Goonhub
03-12-2025, 06:41 AM
I'm currently in the middle of mashing together sprites so that the various constructions you make out of skulls change appearance based on the skulls you use (it's bothered me for awhile) since currently only the skullbots vary. (And there's a skullbot missing, IIRC) Then I figured that it should just be copy and pasting and changing file paths so I should be able to PR that with my lack of skill. And then I figured, hey, if I'm doing that, why not tweak a few of the stats where it'd make sense. However, some of these would involve actual balance changes, and I decided I would like some feedback before actually attempting it. My ideas, and the justification behind them, are roughly as follows.
For the skull chalices, the changeling skull and the crystal skull (which is based off the changeling skull) would have a slightly increased capacity (20%, I don't recall if the skull chalice holds 25 or 50 units) since the (not very visible post skull resprite) posterior expansion of the skull leaves more room in the cranium. The cluwne skull chalice would have a 5u capacity, because it's got a giant frickin' hole in it, and nothing that comes from a cluwne should be useful. These should be uncontroversial and I only mention them for completeness, although if there's a reason not to do them I'm open to hearing it.
For the skull masks, I was thinking that the strange (wizard), menacing (vampire?), and ominous (no damn idea) skulls provide a small amount of light, since the eyesockets in all of them glow. I also think it would be thematically appropriate for the menacing skull mask to give thermal vision, although that's a pretty big change. The crystal skull mask, being made of a tougher substance, could give increased armor. The changeling and hunter skull masks, having rather more bone than the basic skull mask, could also give increased armor, albeit not as much as the crystal skull. I'm also open to increasing the armor of skull masks across the board - masks don't have much stat variation at the moment which contributes to gas masks being best in slot no matter what. Finally, the cluwne skull mask, which has a giant frickin' hole in it, would provide less armor and wouldn't conceal your identity.
Finally, there are the spirit candles. I was thinking that, since rare skulls are harder to get (the crystal skull and the ominous skull might be unique? I'm not sure where they spawn) and many of them come from distinctly magical beings, it would make sense for them to be more effective at being spirit candles, increasing effect radius or duration or something like that. This would probably be the biggest balance change, and since I haven't looked at the spirit candle code and therefore don't know if it handles those parameters in a way that could be easily edited by someone whose only coding experience is making the turtle move it's entirely possible this is outside of my ability and therefore moot.
But anyways. Feedback? Other ideas for ways to differentiate skull constructions? Other things to do while I'm in the skull mines? (I intend to see if I can make a distinct skull mask sprite that looks nice (since right now it just uses the skull sprite) as well as adding any missing skullbots.)
Here, have a picture of the chalices.
![[Image: IyINdEO.png]](https://i.imgur.com/IyINdEO.png)
For the skull chalices, the changeling skull and the crystal skull (which is based off the changeling skull) would have a slightly increased capacity (20%, I don't recall if the skull chalice holds 25 or 50 units) since the (not very visible post skull resprite) posterior expansion of the skull leaves more room in the cranium. The cluwne skull chalice would have a 5u capacity, because it's got a giant frickin' hole in it, and nothing that comes from a cluwne should be useful. These should be uncontroversial and I only mention them for completeness, although if there's a reason not to do them I'm open to hearing it.
For the skull masks, I was thinking that the strange (wizard), menacing (vampire?), and ominous (no damn idea) skulls provide a small amount of light, since the eyesockets in all of them glow. I also think it would be thematically appropriate for the menacing skull mask to give thermal vision, although that's a pretty big change. The crystal skull mask, being made of a tougher substance, could give increased armor. The changeling and hunter skull masks, having rather more bone than the basic skull mask, could also give increased armor, albeit not as much as the crystal skull. I'm also open to increasing the armor of skull masks across the board - masks don't have much stat variation at the moment which contributes to gas masks being best in slot no matter what. Finally, the cluwne skull mask, which has a giant frickin' hole in it, would provide less armor and wouldn't conceal your identity.
Finally, there are the spirit candles. I was thinking that, since rare skulls are harder to get (the crystal skull and the ominous skull might be unique? I'm not sure where they spawn) and many of them come from distinctly magical beings, it would make sense for them to be more effective at being spirit candles, increasing effect radius or duration or something like that. This would probably be the biggest balance change, and since I haven't looked at the spirit candle code and therefore don't know if it handles those parameters in a way that could be easily edited by someone whose only coding experience is making the turtle move it's entirely possible this is outside of my ability and therefore moot.
But anyways. Feedback? Other ideas for ways to differentiate skull constructions? Other things to do while I'm in the skull mines? (I intend to see if I can make a distinct skull mask sprite that looks nice (since right now it just uses the skull sprite) as well as adding any missing skullbots.)
Here, have a picture of the chalices.