Dominus-Fight nitpicking (spoilers)

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dust7 wrote:

You can make him limp at the highest speed which does not make it look ridiculous. I don't think a bossfight should be designed to cater to farmers but to be epic and immersive. At any rate, the farmers could just kill human-Dominus near the transformation spot. In additon, the transformation animation is quite lengthy itself, would you say it is boring and should be sped up in order to make farming-runs more convenient?

But if you don't like the slow limping, there's still the ghost-trap-like-effect-suggestion. I'm sure you could make an awesome effect for that.

It was sped up. It was originally planned to be about 2x as slow. Having him say some stuff and so on. However it got cut so the fight could move along quicker. It is an arpg after all lol.

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Russell wrote:

So rather than him instantly teleporting to a spot and continuing the fight asap it would be better for him to slowly limp over to a spot. Unable to be damaged. That doesnt sound like fun at all. especially if you are farming him.

I wasn't looking at it from the farmers perspective who only care about loots and leveling. I always try to look at things as potentially someone's first experience with a boss, as that is what will stay with them the longest.

Is this Path of Farmers or Path of Immersion?

I have other ideas of course but the one I suggested made the most logical sense to me given what little I have to work with, even if racers and farmers would hate me for suggesting it for weeks to come. Maybe make this animation skippable, where clicking him will skip his limp and teleport him from wherever he is to the desired spot. Farmers can't complain then, they have both options. Yes, not the best solution as some people may click him accidentally and react with a "what the heck?"

I suggested the limp because it should allow for the desired spot to atleast have the illusion of being a coincidence. As in that's as far as he can make it with his fatal wound before he falls and goes to phase 2.

With any kind of teleport, you raise the question of "why there"

Of course, maybe adding a detail or two that makes that spot special would fix the problem with the least difficulty.

If there's a seal on the ground there that he was planning to use for something lore related, or experiment related. And him falling down to the floor covered in blood activates that seal, it would not seem that strange for him to teleport. Of course it doesn't have to be a seal, it could be a series of thaumaturgical runes.
Anything, even if subtle, that makes the spot look atleast a little bit important could set up the scenario for him to teleport. And we know he has the ability to teleport. He could pull Piety's "Enough of this" but with a line more in line with his character.

Ie:
As his character becomes fatally wounded he yells "Impossible" (I know.. using it again, hey I think it fits him well), or something along those lines, and promptly does one last teleport but to that spot, as he frantically fumbles around with the runes or gems or whatever you feel would best fit the lore. Something goes wrong and we get the whole phase 2 transformation, at the ideal spot.

Just putting some suggestions on the table. Goodluck :)

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Russell wrote:

So rather than him instantly teleporting to a spot and continuing the fight asap it would be better for him to slowly limp over to a spot. Unable to be damaged. That doesnt sound like fun at all. especially if you are farming him.

So much disappointment... You shouldn't be designing things to be easier or faster to farm. Design it to be fun and exciting for the people actually doing it for the story progression. Being invulnerable while limping over to a spot is perfectly fine. I would just say that you'd need to do it in a way that looks natural, e.g. give him a visible shield or bubble. Or make it so that instead of being invulnerable, he just gains health at a rate no one of the appropriate level could out damage. Heck, that might even make it more fun for the farmers if that's your concern.

Well, in my opinion ya'll are looking at the wrong side of the question.

Modifying Dominus himself (adding animations, increasing the time-lapse between his "death" and his second form appearance) would result in tons of controversy among the playerbase; considering that the Dominus's Fight is an aspect of the game which is a gameplay keystone. I mean, changing the Main Boss mechanics is a BIG DEAL, and should be heavily considered not to. Players got used to it, they prepare to face Dominus the moment they enter ACT 3, and it would be transtorning for those players if the boss which they mastered how to deal with changed it's mechanics, even a little bit.

Now, what I propose is: Leave Dom and his mechanics unharmed. Srsly, dont even bother. I'm not saying that it can't be improved (everything in life can, that's what makes progress) but, considering our big and stubborn playerbase, making these changes (at least without a proper patch as a coherent background) would result in a lot of TANTRUM.

I think the better way out of this paradox is change the Map Art instead. You take the ground, and add some cravings into it. You know, the type of fissures on the ground that absorbs blood and leads it to some kind of device or rune. It's a common cliche, but it's better than this pre-scripted teleport.
Like these:

But they could be made circular and concentric to the spot where Dominus' second form spawns. When he "dies", a lot of blood is shed (Kole style) and it goes into the fissures, which rapidly (yeah, like it's being attracted by a strong will) transports them to some kind of Thaumaturgical rune which wasn't visible before (maybe a translucent effect?) but now it glows brightly for a very short moment (a red flash) revealing the RED BLIGHTED NAKED TURKEY FROM HELL.

But, of course, thats just my opinion!
Feel free to piss on it at will, Devs!

*Sorry for bad Grammar, English is my second language*

Have the ground covered in fine cracks or some such and when he dies, blood or energy flows rapidly along the cracks towards the big guys spawn point upon which a circle of Runes will glow super bright briefly and activate spawning the final boss fight.

If you make it an energy flow then you can make it flow reasonably fast! And having it flow along the cracks/or engravings can look pretty cool with enough effort.

My idea with cracks/engravings in the ground for the energy to flow along depends on the effect being dynamic with the energy flow originating from where you killed the boss while still conforming to the shortest routes through the cracks/engravings to the final boss forms spawn point so it prolly might not be terribly feasible.

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Nicholas_Steel wrote:

Have the ground covered in fine cracks or some such and when he dies, blood or energy flows rapidly along the cracks towards the big guys spawn point upon which a circle of Runes will glow super bright briefly and activate spawning the final boss fight.

If you make it an energy flow then you can make it flow reasonably fast! And having it flow along the cracks/or engravings can look pretty cool with enough effort.

My idea with cracks/engravings in the ground for the energy to flow along depends on the effect being dynamic with the energy flow originating from where you killed the boss while still conforming to the shortest routes through the cracks/engravings to the final boss forms spawn point so it prolly might not be terribly feasible.

Bump.

The seal, cracks, etc blood flow idea has already been considered, recommended, implied before and has the obvious issue that his body must still end up at the ideal spot since his transformation during phase two involves him getting sucked into the ground/portal.

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NoodlePirate wrote:

The seal, cracks, etc blood flow idea has already been considered, recommended, implied before and has the obvious issue that his body must still end up at the ideal spot since his transformation during phase two involves him getting sucked into the ground/portal.

You'd resolve that by having his body destabilize and explode in to particles that fall to the ground/along the cracks like fire embers powering the energy flow towards the spawn point.

Explodes in to particles, particles fall on to the cracks, a moment of nothing happening and then a very rapid surge of energy/energy spike travels towards the spawn point for the final phase.

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dust7 wrote:

infernal naked chicken

it looks more like a rabbit to me

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Nicholas_Steel wrote:

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NoodlePirate wrote:

The seal, cracks, etc blood flow idea has already been considered, recommended, implied before and has the obvious issue that his body must still end up at the ideal spot since his transformation during phase two involves him getting sucked into the ground/portal.

You'd resolve that by having his body destabilize and explode in to particles that fall to the ground/along the cracks like fire embers powering the energy flow towards the spawn point.

Explodes in to particles, particles fall on to the cracks, a moment of nothing happening and then a very rapid surge of energy/energy spike travels towards the spawn point for the final phase.

So in a nutshell redesign the entire transformation sequence, is what you're saying.

Any of the already mentioned transformations that make his initial body go *poof* raise the question of why it came back together.
Turning him into particles is just an effect, one that's inter-changable by a million others. Unlike a teleportation, it doesn't promote his body reforming for the transformation. So really it's just even more work. As now he'd need to 1. explode. 2. His remains have to flow to a special spot. 3. redesign the level for that special spot and/or create cracks that lead to the spot 4. redesign the transformation without his body getting sucked into the ground.

Sounds like a lot of work. And the fire embers clash with his lightning theme. Why change to a fire theme now?

Making him teleport one final time to that spot while uttering a good line, is so much easier. Give him a trigger on his health under which he teleports.

I'd offer suggestions on effects, and artistic fluff but the designers have far better imagination than I do. As such the fundamental scenario(s) that account for the key aspects that are currently an issue, are more than enough suggestion from me, and don't require embelishment on my part.