I didn't manage to find any thread with similar ideas, but my proposal here is to organize the artifact ideas into something more systematic.
The basic premise would be that artifacts would be improved and possibly magical versions of their normal counterparts, so here's some examples of what could be implemented.
Mechanisms: Mechanisms could range from just being improved versions (adding no extra mechanical power demand to the network they are in) to magical self-powered mechanisms (that could output anything from 10 to 200 power). The likelyhood of a mechanism being self powered (and the ammount of power it produced) would perhaps be weighted so a really powerful self-powered mechanism would be uncommon for a fey dwarf to produce.
Perhaps some artifact mechanisms could be called "golem/automaton parts", if you got enough of them (say 2 or 3) a mechanic in a fey mood could go and assemble an automaton with them (using up those artifacts and making the other legendary dwarves that made them mad though. The automaton could be just like a normal dwarf, but perhaps not need food and sleep (it could burn alcohol to work though
) and immortal in the sense that its creator could always re-assemble it if it got trashed by gobblins. It'd not be unmeltable if not made of magma proof stuff though... (this could also be interesting, for if its creator died, the automaton would become -mortal- in the sense no one would be able to re-assemble it anymore)
Containers: They could range from a simple unlockable container that would need a mage dwarf (or legendary craftsman) to work on it for seasons to unlock its content (if its creator is not present on your fortress of course, I'm talking about it being stolen/raided) to transmuting containers that would turn anything you put on them into a certain material.
Again there could be weighting on the odds, so it'd be more common to make an artifact chest that made everything you put on it be turned into dog meat than making a chest that turned everything you put on it be turned into say, steel, gold or even adamantium.
So it'd be unlikely you would be able to build your whole fortress's wealth upon a transmuter artifact, but if you were lucky, you could do that.
A cap on the ammount of transmutations they did per month or per seasons could be implemented for keeping the balance, although making steel transmuters downright rare could also help
*This could come in handy if we had a more elegant way to tell dorfs to dump items into the artifact for transmutting.
Artifact scepters, crowns and such could have magic powers like shoot fireballs, summon magical pets, etc. but you'd need the hopefully-to-be-implemented wizard dwarves to tap on their power. Perhaps lay dwarves using them could unleash unwanted effects (accidentally activating the Scepter of Undead Whales anyone?)
Artifact doors could range from being ununlocakble by theives (hopefully they'll be bigger nusiances in the future) to being magical and downright indestructible, hidden or shooting fireballs (anyone remember the magical door from dungeon keeper?) Again the likelyhood of more -useful- artifacts would be weighted
Artifact statues could come with different effects from simply being pretty masterpeices to being somewhat animated (perhaps statues that attacked foes one tile away, or even that shot arrows)
Artifact tables and thrones apart from having much higher value could add mixed effects like giving the dwarf that uses them bonuses on certain social skills, it'd be very useful to have your duke to sit on an artifact throne that increased "intimidation" when holding meetings. Perhaps if we could assign thrones to the liasons to sit on the meetings, thrones with negative social improvements (such as the "throne of fear" that would lower the courage of its user) could be used to even further skew the negotiations in favor of your dwarves.
Artifact cages could have the chance of being able to capture the epic megabeasts and making them tameable.
Artifact picks could greatly improve your dwarves's digging speed and the odds of producing stones (perhaps the legendary miners could have their advantage decreased a bit to make them worth)
Artifact weapons could be more powerful, or even unleash special attacks (a warhammer that unleashed magical dragonfire on the nearby tiles for instance?) Artifact crossbows could shoot magical bolts and not need ammo.
Artifact clothing could improve social skills (special robes for your duke?) and artifact armor could boost greater defence, or even self-healing habilities.
Artifact beds could improve healing of those that lie on them (perhaps making valuable assets for your sickbay)
Perhaps if we added fountains as normal furniture, there could be magical fountains that produced unlimited supplies of magma, water, beer...
There still are loads of items that I ddin't think up artifact uses... toys, instruments, crafts, etc. But it'd be very interesting if all the items could have such special benefits. The rule of course would be of weighting the likelyhood of such items to bring -better- benefits to make them very rare to the point you wouldn't have steel transmutting chests on every fortress you make.
Another component is that due to that effect, artifacts could play a big role on the geopolitics of the world map. If you had a rather useful transmutting chest or intimidation throne, envious empires could lay siege or declare war on you to try to conquer such artifacts. The same rule would apply to your fortress, you'd be able to send out adventurers, thieves and even armies to try and conquer other artifacts around the world.
The artifacts could also play a large role on the game's geopolitics by giving nations the upper hand on conflicts. For instance an empire could be crumbling due to an invasion, but a craftsman/dwarf/elf made a legendary weapon that gave them the upper hand on the conflict. Or not.
This possibly could make the artifacts completely unbalance the power of nations and have a single empire ruling the whole map. Perhaps they could become "lost" after X number of years, and occasionally be found by adventurers
Now on to the mages...The "wizard" dwarf profession would only be enabled after a master wizard (hence a noble) arrived on your fortress He'd come with a small spellbook. Then you could assign him apprentices that would help him on the work and eventually reach higher ranks and replace the wizard should
Fun occour.
The would be a pre-defined "world" spellbook with all possible spells. It'd have its own seed, so at every world the world-spellbook would be random. Perhaps some weighting could be added so spells would make a bit of sense such as using plant components could lead to a plant-related effect, so on, but keeping the specific spells themselves random.
Each spell could use from 2 to 5 items (perhaps less if it creates way too many spells). Four of them would be the "effect" items, and their mix would determine the final effect of the spell (say, spawn creatures, spawn plants, make plants grow faster, spawn magma, anything). And the fifth item which would always be needed would provide the vis viva to the spell. Again you can use anything from a rock to a living dwarf. The more "life energy" the object has, the stronger the spell's effect. Living components (such as captured prisoners, animals, plants) could add greater boosts to the spell. Sacrificing your own dwarves would be fair play too, but it'd make the other dwarves quite annoyned and angry at the wizard. Perhaps the wizard could work on potions from those anmial extracts, making for a non-sacrifice alternative to power your spells.
A better "syntax" for the spellmaking could also be done, so you would have different items, such as the "root substract" the "moderator" and etc. It could allow for a greater predictability on the spells, although decreasing the possibilities of randomization.
The wizard himself would need a workshop as a specific large 5x5 room, where he and his assistants would work researching and preparing potions. Every so often a new magical spell would be uncovered from the world spellbook and added to your fortress's spellbook, which would be an item on the wizard's inventory (or perhaps kept on the workshop). The spellbook could be stolen, destroyed, etc, and all spells contained on it would be lost until re-discovered.
It'd be interesting as you could for instance tell an adventurer or soldiers working under your fortress to search for the spellbook of one of your earlier fortresses, or of a worldgen site. Different civilizations could have "specialized" researched spellbooks, covering different specialities such as elven spellbooks containing mostly nature-related spells, gobblin spellbooks containing -evil- magic, etc.
You then would be able to tell your wizard to cast an already-researched the spell somewhere (perhaps a menu specially for spells with an organized list), he'd go to the place, his assistents would bring the resources and he'd cast the spell. A magma/fire/dragonfire conjure spell could be ever so useful in this case to set fire on your invaders. You'd need to provide cover to the wizard of course, as casting the spell would take time and expose him. Perhaps he could be immune to the effects of his spells temporarially, allowing him to not be harmed by magma summons.
A more detailed interface where you could cleary state where you want your wizard and where you want the spell to be cast withing his range (including up and down z-levels and perhaps through grates and fortifications) could allow for a more natural way of not having your wizard killed during spellcasting.
While studying there would be a low chance of the wizard accidentally triggering a spell on his workshop, either summoning unwanted creatures (catsplosion spell anyone?) to setting it on fire, or anything else a wicked random spell genarator could create.
However, researching new spells would take a long while, and due to the random nature you'd not be guaranteed to find the spells you want. To compensate for this, there would be the extremely fun "experimental spellcasting" command, where you'd manually pick the components for a spell and the wizard would cast it. The effect would be looked up on the world's "hidden" spellbook, so you'd be doing "directional" research here. The problem is that the spell would necessarially
need to be cast, leading to (un)wanted
fun. Using rocks and other low vis viva objects to power the spell would help containing the effects, but perhaps there could be a random component on the spell's power to make it even more fun...
Spelling errors by the grammer gremlins™
Author
Topic: Artifact and wizard ideas (Read 1321 times)