PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Saphire on April 01, 2004, 03:10:53 am

Title: I don't want to summon just any *normal* skeleton...
Post by: Saphire on April 01, 2004, 03:10:53 am
A thought passed through my mind today -- Why do necromancers summon generic skeletons? Generic zombies? Why dont they mix-n-match parts?

Well, why can\'t they mix-and-match parts?

Obviously, necromancy would fall under the \"dark way\" of magic. My idea is as follows:

Bones, Souls, and Flesh - The parts of a skeleton and zombie
Bones in games are often classified as they are - bones. Even if they come from different creatures, they\'re still called bones. Sometimes big bones/normal bones but rarely with the creature\'s name included in the title of the item. This is what the idea requires: Two classifications (Large and Normal) and then the names from which creatures the bones came.

Flesh is handled in much the same way as bones, but simply have the name attached to it. However, unlike bones, Flesh can carry attributes - Fire resistance, enhanced-regeneration, and other various things.

Souls are a third, but not really a necessary part of a skeleton or zombie. However, what souls do is give the creature is drive and a personal will of it\'s own. Basically, instead of being a slave to you (as it often is) it will now \"think\" before it acts and will be far more deadly in combat. It will find a weakness and exploit it, for example. It will run away if it\'s outnumbered or out-powered, and charge blindly if it\'s in a large group or has a good master/equipment. As a bonus to putting a soul into a zombie/skeleton, their magical energy intake is reduced to 1/100th of it\'s original. More on that later.

Building the beast - Assembling your body guards
You go out hunting and kill several foes, collecting their bones, skinning them, cutting their flesh, and taking it with you. Gruesome though it may sound, it\'s necessary for you to create a powerful customized body guard. (The examples here-in may not accurately reflect the gameplay feel)

You decide to raise a zombie with a soul, and you Cast the proper spell. Once the spell is complete you select from a list of available ingredents to which that zombie will aquire. When you enter into the undead creation screen it will have your inventory to one side, and a series of sliders with a name of the slider and a short description popping up if you leave your mouse over them. (The screen may possibly have a view window of the finished undead monster you will create)

1. Normal Bones: 50 - 1000
2. Large Bones: 1 - 500
3. Flesh: Max allowable flesh (# based on count of Large/Normal bone count. is *not* a decimal)
*Type1 0 - 200
...
*Type10 0 - 200
4. Behaviour: Available Behaviour Points 30
*Self Repair 0 - 10
*Item Scavenging 0 - 10
*Item Care 0 - 10
*Self-preservation 0 - 10
*Item use 0 - 10
5. Soul: Name of the Soul
6. Equipment: Small paper-doll, and very small inventory
7. SAVE Conig -- LOAD Config -- Summon: #
8. Cancle -- Create -- Make Default
9. Minimum Normal Bones 50 -- Minimum Large Bones 1

Explanation:
1. How many Normal Bones you wish to place into the creature. These account for 40% of the total HP of the undead.

2. How many Large Bones you with to place into the creature. These account for 20% of the total HP of the undead.

3. What types of flesh you will use. This will account for 40% of the total HP of the undead creature. Some flesh types are worth more then others (in HP value and Flesh count) and some have special properties which are imparted onto the zombie; like resistance to heat/cold/etc. [The max amount of flesh you can put on a skeleton of a undead is based on how many bones there are. larger bones can support more flesh.]

4. How the skeleton/Zombie will behave.
*Self Repair dictates how often a zombie/skeleton will ransack a corpse or take bones/flesh from the ground to repair it\'s own broken bones and rotting tissues. Set to 10, they\'ll devour bodies even if they\'re being attacked, and 0 will mean they never regenerate themselves.

*Item Scavenging dictates how often a skeleton/zombie will steal items from a corpse or take items laying on the ground. This behaviour runs parallel to the Item Care behaviour. The higher this is set from 0, the more the zombie/skeleton will take higher-value items from the pile of goodies. Large amounts of Cash and rare/unique items are priority one when this is set at 10. Set to 0, the undead will rarely if never pickup anything.

*Item Care dictates how often the zombie/skeleton will try to look after their equipment that they find and use. This behaviour runs parallel to the Item Scavenging behaviour. The higher this is set from 0, the more the zombie/skeleton will repair it\'s items. If it\'s set to 0, they\'ll never repair their items given to them but if at 1, they\'ll keep them just above breaking.

*Self-Preservation is how often the zombie will decide to save it\'s own life if it finds itself out-numbered or out-gunned. (so to speak) Set to 0 and they will fight to the death - Set to 0 and they will run away from people with clubs and fire.

*Item Use tells the zombie when to use items like potions/scrolls/magic books (yes, zombies/skeletons can use magic :D They need a spellcaster soul to do so, though.) and how effective it is at using equipment given to him. Higher is always better

5. The Soul gives extra attributes to the undead creature. For example, a soul of a spell caster can be used to create a spell-casting undead. However, there are souls that are cursed which will break-away from your control and attack you (often with devistating powers) As well, some souls allow you to evade and reduce some aspects of undead creation - like (9) the minimum bone count - and some will allow you to create different undeads like ghouls and ghosts!

6. Equipment is what the undead will weild and carry with him. Undeads can wear everything a player can with some exceptions; NO \"holy\" items, no items that have the effect of dispell undead, and especially no items that would crush them. The more bones and muscle you put on the undead the more the creature will be able to carry. The undead will also be able to use various magical items as long as they have a soul to allow them to do it.

7. SAVE/LOAD does just that; saves and loads configurations of zombies/skeletons for later use. They save to your hard-drive as .txt files, and are checked upon logon by the server for errors/invalid properties; but only once. Summon # is the # of undead you wish to summon from this amount it\'s default is 1, though it can be changed to a max of \"Everything I Have\"

8. Cancle is to cancle undead creation, Create is to make the undead as it\'s setup on the screen, and Set as Default is to set this as a template for every zombie you\'ll make, never opening the creation screen automatically (you\'ll have to open the undead creation screen by manually pressing a key/on screen button)

9. The minimum amounts of bones required for you to create one undead creature.

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Remember, you can modify ONLY the undead\'s equipment after creation, so make sure their behaviours and souls are at what you want before you create a army of them! You can un-summon them at your whim and get back the soul and some of the bones/flesh you originally used to create the undead creature.

As well, the amount and strength of undead you can hold under your grasp is based on your dark way magical ability. A lower-skilled dark-way mage will only be able to summon one or two skeletons, while the grand master of the dark way would be able to summon a army of 500 or so of the most powerful undead. 8o Putting easy-to-control souls into the undead allow you to control more undead with less of a magical energy drain on you, however, novice players will probably not be able to control a poweful undead soul.


I belive this system would provide the most fun for players, allowing them other - possibly unintentional - ways to play the game. One interesting way would be to see who\'s skeleton was best constructed and have them duke it out in a combat pit, with the winner taking the other\'s bones, flesh, and soul. ;)
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[-=ALL EDITS/ADDITIONS ARE BELOW HERE=-]
Seru spawned in my mind the idea for additional creation parameters for dealing with how the undead would look and act like. Thus, I have spawned in my mind 3 species of createable undead. They are:
Humanoid:
The classic skeleton/zombie look. Humanoid\'s require 50 Normal bones, and 1 large bone to be created. They\'re the bread and butter undead species. They have 8 slots open for flesh (out of 10) and can cast and use equipment easilly. (well, as easilly as a undead could)

Flying:
Think of a bird, then strip it down to it\'s skeleton or rot away it\'s flesh alittle bit to get a Flying undead. They gain a bonus to magical defence and attack and speed; But they\'re VERY easy to take out with pysical attacks. Flyers require 30 Normal bones to be created, but have a severe limit as to how many bones you can place onto the undead flyer (So they will never have large amounts of health) They also only have 6 slots open for flesh (out of 10)

Beast:
Beast undead are bulky, strong, and perfect for fighting (so they have LOTS of HP and can carry better equipment) but arn\'t very good at resisting and using magic and are moderately slower then the other undeads. They require 70 Normal bones and 2 Large bones to be created, and have a higher-then-normal maximum for bones. They have all 10 flesh slots open for use.

These are for the undead types you create. you can ressurect just any normal corpse, but this is the classic and borring way. As well, you can\'t put a soul into them. Bones are bones. Bones that come from a bird are treated no differently then bones comming from a humanoid.

Advanced Soul/Behaviour Info
Without a soul placed into a created undead, you can\'t modify it\'s behaviour; However, when you become proficient you may be able to set their behaviour without a soul. When you create a undead without a soul you use your own soul in the undead you create. THUS, they will follow every command to the note - they won\'t stop attacking until you tell them to retreat.

However, with a soul you can modify the created undead\'s behaviours as stated above. Souls are accessable through Soul Spheres. Orbs containing a soul which can be traded from player to player and bought/sold at various magical stores. They come in \"levels\" ranging from 0 to 10 and different types ranging from a Fighter class, to a smith, shopkeeper, and even a specialist/generalist mage.

Soul Spheres must be held - either in the players hand or in the player\'s inventory - by the caster in order to control their undead. Without a soul sphere the undead will either become as they were - dead flesh and bones - or if their soul sphere\'s level is high enough, become hostile and uncontrolable. Soul Spheres are like batteries, holding souls in one place for easy use. When you create the undead, you place the battery in the undead and \"charge up\" the creature. This drains a certain # of charges from the sphere. They can then be refilled over time and when something nearby dies, though higher level soul spheres are harder to recharge or cannot be recharged at all.

Soul spheres come in basic types:
Generalist Soul Spheres (GSS\'s) - Far more common then any other soul sphere, these allow you only to modify behavioural statistics, but they allow you to control more undead then any other soul sphere. (Excluding special soul spheres)

Warrior Specialist Soul Spheres (WSSS\'s or WSS\'s) - the basic warrior soul, with sub-types ranging from archers to berzerkers. WSS\'s have the best abilities to use armor/weapons equiped and found but have little ability in using magic. They also have a bonus to health but a penalty to speed.

Mage Soul Spheres (MSS\'s) - basic mages, in two classes being either generalists or specialists. Specialist Mage Soul Spheres will often be colored apropriately to their way of magic, with level 10 being the most intense of coloration. MSS\'s are able to use magic quite well, but lack proper skills in fighting with weapons and wearing heavilly protective armors. A bonus to speed, but a penalty to health.

Rare/Unique Soul Spheres (R/USS\'s) - Special soul spheres which can often only control small amounts of undead, but often bestow multiple abilities and bonuses to those undead under it\'s grasp and special abilities to certain created undead types, used flesh, and to the sphere itself.

The max charge of a soul sphere is a number inbetween ()\'s. Afew example soul spheres would be:
Berzerker Level 3 Soul Sphere (35) - Warrior class soul sphere of the third level. Better weapon weilding abilities then that of any other soul spheres, berzerking undead never retreat from battle.

Berzerker Level 3 Soul Sphere (7) - Warrior class soul sphere of the third level. Better weapon weilding abilities then that of any other soul spheres, berzerking undead never retreat from battle.

Red Way Mage Level 10 Soul Sphere (3) - Red way mages are controled though this sphere. They can cast the most devistating red-way magical spells and gives a bonus to those with fresh flesh, but incur severe damage when attacked with the opposing way of magic.

(Unique) Lich Soul Sphere (1) - A master of all magics, the lich is immune to every spell known, but is so weakened that a single slash of a sword can destroy it.

Level 1 Soul Sphere (100) - A basic Soul Sphere; Modify behaviour only.


Soul Spheres can be combined into one soul sphere (merging their charges with some loss, always keeping 1 charge though) to lessen the inventory-clutter and level-up weaker soul spheres when combined, but combination of higher-level spheres takes lots of money and can only be preformed by NPCs. Lower-level combinations can be performed by players, though.

General Info
- When you logout, you undead are placed into \"stasis\", dissapearing from view and their status held in place where upon you log back on they are re-summoned where they were with all their HP and equipment; Your prized Level 10 Lich and Level 10 berzerker army of 5 million bajillion will not dissapear so easilly. :D (heh. not really that many though)
- All undead are created without a soul and with minimal material use as Default. Creating custom undead are more akin to the advanced users; you\'ll have to access the screen to be able to alter the undead you wish to create.
- You have to follow a simple step-by-step plan when creating undead. You cannot select a soul and then say you want to change the flesh and bone count. Though it may apear complex here, it will be simple in game.
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 01, 2004, 10:49:45 am
sounds nice, altough i think that skinning and collecting is a little bit to much, since you already need that time for your RP job. Besides that i would think it is a little bit to complicated for a online game.
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Post by: Icefalcon on April 01, 2004, 08:55:45 pm
Wow, now there\'s a unique idea. Maybe it shouldn\'t be as complicated as you say though, I mean going around collecting carcasses is a bit too much, and all the different points costomization you have is a bit too complicated. Im not saying your idea is a bad one, I would rather like it if you could summon better zombies than others, but I think how good they are should be based on your magic skill...
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Post by: Seru on April 01, 2004, 09:20:49 pm
IS a cool idea, well, not all the idea, but the basic idea is cool.
If you can \"make\" yours personalites undead I think it was cool. You can take 4 large bones, 40 small bones, fire meat, 30 scales and ?BINGO! You have a Bone Dragon as a pet, and if you can put a name and take the Bone Dragon as your familiar it was fantastic!!!
One thing, this way the undead beast have to be custonable, if not, is best to \"Cast\" them.
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Post by: Saphire on April 02, 2004, 02:02:45 am
I forgot to mention that you\'d get about 20 OR MORE bones from killing one enemy with a % of those being large bones, and flesh by the 30\'s or more from one kill; so if you kill a moderately strong enemy and you get enough material to create 2 skeletons or 1 zombie.

I dont think there\'ll be dragons in [PlaneShift] Seru, but you\'ve given me a additional idea that i\'ll tack onto the bottom in alittle while.

[Your Dark-Way magical ability will also reduce the amount of bones required to create a skeleton/zombie, so there is a benifit for being better in the dark way]
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 02, 2004, 03:04:35 am
This is a great idea and certainly unique

but technically if you killed a monster you would get IT\'s bones so to get skeletons and humanoid you would need to kill humans and enkidukais and dwarves etc...but not the actual characters

but the point is you pick up its body and take all the body parts included...you could resurrect as it is  but, it would be the same as what you killed.... weak

so you want to combine them but a summooner- magic user being relatively weak physically would have a hard time tackling larger monsters wouldnt they? oh and while you pick a soul maybe they bould make it so you take a players soul to put into the creature... also if you go trough all that trouble it better be there when you log back in

Id think a beast would travel much faster than normal using the right parts it would just be plainly stupid with low brain capacity wait when you are putting these together you need a brain?

oo wait i have it.... necromancers etc can call on the souls to help kill things before you can stuff them in a flesh container... tehy would be weaker but if your skill goes up so does the spirits power.... then you can cross them.... humanoid head for high brain capacity, strong beast arms and legs for moving quick and hitting hard and wings

lol, then they could be summoners flying beasts..... lol flying carcasses....
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Post by: Saphire on April 02, 2004, 03:37:06 am
Humanoid/Flying/Beast relate only to how the undead you create are handled in the game. Just because you kill a \"beast\" doesn\'t mean you can\'t use it\'s \"beast\"-like flesh on a humanoid.

Having any more classes of bones would simply complicate things too greatly, so i kept it to Normal/Large bones (The only required parts), Flesh, Soul, and Behaviour (Only activated with a soul inside, i should say)

However, think of souls as the \"brain\". Every time you create a undead without a soul of their own, your soul is placed there instead, and what you want the undead under your control to do they will do to the note. However, if they  have a soul (and thus behaviours) they will think for themselves and wether or not the command to jump off a cliff is such a good idea :D .

I think i\'ll go deeper into the prospect of souls and their types, now... ;)

And yes, you can pickup or just res. any corpse on the ground as-is, but that\'s the \"classic\" way of doing things. And i dont like the classic ways of doing things. :P
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 02, 2004, 09:29:18 pm
different bones should amount to defense and strength and flesh is ment for health and strength

wings are for flying...
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 03, 2004, 11:35:44 am
well... maybe there is some more into this if the summoning skill is based on magic skill. like the dark-way magic summons skeletons/demons, but the one that uses the red-way for casting the spell, would get a fire-elementals/lava-monsters or so.
that way each magic way has its own path, so you aren\'t limited to dark-way if you want a bonus in casting.
just a xtra idea.
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 03, 2004, 04:52:19 pm
yah but he was just saying for the dark-summoning one of the creatures could be assortments of undead
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Post by: Seru on April 03, 2004, 05:30:05 pm
Ummmmm, A Succubi as a pet.....  Cooooooooooool!!!  C\'mon honey, lest train your \"love\" skill!!!!  XDDDDD
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 03, 2004, 05:32:58 pm
????will the summons be able to train...?
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Post by: Saphire on April 03, 2004, 07:24:00 pm
i think that\'s up to the devs... ?(

The only problem with them training with this is that if you create a beast-type undead and max out bones/flesh and put a really nasty soul into it, that undead beast could live practically forever; if it\'s behaviours were configured properly. 8o


And i do like the idea of this not only being for necromancy... each sort of magic way could have their own summons with their own summoning systems... 8) heh. But i\'m not going to think up all of that. :rolleyes: This idea can be used as a launching-pad for other ideas on summoning systems, though.
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Post by: Seru on April 03, 2004, 07:38:30 pm
I was joking
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Post by: Seru on April 03, 2004, 07:50:01 pm
And how about a Kirin Job o something like this? I want to say, you are a \"beast lord\" and have a determine number of beast (at level 1 a beast, at level 15 2 beast or something like that), and all the beast are totally diferent of the rest, they are something like pnj. For example; Think a player with 3 beast, a Black panther with tentacles his black, a grey warrior bear (with armor and a axe), and a stromy  unicorn (like IXion on the Final Fantasy X), and the player with oriental clothes. Don\'t do you think it was cool? But, the bad way of wach this is the much info you have to send to the server, and you know, this mean TOOOOOOOOOOO much lag....
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 03, 2004, 08:42:47 pm
not to mention all the possible combinations of bones/sould etc that have to be implemented, most with a own look. do you have any idea how much work that is?
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Post by: Saphire on April 04, 2004, 12:02:05 am
A 50 normal bone skeleton would look different than a normal 200 bone skeleton, but the devs wouldn\'t have to place EVERY single bone in that sucker...

Having three models for Minimum, Medium, and Maximum would be best. One model for 50 bones and more, one model for 125 bones or more, and one for 200 bones.

Because flesh covers the bones, all that would be needed would be to have just one model. the skins applied are then handled like chothing/armor.

then, a sprite would encompas them in a glow relative to their soul\'s power, but only when you get close (melee close) or cast a magic spell to see the aura better
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 04, 2004, 02:18:09 pm
that would bother me if it died early and didnt live long.... waht if you didnt have dead bodies...you would be useless...the undeads you summon should last until their health is gone.....and i wouldnt go through the trouble of collecting and assembling two hundred bones for it to crumble within 50 minutes
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 04, 2004, 03:48:16 pm
with the summonings i would rather see a hp limit as well but magic lvl related, and a time limit like 5 minutes per lvl in that magic skill and that its power is also lvl related. that way when you are low lvl the summos excists a few minutes and is weak, and when you have skill lvl 50 for example, it would excist for 5*50 is 250 minutes is over 4 hours, and it would also be much stronger and have more hp.
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 04, 2004, 03:54:45 pm
the one problem i have with that was the time.....even if it lasts that long it will still bother me....pick, pick, pick but i probably won be summoning the undead
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Post by: Saphire on April 04, 2004, 11:03:09 pm
I dont remember saying they\'d cumble after 50 minutes. Please, tell me where i said they\'d cumble after 50 minutes. ?(

They would last as long as they have HP and your magical power to sustain them. More undead = more magical power needed to keep them sustained. no magical power to keep them sustained = undead crumble away untill they\'re sustained again

If they have their own soul (read: they have a special soul placed into them) then they\'d last on their own HP and nothing else.

You could re-collect bones and flesh from undead that have fallen and you would always get large amounts of bones from nearly every enemy you kill, so you\'d never be \"useless\".
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 04, 2004, 11:43:36 pm
xanaroth said they die after a certain amount of time
then i said that would be wrong...
because then you wont go through tedius task of selecting body part
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 05, 2004, 08:33:53 am
Quote
Originally posted by ShadowFish
that would bother me if it died early and didnt live long.... waht if you didnt have dead bodies...you would be useless...the undeads you summon should last until their health is gone.....and i wouldnt go through the trouble of collecting and assembling two hundred bones for it to crumble within 50 minutes


i really think you started off with time... i just \"expanded\" it a little.
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 05, 2004, 08:48:09 pm
ohhh...ok
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Post by: Tash on April 10, 2004, 08:14:13 pm
great idea Saphire, you\'ve really thought this through i hope this will be implemented in the game sometime!
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Post by: Wormtail_ on April 11, 2004, 12:39:18 am
I simply skimmed the topic, so my questions may already have been answered. My apoligies if that is the case.

Anyway, I have a few questions. First, is it possible for the Undead with souls to revolt against the master? If not, why not? If so, how are they kept under control?

Secondly, can a character be stricken with disgust at the gruesome rearranging of other\'s body parts? I am reminded of the wronks of Terry Brook\'s Sword of Shannara  series, and am curious as to if this is possible. Or even required for necromancers to go through. Neophytes, anyway.

Interesting idea - it is a new look on the Undead, so I am not struck with the sudden urge to state that the idea of Undead is unoriginal.
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Post by: John_Thazer on April 11, 2004, 03:45:50 am
Quite good i must say..although problematic...
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 11, 2004, 04:30:53 am
it doesnt have many problems except that if the creature will have a soul and will that comes with it, it will want freedom, but since a necro....wait there arent really classes....so when a player summons the monster it will be bound to him by magic....... to do as the summoner wishes until it is killed or set free...which is highly unlikely that they would really free it for no reason...
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Post by: Wormtail_ on April 11, 2004, 05:01:04 am
Perhaps this is where the stat Will comes in. It is a contest of wills between a creation and summoner. If the former wins, then it is set free to cause destruction. If the latter, then the undead creation remains under control. What do you think?

A summoner may want to set an undead creature free because they cannot sustain it anymore or just want to laugh at the running NPCs/newbies/other players. The latter may have to be controlled in some fashion, such as no releasing of undead creations in public areas, such as Hydlaa Plaza. Comments?

Now to repeat a question. Should there be a feeling of disgust at the creations? Both from the creator of the, erm, animated pile of bones and rotting flesh, and \"innocent bystanders.\" I mean, if some jumble of bones and flesh just came strolling up your lawn one day, wouldn\'t you be disgusted? Not to mention suffering a sudden attack of paranoia?
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 11, 2004, 02:33:05 pm
yah if the summoner couldnt control monsters with his will they will have to release it...this way summoners wont be able to summon ridiculously powereful creatures......welll they could but it would go berserk and become a normal monster.....
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Post by: Wormtail_ on April 13, 2004, 01:51:39 am
Go berserk against the master and then become a normal monster, I think you mean.

Anyway, perhaps the creator could feel disgusted at first at the mutations of flesh and bone. Unless they\'re deep in the Dark Way, they should feel deep revulsion at what they\'re doing, and depending on how little skill they have in the Dark Way, they might stop doing the combining altogether. Also, walking around with rotting creatures for an entourage would make NPCs less trustful of you, and might make players/NPCs alike steer clear of you and/or the stench emitted by your entourage. Comments?
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 13, 2004, 02:03:56 am
alright the disturbed feeling based on the dark skill but trust is a little complicating
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Post by: Xanaroth on April 13, 2004, 04:27:32 pm
and how about deceases? rotting flesh and bones are usually infected, so those monsters should also have a certain % of chance to be carrier of a decease. if they are carrier, they should be able to transfer it to other players and monsters (except for his own master) and thus infecting them with a decease. That could be with a chance with each strike the monster make, and when he hits there is a % chance that the defending thing gets infected (unless it is immune or so). A other option is that for a certain time you are near the monster you get a chance of being infected, so if you stand 20 minutes next to it and you are not its creator you can be sure you are infected unless you are immune.
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Post by: SnowWolf on April 13, 2004, 10:08:53 pm
I think it would be neat if the master could also catch the disease. Then necromancer types would have to develop their resistance to poison and disease as a job requirement.

(And I use those terms loosely - I know there are no classes....)
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Post by: ShadowFish on April 14, 2004, 08:21:55 pm
corpses arent diseased unless they died from disease or became desease after they died which probably wouldnt happen immediately after the were killed by the player....maybe if they were poisoned at death or had been sitting there a long while then they would become diseased
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Post by: Kraxton on April 15, 2004, 06:39:53 am
I think this is an excellent and fresh idea, and I wish I\'d thought of it myself. Ah, but I didn\'t, and so my proverbial hat is tipped to the one who did.
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Post by: Kereshin on September 18, 2004, 01:11:34 am
Things would certainly be interesting... Undead roaming the lands of the living? I like it! *Hobbles off to evil spell book* (It doesnt necessarily have to be so complicated as it sounds)
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Post by: Djaggernaut on September 18, 2004, 04:42:52 pm
This is too much to take on only one thing. Imagine if any spell/skill/action takes as much stats like that.

Actually the amount of work to do that is far too big. Perhaps in 2010... ;)
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Post by: Stydracos on September 18, 2004, 05:40:16 pm
Sounds interesting, I know in morrowind (referencing it again :D ) all those books and skeletons in game made me wish you could do something similiar - in fact I think there is a mod that allows you to do that!.

Anyway back to planeshift... I think it needs to be simplified a bit, make it more of a generic process to begin with. Perhaps separate to getting more powerful undead who could be better summoned and controlled that way (you rip them from somewhere else, the results could be interesting if you are weakened or they more powerful).

Having only read the first post I no doubt are repeating some of the posts that followed, anyway :

1. you need the bones of a creature (named bones) or a body.

(requires skill maybe? better the skill more knowledge more bones? )

2. you need a spell to animate the bones or body.

(maybe a preserving component if it has flesh?)

3. success comes from your successful cast of the spell modified by the creature to be animated.

(simplist thing I could thing off, solely success relies on the magic spell)

4. creature stats are standard to the creature, maybe resistance and vunerability if bones (eg. takes more damage if hit with a blunt smashing weapon.. depends on combat? no idea)

(base it off the original creature may save time depending on what is possible to be brought back)

5. the mana you are instilling in the creature sustains the flesh creating a limit on undead numbers.

(also saves hassle to do with decay, modeling etc)

6. possibily to help provide a limit to undead armies, the more creatures you control the more unstable the casting of the spell.

(success becoming harder as you are already maintaining another of the same spell? I just don\'t want to have dozens of skeletons to be rendered on my screen thats all).

7. undead behaviour, simpler is best. Treat these lowly constructs as expendable guards. Not sure on giving orders, maybe standard.... they follow and protect their master. Any repairs on undead are done by the player using more bones or whathave you (bonedust putty :)) ).

Not sure but I think that may be simplier a bit, there is probably a better method then I suggest.

However it touches on something I wold like to see, artificing. Perhaps it would be more worthwhile if some generic ideas were used that allowed anything to be made? other contructs and clockwork machines resulting from some basic rules... unlikely but I can wish ;) .
Title:
Post by: Kereshin on September 18, 2004, 05:56:11 pm
Maybe it doesnt have to be a skill Djagger. Maybe it could just be a one time thing in a quest or something, like to resurrect an ancient creature or something rather...