I did not have fun playing the infirmary ship. Here’s why:



No in games items is boring. The elixir items do not make the game a challenge, they just remove interesting items from the game. Not only this, but they seem to drop so often, that other items hardly drop at all. Weapons and armors were so scarce that I went through an entire game without a single machine-gun drop and only saw 3 or 4 armors total. Not having the end-of-turn heal was not really a challenge to overcome especially with the extra life provided. Melee heroes were harder to use, but with food stock and a little defense, it really was no big deal.



Here is a suggestion to make it interesting and more of a challenge:



The no end-of-turn heal is good, but not enough. Start by removing all food healing entirely. This would make your have to really watch your heroes closely to make sure they never got too low and even possibly take them out of combat. It also makes food less valuable and not worth over stocking. Possibly remove life regen modules, but only if you can somehow implement a better mechanic for the device elixirs.



Removing all your cool devices instantly makes the game less interesting. But if you're really set on removing the devices you should fix the elixirs. I think you could achieve this by making them give only temporary buffs for 5 to 10 doors with some sort of randomize roll mechanic when they drop. Have the elixirs roll skills, buffs, and even de-buffs in a completely random manor, and since they are temporary, it won’t matter if there’s an item that rolls a set of really OP skills, because you will only get to use it for so many doors. Healing elixirs would be a must, maybe something along the lines of 25, 50, or 100 health per turn for so many turns. This would be cool, but at least fix the amount weapons and armors drop and their variety, there is no reason to have their drop rate nerfed so badly.



Just a thought, let me know what you guys think.

I'd like to have the ship types tied to specific heroes. So in the infirmary you'd be better off playing with Deena, who's placebo skill (as it doesn't work in this game mode) would be replaced with a "mix drugs" skill, allowing her to combine two drug items to craft a regenerative tonic that would then heal heroes once before being used up.

Generally I'd like the infirmary medicinal items to be one use or limited charges, to make their use more tactical. Have them drop frequently, perhaps have a way to mix them to create new ones, but then have them vanish on use.

Agreed, having her skill just "not work" is a real bummer and makes her not worth hiring. The infirmary is harder, per say, but in a way that depletes from the more fun game mechanics of the original play through. I'm sure they'll supe it up before release. I just think it needs work.



On a side note, it looks like they fixed the item drop rate in the infirmary for classic items. This resolves my "MUST FIX" issue at least. Look forward to future infirmary updates. As for now... I'm excited to play the fixed Armory with the higher difficulty

I think that infirmary mode has potential, but is lacking when compared to the original gameplay.



1) visual gripes

a) all vials are the same with a palette swap. this is boring, uninteresting. Besides, what image is that? A vial with a pill with a sadface to its right? WatDozItMin? Art is definitely not at the same level of the rest of the game. And different images, not just pallete swaps.



2) Gameplay



a) removal of most in-game items was a bummer. Why is that? OK, there are some items which upset the infirmary gameplay, but others not. Pilfer eye & others. This has hurt the game badly and made it much, much less exciting.

b) I think that you could put the healing skills back into the game. BUT healing skills should only work when a door opens, until the last monster is killed. If there are no monsters, there is no healing. Even the armor/equipment skills should follow this logic, currently armor with HP regen works out of combat, this should change. The only healing that should work without monsters is by spending food.

c) Having the repair skill slow as molasses when there are no monsters around makes no sense. Just expedite fixing stuff when there are no mobs.

d) The vials with bonus/penalty are not really interesting. I am thinking of a different dynamic:

I > a LAB major module. A lab needs to be operated to work. It creates various serums which the players can use. It has levels 1 to 4, which increase the duration of the serums (3-6 turns).

II > The serums are made on vials which must be placed on minor modules on the same room of the Lab. Each vial of the same serum type increases the potency of the serum.

III > Once the door opens, the production reaction starts. It will only finish after all mobs are killed. After the reaction, the vials in the minor modules vanish and the serum is placed in the inventory, and can be equipped. to make another serum, the vials must be rebuilt.

IV > If there are several vials of the same serum type, they will combine to make a single, more potent serum. Up to 4 vials of the same type can be combined, limited to the lab level (i.e. a lab level 2 can only combine 2 vials of the same type)

V > Serum blueprints can be bought/found at each floor. If the player reaches the exit with a serum equipped, the blueprint carries on to the next level. Otherwise it is lost, like equipment.

VI > Serums are cursed items. Once equipped, they cannot be unequipped, they must wear out. They have a duration of 3-6 turns according to lab level.



Serums should be powerful, and I like the minmaxing they currently do.

(Moderator edit: the topics were merged, this is a response to the OP)





I can totally agree with many point you have, I love armory and drill mode but infirmary mode is very lacking.

Totally Agree with point 1, I hope to serums are just place holders for actual images. Most of point 2 I can agree with but I dont mind not having healing items.

Hi,

I merged the topics to facilitate the discussion about the same issues



Obviously the new spaceships need some work and we listen very carefully you’re feedback about the Infirmary Pod.

• I already increased the spawn of classic items in the last patch and will certainly make drugs more powerful and rare. However, we don’t have usable or limited charge items in the game, so it will be difficult for production reasons to do this kind of ideas in a spaceship.
• We hesitated to remove the food healing… and we still are ^^
• We technically can’t change the hero skills for a particular spaceship but I can replace the health regen bonus of Placebo and Dust Cells (which are deactivated) by a defence bonus. But even without that, Deena and Elise are still fit for this ship
• We will try to find the time to improve the drug visual
• The repair skill that doesn’t accelerate during the strategic phase is a bug, we will fix that
• 
  
  

Can you replace the standard hero passive healing skills to:

if there are monsters alive & less than 30 seconds from last door opened then do a passive heal tick

?

The 30 seconds clause is to prevent exploiting leaving a Keeper alive to fully heal the party.

Mysterarts wrote:
Hi,

I merged the topics to facilitate the discussion about the same issues



Obviously the new spaceships need some work and we listen very carefully you’re feedback about the Infirmary Pod.

• I already increased the spawn of classic items in the last patch and will certainly make drugs more powerful and rare. However, we don’t have usable or limited charge items in the game, so it will be difficult for production reasons to do this kind of ideas in a spaceship.
• We hesitated to remove the food healing… and we still are ^^
• We technically can’t change the hero skills for a particular spaceship but I can replace the health regen bonus of Placebo and Dust Cells (which are deactivated) by a defence bonus. But even without that, Deena and Elise are still fit for this ship
• We will try to find the time to improve the drug visual
• The repair skill that doesn’t accelerate during the strategic phase is a bug, we will fix that
• 
  
  

very cool, look forward to testing this ship out again