[suggestion] Ego monsters

[tangar]

Right now Angband got revamp of all monsters and it's pretty cool But there is also a possibility to make monsters 'more interesting' in general - to add egos.

This idea perfectly implemented in TomeNET (Angband multiplayer variant) and it suits V very well imho.

What are ego monsters:

These are not actually monsters but modifications of basic monsters, for example:
The basic monster "Hill Orc" receives the ego-power "Archer", it will become "a Hill Orc Archer" and instead of trying to punch you in the face will shoot arrows at you...

Examples of ego monsters by type:
- undead ones: skeleton, zombie, lich, spectral
- class types: archer, rogue, mage, priest, ranger....
- hierarchy: captain, chieftain, hero, prince, king, queen...
- state: holy, demented, possessed, corrupted...
- effect: sentiel (shriek), shadowed (invis), mimic...
- etc: telepath, rabid (apply disease), of living stone (imm pois, 3x AC), pack leader (for hounds)...

So the idea is:
Right now when you meet pack of orcs - it's pretty obvious what to expect from them. But with ego monsters you would have a chance to meet among pack quite unusual types, which makes gameplay more diverse.

Each of this ego got special and unique properties, strong and weak sides, like new type attack, hp/ac/resistances/immunity etc. Any humanoid monster could have tiny chance to have certain appearence; other types also got special egos, eg 'projector' ego on 'j' gives it possibility to throw at you nasty stuff

All this examples and loads more types could be found @ TomeNET source re_info.txt:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gqj...PR-67-G55/view, just check it out, it's really wonderful system!

Wait.. But we already have egos?
Not really. Currently all monsters in V included to main list in monster.txt file, eg there is separate 'kobold archer'; at the same time there is no orc archers at all, except black orcs and uruks types, which could shoot arrows sometimes. But snaga, cave, hill orcs, half-orcs can not shoot at all... Poor fellas! With ego monster - some of them would be able to take bow in hand!

Implementing ego system would add a lot of 'flavour' to adventures which could marvel even very experienced players.

Please let's discuss this idea

[Netbrian]

I actually am not sure it'd make gameplay more diverse. Right now, when I see an orc, I approach it in a different way than I would if I encountered a hound. Ego monsters might go some way toward homogenizing that. You'd be pushed to play the same way against everything, due to the level of uncertainty.

[MattB]

I could go for this, Tangar, if it was a rare occurrence.
But first of all, in a similar vein, I'd like to see player ghosts back!
(They're in FA, right?)

[Glorfindel]

I think I could enjoy ego monsters, too, in limited quantities. Something like as many Orcs are ego Orcs as are Orc Captains. That's something of a messy sentence, but I ca'n't quite see how to make my point more clearly.