The Runecaster Overhaul Discussion thread

Discussion in 'Modding' started by Ruigi, Dec 12, 2012.

  1. Ruigi

    Ruigi Will Mod for Digglebucks

    Greetings fellow modders!

    This is a thread where I tell you about how I plan to overhaul my old Runecaster skill mod.
    This is an opportunity for you to see what I plan to do with the mod and provide your opinions/suggestions/expertise.

    For those unfamiliar with my runecaster mod, you can see it on steam workshop or this thread:
    http://community.gaslampgames.com/t...nes-and-destroy-your-enemies.2283/#post-19582

    The following changes are the basic points of how I plan to overhaul Runecaster:

    The player will be able to summon any single rune by choice: I'm going to introduce a new method of summoning runes. Rather than the old method, which summoned random runes from a particular rune family, The player must now cast two spells to summon a rune. 1 spell to designate the rune family or "circle" and another spell to choose a rune from within that circle. So at level 1, the player will have access to the first rune circle and the first quadrant (while rune circles are established, this new system I haven't found an appropriate name for yet, suggestions welcome) This means that by casting the spell to summon the first circle, and then casting the spell for the first quadrant, the player will be able to summon one rune (Rune of Movement). Thankfully, the rune word spell recipes have been changed so that this is sufficient to create Runewords of Force. As the character levels up, the gain either access to deeper circles, or more quadrants, and the progression goes something like this. Also-- when a rune is summoned it's automatically picked up and put in the player's inventory! awesome!

    Rune Pieces Progression by Skill level
    Level 1: 1st circle, 1st quadrant, 1 rune
    Level 2: 2nd circle, 2 runes (1 new)
    Level 3: 2nd quadrant, 4 runes (2 new)
    Level 4: 3rd circle, 6 runes (2 new)
    Level 5: 3rd quadrant, 9 runes (3 new)
    Level 6: 4th circle, 12 runes (3 new)
    Level 7: 5th circle, 15 runes (3 new)
    Level 8: 4th Quadrant, 20 runes (5 new)

    Runeword Spells Gained by Skill level
    Level 1: Force
    Level 2: Stone
    Level 3: Instability, Fire
    Level 4: Teleport, Swiftness, Storms
    Level 5: Healing, Ice, Steel
    Level 6: Light, Blossom, Aurafication
    Level 7: Power, Love, Restoration
    Level 8: Death, Prophecy, Entropy, Destruction, Decay

    In addition, when a player summons runes, he will recieve a permanent maximum mana debuff for every rune that he creates. This mana will be returned when he casts runeword spells with his runes. This change is critical because it puts limits on how many runes the player could make for himself at one time. Consequently, this means that the cost of making runes can now be reduced, and the overall wait period for making rune spells is shorter. summoning runes mid combat, however, will still be time consuming and risky. As a consequence of this design decision, Skoling your runes is now a very bad idea. In addition, alchemy rune transmutation would be obsolete and therefore removed.


    RUNEWORD SPELL CONTEST
    I'm taking suggestions again for new runeword spells. If you wish to suggest a runeword, please provide the following:

    1. Name of Runeword spell
    2: Suggested Rune Symbol and/or Sprite
    3. Skill Level that the runeword spell would be attained.
    4. Description of the runeword spell effect.
     
  2. r_b_bergstrom

    r_b_bergstrom Will Mod for Digglebucks

    FYI: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/all-platforms-skills-mana-are-horribly-broken.5166/

    That thread, if I'm understanding it correctly, is saying that things which reduce your mana won't reduce it below the total of your things that increase your max mana. I think. I haven't tested it, and it's possible I may be misunderstanding what's being discussed there... but if it means what I think it means, it could prove problematic for your intended revisions. You might want to check it out.
     
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  3. Kazeto

    Kazeto Member

    I said all I could say on IRC, so I'll just wish you good luck Ruigi.

    And if you want any more weird ideas from me, feel free to ask.

    He knows about it. Which is why the skill tree is supposed to give a penalty to maximum mana for the time being while compensating with sagacity (or something like that).

    Either way, it was nice of you to notify him of this problem.
     
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  4. Nacho

    Nacho Member

    Tack on a mana regeneration debuff with it. You'll still be able to create infinity runes if you take the right skills thanks to the bug, but it'll take forever and a day to do it, and come at the expense of all your other spells.
     
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  5. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    What's your final goal in terms of runewords, Ruigi? Because I could pump out a new Runeword for every letter in the Hebrew alphabet if you'd like. Coming up with fun spells is fun.

    Journeyman's Rune

    5th
    Grants +1 to Smithing and Tinkering when stood upon. (nonstacking)

    Manacrafter's Rune

    4th
    Grants +1 to Wandcrafting and Alchemy when stood upon. (nonstacking)

    :p
     
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  6. Ruigi

    Ruigi Will Mod for Digglebucks

    I'm also brainstorming ideas for encrust effects.
     
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  7. mining

    mining Member

    All you need is to take Magic Training and Ley Lines. And they both give you mana regen spells. Seems souper legit.

    Anyway, it seems that by giving -mana on the skill to the tune of [lots] you can probably fix the issue by adding it back with sag.
     
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  8. Ruigi

    Ruigi Will Mod for Digglebucks

    Update: Remember how each runeword spell had it's own "words of power"??

    I've decided to make this an internally consistent system by assigning sounds to each "rune letter". These runes letters will make different sounds according to their position (initial, medial, final) and when stringed together will determine the "words of power" for a runeword spell.

    This has absolutely no effect on gameplay and i'm only doing it because I'm crazy.
     
  9. Ouroboros

    Ouroboros Member

    Ruigi, the Runecaster mod is a great inspiration as a near-overhaul of crafting (okay, the addition of a basically a new crafting line). I remain impressed with the original, and cannot wait to see your revision. Godspeed!
     
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  10. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    Just exploring how much design space there is under this paradigm:

    1 1 rune - 1 potential combination - 1 spell.
    2 2 runes - 4 potential combinations - 1 used - 1 spell: 2 unused combinations at this level.
    3: 4 runes - 20 potential combinations - 4 used - 2 spells: 14 unused combinations at this level.
    4: 6 runes - 56 potential combinations - 20 used - 3 spells: 33 unused combinations at this level.
    5: 9 runes - 165 potential combinations - 56 used - 3 spells: 106 unused combinations at this level.
    6: 12 runes - 364 potential combinations - 165 used - 3 spells: 196 unused combinations at this level.
    7: 15 runes - 680 potential combinations - 364 used - 3 spells: 313 unused combinations at this level.
    8: 20 runes - 1540 potential combinations - 680 used - 4 spells: 856 unused combinations at this level.


    Just some fun.
     
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  11. Kazuhiro

    Kazuhiro Member

    Personal beef with this system:

    I had to be convinced to use Runecrafting, because good foresight and methodical laying of plans just isn't my style. If I had to actually think "okay, now I need THIS rune" and then click something like six times I wouldn't like it and would be even less likely to use Runecrafting. As it is, I just burn mana on the summon level 1 runes spell when I can, then go and see how many runes I can make of the type that I want.

    Nerf health rune. It's much stronger than the agility rune, and it's a very powerful and rare effect for very little cost and with no level investment. Just FUS RO DAH alone would be almost worth taking runecrafting as a one point wonder.

    Will think about spell suggestions sometime maybe.
     
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  12. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    New Runes

    Level 2
    Rune of Vibration
    ח
    Creates a spellmine that Dazes any monster who steps on it. Short duration.


    Level 3
    Rune of Battering
    ז
    This rune deals significant Blasting damage and a Knockback as a thrown weapon and deals 1 blasting damage to taxa="wall" in a template101 radius from wherever it hits. No spellmine.

    Rune of Fetching
    ט
    This rune triggers ManipulateObject, GrabItem, and Snatch on whatever it hits, as well as creating a spellmine that casts Snatch on any enemy who walks onto it.


    Level 4
    Manacrafter's Rune

    Grants +1 to Wandcrafting and Alchemy when stood upon. (nonstacking)

    Rune of Widdershins

    Creates a spellmine that deals 1 Aethereal damage to any creature that steps on it. Each turn, that spellmine clones itself in each adjacent square. At the 5th turn, all such spellmines explode for 1 Aethereal damage. (Yes, this will create a shitload of stacked mines in the center squares by the time the effect ends.)

    Rune of Reversal
    כ
    Creates a spellmine. Anyone standing on that spell mine gets -100 Dodge, -100 Block, -100 Magic Resist, -2 to every Resist, +50 Counter, and +50 Spell Reflect. If they get hit, they proc knockback on the enemy that hit them.



    Level 5
    Journeyman's Rune

    5th
    Grants +1 to Smithing and Tinkering when stood upon. (nonstacking)

    Rune of Wickedness
    ף
    Creates a spellmine. Standing on the spellmine deals 5 Necromantic damage and buffs whoever stands on it with 1-turn variants of Mark of Cththon and Pact of Fleeting Life each turn.

    Rune of Weathering
    ם
    Creates a spellmine. Standing on the spellmine gives you +1 to each resist and +1 Armor for 1 turn.

    Looter's Rune

    Deals significant Blasting damage as a thrown weapon. Casts Lucky Find, Luckier Find, or Luckiest Find (choosefromlist 4/2/1) where it lands.



    Level 6
    Rune of Entrapment

    As Rune of Stone, but hollow in the middle. (Creates walls on all 4 sides of the target.)

    Rune of Perfect Darkness

    Creates a spellmine that does nothing for 5 turns, then casts a Necromantic variation of Obvious Fireball centered on itself. (Get it? It's a timed mine. Perfect Dark? No? Oh, well.)

    Rune of Obliteration

    Casts DestroyObject and RemoveMonster on it's target.

    Rune of Occulting Power

    Creates a spellmine. Anyone standing on the spellmine becomes invisible. Shortish duration.

    McDuq's Rune

    Creates a spellmine. Every turn that the player stands on the spellmine, it drops 50 Zorkmids at his feet. Longish duration.


    7th level
    Rune of Polymorphism

    Creates a spellmine. The spellmine casts Polymorphic Injunction if a monster steps on it, or randomly chooses between Werediggle Form, Demon Form, Batty Form, or Carroty Form if the player steps on it.

    Rune of Negative Vertical Displacement

    Creates a spellmine. If the spellmine is created within 4 squares of the player, it immediately nukes the spellmine. Otherwise, once created, the spellmine casts "move up one floor" on the player if the player stands on it.

    Rune of Sucking

    Creates a spellmine. If the player stands on the spellmine, the spellmine casts suction and grabitem at everything within an area=6 radius. If a monster stands on the spellmine, it hits them for moderate asphyxiative damage and Unresistable Lockdown (yes, this keeps them right where they are until the mine expires and/or they die.)

    Gish's Rune
    פ
    Creates a spellmine. Standing on the spellmine gives the player The Gishbuff, which grants all of the Berserker Rage procs and +6 Burl/Cad/Stub.




    Rune of Runes

    8th
    When standing on the Rune of Runes, you don't get a max mana debuff when you conjure new rune letters.


    I'll finish that up when I have moar time.
     
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  13. Ruigi

    Ruigi Will Mod for Digglebucks

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  14. Essence

    Essence Will Mod for Digglebucks

    "Ylem" is just about the grossest non-Hebrew sound I've ever tried to pronounce.
     
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  15. Vitellozzo

    Vitellozzo Member

    I found funny the McScrouge citation. Good work with those runes, Essence!
    And what a wonderful scheme you managed to create, Ruigi.
    There's much to learn from you two.
     
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  16. mining

    mining Member

    I dunno, I think it sounds reasonable: Either ya (short sound) lem, or I-lem - both sound kind of cool.
     
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