So you want to contribute but can't code?

[Tibarius]

mage spells - discussion base

Mage-Spells:
=====================================
- Only the 1st spell book is available in town.
- All spells have no minimum level requirement.
- The chance of success depends on the caster's intelligence. All spells require an intelligence of
18+(Spellbooklevel/5). The last spellbook thus requires 18/180 intelligence. A spell has a 0%
failure rate (for mage/ranger/thief) if the caster has the required intelligence. The spell failure
rate will increase for 1% mage, 2% ranger/thief for every point the caster's intelligence is below
the required intelligence.
- The spellbook-level specifies which dungeon level the natural deep of the spellbook is.
- Due to their long studies and training of their mind the mage class gets pConfusion at level 30.
- Attack spells are marked with *.
- Utility spells are marked with -.
=====================================


[ Magic for Beginners ] (town)
* burning hands (1) caster's hands burn until adjacent monster touched, damage 2d6, +2light
* poison touch (1) some drops of poison are applied on a weapon's blade, +1d6 damage
* fire bolt (1) small bolt of fire, range 5, damage 1d4
* frost bolt (2) small bolt of frost, range 10, damage 1d3
* sleep monster (3) range 10, sleep a non-unique monster, target can save
- detect monsters (1) detect non-invis monster for 1 turn, range 5+(Level/2)
- phase door (1) random teleport, range 10
- identify (5) reveal powers of an object
- detect object (3) detect objects in mid-range area, rogue only


[ Conjuring and Tricks ] (10)
* stinking cloud (4) radius-2 poison ball, dam 28, range 10
* magic missile (4) mana bolt, unresistable, range 20, damage 4d6
* spear of light (4) light beam, range 20, damage 3d8, lights beam path
* confuse monster (4) range 10, confuse a non-unique monster for Level/5 turns, target can save
* acid bolt (2) bolt of acid, range 10, damage 5d8
- light (2) lights up area/room, range 2+(Level/10)
- conjure food (3) conjure a random piece of food
- silence (3) damps the sounds around the caster, stealth+2
- regeneration (3) boosts hp and sp regeneration by (Level/10), increases food consumption
- resist fire (5) fire-resistance for 50+(Level*5) turns


[ Incantations and Illusions ] (20)
* wonder (3) create random effect, range 10
* spear of light (4) light beam, range 20, damage 5d8, lights beam path
* lightning bolt (2) elec bolt, range 10, damage 8d10
- alertness (5) increase perception value by 10 for 50+(Level*5) turns
- blur (10) caster is blurred for 50+(Level*5) turns, melee attacks on caster miss 15% of time
- cure poison (5) neutralize poison
- reveal monster (3) detect all monster (including invisible) for level/10 turns, range 5+(Level/2)
- agility (5) +3 speed for 50+(Level*5) turns, +1melee attack (but never above maximum)
- resist cold (5) cold-resistance for 50+(Level*5) turns


[ Sorcery and Evocations ] (30)
* Acid Strike (4) range 15 acid bolt, damage 10d13
* Frost Ball (6) range 15 radius-2 frost ball, damage 60
* polymorph other (7) polymorph non-unique monster
- teleport self (6) random teleport, range 100, always out of vault
- enchant armor (20) 70% chance to enchant magic bonus of armor by +1
- magic hole (15) sink through floor down to next level
- see invis (10) see invisible monsters for 1+(Level/5) turns


[ Way of the Mage ] (40)
* Fireball (9) range 15 radius-2 fire ball, damage 70
* mass-sleep (7) sleep all non-unique monster in LoS
- teleport other (12) teleport bolt, range 100
- disarm trap (5) disable traps on and around casters position (chest or floor)
- rPoison (10) resistance to poison for 50+(Level*5) turns
- detect stairs (3) detect stairs in mid-range area
- create doors (30) creates closed doors around player
- Word of Recall (25) teleport to dungeon / town


[ Arcane Secrets ] (50)
* Multi-Missile (15) fires 3 magic missiles in a row
* Acid Ball (10) radius-2 acid ball, damage 70
- Resistance (20) resistance to 4base+poison for 50+(Level*5) turns
- enchant weapon (20) 70% chance to enchat magic bonus of weapon by +1
- haste (10) haste caster, +7 speed for 50+(Level*5) turns
- stoneskin (10) AC+100 and speed-5 for 50+(Level*5) turns
- magic arrows (20) create magical ammunition for the equipped shooter
- create stair (20) create stairs at caster's location, up or down randomly choosen
- recharge (20) recharge staff/wand, object can blow up


[ Tome of Destruction ] (60)
* Earthquake (20) radius-10 earthquake
* Inferno (10) radius-2 plasma explosion (ball spell), damage 100
* Nether Bolt (15) nether bolt range 20, damage 160, no damage versus undead
* Shock Wave (8) radius-5 sound ball at caster's location, damage 70, stun effect
- Enchant Weapon (50) enchant to hit and to dam of weapon, max bonus is int dependant
- Bash Door (20) cast a force bolt of energy against a door, destructing it
- turn stone to mud (10) bolt which destroys first non-permanent wall


[ Lore of Bloodmagic ] (70) The Bloodmagic spells cost always the same HP they cost in mana.
* Touch of Death (100) drain life from adjacent monster if target does not save, instantly killed
- Rune of Protection (60) the caster draws a circle of blood on the ground which cannot be entered
* Chaos Strike (20) range 20 chaos bolt, target must save or is polymorphed to Level-5, dam 160
- Sacrifice Life (100) the caster sacrifices life to gain new mana, cost 100 hp gain 200 mana
- Imbue Power (60) the caster imbues his own spiritual power into a wand/staff, recharge fail 0%
- Nightvision (5) eyes turn red so the caster can see in the dark, rogue only, duration: next level

[ Wrath of the Elements ] (80)
- 6th sense (20) telepathy for 50+(Level*5) turns
- Elemental Ward (100) immunitiy 4base+poison for 50+(Level*5) turns
- Rift (1) caster creates a dimensional rift and teleports to another level
- Elemental Brand (30) brand weapon or ammunition with fire/ice/poison
* Thunderbolt (15) bolt range 20, sparks to adjacent monster until no more targets, damage 120
* Ice Storm (15) radius-3 cold ball with 15% chance per monster to freeze it, range 20, damage 160
* Meteor Shower (15) (Level/10) number of meteors, radius-1 fire explosion, each meteor dam 50
* Acid Beam (15) acid beam, range 20, damage 140


[ Grimoire of Power ] (90)
* mana storm (30) damage 600 mana storm, unresistable, mage only
* mana bolt (10) damage 400 mana bolt, unresistable, mage+ranger only
- word of destruction (40) radius-20 earthquake which teleports other all monsters in range
- Mass Banishment (75) remove all non-unique monsters in range 20
- shadow (15) become one with the shadows, 15% melee miss, works only with light=0, rogue only
- combat magic (15) pFear, melee/ranged attacks always hit, increased chance for critical hit


The average-damage and average-damge / mana ratio of the attack-spells are not fine-tuned yet.

[Nick]

i would like to work on the spell.txt file and come up with a proposal how the mage spells could look like.

I cannot find spell.txt at the link mentioned above tho.

The spells are all now in lib/gamedata/class.txt. Anything you come up with can be part of the conversation about how magic should look when (and if) it gets changed, which is currently planned for version 4.2.

[Tibarius]

re: spell list

Good day,

i would like to work on the spell.txt file and come up with a proposal how the mage spells could look like.

I cannot find spell.txt at the link mentioned above tho.


Cheers,
Tibarius

So i will work on a simple text file for now until someone can point out the spells.txt file to me.

[Nick]

I am reposting Magnate's original, with links corrected and editorial changes to reflect events of the last 4 years.

I got inspired to post a list of outstanding tickets that could be done by someone who doesn't know how to code. All contributions welcome - please base your changes on the versions of the edit files to be found here. (If you are a coder, there are over 300 other tickets, so please don't feel tempted to do these ones!)

Disclaimer: this doesn't mean that whatever anybody produces will automatically be included - at the very least it has to get a nod from takkaria as a good enough solution/implementation. My assumption is that anybody inspired to work on one of these things will post a new thread linking to their work, and discussion will ensue automatically. If that doesn't happen, I'll make sure I start a thread myself before committing any of these.

Come up with better names for Banishment and Mass Banishment.

Fix the mage spell list so that the mage's damage output scales smoothly throughout the game, and so that resistable attacks do more damage (per unit mana) than unresistable ones. Also make sure that the spells are spread across the books in such a way that makes none of the books useless (or so essential that you can't live without it). Yes this will need subsequent work to code the changes, but an updated spell.txt is the best way to start this.

Remove branding spells from both realms. To do this properly means editing p_class.txt as well.

For races and classes:
Rebalance classes - some of this stuff will need coding, but again an updated p_class.txt file would be good.

Update races - likewise for p_race.txt.

COMMENT: 4.2 will be revamping classes - see this thread for lots of discussion.

monster spell messages - lots of people have noted that the messages in the latest dev versions are less flavourful than their predecessors. So we need a text file for these, which has this format (one stanza per spell):

F: RSF_FOO
A: Message that is printed when the spell is cast by a visible monster (use %^s for the monster's name), e.g. %^s points at you, incanting terribly!
B: Message that is printed when the spell is cast by an unseen monster, e.g. Something utters a terrible incantation!
C: Description that is printed in monster recall after "It can", e.g. cause critical wounds
D: A message which is printed when the player saves (i.e. anything more flavourful than "You avoid the effects!"), if the spell allows a save

The list of monster spells is here - this file also contains the fragments of the above messages which are currently used, so this is what you need to improve on.

COMMENT: Elsairon has this underway

There are other tasks like it (for the messages arising from the elements, so feel free to have a go at those too.)

Review which monsters have NO_SLEEP, NO_CONF, NO_FEAR and NO_STUN. In general fewer monsters should have them, to make those effects more useful (the monsters still get a save), but there could be some which don't but ought to. While you're there, you might as well do the same for IM_FIRE/COLD/POIS/ELEC/ACID too ...

Add monster mana - there's a branch which has support for this already, but we need someone to go through monster.txt and assign a mana rating to each monster (0 for those with no spells, obviously). We also need a mana cost for each monster spell (RSF_FOO). Both Sangband and NPP have monster mana (and probably FA and others), so please look at those for some guidance. Hint: takkaria likes the NPP implementation.

Add more monster races - this is as simple as creating new RF_ flags for new monster races and adding them to the relevant monsters in monster.txt. If you're feeling clever you can add them to this as well.

Add more monsters - this is a general free-for-all ticket which contains a bunch of recommended sources (and also links to other monster tickets mentioned above).

COMMENT: The monster list is up for revamp in 4.2 too, but by all means have a go at any of this. I think the jury's still out on whether we have monster mana or not.


... and some non-gameplay-related tickets:
Context-sensitive help content - this should be in a file like this:

C: context for this help (e.g. light has gone out)
D: description of this help (e.g. You need to refuel your light source, or find another one).

... yes it'll need coding, but it will help to have the content available.

Check font licences for the new fonts (the ones ending in 'x'). Ideally we need the licences for all of them concatenated into a single text file (but showing clearly which font uses which licence).

Design a new scoring system - open season on this. Yes it would need coding, but a document which describes it would be a great start (and would be included as a help file).

[Magnate]

Thanks fizzix and Magnate for your answers.
I guess I'll just post a thread on this forum and see if anyone's interested.

I'm pretty sure you could choose any of the things left in the OP and nobody would complain. Some people might even like it ;-)

[MattB]

Actually takkaria is probably a better bet right now. I'm absolutely swamped, and will continue to be until January.

Thanks fizzix and Magnate for your answers.
I guess I'll just post a thread on this forum and see if anyone's interested.

[fizzix]

Hi Matt, I don't think much if anything of what's left on the list has been done since I last edited the OP, but I've been inactive on V for a year or so now. The best person to check with would be fizzix, though takkaria also dropped in with a flurry of commits up until a few weeks ago.

Actually takkaria is probably a better bet right now. I'm absolutely swamped, and will continue to be until January.

[Magnate]

Hi Magnate,

Is this sticky dead, or are you still after contributions on any of this?

Hi Matt, I don't think much if anything of what's left on the list has been done since I last edited the OP, but I've been inactive on V for a year or so now. The best person to check with would be fizzix, though takkaria also dropped in with a flurry of commits up until a few weeks ago.

[MattB]

Hi Magnate,

Is this sticky dead, or are you still after contributions on any of this?

[Timo Pietilä]

Howzabout "Stormwalker"?

I like that. Much better than Stormbringer.

[Derakon]

Howzabout "Stormwalker"?

[Timo Pietilä]

the Mithril Shod Boots 'Stormbringer'
- Meant as high end boots.

Stormbringer is sword. Specifically a Blade of Chaos. That name is famous enough that it is a bit blasphemy to use it to anything than a sword.

Could you invent a new name for those boots, otherwise I get an urge to change that in my games.

[Magnate]

Yeah, that's a great idea, would have done that if you hadn't explicitly said to post in this thread in the OP ;-)

I meant "post here" as in "post here on Oook", not "post here in this thread"! Will clarify.

[jens]

Yeah, that's a great idea, would have done that if you hadn't explicitly said to post in this thread in the OP ;-)

[Magnate]

Interesting - thank you for your work. Grateful if you could start a new thread for discussion. In fact, I'd be grateful if anyone contributing to any of these issues could start a new thread instead of replying to this one - otherwise it will turn into a monster.

I'll save my comments for the new thread.