Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
I finally got hold of a sentient weapon, and realized they are not necessarily as powerful as previously made out to be. (Im not saying Nimthanc stinks, just that its a pain to level up to be useful when you dont find it until level 68 or so.
I've never found that. My Swordmaster found Dethanc VERY late, and still managed to get its level up really quickly.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
I think we need sentient armors as well. Several artifact armors come to mind here. (The Elven cloak is a good example, as are some of the rarer, OR the less powerful artifacts (make em weaker, but sentient.)
Elven cloak is an ego-type, are you thinking of Luthien, Thingol, Thorongil, or something else?
How would you propose to get the armours to level up? Are you thinking to set it up in the same way as Alchemists' Artifact Creation? If you're powering up several artifacts at once, you may find it even more fo a pain than levelling up the *thancs.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
We also need sentient archery equipment. Again, some come readily to mind. (Bow of bard, Sling of Farmer Maggot... its not good enough by the time you can reliably get it.
Hmmm. I'm not so sure. I'd say yes to sentient
missiles, taking experience from each kill, but I have problems with sentient absolutely "everything and the kitchen sink".
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
I also think that sentience needs to be an ego-type as well. (it would be VERY rare, and wouldnt appear till deep in the dungeon, but still) Sentience is a pain for a haftedmaster as they can never get anything sentient. The same is true for axe and polearm masters. We want in on the action too!!!!!!!
Polearm-masters currently have the Glaive of Pain, which is not too bad an item. It drains mana, but this is not as important if you're focusing on melee. OTOH, there isn't a sentient axe, and the only sentient hafted weapon is Grond which you don't get until near the end of the game.
I agree that there could (okay,
should) be more sentient weapons, but I really don't think it should be an ego-type. Being artifacts will keep them rare enough, but having Sentient <foo> would eventually make them show up far too often, and too early for something so valuable.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
And also, for those of us who DO use the sentient weapons (and find them early enough) they should not be limited to Level 50. Due to the tremendous powers of the spirits and magical rites they were imbued with they should be able to surpass the power of the 'mortals' who wield them. By the same definition there should be some restrictions on high-level sentient weapons. For instance, they might turn and strike their master if a level 7 character attempted to continue wielding his level 30 sentient weapon. (they would never be lost this way, just dangerous to use).
This fits in with my idea of sentient weapons: a soul or spirit trapped in a weapon, driven mad by possibly thousands of years of imprisonment, and feeding off the souls of its enemies (or its owners). This is also why I don't agree with having sentient armours or bows. OTOH, it might be interesting to have weapons level up further than their owner (say up to level 150 a la symbiotes) and become wilful if they feel their owner is too weak for them.
The way it stands now, if you lose your favourite sword, axe, bolt, or whatever to a bad power addition (earthquakes, clone, drain exp etc) , it's a real loss and you have to learn how to get along without it. This is part of the challenge. (Right?)
If it becomes a case of merely watching out for a new one, then levelling it up, all you've lost is a little time.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
However some things (like weaponmastery, or *mastery for the weapon type) should also affect this. This allows even high-level characters to use sentient weapons a bit more powerful then them.
Makes sense. Weaponmastery implies some strength of will, so it could be used to control these weapons.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
Also, Disenchantment should not 'disempower' sentient artifacts, but rather should drain the exp of said artifact.
Would it take away some of the weapon's existing abilities, or merely have to gain more exp before gaining new ones?
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
This would be useful, but not terribly so. There could even be a seperate service in the paladins guild or some such place to restore power to a drained weapon.
IMO, this makes them too powerful. If you could just visit a store to restore your weapon, all you'd have to do is recall to a town.
Crim, The Red Thunder wrote:
Finally, there needs to be some sort of display as to how much more expo it takes for a weapon to level up, and we should be able to see it.
I'm going to vote no on this one. I like the idea, but to go about it this way makes them too powerful.
Simply stick the new entry into a_info.txt, add the LEVELS flag and any others you want, et voila! You have a new sentient artifact.
Activations are a bit trickier.
If you don't want to sourcedive, check the artifacts with a:HARDCORE= and the artifacts spoiler on oook to find out what they do.
If you want to add an activation, you'd have to go into cmd6, add your new activation, put the flag into your a_info entry, and recompile. (I think, correct me if I'm wrong or I missed something).
I'm not going to go too far into coding new stuff, as it's the wrong forum for it, but these are my thoughts on the subject (for what they're worth).