Soulstone Survivors
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Intrinsic
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Not sure how I feel about this one. The simplicity of Vampire and Rogue make it "stupid fun." This is fun but there's just so much going on spell effect wise all over the place, things aren't layered nicely to see stuff. Kind of being over critical about it all because it is fun and early access, but so far it hasn't clicked as well as previous ones.
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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You can turn spell effects down. I did when I was trying for speed clears because some of my builds made it impossible to see anything.
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Caliane
Avatar of War Slayer
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yeah, there's so many copycats now. some have good ideas, some have bad. I'm not sure which is best.
I like this ones dodge.
This one can be hard to see. giving the enemies aoe's and projectiles is a bad idea.
I have nomad survivors too. That one has skill evolutions which is nice. skills innately evolve when ranking them up. relics add extra features from chests too.
Class skills especially have evolution paths.
I was thinking how one of these games needs to incorporate clicker/idle style mechanics. Infinite scaling I mean. collect gold/drops, invest in passive stat increase, repeat.
after 2 days of playing, you are dealing 2.35 quintillion damage/hit.
I like this ones dodge.
This one can be hard to see. giving the enemies aoe's and projectiles is a bad idea.
I have nomad survivors too. That one has skill evolutions which is nice. skills innately evolve when ranking them up. relics add extra features from chests too.
Class skills especially have evolution paths.
I was thinking how one of these games needs to incorporate clicker/idle style mechanics. Infinite scaling I mean. collect gold/drops, invest in passive stat increase, repeat.
after 2 days of playing, you are dealing 2.35 quintillion damage/hit.
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Caliane
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looked at the "what you are playing" thread, to see the discussion. and checked out Rogue:genesia demo.
that one is looking real good to me. it solves a few problems.
one, it uses the slay the spire map system. so, you have that overworld map progression, with monster, chest, gold, event, etc choice.
second, it then has MUCH shorter battles. which seem to have some variation. "survive 2min.". "kill 2000 enemies". "kill the elite". This is a great system to speed things up. and not have to devote 45min or so, that the 30min ones do.
third, on top of that, since the powerup progression is for the ENTIRE run, which is now spread out over 20 or so battles, it allows far deeper evolutions. Which is a problem with the 30min survivors, like vamp/nomad. you want to get deeper and deeper, and crazier evolutions, but you have to cram it all into the 30min timeline.
from what I see in the demo... those evolutions AREN'T actually that crazy. but with this system, they could be.
that one is looking real good to me. it solves a few problems.
one, it uses the slay the spire map system. so, you have that overworld map progression, with monster, chest, gold, event, etc choice.
second, it then has MUCH shorter battles. which seem to have some variation. "survive 2min.". "kill 2000 enemies". "kill the elite". This is a great system to speed things up. and not have to devote 45min or so, that the 30min ones do.
third, on top of that, since the powerup progression is for the ENTIRE run, which is now spread out over 20 or so battles, it allows far deeper evolutions. Which is a problem with the 30min survivors, like vamp/nomad. you want to get deeper and deeper, and crazier evolutions, but you have to cram it all into the 30min timeline.
from what I see in the demo... those evolutions AREN'T actually that crazy. but with this system, they could be.
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Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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This run was kinda shit because it didn't offer me arcane explosion until I was already locked in to minions + buffs but you can see my good time listed.
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Brikker
Trump's Staff
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Some have that with endless modes. 20 Mins to Dawn I think, and Rogue's survival technically is endless but they patched it recently to be harder/fix some broke OP builds.
Once you unlock more via achievements in Rogue, there are a few weapon evolutions.
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Yeah almost like they're trying to do their own unique thing and not focused so heavily on just copying existing enemy hell games. The demo builds have been really bare bones compared to what the game is saying it will offer, once it hits EA the scope should be greatly expanded.
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Intrinsic
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So far it hasn't even been so much that as it just throws so much out with no rhyme or reason with thought to gameplay. It doesn't have to be a "wave" it can be endless spawns of stuff or their own unique name but procedurally there needs to be some unifying theme or goal. Not just "spawn 1,0000 of a random assortment of mobs" or however you want to phrase it. And this is just me complaining not suggesting that it is a bad game. I'm having fun but there's more fun to be had with some polishing.
Other things that irk me:
1. With so much crap on the screen it is just a glorified "don't step in the fire" simulator. Red circle after red circle after red line after red line. The don't stop moving concept is fun but this is just endless dodging with, as above, 1,000 mobs with no regard of what is actually being generated. That wasn't fun in WoW or Rift or wherever else and doesn't lend itself towards fun here.
2. Collision. Again as above if you're going to have 1,000 things on the screen and ask me to dodge through a ground 85% covered in AoE abilities, it is asking a lot to also make collision stop you. Dodges help with this as a mechanic and after some unlocks and correct cards it is less of an issue. I do think it adds a nice level of challenge and wouldn't want it removed, but it is also at let's say an 11 out of 10 and a 7 or so would be nice.
Definitely keep playing and do the EA when it is released because there's a ton here and it is fun, so it is easy and nice to target specific elements that detract from the fun I'm having. Compared to, say, just hating the damn thing and calling it a PoS.
Other things that irk me:
1. With so much crap on the screen it is just a glorified "don't step in the fire" simulator. Red circle after red circle after red line after red line. The don't stop moving concept is fun but this is just endless dodging with, as above, 1,000 mobs with no regard of what is actually being generated. That wasn't fun in WoW or Rift or wherever else and doesn't lend itself towards fun here.
2. Collision. Again as above if you're going to have 1,000 things on the screen and ask me to dodge through a ground 85% covered in AoE abilities, it is asking a lot to also make collision stop you. Dodges help with this as a mechanic and after some unlocks and correct cards it is less of an issue. I do think it adds a nice level of challenge and wouldn't want it removed, but it is also at let's say an 11 out of 10 and a 7 or so would be nice.
Definitely keep playing and do the EA when it is released because there's a ton here and it is fun, so it is easy and nice to target specific elements that detract from the fun I'm having. Compared to, say, just hating the damn thing and calling it a PoS.
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My best still.
How do you path? do you tend to stick around the middle or do you travel around looking for more enemies?
What are some good combos I could look out for, that you know of?
Gavinmad
Mr. Poopybutthole
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Well without ways to increase the difficulty the game is just too easy to need to be power-gamed but there are a few basics. The number one thing is to stack powers that share tags to increase the odds that you get offered powerups that buff the entire group. Like one fun thing I've done before is take the archer and then grab all 5 missile powers so I have all 6 abilities that share multiple tags like 'ranged' and 'missile', so I frequently get buffs that affect everything in the 'ranged' or 'missile' group.
Another strategy if you're using a starter weapon that supports it is to stack up the enhancements that give you a chance to cause a status effect with every hit, then grab the rare status related ones that make things snowball. You either want something that can be enhanced with a large area of effect or something that hits multiple times for this strat, so like hunters mortar shot, pyros combustion, or whatever the archer's fan of arrows thing is called.
As for speed clearing, you park in a corner to get faster respawns and avoid anything status related. Just buffs and big aoes or minions, and focus heavily on raw +damage.
Another strategy if you're using a starter weapon that supports it is to stack up the enhancements that give you a chance to cause a status effect with every hit, then grab the rare status related ones that make things snowball. You either want something that can be enhanced with a large area of effect or something that hits multiple times for this strat, so like hunters mortar shot, pyros combustion, or whatever the archer's fan of arrows thing is called.
As for speed clearing, you park in a corner to get faster respawns and avoid anything status related. Just buffs and big aoes or minions, and focus heavily on raw +damage.
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Alright, everything else I pretty much got by feel but the corner tip is interesting. I'll try that. thanks.
You can always get fucked, at some point I had an all fire setup and got 0 fire buffs. Infuriating.
Anyway, there is something about this particular game that really tickles my pickle.
I'm looking forward for early access.
Intrinsic
Person of Whiteness
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The all bolt run I just did was really fun and easy. I didn’t have archers but did have shadow, fire, ice, lightning, poison and very early on got the Epic cast speed and something else, maybe multi cast, that put me on path. I believe that one was 14:49 and that was mostly looking for mobs to kill. Will try the corner thing tomorrow.
Void
Experiencer
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I've been fairly addicted to this genre lately, partly as someone else mentioned due to the fact that they are dirt cheap. I've played the shit out of Rogue: Genesia and am basically just trying to finish up a couple of the last achievements while waiting for more content. I'm kind of burnt out on VS in terms of all the "secret" unlocks, but I did all of them up to last month anyway...before he implemented that easier way I believe. I've also played Nomad Survival a ton, and that one is decent too.
But Soulstone Survivors is the first one that really has that extra polish on it that makes me finally appreciate it. Sure, pixel graphics are ok, and cheap, but I'm honestly really, REALLY fucking tired of them. I honestly don't like pixel graphics, but I accept that they serve a purpose. The smooth yet quirky graphic style of this one is like a breath of fresh air. In Nomad Survival there are some minion builds, and they can work very well, but they honestly look like ass. The fucking skeletons in this one look fantastic. And the play is smooth and responsive, of course, because without that these games suck. For instance, I can't really get into Gunlocked or 20 Minutes Till Dawn because they just feel, I don't know, off a little.
The proposed meta progression for this one is great too, unlike a lot of the others. I like that each character is going to have multiple starting weapons/skills. Most of these games you just pick a character and get the same weapon no matter what, or no character choice and a random weapon, etc. Making new weapons for these guys is sort of cool. No idea what the other stuff is going to do, but there looks to be a lot of it. The skill tree is a little lackluster is about the only complaint I have right now, but maybe it will be expanded greatly with the full release.
Really hoping this keeps up with the current enthusiasm I have for it. This will be a day one purchase for me, EA or not.
But Soulstone Survivors is the first one that really has that extra polish on it that makes me finally appreciate it. Sure, pixel graphics are ok, and cheap, but I'm honestly really, REALLY fucking tired of them. I honestly don't like pixel graphics, but I accept that they serve a purpose. The smooth yet quirky graphic style of this one is like a breath of fresh air. In Nomad Survival there are some minion builds, and they can work very well, but they honestly look like ass. The fucking skeletons in this one look fantastic. And the play is smooth and responsive, of course, because without that these games suck. For instance, I can't really get into Gunlocked or 20 Minutes Till Dawn because they just feel, I don't know, off a little.
The proposed meta progression for this one is great too, unlike a lot of the others. I like that each character is going to have multiple starting weapons/skills. Most of these games you just pick a character and get the same weapon no matter what, or no character choice and a random weapon, etc. Making new weapons for these guys is sort of cool. No idea what the other stuff is going to do, but there looks to be a lot of it. The skill tree is a little lackluster is about the only complaint I have right now, but maybe it will be expanded greatly with the full release.
Really hoping this keeps up with the current enthusiasm I have for it. This will be a day one purchase for me, EA or not.
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