[CLOSED PR] Reworks wraith, adds specialization paths; Harbinger, Plaguebringer, T...

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[BALANCE] [FEATURE] [INPUT WANTED] [wiki]

About the PR
This PR is an attempt at giving wraith more customizability and personnality while also providing fun counterplay!

# **Balance to existing wraith:**
-Point generation lowered accross the board.
-Removes the following abilities from the base wraith: "Make poltergeist" "Raise skeleton" "Make revenant"
-Introduces new rotating zones in which point generation is increased in order to invite the wraith to navigate throughout the station and not camp in one spot.
-Haunt is the same as before with one exception: Upon use turns the wraith visible, but no longer makes them incorporeal at the end of the ability's cooldown. Instead the wraith can go incorporeal again when they hit "haunt" once more when they want it.

# **Additions**
-Adds three new wraith paths, each with their own abilities and weaknesses. You can transform into a wraith path once enough bodies have been consumed.



# _Path 1: Harbinger_
Meant as a summoner. Possesses the following abilities:

-"**Raise skeleton**" which now also works on closets. There is a maximum of one skeleton per closet.

-"**Make revenant**"

-"**Create void portal**" which creates a summoning circle that slowly grows in power and releases a small army of mobs the wraith can choose from a list. The stronger the portal, the more health it has, and the higher the mob cap/summon range. Destroying the portal or placing a new one removes all mobs that have been spawned by the portal.

-"**Summon void creature**" requests ghosts of players to join and offers a choice between three creatures to pick from, meant to aid the harbinger;

-Skeleton commander; A tanky mob with a long range stab, a sweeping strike, a raise minor skeleton ability, and a rally ability buffing nearby critters.
-Tentacle fiend; A squishy, ranged mob with a tentacle hook to bring people to them, and a "lash" usable on disabled people to keep them on the ground and cause a lot of bleeding damage. Meant to be used in conjunction with the horde the harbinger summons.
-Void hound; A fast, sneaky mob with a leap that stuns targets for a short time, a cloak making them semi-transparent, and a strong lacerating arm. Quite squishy and meant to be roaming from the back lines.

-"**Speak to summons**" which does what you'd expect.

# _Path 2: Plaguebringer_
Meant as a debuffer and poisoner. Possesses the following abilities:

-**"Curses"** which are targeted and can be used on humans. There are four curses each with their own small debuffs. Getting more curses gives increasing warnings to the target. Curses can be removed being splashed with holy water, or by getting a bible beating from a chaplain. You cannnot apply a curse to a target in the chapel. Once a target has four curses on them, the "curse of death" is now usable on them, which kills the target and consumes its soul.
The curses are;
-Plague of blood; Gives the affected the hemophilia trait, makes them randomly puke blood.
-Plague of blindness. Regularly gives the owner eye damage.
-Plague of weakness. Regularly slows down the owner and reduces stamina regen as well as making them drowsy.
-Plague of rot. Makes the owner vomit at random intervals and makes them unable to eat any food.

-**"Poison"** can be used on a food item, glass or open container. Opens a list of poison and disease reagents, then adds that poison to the target.

-**"Summon rot hulk"** checks the area for gibs, vomit and other unpleasant things, then if the area is dirty enough begins to coalesce the filth into a rot hulk. The rot hulk is a mob with a simple ai, chasing people and attacking them, and exploding when killed or low health in a shower of poisoning gibs. The hulk is stronger if there is more filth around.

-**"Summon plague rat"** requests ghosts of players if they want to join as a plague rat. The plague rat is a small, squishy mob with two abilities allowing it to bite someone and inject them with a very low dose of "rat spit", and another ability allowing them to eat filth and gibs. Rat spit is essentially a weaker "rat venom" that gives you the "rat plague" which in turn makes you contract more diseases.
If they eat enough they go up in size and gain the "summon warren" ability. There can be one warren per plague rat, and each warren slowly pours out aggressive mice out of it, up to a cap, and very slowly heals neighbouring plague rats.
If they grow again, they can no longer pass doors and tables, gain a strong arm, and gain the "slam" ability as well as the "summon plague rat" ability like the wraith's. There is a limit to the amount of plague rats on the map.

-"**Speak to summons**"

# _Path 3: Trickster_
Meants as a sneaky, confusing liar. Possesses the following abilities:

-**"Make poltergeist"**

-**"Mass whisper"** whispers to everyone in the area

-**"Fake sound"** Play a fake sound from a list at the target area.

-**"Creeping dread"** Causes the target to contract a debuff that ticks down while near lights, and up otherwise. As the debuff grows in power while in the dark, the target begins to shake, hallucinate, take minor damage and eventually reaches a point where it developps into a heart attack.

-**"Hallucinate"** causes the living target to hallucinate for awhile, with all new hallucinations such as fake announcements, blood pourring out of the walls, and more!

-**"Lay rune trap"** is an ability for which the trickster must manifest. Lets them plant a trap that becomes invisible if no lit lights are close to it. The trap triggers when a human runs on it, but wont trigger if they walk/crawl. It can be destroyed with any item. When sprung, the trap will have a variety of effect depending on the choice the wraith made when laying it down. Effects range from minor explosions, fire, emps and more!

-**"Haunt"** is now different for this wraith, allowing it to choose a human target beforehand, and copying when haunting. The target can be alive, dead, missing any number of limbs/head, or any mutantrace. Being in proximity to people while haunting grants the wraith "possession points" used by the "possession" ability.

-**"Possession"** allows the wraith, after a long delay and if their possession points are high enough, to take control of a living human. The control lasts for about a minute, then returns the wraith to the afterlife when finished, returning the human to their body with non-negligible brain damage.

# **Additional counterplay**

A new item has been introduced: The spirit candle. It can simply be made by combining a skull and a candle, then can be lit with an open flame. The candle lasts about 2 minutes and cannot be reused once it's expired. While lit, the candle emits a distinct blue glow and will reveal the wraith when it is nearby. Using the candle in hand will snuff it out, darken the area around, and force the wraith to manifest for thirty seconds, similarly to how salt works. Meant to be used as a more "proactive" play against the wraith.




Each wraith path is also countered in a lesser way through actions the crew can take:
Plaguebringer's influence can be lessened by keeping the place clean and passing out holy water.
Trickster's abilities are weaker if the crew replaces the lights and keeps an eye out for impersonators and mind tricks.
Harbinger's damage is mostly physical, and requires bodies which can be disposed of quickly to prevent their stronger abilities.

To-do list:

- [x] Finish all lines and tasks with "Todo" in the code.
- [x] Sprites
- [x] Sound effects
- [x] Animations and visual effects
- [x] Add more unique wraith vulnerabilities and counterplay
- [x] Fix a bug causing the rot hulk's ai to hang
- [x] Improve trickster's haunt ability to allow it to move a bit faster and open non-id locked doors.

Icon showcase:






Why's this needed?
Provides a greater degree of customizability and keeps the game fresh.
Allows the wraith player to choose the approach they like most.
Provides more engaging counterplay besides simply salting everything everywhere.


Changelog

Code:

changelog
(u)Bartimeus973
(*)Overhaul to the wraith. Wraiths can now pick from three paths upon consuming enough bodies, each with their unique abilities. Sprites done in collaboration with: Swinglow, CalliopeSoups, Mora and Shiiba!
(*)Adds a new item to counter wraith: the spirit candle. Created by combining a skull and a candle. While lit in hand it reveals wraiths in the surrounding area and using it in hand will manifest the wraith. One time use.

PULL REQUEST DETAILS

[kyle2143]

This seems like an ambitious project, making such a large change to an antag would require a bit of dev oversight to keep you on a path that is likely to be merged so that you don't waste any effort down paths that are unfruitful. So to that end, you should see if there are any devs that want to be involved.

There's a lot here, and from the perspectives of deciding to merge or not, if I could make a suggestion for development I'd say to pick one of these new wraith forms to do first instead of working on them all simultaniously since big things like this are best broken down into managable chunks in order to really get a sense of what it will look like.

[Gannets]

Thoughts on first read: I like the potential this brings to group Wraith rounds. It feels like it reframes the game-mode to be more about nuke ops style class interplay.

The abilities that summon new mobs or draw in dead players especially sound interesting from the perspective of the Wraith being an RTS style commander building an army rather than the current form which is much more of a background antagonist menacing folks.

I think the Trickster is the least intersting path in this regard, but that's mostly due to how like the current Wraith it is.

I'd love to see the ability set focus more on building an enemy force for the crew to combat, potentially with some area specific buffs for summoned players? Maybe summoned critters and mobs could recieve big buffs in darkness. Crew would be encouraged to find light sources to protect areas and Wraith summoned folks would be encouraged to break lights.

[Kotlol]

In my opinion....This makes wraith more interresting.. but it's also one of the rarest antag since only 1 can spawn per shift it can spawn.
I know there was a long debate on it but I ignored it, but just in case for the PR and idea.

In my opinion as someone who wants to try wraith for a while on RP for example. I never got to try it cause it's so rare to become one.

Ambitious is great, but overall you are giving options to an antag that doesn't get played by enough players.
If anything I would give this kinda rework to the changeling who is MUCH MORE COMMON.
Or the vampire or Arcfiend (Especially arcfiend)

Wouldn't it be cool if the changeling when it gets enough DNA can class up to obtain different powers or stings or mutations?

Wouldn't it be cool if the vampire can decide where to put it's blood points in for either more combat, stealth or maximum drainage?

Wouldn't it be cool if the arcfiend can become a sith lord, can be focussed on sabotaging gear (EMP?) or do other magnet stuff?

[swinglow20]

I absolutely love this PR. Wraith is hands down my favorite RP antag, if not just my favorite antag. The trickster, while boring on paper, is EXTREMELY interesting for its possession gimick. There have been a lot of talks about "split personality" traits and I think this is an excellent compromise. My only recommendation would be to maybe buff trickster or reduce the ability cost for that class, as it doesn't have the same degree of "power" or direct station influence to do much with. Its definitely a "slow burn" subclass. And thats great, but might be a turn off for players not experienced with the antag class.
I really like how the new classes really encourage not just wraith cooperation, but crew cooperation. The janitor has never looked more powerful. >

My hope is that this PR will allow the server to experience the antag more. A lot of people lack experience with it, and if this PR is successful, it might change the stigma surrounding it.

[Kotlol]

Thoughts on first read: I like the potential this brings to group Wraith rounds. It feels like it reframes the game-mode to be more about nuke ops style class interplay.

The abilities that summon new mobs or draw in dead players especially sound interesting from the perspective of the Wraith being an RTS style commander building an army rather than the current form which is much more of a background antagonist menacing folks.

I think the Trickster is the least intersting path in this regard, but that's mostly due to how like the current Wraith it is.

I'd love to see the ability set focus more on building an enemy force for the crew to combat, potentially with some area specific buffs for summoned players? Maybe summoned critters and mobs could recieve big buffs in darkness. Crew would be encouraged to find light sources to protect areas and Wraith summoned folks would be encouraged to break lights.

While wraith spawns are rare like in a previous post of mine.

If we get multiplue wraith spawns... I just have an "idea" how to do this and how to fighting the wraith can be more interresting for both the wraiths and players.

The possession part. Insted of wraith being corpereal the whole time.. insted they have a "host body" to deal with as well. Similiar to an AI core.
These bodies can only be identified as dead by using the underultized tools of medbay. The thing doctors use to hear your heart beat, the moment the doctor can't hear the heart beat of the "host body" you found it.
You can either kill the host body wich in this case is the wraith's way of regenrating hp and points, but gives it extra points. Or use holy water from the chaplain to deal damage ot the wraith as it's host body got purified.
Of course the wraith can decide to kill the host body for that sweet injection of points and losing his anchor and dealing with salt walls.
Oh yea.. if a wraith in a host body can ignore salt.

Just an idea... this way we can have multiplue wraiths with classes doing their own things.

[Flaborized]

Some thoughts: 

I like the ideas here quite a lot, and I think they suit wraith well. Right now, I'd say the coolest part of wraith is all the spooky spectacle stuff they can do. It's exciting (at least the first time) to see items floating around and fart jokes materializing on the ground in blood. This feels like a logical extension of that part of what makes wraith good, since it increases the -amount- of that stuff, and adds some nice variety to keep it interesting and fresh longer. Players having agency and choices to make both make them feel smarter for making good choices and makes them feel excited to play antags a second time through, so they can mix it up and try newer things in new situations.

One of the checkboxes on the PR todo list is to add more vulnerabilities and counterplay, and I think that's probably the biggest issue wraith has right now. I'd like to point out that (in my opinion) the biggest issue with the salt mechanic right now isn't that it's *not effective*, but that it's actively not very fun at all to employ. The factors that go into this are that making salt is basically busy work (you have infinite of it but with a time deficit, you don't give up anything but you still gotta repeat a pattern), placing it encourages you to put them in pretty unsatisfying spots (under tables, on walls, places people can scuff them up and where the wraith won't see them because it's not shown visually), and how it's so passive (you rely entirely on the wraith slipping up when you're around to see any results.) When designing this new counterplay stuff, I think it'd be useful to try and keep in mind why salt kinda sucks and what the new thing would do to avoid the same traps.

So yeah, if you can get that right then wraith would be very very fun. The class ideas are very cool and I like them a lot. Sorta piggy-backing off of Kyle I'd recommend focusing heavily on completing the content for one of the classes before the other two, since once you have one done it's both a lot of extra motivation in a big project (since you've already gotten something tangible All The Way Done) *and* it gives you an easy anchor to compare the other classes to. Should be helpful for figuring out how strong other classes need to feel, what level of unique content (audiovisual and abilities) they all need, and what even makes a good wraith class. Cutting big projects up into steps has been very helpful for me in my experiences working on bigger projects in the past.

Overall: excited to see this worked on more, very cool

[swinglow20]

Another thing I just thought of. If multiple wraith rounds are added, make the points pool shared? Maybe as a ballance thing? Similar to blob. It just encourages more teamwork, instead of one wraith wasting all the points. Different scenario, but this happened during Halloween with the spooky points.


Speaking of Halloween, maybe add the living plushy to the tricksters toolkit? That mob was so much fun, and being able to use it in an antagonistic fashion would rock. It fits the tricksters theme nicely.

[Ikea]

I like unique counters to wraith classes however I dont think they should heavily relied on as the non salt counter because that seems a lot to expect a new player to not only know how to identify wraith subclasses but to know each of there distinct counters. I think a more generic counter against all wraiths being added like for example destroying consumed corpses hurting wraiths or being able to use holy water in a way to force them to submerge would be good.

[Bartimeus]

We are adding a new item in order to fight off the wraith.
The issue with salt right now; Its busy work to make, requires chemistry, is purely defensive and requires the wraith to mess up to actually do anything.

The solution we have found;




               The spirit lantern.

Created by combining a candle and a skull, it can be made by anyone willing to seek out those two ingredients. The skull can be lit with an open flame, and lasts for two minutes. Once the candle is put out, it is useless forever and cannot be reused.
If you light the skull, it is bound to you. Holding a skull that is bound to you in hand gives off a bright blue light and allows you to see invisible beings including the wraiths but also shows you other invisible beings. The skull can be used in hand to snuff it out immediatly and force all close-by wraiths into the corporeal world for 30 seconds, while also darkening the area around you for 10 seconds. A wraith that has been corporealized by a candle cannot be forced to re-manifest again for a short time to prevent keeping them corporealized forever.

Pros:
-A proactive item versus wraith
-One time use and limited time forces you to be careful how and when you use it.
-Obtainable by anyone willing to nab a crewmate monkey's skull and ask cargo for candles or stealing one of the chapel's/kitchen's
-Leaves room for counterplay for the wraith, as the bright blue light is a clear indicator of someone holding the candle. You can also decay the user to stun them and force them to drop the candle, giving you time to flee while it burns out
-Difficult to stockpile, but not to the point its impossible to get
-Can be used for hunting beings other than wraith since this reveals most invisibility
-Flavorful

Cons:
-Might be a little powerful as it is right now
-Right now being able to see the wraith means also being able to see blob hiveminds since they are on the same invisibility layer. Blob hivemind would need to be separated.

[Kotlol]

Bartimeus you are a genius! Also this will have people making them for fun for cult status's.

So good for RP, good for goofing around, good for fighting the wraith.

It's also funny the AI's eye is on the same invisibilty layer as dead players, but AI's can't see the dead. So there is probaly a way to code that away.

[Bartimeus]

The spirit candle has been modified a little. It now instead reveals every wraith to everyone in a 4 tile radius and has a lingering effect on the wraith of approximately 3 seconds. The candle doesn't work in backpacks. This solves the issue of the candle being abused to see blobs/ghosts/invisible people. You can still use it in hand to snuff it out permanently and force wraiths to materialize for 30 seconds while darkening the are for 10 seconds.

Here it is in action, without the sprite for now.

[Cal]

I was thinking a candle like in silent hill 4 would rock, you nailed it.


If you wanna make it just slightly harder to make, consider needing to dip the skull or candle in holy water? Iuno. That's just inconvenient enough for me.

[DioChasek]

Crazy idea you have to use the arc plater and coat it in syreline.

[Bartimeus]

I did consider the holy water, and it would make the chaplain more useful in the equation, but it does mean that once again people might be reliant on chemistry for it and i'd like to offer alternatives to that.