SubtleMods: Will to Power, a 2E-inspired psionics mod

[subtledoctor]

Anyone have thoughts about wild talents?  I might do it kind of similar to PnP: give everyone an ability that rolls 1d00, with a small (~5%) chance of being a wild talent.  And if you are one, then you would get one psionic ability at random, and a small stash of PSPs.

But, before I design that and work on integrating it with the existing system, it might be nice to test the concept with an NPC.  The one that jumps out at me is Haer'Dalis, the plane-touched bard.  I think it would fit really well.  Agree?  Disagree?  If agree, what would be a good psi power for him to have?  Something physical?  Something mental?  Something electric?  Given the list of powers available, what would be cool for him?  (Probably best to stick to devotions, here.)

[Lauriel]

I don't even want to think about some of these more powerful NPC enemies having psi on top of whatever they kick my ass with.  Please, limit it to the good guys!  Or make it an option ... that can be skipped!  LOL  (EDIT: I'm kidding ... sort of.)

Hmm, but for the 'sparrow', looking at your categories ... can't see him in high-science or even science...devotion it is.  How 'bout mind ward?

Edited February 11, 2020 by Lauriel

[subtledoctor]

Enemies would generally not have wild talent powers, because they would have to be scripted to use them and I can't do that.  It would be a tiny chance of the player getting a little bonus.  About as consequential as the Bhaalspawn powers.

Hmm, now I have a minute to think about it:

• I don't like Mind Ward because the first time you meet HD, he is dominated by a wizard.  With a mental defense, he should have been able to escape that.
• I don't like Object Reading, because he's a bard and that seems redundant.
• I don't like Insightful Strike or Inertial Barrier, because he already has Offensive and Defensive Spin.
• I don't like Psychic Knife, because he already has special short swords.
• I don't like Sensory Sync because he already has Bard Song.  (Though it would be a big boost to his Bard Song... maybe that would be good?  I feel like no.)

Ego Whip would be kind of amazing for him, considering he's in the Doomguard.  Not too consequential though - it would basically play like having at-will Doom.

Give he's a bit fragile, Project Force would be a nice panic-button ability for when something gets up in his face.  Ditto Static Discharge.

Instinctive Precognition would effectively make him luckier, which fits with his devil-may-care persona.

Finally, Chemical Simulation would be kind of weird and nasty, and fit very well with his fiendish heritage.  I actually really like this one.

Edited February 11, 2020 by subtledoctor

[subtledoctor]

Gonna have to reconsider how maintainable powers work. The current method simply deducts the point cost (6/10/20) from your PSPs or health. In the former case, you get half the PSPs back when you cancel the power; in the latter case, you start regenerating health when you cancel the power. When the whole mod ran off health, this made a lot of sense.  

But with PSPs it makes less sense. Consider a wild talent as an example: you have Inertial Barrier which costs 6 PSPs, and you have a pool of 18 PSPs so you can use it three times. But what does that matter? It’s maintainable! You can spend only 6 of your 18 PSPs, and keep it up forever! 

I see two possible solutions:

1) Make powers automatically turn off after ~2 turns. The idea being, you can only hold that kind of concentration for so long. At some point it just shuts down, and you need to spend more PSPs/health to start it up again.

2) Revisit the idea of draining PSPs over time. I don’t love this because a) powers end up costing more points to be effective over a useful amount of time; and b) it would be technically difficult. (What happens if you hit 0 PSPs while maintaining three powers? The system currently has no way to detect that and do something about it. Well, I guess it could... but I would have to set up a whole new subsystem, and it is as-yet untested.)

Hmm...

Edited February 12, 2020 by subtledoctor

[Lauriel]

Would having it use both PSPs AND health be too harsh?  EDIT: How about adding fatigue to the mixture?  Or does usage of PSPs sort of mimic that already?

Edited February 12, 2020 by Lauriel

[subtledoctor]

Some powers fatigue you (all of the HLA-level powers, plus a couple others).  But it is a separate mechanic.  Basically:

• powers draw from your pool of PSPs, until they are gone
• then powers draw directly from your max health
• some powers might also fatigue you, because they are just that much effort

For now I'm just going to impose a natural expiration of 3 turns (i.e. 30 rounds, i.e. 180 seconds) on all maintainable powers.  They'll get you through any given combat encounter, but you can't walk around all day with your Carapace up, etc.

Very close to a beta release.  Maybe tonight or tomorrow, if I don't detect any problems while testing.

[Lauriel]

1 minute ago, subtledoctor said:

Very close to a beta release.  Maybe tonight or tomorrow, if I don't detect any problems while testing.

Cool!  I'd love to give it a spin.  Can't do a full play-thru while working on my mod, but I'm eager to see how it works.

[subtledoctor]

Beta release!

Version 0.9 is here.

I have also updated the first post of the thread with up-to-date information about the mod.

EDIT

By the way does anyone know a good way (non-skeevy) way to upload video?  I would do a screencast of the Psionicist class in action, to give an idea of how it works... but video files are way too big for attaching to posts.

Edited February 12, 2020 by subtledoctor

[subtledoctor]

Already have an update ready! 

Version 0.9.3 makes the following changes:

• "Check for Wild Talent" and "Restorative Meditation" now have icons
• Psions will not be offered the cleric strongholds
• The Mana Sorcerer will not get a chance to check for a wild talent.  (The point-tracking systems for mana and PSPs will interfere with each other.)
• I added a new component: "Dark Sun Mode."  If this is installed, every wild talent check will always return positive - everyone (except Mana Sorcerers) will have a psionic power.  The chance to get a science instead of a devotion is increased to about 5%, and the chance to get two powers instead of one is increased to about 5% as well.

No need to update if you are already playing with this in a game.  These are just extra refinements, v0.9.2 should function just about the same.

I'm also toying with the idea of giving bonus PSPs for high INT and WIS (maybe CHA too?) - only at level one.  But I'm not sure how much to take away if you have low stats, and how much extra to give for high stats.  Need to think about it a bit...

Edited February 13, 2020 by subtledoctor

[Lauriel]

Loading it up to try it out.  Writing dialogues between 2 NPCs and myself is making my head hurt.  I need to play...

[Lauriel]

The install hangs..FYI I don't have EET-end loaded yet.  Will do it ... at the end.

EDIT: I think the issue was mine ...

 

Spoiler

[C:\Users\Laurie\Beamdog Library\BGEET Test\setup-Will_to_Power.exe] WeiDU version 24200
{setup-ajantisbg1.exe} Queried (pid = 804) version = 24600
{setup-EET_end.exe} Queried (pid = 832) version = 24600
Newest WeiDU is version 24600, updating!
WeiDU files in version order:
  [setup-xan.exe] version 24600
  [setup-wheels.exe] version 24600
  [Setup-WandCase.exe] version 24600
  [setup-RE.exe] version 24600
  [setup-npc_strongholds.exe] version 24600
  [setup-keldorn_rom.exe] version 24600
  [setup-imoen_forever.exe] version 24600
  [setup-EET_gui.exe] version 24600
  [setup-EET_end.exe] version 24600
  [setup-EET.exe] version 24600
  [Setup-CorthalaRomantique.exe] version 24600
  [setup-cdtweaks.exe] version 24600
  [setup-c#greythedog.exe] version 24600
  [setup-bg1re.exe] version 24600
  [setup-alternatives.exe] version 24600
  [setup-ajantisbg2.exe] version 24600
  [setup-ajantisbg1.exe] version 24600
  [setup-Will_to_Power.exe] version 24200
        Copying [setup-xan.exe] -> [setup-Will_to_Power.exe]: false
[setup-xan.exe] WeiDU version 24600
Auto-Updating on behalf of [setup-Will_to_Power.exe]
        Copying [setup-xan.exe] -> [setup-Will_to_Power.exe]:
Auto-Updating on behalf of [setup-Will_to_Power.exe] (done)
[setup-Will_to_Power.exe] WeiDU version 24600
{setup-EET_end.exe} Queried (pid = 816)

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Lauriel

[Lauriel]

Errors in install

Spoiler

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Psionicist, rogue/psion

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Soulblade, fighter/psion

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Psypher, ranger/psion

INSTALLED WITH WARNINGS     Allow Multiclass Clerics to Use More Weapons

Press ENTER to exit.

Of course...I want to do the ranger/psion.    Let me see if I can dig out the detail out of the debug log.  It's going to be rather enormous...

[subtledoctor]

16 minutes ago, Lauriel said:

The install hangs..

EDIT: I think the issue was mine ...

Looks like something to do with the executable?  Or the Windows environment?  I've never seen an error message like that. (I don't run Windows and I don't use Weidu's auto-updating feature, so i don't know what is normal or what to do if something goes wrong...). Maybe I'm shipping a bad version of Weidu?  Or a 64-bit/32-bit one, when it needs the other?  Try trashing the Will_to_Power executable and renaming a copy of a different mod's executable to "setup-Will_to_Power.exe"

[Lauriel]

1 minute ago, subtledoctor said:

Looks like something to do with the executable?  Or the Windows environment?  I've never seen an error message like that. (I don't run Windows and I don't use Weidu's auto-updating feature, so i don't know what is normal or what to do if something goes wrong...). Maybe I'm shipping a bad version of Weidu?  Or a 64-bit/32-bit one, when it needs the other?  Try trashing the Will_to_Power executable and renaming a copy of a different mod's executable to "setup-Will_to_Power.exe"

No for some reason Weidu.exe got deleted out of my test folder.  My bad.  I just ran it manually.  But I did get errors...still digging through the debug log

[subtledoctor]

 

Just now, Lauriel said:

Errors in install

  Hide contents

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Psionicist, rogue/psion

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Soulblade, fighter/psion

NOT INSTALLED DUE TO ERRORS Add the Psypher, ranger/psion

INSTALLED WITH WARNINGS     Allow Multiclass Clerics to Use More Weapons

Press ENTER to exit.

Of course...I want to do the ranger/psion.    Let me see if I can dig out the detail out of the debug log.  It's going to be rather enormous...

I just ran a ranger/psion through Chateau Irenicus for some testing... it's a nice combination.  (Stealth is useful when armor isn't great.)

The error should be easy to find, look about 4/5 of the way to the end of will_to_power.debug.  Most useful are the ~10-15 lines before and after the ERROR line.  Or just zip the debug file and attach it here.