Designing the Signature Medallion Race

My initial plan was to use Tormented Shavronne, Daresso at Merveil, and other uniques monsters possessed by Tormented Spirits, such as Fidelitas and The Weaver in Act Two. However, playtesting these ideas amplified some issues with the design. For instance, the raw difficulty or some minor aspects of them becoming more significant in a racing environment. For example, with a Tormented Shavronne at Brutus, you can end up with Brutus having a higher HP pool depending on how far away from Brutus the Tormented Spirit spawned.

The Tormented Spirits for Act Two would have been selected randomly, resulting in heavily RNG-dependant results, which is something competitive players are not so fond of.

I also wanted to use the Monstrous Treasure Prophecy which would mean that areas only spawn strong boxes. This would increase monster density in some areas and give choices to the player, such as, "Do I go fast while under-leveled or do I get a lot of experience with a time cost?". However, despite it being fixed seed, there can still be a variance in the way they are spawned.

Having events with multiple rare monsters at fixed locations was also considered (like the rare weapons at Lioneye's Standard in the The Climb), but it's very easy to be overwhelmed, especially if you get a bad combination of auras.

I ended up going with a mix of existing mods and minor prophecy types. The difficulty should be challenging without going to extremes.

The Lethal mod is a reduced version of the existing one. It doesn't have 50% extra cold damage. The length of the Signature Race is one hour.

Hi Lionel,

welcome to the Race Discussion forum. ;)

No seriously, thanks for the insight into the design process. It seems that there are more "limitations" imposed by the game's rules than I'd normally imagined. I didn't know that tormented spirits increase the boss' hp without possessing them, for instance... seems weird - why is that?

Oh, and I can totally relate to the "multiple auras can get you too fast". It's not called racing without reason - mostly, players are undergeared in comparison to the way they play after aquiring some leveling gear.

Cheers,
udergl

PS: [/irony] Please leave this forum be, it's the only one where I'm on the front page! [\irony]

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udergl wrote:

I didn't know that tormented spirits increase the boss' hp without possessing them, for instance... seems weird - why is that?

The Tormented Shavronne spirit has discipline so, the longer it takes you to engage Brutus, the higher his hp pool grow - this was mostly a concern for new players, a possessed Brutus being a threat on par with a turbo one, with the addition of Storm Calls and Lightning beacons.
Also, when being possessed, his current base hp is multiplied by the tormented spirit: this would have encouraged experienced players to rush him down as quickly as possible to "start" the fight at the lowest amount of hp possible. 1 or 2 extra seconds depending on the spawn location of the spirit in this scenario could have potentially resulted in a 20-30% longer fight.

Awesome explanation, thanks very much! :) Discipline fits the theme really well. It would've been an interesting risk/reward scenario (let the spirit get him to get more loot). :)

I'm glad we didn't get Turbo Brutus!

Cheers,
udergl

So how long is the sig race this season? This sounds very interesting on paper, looking forward to see how it plays out. Going to be shit ton of deaths at hailrake I assume, unless the shrine is op.

Edit: I also hope you will do something about scion gems. Maurader + Duelist getting sunder will be pretty solid, that leaves the scion alone in the dumpster.

are you lionel messi?

Good job on this sig race. It's so different from the main game that it might have a Descent/DC/Endless Ledge feel to it and attract more play than the typical very bland sigs.

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udergl wrote:

I didn't know that tormented spirits increase the boss' hp without possessing them, for instance... seems weird - why is that?

The Tormented Shavronne spirit has discipline so, the longer it takes you to engage Brutus, the higher his hp pool grow - this was mostly a concern for new players, a possessed Brutus being a threat on par with a turbo one, with the addition of Storm Calls and Lightning beacons.
Also, when being possessed, his current base hp is multiplied by the tormented spirit: this would have encouraged experienced players to rush him down as quickly as possible to "start" the fight at the lowest amount of hp possible. 1 or 2 extra seconds depending on the spawn location of the spirit in this scenario could have potentially resulted in a 20-30% longer fight.

I'm sorry, but I still don't follow. Doesn't Discipline just give Energy Shield? Why is HP growing by the second?

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Glowyrm wrote:

I'm sorry, but I still don't follow. Doesn't Discipline just give Energy Shield? Why is HP growing by the second?

Yes, Discipline just gives Energy Shield.

Brutus' HP would be "growing by the second" because of how the mechanics of tormented spirits work. Brutus' HP would be multiplied by the HP of the tormented spirit, creating a new total HP needed to remove before killing him.

Because a monster does not have their life recovered when possessed, the best thing to do would be to burst down Brutus' HP before he was possessed. This incentivizes players to rush to Brutus and deal as much damage before he become possessed, before his total HP pool was multiplied, and before Discipline took effect. The result would be those who only one or two seconds slower to engage would have a 20 to 30% longer fight, because they had not been able to chip away at his starting HP pool.

It would be a 'feel-bad' situation were spawn location of the tormented spirit would have a large impact on the speed of the boss fight.

Where can I see what all these things mean?