Suggestion: Reskin and Retheme Orbs of Fire

[heresyheresy]

I know that they have been in the game as is for a long time, long enough for people to accept them as they are, but It has always at least bugged ME that they have malmutate for no good thematic reason. In terms of workload, the actual changes that would need to be made would just be to the flavour text, and to the sprite of the Orb of Fire.

New Name: Green Sun Ember

New Flavour Text: "A flame born from a primeval star at the exact heart of the boundless Abyss, the Green Sun Ember drifts through the air radiating a field of dispassionate alien malice. It surges with intense heat, and glows with a toxic radiance that threatens to twist nearby creatures into deformed parodies of their former selves. Exercise extreme caution."

Reskinning and retheming Orbs of Fire into a "Radiation" themed enemy would give them a much better thematic reason to have the Malmutate Ability. Furthermore, visually, Orbs of Fire are currently sharing their design space with Sun Demons, which just looks kind of bad. A new, more interesting sprite could help serve to set them apart as the most threatening enemy of all (And I could probably do a quick mockup in paint or photoshop cs2 if asked.)

Thoughts? Yea? Nay?

EDIT: It also makes a nice little reference to Exalted.

[ontoclasm]

They're already described as sparks of primordial fire, why do they need to be green for that to be the case? They're not radioactive, they're magic, and radiation isn't green to begin with. On the other hand, they definitely are super firey, and are the perfect color for that.

If it's hard to tell them apart from sun demons, I'd rather change the sun demon tile (but I don't think they are).

[heresyheresy]

They're already described as sparks of primordial fire, why do they need to be green for that to be the case? They're not radioactive, they're magic, and radiation isn't green to begin with. On the other hand, they definitely are super firey, and are the perfect color for that.

If it's hard to tell them apart from sun demons, I'd rather change the sun demon tile (but I don't think they are).

Radiation *isn't* green, but green *codes* them as radioactive. I also don't MEAN them to be radioactive - they are MAGIC - but by CODING them as the game's version of radioactivity (magic corruption/glow) you better tie them thematically to malmutate. It doesn't even necessarily HAVE to be green, it could be purple - or whatever colour you want to use to typify magical corruption. This gripe is really mostly about better tying their malmutate ability into their theme.

[kroki]

the current design is bad, but it kinda grew on the community. orbs of fire are very iconic being cause of many near-end game deaths and being only monster most players will spend whole game preparing for

[Sar]

oofs are evil little stars, hence the radiation ability

[Hurkyl]

Aesthetically speaking, I think the dev's nailed the OOF's tile -- in the Zot setting, the tile perfectly conveys the... OoFiness of the OoF. (I'm having trouble putting words to it since it's mostly a visceral impression, but the tile itself stands out and screams danger. Of course, it looks like a big flaming ball of fire too.)

I would be worried that any dramatic change to the tile would lose this touch.

If the similarity to sun demons (I never noticed) is a problem, I would prefer the sun demon get redrawn.

[PleasingFungus]

for reference

oof
new sun demon
old sun demon
official oof male/female gender variants for gendercrawl 2017

[Rast]

Suggested new sun demon tile:



I'm not even kidding. If I played tiles this is what I would want.

[Sar]

well you don't

[ontoclasm]

[Tiktacy]

I think OoF would look way cooler with a tint of green, it would go good with the purple background of zot too.

[duvessa]

for reference

oof
new sun demon
old sun demon
official oof male/female gender variants for gendercrawl 2017

you forgot to include the crawl-nude variants

[Shard1697]

just make 'em fuckin party

Spoiler: show

and then make them chaos orbs

[heresyheresy]

Everything else aside, that Orb of Party is glorious.

[green]

I think OoF would look way cooler with a tint of green, it would go good with the purple background of zot too.

I think a new Mutagenic Orb would be cool. In the same terms of power than OoF, and spawn in Zot. Make OoF lose Malmutate and that new orb gets the ability. After all, most of midgame we are trying to find sources to beat a single enemy and more monsters in the game make it funnier.

[Shard1697]

So what, would the new orb only have malmutate? If so, that sounds tremendously unfun to fight(not to mention oofs' without malmutate would be a lot more dangerous, since they would be using their high damage actual attacks a lot more)... not to mention kinda same-y. OoF are cool because they are unique.

[MainiacJoe]

PartyOrb could change attack branding with color like ugly things.

[heresyheresy]

I think OoF would look way cooler with a tint of green, it would go good with the purple background of zot too.

I think a new Mutagenic Orb would be cool. In the same terms of power than OoF, and spawn in Zot. Make OoF lose Malmutate and that new orb gets the ability. After all, most of midgame we are trying to find sources to beat a single enemy and more monsters in the game make it funnier.

Gonna have to agree with Shard, Malmutate Orb sounds like cancer.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

If it's hard to tell them apart from sun demons, I'd rather change the sun demon tile (but I don't think they are).

The first time I played 0.18 and something summed a Sun Demon (Orc High Priest maybe?) I almost fell off my chair. WHAT?! Why in Ru's name can it summon an OoF? Then I read the name...

[Lacuenta]

Party orb should be a new unique
Abbilities:
Beer blast
Mdma shot
Laser show.

[ion_frigate]

I think OoF would look way cooler with a tint of green, it would go good with the purple background of zot too.

I think a new Mutagenic Orb would be cool. In the same terms of power than OoF, and spawn in Zot. Make OoF lose Malmutate and that new orb gets the ability. After all, most of midgame we are trying to find sources to beat a single enemy and more monsters in the game make it funnier.

Why bother with a new monster? Just give Malmutate to Killer Klowns, it fits them very nicely thematically. Also their continual blinking would make it less simple to use summoned chaff to block the Malmutate.

[duvessa]

just what zot needs, more reasons to skip levels

[heresyheresy]

I think OoF would look way cooler with a tint of green, it would go good with the purple background of zot too.

I think a new Mutagenic Orb would be cool. In the same terms of power than OoF, and spawn in Zot. Make OoF lose Malmutate and that new orb gets the ability. After all, most of midgame we are trying to find sources to beat a single enemy and more monsters in the game make it funnier.

Why bother with a new monster? Just give Malmutate to Killer Klowns, it fits them very nicely thematically. Also their continual blinking would make it less simple to use summoned chaff to block the Malmutate.

I do like the idea of giving Malmutate to Killer Klowns instead. It would tie them in with Mnoleg, and then you could have them show up in her level in Pan.