profilename14
commented
4 years ago This sounds like a far better-designed system than what we currently have. With runes acting as rechargeable batteries, it takes the interesting part of the current system and effectively removes all of its problems. The one part of the current system that is interesting is the fact that staves can have "synergies" with each other, or that a player can use a set of staves that have similar rune costs to cut down on the number of rune types they have to carry. Of course, with each rune costing about 4 runes minimum by default (and some costing up to 12), it is nearly impossible to use staves without filling your inventory with them and having to get more every 15 minutes. Compared to guns, which all only require a single, incredibly easy to craft, bullet, there is no reason to use most staves in normal gameplay.
An example of this can be seen with the Noxious staff. Without Archmage (which staves should not be balanced around due to it being a very high-level infusion enchantment), a noxious staff consumes 6 runes per shot. If someone were to want to use a noxious staff 192 times, they would have to carry around 18 stacks of runes, which fill two rows of their inventory. However, they could instead simply use a gun, which they can fire 192 times while carrying only 3 stacks of ammunition (which remember, are far easier to get than runes).
This suggestion gives us two types of runes, a basic rune that can be recharged at a rune shrine and has higher maximum energy, and a rechargeable rune that regenerates over time. Each of these are charged and assigned a specific rune type at a rune shrine, making acquiring different kinds of runes for a staff still require adventuring through dimensions. However, players can create their own rune shrine wherever they want, so when a player wants to recharge a rune for a staff that they often use, they can simply recharge it whenever they go back to their base.
With this system, a player would be able to use a wide array of different staves, and the maximum amount of runes that they would have to carry around would be 14 runes (one for each type) in the worst case. For runes required by uncommonly used staves, the player could take a charged rune, but for runes required by often used staves, the player could take a normal rune. A player could even use multiple rechargeable runes if they are only using a single staff very often. These rune types give players more options for how they want to customize their ammunition and more strategy for which staves they want to use together. Additionally, with rune shrines buildable inside bases, players who use many staves can easily recharge their ammunition without having to worry about being forced to walk a long distance through a dangerous dimension.
My only complaint is that I feel like the normal rune could have a slightly smaller limit, maybe 2500, in order to not overshadow the charged rune as much. Still, even with 10,000 durability, the rechargeable rune has its uses. Also, Runation would be better off not gating runes with this system (which is fine, as it wasn't a fun skill anyway)
With 2500 power, a normal rune effectively gives 500 runes for a staff. Going back to my previous example of the Noxious staff, the player could carry around 3 runes to get 250 uses out of the staff. Additionally, the ammunition required for the staff does not require mining for runium and walking to a rune shrine to refill. This puts it about on approximately on par with guns, which fire 192 shots with 3 slots of inventory and are about as powerful as damaging staves. Staves have slightly higher ammunition per slot in some cases and can use archmage to lower the amount of energy used, but guns generally share the ammo they use more than staves (they usually use limonite pellets) and don't require sets of runes (a Noxious staff requires 3 runes minimum while guns could be used with only 1 stack of bullets).
Overall, this is an incredible suggestion, and I feel like it will make staves one of the most interesting and fun to use weapon types in the entire mod.
ghost
DiamondWalker
I'm sure I don't have to explain why runes are bad. They clutter your inventory and make you take countless boring trips to the same structure over and over.
Recipes The first change I'd make is readd a rune shrine recipe. This is because the new system would allow you home. This would also mean the wind altar's shrine would be removed for consistency. The recipe for runes would also be changed. Rather than one chunk for 16 runes, you'd need 9 chunks for 1 rune. This is because now you'd only need one of each rune.
Rune Mechanics Runes wouldn't be stackable and act like ammo anymore. Instead staves would consume runic energy. Runic energy would have several variants (each rune has its own runic energy type). Runes would store this runic energy. All runes would have unpowered and charged variants, which are made with either unpowered or charged runes (duh). Unpowered runes would have much higher energy capacity (like 10,000 units), but would need to manually be recharged. Powered runes would have less units (like 100) but would slowly fill themselves up with energy. As a rune's energy runs out, the colored part would become darker.
Rune Creation/Charging Runes can now be charged either with rune posts of the appropriate type or with charged runium (the later being the reason rune shrines would be craftable, since now they could be used by themselves). The only difference is charged runium can only power runes that have been engraved for a specific energy type. Runes are engraved automatically the first time they are charged with rune posts (this does not mean you can use another rune post to change or charge an engraved rune)
TL;DR Rune shrine has recipe. Runes are more expensive. Runes can be charged with charged runium or the correct rune posts but only when they're engraved, which happens when charging blank runes at a post for the first time. Unpowered runes would have more uses, but powered runes charge alone.
Extra stuff Staves should probably require more energy than the amount of runes they currently require. I'd say a good conversion rate would be 5 energy unites per rune. It'd also be nice to see rune pouch reintroduced as an optional runandor item with less slots.