Ing Song the Conqueror, the ally god

[The Ferret]

Ing Song the Conqueror

Ing Song is a god of conquest, who leads great armies on a never-ending campaign for land, gold, and glory. Unlike other gods who encourage finding glory in single combat, Ing Song extols the virtues of leadership, strategy and tactics. Devotees of Ing Song gain divine aid in amassing and leading their own armies, and especially talented followers may grant their allies divine blessings and inspire their followers to fight to the death in their service. As the patron of conquest, Ing Song demands that followers cleanse each floor of the dungeon of all enemies in the name of Ing Song's eternal empire.


Appreciates

• You clear levels. Ing Song will grant a chunk of piety when you kill (or otherwise dispose of) every enemy who inhabits a level when you first set foot on it. Piety is proportional to the size of the level and difficulty of enemies when you finish clearing the level (i.e. less piety is granted for clearing Zig:1 than for clearing Zig:27; much piety is granted for clearing D:3 with Sigmund on it on the first attempt, but virtually none is granted for coming back at XL20 to kill Sigmund.)

Does not appreciate

• Damaging allied creatures. Ing Song will shield your allies from damage caused by an unidentified item.

Given Abilities
Piety level -: "Cadet"

• Orders to your allies are instant and silent. (Passive)
• Ing Song informs you when all enemies initially present on a level are slain or otherwise dispatched. This ability operates even while under penance. (Passive)
• Intelligence: For a short time, Ing Song will reveal the locations of all further enemies who must be slain to clear the floor. This action fails (and you are spared draining) if too many enemies remain ("enemy forces are overwhelming"). This ability is available even when under penance. (Minor draining.)

Piety level *: "Lieutenant"

• Tactical Movement: Blink an ally of your choice to a smite-targeted location. Invocations increases the range and success rate of this ability. (Minor MP and hunger cost.)

Piety level **: "Captain"

• Aid to summoning and necromancy: Ing Song improves the quality of your allies. Summons have a piety-dependent chance of being improved by one level. Undead minions have a piety-dependent chance of having their HD increased. Rods that summon allies and scrolls of summoning may have their spellpower improved. (Passive)

Piety level ***: "Major"

• Rallying Cry: Each visible ally may gain a positive status from the following list: Agility, Resist, Might, Haste, Berserk. Invocations and piety improve the chance of gaining higher-level effects. Repeated uses may add more effects. (Moderate piety, MP and hunger cost.)

Piety level ****: "Colonel"
No new abilities.

Piety level *****: "General"

• Entrench: Each visible ally gains a significant bonus to melee damage, AC and HP, immunity to poison, electricity resistance, partial resistance to negative energy and torment, and has its stay in the world extended, but is rendered immobile for the duration of this effect. Invocations improves the bonuses. (Major piety, MP and hunger cost.)

Piety level ******: "Strategos"
No new abilities.

Wrath

• Ing Song casts one or more of the following spells at your location: [pretty much every ordinary summoning spell]
• Rallying Cry is invoked, empowering your foes.

Ing Song will often take both actions in sequence - cast Shadow Creatures at your location, then invoke Rallying Cry to buff them.

Special flavor

As the supreme military commander of the pantheon, Ing Song has a different high-ranking military title each game - this game it's Field Marshal Ing, next game it's Grand Admiral Ing, and so on. Ing Song is addressed by rank in in-game messages ("Supreme Commander Ing greatly appreciates your conquest.")

Notes and potential problems

Clearing floors - I'm not 100% sure how floors (and their attendant monsters) are generated, so this may or may not be feasible. If not, piety on kills wouldn't be a deal-breaker - this piety mechanic is flavor-inspired (you must clear the floor to conquer it) and seems interesting, but gameplay is more important than flavor.

Intelligence is to help track down stragglers so you can get the floor-cleared piety. I'm not sure if Drain is an appropriate cost. Maybe it should just be passive once X enemies remain. In that case, maybe it would be better for gameplay to suppress new enemy spawns for the duration of Intelligence, so you don't have to play a game of whack-a-mole on every floor. If clearing floors for piety is not a tenable mechanic and Ing Song just grants piety on kills, Intelligence is unnecessary and will be removed.

Entrench is basically immobile Statue Form for your allies. It might be a wee bit too strong, since you can just Entrench your allies, teleport away, and watch the "you feel more experienced" messages roll in risk-free. Perhaps the effect should end once an Entrenched ally leaves your line of sight?

Tactical Movement should be a pretty flexible tool with multiple applications - blink an ally behind enemies in a 1-tile hallway, blink allies to attack dangerous stationary enemies like oklob plants and statues, blink allies between you and enemies to cover your escape.

============

Summons and the ally game is an area that really hasn't been explored in the pantheon yet. There are plenty of gods that grant you allies, sure, but the only ones whose divine abilities interact with your allies are Elyvilon (healing), Zin (Sanctuary), TSO (Bless Allies), and Beogh (orcs). Unfortunately, the first three are good gods and so frown upon necromancy - probably the most common way of gaining allies - and Beogh is restricted to orcs (and, frankly, a bit annoying to play). Ing Song should be useful to anybody who wants to focus on the minion game.

Thoughts?

[Sprucery]

Sounds interesting. I guess if a monster falls down a shaft, you won't be penalized?

[Pteriforever]

Perhaps for the purpose of counting enemies, it could only count those that were on that floor to begin with?

[dornbeast]

Sounds interesting. I guess if a monster falls down a shaft, you won't be penalized?

Since I consider deliberately luring enemies into shafts to be good tactics, I'd count it as beating that opponent for the level. Of course, it will be added to a later level.

(One of my best moments - shafting Sigmund twice. Died before I found him again, alas.)

[CanOfWorms]

It seems strange that an ally focused god doesn't give players a means to gather allies.

[Hirsch I]

maybe he should give you a way of buying mercenaries (devs plz I want merc stores)

[The Ferret]

maybe he should give you a way of buying mercenaries (devs plz I want merc stores)

I figured that giving it ally gifts would step on too many toes, but this is a cool idea. Thanks!

Perhaps for the purpose of counting enemies, it could only count those that were on that floor to begin with?

That's the intent, but unfortunately it does make it a bit opaque since there's no way for the player to distinguish original enemies from spawned enemies. The best solution is probably a compromise (and a simpler approach) - when there are X or fewer enemies remaining on the floor, suspend enemy spawning and display the locations of all remaining enemies. (Put a reasonable timer on it so you can't leave a single weak enemy alive and have a 100% safe floor to retreat to and other such gamey tactics.) Or just piety-on-kills.

Since I consider deliberately luring enemies into shafts to be good tactics, I'd count it as beating that opponent for the level. Of course, it will be added to a later level.

This is fine. I was a little concerned about encouraging gamey tactics (imp parking for everyone!), but I suppose if you're strong enough to lure an enemy upstairs and ditch it there, you were probably strong enough to defeat it in the first place and you're just doing extra work to save a consumable or whatever.

[dornbeast]

Perhaps for the purpose of counting enemies, it could only count those that were on that floor to begin with?

That's the intent, but unfortunately it does make it a bit opaque since there's no way for the player to distinguish original enemies from spawned enemies. The best solution is probably a compromise (and a simpler approach) - when there are X or fewer enemies remaining on the floor, suspend enemy spawning and display the locations of all remaining enemies. (Put a reasonable timer on it so you can't leave a single weak enemy alive and have a 100% safe floor to retreat to and other such gamey tactics.) Or just piety-on-kills.

Maybe there should be something like, "Ing Song places a bounty on (X)!" when it's the last enemy. Preferably with a tracking method similar to timed side branches, or at least a notation when in LOS ("You see Saint Roka {bounty}.")

Since I consider deliberately luring enemies into shafts to be good tactics, I'd count it as beating that opponent for the level. Of course, it will be added to a later level.

This is fine. I was a little concerned about encouraging gamey tactics (imp parking for everyone!), but I suppose if you're strong enough to lure an enemy upstairs and ditch it there, you were probably strong enough to defeat it in the first place and you're just doing extra work to save a consumable or whatever.

No, sometimes I've ditched an enemy upstairs because I knew he'd beat my Spriggan senseless.

Oh, I just realized something. How would this god interact with player ghosts?

[The Ferret]

No, sometimes I've ditched an enemy upstairs because I knew he'd beat my Spriggan senseless.

Eh. If it's something you're willing to allow to linger in LOS, and then give at least one free hit to, it's something you could tediously kite to death like 90% of the time.

Oh, I just realized something. How would this god interact with player ghosts?

I don't see why they would be any different from other dangerous uniques. The piety curve will be generous enough to allow you to skip floors and still stay "on target" for typical piety amounts. Some of Ing's abilities should help you defeat player ghosts more safely with some builds - if you're at 3* piety, an improved, Rallied summon should be more able to damage a typical player ghost than an ordinary summon. (For example - Call Canine Familiar is likely castable at decent power when you're typically at 3* piety. While a player ghost may just roll through a hound, a mighted wolf is a different story, especially when you can plop it right next to the player ghost with Tactical Movement.)

I may rename it to Ingwu and cast it as Okawaru's god-sibling. Two martial siblings with opposite views on combat - one favors seeking glory in single combat, while the other favors seeking glory by commanding victorious armies.

[dornbeast]

No, sometimes I've ditched an enemy upstairs because I knew he'd beat my Spriggan senseless.

Eh. If it's something you're willing to allow to linger in LOS, and then give at least one free hit to, it's something you could tediously kite to death like 90% of the time.

One hit. Not two. And I was bad at kiting before the randomness to movement was added. I'd rather take one hit, ditch, heal, and move on.

Oh, I just realized something. How would this god interact with player ghosts?

I don't see why they would be any different from other dangerous uniques. The piety curve will be generous enough to allow you to skip floors...

Good point. As long as a body doesn't hit three or four floors with player ghosts/Siegfried-grade uniques in a row, it should be fine.