Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[vooood]

Those are quite arbitrary limitations. Try to derive them from the game world. What kind of creatures would have teleportation?

Teleporter Beast! Came to life after too deep excavations in one of the dwarf holds. Killed hundreds, ran away, and spawned some more of it. Now it buggers around the world being generally annoying. Favorite meal: male stonecraft dwarves.

[Tormy]

Those are quite arbitrary limitations. Try to derive them from the game world. What kind of creatures would have teleportation?

That is not important. If you would like to mod in 50 creatures with the teleportation ability...is there any problem with that?
..However if we are talking about the vanilla game...perhaps some demons should have this ability. 

[Neonivek]

perhaps some demons should have this ability

That actually makes a lot of sense, for reasons that are spoilers... that everyone here knows about...

[MagicJuggler]

This thread got stuck way too hard on teleportation.

Well, other threads got stuck on tunnelers/diggers. 

Also, the teleporting could be limited to just a few tiles

Yes, I absolutely agree. Maybe max. 8-10 tiles combined with ~2 teleportations/combat sequence.

This then begs the question of "What IS a combat sequence"
On another note, mass teleport could be turned from a disadvantage into an advantage if the beast decided to teleport next to a magma pool so that its pursuers fell but it didn't...

[Neonivek]

Well, assuming it can teleport out of the way on time, or is immune to magma, or won't be damaged by the fall, or put the teleporter in a situation where he can't escape.

I am not against Teleporters who teleport people to death. Afterall the original Armok had Organ/Limb teleportation

[MagicJuggler]

...it doesn't even have to do that is what I was saying.

Suppose it had an enemy to the left. It would teleport to the right ledge next to the magma. The enemy teleports to the left of the teleporter, thus falling in the magma.

[Tormy]

This thread got stuck way too hard on teleportation.

Well, other threads got stuck on tunnelers/diggers. 

Also, the teleporting could be limited to just a few tiles

Yes, I absolutely agree. Maybe max. 8-10 tiles combined with ~2 teleportations/combat sequence.

This then begs the question of "What IS a combat sequence"

Combat sequence: Well, basically when a creature is fighting. The combat sequence starts, when the creature attacks something or vica versa -> the creature is being attacked.  The combat sequence ends, when the creature flees, dies or wins.

[Neonivek]

...it doesn't even have to do that is what I was saying.

Suppose it had an enemy to the left. It would teleport to the right ledge next to the magma. The enemy teleports to the left of the teleporter, thus falling in the magma.

Well at least it dies knowing it gets one good hit on the teleporter.

[Align]

Also, the teleporting could be limited to just a few tiles

Yes, I absolutely agree. Maybe max. 8-10 tiles combined with ~2 teleportations/combat sequence.

Nah, I think range should be at least a screen, maybe several. But it should take several "turns" for the ability to "recharge" (yes i know im abusing the poor quote marks). Jump in, nab a bit of food, catch breath just in time to jump out as the guards reach the stockpile door.

[Neonivek]

Lets not steamline teleportation. There could be many rules handling it.

Thus making each enemies version of teleportation different.

[irmo]

How about teleportation not working when in sight of a hostile creature? So the teleporter can use it to get in (as long as they can get into range) and to escape, but they never slip out of your grasp. They have to outrun the pursuit at least for a moment. (And then you never see them teleport; they just duck around a corner and then you can't find them, Phantom of the Opera-style. Steps up the paranoia factor a bit.) This also keeps child-snatchers from using it to escape, since the child is a hostile creature.

Another useful restriction would be a cooldown equal to the time it would take to walk as far as the last teleport. This ensures that a teleporting thief or assassin can't just bamf in, steal your priceless artifact, and bamf back out before you respond. He has to spend some time in the fortress, and the more defense he bypasses with the teleport, the longer this time is. So teleporters can get around fixed defenses, but the defenses are still useful. This also means you have to guard stuff: your keep, so that you can kill teleporters before they escape, and your perimeter, so that they have to make a longer jump to get in, giving you more time to find them.

[Neonivek]

Let us not forget about "Travel Teleportation" where a creature can travel via teleportation in Travel mode!

[Align]

Another useful restriction would be a cooldown equal to the time it would take to walk as far as the last teleport.

Chrono Legionnaire style?
Would be quite different from moddable distance/cooldown teleport...

[Milskidasith]

I still like randomized, individual, "self defense" teleports.

Or here is another get around your defenses idea: Ghosts. They move through walls and are generally violent. But in order to fight anybody, they have to become visible (IE: Solid, able to be hit, can't go through walls). Poltergeists could be the "thief" version of ghosts, but if anybody saw the floating item (and made a sanity check. ) they could then make him able to be hit.

[Skynet 2.0]

Maybe the teleportation could take a few seconds to do, so they would be able to teleport in and out of your fort if they were stealthy. However, if a guard or soldier spotted the monster, then they would proceed to attack it immediately, interrupting its teleport and preventing it from leaving. It would need some code that prevents it from trying to teleport when there is an enemy attacking it, so it won't be trying to teleport while the novice soaper you just drafted is wrestling it to death. That, combined with a minimum time between teleports, would help balance the ability and keep it from being unstoppable, while still being a useful ability, as long as you are careful with it. Also, this would allow a degree of customization, so that demons and such could have a much more rapid teleportation ability. The demon or megabeast ability could even be adjusted so it's harder to interrupt, i.e so that a miner armed with a bronze pickaxe wouldn't be able to stop it, whereas your champion marksdwarf would just need to hit it with one or two bolts.