Saturday, September 3, 2011

New feature in JADE: Templates for beings

Since this has worked exceedingly well for the new rumor system I'd today like to ask for ideas and input to enhance yet another new subsystem in JADE (and please continue to provide such fantastic rumor ideas). I'm right now finishing the new template system for beings.

As I mentioned a couple of days ago on Facebook I'm right now adding undead to JADE. Technically undead are implemented as templates for existing beings (e.g. you can add the skeleton template to a goblin chieftain to get the goblin chieftain skeleton). Or you could add the "large" template to a goblin to make it a "large goblin" (effectively a medium sized one as the "large template" increases the size class of beings by one). Naturally there are many very nice things you can do with such a template system in order to increase the variance of monsters by leaps and bounds. Just think of the many cool templates I probably will add over time:

Examples for "prefixing templates":

  • large
  • huge
  • corrupted
  • demonic
  • sneaky
  • vile
  • mighty
Examples for suffixing templates (the first couple of ones being undead templates that I'm adding right now):

  • skeleton
  • zombie
  • ghul
  • spectre
  • ghost
  • lord/lady
  • abomination
So here's the question: What cool templates can you think of and what effects should they provide (keep in mind that templates basically can modify beings in any way - from simply statistics altering stuff like adding attribute points or hit points to advanced stuff like providing racial subtypes, granting special abilities, etc.). Let your creativity run wild!

26 comments:

  1. Why not add negative prefixes too? Weak goblins, blind ogres and fragile skeletons...

    Also age should be a variable. If you enter goblin cave with mob of angry goblins there should be children, elders, newborn babies.

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  2. Karmic.....haha no, just kidding, I'd cry. um....

    Rabid could be a prefix for animals and has a higher chance for serious disease on contact.

    Blessed could be a prefix that means the monster (it would have to have some semblance of intelligence) is close with their deity and could have access to some powers one way or the othe (or act as a blessed/fate smiles player would).

    Swift/Clumsy could modify speed.

    "Dragontouched" (or something like that) could increase the difficulty of a monster (possibly give it a breath weapon also) but also increase it's loot table exponentially.

    "Broodmother" suffix could make it spawn more of itself (or a lesser version).

    "Vampire" suffix could make it steal health but be susceptible to light.

    "Shaman" suffix for humanoids could make the creature have a small amount of ME and have it know 1 or 2 randomly chosen spells.

    That's all I got for now...

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  3. Ferocious: increased attack, decreased defence.

    Seductive: meele for (male?) Hero will cause heavy confusion. Drains Willpower. Little HP.

    Infected: chance of disease or bleeding for Hero.

    Predatory: will follow Hero until one of them is killed. High Dexterity, (low hp and attack?)

    Pilfering: will steal a random item from Hero on every attack, or a small % of Hero's gold. Nothing is returned upon death.

    Pious: depending on Deity of Hero and level of piety, monster will attack, do nothing or follow Hero.


    Anskar

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  4. How about a "Kamikaze" prefix (similar to vortices in ADOM? MOB explodes when it's next to you), or "ethereal" (desolid), "aquatic" (can swim), "frightening" (causes PC to panic by running away from the MOB? Could "panicked" become a PC condition, like "stunned" and "confused"?), "friendly" (almost always non-hostile) "frail" (weaker version than base MOB, gives less XP when killed perhaps), "infectious" (spreads a particular disease to adjacent PCs or even NPCs, possibly even causing the NPCs to acquire the "infectious" prefix as well?), or "undying" (killing MOB will immediately result in the MOB resurrecting from its corpse with the "undead" prefix)?

    For a suffix, probably any of the classes that a PC could play in ADOM (for example, "goblin cleric", "red dragon barbarian", "kobold thief", "black hurthling wizard", etc.), "summoner" (summons more of base creature type), "guard" (highly defensive), "noble" (carries a lot of gold), "berserker" (very high attack, minimal defense), "miner" (digs through walls), "trapper" (creates random traps around the level, almost immune to activating pre-existing traps), "king"/"queen"/"elder"/etc. (old, slow, non-hostile (at least to same-aligned PCs), may give a random quest when 'C'hatted to) or even "trader" (similar to "ratling traders" in ADOM; non-hostile by default, sells a single kind of ware when 'C'hatted to, not necessarily limited to food items).

    On a slightly on-topic side-note, it would be nice to see ranged MOBs act a bit smarter than they do in ADOM, and make them more likely to keep their distance from the PC (at least until their ammo runs out!) Many PC Archers/Mages/etc employ shoot-and-run tactics, so why shouldn't NPCs?

    It's after 4am here, so I profusely apologize if any of my suggestions are ridiculous or terrible...

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  5. Heh, my post took me over an hour to write, and so many of my suggestions were already ninja'd by others. Oh well.

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  6. Ohhh very cool! One thing though, how would you define an "Abomination" I kinda define it as a corpsegiant, basicly built out of multiple corpses, how would you add such a template on say.. a goblin?

    Sounds cool nonetheless! keep up the good work! :D

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  7. Maybe construct template - with subtype of metal type, some vulnerable to water some leave worthy remains (gold goblin construct :P ) but this should very rare.
    Golems would be nicely done with templates - basically they don't live so, they don't feel, can't be scared, and subtypes are obvious.

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  8. Here are my few throws:
    for pre:

    "Starving"-decreased stats by 50%,steals(and eat) food in close contact

    "Immortal"-cannot be killed,so the only ways to deal with it is avoid/lock in room - this is not OP pre-remember that at one point in ADOM you was able to kill EVERY monster with magic missle,besides one immortal monster on level shouldnt destroy your game,maybe little annoying/challenging

    "Friendly" - neutral state untill it sees you doing lawful act (if its chaotic) or chaotic act (if its lawful)

    "Ultravital"- regenerates very quickly


    These above arent very creative imo but next one could be awsome(to those who have watched "Dark City" sci-fi thriller its all said in one word :) )

    "Tuner" (alternative "Stranger")- this suffix template would allow monster to bend spacetime (this ability is called "tuning" in the film) and for example:
    - immadietly warp next tile to player (ADOM's mindcrafter)
    - telekinetic blast (ADOM's mindcrafter)
    - annihilates normal tile and transforms it to blackhole(tile would become plain-cannot be reached by any means,things shot inside vanish and dissapear)-ok maybe "blackhole" term isnt very fortunate(physic time/event horizon concept)
    - tunes the local reality and exchanges random tiles on sight
    - uses bleed and stab attack when melee (I dont know why,but these "tuners" were using...knifes in close contact(even thou they possessed power of telekinesis and changing the reality. For some(unnamed) reason i still like it )

    Btw this is great movie and it really deserves accent.Maybe to futuristic ideas like for medieval JADE,i might be wrong. But hey,its your fault,my imagination have just went wild :)

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  9. Nocturnal - : Imune to effects of darkness, penalties to attack in day on ov er land map?

    Crippled - : Lower move and XP

    Pious - : Effects reputation if killed

    Whistling - : "You hear a strange melody in the distance."

    Frightened - : Runs from you

    -slime: Slip under doors?

    - * Elemental: Gains an additional elemental attack and weakness

    Faetouched - : Randomly teleport

    Primitive - : Highr HP

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  10. But please, don't do random prefixes and suffixes on monsters like in diablo, it will ruin all the beauty of the game. Just imagine a vault filled with nocturnal big goblins, frightened whistling goblin skeletons, and so on. It would be awful, what kind of insane wizard could create such place? Set of templates must be fixed for every monster and may be for every situation.
    I see something like nocturnal goblins attack you at night in wilderness, and there will be some mighty and some crippled ones.

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  11. I laughed hard thinking about a fleeing gang of frightened whistling gobling skeletons.

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  12. I'm loving the "whistling" prefix. Please introduce this :D
    I think the infected (diseased would sound more natural) is a good idea. Quick (nimble?) and slow/sluggish/lethargic might be interesting prefixes, though quick would be hard to escape!

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  13. I'd also like to see all classes also being suffixes ("goblin fighter/goblin theif/goblin paladin" etc). What would be interesting is if you could band some monsters so they act in groups, like follow each other around, heal each other and so on. So you could come across an 'adventuring party' of a human fighter, elven mage, goblin thief, bard, cleric and ranger. That could be interesting!

    Similar to this, I would also like to see "leader" type suffixes to have groups that follow them as well. So you would almost never see a Goblin King by himself - part of his challenge is that he always has goblin bodyguards (usually with some tough suffixes), and they fight harder while he is alive - but might run in fear if he dies! A gnoll warlord might have a pair of hyenas as his bodyguard. A dark elf lord or a vampire lord might have slaves fighting for them ("thrall" could be a suffix that simply means that this creature is enslaved and fights only to protect his master).

    "Crippled" - this creature is weaker than others of its kind.

    "Chimera" - this creature has the heads and abilities of three random animals - for example, a fire lizard/blink dog/displacer beast chimera attacks three times (once with each head) and can also teleport, breathe fire and is difficult to hit!

    "Were" - for werewolves, werebears etc.

    "stone" - high PV, slow movement rate, prefers to guard doors/hallways/altars instead of moving around. Could also have "mithril" "adamantium" "eternium" as stronger versions. Higher chance of dropping ore or 'statues' when killed.

    You could also show the tactics a monster is using. "Cowardly/cautious/aggressive/berserker" which has the obvious modifiers to DV and to hit. This could change during battle - a seriously wounded aggressive goblin might suddenly become a seriously wounded cowardly goblin!

    Keep up the good work!

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  14. People have already suggested diseased, but I'll add that it should make the monster weaker as well. I envision the sort of monster you can take out from afar easily enough if you see it coming, but if it gets close, it can mess you up. It'd be good if they left diseased corpses as well.

    Albino. No change to combat abilities, but changes the colour of the monster displayed to the player to white.

    Protective/den-mother/something similar. Fights extra fiercely to protect her young. Will become enraged if she sees any of her young die.

    Cunning. Increased crit chance, lower chance to trigger traps, etc.

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  15. I just imagined warband gnoll party,well structurized with Mighty Gnoll General, Gnoll Captains, Colonels, Clerics, Rangers etc...where each title provides proper modifications(like 300% boosted stats inlcuding speed!,healing abilities,can shoot through obstacles and alies etc)

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  16. I love whistling and albino. Seriously. They don't really do anything "useful" but they would add flavour to the game, and having lots of tiny details is what roguelikes are all about :)

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  17. insane - they scream things at the PC, move very quickly, can confuse you and want to kill you

    lets not forget....
    DRUNKARD! - takes your money, suffers almost no ill effects from hp loss (cant feel pain), very uncordinated, but if you talk to them they might start crying and you can leave

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  18. Drunkard could also be a template for townspeople rather than for dungeon monsters.

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  19. Other templates for townspeople: mute (cannot speak), crippled (walks slowly), pretty/handsome (+Ap), ugly (-Ap), old (weaker stats), young (stronger stats).

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  20. I'd like to point out that you can't (in real life) determine all special properties of a person/being just by looking at it. Maybe the complete name of the creature (as in goblin thief vs plain goblin) in JADE should be revealed only after it uses its abilities. In case of a thief no one can recognize a thief from a distance but you will realize it when he steals something from you. That is if you notice, here's when a high perception would be actually very useful, maybe helping to determine the special abilities from a distance too when high enough.

    I really like the idea of professions as a suffix and it should be considered how they affect the being's behavior. Again the thief for example: a good thief would be hard to notice, seeming harmless or friendly but after stealing something it should try to run away from the level with the loot. Maybe a suffix/prefix to the suffix (too much? :) could describe the level of skill of the creature's profession from novice to master, as in goblin master thief or goblin thief novice?

    Certain professions should IMO be also constricted to some monsters. It just doesn't sound right to have a lich farmer or a titan thief. Maybe the race would bring an extra spice to the profession. An undead weaponsmith for example would be awesome! Just think of the unholy weapons it would forge (and sell?).

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  21. I really like the idea of "immortal" (cannot be killed, you have to avoid it). I would suggest two more things for this type - first, it's very very rare (like 1 in one million chance) and two, there is one other way to beat it - a prayer may remove it's immortality, but may possibly cause other repercussions from the immortal's deity!

    I'm not sure what you thought of the 'army' idea (ie, goblin king surrounded by lots of goblins, including powerful goblin types and some other monsters associated with goblins like spiders and wolves). But you could make an interesting quest out of this with an "army" on its way to attack a city! The goblin army would be so big you would actually see it on the world map as a 'g', which would gradually move closer and closer to a settlement. Stepping on the icon would immediately pull you into a very big battle against the entire army!

    "Chosen" - A monster blessed by his gods, higher stats and equipped with the signature weapons of his race. When seriously wounded will 'pray' for various effects - healing, monster summoning, teleporting to safety etc. Similar to what happens when you pray too much, a PC might be amused to see a chosen struck down by his own god for praying too much!

    "Primal" (or "Ancient", or "Forgotten") - I was thinking of this when you said that Ancardian zombies don't have zombie rot. Well a Primal Zombie would - forgotten by time and sealed away until today, this creature is one of the most pure, original members of it's type, and has a lot of powerful abilities that have been lost over time!

    "Vampire" - already suggested, but vampires should also drain health when they attack, and go beserk if they come into contact with the blood fluid.

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  22. I like the "starving" mechanic listed above.

    Moribund - This creature will be wildly aggressive, utilizing the maximally aggressive tactics setting (or equivalent), and will tend to be reckless, as it is about to die; the flip side is that from the time it first is discovered by the adventurer, it will have a limited number of turns before dying on its own.

    Hive - This would constitute a creature which is a construct of a hive system on the level. For example, there may be a Hive Dragon on an ant level which is literally made of ants, but has the properties of a dragon whose elemental type most-closely matches the ants which make it up (acid perhaps in this case, or poison for bees, etc.) Some of its attributes would be those which best-match the constituent creatures, and its behavioral AI can effectively be that of the constituent creature (a dragon that thinks itself an ant.) Upon death, such a creature may burst into a collection of the constituent creatures.

    Constructs - A more general analogue of the "hive" type, the construct creature type could be applied, rather than simply to humanoid constructs/golems, to other creature models: steel jackal, iron wolf, clay lion, diamond skeleton, etc. Their attacks would mostly remain those of the animal model, but augmented by some things like steel golems' fire breathing, etc. Armor would follow exclusively from the construct subtype, but hp and probably damage would track closely with that of the animal type (modified to some degree, no doubt.)

    Projection (suffix) - This would be a physical manifestation of a powerful creature sleeping on the same level. In some cases, the projection may be the more powerful form, in other cases, the actual monster (if monster it be.) Not to be exceedingly vague, but I would expect a projection to have significant damage type limitations both in direct ("physical") attacks, and in spells (even if they use a spell which might otherwise manifest as some other element), and similarly, some immunities/weaknesses. In some cases, killing the projection may wake the true creature, and as such, evading the projection to go for direct attacks against the creature may at times be the most-effective plan. Projections may be oblivious of their host-creature's separate identity (believing themselves to be the actual creature, and making related mistakes in judgement), or may be aware (and as such, extremely protective) of its true self.

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  23. What about a *Mimick? Every monster with the Mimick suffix would have the same stats, so you would only know the difference between Mimcks and non-mimicks when looked at.

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  24. I lost my comment :(

    OK, so ideas:

    Prefixes:

    Ambidextrous -- uses two weapons without penalties
    Murderous -- kills indiscriminately, friend or you
    Honorable -- kills monsters until it's just you and him left, then challenges you to a duel
    Mutated -- has a corruption from standard list (could be some more fun ones, like having two extra arms or having your mouth sealed shut -- don't need to eat or drink, but on the other hand can't eat or drink beneficial things and can't speak)
    Cursed -- your equipment might get cursed if it touches his body, so might you yourself. Gives a lawful boost when killed
    Wise -- has a ball spell with big area (you know what the main use of wisdom is :) )

    Suffixes:
    Puppeteer -- controls and coordinates other monsters' movements
    Outcast -- attacked by its own race
    Trader -- mobile shopkeeper, has a big loot and sells when chatted with. Generally sells only small items (herbs, potions, rings). Either tough or accompanied by armed group.

    New classes in JADE could start as a monster suffix and be promoted to full class when they get enough fans.

    Chimeric templates: ways to combine creatures.

    Lycanthropes (humanoid/mammal), could get things like goblin werewolf or human wereweasel (perhaps with a talent for bureaucratic work).
    Can actually change on basis of moon cycle, transform into humanoid form after death. Could be expanded into reverse lycanthropes (animal is their base form and human the transformation) or even animal/animal ones.

    Griffins (mammal/bird), from small sparrow/mouse to a huge Rukh/Behemoth. Even water-based penguin/dolphin griffins! Have bird head, six limbs (bird wings/bird legs/mammal hind legs).

    Merfolk (humanoid/fish), different kinds of merfolk for fresh/sea water (as there are different kinds of fish), back part might also be shark or a deep-ocean fish.

    Alternate merfolk (humanoid/cephalopod), based on octopuses, squids, cuttlefish etc. For example, imagine a giant/kraken merfolk type.

    Centaurs (humanoid/mammal), humanoid torso replacing the mammal's head. A quickling/squirrel centaur might be fun for small size, a centaur with a giant torso might have a body of an elephant!

    Snaketail (mammal/snake), snake replaces the mammal's tail.

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  25. some more from me:

    pre

    "impious" - enrages your god from time to time ("You feel the presence of sacrilegious beeing."; "Your feel less in contact with your god")

    "Enlightened" - improved spell/missle/melee(!) ranges by some factor

    "All-round" - you might be suprised when goblin rockthrower casts acid bolt at you ;)

    "Noble" - if you have <10 of life left it leaves you but only when you wait 10 turns not moving. But at the char summary(at the end) you will have to read " Noble Titan showed you mercy in a one-sided fight!"

    suff:

    "soul" - attacks in astral plane only (which is only ppl with 100 conentration or any monks can see and suffer dmg). Melee characters will have some advantage now :) (taken from Gemmel's novel - Waylander)

    "watcher/scanner" - ignores stealth/insibility and calls alarm so everyone affected by its shout will see you

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  26. Not sure if you'll actually read this or see this, but it's been going around in my head for a while, and I have to write it down.

    Based on the Chinese dig sites, we could add the monster "Terracotta Warrior" and the prefix "Terracotta". The terracotta prefix gives +50% HP, +10 PV, makes it a construct type, gives a weakness to 'sleep' attacks, and the monster follows the behaviour of the Terracotta Warriors.

    Terracotta warriors are a floor feature, like a beehive or anthill. They have a very very rare chance of being spawned, and going into the room looks like this:
    http://i56.tinypic.com/t9zlzs.png

    They're all sleeping at the moment... but the more noise you make, the more of them will wake up, and soon they start to wake each other up.

    Do PC's make "noise", based on their equipment and actions, like the library in ADOM? For example, plate mail is 'loud', while robes are 'quiet'? Longswords are 'loud', while crossbows are 'quiet'? You can avoid battle with Terracotta warriors so long as you don't wake them.

    In a similar fashion, you could make an entire dungeon themed around them. The idea is, it's a 2-3 floor dungeon, that's been sealed until you open it, and only has rooms and rooms of terracotta type enemies. So this room might have Terracotta Orcs, while the next room might be full of Terracotta Displacer Beasts. Unlocking the dungeon starts to wake them up - what you want to do is activate the switch or access the treasure room on the bottom floor (which will make more wake up if they are asleep) while being as stealthy, and quiet, and quick as you can!

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