Starting from flavour

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Hello!

I want to design some new game elements for my Angband variant Halls of Mist, known as FayAngband in the current version. There's some info about my new setting here:

http://www.mikkolehtinen.net/mist/

I want to start the design from strong flavour, and develop game mechanics from there. Maybe someone would like to help me? Or, alternatively, propose your own flavour-first design ideas for the thread! This could be fun.

1) New monster: Skultgard Animator. This magic-user is specialized in animating dead bodies and nonliving material to make zombies, skeletons, and golems. I don't really want to make him a summoner (animation takes time) but he will probably appear with golems, skeletons and zombies. Should he maybe boost the animated corpses in some way, and if so, how? Perhaps he should have telekinesis-like spells, since animation and telekinesis feel like related effects? Feel free to propose anything!

2) Scroll of Reverse Gravity (or maybe monster spell). This has nothing to do with my setting. I really have no idea how to turn this into game mechanics.

[Nick]

I want to design some new game elements for my Angband variant Halls of Mist, known as FayAngband in the current version. There's some info about my new setting here:
http://www.mikkolehtinen.net/mist/

This looks wonderful. I love your introduction screen - it makes me want to play already. And I think that starting from the theme (which your blog design seems to me to fit in with) is definitely the right plan.

A couple of thoughts:

• I am imagining the dungeon complex as having a section corresponding to each realm. You could have different generation styles for each realm, with hybrid generation as the realms merged into each other.
• I think something more complex than the linear Angband dungeon would be appropriate. Do you have any plans along those lines?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Thanks, Nick!

At the moment all of my monsters originate from one of the realms. Wilderness areas tend to have monsters from Thornwild, and civilized areas monsters from Skultgard. Monsters from Aether and Chaos are placed randomly anywhere on the level but they usually appear in groups of their own kind. (I added a little bit of randomness and mixing monsters from different realms to make challenges less predictable.)

I have considered both of your ideas, and will probably move in that direction in the future. Two of the realms already kind of have their room styles, and it would be technically easy to do what you propose.

In the near future, though, I want to concentrate on making monsters more flavourful. For example, designing the Skultgard Animator is thematically very important since it explains the origin and style of Skultgard undead and golems.

(The predatory vampires of Thornwild are very different from the mindless armies of animated Skultgard undead. I want to add a vampire bear to drive that point home! The Realm of Aether has undead too, ghosts and liches for example.)

The game is actually completely playable and very enjoyable already. Just some bugfixing and balance tweaks, and I'm ready to publish a public beta. There will still be some Tolkienien stuff in it. It will take time to replace all flavour text and artifact/monster names.

[buzzkill]

I've been thinking a lot about a dungeon without stairs, without the hard breaks between levels. A dungeon that just flowed seamlessly from one danger level to the next, with older areas being wiped away and new areas being created 'on the fly'. The wilderness in Z+ (though static) functioned in this manner and I always liked it despite it being a real killer, since escape from tough enemies is much more difficult. I feel it would be more manageable in the limited access that dungeon environment provides. Don't know if it's right for the variant formerly known as Fay, just throwing it out there.

[ghengiz]

1) New monster: Skultgard Animator. This magic-user is specialized in animating dead bodies and nonliving material to make zombies, skeletons, and golems. I don't really want to make him a summoner (animation takes time) but he will probably appear with golems, skeletons and zombies. Should he maybe boost the animated corpses in some way, and if so, how? Perhaps he should have telekinesis-like spells, since animation and telekinesis feel like related effects? Feel free to propose anything!

2) Scroll of Reverse Gravity (or maybe monster spell). This has nothing to do with my setting. I really have no idea how to turn this into game mechanics.

1) IMO the corpses should be thrown at the player by telekinesis, and then attack him/her. Their speed should be inversely proportional to their mass for realism. This way the bigger (and therefore potentially more lethal) monsters would arrive some turn later, giving a chance to the player to flee.
You don't want a summoner, so, once the escort of the animator is dead (again), it should not rise up for revenge autonomally. But if the player doesn't clean the dungeon from the animator before a large enough number of turns (counting from when he slash the first monster), he would return with a new escort.

2) perhaps the affected monster could be violently launched a good way up (if in the wildrness, or against the ceiling in a dungeon), then receive damage from the falling? this spell could affect a small area

[ThunderToads]

Hello!

I want to design some new game elements for my Angband variant Halls of Mist, known as FayAngband in the current version. There's some info about my new setting here:

http://www.mikkolehtinen.net/mist/

I want to start the design from strong flavour, and develop game mechanics from there. Maybe someone would like to help me? Or, alternatively, propose your own flavour-first design ideas for the thread! This could be fun.

Feral Sidhe ('Sidhe' basically being a fancy Celtic word for 'elf') from the Thornwild maybe. 'h's that use that evasive pack AI, are fast and hit hard but are easily killed. Could have an arrow attack too. Spin-off monsters like Feral Sidhe druids/shamans, chieftans, hunters, etc would be possible too.

1) New monster: Skultgard Animator. This magic-user is specialized in animating dead bodies and nonliving material to make zombies, skeletons, and golems. I don't really want to make him a summoner (animation takes time) but he will probably appear with golems, skeletons and zombies. Should he maybe boost the animated corpses in some way, and if so, how? Perhaps he should have telekinesis-like spells, since animation and telekinesis feel like related effects? Feel free to propose anything!

- Maybe acts as a healer. I seem to recall some 'bands had undead creatures being healed by nether attacks, so maybe use something like that. Like the Animator casting a nether ball spell at the player, it would damage @ and also heal any of their undead minions fighting the player. On the other hand I don't know if you want the Animator to have the whole 'nether-blasting necromancer' feel, so you might want to code a new healing effect altogether.

- An aggravate effect is another option.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Don't know if it's right for the variant formerly known as Fay, just throwing it out there.

I don't want to throw out the current Fay navigation between dungeon levels. It's one of the best features in my variant! I'd rather like to extend the current system somehow.

I like how the navigation between levels is abstracted away, and your Mapping skill helps you find your way back to the surface. But maybe there could be different paths that you can choose when you descend.

Yesterday I had one idea. What if the game generated procedurally a map kind of like this:

http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2012/04/found-in-pile-of-old-papers.html

For every six dungeon levels or so, you could choose your path. Each path would have a different dungeon theme.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

2) perhaps the affected monster could be violently launched a good way up (if in the wildrness, or against the ceiling in a dungeon), then receive damage from the falling? this spell could affect a small area

Something along these lines, yes. How about this:

Scroll of Reverse Gravity. A radius 5 ball, centered on the player, causes everybody falling damage (including the player!). Damage is doubled in rooms, as the ceiling is higher than in corridors. Flying or feather falling protects from damage. If player or monster succeeds in Jumping check, halve the damage (they manage to land on their feet).

[Mikko Lehtinen]

- Maybe acts as a healer. I seem to recall some 'bands had undead creatures being healed by nether attacks, so maybe use something like that. Like the Animator casting a nether ball spell at the player, it would damage @ and also heal any of their undead minions fighting the player. On the other hand I don't know if you want the Animator to have the whole 'nether-blasting necromancer' feel, so you might want to code a new healing effect altogether.

I like healing spells without nether attacks. Haste and Armor spells would be cool, also. If we replace healing with Regeneration, we can handle all three spells in the same way, as temporary buffs that affect animated undead and golems.

What should the area of effect be? Perhaps all animated monsters within 10 squares of the animator receive the buff? The animator should only cast these spells if there is at least one animated monster in range that doesn't have the buff already.

I'd like the Telekinesis monster spell to have nothing to do with animated monsters. Just a special attack spell for the animator. What if it pushed the the player 1d4 squares to a random direction? Hitting walls, furniture or monsters would cause damage. (Also to the monster.) I could give the same spell to poltergeists...

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Could I get some opionions on Staff of Earthbinding? All flying monsters in sight, unless they make their saving throw, take heavy falling damage. They temporarily lose flying and become slowed. The staff would have a quite limited number of charges.

I want something against those damned harpies! They are my number one cause of death.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Feral Sidhe ('Sidhe' basically being a fancy Celtic word for 'elf') from the Thornwild maybe. 'h's that use that evasive pack AI, are fast and hit hard but are easily killed. Could have an arrow attack too. Spin-off monsters like Feral Sidhe druids/shamans, chieftans, hunters, etc would be possible too.

Perhaps! The letter would probably be f or F (faery of lesser/greater power).

Alternatively, I could have feral sidhe as an ego monster type for Thornwild persons. That would produce feral sidhe shamans, hunters, brigands, priests, etc.

Mist already has Leanan Sidhe.
D:A faery of great beauty, she provides inspiration for poets but demands a
D: price in blood. Those she inspires have brilliant, though short-lived
D: careers.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I explain the design process behind the new setting in my blog:

http://www.mikkolehtinen.net/mist/

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Do you think that the following is a too complicated effect for the Scroll of Reverse Gravity? I could put the whole text to the item description that you see when (I)nspecting it. It's a long text, but the effect is quite intuitive.

You and all monsters within 5 squares take 2d20 points of falling damage. Damage is doubled in rooms and tripled in halls. Flying or feather falling protects from the effect, and any creatures with hands can secure themselves if they have something to hold onto. Destroys potions lying on the ground.

Note that all monsters that are capable of opening doors have hands. Halls are rooms made by joining at least two normal-sized rooms.

What kind of things can you hold onto? I'm thinking doors, sides of a table, vegetation.

[ghengiz]

What kind of things can you hold onto? I'm thinking doors, sides of a table, vegetation.

Vegetation and doors are fine. But, unless tables are fixed on ground, they should be affected too...
I'd substitute tables with pillars. Of course, you need hands and/or legs and/or a tail to take advantage of them.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Vegetation and doors are fine. But, unless tables are fixed on ground, they should be affected too...
I'd substitute tables with pillars. Of course, you need hands and/or legs and/or a tail to take advantage of them.

True! Mist doesn't have pillared rooms but it has trees. Scroll of Reverse Gravity, take two:

You and all monsters in sight take 2d20 points of falling damage if in a corridor, or 3d30 if in a room. Creatures with flying or feather falling are unaffected. Creatures with hands can secure themselves if they are within one square of a door, a tree, or vegetation. Destroys all potions and powder vials in sight. (Edited to remove some terrain features that are probably affected, too)

Staff of Earthbind, take two:

All flying creatures in sight take falling damage, 2d20 if in a corridor, 3d30 if in a room. They temporarily lose their flying ability and are slowed. No saving throw. Only about four charges on average.

These two mirror each other nicely. They have more cumbersome descriptions than most magic effects, but that's what tends to happen when you start the design from flavour. I hope the intuitiveness of the effects holds these two together...?