Ideas

Jan 28, 2010, 3:00 pm
Joined: Nov 22, 2008
Interests: IVAN
Posts: 1,170
capristo wrote
Why not all of them?

Because you would be either dead or immortal by the time you reach attnam
Beware! 'tis EagleV, Hardcore Weaver of Baskets!
Jan 28, 2010, 11:00 pm
Joined: Jan 11, 2008
Posts: 1,019
Batman? wrote
ADOM (My personal favorite of the rougelikes) has permadeath and random overworld encounters that are handled very well. they have the difficutly scaled by location (how far you are into the wilderness from the stasrt of the game) and by game time, so early on in the game you get goblins/kobolds etc, but as the game clock runs the monsters get more difficult. it occaisonally causes an early charecter to get killed ,but in general adds a nice flavor to the game.

I've always felt IVAN was characterized by the dungeons with their mix of random enemies and design as well as static additions that presented new problems or possibly new solutions (though certainly not without cost). Random encounters out in the wilderness I feel would break the feel of that and since the 'real' part of the game takes place in the dungeons anyway, I don't think it would be a positive change. Also worth noting is that as the game is at the moment, the previous concern is irrelevant because the longest trip anywhere in the overworld is from the underwater tunnel to Attnam, and as the second longest trip is generally much smaller, unless you make random encounters really common there probably won't be all that many and thus it won't be able to make the kind of impression they do in ADOM. Though, really for me it seems like it will be more annoying and unfun than otherwise to have random encounters.
Jan 29, 2010, 8:47 am
Joined: Dec 17, 2007
Occupation: Taking Names, Formerly Kicking Ass
Location: New Jersey
Posts: 992
IDK, you could try to reinvent the random encounter model, instead of just the "you are ambushed by a bunch of random monsters" model, give you random encounters that give you a chance to add alignemtn roleplay "you encounter a carvan of traders, do you want ot help/pillage them" or such. I think it could be a tool to really flesh out the IVAN world.

I dont disagree that some aspects of random encounters are pretty lame and dont really add much to a game, but as it stands the overworld has no real purpose. you could just as easily eliminate it alltogether. All it does is occasionally starve a beginner player.
Booooooooooo!
Jan 29, 2010, 9:46 am
Master mine stomper


Joined: Dec 16, 2007
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The latest version of the game is 0.50. The plan was that there'd be a empires and cities out there doing trade, wars, politics and other sorts of things without the player doing anything about it. This game is not finished, therefore some things that seemingly have no purpose, might simply not been finished yet.
Jan 29, 2010, 12:46 pm
Joined: Dec 2, 2007
Location: New Attnam
Interests: bananas
Posts: 2,309
The more we talk about this the sadder I am that they stopped development at 0.50
Jan 29, 2010, 12:50 pm
Joined: Jan 11, 2008
Posts: 1,019
Aren't we all, though?
Feb 1, 2010, 7:58 am
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,898
There really needs to be a warning on a locked door if it's Merka's. It was such a promising character too...
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Feb 1, 2010, 8:44 pm
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
A scatterbrained wand. Does the effect of a random wand when zapped. Has a chance to break itself resulting in a random effect too.

And probably an outlandish idea: The Room of Change Material. A simple non-descript room that looks no different to the others on the level, but anything inside the room occasionally changes material to something random. Upon entering the room there should be some sort of alert, like "This room seems dangerous", "you get the feeling it is not safe here", "Your skin seems to be crawling". The change should affect all bodyparts along with inventory items, but only has a chance to (to prevent everything changing at once) and without an announcement of having done so. The message "Your head suddenly feels like marble!" would definately give it away.
To make things more interesting, there should be a unique monster that spawns in there, and is slow-moving so it has time to get its limbs and such changed. A golem of some sort, perhaps?
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Mar 21, 2011, 7:23 am
Joined: Mar 21, 2011
Posts: 6
A new status effect or two might be nice. What about Reflect?

Reflect would protect you from all spells. Including beneficial ones.
Mar 21, 2011, 7:58 am
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,898
Interesting idea. However, I can't help but think it'd be broken due to the fact there's just so many more harmful spells cast your way than beneficial ones. How about magic immunity? Magic doesn't affect you, period. That'll include spells, wands, scrolls, equipment, fountains, the works. Possibly prayer effects as well. It'd work both ways, so it won't be so broken.
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Mar 21, 2011, 8:22 am
Joined: Mar 21, 2011
Posts: 6
That's kinda what I meant. Say goodbye to using wands of teleport to get out of jams.

Or perhaps using a wand/scroll of Reflect lets you reflect 1 spell, whereas a ring of reflection or a mirrored shield would give you perma-Reflect status?

Reflect would also be a buff that can be granted by Infuscor.

I was also thinking about a wand/scroll of healing. You can use them to heal yourself, pets, or deal damage to the undead.
Mar 21, 2011, 11:02 am
Joined: Jan 25, 2008
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Posts: 697
Immunity is less merciful, ergo more IVANish

One-time reflections sound great because it would take some mastery to succesfuly determine which will come first - his fireball or your need to teleport away. I like the idea very much.

A scroll of healing would be a cute gift for us players who like to hang out with buffed out pets, and sounds easier to do than a "Drink a healing liquid!" command for the AI.
Well I assume that a bolt has a given, numeric, amouunt of perwer. (assi in enegri)... unless it's LAERSER SKISKLS POEWN PEWN!
Mar 21, 2011, 11:21 am
Joined: Mar 21, 2011
Posts: 6
Reflecting some things like lightning, fireballs, and healing spells would be cool. Then you could use the old Final Fantasy trick of casting Reflect on a monster before it uses its own healing spell, thus causing it to heal you instead. Or casting Reflect on yourself, and then using lightning or a fireball on yourself and sending it in a random direction.
Mar 21, 2011, 4:41 pm
Joined: Jan 25, 2008
Occupation: Turns out I can't have a cool avatar, I'll just put crap in it.
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Posts: 697
Yeah the first thinghi thiught of was Carbuncle and the reflect tricks
Well I assume that a bolt has a given, numeric, amouunt of perwer. (assi in enegri)... unless it's LAERSER SKISKLS POEWN PEWN!
Mar 21, 2011, 9:29 pm
Joined: Sep 8, 2010
Occupation: Petty Functionary
Location: Drinking pea soup in the world map
Interests: Mangoes
Posts: 1,216
Alkatrazz wrote
Or casting Reflect on yourself, and then using lightning or a fireball on yourself and sending it in a random direction.

Sounds like an appealing idea, particularly implemented as a state.

It gives me an idea for a scroll of fire balls, where if you read it, then you can cast a spell on a selected square (spell range proportional to your intelligence). This would be a bit like the spells of an elder dark mage, in that you could cast the spell from a distance. It would also finally make the behaviour of dark mages somewhat more explicable; it bothered me a little that I couldn't cast spells like they do.
The scroll could be volatile and explode like a wand of fireballs. If you are confused state, then confuse-read means the incantation goes wrong and you blow yourself up.

Wand/Scroll of healing sounds great too.
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Mar 21, 2011, 10:08 pm
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,898
Warheck wrote
It gives me an idea for a scroll of fire balls...
As far as that goes, there was some sort of magic to be added to IVAN beyond the scrolls/wands way we have right now.

13:55 < J_Kahvi> if the psi system is added we could make an explanation for why food in shops stays unspoilt
13:55 < J_Kahvi> the shopkeeper would have a remove air -spell and would remove the air around the foodstuffs
13:55 < J_Kahvi> it could also be used to suffocate slow enemies
13:56 < J_Kahvi> or well, not remove, but push aside
13:56 < J_Kahvi> since shopkeepers aren't much of magicians, it could be a quite simple spell
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Mar 21, 2011, 10:30 pm
Joined: Jan 11, 2008
Posts: 1,019
That's a pretty neat solution to the problem. Shame spells never got added in.
Mar 21, 2011, 11:15 pm
kobold lord


Joined: Dec 15, 2010
Interests: mutant ass
Posts: 100
isn't there already an explanation as to why their foods dont rot?
Mar 22, 2011, 12:56 am
Joined: Dec 3, 2007
Occupation: Chaos Weaver
Location: Standing between all life and death
Posts: 2,898
Only for the New Attnam shop's bananas.
Uchuudonge wrote
creating stable chaos
making patterns where there should be none
sewing order into the chaos
you spit in the face of random numbers, of chaos
Mar 24, 2011, 4:01 pm
kobold lord


Joined: Dec 15, 2010
Interests: mutant ass
Posts: 100
chaostrom wrote
Only for the New Attnam shop's bananas.
I thought it was implied for Attnam too.
Mar 24, 2011, 10:43 pm
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
cowofdoom78963 wrote
isn't there already an explanation as to why their foods dont rot?

Maybe because it's damn near freezing in Attnam by the time you get there?
Perhaps the same could be said for the GC shop (not that i've seen any food in there as far as I remember) because it's so deep underground and kept in a cold stone room.

Coding wise, I have no idea.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Mar 28, 2011, 3:23 pm
The Lord of the Sims


Joined: Dec 15, 2007
Posts: 610
The shopkeepers are friends with all creatures, including microbes.
Apr 7, 2011, 8:40 pm
Joined: Sep 8, 2010
Occupation: Petty Functionary
Location: Drinking pea soup in the world map
Interests: Mangoes
Posts: 1,216
How about: Named Continents
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
Apr 8, 2011, 3:27 am
Joined: Dec 11, 2008
Posts: 1,770
Bored One wrote
The shopkeepers are friends with all creatures, including microbes.

With the exception of Hulbo, who is not friends with the tax collectors.
System would indicate in graphic if person is mounted on horse or not.
Same system also show if person mounted on boar, elephant, polar bear etc.
Or if person mounted on ass.
Ivan find mounting on ass funny.
Apr 9, 2011, 12:37 am
Joined: Sep 8, 2010
Occupation: Petty Functionary
Location: Drinking pea soup in the world map
Interests: Mangoes
Posts: 1,216
Fortune Cookies, which are 'read', and tell your fortune using a similar method to the sci-talk algorithm.

f.ex. a particular fortune cookie might read:

"The fortune cookie reads:\\ "Soon, the (adjective) (creature noun) will (adverb) (verb) you!\\""

adjective =
{5, big, little, small, brittle, enormous;}

creature_noun =
{4, hedgehog, orc, zombie, dolphin;}

adverb =
{5, quickly, slowly, mildly, briskly, painfully;}

verb =
{5, devour, jump over, smash, stomp on, dissolve}
Batman? wrote
its been so long since i had gotten that far i didnt think it through. arrrr!!!!!!
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