Some lore questions about upcoming new Solomon's keep

Peppermaster

Dear Mr. Raptis

It is quite awhile since we had new things about Solomon series and I think it would be nice for the Solomon fans like me are craving for more juicy facts about the new Solomon's keep. I know you had no time to work with that because of Hoggy 2 and other matters but I feel like there might be untold things that may quench our thirst for new contents. So here are my question to you:

1. Does Solomon has a wife and a son? If so, do we get to kill his wife as a hidden boss or something?

2. Why is the necromancer helping Morius and Wizard University to get rid of Solomon? Shouldn't the player necromancer be arrested because necromancy is illegal?

3. Will there be a backstories for other bosses other than Solomon and Charles?

4. Do you plan to bring all wizards from the boneyard to the solomon's keep as dire faculty or just the trio we saw in Solomon Dark?

5. What age of Magick is Solomon's Keep in?

6. Exactly what are the terrible things that Solomon Dark has done to the world? I feel like I am trespassing an innocent poor dark lord's house to get promoted.

7. Can you tell me more about Merdalf? 

8. Is the Archchancellor from Solomon's Boneyard alive during the event of Solomon's Keep?

9. Is the paladin from Brothers of Stee... I mean Brothers of Infinite Light?

10. Will the poor Claudicus, inventor of Ether Drain, be able to come out of the hole?  

11. What are the default names of paladin, necromancer, and rogue?

12. Are there donuts in Solomon's keep?

Raptisoft

>>1. Does Solomon has a wife and a son? If so, do we get to kill his wife as a hidden boss or something?

Spoilers!

>>2. Why is the necromancer helping Morius and Wizard University to get
rid of Solomon? Shouldn't the player necromancer be arrested because
necromancy is illegal?

Collegium Wizards are not priests-- they're kinda neutral, like a scientist.  This is the necromancer's backstory:

I came to Solomon Dark seeking knowledge of necromancy.
Amused, he took me in, underestimating my talent, intelligence, and ability to withstand cruelty.
But in time I learned that he is a boring dark lord.  Unimaginitive and rigid, obsessed with mere death and demons when he could be communing with the black infinite.
His artifacts and armies belong in more capable hands. 
Tonight, the student becomes the master.

>>3. Will there be a backstories for other bosses other than Solomon and Charles?

Well, yeah, but they're pretty simple.  Solomon kills a dragon because he's metal like that, and reanimated it because he's metal like that.  Monculus is just your basic thing that you, as a dark lord, scratch together in the lab if you had a lot of extra flesh and stuff laying around.

>>4. Do you plan to bring all wizards from the boneyard to the solomon's
keep as dire faculty or just the trio we saw in Solomon Dark?

Every Boneyard wizard will be in the remake of Solomon's Keep.  Also, if you play as a hardcore wizard and die, you must face yourself in a future game!

>>5. What age of Magick is Solomon's Keep in?

It's in a dark age.  Like medieval England, post-castle era, pre-renaissance.  But the golden ages don't last long because there's always someone willing to be a big magical jerk.

>>6. Exactly what are the terrible things that Solomon Dark has done to
the world? I feel like I am trespassing an innocent poor dark lord's
house to get promoted.

Not too much!  Solomon's Keep isn't one of those "save the whole world" games.  But he robs a lot of graveyards, takes whatever he wants, brings demons into the world (there's repercussions to that) and if he happens to need a live person for his experiment, he just goes and grabs one.  But we're not talking world threatening here-- I kinda dislike games that always make you save the world! 

>>7. Can you tell me more about Merdalf?

There will be whole libraries in Keep HD!

>>8. Is the Archchancellor from Solomon's Boneyard alive during the event of Solomon's Keep?

No, it's a different once.  Solomon and the college got into a generalized sniping war between Boneyard and Keep with a lot of casualties on Team Wizard.  At some point the wizards kinda said, okay, we're going to take the high road and stop getting killed left and right, and some time later the most irritatingly bright students started being given the final exam of taking out Solomon Dark.  So at the time of Solomon's Keep, there's a sort of stasis.

>>9. Is the paladin from Brothers of Stee... I mean Brothers of Infinite Light?

The paladin's back story:
In my youth, I sought out the Brotherhood of the Blinding Light.  Long did I reflect in the house of the divine Glaring One.  There I found my purpose... and my peace.
But the shadow of a sorceror fell across the land.  Towns were burned, graves robbed, souls taken. 
Our Lord commands forgiveness.  But he also commands justice.
I will bring the Light into the Dark Lord's heart, one stab at a time.

>>10. Will the poor Claudicus, inventor of Ether Drain, be able to come out of the hole?

It is very doubtful we will ever see Claudicus again.  It's theoretically possible that he's still alive.

>>11. What are the default names of paladin, necromancer, and rogue?

Paladin: Martin
Necromancer: Mort
Rogue: Archie

>>12. Are there donuts in Solomon's keep?

Now there will be.

Sorry it took me so long to reply... I'm sweating here racing against Apple's 32-bit graveyard.  More info soon, SK is submitted for iOS and will be out on Android very soon, and working on Boneyard for both now.

Peppermaster

@Raptisoft

4. Also, if you play as a hardcore wizard and die, you must face yourself in a future game!

As a Dungeon Crawl fan, I love this facing your own ghost part.

6. Not too much!  

So we are the a%#hole.

11. Necromancer: Mort

Mort killing Morth would be funny.

12. Now there will be.

I love you.

P.S. 

I was playing Fallout: New Vegas for few days and I've realized that it would be cool to make rouge use various drugs (potions) would make it stand out more and achieve the mid game strong aspect. Basically, the potions(other than those health and mana potions) will have various amazing effects(slowing time like turbo, temporary stealth, becoming invulnerable for couple seconds, etc.) at the cost of permanent penalties (max health reduction, bad ending chance, damage reduction) and addictions (penalties if not used for long period of time). With that, rouge will be struggling early when there is only few potions, become powerful at mid when he has lots of potions, falls off at the end game when penalties starts to kick in seriously, making it difficult to abuse using potions. You can make potions to be sold only for rouge to make sure other characters do not benefit from it, making rouge different from other characters.

Raptisoft

Well, the rogue's "unique" talent is to set traps.  The general idea is that one optional way to play the rogue is to sort of play it like a tower defense.

I don't really want to make the rogue a drug addict! ;)

Also, Solomon really is a jerk.  His personality is like that of the kid you play against online who is using cheats and hacks and then teabags you.  If that's not a reason to invade someone's house and kill them, is there ever any reason?

Peppermaster

@Raptisoft

Yeah, making drugs as the unique part of rouge is not the right idea (and a sane one).

But here is what I am concerned about the direction you are going with the rogue.

Playing like tower defense is basically a inferior version of necromancer to my view. necromancer's minions are generally movable while traps and towers are static. Sure, the traps and towers could be more stronger. However, placing those things in every room or luring enemies in other rooms is pretty annoying and possibly "un-fun". Basically, you are making another form of meditation or steam jet (both of which I hate for being useless).

If this was some sort of protect poor solomon's home game, I think traps and towers are good idea. But this game is about busting into a dork lord's house, give him some wedgies, and leave the house pocket full of gold. It would be stupid for a robber to put bunch of trap in the bank and lure securities into the traps rather than just shooting them one by one undetected. You can say its just a optional way but if that way is too inefficient and not fitting to rouge. It is pretty much like paladin having a blue fireball called holy bolt.

What should the rogue's unique talent be "dodging and hiding". Wizard and Necromancer are both very immobile and mostly have to rely on crowd control abilities to prevent getting hurt while Paladin just have to soak the damage up with defensive abilities. For Rouge, relying only on traps to not get hurt is basically no different from mages. Rouge should be using exceptional dodge abilities(tumble) and stealth abilities to avoid damage. 

P.S. Technically, wizards can set traps too (magic trap).

Raptisoft

The rogue DOES have dodging, hiding, and spotting skills-- but it's hard to make a full skill tree out of them.  You can hide in corners, then upgrade that so that your next attack while hiding is devastating... and then you can have a dodge skill.  You can discover all kinds of hidden things in Solomon's Keep that nobody else can.  But aside from that there's not much to add.

And remember, one of the important core design decisions of Solomon's Keep is that there's little to no skill overlap-- i.e. there wouldn't be "Hiding" and then "More Better Hiding" and there wouldn't be "Dodge" and then later "Extreme Dodge."  Each skill is supposed to create a niche and ecosystem of its own.  So I can't flesh out a skill system like Diablo 2 did, with fireball->bigger fireball->way bigger fireball->totally awesome fireball.

AND, at the same time, I don't want to turn the rogue into a pseudo-mage with "fire arrow" and "magically dividing multiple shots" or "heat seeking missile arrows."  Ultimately, the rogue should feel like a rogue.  Like sneaky.

If you look at games with fleshed out archer skill sets like Titan Quest or Diablo 2, most of the skills they design for the archer are either outright mage skills, really boring/tedious, or filler.  I am striving to find a way around that.

This is why the rogue class is the least developed. 

But while you're right that traps, etc, is sort of like a "crappy necromancer," the necromancer is designed to stand behind his wall of servants and press forward aggressively.  A trap strategy is a bit of an "advance, get everyone's attention, then retreat."  Since SK is in rooms, trapping works better than with Boneyard, where it was one big open area and things would often trigger your traps without you ever seeing them.

Peppermaster

@Raptisoft

I expected that you had some dodge hide spot skills in Roguery section. I disagree with what you said that there is not much to add to hiding and dodging. To counter your thought that dodging and hiding is not enough, I'll present you ten skills(about a size of one skill tree path) that might help you develop rouge more "rougelike" ( \ O / praise the pun)

1. Camoflauge

Become stealth after 3 second of using it for X seconds. Stealth breaks when attacking.

2. Smoke Bomb

Throw a smoke bomb to make a field of smoke. You will be considered stealthed while you are in the smoke bomb.

3. Ambush

Attacking while stealthed will deal massive critical damage to non-boss enemies

4. Vital shot

When stealthed near a boss, a vital spot in a shape of arc appears around the boss. Attacking that spot will deal heavy bonus damage based on max health.

5. Lurking Reaper

When killing an enemy while stealthed, there is a small chance that you will become stealthed again for brief period of time.

6. Repulsion Mine

Put a repulsion mine below the player's location. When re-casted, the mine explode, pushing back all characters(enemy, ally, self) away from the mine. 

7. Friendly Shield

When struck, there is a small chance you ignore the damage and become stealthed while leaving your favorite teddy bear.

8.  Ninja Boy

Increase the duration of stealth and grant bonus movement speed.

9. Box full of Surpise

Throw a box at a target area. After 1 second, the box arms itself. When enemy comes near, box will burst open and fears all enemies nearby.

10. Hookshot

Shoot a hook that stops when it hits a terrain. Re-casting this ability will move player towards the hook.

I hope this is helpful in shaping the rouge class into your desired direction.

P.S. The "magically dividing multiple shot" thing you say... I don't think its magic. Its science. ;)

Raptisoft

So a lot of these are already in the skill tree... but here's a problem:

2. Smoke Bomb
3. Repulsion Mine
9. Box full of surprise

See, now these are "objects."  While other games go ahead and do this, it's an inconsistency I don't want to have in Keep-- it turns the rogue into a mage who magics up some smoke bombs/etc whenever he wants some.

Instead of hook shot, I have "ensnare" which throws a net over 1+ targets to immobilize them--  but it requires having a net in your inventory.  Hook shot is a bit acrobatic, and this rogue is more sly cad than a ninja, to keep the Medieval England theme.  Think Robin Hood rather than Bruce Lee.

Peppermaster

@Raptisoft

Funny thing is that you solved the problem with 2,3,9 by showing a great example of an appropriate "object" skill that have consistency. Just let rouge have the bombs and boxes in his inventory and it would all make sense. Balance-wise, they should be requiring ammo, considering deadly potentials they have.

I am not getting why hook shot is not related to Medieval age, considering that hooks were the common siege tool used to climb walls in Medieval Europe. If you wonder why you get pulled when you recast it, let's just say the wizard college has funded some special invention for the rouge to deal with Solomon. 

For the sly cad thing, Hawkeye is an acrobatic sly cad archer and he uses hookshot and "magically" splitting arrows. Also, he is more like Robin Hood than Bruce Lee. So, I am not sure what you are exactly aiming for the rouge.

Raptisoft

Making a skill tied to items is a possibility (the paladin's shield skills, for instance, rely on holding a shield), so I am putting it into the mix...

A hook shot I somewhat dislike because it's functionally a limited teleport spell.  But used as a weapon it would have a LOT of crossover with the paladin's charge spell (assuming you shoot through a group of enemies, then bust through them dealing damage as you reel in).  So that's the kind of skill "crossover" I like to avoid.  Plus it feels like, "I couldn't think of a real rogue-y skill, so here's hook shot."

I would be more interested in the keeping an archer character very focused on archery.  But unlike melee weapons, there's not a lot of fancy stuff you can do with archery:

1. Finesse (simple damage + speed modifier)
2. Critical strikes (chance to do way big damage with each shot)
3. Dead Aim (hold down button to charge up/aim, walk slower, release for guaranteed big kaboom)
4. Close Combat (switch to a knife for knockback + effective damage at close range)

...but it's difficult to subclass these into modifiers (in the same way that you can modify magic missile with more missiles and potent missiles).  An ideal setup would be that specializing in a specific skill group is more effective than just getting one point in every skill, but while I have been able to manage that so far with Paladin, Wizard and Necromancer, with rogue it's eluding me.  And studying other games is no help!  Like I said before they just tend to make every character a pseudo-mage.

Like, the temptation is there to say "fire arrows," or "poison arrows" etc, but those should properly be an item or magic effect on a weapon, and not an inherent skill.

Peppermaster

I now understand your concerns about hookshot but it is definitly not "I couldn't think of a real rouge-y skill, so here's hook shot". I could explain to you more about why the hookshot feel like rouge stuff but that is not the important part so I am skipping that.

I am beginning to love this challenge. So here are my answers to the inherent archery skills: 

1. Crippling Shot: By aiming at the specific vital spots, you can slow enemies when you land critical strikes. (this ability is based on dim mak.)

2. Gambler's Fallacy: After hitting certain number of non-critical shots, you will be guaranteed to land a critical shot.

3. Hype: You can extra movement speed and attack speed for each successful hit. Missing a shot will reset the stack.

4. Ricochet: When you fully charge dead aim, the arrow can bounce to random direction when it by terrain or enemy. (not homing because its not magic. It's just physics) However, ricochet prevents crit when fully charged.

5. Pure Skill: Because you are so lucky, you have small chances that shots you fire have enormous hitbox and guaranteed crit. (a joke skill about bow-users in fps who are terrible at aiming yet somehow get kills. Ex. Hanzo players in Overwatch)

6. Power Stake: Your Dead Aim now knocks enemy back. When the knocked back enemy hits another enemy, they also receive damage and knocks back. If knocked back enemies hit terrain, they will be stunned briefly and receive extra damage.

7. Snipe: You now cannot move while Dead Aim and the hitbox of the arrow will become smaller. However, your vision gets widened, fast travel speed, and bonus crit damage.

8. Cutthroat(melee only): Hold and release attack to rapidly dash a short distance, dealing damage and slowing enemies passed through. 

9.  Hit and Run: After moving for certain distance, you can shoot a guaranteed crit shot that also gives a burst of speed.

10. Backstab(melee only): Dealing damage at the back of enemy deals massive critical hit.

11. Piercing Shot: Your critical shots have a chance to pierce enemies. 

12. Goldlust: If there is an unopened chest or boss nearby, you gain bonus attack speed. (should be more fitting for treasure hunting skill tree)

13. Abandon Bullseye: You now have lower chance of crit and have more attack speed and damage.

P.S. I recommend studying other genre of game (especially MOBA like LoL, Dota, Smite, etc.) would be useful for finding the skill you want. There are some pseudomages but I was able to find some non-mage ranged characters that you might find useful. Most of the skill ideas I got above are from those genre, especially LoL. 

Raptisoft

Some of these aren't bad... let's revisit this when I actually sit down to do the archer.  If we do it too early it'll get lost to the mists of time.  I will post a thread when I'm ready to do the archer, because while I have a good and coherent vision of the other skills, I almost never play archers in games, so that's where I'll be willing to take a lot of input.

"Goldlust" really shows me that you've got the spirit of things.  I could definitely see making the rogue get a bonus when there's treasure to be had.

Peppermaster

Yeah, it's too early to discuss this topic considering you got lots of work to do this year. 

Anyway, thank you for listening to my ideas and wish you luck on Chuzzle 2, Rwk 2, Boneyard porting.