The new TimeStop mechenic

[Jarno]

a small introduction for those of you who did not see the live stream of yesterday
Time stop was a too powerfull mechanic, and it didn't feel fun standing still hitting enemy's

So now during time stop you cant damage enemy's anymore
Also your time stop power does not regen, you have to kill enemy's to get like recharges

Now i fully agree that timestop is a verry powerfull abilty, i always though that if the timespinner pieces transfer some of its power to lunias, that timestop is more like an ultimate end game thing

So i realy like the change the it doesnt recharge, for example during a boss fight, if you run out of it you have to do the rest of the fight on pure skills

but i feel the change to not be able to damage enemy's is a bit overkill, because then timestop just becomes a magic all purpose oh shit button that saves your ass every time

[Charleon]

Nooooo! No more speedrunning strats on the cat-boss! D:,
I Fully agree with this change though, If you entered a boss battle with time stop fully charged you could deal more than half the HP of the boss in damage before he had chance to do ANYTHING.

But what does this imply, really? sure Time stop got nerfed, but the emphasis moved from a balanced Attack/Defence tool to purely focus on defence. The addition of X amount of orbs that can boost your offence or defense aspects as you'd like makes up for it in my opinion (among other changes already stated). The game has grown CONSIDERABLY since its first rollout which is why I think that we should not be that alarmed of this change until we have tried it out ourselves.

In fact you can still use it offensively, e.g timestop when a boss does it's ultimate attack which has a long recovery and relocate yourself behind him to get some barrages out. You now need to THINK more on how to use time stop, as it can work for or against you (not being able to kill enemies that you might have frozen in your path for example).

One small issue i see though is that if Time stop is considered a must have tool on any boss, what happens if you spend it all? it wouldn't be fun to just "Ok my time stop usage wasn't optimal enough, I now have to die"

The same issue if there's any area where you need time stop to enter/reach, and there isn't any enemies around that you could kill for time essence (yes, i'm calling it time essence now), it will be pretty boring to backtrack to grind for it

[Bodie]

So, to touch on those two concerns Charleon:

- The current mechanic for boss battles is that damaging them restores Sand.

- For rooms that are purely Time-Stop puzzle, I'll be including a sort of fountain in the room or nearby that restores Sand for free. I may have to play with that mechanic, since it might feel bad going into a room, seeing a fountain, and being like "oh, yeah, this is supposed to be a puzzle" instead of figuring it out on your own. Design problems, yaaay.

[Jarno]

yeh you are going to have to test it out in the alpha charleon, i wont get to try it until beta , wich is ot late so i show my concerns now

[cthomlan]

So, to touch on those two concerns Charleon:

- The current mechanic for boss battles is that damaging them restores Sand.

- For rooms that are purely Time-Stop puzzle, I'll be including a sort of fountain in the room or nearby that restores Sand for free. I may have to play with that mechanic, since it might feel bad going into a room, seeing a fountain, and being like "oh, yeah, this is supposed to be a puzzle" instead of figuring it out on your own. Design problems, yaaay.

You could put sand fountains in rooms that don't have puzzles as a bit of misdirection.

[Deceus]

Aw, too bad. But I can't say I'm shocked; turning invincible and freezing enemies semi-at-will was always exceedingly powerful - which was part of why it was fun, admittedly, but it would cease to be fun if it allowed you to bypass any challenge and trivialize bosses.

New mechanic still sounds plenty fun, and it potentially opens the door for a bit more design space for orbs, if nothing else - any number of sand-gain-manipulation boosts. And it sounds a lot easier to balance, which is always good.

[Darth Plagueis]

So, we, accidentally, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time now?



tfw, I can see the discussion this comment will ensue, esp. due to the plot devices presented....