The Official Demigod Change Request Thread

By Frogboy on March 29, 2009 3:29:09 PM from

Want something in Demigod’s balance changed? Make the case in this thread.

Everyone here at Stardock and GPG can feel the electricity in the air. It’s that feeling, that knowledge that the game you’ve been working on is going to be a hit. Those of you in the game industry know that feel. But for those of you who aren’t let me explain: Game projects take years from start to finish and let’s face it, statistically, most games aren’t very good. And for those on the project, it can be a real morale killer because the teams on those games usually know it long before release but cannot really do much about it. With Demigod, both teams (Stardock and GPG) know they have something special here.

That said, I’ve put together a list of change requests that are in front of us to see what we can do and what we can’t do.

This is the official change-request discussion thread. As these features are changed/added/addressed we’ll update this post.

I. Game options

d. Tower Strength

i. Weak is 2800. Please change to 4200.

ii. Normal is 5600. GOOD.

iii. High is 14000. Please change to 8400.

e. Grunt strength

i. Please change to” Grunt HP”

ii. Weak is 240 HP. GOOD.

iii. Normal is 390. GOOD.

iv. High is 870. GOOD.

f. New option: Grunt Damage

i. Weak: 75% what it currently is.

ii. Normal: what it currently is

iii. High is 150% of what it currently is

iv. Severe is 300% of what it currently is

g. Gold rate

i. Low. please increase by +1.

ii. Normal. Please increase by +2.

iii. High. Please increase by +3.

h. Starting gold

i. add: Please add “low: $0”.

ii. normal is $1000. GOOD.

iii. high is $20,000. Please change to $5,000.

iv. filthy rich is $40,000. Please change to $15,000.

II. Citadel Upgrades

b. Building Firepower. Please reduce cost on each one by 50%.

c. Currency.

i. Currency I. Please change to 4 gold.

ii. Currency II. Please change to 6 gold.

iii. Currency III. Please change to 8 gold.

d. Black Smith

i. Black Smith I. GOOD.

ii. Black Smith II. Please change to 40%.

iii. Black Smith III. Please change to 50%.

iv. Black Smith IV. Please change to 60%.

f. Experience.

i. Experience I. Please change to 20%.

ii. Experience II. Please change to 30%.

iii. Experinece III. Pleae chnage to 40%.

iv. Experience IV. Please change to 50%.

III. In-game Balance

a. Going up a war rank gives all players on that team 1000G.

b. When teleporting, the target destination displays an animation to cue players that someone is teleporting in.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhuPKYyKu5I&eurl=https://forums.demigodthegame.com/342558/page/4/&feature=player_embedded for refrence

c. Torch Bearer

i. Fireball I. Please increase damage from 300 to 400.

ii. Deep Freeze. Cool down penalty on others reduced by 3 seconds on each on.

d. Rook

i. HP decreased by about 10% at all levels.

ii. Boulder Roll 3 stun time reduced to 3 seconds.

e. Unclean beast

i. Base speed reduced to 6.0

ii. Reduce melee damage by about 10%.

iii. Reduce HP or Armor by 10%.

f. Destroying a tower provides 800 gold, destroying a fortress 1600 gold.

IV. New Items

a. Scroll of rebound. $250. Upon use any spells cast on that player or area around player within the following 2 seconds are rebounded upon the caster.

b. Ring of rebound. Instant cast time. Upon use, any spell cast on that player or area around player within the subsequent 2 second are rebound upon the caster.

V. Ongoing Bug issues that must be resolved

a. Disconnects in-game

i. More consequence for disconnecting

ii. The game must be able to cleanly recover from a disconnect.

b. Connectivity

i. Connecting to other players needs to be as reliable as possible

ii. Current beta connectivity dialog needs polishing

c. Pantheon

i. Pantheon experience when connecting needs polish

ii. AI players should be last resort and there should always be at least 1 human player on both sides.

d. In-Game (separate bug database not covered in this thread)

VI. User Interface Requests

a. Tracking toggle button on screen (for new users, the [T] track option for having th3e camera follow and center on the Demigod is very nice but not easy to get to.

b. In the lobby screen, display the Experience rating (from the Pantheon) by a player’s name to make it easier for players to balance custom games.

VII. New Features

a. New Multiplayer Option: Skirmish [Demigod]

i. User selects Skirmish then choose Demigod and then presses Fight

ii. Impulse Reactor puts together players that are balanced to battle it out.

iii. Pantheon displays separate top players for Skirmish.

b. Pantheon Teams [Pantheon]

i. Players can create and join teams

ii. Player s can only belong to one team at a time

iii. Various ranking options based on Teams.

c. Skirmish Tournaments [Pantheon]

i. Not to be confused with the Pantheon itself

ii. Set begin and end date where players participate in a series of Skirmish games with their rankings filtered during the tournament. Top players win prizes.

Version 1.03: Updated March 29, 2009.

+912 Karma | 228 Replies

Quoting ACDalzK,

reply 8

How is Stardock getting upstaged? You mean why is it that a multi-million pound company cannot create a simple animation that a single man could do in under 2 hours? I am not a genius when it comes to modding/coding etc. - but I just know that if a single guy can make an animation like that then a whole company should be able to pretty easily. If this can only be coded in by a mod or whatever why dont you just make it so every game has this "add-on/mod" (as Trigi mentioned).

So explain to me again why adding this animation should cost "5 points"?

No reason to be a hard ass; let's be civil. What he is saying is GPG codes that. I think frogboy will likely give this idea a try and see what he thinks and then if it is good will put it in.

Also I don't think Chirmaya created an animation, he just used the one normally under the demigod's feet and put it at the entrance and exit of the teleport. Could be wrong about this as I don't know exactly what he did. Also brad may not have known it would be this simple. Let's not be rude and rather just express our sincere desire to have this integrated to limit some teleganking, while not killing the mechanic of teleporting in to stop attacks.

Brad,

Can we add a favor or artifact shop items that decreases cooldown and one that decreases cast time? I would like items with either of these effects.

Their is a 10% cooldown item might be generals only but it is there

My biggest request:

Diminishing Effects:

Always activate for 8 seconds, if triggered again extended by 8 seconds. If hit by two effects that trigger diminishing effects (2 stuns) diminishing effects don't add together timers, its only 8 seconds since the last hit.

If you are stunned, you are stunned for full duration. The second time you are stunned within diminishing effects duration you are stunned for half time. Third time is immune.

If you are slowed, same exact thing as stun.

Also reduce rook stun to 3 seconds.

Also arguments against wyrmskin gloves OPness:

Regalus already has a slow effect on shot, so yea if you have a problem you already getting his ability slaughter you. (erm i havent played reg since beta 2D... so i don't know what the new awesome strats are)

UB has a pretty good slowdown effect from his ability.

TB has a slow down aura (please add text for TB exactly the % of his auras and when switching forms)

Unclean beast balance

As a heavy UB player here are my criticisms of UB

1) Reduce damage a bit.

2) Remove the long cast time on frenzy.

3) Add a more visible effect on frenzy, enemies should know ub just went berserk and to run like hell.

4) Ooze and Vomit effects on the target need to look different. If someone vommits on me, they won't know that my ooze is active (UB vs UB)

General WTFs:

Why do towers "link"? Is there damage gains? Its been bugging me all this time. Add tooltips or remove the effect. Its cool but its confusing as hell.

Increase speed boost on wand of speed back to previous levels. 35-40% sounds about right to me.

Also I would love a favor item that decreased flag capture time. would never personally get it, but I can see it as be very useful and popular. It adds another interesting choice.

I`m all for blurring lines on Assassins and Generals, but only with newer Demigods I think. I would not want to see for example Rooks purchasing Idol Minions. The roles of each Demigod currently in play seem well-defined and solid.

Quoting WarlokLord,

reply 16

I agree. Keep current generals as generals and assassins as assassins.

Quoting ACDalzK,

reply 18

Sorry this sentence just made me laugh a bit. Complete contradiction in your first sentence of your post. I dont know if your trying to start a flame war or something but can we just stick the chat to balancing the game so the game is more polished on release

I in no way am trying to start a flame war, rather I am attempting (apparently rather poorly) to keep this post on topic and prevent personal attacks.

What I am saying is there is no reason to tell stardock you are disappointed or blame brad and his "multimillion dollar company", just support ideas that you like. If we are proponents for good idea, they will do there best to add them.

f. Destroying a tower provides 800 gold, destroying a fortress 1600 gold.

Can we get the range on structures damage increased to 17.1 so that everyone that attacks has to be in range. As it is now, once Regulus gets Scope, he can sit back and plink structures with impunity. It is unfair to think that any DG should be able to make 1,600-2,400 gold a minute without any worry of taking damage.

c. Currency.

i.      Currency I. Please change to 4 gold.
ii.      Currency II. Please change to 6 gold.
iii.      Currency III. Please change to 8 gold.

I am not sure if we ever got confirmation if currency was going to stack or if it was going to work as it is now, and just replace the previous version.

If it stacks it should look like this:

Currency I:         N+4
Currency II:        N+4+6 = N+10
Currency III:       N+4+6+8= N+18

This would make it worth investing the gold into the second and third tiers if the game looks like it will go on long enough.

If the mechanics of the Currency Citadel Upgrade is going to stay the way it is, IE each rank replaces the previous, then it needs to be changed to:

Currency I:          4 Gold
Currency II:        10 Gold
Currency III:       18 Gold

Also is this going to be per gold mine, or is going to be an increase after the Gold per second per gold mine is established. IE:

Is it Per mine: (N+X)*A/sec IE: (4+18)*3/Sec = 66 Gold per second = 3960 Gold Per Minute per Player
or added after: (N*A)+X/sec IE: (4*3)+18/Sec = 30 Gold per second = 1800 Gold Per Minute per Player

Where N=gold per second per mine, X=current Currency Lvl, and A= Number of mines under your control.

The example assumes that you have captured an extra mine, and have invested in Currency III and are playing on normal level with the new gold Per second of 4 rather than the present 2 per mine

As you can see the way it is added, makes a HUGE difference.

@Twisted it is a simside mod so everyone has to have it or the game desyncs - that is also the reason that there is no public download link to it as Chirmaya probably don't want to disturb the beta process.

Sweet so all that has to be done in reality is for them to add this mod to the distributed updates so that everyone has it, and one of the biggest contention points in the game will be fixed.

Quoting TwisTED,

reply 20

This is the whole point of regulus. He is supposed to have a range benefit. Early game you can crush him while he is slowly plinking away on your towers. You need these choices. As an attacker, do you want range or strength/health? As a defender, do you want to keep pushing or attack someone slowly plinking your tower?

Regardless of what the modder was able to do in a short time, there is a time and effort cost to GPGs development team to add this. Not only the development cost, but what about the testing?

While I'm not familiar with the code behind Demigod, I have done enough programming on other projects to think of a few ways that this feature could fail in a production environment.

Does the warp animation always play for each Demigod? What happens to the animation when several Demigods from the same team warp to the same location? Are there situations where animations break? Do other items need an arrival warp animation? What happens if they don't have it? Is the performance hit for this acceptabe? What edge cases can we identify and how much support do we need to build to handle these? The list goes on.

I know that everybody is looking at the animation mod and going "OMG THEY LIED! IT IS SIMPLE TO ADD!", but that ignores the reality that GPG is busy as hell and may simply not have the time or desire to add this now.

bah double post

Dalzk, we have done all we can with this one. Let's look at some other issues. If they ignore teleganking for release the game won't break. You can learn to avoid it. Just so long as they don't add the ability debuff in, it will be fine.

New issue -

Pantheon -

I think there needs to be either a lobby system for Pantheon or a meeting stone system a la WoW. Putting your name in at the meeting stone would mean you could go off and play a skirmish but be automatically injected into Pantheon game when it had enough players. I don't think there should be a penalty for leaving the skirmish in this case.

Also - You should have the option to change sides in Pantheon at the price of erasing your pantheon record for that tournament. And frankly we need an side autobalancing system - everyone is playing Lightside right now, and it won't be any different after release, makes it impossible to catch up, especially when most games are against AI.

Top ranks at end of Pantheon should have optional title, possibly ingame reward

They HAVE to have an option to change sides in pantheon at release or I'm going to RAGEEEEEE.

Why can't I have seperate stats on dark and light ladder?!

DalzK - I think we're talking past each other here. I hear you coming form a gameplay perspective and that's fine. The concerns that I listed there were from a testing/design perspective.

For example:

"What happens to the animation when several Demigods from the same team warp to the same location?"

You say they overlap. Fine, that's an acceptable gameplay solution. However, that now needs to be tested by the development team. Can the engine handle the overlapping animations? Are there scenerios that exist where the animation will not play properly? What about low end machines, will they render the animation correctly? THAT's the sort of thing that turns a 2 hour mod into a week of programming/testing work.

"What happens to the animation when several Demigods from the same team warp to the same location?"

Good point but hence how I said they just recycle the teleport animation thats used now.

Anyway, enough on that, Kestrel is right,

Randomized Items Per Skirmish/Combat

I am more convinced than ever that keeping things fresh in Demigod relies upon varying the available Items in shops.

Items can be balanced well, but if the same items are always available in every game, then every game shall have a similar flow as invariably we players (myself included) gravitate towards the exact same Item purchases/combinations. Deprive me of my usuals on occassion and you shake up things, varying the flow of the game to a considerable extent. Varying that flow is going to be critical to maintaining interest over the long-term (and to shaking up accepted Gold-use paths to victory).

I would have a massive archive of Items in the database, choosing totally at random per game which ones are available in Normal and Artifact shops.

Quoting WarlokLord,

reply 8

Randomized Items Per Skirmish/Combat

I am more convinced than ever that keeping things fresh in Demigod relies upon varying the available Items in shops.

Items can be balanced well, but if the same items are always available in every game, then every game shall have a similar flow as invariably we players (myself included) gravitate towards the exact same Item purchases/combinations. Deprive me of my usuals on occassion and you shake up things, varying the flow of the game to a considerable extent. Varying that flow is going to be critical to maintaining interest over the long-term (and to shaking up accepted Gold-use paths to victory).

I would have a massive archive of Items in the database, choosing totally at random per game which ones are available in Normal and Artifact shops.

I like this and suggested this back in beta 2. They should add a few more items and then take 20-30% out of each game. It forces you to adapt and be more flexibe rather than focus on "perfect" builds.

One of the things that has been tossed around (and there's a graphic for it) are chests that are randomly placed on the field that give little early bonuses (experience, mild stat bonuses, etc.) to give players an incentive to get out there early and do things other than go for flags or hang out at the item shop.

Quoting Draginol,

reply 10

Not sue the arena stlye maps create a need for this. It would be more of a instant free-be rather than an incentive or bonus.

Though if u had some kind of creature apearing and ui have to kill it to get the bonus, and the creature will become stronger as the game progressess, and it should be pretty strong. This could work.

It sounds interesting but I dont want to playing vs players than lose because he picked up a chess giving him 1k gold or +300 hp or whatever. Luck should only decide so much

Just an idea, I'd like to no what u guys think. I play wc3 alot and in some of their games they have tomes that increase health and stuff. Tomes could be implented into demigod making it easier to focus on a perticular stat, They would be used on buying them but they would be more expensive than buying items to do the same thing but they dodn't take up an item space and I guess could be cheaper because most items do multiple things but tomes would be just like, 100 health, 50 damage, plus .2 speed, 5% increase in a spells effect. This would help people who like to get awesome stats.

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The Official Demigod Change Request Thread