Maybe I'm missing something or doing it wrong, but what's with the random chance of instant death pods and other items that kill you when used (there was some capsule on a downed spaceship I found that looked like the ships core that blew up and killed me when I interacted with it... that's JUST the climax I was looking for at the end of the dungeon crawl!)? If it's meant to be a random chance thing and make you think twice about gambling for a buff, then it is a terrible implementation of it. In order for it to make more sense, please take the following into consideration: 1) REMOVE the chance of instant death. A chance of insta-death and losing a bunch of pixels is enough to keep MOST people from using them 2) Add a better description to the item when inspecting it 3) Add in a chance to be poisoned or burned I guess this already happens. 4) Increase the duration of the buffs! Why would I gamble on a 30 second buff, ESPECIALLY with my life? WOOHOO, I got health regeneration! Good thing because it's so difficult to craft bandages... oh wait... 5) Do more to make it obvious that you are taking a risk by interacting with the item... change the mouse over icon to a pair of dice or something! I hope someone can tell me what I'm doing wrong or that there is a way around this because currently, I'm like an Alzheimer's patient whenever I see one of those pods... "Maybe this time it will be awesome.... SON OF A *****!"
I've been optimistic with capsules for a while, but after getting burned, exploded, poisoned and instakilled so many, many many manymany times, I have just stopped using them. It's just not worth it, these things are redundant and vile. If the buff actually was worthwhile, then yes. I'm thinking, remember the hearts and stars in Terraria used to upgrade your health and mana? How about those pods work in the same way. They are rare enough for that, and if there was a chance for some malicious effect, compared to getting a nice permanent boost... totally worth the risk. I actually thought they would be permanent upgrade items when I saw them first. It's rather underwhelming what they do now, hunting for them would be much more interesting. Maybe a chance for a permanent 1 Health, or 1 Energy or random temporary 10 minute buff.
Truth! Even if it were a chance to get a permanent buff until you died I would consider using them. I didn't realize they could burn and posion you already, I'll have to strike that from the list!
While I agree with the most words in this thread, I've learned to handle these capsules to make the negative effects unlikely. Activate them from a distance (so that the explosion won't harm you) then see the color of the smoke and either walk in or away. There is a certain element of "learning to handle dangerous stuff", as this has to be done quickly, which is hard. I'd say it's actually not worth the effort. This is more like "yay, now I'll make a lap around the planet a little faster", which is pleasant, but the amount of risk involved makes this thing useless for most players. There's no reason to keep it "as is" then.
Yeah those things are evil. I swear I had some burn me 5 times in a row before I got a speed buff that felt like 2 seconds. Actually, I like your variation you brought up the best! How about this: Beacons grant until-you-die buffs (speed, slow health regen, jump height, glow,...) Regenerate after a while and stack for more effect. If destroyed, drop some loot that allows us to build our own beacons for buff stations to place anywhere! Beacons are sometimes boobytrapped with short 10second debuffs like slow, blindness, weakness or poison, never lethally, but will still award the positive buff on top. Sounds good?
Nice! I didn't even realize I could open them from a safe distance. I'll have to give that a try. It is a bit of a strange way to interact with those things though... not very intuitive at all. I didn't realize I had to use my telekinetic abilities to push whatever button is on that pod from max distance >_< lol
Not a bad start, although I think for a buff that can last until you die (and keeping in mind the buffs will make you harder to kill), the downside is a bit too small. I was suggesting that along WITH an isnta-kill possibility. I would do a 10-15 minutes buff and remove the insta-kill entirely. Stacking would be OK for SEPARATE buffs, but if you get buffed with the same one from any other source, it would simply refresh the timer. I'm sure player buffs will become a reality soon.
I unknowingly "used" the first one I found and it was.... Yep, insta-death! So from then on I thought they were ALL explosive-traps designed to kill me instantly if I got near them. And oddly, to destroy them they just 'disappear', you can't take them with you and use them against someone else. It wasn't until last night I found out the effects were completely random. I only found out because two enemies hit me into one of them and it went off, and I quickly jumped away as it did.... To my surprise the enemies did not die but instead were granted with a super-jump, which they used to chase me down and kill me. So yeah... These things are completely horrible as-is. They need to be tweaked to either express what will happen when activated (with a symbol maybe?) or remove the bad effects and just make them bonuses (it's not like they last very long! They are basically pointless either way).
I just feel the instakill is a really bad mechanic. Especially if you are forcing death upon a player that can't be countered in any way. And nothing worse than getting offed by a pod half way through running over a planet... Poison afaik only damages you down to 1 health and doesn't kill you (not sure gotta test) so that is okay, fire can be survived with a few bandages... Stacking would be super cool. What's wrong with getting lucky and getting mad buffs? What do you think about the idea of building your own buff-pods? It should probably be a very high tier, but I would love that for an awesome base. Speed buffs at the exits, just grab one before you go... wheee
