While working on the troubling animation for my Bowiemancy mod, I came up with what I think would be a fairly novel monster mod... provided my idea can even get off the ground. That's why I want to bounce it off a few experts first, since the wiki entries for monster modding are understandably basic, and there are a number of limitations on how monsters are allowed to cast and trigger spells, so I'd rather find out if what I'm planning to do is feasible before I spend the next few days working on custom artwork and translating my ideas into XML. Okay, so here's the pitch... I'd like to create a monster similar to the Fireys from the movie Labyrinth, who are capable of removing their own head. How on earth am I planning on pulling this off? Bear with me... Problem #1: Is there any way to have a monster start with a spell pre-cast, or force them to cast it almost immediately after they appear? This is actually a problem that's been plaguing my current Bowie mod, since I've created a Laughing Gnome minion who I'd love to give a built-in midas attack to, but the little bastard utterly refuses to cast any spells ever, even with onhit and ai hints. At any rate, assuming there's a way that I can force the monster to cast a buff spell that uses a halo animation, I can make the default monster sprite look like this: and the halo sprite look like this: Because halos automatically center themselves to the top edge of the monster sprite, move along with the monster, and loop perpetually until the spell expires, all I'd have to do is make the top quarter of the monster sprite transparent so when the halo overlapped it, it appears to be all one creature. That's the plan at any rate. Now, I already know there are some limitations here. Halo effects loop, but they don't have l-r-u-d directions, so the head animation would be the same regardless of what direction the monster is facing. This shouldn't be too much of a problem though, as long as I make the "head" revolve. Problem #2: is figuring out how to make them (at least from the player's perspective) cancel the head halo animation, fire the head as a missile spell, then spawn a separate smaller head creature on or near the space that the missile impacted. All In that order. I can't think of any way to do the missile part because of the need for triggers and removebuffbyname and requirebuffontrigger. The best I can come up with is a variation that would (theoretically) allow a monster to spawn baby heads occasionally. Here's my plan: Let's give the monster two monster spells: <spell name="Has Head"/> <spell name="Drop Head"/> Has Head is a buff which also has the head halo effect. Drop Head is a trigger spell which only casts when Has Head is active: <effect type="trigger" percentage="100" affectscaster="1" requirebuffontrigger="1" requirebuffontriggername="Has Head" spell="Head Dropped" amount="0" /> Head Dropped is a third spell which does the following: <effect type="removebuffbyname" name="Has Head" amount ="0"> (removed the "Has Head" buff from the monster, cancelling out the halo animation) <effect type="summonhostile" monsterType="Baby Head" amount="0" /> (this summons the baby head, which is identical in size to the halo animation, but not rotating, and justified to the bottom of the monster animation frame, so it looks like it's bouncing along on the ground. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'd probably want to make it a little more complicated, and either give "Has Head" a downtime (would that even work for a monster spell???) or it's own trigger spell so it's only cast as long as a "Head Has Already Been Dropped" buff is not in effect. Meaning that the head can only be dropped once. Or will take at least x number of turns to grow back. So, what do you guys think? Is this pipe dream feasible? Flawed from the start? And is there any way I can turn the head into a missile between the cancelling of the halo animation and the spawning of the head creature? (I'd also love to give it a minor knock effect or something else amusing if the player actually gets hit by it)
The question of "can you make a monster cast a spell upon spawning" has come up a bunch, and it's always come back to "no." But I think I just had an inspiration. 1) Create a monster that has a 100% chance to cast a spell. 2) Create a second monster that actually does what you want it to do. 3) Make the first monster cast a spell that summons the second monster, activates whatever effect you want on it, and then kills itself (use a unique taxa on the first monster so that the spell that kills it won't affect the second monster.) I think that's the only way to force a one-time spellcasting -- and the first monster won't cast the spell until it's triggered by noticing the player.
I sort of figured that was the case with the "cast on spawn" question. Oh well. I like the cut of your jib on the monster who spawns a monster then dies thing, though. I was already thinking of working on a few new monsters once I'm done with my current mod, and I may just have to give that one a try. It could make for an interesting "life cycle." I was already thinking it would be nice if there was a way to make stationary monsters that are paralyzed from the start (though that goes straight back to the "cast on spawn" problem) but if you give it a 100% cast rate, I think that might amount to the same thing, since casting the spell should take up a turn, and prohibit the monster from moving. That way you could start with a static egg creature. Once it detects the player, it triggers a 1 turn buff with a halo "cracking" effect (being an egg, it should look identical from all sides), which triggers another 1 turn buff with a halo "more cracking" effect, before triggering your summon spell on the third turn, which kills the egg monster and leaves some kind of bird/reptile/alien creature in it's place. That opens up some interesting possibilities, since you could make the egg comparatively low-powered and the creature that hatches from it comparatively high-powered, so that if you wander into a room and see a big ol' egg just sitting there, it's in your best interest to try to smash it first before it has time to hatch into something really nasty. (I'm also picturing an evil custom room called "The Hatchery" which is filled with a whole bunch of eggs) As for my not quite a Firey creature.... I'd still love to do the head missile, but if that doesn't work out, I'm thinking my plan B may be something a bit more turtle-ish. That "Has Head" buff could make for a rather neat two-state creature. When it has it's head tucked in, it's got high block, mana resistance, and armor absorption, but low Melee Power, critical, etc... When it pops its head out, those stats are reversed, so it does more damage, but is also easier to kill. It could also have some offensive spells which only get cast when requirebuffontrigger is true.
Okay, now that Bowiemancy is finally done, I'm going to focus my attention on this project, which I think I'm going to split up into at least three different monsters. First, a two-form creature that can pop its head out like a turtle, and has different strengths/weaknesses depending on whether its head is raised or lowered. (for some reason, I kind of want to make this one a yeti) Second, an immovable egg that takes a couple of turns to hatch into a snake/alien type monster (assuming you don't destroy the egg first) And possibly third, a skull golem thing that can occasionally lob smaller skull creatures at you. And if that all goes to plan, I'm thinking I might try for some sort of mimic and/or an immovable monster that clings to walls.
oh hey when did you take lessons from kazeto in the ways of m̪̎ͮ̑̕͠a̶̞̜͉̍ͨ̈͗̐̇ͩdͬ̾̎̈́̿̓͏̡̲͓ņ̸̨͙̤̜̪͔͖̏͗̔ͨ̓̓̌ė̬̤̞̰̹̪̺̗ͨ̂̎͐s̺̩̘̦̖͖̿̐̔͒̈͋ͣ̄̄s̯̠̰̣͚͗ͤ̾ͣ̓̌͞.
