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Custom Enemy Presets


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#16 Timelord

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Posted 26 September 2017 - 06:48 AM

I don't believe this should be considered an exploit and I use it all the time with no issue. It just makes sense. The hammer's primary purpose in combat is being an effective weapon against darknuts. Take away its solid damage and that's all you have left. Given the hammer's slow swing time and the darknut's homing properties, removing the shield piercing would be about equivalent to making darknuts immune to the hammer when the shield breaking flag is unchecked, wouldn't it?

Take TeamUDF's reaction to a darknut being completely immune to the hammer in Golvellius as an example of how such a change would be received. :P

Well, his reaction was also based on the hammer damage (in that quest) being nerfed to woode sword levels. The issue here is that the hammer can (seemingly) hurt npcs even if it does not break the shield. Besides, you can have multiple hammer levels, then change the npc flags; and I was not solely suggesting this for darknuts.

Adding an npc shielded on the front and left, that can only be damged by arrows and magic, can mke a fun challenge.

P.S. Golvellius was also a quest that he LP'd in his 'no fun' period, and one of the rare instances where I almost entirely disagreed with him. I think it was a fantastic quest, with reasonable ties to its source material.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 26 September 2017 - 06:51 AM.

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#17 HeroOfFire

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Posted 01 October 2017 - 02:20 PM

Between the custom enemies I've designed for better (and longer) difficulty curves and quests I've played, there are a few things I've settled on.

 

Obviously, the default Gold Ring 1/8 defense is a little too hard to balance around, so recently I've been trying to balance around Red Ring 1/4 defense as the maximum possible defense (ignoring any Peril Rings, since those tend to only be active at 3 hearts or less usually). I feel a good rule of thumb is, the most damage you should take from enemies late game is 1.5 hearts with Red Ring, and that damage should be rare.

 

Also from a few quests I've played, suddenly introducing common enemies that take 3 or more hits from the Magic Sword in Level 6 or earlier is... not fun. Especially if the Magic Sword is optional. Level 6 in the official 4th quest comes to mind. A lot of Zelda Maxi also comes to mind.

 

Actually, any common enemy that takes more then 3 hits with your best available sword (besides Wooden) just makes things tedious. Rare enemies and "mid-boss" enemies are the exception.

 

Here are a few enemies I made for Randomizer Returns, which is supposed to have the Z1 feel, but with a slightly larger difficulty curve.

 

Level 2 Aquamentus

 

HP increased to 24

Damage and Weapon Damage increased to 8

Best used in Levels 4 and higher.

 

Level 3 Darknut

 

HP increased to 20

Damage and Weapon Damage set to 8

Random Rate and Halt Rate set to 4

Homing Factor of 128

Step Speed of 65

Fires 1 Shot Pattern Sword Beam

Drops Bombs

Appears in Level 7 and above, when Level 1 Darknuts stop appearing

 

Gibdo (Weak)

HP reduced to 6

Damage reduced to 4

Homing Factor reduced to 64

Step Speed remains at 50

Drops Hearts

Appears in Levels 1 - 3, before regular Gibdos appear.

 

Goriya (Stronger)

HP increased to 14

Damage and Weapon Damage increased to 8

Hunger is 4

Random Rate and Halt rate set to 6

Homing Factor 128

Step Speed increased to 60

Drops Bombs

Appears in Levels 7 and above, when Level 1 Goriyas stop appearing

Throws boomerangs normally. Something to note, Boomerangs are thrown very suddenly, similar to how Blue Wizzrobes fire magic.

 

Vire (Weaker)

HP reduced to 4

Damage reduced to 2

Step Speed reduced to 40

Drops Life

Still splits into 2 regular keese.

Appears in Levels 1 - 3, before regular Vires Appear. Given how difficult Vires become if Z-axis movement is enabled, this is a good introduction to the enemy type.

 

One other thing to consider. Pols Voice would be a very difficult enemy without the Arrow Weakness. Ideas to balance difficult enemies include similar weaknesses. One example is making Vires with more than 8 HP one-shot by bombs, so the player has an option to prevent them from splitting if they lack a weapon with enough damage. Or if you want, make an enemy take 1/2 damage from all weapons except those it has a weakness to (Warning, Boomerangs and Hookshots seem to ignore the 1/2 defense flag, most likely due to how the engine handles those weapons stunning suddenly doing damage as well).

 

On the other hand, making an enemy take less damage from a few specific weapon types can also be clever. No one expects the Wizzrobe that takes LESS damage from reflected magic.

 

Finally, you don't have to stick to powers of 2. If Bats do 6 damage, why can't there be a 12 damage (3 Hearts) attack? Likewise, Goyiras go from 6 HP to 10 in Z1. There is no excuse to introduce the next level of enemy that is double the stats of the previous one.


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#18 KingPridenia

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Posted 01 October 2017 - 02:33 PM

HeroOfFire's Randomizers are IMO one of the best ways to do reasonably balanced custom enemies. A lot of my choices now are kind of ripped off from his Randomizers. Although...I could have sworn his tier 3 Darknuts did 12 weapon damage, not 8. But I could be wrong.



#19 Feenicks

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Posted 07 October 2017 - 02:16 PM

Here's two more enemies:

 

Moblin L3:

HP: 8

Damage: 2
W. Damage: 4

Random rate, step speed, etc. are pretty much the same as the L1/L2 ones

Extra stuff: 3 shots shot type

--

Something simple; just a moblin that's a bit tougher than the original two types, and has a bit of a higher attack spread.

 

Gel/Zol L1.5:

Weapon Type: Flame

Shot Type: 1 Shot (end-halt)

--

This is a bit of a less annoying version of the default L2 Gel/Zol, which still has the fire theme going on.




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