Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing


Although the central place for design discussion is ##crawl-dev on freenode, some may find it helpful to discuss requests and suggestions here first.

Mines Malingerer

Posts: 33

Joined: Monday, 1st April 2013, 05:00

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 02:09

Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

I had this idea earlier today, and I would like some feedback. When worn, an amulet of unbreathing would provide rDrown and !silence. I'm thinking of this as a regular amulet type, not an unrandart. There are a few things I'm not sure about:

Should the rDrown allow the player to survive in deep water, like grey draconians can? I doubt that this would be overpowered with an action delay penalty like grey draconians, but I don't know if it's desired. Player mummies and gargoyles do not need to breathe but still currently drown in deep water, after all.

How strong would !sil as a player attribute actually be? Silence would make for a very effective tool versus living or undead spellcasters, but having silence available consistently requires training Hexes and/or Air Magic for a level 5 spell. I honestly can't tell if this would be considered overpowered or not.

Clearly this would become just a swap item if it lacked some kind of limitation, but what should that be? Needing time to charge up after putting it on would be too much like "Gourmand. Perhaps it could auto-curse itself when worn? (The amulet tightly grasps your neck!)

Any thoughts on this?
User avatar

Blades Runner

Posts: 561

Joined: Friday, 18th January 2013, 01:08

Location: Medical Mechanica

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 02:11

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

I think the amulet of unbreathing could have its uses, but coupling it with silence seems overboard.
Hirsch I wrote:Also,are you calling me a power-gamer? this is highly offensive! now excuse me, I have to go back to my GrBe game, that I savescummed until trog gave me a Vampiric +9 claymore.

For this message the author Psiweapon has received thanks:
Klown

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1888

Joined: Saturday, 9th July 2011, 20:57

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 02:18

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

magicpoints wrote:Should the rDrown allow the player to survive in deep water, like grey draconians can? I doubt that this would be overpowered with an action delay penalty like grey draconians, but I don't know if it's desired. Player mummies and gargoyles do not need to breathe but still currently drown in deep water, after all.


What's the distinction between being able to survive in deep water and just flying over it? The only one I can think of is being able to pick up items that have been dropped in the water, and I don't know if that particular distinction is quite enough to justify adding an amulet of unbreathing when there's already multiple sources of flying.

For this message the author nicolae has received thanks:
Tedronai
User avatar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 762

Joined: Thursday, 25th April 2013, 02:43

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 02:41

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

nicolae wrote:What's the distinction between being able to survive in deep water and just flying over it? The only one I can think of is being able to pick up items that have been dropped in the water, and I don't know if that particular distinction is quite enough to justify adding an amulet of unbreathing when there's already multiple sources of flying.
Indeed, there are so many ways to handle liquids that adding one more would be a bad idea. Furthermore, I think that the number of current sources should be cut down, such as by removing rings of flight.

I generally think !sil is a bad idea, for both player and monsters. The binary "ha ha your powers cannot effect me lol" gameplay it creates isn't very deep, and like high magic resistance it has to be added to every single extended threat in the game. I think it was insightful of you to notice that tactical use would be even worse, but any attempt at strategic equips is awkward and hacky, definitely not worth it for an already iffy proposal.
On IRC my nick is reaverb. I play online under the name reaver, though.

Halls Hopper

Posts: 63

Joined: Saturday, 25th January 2014, 22:17

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 04:30

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Would the silence be constant or an evokeable ability? Either way I think it would be a to powerful an effect for a regular amulet. Giving Trog worshipers a fairly common, repeatable source of silence is a boost I don't think they need.

If the amulet didn't let you move through water I think it would be to narrow to be useful. It would only grant protection from your own Mephitic Cloud, Swamp Drake/Dragon Breath, Water Elementals, and Spores Right? With water movement it would be the type of item you keep around somewhere for when you need it but not something you'd normally carry.

That being said, with water movement and some type of silence, I do think this would make a cool unrand. For a set back removing the amulet could leave you gasping for air, unable to cast spells or use god abilities for a short while.

Crypt Cleanser

Posts: 747

Joined: Friday, 6th January 2012, 12:30

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 05:22

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

!sil means resistance to silence for the people who misunderstood.
This amulet would be just as useless as most of the other amulets.
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1881

Joined: Saturday, 7th September 2013, 21:16

Location: Itajubá, MG, Brazil.

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 05:34

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

actually, casting silence and being not affected by it seems pretty broken.
my posts are to be read in a mildly playful tone, with a deep, sexy voice.

Halls Hopper

Posts: 63

Joined: Saturday, 25th January 2014, 22:17

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 05:54

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Wahaha wrote:!sil means resistance to silence for the people who misunderstood.
This amulet would be just as useless as most of the other amulets.


I see, that makes sense. !sil is not a good effect for players to have access to. Only two enemies can silence you right, Silent specters, and Mennas? So its way to narrow for that purpose. If it let you cast spells while under your own silence effect it would be way to powerful, and make silence a must have spell.

Crypt Cleanser

Posts: 747

Joined: Friday, 6th January 2012, 12:30

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 08:03

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

If casting spells while silenced is too powerful then we got a grossly overpowered combo in the game right now. If you cast silence, there's nothing actually preventing you from hitting things with a weapon, while silenced! And you don't even need to wear an amulet to do it!
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1881

Joined: Saturday, 7th September 2013, 21:16

Location: Itajubá, MG, Brazil.

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 09:10

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

you could just recast silence forever, and it would not matter, because scrolls, god abilities, and spells would still be avaliable.
oh, I guess you are joking. sorry.
my posts are to be read in a mildly playful tone, with a deep, sexy voice.

Slime Squisher

Posts: 368

Joined: Thursday, 11th April 2013, 21:07

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 09:56

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

magicpoints wrote:Any thoughts on this?

The argument below contains several blind assertions for which the underlying reasoning has been snipped out in the interest of clarity of the overall point:


rDrown overlaps with Flight.
rSilence is uninteresting for several reasons.

rSilence is the more relevant attribute of this item (outside of LairWaterBranch), and its application would be primarily tactical. Amulets in DCSS tend to fill the space of strategic use rather than tactical use, thus if this item were added it would be better as a ring.

There are already 24 (!) rings in the game. Increasing the amount of rings increases the associated information load on players, which is already quite high.

Inventory limits are also a thing, and rings do not stack. Increasing the amount of rings thus increases the amount of time players are forced to spend micromanaging their inventories.

Players have a finite amount of time to spend playing, and any increase in the requisite time for inventory micromanagement necessarily decreases the amount of time spent killing dudes. Inventory micromanagement is less fun than dudekilling. (This is an assertion that may not hold for all of the playerbase, but I feel comfortable making it here.) Thus, commits that increase the amount of inventory micromanagement necessary to play Crawl directly make the game less fun to play. To avoid this, the amount of jewellery in Crawl should be reduced rather than increased, with ring types combined or flat out removed.

In order to override the concerns above, potential ring effect additions would have to be both unique enough and potentially fun enough for a large subset of characters as to make adding said effect worth the decrease in fun incurred by the associated increase in inventory micro and information load. I do not think that this Amulet of Unbreathing fits these criteria, thus I think it would be a bad addition.
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1881

Joined: Saturday, 7th September 2013, 21:16

Location: Itajubá, MG, Brazil.

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 10:55

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

it is an amulet, not a ring.
my posts are to be read in a mildly playful tone, with a deep, sexy voice.
User avatar

Tomb Titivator

Posts: 895

Joined: Saturday, 15th June 2013, 23:54

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:21

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Not getting confused by spores, etc. Definitely a bit useful here and there.
Silence doesn't really make sense imo. Unless it's a magic-based 'silenceeeee', I don't think not-breathing would hold back your clunky armor.
Last edited by Klown on Friday, 21st February 2014, 22:20, edited 1 time in total.
User avatar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 762

Joined: Thursday, 25th April 2013, 02:43

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:31

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Hirsch I wrote:it is an amulet, not a ring.

Implojin wrote: Amulets in DCSS tend to fill the space of strategic use rather than tactical use, thus if this item were added it would be better as a ring.

Implojin: Note that the whole "Amulets are strategic rings are tactical" thing was a vague correlation noticed by dpeg that has been sort of picked up by the community because it makes Amulets and Rings different. Clarity, Guardian Spirit, Rage, Inaccuracy, Stasis, and Warding are tactical amulets while there are several rings can influence strategic decisions like how you allocate your skills (Invisibility, Wizardry, Slaying, Magical Power). I cannot recall any time it has actually effected a design decision, although it may have happened once or twice. I think power level and complexity of the effect are far better indicator of whether a new jewelry effect should be a ring or an amulet.

Edit: Change the phrase "build your character around" to something more clear.
Last edited by reaver on Friday, 21st February 2014, 17:32, edited 1 time in total.
On IRC my nick is reaverb. I play online under the name reaver, though.

Sar

User avatar

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6418

Joined: Friday, 6th July 2012, 12:48

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:37

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

reaver wrote:there are several rings you can build your character around (Invisibility, Wizardry, Slaying, Magical Power)

What do you mean?

Dungeon Master

Posts: 634

Joined: Sunday, 22nd September 2013, 14:46

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:40

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Wizardry makes sense at any rate, since people often do train magical skills less than they would otherwise.

Sar

User avatar

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 6418

Joined: Friday, 6th July 2012, 12:48

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:50

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

That is not what I would call "building character around", but okay.

dck

Vestibule Violator

Posts: 1653

Joined: Tuesday, 30th July 2013, 11:29

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 14:53

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Well, the interesting part of this amulet would be !sil but I don't think it would be a very good addition as a player attribute. Basically because there aren't many enemies who can silence you at all and being able to ignore that silence by swapping on an amulet would make them a lot less interesting/threatening in a pretty simplistic way.
On the other hand there's player casted silence and yes sure being able to call upon gods and using magic under it would make it stronger, but given how the silence field works and the questionable melee threat most things you'd want to silence pose, I think the way to go would still be beating everything up after silencing. The thing is, casting silence locks you out of most escape methods for a good while and thus you have to judge well if you can kill everyone you want to silence; just having an amulet you can put on to fix misjudgements when choosing when to silence feels a bit cheap and I think it makes the spell overall less interesting.

Slime Squisher

Posts: 368

Joined: Thursday, 11th April 2013, 21:07

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 15:08

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

reaver wrote:whether a new jewelry effect should be a ring or an amulet.

For simplicity's sake I chose to highlight the utter mess of ring effects in DCSS. Dismissing for the moment the notion of consistency in effect type per body slot (which is a topic for another thread), the reasoning is unchanged whether you paint the effect as an amulet, ring, body armour, or prince albert:

If it increases the information load on the player and takes up another inventory slot, you had better have a compelling reason for adding it to the game.

rDrown has been addressed by nicolae's post above.
rSilence has been addressed by dck's post above.

I see no compelling reason for an item with these properties to exist.

Spider Stomper

Posts: 216

Joined: Saturday, 25th December 2010, 20:02

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 16:03

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Instead of resisting silence, if it's a non-breathing amulet, make the player silent while it's worn, but you're immune to drowning and cloud effects (other than LOS blocking). It's situational this way, but provides a use when you need it, at the exchange of being unable to cast.

Or, make it the amulet of flat-face. No drowning while wearing it, but no breathing, quaffing, or eating either. Wearing it makes your mouth scab over like Agent Smith did to Neo near the beginning of the Matrix.
The above post is for entertainment purposes only. If you think anything I ever say is backed by fact, or if you cite things I've said in any argument ever, you are insane.

Crypt Cleanser

Posts: 747

Joined: Friday, 6th January 2012, 12:30

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 17:05

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Hirsch I wrote:you could just recast silence forever, and it would not matter, because scrolls, god abilities, and spells would still be avaliable.

You're right, it literally would not matter because there are only a few enemies in a 3 rune game worth silencing and when they're silenced they're easily dispatched with a melee weapon anyway.

Dungeon Master

Posts: 634

Joined: Sunday, 22nd September 2013, 14:46

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 17:19

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Wahaha wrote:You're right, it literally would not matter because there are only a few enemies in a 3 rune game worth silencing and when they're silenced they're easily dispatched with a melee weapon anyway.

If the cost of being silenced were nil, I really don't think you'd say that there are only a few enemies worth silencing. And saying "3 rune game" is ridiculous, since Tomb is the only part of extended where silence is useful in the slightest.

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 508

Joined: Tuesday, 1st November 2011, 00:36

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 17:30

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

IronJelly wrote:Instead of resisting silence, if it's a non-breathing amulet, make the player silent while it's worn, but you're immune to drowning and cloud effects (other than LOS blocking). It's situational this way, but provides a use when you need it, at the exchange of being unable to cast.

Or, make it the amulet of flat-face. No drowning while wearing it, but no breathing, quaffing, or eating either. Wearing it makes your mouth scab over like Agent Smith did to Neo near the beginning of the Matrix.

Yes I think we need another completely useless amulet too.

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 329

Joined: Tuesday, 7th May 2013, 17:09

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 17:36

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

I think the problem from a design standpoint is that if a !sil amulet existed, you would want to have Silence up all the time. Further, you'd want to recast it regularly for big radius. I think a lot of this thread is really underrating how useful Silence would be if it didn't remove so many of your capabilities.
User avatar

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 319

Joined: Tuesday, 7th January 2014, 06:09

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 18:44

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

wheals wrote:
Wahaha wrote:You're right, it literally would not matter because there are only a few enemies in a 3 rune game worth silencing and when they're silenced they're easily dispatched with a melee weapon anyway.

If the cost of being silenced were nil, I really don't think you'd say that there are only a few enemies worth silencing. And saying "3 rune game" is ridiculous, since Tomb is the only part of extended where silence is useful in the slightest.

To be fair, the addition of Demonspawn packs means silence is actually useful in Pan now.
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1881

Joined: Saturday, 7th September 2013, 21:16

Location: Itajubá, MG, Brazil.

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 20:46

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Wahaha wrote:
Hirsch I wrote:you could just recast silence forever, and it would not matter, because scrolls, god abilities, and spells would still be avaliable.

You're right, it literally would not matter because there are only a few enemies in a 3 rune game worth silencing and when they're silenced they're easily dispatched with a melee weapon anyway.


did you know silenced enemies dont shout? and that you can cast quiet shatter while silenced? or LCS? or Lightining Bolt? what about a nice and quiet fire storm?
the point is NOT enemies not casting spells.
my posts are to be read in a mildly playful tone, with a deep, sexy voice.

Dungeon Master

Posts: 634

Joined: Sunday, 22nd September 2013, 14:46

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 21:01

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

You can also silence titans, fire giants, frost giants, deep troll shamans, deep troll earth mages, all the elves, hell knights, draconians, nagas, merfolk, Vaults monsters, and the rest. But sure, silence has nothing to do with enemies casting spells.

Barkeep

Posts: 3890

Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25

Location: USA

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 21:10

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Silence is extremely strong up to and including zot, it used to be very situational in Hells and nearly useless in Pan but with those demonspawn added maybe it is decent there now. (Haven't tried since the change.)

I feel like if there are strong effects like silence, there shouldn't be ways to get around them by players. It reminds me of dudes using berserk with amulets of resist slow back in the day. Also note that player-caused silence was already buffed fairly recently—indirectly, but non-trivially—by the addition of the elemental evocables.
Last edited by and into on Saturday, 22nd February 2014, 00:04, edited 2 times in total.
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1881

Joined: Saturday, 7th September 2013, 21:16

Location: Itajubá, MG, Brazil.

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 22:17

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

wheals wrote:You can also silence titans, fire giants, frost giants, deep troll shamans, deep troll earth mages, all the elves, hell knights, draconians, nagas, merfolk, Vaults monsters, and the rest. But sure, silence has nothing to do with enemies casting spells.


yeah, it is strong, but the broken and boring part is that, with that amulet, spells that have huge noise as a drawback would become insanely powerful. shatter stabbing would become a thing, can you imagine that?
my posts are to be read in a mildly playful tone, with a deep, sexy voice.

Barkeep

Posts: 3890

Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25

Location: USA

Post Friday, 21st February 2014, 23:06

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Hirsch I wrote:
wheals wrote:You can also silence titans, fire giants, frost giants, deep troll shamans, deep troll earth mages, all the elves, hell knights, draconians, nagas, merfolk, Vaults monsters, and the rest. But sure, silence has nothing to do with enemies casting spells.


yeah, it is strong, but the broken and boring part is that, with that amulet, spells that have huge noise as a drawback would become insanely powerful. shatter stabbing would become a thing, can you imagine that?


Something that dampened noise could be fun, but that seems better as an unrandart. Something like

The Muffler
+4 scarf (counts as cap)
"Though it keeps one's surroundings eerily quiet, many find this strange headgear stifling. Others describe it more charitably as merely 'snug.'"
+ rC+
+ Any non-instantaneous action may take longer to complete while wearing The Muffler [something like (1d4-1) auts added to any action that normally takes at least 0.1 auts]
+ All actions in LOS have their noise drastically reduced
+ Optional: Immunity to poisonous clouds and miasma (it doesn't just keep you warm, but filters your breathing!).

Crypt Cleanser

Posts: 747

Joined: Friday, 6th January 2012, 12:30

Post Saturday, 22nd February 2014, 00:01

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

wheals wrote:If the cost of being silenced were nil, I really don't think you'd say that there are only a few enemies worth silencing.

It's not a question of whether you would use silence more often or not. The answer is yes. The question is "is it too powerful?". To answer this you have to answer this question:
titans, fire giants, frost giants, deep troll shamans, deep troll earth mages, all the elves, hell knights, draconians, nagas, merfolk, Vaults monsters, and the rest

Would you silence these enemies if you knew silence but didn't have the amulet?

If the answer is yes, how much of a difference would having the amulet make? You would STILL be killing these enemies while they're silenced. The only thing that the amulet changes is it lets you have worse tactics because you don't need to separate enemies from their friends, something you should be doing anyway. Is this useful? Yeah. But it's not too powerful.

If the answer is no you wouldn't silence them, then they weren't a real threat to your character to begin with, and silencing has only a small benefit. Again not too powerful.

This is what I mean by "enemies WORTH silencing". If you can silence every hell knight, well good for you, but they were harmless anyway. If this amulet existed I wouldn't get silence more often.

And saying "3 rune game" is ridiculous, since Tomb is the only part of extended where silence is useful in the slightest.

Elf is not a necessary part of a 3 rune game for people who want to win. Crypt is entirely optional too. Pan has demonspawn spellcasters.

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 284

Joined: Friday, 20th December 2013, 00:43

Post Saturday, 22nd February 2014, 00:36

Re: Jewellery idea: Amulet of Unbreathing

Anything that can make auto-exploring shoals less weird is something I like.

Return to Game Design Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 25 guests

Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.