Grimrock

Hello all, after taking some time to cooldown and think rationally again, I realized that Dr. Disaster was correct about at least one thing: I hadn't actually posted anywhere of my actual suggestions to fix the Gameplay Systems. So... I am going to do that now.

1) Loot

Having a bit of randomly generated loot would be (at least in my mind) a great addition to Grimrock. Instead of randomly generating some existing items (some existing items would be ideal for this, ie rocks, bone clubs, twigs, etc...), I would suggest having randomly generated "junk / inferior quality" items. The purpose of these items is to provide players with some basic items that they could use until they had better equipment. This kind of loot would have no effect on mid to endgame style play, but it would grant characters basic stuff to use to be a bit better geared for the challenges they face. Items to be added:

Crude Arrow = Reduced effective range and reduced damage to regular Arrows
Crude Short Bow = Reduced damage to regular Short Bow
Crude Spear = Low damage, Two-Handed and Reach
Crude Dagger = Low damage, Light Weapon
Crude Shield = +1 Evasion
Tattered Pants = +0.5 Protection, Leg Armor
Tattered Gloves = +0.5 Protection, Hand Armor
Tattered Hood = +0.5 Protection, Head Armor
Tattered Boots = +0.5 Protection, Feet Armor
Tattered Shirt = +0.5 Protection, Chest Armor
Tattered Cloak (Believe already exists)
Twig (Already Exists)
Bone Club (Already Exists)
Rock (Already Exists)

2) Skills

Specific Suggestions:
-> Reduce skills to 3 skill points each
-> Make the first skill point and 3rd skill point invested give you a special benefit. The 2nd skill point can be an empty slot, if there are no currently available special benefit.
-> Modify the incremental benefit based on a division of 3 instead of 5 for each current bonus. Example = Light Weapons +100% Damage, at +20% per LV. In the new system they would be +100% Damage, at +33% per LV.
-> By making these changes, it will keep the skill system basically the same, will still grant the same benefit for maxxing out a skill, it will allow you to spend your skill points on more skills and the final skill point in a skill will feel valuable and well spent.

3) Magic

Magic lacks any kind of scaling causing spellcasters to never improve in ability past a certain point (ie Maxed out Magic Skill). These suggestions will help out in that regard.

Specific Suggestions:

-> Every Willpower Point grants an additional +1% magic damage damage that is multiplicative of bonuses granted by Magic Skills for Damage Spells.
-> Every Willpower Point grants a 1% reduced Mana cost, capping at 40% reduced Mana Cost (or 40 Willpower) for every spell they cast
-> Every Willpower Point grants an additional +1% resistance that is multiplicative of bonuses granted by Magic Skills for Shield Spells
-> Every Willpower Point grants an additional +2% duration increase for any spell cast, whether it is a shield spell, a damage over time, a forcefield, etc...

These changes will give magic users extra incentive to have high willpower and larger mana pools, as these bonuses can heavily impact their play styles.

4) Combat

Specific Suggestions: (Not necessarily balanced, but ideas)

-> Wielding a Twohanded Heavy Weapon in both hands (twohanded) has a chance to stun based on Strength. Stun chance is 5% per Strength.
-> Wielding a Twohanded Heavy Weapon in one hand has a chance to stun based on Strength. Stun chance is 2% per Strength.
-> Dual Wielding Two Daggers increases critical damage by 2/3 your DEX in Percentage. (ie 30 DEX = +20% Critical Damage)
-> Dual Wielding Light Weapons increases critical damage by 1/2 your DEX in Percentage. (ie 30 DEX = +15% Critical Damage)
-> Wielding a Light Weapon with a Shield increases your evasion and accuracy by 2/3 your VIT in Percentage. (ie 30 VIT = +20% Evasion and +20% Accuracy)
-> Wielding a Dagger with a Shield increases your evasion and accuracy by 1/2 your VIT in Percentage.
-> Dual Throwing, Throwing Knives and Shurikens causes you to ignore 2/3 your DEX in Armor of Opponent. (ie 30 DEX = Ignore 20 Armor)
-> Dual Throwing, Any other two weapon combinations causes you to ignore 1/2 your DEX in Armor of Opponent.
-> When equipping a Bow AND having more than 4 ammo remaining (5+) you have no cooldown to your shots. (ie You can keep firing rapidly)
-> When equipping a Crossbow AND having more than 4 ammo remaining (5+) you ignore 3/4 your DEX in Armor of Opponent every shot. (ie 30 Dex = 22.5 Armor Ignored)
-> When equipping a Gun AND having more than 19 ammo remaining (20+) you deal triple damage.

Anywho, all for now. I'll try and be civil for any criticisms, but more for complaints.
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EDIT:

1) Other loot suggestions:

Random chest ammo:
-> Each chest in the game gets two ammo rolls of 2x ammo each = Bolts, Arrows, Darts, Shurikens, Throwing Knives or 2 Pellet Boxes of 10.

-> This would make it so that as we find chests, we find additional ammo for our respective weapons, randomly however.

2) Other skill suggestions:

-> Have a linear experience curve for each level = 1000 XP for 2nd LV -> 2000 XP for 3rd LV-> 3000 XP for 4th LV -> 4000 XP for 5th LV, etc...

-> Create monster levels. These will be used to determine experience per monster. Each monster level grants 1/10 of the needed XP for their LV to gain a level. Ex. A 5th LV Monster would grant 500 XP. A 10th LV Monster would grant 1000 XP. A 1st LV Monster would grant 100 XP. As you gain levels, you will be more inclined to hunt monsters of your own LV than low level monsters.

-> Monster LV Suggestions:
Turtle = LV 1
Twig Creature (Encounter it initially in Twigroot Forest) = LV 1
Zombie = LV 2
Zarchton = LV 3
Flying Bat (Encounter it initially in Forgotten River) = LV 4
Warg = LV 4
...
Wind Elemental = LV 12
Ogre = LV 13
etc...

Can have multiple creatures as the same Monster LV.

3) Other spell suggestions:

-> Any spell requiring more than one spell school to cast, gains damage bonuses for both schools. (ie Fireball gains damage bonuses from Air Magic and Fire Magic)
-> The spell "Dispel" shall be renamed "Banishment". The spell "Dispel" sounds like it could remove forcefields, as Dispel Magic in D&D would remove spell effects.
-> (NOT MY SUGGESTION; BUT SOUNDED GOOD) Make opposing elements deal extreme damage to opposing elements, and the same element to heal the same element. So, Fire Deals extra to Water Creatures and Water Deals Extra to Fire Creatures; While Fire heals Fire Creatures, and Water heals Water Creatures. Fire opposes Water and Air opposes Earth. This means that Air Elementals take extra damage from Poison / Acid attacks, while Earth Elementals take extra damage from Lightning Attacks.

Fire Spells:
-> Fire Wall = Creates a stationary field of fire that deals damage to anyone walking into the square. Higher Fire Magic increases the width of the wall by 1 (so that it covers more squares)
-> Fire Bolt = A weaker version of Fire ball that doesn't require Air Magic.
-> Flaming Enchant = Makes non-magical throwing weapons, missile weapons, light weapons and heavy weapons deal additional fire damage.

Cold Spells:
-> Block of Ice = Creates a heavy block of ice that acts as a barrier. Can also use this spell to drop a block of ice into a water, crushing anyone caught underneath it. Ice melts very quickly however, so its far less practical than Barrier for crowd control. It is however useful for killing underwater foes in a square adjacent to you however.
-> Ice Field = Creates a field of squares that become extremely slippery when stepped on, reducing movement speed considerably, with a chance of slipping and falling; falling results in stunning the opponent.
-> Freezing Enchant = Makes non-magical throwing weapons, missile weapons, light weapons and heavy weapons deal additional cold damage.

Air Spells:
-> Gust of Wind = Pushes an opponent or creature several squares away from you but deals minimal damage. Higher Air Magic increases distance pushed. Can push some enemies into pits or chasms, which may result in them falling to their death.
-> Chain Lightning = A lightning bolt that jumps to every single enemy in a room, once.
-> Shocking Enchant = Makes non-magical throwing weapons, missile weapons, light weapons and heavy weapons deal additional shock damage.

Earth Spells:
-> Corrosion = A spell that causes enemies with weapons to fall apart and disintergrate slowly over time forcing them to fight barehanded when the item is destroyed. Only works on creatures with equipped shields, or weapons. Higher Earth Magic causes the equipment to fall apart faster.
-> Buried Alive = A spell that buries a foe alive killing them instantly. Higher Earth Magic reduces the mana cost. However, you gain no experience from doing this, and this doesn't work on bosses or on ground that cannot be dug up. When the spell is finished, it creates a "dug up" spot where the foe died.
-> Acidic Enchant = Makes non-magical throwing weapons, missile weapons, light weapons and heavy weapons deal additional poison damage.

Utility Spells:
-> Magic Map = Maps a small area of the map near you automatically, possibly showing you where secrets may be. High Mana Cost.
-> Reflection = Reflects the first spell cast at the party back at the source, whether that is a trap or monster. High Mana Cost.
-> Detection = Causes all secret buttons to glow when you come within 2 squares of the secret. Low Duration, High Mana Cost.
-> Fear = Causes the creature hit by this spell to run away, as if it had too few hitpoints remaining.
-> Relocate = Causes you to teleport randomly to a square within 3 squares of you. High Mana Cost. (May break puzzles though, as you could bypass them; might need to have a limiter like can't bypass walls or something)
-> Go Away = Teleports a creature away from you to a location 3 squares away from you. Useful for getting a potentially difficult monster to leave you alone or get rid of a bothersome Air Elemental.
-> Mark / Recall = Mark a specific location (can use mark again elsewhere to change marked location) and then whenever you cast Recall, you get teleported back to this location. (May break some puzzles or strand a character if used improperly.

4) Other combat suggestions:

-> Throwing weapons deal damage + DEX instead of STR;
=> Why? Because often your throwers are in the back row, and are likely to be specced more for DEX than STR, so ideally damage should be DEX instead of STR as STR characters are less likely to specialize into Throwing.

-> Two-Handed "Light" weapons deal damage + DEX instead of STR and are now considered One-Handed Weapons but deal much reduced damage (ie Spear);
=> Why? Because when you do find Light Twohanded Weapons no one will use them over other possible combos as Light Two-Handed weapons don't do all that much damage to begin with.

-> Cannon Balls could be re-pickup able (ie they work like most ranged ammo; kill monster pick up ammo after) 100% of the time; They are rare, and guns have a variety of issues already so why not?

-> Pellets could have a chance to be re-pickup able; chance is 33% that they will leave reusable ammo behind;
=> Why? The ammo isn't particularly rare by any means, but it would make guns a bit better as you could restock some ammo occasionally from fighting foes, and with the current problems with guns, it might make guns interesting enough for players to use.

EDIT: Zarchton Spear can be used underwater.

there are some interesting concepts in here.

I would totally like to see them in a mod of some sort.
I wonder how difficult or easy this time around will be for editing skills and such.

Palandus wrote: -> Zarchton Spear could be changed so that it can be used underwater, and likely it will be the only weapon players will have access to that will allow them to attack underwater creatures (unless it already can be used underwater; never tried);
=> Why? Because otherwise that weapon is fairly useless in its current state and would provide an unique utility and usefulness for players if it did work underwater.

Zarchton spear can in fact be used underwater already.

Yes noticed that today (made a post about it) but forget to change it here.

EDIT: Added more stuff to main post AND Editted out Zarchton Spear.

Funnily enough a lot of what you want is achievable through modding (and there are some talented modders around). For example in LOG1 you had about the same amount of spells as in LOG2 but one guy named Akroma added close to 100 working spells to his mod including some of devastating power for high-level spellcasters. indeed, every aspect of the game you mentioned is modable and within a few months you will almost certainly have mods of Grimrock more to your liking (sort of like with Skyrim).

Its fairly lazy game design if you HAVE to rely on modders to fix your game.

Just because Bethsaida does it, doesn't mean every developer should as well.

Are my ideas perfect, and above scrutiny? Probably not. But the reality is there is a lot of problems with Grimrock 2 that could use fixing.

Now, however, if the Devs don't want to fix their own game and prefer to have modders fix it for them, that is their choice. But if they are going to do that, they should allow modders to access how to edit:

-> Experience per LV and Experience per Monster
-> Skills per LV and Affect the skills themselves (either make them bigger or smaller OR allow players to add additional abilities to them)
-> Allow us to modify the Evasion and Accuracy formula
-> Allow us to modify the Hunger Rates and the effects of Starvation
-> Allow us to modify the effects of Water, combat / spells in Water, and the ability to create different liquids (ie Lava, Oil, Blood, etc...) with different effects
-> Allow us to create new spells or modify existing ones
-> Allow us to modify the attributes
-> Allow us to modify the existing classes or make new ones
-> Allow us to modify the races or make new ones
-> Allow us to have access to the source campaign (but not the code source) so that we can fix any problems with the campaign, or even make the campaign bigger and better
-> Allow us to create an object (like say the Crystal of Life) that can restore charges in an item
-> Allow us to modify race's favorite food
-> etc... (I could go on, but I think people get the idea; if the Devs want an exhaustive list I could do that however)

Its simpler for them to do the fixing as they have control over the changes. But if they don't want to do the fixing, then they would have to make a sizable chunk of the game available for modders to fix things. That's how things worked in Skyrim; in Skyrim you had access to everything except the Engine (though if people did have access to the Engine, then maybe we might have seen a 64bit version of the game by now)