Generic Brainstorming!

[nicolae]

I was reading about the game Arkham Horror and then started looking up Wikipedia articles on the Cthulhu mythos and thought that we didn't really have a god whose focus was on the End of All Things and Gibbering Horrors and Obscene Rituals and such. There was an idea on the devwiki for a god whose powers would not be based on Piety. Rather, you would make a Pact: give up a few points of max HP and it would convert into "pact", a variable which you could then use to purchase from a selection of powers (mostly necro+summoning-based, it was initially proposed as a rehaul of Kiku).

For cultists of the Horror From Beyond the Stars, instead of maxHP (or perhaps in addition to it) you could sacrifice a number of other things -- points of stats, or skills, or body parts (losing your off-hand, for instance...) In return, you can use the Pact from your sacrifice to purchase powers to use -- summoning horrors, causing fear or insanity, raging destruction. Some powers could be a sacrifice in and of themselves, like a body slot mutation. A variation: as you play, your god offers you powers at random times and tells you what you must do to gain that power. "You receive a horrific revelation: For the cost of 3 max HP, you can gain the power to inspire fear and insanity in those who see you. Do you accept? [Y/n]"

I had the idea that by the end of the game, a follower would probably be too deformed to use most weapons and armor but their bodies would be so utterly inhuman and their powers would be so great that this would not be a problem. Who needs crystal plate mail when your spongy flesh absorbs blows and swallows up weapons? For the deranged cultists of this god, becoming a horrific abomination is the greatest thing they can hope for.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

And when such a character picks up the Orb of Zot, the game shuts itself down and asks the computer to reboot itself.

[Confidence Interval]

And when such a character picks up the Orb of Zot, the game shuts itself down and asks the computer to reboot itself.

Touching the Orb produces the BSOD

[nicolae]

And when such a character picks up the Orb of Zot, the game shuts itself down and asks the computer to reboot itself.

Nah. Make it so when your character dies, the horrors from beyond awaken and devour your hard drive.

[ximxim]

Random spell ideas!

Curse of Mortality:
Level 8 Hex
Touch Range
Stops regeneration and does a "small" amount of unresistable damage each turn if it gets through MR. Scroll of vulnerability and this would be a viable way to deal with end-game threats.

Warp Gate:
Level 9 Translocations
Instantly teleports caster to a random visited level of a random branch with a decent chance to end up in the Abyss. Deals a fair amount of damage (playing with the fabric of reality not being very healthy), 15-35 or so. Yet another escape option with a drawback, but translocation needs some highlevel spells.

Warp Storm:
Level 8 Translocations
Creates a vortex in the fabric of reality, a bit like an intentional translocations miscast field. 3x3, effect strongest in the middle square. Lasts 20 turns, deals distortion damage to anything trying to walk through. Monsters have a chance based on HD to resist, otherwise suffer translocation miscast type effect, mainly random blinking. Could have it affect walls as well. Strategy with this would be to set up several ones in a row.

A bit like the portal storm suggestion on here, though I hadn't heard of it when I thought of this...

[greepish]

Random acquirements from SoA!

Acquire good mutation (misc. or own category)
Acquire brand (includes holy/distortion/etc)
Acquire Ally (long-lasting Demon/Angel/tentacled monstrosity)

[varsovie]

And when such a character picks up the Orb of Zot, the game shuts itself down and asks the computer to reboot itself.

Touching the Orb produces the BSOD

So you must play on Linux to win.

[Tiber]

Now you've got me thinking of Eternal Darkness' sanity effects. While those wouldn't quite fit, it does give me an idea.

Xom needs some meta acts. Like, go down the stairs, and there's Mennas right next to you. One turn later, *poof* Just Kidding!

[nicolae]

Now you've got me thinking of Eternal Darkness' sanity effects. While those wouldn't quite fit, it does give me an idea.

Xom needs some meta acts. Like, go down the stairs, and there's Mennas right next to you. One turn later, *poof* Just Kidding!

*sits in the wings with a gigantic Vaudeville-style hook, waiting for the Chuck Testa joke*

[Grimm]

randart food clock

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

randart food clock

  Code:

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup Tavern version 0.10-a0-1287-g3d597c8 character file.

1243544 Grimm the Barkeeper (level 27, -12/209 (211) HPs)
             Began as a Mountain Dwarf Textwriter on 17 Dec 2010.
             Was the Champion of Okawaru.
             One-shotted by an Angry Forum Flooder
             ... wielding a +5,+1 rail gun of DraconisTech
              (120 damage)
             ... while paralysed by the feeling of deep guilt
             ... caused by a randart suggestion
             ... in topic 950 of the Crazy Yiuf Corner on Nov 18, 2011.

<...>

Message History

  I'm tired of your randart suggestions,
      /    Grimm.
     /                     `.
    0 ______           \X  - :--
   [|--;--;           _/\  .`
   / \                /
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯


[Grimm]

Randart Russians.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Well, there are some gifted men among us.

[Confidence Interval]

Randart Grimmisms.

the cursed +5,+6 halberd of Grimm {slay Russians, Int-3}

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

With that Intelligence malus, he wouldn't even be able to blink!
And whenever we said сометхинг лике тхат, he would get цонфусед, so it's not the weapon.

[Confidence Interval]

With that Intelligence malus, he wouldn't even be able to blink!
And whenever we said сометхинг лике тхат, he would get цонфусед, so it's not the weapon.

I think most of us will end up цонфусед if you keep mixing your languages like that. It was bad enough with Grimm's German...

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

You forgot about the final part of the introductory verse from The Flowers of Evil.

[Confidence Interval]

You forgot about the final part of the introductory verse from The Flowers of Evil.

To say nothing of Hegel.

Life is like Crawl is like art is like Crazy Yiuf's Corner: all potentially very confusing.

[ekolis]

I have new way to kill goblins! Ratatatatata... KABOOM! What you say, Sandvich?

[Roderic]

Xom should break the 4th wall sometimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Jokes aside, here is a suggestion.

The +5 gauntlets of Lightning {Dex-1}:
a pair of strange gauntlets, covered with weird-looking pieces and stripes of metal and cumbersome to wear.
They appear to be one of the strange devices created by Nikola for his own means – and judging by the rust on the metal, their creator lost need in them soon after their creation.

When evoked, they get charged up with electricity (like a max-charged Confusing Touch): whenever you hit anyone in unarmed combat with pre-charged gloves, there is a chance for an “explosion of sparks” (and, if that is too good, each portion of sparks might cost you 1-5 HP).
Basically, they give evokable temporary Electrocuting Touch to UC-lovers.


Is it over/underpowered?

[Confidence Interval]

Xom should break the 4th wall sometimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

You mean he should look out of the computer at me as a way of deconstructing the game/reality boundary?

[Roderic]

Xom should break the 4th wall sometimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

You mean he should look out of the computer at me as a way of deconstructing the game/reality boundary?

Yep! Some hillarious comments about your dress or your room, e.g.

[Roderic]

Jokes aside, here is a suggestion.

The +5 gauntlets of Lightning {Dex-1}:
a pair of strange gauntlets, covered with weird-looking pieces and stripes of metal and cumbersome to wear.
They appear to be one of the strange devices created by Nikola for his own means – and judging by the rust on the metal, their creator lost need in them soon after their creation.

When evoked, they get charged up with electricity (like a max-charged Confusing Touch): whenever you hit anyone in unarmed combat with pre-charged gloves, there is a chance for an “explosion of sparks” (and, if that is too good, each portion of sparks might cost you 1-5 HP).
Basically, they give evokable temporary Electrocuting Touch to UC-lovers.


Is it over/underpowered?

Depends on the availability to find a line power adapter.

Seriously, electric gloves always sounds good in any situation.

[varsovie]

Jokes aside, here is a suggestion.

The +5 gauntlets of Lightning {Dex-1}:
a pair of strange gauntlets, covered with weird-looking pieces and stripes of metal and cumbersome to wear.
They appear to be one of the strange devices created by Nikola for his own means – and judging by the rust on the metal, their creator lost need in them soon after their creation.

When evoked, they get charged up with electricity (like a max-charged Confusing Touch): whenever you hit anyone in unarmed combat with pre-charged gloves, there is a chance for an “explosion of sparks” (and, if that is too good, each portion of sparks might cost you 1-5 HP).
Basically, they give evokable temporary Electrocuting Touch to UC-lovers.


Is it over/underpowered?

Depends on the availability to find a line power adapter.

Seriously, electric gloves always sounds good in any situation.

Pull down your pants, I need to check your prostate.

Anyway this gloves aren't overpowered, since good UC users (claws) won't be able to use them and other may have a way better weapon. Why not give it an effect like the disc of storm that randomly trigger when attacking?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Jokes aside, here is a suggestion.

The +5 gauntlets of Lightning {Dex-1}:

<cut cut cut!>

Anyway this gloves aren't overpowered, since good UC users (claws) won't be able to use them and other may have a way better weapon. Why not give it an effect like the disc of storm that randomly trigger when attacking?

Minmay said the same on the Brainstorm wiki (if you meant that it should get auto-activated, not evocable -- I'm not saying about wrecking everything and hurling ball lightning at titans). I guess you know better. =)

[Grimm]

Xom should break the 4th wall sometimes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_wall

You mean he should look out of the computer at me as a way of deconstructing the game/reality boundary?

Yep! Some hillarious comments about your dress or your room, e.g.

Xom gasps "What did you do to your hair?"
Xom sneers "That robe makes you look like an obese wet clown."
Xom smirks at your taste in furniture.
Xom chortles "Your girlfriend's surname is .jpg, isn't it."


доес тхат мэт ъитх ёур аппровал, цомраде?

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

Ит доес нот ыет, сыр Гримм. Иоу стилл неед море оригиналиты!

[pratamawirya]

доес тхат мэт ъитх ёур аппровал, цомраде?

Ит доес нот ыет, сыр Гримм. Иоу стилл неед море оригиналиты!

AAAARRRGGH

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

доес тхат мэт ъитх ёур аппровал, цомраде?

Ит доес нот ыет, сыр Гримм. Иоу стилл неед море оригиналиты!

AAAARRRGGH

Well, that is how some Russians feel when they see translit (Cyrillic symbols replaced by their Latin "analogues" due to some possible encoding glitches). The principle used is almost Inverse Translit, except that I try to replace each letter with only a single letter and that some are not pronounced in a similar way (Latin c > Russian ц [somethile close to that in "to cite", in example] and y > ы [ы is pronounced here: Operatsiya... Y!]).

Grimm found an excellent antitranslit analogue for w (ъ). =)
In Russian, actually, ъ and ь are not pronounced (they affect the previous letter, slightly changing its pronunciation).

[Grimm]

доес тхат мэт ъитх ёур аппровал, цомраде?

Ит доес нот ыет, сыр Гримм. Иоу стилл неед море оригиналиты!

AAAARRRGGH

http://2cyr.com/ might help

Xom finds your linguistic confusion hilarious!

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

доес тхат мэт ъитх ёур аппровал, цомраде?

Ит доес нот ыет, сыр Гримм. Иоу стилл неед море оригиналиты!

AAAARRRGGH

http://2cyr.com/ might help

Whoa, a Bulgarian site. =) But still, ъ and ь are not pronounced in Russia: you almost цонfуsед me with it.

[Grimm]

цонfуsед

ц = k ?

[pratamawirya]

By the way, this year I turned 27, and got my first win.

[MyOtheHedgeFox]

цонfуsед

ц = k ?

ц = [ts]. Something faster and more, well, "beak-tappingly" staccat-ish.

By the way, this year I turned 27, and got my first win.

Nice. =)

[Confidence Interval]

By the way, this year I turned 27, and got my first win.

Congratulations on both achievements!

[AtT]

It's not possible to advance in age past 27 is it?

[Grimm]

I can confirm that that is correct.

[Serne]

About a week or so ago I had a weird idea for an unrand, but haven't been able to come up with a weapon type to go with the flavor for it. The idea is the for blade of the weapon to be made of 'frozen lightning.'

Basically it would be a dual branded weapon(freezing&lightning), most probably of a low base damage weapon type with a negative on the hit chance and small positive for damage(lightning is kinda hard to control but hurts badly covers that part of the flavor.) So it would be -x/+y. the problem is I keep thinking that no matter what weapon it's base is with two brands it would probably be overpowered.

Another idea that I had which was along the same line is an unrandart that's similar to the Mace of Variability in a way. in that it has 2 brands but each time it is generated in game those brands are randomized(with freezing & fire never being on it together)

[Tiber]

Makes me think, why is there no chaos-branded unrandart?

I've also thought about an unrandart made from a blink frog, that has a chance to do an uncontrolled blink when hit, among other things. The chance is higher at low health, or when you suffer a major injury ("Ouch, that hurt!).

[Tiber]

Makes me think, why is there no chaos-branded unrandart?

http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php? ... ariability

...stupid out-of-date wiki.

[nicolae]

Makes me think, why is there no chaos-branded unrandart?

I've also thought about an unrandart made from a blink frog, that has a chance to do an uncontrolled blink when hit, among other things. The chance is higher at low health, or when you suffer a major injury ("Ouch, that hurt!).

Uncontrolled blinking, either for the wielder or the target, would probably be a huge disincentive to wield it, especially if the wielder gets blunk.

[Tiber]

Makes me think, why is there no chaos-branded unrandart?

I've also thought about an unrandart made from a blink frog, that has a chance to do an uncontrolled blink when hit, among other things. The chance is higher at low health, or when you suffer a major injury ("Ouch, that hurt!).

Uncontrolled blinking, either for the wielder or the target, would probably be a huge disincentive to wield it, especially if the wielder gets blunk.

The idea is that if something is about to kill you, it's an unpredictable way to get a head start running away. It's risky, but the item could be good for ranged fighters, especially against melee threats.

[Grimm]

I have found that an uncontrolled blink is one of the last things I want during a melee, especially if there is a group of opponents, as there usually is.

[nicolae]

The idea is that if something is about to kill you, it's an unpredictable way to get a head start running away. It's risky, but the item could be good for ranged fighters, especially against melee threats.

The problem is that you could end up getting blunk right into the pack of melee threats you're trying to run from. The Blink spell has the same effect, but at least you can choose when to activate that, and decide whether it's worth the risk to blink. If you've just been majorly injured, you're probably going to be even less likely to want to risk blinking into melee range.

If it made monsters blink away if they hurt you too badly, that might be a little more useful, and it'd be a unique effect.

[Tiber]

That could work too, but it would be somewhat different. Could also bias it towards moving away from threats, or do multiple blinks. The idea is that it should be somewhat risky, but good enough to consider using (remember that this does not have to be the only effect on the item).

Another random idea I've been thinking about is a species built with an innate inability to teleport, with some other ability to compensate, such as distortion field 3. Only problem is I have no idea how to make sure it's balanced.

[AtT]

The abyss should have exits that just exit you back to the abyss. Fooled you!

[Snoozy]

The abyss should have exits that just exit you back to the abyss. Fooled you!

Let's have the Abyss have multiple levels, 27 for thematic reasons. You can only find the rune on level 27 and portals randomly put you up or down 1 level and going up from level 1 spits you back out. Banishment puts you at a random level between 1 and 27 and using the dungeon portal to go there puts you on level 1.

This is such a great idea and I feel it would drastically improve the gameplay experience inside the Abyss as going there right now is definitely not an infuriating timesink.

[varsovie]

Potion of speed should be renamed accordingly to its color.

CLEAR, = Placebo
BLUE, = Red Bull
BLACK, = Battery Energy Drink
SILVERY, = Grizzly Power
CYAN, = NOS
PURPLE, = Full Throttle Blue Demon
ORANGE, = Monster Anti-Gravity
INKY, = Rockstar
RED, = Duff
YELLOW, = Dark dog
GREEN, = Amp Energy
BROWN, = Coffee
PINK, = Hype Energy Enlite
WHITE, = Rage