Gems and Anomaly update feedback.

[Mir Oculist]

So, the long awaited Gems and Anomalies are finally in the game, and i'll start it with the positive note.
The Anomalies are quite a good addition that'll keep the game more fun and fresh for runs that have them, but there's still room for improvement.
Gems on the other hand, while encourage experimentation, lack any original or unique traits that would make them more interesting, the full potential is still unrealised, and majority of the gems fall in the useless category, and simply fodder the gem pool, many of the gems are also quite underpowered.

Phasing Gem(dodge through terrain or enemies) - shouldn't exist, no one would really want that as an effect on a weapon, there is already an equipment for that, and a power, and if people really desire to have that, they'd choose those options. (but more often than not, this ability actually can ruin you)

Regen Gem(heal on combat room start for 3/4/6 health each second for 15 seconds) - Healing of it is fairly decent and i don't have anything bad to say about it, but on max level it's already much better to have than a damn Owlitzer Heartstone(40 hp heal on room enter), the Owlitzer Heartstone by itself needs a full on rework or a huge buff, almost everything healing related is much better than it.

Forager/Scavenger/Crafter's Gems all should have been combined into a single Gem, bonus Regular/Imbued Materials and Ingots, and also increase a max bonus up to 20%.(25% if the Gem fits the slot).
There's simply no reason to have each Gem separately, and combining all of them would make the most sense, and make for less grind of Gems, and Materials for people who care about that.

Heavy/Light/Focus attack Gems got nerfed and i overall see no point in it, only really deserved nerf goes to Focus one, previously having 15 percent damage increase(quite a lot).
Bring back Heavy/Light attack gems back to 10%, and buff the Focus attacks Gem to 10%, it'll make them a more viable choice among the damage gems.

Reroll Gem - shouldn't exist, just add more rerolls to the Rook's Heartstone, there's almost no reason to use it, cause 4 rerolls is ain't much, and Shelldrake's Heartstone overall provides more help and options in a run.

Now, onto the Anomalies.

Main problem of Anomalies is quite simple, you only get 1 area to choose.
I'll start this by saying that in more than 10 runs, 7 of the Anomaly runs were in the Bonechill area, and most of the effects repeated themselves.
So not only it's not the most exciting to go through the same zone repeatedly just for rewards, having 1-2 Anomalies repeat is also pretty bad.
An easy solution, add 2-3 Anomaly zones to choose from - allows you to choose the area you like the most, and judge wether you like the upcoming rewards or not.
Not only that, an interesting thing perhaps for later updates would be combined Anomalies, where you'd get multiple Anomaly events in a single room, to make it more crazy.

And now i want to end the post with the Gems that are very much needed for the game.

Shield generating gem - each 15 hit-streaks(always 15) gives 1 shield bar.
It's not much, and would be a slightly worser version of an existing power, but the main reason of it existing is to make Bullbug armour set actually viable for usage.

Bomb generator Gem - throw 1 Bomb each 15 hit-streak (2 Bombs on a second level, only 2 levels, always 15 hit-streak)
I just want more bombs, please Klei.

Thematic gems for Mother Treek/Owlitzer/Enigmox/Swarm/Rook/Shelldrake.

Mother Treek Gem - Spawn a damaging root under enemies every 3 attacks. (1/2/3 roots depending on gem level, always 3 attacks required), if only 1 enemy is present, 3 roots will attack a target.

Owlitzer Gem - Aoe gust of wind around the player for a Perfect Dodge (damage of the Aoe scales with gem level)

Enigmox - +10% damage buff after a perfect dodge of attack for 10 seconds, creates of copy of a character that will do 1 attack(depends on a weapon) against an enemy with increased damage scaling.

Swarm - Heavy attack focus hits create an acid puddle for 2 seconds that blows up after that time, dealing damage in an aoe radius, and applying a debuff to enemies that got hit by explosion for 5 seconds that increases all incoming damage by 20%, doesn't stack.

Rook and Shelldrake, just think of something interesting and thematic.

Overall, all i said above are ideas, and i'd like to at least see something similar in the future.
Many Gems are very needed, like summon, shields or perfect dodge gems, and Anomalies still can be improved with addition of more areas to choose before the run, and more crazy Anomaly combos in the future.

That's all.

[MrMyther]

45 minutes ago, Mir Oculist said:

Main problem of Anomalies is quite simple, you only get 1 area to choose.

With the current 6 zones to pick from, Having anything more would make avoiding the anomaly runs incredibly annoying - forcing you to play with no frenzy or to clear a miniboss elsewhere.

More options would be nice for sure. But I dont think there are enough maps to validate that at the moment, atleast without another method to force them to shuffle elsewhere.

[RancorSnp]

8 hours ago, MrMyther said:

With the current 6 zones to pick from, Having anything more would make avoiding the anomaly runs incredibly annoying - forcing you to play with no frenzy or to clear a miniboss elsewhere.

More options would be nice for sure. But I dont think there are enough maps to validate that at the moment, atleast without another method to force them to shuffle elsewhere.

I feel like it's on the game to make the anomalies feel fun enough and worth the effort so that the player is never in the situation where they want to avoid playing the anomalies? Though honestly at the moment I can already see the issue with having to run anomaly hunts, frankly speaking I don't want to have to deal with my gem inventory getting stuffed with more useless gems. 

Gems on the whole do require some re balancing, we get way too many gem effects for the amount of gem slots we can equip. This could be solved by allowing gems to be embedded in the armour. This would increase the amount of gems we can equip to such an extend you can actually afford to experiment with them, and gems being as weak as they are would no longer be as much of an issue if we could equip multiples of the same gem to the point their effect starts mattering. 

But assuming that we stay with only weapons being gem-able, a lot of the gems need their effect trippled to make them worth using. Like critical chance gem giving 1 to 3% crit chance? Why would I equip a game that is objectively worse than other attack options that take the same slot? Without the crit build this gem won't result in any meaningful crits in the whole run, with the crit build other crit increasing effects overshadow this gem so much it doesn't matter if you get additional 3% or not. And you most certainly don't want to waste 2 slots on crit gems, which would still fall below the lowest possible crit increase from gear or powers

And we need something to do with the gems we don't want, so that we don't have to avoid interacting with the new content just so that we don't get stuffed with gems we don't want (and no, dusting the gems to craft other gems we don't want isn't it, it's a good option to have, but another use is needed)

 

9 hours ago, Mir Oculist said:

,but on max level it's already much better to have than a damn Owlitzer Heartstone(40 hp heal on room enter), the Owlitzer Heartstone by itself needs a full on rework or a huge buff, almost everything healing related is much better than it.

The Hearstone system needs a rework too. Not only too many of the Heartsones have objectively best choice, even if the power of the hearthstones was perfectly balanced, and each and every single one was just as valid of a pick as the others, you still are forced to choose one of two heartstones. Which means that Half the heartstones you get do NOTHING. Nothing isn't a very fun reward for beating a boss. As a solution I propose to make the heartstones taking the same slot to linked together. So, if you are using a Treek heart, and collect the owlitzer heart - the treek heart will also get stronger, let's say that whatever heart you do not choose, boosts the heart you use by half of the usual amount. 

(Also, I do love the idea of boss specific gems)

[jiggilowjow]

honestly with as good as the game felt from the very start of early access. id say that klei devs are doing an amazing job to have it so polished since inception. kinda speaks volumes of the caliber of dev over there. while kinda rant-y there are some great ideas here... and ive personally been biting my tongue a lot. the beta updates are regular and introduce new functionality each time. i personally cant wait for jan update.... i think this game has a very inspiring factor to it. its got such a solid foundation, that almost any thing could be added. which really lets the player dream up some doozies. the way they are blending everything, and the way it all plays off each other is god like imo. rotwood is a new peak for this genre, klei is the pinnacle of addictive gaming