Applied Weapon Effects

A recent conversation had me thinking, the likes of Turox, flaming swords and thunder hammers aren't too popular so I came up with an idea on improving the tactical aspect of their effects without mitigating the risk factor. The ability to zap them, balanced by adding a new mechanic based on either prayer (based on having a timer, except attached to a weapon instead of a god, and while on cooldown nothing comes of applying it) or charge (like wands, but charges build over time) mechanics. There's 4 different ways I've come up with.

1. Power Timer
A longer cooldown for a full effect. For example, one could shoot a lightning bolt out of a thunder hammer once every 8 hours.

2. Weak Timer
A consistent, weak effect that can be used every so often. Example, a 1 tile fireball from a flaming sword every hour.

3. Gathering Charge
Charges build quicker to a higher cap, but effect is dependant on how many charges you have. Example, 1 charge will give you a 1-tile lightning bolt or explosion, while 3 charges will allow you to shoot a 3-tile lightning bolt or 3x3 explosion.

4. Limited Charge
Charges build slowly to a lower cap, but for the full effect. Essentially emergency use wands.


Now, as to the applied effects of the weapons themselves, I was thinking Turox could have a no-risk explosion like Legifer's, while flaming swords/thunder hammers would be like wands of fireball/lightning. We could potentially extend this to other weapons like Mjolak and whips of thievery/chameleon.

For that matter, how complex can a weapon effect be? So far all existing effects are singular, what about a rare, time-based weapon that can slow an enemy while hasting you at the same time? Is that possible?

Interesting idea. The thunder hammer definitely makes sense. Shooting fireballs out of a flaming sword feels a little strange to me.

But in general I like the idea. I feel like the danger of having a wand explode is far greater than their benefit in general, so usually I just store them in chests and forget about them. It'd be nice to have a "wand" without that risk

Zappable/applied effects could be a nice distinguishing feature between magic weapons and artifacts.

I'm not too keen on adding more effects to magic weapons, as they are already quite strong and useful, and adding more effects to them would make them overshadow normal weapons way too much, IMHO. Flaming swords give you light and fire damage which is not blocked by armor, thunder hammers have very strong lightning bolts that will kill everything quickly if you can survive them yourself, whips of thievery are just badass, etc. They are all quite useful without being overpowered, and even those that can be a bit tricky to use (staves of wondrous smells) are actually quite effective if you're careful.

Giving zappable effects to artifacts, though, would be a nice way to make them feel even more special. I like that.


That would be rather easy. Chilling axes already slow your enemies, you could just add:

Hitter->BeginTemporaryState(HASTE, 100 + RAND_N(200));

I'm no coder, the examples I gave are mere modifications of existing functions. If there's a better way to implement the idea, I'm fine with that. The main thing here is the general idea, not the specifics of my suggestion.


That's the way they should be, yes, but as things stand they're only variety weapons. Nobody picks Turox or thunder hammers over normal maces and hammers, people don't like quarterstaves period, never mind wondrous smells. If I recall aright, the "burning" effect of the flaming swords are really only minor damage that only really gives them a slight edge over normal long swords, and it's not even actually fire-based, which is a pity now that we have burning mechanics in-game. I'm making suggesting this in the hopes of making these weapons with additional effects mean something, not just "ooh, shiny, but it's not going to win me the game".


Right, I know it's possible to have multiple effects already, wondrous smells have two different smoke effects. What I wanted to know with that time-weapon example was, if I'm attacking an enemy with such a weapon, could I have an effect that simultaneously hastes me for the amount that it slows the enemy? How complex can weapon effects be with IVAN's code?

Which is why I said in general I like the idea