[A17] [WIP] [Testing Release] TMagic - Magic for RimWorld

[Torann]

TMagic

Description:
TMagic aims to increase the diversity of combat in RimWorld by providing players with abilities that can help turn the tide of battle.  With cosmic horrors, abominations, roving bands of cutthroat pirates, and worse lurking around every corner, your colonists might just need that extra edge!

TMagic currently adds 4 unique magical trees: Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Arcane (physical).

Each tree specializes in a specific area, with each line providing a variety of buffs, debuffs, attacks, and utility.

All abilities require mana that will slowly regenerate, but can also be rapidly replenished with mana potions. Mana potions are very addictive and also require talented crafters and a large variety of ingredients, so they can be quite hard to come by.

Specially marked pawns (possessing the "Magically gifted" trait) may attune themselves to an elemental tree by reading arcane scripts. These scripts are costly, but can be found being sold by the occasional exotic goods trader. Future releases will provide additional means to acquire these books, though none are intended to be easy.
Pawns may only attune to a single element, once attuned, the "gifted" trait disappears and the pawn will refuse to learn another element.

Testing Release Notes

I'm looking for help from the community in this testing release!
The goal with this mod is to provide an edge, but not make mages unstoppable forces.  In other words: balance.

To achieve this, the following design guides were used:
Mages are supposed to be hard to come by, requiring some luck and considerable expense to acquire.  Arcane books and mana potions should be appropriately expensive.
In addition, mana should be a valuable resource, where a player must choose the correct time and place to use abilities.
Abilities should have an inherent randomness - while not necessarily a chance for backlash, it's still a mystical power and shouldn't necessarily behave as expected.

If you're interested in the mod and would like to make it better, this testing phase is the perfect opportunity, and I'm open (and hoping) for helpful suggestions and recommendations.

Oh, and eliminate bugs of course!

Ability Details

Fire
Fire tree grants deadly area affect attacks, but can be unpredictable and difficult to hit with. It also has a tendency to start large fires!

Fireball - massive, long range, slow moving explosive that devastates a large area
Firebolt - launches a single bolt of mage fire at the target, likely to set the target on fire
Fireclaw - generates a wave of fire that expands as it extends
Ray of Hope - generates a small mood improvement and increased work productivity

Ice
Ice, though not directly powerful, is useful by decreasing the enemies ability to move and fight with debilitating side effects, and is the perfect element when backed by more conventional fighters.

Snowball - launch a ball of compacted snow and ice that shatters, causing damage and movement debuffs
Icebolt - single target shard of ice that shatters on impact, causing massive bleeding and frostbite, decreasing the targets ability to fight
Frost Ray - beam of super cooled particles that damages and freezes targets, rendering them nearly immobile
Soothe - buff that calms and concentrates pawns
Rainmaker - as simple as it sounds, this spell can cause atmospheric conditions to change, making it rain

Lightning
Lightning generates dangerous weather conditions, whether is a lightning storm that strikes friends and foes alike in a target area, or a deadly cloud of electricity that stuns and damages all within. Even more random than fire, though not quite as dangerous  or direct.

Lightning storm - summons a lightning storm (near) the target location where lightning bolts randomly and rapidly strike any unlucky enough to be in the storm
Lightning cloud - creates a large cloud that has a chance to stun and slightly damage any inside the cloud
Lightning bolt - single target bolt of lighting that strikes the target
AMP - Buff that energizes colonists, allowing them to work faster, longer, and harder than before. Rapidly causes fatigue

Arcane
Arcane is the master of movement. Abilities within this tree will provide an edge on positioning and controlling the battlefield just as much as providing abilities to ease the burden of mundane tasks.

Blink - rapidly moves the caster pawn to a distant location
Summon - can be used to summon both pawns (friend, foe, and animals alike) to the caster, and can also summon objects from distant locations at will
Mass Teleport - creates a portal that allows rapid movement across the world at the cost of mana alone. Does not have the range as the common transport pod, but is powered by the arcane and is not as limited to the same physical restraints of space and weight
Shadow - a shadowy assistant that augments every day tasks for colonists, however, it creates a creepy sensation, like you're always being watched!

Holy
The Paladin wields an assortment of combat and support abilities and is a diverse front-line fighter.

Heal - Quickly mends the wounds of allies but will not cure disease or illness.
Shield - Self only, short term shield that prevents damage without preventing combat capability.
Valiant Charge - The Paladin launches into combat with the wings of an angel and lands with an earth shattering force.
Overwhelm - Invokes a holy image that overwhelms the senses of any nearby creature.

Author/Mod Team
Torann
DrMrEd - Art

I'm not an artist!  The icons and bolt graphics are not the best, so if you'd like to submit either spell graphics or UI graphics, please let me know.

Special thanks to Jecrell for JecsTools and code examples and roxxploxx for code examples!!

Download
http://www.moddb.com/mods/tmagic


How to install:
- Unzip the contents and place them in your RimWorld/Mods folder.
- Activate the mod in the mod menu in the game.
- Mod load order: Core -> HugsLib -> JecsTools -> TMagic

HugsLib and JecsTools are required to run this mod.

Known Bugs:

Please provide information on any bugs or compatibility issues you encounter, this version is the first public release and has only been tested on a single play through by myself.

To Do

* The summoner which will be capable of influencing creatures and summoning elementals - summoner class is back in!
* The Gladiator class, a melee combat oriented class that will have the ability to rapidly close with enemies and execute specialized melee attacks.  Will include the addition of the "Stamina" resource.
* Event(s) specific to the mod that will introduce new challenges along with alternate ways to acquire arcane scripts

License
If you want to include "TMagic" in a modpack, or if you want to use "TMagic" as the basis of a derivative mod, feel free to do so.  I only ask that you let me know you're doing so!

[Esterior]

Wow that look awesome! I like the different spell school having unique effects! Computer isn't working  right now but definitely will try out once it's fix

[branch?]

Was looking for a mod like this! Looking forward to see it become refined and have much more content! I've became interested in pawns with abilities ever since I saw it in the Cthulhu Cult mod with psionic powers with a pawn with a psionic lobe. The idea that some pawns are more extraordinary than others gives me flavors of Warcraft 3 and Dota 2. Customizablity of each pawn is what rimworld players adore.

Proof of concept is there, just FYI from a player with a heavily modded game - please don't add another overly complicated tech and production tree! I'm getting tired of having to make specialized production chain for almost everything (vancidium, hardened components, etc etc.)

Remember - over complicated does not equal really fun!

You should try taking some tips from Rim of Madness Werewolves and their Werewolf leveling system, as to create some sort of "skill tree" for the different schools of magic with leveling. I also agree that magic wielders should be VERY rare.

If you're looking for help at all with your mod I'll be happy to. Cheers!

[Torann]

I don't plan to add any additional research requirements at this time.  Mana pots are craftable as soon as drug production is researched and you've built a drug lab.  There is no requirement to learning magic itself, other than the combined rarity of possessing the Magically gifted trait along with finding a magic book.  I want magic to be acquirable, especially in fantasy/medieval settings, where advanced research might not be available.

You'll be happy to know that a skill tree is already in the works and is planned as the next major version (0.9x) and will enhance spells in a generally expected behavior, eg more secondary explosions, more direct damage, lower spell cost, etc.

TMagic is heavily influenced by Dragon Age (origins primarily) where the placement of a single spell at the right time can alter the fight.  I want players to ponder..."so, i can use this spell to disable these two snipers here, or I can try to use these two spells to block their melee rushing my gun turret...but not both hmmm..." That's the balance I'm looking for, so if you're interested in helping, just provide feedback on how to get to that sweet spot where mages add fun without being unstoppable. =)

[The-Eroks]

This looks really great! Keep up the awesome work. 

[Nekokon]

Amazing release. I haven't finished with my current game yet so I can't test this right now, but the shear varieties of effects between different spells makes this mod feel so much better than all the "more guns - more dmg" mods already.

If I were to give a suggestion, maybe you can try adding a mage raid event ? It always feel unfair to me if I add a mod that gives me advantages which can't be apply to my enemy.

[Torann]

If I were to give a suggestion, maybe you can try adding a mage raid event ? It always feel unfair to me if I add a mod that gives me advantages which can't be apply to my enemy.

Yes, agreed, great suggestion.  I've thought about this some as well. 

There are two hurdles with this problem.  The first is that I do not believe AI will ever use abilities even if they have the traits.  I think the best way to address this would be a stand-alone mod that performs a check for the AI to choose to use an ability if proper conditions are met.  This is definitely something I've considered, but haven't gotten around to looking into yet.

The second issue is that  the current implementation will never randomly grant any mage abilities, eg it is not a random trait, it must be learned.  Your suggestion is a great way to overcome this, with an event or two that generates enemy pawns with the appropriate trait.  I think this can be done, but I haven't looked into factions or events yet, so I'm not sure.  Still have to overcome the first issue, though.  Plus, there's the balance of being able to acquire a mage through simple persuasion! 

[Nekokon]

I think the most simple solution for this is to go around the problem instead of taking it head on. Rimworld is essentially a single player game, thus there's no need to balance things by giving the enemy the very same tool as players.

Instead of giving default raid a mage or two and try to force them use their abilities at the right place at the right time, we can simply force specific conditions "as if" there's a mage or two in the raid. There's many ways to do this:
For example, placing a few "markers" (totems, cultist pawns set to run away if encounter combat...) which require to be destroyed else the whole enemy raid would get to keep the their "magical buffs" that make them fight like manhunter pack under luciferium, or there will be a solar flare for as long as the markers are alive (I think you can find the check for this in the "animal goes berserk when bonded colonist dies" event, since it's not strictly for colonist - I had an event when my sold bonded animal came back in manhunter pack, died and still affected its bonded colonist). The player choose to either turtle to take down the main raid with ice debuff + turrets, or big fire aoe when turrets are down, or sneak out to kill off the totems with arcane or just drop a lightning bolt on them...
Or you can throw in a few already permanent magically augmented enemies among the raid with specific weakness to one of the spells. Explode-on-death enemy can be countered by ice debuff, swam-type (like the giant spider queen event - rim of madness) detests fire aoe, slow and durable siege beast (only focus on wall) would hate lightning stun interrupting their aim...

If you still want to tackle this by tuning the AI to use their specific ability on their own, then you might want so simply give them limited-use weapons (which got destroyed upon death/breaking parts like mechanoid) that has specific range/dmg/effect as one of the offensive spells (maybe increase the range else it would be too easy to snipe them off). But then they would be simply "overpowered enemy with paper armor" and not much of "sinister evil cultist mages" that requires strategy and magic to overcome.

Sorry if some of my suggestions go beyond what you intended for the mod. Bottom line it's simply "balancing by giving a focused purpose/counter for each advantage rather than giving both side the same tools".

[tonsrd]

im gonna take a wild guess and say conflicts with
-star wars
-side arms
-hospitality 
-pychology

coz lots of mods do,
Thank you for the release,

-Any plans for buildings / mana pool ? ( star wars have a medate spot so jedi can regen "focus pool" for attack powers )

-magic idea= shadow bind ( raider unable to move for short while )(naruto inspired idea)

-traits default is 3 theres a mod that increases it to 7-9.

how I add jedi is with a custom scenario "force need/trait" 1% "force pool" = 1% of raiders will have jedi lvl1

-most op power in sw mod = berserk = makes  a raider get attack by hes team mates, or a trade carvan attack there muffalo ( =profit )

berserk is game breaking balance wise, and when I think magic all I can think about is op things ( whats needed for potion crafting )-Veg Garden adds a hydroponic that is 300% fert in case things need to be grown for crafting

-building idea firebolt turret

[branch?]

im gonna take a wild guess and say conflicts with
-star wars
-side arms
-hospitality 
-pychology

It's actually compatible with Psychology, Side Arms, and a myriad of the other 200+ mods that I have working with the magic mod.

[Evillee]

Looks good, will try.

[Torann]

Hi all, just wanted to announce that a milestone has been reached and I'm happy to introduce user and ability levels to the mod.

You can now level up your mage through the use of abilities and put points into up to 3 different skill trees per spell.
Ability improvement options can be found under the "Magic" tab for any character that has successfully read an arcane script (ie they have spells). 
Some ability upgrades are XML based and can be selected by clicking the ability icon, but most are skill based and are done by clicking the "+" button next to the skill tree you wish to improve.
Because of this, most abilities will be notably worse starting out, but will be slightly more powerful once fully upgraded.

Quite a few other, smaller changes including adjustment of ability sounds that were out of place, tweaks and balancing of abilities, and spell descriptions.

You can find the newest version at the same location as the original download link.
--! warning - this version is not backwards compatible  and will not work with a saved game running the older version of this mod !--

Lastly, I've added a "To Do" section in the main post with what I feel needs to be included prior to full release.

[TA1980]

Dear Torann,

I added your mod and I enjoy it. Some questions / ideas:

1. Could you tier the magic users progress (first the initiate gets access to a pool of general spells available to all; later they can specialize; e.g. every magic user gets access to magic missile, but only an arcane specialist can level it beyond a certain level - more powerful spells are exclusive, e.g. teleport)?

2. On the topic of progression, I assume you are familiar with the SW The Force mod...could you implement a skill that increases the mana pool size (and maybe its regeneration rate).

3. Would it be possible to not simply consume the books but rather make them part of a research table (similar to Rim of Madness - Cults)? You could then assign the magic users to study there to first unlock their powers (maybe akin to the progression bar of force sensitives in SW - The Force) and later level up / unlock higher tier spells.

Regards and keep on the good work!

Edit: There seems to be an issue with multiple "magic" tabs appearing on the pawn ui (bottom left).

[Torann]

1. Could you tier the magic users progress (first the initiate gets access to a pool of general spells available to all; later they can specialize; e.g. every magic user gets access to magic missile, but only an arcane specialist can level it beyond a certain level - more powerful spells are exclusive, e.g. teleport)?

2. On the topic of progression, I assume you are familiar with the SW The Force mod...could you implement a skill that increases the mana pool size (and maybe its regeneration rate).

3. Would it be possible to not simply consume the books but rather make them part of a research table (similar to Rim of Madness - Cults)? You could then assign the magic users to study there to first unlock their powers (maybe akin to the progression bar of force sensitives in SW - The Force) and later level up / unlock higher tier spells.

TA1980, thanks for the feedback.
1. I had not really considered doing a tiered approach for magic users (eg apprentice, adept, master) and I think I want to keep the tree diversity, but what I can tell you is that I'm already working on implementing an ultimate spell for each tree. I plan to include this as an event where the player can face a unique challenge, and if successful, walk away with a new, powerful spell for their mage.  Along the same lines, I think it would also be possible to introduce a list of "general" spells that are available to any caster.

2. Would be very easy to do in the current implementation, so I'll consider it .  Biggest challenge when adjusting the mana rate is how it affects xp gain and risk.  If mana is easy to come by, then there's no risk to a player using magic to hunt a pack of muffalo, especially if that mage is what would hold your colony together against that next raid.  So I'll have to look at how to balance this. 

3. Are you playing the latest release?  Each mage should have a progress bar and, after leveling up, have the option to level up spell or attributes of that spell of their choosing.

Lastly, can you describe how you are seeing multiple magic tabs?  I've tried to recreate this but the best I've been able to do is create overlapping spell attributes and only if I god mode assign multiple spell lines to a single pawn.  This shouldn't be possible in a normal play through, but I'm still not able to get the multiple tabs.

[TA1980]

Dear Torann,

I used PrepareCarefully to have a group of magically gifted and some "initiated" pawns. Loading a permadeath game a new magic tab appears next to the original one, every time I load such a permadeath game (without exiting the game).

Regards

Edit: Solved the issue. Restarting the game remedies the problem.