I had this half-way typed up before that Abigail video got me all nervous, but I'll get this up now.
This is my tentative list of proposed changes.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS LIST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE, AND ALL FINAL DECISIONS ARE MADE BY RELOGIC (read: my bosses).
This list is being posted for additional opinions and feedback on the changes. I'm happy to take input under consideration, but I'm not going to be guaranteed to make requested changes, especially if we have internal reasons/justifications for not making changes.
I expect these changes will arrive tomorrow, so there should be a bit of time for discussion and first impressions.
Abigail:
- Increase Base Speed by 50% (3->4.5)
- Decrease Speed Growth from 1.5 to 1.35 (ends at exactly the same value at 11-minion)
- Decrease Smoothing (read: Buff Acceleration) from 20 to 15
- Decrease Smoothing Growth from 2 to 1.5 (maxes out at the same minion count)
- (Added in 1.4.3.1) Increase flower growth rate by 33%
- (Added in 1.4.3.1) Put a cap on how many enemies she can hit at once, and cap increases with minion count
Summary:
The changes to speed and "acceleration" here are each two-faceted. Both of them buff her BASE performance, and both of them nerf her growth-per-minion. Speed is literally her maximum movement speed, and smoothing has to do with the rate she builds speed.
At EVERY minion-level of Abigail (all the way up to 11 minions), she will be better or equal to the current stats. With the speed, it finally breaks even with the original stats at exactly 11 minions. With the acceleration, both versions of Abigail reach a "maxed" cap on this stat at the exact same minion count. You will only ever see an improvement with this change, or at worst, no change at all. The changes will be most pronounced at lower levels, with 1-minion count gaining the most benefit of all.
The changes to spawn rate and minion cap are already in the game. Open to feedback on those as well. Cap is not likely to be "removed", but the numbers can be adjusted.
Lucy:
- UT reduced from 20 to 17
- Scale increased from 1 to 1.2 (makes her 20% bigger)
- Boost Axe power from 25 to 30
A simple speed increase (which synergizes with her Axe power increase, a nice happy accident), and an increase to her physical size when being swung. When taking her critical rate into consideration, this actually gives her a rather generous DPS. If you do not include Beekeeper's Bees (hard to quantify on average), this should give her the highest DPS potential of any pre-HM sword aside from Night's Edge (which should be the best). With the slightly improved range, I feel this is a fair compromise, and pushing much further risks giving her too much power in contrast to other peers like Fiery Greatsword and Muramasa.
Weather Pain:
- Increase duration by 50% (non-damaging, only how long it lasts)
- Increase pierce count from 10->12 (can hit up to 20% more times, assuming it's duration does not end first)
- Increase speed from "7" to "8"
Trying to take feedback into account here, in a way that doesn't make this thing do any more DPS than it already does. This just makes it last longer, hit more times, and be a little faster. It WILL increase it's mana efficiency slightly due to the increase number of hits per cast, but other than that, it just keeps Weather Pain around longer and wasting a little less time chasing.
Pew-Matic Horn:
- Increasing range (exact amount undetermined, still experimenting a bit
- Slight increase to "accuracy randomness" to account for increased range, as the boosted speed kinda reduced it
- Reduce UT from 24 to 15
As mentioned earlier, my initial final release values for Pew-Matic were incorrect somehow, and were "worse" than my original planned values by a decent margin. Even those values had been conservative at the time, knowing that I could make minor buffs as needed, but with the incorrect values, it needed quite a bit more. For the time being, I'm taking the "faster" approach, and these numbers should result in much better performance, and a little bit better range. I could just as easily increase the damage, or a combination of both, to get the same end result, so the final product here can take many forms.
Houndius:
- Increase projectile speed from 8.5 to 12.5 (more accurate, no other change)
Little needs to be said here, this just improves the reliability of the weapon. No amount of speed will make it perfectly accurate, unless it were bullet fast, and that isn't fitting with the original design of the item.
Bat Bat:
I have two variations on this, both of which I've decided I'm comfortable with, and I can go with either.
Both Variants:
- Hits with Bat Bat will always steal exactly 1 HP, cannot hit multiple targets for more than 1
- Increase Scale from 1 to 1.15 (makes it a bit bigger, to fit with a slower, harder hitting weapon)
Variant 1:
- Damage increased from 18 to 31
- UT increased from 30 to 45
Variant 2:
- Damage increased from 18 to 26
- UT increased from 30 to 40
Both variants slightly increase the Bat Bat's DPS, and both of them increase the maximum amount of healing that can obtained per minute. Variant 1 has slightly higher DPS, but Variant 2 has higher potential healing per minute because it is faster. As an additional note, both of these variants require more "consistent" hitting to maximize their healing potential, but the healing is delivered more reliably and is less confusing.
Ham Bat:
- Kills with Ham Bat will give a roughly identical buff to Life Drain, giving a boost to healing for a short duration.
- Increase damage from 50 to 60
- Increase scale from 1 to 1.2
With the combination of the slightly boosted size, the Well Fed double-boost on Ham Bat's damage, and the healing system, this is really pushing the extent of what I think can be asked of a pre-Mech sword. It's going to be doing some of the best sword-DPS pre-Mech aside from some of potential damage of some of the projectile swords with enough piercing. I will reiterate that Baghnakhs do not factor into this discussion at all. I'm honestly a bit concerned that this will be too powerful. I looked at a 65 damage variant and the Well Fed DPS was rather high (higher than I was comfortable with in contrast to post-Mech swords). Though Melee itself suffers in contrast to non-Melee weapons, I have to maintain some level of consistency within the weapon class.
The Frog Problem:
(Due to the increased frequency of Frogs in post 1.4 gameplay, which we did not account for when Sauteed was initially added, and I built Froggle off of Sauteed)
- Sauteed Frog Legs - Changing from 10 Minutes of Tier 2 Well Fed to 10 Minutes of Tier 1 Well Fed
- Froggle Bunwich - Changing from 8 Minutes of Tier 3 Well Fed to 8 Minutes of Tier 2 Well Fed
There are a lot of potential solutions here, but based on both Sauteed and Froggle being the subject of feedback, I think a symmetrical downgrade was the cleaner option. Alternative solutions include a "longer" Tier 1 Froggle (probably 25 minutes to fit with Fruit Juice systems), but we aren't likely to see dramatic recipe changes here, so I think this is probably what we are going to go with.
Tentacle Spike:
- Coming Soon