Species Idea: Werewolf

[Ruby]

I was playing as a bunch of the undead species on Halloween and I realized out of all the spooky ones they had, there was no werewolf!
I think this would bring a solid choice to play as an unarmed and unarmored character that can still take a hit and will provide a player with a source of mutations that isn't random, but still has good and bad ones.
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Abilities: None that you start out with... You are just a normal human for now.
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STR: 10
INT: 5
DEX: 7
-----------------------------------
Attributes:
Fighting: +2
Short Swords: -1
Long Swords: -1
Maces: -2
Polearms: -2
Staves: -2
Slings: -3
Bows: -3
Crossbows: -3
Throwing: -2
Armor -3
Dodge: +2
Stealth: -1
Shields: -2
Unarmed: +1
Spellcasting: 0
Conjurations: -1
Hexes: -1
Charms: -2
Summoning: 0
Necromancy: +1
Translocations: -2
Transmutations: +2
Fire: -1
Ice: -1
Air: -2
Earth: 0
Poison: -2
Invocations: -1
Evocations: -1
----------------------
Experience: 0
HP: +2
MP: -2
----------------------
Level Bonuses:
Every 5 levels you get gradually more "werewolf-y"
--Level 5
"You feel yourself losing grip with your humanity"
Fangs 1
Claws 1
Shaggy Fur 1
Carnivorous 1
--Level 10
"You feel a lust for carnage well up inside of you"
Fangs 2
Claws 2
Shaggy Fur 2
Carnivorous 2
Fast 1
Deformed
Regeneration 1
--Level 15
"The beast from within you has broken free!"
Fangs 3
Claws 3
Shaggy Fur 3
Carnivorous 3
You can't wear armor
Regeneration 2
Berserk 1
Canine Nose (has the same effect as see invisible from antennae)
--Level 20
"____________" (still need to think of the quote)

You gain an ability to howl and summon a pack of wolves to your aid. Consumes breath, hunger and has a 300 aut cooldown.
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Every 5 levels you will also get +1 to STR or DEX (randomly)
You take massively increased damage from silver weapons/projectiles and holy weapons/projectiles.
You can't worship good gods.

(of course none of these have to be there, or at least at those tiers)
I just think it would be a really fun species to play as and I hope you would consider it. This is my first time posting so I apologize if something is wrong, I just wanted to get my idea out there!

[Ruby]

If someone is willing to show me how to implement this into my own game (basically just create the species for myself) I'd be more than happy to. I just need to know where to start from. I'd love to make this for myself to tweak and fine-tune it, and possibly have it be used in the official game!

[Lasty]

If you're interested in implementing this locally, I'd recommend starting by getting the source from github and using the instructions in INSTALL.txt to get it to compile. Once you have that, you can search the codebase for instances of SP_TROLL to see how trolls are set up and do something similar for your werewolves. If you need help with compilation, there are generally friendly folks in ##crawl-dev who can help.

Edit: Moved topic to CYC, since it's not fully fleshed out.
Edit: Moved it back since the post gained significant detail right as I moved it initially.
Edit: removed critique since it doesn't strictly apply anymore.

[byrel]

I admit he didn't specify, but I'm imagining Sp-level HP pools. Which should make this an interesting race to play.

[WildSam]

I think we should come up with general design. Werewolves are about shapeshifting. Looks like core feature and it should define race.
"Monstrous unarmed fighter" niche filled with Trolls and not that interesting decision-wise (it just forces you into narrow playstyle but empowers it a lot), so I think permanent werwolf with slowly developing features is bad way to go (it will affect earlygame at best).
Dualistic character can be interesting, via some sort of werewolfitis (chance/charging up on taking/dealing damage and attacking or may be any actions in combat to shapeshift), which eventually gives you strong melee capabilities and beefiness (probably less than good heavy armour and shield (also you may lose resists)) at cost of other options.
Werfolf bashy types probably goin' to be somewhat weak (you are strong in melee and beefy anyway, so properly balanced shapeshift likely to take more than it gives), especially given how it's taxing to level up skills you usually need and unarmed combat. Exp problems are also true for "proper" werewolf characters I keep in mind: blasters/ranged fighters/stabbers who do their thing for a while then transform and finish business in combat form.
My iteration:

Werwolf is human race with single innate mutation, which turns them into combat form due some trigger mechanism (I personally like charging mechanic, which accounts all actions in combat (trivial fights may be excluded based on hp and threat level), may be with different weights, but it's somewhat new for crawl, so more tinkering needed) and probably mediocre bad apts (-1 sort of thing) allaround (pereodically turning into animalistic monster may hurt your education).
Combat form gives claws 3, some compensation UC skill (HD, doesn't stack with actual UC skill), huge hp bonus (current hp% remains same as with berserk), good regen, deformed body or armour meld, strongly impeded spellcasting (more limitations like noscrolls or -stlth or stronger nospell may be included) and probably more flavour muts like furs. On transformation you howl (shout) to give some incentive to end fights quickly if you dont want more enemies.

[Ruby]

I think we should come up with general design. Werewolves are about shapeshifting. Looks like core feature and it should define race.
"Monstrous unarmed fighter" niche filled with Trolls and not that interesting decision-wise (it just forces you into narrow playstyle but empowers it a lot), so I think permanent werwolf with slowly developing features is bad way to go (it will affect earlygame at best).
Dualistic character can be interesting, via some sort of werewolfitis (chance/charging up on taking/dealing damage and attacking or may be any actions in combat to shapeshift), which eventually gives you strong melee capabilities and beefiness (probably less than good heavy armour and shield (also you may lose resists)) at cost of other options.
Werfolf bashy types probably goin' to be somewhat weak (you are strong in melee and beefy anyway, so properly balanced shapeshift likely to take more than it gives), especially given how it's taxing to level up skills you usually need and unarmed combat. Exp problems are also true for "proper" werewolf characters I keep in mind: blasters/ranged fighters/stabbers who do their thing for a while then transform and finish business in combat form.
My iteration:

Werwolf is human race with single innate mutation, which turns them into combat form due some trigger mechanism (I personally like charging mechanic, which accounts all actions in combat (trivial fights may be excluded based on hp and threat level), may be with different weights, but it's somewhat new for crawl, so more tinkering needed) and probably mediocre bad apts (-1 sort of thing) allaround (pereodically turning into animalistic monster may hurt your education).
Combat form gives claws 3, some compensation UC skill (HD, doesn't stack with actual UC skill), huge hp bonus (current hp% remains same as with berserk), good regen, deformed body or armour meld, strongly impeded spellcasting (more limitations like noscrolls or -stlth or stronger nospell may be included) and probably more flavour muts like furs. On transformation you howl (shout) to give some incentive to end fights quickly if you dont want more enemies.

Possibly something along the lines of a "Bloodlust Meter" or something like that. You would start with a unique mutation, like a vampire, that lets you go over corpses and eat the flesh right off of the corpse, the more you do this, and the more tough enemies you kill, the higher your bloodlust meter would go. You can turn into a werewolf at any time, but the more bloodlust you have, the better the effect of the transformation. I'll work on it more, but that was an idea I had.

[Ruby]

If it was to be a shapeshifter kind of species. Here is my take on that.


Starting abilities:
You may transform into your wolf form at any time
Carnivorous 3
You have a lust for blood
You can eat meat straight off of corpses to add to your bloodlust (as well as defeating challenging creatures)
You take increased damage from silver and holy weapons
(Bloodlust will be seen as a status effect, bloodlust doesn’t drain, until you transform. When you transform your bloodlust will be set down to 0 and you will be set to starving when you leave werewolf form. Past the first level of bloodlust you cannot use scrolls, wands or spells.)
--If you transform at 0%-25% bloodlust
“You take on some canine features”
Fangs 1
Claws 1
Shaggy Fur 1
+10% HP
+2 AC
+2 EV
Canine Nose
--If you transform at 25%-75% bloodlust
“You turn into an unholy combination of man and wolf”
Fangs 2
Claws 2
Shaggy Fur 2
Fast 1
Deformed
Regeneration 1
Canine Nose
+20% HP
+4 AC
+4 EV
X boost to unarmed damage
--If you transform at 75%-99% Bloodlust
“You have been overcome by your primal instincts”
Fangs 3
Claws 3
Shaggy Fur 3
Fast 2
You cannot wear armor
Regeneration 2
Canine Nose
+30% HP
+6 AC
+6 EV
Howl 2 (Same as scream 2)
Bloodthirsty 1 (Same as berserk 1 but can also cause you to uncontrollably eat corpses)
X boost to unarmed + cannot wield weapons.
--At 100% Bloodlust
“Your inner beast has broken free”
Fangs 3
Claws 3
Shaggy Fur 3
Fast 3
You cannot wear armor
Regeneration 3
Canine nose
+40% HP
+8 AC
+8 EV
X boost to unarmed + no weapons
Howl 3
Bloodthirsty 2

[MainiacJoe]

That Unarmed +5 in the OP is just ridiculous. And then you add fangs and claws to that, up to level 3? That's insane!

[archaeo]

We've tried to come up with a werewolf species a few times before.

The problem as I see it is that Crawl already has a "become more monstrously powerful with XL species" in Demonspawn, and it already has "transform into a dangerous beast" with Transmuters. In order to make a Werewolf species different, you end up having to pile on a ton of complicated, fiddly mechanics, only to end up with something that does what DSTm does with twice as many moving parts. Crawl already has too many species that are just near-copies of other species.

The bloodlust mechanic might be a cute idea for a god; it reminds me of the UC god idea that got rave reviews recently. It would be cool to have a god where piety came and went very quickly.

[tasonir]

At least this one managed to avoid the UC +3 or +4 aptitude pitfall (or at least after edits)! Although the X boost to unarmed is probably way too much, even if X is small (in the bloodlust version). You already gave them claws - claws are a straight up boost to UC damage, and with claws UC damage really doesn't need any more boosting, imho.

I'd avoid giving them 4-6 things on leveling up - you probably want to focus on just 2-3 mutations which grow. Bloodlust system is interesting in that you couldn't stay as a wolf long term, but I'd certainly remove the part about ending up starving afterwards. You could give it a decently high food cost like berserk, but don't just set your hunger to starving.

There's a good guide to starting your own race in the coding section; the gist it of boils down to Lasty's advice, though. Pick an existing race, search for all the places where that race string is mentioned, and then add one more entry into the array of races. The main thread for this is here: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=14266

I went through and added elementals this way, along with a few remaining bugs (I attempted to make them unable to wear body armor, but they still could). And then I never got around to actually working on their racial abilities, just too little time/motivation. Maybe if I'm between contracts sometime soon...