Essential Core Skills Rebalance II: Electric Bungalow

Merry Christmas, everyone, and welcome to the ECSRII: Electric Bungalow!


For those of you not used to this, here's the process:

1) Go to your Dungeons of Dredmor folder.
2) Go to the Game folder.
3) Rename skillDB.xml, spellDB.xml, and manTemplate.xml to <whatever>.old.
4) Go to the Expansion, Expansion2, and Expansion3 /Game folders and do the same thing only leave manTemplate, if any, alone.
5) Go back to the main DoD folder and open the attached ZIP file. Assuming I know what I'm doing*, this will deposit my modified game files into all of the correct directories.

*) I don't, so it'll probably screw up royally and you'll probably have to go through and do all of the file-putting-in-place by hand. Just warning you.

This stuff has been alpha-tested insofar as none of the changes crash the game. You are the beta-testers; please tell me if anything doesn't work or sucks. I live on a combination of caffeine, my wife's lasagna, and your feedback. Don't starve me, bro!


Merry Christmas, and may all your games rock.


MOST RECENT UPLOAD/WHY:
ESCRII.ZIP: The Original
ESCRII_1.ZIP: Restored Fear effect to Unholy Warcry; Reduced Brittle counter on Basalt Skin.
ESCRII_2.ZIP: Fixed Slim Customer and added a proc; fixed Diggle Plague; added Smithing to a Communist debuff (yep); added some to Symbiotic Toadstool.
ESCRII_3.ZIP: Changed Sparkly Glamour to be a bit buffer.
ESCRII_4.ZIP: Buffed the hell into You Are The Demons, fixed the AoE wand crashing bug.
ESCRII_4b.ZIP: Fixed a problem with YATD that was crashing on load.
ESCRII_4c.ZIP: Fixed a problem with one of the "Unwanted Extraplanar Attention" icons crashing the game.
ESCRII_5.ZIP: Finally got around to implementing Kazeto's idea re: Solar Inscription. It now gives enemies a +3 buff to Righteous Resistance for 8 turns after dealing its damage.
ESCRII_5b.ZIP: Because, you know, self="0" is important. (Solar Inscription should work as advertised now.)
ESCRII_5c.ZIP: Apparently I screwed up Fastball Specialist (Throwing 5). It's unscrewed now.

Spoiler: OPEN SOURCENESS OF THIS MOD

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this mod and associated documentation files (the “Mod”), to deal in the Mod without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Mod, and to permit persons to whom the Mod is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Mod.

Permission to sell this mod is obtained from Gaslamp Games prior to any attempts to sell this mod.

THE MOD IS PROVIDED “AS IS”, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE MOD OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE MOD

 

Spoiler: Core Changelist

FIGHTER
SHIELD BEARER [CHANGE]
Shield Bearerer's Block and Piercing Resist lowered.
Shield Bearer given 3 points of each basic damage resistance type.

DUAL WIELD [NERF]
-20 EDR given on 1st level.
Each successive level gives +5 EDR (net total of +0 over the entire tree.)

DEADSHOT [CHANGE]
Replaced with a brand new skill. See next post.

SWORD/AXE/MACE/STAFF/UNARMED/THROW/ARCH [CHANGE]
Replaced with brand new skills. See next post.

WIZARD
BLOOD MAGIC [CHANGE]
Vital Siphon now returns at least 1 spell point each time it goes off (which is still only 30% of attacks), plus extra on Animals, Demons, and Others.
Steal Spirit eliminated; replaced with Powered by Pain (27% chance to restore 1 mana when hit.)
Steal Soul eliminated; replaced with Mass Exanguination (template 100 destroy corpses; gain 2-6 mana per corpse; 4% chance to Attract Unwanted Extraplanar Attention.)

LEY LINE WALKING [CHANGE]
Leyline Siphoning downtime increased to 42. Added a 6% chance to Attract Unwanted Extraplanar Attention.
Channeler eliminated; replaced with Discover Ley Nexus (+5 Mana Regen and +10 Magic Resistance spellmine, each turn has a 1% chance to Attract Unwanted Extraplanar Attention.)

MAGIC TRAINING [CHANGE]
Certified Mage changed to You, D.M.A.: +4 Savvy, +1 Sagacity.
Wizarding Associate changed to Certamen Certified; gives 2 Savvy, 2 Sagacity, and ability to cast Certamen Circle (breakonmove, -100 dodge/counter, -10 EDR/crit, +50 Haywire/MRes/Mref, +8 Magic Regen.)
Extraplanar Concenration given an 8% chance to Attract Unwanted Extraplanar Attention.
Master of Magic changed to The Master Spell; gives 5 Sagacity, 5 Savvy, and a buff granting +100 Haywire and +10 Magic Power. Buff is removed on cast.

VIKING WIZARDRY [CHANGE]
Hand of Belimawr swapped with Unholy Warcry.
Unholy Warcry's Blasting damage given scaling (.18 * Magic Power)
Unholy Warcry's debuff increased to -20 Nimbleness, -5 Armor, -5 Melee Power.
Unholy Warcry's fear effect reduced to 2 turns and a 44% chance of activation.

VAMPIRISM [BUFF]
Psychic Vampire's second 'gain mana' trigger was missing an amount="1". I added that back in.
Sparkly Glamour now deals .05*HP drain and .05*MP damage.
Transylvation now summons Blink Batty companions rather than regular Batties, and does so 3x more often (66% instead of 22%).

FLESHSMITHING [BUFF]
Meatshield now gives you a 17% chance to proc Fleshbore on enemies that hit you in combat.

ASTROLOGY [BUFF]
Solar Inscription is now a permanent mine (i.e. it will go off as many times as stepped on until it expires -- which is in 21 turns.)
Syzygy, when cast, heals you for 5+(2* Sight Radius) HP.
Celestial Aegis no longer has any mana upkeep. (Compare to Mark of the Black Eyeliner, which does more stuff for less cost but has an upkeep -- I think this is good.)
Celestial Aegis' brittle upped to 15.

ROGUE
ASSASSINATION [CHANGE]
Slim Customer now gives a 12% on-Kill buff that grants +20 Sneakiness until hit.
Venomous Infusion is no longer an active skill; it now happens automatically 17% of the time when you get attacked in combat. It has been renamed Venomous Vengeance.
Et Tu now scales to Nimbleness.

FUNGAL ARTS [BUFF]
The Toxic Spore Cloud created by Fungal Arts' Puffball is now a permanent mine (meaning it will continue to trigger each time a creature steps on a square within it's radius.) It also now deals 3+(.1 * Savvy) damage rather than a flat 3, and doesn't affect the caster.
MiniToxicSporeCloud (fungal arts' level 4 proc) now deals 2+(.25*Savvy) damage (used to be a flat 2), is a permanent (until expired) mine, and doesn't affect the caster.
Fungal Arts level 3 given 'Symbiotic Toadstools', a buff for pets only (target=adjacent).
Mushroom Transmutation moved to Fungal Arts level 4.
The final level of Fungal Arts can now correctly drop any kind of mushroom on a kill, and does so 8% of the time (used to be two separate 5% chances, so it's about the same)

DODGE [BUFF]
Transdimensional Dodging's downtime increased to 18, and it now triggers Froda's Jump Discontinuity when it's activated, so you can get out of closed rooms you might have gotten stuck in.
Supremely Sly Side-Stepper now adds an additional (stacking) 30% chance to trigger Adventurer Aikido, because capstone (total rough effective percentage: 51%.)

PERCEPTION [BUFF]
Third Sight adds 1 damage that only affects walls.
Third Sight now gives a 1-turn buff that allows a 100% proc of Luckiest Find on-kill.
Eye Lasers now also trigger On Fire on the target.
Eye Lasers now scale 3x Sight on Blasting Damage, 2x TrapSight on Conflagratory damage, and .2x EDR on Aethereal Damage.

ARCHEOLOGY [NERF]
It Belongs in a Museum swapped with Remember Your Charlemagne.

GENERAL [FIX]
All effects that used 'burn="1"' now trigger On Fire instead. (Ingition Bolt and a bunch of Voltaic Mine effects, really. Promethean had already been fixed by the GLGuys.)

 

Spoiler: Expansion Changelog

EXPANSION I:
BIG GAME HUNTER [BUFF and FIX]
'Lured' now inflicts a -15 penalty to Block, Dodge, and Counter in addition to it's other effects.
BGH level 4 had a completely nonfunctional special attack ('Hunter's Strike') that was triggered on kill (meaning it tried to damage the creature that you had just killed.) I switched it from on-kill to on-hit, on-throw, and on-crossbow, and moved it to level 2. It deals 3+ (1/3 Sneakiness) Percing damage to Animals only on 50% of melee hits.
Hunter's Strike had also apparently replaced BGH4's old 'more Grisly Trophies' onKill effect, which is specifically mentioned in the flavor text, so I added it back in.
Also, since the flavor text of BGH4 says "we'll give it blood so we can kill it", I took the taxa restrictions off of the Butcher and Grisly Trophies effects that BGH4 gives, and then cut the %-to-proc by half considering they'll go off on everything you touch.

DEMONOLOGIST [BUFF]
Celestial Circle now inflicts -40 Nimbleness instead of -12.
Abyssal Fire now lasts forever. On the downside, it now inflicts -4 Righteous, Hyperborean, and Existential Damage Resist on you, so it's not a brainless, leave-it-on-all-the-time thing. It's still removable. Also, it had two seperate on-hit procs which we know doesn't work, so I switched it to a single trigger that uses choosefromlist to pick one of the two relevant effects.
Infernal Contract now has percentage chances to inflict it's various downsides, with the more nasty ones being less likely. (They used to be all 100%, so it's more of a gamble thing now.)
Demonic Form now properly has a downtime (30, with a 13-turn duration, so you can spend just under half your time as a Demon), and to make up for it, gives a +3 Conflagratory damage bonus while in Demon Form. Also, you still have access to all Demonology skills when in Demon form. Also, on-hit, when-hit, on-crit, on-dodge, on-block, and on-counter procs to add to the demonic destruction.

WEREDIGGLE [FIX]
Diggle Plague is now a proc that goes off on 17% of melee hits.
Diggle Plague's DoT reactivated (it was borked because it was inside the buff tags, guys.)

EMOMANCY [BUFF]
Sigil of Whatever's damage scaling is doubled (to .2*magic power), and it's chance to paralyze is doubled (to 50%).
Depressing Elemental Blast restored to it's ECSR1 status: it DoTs each enemy with 2+(.2*Magic Power) Existential damage and a Pacify each turn for 12 turns.

EXPANSION II:
WARLOCKERY [FIX]
Puissant Veil restored to it's intended status (blockBuff that procs a normal-sized Puissant Touch)
Chronomantic Twist fixed.
Manacalypse scaling brought in more proper line with the capstone buff-ending mana-eating beast that it truly is.

ROGUE SCIENTIST [FIX/BUFF]
Barometric Pulse Devices' "Vent Steam" mistakenly had 'usetimer="2", time="1"' rather than the opposite which is ovbiously what Ruigi intended.
Thaumomechanical Rebreather's mana upkeep moved to 1/7 turns.
Aetheric Death Ray's scaling to Wandcraft upped to 7.5.
Aetheric Death Ray now correctly triggers On Fire rather than using the depreciated burn="1".

PRACTICAL GEOLOGY [very minor BUFF]
Basalt Skin's Timer increased to 16.
Petrification's Armor increased to 50. Piercing, Toxic, Putrefying, and Asphyxiative resists raised to 50. Piercing and Conflagratory resists raised to 35. Asphyxiative damage per tick increased so final damage (after the resist bump) remains the same as it was. Petrification skillDB text now specifically mentions using it on yourself.

EXPANSON III:
BANKSTERISM [BUFF]
A completely useless PrimaryScale="5" removed from High Interest Loan. (Verified useless w/David.)
Percentage chance of triggering a random Bankster debuff on/when hit with Insurance Fraud active reduced to 1%.
Percentage chance of triggering a random Bankster debuff on/when hit with Fiscal Hedge active reduced to 3%.
Bailout now removes ALL Bankster debuffs and two random other debuffs (used to remove one iteration of each Bankster debuff and that's all...a horrible capstone.)

EGYPTIAN MAGIC [NERF]
Sandstorm now has a 50% chance of removing a random glyph when cast. Can randomly select glyphs you don't actually have, so unless you're going balls-out, actual chance of removal is much lower than 50%.
Eye of Ra's various Blasts now have a 1% chance of removing a random glyph when activated. See previous note.

COMMUNISM [BUFF]
Warming Vodka added to the list of Random Commie Effects. There were too few positive effects on that list.
Vanguard Party now only triggers debuffs on 1% of hits and being-hits. Also, non-melee-power bonuses from Vanguard Party are doubled.
Iron Curtain Hyperborean Resistance increased to 8. (No more fur hats, dammit!)
The Bomb now gives you a spell that creates a The Bomb and gives you a 999-turn unremovable debuff that prevents the bomb-creating ability from triggering as long as you have it.

TOURIST [very minor BUFF]
Handle Foreign Currencies upped to 125% normal Zorkmid gain.

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR [minor BUFF]
Close Encounter also adds a Knock effect on taxa="nothing" (i.e. objects only.)
Alien Weapon now scales to Savvy rather than Magic Power.

[/spoiler]

Weapon Skills Design Documents here.

 

Squee.

 

I like what you did with a lot of the skills (with a few exceptions).
Especially appreciative of the bug fixes.

 

Exceptions? (You knew it was coming...)

 

Well yeah some of the nerfs were deserved. The debuff removal in egyptian magic is pretty heavy handed, but I guess it equates to an increase in mana and occasionally lost turns.

Without actually having played it, and being fairly excited, here is my review of the spoiler, and I will list exceptions first since you asked.

Exceptions
-Powered by pain, 27% chance of 1 mana gain when hit. I don't know how I feel about this. Mana from your own blood? Maybe I am wrong, but that seems kinda weak for a single skill. Although it is made for tanky block/mana consuming buff builds, You have to go through it if you are a caster.
-Warcry fear removed entirely? The debuff is good and all, but some of the times it was used to keep casters from spamming you as you moved into range. scaling is good.
- Aetherial damage scaling to feels weird. Only because that scales of nimbleness while the other two have things with regard to site.
- The bomb cooldown at 999 buff is a good idea, but then players will just waste time to get it. I would wonder if it was possible to make a debuff that lost charges both on attack and being hit.... basically wearing down in combat.

Questions
-Could you list what the Unwanted Extra Planar attention does in the spoiler?
-Did you include the fix to vampirism in the buff vampirism thread? The one that is healing monsters. It makes a huge difference.

Like
-Et tu scaling to something other than is great
-Solar inscription being a perma mine is sweet. Makes me wonder if it is abuseable.
-Alien weapon scaling with savvy is great.

Love
-Fungal mines turning more into 'poison clouds' is great. Not affecting the player is even better. Giving them scaling is probably overkill. I have played a lot of fungal and the mushrooms compliment so many builds, people don't give it enough credit.
-Extra in communism is awesome.
-If I a m reading it right, close encounter is actually able to push items around, and that is awesome.

You are a 'friggin Genius' things!
-Third site for wall destruction and Item gain. So brilliant
-Transdimensional dodge used to get out of holes. never happened to me, but this is awesome.


All in all, I am pretty impressed with the changes and will be installing them on a machine for testing as soon as I have the game beat (or die) with my current GRPD.

 

On my Kindle so short reply:

Yes, the Vampirism fix is included.
I'll add a des ription of AUEP to the spoiler once I'm on Mg PC.

Warcry fear was borken, there are a couple of threads about it.
Powder by pain was originally 4 mana per proc, but I got nervous about a potential 16 mana in one turn and downshifted it. Maybe that was premature?



Edit: Also Ive been thinking a lot about You Are The Demons in respect to the Terror of the Night thread. I'm thinking I might just buff the everliving hell into the Demon form so that youmoght actually want to use it in a fight evenat the cost of losing your other skills....thoughts?

 

This is amazing all round.

I'd lean towards 3 mana per hit - if you're surrounded, you're either about to die (extra mana not broken) or about to kill them all (not gonna get extra mana )

 

I read those threads.
The thing that made it overpowered was the 100% proc that was unresistable.
Skepticism doesnt' work on boss monsters. Could you have had a 50% proc that was unresistable that didn't work on named monsters?

Maybe it wasn't premature. I will try the Power by pain and see.

 

Uñfortumately the no named monster thing is hardcoded into the rempvemonster effect, not an XML tag. And it was reduced to a 20-something chance for a while, bit thhat just meant casting it a few extra times -- it really is just the nature of AoE fear to break the game.

 

So Transdimensional Dodging triggers Froda's Jump Discontinuity whenever you dodge? How is that different from what it used to do?

 

It activates the jump now when you recast it. That way if you get hit in combat, get stuck in some hole, your file isn't permanently ruined. You just have to wait the cooldown and activate it again.

 

That can't be all. Unarmed is wildly different from what the wiki shows, and there's an entire new skill called "deadshot". And it looks like you included all the crossbow fixes too. The stances and everything.

 

Ahhh...right. I forgot, the alpha weapons skills, Deadshot, and a couple of other changes to Dual Wield got folded in. I'll update the spoiler to show.

 

Thank you.

Also good work on the crossbow skill tree. I've only had time for one run so far, but my unarmed crossbow wielder's been really fun to use. At least until I ran out of bolts in a strange dimension because you can't access pocket dimensions from them. That's what I get for making bolts only as I need them, and not stocking up.

 

Time will say this.
On the paper, it's pretty poor now.

Yes.
Give the demon form at least one new ability: Soul Steal. It will debuff enemies for stats, resistances, get muted and some procs are activated when you attack one of those soul stealed enemies. A good antinamed tool, with a long cooldown. Maybe make it stackable, not infinite but with the cooldown > duration. For the motivation, see below.
And maybe x% to automatically summon y (1 to 4) swarmies.
And make the swarmies cap at 8 when in demon form (but the contract still summon 4x swarmies when casted).
And make a secoundary effect on Abyssal Fire, something like make hits with AF cast on % chance other Soul Steal effects. This is why the debuff could be stackable even if not recastable.

 

Make the fear last 1-3 turns, just enough to get enemies off of you and increase the cost. Maybe even remove the damage and just keep the debuff and a very brief fear. Or combine with %chance and make it 0-2 or 0-3 turns.

Also the brittle skin buff is a bit much, while I certainly agree I made it not too strong before I think it may have been overbuffed for an already strong tree. Perhaps 16 duration but a lower brittle count.

Speaking of Geology Petrification needs more resistances, especially , and needs to mention that it can be cast on the player in its description. If you raise remember to raise the damage appropriately.

 

All good ideas, Null. I'll restore the fear but make it shorter, reduce the brittle back to 12, and buff petrification a little.