Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Suggestions for game development and improvements. One suggestion to a thread, please.
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Lychwood
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 2:53 am

Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Post by Lychwood »

Burrowing movement and the Earth Affinity skill in general are a bit of a sad meme right now. Golem form is sort of interesting, but burrowing itself is just worse flying.

I think it would be flavorful and potentially (maybe) viable to make burrowing work more like Tattoo of the Wandering Way (same MP cost and distance limits), except that you can only use interior-less tiles for your entry and exit points on the teleport.

Pros:
-Preserves the flavor and uniqueness of burrowing as a form of transportation
-Is good for a PM class that wants to minimize AP expenditures on movement
-Still has some outdoorsy restrictions to be less powerful than a straight up Wandering Way port. It'll get you in the neighborhood, but you still have to hoof it from field to doorstep.

Cons:
-Navigating the dropdowns to triangulate your teleport destination is still kinda gross
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MrFrank
Posts: 95
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:13 am
Location: Lambda, a Subterranean Storage Facility, Mount Altrea Site

Re: Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Post by MrFrank »

I thought your suggestion might be OP (only just started using a Tattoo of the Wandering Way NC and its pretty dang strong) but then again other PMs have better mobility options (Wings, Twisted Leap etc).

Burrowing does feel pretty fair in planes with lots of outdoor space (Stygia and Elysium), but less so in Cordillera and (ironically) Purgatorio. Since it's still not as good as Ether Stepping or Way of Lightning I would give it better movement cost reduction (1/3 instead of 1/2).

Or we could go completely overboard and actually let Elementalists burrow, going underneath the planes into a network of tunnels exclusive to them, but I imagine this is too labour-intensive for not a whole lot of gain.

Another idea I was thinking about was giving them Stepping of the Stone but with more conditions. Like you can set stones, or more appropriately "tunnel holes" in outdoor locations, say 5 to start with and more with higher levels, or with higher spell affinity, or +1 tunnels for each pet you are able to summon (meaning picking up smaller pet skills will expand the number of pets but this may be too complicated a system). Once you've set down tunnels you can enter them and exit through another tunnel you've set up elsewhere, for an ap and maybe an mp cost. On the same plane, no VW shenanigans.

This would actually be a unique travel skill among petmasters I think. This would sort of anchor you to a few locations instead of giving free movement over parts of the map but allows Elems who like to travel around and seek places get to them easier in the future.

Another random idea is that Elems with Ley Sculpting get to burrow along ley lines as well even if they're on tiles with indoor locations.

To summarize:
  1. Idea 1: As the skill currently exists, movement through outdoor places now has 1/3 cost instead of 1/2.
  2. Idea 2: As the skill currently exists, Elementalists who have learned Ley Sculpting get burrowing bonuses on tiles with leylines passing through them (they get cost reduction even on tiles with indoor spaces)
  3. Idea 3: Rework the skill so they can "tunnel holes" on an outdoor only tile. They can then enter a tunnel and exit through any other tunnel they've created on the same plane, maybe for MP cost in addition to AP. Limited to X tunnels. Analogous to VW's Stepping of the Stone.
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Klapaucius
Posts: 262
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:36 am

Re: Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Post by Klapaucius »

Ele already has god-tier movement. The question to me is: will this synergise or replace other elementalist movement skills. If it synergises, it takes ele movement from top 2 (equal with HC IMO, better than NC overall) to clear and by far the best.

As written, I believe it does synergise.

On the other hand, the skill is obviously deficient and needs a boost, and I like the flavor.

I have a second concern about the level of map studying that you'll need to do, in order to hit an outdoor tile near your target. That seems even more annoying that wandering way.
Lychwood
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 2:53 am

Re: Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Post by Lychwood »

I didn't think about the synergy with their fly skill, that'd definitely be over the top if used together. Maybe have it only work in Golem Form, and make Golem Form incompatible with flight? I dunno, the idea's probably destined for the bin either way. My main motivation was that I skipped earth adept on my earth ele because it didn't feel usable to me, which seems counterintuitive--there should be a reason to pick up your primary element's adept skill.

Edit: Oh, looks like Golem Form is already incompatible with Fly
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Player of: Lychwood, Nirvanyos the Arcane, The Blackwolf, Froggy the Gremlin, The Necronomicorn, Morgein Winterhue, ᛊᛏᚨᛁᚾᚨᛉ
Klapaucius
Posts: 262
Joined: Wed Nov 24, 2021 10:36 am

Re: Skills: Burrowing, but less bad

Post by Klapaucius »

I think the biggest synergy would be with water breathing, since that lets you move without AP across most of the map, then you could tunnel the last little bit for just mp.

I gave this a bit more thought, and HC would still be better since it's cheaper to travel diagonally! So it's not actually going to bust the movement power curve.

p.s. I also wish I could just happily buy earth adept on my earth ele
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