Due to the absolute lack of community input in the Gods of the Rim suggestion, I've come up with something that could be more acceptable for majority of this mod's fans. As with the previous suggestion, I've made a separate thread to avoid spamming this one: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=47576.0
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#17
Mods / [Suggestion] A RimWorld of Magic expansion: Magic Research and Martial Training
December 24, 2018, 05:18:04 AM
[Note: This thread regards the great "Rimworld of Magic" mod by Torann, so if you're not interested in that mod, you won't be interested in this thread.]
As you may or may know, I've made another thread proposing further expansion of RWoM, yet the playerbase response was null, as only Torann has shown interest in the suggestion. To quote:
I assume that simply not too many players are "into" having divinity, gods, religion etc. so prominent in their game, so keeping that in mind I'd like to introduce a different system as a base for Torann's advanced classes.
The Magic Research system would unlock for mana classes at the same level they can start to "mentor others", while stamina classes could engage in Martial Training either from the get go, or much earlies than mages. A description of each, and their differences, as below:
Martial Training: Stamina classes could conduct two types of training:
- Basic training sessions (through a new work type: training, placed alongside the existing "magic" one) that'd give them a consistent flow of small amounts of XP, as well as providing some small bonuses, dependent on the training's type, that'd last for basically as long as the pawn can maintain a regular training schedule. This would require some new buildings like shooting target (shooting boosts), practice dummy (melee boosts), sparring spot (mostly recreation, but gives some XP), running spot (movement speed) etc.
- Advanced training sessions that'd allow pawns to learn/create new fighting techniques and abilities. This would have a twofold function:
1. It'd allow pawns to learn some cross-class abilities (equivalent of "mage spells" for magical classes) like "sprint" and some other low-impact, but functional stuff. A precise list is disputable.
2. It'd allow pawns to grow beyond the confines of their class through discovering new moves, each class-specific. A ranger could learn a "Bouncing Arrow" (that'd ricochet between enemies), Gladiator could learn a "Leap" (jumping over obstacles and terrain, ignoring all movement impairing effects).
Not only that, but they could also learn to improve their existing skills beyond what's currently possible (which would further justify allowing for some cross-class skills, like the aforementioned Sprint). Going with the Sprint example, the Gladiator could learn to change it into a "Battering Ram" skill that'd allow the gladiator to rush at an incredible speed, knocking everyone on their path down. and bashing all the impacted doors open (bonus points if AI would learn to use it to burst through the doors).
That'd introduce more depth to existing classes and allow for tweaking their abilities without the need to implement an entire new class. Additionally, the cross-class skills would certainly improve pawns' versatility.
As a sidenote: a point to consider could be an introduction of mana/stamina pawns. A possible implementation of that feature could be simply allowing both phisically adept and magically gifted traits being on a pawn at once, and those being the traits responsible for allowing the pawn to learn corresponding cross-class abilities, while still retaining the "only one class" restriction. Simply put - if a pawn is both physical and magical, their main class is the one they learn first (so if a physical/magical pawn reads a necromancy book, they keep their physical trait, but become a full necromancer, so they can no longer become any of the combat classes).
Magic Research:
- A more robust system, divergent from the martial training. Instead of simply learning more mage spells, or improving their exsiting ones, mages would get an option to come up with entirely new spells, by studying the spells they already know and coming up with sort of hybrids.
- They would get a new building (dunno... spellcrafting table?) that'd allow them to ponder on their own spells, both class-specific and mage spells (so there'd be some overlap, but a priest would be able to come up with different spells than an arcane mage). Some examples - a Necromancer who knows both their class "Fog of Torment", as well as the mage spell "Rain" could possibly come up with a spell that evokes the Toxic Fallout event, instead of a plain rain. Or a Fire Mage who knows Fireclaw and Blink could come up with a spell that teleports them like blink, but also creates a fiery explosion at the point of origin and destination, making it a semi-offensive spell. Or a Priest who knows their healing, as well as Transfer Mana could invent a Transfer Health spell that'd allow them to sacrifice their own vitality to save others (basically healing wounds on the target, and manifesting them on the caster).
- Possible expansion feature to the Mentoring mechanics: allow Mentors to share their "crafted" spells with others as if they were mage spells, so that if a fire mage - as mentioned above - makes the exploding blink spell, they could teach it to others (for the balance purposes that could consume a gem of arcane insight).
This suggestion is only scratching the surface of where this could go, but I think that this approach would resonate with many more players than the previously suggested god/religion system would. I encourage you all to comment, so that Torann can know what his community wants. Don't be as silent as in the Gods of the Rim thread
As you may or may know, I've made another thread proposing further expansion of RWoM, yet the playerbase response was null, as only Torann has shown interest in the suggestion. To quote:
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AM
I've been looking at adding in advanced classes but this seems like a more interesting way to add to the mod (not to mention, a good way to keep balance in check) and I look forward to seeing if this is a direction other players would like to see the mod expand in.
I assume that simply not too many players are "into" having divinity, gods, religion etc. so prominent in their game, so keeping that in mind I'd like to introduce a different system as a base for Torann's advanced classes.
The Magic Research system would unlock for mana classes at the same level they can start to "mentor others", while stamina classes could engage in Martial Training either from the get go, or much earlies than mages. A description of each, and their differences, as below:
Martial Training: Stamina classes could conduct two types of training:
- Basic training sessions (through a new work type: training, placed alongside the existing "magic" one) that'd give them a consistent flow of small amounts of XP, as well as providing some small bonuses, dependent on the training's type, that'd last for basically as long as the pawn can maintain a regular training schedule. This would require some new buildings like shooting target (shooting boosts), practice dummy (melee boosts), sparring spot (mostly recreation, but gives some XP), running spot (movement speed) etc.
- Advanced training sessions that'd allow pawns to learn/create new fighting techniques and abilities. This would have a twofold function:
1. It'd allow pawns to learn some cross-class abilities (equivalent of "mage spells" for magical classes) like "sprint" and some other low-impact, but functional stuff. A precise list is disputable.
2. It'd allow pawns to grow beyond the confines of their class through discovering new moves, each class-specific. A ranger could learn a "Bouncing Arrow" (that'd ricochet between enemies), Gladiator could learn a "Leap" (jumping over obstacles and terrain, ignoring all movement impairing effects).
Not only that, but they could also learn to improve their existing skills beyond what's currently possible (which would further justify allowing for some cross-class skills, like the aforementioned Sprint). Going with the Sprint example, the Gladiator could learn to change it into a "Battering Ram" skill that'd allow the gladiator to rush at an incredible speed, knocking everyone on their path down. and bashing all the impacted doors open (bonus points if AI would learn to use it to burst through the doors).
That'd introduce more depth to existing classes and allow for tweaking their abilities without the need to implement an entire new class. Additionally, the cross-class skills would certainly improve pawns' versatility.
As a sidenote: a point to consider could be an introduction of mana/stamina pawns. A possible implementation of that feature could be simply allowing both phisically adept and magically gifted traits being on a pawn at once, and those being the traits responsible for allowing the pawn to learn corresponding cross-class abilities, while still retaining the "only one class" restriction. Simply put - if a pawn is both physical and magical, their main class is the one they learn first (so if a physical/magical pawn reads a necromancy book, they keep their physical trait, but become a full necromancer, so they can no longer become any of the combat classes).
Magic Research:
- A more robust system, divergent from the martial training. Instead of simply learning more mage spells, or improving their exsiting ones, mages would get an option to come up with entirely new spells, by studying the spells they already know and coming up with sort of hybrids.
- They would get a new building (dunno... spellcrafting table?) that'd allow them to ponder on their own spells, both class-specific and mage spells (so there'd be some overlap, but a priest would be able to come up with different spells than an arcane mage). Some examples - a Necromancer who knows both their class "Fog of Torment", as well as the mage spell "Rain" could possibly come up with a spell that evokes the Toxic Fallout event, instead of a plain rain. Or a Fire Mage who knows Fireclaw and Blink could come up with a spell that teleports them like blink, but also creates a fiery explosion at the point of origin and destination, making it a semi-offensive spell. Or a Priest who knows their healing, as well as Transfer Mana could invent a Transfer Health spell that'd allow them to sacrifice their own vitality to save others (basically healing wounds on the target, and manifesting them on the caster).
- Possible expansion feature to the Mentoring mechanics: allow Mentors to share their "crafted" spells with others as if they were mage spells, so that if a fire mage - as mentioned above - makes the exploding blink spell, they could teach it to others (for the balance purposes that could consume a gem of arcane insight).
This suggestion is only scratching the surface of where this could go, but I think that this approach would resonate with many more players than the previously suggested god/religion system would. I encourage you all to comment, so that Torann can know what his community wants. Don't be as silent as in the Gods of the Rim thread
#18
Releases / Re: [1.0] A RimWorld of Magic
December 19, 2018, 07:37:52 PM
So far I've been sticking to magic classes, so let's approach a stamina one, for a change!
This one is an RPG classic, a good old:
Rogue
Briefing: Rogues are meant to provide some unseen before utility, while having some combat function, though mostly through dirty fighting, rather than an actual prowess. Their abilities are meant to each provide multiple functions, to create a versatile, yet not overpowered class.
Passives: Bonuses to dodge and movement speed. If even possible to implement, a bonus damage with knives, daggers etc. (dunno if via hardcoding anything with "knife" or "dagger" in the name, or via adding a special menu in mod options to set what counts as a knife).
Abilities:
Hide: A visible rogue is a bad rogue, and so this is a baseline ability. It has both passive and active effects:
- Passive: The more trained the hide is, the less "attractive" the rogue is to their enemies. In short: If hostile AI has more than one targets to choose from, they're likely not to choose the rogue. Additionally, when the rogue is travelling in a caravan, their visibility is much lower than usual, and almost nonexistent when a rogue is the sole member of said caravan.
- Active (costs stamina, has cooldown): When targeted, the rogue is able to drop the aggro and force their pursuers to re-focus on a new target. In order to do that, however, the rogue MUST break a direct line of sight (so run around a corner and then use the ability, don't try it in an open field). Optionally, at the maximum level of this skill's training, the rogue can drop aggro without breaking line of sight, but I'd be careful with taking that route to avoid it being OP.
Training:
- Inconspicuous 0-3 lvls:
0) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 50% chance to re-roll target once. -20% caravan visibility.
1) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 65% chance to re-roll target once. -25% caravan visibility.
2) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 80% chance to re-roll target once. -30% caravan visibility.
3) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 95% chance to re-roll target once. -35% caravan visibility.
- Disengage 0-3 lvls:
0) Active ability cooldown at [X]
1) Active ability cooldown -10%
2) Active ability cooldown -20%
3) Active ability cooldown -30%
- Vanish 0-2 lvls:
0) N/A
1) After using active ability, the rogue can't be targeted by anything for 1 second.
2) After using active ability, the rogue can't be targeted by anything for 2 seconds.
Sneak Attack: Rogues do it from behindtm A passive boost to damage (both melee and ranged) against a creature that is not actively targetting the rogue.
Training:
- Flanking 0-3 lvls:
0) N/A
1) +25% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +10% ranged dmg.
2) +50% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +20% ranged dmg.
3) +75% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +30% ranged dmg.
(Comment: Huge leaning towards melee, so that there's high-risk high-reward in play.)
- Dirty Fighting 0-3 lvls: When cornered, rogues do anything to gain advantage. Enables "special moves". The moves aren't active abilities, instead, the rogue has a chance to do on their own.
0) N/A
1) Enables "sand toss" that very briefly stuns the enemy, and worsens their sight for a few seconds. Melee only.
2) Enables "hamstring" that slows the enemy for a few seconds.
3) Enables "cheap shot" that makes a second attack instantly, disregarding weapon cooldown. Happens more scarcely than the previous two, due to its DPS potential.
Thievery: The fuel in the tank, and the ultimate goal of being a rogue. Stealing!
It's an active ability that can be used either on the colony map, against traders and guests, or on a caravan map, against settlements.
- Colony: When used on traders, guests, or their pack animals, has a chance of stealing stuff from their inventory. Depending on implementation, it could either be random, or there could be a pop-up menu, similar to the trading one, that allows the player to choose what to steal, and possible a % chance of success.
If caught, the target's faction goodwill will drop a fair bit (that's a given), and there's a chance that the target will leave immediately, or a smaller chance that they'll demand a recompense in silver, otherwise attacking (mostly traders, since caravans usually well armed, while visitors not so much, so they should stick to being upset and leaving).
- Caravan: While a rogue is in a caravan (or rather: a sole member of a caravan, or in a caravan comprised of only the rogues) they gain a new option when right-clicking settlements: "Steal from". They'll stay at the settlement for a few hours, and generate some silver and other loot. This won't spawn the encounter map etc. instead just simulating the rogue "going around and stealing", calculating the outcome on the rogue's level.
If caught, the faction's goodwill will drop (obviously), and the rogue has a chance to escape nonetheles or be captured, in which case the faction will demand a ransom (friendly and neutral factions lean towards this) or be attacked (hostile factions lean towards this). Being attacked generates an encounter (so goodluck if your rogue is alone vs a whole village), while a ransom demand will only return your rogue (most likely partially robbed, depending on the remaining goodwill) when paid, or you could storm the settlement and free the rogue by force.
Training:
- Pickpocket 0-3 lvls: Increases the chance of successful stealing, both in-colony and while caravaneering.
0) N/A
1) Increases the chance of success by 10%
2) Increases the chance of success by 20%
3) Increases the chance of success by 30%
- Burglar 0-3 lvls: While stealing from settlements, the rogue moves from simple pickpocketing to burglary, getting into houses and stockpiles, thus unlocking new loot.
0) Steals only silver.
1) Can also steal gold and jade.
2) Can also steal clothing, weapons and drugs.
3) Can also steal valuables, like prosthetics, implants, scrolls/tomes etc.
(Note: Loot should depend on the faction type. Tribes will only have crap, pirates mostly weapons and drugs, industrials will have everything, and arcane folk will have mostly jade and magic items and scrolls, tomes etc.)
- Innocent 0-2 lvls: Based heavily on rogue's social skill. Reduces the severity of the punishment the rogue gets when they're caught.
0) N/A
1) Reduces the chance of the rogue being attacked.
2) Almost eliminates the chance of the rogue being attacked, and slightly reduces the faction goodwill loss.
Other stamina classes have more skills, usually, but since the above three cover everything I want to propose for this class, I leave the rest slots to fill as needed.
As a bonus thought: When a rogue pawn comes over as a guest or in caravan, they can steal from you, so watch out!
This one is an RPG classic, a good old:
Rogue
Briefing: Rogues are meant to provide some unseen before utility, while having some combat function, though mostly through dirty fighting, rather than an actual prowess. Their abilities are meant to each provide multiple functions, to create a versatile, yet not overpowered class.
Passives: Bonuses to dodge and movement speed. If even possible to implement, a bonus damage with knives, daggers etc. (dunno if via hardcoding anything with "knife" or "dagger" in the name, or via adding a special menu in mod options to set what counts as a knife).
Abilities:
Hide: A visible rogue is a bad rogue, and so this is a baseline ability. It has both passive and active effects:
- Passive: The more trained the hide is, the less "attractive" the rogue is to their enemies. In short: If hostile AI has more than one targets to choose from, they're likely not to choose the rogue. Additionally, when the rogue is travelling in a caravan, their visibility is much lower than usual, and almost nonexistent when a rogue is the sole member of said caravan.
- Active (costs stamina, has cooldown): When targeted, the rogue is able to drop the aggro and force their pursuers to re-focus on a new target. In order to do that, however, the rogue MUST break a direct line of sight (so run around a corner and then use the ability, don't try it in an open field). Optionally, at the maximum level of this skill's training, the rogue can drop aggro without breaking line of sight, but I'd be careful with taking that route to avoid it being OP.
Training:
- Inconspicuous 0-3 lvls:
0) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 50% chance to re-roll target once. -20% caravan visibility.
1) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 65% chance to re-roll target once. -25% caravan visibility.
2) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 80% chance to re-roll target once. -30% caravan visibility.
3) If an enemy targets the rogue, they have 95% chance to re-roll target once. -35% caravan visibility.
- Disengage 0-3 lvls:
0) Active ability cooldown at [X]
1) Active ability cooldown -10%
2) Active ability cooldown -20%
3) Active ability cooldown -30%
- Vanish 0-2 lvls:
0) N/A
1) After using active ability, the rogue can't be targeted by anything for 1 second.
2) After using active ability, the rogue can't be targeted by anything for 2 seconds.
Sneak Attack: Rogues do it from behindtm A passive boost to damage (both melee and ranged) against a creature that is not actively targetting the rogue.
Training:
- Flanking 0-3 lvls:
0) N/A
1) +25% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +10% ranged dmg.
2) +50% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +20% ranged dmg.
3) +75% melee dmg against creatures actively attacking another target. +30% ranged dmg.
(Comment: Huge leaning towards melee, so that there's high-risk high-reward in play.)
- Dirty Fighting 0-3 lvls: When cornered, rogues do anything to gain advantage. Enables "special moves". The moves aren't active abilities, instead, the rogue has a chance to do on their own.
0) N/A
1) Enables "sand toss" that very briefly stuns the enemy, and worsens their sight for a few seconds. Melee only.
2) Enables "hamstring" that slows the enemy for a few seconds.
3) Enables "cheap shot" that makes a second attack instantly, disregarding weapon cooldown. Happens more scarcely than the previous two, due to its DPS potential.
Thievery: The fuel in the tank, and the ultimate goal of being a rogue. Stealing!
It's an active ability that can be used either on the colony map, against traders and guests, or on a caravan map, against settlements.
- Colony: When used on traders, guests, or their pack animals, has a chance of stealing stuff from their inventory. Depending on implementation, it could either be random, or there could be a pop-up menu, similar to the trading one, that allows the player to choose what to steal, and possible a % chance of success.
If caught, the target's faction goodwill will drop a fair bit (that's a given), and there's a chance that the target will leave immediately, or a smaller chance that they'll demand a recompense in silver, otherwise attacking (mostly traders, since caravans usually well armed, while visitors not so much, so they should stick to being upset and leaving).
- Caravan: While a rogue is in a caravan (or rather: a sole member of a caravan, or in a caravan comprised of only the rogues) they gain a new option when right-clicking settlements: "Steal from". They'll stay at the settlement for a few hours, and generate some silver and other loot. This won't spawn the encounter map etc. instead just simulating the rogue "going around and stealing", calculating the outcome on the rogue's level.
If caught, the faction's goodwill will drop (obviously), and the rogue has a chance to escape nonetheles or be captured, in which case the faction will demand a ransom (friendly and neutral factions lean towards this) or be attacked (hostile factions lean towards this). Being attacked generates an encounter (so goodluck if your rogue is alone vs a whole village), while a ransom demand will only return your rogue (most likely partially robbed, depending on the remaining goodwill) when paid, or you could storm the settlement and free the rogue by force.
Training:
- Pickpocket 0-3 lvls: Increases the chance of successful stealing, both in-colony and while caravaneering.
0) N/A
1) Increases the chance of success by 10%
2) Increases the chance of success by 20%
3) Increases the chance of success by 30%
- Burglar 0-3 lvls: While stealing from settlements, the rogue moves from simple pickpocketing to burglary, getting into houses and stockpiles, thus unlocking new loot.
0) Steals only silver.
1) Can also steal gold and jade.
2) Can also steal clothing, weapons and drugs.
3) Can also steal valuables, like prosthetics, implants, scrolls/tomes etc.
(Note: Loot should depend on the faction type. Tribes will only have crap, pirates mostly weapons and drugs, industrials will have everything, and arcane folk will have mostly jade and magic items and scrolls, tomes etc.)
- Innocent 0-2 lvls: Based heavily on rogue's social skill. Reduces the severity of the punishment the rogue gets when they're caught.
0) N/A
1) Reduces the chance of the rogue being attacked.
2) Almost eliminates the chance of the rogue being attacked, and slightly reduces the faction goodwill loss.
Other stamina classes have more skills, usually, but since the above three cover everything I want to propose for this class, I leave the rest slots to fill as needed.
As a bonus thought: When a rogue pawn comes over as a guest or in caravan, they can steal from you, so watch out!
#19
Mods / Re: [Mod Request] Carryable Torches (Fire and Flashlight) and Lanterns
December 18, 2018, 02:23:26 AM
Actually a good request, and I think it'd be doable (given that we already have a mod with mining helmets that shed light), although it'd probably be hard to use without mods such as "pick up and haul" (to be able to tell pawns to pick something to their inventory) or "simple sidearms" (if the lantern/torch/flashlight would occupy a weapon slot).
#20
Mods / Re: [Suggestion] A RimWorld of Magic expansion: Gods of the Rim
December 17, 2018, 03:55:12 AM
Thank you, Torann, for an encouraging and detailed response.
Indeed, I've thought about this being a standalone mod, quite extensively, and I have to come clean that I've proposed it to you, because:
- I absolutely love your mod, and find it to overlap greatly (both mechanically and "spiritually") with what "my" mod would've aimed for.
- I believe that your distinction between "mana" and "stamina" classes despite the mod being called "Rimworld of Magic" is a good sign that you're willing to explore more than just classic arcane magic, but also other sources that make for a good gameplay, thus giving a chance to a new branch of "divine" classes.
- The most shameful reason: I'm not a coder myself, and hoped that - if you liked the idea - I could see some of those ideas come true by your hands. On that note, if your mod's community response to this idea is positive, and you decide to go with it, I offer all the help I could, including sprites/icons (I've dabbled into creating similar things in the past), descriptions, design of the actual abilities, boons etc. and even some rudimentary coding help, although I'd need time to learn what's required to be able to help).
That sounds like a solid system. It'd make for easy modifications to different gods, and even for later introduction of other godly traits (which I'm sure people would come up with, if they like the idea) as it'd only take designing a new trait and setting up its "view" on other traits and certain events.
That's even better than my original thought! And you're right here, because why can't a wizard or a sniper worship a god? That'd seem too unnatural... mechanical. I'm quite disappointed in myself that I haven't thought about it in this way from the beginning.
And it's a perfect spot to make use of the mechanic you've already introduced in the form of tiered classes.
I can see each pawn, mundane or otherwise, being able to spawn with a "Follower" trait (not sure if the name of the trait could include the name of a specific god, like "Follower of [name]" if the gods would be randomly generated) that'd add the "Faith" need bar, which could grant some small boons, depending on the god's nature, when satisfied by praying and various activities encouraged by the god in question (like sowing trees for Mother Nature etc.). That'd focus the player's attention into trying to either make a multi-religious colony as peacefully as possible, or choose a god or a small pantheon and denounce (or try to convert) followers of other gods that'd want to join the colony. It'd also introduce a new element of colony's life to take care of (and frankly, what are we all playing RW for if not to do exactly that?) in the form of enabling pawns to satisfy their spiritual needs by building shrines or even whole temples, and assigning a priest/shaman/spiritual leader to hold sermons or even confessions (which could be a way to alleviate some of the favor/mood penalties by commiting sins [faithful pawn doing things the god doesn't like could be considered sinning!]).
Then, a follower could become a devout, then an acolyte, then a priest, high-priest and a champion, each getting an increase in passive boons, as well as actual divine abilities (the use of which would be gated by the colony's total favor, as you have proposed), but would also increase this particular pawn's spiritual needs and their "obnoxiousness" to others - you know the type... people who won't shut up about their god with no regard for your beliefs.
Hell, depending on how in-depth you'd want to take it, there could even be two special religious traits (a good one and a bad one, for balance), like:
Chosen - this pawn is not necessarily a priest, or even a follower of any god, but a god follows the pawn (so to speak) either since the pawn's birth, some deed they've done, or some event - even one that happened during the game (maybe, if a pawn held their ground against an overwhelming force of hostiles, a god of Valor could become invested in them?). The chosen would be exempt from a majority of the rules, as in they wouldn't need to be in the higher tiers of faith (aka. a priest) to cast god spells, or they could even be allowed to sin to some extent (god would let it go if they do something from the god's "dislike" list, but would still be angry at them for doing the "hated" things).
Zealot - not exactly the opposite of Chosen (a pawn could have both those traits, honestly), but a pawn that doesn't get spells or anything, since they aren't chosen, but they THINK they are, and act like it. In mechanical RW terms: for a zealot, faith isn't a need - it's an addiction. They want to please their god constantly, they nag everyone around them about it, and they can get violent if they witness someone sinning or worshipping a disliked god ("normal" religious pawns would only frown upon someone worshipping a HATED god, not merely disliked).
Aye! With the shift from class-gated faith to a broad aspect that anyone could participate in, of course! Natural "priests" of a god of Undeath, for example, would be Necromancers and Liches, and Mother Nature would value her Druids, while a God of Progress (there could be one, why not) would love Technomancers. Here the possibilities are actually, nearly limitless.
And I'm all up for all faithful folks getting some boons, even if only passives at lower tiers, but an Arcane mage being capable of great healing or performing a miracle because they're also a high-priest of a god? It's an amazing prospect.
At first, when I thought about divines as just another branch of classes, I thought of a system in which:
- The MAX favor a class can gain depends on the whole colony's worship of the god.
- The CURRENT favor of a class determines the abilities they have access to, as well as the charges.
So basically I thought about a system in which a priest without "a flock" isn't much of a priest at all. And it's not all that divergent from what you're proposing - the colony's standing with a god determines the favor, and that's it - no "max" and "current" stuff - just "favor", as a resource that every single pawn, priest or a mere follower, draws from when they use abilities, as well as said favor deciding how many times, and how often, will such prayers be answered.
Seems like a much more natural way of doing it, and certainly opens up the door to - as you've mentioned - some classes getting unique boons for being the "god's favourite". Hell, perhaps even some fully unique abilities? As in: "Only a bard that has a certain faith tier with this particular god archetype gets an entirely new bard spell that's unobtainable by any other means".
And as for the pawns and gods not necessarily accepting each other - exactly! That'd add another layer of our beloved rimworld management. And on that note - some existing traits and even skill levels could increase the chance of a pawn choosing a particular god, and that good liking the pawn. For example a pawn with "Bloodlust" would be much more likely to follow a brutal god of war or torture than a peaceful god of mercy, and said brutal gods would welcome pawns that are bloodlusty. Same goes for skills - a pawn with high research and/or medicine would likely lean towards a god of knowledge or healing, rather than a god of valor, for example.
Seeing as a simple shift of focus (going from a 3rd type of classes to a basically classless faith system) can instantly enhance this idea, I'm curious as to what it could become if your community responds positively, and with their own input.
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AM
The expansion you've proposed is honestly clean and distinct enough that, while it fits nicely on top of RW of Magic, it could also easily be a stand-alone mod. That being said, the links you propose to magic use and overall colony behavior and interaction between classes creates a glorious hook and would present added challenges, with appropriate rewards, for any play-through.
Indeed, I've thought about this being a standalone mod, quite extensively, and I have to come clean that I've proposed it to you, because:
- I absolutely love your mod, and find it to overlap greatly (both mechanically and "spiritually") with what "my" mod would've aimed for.
- I believe that your distinction between "mana" and "stamina" classes despite the mod being called "Rimworld of Magic" is a good sign that you're willing to explore more than just classic arcane magic, but also other sources that make for a good gameplay, thus giving a chance to a new branch of "divine" classes.
- The most shameful reason: I'm not a coder myself, and hoped that - if you liked the idea - I could see some of those ideas come true by your hands. On that note, if your mod's community response to this idea is positive, and you decide to go with it, I offer all the help I could, including sprites/icons (I've dabbled into creating similar things in the past), descriptions, design of the actual abilities, boons etc. and even some rudimentary coding help, although I'd need time to learn what's required to be able to help).
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AM
Ok, getting into some of the details - really great lineup of god types. Seriously, lots of thought and experience went into that list of likes and dislikes and god types. I think your suggestion of making somewhat 'dynamic' gods would also be terrifically fun. During world generation, a database of behaviors could semi-randomly be assigned to each god, very similar to pawns and their traits, except more detailed with those 'god traits' being the defining characteristics of each god. The other key factor would be how those traits determine which 'boons' or divine powers each god can grant. And then, as events unfold and the player makes decisions, each of those decisions goes into a 'divine story' that logs and accounts for key actions that occur within the colony and decides how each god views that decision based on their divine traits.
That sounds like a solid system. It'd make for easy modifications to different gods, and even for later introduction of other godly traits (which I'm sure people would come up with, if they like the idea) as it'd only take designing a new trait and setting up its "view" on other traits and certain events.
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AMI'm not sure I'd restrict a divine pawn by a magic class though. It can sometimes be a challenge to get certain classes and it seems somewhat defeating if you couldn't access or interact with a god without a specific class. So maybe some traits or classes that would allow easier access, or more likely to become 'divine' pawns, but perhaps also some new traits like 'chosen' or 'faithful' or something like that which would nudge that pawn, and indirectly the player, into pursuing the selection and worship of a god?
That's even better than my original thought! And you're right here, because why can't a wizard or a sniper worship a god? That'd seem too unnatural... mechanical. I'm quite disappointed in myself that I haven't thought about it in this way from the beginning.
And it's a perfect spot to make use of the mechanic you've already introduced in the form of tiered classes.
I can see each pawn, mundane or otherwise, being able to spawn with a "Follower" trait (not sure if the name of the trait could include the name of a specific god, like "Follower of [name]" if the gods would be randomly generated) that'd add the "Faith" need bar, which could grant some small boons, depending on the god's nature, when satisfied by praying and various activities encouraged by the god in question (like sowing trees for Mother Nature etc.). That'd focus the player's attention into trying to either make a multi-religious colony as peacefully as possible, or choose a god or a small pantheon and denounce (or try to convert) followers of other gods that'd want to join the colony. It'd also introduce a new element of colony's life to take care of (and frankly, what are we all playing RW for if not to do exactly that?) in the form of enabling pawns to satisfy their spiritual needs by building shrines or even whole temples, and assigning a priest/shaman/spiritual leader to hold sermons or even confessions (which could be a way to alleviate some of the favor/mood penalties by commiting sins [faithful pawn doing things the god doesn't like could be considered sinning!]).
Then, a follower could become a devout, then an acolyte, then a priest, high-priest and a champion, each getting an increase in passive boons, as well as actual divine abilities (the use of which would be gated by the colony's total favor, as you have proposed), but would also increase this particular pawn's spiritual needs and their "obnoxiousness" to others - you know the type... people who won't shut up about their god with no regard for your beliefs.
Hell, depending on how in-depth you'd want to take it, there could even be two special religious traits (a good one and a bad one, for balance), like:
Chosen - this pawn is not necessarily a priest, or even a follower of any god, but a god follows the pawn (so to speak) either since the pawn's birth, some deed they've done, or some event - even one that happened during the game (maybe, if a pawn held their ground against an overwhelming force of hostiles, a god of Valor could become invested in them?). The chosen would be exempt from a majority of the rules, as in they wouldn't need to be in the higher tiers of faith (aka. a priest) to cast god spells, or they could even be allowed to sin to some extent (god would let it go if they do something from the god's "dislike" list, but would still be angry at them for doing the "hated" things).
Zealot - not exactly the opposite of Chosen (a pawn could have both those traits, honestly), but a pawn that doesn't get spells or anything, since they aren't chosen, but they THINK they are, and act like it. In mechanical RW terms: for a zealot, faith isn't a need - it's an addiction. They want to please their god constantly, they nag everyone around them about it, and they can get violent if they witness someone sinning or worshipping a disliked god ("normal" religious pawns would only frown upon someone worshipping a HATED god, not merely disliked).
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AM
As for the use of abilities themselves, once enough favor was gained with a god, pawns (even those not quite as devoted, or magical) could have access to new powers provided by their god. Maybe the big boons, I mean the colony altering, powerhouse, divine abilities could only be invoked by those select chosen, but I think it would be more interesting to make certain classes more favored by gods (depending on the gods divine traits) rather than gating access to a god behind specific magic classes.
Aye! With the shift from class-gated faith to a broad aspect that anyone could participate in, of course! Natural "priests" of a god of Undeath, for example, would be Necromancers and Liches, and Mother Nature would value her Druids, while a God of Progress (there could be one, why not) would love Technomancers. Here the possibilities are actually, nearly limitless.
And I'm all up for all faithful folks getting some boons, even if only passives at lower tiers, but an Arcane mage being capable of great healing or performing a miracle because they're also a high-priest of a god? It's an amazing prospect.
Quote from: Torann on December 17, 2018, 12:51:37 AM
I see that resource quantity (godly favor) being more colony-wide vs specific pawn. Maybe the chosen, or priests, of a god would have access to more abilities, or stronger abilities, depending on the colony's standing with their selected god? Maybe some classes, with divine support, have access to new class abilities? Making the choice of a god would be more interesting if you can't force every colonist to accept that god, or the god accept every pawn. So pursuing some kind of personal link to a god for individual pawns, but also an overall colony opinion of a god, seems like very RimWorldy decision material. I do like the whole charges and time idea though; asking for your god to resurrect a fallen pawn is an acceptable request, but asking them to resurrect Stubbs, and 5 minutes later, to resurrect Stubbs again...
At first, when I thought about divines as just another branch of classes, I thought of a system in which:
- The MAX favor a class can gain depends on the whole colony's worship of the god.
- The CURRENT favor of a class determines the abilities they have access to, as well as the charges.
So basically I thought about a system in which a priest without "a flock" isn't much of a priest at all. And it's not all that divergent from what you're proposing - the colony's standing with a god determines the favor, and that's it - no "max" and "current" stuff - just "favor", as a resource that every single pawn, priest or a mere follower, draws from when they use abilities, as well as said favor deciding how many times, and how often, will such prayers be answered.
Seems like a much more natural way of doing it, and certainly opens up the door to - as you've mentioned - some classes getting unique boons for being the "god's favourite". Hell, perhaps even some fully unique abilities? As in: "Only a bard that has a certain faith tier with this particular god archetype gets an entirely new bard spell that's unobtainable by any other means".
And as for the pawns and gods not necessarily accepting each other - exactly! That'd add another layer of our beloved rimworld management. And on that note - some existing traits and even skill levels could increase the chance of a pawn choosing a particular god, and that good liking the pawn. For example a pawn with "Bloodlust" would be much more likely to follow a brutal god of war or torture than a peaceful god of mercy, and said brutal gods would welcome pawns that are bloodlusty. Same goes for skills - a pawn with high research and/or medicine would likely lean towards a god of knowledge or healing, rather than a god of valor, for example.
Seeing as a simple shift of focus (going from a 3rd type of classes to a basically classless faith system) can instantly enhance this idea, I'm curious as to what it could become if your community responds positively, and with their own input.
#21
Releases / Re: [1.0] A RimWorld of Magic
December 15, 2018, 08:52:16 PM
I've got a bigger suggestion that I'd like to discuss with the community, so in order not to spam this thread, I've made a separate one: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=47441.0
#22
Mods / [Suggestion] A RimWorld of Magic expansion: Gods of the Rim
December 15, 2018, 08:51:18 PM
[Note: This thread regards the great "Rimworld of Magic" mod by Torann, so if you're not interested in that mod, you won't be interested in this thread.]
This might be a somewhat unusual way to do it, but I'm posting this as a new thread, instead of a post in Rimworld of Magic main thread, for the sake of keeping the main one clean. This isn't a wizard class suggestion, but rather a proposition of an "expansion" for the whole mod, so if there's ever going to be any feedback to that, it's best not to spam the main thread.
To the point:
The idea is to build upon the good system of spells, abilities, mana etc. introduced by Rimworld of Magic, and add another layer in the form of gods and religion. This would serve as both another source of magic (divine, instead of arcane) and as means to a richer gameplay through commiting your colony to a certain way of life, despite - sometimes - what would please your god(s) wouldn't necessarily be the most lucrative or popular (colonist-wise) thing to do. It'd also - in certain ways - enhance the existing mages and fighters, depending on your choices.
Changes
First and foremost, this expansion would change the way Priests and Paladins (and possibly Druids) work. Instead of being a mana-based classes, they'd diverge into a new category of casters - the divine ones.
Divine classes would work slightly differently to both mana and stamina based classes, for they'd use neither, instead basing on their chosen god's favor. Favor mechanics in bullet points:
- Instead of being an actively depletable resource, favor would be something the divine character starts with on very low level, and gradually builds it up overtime.
- Favor is built by praying, acting upon your god's will, spreading your god's name, praise etc.
- When not maintained, favor drops by itself. The divine classes would have to keep their work up in order for their god to grant them powers.
- Instead of learning new spells at will via leveling up like arcane classes do, divine classes would automatically unlock higher level abilities when they reach certain levels of favor.
Gods
Each divine class would, as their first ability, choose a god (with the exception of Druids, who would be devoted to the mother nature herself from the very beginning, and paladins would be restricted to a good god). For that to work there'd be several gods, each with different characteristics, goals, preferences, and boons granted.
In general, gods would have things they love, like, are indifferent about, dislike and hate. To keep your god happy with your colony and in turn bestow powers on your priestly bunch, you'd need to keep on the good side of your god, and avoid upsetting them.
You could also have your colony worship a pantheon of gods, but that'd require some more careful approach, since gods would have relationships with each other (as a most cliche and blunt example: a god who hates undead wouldn't stand your colony worshipping both him and a god who loves undead).
Even worshipping two gods who are indifferent towards each other could prove tricky if one would want you to do things the other dislikes, so form your pantheon carefully.
Given the free nature of Rimworld, I'd rather avoid "hardcoding" gods with set names, backstories etc. and instead set up some archetypes with moving parts, and let the names and other stuff be randomised along with the planet. Below are some of the archetypes, but mind you that their "do's and don't's" lists can also be semi-random.
God of mercy:
Loves: Rescuing people, setting prisoners free
Likes: Healing, giving gifts to traders/factions, freeing slaves, recruiting prisoners
Dislikes: letting downed hostiles bleed out, raiding hostile factions, refusing rescue (from various events), using inhumane weapons (mainly fire) or weapons of mass destruction (orbital strikes), selling slaves
Hates: Killing and raiding allies and neutrals, or downed hostiles, harvesting organs
God of valor:
Loves: Defending against raids, raiding pirate outposts,
Likes: Raiding hostile factions, losing colonists in battle (glorious death!), having more melee fighters than shooters, having pawns with stamina class
Dislikes: Setting traps (deadfalls, IEDs etc.), selling slaves, losing colonists to captivity, refusing the rescue events
Hates: losing colonists to ilnesses (shameful death!)
God of terror:
Loves: Killing, feeding people to prisoners, harvesting prisoners, bloodlust traited pawns
Likes: Raiding anyone, butchering people, cannibalism (and having cannibal traited pawns), attacking caravans, leaving people to bleed out
Dislikes: trading other than selling slaves/organs, euthanising (death not cruel enough),
Hates: giving gifts, rescuing people, setting prisoners free, non-violent pawns
God of Commerce:
Loves: Trading, pawns with high social, greedy and jealous traited pawns
Likes: crafting and building (the higher quality outcome, the better), wealthy rooms
Dislikes: raiding anyone, botched construction, having unfinished items (if you start something, finish it!), stagnant wealth (upset if your colony's wealth isn't increasing fast enough), poor wealth of rooms
Hates: getting robbed (by raiders who decide to loot stuff and run), attacking caravans
God of Beauty:
Loves: Having Bard class pawns, pawns with high art skill, beautiful traited pawns
Likes: making sculptures, beautiful rooms, many different recreation sources, consuming lavish food, gourmand traited pawns, non-violent pawns
Dislikes: drug use (doesn't want "artificial" joy for pawns), ugly traited pawns, low beauty rooms
Hates: filth, blood splatters, having awful and poor items and buildings
God of Life:
Loves: Resurrecting, healing, slaying undead
Likes: high medical skilled pawns, having hospital equipment, crafting and using good medicine
Dislikes: Death knights, euthanising, colonist's deaths, letting anyone downed bleed out.
Hates: Creating undead, having undead, undead in any shape or form, necromancers, killing non-hostiles.
God of Undeath:
Loves: Creating and having undead, having liches
Likes: Necromancers, death knights, burying corpses
Dislikes: letting corpses rot away, cremating corpses (such a waste!),
Hates: non-undead resurrection, paladins
And the druid's special:
Mother Nature:
Loves: sowing trees, green-thumbed pawns
Likes: taming animals, tamed animals giving birth, sowing crops, calming manhunter animals
Dislikes: Killing wild animals in any season other than winter (manhunters don't count), slaughtering tamed animals, cutting plants and trees (harvesting is fine, but cutting them completely is not)
Hates: killing pregnant animals, burning plants
Nature should be balanced to be fair - she doesn't like cutting trees and stuff, but if you replant them in return, she'll be kind to you. In general, if you GIVE and take, it's fine, but if you only take, she'll dislike you.
Worship
Divine classes would get their favor from actively doing things their god likes, and fulfilling the god's will (quests and events given by the god, periodically), but their MAX favor would depend on how well is colony regarded by the particular god.
To this end, every non-divine pawn could be converted by any divine class to their religion, and such pawn would get a new need: "faith" that'd be kinda like a mundane version of favor. Pawns would increase it by praying (either at a new building - altar - or just the normal prayer that pawns sometimes do by themselves), making sacrifices (depending on the god - from food and crops, through art, precious metals, crafted goods, to animal and human sacrifice) and so on.
In the end - the priest's max potential would be determined by how well is he able to guide other colonists towards his god.
Favor and abilities
As said before, each priest would choose a god, and some of their abilities from now on would depend on such god. Here's where the aforementioned god archetypes come into play - the abilities a priest will get depend on the archetype of a god, so a god of life will give different abilities than a god of commerce.
For the simplicity of coding, priests would share some spells regardless of god (like advanced healing, for example, would be a baseline for most priest, maybe excluding the truly evil ones), but at least their ultimates should be different for each god.
Now, the casting mechanics: Instead of using favor like mana, they'd get spell "charges" based on the total amount of favor they have. So let's say that a beginner priest has a spell he can cast twice, each individual "charge" having its own cooldown, so let's say that cooldown is 30 seconds. He can cast the spell twice rapidly, and then wait the 30 seconds for the charges to get back, or use the spell once, and then use it again in 20 seconds, so the first charge will be back within 10 seconds of using the spell for the second time.
And the amount of times a divine class can cast a spell would scale with the total available favor, hence the priest's need for having a healthy religion in their colony, as that'd be the source of their power, but they'd still have to fulfill that potential by pleasing their god themselves, and maintaining the favor. In short: Max favor limit comes from followers, but actual favor comes from the divine classe's deeds. The amount of times they can cast each spell is based on the total value.
I'm looking forward to your input. Would something akin to this be a welcome addition to Rimworld of Magic, or would you rather prefer Torann to continue with the current mana/stamina class split?
This might be a somewhat unusual way to do it, but I'm posting this as a new thread, instead of a post in Rimworld of Magic main thread, for the sake of keeping the main one clean. This isn't a wizard class suggestion, but rather a proposition of an "expansion" for the whole mod, so if there's ever going to be any feedback to that, it's best not to spam the main thread.
To the point:
The idea is to build upon the good system of spells, abilities, mana etc. introduced by Rimworld of Magic, and add another layer in the form of gods and religion. This would serve as both another source of magic (divine, instead of arcane) and as means to a richer gameplay through commiting your colony to a certain way of life, despite - sometimes - what would please your god(s) wouldn't necessarily be the most lucrative or popular (colonist-wise) thing to do. It'd also - in certain ways - enhance the existing mages and fighters, depending on your choices.
Changes
First and foremost, this expansion would change the way Priests and Paladins (and possibly Druids) work. Instead of being a mana-based classes, they'd diverge into a new category of casters - the divine ones.
Divine classes would work slightly differently to both mana and stamina based classes, for they'd use neither, instead basing on their chosen god's favor. Favor mechanics in bullet points:
- Instead of being an actively depletable resource, favor would be something the divine character starts with on very low level, and gradually builds it up overtime.
- Favor is built by praying, acting upon your god's will, spreading your god's name, praise etc.
- When not maintained, favor drops by itself. The divine classes would have to keep their work up in order for their god to grant them powers.
- Instead of learning new spells at will via leveling up like arcane classes do, divine classes would automatically unlock higher level abilities when they reach certain levels of favor.
Gods
Each divine class would, as their first ability, choose a god (with the exception of Druids, who would be devoted to the mother nature herself from the very beginning, and paladins would be restricted to a good god). For that to work there'd be several gods, each with different characteristics, goals, preferences, and boons granted.
In general, gods would have things they love, like, are indifferent about, dislike and hate. To keep your god happy with your colony and in turn bestow powers on your priestly bunch, you'd need to keep on the good side of your god, and avoid upsetting them.
You could also have your colony worship a pantheon of gods, but that'd require some more careful approach, since gods would have relationships with each other (as a most cliche and blunt example: a god who hates undead wouldn't stand your colony worshipping both him and a god who loves undead).
Even worshipping two gods who are indifferent towards each other could prove tricky if one would want you to do things the other dislikes, so form your pantheon carefully.
Given the free nature of Rimworld, I'd rather avoid "hardcoding" gods with set names, backstories etc. and instead set up some archetypes with moving parts, and let the names and other stuff be randomised along with the planet. Below are some of the archetypes, but mind you that their "do's and don't's" lists can also be semi-random.
God of mercy:
Loves: Rescuing people, setting prisoners free
Likes: Healing, giving gifts to traders/factions, freeing slaves, recruiting prisoners
Dislikes: letting downed hostiles bleed out, raiding hostile factions, refusing rescue (from various events), using inhumane weapons (mainly fire) or weapons of mass destruction (orbital strikes), selling slaves
Hates: Killing and raiding allies and neutrals, or downed hostiles, harvesting organs
God of valor:
Loves: Defending against raids, raiding pirate outposts,
Likes: Raiding hostile factions, losing colonists in battle (glorious death!), having more melee fighters than shooters, having pawns with stamina class
Dislikes: Setting traps (deadfalls, IEDs etc.), selling slaves, losing colonists to captivity, refusing the rescue events
Hates: losing colonists to ilnesses (shameful death!)
God of terror:
Loves: Killing, feeding people to prisoners, harvesting prisoners, bloodlust traited pawns
Likes: Raiding anyone, butchering people, cannibalism (and having cannibal traited pawns), attacking caravans, leaving people to bleed out
Dislikes: trading other than selling slaves/organs, euthanising (death not cruel enough),
Hates: giving gifts, rescuing people, setting prisoners free, non-violent pawns
God of Commerce:
Loves: Trading, pawns with high social, greedy and jealous traited pawns
Likes: crafting and building (the higher quality outcome, the better), wealthy rooms
Dislikes: raiding anyone, botched construction, having unfinished items (if you start something, finish it!), stagnant wealth (upset if your colony's wealth isn't increasing fast enough), poor wealth of rooms
Hates: getting robbed (by raiders who decide to loot stuff and run), attacking caravans
God of Beauty:
Loves: Having Bard class pawns, pawns with high art skill, beautiful traited pawns
Likes: making sculptures, beautiful rooms, many different recreation sources, consuming lavish food, gourmand traited pawns, non-violent pawns
Dislikes: drug use (doesn't want "artificial" joy for pawns), ugly traited pawns, low beauty rooms
Hates: filth, blood splatters, having awful and poor items and buildings
God of Life:
Loves: Resurrecting, healing, slaying undead
Likes: high medical skilled pawns, having hospital equipment, crafting and using good medicine
Dislikes: Death knights, euthanising, colonist's deaths, letting anyone downed bleed out.
Hates: Creating undead, having undead, undead in any shape or form, necromancers, killing non-hostiles.
God of Undeath:
Loves: Creating and having undead, having liches
Likes: Necromancers, death knights, burying corpses
Dislikes: letting corpses rot away, cremating corpses (such a waste!),
Hates: non-undead resurrection, paladins
And the druid's special:
Mother Nature:
Loves: sowing trees, green-thumbed pawns
Likes: taming animals, tamed animals giving birth, sowing crops, calming manhunter animals
Dislikes: Killing wild animals in any season other than winter (manhunters don't count), slaughtering tamed animals, cutting plants and trees (harvesting is fine, but cutting them completely is not)
Hates: killing pregnant animals, burning plants
Nature should be balanced to be fair - she doesn't like cutting trees and stuff, but if you replant them in return, she'll be kind to you. In general, if you GIVE and take, it's fine, but if you only take, she'll dislike you.
Worship
Divine classes would get their favor from actively doing things their god likes, and fulfilling the god's will (quests and events given by the god, periodically), but their MAX favor would depend on how well is colony regarded by the particular god.
To this end, every non-divine pawn could be converted by any divine class to their religion, and such pawn would get a new need: "faith" that'd be kinda like a mundane version of favor. Pawns would increase it by praying (either at a new building - altar - or just the normal prayer that pawns sometimes do by themselves), making sacrifices (depending on the god - from food and crops, through art, precious metals, crafted goods, to animal and human sacrifice) and so on.
In the end - the priest's max potential would be determined by how well is he able to guide other colonists towards his god.
Favor and abilities
As said before, each priest would choose a god, and some of their abilities from now on would depend on such god. Here's where the aforementioned god archetypes come into play - the abilities a priest will get depend on the archetype of a god, so a god of life will give different abilities than a god of commerce.
For the simplicity of coding, priests would share some spells regardless of god (like advanced healing, for example, would be a baseline for most priest, maybe excluding the truly evil ones), but at least their ultimates should be different for each god.
Now, the casting mechanics: Instead of using favor like mana, they'd get spell "charges" based on the total amount of favor they have. So let's say that a beginner priest has a spell he can cast twice, each individual "charge" having its own cooldown, so let's say that cooldown is 30 seconds. He can cast the spell twice rapidly, and then wait the 30 seconds for the charges to get back, or use the spell once, and then use it again in 20 seconds, so the first charge will be back within 10 seconds of using the spell for the second time.
And the amount of times a divine class can cast a spell would scale with the total available favor, hence the priest's need for having a healthy religion in their colony, as that'd be the source of their power, but they'd still have to fulfill that potential by pleasing their god themselves, and maintaining the favor. In short: Max favor limit comes from followers, but actual favor comes from the divine classe's deeds. The amount of times they can cast each spell is based on the total value.
I'm looking forward to your input. Would something akin to this be a welcome addition to Rimworld of Magic, or would you rather prefer Torann to continue with the current mana/stamina class split?
#23
Mods / Re: [Looking For Mod] Regional Factions
December 15, 2018, 02:12:26 PMQuote from: Canute on December 14, 2018, 03:17:54 AM
Faction Control
The mod also gives you the option to organize bases geographically, with each faction group's bases in close proximity to each other, so that the planet looks like it's populated by actual nations, rather than just having bases scattered all over the map randomly.
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=45519.0
Oh, cool! Many thanks. I must've skimmed over that mod, oddly.
#24
Mods / [Looking For Mod] Regional Factions
December 13, 2018, 07:06:28 PM
After a (brief) search for "factions" related mods, I haven't found anything that'd touch the subject I'm on about, so here's my question:
Is there any mod that makes the factions spawn regionally? Right now the factions are scattered all around the world, so even a primitive tribe has colonies worldwide. I'm looking for a mod that'd restrict factions to spawn regionally, creating sort of territories/countries (think of Mount and Blade, for example). I'd be grateful for pointing me towards such a mod, should one exist.
There's also much more depth I'd like from such a mod, but typing it all here would change this post to a mod idea, rather than just a question, so I'll hold for now.
Thanks in advance.
Is there any mod that makes the factions spawn regionally? Right now the factions are scattered all around the world, so even a primitive tribe has colonies worldwide. I'm looking for a mod that'd restrict factions to spawn regionally, creating sort of territories/countries (think of Mount and Blade, for example). I'd be grateful for pointing me towards such a mod, should one exist.
There's also much more depth I'd like from such a mod, but typing it all here would change this post to a mod idea, rather than just a question, so I'll hold for now.
Thanks in advance.
#25
Releases / Re: [1.0] A RimWorld of Magic
December 05, 2018, 08:33:26 AM
Thanks for your input, TheJinx!
Going point by point:
- Transfiguration: I know that having gold "readily" is OP at a glance. The thing is - it all boils down to balancing it against other methods of aquiring gold and other resources. It's meant to be balanced against the market value and alchemist's skills, so in general it's like buying gold, but without having to have the actual merchant at hand. You still pay for it, though, and it should take an obnoxious amount of time.
- Deep water: As far as I'm aware, pawns can swim now, can't they? It just slows them down considerably, so you couldn't prevent movement. If I'm mistaken, however, and the deep water completely prevents movement, then you're right and it'd be OP, indeed.
- Witch's rites are supposed to be powerful, hence the drawbacks and possible backfire. Yes, you can stop a raid (you'd still have to deal with it for a moment beforehand, since the Rites are supposed to take a considerable amount of time to complete. It's not "click a button and cast instantly". And the witch herself pays for it by not having powerful instant spells like other mages - she's more of a "stay-at-home" caster.
Furthermore - all the abilities are proposed as more of a guide towards the vision and "feel" of the class. I don't expect Torann to implement it unchanged, if at all.
- And as for the Chronomancer: Yes, he'd be on somewhat weaker (offensively) side of the wizard bunch, but would definitely have some utility and would fill a specific niche. I admit, however, that the class was specifically thought out for the Commitment Mode (no saving/loading) as the means to grant the players a limited tool to repair their mistakes (saving a colonist who was in a wrong place at a wrong time, or possibly saving the whole colony with an ultimate).
And thank you again for your thoughts. Much appreciated!
Going point by point:
- Transfiguration: I know that having gold "readily" is OP at a glance. The thing is - it all boils down to balancing it against other methods of aquiring gold and other resources. It's meant to be balanced against the market value and alchemist's skills, so in general it's like buying gold, but without having to have the actual merchant at hand. You still pay for it, though, and it should take an obnoxious amount of time.
- Deep water: As far as I'm aware, pawns can swim now, can't they? It just slows them down considerably, so you couldn't prevent movement. If I'm mistaken, however, and the deep water completely prevents movement, then you're right and it'd be OP, indeed.
- Witch's rites are supposed to be powerful, hence the drawbacks and possible backfire. Yes, you can stop a raid (you'd still have to deal with it for a moment beforehand, since the Rites are supposed to take a considerable amount of time to complete. It's not "click a button and cast instantly". And the witch herself pays for it by not having powerful instant spells like other mages - she's more of a "stay-at-home" caster.
Furthermore - all the abilities are proposed as more of a guide towards the vision and "feel" of the class. I don't expect Torann to implement it unchanged, if at all.
- And as for the Chronomancer: Yes, he'd be on somewhat weaker (offensively) side of the wizard bunch, but would definitely have some utility and would fill a specific niche. I admit, however, that the class was specifically thought out for the Commitment Mode (no saving/loading) as the means to grant the players a limited tool to repair their mistakes (saving a colonist who was in a wrong place at a wrong time, or possibly saving the whole colony with an ultimate).
And thank you again for your thoughts. Much appreciated!
#26
Releases / Re: [B19] Prisoner Outfit - 04/10/18 cold resistance, arm coverage
December 05, 2018, 04:20:59 AMQuote from: Chicken Plucker on October 03, 2018, 08:09:44 PM
My prisoners aren't putting the uniform on, theyre wandering around naked, what do?
Assuming you have prison labor mod inside your prison, this means prisoners idling is replaced by commands to do some work. They aren't gonna wander around and put the uniform on if another mod is compelling the AI to do something else.
I recommend to get them to stop working somehow until they put the uniforms on
I'd like to add some insight, by posting a few ways that work in Prison Labor:
- If you're using the "Locks" mod (which you likely are if you're using Prison Labor), lock the prisoners in their cells and put some clothes inside.
- Switch the prisoner setting to anything other than "force to work" or "work and recruit".
- Disable bills on any working station in prisoners' reach.
Any of the above will make the prisoners able to be idle and "wander", which is a required state to attempt wearing clothes.
#27
Releases / Re: [1.0] A RimWorld of Magic
December 04, 2018, 11:18:33 PM
EDIT (06.12.2018): Added master spells.
Alchemist/Witch
Foreword: I really like what you've done with Technomancer, meaning the 3 paths to choose, and the duality of Warlock/Succubus, and both are a clear inspiration for this one.
The philosophy behind this class is that both Alchemist and Witch have to choose between Lore and Golemancy, and also they both use them in their own ways (therefore making this class kind of a 4-in-1). Generally, Lore is about crafting and changing items, while Golemancy is about, well... golems (surprise!), but in all seriousness, it's about creating (vaguely) permanent soldiers, haulers etc. On top of that, Alchemist is the "hard but solid" way of doing it, meaning that alchemist takes way more time with his craft in general, but gets rather permanent results, while Witch does it the "dirty but quick" and has to put less effort into her deeds, but also gets more sloppy results.
(Alchemist: Passives):
Path of Lore: Much faster smelting and smithing (Alchemist is thought out as "THE" crafting mage, while Lore is about metals and fine items, and Golemancy is about [mostly] stone and construction). I think that alchemist should have amazing crafting bonuses to low-tech items, so that it doesn't step into Technomancer's territory.
Path of Golemancy: Stonecutting, sculpting and construction bonuses.
(Witch: Passives):
Path of Lore: Drug production, plantwork and tailoring bonuses + isn't slowed down by plants (so much faster than others in, let's say, thinck rainforests etc.)
Path of Golemancy: Butchering speed bonuses, cooking bonuses.
(Alchemist: Golemancy) Sculpt Golem: The alchemist gains an ability to make golems at the sculptor's table. They take a ton of work to make, and I really mean A TON – far more than any sculpture ever. The outcome is based on alchemist's magical prowess and art skill.
Important: Golems should be treated as pets, rather than pawns, but with the highest training intelligence, and if possible, training them would fall into "Magic" worktype, rather than Handle.
Golems can be created out of the usual materials for a sculpture, but also some rare magical ingredients (I'm not much of an expert in your mod, so I don't feel competent to propose a precise recipe). They should also be enchantable, but honestly, I need to play more of the mod to be able to propose specific enchants, however the classic approach would be to:
Add some special attacks.
Add movement modifiers.
Grant sentience (COSTLY, but converts the golem from a pet to a pawn. Pawn golems don't auto-undraft, just like undead).
Depending on material, golems can have different properties (other than HP etc), but also different enchantment affinity (for example, a marble golem enchanted with gem X would yield a different result than a granite golem enchanted with the same gem [Sorry for being vague – I haven't gotten to enchanting with your mod yet]).
All golems would require mana to operate. Not necessarily from the alchemist who created them, but they'd need to be charged either by magical pawns or the mana-storing buildings.
Additionally, all golems would have a "power" to become statue-like. In this state they would literally convert to placeable statues (which would have a button to convert back to functional golem). The use of that would be that they'd be really, really beautiful and expensive, and a golem in that state wouldn't need mana to function.
(Witch: Golemancy) Raise Golem: The witch gains an ability to make wicked golems at the butchering table, using corpses (corpses, not just meat) as the material, and cooking + magic as the governing skills. The resulting abomination is a Flesh Golem. Unlike alchemist's golems, the abominations created by a witch would MUCH faster to create, but also less durable in combat (roughly sewn corpse parts VS a granite statue is rather self-evident).
Flesh Golems would also fall into pet category, but they'd also be considered undead for the purposes of receiving holy damage etc. and they wouldn't have an option of being enchanted or granted sentience. Basically they'd be far more disposable and less functonal bunch, but also FAR easier to create, and they don't need mana to exist, but once created, they have a limited (albeit not flash-quick) lifespan, as their physical form deteriorates, rots and falls apart.
These golems don't require training and the level of their pet-like abilities depends on how well the Witch does in the moment of creation. The rule is – animal corpse golems are more like rabid fighters (higher release and more resilient etc.) while humanlike golems are more of slaves (better hauling etc.).
(Alchemist: Lore) Alchemical refinement: Alchemist can refine Mana Potions into a far more stable and user-friendly form. It's a somewhat lenghty process, but the resulting Fine Mana Potion is almost entirely purged of its addictive properties, and therefore is an amazing tool for a magic-oriented colony.
(Witch: Lore) Volatile Brew: Witch can ritually enhance a Mana Potion to restore FAR more mana and apply a hefty mana regen buff, but it's even more addictive than the basic potion, and can have some additional side effects. This process is far quicker and more cost-effective than the meticulous craft of an alchemist, but the hidden cost lays in the corrupting nature of the brew, thus being a tool for far more reckless and power-hungry colony.
(Alchemist: Both) Alchemical Casting: Both Loremaster and Golemancer have access to alchemical casting, perhaps with different spells available. The premise behind this type of casting is to give the alchemists a greater range of spells than other wizards, but at a cost of much more work and physical components, rather than just mana.
The alchemist would have to "prepare" his spells at a drug lab, using various reagents, like herbs, wood, gems, stones, metals or fine items like furniture, weapons, armor etc. The alchemists would have an unique worktype available at the drug lab (if it's not possible to make a worktype only show up in the list for one class, then just make it so only that class can work on it) called "Prepare spell (spell name)", and it'd require a relatively long time spent at the lab, using up resources and slowly pouring mana, but it'd result in alchemist gaining a spell.
Now it could either be a charge mechanic (you can only cast the spell X amount of times before it vanishes and you have to prepare it again) or simply a swapping mechanic - alchemist could only hold 3 alchemical spells at a time, and could forget them (by right clicking the spell icon and selecting "forget") to be replaced by another spell. The idea is, as I've mentioned before, that alchemist would have a big list of spells to prepare, but only a few could be held at once, so he'd be versatile, but it'd be locked behind slow work at the table.
Some of the spells could include:
- Transmute Stone: AoE target, transmutes all stone and steel chunks in the area into their respective stone blocks / steel. Preparing requires 1 stone block of any kind, 1 steel and psychoid leaves.
- Create Water: AoE target, changes mud and sand into shallow water, and shallow water into deep water. Preparing requires rice and some gems.
- Alchemical Fire: Offensive spell, single target. Sets target ablaze for a certain amount of time, but can't be extinguished by any other means (if that's possible to implement), even rain or swimming. If targeted at a friendly building that needs fueling, it'll fuel it for a certain amount, depending on alchemist's prowess. Preparing requires some wood, chemfuel and gems.
- Crown Acid: A short-ranged cone of acid that absolutely wrecks structures and armor/clothing, as well as applying some burn wounds (but is still FAR more dangerous to unanimate objects than to organics). Amazing against mechanoids... or non-flesh golems. Preparing would require chemfuel, smokeleaf, any stone block, steel and jade.
- Transfiguration: Cast on anything that can be sold (not living beings, though), and it'll turn it into its (relatively) equal value in silver. Cast on silver, and it'll turn into its (again, relative) value in gold. Cast on gold and you'll get (yes, relative) value in jade. By relative I mean around the market value, depending on how good the alchemist is. Preparing is LONG, and requires some silver, gold and jade.
In addition to preparing, each casting would use up mana, of course, but far less than any other mage spell (it's used simply for activation of a spell meticulously prepared beforehand, rather than for its spontaneous creation from scratch, and as such is far less taxing on the caster).
As for the cost of preparing: if you go the "prepare and cast X times" route, then all spells should be lower in cost, but if you go with "prepare and keep until you choose to forget" then the cost should be noticeably greater. Especially for Transfiguration.
(Witch: Both) Witch Rites: This is a variation on alchemical casting. While thematically similar (use resources to cast), it'd be functionally different. First, the witch uses a campfire (y'know, the closest thing to "witch's cauldron"), instead of drug lab, for her casting. Also, her spells would be rituals - they'd still require reagents and quite a long time to cast, but they'd fire off immediately after the work is done, so no "prepare and fire later" like alchemist - you cast them immediately after finishing at the campfire.
Proposed rites:
- Rite of Night: During the day, forces the Eclipse event to start. During the night or eclipse, puts non-allied pawns to sleep (every pawn gets individual chance to resist, moreso if psychically dull (100% if psychically deaf), less chance if psychically sensitive). Beware - while it doesn't put allies to sleep immediately, it'll rapidly drain their "sleep" need.
Requires smokeleaf, psychoid plant and a bedroll placed near the campfire.
- Rite of Fright: When cast during a raid, every enemy on the map gets a chance to flee. I'm not an expert in the vanilla game's morale mechanics, but this spell should take it into account, so if cast at the very start of the raid, it'd probably do nothing, but the more of the raiders are hurt, and the more of them are downed and dead, the greater the chance to break the will of others.
Requires psychoid leaves and a few human organs (variant version: requires a corpse belonging to the raiding faction, somewhere in the vicinity of the campfire, if that's possible to implement).
- Rite of Flight: Depending on what functionality is less covered by this mod already, it could either give the pawns and pets around the campfire a temporary buff that increases movement speed and allows them to ignore any surface-based slow (fly over the water, trees etc.) OR it could basically act like a launch pod with starting range of local (just the map you're on), which would be useful to drop on sieges, and then - as the witch gets stronger - it could be used to travel a few tiles away. In this case you'd choose who gets launched, instead of launching everything around the campfire.
Requires jade, smokeleaf, and chemfuel.
- Rite of Blight: Chance for enemy pawns across the map to get sick and start vomiting. Also a chance to poison the food on the map, and in the most extreme cases - force the "Blight" event to start. Powerful crowd control, but as many other witch's spells, can backfire on you.
Requires human meat, human stomach, herbal medicine and any prepared meal.
- Rite of Light: Infuses pawns around the campfire with inner light, making them shed light in a radius around themselves, and giving consciousness and learning bonus. Also refuels all fueled light sources owned by the colony, as well as stops the Eclipse event. Can backfire cruelly, causing all around the campfire to go blind for some time, causing all fueled light across the map (no need to own it) to set things around it on fire, and even cause the Solar Flare event to start.
Requires wood, chemfuel, and gold.
- Rite of Sight: Can be cast on other villages, towns and quest sites to see what's in them and see what threats lurk in there as well as the layout of the map. Not sure if possible to implement, as it'd have to load the site before you actually visit it, and then keep it unchanged until you actually get there.
Requires jade, psychoid tea, and herbal medicine.
- Rite of Pride: Cleans the colony (removes all filth and trash from the floors) and temporarily enhances beauty of every room in the colony (if not possible on a per-room basis, then maybe just bump the beauty of every item, plant etc? But then you could do that so all your statues, and sell them to a caravan for more, because they're more beautiful, so I don't know...) for that nice mood boost across the colony. Can backfire and literally COVER your colony in filth and trash.
Requires silver and psychoid leaves.
- Rite of Sprite: Summons vengeful spirits from the graves around the campfire. The spirits are fast and resilient, depending on their power* and can't be harmed by non-magical ranged weapons (so wands and enchanted gear can still harm them, but bows, guns, grenades etc. cannot). Can backfire and raise non-allied wraiths from any grave or humanoid corpse on the map.
Requires: Graves (with corpses inside, ofc) in a certain radius around the campfire, smokeleaf and jade.
*Power - the spirits are better, the older they are. The longer ago someone died (since every grave has a date of death on it, I think it'd be possible to implement a check to compare the current date with date of death), the more powerful the spirit, so if you have just dug and filled the graves, the wraiths would be wimps, but if you have cultivated a graveyard since the beginning of the game, the wraiths will kick ass mid- to late-game. They should also receive bonus to power if:
- They're in a sarcofagus.
- The "tomb" room beauty and wealth.
- If they're colonists they're more powerful than non-colonist ghosts.
- Rite of Might: Improves the combat capabilites of pawns around the campfire, and if they are also stamina-based class, all their skills are more powerful, and they have enhanced stamina. A small chance to backfire and send the affected (individual chance, based on mood and mental break treshold) into berserk... AFTER applying the buff, so you'll have an even more powerful madman to deal with.
- Requires human heart, psychoid tea, and some leather.
(Variant: Instead of immediately affecting people around campfire, it could just produce a "wicked tea" drug that induces the above effects when consumed).
Master spells:
(Alchemist: both) Philosopher's Stone: The legendary Magnum Opus of alchemy, Elixir of Life is a substance as rare as it is powerful. An object of many a tale, sought after by the most powerful personas of the world.
The ultimate would allow the creation of philosopher's stone (dunno what recipe would it require exactly, but boy, would it be EXPENSIVE, in fact, probably the most expensive stuff in the entirety of Rimworld) and then its use by the alchemist. Some of the proposed uses:
- Resurrecting the dead (true resurrection, like a cleric, not a necromancer).
- While holding the stone, the user would not age, nor become sick in any way, as well as gradually healed of any and all wounds and illnesses.
- Rapidly rejuvenating wounded and sick creatures.
- Turning materials into solid gold.
The catch? It'd be only usable once in a while (except for the "passive" healing and immortality for the holder), and the cooldown would depend on the effect it was last use for (from a few of hours for the healing spell, through a couple of days for the gold creation, to a season or more for resurrection). Additionally, every use would have an increasing chance (how big the chance would directly correlate to the power/cooldown of the ability performed) of "spreading the word" that your colony is in possession of such artifact, and you might get bombarded by different factions requesting you to either sell it to them (allies, neutrals) or even just hand it over (hostiles, neutrals). Denial would worsen your relations with neutrals, and cause hostiles to raid soon after. Allies might request bringing their gravely sick or dead comrade to you for healing or resurrection using the stone. Denial would worsen the relations.
(Witch: both) Witch Coven: A witch of sufficient power would be able to become a matron witch by forming a coven by using this ability as an AoE targeted spell on at least 2 other casters. A coven would consist of 3 witches (including the matron) up to 5 (via leveling the ultimate skill up). There is several options for who'd be eligible to become a coven member:
- Only witches.
- Witches, Warlocks/Succubi, and Necromancers (and other "evil" casters added in the future).
- All magic classes.
Of which the best middle ground would most likely be the second option.
The coven would give the members quite a few neat buffs, but they'd only work as long as at least 2 coven members are in a certain proximity (10-15 squares?) of the Matron, and only those who are would receive the bonuses. Also, death of a coven member doesn't break the coven, unless the Matron dies - in such case, the coven is disbanded, or worse (see below), and the whole coven gets an enormous negative mood (and possibly some other issues).
The buffs would consist of:
- The coven shares their mana pools, and every spell cost would be equally divided among the coven members.
- The matron could activate a Blood Bond that'd work just like the above, but for physical wounds. Example: If one of the bonded coven members would receive a wound that'd destroy their liver, instead all bonded members would receive a smaller wound to their livers (the damage would be spread equally). Drawback: If the Matron dies whilst bonded, the whole damn coven follows suit.
- Every coven member would receive a ONE TIME ability to choose one of their class-specific non-master spells. The chosen spell would be shared with all other coven members, and they'd be free to cast it on the same level as the member who has shared it.
- While the coven is surrounding a campfire, all Rites cast from it would either be more powerful or have lesser chance to backfire.
The drawback, other than the possible mental breaks or even death of the coven, resulting from a dying Matron, would be that the more your coven uses their magic, the more of a chance there'd be for a group of raging clerics and paladins to show up (a new, special event) to ruin your day and kill the coven, as well as possibly your relations with the Arcane factions (the ones added by this mod) would worsen.
Alchemist/Witch
Foreword: I really like what you've done with Technomancer, meaning the 3 paths to choose, and the duality of Warlock/Succubus, and both are a clear inspiration for this one.
The philosophy behind this class is that both Alchemist and Witch have to choose between Lore and Golemancy, and also they both use them in their own ways (therefore making this class kind of a 4-in-1). Generally, Lore is about crafting and changing items, while Golemancy is about, well... golems (surprise!), but in all seriousness, it's about creating (vaguely) permanent soldiers, haulers etc. On top of that, Alchemist is the "hard but solid" way of doing it, meaning that alchemist takes way more time with his craft in general, but gets rather permanent results, while Witch does it the "dirty but quick" and has to put less effort into her deeds, but also gets more sloppy results.
(Alchemist: Passives):
Path of Lore: Much faster smelting and smithing (Alchemist is thought out as "THE" crafting mage, while Lore is about metals and fine items, and Golemancy is about [mostly] stone and construction). I think that alchemist should have amazing crafting bonuses to low-tech items, so that it doesn't step into Technomancer's territory.
Path of Golemancy: Stonecutting, sculpting and construction bonuses.
(Witch: Passives):
Path of Lore: Drug production, plantwork and tailoring bonuses + isn't slowed down by plants (so much faster than others in, let's say, thinck rainforests etc.)
Path of Golemancy: Butchering speed bonuses, cooking bonuses.
(Alchemist: Golemancy) Sculpt Golem: The alchemist gains an ability to make golems at the sculptor's table. They take a ton of work to make, and I really mean A TON – far more than any sculpture ever. The outcome is based on alchemist's magical prowess and art skill.
Important: Golems should be treated as pets, rather than pawns, but with the highest training intelligence, and if possible, training them would fall into "Magic" worktype, rather than Handle.
Golems can be created out of the usual materials for a sculpture, but also some rare magical ingredients (I'm not much of an expert in your mod, so I don't feel competent to propose a precise recipe). They should also be enchantable, but honestly, I need to play more of the mod to be able to propose specific enchants, however the classic approach would be to:
Add some special attacks.
Add movement modifiers.
Grant sentience (COSTLY, but converts the golem from a pet to a pawn. Pawn golems don't auto-undraft, just like undead).
Depending on material, golems can have different properties (other than HP etc), but also different enchantment affinity (for example, a marble golem enchanted with gem X would yield a different result than a granite golem enchanted with the same gem [Sorry for being vague – I haven't gotten to enchanting with your mod yet]).
All golems would require mana to operate. Not necessarily from the alchemist who created them, but they'd need to be charged either by magical pawns or the mana-storing buildings.
Additionally, all golems would have a "power" to become statue-like. In this state they would literally convert to placeable statues (which would have a button to convert back to functional golem). The use of that would be that they'd be really, really beautiful and expensive, and a golem in that state wouldn't need mana to function.
(Witch: Golemancy) Raise Golem: The witch gains an ability to make wicked golems at the butchering table, using corpses (corpses, not just meat) as the material, and cooking + magic as the governing skills. The resulting abomination is a Flesh Golem. Unlike alchemist's golems, the abominations created by a witch would MUCH faster to create, but also less durable in combat (roughly sewn corpse parts VS a granite statue is rather self-evident).
Flesh Golems would also fall into pet category, but they'd also be considered undead for the purposes of receiving holy damage etc. and they wouldn't have an option of being enchanted or granted sentience. Basically they'd be far more disposable and less functonal bunch, but also FAR easier to create, and they don't need mana to exist, but once created, they have a limited (albeit not flash-quick) lifespan, as their physical form deteriorates, rots and falls apart.
These golems don't require training and the level of their pet-like abilities depends on how well the Witch does in the moment of creation. The rule is – animal corpse golems are more like rabid fighters (higher release and more resilient etc.) while humanlike golems are more of slaves (better hauling etc.).
(Alchemist: Lore) Alchemical refinement: Alchemist can refine Mana Potions into a far more stable and user-friendly form. It's a somewhat lenghty process, but the resulting Fine Mana Potion is almost entirely purged of its addictive properties, and therefore is an amazing tool for a magic-oriented colony.
(Witch: Lore) Volatile Brew: Witch can ritually enhance a Mana Potion to restore FAR more mana and apply a hefty mana regen buff, but it's even more addictive than the basic potion, and can have some additional side effects. This process is far quicker and more cost-effective than the meticulous craft of an alchemist, but the hidden cost lays in the corrupting nature of the brew, thus being a tool for far more reckless and power-hungry colony.
(Alchemist: Both) Alchemical Casting: Both Loremaster and Golemancer have access to alchemical casting, perhaps with different spells available. The premise behind this type of casting is to give the alchemists a greater range of spells than other wizards, but at a cost of much more work and physical components, rather than just mana.
The alchemist would have to "prepare" his spells at a drug lab, using various reagents, like herbs, wood, gems, stones, metals or fine items like furniture, weapons, armor etc. The alchemists would have an unique worktype available at the drug lab (if it's not possible to make a worktype only show up in the list for one class, then just make it so only that class can work on it) called "Prepare spell (spell name)", and it'd require a relatively long time spent at the lab, using up resources and slowly pouring mana, but it'd result in alchemist gaining a spell.
Now it could either be a charge mechanic (you can only cast the spell X amount of times before it vanishes and you have to prepare it again) or simply a swapping mechanic - alchemist could only hold 3 alchemical spells at a time, and could forget them (by right clicking the spell icon and selecting "forget") to be replaced by another spell. The idea is, as I've mentioned before, that alchemist would have a big list of spells to prepare, but only a few could be held at once, so he'd be versatile, but it'd be locked behind slow work at the table.
Some of the spells could include:
- Transmute Stone: AoE target, transmutes all stone and steel chunks in the area into their respective stone blocks / steel. Preparing requires 1 stone block of any kind, 1 steel and psychoid leaves.
- Create Water: AoE target, changes mud and sand into shallow water, and shallow water into deep water. Preparing requires rice and some gems.
- Alchemical Fire: Offensive spell, single target. Sets target ablaze for a certain amount of time, but can't be extinguished by any other means (if that's possible to implement), even rain or swimming. If targeted at a friendly building that needs fueling, it'll fuel it for a certain amount, depending on alchemist's prowess. Preparing requires some wood, chemfuel and gems.
- Crown Acid: A short-ranged cone of acid that absolutely wrecks structures and armor/clothing, as well as applying some burn wounds (but is still FAR more dangerous to unanimate objects than to organics). Amazing against mechanoids... or non-flesh golems. Preparing would require chemfuel, smokeleaf, any stone block, steel and jade.
- Transfiguration: Cast on anything that can be sold (not living beings, though), and it'll turn it into its (relatively) equal value in silver. Cast on silver, and it'll turn into its (again, relative) value in gold. Cast on gold and you'll get (yes, relative) value in jade. By relative I mean around the market value, depending on how good the alchemist is. Preparing is LONG, and requires some silver, gold and jade.
In addition to preparing, each casting would use up mana, of course, but far less than any other mage spell (it's used simply for activation of a spell meticulously prepared beforehand, rather than for its spontaneous creation from scratch, and as such is far less taxing on the caster).
As for the cost of preparing: if you go the "prepare and cast X times" route, then all spells should be lower in cost, but if you go with "prepare and keep until you choose to forget" then the cost should be noticeably greater. Especially for Transfiguration.
(Witch: Both) Witch Rites: This is a variation on alchemical casting. While thematically similar (use resources to cast), it'd be functionally different. First, the witch uses a campfire (y'know, the closest thing to "witch's cauldron"), instead of drug lab, for her casting. Also, her spells would be rituals - they'd still require reagents and quite a long time to cast, but they'd fire off immediately after the work is done, so no "prepare and fire later" like alchemist - you cast them immediately after finishing at the campfire.
Proposed rites:
- Rite of Night: During the day, forces the Eclipse event to start. During the night or eclipse, puts non-allied pawns to sleep (every pawn gets individual chance to resist, moreso if psychically dull (100% if psychically deaf), less chance if psychically sensitive). Beware - while it doesn't put allies to sleep immediately, it'll rapidly drain their "sleep" need.
Requires smokeleaf, psychoid plant and a bedroll placed near the campfire.
- Rite of Fright: When cast during a raid, every enemy on the map gets a chance to flee. I'm not an expert in the vanilla game's morale mechanics, but this spell should take it into account, so if cast at the very start of the raid, it'd probably do nothing, but the more of the raiders are hurt, and the more of them are downed and dead, the greater the chance to break the will of others.
Requires psychoid leaves and a few human organs (variant version: requires a corpse belonging to the raiding faction, somewhere in the vicinity of the campfire, if that's possible to implement).
- Rite of Flight: Depending on what functionality is less covered by this mod already, it could either give the pawns and pets around the campfire a temporary buff that increases movement speed and allows them to ignore any surface-based slow (fly over the water, trees etc.) OR it could basically act like a launch pod with starting range of local (just the map you're on), which would be useful to drop on sieges, and then - as the witch gets stronger - it could be used to travel a few tiles away. In this case you'd choose who gets launched, instead of launching everything around the campfire.
Requires jade, smokeleaf, and chemfuel.
- Rite of Blight: Chance for enemy pawns across the map to get sick and start vomiting. Also a chance to poison the food on the map, and in the most extreme cases - force the "Blight" event to start. Powerful crowd control, but as many other witch's spells, can backfire on you.
Requires human meat, human stomach, herbal medicine and any prepared meal.
- Rite of Light: Infuses pawns around the campfire with inner light, making them shed light in a radius around themselves, and giving consciousness and learning bonus. Also refuels all fueled light sources owned by the colony, as well as stops the Eclipse event. Can backfire cruelly, causing all around the campfire to go blind for some time, causing all fueled light across the map (no need to own it) to set things around it on fire, and even cause the Solar Flare event to start.
Requires wood, chemfuel, and gold.
- Rite of Sight: Can be cast on other villages, towns and quest sites to see what's in them and see what threats lurk in there as well as the layout of the map. Not sure if possible to implement, as it'd have to load the site before you actually visit it, and then keep it unchanged until you actually get there.
Requires jade, psychoid tea, and herbal medicine.
- Rite of Pride: Cleans the colony (removes all filth and trash from the floors) and temporarily enhances beauty of every room in the colony (if not possible on a per-room basis, then maybe just bump the beauty of every item, plant etc? But then you could do that so all your statues, and sell them to a caravan for more, because they're more beautiful, so I don't know...) for that nice mood boost across the colony. Can backfire and literally COVER your colony in filth and trash.
Requires silver and psychoid leaves.
- Rite of Sprite: Summons vengeful spirits from the graves around the campfire. The spirits are fast and resilient, depending on their power* and can't be harmed by non-magical ranged weapons (so wands and enchanted gear can still harm them, but bows, guns, grenades etc. cannot). Can backfire and raise non-allied wraiths from any grave or humanoid corpse on the map.
Requires: Graves (with corpses inside, ofc) in a certain radius around the campfire, smokeleaf and jade.
*Power - the spirits are better, the older they are. The longer ago someone died (since every grave has a date of death on it, I think it'd be possible to implement a check to compare the current date with date of death), the more powerful the spirit, so if you have just dug and filled the graves, the wraiths would be wimps, but if you have cultivated a graveyard since the beginning of the game, the wraiths will kick ass mid- to late-game. They should also receive bonus to power if:
- They're in a sarcofagus.
- The "tomb" room beauty and wealth.
- If they're colonists they're more powerful than non-colonist ghosts.
- Rite of Might: Improves the combat capabilites of pawns around the campfire, and if they are also stamina-based class, all their skills are more powerful, and they have enhanced stamina. A small chance to backfire and send the affected (individual chance, based on mood and mental break treshold) into berserk... AFTER applying the buff, so you'll have an even more powerful madman to deal with.
- Requires human heart, psychoid tea, and some leather.
(Variant: Instead of immediately affecting people around campfire, it could just produce a "wicked tea" drug that induces the above effects when consumed).
Master spells:
(Alchemist: both) Philosopher's Stone: The legendary Magnum Opus of alchemy, Elixir of Life is a substance as rare as it is powerful. An object of many a tale, sought after by the most powerful personas of the world.
The ultimate would allow the creation of philosopher's stone (dunno what recipe would it require exactly, but boy, would it be EXPENSIVE, in fact, probably the most expensive stuff in the entirety of Rimworld) and then its use by the alchemist. Some of the proposed uses:
- Resurrecting the dead (true resurrection, like a cleric, not a necromancer).
- While holding the stone, the user would not age, nor become sick in any way, as well as gradually healed of any and all wounds and illnesses.
- Rapidly rejuvenating wounded and sick creatures.
- Turning materials into solid gold.
The catch? It'd be only usable once in a while (except for the "passive" healing and immortality for the holder), and the cooldown would depend on the effect it was last use for (from a few of hours for the healing spell, through a couple of days for the gold creation, to a season or more for resurrection). Additionally, every use would have an increasing chance (how big the chance would directly correlate to the power/cooldown of the ability performed) of "spreading the word" that your colony is in possession of such artifact, and you might get bombarded by different factions requesting you to either sell it to them (allies, neutrals) or even just hand it over (hostiles, neutrals). Denial would worsen your relations with neutrals, and cause hostiles to raid soon after. Allies might request bringing their gravely sick or dead comrade to you for healing or resurrection using the stone. Denial would worsen the relations.
(Witch: both) Witch Coven: A witch of sufficient power would be able to become a matron witch by forming a coven by using this ability as an AoE targeted spell on at least 2 other casters. A coven would consist of 3 witches (including the matron) up to 5 (via leveling the ultimate skill up). There is several options for who'd be eligible to become a coven member:
- Only witches.
- Witches, Warlocks/Succubi, and Necromancers (and other "evil" casters added in the future).
- All magic classes.
Of which the best middle ground would most likely be the second option.
The coven would give the members quite a few neat buffs, but they'd only work as long as at least 2 coven members are in a certain proximity (10-15 squares?) of the Matron, and only those who are would receive the bonuses. Also, death of a coven member doesn't break the coven, unless the Matron dies - in such case, the coven is disbanded, or worse (see below), and the whole coven gets an enormous negative mood (and possibly some other issues).
The buffs would consist of:
- The coven shares their mana pools, and every spell cost would be equally divided among the coven members.
- The matron could activate a Blood Bond that'd work just like the above, but for physical wounds. Example: If one of the bonded coven members would receive a wound that'd destroy their liver, instead all bonded members would receive a smaller wound to their livers (the damage would be spread equally). Drawback: If the Matron dies whilst bonded, the whole damn coven follows suit.
- Every coven member would receive a ONE TIME ability to choose one of their class-specific non-master spells. The chosen spell would be shared with all other coven members, and they'd be free to cast it on the same level as the member who has shared it.
- While the coven is surrounding a campfire, all Rites cast from it would either be more powerful or have lesser chance to backfire.
The drawback, other than the possible mental breaks or even death of the coven, resulting from a dying Matron, would be that the more your coven uses their magic, the more of a chance there'd be for a group of raging clerics and paladins to show up (a new, special event) to ruin your day and kill the coven, as well as possibly your relations with the Arcane factions (the ones added by this mod) would worsen.
#28
Releases / Re: [1.0] A RimWorld of Magic
December 04, 2018, 11:17:53 PM
Beware! This post will be LONG, and there's no "spoiler" tag to make it collapsible, so I had to break it down into two posts (due to the limit of 20.000 characters... yes, it's that long). Please bear with me or scroll right over.
I have two classes to propose (I've put them on the steampage already, but then I realised that not everyone is using steam, and some users here might have valuable insight).
Chronomancer
Foreword: This is basically the most "metagaming" class I can come up with. For the most part, it's designed to fuck with core game mechanics, rather than the in-game environment, entities etc. What do I mean by that? Just read the spells below, and especially the master "Time Regression".
Description: Chronomancers are treading the unstable paths of time, exposing themselves to time paradox and even existing in multiple timelines, thus they experience time vastly different than other pawns. Time wizards, as they're often called, bend and twist the very fabric of reality, freely swapping that which was with that which will be, although they do so at a great cost, as they become less and less attached to the natural flow of time as their power increases.
Passive: A random chance a few times per day, that the Chronomancer will have their attack, casting, movement, and work speed (independently) slowed or hastened, and a random chance that they'll gain a good chunk of experience in the skill they're doing at the moment (because premonition from the future) or lose a chunk (because they've reverted to the state of knowledge from before). If the Chronomancer is researching, the same can happen to the research progress bar – it can either gain a chunk of progress, or lose it. The same principle would apply to their need gains – if they eat, sleep or doing joy, they can either fill it faster or lose some. They can also randomly blink forward or backwards when they're walking towards a destination, or they can summon an item to themselves, because they went forward in time and already got it (so basically involuntary autocast blink and summon with added shenanigans of blinking in the wrong direction).
All the above would become more frequent and more severe as the Chronomancer grow in power.
Spells:
Time Warp: Makes the day longer. If the Chronomancer is also a "night owl", makes the night longer instead.
Dunno how to do it the easiest way, so the pawns and the world (like plants growing for longer during that time) would still benefit from it. Maybe something along the lines of "for the duration, stop the decay of pawns' needs, and every time an hour passes, revert the clock 1 hour back, do it X times, and then resume normal time"?
Recall: Single target spell that reverts one pawn, building, structure or basically anything to the state it was in a few seconds ago (including, but not limited to, restoring that destroyed door or turret, or even bringing back that unfortunate colonist back from the dead IF you're quick enough to reactively cast it!).
Possible upgrades would include increasing the time window that can be reverted (let's say it starts with 3 seconds, and can be upgraded to 5-6 seconds), and the target radius (1st upgrade bumps from single target to a 5-tile cross [like vanilla molotov targetting] and 2nd one bumps it to a 3x3 square).
This, however, would most likely require you to implement some weird time-tracking of the whole game, since I don't think that vanilla Rimworld "knows" what was where and in what shape X seconds ago, so the spell idea might be completely unfeasible (like half this class, honestly).
If that's the case, then maybe the spell could be cast pre-emptively on a target pawn, building or structure, and it'd "remember" where it was and in what shape, and the target of the spell would receive a "recall" ability button that when pressed, would recall it back in time.
Tempus Fugit: Makes all the colonists much faster in terms of both movement and attack/casting speed, and does the exact opposite to the rest of the entire map (most likely to a raid). Either that or maybe make it targeted AoE spell, and everything inside AoE is hastened, while everything outside is slowed, so same thing, but tougher to use due to actual positioning and aiming, rather than "fire and forget".
And now the ultimate fuckery spell. This spell is solely designed for the "commitment mode" of play and shouldn't be accessible otherwise (is it even possible for a spell to only show up when the commitment mode is on? If so, maybe use Tempus Fugit for the gamemode that allows saving).
(Master) Time Regression: Simply reloads the latest autosave.
If at all possible to implement, Torann, would it also be possible implement it in such a way that everything reloads except for the Chronomancer? I'm no modder at all, but maybe it'd be possible to force the game to take a "snapshot" (like the washed-down version of the Recall above) of the casting Chronomancer, all their wounds ("They saved the colony, but not themselves..."), equipment (yes, they could bring items from the future to the past!), mood etc. Then reload the game, and apply the stored info to the Chronomancer, so basically everything is reverted, except for them? If doable, should have a HUMONGOUS cooldown and side effects, solely due to its abuse potential (buy or steal something ultra-expensive from a caravan, give it to the Chrono and cast away, here you go, got the item, and both your wallet and the caravan are fine).
I have two classes to propose (I've put them on the steampage already, but then I realised that not everyone is using steam, and some users here might have valuable insight).
Chronomancer
Foreword: This is basically the most "metagaming" class I can come up with. For the most part, it's designed to fuck with core game mechanics, rather than the in-game environment, entities etc. What do I mean by that? Just read the spells below, and especially the master "Time Regression".
Description: Chronomancers are treading the unstable paths of time, exposing themselves to time paradox and even existing in multiple timelines, thus they experience time vastly different than other pawns. Time wizards, as they're often called, bend and twist the very fabric of reality, freely swapping that which was with that which will be, although they do so at a great cost, as they become less and less attached to the natural flow of time as their power increases.
Passive: A random chance a few times per day, that the Chronomancer will have their attack, casting, movement, and work speed (independently) slowed or hastened, and a random chance that they'll gain a good chunk of experience in the skill they're doing at the moment (because premonition from the future) or lose a chunk (because they've reverted to the state of knowledge from before). If the Chronomancer is researching, the same can happen to the research progress bar – it can either gain a chunk of progress, or lose it. The same principle would apply to their need gains – if they eat, sleep or doing joy, they can either fill it faster or lose some. They can also randomly blink forward or backwards when they're walking towards a destination, or they can summon an item to themselves, because they went forward in time and already got it (so basically involuntary autocast blink and summon with added shenanigans of blinking in the wrong direction).
All the above would become more frequent and more severe as the Chronomancer grow in power.
Spells:
Time Warp: Makes the day longer. If the Chronomancer is also a "night owl", makes the night longer instead.
Dunno how to do it the easiest way, so the pawns and the world (like plants growing for longer during that time) would still benefit from it. Maybe something along the lines of "for the duration, stop the decay of pawns' needs, and every time an hour passes, revert the clock 1 hour back, do it X times, and then resume normal time"?
Recall: Single target spell that reverts one pawn, building, structure or basically anything to the state it was in a few seconds ago (including, but not limited to, restoring that destroyed door or turret, or even bringing back that unfortunate colonist back from the dead IF you're quick enough to reactively cast it!).
Possible upgrades would include increasing the time window that can be reverted (let's say it starts with 3 seconds, and can be upgraded to 5-6 seconds), and the target radius (1st upgrade bumps from single target to a 5-tile cross [like vanilla molotov targetting] and 2nd one bumps it to a 3x3 square).
This, however, would most likely require you to implement some weird time-tracking of the whole game, since I don't think that vanilla Rimworld "knows" what was where and in what shape X seconds ago, so the spell idea might be completely unfeasible (like half this class, honestly).
If that's the case, then maybe the spell could be cast pre-emptively on a target pawn, building or structure, and it'd "remember" where it was and in what shape, and the target of the spell would receive a "recall" ability button that when pressed, would recall it back in time.
Tempus Fugit: Makes all the colonists much faster in terms of both movement and attack/casting speed, and does the exact opposite to the rest of the entire map (most likely to a raid). Either that or maybe make it targeted AoE spell, and everything inside AoE is hastened, while everything outside is slowed, so same thing, but tougher to use due to actual positioning and aiming, rather than "fire and forget".
And now the ultimate fuckery spell. This spell is solely designed for the "commitment mode" of play and shouldn't be accessible otherwise (is it even possible for a spell to only show up when the commitment mode is on? If so, maybe use Tempus Fugit for the gamemode that allows saving).
(Master) Time Regression: Simply reloads the latest autosave.
If at all possible to implement, Torann, would it also be possible implement it in such a way that everything reloads except for the Chronomancer? I'm no modder at all, but maybe it'd be possible to force the game to take a "snapshot" (like the washed-down version of the Recall above) of the casting Chronomancer, all their wounds ("They saved the colony, but not themselves..."), equipment (yes, they could bring items from the future to the past!), mood etc. Then reload the game, and apply the stored info to the Chronomancer, so basically everything is reverted, except for them? If doable, should have a HUMONGOUS cooldown and side effects, solely due to its abuse potential (buy or steal something ultra-expensive from a caravan, give it to the Chrono and cast away, here you go, got the item, and both your wallet and the caravan are fine).
#29
Releases / Re: [B18 - 0.19] A RimWorld of Magic
September 18, 2018, 08:45:27 AMQuote from: Torann on August 21, 2018, 04:45:29 PMThank you for a quick response (even though I myself am visiting the forums rather scarcely recently), as well as for clearing the traits mechanics for me - I wasn't aware you can only roll the basic ones.
As to the option to be able to choose which classes appear in a playthrough - maybe you just hate a certain class or think they're just too OP and want to remove them? I think adding options to select, on a case by case basis, which classes appear and which don't would be a fantastic addition and I've added it to my to-do list.
And I'm extremely glad you're so open to the idea of adding the option to disable certain classes for each specific playthrough. Far too many modders are often too pride to do it, on the basis that "I've put work into every part of this mod, so if you don't like it, don't use the whole mod". You have my utmost appreciation for not going down that route.
#30
Releases / Re: [B18 - 0.19] A RimWorld of Magic
August 20, 2018, 12:03:10 PM
First thing first: Absolutely amazing mod! Especially that for a long time I wanted to "bring dwarf fortress back to rimworld" so to speak, so all medieval/fantasy mods and conversions are on my wishlist. I love the approach to spells/skills, mana etc. Great work!
I do, however, need to ask - do you ever plan on making your work modular, or branching into a 'lite' version? Don't get me wrong, but I'm just not too hot on the idea of having tons upon tons of traits (especially when one "class" is represented in 3 different tiers of the same trait) and it'd be awesome to simply be able to choose which traits (and therefore - classes) will appear in a playthrough, and thus a form of mod configuration would be GREATLY appreciated.
If someone has already asked this question and you've responded (the thread has become far too big to casually scroll through), or if some kind of customisation is already in the mod (I haven't played for a while), please just point me to the answer.
I do, however, need to ask - do you ever plan on making your work modular, or branching into a 'lite' version? Don't get me wrong, but I'm just not too hot on the idea of having tons upon tons of traits (especially when one "class" is represented in 3 different tiers of the same trait) and it'd be awesome to simply be able to choose which traits (and therefore - classes) will appear in a playthrough, and thus a form of mod configuration would be GREATLY appreciated.
If someone has already asked this question and you've responded (the thread has become far too big to casually scroll through), or if some kind of customisation is already in the mod (I haven't played for a while), please just point me to the answer.