Evocations Item Suggestion: Endless Tome

[varkarrus]

SO. I had this idea for my own roguelike, but ultimately I don't think it would work with what I have planned so far for it.

Anyways, it's an item, not unlike the Phial of Floods or Stone of Tremors, meaning you need the Evocations skill to use it properly. When used, you type in a string. Any string. We're talking "Abra Kadabra," "Hocus Pocus," "Wingardium Leviosa," "Presto Chango," or even "Bazinga"

Using some ELITE MATHS, that string is converted to lower case, stripped of every space and number in it, converted into a number itself, then (and this is an IMPORTANT part) multiplied by a number based off of the exact date and time you started this run. That number is used as a random number seed, and a random spell is generated from it. Damage, effect, where it targets, secondary effects, the duration of time afterwards that the Endless Tome is deactivated and cannot be used, a whole boat load of crap like that. A "value" for the spell is generated based off of the effects, and only if your evocations skill is high enough does it work. Most spells generated in this tome will drain your mana, but sometimes there will be more "esoteric" costs, such as health, hunger, stat drain, XP drain (like from wights and stuff), or just having a much longer than normal cooldown.

In the end, you basically have a book of endless spells that need to be ID'd by casting them, since the random number generated at the start means no two spellbooks are the same! Use trial and error to figure out which spells will help you the most, and write 'em down... at least, until you die, of course.

[wizzzargh]

This idea is so good it could be the entire magic system for a game.

I don't think it has the remotest possibility of getting into Crawl, but by golly I would be ALL the wizards in a game that had this as its magic system.

[Lyrick]

Someone's gonna find a way to abuse that, somehow

[Greyr]

Someone's gonna find a way to abuse that, somehow

"Time-scumming"

[Siegurt]

Indeed, this proposes a no-risk, highly tedious activity, for immense power benefit. This is the very definition of "scumming" and thereby falls completely counter to DCSS game philosophy

[Laraso]

Indeed, this proposes a no-risk, highly tedious activity, for immense power benefit. This is the very definition of "scumming" and thereby falls completely counter to DCSS game philosophy

SO. I had this idea for my own roguelike,

[Arrhythmia]

Indeed, this proposes a no-risk, highly tedious activity, for immense power benefit. This is the very definition of "scumming" and thereby falls completely counter to DCSS game philosophy

SO. I had this idea for my own roguelike,

You forgot the next sentence:

but ultimately I don't think it would work with what I have planned so far for it.

Very explicitly stating he doesn't want to use it in his roguelike, and by posting it onto the Crawl Forums, implying that he wants to use it in Crawl.

The medium is the message folks!

[varkarrus]

Spoiler: show

he?

Yeah, you're right, about it possibly being abused, just sit in temple and try out spell combos until you find something you like. Didn't really think about that. One possible fix is to make the cooldown tied to XP instead, similar to Geryon's horn. I also figure that with most spells, you won't inherently be able to know their entire effect just by casting it when no enemies are around. You might try a spell, figure it does nothing, when really what it does is create explosions on a bunch of enemies in LoS.

[Floodkiller]

Sounds like it would be easier to make using the tome of Destruction shout random magic words when used (also, buffing the tome of Destruction).

[Hirsch I]

Spoiler: show

he?

Yeah, you're right, about it possibly being abused, just sit in temple and try out spell combos until you find something you like. Didn't really think about that. One possible fix is to make the cooldown tied to XP instead, similar to Geryon's horn. I also figure that with most spells, you won't inherently be able to know their entire effect just by casting it when no enemies are around. You might try a spell, figure it does nothing, when really what it does is create explosions on a bunch of enemies in LoS.

or the created spells could include self damage, self mutations and stuff: you will not want to try so many combinations, or you will mess yourself up.

[duvessa]

http://youtu.be/9kBMscW_dVg?t=8m6s

[Greyr]

I support this idea because hamsters have the best ideas.