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 zombieBones 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 guardsYou 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 - 10002.
Large Bones: 1 - 5003.
Flesh: Max allowable flesh (# based on count of Large/Normal bone count. is *not* a decimal)*Type1 0 - 200...
*Type10 0 - 2004.
Behaviour: Available Behaviour Points 30*Self Repair 0 - 10*Item Scavenging 0 - 10*Item Care 0 - 10*Self-preservation 0 - 10*Item use 0 - 105.
Soul: Name of the Soul6.
Equipment: Small paper-doll, and very small inventory7.
SAVE Conig --
LOAD Config --
Summon: #8.
Cancle --
Create --
Make Default9.
Minimum Normal Bones 50 --
Minimum Large Bones 1Explanation: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
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 InfoWithout 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.
(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.
