concepts for equipment/evo god

[omnirizon]

I've been brainstorming on equipment/evo god concepts. multiple evo gods have come and gone and it's clearly a gap in the pantheon. Inspired somewhat by Hephaestus, I've sought concepts that exercise game mechanics untouched by all or most gods.

* enhance equipment (bonus to magical AC/EV bonuses, possibly even resistances in some limited fashion like free third + but no bonus otherwise)
* prevent equipment maluses (*corrode, *slow, etc)
* bonus to evo (+5 at max piety)
* recharge evocables quicker
* allow amulet swap: harm with no drain, immediate or quicker regen, etc
* gift equipment at the cost of malmutations--gifts always have maluses
* uncurse equipment
* prevent corrosion
* extreme penance if abandon for Jiyva

appreciates:
* identifying equipment
* exploration

The main effect is enhanced equipment, prevented maluses, and gifting equipment with these maluses while malmutating. Potentially penance is merely mostly useless equipment and a bunch of mutations, unless abandoned for a chaotic god (Jiyva mainly, also Xom). Evo bonuses are effective in mid game but much less impactful by endgame when evocables recharge every fight and typically can be used twice a fight. The goal is a god that alters equipment (no others seem to) and modestly enhance evo while using the mutation system to offset bonuses and inflict penance. Xom and Jiyva are gods that touch mutations but they are very niche gods played by few, a more common god using this game mechanic would allow more players to experience mutations sooner. Clearly mutations can be altered with a potion of mutation, but these are limited and at any rate once mutated always mutated in some fashion.

I searched a didn't find any recent or fresh discussions on equipment/evo god concepts. Others might try the same so I'm just going to repeat some key names here in case anyone else searches. here goes: Pakellas Pakellas Pakellas Clearly Pakellas was broken. These new concepts move in a fresh direction. They are suggestions but capture the idea, obviously any can be altered however the god must affect equipment & evo, and avoid mistakes of previous evo god efforts.

[Siegurt]

Some questions to answer for god-designing:

1. What does this god do that changes the way you play? And in what way is it different from how your playstyle is changed by other gods?
2. Does anything about these changes increase tedium for benefit?
3. Do the benefits have enough appeal that it would be a logical choice for some characters?
4. Do the benefits have so much appeal that they overshadow any other choices?

[omnirizon]

thanks for the questions. I've kept in mind from the start this must be a god I'd enjoy playing and having in the game. I'm going to offer a couple of specifics to have something to look at through different game stages. Let's say this god grants +1 to all equipment-enchantment sources of AC, EV, and slaying at two stars, represses equipment maluses (*slow, *corrode, *rot, and on-remove effects) at four stars, and gifts for malmutations at five stars. the stars aren't that important but seem reasonable right now. These are also examples, I've left out evocables & amulets that are part of the original motivation, these things are still open of course. I want to focus on a single element right now: the equipment.

1. Equipment will interact differently with Fe, Op, monstrous (Dr, Og, and Tr mainly) and humanoid (everyone else). Fe and Op may be motivated to opt for this god in early game if they find a lot of rings, amulets, and hats with AC as their equipment restrictions make this difficult to obtain otherwise, especially at this stage of the game. Similarly for monstrous classes. Mid and late game Fe, Op, and monstrous species also all tend to require ring & weapon swapping more often to cover resistances at necessary times, as their equipment restrictions again make it more difficult to cover all resistances and needs all the time. With weapons especially, it's often the case a really useful one has an awful contaminate or drain on remove that makes them useless for this need, and this god would allow these equipment restricted species to get more out of what equipment they can use. Armor is less impacted in this way because it takes 10 turns to remove and put back on and that's usually not a good idea in the middle of most fights. Equipment gifts will also necessarily be artefacts to have the maluses and these come with valuable resistances that these species will thirst for in late game, making this a good god to hold on to as well. If they get the equipment and abandon the god, they won't be able to use or swap it without the penalties (along with whatever penance).

Humanoids are a little simpler. Unarmored classes may opt for this god for extra AC bonuses. I feel meleers are more equipment dependent and would benefit from extra slaying. The slaying bonus may make harder decisions when you have to find a nice branded weapon of the wrong type or tier in early game, and could make holding on to lower tier weapons a little longer feasible. Equipment slaying still capped at +9 so the effect wouldn't break end-game, but could provide a small extra bonus and motivation to wear an extra item with slaying bonus late-game, especially if going for a one-handed build. Equipment swapping is still key for humanoids, but relatively less beneficial compared to equipment restricted species, however humanoids leverage the benefit from a greater number of equipment pieces.

As for playstyle, early game is often about picking a god that gives a fast and sufficient bonus and stays useful, where the sufficient bonus is often dependent on when, where, and what's in your inventory at the moment. In the late game what differentiates this god, vis-a-vis these equipment bonuses (there may be more evo too) is a greater number of useful equipment swaps: rings, weapons, and amulets with useful bonuses, some found but often obtained through gifts. Gifts are gauranteed artefacts, in general better than Oka, but with maluses that the god represses. The gifts are granted with malmutations. An implied bonus for equipment-restricted species is that they can carry more of the stuff the god gifts you.

2. Equipment swapping is already a necessary tedium of the end-game. This god may add a little more swapping but it's already there, and it's easily managed with macros.

3. My longer answer in one addresses this. I'll emphasize here it seems like a rather generic choice right now, but logical for some. By generic I mean not strongly favoring a type of class (melee, caster, stabber) but that any of them could find a reason under the right circumstances. The god gifts equipment and is good for non-meleers too, unlike Oka and Trog who favor melees, so it adds another choice.

4. The god changes equipment maluses that, for me, essentially remove this equipment from the game. It's like finding the old Nem decks and it's sort of useful but not really, except there's no Nem right now. Armor with *corrosion is unusable no matter how good the bonuses. Likewise drain on remove, and harm, are unusuable for most people in most circumstances, and there's basically never a reason to carry these things around right now. Weapons are still usable but one might lose their ability to swap without a big penalty. This god allows players to make use of things that I never use and I don't think most players do either. As I noted in discussion of tedium, the god interacts with stuff that players already do at all game stages (equipment and swapping) So I don't think the god overshadows any but offers more options. And it's not like you won't or can't equipment swap without this god, it just makes more doable with more equipment. Although I've not discussed evo so far, it might make sense for this god to give a flat evo bonus that could provide motivation for species bad at evo to get a flat bonus, or those good at it to get high skill more quickly.


I understand any additions interact with a lot of stuff and may require more effort and time than it's worth. Please ask any questions and let me know how to help.