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Hey Folks, thank for all the well-wishes last week!
I'm back home now and slowly starting up work on Shattered Pixel Dungeon again. Here's an early look at one streamlining change I'm making to the alchemy system, meant to simplify a bunch of the higher end recipes: replacing catalysts with a simple energy cost.
First of all, welcome back! I've missed seeing your incremental dev updates, and am glad everything's going well now.
I can't say I'm too fond of this change though. At some fundamental level, alchemy used to be a crafting system. 1.1 took away from that somewhat (and made the third ingredient slot almost never used), but it was largely fine because it made recycling items more effective, particularly with the overall changes to how energy worked.
It already seemed a bit odd however to have items that weren't really 'crafted', but it makes sense for wands and missiles, and is at least tolerable for scrolls and potions. My gut reaction for this new proposal is that it just creates too many 1-item recipes, and in doing so alchemy seems much less like a crafting system. The assymmetry of the item types in the interface (some potions would show one option, others two or three, with a haphazard mix or exotics, elixers and spells) also seems quite inelegant.
There is also the fact that a visible catalyst option makes since in-world. What is energy? It's not very clear. However, why does putting a scroll in an alchemy pot create one thing vs another? One particularly noteworthy case is turning normal and exotic levitation into spells. How does that work? Using a scroll byproduct to make those spells seems far more concrete than simply using 'energy'. It is also somewhat irksome to have both a potion and a spell as outcomes for a single input, which are two different item classes.
I also think having at least some sort of item tradeoff is valuable. Scrolls are generally more useful than stones, and three stones vs. a scroll and a stone are not the same from a balance perspective. Sacrificing a scroll for a spell or a potion for an elixir is not prohibitive, but it requires a bit more thought by the player.
Yeah, I agree that the change in themeing is unfortunate. Every change I have made since initially introducing the system has substantially increased the number of people who use it though. Clearly many people see multiple inputs, or recipes that require multiple steps, and just don't bother. Even though this does mean alchemy turns more into a point-based system than a full on crafting one, that seems to suit the game better.
Fundamentally I want players to think "What consumables do I not care about?" and then "what alchemy produce do I want to make with them?", and just having a point system largely sit in the middle seems to do the best job of making that process effective. It's worth noting though that there are still a significant number of 2 item recipes, and a few three item ones. Meat pies in particular are still very popular.
I have already considered the fact that levitation potions turning into spells makes no sense though, especially now without catalysts. it's not shown here but that actually is being addressed.
I hope levi potions turning into the blue water balls does not get removed, it is such a crucial item to have given the rarity of finding a blastwave wand.
No the recipes are just getting a thematic change, the actual inputs and functionality of the outputs are unchanged.
Sure thematic its not the best, but man is crafting things sometimes a pain that this new change will be very welcome. This is one of the instances where I prefer function over form.
I like it. While the catalysts were interesting I keep having to lookup how to make them, there are just pretty forgettable. Glad to see the ember ashes from the wandmaker quest remain.
As the one system is already coded, rather than remove it, why not simply make it a players choice?
A simple checkbox option in settings for simple or advanced alchemy mode.
Appeases everyone.
If I put in a toggle even 10% of the time people asked for them then the game would be absolutely stuffed with them. 'make is a toggle' is unfortunately not a way to satisfy everyone, it's essentially giving up on making an executive decision about what is best for the game.
The one sad thing for me about removing catalysts would be the loss of the interesting decisions forced on the player when they really want a recipe that requires a specific catalyst, but don't have any low-value items of the type required to make that catalyst.
Instead of dumping catalysts entirely, have you considered including multiple alchemy resources that stick with the player like energy? I'm thinking that energy is be unchanged, but the sacrifice of a potion or scroll is needed to get the 2nd/3rd resource.
Another thought is that I think "empty vials" and "blank scrolls" would be more intuitive than catalysts as alchemy resources, and if you created those with an alchemy pot menu action similar to 'energize,' it would be easier for new players to navigate and understand. I wish this worked with the first idea, but I don't know how you could justify empty vials not taking up space in the player's inventory.
I recall there being blank scrolls in an old pixel dungeon version, but I think you inscribed them with the stylus, and you couldn't do anything else with a blank scroll or a stylus, so separating the two seemed kinda pointless.
One of the points of removing catalysts here is to try and streamline things and overall reduce the complexity burden on higher-end alchemy. Replacing catalysts with separate resource systems wouldn't accomplish this.
I'm down for this. I always resisted making feather fall because of the cost, but this change would make it much easier and likely that I'd use it. Good work and I hope your dad is doing okay
I think a Make-X feature to make many arcane/alchemical catalysts at once would ease the pain of making many complex potions or spells in one alchemy session such as before Yog fight.
Interface changes are also something I'm considering with this update. "make-x" isn't very likely, but 'repeat previous ingredients' is, which is similar.
That would be a great QoL change 👌
It would be really gory if there were bloody splatters animated for explosions or from falling into the pit.