Yet another good topic for a Wiki -- I'll start it here, lets discuss things a little and then maybe we can move it to the wiki.
The content of your game is very important once you overcome the minor technical problems of writing the engine. ;) I'd say that a lerge number of interesting and distinct monster kinds makes for a very large part of a good roguelike game. And one of the most obvious things that differs the monsters are their special attacks and their effects.
So I want to try to compile a list monster attacks, both well known and used in roguelike games, and those less known, but at least sounding interesting.
The list is not supposed to be a list of all attack effects possible in a roguelike, nor a list of attack effects that every roguelike should have. It's supposed to serve as an inspiration for your own ideas.
The order is chaotic.
* Hit -- Just your standard 'substract an amount of hp' attack. * Wound -- Create a wound with long-term effect, ie. bleeding. * Push back -- The pc is pushed back by the force of attack. * Grab -- The pc can't move away from the monster. * Paralyze -- The pc can't do anything for several turns. * Sleep -- Like Paralyze, but it ends when pc is attacked. * Teleport -- The pc is teleported into random place. * Electric shock -- The attack ignores any metal armor. * Corrode -- Attack can damage metal armor. * Acid attack -- Attack can damage any armor. * Torch -- The pc is set on fire. * Fire attack -- Can damage scrolls/books/potions. * Fear -- The pc becomes afraid. * Confuse -- The pc moves around randomly. * Blind -- The pc becomes blind for some turns. * Steal -- The monsters takes an item from pc's inventory. * Pickpocket -- The monsters takes some gold from pc's inventory. * Curse -- One piece of pc's equipment becomes sticky-cursed. * Disarm -- Makes pc drop his weapon. * Drain stat -- Lowers one of pc's statistics. * Drain level -- Lowers pc's experience. * Silence -- The pc can't cast any spells for a number of turns. * Dispel -- Removes any magical effects from pc. * Energize -- Restores pc's mana. * Heal -- Restores pc's hp. * Trap -- Creates a trap. * Clone -- Creates a copy of the monster. * Mimic -- Makes the monster look/behave/have stats like the pc. * Amnesia -- Causes amnesia. * Steal spell -- Makes the pc forget one spell and gives it to the monster. * Summon -- Summons monsters. * Krezus curse -- Turns an item into gold. * Basilisk stare -- Turns an item/pc into rock. * Shoot -- Standard ranged attack. * Poison -- The health of pc decrease for some time. * Destroy wall -- The monster tunnels into the wall. * Polymorph -- Targeted at other mosnters, changes their kind. * Rise dead -- Creates zombies from monster corpses. * Make hungry -- Makes the pc hungrier. * Drain magic -- Decreases magical pluses, turns scrolls into empty scrolls, potions into potions of water. * Drain power -- Decreases pc's mana. * Switch places -- Switches places of pc and monster. * Teleport from -- Monster teleports away from the pc. * Teleport to -- Monster teleports to a sqare next to the pc. * Darkness -- Makes the squares around pc dark. * Light -- Makes the squares around pc lit. * Earthquake -- Damages all creatures around. * Hunt -- The monster can attack another monster of specific kind and heal by killing it. * Drain health -- The monster heals by attacking. * Aggravate -- Makes all the monsters around come here. * Stun -- Makes the pc unable to fight for the next turn. * Tumble down -- Makes the pc unable to walk for the next turn. * Idle -- No attack at all. * Suicide -- Kills the monster. * Seduce -- Makes the pc take off his armor. * Charm -- Makes the pc unable to attack the monster.
Please add your entries and comment on the ones already added.
Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes:
> The list is not supposed to be a list of all attack effects > possible in a roguelike, nor a list of attack effects that > every roguelike should have. It's supposed to serve as an inspiration > for your own ideas.
Nice list :)
> * Drain stat -- Lowers one of pc's statistics.
Maybe a distinction between temporary lowering (-50% speed for the next 20 turns) and permanent lowering?
> Please add your entries and comment on the ones already added.
Ones I've seen or used at times other than those already listed:
* Armour-penetrating: Like a normal attack, but bypasses (non-magical?) armour.
* Madness: Scares the target and drives it insane. Not necessarily the same as 'drain stat'. One creature of mine gave the character a special form of insanity that as well as reducing their permanent balance (mental HP, if you like) also made them perceive the world slightly differently.
* Convince: Convinces the PC/other creature to help this creature. Generally this attack was used _by_ the PC, but I put a creature in that used it for one quest.
* Disease: Prevents health regeneration, possibly other effects too.
* Slay foo: Attack does more damage against a particular sort of opponent.
* Vampirism: Transfer HP/MP/stat from target to attacker
* Kill: Instantly kill the target unless special conditions are met. (e.g. Adom's banshee) Use with extreme caution...
> Yet another good topic for a Wiki -- I'll start it here, lets > discuss things a little and then maybe we can move it to the wiki.
> * Teleport from -- Monster teleports away from the pc. > * Teleport to -- Monster teleports to a sqare next to the pc.
* Teleport to self -- The PC is teleported to a square beside the monster.
I think Everquest uses this for some highlevel mobs to allow the mob to kill off casters with a powerful melee attack.
I'm planning on doing one in conjunction with Aggravate (which would make you visible from anywhere on the map) to allow boss monsters to drag you back when you try to run away. -- Jeff Lait (POWDER: http://ww.zincland.com/powder)
> Yet another good topic for a Wiki -- I'll start it here, lets > discuss things a little and then maybe we can move it to the wiki.
> The content of your game is very important once you overcome the > minor technical problems of writing the engine. ;) > I'd say that a lerge number of interesting and distinct monster > kinds makes for a very large part of a good roguelike game. > And one of the most obvious things that differs the monsters are > their special attacks and their effects.
> So I want to try to compile a list monster attacks, both well > known and used in roguelike games, and those less known, but > at least sounding interesting.
> The list is not supposed to be a list of all attack effects > possible in a roguelike, nor a list of attack effects that > every roguelike should have. It's supposed to serve as an inspiration > for your own ideas.
> The order is chaotic.
> * Hit -- Just your standard 'substract an amount of hp' attack. > * Wound -- Create a wound with long-term effect, ie. bleeding. > * Push back -- The pc is pushed back by the force of attack. > * Grab -- The pc can't move away from the monster. > * Paralyze -- The pc can't do anything for several turns. > * Sleep -- Like Paralyze, but it ends when pc is attacked. > * Teleport -- The pc is teleported into random place. > * Electric shock -- The attack ignores any metal armor. > * Corrode -- Attack can damage metal armor. > * Acid attack -- Attack can damage any armor. > * Torch -- The pc is set on fire. > * Fire attack -- Can damage scrolls/books/potions. > * Fear -- The pc becomes afraid. > * Confuse -- The pc moves around randomly. > * Blind -- The pc becomes blind for some turns. > * Steal -- The monsters takes an item from pc's inventory. > * Pickpocket -- The monsters takes some gold from pc's inventory. > * Curse -- One piece of pc's equipment becomes sticky-cursed. > * Disarm -- Makes pc drop his weapon. > * Drain stat -- Lowers one of pc's statistics. > * Drain level -- Lowers pc's experience. > * Silence -- The pc can't cast any spells for a number of turns. > * Dispel -- Removes any magical effects from pc. > * Energize -- Restores pc's mana. > * Heal -- Restores pc's hp. > * Trap -- Creates a trap. > * Clone -- Creates a copy of the monster. > * Mimic -- Makes the monster look/behave/have stats like the pc. > * Amnesia -- Causes amnesia. > * Steal spell -- Makes the pc forget one spell and gives it to the > monster. > * Summon -- Summons monsters. > * Krezus curse -- Turns an item into gold. > * Basilisk stare -- Turns an item/pc into rock. > * Shoot -- Standard ranged attack. > * Poison -- The health of pc decrease for some time.
Poison can be used to drain anything for a short duration, not only health. You could get a strength poison or a mana poison. Spiders would use a strength draining poison for example.
> * Destroy wall -- The monster tunnels into the wall. > * Polymorph -- Targeted at other mosnters, changes their kind. > * Rise dead -- Creates zombies from monster corpses. > * Make hungry -- Makes the pc hungrier. > * Drain magic -- Decreases magical pluses, turns scrolls into empty > scrolls, potions into potions of water. > * Drain power -- Decreases pc's mana. > * Switch places -- Switches places of pc and monster. > * Teleport from -- Monster teleports away from the pc. > * Teleport to -- Monster teleports to a sqare next to the pc. > * Darkness -- Makes the squares around pc dark. > * Light -- Makes the squares around pc lit. > * Earthquake -- Damages all creatures around. > * Hunt -- The monster can attack another monster of specific kind and > heal by killing it. > * Drain health -- The monster heals by attacking. > * Aggravate -- Makes all the monsters around come here. > * Stun -- Makes the pc unable to fight for the next turn. > * Tumble down -- Makes the pc unable to walk for the next turn. > * Idle -- No attack at all. > * Suicide -- Kills the monster. > * Seduce -- Makes the pc take off his armor. > * Charm -- Makes the pc unable to attack the monster.
> Please add your entries and comment on the ones already added.
Here are a few more effect : * Slow : the player isn't paralized but acts slower * Disease : acts like a slow poison which can be passed on to other creatures by proximity. More dangerous diseases will never cure by themselves and will kill the player after some time. * good music : increases the stats of all nearby friendly monsters * bad music : damages and stuns the target. See sound attack :) * Curse : inflicts the player with various curses. A curse here is something you would find in Diablo or Guild Wars and has negative effects but only lasts a short time * Time warp : time clocks back at the point where the player entered the level * Phase out : target disapears completly for a short time. No other adverse effects. * Throw buddy : monster takes a smaller buddy and throws it at target. Both projectile and target takes damage
Christophe wrote: > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski a écrit : >> * Poison -- The health of pc decrease for some time. > Poison can be used to drain anything for a short duration, not only > health. You could get a strength poison or a mana poison. Spiders would > use a strength draining poison for example.
That goes to the 'Drain stat', which, as somebody noted, should be divided into temporary and permanent.
Sorry for the attack names -- they are sort of arbitrary, meant to serve as a reference rather than the one and only effect name.
> Here are a few more effect : > * Slow : the player isn't paralized but acts slower > * Disease : acts like a slow poison which can be passed on to other > creatures by proximity. More dangerous diseases will never cure by > themselves and will kill the player after some time.
This one's a little fuzzy.
> * good music : increases the stats of all nearby friendly monsters > * bad music : damages and stuns the target. See sound attack :) > * Curse : inflicts the player with various curses. A curse here is > something you would find in Diablo or Guild Wars and has negative > effects but only lasts a short time
That would be probably the 'Wound' attack...
> * Time warp : time clocks back at the point where the player entered the > level > * Phase out : target disapears completly for a short time. No other > adverse effects. > * Throw buddy : monster takes a smaller buddy and throws it at target. > Both projectile and target takes damage
> > * Disease : acts like a slow poison which can be passed on to other > > creatures by proximity. More dangerous diseases will never cure by > > themselves and will kill the player after some time.
> This one's a little fuzzy.
I think it's a great idea if you balance it well. It worked in dungeon keeper very nicely. Spread the sickness in a dungeon and come back later to see everyone dead.
> Great ideas everyone! More?
Talking about dungeon keeper, the monsters had some nice attacks:
Fart bomb - damages all creatures nearby every turn, for several turns.
Breathe fire - damages monsters, say on 3 squares in a given direction.
Turn a monster into a chicken (or something else) - the monster keeps his HP, but can't attack.
Wind - creates some kind of tornado that takes monsters and objects with it in some direction
Double trouble (well, that's from nethack) - a monster can clone itself, but not infinetely, just 2 clones at most.
Chris Morris wrote: > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >> Great ideas everyone! More? > Web - slows, entangles, etc. but can also be applied to a square > instead of a creature as a sort of trap. > Fly/levitate - avoid terrain, or get out of reach of PC > Hide - become difficult to see unless really close (chameleons?) > Invisible - become impossible to see without special powers
These are not really attacks, even if you broaden the term. I'm planning to put them in a separate article, 'monster behaviours'.
> Eat - swallow a smaller creature whole
How is it different from 'Kill'?
> Aging - ghosts in Adom, for example > Corrupt - corrupts or mutates the target while not going so far as to > polymorph it.
These two are pretty fuzzy -- I mean there's no single good effect of aging or corruption. Maybe you could be a little more specific as to the effects?
> Divide - split into two (distinct from summon/clone in that each > half has half the power of the original) > Merge - undoes Divide (for an interesting twist on blobs) > Water attack - since every other element is listed (damages paper, > possibly food, possibly clothes, unless they're stored in something > waterproof) > Focus - join mana with nearby similar creatures to jointly cast a more > powerful spell than they could each cast individually. > Animate - raise weapons, armour, rocks, etc. to fight the > target. Possibly their weapon, possibly whatever was lying around. > Whirlwind - pick up items from the floor and move them around > randomly, possibly hitting creatures in the way > Alter ground - turns grass to rock, or poisoned river to clean river, > or whatever. Superset of 'Destroy wall', I suppose.
> At 08 Sep 2005 19:31:58 +0100, > Chris Morris wrote:
>> Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >>> Great ideas everyone! More?
>> Web - slows, entangles, etc. but can also be applied to a square >> instead of a creature as a sort of trap. >> Fly/levitate - avoid terrain, or get out of reach of PC >> Hide - become difficult to see unless really close (chameleons?) >> Invisible - become impossible to see without special powers
> These are not really attacks, even if you broaden the term. > I'm planning to put them in a separate article, 'monster behaviours'.
And what about monster passive counter effets. Effects which are triggered by specific attacker actions ? Like using fire against a fire elemental gives him the effect of a healing+blessing spell.
>> Merge - undoes Divide (for an interesting twist on blobs)
Or you could have small creatures in the first place who can merge to create bigger ones later. Say, 3 small blobs => 1 big blob, much more dangerous :) There where some critters like that in Phantasy Star 4
Christophe Cavalaria wrote: > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski wrote: >> At 08 Sep 2005 19:31:58 +0100, >> Chris Morris wrote: >>> Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >>>> Great ideas everyone! More?
>>> Web - slows, entangles, etc. but can also be applied to a square >>> instead of a creature as a sort of trap. >>> Fly/levitate - avoid terrain, or get out of reach of PC >>> Hide - become difficult to see unless really close (chameleons?) >>> Invisible - become impossible to see without special powers >> These are not really attacks, even if you broaden the term. >> I'm planning to put them in a separate article, 'monster behaviours'. > And what about monster passive counter effets. Effects which are triggered > by specific attacker actions ? Like using fire against a fire elemental > gives him the effect of a healing+blessing spell.
They will also go to the behaviors, along with all kinds of movement, attack-choosing algorithms (couterattacks), picking up items, etc. It's gonna be much bigger than the attacks article.
>>> Merge - undoes Divide (for an interesting twist on blobs) > Or you could have small creatures in the first place who can merge to create > bigger ones later. > Say, 3 small blobs => 1 big blob, much more dangerous :) There where some > critters like that in Phantasy Star 4
Good idea. I can't recall that monster in PS4, but I didn't finish it, so maybe I didn't get that far :)
In Chronotrigger there are many monsters that do their 'combo' attacks, that require cooperation of two or more kinds of monsters.
* Cooperation -- performed by several monsters at a time.
This is a great discussion. Here's what I cooked up just now (or stole from obscure places).
* Condemn - Put's a timer on the PC. When it expires the PC dies. This timer could either be dispelled or canceled when the monster dies. (interesting game dynamics here)
* Mute - PC can't use spells
* Nexus - Swaps around PCs stats (I hate this one, I think it's dumb)
* Drunken - Makes PC stumble in random directions/miss more.
* Fallen One - Reduce PC HP to 1.
* Blurrrrr - Makes PC "see" several copies of the attacker, only one of which is real.
* Swizzle - Swap the PC's HP and mana totals
* BSoD - Crash the computer the game is running on (portability issues here)
* Disorient - Paint the screen upside down (this one could be great)
* Banish - Send the player to a different plane. This would be a specially dangerous level that the player would have to find the exit to to return to the original dungeon.
* L3 Doom - Kills any target whose level is a multiple of 3. (stolen from final fantasy - you could have different levels and effects, obviously)
* Balefire - Kills target and undoes the target's last N moves. Hard to make this practical since it requires you build an undo system into your RL. However, once this system is in place you could do all sorts of interesting time effects.
* Energy Shield - Monster absorbs all magical attacks directed at it and converts them into health. Could also do the reverse (all physical damage turned into mana).
* Head crab - Allow the monster to possess the player for N turns. During this time the PC would be computer controlled and attack the enemies of the possessing monster. Only good in some setups.
* Rip Van Winkle - Put the PC to Sleep for a looooong time. Maybe make him incorporeal so that monsters can't interact with him. Then simulate the dungeon environment for several thousand turns, then the player wakes up. This is only good if you have a very dynamic dungeon environment (that things would be different after N turns). Also advance the PC's age.
* Soul Steal - Steal the PC's soul, making the gods ignore his praying. Maybe allow him to get it back somehow? Dunno.
* Mid-life Crisis - Force the PC to change his character class to a different one (or randomly select a new one). This one could really suck. Best used on one unique boss, maybe.
>> Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski wrote: >>> At 08 Sep 2005 19:31:58 +0100, >>> Chris Morris wrote: >>>> Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >>>>> Great ideas everyone! More?
>>>> Web - slows, entangles, etc. but can also be applied to a square >>>> instead of a creature as a sort of trap. >>>> Fly/levitate - avoid terrain, or get out of reach of PC >>>> Hide - become difficult to see unless really close (chameleons?) >>>> Invisible - become impossible to see without special powers >>> These are not really attacks, even if you broaden the term. >>> I'm planning to put them in a separate article, 'monster behaviours'. >> And what about monster passive counter effets. Effects which are >> triggered by specific attacker actions ? Like using fire against a fire >> elemental gives him the effect of a healing+blessing spell.
> They will also go to the behaviors, along with all kinds of movement, > attack-choosing algorithms (couterattacks), picking up items, etc. > It's gonna be much bigger than the attacks article.
>>>> Merge - undoes Divide (for an interesting twist on blobs) >> Or you could have small creatures in the first place who can merge to >> create bigger ones later. >> Say, 3 small blobs => 1 big blob, much more dangerous :) There where some >> critters like that in Phantasy Star 4
> Good idea. I can't recall that monster in PS4, but I didn't finish it, so > maybe I didn't get that far :)
There were 2 kind of monsters : small blobs would merge for a big blob, and 2 different monsters called bladeright and hakenleft which would merge to form a monster called twinarms
> In Chronotrigger there are many monsters that do their 'combo' attacks, > that require cooperation of two or more kinds of monsters.
> * Cooperation -- performed by several monsters at a time.
Forgot about that one : meta attacks which damage according to a percent of the remaining HP or the max HP. FF style attacks which take 1/2 of the HP for example.
Shedletsky wrote: > * Condemn - Put's a timer on the PC. When it expires the PC dies. This timer > could either be dispelled or canceled when the monster dies. (interesting > game dynamics here)
Heh, have you seen my post about forcing the player to retreat? ;)
> * Mute - PC can't use spells
Already included as 'Silence'.
> * Drunken - Makes PC stumble in random directions/miss more.
Already included as 'Confuse'.
> * Fallen One - Reduce PC HP to 1.
Won't it cause lots of inta-deaths?
> * BSoD - Crash the computer the game is running on (portability issues here)
Well, you could just logout the player on non-windows systems... ;)
> * Disorient - Paint the screen upside down (this one could be great)
Opinions vary ;) One of the Zelda games had that 'reverse controls' effect. But I think it relies too much on the player's abilities -- we are talking about turn-based games, such an effect would only make the playing uncomfortable and increase the time the player takes to make his move, because of all that double-checking.
> * Nexus - Swaps around PCs stats (I hate this one, I think it's dumb) > * Blurrrrr - Makes PC "see" several copies of the attacker, only one of > which is real. > * Swizzle - Swap the PC's HP and mana totals > * Head crab - Allow the monster to possess the player for N turns. During > this time the PC would be computer controlled and attack the enemies of the > possessing monster. Only good in some setups.
This one I'd call 'Possess' ;)
> * Banish - Send the player to a different plane. This would be a specially > dangerous level that the player would have to find the exit to to return to > the original dungeon.
In other words, 'teleport level'. Will only work for persistent levels.
> * L3 Doom - Kills any target whose level is a multiple of 3. (stolen from > final fantasy - you could have different levels and effects, obviously)
We are talking about *monster* attacks against a *single* player character. Any insta-kill attacks are probably off-limits.
> * Balefire - Kills target and undoes the target's last N moves. Hard to make > this practical since it requires you build an undo system into your RL. > However, once this system is in place you could do all sorts of interesting > time effects.
Yes, but how do you undo moves of only one creature, when they obviously interact?
> * Energy Shield - Monster absorbs all magical attacks directed at it and > converts them into health. Could also do the reverse (all physical damage > turned into mana).
This will go to 'monster behaviours' soon.
> * Rip Van Winkle - Put the PC to Sleep for a looooong time. Maybe make him > incorporeal so that monsters can't interact with him. Then simulate the > dungeon environment for several thousand turns, then the player wakes up. > This is only good if you have a very dynamic dungeon environment (that > things would be different after N turns). Also advance the PC's age. > * Soul Steal - Steal the PC's soul, making the gods ignore his praying. > Maybe allow him to get it back somehow? Dunno.
The soul loss might be temporary.
> * Mid-life Crisis - Force the PC to change his character class to a > different one (or randomly select a new one). This one could really suck. > Best used on one unique boss, maybe.
I figure thiswould be even more annoying than Nexus. On the other hand, it resembles NetHack's player polymorphing...
Thank you for the ideas. -- Radomir `The Sheep' Dopieralski @**@_ (Uu) 3 Sigh! . . . ..v.vVvVVvVvv.v.. .
Shedletsky <mylastn...@stanford.edu> wrote: >This is a great discussion. Here's what I cooked up just now (or stole from >obscure places).
>* Condemn - Put's a timer on the PC. When it expires the PC dies. This timer >could either be dispelled or canceled when the monster dies. (interesting >game dynamics here) >* Mute - PC can't use spells >* Fallen One - Reduce PC HP to 1. >* Blurrrrr - Makes PC "see" several copies of the attacker, only one of >which is real. >* Swizzle - Swap the PC's HP and mana totals >* L3 Doom - Kills any target whose level is a multiple of 3. (stolen from >final fantasy - you could have different levels and effects, obviously) >* Mid-life Crisis - Force the PC to change his character class to a >different one (or randomly select a new one). This one could really suck. >Best used on one unique boss, maybe.
Since when is the Final Fantasy series considered "obscure"?
At Thu, 08 Sep 2005 20:26:05 -0000, Andrew Patrick Schoonmaker wrote:
> In article <dfq49f$q5...@news.Stanford.EDU>, > Shedletsky <mylastn...@stanford.edu> wrote: >>This is a great discussion. Here's what I cooked up just now (or stole from >>obscure places). > Since when is the Final Fantasy series considered "obscure"?
His talking about "obscure places" -- you don't know where he keeps his copy ;)
Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> schrieb:
> So I want to try to compile a list monster attacks, both well known > and used in roguelike games, and those less known, but at least > sounding interesting.
Some things that may have been missed:
Xan's boot prick, that slows/encumbers the player
In general, the way Nethack's Air elementals and varios v's engulf the player can become and interesting place to hide.
Nymphs stealing the player's items, and other general non-combat based attacks, such as foocubi.
And you also don't differentiate between normal attacks and passive attacks, such as the splash from an acid blob or being frozen by a floating eye.
And did anyone mention mind flayers sucking out your brains?
> This is a great discussion. Here's what I cooked up just now (or stole > from > obscure places).
> * Condemn - Put's a timer on the PC. When it expires the PC dies. This > timer > could either be dispelled or canceled when the monster dies. (interesting > game dynamics here)
Another alternative would be to lay egg/seed inside PC. PC would need to dig it out (causing damage). Otherwise PC would die / lose control when egg hatches / seed grows enough.
Some additional:
* Modify/destroy equipment - Makes PC's items rust / damage / disenchant.. or destroy. * Scatter equipment - Makes PC's equipment (some if not all) to be thrown around. * Self destruct - Suicide causing damage to PC. * Sacrifice - If PC stands on an altar, sacrifice. Like in adom. * Make deaf. * Sonic attack - Causes damage / death unless PC is prepared - like wail of the banshee in adom (instant death unless deaf). * Modify air around PC - Makes harder / impossible to PC to breath. * Modify vision - Modifies the way PC & player sees the level (e.g. shuffle, blur vision); level itself is not modified. (this is similar to your disorient attack.) * Modify tile where PC is - Makes floor lava / quicksand / .. * Modify PC's memory - Makes PC forget something, changes (e.g. quest objectives) or gives new knowledge. * Pull - Pulls PC closer. Might need prerequisites, e.g. first attach tentacles / throw grapping hook to PC and then pull. * Add item - Makes PC to accept an item (e.g. loadstone, timed explosive or something else not so useful). * Decide PC's next action(s) - Cause damage to itself, quaff a potion, zap a wand, etc. One variant would be timed version: attack friendly shopkeeper when next time in a shop / kick altar when seen. * Take over - PC controls body of monster and monster controls body of PC.
>> * Balefire - Kills target and undoes the target's last N moves. Hard to >> make >> this practical since it requires you build an undo system into your RL. >> However, once this system is in place you could do all sorts of >> interesting >> time effects. > Yes, but how do you undo moves of only one creature, when they obviously > interact?
I have thought about this some since it might be something I will use. My idea is that I will save the states of the entire game for the last N turns in an arraylist. Then, when something gets balefired, I revert to the saved state from N turns ago. I place the current player in the old state, and remove the victim.
This seems like a lot of work, but I will already have enabled save state using object serialization for the save game feature, so to save the last N states, I can simply stream the serialized data to an arraylist in memory instead of a file on disk. Not sure what kind of overhead this is :-/
I think time-shifting effects like this are neat because, as far as I know, no existing RL does anything like this (it's hard to do in C).
Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes:
> At 08 Sep 2005 19:31:58 +0100, > Chris Morris wrote: > > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: > >> Great ideas everyone! More?
> > Eat - swallow a smaller creature whole > How is it different from 'Kill'?
It depends. If it's reasonably corrosion resistant the target still has a few turns to get out by teleporting, or by doing huge amounts of damage to the creature from the inside, or by allies killing the creature and chopping it open. If the target is immune to corrosion then it doesn't harm it at all, it just has to work out how to get out...
If the creature is sufficiently large and the target is immune to corrosion there could even be a whole dungeon-level inside. ;)
> > Aging - ghosts in Adom, for example > > Corrupt - corrupts or mutates the target while not going so far as to > > polymorph it.
> These two are pretty fuzzy -- I mean there's no single good effect of > aging or corruption. Maybe you could be a little more specific as to > the effects?
Well, in Adom you get different stat bonuses and penalties depending on your age, and you die if your age gets above the racially-influenced limit. The effect an aging attack has depends on how aging is implemented in the game, so it's hard to be more specific.
Corruption is tricky to define, but in Adom increments a corruption counter, and every time that counter passes a milestone you gain a corruption, which could be anything. So it's a bit like a fractional curse. "The demon hits you. You feel corrupted." x10-20 "The demon hits you. You feel corrupted. Horns grow from your forehead"
Any individual corruption attack (except really powerful ones) has no visible effect, but the cumulative effect of many such attacks is potentially lethal.
Crawl does it differently, but the overall effect is similar.
Jim Strathmeyer wrote: > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> schrieb: >> So I want to try to compile a list monster attacks, both well known >> and used in roguelike games, and those less known, but at least >> sounding interesting. > Some things that may have been missed:
> Xan's boot prick, that slows/encumbers the player
Slow down was menationed, will add encumbrance.
> In general, the way Nethack's Air elementals and varios v's engulf the > player can become and interesting place to hide.
Ok, so we've got an 'engluf' attack.
> Nymphs stealing the player's items, and other general non-combat based > attacks, such as foocubi.
Stealing and taking off armor were mentioned. Don't know how to treat the nurse, however.
> And you also don't differentiate between normal attacks and passive > attacks, such as the splash from an acid blob or being frozen by a > floating eye.
The 'passive' attacks aren't really the monster's action, so they'll go into a separate article later.
> And did anyone mention mind flayers sucking out your brains?
> "Shedletsky" <mylastn...@stanford.edu> wrote in message > news:dfq49f$q50$2@news.Stanford.EDU... >> This is a great discussion. Here's what I cooked up just now (or stole >> from >> obscure places).
>> * Condemn - Put's a timer on the PC. When it expires the PC dies. This >> timer >> could either be dispelled or canceled when the monster dies. (interesting >> game dynamics here)
> Another alternative would be to lay egg/seed inside PC. PC would need to dig > it out > (causing damage). Otherwise PC would die / lose control when egg hatches / > seed grows > enough.
> Some additional:
> * Modify/destroy equipment - Makes PC's items rust / damage / disenchant.. > or destroy. > * Scatter equipment - Makes PC's equipment (some if not all) to be thrown > around. > * Self destruct - Suicide causing damage to PC. > * Sonic attack - Causes damage / death unless PC is prepared - like wail of > the banshee in adom (instant death unless deaf). > * Modify tile where PC is - Makes floor lava / quicksand / .. > * Pull - Pulls PC closer. Might need prerequisites, e.g. first attach > tentacles / throw grapping hook to PC and then pull. > * Decide PC's next action(s) - Cause damage to itself, quaff a potion, zap a > wand, etc. One variant would be timed version: attack friendly shopkeeper > when next time in a shop / kick altar when seen. > * Take over - PC controls body of monster and monster controls body of PC.
These were already mentioned ;)
> * Make deaf. > * Modify air around PC - Makes harder / impossible to PC to breath.
What's supposed to be the effect of those? I mean in the terms of game mechanics.
> * Modify PC's memory - Makes PC forget something, changes (e.g. quest > objectives) or gives new knowledge.
I'll split this one into Amnesia and Teach.
> * Sacrifice - If PC stands on an altar, sacrifice. Like in adom. > * Add item - Makes PC to accept an item (e.g. loadstone, timed explosive or > something else not so useful). > * Modify vision - Modifies the way PC & player sees the level (e.g. shuffle, > blur vision); level itself is not modified. (this is similar to your > disorient attack.)
Chris Morris wrote: > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >> At 08 Sep 2005 19:31:58 +0100, >> Chris Morris wrote: >> > Radomir 'The Sheep' Dopieralski <thesheep@ sheep.prv.pl> writes: >> >> Great ideas everyone! More?
>> > Eat - swallow a smaller creature whole >> How is it different from 'Kill'?
> It depends. If it's reasonably corrosion resistant the target still > has a few turns to get out by teleporting, or by doing huge amounts of > damage to the creature from the inside, or by allies killing the > creature and chopping it open. If the target is immune to corrosion > then it doesn't harm it at all, it just has to work out how to get > out...
> If the creature is sufficiently large and the target is immune to > corrosion there could even be a whole dungeon-level inside. ;)
So in other words, you mean the NetHack's 'engluf' attack.
>> > Aging - ghosts in Adom, for example >> > Corrupt - corrupts or mutates the target while not going so far as to >> > polymorph it.
>> These two are pretty fuzzy -- I mean there's no single good effect of >> aging or corruption. Maybe you could be a little more specific as to >> the effects?
> Well, in Adom you get different stat bonuses and penalties depending > on your age, and you die if your age gets above the > racially-influenced limit. The effect an aging attack has depends on > how aging is implemented in the game, so it's hard to be more specific.
> Corruption is tricky to define, but in Adom increments a corruption > counter, and every time that counter passes a milestone you gain a > corruption, which could be anything. So it's a bit like a fractional > curse. > "The demon hits you. You feel corrupted." x10-20 > "The demon hits you. You feel corrupted. Horns grow from your forehead"
> Any individual corruption attack (except really powerful ones) has no > visible effect, but the cumulative effect of many such attacks is > potentially lethal.
> Crawl does it differently, but the overall effect is similar.
I try to avoid the effects that are bound too close to certain game mechanics. When it's impossible, I try to include the description of mechanics in the description of the attack.
The aging thus looks like a stat-drain attack with a chance of killing. The corruption is more tricky. How about the Alphaman's mutations?
* Mutate -- pc grows/loses a bodypart, which changes his abilities.
>So in other words, you mean the NetHack's 'engluf' attack.
Nethack's "engulf" and "swallow" attacks are conceptually distinct. If you can weather the damage indefinitely, an engulfer cannot kill you, but a swallower is guaranteed to kill you after a finite period of time even if you still have all your hit points, unless you escape before that time has elapsed. "The purple worm totally digests you!"
(Also, a ring of slow digestion will prevent you from being swallowed, but not from being engulfed.) -- Martin Read - my opinions are my own. share them if you wish. \_\/_/ in the metal and blood in the scent and mascara on a backcloth of \ / lashes and scars in a flood of your tears in sackcloth and ashes \/ -- Sisters of Mercy, "Flood I"
>> * Make deaf. >> * Modify air around PC - Makes harder / impossible to PC to breath.
> What's supposed to be the effect of those? > I mean in the terms of game mechanics.
make deaf - Makes chatting harder (or impossible) since PC cannot hear anything. Also could give resistance against sonic attacks.
modify air - E.g. remove air, so it's vacuum. PC needs to flee to another tile unless he can survice without air. - This could include summoning of clouds (like in crawl).
