this post was submitted on 02 Oct 2024
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Stone of Disarming (self.pixeldungeon)
submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by GunnerSmith585 to c/pixeldungeon
 

The dev has been on point for years but I'm definitely not a fan of repurposing the Stone of Disarming to help ID items.

The exploding trap item ID "exploit" is way overblown IMHO. It came at the cost of losing and not using or selling non-upgraded items in shops. It was also plausible that higher quality upgraded items are built better to withstand the explosion.

I've never had to rely on it as there's lots of ways to ID items and don't care if others use the trap as the game is all about having multiple ways to accomplish goals. If it bugs most players then ok fine... nerf it... but not at the cost of other very useful items. It's not like the trap is that common where it's game breaking though. You might not even encounter one before slotting the items you want to use for the rest of the game.

The change came at the cost of providing much fewer ways... and in some case the only way... to deal with traps. The biggest one is being forced to duke it out in summon trap rooms if you don't have a potion of levitation which mainly only drops to fly over other trap rooms. Another is running from a mob on low health and being stopped by a nasty undiscovered trap in a hallway with no other item or skill to leap over it. It also uses up items that players use to do and craft other things.

Also, I saw that bombs don't work on wood walls in the stone of enchantment room anymore? Items that make fire are easier to get but it's annoying when you don't have something earlier in the game so you have to keep going until you find one then trudge back at the cost of satiety... and it may have dropped for a wood walled up door so you have to repeat the process.

Anyway, no complaints to add a new stone of detection rather than replacing a useful one which reduces the interesting and plausible ways to do things.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This is the level of unhinged and scatterbrained but grammatically coherent rant that i demand from the internet

[–] GunnerSmith585 3 points 2 months ago

Thank you for enjoying my particular... idiom... in expressing how I felt after casually tossing a stone of disarming into a summoning trap room before reading the patch notes to quite suddenly and unexpectedly face being repeatedly thwacked by a mob of very agitated monsters that I was in no way prepared to deal with. In that moment, it produced an actual record scratch sound in my head and was still processing what had happened in my post.

[–] solidgrue 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Stone of Flock is just as useful for disarming traps. It even handles Grim and Disintegration traps effectively.

[–] GunnerSmith585 3 points 2 months ago

Yeah, there are other solutions but they're only useful if RNGesus has provided one so I'm just not a fan of reducing the limited number of options due to this particular exploding ID mechanic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bomb ID was never intended behavior, so the dev removed it. That's all there is to it.

You have so many low cost ways to dodge or disable traps. Levitation, any teleporting item (fadeleaf, blink stone, etc.), aqua blast, trap reclamation, chain. Even blast wave over traps is possible at +1 or above. Losing one way to help identify equipment really isn't a big deal. Stone of Disarming is arguably the least creative and interesting way to play around traps. Also, the main draw of the monster house secret room isn't the meager skeleton drop.

Bombs not working on barricades is a bug, which is fixed in the non-beta 2.5.3 release.

[–] GunnerSmith585 2 points 2 months ago

It may not have been intended but it's pretty interesting that it worked code-wise. The idea that a better made item can survive a physics test is also a plausible mechanic if you've ever watched Forged in Fire where blacksmith's make blades and subject them to brutal tests to find a champion.

The rest is as you say... arguable... and think I've made a reasonable argument that the 'fix' altered balance more than the effect. It's funny how the players who made it a 'big deal' to affect a reductive unintuitive change now call it 'not a big deal' after they got their way.

There's simply other opinions that aren't fully represented in the smaller sample size of vocal Lemmy users which is why I alluded it to being a bubble, statistically speaking.

[–] Pickyfan 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You should try out the new bombs.

A single upgraded bomb absolutely demolishes those summoning trap rooms. They now have more range and more damage.

This imo balances things out

Also, disarming, is really not that necessary on most runs . Traps are never in the way of important stuff

[–] GunnerSmith585 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Keeping in mind that different players have different play-styles, the issue is changing a commonly found solution for encountering certain challenges that don't have a special drop to solve them on the same level. This is especially true earlier in the game before you've collected the items needed to craft alternate solutions. You may also want to use some items to craft other more useful items rather than making up for the deficit left by changing a useful one. So additive features like a new ID stone along with the ones you mentioned are the way to go rather than reducing limited options IMHO.

[–] Pickyfan 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The game is constantly changing, it's better to just adapt to change.

This specific change, really isn't as bad as you are making it out to be. But we'll have to wait and see I guess. I trust Evan's judgement

[–] GunnerSmith585 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

This specific change, really isn't as bad as you are making it out to be.

The reason for the change wasn't nearly as bad as some made it out to be either.

The change isn't considered ideal on the PD sub-reddit so I suppose it depends on which bubble you (and the dev) are in.

[–] Pickyfan 0 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I mean, what do you want from me? You want me to agree with you? I think you are wrong

Let the dev cook. He does take feedback, so maybe he'll listen to you

[–] GunnerSmith585 1 points 2 months ago (2 children)

It's not about you. I'm just explaining my side and you keep coming back for more. Not that, "It's fine... you're wrong... deal with it." is much of an argument.

As for dev feedback, he's kind of walled himself off in his own garden here which makes me wonder if that's the reason for making unpopular choices based on limited feedback from a culture of unconditional love here.

IDK about others but 'complaining to the SPD dev' is the only reason I use Lemmy... lol... but that's out of love for the game.

[–] 00_Evan 7 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Hey, just wanted to pop in and say I am listening, and sorry that people here have been a bit aggressive in their replies to you.

Leaving Reddit (and twitter) was never about shutting myself out, it's entirely because those platforms are run by vile people and I can't stand to use them anymore. Back in the early days Reddit was 100% of my community interaction, and I admit I do miss participating in big discussion threads there, but these days the majority of my communication time is through direct messages (mainly email) and that's been the case for years.

Making changes to existing items like this is always going to be tricky, because of course it's going to upset someone. In this case it felt like a worthwhile change to make because a relatively large number of people wanted more ways to ID gear, and lots of other options for trap disarming already exist. It also feels like a better thematic fit for remove curse, as the stones now interact with equipment too.

[–] GunnerSmith585 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Thanks for your response and I do understand your view of Reddit as a company. I still considerate it to be the moronic cousin of Digg and forums of old so it's not my first choice either... but it is the most popular one (and simply works better than Lemmy) so you can have some engaging and productive discussions there. At least some of the time. Sifting through its culture of upvoting snark can be annoying in finding good answers and opinions. I legit lol'd when I saw OpenAI partnered with Reddit to train AI as that's largely like tapping into the brain of a 12 year old.

Discord is my least favorite platform as it can definitely be a cultural bubble of like-minded opinions. It's also shut off to search and there's no way to back it up so all that great knowledge can be forever lost if the group or company suddenly shut down without warning. It also demands you visit it regularly to keep up with the fast and endless stream of convos which not everyone has time to do.

The problems with all these platforms can sometimes mean you have to find straight answers from a forum post from 2007 which'll probably still be there and useful in 2037... forever immune to our modern online issues with critical thinking, reading comprehension, and empathy. Fortunately, the SPD wiki is fantastic in providing up to date knowledge transfer.

Anyway, regarding the stone change, I personally would've liked a new ID stone rather than repurposing the disarming stone, but like I said, you've been on point for years, so don't take my detail oriented style of writing as meaning I think it's the end of this corner of the world. It was just an interesting convo that I brought over to broaden the discussion of what players here think might make the game better... and to help provide some more content and engagement here tbh.

Anyway, cheers and thanks for all your great work!

[–] Pickyfan 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Message him directly, he listens, always

[–] GunnerSmith585 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Maybe... I'm not the only one who feels this way and was just bringing over a productive convo about it from the reddit sub... but getting a kill the messenger vibe here.

[–] Pickyfan 1 points 2 months ago

You shouldn't get any negative vibes from anything

Feedback is always welcome. There are always changes based on player feedback

However, something you gotta realize is that the player base adapts better than you might think. Also the whole player base doesn't follow your exact play style, so even if you think something is weak, or strong, it might not be born out of the data.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] Vencedor 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

How to fix depression: don't be sad

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago