Addon: Wights(OP obsolete, always get last release!)

[Zonk]

There they are http://te4.org/games/addons/tome/wights/

To install, simply extract in your addons folder so you have a tome-wights folder.
WARNING: Unless you like being unable to progress through the game, you really should be 100% sure you got your Cloak of Deception before leaving the starting zone. As of now, there are no warnings/ways to go back if you try and leave without it.

So, what is this?
Mainly, a fully playable new undead race, including graphics - credits to Shockbolt for letting me use his lich tile as a base and to DarkGod for helping me with the fog particle - and a new zone.
Also, and I should have mentioned this WAY before, credits to Lorc for the base images I used for the talent icons.

While not 100% faithful to Wight NPCs(for example, these wights have a +Will rather than +Mag)passive, I think it's a decent adaptation, and will be improved later on.

Some issues/plans:
- General rebalancing and cleaning up descriptions, lore, graphics(talent icons a bit rough around the edges).
- Tweak The Draining, perhaps a name change, mechanics more in line the new save system.
- Improve the starting zone significantly, including perhaps 'burial mound'vaults. Also, currently not making the whole level dark because, with a forest layout, that would be very awkard. Assume that your special connection to this place lets you know your way around
- (extra important) Actually put Wights in the Moors, other than the player. This is not done now because I'm not a fan of the current Wight NPCs, and they would be harsh foes at level 1(drain exp, confusion, flameshock...removing these talents would make them even duller), so I plan to remake them(perhaps with a Cursed/Doomed theme) and include some in the starting zone.

[Rectifier]

Sounds cool Zonk, I patiently await their inclusion

[bricks]

Weakness to Light damage is thematically great but really not very nice. Enemies that use Light damage are already incredibly dangerous, and only a few items provide considerable resistance (and those, late in the game). Life drain and confusion sound nice, though. I like the concept behind the starting zone. Gearing Wights towards Cursed/Afflicted sounds nice, I'd love to see more of those types of enemies.

This reminds me that I need to dig out my ideas for a natural/wilder undead race. Looking forward to try this and your other mods out as soon as b35 is out for OSX.

[Zonk]

Weakness to Light damage is thematically great but really not very nice. Enemies that use Light damage are already incredibly dangerous, and only a few items provide considerable resistance (and those, late in the game). Life drain and confusion sound nice, though. I like the concept behind the starting zone. Gearing Wights towards Cursed/Afflicted sounds nice, I'd love to see more of those types of enemies.

I agree light is rare but DANGEROUS damage type, and the zone boss is meant to showcase that a bit - you are supposed to fight him at level 3, the light vulnerability talent is at level 4...in a way, it is meant to make the player consider how deadly light using foes can be, so when they raise that talent they realize what they're doing.

But in this alpha, the boss is definetely crazy hard, for meleers at least, and thus needs a rebalance. Be happy I didn't put luminous horrors there at least

Thing is, I was still trying to be 'faithful' to Wight NPCs when I made PCs start with that much vulnerability. I do think that Withered Body also giving -resistance isn't a bad concept, though: as the Wight 'ages' and withers, they become even more hateful of light.

So, my current plan: light vuln starts at 10%, goes up to 25% with Withered body but it also affects the max resist cap, which isn't easily reached anyway.
This way it is still significant but not too crippling - and keep in mind it's Vampires who are more known for their vulnerability to light, anyway.

I also did not use fire and lightning resistance on the PC both because of balance concerns and because I did not think them very fitting on the NPCs - generally, undead are not resistant to fire.

As for the Afflicted theme, it's a bit unfortunate that a few low level Cursed talents might not work too well on NPCs, seeing as they are about hitting multiple foes. But I'm sure I'll come up with something. Giving Wights NPCs the cursed items tree could also be interesting...And of course, the upper level Wights will get the Draining.
In fact, that's one of the reasons I put draining resistance in, to avoid it being ridicolously powerful when you have a group/room of wights against a single PC.

[Zonk]

Updated this, though it's still an alpha(Wight NPCs are unchanged, there is no new boss art and some other details are missing).

[azrael]

I don't suppose I could take a look at their stats and talents without downloading it?

[Zonk]

I don't suppose I could take a look at their stats and talents without downloading it?

Stats aren't set in stone but for now...

They start with:
+1 Strength, +0 Dexterity, +2 Constitution",
+0 Magic, +2 Willpower, +2 Cunning",
Life per level:11,
Experience penalty:25%
Damage resistances: 10% cold, 5% physical, -10% light
4 infravision & see invisible 5
100% poison, blindness, fear immunity
20% confusion resistance

Their talent tree is:
Wight: +2 WIL/CON per TL
Withered Body: +3% physical, +6% cold resist per TL.
Dread: Cone of mind damage, confusion, mindpower based.
The Draining: Small radius gloom-style area, non undead foes suffer a small amount of blight damage of which you heal 40% and then check against your Mindpower, if they fail the save it increases the cooldown of one of their talents/puts a talent on cooldown. They also get a timed effect which gives them growing resistance to this(handled as a a save bonus), but it fades away if they're outside the area of effect.


I feel I should warn it it's currently not very balanced btw - starting area is quite rough(lots of foes in a Trollmire layout, can get swarmed). Still I feel it's worth a try with the 'right'classes.

[azrael]

I like it

[Sradac]

i like it too. Whats wrong with the starting area? It feels right to me.

[Zonk]

It's not 'wrong' per se(although I'm not 100% sold on the theme/boss but it works, sorta), I simply feel it's a bit too hard, although I did only test it with some classes. Even if you discount getting swarmed, skeleton mages in particular can be BRUTAL in this layout.

So I meant to make it somewhat closer in difficulty to the blighted ruins, and maybe add a special kind of vault(burial mound?).

I did have alternate ideas for a starting area by the way, such as a haunted/abandoned prison(regular dungeon layout, like the ruins), mass burial site(caverns layout) or even an abandoned 'ghost town'disturbed by would-be looters.

Still, the addon is by no means complete, so there's always space for improvement.
Remember feedback is wanted, if you make it to level 12+ I'd really like to know if you feel the Draining is over/underpowered. And also if making it scale off Mindpower was a bad idea for non mind classes.

[skein]

Ok, I have played a few wights now. Had 5 or more deaths as doomed. Doomed are really really hard to beat your boss with. Most other classes were fairly easy to get through. Since wights as a race seemed to be made for classes like doomed this is a bit tricky.

The unavoidable deaths I kept seeing are from skeleton mages. Those tend to be a bit nasty to see as a level one wight finding a level 3 skeleton mage. (Same problem the dwarves have with orc archers)

My wight anorithil is kinda fun but he keeps hitting himself with light attacks which sting more then just a little. You really need to remove the light penalty because honestly it is kinda silly.

The pools of poisoned water are easy enough to avoid after the first one and it is fairly easy to drag enemies over them to their death so you might want to make them just regular water. Thew slime pits do not show up on the screen when running reduced ultrashield particles so while they are cute it is kinda a wasted effort.

The equipment offered per level is far less then normal starting zones offer. Graves would be a very good way to handle this but you need to cap the level of the enemies very carefully.

[Zonk]

First of all, thanks for the feedback.

Ok, I have played a few wights now. Had 5 or more deaths as doomed. Doomed are really really hard to beat your boss with. Most other classes were fairly easy to get through. Since wights as a race seemed to be made for classes like doomed this is a bit tricky.

Yep they're meant to be made for Afflicted...and I had a lot of trouble as a Doomed(and Cursed)too, which is mainly what I tested them with. That's quite an issue

The unavoidable deaths I kept seeing are from skeleton mages. Those tend to be a bit nasty to see as a level one wight finding a level 3 skeleton mage. (Same problem the dwarves have with orc archers)

I'll see what I can do. Could just not have the area spawn skeletons, or give the skeleton mages there a -25%(or more)arcane damage penalty. One idea was to have depowered(very)wight NPCs spawn there instead.

My wight anorithil is kinda fun but he keeps hitting himself with light attacks which sting more then just a little. You really need to remove the light penalty because honestly it is kinda silly.

I felt it was fitting(and NPCs have far more than that, but I plan to rework Wight npcs too later) and 10% early on shouldn't be that signifcant - also, wouldn't you hit yourself with any race anyway, but just take less damage?

The pools of poisoned water are easy enough to avoid after the first one and it is fairly easy to drag enemies over them to their death so you might want to make them just regular water.

The pools being usable to damage enemies is actully intentional, and I felt they were atmospheric. I don't think it's that abusable - compare to normal water ponds in Trollmire, and if an enemy suffocates you don't get XP anyway(unless it's a boss).

Thew slime pits do not show up on the screen when running reduced ultrashield particles so while they are cute it is kinda a wasted effort.

I put the pits there by mistake - was checking which event zones existed and I didn't realize pits didn't actually work as they shoud. They will be removed.

The equipment offered per level is far less then normal starting zones offer. Graves would be a very good way to handle this but you need to cap the level of the enemies very carefully.

Easily fixable, will make more objects spawn.

Hopefully I can release an update by the start of next week.

[Sradac]

So far i've done quite well as a solipsist. SVN Solipsist to be precise, with the nerfs in place so its not as much of a "well duh" thing saying Im doing ok as solipsist

Went with disruption and sleep/nightmare, I think it fits well. The anger of my death has brought me back, and with my jealously of the living I will put them into the same hell I am in, distorting their reality and plunging them into nightmarish dreams

Also, I had to reroll one wight. I started inside of a tree and couldnt move out of it.

[skein]

The celestial light one that bothered me was the radius 2 or 3 small light area that normally heals and increases your healing modifier. It damages instead of heals your wights(say 40 or so health). Don't think it does this to ghouls or skeletons but honestly I have not tried it so maybe it does.

Just finally realized what was causing me so much damage since I use it in early non lit dungeons to lite them. It is also an easy way to heal escorts back up so sees a fair amount of use. It is also one of the most likely trees to be opened by the non light classes, particularly if you also happen to be undead(it covers a hole in healing).

Another bug I noticed is that the wight quest never finishes so you never get the next quest to investigate the 4 tier 2 dungeons. This might cause problems for those who do not know the normal sequence.

[jilladilla]

The celestial light one that bothered me was the radius 2 or 3 small light area that normally heals and increases your healing modifier. It damages instead of heals your wights(say 40 or so health). Don't think it does this to ghouls or skeletons but honestly I have not tried it so maybe it does.

Just finally realized what was causing me so much damage since I use it in early non lit dungeons to lite them. It is also an easy way to heal escorts back up so sees a fair amount of use. It is also one of the most likely trees to be opened by the non light classes, particularly if you also happen to be undead(it covers a hole in healing).

Another bug I noticed is that the wight quest never finishes so you never get the next quest to investigate the 4 tier 2 dungeons. This might cause problems for those who do not know the normal sequence.

Are you talking about bathe in light? that normaly hurts undead. yes i know it doesnt say that (and it should), but it does hurt the unliving.