The Curse of Satan Claus

[Choicerer]

I'm late, but anyhow...

The Curse of Satan Claus

A map modification that will place a Satan Claus in the centre of ANY map. He is (sort of) controlled by the AI (yes, I had to write it...) and his ownership will flip to match his opponent's.
He is rather strong and attacks without suffering any retaliatory damage on every player's turn (so if there are 4 players in the game, he attacks 4 times per turn). He's a ghost so is best killed with ranged attacks, but the damage he inflicts when on the offensive is not affected by the time of day.
He does not attack or enter keeps, castles or villages, units that are petrified or have 0 max mp and if he can't find a suitable victim he will return to the centre of the map. The unit that slays him receives the honourary title of Satan Slayer, a bonus of your choice and some experience.
You can customise his health, number of strikes, damage per strike, level, whom he attacks and you can give him the ability to cross impassable terrain.
Download from the add-ons server.

Bug that I can't solve:
If you are getting a lua error when Satan tries to attack victims, make sure to set all human player names to your nickname instead of "Anonymous local player".

[Choicerer]

Add-on was taken down for half an hour, because I wanted to add the option to customise Satan's damage and hitpoints (somebody had downloaded it...). It's back up now, with the options.

[Choicerer]

I readjusted Satan's code to just randomly switch between victims within a 7 tile radius. Previously he would look for the closest units and then select one based on which had the least hp. But that resulted in him being very sedentary. Now he's just swooshing between targets like crazy. Also his offensive attack no longer gives the victim XP, because that can be exploited, if for instance a player sets his damage to very low levels but his level is 3, he becomes an XP dispenser instead. Thinking about changing his damage type to blade, then again I won't be able to simulate defences, so maybe it isn't worth it.

[Lord-Knightmare]

That awkward moment when you misread it as "Santa" Claus...
This looks funny...I will download and try it out

[ForestDragon]

quite a nice MP mod! feedback:
-you can apply an image mod to satan claus using an [object] to make him more red. something like "~GS()~BLEND(255,0,0,0.3)"
-it would be nice if he respawned at the center of the map every few turns (right now, if he chooses a team to kill at the start, that team is generally pretty [censored]ed (at least with default settings/era))
-ability ideas for satan claus (triggered every few turns):
-explosive gift: place a locked chest image (with an image mod like above) on a random non-castle/non-village hex. after a turn, if deals damage to any unit in a 1 hex radius (expect for satan claus, of course). damage should probably be configurable, and the ability probably should be togglable.
-ghost elves: summons a few lvl1 elvish units with their movetype replaced by "undeadspirit", half their original max hitpoints, and with a "~O(0.7)" image mod (to make them more transparent).

[Choicerer]

quite a nice MP mod!

Thanks!

feedback:
-you can apply an image mod to satan claus using an [object] to make him more red. something like "~GS()~BLEND(255,0,0,0.3)"

I didn't know you could do that. Thanks, will do!

-it would be nice if he respawned at the center of the map every few turns (right now, if he chooses a team to kill at the start, that team is generally pretty [censored]ed (at least with default settings/era))

I'm not sure what map size you played it on, but he doesn't choose a team just like that. In most scenarios, your leader would start on a keep tile. From there the teams recruit troops and start taking villages. Yes, if a unit moves within his move range and it's not on a village/castle tile then he will go for it. However -

He does not attack or enter keeps, castles or villages, units that are petrified or have 0 max mp and if he can't find a suitable victim he will return to the centre of the map.

Which means that this is sort of supposed to be part of the strategy introduced by the mod - if a unit does that it can still return to a castle/village tile, which will make Satan piss off to the centre of the map. I have tested the mod a couple of times in Multiplayer and generally first people maybe would make mistakes and pay for them, but as units start cluttering the map, damage gets more or less uniformly distributed. Except again for a situation in which a team makes a sudden fallback to their villages/castles and the other team is scr[censored] for a turn (which again sort of is supposed to be part of the mod strategy...). Could be that you played the older version in which Satan was going for the closest and weakest units as well. Now he just randomly picks victims.

-ability ideas for satan claus (triggered every few turns):
-explosive gift: place a locked chest image (with an image mod like above) on a random non-castle/non-village hex. after a turn, if deals damage to any unit in a 1 hex radius (expect for satan claus, of course). damage should probably be configurable, and the ability probably should be togglable.
-ghost elves: summons a few lvl1 elvish units with their movetype replaced by "undeadspirit", half their original max hitpoints, and with a "~O(0.7)" image mod (to make them more transparent).

Very nice ideas, thank you! If I have the time and can be bothered, I'll be sure to implement at least the second one.

Oh, Satan's movement is sometimes bugged. I've fixed it but didn't upload the fix. I'll do that shortly, along with the colour mod.

[ForestDragon]

I'm not sure what map size you played it on, but he doesn't choose a team just like that. In most scenarios, your leader would start on a keep tile. From there the teams recruit troops and start taking villages. Yes, if a unit moves within his move range and it's not on a village/castle tile then he will go for it. However -

He does not attack or enter keeps, castles or villages, units that are petrified or have 0 max mp and if he can't find a suitable victim he will return to the centre of the map.

Which means that this is sort of supposed to be part of the strategy introduced by the mod - if a unit does that it can still return to a castle/village tile, which will make Satan piss off to the centre of the map. I have tested the mod a couple of times in Multiplayer and generally first people maybe would make mistakes and pay for them, but as units start cluttering the map, damage gets more or less uniformly distributed. Except again for a situation in which a team makes a sudden fallback to their villages/castles and the other team is scr[censored] for a turn (which again sort of is supposed to be part of the mod strategy...). Could be that you played the older version in which Satan was going for the closest and weakest units as well. Now he just randomly picks victims.

ok.

Very nice ideas, thank you! If I have the time and can be bothered, I'll be sure to implement at least the second one.

you're welcome!

[ForestDragon]

btw, speaking of ideas for the add-on, you can give satan claus his own "color=" value (it's part of [unit], in case you're wondering), to make it more obvious that he's unaffiliated with any side.

[Choicerer]

Awesome, thanks.
EDIT - Sadly, it didn't work. It would be a nice change if it was possible, though.

[Choicerer]

Update up - fixed some bugs, changed Satan's offensive strike to be normal, that is it does not ignore resistances and defences anymore and hits according to his melee weapon's strike value. Both the amount of strikes and damage per strike can now be adjusted. Removed drain ability from his melee weapon. Adjusted some default values. Added the option to allow him cross impassable terrain which for example allows him to drift between player's sides on some survival maps (he still won't attack troops on impassable terrain) - yes, try it, survival maps with Satan are awesome (not).

[ForestDragon]

Update up - fixed some bugs, changed Satan's offensive strike to be normal, that is it does not ignore resistances and defences anymore and hits according to his melee weapon's strike value. Both the amount of strikes and damage per strike can now be adjusted. Removed drain ability from his melee weapon. Adjusted some default values. Added the option to allow him cross impassable terrain which for example allows him to drift between player's sides on some survival maps (he still won't attack troops on impassable terrain) - yes, try it, survival maps with Satan are awesome (not).

nice!

EDIT - Sadly, it didn't work. It would be a nice change if it was possible, though.

I accidentally sent you the incorrect code before, here's how it's actually done (just replace purple with any default team color, and put the RC into your previous image mod [object], and put a filter into the object):

Code: Select all

        [object]
            [effect]
                apply_to=image_mod
                add=RC(magenta>purple)
            [/effect]
        [/object]

[ForestDragon]

btw, you can rename attacks by putting things like below into [object]:

Code: Select all

        [effect]
            apply_to=attack
            name=baneblade
            set_name="christmas blade"
        [/effect]
        [effect]
            apply_to=attack
            name=wail
            set_name="ho ho ho"
        [/effect]

[Choicerer]

Thanks, RC works, but not for the flag or the halo, sadly.

[ForestDragon]

Thanks, RC works, but not for the flag or the halo, sadly.

well, satan claus doesn't really have his own side, and just chooses whatever side is against the currently playing one, so I don't think it's that big of a deal. btw, what halo are you talking about?

[Choicerer]

Oh, I meant the circle under a unit. And by the way, yes, I think it would be pretty nice to be able to do that, since not many maps have for example 8 players and you could simulate an extra side this way.