Shattered Pixel
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New Cursed Wand Effects! | Patreon Poll #56
🕑 Added 2024-08-12 15:20:00 +0000 UTCHey Patrons! In this poll I’m asking for your feedback on some ideas I have for new cursed wand effects!
The original cursed wand mechanics were added alllll the way back in v0.3.0, and are starting to seem pretty stale, especially now that wondrous resin exists. I’m probably going to make a few minor changes to existing effects, but mainly I’m interested in diversifying cursed wands a bit by adding new ones!
For context, currently cursed wands have four classes of effect: common, uncommon, rare, and very rare, which happen 60%, 30%, 9%, and 1% of the time respectively. Effects generally get more chaotic and dramatic as rarity increases. Each category currently has 4 effects, and I’m looking to expand that to 6-8 effects per category. Common and uncommon effects are kinda plain, so in this poll I’m going to focus on various ideas I have for the more exciting rare and very rare effects!
The results of this poll will help me determine which rare cursed wand effects to add in v2.5! Please note that I am keen to add most of the choices, there is not a lit of competition between options in this poll! Cursed wand effects also aren’t meant to be purely positive, so please don’t just vote for the positive effects!
Poll Options
Please vote for all the options that you like, not just for your one favourite! I allow multiple votes as it means that a higher proportion of people will end up voting for the winning choice. Note however that multiple choice polls have been finnicky on Patreon for a while, so you may need to refresh the page/app to verify your choices or vote for multiple options.
All patrons are encouraged to share their opinion by commenting and voting, but only the votes from Golden+ Supporters are counted when determining a poll winner. Votes from Shattered Supporters are worth double!
Fireball: a chaotic D&D classic, this destructive effect would apply damage and ignite everything in a pretty wide area around where the wand zap ends up. This would be a rare effect, and wondrous resin would probably make this effect less harmful to the hero and allies.
Prismatic Spray: Another effect directly inspired by D&D, this effect would shoot a wide cone of rainbow colors, randomly inflicting elemental debuffs to every character caught within. This would be a rare effect.
Flashbang: Similar to the blinding curse, this effect would create an explosion of light that would inflict blind, cripple, and perhaps vertigo on everything in the area. This would be a rare effect, and wondrous resin might make it les harmful to the hero and allies.
Mass Invulnerability and Bless: An effect that’s positive, but for everyone! This would cause all visible characters to become temporarily invulnerable, and then become blessed for a significant amount of time afterward. This would be a rare effect.
Petrification: Essentially a stronger version of the hourglas stasis effect, the hero would be put in suspended animation for quite a long time as the dungeon moved on around them. This would be a rare effect.
Sinkhole: A more negative effect, a giant sinkhole would temporarily open up below the player, swallowing them and any nearby characters. This would behave like a larger version of a pitfall trap. This would be a very rare effect, and wondrous resin would probably make the effect safe for the hero and allies.
Shapeshift: A return of one of the well of transmutation effects from the original Pixel Dungeon, this purely cosmetic effect would make one hero appear to be another for an extended period of time! This would be a very rare effect.
Gravity Chaos: The first of two ‘mass chaos’ effects, this would cause all characters on the level to be uncontrollably pushed in random directions every few turns for a significant period of time. These pushing effects would not be especially strong, but would be capable of damaging, paralyzing, and knocking into pits. This would be a very rare effect, and wondrous resin would probably make it not apply to the hero or allies.
Firestorm: The second ‘mass chaos’ effect, this would cause small fiery explosions to start occuring over the entire floor for a significant period of time. These would be harmful to friend and foe alike, but there would be some warning to help you get out of the way. This would be a very rare effect, and wondrous resin would probably prevent these explosions from spawning too close to the hero or allies.
Supernova: Lastly, a simple big ol’ fashioned explosion. This effect would create a ball of growing light at the target location, which would continue to grow and shine more brightly over several turns. After a little while, it would explode and deal massive damage to anything still in the area. This would be a very rare effect, and wondrous resin would probably make the effect less harmful to the hero and allies.
Comments
Shattered Pixel
Thanks for the suggestions! Part of the design here is that a lot of these effects are fairly easy to implement, or lean heavily on existing game mechanics. For example the gravity chaos will tie into the same existing logic that blast wave and other knockback effects already use. For shapeshift in particular, because Shattered has so much logic tieing into hero class, making it actually have a gameplay impact would unfortunately make it far too complex for a cursed wand effect.
Ed Baldwin
A few ideas (which may or may not be good or feasible...): - Gravity chaos: in addition to horizontal pulls, gravity up could give short term levitation; gravity down could hold you in place - Shapeshift: a purely cosmetic change seems kind of boring. It might be more interesting if it penalized your class abilities and gave you the some of the other class's abilities (eg if a wizard shapeshifted to a rogue, their wand recharge could slow way down but they would get some effect like a glyph of obfuscation) - Monster attractor I: All monsters on the level get mind vision on you - Monster attractor II: All monsters in sight are pulled next to you (as with an ethereal chain) How long would petrification last? If it went too long and the monsters keep spawning you could be surrounded by a crowd when the petrificatoin wears off. I wouldn't want to freeze the game very long in any case.
Ed Baldwin
Definitely fun. I'm thinking of these in terms of how much "holy s**t what do I do now?" reaction they'd cause - so I think I'd like complicated curses (like gravity chaos) better than instant curses (like fireball). A few ideas:
Shattered Pixel
Currently the effect is significantly more likely to place you on a closer floor than a farther one. For example, if you're at the start of the metropolis the combined chance of going to the sewers is about 12%. I'm not entirely against changing the effect further, but i do want cursed wands to have a chance to give you truly negative effects. It's also worth noting that just by virtue of adding more effects this update will make the inter-floor effect less likely.
Lassoloc
do you plan to look at the inter-floor teleportation effect? it's pretty nasty to have a chance to be sent up to the sewers when you're in the metro or halls - not that it needs removing entirely, but how unpredictably devastating it is is a bit drastic even for cursed wand effects. maybe cap the amount of floors it can send you backwards?
Shattered Pixel
Yes it would have a slight delay, enough to drink a potion but not enough to get out of the way without assistance. I wanted it to be a more clearly negative effect and differentiate it a bit from fireball, which is why I decided to have it center on the caster.
allowiscous
These are all really fun. Would sinkhole work similar to the trap and trigger after a turn? Also, why under the player? Could it be at the location of the zap?
