Techmagic Talk

Okay so I'm puttin' this out in General to be some talk about the neat Techmagery.


I kinda think that getting the tech staves so late hurts, and I got a boulder staff that was 'alright' The obvious weakness of standing still may be the biggest conflict but, what all do the aspiring technomages think? I love the idea, the effects are cooler than guns (In my opinion) Yes, I still use melee weapons or a grenade launcher but I feel that I would use those at any character that is a 'me thing' but the armor has me concerned. I just fought the TestRobot Penguin and found that I need to get good because I get killed in what feels like 2 hits and the staves just don't load fast enough to be viable, so I am making another table so I can get the boss beat to get solarium to get better stuff to hopefully explore it better.

That being said, the obvious weakness aside, I actually am surprisingly amused by the effects. My favorite sofar is the Glitch Stave cause it looks cool and I like using it as a baited trap.

 

I think staves should have worked like this: Hold down attack to charge your staff by consuming energy. Release at any time. Damage dealt is increased by charged amount.
Of course, all energy weapons outside of x<1.0 attack speed are terrible considering the current hypocritical energy regeneration mechanics.

 

you can beat the testrobot with a staff i did it on my first run of the game.
no i didnt cheat or anything its all about timing and keeping your distance.
the stave's imo are a bit op with how you can use them btw that giant red orb is also a techmagic that hurts.
i personally like the nuts n bolts staff and the upgrade you can get too anything coming your way will get hurt till you hit end game then only casual mobs are decently damaged.
i do belive we should b able to at least walk while casting tho it seems a bit unfair we have to stand still i dont mind walking slow but to not move at all?

 

I think we should call them technomancy devices.

I enjoy avian staff and the orb (is that novakid's version of staff?) As they are great as area control tool. Place one or two on the path toward you before engagement, then blink back and forth to get the enemies crossing the death zone as long as possible.

 

its designed so we didn't just pump away our energy anymore we have to use it wisely or we short it out till its fully recharged btw you can get a tech upgrade to help with energy regen and end game gear when equipped right can make a whole world of difference.

 

The unlocked energy regeneration and the locked energy regeneration both regenerate energy at the same rate, so there is no point in not emptying your energy pool. Decisions are still binary in this case. The only upside to not emptying your pool is that you get maybe 20 energy after 1 second available for use, and if you use that, your energy regeneration will stall, making it less efficient to not lock your energy.

If not-locked energy regenerated 2x as fast as locked energy, then we would have a good thing, but as it is, you are better off blowing your energy pool and let it regen locked.

 

i think the main point to not locking your energy is so mid combat you don't have to wait for the full recharge you can let it only recharge half way and still use it instead of having to wait till its back at full

 

but if you use your energy while it is halfway charged, it will stop charging and force you to wait again for the recharge to begin again.

 

with stave's its less useful unless you have fully energy gear on or have done what ive done and have a piece from each set on and energy regen tech.
but when using his tactic with a nice plasma rifle and the energy regen tech you pretty much never need to worry about your energy.
stave's seem to all cost only about 50 energy per cast you can mange that quite well with never locking your energy depending on what staff you use the gamebreaky is not good for this.

 

So like, Does anyone have the numbers for what kinda damage these staves do? I'm not finding ANYTHING on the specs of these weapons and the descriptions are vague as fuck.

 

UHM~ I know that the rubium glitch staff does like 457s to mobs on Ice planets, cause thats what I've been doing for no specific reason. Like anger.

 

Staves still seem like a really forced and awkward concept for Starbound, to me.

 

I would've done it with POWERGLOVES instead of staves, Cause I love the powerglove. It's so bad.

 

Powerglove is a fistful of power.

 

The techmagic was one of the parts of the update that I looked forward to playing with the most. My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, I love the effects. Some are more useful than others, but ammunition types are the same way so you deal with it. Not being able to move at all is a pain. Being reduced to walking while charging would be much more acceptable.
It's hard for me to pick a favorite effect, but I get a lot of use out of the Avian, Glitch, and Floran staffs. The Human and Apex staffs are best used above ground or in large open areas. The first Hylotl staff is almost completely useless. It just seems much weaker in comparison. I haven't made the second one yet, but my hopes are low. If there are Novakid staffs, they weren't available when I was last at that tier.

I would like to see some staffs spawn like weapons do now, drawing from a pool of effects with changes in color and shape of the projectile, some perhaps with trailing particle effects, and maybe adding status effects to some "spells". Some of them could even be positive effects, like healing or regen.

 

Novakid Staves are (techically?) the red/blue orbs? Supernova or w/e haven't gotten to em cause to make a rubium set before making the Cerulium set feels like a waste of resources...

I think there are more, but if you are not aware the 'stone biomes' are happen to have the 'boulder stave' that drops a big'ol boulder on stuff. Granted thats a huge complaint is that methinks the stave should be relevant to armor or something cause it is useless to me now I actually try to use staves.

 

The boulder staff is okay, and I'd swear I had another one before wiping my data but I don't recall and can't seem to find any reference to any others.

 

staves require more energy partly because you have to move when using them, i used a dash hop if i need to since you can start charging mid-air. haven't got blink yet but i imagine that helps too if you use staves a lot. i wish staves were more varied and not necessarily active-effect-anywhere type of deals.

 

In my humble opinion, psionics (or tech staffs) work way better if you have the sheild tech to protect you for the chargeup time. I never use a staff without that tech equiped now days.

 

Staves charge at different speeds. The Hylotl staves are the fastest (and are absolutely useless which sucks), while the Novakid Orbs are the slowest (but they produce large and very long-lasting fields-of-pain).

Staves are hard to give numbers on because a lot of them can inflict multiple hits with each use. In fact, most of them are designed around it. The Novakid, Avian, and Glitch staves are more area-denial tools - fire the staff at a location, lead enemies into the effect. The Human and Apex staves are more offensive - they charge faster and allow you to attack at a right-angle from where you're aiming, but they have narrower areas of damage and fewer hits (human) or weaker hits (Apex).

The Hylotl Staves... well, let's just call those the "comedy option." It can inflict damage, but you have to aim the staff RIGHT on top of the victim , and the victim has to be big enough to get hit with all the projectiles the moment they spawn. Otherwise, the fact that the projectiles splash out in random directions ensures that you'll never hit with it. It's too random and erratic.

I don't think I've ever used the Floran staves.

The Boulder Staff is an interesting item. It allows you to attack at a right-angle like the Human or Apex staves, but in this case the effect travels down instead of sideways. This opens up an interesting sort of 'artillery' style attack pattern, where you stand behind an obstacle, fire the staff over the obstacle, and let the boulder drop down on enemies behind the obstruction. Sadly, all Boulder Staves are about equivalent to steel/titanium quality weapons and quickly get outclassed once you're in Durasteel.