Okay, playing through the new version on an ATK path:
Level 2 - I get 72 ATK to one-shot Mud Mothers before leaving the level.
Level 3 - As soon as I have 133 ATK to one-shot Mud Babies, there's a lot of free GR/REP. This allows me to leave the level with 176 ATK, enough that Goblins will be free with the Goblin-Biter.
Level 4 - I ignore the Mutants as there's no incentive to tackle them (I'm not short on green keys, because I ignored most of the houses in Level 2). The first Goblin King is free, the second does a little damage.
Level 5 - Here I have to get some DEF, since there are so many sword-users who will definitely get a hit on me. I get 250 ATK for Soulless first, then some DEF, then go back to UT 1W and kill Mad Eyes for another DEF boost, then I can get the shield. Now Mutants are free, so I kill those for more DEF, making Peackeepers free. I get the sword, and boost ATK to 343 for Goblins and Waterskippers. However, I have only 7 HP at this point.
Level 6 - Okay, Goblins are free (even brained) so I can regain HP, kill the boss, and get the new HP refill.
Level 7 - I kill one Gel Baby for the Hook, and now everything is free except the boss.
Level 8 - Stuck, so I restore to the Level 5 altar and boost ATK as much as possible. Now I'm not losing HP even to the first Gel Baby, and with 470 ATK when I reach the Master Swordsman, I take one hit less. Back to Level 8, it's apparent that
everything needs DEF rather than ATK, so I get four DEF boosts, kill the Soulless for the large potion, get the Wyrmsmiter, and... nearly stuck again, but I remember the potions behind green doors in Level 5. Oh hey, those are actually free now I have the flippers!
Level 9 - There's a huge HP cache, which is nice, but killing an Adder for the blue key is draining and I don't have enough left over for the Slayer, and no way of getting more.
So, same problem really. Most of the hold is killing things for free, and the parts that aren't are too difficult.
I haven't tried the DEF path in the new version, but buying DEF has been made so much more expensive that I suspect it isn't a viable path at all. Using the second altar as a benchmark, the rates are 7 REP per 1 ATK, or 15 REP per 1 DEF. Remember how in
Tendry's Tale the same amount of money would let you get twice as much DEF as ATK? So DEF is roughly four times as expensive in this hold as in TT.
I'm not even going to discuss the altars' HP option, because it's a joke. It's so much more expensive, and you get so little HP for it, that it surely can't be worth considering. But okay, I'll play your game. I reload my Level 8 save and buy HP instead of DEF. I can only afford two boosts, so that's 1600 HP. I have to take seven hits to complete the level, and eight to get the blue key on the next. With 100 less DEF, I lose 100 HP per hit, so one hit from the Slayer and that's
all that HP gone already.
* * *
Now, some constructive feedback for how to improve this.
Standard altar systems, like in TT, have the altar cost in a variable, and every time you use an altar, it increases (usually either linearly, quadratically, or exponentially). Later altars use the
same variable, so that if you overuse an early altar, the next altar -- which would have offered you more ATK or DEF per cost -- is more expensive.
That is how you discourage overspending on early altars. What you've done in your hold -- all altars have roughly the same ratio of ATK/DEF to cost, and early altars are locked once you enter the next level -- actually does the opposite; it
encourages the player to spend as much as possible at each altar before moving on.
When I said "
there isn't enough HP"
, I didn't mean you should throw a few large potions into Level 9 and call it a day. I meant that
throughout the hold there should be more choices involving HP being behind monsters (or behind doors). That means there is always an interesting timing decision: do you need the HP badly enough to take it now when the monster is expensive, or can you gain stats first to make the monster cheaper?
Intentionally free monsters just don't make for fun gameplay. Killing all the waterskippers in the water level is tedious busywork (just like dropping all the trapdoors in your trapdoor rooms), and if you need to reset to change an earlier decision, it all has to be done again. It's especially bad when you get to a greckle gate room, and it feels like the hold is saying "
Oops, I gave you too many free monsters so you got a lot of free cash -- hang on a sec while I take it all away again."
Sorry if I come across as too negative. I think you have potential (as I said, the first level is very good) but RPG balancing is a very difficult art to master.
Good luck if you decide to keep working on this!
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50th Skywatcher
