ToME WikiSome suggestions for theme's corruption system.
General Corruption Tweaks
Firstly seperate corruptions into Universal Corruptions and Demon Corruptions.
Universal Corruptions would be attainable by any race through normal or other means, including random demon corruptions.
Demon Corruptions would only be gained by demons through random corruptions, these would not be gained through quaffing potions of corruption or drinking from fountains of corruption or any other means, that i may not be aware of, that would give a corruption.
Furthermore for every 5 levels that a demon gains Morgoth bestows upon it a gift. The choice to keep a corruption permanently, with no chance that it will be randomly lost. You would only be able to choose from corruptions that you currently had, so you would very rarely have 10 permanent corruption at level 50 since you wont always want to keep one of the ones you had.
Now there would be more penalties for corruptions then there are currently. here is an abridged list:
Modifications to current Theme Demon Corruptions
There will be no level restrictions on Demon corruptions, if you gain and lose them randomly then many of the high level ones lose alot of effectiveness.
Ancalagon's Breath -
Modification - Stronger Damage Formula. Grants Immunity to Acid.
Penalties - 5% Chance shop will close it's doors due to you spitting acid during negotiations. Harsh? YES!
Comments - Strong yes, but will also make life a real pain unless you can stockpile scrolls or find wands.
Smaug's Breath -
Modification - Stronger Damage Formula. Grants Immunity to Fire.
Penalties - Same as Balrog Aura, Burns scrolls, Spoils potions.
Comments - I kinda just want this removed, seems repetitive.
Glaurung's Gaze -
Modification - Make difficulty significantly less since it should not be based on charisma, it's a corruption
Penalties - "Even though the creature has come under your influence, it retains it's adventurist nature. The creature demands payment for it's services". Your gold slowly depletes by 1 every turn you have a pet. If your gold reaches 0 your pet turns on you.
Comments - Wasn't sure how to do this one
Saruman's Power -
Modification - Can move objects of any weight
Penalties - There is a (Weight-Level/2) chance the object will be destroyed
Comments - Formula will probably need some modification
Teleport -
Modification - None really
Penalties - There is a 5% chance that usuing teleport will have the same effect as a trap of calling out.
Comments - I like this one :-P
Modifications (and additions) to current Theme Corruptions
Troll's Blood -
Proposed Change - replace Aggravate with a penalty (-5) to Stealth
Comments - The penalty on this particular corruption is just a wee bit too much for a common ability like regeneration and a sketchy ability like ESP_Troll
Furry Coat -
New Corruption - The character gains res_cold, imm_cold at level 40+
Penalties - The "Demon Skin" mutation is removed by gaining this and vice versa. The character also gains susceptibility to fire.
Comments - Straightforward enough.
Mancivore -
New Corruption - The character can "E"at books and gets back mana for each level of spell therein
Penalties - The book eaten is random from the character's inventory. Artifact (gold) books are not eaten.
Comments - Due to the randomness of it and the nature of characters that use mana, it's balanced later on because of the few books you want to carry, unless you drop a lot of books on a regular basis (i.e. not using it in combat). Earlier on, it's just expensive.
Pestilent Wounds -
New Corruption - The player can use 20% of his or her hit points to create a poisonous cloud that does level x4 damage for level turns. The character's max hit points are reduced while the cloud effect persists.
Penalties - The character's charisma is reduced by 3.
Comments - Painful to use, but an effective way to handle breeders.
Paranoid -
New Corruption - The character gains +level/4 to Searching ability.
Penalties - The character's faithlessness gives a penalty to their saving throw (-3 spirituality).
Comments - This is mostly detrimental, since very few people use the Search ability to actively find traps at late game, but the penalty isn't that huge.
Timeless -
New Corruption - The character is immune to time damage, but the space/time continuum is not undisruptable.
Penalties - The character needs +40% more xp to gain levels.
Comments - Early on, this could be annoying, though once you're at 50 it's not a problem.
Open-minded -
New Corruption - The character needs 10% less xp to gain levels.
Penalties - The character is gullible and has a penalty to saving throw (-3 spirituality)
Comments - The 10% is like the racial bonus/penalty to xp, not -10% total. Once you hit 50, this is just bad for you.
Black Talons -
New Corruption - The character inflicts +4 damage with hand-to-hand and bearform combat attacks
Penalties - The character inflicts -2 damage with weapon attacks due to problems holding a weapon.
Comments - Generally a disadvantage.
Devious Mind -
New Corruption - The character may set traps. If he or she already had the trapping ability, the damage of those traps is always a critical hit
Penalties - The character's wisdom is reduced by 2.
Comments - Something to make more people use traps.
Chatter
I will continue when i have a free minute.
ShinesmanOffWhite: I'd like to reiterate that the penalty on Troll's Blood is currently far too devastating. I'm not willing to experiment with mutations at all for fear of getting it, and that's really a pity.
RavenRed: That's an argument that's been played out several times. This marks a big difference between ToME and Zang. Corruptions in this context are horrible curses inflicted by Morgoth. While there's scope to "experiment" with corruptions in Zang, ToME doesn't really allow that as an option. Modules, on the other hand...
TheFury: Ok, trolls blood in FuryMod no longer aggravates. Today or tommorow I will have an update that causes the corruption to subtract 5 from stealth as was suggested. Thanks for the suggestion.