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Post subject: swarm creatures
 Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 04:28 PM
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Peasant
Joined: Apr 01, 2007
Posts: 57
Status: Offline
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Here is some fodder for thought.
I've been thinking for a while that the Oberin fauna lacks diversity in the insect range (considering that IRL they are rather successful - check wikipedia if you need impressing numbers).
Hence I think that killer bees or goliath wasps and their hives might be a nice addition, as well as they could provide an occasional challenge with a different angle (bear with me - these won't be your regular boring bumble bees...).
Currently, all creatures you encounter in Oberin appear as individuals. You are either stronger than that individual, or you are not. But you pretty much know beforehand what you are up against. The only exception to that are liches, and the new BMs, who occasionally spawn a few minions to aid them.
So, what if other creatures you attacked went off to fetch some friends?
In other words: how about creatures that organise in swarms? You go after one, all go after you. The point is - you won't know how many they are until they are there.
There are two ways to approach this:
Hive based or non-hive based.
In action, a hive would be quite straightforward, and would work very much like a brigand shelter. You attack it, it spews out a bunch of bees, as well as a queen or two for good measure, which all come after you.
If we talk non-hive based creatures, it would be like a (queen-)bee flying about, that spawns bees much like a BM spawns skeletons (but all at once and in more random numbers when attacking).
If individuals of the swarm should attack on sight, or if they are initially peaceful until you choose to attack one of them, is a matter of discussion. The point is, if you do attack one (or defend against one attacking you), you will draw the attention and the wrath of the whole swarm upon you (and anyone in your vicinity - giant insects are not too particular).
Swarm size should be a bit random and vary greatly, anything from 4 to 15 or more individuals, so when approaching a hive, or thinking about attacking a seemingly single bee, you never know what you will be up against.
There are many options of how the creatures actually attack. They might simply bite or sting, or suck away your mana.
At any rate, bees/wasps should be fast (think FE), poisonous and not run away (since they are fiercely devoted to protecting their hive/queen). And no - water won't save you.
I personally think they should have a poisonous sting, either a bit stronger or a bit faster than scorpions, so in a matter of seconds a whole party could be poisoned. Think of bees as a bunch of as-fast-as-FE flying scorpions with faster sting rate.
Queen bees, however, should do something entirely different and more severe when attacking.
(If a hive queen gets you she might even lay eggs into your brain which instantly reduce your intelligence to that of a bat so that you forget all of your special skills and higher spells, and only a rare clerical potion may be able to restore your former self. I am sure Charnath will approve that one.)
For rangers, hives might track as white, or as I would prefer, not track at all. So you might run into one at any time. In a hive, should you live to destroy it, you could find goodies like "honeycomb" (unsurprisingly), which may be used in some potion or quest.
For wizards, swarms would put field spells into a new perspective.
You could dream up even something like this: bees are generally peaceful, unless you annoy them. How do you do that - you touch them. In Oberin terms, that means as soon as you get too close they attack. I am thinking along the lines of good old "sprite collision" - to avoid the swarm attack, you would have to dodge any individuals you see and avoid contact. Would be interesting having to avoid getting close to a random bee buzzing about while running or in the middle of some other fight.
Could be quite a menace 
(as always, accept my apologies if am dreaming up things that have been dismissed ages ago - I don't have time enough to catch up with all threads) |
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Post subject: RE: swarm creatures
Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 05:15 PM
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Royalty
Joined: Feb 13, 2008
Posts: 1402
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| What if two players are attacking the same bee/wasp. Who will the spawn turn on and attack? |
_________________
Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both....and surpass the result.
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 05:25 PM
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Peasant
Joined: Apr 01, 2007
Posts: 57
Status: Offline
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Nothing different from what a single creature does now. However, since the max number of creatures than can target a player, depending on swarm size part of the swarm will target other players randomly.
Hm, judging from your question i think i should point out that all members of a swarm will be individual creatures which behave no different from a single one. The main point of the idea is that the number of creatures you are up against is unknown until they attack. Might be five, might be whole screen full. So there is an element in a swarm that you cannot calculate beforehand. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 05:38 PM
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Peasant
Joined: Oct 22, 2009
Posts: 38
Status: Offline
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| I like the idea a lot. I think it can be expanded beyond insects, like "factions" - e.g. let's say there's a battlefield area, none of the soldiers may be aggressive to begin with, but if you attack a soldier then you will be marked as an enemy to all the soldiers on his side, and they will be aggressive towards you. Or if you attack someone in a small village, all of the other villagers will band together and try to chase you away. It would lead to a lot of strategy since it would be dangerous just to attack on sight - in order to be successful, you would need to scout around to estimate how many enemies you will be fighting, make sure you have an escape plan, could even have friends ambush them at certain points since you know they will charge towards you, etc. |
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 08:16 PM
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Royalty
Joined: Feb 13, 2008
Posts: 1402
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| Ah ok, I'd like to see something like this developed further. |
_________________
Given enough time, any man may master the physical. With enough knowledge, any man may become wise. It is the true warrior who can master both....and surpass the result.
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Post subject:
Posted: Nov 01, 2009 - 09:46 PM
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Royalty
Joined: Mar 18, 2008
Posts: 2144
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Yorck is posting in the forum? *swoons*
I like the idea of unpredictable elements in a hunt too, of course. As usual, the forum is my confessional, and I must confess that nothing gets to my nerves more than hearing "spawn in one minute." We already know which creatures spawn in which area, and more or less when. So anything that could add a surprise (and a non-suicidal mess) would be great.  |
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Post subject: Here's a fun treat
Posted: Nov 02, 2009 - 06:52 AM
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Honorable
Joined: Mar 12, 2009
Posts: 448
Location: Somewhere else
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How about hives inside random bracken, kill the bracken and the bees come out to play.
Instead of sheep popping near bracken, bees will spawn instead near the infected tree.
This swarm behavior might prove interesting to druids if they are allowed to tame the queen. Allowing the druid to beckon her subjects to follow and attack her targets too. Possibly add the same effect to ants and allow druids to tame that queen too. A way to do this is to make bees/ants calmed around their perspective queens, and make them follow their royal highness around. |
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Post subject: RE: Here
Posted: Nov 02, 2009 - 08:22 AM
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Noble
Joined: Nov 11, 2008
Posts: 952
Status: Offline
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It would also be funny if they apeared in random trees someone is LJing. So you are just chopping a way at a tree when a beehive falls down. Yes I know I play too much animal crossing.
It seems like a fun idea. Something a little different. |
_________________
Aren the fighter.
I wonder how long it was since I actually played the game.....
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Post subject: RE: Here
Posted: Nov 07, 2009 - 01:10 PM
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(demo)
Joined: Nov 06, 2009
Posts: 5
Status: Offline
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| This definitely seems like an idea that could be pursued and add a different element to the game. Strange but you might need a group to go after a single bee since you wouldn't know what friends he might bring along. |
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