I haven't yet played with the mod in Joppa, but I'm excited to try. This post focuses on a few runs playing around in Moghra-Yi, and focuses on the scorpiock-spawning cracks that originate there.


TL;DR: Scorpiocks are cool and interesting, but the rifts open too often, the scorpiocks are easy but time-consuming to clear, and there's no clear indication of the problem being "solved" by player action.


Before getting to some points of friction (which may be exacerbated by my playstyle), I'd like to note that one thing I really like about the event is the way it's presented to the player, especially with the added touch of debris. It's a really cool bit of ambience and worldbuilding that fits in well with the setting. The text "sound design" of the CRRAAACKKK is also nice.

Additionally, I like the increased deadliness of the Salt Sea. I'm the sort of person who enjoys escorting random pilgrims all the way to the Stilt, so any added frustration is just spice in my curry. Adding chaos to tile events like an antelope spawn or a battle between Issachari and another faction is also a nice bit of variety.

The chance of a crack appearing right next to the player will hopefully make traversing the salt harder for characters with Light Manipulation, who can usually snipe Issachari and Dawngliders from across the map without worrying about counterplay; now they will have to respond to a closer threat while the far foe approaches. In a similar way, the subversive melee Scorpiock might also add a more dynamic element to bullet-dodging Issachari battles; paralysis will become extra deadly, but a meat shield is never a bad thing. It feels like this may not be relevant all the time, but my experiences so far have been positive.


However, to me, the scorpiock crack generation seems too frequent; there have been times when the event happens screen-to-screen-to-screen, as well as times where there have been multiple cracks per screen. I tend to travel 'by foot' rather than using the map so I realise that the mod being tuned for a different playstyle. For me, after a while, the event loses a lot of its punch.

To be fair, a second crack in the same screen can make for a really cool "oh no! more of them!" moment, but I think it would feel better if it was a rare jumpscare (maybe with even more scorpiocks) rather than being so frequent. Perhaps not even something you'd see in every run, or a very rare pit-of-pits situation where you realise that this whole tile or even parasang is infested.

Also, is this event supposed to run on the same two-day cycle as the rest of the mod? It appears not to be constrained in that way.

After the recent update you added since I wrote this post (sorry it took so long), I think the frequency has decreased somewhat, though it still feels a little much to me.


Additionally, there seems to be no way to stem the tide other than waiting or having Burgeoning (the original version of this comment assumed that there was no end due to the length of time between scorpiocks). That's good for a "drive-by" encounter while travelling, especially on screens with objectives, but it's less fun to babysit the rift outside a village - especially if I am roleplaying the Warden calling, I want to solve the village's infestation of scorpiocks rather than waiting for it to end.

Whether it takes the form of attacking the crack to cause a 'cave in' or even putting down ashes (easily made with a campfire and a scorpiock corpse) to deactivate the trap, or something else, I think that something to 'solve' the trap would help it feel more like a consequence of a living ecosystem. The ashes could reflect an implied ecology; the presence of burnt remains might signal to the scorpiocks 'underground' that there are dawngliders about.

Related to this, the length of time between scorpiock spawns feels long, such that there's no clear difference between a chittering rift and a silent rift until waiting for a full day (until I noticed the name difference, anyway). I also usually have time to leave or block the hole (if my character has Burgeoning) well before the scorpiocks spawn. I think that slow speed could work better if more scorpiocks spawned per wave (either all at once or sequentially), so that there's a bigger incentive to do something about it earlier.

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I hope this is helpful feedback! I like thinking about game design, world-building and simulated ecosystems a lot! I also don't intend any pressure and recognise that my suggestions may be beyond-scope; I'm grateful for the opportunity to play with this cool mod regardless.