Thursday, 19th June 2014, 01:08 by SchwaWarrior
I think those removed monsters could have been revamped rather than removed. I like Holy-themed enemies and would like to not only see more, but see them more often!
Ophanim are fine as-is, but make it so that the Blessed Fire clouds die down quickly once the Ophanim are either destroyed or no longer in LoS for too long. This would eliminate players having to wait it out for no reason, but still it be a tactical thing if the Ophanim was still alive and a problem.
Do the same thing with Apis, and Weakness. If there were no monsters in LoS, Weakness would automatically dissipate in far fewer turns. Or, tie it into "tension" and have it so that at high tension the Weakness would last, but at low or zero tension it would disappear faster.
Bring back Silver Star and make it actually show up in places besides HolyPan and the extremely rare Silver Palace of Zin, which IIRC is a Depths-only vault (previously a D:21 to 27 only vault) if it even still exists. There is no other monster in the game that has an attack that removes your good mutations when it hits you, and to us players that love the Mutation Roulette sub-game in Crawl, those guys were an EXTREME threat, or at least, they would have been if we actually had to worry about them showing up! Nerfing their damage output would be fine too, if they were made more common, but definitely keep the mutation-destroying attack.
Talking about how to revamp Paladins? Maybe make more than one kind of Paladin. Here's a couple ideas:
* the "Normal Paladin", just called "Paladin", which functions largely the same as before, though its weapons are not always Holy Wrath and may be other brands-- possibly, allow their attacks to be Holy-element in addition to their weapon's brand,
* the "Crusader", a TSO-themed warrior with a larger Light Radius as well as some TSO abilities, such as the ability to call down an AoE blast of blessed fire on his own location that his allies are unharmed by, as well as the ability to buff (and heal/regen?) the normal Paladins passively just by being nearby-- and these guys would frequently or always be accompanied by normal Paladins or even Angels,
* the "Judge" (name in progress), a Zin-themed enemy, and its melee attacks would deal Silver damage (searing evil or mutated players), could Smite to inflict Confusion (MR-resisted), and maybe, could summon a Sanctuary similar to Zin's effect, surrounding their nearby allies while preventing you from attacking in it or dealing Silver damage every turn if you're evil/mutated.
* the "Healer", an Elyvion-themed enemy, which tries to keep its distance from the player (like Orb Spider) while healing his allies constantly. He might also have the ability to make plants grow nearby through "the powers of Elyvion the Life-Giver" if you try to approach, slowing you down if you try to go after him (especially in corridors).
It would be interesting to fight against foes like this that use the same sort of abilities and tactics that Good God players would use. Plus, Demonspawn just recently got added as normal enemies in Pan and given a whole big system of abilities and types. It would be good to see the same thing happen here with holy-themed enemies. I thought of some systems with the above suggestions that might prove a challenge when all combined together, including with things like Angels, Ophanim and Cherubs, but you guys could probably do better if you all brainstormed and thought up a clear idea.
Give the Seraph a complete overhaul. She should get powers that define her as a Leader of Angels; for starters, Blink Other would be a good one, much like how Vashina or Draconian Shifters use it to get their allies into position around you. But rather than just a "rally/support" type of enemy, she should definitely stand out as a formidable opponent. What about giving her a permanent, Ring of Blessed Fire ability, kind of like Asmodeus's fire clouds only they're blessed fire clouds? That'd make her feel more like a boss character. What about giving her the ability to revive her friends, a limited number of times (say, twice)? I know that enemy revival might be controversial since that's why Phoenixes and Shedu were removed, but come on, she's the Seraph. What about something really really nuts, like, a time-delayed "spell" where she has to chant some verses first (like Recite), then when it finishes she teleports you, herself, and a random number of holy enemies anywhere on the level, all into some random spot on the level, surrounds it in a wall of blessed fire on the edge of LoS, buffs every teleported enemy while confusing you at the time the teleport happens? And this power would be called "Throne of God". I don't know, but definitely make her a boss enemy instead of a "normal, but very tough enemy that only appears in one spot". Maybe even turn her into a Unique. She's worthy of it. She's the Seraph.
If you were to bring back Phoenixes, the easiest fix I can think of is, limit how many times they can revive (let's say twice, and the third kill they're done, kinda like Natasha), but make the resulting re-birth much bigger, instead of just them appearing from their corpse, make an explosion when they return and fill that spot with a big chunk of flame clouds. Think, when you Inner Flame a Hill Giant and it explodes and it's huge. But, delay the amount of time it takes for them to come back a little more, and make it obvious that they will come back. Instead of dropping a corpse, they should drop a "pile of flickering ashes" and a message should say "Embers dance within the ashes, beware", or something to let the player know that it's going to revive. On the third kill there would be no ash pile. The explosions from the re-births would make a lot of noise of course, making the stealth game more of a challenge to some players. Additionally, allow Phoenixes to leave trails of short-lived flame clouds wherever they move, and give them the same movement pattern of a Bat/Unseen Horror/Thrashing Horror/Harpy. They'd drop those clouds everywhere and it'd be nuts, and a nightmare to fight one in melee without proper precautions. If these things were fighting along with other holy-themed allies, it might make the allies burn themselves in the flame clouds by accident though, so program it so that the flame clouds wouldn't drop if it were too close to allies. Additionally (x2), whenever the Phoenix is struck, it could have a chance to discharge short-lived flame clouds all around him, burning you or possibly its allies if it were close enough. That'd not only give it an extra threat to watch for, but it could be used tactically too, hitting it when it's in position to burn the surrounding Paladins or Crusaders.
Shedu I can't think of an appropriate re-work. I honestly thought they were fine as before, I'm sad that they're removed and I never had any problems with it. If people thought they were difficult to destroy because they kept reviving, really just lengthen the time it'd take for one to make a revival, or have it so they'd only revive each-other if you weren't around, because say you had to retreat to heal or something.
Other ideas? How about some examples of early or mid-game holy monsters?
* Give Holy Swine a rare chance to spawn in Lair. (While we're at it, give Hogs a chance to spawn there in packs, like Yaks and Sheep.) Maybe the Apis could appear there in a special Lair:8 vault; Apis would be hard as early as that point, but then again, so are Death Yaks.
* The Sprite could be sort of akin to a "Holy Imp" variant with a rare chance to spawn as early as D:6 or 7, with a small light radius. They'd have a weak-ish melee attack but high EV, and would have two spell-sets: either Blink Close and Corona, or Blink Away and Minor Heal Other, making some of them attackers and some of them supporters.
* Implement Lesser Angels, which were exactly like Angels only much more toned-down, to a power-level roughly equivelent to D:13 to 15 or Vaults:1 through 3.
These are all the ideas I can think of. If anything here helps people out, then I'm satisfied.
--Schwa, your local muse forever and long-time High Elf fangirl ^_~
(also the master of Quadri-Birds)
TheProvocateur: I like how we're sprinting at a pile of greater mummies
- For this message the author SchwaWarrior has received thanks: 2
- Arrhythmia, Velikolepni
