The Phrozen Keep

A quick tets for the HoMM4 sprite as the Pixie Pet :

http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/temp/pixie.jpg
http://d2mods.xfernet.com/~cabalwars/te ... te_pet.gif

huh, i've never heard of burn damage !!! Were does it come from ??

What happen for the xp matter, if for example, the golem do 50 norm phys dam and 50 burn dam and killed a creature with 90 hp ??

You say:
"But the hireling won't get XP from monsters killed by burn."
What about the xp gain by char ??

I agree, its not big matter. (except if he give the final blow on Big D or his remplacant )

So,
Clay Golem
1. Charge
2. Cripple (burn damage)
3. Stomp -> shake the ground and damage nearby creature (for greater golem, we can add stun effect)
4. Resistance->golem gain resist all

Var 1
5. Defiance
6. Snare-> Earth bone shaped prison grow from earth, ensnaring one enemie (bone prison in fact, if you find a more earth like anim, it'd be best)

Var 2
5. Blessed Aim
6. Slow missile

Edit:
Just see that you post sprite test while i was writting this post.

It look great, the size is perfect.
(In french)
Whoaa, ça assure chanmé.

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: huh, i've never heard of burn damage !!! Were does it come from ??

Normal, it's an unused features of LoD.

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: What happen for the xp matter, if for example, the golem do 50 norm phys dam and 50 burn dam and killed a creature with 90 hp ??

it depends of what kill the monster.
Burn works like poison, it has a length. so if the burn is low ebnough and last long, it's useful and if the pet kill it by a physical mean meanwhile it's oK, it get XP.

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: What about the xp gain by char ??

Same as above.

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: Clay Golem
1. Charge
2. Cripple (burn damage)
3. Stomp -> shake the ground and damage nearby creature (for greater golem, we can add stun effect)
4. Resistance->golem gain resist all

Resistance == natural resistance from barb ?

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: Var 1
5. Defiance
6. Snare-> Earth bone shaped prison grow from earth, ensnaring one enemie (bone prison in fact, if you find a more earth like anim, it'd be best)

K , we can use Diablo Prison also.

Dezdrehel";p="83950" wrote: Var 2
5. Blessed Aim
6. Slow missile

Slow missile .... why not ....

For the bone prison, is there a difference between necro and Diablo skill ?? (don't think that matter, except for mod purpose)

Slow missile...mmmm, yes, i've though of a war cry that reduce defence or an inner sight, but it will give the same result as improving blessed aim. And i fall to slow missile because it's still an attack. (Just imagine the face of a Zon if a monster use this skill. )

Dezdrehel";p="83957" wrote:For the bone prison, is there a difference between necro and Diablo skill ?? (don't think that matter, except for mod purpose)

Well, diablo's one is indestructible by monster ...
and it's monster centered.

The Necro one can be destroyed and is larger.

Dezdrehel";p="83957" wrote: Slow missile...mmmm, yes, i've though of a war cry that reduce defence or an inner sight, but it will give the same result as improving blessed aim. And i fall to slow missile because it's still an attack. (Just imagine the face of a Zon if a monster use this skill. )

heheh, there's no Zon in CW :p but zrcher will be scared to hell

So, we are ok with the first pets 'skills.

I really think we need playtesting to see how it goes with class, skills, pets, items find and all the stuff. And so finish the pets.

The potential is astounding, but the better is one thing, the more tuning it need.

As soon as I finished the Hunter skills, I'll go onto the pets.

OT : I was testing low level char yesterday and man, your first encounter with a pack of 5-6 goblin in the Orcish Hideout is VERY scary ...
I've run away afetr killing the 3 frist with a battlerager ...

Like in D1, the monsters density is low but well, they're DANGEROUS !

OT : I was testing low level char yesterday and man, your first encounter with a pack of 5-6 goblin in the Orcish Hideout is VERY scary ...
I've run away afetr killing the 3 frist with a battlerager ...

Like in D1, the monsters density is low but well, they're DANGEROUS !

That sound promising.

Still, i hope it won't be as difficult as the iron man Mod.

Seems that in 2-4 weeks, we will have great fun.

Some summarize of the Chapter ONE pets :

Act 1 : The hawk Act 2 : The Tiger Act 3 : The Mephit Act 4 : The Clay Golem Ok for everyone ?

EDIT : added the Dezdrehel and XColibri addons.

Yes, it look good.

You should precise that the Tiger skill:
6. Frenzy (fanatism)
Is not an aura, but affect only the pets. (else it would be too strong for 1st grade pets)

Still miss two variant skill for the hawk.

Hmmmm, we should finish it quickly, this is the first pet.

Is the beta release date narrowing ??

I'll see what I can do this week-end. Hoping to finish char skills and items ...
next on the todo list is pets and maps

Proposition for the last 2 skills of the hawk:

Var 1
6. Frozen peck -> melee attack that do cold and phys dam, also freeze target. (strong but the upper skill of this pet)

Var 2
6. Claws armor -> like the assy blade armor.

For variation 2, a "Feather Armor" sounds better.

For the first, well ... what about a non-ar related attack ??

Feather armor sound better.

For Frozen peck, can't you simulate a close range homing missile, so no AR needed ?

Var 1 look like the offensive one. So, the attack skill, but it would look weird if the hawk was caught throwing missile.

Sorry for posting so late (holidays), some suggestions from my side:

1) Switch the 'Pounce' with Charge. It looks much more possible and realistic if the quick tiger charges instead of the slow golem.
Also give the pounce a defense bonus, like the barb attack

2) For the two mephit variations: One has diff. peeble attack, one has curses. I'd prefer if both had one kind of additional peeble attack and one curse. So I suggest switching the 'Blindness' with 'Fire Seeds'

Other than that, your (both) work is splendid!

I agree with Xcolibri on the skills, something where the tiger bursts across the screen and hits something would be better then a simple bash, maybe to compensate have the clay golem have a melee range skill that knocks back multiple targets right in front of him. Or instead of charge something like buldoze where he rams through a group of enemies scattering them.

As Brother Laz already told me , imagine whirlwind with the charge gfx.
YOu got a LARGE range blowing attack that go straigth trough enemies

Thanks for your remarks, these are good observation.

One thing:
Change the name for pounce. I like it that is why i use it, but well, it can be used elsewhere.
This name come from the leap attack made by feline in ADD 3rd Ed.

Not very situable for a golem.

Your suggestion on golem bashing many enemies in front of him made me think of the rarely used ama skill Fend, it could be use instead of concentrate.
We could name it : Hecaton Strike.

soooooo......what's a pet?

They will replace the merc. 8)

But as there are animal, they're called pets.

Pets, ehh? I thought they are summons... So no human mercs, only pets?

d3st, thats right! No more human mercs, now we will be able to use pets instead

*This topic has been moved from Cabal Wars - Aeons Tide to Shadow Empires*

I've ressurected this post about pets as some have asked for.
Now, 1.10 is here and the character class too. So we may have to
found new pets or new skills for them. So if you have comment about existing stuff or new ideas .... ^^

Note that IF it happens to be a mixed success in term of gamepaly or mood, the whole stuff will return to oblivion.

First of all, I'd love to stick to the pet mercenaries, really.
I didn't comment that much on SE in the last time but I pay close attention to the development and I love every single step.
But now I have to say that some kind of pets are still great (hey, it was me who came up with pets on CW ^^).

Thinking about the atmosphere, some combinations of pets and characters wouldn't have fit so well in CW neither (like Chaos/hawk, Invader/fairy) and still it would have been nice. But after all, it doesn't have to be pets, a general change of the D2X mercs is what we long for, just pets are rather easy to implement animation-wise (? I think).
How well different kind of mercs fit into the theme is your decision, though.

Some suggestions for mercs / pets:
- similar to the druid's spirits (also in terms of graphics), as some kind of mystical being supporting the character's aim
- reviving the parasite idea someone mentioned is nice, too. Each 'pet' gives bonuses but also slight penalties. Think twice about your merc buddy
- hiring other professions coming from the SE world like headhunter / bountyhunter, assassin (eheh), mental mage / psi mage, spellfilcher, etc.
- IMHO it would be great, if there would be special guilds where the mercs come from. That would also fit for mercs as a quest reward, otherwise they are quite expensive / not to hire.

You could also mix up the guilds idea with both of the former ideas: While one guild trains e.g. Bladedancers, another one is focused on taming Battle Beasts.
Actually, I like this idea best.

A last implementation I'd like is that mercs need to be paid. i don't refer to their hiring price only. What I mean is that you get -% gold find while having a merc since they take their salary from the loot. Different mercs could have different modifiers, depending on their strength. The modifier also depends on the mercs level.
Pets aren't paid then, but you need to buy them food, otherwise they will starve (implementation maybe like this: permanently poisoned (but not green), special food gives them poison immunity for 10 minutes).

This disadvantage for mercs is a bit like the parasite idea but it's more realistic after all.

[quote=Xcolibri";p="164260"]
- hiring other professions coming from the SE world like headhunter / bountyhunter, assassin (eheh), mental mage / psi mage, spellfilcher, etc.

- IMHO it would be great, if there would be special guilds where the mercs come from. That would also fit for mercs as a quest reward, otherwise they are quite expensive / not to hire.

You could also mix up the guilds idea with both of the former ideas: While one guild trains e.g. Bladedancers, another one is focused on taming Battle Beasts.
[/quote]

This one sounds good. Especially the guild one .
Maybe a way for us to add some class ideas we ditched for lack of skills.

[quote=Xcolibri";p="164260"]
A last implementation I'd like is that mercs need to be paid. i don't refer to their hiring price only. What I mean is that you get -% gold find while having a merc since they take their salary from the loot. Different mercs could have different modifiers, depending on their strength. The modifier also depends on the mercs level.
[/quote]

Good shot too and not that hard to implement. Kind of Upkeep Tier in warIII. BUT the -% gold has to be noticeable or it'll completely put out of any consideration.