Make Town Portal Gem More useful over a scroll

I don't see how the town portal gem can be of any use the later you get into the game, at lower levels sure I think it can be a good choice to use, as you can bind it to a key and it saves carrying around scrolls.

But as you get deeper into the game where sockets will be much more precious I can't see choosing the portal gem over something thats more helpful in a fight (as I understand it upping its level only reduces cast time and vs no cast time on a scroll I think id stick to the scrolls as its only 1x1 slot)

My idea is to give the skill a knockback AoE that increases with level this way it makes the decision to use this skill at later levels much more tempting as casting a tp in battle when you need to get back to town and having the portal knock enemies around it backwards could be very useful, and would make for a cool effect.

If I have been misinformed on how this skill works I appolgise, I'm basing this off what videos I have seen of the skill in action.

Well that makes more sense than the current balance between scrolls/gems.

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Mark_GGG wrote:

The scrolls are going to take time to use as soon as we've implemented the engine features to do that.

Ah ok that will certainly make the gem of more use.

So no chance on the knockback then? I thought it was quite an interesting unique idea.

But then again I could be over estimating its usefulness as I haven't had a chance to play (yet i hope :D )

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Mark_GGG wrote:

The thing is, portals shouldn't be too easy to use in the middle of combat, because that would make combat trivial - you'd just portal out when you go in trouble. You should have to fight your way out to get a little time to cast the portal.

Yeah good point, it did cross my mind but at that point I was too commited to my idea :)

But it still might be a good idea for the gem to have some kind of bonus other than cast speed at later levels, as cast speed does the same thing, makes it easier to tp to town in the middle of combat.

Wish I had a good idea for what that could be, maybe something like 2 mins increased speed to make your town visit faster, that would be a mechanic to get the player back into battle quicker. Or maybe a similar bonus when you go back to battle from the tp (know its not the greatest idea, but its all I could come up with)

But yeah I see your point on the matter.

By the way: the scroll portal is a form of currency, you can use it to sell and buy item. It's a consumable, if you use it you can't use for trade.
On the other hand, the gem if eternal, it cost only some little mana point that will be replenished immediately in town.

The choice is easy, just take a gem with you, whenever you need a portal, swap the skill.

scrolls should have real value, and the TP gem should be free.

The scroll should then be faster than the TP gem.

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Donbabbeo wrote:

By the way: the scroll portal is a form of currency, you can use it to sell and buy item. It's a consumable, if you use it you can't use for trade.
On the other hand, the gem if eternal, it cost only some little mana point that will be replenished immediately in town.

The choice is easy, just take a gem with you, whenever you need a portal, swap the skill.

yeah thats a good idea in theory to get the best of both worlds, but how long would you really keep that up when u could carry scrolls that take up the same room and wouldnt need a skill swap to cast.

I know from personal experience ideas like this sound good when you think of them but get to tidious in the long run when faced with a faster option.

Not saying some people of iron will couldn't last it out, but I think most people would get tired of the skill swap pretty quick.

But yeah I didn't consider the trade value of scrolls, does change my paradigm slighty, I guess it all depends on rarity of scroll drops at high levels I guess. But I still have my doubts of the real long term value of this gem at end game. But yeah its very shades of gray.

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gfellows wrote:

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Donbabbeo wrote:

By the way: the scroll portal is a form of currency, you can use it to sell and buy item. It's a consumable, if you use it you can't use for trade.
On the other hand, the gem if eternal, it cost only some little mana point that will be replenished immediately in town.

The choice is easy, just take a gem with you, whenever you need a portal, swap the skill.

yeah thats a good idea in theory to get the best of both worlds, but how long would you really keep that up when u could carry scrolls that take up the same room and wouldnt need a skill swap to cast.

I know from personal experience ideas like this sound good when you think of them but get to tidious in the long run when faced with a faster option.

Not saying some people of iron will couldn't last it out, but I think most people would get tired of the skill swap pretty quick.

But yeah I didn't consider the trade value of scrolls, does change my paradigm slighty. But I still have my doubts of the real long term value of this gem at end game. But yeah its very shades of gray.

Personally, in every game i played, i have a sort of "fobia of consumables": "If something is not infinite don't use it until you really need (ndr: never)"

So, i probably will go for the gem :D