Kaja's Mod Ideas

So, I've got a bunch of mod ideas! I'm interested in seeing what people'd like to see first.

1. Mysterious Muscles. Inspired by Flex Mentallo, it lets you flex your muscles for some weird results. Planned ideas includes a brief Burliness buff to get in that big hit, a Hero Halo that buffs yourself and debuffs nearby enemies, a move where you tighten your muscles so much that all damage is prevented for one turn and everything that hits you bounces back, and a capstone that warps reality with funky results. This one might have to wait for some of the stuff in the Modding Requests thread to get implemented, though (not to mention Magic Reflection to actually work).

2. Dungeon Critic. Utility based rogue skill which lets you criticize Dredmor's dungeon, and make alterations to it. Things like adding and removing walls, adding traps, and an alternative source of lockpicks. Some trap handling skill in there too.

3. Well, Necronomiconomics kinda already has the eldritch horror angle covered, but I'm interested in an alternative take. More aetheral or existential damage than necromatic, less 'deal with horrors for tremendous power' and more 'struggling with concepts so alien they almost can't be understood, and becoming more and more alien yourself the more you comprehend'. Haven't yet figured out the full details, but will likely include substantial changes to your character (think ones as dramatic as Radiant Wizard, though along different lines), and a chance to turn into an eerie being upon casting a spell.

4. A morph-heavy skillset. Lets you turn into an assortment of beings, with each skill level giving a cancellable morph. The idea is that you morph to fit the situation, since each shape will have different capabilities such that you might want to tap different ones at different times.

 

I would also like to see the morph-based skill set. I also think a pet based skill would be very fun if anyone would make that.

 

A balanced Usurper-style mod wouldn't hurt a bit.

Consider making Dungeon Critic non-rogue, to spread the lockpick exp love around to another class. Mages already have some terrain reshaping available to them, so if you can flavor it into something Warrior-appropriate, that'd be super cool. He-Man Move-Furnituree!

 

Warrior-style Dungeon Critic... for some reason I find myself thinking of Film Critic Hulk. Somehow I could actually go with a bulking warrior who's an eloquent critic who uses muscle to emphasize his/her point.

And it sounds like there's a fair bit of interest in the morph class idea. I just need to come up with some concepts for the morphs and find ways to balance them.

 

Okay. Warrior-style Dungeon Critic won't receive as much trap-handling skills as a rogue version would (possibly none at all). Smithing does get a little trap handling, but it used to be a rogue skill, didn't it? You get lockpicks in a warrior skill, so you can just pick Tinkering if you particularly want trap handling. The thematic focus will be on the savage battleground of criticism.

As for the morph skillset, what class do you think would be most interesting to see it as? Right now the three classes have nearly equal access to morphs (Radiant Wizard and Warlockery for wizards, Dragon Knight for warriors, Werediggle and Lunar Heritage for rogues). Morphs with cooldowns will have pretty different balancing from those with MP costs... Come to think of it, I don't think morphs with MP upkeep have been done so I might go that direction.

Right now, I'm thinking maybe every other level will give a new form, with the other levels focusing on improvements for the existing forms. So, say, six levels and three forms. That'd be easier to work with than the five levels and five forms I was thinking of. Or I could go for four forms. Hmm.

I'm really interested in the eldritch skillset too, but I will do it as my third skillset since it's likely to be more complex than Dungeon Critic or the morpher skillset. As for Mysterious Muscles, I will be putting it on hold until there's more dev-coded support for some of my planned concepts (stuff suggested in the Mod Requests thread).

 

What would the name for the Morpher set be, what types of morphs did you have in mind, that might give some general directions.

 

Don't forget Vampirism for "wizards" (Batty Form) and Demonology for "rogues" (Demon Form). Niether one of them is terribly flavor-appropriate for it's relevant class, but there you go. Seems like Warriors could use the love.

Also, not that it really matters, but Warlockery's morph has a 1-per-turn mana cost.

 

Yeah, I just started playing around with Warlockery since I hadn't tried it out yet. Some interesting mechanisms. Really not sure how to make an effective Warlock build but there we go. It's definitely an unique skill tree. Also rather different than what I was planning to go for.

And neither Vampirism nor Demonology are really very shapeshifting oriented. Batty form isn't really a primary form, and Demonology's 1% chance is too erratic. But, still, going with Warrior (particularly since the eldritchy skill tree will also have a chance to morph on spellcasting thingy, and that's going to be wizard-oriented).

I've got some theme ideas in mind, and will settle on then whip up something.

 

DISREGARD I SUCK COCKS

I seem to have confused "Usurper" with a somewhat similarly-themed, crazy-ridiculous mod called "Dungeon Master". Carry on!

 

No one is.

No, seriously, I think Null worried once that it was OP, but I've never seen anyone -- myself included -- really try to play it to it's full potential. I think it's just too far on the fence between a melee skillset and a caster skillset, especially at levels 1 and 2.

 

Morph rox i thought of such and idea myself, a polymorpher skill set, also the third one sounds like Xenomancy or whatever it was called from DnD book of magic? (the one with the Destiny Mage).

 

The name of the morpher skillset shall be Wereeverything. Or maybe Allwere or Omniwere or even, for real language mangling, Wereomni. Whatever the name is, it shall be along that line.

 

Or Polydwarfing, changes you into lots of monsters...smaller than you, useful? ;P
EDIT: And no Diggles, you are allergic to Diggles ;P

 

Here are some morphs I think you'll need - based on some assumptions.
Assumptions:
- "you morph to fit the situation" "each shape will have different capabilities" - I assume that you are building utility morphs, in counterpoint to the combat morphs of Werediggle, Dragon Savant, etc
- Therefore, I assume the meat of your fighting abilities are supposed to come from other skillsets - because a skillset that does everything great is either too good, or boringly mediocre at everything.

Please correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm not, I think you'll want:
- A basic melee tank who does AoE knockback when you morph or when attacking. Not a deadly form, but one that can give you some breathing room while you wait for a cooldown or munch on consumables. Utility: it stays useful even in deep dungeon levels where melee combat is suicide, because it can check for breakable walls with even a low-damage AoE.
- A sneaky trapsenser (ideally has just enough invisibility+morph time to enter a room, pick up or put down a few traps while scouting, then switch forms for fighting or running away)
- An extremely magic resistant teleporter - this lets you move to the spot in the room where your combat skillsets (whether those be human, Werediggle, or otherwise) work best, without having to fear a rain of Octi aethereal missiles.

I think something similar to those three forms cover most of your basic needs while still leaving plenty of room for your other 6 skillsets to be tanky, dangerous, or spellslinging. Other utility forms you might consider - wallbuilder/digger, debuffer, buffer, summoner/healer...

Does that work with your existing ideas at all, or help? Spill more beans about your morpher idea! It's an exciting concept, so I'd love to hear what you're brewing! (And I will try to be patient if you decide to work on a less difficult, code-intensive mod first)

 

I was thinking more of, for example, a form with long distance attack and another with stronger melee attacks, and an AoE focused one for dealing with zoos (balanced so that it wouldn't be the superior damage option in all situations, probably with longer cooldown than the others). But your ideas're really cool, enough to tempt me to design two trees, with one combat focused and one utility focused. Hmmm. Plenty to think about.