[crossfire] The Kirby project: Valkyrie, goddess of war

[Lalo Martins]

I'm working occasionally on porting the "new gods" I wrote years ago to
the current crossfire codebase, then fixing them for balance.  I call it
"the Kirby project" ;-)

The easiest one was one of my favourites: Valkyrie, goddess of war and
warriors, which I just committed.  It's far from perfect balance-wise
right now, but it's good enough to get other people test and suggest how
to fine-tune it.

Valkie calls for a different gameplay style; or alternatively, it
legitimates the style of not using magic.  She hates all kinds of magic,
and "slays" creatures strong in magic.  On the other hand, she denies all
magic to her followers as well.  In exchange, she gives strong protection
against magic.

Wait a minute; if there's no magic, then what's the point of the slaying
thing?  And more importantly, how do you level up?

The slaying thing will only affect enchanted weapons, and she gives them
rather frequently (as weapons are sacred to her).

As for levelling up, that's the fun part.  The reason I started with
Valkie is that I figured this one out, after a recent irc chat about
classes.  Valkyrie will accept sacrifices on her altar; you should pick up
flesh, bring it to the altar, and then pray.  You'll gain praying exp
depending on the difference between your level and the dead creature's,
and on the flesh resistances.  Head and heart are worth slightly more.

This is not very fine-tuned yet; as the values are more or less fixed, I'm
afraid it would take horrendous piles of flesh to climb a really really
high level.

One alternative idea is to change the flesh code to fill the exp field of
flesh objects with the exp of the originating monster; would that have any
unexpected side-effects?  Then of course the altar wouldn't give the whole
exp, just a fraction depending on some factors yet to be defined.

(On an unrelated note, if I do change the flesh code, I'd like to add the
archetype of the original monster in the other_arch field, for the purpose
of a spell I'm thinking about; any problem with that?)

For the sake of testing, I put an altar on the last basement of the
abandoned church north of Mostrai in Scorn.  This is *NOT* where I intend
it to be in the long term, I just want people to help me test it, and that
seemed like a good temporary place for it.

If you want to test it, have fun, and have a nice carnage!  ;-)

best,
                                               Lalo Martins
--
      So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
       then they seem improbable, and then, when we
       summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
--
personal:                              http://www.laranja.org/
technical:                    http://lalo.revisioncontrol.net/
GNU: never give up freedom                 http://www.gnu.org/