Three Ability Ideas: Bloodlust, Rabid, Hypnotise

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 18th, 2006, 4:20 am

Bloodlust: At the cost of half a units hp it can do double damage
Rabid: Unit afflicted will attack nearest unit friend or foe, in the case of more than one unit it will randomise, only 25% chance of getting afflicted when attacked by a rabid unit,, lasts 2 turns
Hypnotise: Unit can be controlled by you for a number of turns dependent on the level difference
IE: Unit A (level 2) attacks/hypnotises Unit B (level 0) Unit B will be in the control of Unit A (you) for however many levels Unit B was less than Unit A (in this case 2)

My first question: Are these possible?
My second question: What do you think? Any changes I could make to have them a little less overpowered?

Glowing Fish · Post by **Glowing Fish** » January 18th, 2006, 4:27 am

Rabid would be very hard to do, I think, because you can't attack friendly units. You would have to change the unit to its own side. And if you had lots of units, you might end up with dozens of sides. I don't know what the maximum number for sides is in Wesnoth.

Hypnotize also seems hard to do.

Bloodlust I like.

And, have you played Heroes of Might and Magic?

Breeblebox · Post by **Breeblebox** » January 18th, 2006, 4:47 am

How would you instantiate bloodlust? Does the unit lose half its' hitpoints and do double damage every turn, or is it a special attack?

Hypnotise would be fun, but a slightly more generic (and possibly easier to realise) version would be Fearsome or Terrifying in which a successful strike renders the recipient unable to continue defending itself.

Rabid (or Inflict Rabies =] ) sounds like an interesting one, but what if an attacking unit is struck down with rabies mid-melee? Do they then alter their target for the remaining strikes based on randomisation?

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 18th, 2006, 5:09 am

@ Glowing Fish:
Yes I play HOMM and I love it

@ BreebleBox:
All units afflicted by rabid would switch over to another newly made ai team for the 2 turns it is rabid, but they would all join the same one, so a rabid animal could not attack another rabid one, but this would prevent wesnoth going over the team limit

As for blood lust it would do double damage for one set of attacks, and then it would permanently do 25% more damage

Post by **Kestenvarn** » January 18th, 2006, 5:12 am

Ah, I read that wrong in your first post.

I was thinking Bloodlust would be something the character was granted when first recruited like Quick - it would add double damage to attacks but reduce health by half.

Duke Guillermo · Post by **Duke Guillermo** » January 18th, 2006, 9:18 pm

For Bloodlust - Half the remaining HP, or half the Max HP? And when would this damage be applied? Before or after combat? These are some of the things you should think about - but you have some good ideas. As for rabid, would the random counterattack substitute a normal counterattack, or would it be in addition to. If the former, then it's an ability you don't want your unit to have. If this is the intention, the fine, but maybe a spell might give a unit rabid for a turn. Just an idea.

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 18th, 2006, 9:41 pm

Bloodlust would work like this: You attack the enemy and have an option with which weapon to attack etc. etc. well one option is blood lust in which you attack with double damage and your current hp is halved, along with max hp, this efect would continue with the unit even through advancement.

As for rabid: You attack a spearman with a direwolf rider who has a rabid effect on his fangs, there's a 25% chance the defending unit will get infected, assuming it gets infected, on it's next turn it will attack the nearest unit (friend or foe) in the case when several units are surrounding it it will randomly choose one and attack it.

Steelclad Brian · Post by **Steelclad Brian** » January 18th, 2006, 9:56 pm

Blood Lust seems a little redundant given the existance of Berserker and Charge abilities. Also, the permanent reduction of hitpoints seems a little ridiculious - part of the design of the game, particularly the single player portion, is built around the idea of advancing your units. This would basically just turn your units into disposable ballistic missiles, an effect that can already be created with aforementioned implemented abilities.

Hypnotize would be very hard to balance and, if you used randomness to keep the ability in check then too much of unit's effectiveness would depend on a single die roll. Gaining control of enemy units, even temporarily, is an extremely effective ability.

I don't like the rabid ability since it doesn't really emulate anything resembling rabies, and just seems sort of random. The end result (creating units that need to be healed or else they slowly damage your line) is awfully similiar to Poison.

I think suggestions like this are much better in general if they're attached to an idea for a unit.

Website · Post by **Sapient** » January 19th, 2006, 2:03 am

Your idea gave me an idea

bloodlust - character ability

This character loses HP every turn as if incurably poisoned (Though it can be healed back by a village or healer unit), but whenever it kill an enemy unit, 50% maximum health is healed. This special ability also allows them to temporarily surpass the normal maximum health.

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 19th, 2006, 2:51 am

I'd prefer you didn't use the name bloodlust seeing as I'M using it...

Website · Post by **Sapient** » January 19th, 2006, 3:04 am

Too late, I'm already using it in my cutsom campaign.

martenzo · Post by **martenzo** » January 19th, 2006, 7:43 am

IMO, rabid violates KISS. Bloodlust is a good idea, but may need a little tweaking. And IIRC, unit takeover ideas, such as hypnotize, are in the FPI.

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 19th, 2006, 8:14 am

What does IIRC stand for anyway? Someone should make an abbreviation dictionary (I suck at them >.<)

Ranger M · Post by **Ranger M** » January 19th, 2006, 10:58 am

there already is one, see scott's sig or this.

Wesnoth Acronims

Foxwolf · Post by **Foxwolf** » January 19th, 2006, 7:25 pm

Ah! Thanx