3 more abilities and I should be ready to release this mod. I updated the main page with more info about the abilities already done and the ones I'm still working on. I'll try to finish one when I get home from work.
Finished. I will keep testing it in case bugs appear or I missed something. I will upload it tonight or tomorrow morning. Also, Any suggestions, questions or something else in your minds?
Done, and looks pretty cool! I'll take a look at it later about balance (but I'm sure some more proficient players will have checked it out before)
To be honest, i've been looking for a level 1 "transform" based mod that was truly worth the while. By that, I mean a tree that I can reasonably max first, and generally enjoy my transformed form(s) for all of the game. As much as I approve of the decision to give a huge fire/blasting debuff to stay true to the spirit of the thing, there is something outright depressing about being an evil alien monster from outer space, and dying to anything that does 1 fire damage for the first few levels. And if you running the latest and best in terms of mods, you probably are going to be running into dragon whelps at level 1. Not counting traps, and adding to the simple fact that fire is the single most common damage type in DoD, and you have a evil alien form that you can't really use because it essentially turns you in a giant pile of dry tinder. Admitedly, the passive procs make up for it in your normal form, but having a Thing-morph centric tree that you can't really afford to use on most levels when you have permadeath on is underwhelming. A more "sensible approach" is to use something along the lines of what Radiant Wizard for the tree (have the debuffs proc at a higher rate while in Thing form maybe) - I.e you get stacking damage debuffs from taking fire damage that become worse as you pick up more levels in the tree. The general idea is to make it so that any kind of "sustained" fire damage will kill you in form, but take the one hit won't melt half your hp either. That will also open the way for other "fluff" debuffs, like including chance to hit penalties and what not from the extreme fear Things have for fire. It's also in keeping with the spirit of the source material. To kill a full blown Thing, you need a flamin' flamethrower. A match won't cut it. And, right now that's all it takes to take you down.
Don't forget Wights and Mummies. They're in the base game, they do blasting, and they occur early enough to instagib you. The dragon whelps are just especially bad because they do conflagatory and blasting. But even one is enough to instagib you. AFAIK, that's not currently possible to do with a mod. There is a playerHitEffectBuff but nothing that specific.
Well, I have only played the first lvls so far and I haven't really tried to go against fire-based enemies while transformed. First thing I did while I was playing was to keep all items that gave me resistance. I have been lucky enough to find good ones to the point I get a positive resistance value. I can always decrease the weaknesses, though. How about -10 weakness and -10 weakness while in Horrid Thing form and also decrease the weakness when not a Thing? Currently is -8 with all skills. I could also add a couple of extra stuff in the next update along with the rebalance.
Word - A lone mummy took me out in one hit on level 2 - had ~50 hp. They usually do no damage at all, so the 1blasting really caught me off guard. My big problem with whelps is that in vanilla, traps are the big source of conf/blasting damage on stage 1. Which means that as long as you steer clear of them, you have at least one "grace" stage where you can get away with using Thing-form. With whelps thrown into the balance, well, what stage can you "safely" Thing-form and not risk dying the moment you open a door. Also, the current mechanics of transforming also negate the +hp you get from other trees while morphed, so you won't leave insta gib hp range until you have spec'd a lot of points in Warrior. Currently, the only viable way to play around with this is to pick up the tree, pop levels into it, but use diggle form. Even then, you only get to use seize victim (not sure if being able to use only that ability was intentional, but there you have it) Umm, radiant wizard seems to have been able to work around that. Then again, i don't really know how the breach and meltdown mechanic work. I'm generally too busy dying to think it through while playing, and I am too lazy to look at the code directly. (edit- Looked at the code, I see what you mean) Once i got over dying horribly because i was also running bloodprice, I was able to get my hands on a fire book, an ash ring, then bought another one from brax. So yeah, that offset the native conf. penalties. The big problem turned out to be monsters that do 1 blasting, not conf. Later on, monsters that do both (and fire themed monsters tend to do both) will still be an instagib problem for you. The passive procs were epic, mind you, but transforming was still a death sentence. Since there does not seem to be anyway to put "playerhitconflagatoryeffectbuffs" into the game, a possible alternative would be to simply put a playerhiteffectbuff that progressively, but very quickly raises your conf/blasting weaknesses to instagib levels when you are in combat. Kind of makes sense in terms of flavor too - as the battle drags on, a thing is bound to have more and more limbs flailing around, which makes for more surface area to burn. In fact, you could increase the proc/rate of the level 1 passives (or spread them across each level), but add a -fire/conf penalties for each one of those you have. That way, the player has a choice - do I take advantage of the big damage buffs, but risk getting hit very hard by some kind of conf/blasting damage, or do i wait out the buffs? While lowering the weaknesses will outright will work, I think that for a mod like this, flavor is very important, and simply tweaking stats up or down doesn't quite agree with that.
-8 is bad but not a huge issue neccessarily. Okay, it'll be a pretty big issue, but it's managable. -50 and -25 are both quite ridiculous. I'd say get rid of the - entirely, and instead have your polymorphed form get - at the same rate the main form does? With an extra -2 for up to -10.
The -25 and -50 weaknesses are actually way too excessive, especially the weakness. I could try both approaches to make it less unforgiving. I'll decrease the weaknesses in general but I will make the Self Preservation appendages add weaknesses at different degrees, that suggestion is actually pretty good and it does make sense. I could also allow some other abilities to be used in Diggle and Bat forms too. Also, what other Skills do you choose to complement this one? I haven't tried it with Promethean Magic but I'm guessing it'll be a double edge sword if you make a mistake. Anyways, the idea is not rely on one skill entirely when fighting enemies. Edit: Mkay, what about... Total weakness as normal: -6 (Removed -1 from the last two lvls of this skill) Gruesome Shape: -10 -10 (I'll just keep the blasting damage just so ppl can't just go all Thing galore in all fights) Self Preservation appendages: The 15% ones have -2 / The 50% ones have -1 / the 100% one has -3 Maybe?
Why not remove the - from the first two levels instead? The problem with the - and - is mostly about early sources of those damages, later on you'll have more HP and will be able to cope better.
Makes sense... will do. I'm also editing Ultimate Horror. I just realized the stats it adds only work when you are normal. I'll allow it to work when in Thing, Diggle and Bat forms too in order to make it more useful as the last ability of this skill.
Alright, I've found myself thinking more and more about this mod. Partly because i want to finish the game with a well balanced shape-shifting build, and partly because i think that The Thing was one of the best horror themed video games ever made (i do like the movies too, but i like the game more) Right now, any +stat that is not hard-coded as being an actual part of poly-morph is simply lost upon shape-shifting. The only real work around for this, (aside from hardcoding each statboost into every other shape-shifted form) is to instead build your stats into buffs. These can of any variety - on hit, on playerhit, on playercast, etc, etc... But what if you want a "permanent" stat gain from picking up that level, You can't make a buff that replaces that, can you? As a matter of fact, you can. In fact, if the level doesn't add any ability, it's as simple as adding an activable ability that adds a permanent, non-stackable free buff. Voila. You suddenly have a passive stat booster that carries over not just into Thing form, Diggle and Bat form, but also every other shape-shifting form that your fellow modders might want to make. On a sidenote, If you are going to make the Thing form compatible with other forms, then you might as well just drop conf/damage per level all together, and recode it into your buffs, instead. Why? Because negative stats from levels don't carry over onto shapeshifts anymore than positive ones do. Once you factor in ultimate horror, diggle form effectively lets you to gain most of the Thing's benefits (which are overpowered to compensate for the propensity to take extra damage), without ANY of the disadvantages. One way to work around this, while still keeping the "you become more vulnerable to conf. as you become more thing-y", you could instead code the relevant conf. damage penalty into limb-sprout buffs, then add a fixed probability to spawn one extra limb for each level you add. That being said, if you are willing to consider taking the mod into another direction all-together, i propose making the mod into a "shapeshifting assist" mod outright. So essentially, it would focus on passive onhit/onplayerhit buffs of various shapes and forms (which forms a large part of what the mod is currently about atm). You can still keep it a fun to play mod in and off-itself by including a "limb-sprout" ability at level 1. Essentially, that would be something akin to an ability that dishes out one normal attack, but also inflicts multiple instances of near zero/zero damage to yourself, thereby guaranteeing that you proc all your onplayerhit buffs.
You mean like those buffs with no time that can be deactivated any time? So there's a way to have one of those without the disable x button? Also, the defensive appendages you get on hit will add weakness, as I mentioned in the post #31, but making it possible to get more than one limb sounds like it should actually solve all the weaknesses issues and make it mod friendly with other shapeshifting mods out there. Maybe a max of 4 limbs in total? The more appendages you get, the more dangerous but vulnerable you get... I like that. I'll try to upload an update tonight so the community can test it. I'll try to test it too when I get back from home. Edit: My game died... I dunno what's wrong with it. The startup menu gets a red border and it closes automatically after a moment. If I try to run the game, even with no mods, it gets the red border too and closes automatically. Imma reinstall... I hope that helps. I might as well post about it in the support subforum.
Unless I am mistaken diggle god of war buffs are like that. In any case, the disable X button is academic. Who would want to deactivate a max level capstone buff? That being said, I'm pretty sure the disable factor can be coded out of the picture. Glad you like the idea. As to how many limbs would be ok, i'm not sure. I agree with kaidelong on the innate -8 conf. being a tough, but manageable penalty. So having 4 limbs that each give 2 weakness would be reasonable. However, having 4 limbs that grant 1 weakness, and 4 "non-damage mutations" that give another 1 would be more in keeping with the spirit of the Thing. For example, splitting your head into two to avoid getting hit... As for including an extra penalty of conf/blasting to prevent people from steamrolling through the early game by maxing this tree first, you can include stat buffs (activable ones) that also include a sizeable chunk of both conf/blasting (say three of each) every few levels.
Technically speaking, there's nothing stopping you from having some fun and just making it a time-based buff that automatically renews itself every so often, with each "iteration" of it working for longer than the period between two renewals. So either way, it is possible. You just need some creativity (or insanity).
There's something I can't seem to do. I separated the sprout ability into three: Lesser Sprout, Greater Sprout and Horrid Sprout. I tried several times but I can make multiple limbs to exist at the same time. Imma paste the code here to see if someone can help me and/or notice what I am missing. Code: <!-- Self Preservation --> <spell name="Lesser Sprout" type="self" wand="0"> <effect type="trigger" spell="Fangy Bite" percent="50" /> <effect type="trigger" spell="Bony Slash" percent="50" /> <effect type="trigger" spell="Fleshy Slap" percent="100" /> <description text="Quick self defence mechanism almost explosive in nature."/> <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/vomit_splat/vomit_splat" frames="5" framerate="70" sfx="fleshbore"/> </spell> <spell name="Greater Sprout" type="self" wand="0"> <effect type="trigger" spell="Nasty Spit" percent="50" /> <effect type="trigger" spell="Choking Tendril" percent="50" /> <effect type="trigger" spell="Gastric Gas" percent="100" /> <description text="Quick self defence mechanism almost explosive in nature."/> <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/vomit_splat/vomit_splat" frames="5" framerate="70" sfx="fleshbore"/> </spell> <spell name="Horrid Sprout" type="self" wand="0"> <effect type="trigger" spell="Chest Maw" percent="100" /> <description text="Quick self defence mechanism almost explosive in nature."/> <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/vomit_splat/vomit_splat" frames="5" framerate="70" sfx="fleshbore"/> </spell> <spell name="Fangy Bite" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff piercing="2"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-1" /> </buff> <description text="Woah! You just grew a mouth with sharp fangs on your arm!"/> </spell> <spell name="Bony Slash" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff slashing="2"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-1" /> </buff> <description text="One of your ribs just grew out of your chest and it's doing slashy movements!"/> </spell> <spell name="Fleshy Slap" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff crushing="2"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-1" /> </buff> <description text="Erm... There's something like a tumor with eyes on your shoulder. It looks mean."/> </spell> <spell name="Nasty Spit" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff acidic="1"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-2" /> </buff> <description text="Your mouth is suddenly oozing some green stuff. Nasty indeed."/> </spell> <spell name="Choking Tendril" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff asphyxiative="1"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-2" /> </buff> <description text="A tendril just spawned out of your body and it's looking for a victim."/> </spell> <spell name="Gastric Gas" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff toxic="1"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-2" /> </buff> <description text="Quick! Find a victim before it's too late!"/> </spell> <spell name="Chest Maw" type="self" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png" wand="0"> <buff useTimer="1" time="3" stacksize="1" self="1" icon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_64.png" smallicon="TehThing Skill/BioWepons_32.png"> <damagebuff piercing="1" slashing="3" crushing="1"/> <resistbuff conflagratory="-3" /> </buff> <description text="Your chest just opened! You soon realize your ribcage just turned into a maw of razor-sharp teeth! You can chop limbs off with this!"/> </spell> Note: Once I manage to make this work I'll add more appendages and probably edit the existing ones. Horrid Sprout works differently too. It runs when you hit a target instead of on player hit.
Buffs that use the same image appear as the same buff. All of them are being activated normally, but you can only see one because they all use BioWepons_64.png Should be weapons, by the way, unless I'm missing the joke.
You are right... I made other 2 images with different names and now it works. Thanks, I think I can use this... Also, when I was trying to make this work I came across a buff effect that I will use as the last skill lvl. Code: <spell name="Lesser Sprout" type="self" wand="0"> <effect type="dot" spell="Fangy Bite" percent="50" /> <effect type="dot" spell="Bony Slash" percent="50" /> <effect type="dot" spell="Fleshy Slap" percent="100" /> <description text="Quick self defence mechanism almost explosive in nature."/> <anim sprite="sprites/sfx/vomit_splat/vomit_splat" frames="5" framerate="70" sfx="fleshbore"/> </spell> Replacing effect type with "dot" will make the Lesser Sprout run the 3 buffs one after another non stop and will choose based on percentage. I can make the last skill an always mutating buff!
