Wizard Revamp (Extremely WIP) (Rough Draft)

[BaneOfGiygas]

Hi I'm reviving this thread.

I dunno what sort of work Urs has done on this idea since its original posting, but after a conversation in deadchat, I've come to a few conclusions on the state of wizard rounds as things stand:

Wizard rounds are basically meant to be the frantic, high-paced deathmatch round, and it fills that niche very well. However, one of the major problems with the roundtype is that it's boring. Nine out of ten wizards start with exactly the same spell loadout and matches either end in ten minutes when the wizards get cornered or go on for ages because the wizards are purposefully ignoring their assassination targets.

First off, fireballs. The ubiquitous fireball has had many divisive opinions in the community, and with good reason, since the wizards who don't pick the damn thing are few and far between. This is because, not only is the fireball simple, easy to use, and extremely dangerous, it and Shocking Grasp are literally the best tools a wizard has. Wizards have many other spells with many different uses but they're all effectively pointless for one single reason: No matter what dastardly, clandestine plan you try to perform as a wizard, it will never be any more effective than if you had just Mohl Hotov'd and Ei Nath'd your way through the station.

Wizards need variety, but variety is pointless if it goes unused. The "point and click to light dudes on fire" kind of spell still has a place in the wizard's loadout and should be kept, but there needs to be better options than that. More specifically, there need to be more spells that are difficult to use but are even more effective than the simple spells if you use them correctly. Right now, the wizard's more esoteric spells all pale in comparison to the almighty fireball in terms of effectiveness, and this needs to change. Wizard rounds need to be more than one or more funny-looking dudes fireballing and/or disintegrating everyone until one side or the other dies.

In short, what wizards need isn't necessarily more options; it's better and more entertaining options.

[UrsulaMejor]

Hi I'm reviving this thread.

I dunno what sort of work Urs has done on this idea since its original posting, but after a conversation in deadchat, I've come to a few conclusions on the state of wizard rounds as things stand:

I've done zero work on this idea. the response was so overwhelmingly negative that people started following me around in game and on irc to mock me for it. I basically just want everyone to forget I even came up with it

[Megapaco]

Well thats rude of those people. I see nothing wrong with this idea and really like it. It would be much better and refreshing to see other than the same wizards doing the same stuff every single wizard round.

[BaneOfGiygas]

Well that's hella rude and I dunno what they're talking about. It's a fine idea, and as is clearly stated in the title, it's a rough draft. Anyone expecting a finished product-tier quality out of a rough draft concept is rude and should be told as such.

[BruiseCruise]

Lots of good ideas

What if instead of choosing your spell 'loadout' you were instead given a spellbook with a few high and low level spells randomly inscribed? Wizards could gain more spells by 'Levellinge Uppe'. This could be accomplished by killing their targets and gaining 'Experience Pointes'.

It seems like most Wizards end up going on a bloodthirsty rampage, so why not reward them for resourcefulness and skill? Toss a few random spells their way and let them gain and spend experience for new toys to work with. That way they're a bit less like a Magickal Traitor or Nuke Op and you get to head down a more Wizardy RPG-ish path.

[Marquesas]

We'll pin this on the list as a source of ideas.

[BaneOfGiygas]

Something else I should probably mention that is a huge turn-off in wizard rounds is the propensity of the wizards to purposefully not kill their targets so they can hold the station in an absolute hell for an hour or more as they murder everyone but the people they're supposed to be murdering. Some additional diversity in wizard objective types or even just changing it from "kill these specific people" to "kill this many dudes" would help prevent this, since watching antagonists drag out a round until they get bored while 70% of the station population is in deadchat is never fun, and wizards tend to be the most eager to induce this.

[UrsulaMejor]

Going with BruiseCruise's levelling up idea, i think a great blanket secondary Wizard objective would be "Reach level 10" (as a stand in for level 20 in dnd lore) and cast the Wish spell to win the round.

Basically, the way i see it, you would start with a bunch of spells from the various tracks and each time you kill someone you can do a ritual over their corpse to get EXP and gain a level. Every level lets you pick a new spell, sometimes more powerful, in a DND-esque progression, say,

level 2: Level 1 spell
level 3: level 2 spell
level 4: level 2 spell
level 5: level 2 spell
level 6: level 3 spell
level 7: level 3 spell
level 8: level 3 spell
level 9: level 4 spell
level 10: WISH (automatic win condition)

That way it would be imperative for the crew to try to work together to take down the wizard before he can get the higher level spells or potentially gain the ability to win outright.

I think this would remain a secondary win condition only; the wizard would have other conditions to winning that would be any number of wizardy-sounding things.

[BaneOfGiygas]

Something that just occurred to me was that my previous conception of the round immediately ending when the wizard's targets are killed was incorrect and the round goes on until the shuttle is called or the wizards die. Problem is, the first people to get killed by the wizard are usually the ones who can call the shuttle, so that usually takes an unbearably long amount of time to happen. Furthermore, once the people with the big guns (Captain, HoS, HoP, etc.) are all dead, there is very little that can stop a wizard from curbstomping the station for a solid twenty minutes unless some of the crew gets really, really inventive. Changing the objectives to include some kind of victory condition or putting in a system similar to the blob quarantine thing would help with this.

Furthermore, some people have countered my argument with the idea that the wizard should have the ability to relish in their victory a bit. And that's fine, I get that, and I don't want to ruin that for anyone. But when the relishing drags on for over half an hour and all the ghosts have as prime viewing material is the same fireballing shocking grasping wizard shit on a different wizard day, it's boring. When a wizard has defeated almost all of the important station figures, has taken all of their guns, and turned the station into a bloodbath that would make Conan the Barbarian squirm, that should be when the round ends. That should not be when the wizard decides to grind their victory in even further and perpetuate the round for longer than the round has any right to be.

The Wish spell idea that Ursula mentioned is actually really cool and helps to prevent those rare but still plausible stalemates in which the crew and wizard can't seem to put the stake through the opposing team, and I'm loving the DnD-style progression.

I seem to recall this idea being brought up and I don't remember where, but the "dark ritual" that apparently involves the killing of all these people doesn't seem to have any sort of elaboration. Why not actually have the dark ritual happen once the prerequisite number of souls have been harvested or people murdered or whatever other win condition is thought up and plunge the station into disaster-round-tier doom for a minute or so before ending off the match? Seems like a good way to simultaneously let the wizards eat the cake they've earned and ensure that the matches don't take an eternity to finish.

[babayetu83]

Going with BruiseCruise's levelling up idea, i think a great blanket secondary Wizard objective would be "Reach level 10" (as a stand in for level 20 in dnd lore) and cast the Wish spell to win the round.

Basically, the way i see it, you would start with a bunch of spells from the various tracks and each time you kill someone you can do a ritual over their corpse to get EXP and gain a level. Every level lets you pick a new spell, sometimes more powerful, in a DND-esque progression, say,

level 2: Level 1 spell
level 3: level 2 spell
level 4: level 2 spell
level 5: level 2 spell
level 6: level 3 spell
level 7: level 3 spell
level 8: level 3 spell
level 9: level 4 spell
level 10: WISH (automatic win condition)

That way it would be imperative for the crew to try to work together to take down the wizard before he can get the higher level spells or potentially gain the ability to win outright.

I think this would remain a secondary win condition only; the wizard would have other conditions to winning that would be any number of wizardy-sounding things.

this makes me want a time stop spell

[Frank_Stein]

The Wish could be a couple of disaster style things that cause the round to end a minute or two after casting.

One of which could be a time stop type thing where everyone freezes except the wizard, who no longer has spell cooldowns. Have fun wailing on a helpless crew for a full minute.

[UrsulaMejor]

I like the idea of Wish being a round ending disaster type thing where the wizard gets a whole minute to enjoy some godless arcane carnage as a result of his victory. might give people a reason to go for it.

time stop sounds boring, though, for everyone involved. it's more fun when the targets move.

some alternative ideas:

"I wish to..."

Destroy Utterly: A fast option for those who don't like to show off. the stars turn to flames and the sad buddy appears, instant game over.

Tear Reality: Summon and possess at medium speed a singularity for 3 minutes

Become All Powerful: Become the Macho Man for 3 minutes.

Be The Richest Alive: Meteors resprited as gold bars assault the station for 3 minutes.

Gain My Dad's Respect: A giant janitor buffers the station flat for 1 minute.

[pizzatiger]

I really like the idea of leveling up and becoming the ultimate wizard


Also possible wish-

I wish for the most useless spell to become useful (this requires bull-charge as your first spell)- Your body will basically become like an badmin bus, destroying everything in your path as you show those nerds that you can win even with a shitty spell

I want everyone to love me- Everyone on the station becomes your mindslave for you to command

I wish for unlimited magic-You lose all cool-downs on your spells allowing you to go on a full on rampage

I wish for a disaster to happen- A disaster round happens the next round

I wish i was an admin- You get spammed with fake adminhelp's till the round ends

[Nubcake]

I was gonna post a big wizard suggestion thread myself but this thread beat me by ages apparently, so i'll just post them in here.. my ideas are mostly based around new spells and changes to current ones as i prefer the current mechanic suggestions to my own:

These spell suggestions are in a specific format of strong single target attacks, weaker multi target attacks etc, read on if you'd like..

Spell Group:Evocation fire spray (10)
-Fires a a stream of fire 3 tiles in front of you, with a radius 2 tiles wide
Spell Group:Evocation fire arrow (20)
-Fires a single fiery arrow at the target that does immediate minor brute and moderate burn damage and sets the target on fire. Could stun maybe?
Spell Group:Evocation fire cloud (35)
-creates a cloud of phlogiston smoke at a location you target (replaces fireball)
Spell Group:Evocation fire hydra (50)
-creates a temporary magical turret that fires weak fire projectiles at enemies that come into range


Spell Group:Evocation irritant spray (10)
-Fires a a stream of capsaicin (maybe itching powder?) 3 tiles in front of you, with a radius 3 tiles wide
Spell Group:Evocation poison arrow (30)
-Fires a single poison arrow at the target that has the same effects as a radbow bolt. Does not stun
Spell Group:Evocation poison cloud (40)
-creates a cloud of neurotoxin smoke at a location you target
Spell Group:Evocation mass confusion (50)
-causes up to 7 players in your view to become temporarily confused (movement randomised)

spell Group:Evocation spark (10)
-same description as the spell already suggested earlier in this thread
Spell Group:Evocation lightning bolt](25)
-Fires a single tile lightning bolt that stuns and does minor burn damage, will pass through multiple targets.
Spell Group:Evocation shock cloud (35)
-creates a cloud of lightning, similar to a shock grenade going off, at a location you target
Spell Group:Evocation emp burst (35)
-an old spell that actually used to exist! causes a burst of emp around you, messing up bots and damaging cyborgs
Spell Group:Evocation Arc Flash (55)
-subjects a single target to the effects of a powerful arc flash

spell Group:Evocation force lance (10)
-single target spell, hits a single target doing minor brute but knocking them back many tiles, minor stun
Spell Group:Evocation bull rush (25)
-Changes the existing spell. For the next 10 seconds, you have an ability similar to the matecho man ability to smash things out the way if you run into them.
Spell Group:Evocation shockwave (40)
-Similar to the wraith ability, with smaller radius.

Spell Group:Summoning animate object (15)
-exact copy of wraith ability
Spell Group:summoning summon monster (35)
-a fun spell and contextual; the more player on screen when you cast it, the nastier a monster it summons
Spell Group:summoning summon elemental (40)
-for the lazy wizard, this spell will randomly summon choose golem from a small list of chemicals, no reagents needed! list: phlogiston, cfl3, neurotoxin, water, cyanide, sugar, sulfanol, welding fuel, itching power, glitter, mercury, cheese, lithium.

Spell Group:transmutation protection from melee (20)
-protects you from all melee attacks, stapler attacks, punches, scalpels, bleeding effects etc for the duration of the spell. anyone attempting to hit you in melee takes 5 damage.
Spell Group:transmutation protection from missiles (30)
-a copy of the blobs reflective membrane that bounces any projectiles fired at you back in the same direction
Spell Group:transmutation injury mirror (40)
-for the next 20 seconds, the first attack that deals over 10 damage to you is reflected back on whoever caused the damage. Only one attack can be reflected per cast
Spell Group:transmutation Tensors transformation (55)
-Temporarily doubles your stamina regen, and temporarily gives you the traitor belt wrestling powers.



theres my dorky spell suggestions







-

[RAWK_LAWBSTAR]

I am less interested in killing people as wizard and more for being a nuisance, which at this point in time means cluwning everyone. We need more spells that work to that end to go alongside all the murdery rampage ones.