New corruption ideas

[Aielyn]

*The voice of ChAoS whispers disturbing secrets into your thoughts(+2 Mana, +4 Learning, -6 Willpower)
*Your entire frame vibrates from a corruption of your natural mana flow (+2 Mana, - 4 Willpower, Must burn off energy or suffer (Having Max PP causes you to take damage each turn, the higher your mana vs. toughness, the more damage), Spells cast at Max PP do an extra 10(+)% damage/+ duration of effect )
*Your flesh seeks to fuse with the armor you are wearing...(Armor worn on torso(?) becomes in effect Auto-Locking, +2 Toughness, +2 Dv (Ease of movement), Takes damage if armor is removed somehow- like peeling off skin)

I like the three that I quoted. For the "flesh seeks to fuse" one, I'd suggest that there are two issues - one is that it doesn't seem to have any sort of penalty that associates with high quality armour (that is, where you wouldn't want to remove it anyway). The other is that damage for removal seems somehow piddling as far as negatives for removing armour is concerned. Might I suggest that removal of armour causes a permanent reduction in appearance (due to damage done to the skin) and causes you to start bleeding badly? As for wearing of quality armour, I suggest making it so that the weight of the armour influences the stat changes - for light armour, ease of movement increases but toughness decreases. For heavy armour, toughness increases, but ease of movement decreases.

For the mana corruption, I'd simply add that PP regeneration should double, and that casting most wands (not wand of wishing) when at full PP should have a 30% chance of not using up a casting.

For the chaos voice corruption, I'd give it two other effects - one is confusion randomly with a one in 1000 chance each turn, lasting 5d5 turns. The other depends on the class - the physical classes (archer, assassin, barbarian, beastfighter, fighter, monk, ranger) would get an increased chance of landing critical hits, the arcane and holy classes (elementalist, healer, necromancer, paladin, priest, wizard) would get boosted spellcasting experience for casting spells (thereby boosting spell effectiveness and power), and the miscellaneous classes (bard, druid, farmer, merchant, mindcrafter, thief, weaponsmith) would get additional skill increases. Note that I put mindcrafter in the miscellaneous category because they don't really cast spells as their main magic.

As people commented before, it does mean that certain beneficial corruptions with special purpose will be harder to get (light / nimble). This makes the quickling tree harder to get to at all and the rift a little harder as well. Maybe certain new corruptions should have a similar effect, especially for the tree?

Well, I already offered a new corruption that should be an alternative for getting into the tree, and two corruptions that affect ability to enter the rift (one influencing the action, and one influencing the danger of doing it).

And my idea is that corruptions should be categorised so that certain corruptions or corruption types will always happen, in order to prevent the RNG screwing you of the opportunity to reach certain locations.

[Aielyn]

Here are some corruptions that give you very nice abilities, but have the big drawback of making you unable to socialize in towns:

Your mouth has turned into a round, jawless lamprey mouth adapted to suck blood.
+Mute, melee attacks have a chance to do 2d6 extra damage and, if they go through, you gain that amount in HP (vampiric bite).

You now breathe fire.
Gives you a fire attack ability (similar to acid spit, but with fire damage); but attempting to chat with someone will breathe fire at them and damage them as well.

Your tongue is now long and forked like that of a snake.
+Mute (chatting results in hissing), all snakes you find are nonhostile and will become your companions if you chat with them.

The bigger problem for the first and third corruptions is that you wouldn't be able to cast spells or use scrolls. Probably a touch too extreme, actually muting the player.

[Arckano]

"you are wreathed in chaotic flames", is just too bad.

but i think the last one is awsome, it really gives that idea of chaos power.

i have some ideas too:

- "your hands sudently turn into claws!"
gloves, rings cannot be used, +1d9

-"you alucinate"
-4 Pe, +2 Ma, see unreal monsters, some monsters might panic.

"you have grown a 3 arm!"
-5 Dx, -5 DV, new usable hand

"your stomach feels like it's made by iron"
-6 DV, movement costs 1300 energy, can eat anything, even objects for 30 satiation(some metals might train St) 1d4 damage per 3d10 turns not on satiated or bloated

"your eyes glow"
+4 Pe, -8 Ch, See invisible

"You are capable of remembering everything"
+3 Ch, undo effects of amnesia, can't forget spells, vulnerable to confusion and stun resistance, and in 2d15 turns PC gets stunned

" you feel like you lost part of your body control."
-3 DV, mutliplies HP regeneration by 1,5, every 2d10 turns the pc walks in a random direction, PC casts random spells when using magic, imune to confusion, paralisation, and mindcraft

[Aielyn]

"your stomach feels like it's made by iron"
-6 DV, movement costs 1300 energy, can eat anything, even objects for 30 satiation(some metals might train St) 1d4 damage per 3d10 turns not on satiated or bloated

I really like this general idea, although I think it could do with a bit of tweaking. How about...

"You feel like devouring the earth"
Satiation levels drop at 2x the normal rate, can eat anything (even artifacts, and even when bloated), satiation for non-food items is equal to weight, -4 Wi, -4 Ch, -4 Ap, +4 To, -4 Dx, -4 DV, -10 speed.

Part of the idea I've got for it, though, is that this is what the demented ratling has... and eating artifacts (other than the Si) has an effect on you, too. I'm undecided on the specific effect, but stat increases are an obvious option. I'd also make it so that consuming certain types of items would have effects. Eating wands would give you a few extra pp (I'm thinking 1 + number of charges * modifier, where the modifier = 0 for cursed wands, 0.5 for uncursed wands (rounding down), and 1 for blessed wands). Eating spellbooks would give you 200/100/50 (b/u/c) (10/5/1 for Wish) casting points in that spell, even without literacy. Eating scrolls would train literacy if you have it, otherwise it would have a 1/100 chance of teaching you literacy. Potions would act as though drunk, as well as the added satiation. Eating rocks, gems, and items made of crystal would train toughness. Eating metal items would have effects depending on which metal.

[PseudoFenton]

As I suggested in a comment on the main blog, I think there should be some sort of link into Friday the 13th due to this effort. So here's my two suggestions around that.

* Starting on any Friday the 13th: <Normal messages when starting the game> "An unseen malice fills the air around you." "Your body is suddenly assaulted by the forces of chaos!" <Message of gaining a corruption> "You feel the forces of chaos subside, now weakened." - This automatically adds 1000 corruption points to your character, resulting in an automatic corruption at the start of the game, however it then increases the period between corruption ticks for the rest of the game by 5 (so from 20 turns to 25 turns).

It's enough that you can afford to play a slightly longer game, but the corruption upfront helps balance that out. The main goal here is to have an overall good effect (as the creator actually likes Friday the 13ths), but one which most people will still see has negative (as most people fear/negatively associate with Friday the 13ths).

* Starting on July the 13th: <Normal messages when starting the game> "You feel the forces of chaos conspire against you, as if their legions have congregated to plan your inevitable demise." - Chaos creatures (brothers, knights, etc) have a higher chance of spawning on any given level, and Corruption traps deal slightly more corruption when they're triggered.

I feel a specific note to mark the fact that the community has come together to see this happen, and have suggested so many evil evil corruptions should be noted. The best way to do that imo is to show case the thing which we produced together with this latest power pledge, unfortunately that is entirely made up of corruption effects... so it looks like starting a new character on this day is just bad news for you. Of cause it can still occur at the same time as a normal Friday the 13th (next one will happen in 2018, I'm sure we'll still be playing it then) so it should be designed to stack.

I know neither of these are corruption effects, and so have no direct leeway in being added to the game, but it'd be nice if they were. As for actual corruptions, I really like the (now suggested by a few people) bat wings idea - flying over water would be very useful. Here are a few extra ideas:

* "Your hands produce sticky webbing" - Increases time to pick up, put on/take off, and eat anything. Grants +50 Climbing skill (or some other large number, not automatic success though), and might give slightly better reactions to spiders etc. Oh, and minus Cha of cause!

* "Your skin blisters, leaving strange runes branded across your skin" - Minus Charisma, bonus to fire magic (similar or identical to the salamander birth sign perhaps), +resistant to fire.
Quite a minimal one overall, half the benefit is easily obtained through other means or is only useful for magic users - as not all corruptions should favour all professions.

* "Your skin and muscle become gelatinous and transparent!" - Massive minus to Cha, ongoing chance of corroding worn gear - thick gloves protect wielded weapons. Jellies sometimes (always?) ignore the PC.
Not entirely sure how to balance this one up, the corrosion effect might also be a bit complex to code with ease depending on how the base code is configured - I just like the idea of looking like a skeleton in a person shaped gelatinous cube =)

[Byrnsey]

"* Your eyes have merged to form one larger eye (Pe:+4 Ap:-2 Ch:-2): You become a cyclops (in terms of eyes), which gives you improved perception, but only if not wearing any headwear."

- There goes your depth perception. We should put in a huge to hit penalty for missiles.

"*Your flesh seeks to fuse with the armor you are wearing...(Armor worn on torso(?) becomes in effect Auto-Locking, +2 Toughness, +2 Dv (Ease of movement), Takes damage if armor is removed somehow- like peeling off skin)

...The other is that damage for removal seems somehow piddling as far as negatives for removing armour is concerned. Might I suggest that removal of armour causes a permanent reduction in appearance (due to damage done to the skin) and causes you to start bleeding badly?"

- You're basically flaying yourself. Make it impossible to remove with too low of a willpower, but still cause harm and bleeding (you pulled and pulled but gave up due to pain halfway) and either way, give a significant chance of getting sick, now that you have a huge open wound.

Or, how about "Your skin peels off in tatters!" Same effects mentioned above (raw flesh fusing with the armor, bleeding and sickness and all armor is essentially cursed for low Wi PC's, but NOT wearing something in every slot (except for weapon and shield slots) gives a PV penalty and a chance to bleed and a chance to sicken every turn. Even late game, I'm always swapping bits of armor to maximize this or that. Taking it off the table (perhaps make the damage penalty MASSIVE, i.e. the only PC's with Wi enough to remove Armor would be magic users (not enough HP) and Monks (don't wear Armor) would be a minor pain, but certain slots, (gloves, boots, girdles, bracers) it's hard to find good (or any) versions of those items to use in those slots. Getting this corruption would turn it into a mad dash to put on whatever piece of crap you have lying near to hand, which is now stuck to you worse than if it were cursed (P.S. imagine getting this with poison hands. You were wearing archery gloves to take down a dragon or lich, and now your thick gauntlets are there in your pack, taunting you.) Or maybe I went overboard.

"Your blood surges in the presence of cHaOs

Increased HP regeneration, the rate at which depends on the background corruption: the greater the ambient corruption, the faster the HP regeneration."

This seems like a gamebreaker to me. It's nothing but positive late game. How about "ChAoS has opened your eyes to the eternities between each moment". Basically you move through time at a much faster rate than everything else. Think General Relativity, only in reverse. What the rest of the game sees as a second, you see as a minute or hour. So in the relative to background corruption rate, you heal much faster, get a bonus to DV and speed but age much faster, lose satiation much faster, corrupt much faster, i.e. AnDoR DrAkOn is harder to fight, rather than easier. Bleeding damage happens all at once, but other effects (good and bad) wear off faster too. I'd imagine you'd be immune to confusion attacks. But you have all the time in the world, like that twilight zone person, so boost to Learning, and the effect of training skills and reading books gets a boost too. I imagine Charisma would go way down and companions would be harder to order around from being completely unable to communicate in a sane way with the outside world as it moves by like molasses.

I'm just running that thought to it's logical conclusion, feel free to add or (more likely) prune. I like the idea though that on a new character it would be an insane advantage with the learning bonuses, but as the game wears on and the PC goes deeper it becomes fatal to trolls (age/hunger), and then eventually even elves, as the get a new corruption every dozen ticks or so. The tying to background corruption could be neat too, as in Terinyo it would be like you aren't even corrupted, but in the Casino you'd be playing an entirely different game.


May as well add some original content while I'm here...

How about going full-on Metamorphosis, with multiple blah effects that culminate in a great effect ala sting and needle? We already have antennae, so why not "Your torso has changed to a hard chitinous exoskeleton", "your legs and arms have changed into multiple bug-like appendages (not sure of the actual term, maybe this could be combined with the long stilt-like legs thing)", and "you've sprouted huge insectile wings (again, wording?)"

The exoskeleton would slow you down and take away DV but give PV, while the arms/legs would speed you up but take away DV, and drop perception (imagine being a humanoid mounted horizontally on a bunch of spider legs, just cause you're an anthropomorphized animal doesn't mean you have to go the "-taur" route of a full working human torso grafted to a full working animal body.) The wings would do nothing much of anything except get in the way (drop DV) and raise the ice-breaking limit (can't fly as a human, but can flap hard enough to counteract gravity somewhat). But with all three, you suddenly get a big boost to speed and DV and DX (your *multiple* legs and body are now supposed to be attached to each other, and you can fly. Imagine trying to swat a cockroach that moves in the air like a housefly), and flying (all those heavy humanoid bones are gone), and spit acid, why not? Very positive, but you need three (or four, if I could figure out how to integrate antennae, they're pretty self contained as is, obviously) corruptions, which with all the new ones cluttering up the RNG, means it will take a long time and multiple corruption removers, or a lot of luck to ever get. And obviously to stay true to Kafka, all humanoid NPC's recoil in horror, if not become outright hostile at the very sight of you.

[mike3]

The exoskeleton would slow you down and take away DV but give PV, while the arms/legs would speed you up but take away DV, and drop perception (imagine being a humanoid moving horizontally on a bunch of spider legs, just cause you're an anthropomorphized animal doesn't mean you have to go the "-taur" route of a full working human torso grafted to a full working animal body. Also I'd imagine ) The wings would do nothing much of anything except get in the way (drop DV) and raise the ice-breaking limit (can't fly as a human, but can flap hard enough to counteract gravity somewhat). But with all three, you suddenly get a big boost to speed and DV and DX (your *multiple* legs and body are now supposed to be attached to each other, and you can fly. Imagine trying to swat a cockroach that moves in the air like a housefly), and flying (all those heavy humanoid bones are gone), and spit acid, why not? Very positive, but you need three (or four, if I could figure out how to integrate antennae, they're pretty self contained as is, obviously) corruptions, which with all the new ones cluttering up the RNG, means it will take a long time and multiple corruption removers, or a lot of luck to ever get. And obviously to stay true to Kafka, all humanoid NPC's recoil in horror, if not become outright hostile at the very sight of you.

Couldn't flight also be enabled by, e.g. the wings + very light and "thin and nimble" corruptions? Think about it: Huge bugwings plus weighing only 5 lbs or something.

And would the curse/doom penalties be applied when scaring shopkeepers to hostility via your appearance?

[Byrnsey]

Couldn't flight also be enabled by, e.g. the wings + very light and "thin and nimble" corruptions? Think about it: Huge bugwings plus weighing only 5 lbs or something.

And would the curse/doom penalties be applied when scaring shopkeepers to hostility via your appearance?

That's actually an awesome idea. If we could have the corruptions set up to work together in various combinations it would add a whole new layer of strategy to the game. It's not like the "C" monsters seem to have a hard time wrecking sh*t up. What you're describing, you've basically become a fairy, rather than a bugmonster. Be kinda cool, in my opinion.

As far as curse/doom, hell yea, why not. I (ab)use dooming in almost every game I play, no reason not to make it riskier.

[Tsuma534]

Your tongue is now long and forked like that of a snake.
+Mute (chatting results in hissing), all snakes you find are nonhostile and will become your companions if you chat with them.

Love it.

My idea:
Your grow a large mouth on your belly.
Appearence -2.
Any food item can be eaten with just one action (tossing it into the belly.)
While you're hungry the mouth automatically attacks adjacent creatures with no action required on the player's part. But it also doesn't differentiate between hostile and friendly monsters.
Unfortunately it would be logical that the body armor stops all of the above. Given that most characters wear some armor all the time maybe the mouth could damage such armor while trying to bite through.

[anon123]

"*Your flesh seeks to fuse with the armor you are wearing...(Armor worn on torso(?) becomes in effect Auto-Locking, +2 Toughness, +2 Dv (Ease of movement), Takes damage if armor is removed somehow- like peeling off skin)

...The other is that damage for removal seems somehow piddling as far as negatives for removing armour is concerned. Might I suggest that removal of armour causes a permanent reduction in appearance (due to damage done to the skin) and causes you to start bleeding badly?"

- You're basically flaying yourself. Make it impossible to remove with too low of a willpower, but still cause harm and bleeding (you pulled and pulled but gave up due to pain halfway) and either way, give a significant chance of getting sick, now that you have a huge open wound.

This made me flinch when I read it.

Which probably means it'd do an excellent job for a new corruption.