Rework the faustian bargain traitor item

[Mageziya]

The chaplain who spawns the briefcase cannot sign the contracts himself. How's he gonna sell his own soul to himself???

Bureaucracy is how.


But anyway, I haven't been able to actually witness these contracts yet, but the current situation definitely sounds like it needs rebalancing.

In terms of TC cost, 12 feels extreme right now. I'd suggest giving it the treatment that things like csabers and shotguns currently get where they cost at least 7 TC so that you can't buy more than one. This also gives room to buy other items to accent the contracts.

Edit: I just got an idea: Maybe as part of the random nature of contracts and in in its ability to backfire for both the signer and chaplain, give it a chance to mindslave the signer? As said, it's a chance.

[Noah Buttes]

The chaplain who spawns the briefcase cannot sign the contracts himself. How's he gonna sell his own soul to himself???

Bureaucracy is how.


But anyway, I haven't been able to actually witness these contracts yet, but the current situation definitely sounds like it needs rebalancing.

In terms of TC cost, 12 feels extreme right now. I'd suggest giving it the treatment that things like csabers and shotguns currently get where they cost at least 7 TC so that you can't buy more than one. This also gives room to buy other items to accent the contracts.

Edit: I just got an idea: Maybe as part of the random nature of contracts and in in its ability to backfire for both the signer and chaplain, give it a chance to mindslave the signer? As said, it's a chance.

7 TC sounds good.

Mindslave chance just really doesn't work that well with the "fucking with dark powers beyond your comprehension" kind of mishapery I'm shooting for.. What might work better is a dedicated mindslave contract with a very low duration, say 5-10 minutes.

[Frank_Stein]

Another way you can balance it is go the way of poison bottles, and include more contracts that are basically worthless or only marginally good, and make a lower TC cost to buy individual contracts.

[Noah Buttes]

Zewaka and I came up with a good way to balance the briefcase.

First, the cost might be reduced to eight crystals. Second, the various antagonist making contracts will retain their powers, but will be limited to a certain number of uses depending upon the type of contract. Third, in order to prevent chaplains from running out of contracts, briefcases will be restricted to one limited use type antagonist contract per briefcase. Finally, once expended, antagonist contracts will morph into a different contract with unlimited uses.

Another way you can balance it is go the way of poison bottles, and include more contracts that are basically worthless or only marginally good, and make a lower TC cost to buy individual contracts.

I don't like the idea of individual contracts, but I fucking love the idea of having a bonus throwaway contract. I could totally use those to replace the expended contracts.

[poland spring]

I hope there is a meat cube contract

[Noah Buttes]

I hope there is a meat cube contract

Holy shit that's brilliant.

Turning people into immortal meat cubes. They can't die even though they want to.

[Noah Buttes]

Okay, updated the patch with the balance changes.
Still planning on adding more weak contracts, but if need be, the changes are ready to implement.

Still need to write up that informational stuff though.

[poland spring]

Also maybe have different descriptions of the contracts depending on whether you're wearing the suit or not. That way you can know what a contract does, but any signers will just see confusing legalese

[Noah Buttes]

Also maybe have different descriptions of the contracts depending on whether you're wearing the suit or not.  That way you can know what a contract does, but any signers will just see confusing legalese

Do you mean having the current descriptions only if you're wearing the suit, and replacing non-suit descriptions with "it's covered in legal gibberish"?

[poland spring]

Exactly, would give the devil's advocate a hell of a lot more leeway in getting people to sign.

[Noah Buttes]

Exactly, would give the devil's advocate a hell of a lot more leeway in getting people to sign.

should it be readable by anyone with a lawyer's suit or just the chaplain who spawned it?

[poland spring]

I could see that going either way, on the one hand it'd be really fun to have two lawyers negotiating terms, on the other hand everyone would just rush for the lawyer clothes so they know what they're signing. I think just the chaplain is probably best

[Noah Buttes]

I could see that going either way, on the one hand it'd be really fun to have two lawyers negotiating terms, on the other hand everyone would just rush for the lawyer clothes so they know what they're signing.  I think just the chaplain is probably best

That's good because that's also probably the easiest way to do it!

[Frank_Stein]

How about instead of just the suit it's a pair of golden bifocals for reading the fine print?

[Noah Buttes]

We are actively working on fixing bugs related to the recycling of contracts, please be patient.