[v1.0.4-1.0.5] Utility Supplies

[Zizzo]

So all this time I've been lamenting the loss of Potions of Cure Critical Wounds, and it never occurred to me until now: "Duh, addon." Specifically, prompted by this thread, my new Utility Supplies addon, which, as the name suggests, adds some useful items to the game. Here's what I've worked up so far:

Infusion patches

Since "[t]he art of potion making fell into decline after the Spellhunt, and only a rare few now master the gift", I decided to go with the concept of infusion patches, which deliver a modified single-dose formulation of the infusion and then fall off and biodegrade, thus not needing a dedicated inscription slot. Unusable by characters that can't use infusions (assuming I've coded that right...) Current available infusions are:

• of clearing: In my experience, !oCCW's don't get used much for actual healing beyond the early levels, so I split their primary function out into its own patch, which, as the name suggests, clears detrimental effects. All of them; no more Sun Infusion Follies(TM) of, "Oh, gee, thanks for unilluminating me there, mister wild infusion. Not like I needed to actually, y'know, see or anything..."
• of healing: As a first pass, I'm going with five levels of healing patches, one for each tier, doing 100-500hp heal. This can be adjusted as warranted by further playtesting.

Scrolls

The art of scroll making, apparently, has not fallen into decline since the Spellhunt, so no cosmetic renaming needed for them. Unusable by characters that can't use runes, or while blind, confused or silenced.

Currently there are scrolls of phase door and of teleportation; can't think of any others that get used regularly enough to add here (well, Identify, but that's covered by the orb now). I've made an effort to implement an oft-requested related feature, in that reading either of these scrolls should (if I've done this correctly) not use game time or consume the scroll if the game cannot find anywhere within the scroll's range to teleport you. This is untested, however, so let me know if it doesn't work.

Future directions

• In addition to any possible adjustments to the healing patches I may eventually decide we need, I'm considering a speed patch, once I've decided whether it should act more like T2's Potion of Speed or T4's movement infusion.
• Rods usable from inventory are another possible avenue of expansion (possibly under some other name, as many rods seem to be Sher'Tul technology). Haven't decided yet whether there are enough traps left in the game to merit rods of trap detection and disarming, or whether not being able to detect monsters in vaults is annoying enough to merit a rod of monster detection that can.
• And of course, I'm always open to suggestions.

And I imagine this addon will probably be a bit too controversial to be merged into ZOmnibus...

[edit 2013-08-10 9:04pm] Technical info:

Code: Select all

Hooks:
  Entity:loadList [to modify stores to stock infusion patches and scrolls]
Superload:
  mod.class.Object:
    getName() [to handle pluralizing infusion patches and scrolls]
  mod.class.Store:
    loadup() [to restock infusion patches and scrolls]
  mod.class.Trap
    canDisarm() [to apply the rod of disarming's 'force_disarm' flag]

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

You started porting Classic Tome to the T4 engine as a result of missing your !'s of CCW, please please PLEASE tell me this doesn't mean you are no longer going to attempt to continue that port...

On topic to this addon, if you've coded it right, will this ALSO fix the 'wasted teleport' for OTHER teleportation methods, or just your scroll methods? And if it works correctly, can you extend it to also affect those, or will you keep it to just your scrolls?

[Sradac]

you could make a scroll to bring back the old Rune of Speed

[Amphouse]

What the heck does the exclamation point stand for? I think CCW is cure critical wounds, whatever that even does. Didn't play old ToME. Actually I'm having trouble understanding the concept in general; how are these different from regular infusions and regular runes, and what's wrong with the current ones? Is there any reason I might want to use this outside of nostalgia?

[lukep]

"!" is the ASCII symbol used for potions in most roguelikes.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

In classic roguelike games, potions are generally represented with the "!" ascii character. (Scrolls were generally "?", there were others that were a basic standard, but those are some of the most recognizeable.) Rogue did it, Adom did it, Crawl did it, Angband and it's million variants did it.

Yes, Cure critical wounds was what CCW stood for, and in classic tome (and other angbands) the assorted cure potions (light, serious, critical) healed a relatively small amount of HP, and cured a few minor status ailments. The better potions healed a bit more (still lousy amounts) and more ailments.

As for way back when, potions were one use only. So if you had 5 ! of CCW, and drank 2, you'd have 3 left. (But could always find/buy more.) Zizzo's attempting to bring that back, and give us some disposable one-time cures we can collect. Rarity would be a severe balancing issue, but it wouldn't pull the 'blind but unilluminated' stunt that the current wilds do.

Edit: Dammit, ninja'd by Lukep

[HousePet]

I never understood why they only healed pityful amounts.

[CaptainTrips]

What, no potions of corruption?

[Sradac]

telling you, !ofHaste, give it a weaker effect than what the Runes of Speed gave.

[Zizzo]

You started porting Classic Tome to the T4 engine as a result of missing your !'s of CCW, please please PLEASE tell me this doesn't mean you are no longer going to attempt to continue that port...

Slowly. I kinda got myself into a rut, and I'm trying to claw my way back out...

On topic to this addon, if you've coded it right, will this ALSO fix the 'wasted teleport' for OTHER teleportation methods, or just your scroll methods? And if it works correctly, can you extend it to also affect those, or will you keep it to just your scrolls?

This only applies to the scrolls. Changing the runes would mean munging the corresponding talents on the fly, and (a) I'm not sure I'm doing this right in the first place (b) I keep hoping that will get implemented mainline (and maybe this will be just the nudge it needs...).

you could make a scroll to bring back the old Rune of Speed

Haven't seen this. What does it do?

Actually I'm having trouble understanding the concept in general; how are these different from regular infusions and regular runes, and what's wrong with the current ones?

Scrolls and potions (or infusion patches in our case) are consumables: you use it once and it's gone --- which is why you carry a whole stack of `em. The main advantage over inscriptions is no cooldown; if your scroll of teleportation drops you in a bad place, you just read another one.

Rarity would be a severe balancing issue, but it wouldn't pull the 'blind but unilluminated' stunt that the current wilds do.

Oh, the stores stock these. What with the prevailing anti-"grinding" foofaraw, there's not nearly enough runoff room to accumulate a sufficient stash off the floor.

What, no potions of corruption?

Eugh. (a) I never used those in T2, and (b) then I'd just have to implement corruptions in T4...

[HousePet]

The code for Runes of Speed is still in inscriptions.lua

Its a global speed boost.

[Zizzo]

The code for Runes of Speed is still in inscriptions.lua

Its a global speed boost.

So, T2 Potion of Speed, then. [sound F/X: svn repo diving] If I'm reading this right, looks like 30%-60% speed boost for 4-7 turns, depending on how deep you found the rune (doesn't appear to have scaled with any stat). So, say, patches at tiers 3, 4 and 5, doing 20%, 35% resp. 50% speed for 5 turns?

[0player]

How about Scrolls of Recall, with time of acting less than that of a Rod?

[Zizzo]

How about Scrolls of Recall, with time of acting less than that of a Rod?

? Is the recall delay a significant hardship? I've always just hit R40 and been done with it. Besides, that would almost certainly lead to an expectation of functionality similar to T2/Angband/Moria's Word of Recall scroll, which would recall you back into the dungeon if read in town [and while I have on occasion wished for such functionality, (a) I have no idea how to implement it, and (b) I'd rather have it on the Rod.]

I never understood why they only healed pityful amounts.

Probably a legacy from Moria, way back when the dungeon bottomed out at level 50, the player topped out at level 40, and none of the other more powerful healing potions existed yet.

[Zizzo]

Pushing out v2 with some new stuff. In addition to the infusion patches of speed suggested by Sradac, I've added scrolls of controlled phase door, which (if I've done this right...) should start appearing in stores around the same time as controlled phase door runes. Also, I've finally decided that there are enough annoying traps left in vaults (and in Nur) to justify rods of trap detection and disarming.

And pursuant to DarkGod's subtle hint I've added technical info to the original post.