Elixer of Hive Mind (a proposal for a new alchemical recipie)
Ingredients:
-Shattered Honey Pot
-Potion of Mind Vision
-Alchemical Catalyst
When imbibed, the player gets mind vision on all bees in the level, and bees treat the player as an ally while the potion is in effect.
If the player manages to get hold of one or more bees' shattered honey pots during the elixer's duration, then the honey pot(s) becomes enchanted, and that bee will continue to follow the player as an ally after the potion's duration is up. Enchanted honey pots occupy a separate inventory slot and their icon pulsates like resin-boosted wands.
The enhantment lasts until the bee dies, the player stops carrying the honey pot for any reason, the bee gets hit by a charm effect, or the bee or the player gets hit by any anti-magic or magical debuff effect. If the enchantment is broken while the bee is still alive, then the honey pot becomes normal shattered honey pot and the bee commences to defend it again immediately. If the player dies with one or more enchanted honey pots in their pack, and comes back with an unwatered ankh, they will find the formerly enchanted bee(s) guarding their backpack wherever it was dropped.
Thank you for this great looking development! I like the mining mechanic, and I'm eager to see the final product. I know you're already working on your own ideas, but here are some more:
-A metal detector or similar item that blinks or beeps faster and faster when you dig nearer to gold, and maybe changes color or tone when you get close to a hazard block (I presume those will exist in the final release).
-Some other interesting use for the Dark Gold Ore besides paying off the Blacksmith or selling it for pennies. I'm thinking of some alchemical application: perhaps enough Gold Ore could cure a resin-enhanced wand so that you can add more upgrades to it without losing the resin bonuses, or fix an enchantment on another item so that additional upgrades don't eliminate the enchantment.
-Instead of a solid edge that you can't mine through, have the edge be some kind of hazard. For instance: a player mines too far, and then water breaks out and washes the player back toward the center (and are those piranhas?!); or perhaps mining too far just drops the player plummeting into the next level for fall damage.