there's a 50-gold prep, multiple bosses grant extra gold, and there's an alchemy scroll to convert stuff into gold, and there's still Gloves of Midas and Tikki Tooki's boons, this is seriously overshadowed. I'd propose that in addition to its current effect it also do the following:
One "Black Market" shop will appear, allowing you to purchase one of your locker items of your choice (similar to the apothecary) at double its normal price. Translocation scrolls do not work here.
Scout: Player:
Now that this is the only scout preparation left in the game, it can just be renamed "Scout". With Scout: Alter removed it no longer has any thematic ties to the Church, either. The only reason it's still here is that the church is otherwise pretty sparse. I'd recommend moving it to the Thief Den.
Holy Diver:
This has always been a novelty with no practical application. Maybe if the alter would spawn beside the dungeon entrance it might be a fun thing to try now again, but really I'd prefer it to get scrapped and replaced by something that is useful. The bottom line is that preps should give you more control, not less. The entire reason people did strategic alter unlocking is because we felt we had insufficient control over which gods we got to worship, and we want preps to help us in that regard.
Indulgence:
Much too niche; it's rare I ever need this, much less can predict ahead of time that I will. With most deities, if you anger them once you're probably going to anger them again so this isn't of much help. I'd say get rid of it and clear the way for more useful preps.
Heretic:
While 25 piety is a nice bonus to have, and it's no longer overshadowed by the flat 25 piety boon, it greatly reduces your chance of getting a favorable alter, which is already the biggest luck factor. I only ever use this for a Crusader, where losing one out of four alters is an acceptable trade, but I still rarely do so because losing alters is just horrible.
This is my opinion: Either raise the number of alters in a dungeon up to 4 (with the Crusader at 5) or scrap this preparation. Right now, we have too few alters to seriously consider have one of them randomly removed.
Some Suggestions for Church Preps:
The church is a bit sparse currently, and most (or even all) of its preps should either be migrated elsewhere or removed. Without doing anything overly complicated, here's one suggestion that would be much appreciated:
Alter Boy: One extra alter appears in the dungeon, but desecrating alters grants only 20 piety rather than 25.
Mage Tower:
I'd really like to see the Mage Tower get converted into a glyph locker, allowing me to actually choose a glyph I want and bring it into the dungeon with me. The ability to actually make glyph combos with T3 classes would be awesome, and there are many class-specific strategies that require you to find your chosen glyph early or go home (Orc Wizards and PISORF, anyone?) that could really benefit from the removed scumming. If this is done, the booster swap preparations could be moved to the Church, which needs more preparations.
Bet on the Boss
With its payout benefit greatly diminished and a hefty 50 gold charge to prep it, this has become largely useless. I'd like to propose this change:
One extra boss (randomly chosen) is created on the level. This boss has normal unboosted stats, regardless of which level it is used on.
A weaker boss can actually be a benefit to a player, giving a nice source of easy bonus XP and also dropping gold that can be used on shops to aid the fight against the other bosses.
Black Market:
Now that there's a 50-gold prep, multiple bosses grant extra gold, and there's an alchemy scroll to convert stuff into gold, and there's still Gloves of Midas and Tikki Tooki's boons, this is seriously overshadowed. I'd propose that in addition to its current effect it also do the following:
One "Black Market" shop will appear, allowing you to purchase one of your locker items of your choice (similar to the apothecary) at double its normal price. Translocation scrolls do not work here.
Scout: Player:
Now that this is the only scout preparation left in the game, it can just be renamed "Scout". With Scout: Alter removed it no longer has any thematic ties to the Church, either. The only reason it's still here is that the church is otherwise pretty sparse. I'd recommend moving it to the Thief Den.
Holy Diver:
This has always been a novelty with no practical application. Maybe if the alter would spawn beside the dungeon entrance it might be a fun thing to try now again, but really I'd prefer it to get scrapped and replaced by something that is useful. The bottom line is that preps should give you more control, not less. The entire reason people did strategic alter unlocking is because we felt we had insufficient control over which gods we got to worship, and we want preps to help us in that regard.
Indulgence:
Much too niche; it's rare I ever need this, much less can predict ahead of time that I will. With most deities, if you anger them once you're probably going to anger them again so this isn't of much help. I'd say get rid of it and clear the way for more useful preps.
Heretic:
While 25 piety is a nice bonus to have, and it's no longer overshadowed by the flat 25 piety boon, it greatly reduces your chance of getting a favorable alter, which is already the biggest luck factor. I only ever use this for a Crusader, where losing one out of four alters is an acceptable trade, but I still rarely do so because losing alters is just horrible.
This is my opinion: Either raise the number of alters in a dungeon up to 4 (with the Crusader at 5) or scrap this preparation. Right now, we have too few alters to seriously consider have one of them randomly removed.
Some Suggestions for Church Preps:
The church is a bit sparse currently, and most (or even all) of its preps should either be migrated elsewhere or removed. Without doing anything overly complicated, here's one suggestion that would be much appreciated:
Alter Boy: One extra alter appears in the dungeon, but desecrating alters grants only 20 piety rather than 25.
Mage Tower:
I'd really like to see the Mage Tower get converted into a glyph locker, allowing me to actually choose a glyph I want and bring it into the dungeon with me. The ability to actually make glyph combos with T3 classes would be awesome, and there are many class-specific strategies that require you to find your chosen glyph early or go home (Orc Wizards and PISORF, anyone?) that could really benefit from the removed scumming. If this is done, the booster swap preparations could be moved to the Church, which needs more preparations.