It ended up being a ton of work, but my Bowiemancy skill mod is now complete. You can download the most current version here: Bowiemancy v1.0.3 or on steam. You can also find a complete numerical breakdown of exactly what each spell does on the second page of this thread. There's so much stuff in this mod, I had to make three infographics to describe exactly what's going on, but here's the skinny on the main powerset: Here's what the various randomized debuff powers of the Under Pressure spell do: Here's what the various buffs you get with Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes do (remember, you can only have one active at a time): And here's the bonuses and flavor text: Total bonuses for skill tree: +2 +5 Bowiemancy "As a follower of the far-out space wizard Bowie, you have learned how to freak out to the cosmic jive of your own moonage daydream." Level 0 - Rebel Rebel +2 +1 "Because sometimes you want more and you want it fast, this spell can be cast and recast. Just don't overdo it, or it might all blow up in your trampy little face. (And then what would your poor mother think?)" Level 1 - Under Pressure "You're not 100% sure what this spell does, but you understand it has something to do with the terror of knowing what this world is about." Level 2 - Piece of Cake! "So the dungeon is a piece of cake is it? Well, let's see how you deal with this little slice..." Level 3 - Spiders From Mars +1 "Some may say you took it all too far, but you've become the special man and think spiders are the nazz." Level 4 - Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes +2 "The untempered transmutative energies of Bowie flow through you. Who knows what you'll discover when you turn and face the strange." Level 5 - Heart's Filthy Lesson "I ask for so little... Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." Level 6 - Ashes to Ashes +1 "Strung out on heaven's high, your enemies will be hitting an all time low. Ashes to ashes, funk to funky." As I said before, more detailed info each spell is available on the second page of this thread.
I think it's a terrible idea to name all the skill levels after a song. They aren't descriptive in any way either.
I don't think Skill Names must be very descriptive, flavor text exist for a reason. For mod skills this applies even more weakly. Also, you are talking about a wizardly skill about a SINGER. Anyway, I'd love a Under Pressure debuff. Like - - - -.
I'd totally add that in if I could, since it sounds like a magical ability you'd expect David Bowie to have, though I don't think there's a spell effect for hover/fly, is there? A pity, since that would be a rather useful movement spell. The only way I could possibly see doing it is creating a monster that looks just like yourself which has the terrain="2" setting. I was sort of thinking about doing something similar with the barn owl from Labyrinth, but it'd be a lot of work, and not much different from the bat spell that already exists in the vampire skill set.
Depends if you could grant the flight without locking out the player's other skills (as I understand existing polymorphs do), which would make it a tad more powerful. (Disclaimer: I have played neither as a sufficiently levelled vampire nor as a werediggle.)
From what I've seen by digging through the code of the existing polymorph spells, you can add a set amount (ex: +5, +3) to the base stats of the monster you want to polymorph into, though the only powers available to you in those forms are the passive onhit ones like Diggle Flu, that are already pre-specified within the monDB.xml file itself. While it's not particularly useful in this scenario, I could see some possibilities down the road for an Incredible Hulk or Animal Man type mod, where you have the ability to polymorph either willingly or unwillingly into a unique named creature form (set to maxSpawns="0" horde="0" special="1" like Evil Clones are, so you don't get multiple yous popping up at random like other monsters) with it's own set of inherent powers. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea of an Incredible Hulk with huge eyebrows rampaging around the dungeon. (For the sprites, you might even be able to graft the normal player head onto the body of a muscle diggle) I honestly have no clue how this would work with requirebuffontrigger spells, but if they did, you could in theory use playerHitEffectBuff, criticalBuff, and targetKillBuff to then passively trigger several other spell effects while you were in that form, though it'd be a bit hard to balance since this power would effectively block out all your other abilities while it was in effect. I also don't know if there's any way to scale its stats based on the player's level or other factors so that your monster form isn't too ridiculously overpowered in the beginning of the game or frustratingly weak by the time you reach floor 10.
A clarification: every proc works with polyrmorph skills. But not other skills, or stat bonuses. So just making the character polymorphing into itself levitting will leave him with no skill left until the levitation takes off. No way, this is the problem behind my trials at rebalancing werediggle skill. ^^' You could take a look at it to just figure the problems of polymorphing while every other skill you have doesn't synergise well with your secoundary form. Spoiler: Hinty minty Maybe you even throw yourself into the discussion.
Update: Woohoo! Primary skill artwork is now complete. I've still got several more to do for the random Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes effects, but I'll hold off on those until I have the rest of the set written and functioning the way I want it.
Update: I'm about a 1/3 of the way through with spellDB.xml, and I've already switched a few things around. Starman is now one of the positive buffs you can get under Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes, and I've made Under Pressure into a similarly randomized negative debuff attack. Also Slow Burn's now a spell mine, though I'm still fiddling with it to try to give it some unique property that sets it apart from Tactical Pyre or a Thermite explosion. Currently, I'm trying to wrap my head around Rebel Rebel and how to use requirebuffontrigger to only trigger a chance of debuff when the spell is stacked, but also have the correct name appear when you mouse over the spell and effect. It'll probably have to wait until I finish my 0.0.1 version and can actually test it, but right now I've got the ability: leading into the trigger (which is supposed to check for the existence of the buff and then make a 1/5 chance of also producing Rock n Roll Suicide) : Which then leads into the actual spell effect: (listed higher in spellDB.xml of course. I won't make that mistake again.) Hopefully it'll all work.
Way too late to post anything tonight, but I've got my roughest rough v0.0.1 version completed and run through XML checker without any errors. Of course, it breaks the dungeon as soon as I make it past the naming screen, but that's something I'll look at when it isn't 3AM in the morning. Merry Christmas everyone!
I'm no longer breaking the dungeon with this mod, but I've run into some headaches with Ashes to Ashes. I can't get the sfx to work the way I want it to, and for some reason it occasionally seems to get stuck in a perpetual animation loop, though not consistently enough for me to figure out exactly where it's going wrong. EDIT: Problem solved. I accidentally used template 13 for both the base spell and the trigger spell, so it was recasting the trigger spell 20 times in a row. I've also learned that DoD doesn't seem to like triggering the same (de)buff spell both as a target attack and as a status ailment for the player. No matter how I worded it, it was always sticking the debuff on the player, regardless of who I targeted, until I split it into two separate spells. Right now, I've got one spell called Rock n Roll Suicide which has self=0 for the offensive spell and one called Rock n' Roll Suicide which has self=1 for the status ailment. Other than that, they're completely identical, but it's the only way I can get it to trigger correctly in both instances. (I am using triggerfromlist, which could be what's causing it to get confused.) Since I've got most of the rest of the abilities working correctly, I'm going to focus on fleshing out the rest of the buffs/debuffs, and then come back to Ashes to Ashes later (or possibly swap it out for another power entirely)
I've got a few more of the random buffs/debuffs finished, but I'm still banging my head a bit on the animation for Ashes to Ashes. Maybe somebody could help me out. I need to be able to have a large swirly whirlpool animation which: A) loops indefinitely until the spell is over B) is centered on the player C) moves with the player for four turns. D) is a single image along the lines of Tenebrous Rift rather than a randomized glints effect. Now, I've got the spell to work by using halo for the animation and a template for the damage, but as you can see from my test animation below, any time you use halo, it automatically places the top center of the animation flush with the player's head. (and sadly centerEffect="1" isn't allowed in this context) Here's the code I used: Can somebody point out how to go about producing the same effect, but having the animation centered instead? Also, is there a way to make large template spells like this NOT dig through walls when you move?
You can make the effect recast itself for every turn you want, during 1 turn each. So even if you move or just wait, it will always be around the player.
Maybe I'm missing something obvious, but how do you make a spell animation loop? I know halo, glints, and spell mines do it automatically, but is there something you can put in a type="self" or type="template" spell's <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/ashes_to_ashes_loop/ashes_to_ashes_loop" frames="15" frameRate="100"/> line that will make it repeat endlessly? (as opposed to just running through the animation once and then stopping, which seems to be how every example I could find works)
[quote="bluehinter, post: 69751, member: 8243"(as opposed to just running through the animation once and then stopping, which seems to be how every example I could find works)[/quote] This was the idea. Maybe you could make it start from the sprite next to the last one in a single turn-loop, but I don't think it could be a fluid movement at max, since it will disappear and reappear a turn after at your new position.
Dude, great theme and artwork, as a Bowie fan I Bow to your talent. I'll test it out and let you know how it worked, but wanted to give my thanks in advance.
I'm nearly ready to post my first beta version, just two more powers and a few sfx, though I've got a couple of spells which utterly refuse to work the way I want them to. Problem spell #1: The Laughing Gnome summon. How it should work: I want the gnome to show up, blink around a bit, cause some gold hemorrhaging with his onhit Midas attack, and then vanish approximately 15 to 20 turns later. What actually happens: The guy shows up and starts attacking nearby enemies, but refuses to cast any spells. Ever. Even the onhit ones. I've also had no luck with trying to get a removemonster effect to kick in to make him disappear automatically. I've tried adding <effect type="removemonster" monsterType="Laughing Gnome" amount="20"/> after the summon, and he just doesn't show up at all, I've tried adding it into his blink spell, but since those don't trigger either, he just hangs out until he dies of natural causes. Here's the code of my summon spell (plus the debuff which shows up on the target you picked) And here's my monDB code for the Laughing Gnome himself: Problem spell #2: Ashes to Ashes. How it should work: I really wanted to avoid another template spell, and have a 2 square radius circle which surrounds the player, moving along with him for 3 turns, and dealing heavy damage to anything which enters the radius of the spell. What actually happens: No matter what I tried, I cant get any animation to line up properly centered on the player, other than the standard anim sprite stuff which only runs through the animation loop once. Halos justify to the top of the players head, and rift and spell mines to the bottom of his feet. I couldn't get area to work at all, and couldn't even find an example of it being used at all in the real game. Right now, I'm using a template, but the spell is a boring old area effect blast that doesn't move or do anything terribly innovative.
Summons never cast. Period. Sorry to disappoint you. As for The second spell, check out Null's Wind Magic. There is a spell in that that you need to look at for how to make a graphical template follow you and apply an effect.
