Powerups post #3! (Patreon)

Hey, if you missed the first powerups post, go back and look at it patreon.com/posts/4840446 there!

Today I've got three powerups; all three fall into the Utility category.

To note again, these objects are not the actual physical representation of these objects; picking them up doesn't actually give Talia a helmet to wear, so it won't change her outfit. :P

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The theme for these three powerups (as they're a "set" of powerups), is "Flowers". In particular, the way they're incorporated in here is a bit weird, and is not so much in reference to the FLOWERS, but more what would happen if you were to DAMAGE said flowers.

However, before we get into the actual powerups, I'd like to talk a bit about what "Utility" means in this game.

A Utility powerup in this game is a powerup that doesn't DIRECTLY revolve around damaging enemies or healing Talia, as those are what the other two categories are for.

So for example, a Utility powerup could have a positive or negative alteration of any of the following stats (or more!)

Movement speed, jumping, mana regeneration, skill cooldown, status effects, amplification of other powerups, awareness of enemies, luck of finding other or better powerups, ignoring physics, firing in multiple directions, hover as long as you don't move, move when you fire in the air... and so on.

So, starting from the left;

#1 - Rose

This is the American powerup; as the Rose is pretty deeply embedded in the culture and history of the USA, there's not really a more obvious choice for it IMO, and given its particular representation in popular culture of a "rose having thorns", it fits the powerup it gets even moreso.

The utility it gives is "Enemies that damage Talia have their movement speed cut by 25%." This particular utility boost will affect the enemy permanently for the duration that she's in the room. This is to represent the enemy "being tied up by thorns", as it were. This does not however affect "special moves" for the enemies, though; for example, the flying demon in the Fire Level would still swoop just as quickly, as that isn't considered "movement", but is instead considered "an ability". Speaking of abilities/moves of the enemies, though...

#2 - Daffodil

This is the European powerup; the Daffodil is the national flower of Wales, and the link to the powerup in this one is a bit obscure. The following passage is taken directly from Wikipedia; "Plutarch refers to this in his Symposiacs as follows, "and the daffodil, because it benumbs the nerves and causes a stupid narcotic heaviness in the limbs, and therefore Sophocles calls it the ancient garland flower of the great (that is, the earthy) gods."

And as it affects "the limbs", the utility it gives is "Enemies that damage Talia have the frequency of how often they attack cut by 25%."  This, as with the powerup above, affects enemies as long as Talia's in a room, BUT note that this is primarily going to hamper ranged attacks; melee attacks are generally only done when Talia is nearby anyways, so those aren't going to be too affected by this in most cases, unless a melee attack has a really long range (and some of the future enemies will!)

#3 - Sakura Blossom

This is the Japanese powerup; I figure this isn't really a surprise to most of you, but the Sakura Blossom is so deeply embedded in Japanese culture that it was a no-brainer in this case. Every year the blossoms bloom (mostly) all at once, and so, going with logic, they would all fall off around the same time as well. (If this isn't the case, well, we're gonna stretch it a bit for this one.) Now, a huge mass of flowers falling all at once... which of the senses would that impair? 

The utility it gives is "Enemies that damage Talia have their "sight" cut by 25%.." What this specifically means is that normally, enemies have a "set range" at which they can "see" Talia; for example, the Berserker in the Fire level has a rather wide range, but the flying demon in the same level has a pretty low range compared to him, so he can't chase you all throughout the level forever. This would reduce that sight so it would be even harder for enemies to "track" Talia down and engage her.

The Set Boost for this Set

If you manage to get all three powerups above at once (remember, Talia can only hold three powerups at once, and can't hold more than one of the same kind), then she'll get the following "Set Boost";

"All of these effects now automatically apply just by entering a room."

So now, instead of having to get damaged by enemies to get a break, Talia automatically applies all THREE effects to ALL enemies in the room, automatically. As with all Set Boosts, this is as powerful as it is because if you get this, that means you're settling for nothing but these powerups; no offense/defense powerups, and so forth.

Generally, we're trying to go with the "stand alone powerups" being more powerful than the "set boost" powerups, and then to compensate, the set boost itself is generally pretty strong.

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As a note, about the Patreon breaking $6,000;

it's definitely cause to celebrate, as it means we're getting CLOSER to being all self-sufficient off of this...

...but it's unlikely we're ACTUALLY THERE yet, as each month we get about 9% in declined pledges, partially from bots, and partially from bank account problems that some of you have, etc.

 Again, I'm/we're not complaining by ANY means, trust me, we're elated, but I just didn't want people to get the wrong idea :P (and this is also a preemptive reply to what I'm sure will be a lot of congratulatory posts haha)

As far as general progress on stuff,  we're still going on as always: Cheshire is nearly done with the C++ build and will be doing the other editors after that, I'm working on maps, powerups, all that stuff, Triangulate is working on Electricity enemies and finishing off the Ice boss, so on :)