User:Skull Face/Suggestions

A scratch pad for suggestions on improvements / changes / new features.

Cannibal

Natives are lacking something so why not have a 4th native type, the Cannibal, based from a small offshore island village? Specialist skill would be Cannibalism (obviously) that allows them to feed off the dead and regain HP.

Dowsing

Original Text

The first such suggestion would be an additional skill called Dowsing. Placed on the Sixth Sense skill tree, Dowsing would allow a player to scry a location for buried goodies e.g. gems, coins, heavy swords etc. Successful use of Dowsing would indicate the presence of such items and improve the chances of finding same when the area was searched. Dowsing would not benefit standard searches e.g. in the ammo hut or searching trees for bananas. Dowsing would also locate springs of water (handy for filling those water bottles away from the river) and other things of interest (see forthcoming suggestions).

I'm interested in thoughts on:

(1) AP costs

(2) Relative placement on the psychic skills tree

(3) Class restrictions e.g. Shaman only, Shaman and Villager/Settler, others

Wiki Format Text

Dowsing

Author	Timestamp	Type	Scope
Skull Face	22:12, 13 September 2007 (UTC)	Skill (new)	Classes as listed

Dowsing would be a skill placed on the Sixth Sense tree at the same level as Psychic Recognition i.e. Sixth Sense as a prerequisite. With this skill a character would have a 'Dowse' button available with a drop-down menu offering a choice of 'for water' or 'for treasure', at a cost of 3 APs per use. Dowsing would also require a new item (forked stick, 1 inventory space, found searching in Jungle squares above level 5 density). Dowsing would not benefit standard searches e.g. in the ammo hut or searching trees for fruit.

Dowsing for water, success rate XX%, will add additional flavour text to the location description thus...

Your forked stick has led you to a small spring gurgling from beneath a rock.

...and will also activate the 'Fill' drop-down menu option for empty bottles and gourds. As soon as APs are spent on any option other than 'Fill', the flavour text and 'Fill' options are removed, simulating the character losing sight of the small spring.

Dowsing for treasure, success rate YY%, will add additional flavour text to the location description thus...

Your forked stick points downwards towards the ground. There is something buried here!

...and will indicate if there is a cache of buried items at the present location. Dowsing will not indicate what these items are i.e. it could theoretically be a cache of mangoes or a cache of gems. As soon as APs are spent the flavour text is removed.

Dowsing skill would be available to all classes except the Soldier, Warrior and Scientist. The skill is a natural for the Villager, Settler, Explorer and Scout (they need to find water). Similarly the skill fits the Shaman very well. The Pirate, being a superstitious creature prone to burying treasure and then forgetting the location, would also seem an appropriate recipient of this skill.

Comments
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Oyster Beds / Sunken Wrecks / Diving

This one was sparked by the noticeable lack of pearls on Shartak, and the fact that Blue Oyster Cult's classic ultra-rare 1980's pulp / weird horror / SF heavy metal album 'Imaginos' was playing at the time in question. How can one not be inspired by an album that features BOC, Joe Satriani and Aldo Nova?

The suggestion is that sea squares labelled as 'Water' and 'Deep Water' should have an additional vertical dimensional component. 'Water' would have a movement option to 'Go Down'. If this option is exercised (standard Swimming AP costs) the character will end up on the sea bed and have a movement option 'Go Up' in addition to the 8 horizontal dimensions. 'Deep Water' would have option to 'Go Down' to midwater where there is another 'Go Down' (to the sea bed) and a 'Go up (to the surface) in addition to the 8 horizontal dimensions.

The sea bed would have a few interesting goodies for exploration e.g. a sunken shipwreck (similar in concept to ruins) and the occasional oyster bed (similar in concept to berry bushes). Significant time spent searching oyster beds could yield a pearl (small % chance of success) and oysters for eating / trading (larger % chance of success). Additional critters may be encountered e.g. sharks, a giant squid living in the area of the sunken shipwreck. I'd suggest that the established shark attacks only occur vs those on the surface.

I'd propose that in addition to standard water-based movement AP costs, divers would drown at a rate of 2 HP per mouse click in shallow Water and 3 HP per mouse click in Deep Water. This drowning rate may be offset by an additional skill (Diving) that is freely available to natives with Swimming and to those outsiders who have purchased Swimming and Native Knowledge. Drowning rate would be reduced by 1 HP per click for those with Diving. Logging out (or running out of APs) whilst diving would result in the death of the character as the drowning penalty will be applied every 5 seconds - controversial perhaps but then Free Diving is a dangerous, chancy activity.

In view of underwater physics, machetes, blowguns, cutlasses, rifles, FAKs, healing herbs, GPS, gourds of water / juice, et al do not work underwater, only at the surface. Only thrusting weapons such as daggers and knives function as normal when underwater. Note: it may be time to introduce spears to Shartak Wink

Comments?

Here's a simplified version. I'm open to suggestions as always, and diving for objects does sound like one of the better ones and worth putting on the wiki once things have been discussed.

I consider "Water" to be something you can wade through at depths varying from knee-deep to perhaps chest high, but nothing more than perhaps 4-5ft. "Deep Water" is anything from 6ft to around 30ft depending on where it is. "Ocean" is just not anywhere you want to be. Perhaps diving in deep water would require a skill (under Swimming), but anyone can hold their breath long enough to sink 5ft and have a rummage around in the sand.

Interface could be:

[ Dive ] for [v 5/10/15/20/30/40/50/60 v] seconds.

where Dive is a button, and the 5/10/... is a dropdown.

The number of AP used would be something like number of seconds divided by 2.5 (eg 10 second dive uses 4AP). Each second you remain under would be one "search" and at the end of the time, you come up with the highest value object that you found whilst underwater. The implementation of a wreck or other undersea feature could be as simple as changing the items you can find underwater and adding a bit of flavour text to the surface description. e.g.

There appears to be a large dark shape beneath you with something glinting just to the side of it. [Dive - 30 seconds for 12AP] You dive down and search along the seabed. You find a gold coin.

Perhaps the longer you're down there, the more your search chance increases - eg 1% for every 5 seconds of the first 30 seconds (1-6%) and then add 1% for every second beyond that so 60 seconds = 36%. On the downside, the longer you stay down, the more damage is done; -2HP for the first 30 seconds and then another 5HP for every 10 seconds beyond that so 60 seconds = -17HP but quite a reasonable chance of finding something.

We could add a few unique items that can't be found anywhere else except underwater. Pearls, some shells, corals or sea creatures. That should keep the traders happy

Black Powder Weapons

Black Powder Weapons - +25% to hit with powder and ball firearms only (not rifles) - a new skill for the Pirate class.

Add new complementary items:

(1) Powder Horn - Takes up 2 inventory slots. After each use has a 20% chance of running out (guarantees at least one use). When carried through a water square each powder horn has a 20% chance of being soaked and rendered useless. Found only at the shipwreck, the ruined armoury, and the tower on Midway Island (history y'know).

(2) Lead Ball Ammo - Takes up 1 inventory slot per ball. Found only at the shipwreck, the ruined armoury, and the tower on Midway Island.

(3) Flintlock Pistol - Takes up 2 inventory slots. Base hit chance 20%. 1 shot. Does 4 HP damage on a successful attack. 1 AP to prime with a powder charge from a powder horn, 1 AP to load 1 lead ball, 1 AP to fire. Found only at the shipwreck, the ruined armoury, and the tower on Midway Island. When loaded and carried through a water square each pistol has a 50% chance of being soaked and the powder rendered useless - the weapon must be unloaded and cleaned (2 AP) before it can be primed again. Misfire on 95%-100% destroys the pistol and causes 4 HP damage to the user c.f. breaking machetes.

(4) Blunderbuss - Takes up 3 inventory slots. Base hit chance 30%. 1 shot. Does 8 HP damage on a successful attack. 2 AP to prime with a powder charge from a powder horn, 3 AP to load 3 lead balls, 1 AP to fire. Found only at unspecified locations c.f. heavy swords. When loaded and carried through a water square each blunderbuss has a 50% chance of being soaked and the powder rendered useless - the weapon must be unloaded and cleaned (3 AP) before the blunderbuss can be primed again. Misfire on 95%-100% destroys the weapon and causes 8 HP damage to the user c.f. breaking machetes.

Note that all classes could shoot these weapons at base rates, and Soldiers could shoot them at above base rates with their more advanced Firearms skills. Add 1 AP to time required for unskilled users (i.e. anyone without Black Powder skill) to prime their weapon with powder. Skilled users of powder weapons were known to be able to reload much quicker than unskilled users.

The skill would not make pirates superior to Soldiers or Warriors but it would give them additional options and RP flavour. From POV of AP usage vs damage inflicted, using the skill with multiple pistols would make a Pirate slightly more effective in combat (36 HP for 20 APs vs 30 HP for 20 APs) than solely with a cutlass and maxed HTH skills, but only until all their pistols are discharged. This fits nicely with the image of a volley of lead from pre-primed weaponry followed by HTH combat. The blunderbuss is a less serious proposition, more for flavour than anything else, and could be adjusted to allow a small %age hit chance for 2 HP damage vs each person in the same square as the target, mimicking a scattershot blast into a crowd.

Availability of powder and balls is deliberately kept problematic. Along with misfire chances this would keep these new weapons from flooding the market too quickly.

Comments? Thoughts?

EDIT: Amending soak/malfunction chance on the powder horn as, historically, they were often capped and watertight(ish).

Iron Constitution

Original Text

Why do pirates have access to the First Aid skill anyway? Medicine of the pirate era was notoriously dodgy and ship's surgeons often doubled as carpenters, cooks, barbers et al. Maybe what they really need is a unique skill called "Iron Constitution" which allows them to gain (for example) extra HP from all sources (beer, rum, water, fruit, herbs and FAKs) but not to the level of First Aid or Natural Medicine... say +1 HP for fruit and water, +2 HP for everything else, just for argument's sake... FAKs and Herbs would still have a place but less so.

The flaw with this is that they'd have to forfeit on the First Aid skill... would it be worth it?

Wiki Format Text

Iron Constitution

Author	Timestamp	Type	Scope
Skull Face	22:33, 13 September 2007 (UTC)	Skill / balance change	Pirate Class

Why do pirates have access to the First Aid skill? Medicine of the pirate era was notoriously dodgy and ship's carpenters, cooks and barbers often doubled as the ship's surgeon. This is why pirates are so often depicted as scarred and missing limbs, teeth, eyes et al.

This suggestion is for a unique skill called Iron Constitution which allows pirates to gain extra HP from all sources (beer, rum, water, fruit, herbs and FAKs) over and above the base HP gain rate for the item. A pirate with Iron Constitution will gain +1 HP for consuming fruit, water, beer and fruit juices, +2 HP for consuming rum, and +2 HP for using FAKs or Herbs on himself. The skill does not affect FAKs or Herbs applied to others.

This skill is intended to provide a touch of character and make things a little easier around the resource-scarce shipwreck. My suggestion (possibly controversial) is that pirates be allowed to choose either Iron Constitution or First Aid but not both. Hard men would take Iron Constitution as their defining skill whilst wussy gentrified pirates would take First Aid. If implemented, existing players of pirates would be given a one-time opportunity to trade their First Aid skill for Iron Constitution.

Comments
Comment here

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Haunting

From POV of the deceased, wouldn't it be better if spirits were given a compass that points in the direction of the guy who killed them (in the same manner as the current Exploration / Cartography locations ability can point to where you want to go)? With this ability a spirit would be able to haunt their murderer until they were exorcised. This would be a spirit ability called Haunting.

Obviously there's an issue in that humans with Trekking move twice as fast as spirits. So there's a need for improved spirit movement. Either a new ability called Spirit Flight (0.5 AP per square moved) and/or a button that is created when Haunting is purchased and becomes active when in spirit form. For 25 APs the 'Haunt' button will teleport you to the current location of your murderer. If your last death was at the hands of an NPC (e.g. squid, shark, shaman) or by suicide then the 'Haunt' button is not active. Exorcism by a shaman cancels the Haunting compass and makes the 'Haunt' button inactive, hopefully encouraging the spirit to get a life. Revival by a shaman cancels the Haunting compass i.e. the ability does not carry over into life.

I suggest this even though my main character is a confirmed headhunter. Consider what this could do for roleplaying and gameplay. Killers would be haunted by their victims and spirits would have a reason (a slim one granted) to be in places other than the medical hut

Geodolite

An answer to the issue of having GPS units on Shartak.

Orichalcum

The magical metal of Shartak mountain.

Chemistry / Alchemy

Why natives need outsiders?