Liches are a good idea with a boring, grindy implementation

[PaddyMaxson]

So...Kuva Liches are just a grind for random weapons.

There's a running joke to winkingly say they're totally not stolen from Shadow of Mordor, and they really aren't, because there's just no substance to the mechanic. Part of the issue is that it's not organic at all.

There's currently a primary loop of:

1. Force an encounter with a larvling, don't bother hoping you'll get one in a group, you won't, it'll did before you realise it's spawned
2. Equip 3 requiems (if you don't have all the requiems here's where it's both a bigger grind and also very frustrating as the Lich can steal your requiem relics).
3. Do Lich missions, because somehow in a game where assassins hunt you there's no random encounters with your Lich, or their minions)
4. Get owned by your Lich until, rotating requiems till it goes blue or till you've killed enough minions that you narrow it down
5. Either through guessing or more grinding kill your Lich for an extra 4000 mastery worth of not very interesting gun (some of them are fun and all)
6. Avoid ever killing a larvling if you don't want your requiem relics or void traces stolen so you can have enough to fight the next Lich you do want to fight

 

So I know I'm not a game designer and probably a dumbass but this is much less fun than how SoM and SoW handled it, and DE are pretty well known for some not great implementation that they later refine, so here's my thoughts on how it could be better, more interesting and more organic feeling:

 

• Be able to temporarily defeat your Lich, rather than just saying "that's mine, ignore it"
  • You should be able to force your Lich to flee, but they still gain ranks by "surviving" a fight with you, or even being 'killed' by you. What doesn't completely kill them makes them stronger 
  • Given unique Grineer are effectively immortal due to cloning, it would make their patter about being torn to shreds repeatedly more sensible.
  • Forcing your Lich to Flee or temporarily killing them gives a decent amount of mumurs
  • Forcing your lich to flee or temporarily killing them gives back apercentage of what they've stolen from you back (win back requiem relics/void traces specifically?)
• Lich attacks at random, even on planets they have no influence on
  • Thralls too, but in smaller numbers than on thrall missions
  • Temporary defeat of your Lich in a random attack removes their influence from a random node
  • Excluding certain missions, obviously.
• Lich may show up with some Thralls who are their bodyguards
  • You need to down Bordyguards before taking on the Lich
  • They'll interrupt Parazon attacks on the Lich and their damage output scales up as Lich health goes down, possibly also just give the Lich invulnerability.
  • Lich anger level increases chance of Bodyguards, with furious being a guaranteed 2 or more.
• Larvlings are assigned to players and the player they go down on their knees like a Lich if killed by anyone else.
  • The Player they belong to has a time limit to finish them off once they're down.
• More Lich attributes, and attributes should have a more tangible effect
  • Liches should gain more attributes as they level up
  • I've no idea why my Lich is a pyromaniac or what that means for facing him in combat. Presumably it should mean he gets more excited/aggressive against fire damage
  • I've no idea why my other Lich was a deserter. If you could fight them down, perhaps he's quick to call it quits and run away?
  • If there are effects like that, have the talking head communicate this to you. Have your Lich scream with excitement if the fire gets him...hot.
• Converted Liches have a reasonable chance to show up and stop a failed Parazon attack on enemy Liches, saving you the revive and forcing the enemy to flee.
• Converted Liches have an increased chance to show up when an enemy Lich randomly attacks?
  • Not sure on this, might make enemy Liches feel a bit weak if you've already converted a strong Lich
  • Perhaps only if an enemy Lich has Bodyguards (see above) and your Converted Lich retreats when the bodyguards are dead

Some of the above would obviously need new art assets/animations doing (especially stuff like your Lich stopping an enemy Lich one shotting you) and as I said, I'm not an expert, but I did play a LOT of SoM/SoW and what made the nemesis system fun was that things could happen out of nowhere. Difficulty could scale quickly and new challenges were added to the fight as it played out because a new Orc could show up and nullify part of your strategy. Being hunted by a nemesis should feel like a fight to the death, not "oh, leave that Lich, it's mine and I don't have the requiems for it"

 

Cheers

 

Paddy

ReplyForward

[Oreades]

14 minutes ago, PaddyMaxson said:

• You should be able to force your Lich to flee, but they still gain ranks by "surviving" a fight with you, or even being 'killed' by you. What doesn't completely kill them makes them stronger 

I wholly agree you should be able to force your Lich to flee but this is just six of one, half dozen of the other. 

It's still a lose-lose situation you just don't die in this version... your best option is still to ignore the Lich. 

Just have it leave (no strings) if you've downed it like three times without spiking it.