MultiPower Weapons

Ok, time for another chunk of code.

This one is a change to the weapon power system, to replace all the RW_ classes except RW_Healer and RW_SuperHealer.

It allows:

More than one power-up on a weapon. So you can have a Vampire Energy, or a Penetrating Vorpal weapon

It allows the option of having the power-ups as artifacts. These will be spawned by Luck weapons and by dying monsters. The player can then apply the power-up to the weapon of their choice.

The maximum number of power-ups on a weapon can be configured differently for different player classes. So WMs could be allowed up to 3 power-ups, and AMs and M/MMs could be limited to 1.

If you do not want weapons with multiple power-ups, it is possible to set the maximum to 1. This means it pretty much behaves as now, except you can have the power-ups as artifacts to add to weapons.

The list of power-ups is extendable, so other people can add new power-up types, just like they could add new RW_ classes.

It is possible to scale the power-up effects, so when you have two power-ups on a weapon, each power-up works slightly worse than when the power-up is on it's own. e.g. a vampire energy +4 may work like a vampire+3 and an energy+3 rather than the current vampire+4 and an energy+4.

If Druid is interested, and creates a slot in cvs, I'll stick it in.

I do not know of any bugs at the moment, but I am sure some will surface when it gets thrashed.

List of possible extensions would be:

Could add more power-ups that do different things e.g. adrenal drip

extend the PlayerClass limits to be configurable (extendable), so extra player classes can be added. Or even check on other inventory items, not just player Classes.

if the last item is done (extending inventory checks), then having multiple power-ups could be an ability purchased.

have an ability that gives the player certain power-up artifacts on startup. A bit like Loaded Artifacts but you get weapon power-ups instead

Just to clarify, before I get lots of questions about it:

There is a mod written by Kearin called Weapons of Power, which has recently been released over on Mysterials RPG forum. That mod also allows weapons to have multiple power-ups. It has been around quite a while from what I understand, and has been well tested on the Invasion 24/7 site. It also has a lot more features and power-ups than the mod I have done. No doubt it has evolved over time on the 24/7 site, and fits in with their requirements. I haven't tried it, but it is probably very good, and so is another option.

The mod I did is a lot simpler. It started due to discussions on the DC forum about having multiple magic types on a weapon. Vortex did a mod with some fixed combinations in. I generated an initial version of the multi-powerup code, and emailed it to Dru just before Thanksgiving 2005. I continued to improve it and add more magic types to it, and have communicated frequently to Druid about it. I also let Vortex know about it just before April 1st 2006, in case he was interested.

However, one of the main reservations about my mod was that all of the magic functionality was in one big RW_ class, which would have made it very difficult for others to extend it. So, I looked at the way Mysterial allowed things to be extendable - having a central class that calls a function in each of the instances a player has (for example the way RPGRules NetDamage calls HandleDamage for each ability), and decided to do it the same way.

Although there are similarities between the two mods, they are different. Both are based upon Mysterials excellent UT2004RPG, and upon Druid's extensions. Both allow weapons to have multiple power-ups. But they implement it in different ways (at least I presume so - I haven't checked!). Kearin's is probably more original than mine, as mine just re-packages existing Druid/Mysterial code.

This is a really cool idea. I need to think on it further

It may be the best setting for DC is to have the maximum number of power-ups on a weapon set to 1, but you will still get the benefit of having power-ups that can convert a plain weapon into a power one.

If you create a separate slot in cvs, I will dump the code there. You can then have a play and evaluate. If you end up deciding it is not appropriate for DC, that's fine by me.

I dunno. This whole idea seems to be overkill to me for some reason. I can think of some combos that would be bad bad bad to have.

I'd have to look at a few things like, would there be two different "pluses"? What kind of limits do you put on it? That kind of thing. I'd say the max bonus on a double should be half - if only one plus, half the weakest of the pair.

I would also suggest that even if both of a combo are clonable, any combo weapon become "one drop only".

Of course, if the difficulty goes up again, I might be all for it.

Just because we can do a thing, doesn't mean we must do a thing. I mean, I was all tempted the other day to put:

// This comment specifically here so that "it's not Bot's fault"

in the changes I made, so that when 201 was rolled, out, I could say "It's not my fault. It's in the code that it's not my fault."

BotFodder wrote:

I can think of some combos that would be bad bad bad to have.

I can think of some good fun ones as well. Penetrating Vorpal for those titan herds. Double Rage,Double Vampire or Double Energy are some of the questionable ones, not to mention Double Protection. If there are combinations we do not want, I will change the code to prevent them.

BotFodder wrote:

I'd have to look at a few things like, would there be two different "pluses"? What kind of limits do you put on it? That kind of thing. I'd say the max bonus on a double should be half - if only one plus, half the weakest of the pair.

Just one modifier that applies to all power-ups. It gets too compicated otherwise. However, there is an option so that the more power-ups you have, the less effective they are. So a Vampire Energy +4 could perform as a Vampire+3 and an Energy+3, rather than a Vampire+4 and an Energy+4.

BotFodder wrote:

I would also suggest that even if both of a combo are clonable, any combo weapon become "one drop only".

configurable. You can set the number of powerups after which it ceases to be cloneable (i.e. one drop), and another limit for when you cannot drop it. So for example you could configure it to have one-powerup weapons cloneable, 2-powerups droppable but not cloneable, 3-powerups not droppable. You can also configure it so that any particular power-ups are not cloneable or not droppable.

BotFodder wrote:

Just because we can do a thing, doesn't mean we must do a thing.

Agreed.

My thoughts were that it could add a bit of fun, and extra interest. The multiple-powerup weapons do not have to be frequent.

One thought is that better starting weapons help the low level players. High level WMs with LW5 start with good weapons anyway. High level AMs will quickly convert weapons to be even better than the WMs weapons by the end of wave 2 or 3. (How often do WMs have a Vorpal+10?) The low level players are stuck with poor weapons. Obviously players will share good weapons, but the best ones are one-drop. And if they die frequently, they lose the weapon and have to start again. So poor starting weapons favours the high level players. Slightly off topic I know, but if we make it so even a low level player can sometimes get a kick-ass weapon, they might enjoy it a bit more.

If you put this mod on, and set the maximum number of power-ups to 1, it wouldn't be very different from now. The changes would be:

AMs could max any weapon, even one that looks plain

Optionally, monsters would drop power-ups which could be applied to weapons. Due to the closer-nature fighting of the WMs, the majority of these would go to WMs (although some medics would get a good look in).

One of the artifacts is a 'modifier+1' artifact. AMs typically don't need these as they have maxed weapons, so they would get passed to other people. As would other power-ups players picked up but didn't want. So, encouraging team building

Is that too radically different?

Szlat wrote:

One of the artifacts is a 'modifier+1' artifact. AMs typically don't need these as they have maxed weapons, so they would get passed to other people. As would other power-ups players picked up but didn't want. So, encouraging team building

Is that too radically different?

I assume this "modifier+1" artifact wouldn't be capable of pushing a magic weapon past it's max (like the AM artifact is)? Also, I don't know if including this artifact is a good idea - the fact that only an AM can max a weapon encourages teamwork, IMO. Letting anybody who can find enough of these "+1"s get a weapon up to it's max steals AM thunder.

"maximum number of power-ups" means the max that can be applied to a single weapon? I think I'm getting the hang of your idea a bit more.

If an AM maxed a plain weapon, what would the result be? Random? Or just a Damage weapon? I think this not so good an idea ...

Szlat wrote:

BotFodder wrote:

I'd have to look at a few things like, would there be two different "pluses"? What kind of limits do you put on it? That kind of thing. I'd say the max bonus on a double should be half - if only one plus, half the weakest of the pair.
Just one modifier that applies to all power-ups. It gets too compicated otherwise. However, there is an option so that the more power-ups you have, the less effective they are. So a Vampire Energy +4 could perform as a Vampire+3 and an Energy+3, rather than a Vampire+4 and an Energy+4.

After rereading this, this is where I'd have a problem ... of course, you may not have been thinking about his when you made your example ...

Energy in the game is limited to +3.

I would say that you should never have a weapon that, as a combo, would do as well (and definitely not better) at one of it's bonuses than a single magic item would be.

In other words, using your example, I would say that the limit should be "Vampire Energy +3", or using my limitation (but being nice and rounding up), that the max a Vampire Energy could be would be +2 (half of the +3 max of an Energy, rounded up).

Unless you could make these items sufficiently rare ... rarer than anything else that's out there; so rare that if an AM could make one using the MWM, the rareness would prevent them from trying to seek *any* double out (unlike Vorps, which while very rare, AMs still go out of their way to try to make).

Further, while a cool idea, my limits ideas would probably make these items less attractive than folks might prefer - a higher plus weapon (say, Vamp +7) would suddenly loose some of it's power in return for another ability (becoming a Vampiric Energy +2).

BotFodder wrote:

I assume this "modifier+1" artifact wouldn't be capable of pushing a magic weapon past it's max (like the AM artifact is)?

correct

BotFodder wrote:

Also, I don't know if including this artifact is a good idea - the fact that only an AM can max a weapon encourages teamwork, IMO. Letting anybody who can find enough of these "+1"s get a weapon up to it's max steals AM thunder.

It depends how popular you make the +1s. Plus, although AMs can max weapons, I don't see them maxing other peoples weapons that frequently. And certainly not other peoples vorpals.

BotFodder wrote:

If an AM maxed a plain weapon, what would the result be? Random? Or just a Damage weapon? I think this not so good an idea ...

The result would be a plus weapon with no power-up. Not a damage. I have given the base weapon a bit of damage bonus/+, so it will do slightly better with a higher plus, but will not have a power-up until you add one. Note that some power-ups cannot be applied to a zero weapon (e.g. vampire) because a +0 is meaningless.

BotFodder wrote:

Energy in the game is limited to +3.
I would say that you should never have a weapon that, as a combo, would do as well (and definitely not better) at one of it's bonuses than a single magic item would be.

Because all the power-ups have the same modifier range, they have been re-scaled to have approx the same effect on a range of 1-5. For example a vorpal gets a vorpal chance 1-5% based on a modifier 1-5 rather than 6-10.

BotFodder wrote:

Unless you could make these items sufficiently rare ... rarer than anything else that's out there; so rare that if an AM could make one using the MWM, the rareness would prevent them from trying to seek *any* double out (unlike Vorps, which while very rare, AMs still go out of their way to try to make).

That's the decision we need to make - how rare? But also, as you say in the next bit, is a vampire energy that much better than a straight vampire? The difficulty will be in pitching them at such a level where they add extra value to the game, but don't dominate it.

BotFodder wrote:

Further, while a cool idea, my limits ideas would probably make these items less attractive than folks might prefer - a higher plus weapon (say, Vamp +7) would suddenly loose some of it's power in return for another ability (becoming a Vampiric Energy +2).

Perhaps, but sometimes you want a bit of vampire and a bit of energy.

Szlat wrote:

It depends how popular you make the +1s. Plus, although AMs can max weapons, I don't see them maxing other peoples weapons that frequently. And certainly not other peoples vorpals.

Every time someone says this, a lot of the AMs come out the woodwork and say "Only because no one asks me to." Now, myself included. I max anything anyone asks me to max (if it isn't maxed already). Only occasionally (especially if I'm maxing an energy weapon) do I do my own stuff first. Heck, I've had to *ask* people if their vorpal is maxed yet in order to get them to think about it.

Basically, you want something maxed? Ask. It's likely to happen.

Szlat wrote:

BotFodder wrote:

If an AM maxed a plain weapon, what would the result be? Random? Or just a Damage weapon? I think this not so good an idea ...

The result would be a plus weapon with no power-up. Not a damage. I have given the base weapon a bit of damage bonus/+, so it will do slightly better with a higher plus, but will not have a power-up until you add one. Note that some power-ups cannot be applied to a zero weapon (e.g. vampire) because a +0 is meaningless.

I think we're on the same page but confusing some terminolgy here.

Any weapon without a description beyond "Weapon +3" is considered (or has been termed previously) a "Damage" weapon - meaning they have no other "bonus" beyond doing 10% more damage per plus.

I think Dru coded things such that specifically plain, no plus weapons could not be maxed. This is actually contrary to evey other weapon - certain ones are actually capable of having a "+0": Sturdy comes to mind right off the bat; I think there's one or two more. When prompted previously, he's never indicated that this is something that was desired or needed to be "fixed". However, if he wants to change that, that's his perogative.

BotFodder wrote:

Any weapon without a description beyond "Weapon +3" is considered (or has been termed previously) a "Damage" weapon - meaning they have no other "bonus" beyond doing 10% more damage per plus.

I think Dru coded things such that specifically plain, no plus weapons could not be maxed. This is actually contrary to evey other weapon - certain ones are actually capable of having a "+0": Sturdy comes to mind right off the bat; I think there's one or two more. When prompted previously, he's never indicated that this is something that was desired or needed to be "fixed". However, if he wants to change that, that's his perogative.

In this case all weapons can be maxed or have power-ups applied to them, because all weapons are RPGWeapons. And why not, because they can all be MWM'd anyway.