Currently Unstable Spellbook draws random scrolls from a list of 10 eligible scrolls with replacement. My suggestion is to change this so that scrolls are drawn without replacement.
This idea came to me after someone on Reddit claimed to have drawn a bunch of strings (a string of 4 and a string of 6) of the same scroll in a row, all within the same game. Generally when this happens it gets people out of the game and has them thinking there’s something wrong with how scrolls are chosen.
My suggestion, to draw the scrolls without replacement, would make longer strings of duplicates like this impossible. It would also make the Unstable Spellbook more strategic in its use because you could keep track of which scrolls you get and then be able to make plans for potential upcoming scrolls. To make this less tedious, you might consider allowing the player to see some of the potential upcoming scrolls, similar to how some versions of Tetris show you the upcoming pieces (though not necessarily in exact order like Tetris).
Some further notes and thoughts:
- Identify, remove curse, and magic mapping are all half as common as the other scrolls. This could be handled by having a deck of 17 scrolls, with 7 duplicates for the more common types but only 1 copy of each of the 3 above.
- If you do go with a deck type system, maybe the player could keep adding more scrolls (beyond the needed for each upgrade) to bias the deck in their favour. This would make the Unstable Spellbook into a kind of deck-builder minigame, like Slay the Spire!
- Another idea might be to remove the popup choice for upgrading scrolls you draw, in favour of allowing the player to add both regular and exotic scrolls separately, giving them separate distributions within the deck. This loss of control would represent a small tactical nerf to the usage of the book which would partially offset the strategic buff caused by letting the player know and have more control over the distribution of scrolls they get from the artifact.
Anyway, thoughts, opinions, suggestions? I personally love the Unstable Spellbook in its current form but I have talked to others who don’t like it at all. My thoughts around this suggestion are to attempt to bridge this gap and make the item feel less random while still preserving its random flavour. The tradeoff is that this suggestion would make the item a bit more complex, though I don’t see think it’s an unreasonable amount of added complexity.
Alchemy is quite a complex system in the game and many players don’t engage with it at all. Even at the most tricked-out “deck builder” version of this suggestion, it’s still quite a lot less complex than alchemy because the choices are much more straightforward: want to see more of a scroll? Add another copy to the spellbook!
I worry that this would lead to very tedious gameplay where players would feel the need to keep track of what things the book has already cast so they can plan around the new likelihoods, and eventually the garunteed final effect before a new rotation starts. The book is also supposed to be quite random, which does include possibly rolling the same effect multiple times.
Here’s an idea I had: if you feed the book an upgrade when the book is already at +10 it has a chance of reading a scroll of enchantment. Maybe all accessories could have a new mechanic, an extra ability that unlocks at +10 and using one single upgrade scroll to them.
To fix the unstable spellbook they just need to add the transmutation scroll in lmao
No. The only reason I use that damn book is for free ID and Remove Curse.
I also use it for the free mystical energy scroll, which takes 2 charges but gives 3. And magic mapping and lullaby (free heal) although they are unreliable
You forgot magic mapping
Yeah, free magic-mapping. Everything else is filler.
Isn’t that an indictment of the current design?
Actually, no. I think the problem is the game has too many curses and too many reasons why equipment needs to be ID’d before it can be used. (Ghost and Troll, and you can’t even turn a wand into arcane resin until you ID it and uncurse it.)
101 on why parchment scrap is goated.
Sure, and your idea makes it worse.
With my idea you could just put all the ID and remove curse scrolls into the book and then get a much higher chance of drawing them. You wouldn’t like that?
I don’t like that you have to go through every other scroll before you get another chance of getting one you need. I don’t like the idea of knowing I’m going to cast retribution and rage before I ever get ID again. I like getting removed curse or ID two or even 3 times in a row.
Identify, remove curse, and magic mapping are all half as common as the other scrolls.
This is not true, by the way. They are cast by the spellbook half as much as their normal drop rate. They are normally much more common.
I was thinking about how to alleviate your issue partially. What if instead of going through the entire library of scrolls every time, the book would draw a “hand” of say 5 scrolls that you’d use up and then it would shuffle and draw 5 more? If the book told you which 5 scrolls were in the hand then you’d have the ability to plan what to do with them. For example, having retribution and rage and lullaby in your hand would be a very powerful combo to use against the Dwarf King. Much better than ID and remove curse (especially if you don’t have anything left to ID).
wait, is Evan on Lemmy
That there? That’s secret agent 00 Evan. No one knows their identity.
Yeah if you look at the corresponding subreddit, it’s more active but seemingly every post has a mod response saying they’ve moved over here. Pretty cool imo :)
I’m pretty sure Evan started this community.
I like the strategic aspect of knowing your chances with what spells are remaining, but I already have a hard time coming back to a run and forgetting details like that. Maybe if the book could show what spells are remaining.
Yeah I agree. I think the game in general is really good about giving you access to the right information you need to make decisions. Footwear of nature, for example, always show you what seed they currently have stored.
As someone who loves the current spellbook
This would just make the book overpowered.
Scrolls are just so powerful
Getting to pick the ones you want, even if you don’t make it a guarantee, it would just be too strong.
This is specially true because of the lullaby scroll. Being able to sleep a guarantee amount of times, and having control of when to sleep, would just be just broken, especially in this game.
Stabilizing the unstable spellbook would only work it lullaby isn’t in the book
I think you’re right. However I think this could also be compensated for. The trick would be to tweak the number of copies of each scroll in the deck. Then really powerful scrolls like rage or lullaby or retribution could be made relatively uncommon.
I suggested in another reply the idea of having a “hand” of scrolls that the book draws into and shuffles after emptying. What if the hand size scales with upgrades to the book? Start at 1 (which is basically identical to current behaviour) and scale up to a hand of 5 at max upgrade?
Anyway my goal here is not to make the book more powerful than it already is. The goal is to make it more strategic than “read all of the charges during a critical moment and hope for the best” without losing the flavour of randomness and chaos.
I mean, I would agree, but scrolls are too powerful for this. There are not many harmful scrolls, so it would only end up as a buff
Idk
