When I'm ready to leave a floor (99% of the time meaning all doors have been opened), the first thing I do is turn all the lights off, and then turn them on at the exit making a line, and then turn on as many rooms along that path as I can to keep enemies from swarming the path. Almost all of the time (at least on very easy...) this allows me a completely safe trip to the exit.



But, what I accidentally did just recently was forget to turn the lights back on before I picked up the crystal, and then discovered that you can't change the lighting at all during the trip, so I was stuck with all of the lights off. At first I thought this meant that I was doomed, but actually it was not very difficult, but it was *definitely* more interesting. I actually had to have my other team members defend the carrier, and all the rooms were dark making it seem a lot more "scary". It also seemed to make a lot more sense that pulling the crystal would shut off all of that floor's power.



Although I don't know what it'd be like on "easy", I think maybe it should be like this all the time (or there should be a different mode/pod for it). As it currently is, leaving a floor is becoming more of a chore than something fun and exciting to do. (a "chore" because it's never dangerous, but always tedious.)

Originally lights would turn off as the crystal was moved along the path - only rooms between the crystal and the exit would be lit, rooms behind the crystal went dark.

The problem was that this seriously reduced the tower defense aspect of the game.



It would be cool to add again in a new pod, as you suggested. Besides, the more modes the merrier

only rooms between the crystal and the exit would be lit, rooms behind the crystal went dark.

yeah that's the kind of thing I'm thinking of. a couple possibilities might be (not necessarily mutually exclusive):



- crystal has a power radius, maybe dependent on wit. (radius 1 = current room lit, 2 = current room and adjacent rooms, etc., and radius = wit/10 or wit/5 or something)



- dust starts to deplete as soon as you pull the crystal, and the longer it's out the faster the dust depletes, with rooms going dark as you lose dust



- once you get to the exit, it takes a while to install the crystal in the new spot, and you have to defend the exit until it's ready. speed of installation could again be dependent on wit.



- although I like the idea of defending the exit, I like the idea of having to defend the crystal carrier as he moves even more. maybe make him even a bit slower than he already is.



- if being able to survive becomes an issue, reduce the number/strength of spawns as needed



edit: another one I just thought of would be to have buttons or something that need to be pressed. there is the option to leave heroes behind, but the only hero that has trouble getting to the exit is the hero that you can't leave behind (the one carrying the crystal). need a reason for a hero to venture out into the dark (ie to activate something to get the elevator working) so that you're in the position of standing on the exit able to leave, but having to wait for a hero that you could leave behind. 99% of the time, the only hero you're waiting for is the crystal carrier. (again this is mostly from experience with "very easy", so my views on this could definitely change if I play "easy" more).

I don't think there's anything wrong with crystal running other than one thing: the waves need to get harder much sooner. Players shouldn't be opening all the doors to a floor all the time: the situation should become untenable. If the waves get harder, the players will be forced to leave sooner, but when they attempt to do that is up to them.



If your crystal elevator runs are too easy, then it may also be due to player error. The value of dust is high in the beginning of the floor, but after all the waves are finished, its value drops sharply... Depending on who you have on your team and how close the elevator is, the value of dust can drop to something as little as 20% of what it was previously! That's why I like to think of the crystal as a neurostun module: It can be used to slow the enemy down! It's possible that a player may find that allowing his crystal to take 50% damage is more favorable than a single food heal.

I do have an idea that can enrich the tower defense aspect and solve the logical issue with rooms that are powered without a crystal in place. It would also explain better why you can't take dust into the next level.



What I came up with is a special module that works as a capacitor (let's call it "comdustion engine"). The basic idea is that you can charge the capacitor with your crystal using dust. It can then be used to power up your rooms.



To do that you need to move the crytal to the room where this module is installed and carge the capacitor. At this point, all the rooms are disabled and some monsters will spawn.

Charging capacitor will take some time but you can gradually power up rooms.

The crystal will keep some dust for the next level thus reducing the total amout of dust you can use in the final run.

Once the crytal leaves the room with the capacitor, it starts to deplete slowly. Rooms will be disabled over time starting with the farthest.

Research can be used to increase charging speed.



I would like to have that.



Maybe if there will be some kind of engineering pod in the future, it could grant you the abilitly to set a charge limit. That way you could decide to take more dust into the next level.



Feedback is very much appreciated.

Another option would be to have to defend the crystal in the exit room instead of being able to leave as soon as it gets there. Depleting dust over time sounds like a good idea, though it should depend on how much dust you got until that point. In some situations, with operated shops and early merchants, I sometimes had enough Dust to power the entire floor, which of course would be extremely boring, but due to rng you can also end up with barely enough to power maybe 5 rooms. Having a path to the exit powered is borderline necessary, especially with the Refreezerator or Library pods. It just shouldn't be possible to power so much of the floor that the monsters essentially can't reach the carrier at all.

EndlessRunner wrote:
I don't think there's anything wrong with crystal running other than one thing: the waves need to get harder much sooner. Players shouldn't be opening all the doors to a floor all the time: the situation should become untenable. If the waves get harder, the players will be forced to leave sooner, but when they attempt to do that is up to them.



If your crystal elevator runs are too easy, then it may also be due to player error. The value of dust is high in the beginning of the floor, but after all the waves are finished, its value drops sharply... Depending on who you have on your team and how close the elevator is, the value of dust can drop to something as little as 20% of what it was previously! That's why I like to think of the crystal as a neurostun module: It can be used to slow the enemy down! It's possible that a player may find that allowing his crystal to take 50% damage is more favorable than a single food heal.

I agree with this. There are points where I have had to choose between exploring more of the Dungeon and making a dash to the exit.



The suggestion for rooms to start turning off after the core has been pulled makes sense as well, perhaps at a timed rate would be cool and only behind the path and on the branches off the path to the exit.

EndlessRunner wrote:
I don't think there's anything wrong with crystal running other than one thing: the waves need to get harder much sooner. Players shouldn't be opening all the doors to a floor all the time: the situation should become untenable. If the waves get harder, the players will be forced to leave sooner, but when they attempt to do that is up to them.



If your crystal elevator runs are too easy, then it may also be due to player error. The value of dust is high in the beginning of the floor, but after all the waves are finished, its value drops sharply... Depending on who you have on your team and how close the elevator is, the value of dust can drop to something as little as 20% of what it was previously! That's why I like to think of the crystal as a neurostun module: It can be used to slow the enemy down! It's possible that a player may find that allowing his crystal to take 50% damage is more favorable than a single food heal.

My problem with this solution is it allows you to paint yourself seriously into a corner. You wouldn't know in advance or have any real options with what doors to open. Also did you forget all doors open when you pick up crystal? This would essentially put you in a situation where you are maximum screwed everytime anyway.



I think harder skill levels could do things to make the crystal run more difficult, but this suggestion I think would just be frustrating.

supified wrote:
My problem with this solution is it allows you to paint yourself seriously into a corner. You wouldn't know in advance or have any real options with what doors to open. Also did you forget all doors open when you pick up crystal? This would essentially put you in a situation where you are maximum screwed everytime anyway.

Not really, it just means you won't really be able to pick up any items in the remaining rooms and depending on the layout of the remaining rooms you might run into trouble, but as things are as long as you have a powered path to the exit you'll probably make it. Whereas opening every door means a lot of regular monster waves you might have trouble fighting off.

Okey, just an idea I had....



what if you had to find certain charging stations on the way to the elevator,

charging stations that needed to be - well charged - while running for the exit.

You would have to be sure that you found them all before you started your run,

and you couldn't skip staying on one location until it's done charging or the next elevator won't start.

perhaps for a specific pod...

I want more pods. I really do.



*Also* to charge these places you obviously have to go there with the power core and place it in the charger for a while.

I'd have to say that would make the later levels very difficult for most players but cool idea.