PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Saphire on December 22, 2003, 10:49:41 am

Title: Mutations. Just cuz s**t happens...
Post by: Saphire on December 22, 2003, 10:49:41 am
Title says it all; but these are not advantages/disadvantages -- you dont choose them. People get mutations. Mutations can be simple stat reductions or buffs, or can be complex that truely effects you. However, the only way to get mutations is if you have enough contamination, so...

What gives you contamination:
- Miscasting spells; more powerful miscast - more contamination (esp. if it backfires and damages you in some way. IE: \"Your hands burn like a thousand hot needles\" for a example)
- Staying invisible - Keeping invisibility on for real life hours or casting invisible while already invisible.
- Diseases (and to a lesser extent poison)
- Radiation (though more likely to kill you then anything else)
- Alchemy experaments blowing up in your face
- Getting attacked with something over, and OVER, and OVER.
- Drinking something that will mutate you outright.
- Eating \" \" \" \" \" \".
- Breathing \" \" \" \" \" \".
- Touching \" \" \" \" \" \".
... and the list can go on for as long as humanity has imagination.

The effects of contamination thusly give you a \"good\", \"bad\", or \"cosmetic\" mutation or a combination therof. the more contamination you have, the greater chance you have to mutate in a short period of time. mutating reduces the contamination level (so you dont get 25 mutations in 2 minutes of gameplay.)

A few examples of \"Good\" mutations:
- Toughened skin
- Resistance to poison
- Greater Vitality (faster HP regen, more HP gain, etc)
- ESP (seeing enemies through walls, seeing their health, etc)

A few examples of \"Bad\" mutations:
- Frail bones (slower speed, more damage taken from bludgeoning/blunt weapons)
- Bleed profusely (continual loss of HP for longer periods of time)
- Weakness to fire
- Blurred vision
- You body is deformed (armor doesn\'t fit well)

A few examples of \"Cosmetic\" mutations:
- You are furry
- Your skin glows blue (could be considered \"bad\" in a dungeon. :P )
- You have no hair (just the opposite of \"You are furry\" ouch to the Enkidukai players :( )
- Your blood is green (if blood spills on the ground from a wound)

Good/Bad mutations obviously help/harm you, and Cosmetic mutations can go both ways but usually end up doing nothing but changing your appearance. Cosmetic mutations often turn into Good or Bad mutations later on, though, you can get Good/Bad mutations instantly from certain things. Each mutation you have would start out at a level, between 1 and 5. 5 Being the most mutated, 1 being the least. A mutation will always stop at 4, because 5 is perminate; however, if you cause something to make that mutation hit level 5 you can never remove it. (very, VERY, VERY nearly IMPOSSIBLE to happen! ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO LEVEL 3, EVEN!) however, you will only have one perminate Good and Bad mutation, so no worries of 25 perminate bad mutations.

If you dont like a mutation or need to decontaminate, you can go see a alchemist/mage/doctor that will:
1) Reduce the severity of the mutation
2) Reduce the amount of contamination, causing less severe mutations to spring up later on
3) Remove the mutation if it is cosmetic and below level 5.

Level 5 cosmic mutations turn into Level 1 Good/Bad mutations, btw.

There would also be various amulets, potions, and other items that prevent, reduce, or remove some mutations/contamination. A amulet of Resist Mutation or a item with a contamination-reducing/immunity effect will almost certainly be in every mage\'s safe. Also, there is a mutation that (ironically) stops all further mutation, though it is not perminate (so you can get it removed) and you still retain your level of contamination.

To raise a mutations level, you have to get the mutation again atleast twice. You can somewhat direct at which mutation you want; getting hit lots will increase your chance of getting a good armor/speed mutation, while hanging back and trying to cast offensive spells as a mage will get you a bad armor/speed mutation. If there is a teleportation/translocation spell and you cast it on yourself it can go both ways: You can get a good teleport mutation (teleport that you control within a small radius) or a bad teleport mutation (teleport that occurs at random times, with a destination unknown within a small radius) or it just might make you partially transparent from time to time (\"good\" cosmetic) Even playing for a long enough time will give you a \"Your hair is long\" cosmetic mutation!

Time to visit the barber... :rolleyes:
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Post by: Draklar on December 22, 2003, 11:18:05 am
I\'d like to see that in Planeshift :P
But don\'t you think all mutations should get removed after you die?
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Post by: Xordan on December 22, 2003, 01:16:00 pm
I\'d like another 2 arms.... I could cast 2 spells at a time then. :D
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Post by: Draklar on December 22, 2003, 01:21:05 pm
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Originally posted by Xordan
I\'d like another 2 arms.... I could cast 2 spells at a time then. :D

news flash, Xordan: you\'d need second mind to do that ;)
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Post by: Xordan on December 22, 2003, 01:27:28 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Draklar
news flash, Xordan: you\'d need second mind to do that ;)


Nah, unlike you I gotta big brain, I\'m very smart u know..... So I can do 2 spells at once. I\'m so ub3r!!! :D
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Post by: lynx_lupo on December 22, 2003, 01:28:55 pm
That\'s not a problem. People have split personalities! :D
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Post by: Draklar on December 22, 2003, 01:32:32 pm
Quote
Originally posted by lynx_lupo
That\'s not a problem. People have split personalities! :D

hmm... seems to comply for Xordan...
one personality is foolish and childish (he agreed to that :D)
second seems to be very smart... I urge to see this one, must be very rare thing :D
especially that \"big brain\" won\'t help in casting two seperete spells at once :P
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Post by: Xelon on December 22, 2003, 04:11:20 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Saphire
You can somewhat direct at which mutation you want; getting hit lots will increase your chance of getting a good armor/speed mutation, while hanging back and trying to cast offensive spells as a mage will get you a bad armor/speed mutation.


wouldn\'t this encourage melee fighting and kinda discourage magic users?
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Post by: Skizzik on December 22, 2003, 05:37:02 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Xelon
Quote
Originally posted by Saphire
You can somewhat direct at which mutation you want; getting hit lots will increase your chance of getting a good armor/speed mutation, while hanging back and trying to cast offensive spells as a mage will get you a bad armor/speed mutation.


wouldn\'t this encourage melee fighting and kinda discourage magic users?

It\'s an example...
Like magic users could get more mana/faster mana regen rate and melee-folks could get the opposite.
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Post by: Saphire on December 22, 2003, 08:41:00 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Skizzik
Quote
Originally posted by Xelon
Quote
Originally posted by Saphire
You can somewhat direct at which mutation you want; getting hit lots will increase your chance of getting a good armor/speed mutation, while hanging back and trying to cast offensive spells as a mage will get you a bad armor/speed mutation.


wouldn\'t this encourage melee fighting and kinda discourage magic users?

It\'s an example...
Like magic users could get more mana/faster mana regen rate and melee-folks could get the opposite.


Exactly! For every mutation there is a partial or complete opposite... and to stop players from getting all the good mutations, you lose all the mutations + contamination upon death (since you are technically \"starting over\") and can only have a certain # of good mutations.

the \"list\" that mutations get chosen from have three \"sections\" one each for good, bad, and cosmetic. there are then subsections in that section containing dual mutations. dual mutations being the combination of two of the three mutation types.

Think of the Mutation List as a File-Folder system on a computer. You have the root folder called \"Mutation Master List\" and in that you have three folders called \"Good\", \"Bad\", and \"Cosmetic\" and then in, say, the \"Good\" folder there is a list of \"Good\" mutations (very short list, btw) and then there are \"Good/Cosmetic\" and \"Good/Bad\" folders that contain Good/Cosmetic and Good/Bad mutation lists respectively..

So you end up with a \"tree\" of mutations that acts like a directory on a computer:

Mutation Main:/Good/GoodBad/Res-Fire_Vuln-Ice.Mut
 :rolleyes: :P
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Post by: Draklar on December 22, 2003, 09:27:07 pm
hmm... all these mutations...
I think I\'d prefer more customizable character appearance at char creation...  :/
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Post by: Davis on December 23, 2003, 04:15:11 am
I think \"mutations\" should be results of events, not in the way of gaining skill points like the previous ideas seem like.
Getting your arm injured
Turning your hair purple with a miscast spell

They should be removable though, so people don\'t end up completely destroying their char
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Post by: Draklar on December 23, 2003, 08:17:52 am
Quote
Originally posted by Davis
They should be removable though, so people don\'t end up completely destroying their char

reread the first post
they are removable
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Post by: Saphire on December 23, 2003, 08:32:34 am
Removable through NPC or PC, or if you\'re desperate and dont have the cash; death. :D
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Post by: Dexlan on December 23, 2003, 11:38:36 am
I like the mutations idea it adds to the ingame feel. Makes you think more for your characters sake.
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Post by: Kazorn on October 02, 2004, 07:40:58 pm
could be fun as long as mutations are removable, removing throught death however i think is a bad idea, since it could create really strange
behavior.

\"hey wana go slay trepors?\"

\"nah, just got spam +2 mutation, gota go kill myself\"
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Post by: Efflixi Aduro on October 02, 2004, 07:51:25 pm
I dont know, I dont really care about this. Seems kinda lame to me.
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Post by: Exuro Interficio on October 03, 2004, 01:05:00 am
same here. it would suck to have to walk slow until you die. and since its easy to die, it will be very hard to keep the mutations you want. its a good idea, and it can be made better. i dont really understand it either, how do i get a mutation? you didnt really explain that well. or i didnt understand it well.