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God Proposal: God of Feng Shui

PostPosted: Tuesday, 30th August 2011, 22:59
by bobross419
God of Feng Shui (GoFS - can't come up with a name that has the Asian sound and is serious) is a god whose precepts revolve around acting a certain way and his benefits mostly involve the hunger clock and gifts.

The main idea is a somewhat limited and less chaotic version of Xom. GoFS requires you to act in certain ways which are randomized from game to game, but in turn will give you rewards based on those same behaviors. By following the specified precepts of GoFS, the adventurer is able to find peace and harmony.

Short Version

At each piety level from . to *****, GoFS will add a new required behavior to gain piety - These can be anything from acting in a certain direction, to having specific resists, using specific 'elemental' (pois, elec, etc. included) effects, wearing types of armor, etc. Depending on the behavior you will increase/decrease piety based on kills or time. These behaviors would be random but weighted towards the player's current skills/stats/equipment - Sometimes you luck out and GoFS will want you to use blades when you are already at Short Blades 12, but sometimes he'll make you switch to M&F.

The payoff for this behavior comes in with gifts at high piety that are specifically geared toward these same behaviors. Having behaviors 'natural armor' and 'resist cold' could result in some kind of dragon armor with rC+++, or the player could receive the rC+ mutation.

GoFS would also grant 2 or 3 abilities revolving around the food clock in some way -
A meditative state that speeds up hp/mp regen, but requires no monsters interrupt you at all

A fasting ability that freezes the food clock at it's current level and is unaffected by anything save hungry ghosts (can't eat during this time) possibly with a satiation decrease when it expires

Very Tentative - A transport that takes a high number of uninterrupted turns (50-100 probably) but will transport you to your stash (can only have one stash).

Long Version

Behaviors

At first worship and at every piety level there-after, GoFS will require you to act in a certain way. The possibilities for these behaviors are many, but my initial brainstorming came up with grouping different behaviors and requiring only one of each.

These are just the ones I've come up with while thinking about this God, but others are definitely possible.

Attack Direction

Requirements: GoFS will specify that you need to attack monsters from a certain direction (NSEW) which will grant a piety chance on kills from that direction and decrease piety on kills from the other direction. Only the 4 compass settings should count with attacks coming in from the perfect diagonals not counting at all. I'm not sure how this would best work for area effect spells, but I'm inclined to go with casting direction instead of center of effect - CoE would sometimes require complicated setup, and casting direction would thematically meet the need for attacking from a certain direction.

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, accuracy and/or damage is increased when attacking from the required direction.

Weapon Type
Note: This should be an early behavior so as not to force the player to waste 10+ skill levels in the event that the behavior does not fall within the player's chosen school.

Requirements: GoFS will specify that you need to attack monsters using a certain type of "weapon". This would be based on skill (M&F, SB, LB, Summoning, Conjure, Throwing, etc.) and grant a piety chance whenever a monster is killed using that weapon type. I'm not sure how best to implement piety loss for this. Some ideas are (A)chance of piety decrease when killed with a different skill or (B) follow through with the aptitude symmetries basis and allow kills with symmetried skills (for this case Staves would be symmetried with both Conjure and Summoning) for no piety +/- but chance of lost piety for all other weaons, or (C) Piety loss over time.

Sub-Requirement: Could be implemented as stand alone behavior or tied in to Weapon type - Handedness. Requires melee characters to use weapons require 1/1.5/2 hands. Benefits should follow along the lines of Weapon Type. If 2 hands is required then GoFS wouldn't require Shields.

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, grant gifts that are either items or mutations. Item gifts would be from the required school. Mutations would either be stat/mp increases or in the case of the Unarmed Skill would include those mutations that add additional attacks (claws, horns, hooves, etc.). There could also be a special gift to Summon behavior where you receive more than 50% exp from Summons kills, but it should be limited to 60% since spammed summons are pretty powerful already.

"Elemental" School

Requirements: GoFS requires that you use attacks from a specific "elemental" school (Including Poison, Elec, Negative). This could either be in the form of spells, evokeables, or weapon brands. Killing a monster with an attack from your elemental school would give a chance for piety increase, but killing with an attack from another school has a chance to reduce piety (possibly opposite schools give a higher chance).

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, grant gifts that are either items or mutations. Item gifts would be focused on damage dealing (chance of resists is random) using the required school. Mutations would mostly revolve around breath weapons.

Resists

Requirements: GoFS requires that you have a specific resist. Piety gain would happen over time. For binary resists you'd either have it (piety increase) or not have it (chance of piety decrease). For multi-step resists at . or + you would have a progressive chance of losing piety, at ++ or +++ you would have a progressive chance of gaining piety. Also, Fire/Cold could be setup as opposites where the other resist tree has a negative affect, but could be cumbersome and doesn't fit well with the rest of the resists.

Expansion: Status effects such as SeeInv, Clarity, Statis, etc. could be added in to this category or have a separate but similar category.

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, grant gifts that are either items or mutations. Item gifts would include the resist, and mutations would be geared toward this resist.

Armor

Requirements: GoFS requires that you wear a specific armor type (Cloth, Animal, Metal). Wearing this armor type increases piety over time, with loss over time when not wearing the armor type. This could lead to some tough decisions. Casters that are forced into Metal Armor or adventurers not being able to effectively equip GDA.

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, grant gifts that are items. Item gifts would be of the required type.

Abilities

* - Fasting (Costs piety/hunger(?)): Stops the hunger clock for a set period of time based on piety. Hunger can not be increased or decreased during this time except through water or Hungry Ghost(like) effects. There may be a satiation hit implemented. The idea is that the harmonious body is able to maintain itself and would be beneficial in the early mid-game where food becomes scarce for some classes (panic button for those times when you just have to find some food, trying to kill a hobgoblin as a caster at Starving really sucks) and can be very beneficial in the later game as well. There should be a gift timeout so that this ability can't be spammed.

*** - Meditative Contemplations (No cost/Piety(?)): Restores HP/MP to full if there are no interruptions in a set number of turns. The idea is that a lot of time is wasted mashing 5 to regen up. Effect wouldn't work if you had negative status effects (Rot, Sick, Pois, etc.). Alternatively, this could be used as a multiplier on the regen speed based on piety. I think that having it as an all or nothing regen is best though for tactical decisions - do I risk waiting 20 turns and regen everything or wait 150 turns and have something in case an enemy wanders by. Could also be great tactically for hit and fade - Monsters wouldn't be able to fully heal while you mash 5.

This one is a bit iffy, but I think that a third power would be good, please suggest alternatives to this
***** - Monica's Closet (Piety): Takes you to your stash after a set number of uninterrupted turns (50-100). This should only be usable in main dungeon, Lair, Vaults, and Vestibule (maybe others). The high turn requirement means that it can't be used as a get out of jail free card. It is used to cut down the time it takes to get back to your stash. Stash level would be set using the level flags option. It definitely shouldn't be used to escape Abyss, Labyrinth, Pan, etc. It is more of a convenience and hunger savings than anything else. "Monica's Closet" is a Friends reference - Monica is known for her tidyness and everything having its own place, but she has a closet full of all the stuff that just doesn't fit anywhere else.

Gifts

Should have a gift timeout a bit longer than Trog/Oka. Gift choice should go something like this: $basebehavior = rand(behavior) -> additional behavior? rand(yes/no) > repeat. Or $behaviors = rand(numbehaviors). Mutations should only come up if there is only 1 behavior selected. This could lead to some powerful gifts: (Behaviors: M&F, Electricity School, Negative Resist = Demon Whip of Electricity with rN++), but there would have to be some requirements preventing Weapon Type and Armor Type inhabiting the same gift. Spell books could also be gifted (Attack type = Conjure and Element Type = Fire gives spell books with fire based attack spells), as could Wands (based on single behavior elemental school) and potions. Maybe stat boosts could be a rare gift based on some factor...

Punishment

Punishment should be based on required behaviors and the hunger clock.

Hunger clock punishments: Randomly get extra hunger, resting formula can be slowed.

Attack direction punishments: Attacks randomly go in the wrong direction similar to when you are confused.

Elemental School Punishments: Spawn dancing blades branded with the appropriate school. Increased miscast chance/effects. GoFS could cast spells at you.

Weapon type punishments: Slow attack speed/damage/accuracy.

Resist punishments: Similar to elemental school punishments, but with counter schools.

Closing

I think this could be a fun god. There would be a sense of the random, but with strong gifted benefits in the end. The randomization will help to ensure that each play through is different, but in a more structured way than someone like Xom. This idea was initially spawned as an idea for a response to the Beat Poet thread that kind of spiralled away while I was in the shower :D. I'm fairly new so some of the mechanics might be goofy, but I think the general idea is a good one and in line with what I've seen some of the devs wanting with each play through being different.

Re: God Proposal: God of Feng Shui

PostPosted: Wednesday, 31st August 2011, 00:12
by mumra
I read this as 'God of OCD' ;)

Re: God Proposal: God of Feng Shui

PostPosted: Wednesday, 31st August 2011, 13:37
by Stormfox
bobross419 wrote:Attack Direction

Requirements: GoFS will specify that you need to attack monsters from a certain direction (NSEW) which will grant a piety chance on kills from that direction and decrease piety on kills from the other direction. Only the 4 compass settings should count with attacks coming in from the perfect diagonals not counting at all.

...

Benefits: At piety ***** or ******, accuracy and/or damage is increased when attacking from the required direction.

...

Attack direction punishments: Attacks randomly go in the wrong direction similar to when you are confused.

It's the Dance Dance Revolution god!

Re: God Proposal: God of Feng Shui

PostPosted: Wednesday, 31st August 2011, 14:02
by bobross419
@stormfox - LOL... Thought it would be a fun mechanic to throw in there to demonstrate some of the less stat/equipment oriented possibilities of the God. It would open up some interesting possibilities for tactics... "Do I fight in this corridor and risk losing piety, go out into the open and risk getting surrounded, or kite monsters across half a level to get them in position?" Would also be a neat way to take advantage of blinks.

@mumra - I can see how this might seem a bit OCD. Not sure what changes could be made to reduce that though without impacting GoFS's flavor :( Hoping more to see something added as a result of the ideas than this specific God though.