The Trench Strider: Celestial Melee/Caster of Moon and Sea

[astralInferno]

Also, I just fixed the birther problem probably =D

[Thexare]

Can confirm, that's fixed. The NullTweaks weapon masteries are also now showing correctly, but Greatweapon Mastery is still unavailable with Trench Strider active. From what you said that might be difficult to fix, though.

An idea: Is it possible to have a config option to disable everything related to giving Trench Striders Exotic Weapon Mastery? Necromancy+ has a toggle to disable its tweaks to the vanilla Necro, so I hope something more specific is feasible. If it works, that would let this addon work with NullTweaks weapon mastery, and Trench Striders would be able to use Tridents effectively with Greatweapon Mastery.

[astralInferno]

Possibly. As I said, I've got no clue why the new version isn't showing up.

[icetongue]

Hey AstralInferno, I really enjoyed the Trench Strider when it came out and when I noticed a newer version I had to give it a try again. Still very fun with high burst and mobility, kind of like a Shadowblade without stealth. However, there are a few quirks I'd like to report.

First, Bloodfire creates a lot of particle-effects that stay for a really long time which quickly results in performance issues.

I killed three enemies ins this screenshot. A larger group of enemies causes a more or less solid red wall to appear.


Second, whenever an enemy splits/multiplies/clones itself, I get a LUA-error every turn as long as I stay in the area.

It is not very descriptive either, but so far has only occurred with Trench Strider active.

And third, although this is by no means a bug, Moonlit Prowess scales absurdly well with Arcane Might.

[astralInferno]

Hallo and I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Bloodfire is my bad. I didn't test it enough. I should substitute the particle effect - that one's designed for persistent things - for a one-shot one like fireflash.
And yes, Arcane Might is easily the class's fave prodigy. xD

I can't really do much with the multiply error, though. Was the foe using it a trench strider rare?
Can you trigger the error, shut down tome, and dig into its folder for the te4_log file, and then copy the error and maybe half a dozen lines from before it to me? it'll be near the bottom and slightly indented.

[astralInferno]

Fixed the bloodfire error, I think, and a Heavens error someone on steam reported.

[icetongue]

Funnily enough I had a really hard time getting the error to show up again.

I attacked a brittle clear ooze and just as the last one died, an erorr message pops up.

Code: Select all

[ATTACK] attacking with (mainhand)	Vileglory the orichalcum trident
[ATTACK] to 	brittle clear ooze	 :: 	151.68640526363	21	1	67	vs.	12	::	1
checkHit	67	vs	12	=> chance to hit	100
[ATTACK] raw dam	151.68640526363	versus	1	0.3	with APR	21
[ATTACK] after armor	151.68640526363
[ATTACK] after range	190
[PHYS CRIT %]	39.1434581897
[ATTACK] after crit	285
[ATTACK] after mult	285
[ATTACK] mace accuracy bonus	67	12	=	1.055
[LOG]	#{bold}##UID:3925:0##fbd578#Saridie#LAST# performs a melee critical strike against Brittle clear ooze!#{normal}#
[LOG]	Brittle clear ooze shrugs off the critical damage!
[LOG]	#UID:3925:0##fbd578#Saridie#LAST# hits Brittle clear ooze for #{bold}##1133F3#87 cold#{normal}##LAST#, #GREY#34 darkness#LAST#, #{bold}##aaaaaa#144 physical#{normal}##LAST# (266 total damage).
[LOG]	#{bold}##UID:3925:0##fbd578#Saridie#LAST# killed Brittle clear ooze!#{normal}#
[LOG]	Saridie is no longer blending physical and magical combat.
Lua Error: /engine/utils.lua:2067: bad argument #3 to 'line_base' (number expected, got nil)
	At [C]:-1 
	At [C]:-1 line_base
	At /engine/utils.lua:2067 lineFOV
	At /engine/interface/ActorProject.lua:70 project
	At /data-trenchstrider/effects.lua:38 on_timeout
	At /engine/interface/ActorTemporaryEffects.lua:85 timedEffects
	At /mod/class/NPC.lua:320 timedEffects
	At /mod/class/Actor.lua:565 actBase
	At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:119 tickLevel
	At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:64 tick
	At /engine/GameTurnBased.lua:51 tick
	At /mod/class/Game.lua:1271 
 ----------------  Stack Dump ----------------
--------------- Stack Dump Finished ---------------
orc soldier	7562	dumb ai talents can use	Orcish Fury	T_ORC_FURY
dumb ai uses	T_ORC_FURY
orc archer	7339	dumb ai talents can use	Orcish Fury	T_ORC_FURY
orc archer	7339	dumb ai talents can use	Infusion: Wild	T_INFUSION:_WILD_1
dumb ai uses	T_INFUSION:_WILD_1
[LOG]	
orc archer	7339	dumb ai talents can use	Orcish Fury	T_ORC_FURY
dumb ai uses	T_ORC_FURY
orc archer	7339	dumb ai talents can use	Orcish Fury	T_ORC_FURY
dumb ai uses	T_ORC_FURY
Lua Error: /engine/utils.lua:2067: bad argument #3 to 'line_base' (number expected, got nil)
	At [C]:-1 
	At [C]:-1 line_base
	At /engine/utils.lua:2067 lineFOV
	At /engine/interface/ActorProject.lua:70 project
	At /data-trenchstrider/effects.lua:38 on_timeout
	At /engine/interface/ActorTemporaryEffects.lua:85 timedEffects
	At /mod/class/NPC.lua:320 timedEffects
	At /mod/class/Actor.lua:565 actBase
	At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:119 tickLevel
	At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:64 tick
	At /engine/GameTurnBased.lua:51 tick
	At /mod/class/Game.lua:1271 

[astralInferno]

Okay, so I've found where the problem /is/. It's something to do with Drown, I think, the project is getting an error. I'm not certain why it's only happening on cloned foes, though. I'll ask the IRC later.

For now, you can avoid the issue by not using drown, or just shut the error when it comes up, depending on how annoying it is. I'll try to release a patch asap.

[tabs]

Played this for a bit and have a few thoughts.

1. Perhaps a bug: Ocean Step at 4/5 (5.2 effective) will unlock Exotic but won't grant waterbreathing.

2. There's too much damage type diversity. They get dark, cold, light, and fire. This makes it hard to increase damage in any meaningful way besides weapon/spellpower.

3. There are too many similar skills for my taste. How many caster-centered damage AoEs are there? A lot.

4. There are quite a few resources going on. Stamina, Negative energy, Positive Energy, Vim, and Mana. Is the idea to pick one of the unlockable trees only?

5. I agree with another poster that dual wielding seems like a very strong choice, even without the skill tree.

6. I enjoy playing with the wet mechanic and hopping around from kill to kill. More synergy like this please.

[astralInferno]

1. Not a bug, but I don't know why I did it that way. I'll change it for the next patch.

2. Their base talents are all dark/cold/light. Necromancer and anorithil gear is gonna be good for them, I'd expect. Fire is only added in the 'corrupted' trees using other elements - and if you take both Heavens and Depths, Depths provides light/fire benefits as well. You do have a point tho. Maybe Heavens could use some form of scaling thing that grants light/fire bonuses based on your dark/cold benefits? Not entirely sure how I'd code that. Sounds mathematically complex.

3. This one you have a point. I blame anorithils and Diana both having lots of them.

4. Yes. You can even pick zero of them and go straight Depths, which is the 'default' Trench Strider.

5. Since then, all of the on-hit skills have been given a scaling coefficient so they're halved when dual wielding. As long as you don't get hold of Undead Drake alongside trench strider trees, they should be fine.

6. I stuck in as much as I could to the core trees, I promise.

[astralInferno]

Now defunct; released as part of the Celestial Oddities pack!

[Kamdiere]

Aye, I've been near-obsessively playing Trench Strider as of late and while the class is very fun to play, I've run into a wall I can't find a way around and I believe you're aware of it. Specifically: frailty.

I've been mulling over whether they're a light or heavy armor class and I can honestly see them go either way thematically (Heavy being 'hardened by the pressure of the dark depths' while light is 'swift as water flowing and crashing'). Since you have given support to the class for shield use and I noticed you like having options, you could try both methods.

I have in mind a couple ideas.

The first is a heavy armor tree whose first skill grants you a portion of your magic stat as constitution (which would allow you to take advantage of Conditioning and Thick Skin). For the other three skills there's plenty of things you could do and I'd rather leave the ideas and creativity up to you, though a freezing retaliation skill comes to mind.

The second is for light armor. A passive that gives you damage reduction for a couple turns every time you move (whether from knock back or your own skills or just moving). To deal with mages and such since you can't use defense against it, I suggest a skill somewhere that creates zones of darkness to make enemies unable to tell where you are. Or possibly an aura that limits vision range to one or two tiles.

Another thought for is a retaliatory wave that knocks people 'Off-balance' as the debuff.

Either way, I'm just tossing out ideas for you to chew on and hopefully inspire you. As I've said, Trench Strider is very fun, but the frailty is a very serious problem.

[astralInferno]

You're absolutely right. While I need to solve it, let me explain why the problem arose:
I play on normal difficulty (no shame for this) and usually exploration (that's kinda shameful tho). Often with bonus stuff too (haha who wants a challenge anyway amirite) so dying is disappointing but. Not, yknow. Fatal.
More importantly, when I made this addon, I was new to the game, I didn't really understand it at all. I'm marginally better now - I try to put some CC and defences on my classes, don't always succeed. I wanted to make the trench strider a glass cannon who used hit and run tactics.
Course, 'glass cannon' doesn't really work in ToME, and if it did, it wouldnt work for melee characters.

Now. As a glass cannon, what I ought to do is give them some form of defence bonuses; to gel with those it can already grab from mobility...
Maybe if I grant them Voidwalker (from Nullpack) and then give them heals/shields on teleport...