Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Discussion about Rogue Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch
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farnsworthiness
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Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by farnsworthiness »

First, I'm new here. Love the game - nice work CD & J! I'd always wanted to get this sort of game going in a portable manner. Other similar versions I'd had for the PocketPC and Palm were just unwieldy. You both seem to have hit it right on.

Ok - so the purpose of this thread is to discuss exactly how to do well with the secret characters. I'm not just aiming to have a good time with the secret chars - I want to win the game with them. Not all are easy to use and operate effectively. Some have big weaknesses with their strengths.

I'll start with my current:

Hulk

Strengths: A +10 ring of increase damage, A ring of regeneration, 9 Food
Weaknesses: Cannot equip weapons & armor. Cannot use scrolls or wands. Cannot de-equip both of the rings.

Observations: You're flying somewhat blind with Hulk if you want to try to win. He won't be able to wear any armor or weapons nor will you be able to identify anything as you can't read a scroll. Any kind of teleportation is out of the question, except by stumbling over traps. The biggest weakness that I've come across is his voracious appetite due to having two rings activated at once. This, plus the fact that you can't use most every object out there, really, really steers my strategy.

Strategy: Dive as fast as possible into the dungeon. Bank on your regenerative properties & heavy hitting to pound through most enemies. Drink anything and everything to identify it as soon as possible. Don't wander around looking for loot. Get any food you can as you stumble across it and take the stairs when you first come across them.

Thoughts?
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CommanderData
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by CommanderData »

This is a great topic for discussion, as certain characters have somewhat-to-very different play styles with them! We'd like to create quite a few more characters that have a combination of advantanges and disadvantages to them. I know Lord Gek agrees with that idea!

Your strategy for the Hulk is sound. He will be a bit more interesting to play in 1.3, as there was a bug with his "aggravation" factor that caused many monsters to ignore him unless attacked. To compensate for that we also added an offset into 1.3 where anything he throws does A LOT more damage than it would if thrown by a normal character. Try it for some amusing results :mrgreen:

I approve of this thread... proceed :ugeek:
Zyxt
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by Zyxt »

This may be a tad obvious, but it still should be said.

Neo
Ability: Perma-fast, know location of monsters and items
Strategy: With his ability to take 2 actions and knowing where monsters are, Neo is practically the perfect ranged character. Just equip your favourite ammunition, stand across the room from the monster, and fill them full of holes before they even enter your field of vision! What if you're up against something close to the door? Run, and turn around to fight when you are in a location that suits you! Also, you require less food per action than most characters.
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shadowspawn
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by shadowspawn »

Three others comments on Neo.

Neo is a killing machine with no need for ranged weapons for many monsters. Make sure you have room to retreat. Let the monster take the last step to close with you (by searching or resting), whack the monster, step away. Repeat. Since you (roughly) get a free move every second move you can move away before the monster can strike back.

Don't deliberately drink a potion of haste. Neo was rampaging below dungeon level 20 and standing beside an angry griffin when I wondered whether he could be even faster... :oops:

I think Neo heals at flow of normal time, and not at fast rate you can take actions. I noticed Neo healing much slower than I expected, and think it is because I was speeding around the dungeon in fast motion, but healing at "normal" rate.
BTA
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by BTA »

Right now I'm playing as Ironman. No intrinsic effects, but he starts with some awesome stuff, like some great armor, a ring of maintain armor... and a crossbow that sets stuff on fire. :twisted:

I'm mainly playing as a normal character would though. I just ran out of bolts, so I guess it's on to using the somewhat-better mace he starts with... :D
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LordGek
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by LordGek »

CommanderData wrote:This is a great topic for discussion, as certain characters have somewhat-to-very different play styles with them! We'd like to create quite a few more characters that have a combination of advantanges and disadvantages to them. I know Lord Gek agrees with that idea!

Your strategy for the Hulk is sound. He will be a bit more interesting to play in 1.3, as there was a bug with his "aggravation" factor that caused many monsters to ignore him unless attacked. To compensate for that we also added an offset into 1.3 where anything he throws does A LOT more damage than it would if thrown by a normal character. Try it for some amusing results :mrgreen:

I approve of this thread... proceed :ugeek:
Here here! I like to think of the Secret Characters as alternative methods to play the game and not just something like a game trainer (give yourself infinite health) or hack of the basic game.

So CD, what are some of your plans to somewhat balance some of these existing Secret Characters...or should we just find this out for ourselves?
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Zakia
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by Zakia »

LordGek wrote:So CD, what are some of your plans to somewhat balance some of these existing Secret Characters...or should we just find this out for ourselves?
This.
CommanderData wrote:The changes we're making don't really alter the abilities of these characters as much as make the monsters a bit tougher for the wildly powerful guys like Neo, Thor, and so on. Its on a scale, so not every secret character is affected to the same degree. Actually, with guys like the ones I mentioned even these adjustments won't slow you down much :lol:
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CommanderData
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by CommanderData »

LordGek wrote: Here here! I like to think of the Secret Characters as alternative methods to play the game and not just something like a game trainer (give yourself infinite health) or hack of the basic game.

So CD, what are some of your plans to somewhat balance some of these existing Secret Characters...or should we just find this out for ourselves?
LordGek, Zakia gave you the short version of what we've done to help balance existing characters- But all characters will be on a scale. Normal no-secrets are zero, the secret guys are 1 through 5. A guy like Neo is a 5, very near unstoppable! These modifiers will determine if you randomly run into monster a bit stronger than you would as a normal character. We didn't make the bump very noticeable for 1.3/1.4, and depending on how it works out we may tweak it a bit more. Honestly most people will barely notice a difference :D

As for NEW and FUTURE characters, we do have alternate play-styles in mind. You and I discussed a few ideas recently, and the gist of it for everyone here is more characters and equipment will probably have drawbacks in addition to bonuses. The Hulk is a good example, at least the 1.3/1.4 version of Hulk. He's unable to use most equipment, has an incredible appetite, but does amazing damage and regenerates.

If anyone has thoughts on secret characters who would have some pluses as well as minuses to them, that would actually alter your gameplay... imagine an Illiterate Alchemist... he can't read scrolls, but immediately knows all potions when picking them up. Maybe those potions in his hands have double the normal effects. Just an example thought, we welcome your ideas :mrgreen:
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LordGek
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Re: Success With Secret Chars *potential spoilers*

Post by LordGek »

Considering this list of Secret Characters that have been made public at Touch Arcade (don't follow the link if you don't want to get spoiled):

http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=9507

Any folk finding either a Secret Character they'd THINK so broken it hurts but actually is tough to play or, visa versa, somebody who doesn't look that great on paper comparatively but kicks buttocks?
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