Hello everyone!
It's Chronicle time!
We're currently working on the upcoming Slorm Reapers, and since we're still on preproduction, we don't have that much to share with you guys, so I figured I might tell you a bit more about Slorm Reapers and how we came up with the concept.
[h2]The Origins[/h2]
At first, Slorm Reapers were supposed to be much more basic than what they are now.
The core was the same: Collectible Weapons that would always at least slightly alter the way you would play. But the result was very different back then. We came up with about
40 Slorm Reapers, with various effects. Most of them worked in a similar way: You get a nice bonus that could enable a build, but you get a malus that you have to play around.
And we also liked that it was a collectible, instead of a basic piece of Equipment. We wanted a "Weapon-o-Dex" that you could complete and that would also allow players to quickly change their builds on the go.
Here's an example of a very early prototype:
Slorm Reapers had rarities back then, and as you can see, one very simple bonus, and one very simple malus.
[h2]Slorm Reaper Hunting[/h2]
As you can see on the screenshot above, we had a mechanic in place called "Focused Thoughts Elixir" that would allow players to try to loot a very specific Slorm Reaper he wanted.
Basically, you would loot Scrolls that would give you informations on a random Slorm Reaper, including where you could find it, then you could decide to use Focused Thoughts Elixir on that Reaper, greatly increasing the chances to find it.
We called this "The Hunt".
Slorm Reapers were much harder to drop without these Elixirs and the process felt tedious and not so fun. So instead of having to loot a Scroll, then spend a few Elixirs, then farm in the correct Environment, we removed these steps, increased the droprate and went full random.
[h2]From 40 to 120[/h2]
At this point, we've only had one playtester beside us two (which is the composer), and when he played the first prototypes, he told us that he loved collecting Slorm Reapers, and that he thought we should go for more, and that 40 was not a big enough number.
So we went with
120.
This would lead to a LOT more work than anticipated, especially given the numerous reworks we've had to make.
[h2]Reworking Slorm Reapers[/h2]
We then went on and built 120 Slorm Reapers. Then moved on to other mechanics of the game, eventually reworking Class Skills, The Ancestral Legacy, addind Character Traits etc... And even though Slorm Reapers were "good to go", The Slormancer got much bigger and much more complex than we anticipated, and all of a sudden Slorm Reapers were very underwhelming for what they were supposed to accomplish.
So we decided to rework them all. This would lead to a very important change:
We felt that granting a bonus and a malus was a very nice idea but that most players would be so annoyed by the malus that they would not give the Slorm Reaper a try.
So we first decided to split things up. Let's offer a regular version of the Slorm Reaper, with a fun and interesting concept, and then, if players show great commitment to it, they would unlock an even stronger version, but with a Malediction they would have to overcome.
This would lead to the Primordial Version that it's in the game.
So it meant that we could discard almost all the work we've done on the first iteration of our 120 Slorm Reapers. And coming up with new effects turned out to be both long and challenging, so we decided that instead of having 120 Slorm Reapers from the beginning of Early Access, we would start with 32, and add more along the way.
At this point, we also removed Rarities, because we knew players would often disregard Non-Legendary Reapers simply because... they are not Legendaries.
Here's a Before / After of Aïondee :
This new version is a LOT more work. Now instead of having a simple Bonus / Malus, we also have to come up with an interesting base, with a few scalable stats and exciting things to build around. Usually, our goal when designing a Slorm Reaper is to create something that is good on its own, but that can also trigger the theorycraft part of a player. Basically, when you loot a Slorm Reaper, you should always think: "Oh, I want to build something around this."
[h2]Early Access[/h2]
During Early Access, as Pepperidge Farm remembers, we added a first batch of about 20 Slorm Reapers pretty early on, but it felt too early for most players, since the game was still lacking most of its content, so we decided to postpone the rest of the Slorm Reapers until further notice.
Early Access also saw the apparition of Slorm Reaper Affinity, a mechanic that would enhance the effects of your Slorm Reaper, reduce the difficulty to unlock Primordial Slorm Reapers and the addition of Cory Ironbender, an NPC that can craft Slorm Reapers you've unlocked with another class.
[h2]Now[/h2]
And this leads us to now.
With 68 Slorm Reapers left to go.
Since the last Slormite Chronicles, we've made good progress and are almost done with preproduction. We have all the 68 Slorm Reapers ready to go, and are currently validating every single one of them one last time so we won't regret anything during or after production.
Here are a couple of new concepts that we can share:
At this stage of development, things are heavily subject to change. Reaper of the Conniving Warlock
Whenever you spend Life, you trigger Life Drain, dealing that same Percent of damage as Skill Damage to enemies within a 3 yard radius and apply a Life Link stack to enemies hit, up to (Reaper Level).
Life Drain deals 1% x Reaper Level Increased Damage.
Life Drain deals 8% Increased Damage for each stack of Life Link.
You gain the following Active Skill:
Life Bargain - Cost: 10% Life.
For the next 7 seconds, Mana costs spend Life instead of Mana.
Evolution:
Life Drain can leech Life.
You have 1% x Reaper Level Life Leech on Life Drain.
Primordial Benediction:
The Cooldown Time of Skills costing Life to cast is reduced by 70%.
Primordial Malediction:
Life Costs are doubled.
Aurelon's Reaper of Light
'+1% x Reaper Level Aura Increased Effect
+0.5% x Reaper Level Aura Increased Multiplier
The Judge of Light is equipped and at Max Rank.
Whenever you kill an enemy while The Judge of Light is active, you have a 0,3% x Reaper Level Chance to create a Blorm of Light, for every Negative Effect on the enemy.
A Blorm of Light lasts 10 seconds and relentlessly attacks nearby enemies, dealing 100% Skill Damage per attack.
Blorms of Light deal Increased Damage equal to your Percent of Missing Mana.
Primordial Benediction:
Whenever you receive Damage, if you have Shield, Damage is reduced to 1.
Shield stops decreasing while The Judge of Light is active.
Primordial Malediction:
Value of Shields is 1.
Energy Overflowing Reaper
'+1 x Reaper Level Mana On Hit Multiplier
+1% x Reaper Level Mana On Kill Multiplier
+1% x Reaper Level Mana Leech Multiplier
+1% x Reaper Level Mana Regeneration Multiplier
Mana you Restore over your Max Mana is stored as Overflowing Mana.
Every 2 seconds, Overflowing Mana is evenly distributed as Elemental Damage to up to 5 random enemies within a 7 yard radius.
Overflowing Mana has X% Critical Strike Chance.
Critical Strike Chance is equal to yours.
Primordial Benediction:
Max Mana Modifiers are added to your Life instead of your Mana.
Primordial Malediction:
Your Max Mana is 1.
That's about it for today!
Cheers everyone!
Go Tyler, Go!
The Primordial Version has an effect called "Miscalculation" that reduces Critical Strike Chance or Ancestral Strike Chance to 0% before Probability occurs. It gets fun.
