Magical Items and Arcana Skill [No longer merged, hosted on Github]

Random_dragon · 2016-09-05T21:33:09.000Z

Now imagine if that bug goes for several updates. I recall one time early on when the Windows versions were basically fucked.

deoxy · 2016-09-07T03:02:17.000Z

pisskop:

you would still need the raw materials, I suspect.

Random_dragon:

And you could give it multiple use_actions, but sewing and a lot of things like that really don’t play well with rare material like essence, because long actions eat massive amounts of charge for a repair attempt that might fail multiple times.

Good points, of course, and probably accurate on both counts, but I was hoping for something more like the toolbox that uses its ammo as both the ammo and the material and always succeeds. I suspect that wouldn’t be possible without coding, though.

Random_dragon:

Meanwhile…you know what’s fucking depressing? There are multiple bugs with this mod that have their origins in PRs dating back at least 3 months ago, and one of them (see http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=13209.0 ) was only reported back on august 31st.

I think a good many people aren’t updating regularly right now due to some of the recent developments - I know I haven’t been. The dirty clothes thing and the vitamin thing are both really annoying at the moment, and the problems that have been hitting Blazemod are also kind of a big deal for those who like that one.

Also, something that used dull essence and could replace all the other repair tools (even with the multiple uses, needing extra materials, etc) could be pretty nice.

Random_dragon:

[quote=“deoxy, post:147, topic:10288”]Hey RD, comment on my mapping item? I’d like it to be balanced well enough to get it into the mod.

Ah, do you have a chuck of code for it, or a PR? All I have on it so far is the general idea and the name orb of insight. Other than potential confusion with the mask of insight, I see nothing wrong with this. :V[/quote]

Yeah, I wasn’t thinking about the mask when I named it, heh - the Orb of Seeing, perhaps? Anyway, here’s some code.

The item itself:

{ "type":"TOOL", "id" : "orb_of_insight", "name" : "orb of insight", "name_plural": "orbs of insight", "description" : "A mysterious orb of dark glass or possibly crystal. With enough power, it might impart a great deal of knowledge... at a price.", "weight" : 2000, "bashing": 6, "to_hit": -2, "color" : "light_gray", "symbol" : "o", "material" : ["glass"], "volume" : 4, "price" : 10000, "max_charges": 13, "initial_charges": 0, "charges_per_use": 13, "turns_per_charge": 0, "ammo": "essence_type", "revert_to": "null", "use_action" : "ARTIFACT", "artifact_data" : { "effects_wielded": ["AEP_INT_UP", "AEP_PER_UP", "AEP_ATTENTION", "AEP_PSYSHIELD", "AEP_SCHIZO"], "effects_carried": ["AEP_SICK"], "effects_activated": ["AEA_PAIN", "AEA_MAP", "AEA_PAIN", "AEA_PARALYZE", "AEA_PAIN", "AEA_ATTENTION", "AEA_PAIN"] }

The recipe:

{ "type" : "recipe", "result": "orb_of_insight", "category": "CC_OTHER", "subcategory": "CSC_OTHER_TOOLS", "skill_used": "magic", "skills_required": [ "fabrication", 5 ], "difficulty": 7, "time": 80000, "reversible": false, "autolearn": false, "book_learn": [[ "book_sacrifice", 7 ]], "tools": [ [ [ "book_sacrifice", -1 ] ], [ [ "tongs", -1 ] ], [ [ "chisel", -1 ] ], [ [ "anvil", -1 ] ], [ ["crucible", -1], ["crucible_clay", -1] ], [ ["forge", 150] ] ], "components": [ [ [ "glass_shard", 48 ], [ "flask_glass", 12 ], [ "jar_glass", 6 ], [ "jar_3l_glass", 1 ] ], [ [ "gold_small", 50 ] ], [ [ "silver_small", 50 ] ], [ [ "diamond", 1 ] ], [ [ "essence", 100 ] ] ] }

I didn’t create a disassembly recipe for it, but it should probably disassemble into just dull essence, like the other stuff in the mod.

Also, I added it to several groups, whatever already included the rare stuff.

I’m thinking I should add the evil disease to the wielding effects, and adding attention to just carrying it along with sick.

Random_dragon · 2016-09-07T03:54:02.000Z

Hmm. It seems like an awful lot of effects on activation. Plus attention seems kinda redundant on both wield and activate. Maybe drop psyshield and passive attention, and shift sickness to on-wield?

Theme-wise, it does seem like a great idea to have it be in Oaths to the Chalice, given their lore. Does mitigate the confusion with mask of insight, for one. Could also call it the Orb of the Veil maybe, given the chalice cult’s references to He From Beyond the Veil.

And hmm, unsure what effect would work best for an equivalent Cleansing Flame tool, but repair seems about right. I just realized that it seems the soldering iron now uses a refactored modular use_action. Weirdly, even though now you could define a sewing item that can repair non-fabric, or a soldering iron that can use other skills and take far less time, misc_repair remains its own action. Still, you could do something like:

    "use_action": {
            "type": "repair_item",
            "item_action_type" : "repair_metal",
            "materials": [
                "kevlar", "plastic", "iron", "steel", "hardsteel", "aluminum", "copper", "cotton", "leather", "wool", "fur", "nomex", "wood", "bone", "chitin", "stone", "gold", "silver" 
            ],
            "skill": "magic",
            "tool_quality": 5,
            "cost_scaling": 0,
            "move_cost": 100
        }

Not 100% sure if that will work as intended.

In any case, I wish someone would PR the bloody fixes. Again, others have offered to quite some time ago. -_-

deoxy · 2016-09-08T03:26:48.000Z

[quote=“Random_dragon, post:153, topic:10288”]Hmm. It seems like an awful lot of effects on activation. Plus attention seems kinda redundant on both wield and activate. Maybe drop psyshield and passive attention, and shift sickness to on-wield?

Theme-wise, it does seem like a great idea to have it be in Oaths to the Chalice, given their lore. Does mitigate the confusion with mask of insight, for one. Could also call it the Orb of the Veil maybe, given the chalice cult’s references to He From Beyond the Veil.[/quote]

Yeah, lots of effects on activation, but all of them are bad except the mapping - mapping is so useful, I wanted it to be expensive. If active attention can multi-fire on the same activation like pain, I might replace the paralysis with another attention, instead.

Attention stacks up - passive attention just gives you a little every turn, active attention gives you a big pile of it when you use it. I think I might add attention to carry as well, along with sick, and add the evil disease to wield, actually - it’s a powerful thing, it should have powerful consequences.

Orb of Forbidden Knowledge, perhaps? Orb of Madness?

And if that tool will repair anything with no materials and always succeeds, essence would be a reasonable cost (maybe even two essence each time). If it just replaces the different tools and their “ammo”, but still goes through the regular process (multiple tries, needs materials), then dull essences is probably better. Still more convenient to only carry one tool, and the “ammo” would be easier to get (disassemble blood essence) and weightless/volumeless.

You know, I was thinking about other useful things that essence/arcana could be used for, and some kind of high-level “bag of holding” type thing would be REALLY nice - like a personal version of the stabilized portal. Weight would still be a factor (unfortunately), but otherwise… Also, a magical way to make a stabilized portal (since portal generators are so crazy rare) wouldn’t hurt. Both of those would probably need to be painfully expensive, though.

Random_dragon · 2016-09-08T03:35:36.000Z

Hmm. Not sure how to implement a stable portal item. Passive arcane items are rather rare. As for the repair items…yeah, I was going with that as an example. Still might be good to have it be more efficient than mundane ways though. For all intents and purposes, a “stack” of dull essence would be 15, while batteries are 100.

And it seems someone finally PR’d the fix.

deoxy · 2016-09-08T03:41:54.000Z

Perhaps some kind of summoning ritual of your own that summons something nasty, and if you manage to kill it, it drops something you need to make such things?

That, or just make them expensive. The Orb currently takes several rare things (including a diamond) and 100 essence to make, for instance.

Random_dragon · 2016-09-08T03:52:37.000Z

Well, we DO need a themed item for the Sanguine Order. Orb of the Veil (I still like that name) you assigned to the Keepers of the Oath, and Something of Mending might be a good fit for the Cleansing Flame.

Meanwhile, the island temple’s dracolich was a summoning ritual gone awry, so that idea fits if the crafting recipe becomes linked to Sanguine Codex.

Random_dragon · 2016-11-03T21:03:17.000Z

Welp. Fuck it. Due to discussion of pushing this mod out of the core game, I now have a repo for it.

https://github.com/chaosvolt/cdda-arcana-mod

Pester me on there if you need shit done.

pisskop · 2016-11-03T21:18:18.000Z

YoY

I knew you liked us too much to leave foreva

Random_dragon · 2016-11-03T22:09:45.000Z

If by that you mean, every time I want to quit Github and this forum, I find out somebody fucked my old stuff up again?

I blame the fact I still care about my old content, even after being barred from the project.

manoftron · 2016-11-28T14:41:50.000Z

I just now saw that it was marked obsolete. Honestly, not surprised it wasn’t just outright kicked out earlier because of ‘da dramaz’. I’ve always liked this mod for the creativity it has and I’m glad you still want to be involved with it.

deoxy · 2016-12-01T23:46:27.000Z

manoftron:

I just now saw that it was marked obsolete. Honestly, not surprised it wasn’t just outright kicked out earlier because of ‘da dramaz’. I’ve always liked this mod for the creativity it has and I’m glad you still want to be involved with it.

What makes it obsolete? I haven’t updated in a few months, but it is still working fine as of then, and when I have tried updating (too many busted things keep making me go back), it seems to work just fine… Am I missing something?

BorkBorkGoesTheCode · 2016-12-02T05:44:54.000Z

deoxy:

[quote=“manoftron, post:161, topic:10288”]I just now saw that it was marked obsolete. Honestly, not surprised it wasn’t just outright kicked out earlier because of ‘da dramaz’. I’ve always liked this mod for the creativity it has and I’m glad you still want to be involved with it.

What makes it obsolete? I haven’t updated in a few months, but it is still working fine as of then, and when I have tried updating (too many busted things keep making me go back), it seems to work just fine… Am I missing something?[/quote]

Here’s what I think:
A toggle in the modinfo.json (reproduced from mods/Arcana/modinfo.json)

"obsolete": true

tells the game to hide the mod when creating a new world; Any preexisting saves continue to work as usual.

deoxy · 2016-12-02T21:31:27.000Z

BorkBorkGoesTheCode:

[quote=“deoxy, post:162, topic:10288”]What makes it obsolete? I haven’t updated in a few months, but it is still working fine as of then, and when I have tried updating (too many busted things keep making me go back), it seems to work just fine… Am I missing something?

Here’s what I think:
A toggle in the modinfo.json (reproduced from mods/Arcana/modinfo.json)

tells the game to hide the mod when creating a new world; Any preexisting saves continue to work as usual.[/quote]

No, I mean, what problems led to it being marked obsolete? It appears to function just fine.

Or is it simply no one both willing and allowed to keep it up?

BorkBorkGoesTheCode · 2016-12-02T21:42:30.000Z

Here’s what I heard:

Rumors of C:DDA project decline. Insufficient developers for maintenance. Having official mods considered peculiar. Too much JSON bashing, not enough C++ features. Many mods are scheduled for obsolescence, to be maintained elsewhere and updated using the Launcher.

ChairmanPoo · 2016-12-06T17:31:41.000Z

What’s going on? This was one of my favorite mods

Zelphir · 2017-02-12T19:22:08.000Z

Well I guess this is the way it generally is, when you decide to give up on a project for one a reason or another the people who use the mod and are sad to see it go come out of the woodwork and mention how much they like the work you do despite not once showing any interest in using your mod.

I like this mod a lot and I am sad to see it go. hope you start a new mod or find something else to occupy your time that is less… stressful.

Random_dragon · 2017-02-12T19:26:37.000Z

…yeah. Rather helpful of people to come out and say they liked the mod after it’s removed. Touching, but a bit late.

As for the reason for it being obsoleted? Everything Bork said, plus mutual salt between Mugling and I.

ChairmanPoo · 2017-04-30T21:19:58.000Z

I really hope those remarks weren’t aimed at anyone in particular.

Anyhow, free country and all that. I really did like your mod and expressed support for it in the past. I will be sorry to see it go, but I’ll manage. Best of luck for future projects

mentos046 · 2017-06-23T20:36:00.000Z

I have a question about one of this mod’s enemies.

I just recently finished battling a flesh angel. Of course by “battling”, I mean scrambling frantically around a square of nailboard traps, hoping that it kills itself before it does a terrifying roar and draws a bunch of hulks to my location.

After the “fight” was over, I noticed that all my characters stats were 0, except Intelligence, which is 2. The first thing that comes to mind is radiation, so I saved, then checked the .sav, but current radiation level is only 9. This character isn’t receiving any damage from radiation, so that must be accurate, but what did the Flesh Angel do, and how long will it last before the stats return to normal?

Also, what is it supposed to drop, because it didn’t drop anything.