Thursday, 12th September 2019, 13:10 by Shtopit
OK, so, the objectives.
One objective is that of creating a species that makes certain choices independently of equipment. The reason comes later.
Second, the idea is that the species should play different from other species, without being ultra-limited in its choices. So, a species that is different without being Felid or Octopode.
The "no feet - flying instead" deal was born out of thematic reasons, but they aren't the only ones. No feet means being cut out from one of the most powerful items in the game, the boots of running. I think that they can trivialise most games. The constant flight that cannot be stopped means that you are simply weak against airstrike, you don't have the thing where you have to get bored swapping flight on and off.
And this is one reason why I think that choosing your own resistances independently of equipment can be good. It means no swapping.
There is another reason for these resistances. There correctly was some talk about new vs old players, who would see different needs and choose different resistances. Isn't that good? A player that struggles to get beyond Lair will like being able to get a relevant resistance. Yes, he will die later. But he would die anyway. In the meantime, he saw and learned something new, without having to rely on the RNG.
And it means a different relationship to equipment and inventory. It means choosing ego armour differently. Enhancer rings are simply enhancer rings. It means lower inventory pressure.
This having been said, I tried to think about how strong the species would be, but I couldn't really eyeball it. Elemental resistances are important, but also depend on playstyle. I think there was some famous post some time ago discussing how unnecessary they were. For me, they are pretty important. So the resistance system also works as a tradeoff for the nice things.
Argon Flash could be powered up. For example, you could also receive a corrosive aura and immunity to corrosion with corrosion removal while it lasts.
Now, I admit that, in retrospective, the choice of Elec as punch brand was rather silly. It works on just about everything, like claws, and it would need a recalculation of progression. Which other brand would be good and how it should be chosen (should the player get the choice?) is an open question. I right now like the idea of silver punches (like claws 1 + bonus against chaotic creatures), but that's pretty niche; then again, it could serve as a useful balance in Abyss and Pan (?). It also wouldn't be overwhelmingly superior to using weapons.
Concerning immunity to mutations, the idea came from thematic reasons (stable gas), but it also was because I think that there is a consistent subset of players who have less fun having to worry about teleportitis, berserkitis, or horns making your awesome helmet fall down. I had to add the health damage, because, otherwise, one could get fire immunity and make pets out of fire orbs.
The resistances peak at 100%, I wouldn't allow the player to go to 150%, simply because I have no idea of how it would work. Because Crawl gives odd values to +++, there should be text stating that 50% is 50% and 100% really means immunity. About poison, it probably would be better if 50% just worked like rPois+, but 100% were still immunity. If more elements are added, then I would also add one or more 50% to distribute.
Everything that wasn't otherwise specified I imagined as Human (tweakable).
I actually like the idea of elemental enhancers that you get to distribute. I would make them separate from the resistances, however. I am not sure if the species would become overladen.
I Feel the Need--the Need for Beer
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