Bergstrom, you are a god of feedback. I'll probably do most of that. Fax -- thanks. I'll work something in.
We have the crazy concept. Now we only need to figure out how to fit the definitely-not-mysterious-hat on top of a diggle statue and we're golden.
Here's the spellDB as it stands: Code: <DegreeSpells> <spell name="Pathmaker" type="template" templateID="03" icon="skills/Pathmaker32.png"> <requirements mp="4" savvyBonus=".12" mincost="1"/> <effect type="damage" blasting="1" blastingF=".15"/> <effect type="knock"/> <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/psionic_generic/psionic_generic" frames="5" framerate="70" sfx="pong"/> </spell> <spell name="Extra Cheese Effect" type="self"> <effect type="heal" amount="1"/> </spell> <spell name="Extra Beer Effect" type="self"> <effect type="spellpoints" amount="1"/> </spell> <spell name="Extra Cheese" type="self"> <buff usetimer="1" time="3" self="1" removable="0" allowstacking="0" icon="skills/Extra_Cheese64.png" smallicon="skills/Extra_Cheese32.png"> <description text="MMMmmm...cheese."/> </buff> <effect type="dot" amount="3" spell="Extra Cheese Effect" requirebuff="1"/> </spell> <spell name="Extra Beer" type="self"> <buff usetimer="1" time="7" self="1" removable="0" allowstacking="0" icon="skills/Extra_Beer64.png" smallicon="skills/Extra_Beer32.png"> <description text="Nothin' like packing down more beer when youre alredy geting durnken." </buff> <effect type="dot" amount="7" spell="Extra Beer Effect" requirebuff="1"/> </spell> <spell name="Extra Herb" type="self"> <buff usetimer="1" time="28" self="1" removable="0" allowstacking="0" icon="skills/Extra_Herb64.png" smallicon="skills/Extra_Herb32.png"> <primarybuff id="1" amount="4"/> <primarybuff id="3" amount="6"/> <secondarybuff id="14" amount="1"/> <description text="Your mind. It's expanding. Like the universe...is...expanding. Woaaaahhhh..."/> </buff> </spell> <spell name="No Buzz 4U" type="self"> <effect type="removebuffbyname" name="Red-Aurochs Chaser" type="self"> </spell> <spell name="Red-Aurochs Slump" type="self"> <buff usetimer="1" time="16" self="1" removable="0" bad="1" allowstacking="1" icon="skills/Auroch_Slump64.png" smallicon="skills/Auroch_Slump32.png"> <primarybuff id="2" amount="-6"/> <secondarybuff id="18" amount="-1"/> <secondarybuff id="17" amount="-2"/> <secondarybuff id="16" amount="-2"/> <secondarybuff id="13" amount="-2"/> <secondarybuff id="14" amount="-2"/> <description text="Your brain is blurry and your vision is slow. Damn, that stuff takes a toll on you."/> </buff> <effect type="dot" amount="18" spell="No Buzz 4U" requireBuff="1"/> </spell> <spell name="Red-Aurochs Chaser" type="self"> <buff usetimer="1" time="15" self="1" removable="0" allowstacking="0" icon="skills/Red-Aurochs64.png" smallicon="skills/Red-Aurochs32.png"> <primarybuff id="2" amount="6"/> <secondarybuff id="18" amount="1"/> <secondarybuff id="17" amount="2"/> <secondarybuff id="16" amount="2"/> </buff> <effect type="trigger" spell="Red-Aurochs Slump" amount="12"/> </spell> <spell name="Time Stopped" type="self"> <effect type="paralyze" turns="1" affectsCaster="1"/> </spell> <spell name="By The Bell" type="targetemptyfloor" icon="skills/ByTheBell32.png"> <effect type="teleport"/> <buff usetimer="1" time="24" self="1" bad="1" removable="0" allowstacking="0"> <description text="You made it! Now you pay the price."/> </buff> <effect type="dot" amount="24" spell="Time Stopped" requiresbuff="1"/> </spell> <spell name="By The Bell Recovery Effect" type="self"> <effect type="removebuffbyname" name="By The Bell"/> </spell> </DegreeSpells> The reason I'm not worried as much about Red-Aurochs Chaser (looking at you, R_B_B) is that it's a drinkBuff, which means not only can you get the benefits when you need them, but you'll also frequently end up dealing with the penalties when you didn't drink to get the benefits. So I think it'll balance out in the end. Now I just have to hack together a half-dozen icons, and I'll be good. Any thoughts?
Just a couple of ideas. Tail Gate Champion: Permanent +1 to caddishness, activated ability 120 CD 40 turns of fed/drinking followed by 20 turns of -1 to all primary stats and -3 to mana/health regen. Freshman Fifteen: +2 burliness +15 health +2 health regen.
Oooooh, I wonder if you can do negative scaling. Negative scaling to armor absorb is interesting. Very Rogue-centric. Only problem is that buffs can't scale at all. But something like grantxp on kill and have the xp scale negatively to armor...that, I think, is feasable.
Oooooooh! How does requiresbuff work? Will the dot end immediately if the buff wears off or is canceled(on a removable buff)? Can you make a dot with infinite duration, tied to a buff? I'm wondering because this would solve a skill idea problem I have.
<requirebuff="1"> essentially means that the DoT effect that the <requirebuff="1"> tag is attached to looks for a buff of the same name as the spell that has the DoT effect in it each turn. If it's there, the DoT goes off; if not, the DoT cancels itself and all future turns of itself. You can't make a DoT with an infinite duration, but you can make on with an absurdly large duration and it should work just fine.
OK, so this needs more help. I finally sat down and played a character with it, and I had to talk myself into taking every level. It's not that it's unuseful, it's just...lacking something. I added Caddishness to each level, but that's still boring. Does anyone have any ideas that can build on the existing mechanics/flavor of any of the levels in a cool or interesting way?
OK, so I added a 12% chance for Pathmaker to go thermonuclear (effecting a template101 area instead of a template30 area and dealing much more Blasting damage). Then, I added a point of Trap Affinity to Cram Session. That should give mages plenty of reason to invest in the skill early. I added a grantxp of 48! to Extra Herb, so if you have the 3rd level, one in five food or booze consumptions will randomly grant a pretty decent chunk of XP, particularly (again) if you take it early in the game. I'm looking now at Red Aurochs Chaser, which now that I've played with it I really hate it. That debuff is enormous and it comes at exactly the wrong time (drink in order to keep mana going at the beginning of a horde fight and it sets in right in the middle of everything, slapping your regens and sight right when you need them most. I'm seriously considering uprooting the whole level and replacing it with some sort of all-nighter-like ability. Ideas? Also, By the Bell is having it's paralyzed time reduced to 15. I think a one-mana teleport with attached 15-turn paralyze is good as a capstone. It lets you do all of the non-combat practical teleporting without being terribly useful in a fight, which is what I wanted. Maybe I'll make this the 4th level and add a capstone that gives at least one combat-worthy thing to this skill. Ideas?
You should totally replace Red Aurochs Chaser with my Leech Wifi suggestion above: when active, monsters in specific range (say, ID 22) get hit for voltaic drain based on, like, tinkering level or haywire or savvy.
I don't know what to think about that ability, Fax. It doesn't seem quite in-flavor in that it's supposed to be a magical college, and the mechanics are just weird. I'm willing to be talked into it, but I just don't see it yet.
Do you want the skill to be a specialty or something a general purpose build can rely upon? If the former, scale with one or two things. If the latter, add an option for those who do not have uber primary statistics in one or two areas. I think that in all cases but those you expect a decent portion of users to have high primaries, you should scale only. Flat damage is awful unless your scaling stats are abysmal. (Awful in that for those with no real value to those stats, they are overpowered, and awful in that scaling almost always benefits more than otherwise reasonable direct damage.)
That was a pretty profound piece of general advice, good for just about anyone -- but I'm not sure what you were referring to in terms of this skill, Omni. The only scaling aspect of Degree in Dungeoneering is the damage dealt by the Pathmaker spell, which scales to Magic Power, 'cause, you know, it's magic.
I do tend to have a lot of very verbose and general comments... I was not really being specific to anything currently in the skill, since the discussion seems to be revolving around what to make it into. I still think that scaling is better than guaranteed damage in all cases though. While Degree in Dungeoneering is certainly a wizard skill, it should probably still scale with , , and other mage-like stats if any. And now that I think of it, it may be a good idea to use removebuffbyname for any buff when you add the buff again to prevent the current RC stacking issues. It could almost be copied and pasted in place everywhere as needed.
