Regardless of which floor it goes on, I really do want to remove the level range, and the reason is simply because it should reduce rerolling games. Back when Angel of Haste used to exist, the fact that Hell's Arena wasn't guaranteed as the first floor (and, by the rules of AoHa, didn't show up at all) made you either decide to not use it as a stepping stone, or continuously reroll until it showed up. That's an exceptional example (especially because AoHa isn't around) but it's this sort of ridiculous metagaming that I'd like to remove. There are other things we're considering to discourage game rerolls, but they'll also need plenty of testing to make sure none of them end up detracting from real non-meta gameplay.
Play the game first before screwing the things that already quite decent.
It's true that I don't have as much time to playtest the things I implement, especially with regards to entire playthroughs, but please keep in mind that I do come from a well-played background in this game. In fact, I once wrote a
rather lengthy guide detailing the kind of strategy involved in collecting certain badges, among other things. So while this may come across as another instance of a dev sitting in his ivory tower, I do understand a good deal of the ramifications when I change things around.
Also keep in mind that, as I said before, these changes are basically proposals and are by no means decided upon. If it turns out that placing Hell's Arena too early makes it and the rest of the game far harder, I have no qualms moving it elsewhere. However, I would like to set up Hell's Arena as a sort of training ground, by which players can test themselves to see whether or not they play the game with a certain degree to skill. The cleanest way to do this is to give them as little advantage as possible entering the level. With this in mind, I have plans to add some extra shells/bullets strewn about the arena on earlier waves, so players aren't screwed because they couldn't find enough ammunition prior to entering. I'm fairly certain that all difficulties clearing the first two floors will reach clvl2 at the least (ITYTD might be one or two kills away), which is more than enough to prepare your traits for whatever build you've focused yourself on. (AoB is a weird exception, and I am very open to the possibility of specifically moving the dlvl in that case to acommodate.)
I'll be specific about the reward reduction as currently changed: I removed the cells entirely and dropped the rocket count to three stacks (as opposed to nine). Back when I would play regularly, Hell's Arena ensured me just about all the rockets I needed to win the game, and this always struck me as too much of a good thing. With this, you have "some rockets", but you'll still need to scavenge for more (and prevents total rocket-spamming on Unchained Court). Concerns regarding The Wall need not apply, as things will change to that level such that you don't actually require rockets to complete it. (It'll still be plenty interesting enough.)
When can we expect a beta version? I'm very eager to play with these mysterious changes. For testing purposes, of course :)
Kornel's the person to ask about beta releases. In theory, we could maybe make a "content patch" beta that has changes exclusive to gameplay additions and rebalances (that are either already in the repo or close to it). There's still a ton more work to be done in other areas, however, so you'll have to be patient.
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Topic: Placement of Hell's Arena Entrance (Read 8152 times)