Ability idea dump

[ruslanm]

Anti-Swarm (Rage?): Attack that gets stronger, the lower the unit's hp is. I'd probably recommend it going toward a theoretical 2x damage at 0 hp.

That one sounds pretty neat. I would suggest though that this ability should only activate when unit loses, say, 75%+ of hp and, for instance, double wounded unit's damage. I think it fits Wesnoth's philosophy a little better.

[Osiris]

Hi there everyone.

Since this topic is about abilities I thought about getting one I've been thinking of into the mix. A few days ago I was playing DID and realized that the «plague» undead ability could have an "conterpart" in some living units. Actually got the inspiration from a UMC where a drake clan was turned into slaves.

So to make it short, how about a «enslave» ability? Basically it would turn the killed living unit into a level 0 of the same race. Though it could unbalance the races, I'm thinking about two things that could keep it controlled:

1 - units with this ability (weapon special actually) should be human, orc, drake, elf, etc versions of the walking corpse; roughly same xp requirement, hp and attack power. Attack type (melee/ranged, blade/fire/impact/...) should adapt to the race, so an elf with this ability would have a ranged bow with the same attack power of the corpse and the «enslave» special. Also they would be stuck with a level 1 evolution.

2 - since plague created units can only rise to lv1 (thinking of soulless path only) the slave units should only get to lv1 also. The art could even be the same as the lv1 of the same type. Like an orcish grunt would be the art for the orcish lv1 slave.

Only an idea I had. Hope you all like it
Thanks for reading

[Neoskel]

Why would the slaves do the enslaving?

[Gambit]

Delegation.

[pauxlo]

For the enslaving thing to be realistically (I know, WINR):

• The slave unit should be of the same race as the "died" one (but on the side of the enslaver)
• The slave unit should not be able to enslave others (difference to plague), since they are not so much loyal and only have a weak attack (you won't give the best weapons to slaves, or?)
• This means, we need another enslaver unit - I can think of orcish leader, for example.
  (Maybe this could be coded as an ability instead of a weapon special: any killed unit who is adjacent to a enslaver allied to the "killer" gets enslaved instead.)
  (Other idea would be all those units with a net (goblin pillager and merman net-caster).)

And it means there have to be coded, drawn and animated at least one or two units (if you want to go to level 2) for each enslavable race. You may want to do this in your UMC era (or in a campaign), but I doubt such a thing would be done for mainline with its 13 races (not counting gryphons and other monsters and mounted units/mounts, but counting orcs and goblins as different) in the next some years. (The walking corpses take enough work, and these even don't differ between humans, elves and orcs.)

[someone]

How about these:

Weapon Specials:
-Befuddle (Confuse, Mindboggle): Effected unit can't gain EXP until it completes a turn.
-Barbed (Sticky): A weaker version of poison.
-Explosion (Aura, Orb, Circle): Effects all adjacent units.
-Beam: Effects a line of units.
-Instant Kill (Obliterate):Instantly kills the target. Probably would have a very low accuracy.
-Shaky: Attack always has a 30% or less chance of hitting.

Abilities:
-Bloodthirsty: After killing a unit, this unit can attack any other adjacent enemy. God move for plowing through weak units.
-Clone (Mitosis, Copy, Multiply): This unit starts and half health. Over time, it regenerates until it reaches full health. At this point, it's health is cut in half and a new copy of the unit is spawned in an adjacent spot with half health.
-Insane (Forgetful): Loses an amount of EXP each turn.
-Diseased (Ill, Sick): Loses HP each turn. Lessens the effect of poison.

ON ENSLAVEMENT:
Enslave could use already created units depending on the race. For instance, peasants, WCs, and Goblin Spearmen. They should fight better when near someone with the enslave ability.

[sur.nhm]

How about these:

Weapon Specials:
-Befuddle (Confuse, Mindboggle): Effected unit can't gain EXP until it completes a turn.
-Barbed (Sticky): A weaker version of poison.
-Explosion (Aura, Orb, Circle): Effects all adjacent units.
-Beam: Effects a line of units.
-Instant Kill (Obliterate):Instantly kills the target. Probably would have a very low accuracy.
-Shaky: Attack always has a 30% or less chance of hitting.

Abilities:
-Bloodthirsty: After killing a unit, this unit can attack any other adjacent enemy. God move for plowing through weak units.
-Clone (Mitosis, Copy, Multiply): This unit starts and half health. Over time, it regenerates until it reaches full health. At this point, it's health is cut in half and a new copy of the unit is spawned in an adjacent spot with half health.
-Insane (Forgetful): Loses an amount of EXP each turn.
-Diseased (Ill, Sick): Loses HP each turn. Lessens the effect of poison.

ON ENSLAVEMENT:
Enslave could use already created units depending on the race. For instance, peasants, WCs, and Goblin Spearmen. They should fight better when near someone with the enslave ability.

about the attack specials:
There's a similar thing to the beam in Era of Magic; the shaky's already in a UMC or another (war of chaos, I think, where it's called "Dificult Arts"); and I think there are things like Instant kill in mainline ie dragonguards...