Potential Adventuring Gear and Mechanics

[Neikun]

In this thread, we discuss equipment we feel would add depth to the game if it was implemented.
I'll start:

Water Flask: In LoG1, we found this cutting room floor victim inside the asset pack.
I would like to see the option of thirst implemented [and thus the water flask brought to game play, (and including cursed/bless water flasks and fountains)]
But I would like to stress it as an option (thirst, not the blessed/cursed mechanic.). Just a tick box upon game start for Thirst Meter:[ ]


Lanterns: The early screen shots for LoG2 showed lanterns for placement on pillars. Very excited about that. But I think we can extend the potential of the lantern by making it an inventory item as well.
Lanterns will differ from torches in two major ways. Firstly, you cannot attack with a lantern. But secondly, to make up for it, a lantern will consume oil. Oil would be a stackable item (perhaps 5, or 10 to a stack). So a lantern with oil combo worth 10 torches of light time will tack two inventory slots rather than..10

If I haven't been clear, please ask me to specify. =D

[thomson]

Excellent thread, Neikun. Definitely +1 for water flask. There are already mods for LOG1 with water. For extra twist, make sure that water may be poisoned sometimes. It would enrich the game and enhance immersion, e.g. when playing desert/Egyptian style levels lack of water would be a problem. In LOG1 lack of food meant that player's hits were weaker and they didn't recover health. Lack of water could be more serious - dehydrated player loses health over time.

Unidentified things: Their powers work, but are unknown to the player until properly identified (by a rare spell, altar or other difficult to perform ritual).

Blessed/cursed items: It's an extension of unidentified items. Blessed items have extra benefits. The real fun is with cursed items. You should not be able to take them off, until the curse is removed.

Items wear off: Right now you can use the same item forever. It would completely change the dynamics of a game, if items were slowly deteriorating during use. You'd probably save the best swords and armor for tough battles and used second set for casual fights.

Unconscious: Not strictly gear, but a property that could be implemented easily. Players who were biten by a venomous creature or lost too much health could become unconscious.

Rings and belts:It would be great if there were more slots for wearable items. Two obvious missing item types are rings and belts. Rings could have many magical properties, but one extra useful would be to decrease cooldown. You can also make it more interesting if more powerful rings had advantages and flaws at the same time, e.g. ring of resilience could decrease evasion, but increase protection.

Functional clothes: It would be great to have clothes that have special functions, e.g. an assassin belt that has pockets for extra knives or daggers. Once the rogue throws all weapons, he should automatically pick the next available one from his belt.

Lockpicks: Rogue could finally become a real rogue Having the ability to potentially bypass a lock and don't need to find a proper key is a powerful thing, so some crucial locks should be lockpick-proof.

Spellbook: A book where you can put scrolls in. In LOG1 it was possible that minotaur couldn't carry any more scrolls, because his backpack was full of scrolls.

Magic sack: A sack that always weights zero, no matter how heavy items you put in.

Items responsing to day/night cycle: Some early screenshots show outdoor levels in LOG2. Have you considered day/night cycle? There's tons of new twists you can add to it, besides nice visual differences. Couple examples: creatures that sleep during night, player can be bitten by vampire and become vampire himself and then loose health in daylight, moon amulets that work only during nights, creatures that can be killed only around midnight etc.

Breakable arrows/belts: Arrows and belts are indestructible in LOG1. They should occasionally break in LOG2. There should be also a way to produce them in limited quantity.

Different ammo types: There could be couple different arrows/quarrels/rocks: sharper (+1 damage), lighter (+1 range, faster flight), heavier (+1 damage, but slower). That could then be extended with the magic effects we had in LOG1: poisonous, fire, icy etc.

Gender/race specific items: It would be interesting to see gender specific item, e.g. a dress worn only by women or tartan-style kilts for men. If worn be the opposite sex, other party members could make funny comments about it. There could be race-restricted items, like armor that fits only insectoids or greaves that are too big for everyone except minotaurs.

[Dr.Disaster]

Lanterns: The early screen shots for LoG2 showed lanterns for placement on pillars. Very excited about that. But I think we can extend the potential of the lantern by making it an inventory item as well.
Lanterns will differ from torches in two major ways. Firstly, you cannot attack with a lantern. But secondly, to make up for it, a lantern will consume oil. Oil would be a stackable item (perhaps 5, or 10 to a stack). So a lantern with oil combo worth 10 torches of light time will tack two inventory slots rather than..10

You know that an oil lantern is basically a molotov cocktail. It may not have a primary attack but it's secondary attack would be "Throw"

Different ammo types: There could be couple different arrows/quarrels/rocks: sharper (+1 damage), lighter (+1 range, faster flight), heavier (+1 damage, but slower). That could then be extended with the magic effects we had in LOG1: poisonous, fire, icy etc.

Given that this is used it would produce a lot of smaller and more stacks then now. Not that i'm against it but then there should also be quivers so micro-managing ammo doesn't become too much of a click-fest. The ammo usage thru quivers could simply be done by going thru their slot numbers so you just arrange the ammo inside the quiver to get it selected.

[Neikun]

Unidentified things: Their powers work, but are unknown to the player until properly identified (by a rare spell, altar or other difficult to perform ritual).

I'd love to see some identify mechanic implemented.

Blessed/cursed items: It's an extension of unidentified items. Blessed items have extra benefits. The real fun is with cursed items. You should not be able to take them off, until the curse is removed.

Cursed items could potentially work by needed a remove curse to be rid of it, whereas blessed items have a temporary bonus, where when it fades, it's a normal item again.

Items wear off: Right now you can use the same item forever. It would completely change the dynamics of a game, if items were slowly deteriorating during use. You'd probably save the best swords and armor for tough battles and used second set for casual fights.

Keeping with the survival style nature of the first game, I think it would be better if breakable/repairable items was left out.

Unconscious: Not strictly gear, but a property that could be implemented easily. Players who were bitten by a venomous creature or lost too much health could become unconscious.

I don't see this as being too useful with the already existing paralyzed in play.

Rings and belts:It would be great if there were more slots for wearable items. Two obvious missing item types are rings and belts. Rings could have many magical properties, but one extra useful would be to decrease cooldown. You can also make it more interesting if more powerful rings had advantages and flaws at the same time, e.g. ring of resilience could decrease evasion, but increase protection.

With the much larger scope of this game, I can't support this idea any harder. With the longer, more complex adventure this time around, more slots and equipment types would be so appreciated.


Functional clothes: It would be great to have clothes that have special functions, e.g. an assassin belt that has pockets for extra knives or daggers. Once the rogue throws all weapons, he should automatically pick the next available one from his belt.

I quite like that. Simple, but really useful.

Gender/race specific items: It would be interesting to see gender specific item, e.g. a dress worn only by women or tartan-style kilts for men. If worn be the opposite sex, other party members could make funny comments about it. There could be race-restricted items, like armor that fits only insectoids or greaves that are too big for everyone except minotaurs.

I enjoy race specific equipment, but I have never liked gender specific equipment.

EDIT: I have made my response more legible. My responses are not in italics.

[Dr.Disaster]

I don't see this as being too useful with the already existing paralyzed in play.

Rings and belts:It would be great if there were more slots for wearable items. Two obvious missing item types are rings and belts. Rings could have many magical properties, but one extra useful would be to decrease cooldown. You can also make it more interesting if more powerful rings had advantages and flaws at the same time, e.g. ring of resilience could decrease evasion, but increase protection.

With the much larger scope of this game, I can't support this idea any harder. With the longer, more complex adventure this time around, more slots and equipment types would be so appreciated.

Beside a belt/quiver slot for quick ammo swaps and maybe a 2nd bracer slot (LoG's rings are bracers) i see no need to add any more equipment slots. Adding more slots only automatically increases the gear you have to manage and/or keep on you to swap it in so this should not get too much out of hand.

[eLPuSHeR]

Although I agree with most of what have been posted so far, I feel adding "thirst" alongside "hunger" status, would make things overly complicated. And I would not like LoG2 would became the next AD&D (just in case you have some intentions).

[Neikun]

Although I agree with most of what have been posted so far, I feel adding "thirst" alongside "hunger" status, would make things overly complicated. And I would not like LoG2 would became the next AD&D (just in case you have some intentions).

Which is why I would like to include it as an optional choice rather than required feature. Similar to the choice of turning off the automap.

[FlashSoul]

I'd like to see a different inventory system. A nude character would only have slots to hold things in his hands and over his body (shirt, leg-wears, boots, helmet, etc.). He would need a backpack, pockets on his clothes, a belt, a quiver, a bag on his hands, etc. to have extra slots. We could have bag of holdings, greased backpacks to resist water, etc. In fact, instead of slots, it would be even better if there was a volume & weight system, each item having these characteristics while the containers have corresponding capabilities. Moreover, the level of encumbrance could take a deeper role in the combat system. For instance, the blows a fighter deals could be influenced by the strength he can give them, which is influenced by his natural strength and his burden. Same thing with speed and evasion.

[petri]

This is a great thread! Thanks Neikun! As always we'll be following most of the traffic in these forums, but we can't respond to all of your suggestions -- otherwise we wouldn't have any time to work on the game

I like many of the suggestions in this thread and there are some great ideas that we haven't thought about. Keep 'em coming

Re: thirst, we are not keen on implementing another ticker mechanic. If there will be thirst in log2 it has to have different kind of gameplay mechanic than food.

[Dr.Disaster]

I'd like to see a different inventory system. A nude character would only have slots to hold things in his hands and over his body (shirt, leg-wears, boots, helmet, etc.). He would need a backpack, pockets on his clothes, a belt, a quiver, a bag on his hands, etc. to have extra slots. We could have bag of holdings, greased backpacks to resist water, etc. In fact, instead of slots, it would be even better if there was a volume & weight system, each item having these characteristics while the containers have corresponding capabilities. Moreover, the level of encumbrance could take a deeper role in the combat system. For instance, the blows a fighter deals could be influenced by the strength he can give them, which is influenced by his natural strength and his burden. Same thing with speed and evasion.

While i like to have such complex systems in pen and paper RPG's this seems far too much for LoG where you can only use what is available.

Right now we already have limited slots (expandable with more containers) and the issues weight (-> lowered movement speed) hunger (-> no regens) and exhaution (-> halfed damage) cause. Even with the current slot limit it's not hard at all to get burdenend or even overloaded unless a champion is very strong. I think it would be enough to add a few more levels of being burdened or hungry then the current ones i.e. a yellow food bar forces halved regen-rates.