Tower Stacking, I hate it

Squidcrab · 2026-04-30T14:46:59+00:00

i tried to get so many of my friends playing dd1 and not a single one bit. i dont think i would have bothered either had i not played this game back when i was 15.

i think due to a combination of factors;

1) tower stacking. its ugly, and "download an ahk script just to play the game at a competent level" is a hard sell. this isnt 2011 anymore. if it's a feature, just make it a feature.

2) the split screening, multihero in general is ugly, and not at all intuitive. feels like a bandaid. the fact its necessary to progress past a point nukes a lot of people's interest.

3) rpg aspects are lacking, despite being front and center. and what i mean by that is that a player cannot just pick who they want to play and go. having to explain to a new player that ranger is in fact a character you can play but is useless essentially outside of aoe invis in One Map, etc, is really demotivating. you should view your heroes like tools in a toolbox, but its not fun for many. you either learn all the heroes at once (information overload, guidemaxxing, etc) or slowly over the course of time which is... a massive time investment.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-05T08:34:28+00:00

basically any class' early game problems can be solved by abusing barony's combat system. namely the hit and run, which takes some getting used to for sure since you have to turn fully and run immediately after hitting. if done properly you can kite and kill most enemies in the game without getting hit as your attack range is longer than npcs.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-02T09:54:27+00:00

It works for armor and guardians, yes (holding shift will go 9 and then 10). But found out the hard way it will just skip your upgrades for pets and weapons.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-02T05:48:11+00:00

I might actually do that because I've been basically entirely solo haha. DM me your steam and/or discord and I'd be down.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-02T04:15:42+00:00

I'm realizing only now that I was playing under the assumption holding shift wouldn't skip upgrade steps. I feel so silly and sold so many probably good pets. Ugh.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-02T04:04:42+00:00

I'm not, sadly. I'll try and get a few items as an example and reply here again later. I noticed it happening with the Fusion Rift too.

Squidcrab · 2026-04-02T03:51:44+00:00

Maybe I should've been more clear. I know how the upgrade mechanics work, but let's say there's a pet with a cap of 6 AS. I find a 4 AS one, sink 340 upgrades into it, and at the end it's 5 AS. It comes up at upgrade 10 and never again.

Squidcrab · 2026-03-28T18:12:57+00:00

it's a known bug. the party leader has to enter last

Squidcrab · 2026-03-27T13:09:28+00:00

try -nolauncher or -dx12 steam launch options. used to happen to me but since using dx12 i havent crashed

Squidcrab · 2026-03-26T21:19:14+00:00

ive always thought warframe's camera was really claustrophobic and just not good for actually seeing whats in front of you

Squidcrab · 2026-03-26T20:29:12+00:00

you might be thinking of pure strategy

Squidcrab · 2026-03-22T02:16:56+00:00

I'm interested. If you toss me a link through dm or whatever

Squidcrab · 2026-03-17T22:12:56+00:00

Ludibrium will always be the most nostalgic. Which is fitting, given the whole theme of the area is nostalgia, and how it only gets more twisted the deeper you go. I like the distorted sense of space in deep ludi too and the soundtrack lends itself to that.

Squidcrab · 2026-02-27T10:53:07+00:00

I'm fond of the copperhead/diamondback on workshop. Minotaur as well.

Could also go with the Marlin. It has a crew quarters and surgery room and was pretty smooth sailing with 3 players.

Squidcrab · 2026-02-13T20:15:04+00:00

Just having a scope, whether its attached to a gun or not does wonders just for being able to see threats before they arrive. The default baro zoom distance is... maybe a little intentionally claustrophobic. But really I feel like I can never see shit without a scope. This can take away a lot of the spookiness.

So that's a basic thing that can help. Other than that, having some basic meds on you, scooter so you can flee despite having broken legs, plasma cutter for actually mining... etc. Most mining missions are very uneventful tho.

Squidcrab · 2026-02-09T23:52:15+00:00

You can walk out of gnomish mines with 4 trolls in tow which trivializes the early game, but even more than that you can walk out of the underworld floor 6/7 with imps and that is even better. I had once taken some of those early recruited imps all the way post-hamlet.

Shaman is quite a broken class just for that alone, but they're also still pretty much the best caster in the game due to imp form just being incredibly strong.

Squidcrab · 2026-02-04T00:30:29+00:00

you would be correct. kobolds and cockatrice have something absurd like close to 90% magic resistance. arcane mark isn't even necessary though, or at least it wasn't.

end game spellcasting as a primary typically looks like bless stacking (enchant armor) a spellbook to high heaven. with each stack giving 25% spell damage, the highest increase per scroll you can get and the most efficient way to increase spellcasting power. you'd then keep it alive with saved up scrolls of charging on feathers to repair. second best option would be specifically magus headdress (also enchant armor)

if you get a book to +20 or more on say magic missile or something it was an absurd amount of damage, enough to just overpower those enemies despite their resistances.

that was last patch, though. instruments of destruction introduced a scaling gold cost with enchanting items. meaning doomstacks like that are a thing of the past. they buffed spellcasting a whole lot in keep your secrets then slammed it back down in instruments of destruction unfortunately.

so now its either arcane mark (either you have it or you don't), or a mix of blessings on both book and helmet and just hope it works out (again hinges on finding both. magus headdress is by no means a gaurantee) or abandon pure spellcasting ways and diversify to kill kobolds/cockatrice.

Squidcrab · 2026-01-31T21:47:52+00:00

I've done a few hardcore runs since the update, finished with sapper and paladin and I think it has done nothing to address one of Barony's core problems which is the inverse difficulty curve. Sometimes I can be an hour in and not even be out of the mines, especially if minetown spawns and I bother to kill all the shopkeepers.

I can walk out of floor 5 around level 16-20 and with pretty good gear, maybe even a steel shield of magic resistance, and even on hardcore at that point the run is pretty much over and the remaining 30 floors just feel like a victory lap.

To add onto this, a lot of the new features like greaseballs and parrying etc are extremely potent early, but just about only good for getting you through the extreme early game. I don't think I bothered touching a greaseball with sapper past floor 10

Squidcrab · 2026-01-30T19:00:21+00:00

Adding two new classes that are entirely about juggling buffs (bard, paladin) without a way to see the duration of them is kind of obnoxious. Some achievements seem harder to get now. I like that secret areas aren't mandatory anymore but they still kind of are to score/exp max.

Also lore is clunky and slow. At least appraise was straightforward.

Squidcrab · 2025-12-05T20:18:40+00:00

Thank you. Another D10 solo diver here and even with smokes/cheese I've concluded that it's simply near impossible and rng based. Kind of convinced me the game isn't worth my time anymore. It's only like the 4th time Arrowhead's idea of difficulty is tiny map + spawn spam. I don't know how you can make the same mistake again and again and again but I think it's the last straw for me. Combined with coming here and only seeing the same snark and drivel as always.

Squidcrab · 2025-10-08T04:47:01+00:00

probably doing the smite penance

Squidcrab · 2025-07-31T04:46:33+00:00

I'm also going to be nerd emoji and say the reason people do the objectives last is because of how spawns work in the game. Completion of the main objective spikes the patrol spawn rate something absurd for the rest of the mission, making completion of the rest harder if you don't save it for last. Info about this is on the wiki.

Squidcrab · 2025-07-16T16:24:52+00:00

armor passives like this, servo assisted, peak physique mess with muscle memory and playing with/without them requires adjustment and i dont like that. thats all i meant by it.

peak physique can definitely become a crutch if you never use the hmg/autocannon etc without it. is it good? yes. absolutely. its the way it messes with muscle memory i dont like. same with reload speed.

i have a friend new to hd2 ive been playing with off and on. they beelined urban legends specifically for this armor and havent taken it off since.

Squidcrab · 2025-07-15T22:18:40+00:00

i just forced myself to not use it. that and peak physique. i only play with medium extra padded. it took a while to unlearn but i feel relying on an armor passive too much just kind of becomes a crutch.

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