Lair Larrikin
Posts: 17
Joined: Sunday, 27th February 2011, 06:34
Re: Scorpion Teleport (new spell)
The theme here (which is, indeed, the Mortal Kombat character) was intended to be so comically terrible that, were this actually included in Crawl, it would be changed immediately. I've got no illusions about it.
tasonir wrote:Have you considered making this spell instant, and not chaining the attack? That would lower it's power level, and probably help make it more balanced. Also that justifies the much better name "Flash teleport" or "Flash blink"
An instant teleport sounds far, far more powerful than the spell in its current form, unless I'm misunderstanding you.
Having the player land on a randomly selected square around an enemy sounds really great, actually; the current targeting is a bit fiddly, and something better would be nice.
The best thing about the spell, to me, is how satisfying it feels to use it (unless you miss the attack, in which case it feels dumb even though it's useful). It's an inherently offensive action, and thus feels less "tricky" and more "I am going to beat your face in now." There is a place for spells like Passage of Golubria (which makes you feel clever whenever you do something cool with it), but there are places for simpler, more intuitive spells, too. And there's a lot of design space left in blinks, too.
Perhaps even if it isn't wanted as a spell or ability in Crawl proper, it would make a nice enemy ability? I first had the idea (or something like it) a long time ago as a "spell" for a leaping frog; normal speed, but can quickly close the gap by jumping on you. This couldn't be overused (it'd be incredibly frustrating as a real spell for orc wizards, ogre mages etc.), but it'd be interesting on one guy.