This is such a great ideas mate, keep it up! Your mod becoming better and better and it's far more variable than boned's one, thanks to config. Really, i like very much that approach with escape difficulty depends on animation and disabling shrines to prevent cheesing too!
So if you're open to any other ideas i have some:
So, if you'll do this shrine stuff, will there be only animation with inquisitors, or bad end animation will depend on level? The second option looks much better in my opinion. After all, not only inquisitors can hunt aradia. Also, will there be some kind of indicator above the shrine that it should no longer be used? Btw, if you decide to add random strong mobs, then maybe you should make it possible to reroll the level once with the help of a shrine and then block it, so that the player has a chance to avoid difficulties?
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TRAPS] Also how about making traps invisible or random? And/or make them really hard to escape? I really like some traps from second level with "flowers" on boards but unfortunately, you can't get into them if you have eyes.
(I once get caught by one of these and only because I did not notice the log when i was in a hurry, running away from a crowd of mobs, cus I played with a boned mod and with it, mobs really become dangerous when they gather in a crowd cus they can grab you.)
And unfortunately these traps can only be found in this level, as i remember, wich is not great cus they have really good animations.
It would be really interesting to run into random traps in random places, which reminds me of darkest dungeon cus theres random traps too and you can't avoid them except you're lucky and have high stats.
Random traps may cause bad situations (or good he-he) if you do your cheese preventing shrine system. But traps dont do damage as i remember so it'll be okay even if you encounter unavoidable trap and you can't just reroll it cus previous shrine is banned. You'll have to fall into this trap to procceed or idk go another way if you want virgin run? But we're all know that virgin runs sucks or you really must be good at game and game difficulty should not revolve around virgin runs or it'll ruin fun from random Rapes™
I was also thinking, how about doing some kind of reaction events and if you succeed, you'll get souls/consumables and something like that, and if you fail, you fall into a trap? Sounds like a good idea to take a chance and restore a charge of a healing potion or just get your mana pool restored/healed or trapped by your greed and slowness?
BTW, in AQE the traps are infinite and work every time you linger on them for more than a second without clothes.
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HUD] How about making a button that disables it? Or option that disables it in scenes? It would be interesting to play without hud at all. Idk why or how but it sounds kinda hard wich is cool.
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MOBS] How about randomising them? Like make a little chance to giant-mf appearing in second level? I think it can make game more replayable and kinda funny. It's like your elites but crazier. It will also kinda prevent memorization of mobs in levels and make it impossible to fully know what you'll encounter ahead. Maybe these random mobs may be pre-made?
Also you can twist their stats and kill rewards, as well as add some sorts of modifiers to them, such as resistance to magic / melee / projectiles, give them invisibility or speed or explosive attacks.
And almost forgot! How about placing random mimics and chests with souls and consumables? This sounds very cool! (but i think it would be necessary to make the mimic immediately grab you, but you could check it somehow, maybe with the help of a special item, or just take a risk, it's up to you). But damn, random mimics is awesome thought cus the ones that we already have in the game sit in places where they are very easy to get cheesed with fire staff or magic, and there are very few of them in principle wich is sad cus they have nice animations and such potential to waste your
run ass! And most importantly, the risk is always yours!
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WEAPONS] Some weapons are much weaker and therefore more useless than others, especially when playing with a boned mod where speed and distance are very important. But even without boned mod, staff that creates knifes is really sucks. Both in convenience and damage. It requires a lot of stamina, and the trajectory of the daggers makes them difficult to hit and the risk of this playstyle is absolutely not justified. (weapon name: inquisitor staff)
Also there's some kind of crystall dagger that has electricity damage, but at the same time it has a very slow attack, a small range and has no block. (weapon name: charged crystal blade) I have no idea who will use it. And at the same time, there is some kind of standard sword or silver sword (weapon name: crusader's straight sword) that has additional light damage (The one that is obtained in a location with LONG knights, that does fatality to you) and it has excellent damage, speed, etc.
In staves, we don’t really have a choice at all, it’s only a tomb stick (weapon name: burial shroud) that shoots a purple clot forward. Extremely effective, convenient, stuns and damages multiple enemies. Even the fire staff sucks when you compare it to this.
But in fact, weapons should be the last thing to think about, everything is quite playable. Other than the inquisitor's staff, it really sucks. Although it looks cooler than all the others but it's god damn useless
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GROUP SEX OR IDK HOW TO CALL IT] If you read my previous message, you probably noticed that I mentioned AQE game and boned mod for it (there's a screenshot) so in AQE when enemy finishes animation it just throws you down and another enemy comes to you and do its stuff, Rape™. It lasts indefinitely until you run out of HP or run away. This is not necessary at all and NoR has its own looped animations that are not designed for this approach, but maybe this idea will interest you. Also AQE have animations for 1 and 2 same type enemies at the same time wich is cool but again in NoR we have a little different story wich is no worse.
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IMMERSIVENESS AGAIN] Again, remember that AQE boned mod? So boned did a great (but annoying in terms of AQE dynamic) stuff, they made it so that only those enemies that your character sees are visible on the screen, and enemies behind you or behind obstacles become ghostly and barely distinguishable. (this can be seen in the screenshot in my previous reply).
It can make game even more unpredictable and intriguing, especially considering that NoR is a rather slow game and it will look much better here than in AQE, wich is pure slasher. (AQE without boned mod, with it, it's just rape sim, expecially if you play without spamming projectiles and waiting for mana recharge)
So thats all that came to my mind at the moment. I would also like to express a wish, since in your mod the enemies do not grab you, then let them at least knock you down more often, otherwise the game forgives too many mistakes and it looks more like slasher than a soul-like with timings and tactics.
Btw, how about adding a double jump cd or stamina requirement? Muhahaha pls no
And remember lads, its not a Rape™ if you jump on a dicks or traps by yourself, its called corruption.
