Difference between revisions of "Research and Ideas"

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==Detect Alignment by Garrion==
==Detect Alignment by Garrion==
Using the rituals Detect Alignment and See Alignment I (with help from many fellow Pishites) was able to come up with the following ranges.
Using the rituals [[Detect Alignment]] and [[See Alignment]] I (with help from many fellow Pishites) was able to come up with the following ranges.
Pishites see these figures as purple and golden drops when using the Detect Alignment ritual with purple being the Evil side of the scale and golden the Good.

Revision as of 15:56, 5 November 2008

This page contains some inventive research and bright ideas.

Did you document some freakish research results, or did you submit a truely brilliant idea report? Share it!


Munching Minions by Scouter

Every time someone says on (Priests) something along the lines of “don’t use totems or dust devils, they eat xp like mad!” I always wonder “how much is ‘like mad’?”. Since this happens at least once an hour at times, the wondering was getting so annoying that I decided to Do Something About It.

Here follow the results of some (minor) testing. It’s based on fighting a single target, djelian farmers, and repeating this often enough to get a fair average.

The percentages are how much xp the minions ate compared to me fighting alone:

Minions Consumed
Totem -1%
None 0%
Whirlwind 14%
2 whirlwinds 16%
Whirlwind, totem 17%
Totem, spectre 31%
2 whirlwinds, 2 spectres, totem 42%
Spectre 48%
2 Spectres 64%

The results look a little odd at first sight, but repeated testing give the same result.

The oddness of the results (totem and spectre eating less then just a spectre, for example) seems to be the result of how the respective minions influence both death xp and bury xp.

Here follow the complete results:

Minions death xp bury xp total xp total eaten
none 134 100.0% 1271 100.0% 1405 100.0% 0.0%
totem 406 302.6% 1012 79.6% 1418 100.9% -0.9%
whirlwind 241 179.6% 975 76.7% 1215 86.5% 13.5%
2 whirlwinds 295 220.2% 884 69.5% 1179 83.9% 16.1%
whirlwind, totem 344 256.8% 821 64.6% 1165 82.9% 17.1%
totem, spectre 279 208.1% 689 54.2% 968 68.9% 31.2%
2 whirlwinds, 2 spectres, totem 244 182.4% 569 44.8% 813 57.9% 42.1%
spectre 70 52.1% 656 51.6% 738 52.5% 47.5%
2 spectres 58 43.3% 446 35.1% 504 35.9% 64.1%

A little note on the procedures I used:

I gathered my team, and killed 5 farmers in the garlic fields surrounding Djelibeybi, one at a time. After this I would at least spend half an hour outside DJB, and kill at least 10 npcs outside DJB. This in a weak effort to stop the influence of repeated killing into the measurements. Every kind of team took out at least 2 of such groups of 5 farmers. First I attacked, then immediately ordered my companions to attack as well.

Whether myself or one of my minions managed to do the deathblow had no influence on the results.

Detect Alignment by Garrion



Alignment Ranges

Alignment Range
Extremely Good 24 to 50?
Very Good 12 to 23
Quite Good 6 to 11
Good 3 to 5
Barely Good 2
Neutral 0 and 1 of each colour
Barely Evil 2
Evil 3 to 5
Quite Evil 6 to 11
Very Evil 12 to 23
Extremely Evil 24 to 50?

I have been informed that there may be some variance in these results depending on skills and that there may be some overlap such as 1 being barely good and neutral. I am yet to see such overlap myself. As for skills, my bonus in faith.rituals.misc.target was 340 at the time of the testing.

Idea reports

Absorb by LaoTzu


With this ritual you can absorb the good or evil within a person leaving the opposite alignment behind in his body. The performing priest will have to face the Gods' wrath after assuming the target's misbehaviours. It requires a block of incense and a holy symbol.


perform absorb (some|all) (good|evil) in <target>

Skills used

fa.ri.sp fa.ri.mi.ta


This ritual will basically trigger an alignment shift for the target. When you change someone's alignment without consulting the Gods, you will of course have to suffer the consequences: the priest will experience a (smaller) alignment shift towards the alignment he absorbed and he will get struck by lightning after the ritual (a pure coincidence, obviously). In Disc terms: the priest's alignment will change, and he will suffer damage. The success/failure could be based on the fa.mi.ta bonus, while the amount of damage suffered would be based on the fa.ri.sp bonus (higher bonus, lower damage, of course).

To prevent abuse of this ritual, a player target would have to kneel down to the priest. (not npcs, otherwise you can't possibly test/experiment/tm with it)

Example of output: > Hubby the Warrior kneels down. perform absorb all evil in hubby > You start to hum a low, vibrating chant whilst lighting the incense. You cover Hubby the Warrior in smoke and put a hand on his head. Slowly you feel evil, unfamiliar thoughts penetrating your mind and soul. You say to Hubby the Warrior: "Arise and face the day a better man!". Hubby the Warrior stands up. A lightning bolt shoots down and hits you right on the head! Is that muttering you hear? Hp: 1381 (2567) Gp: 350 (417) Xp: 1245

Pro's and con's

The pro's for the target are obvious. For the priesthood, this ritual could add to our "social function". It would be another service we can provide. The con's for the priest are quite clear too: an alignment shift could take the priest outside his ideal alignment. If the damage would be sufficiently high (say, 1500 hp damage for an "absorb all", with a low fa.ri.sp bonus) it would certainly make priest think twice before performing the ritual!

I don't think many priests would try to use this ritual to better their own alignment (it _would_ be possible though), because praying and burying are much easier and generally less dangerous.

I'd expect this ritual to be rather hard and lengthly to perform.


If you don't feel like granting this ritual to every God, you could consider the following division:

  • Pishe: only gets absorb (some|all) evil in <target>
  • Sek: absorb (some|all) good in <target>
  • Sandelfon: gets both options due to being the neutral God.

A second possibility would be to grant this ritual ONLY to High Priests and Ministers. It would add something to the positions, without making it overpowered, unbalanced or too important.

Faithful denigration by LaoTzu


This ritual is so overwhelming and impressing that the focus of your attention will lose faith in his own powers, resulting in a gp drop. You will mutilate yourself in the process, hence you'll need a sharp, pointy dagger.


perform faithful denigration on <target> abort

Skills used

fa.ri.of (skill check against opponent) fa.ri.of.ta (exchange rate gp/hp, initial skill check) fa.ri.cu (for staunching the wounds)


Being a servant of God is mostly about convincing others that you're right and they'll suffer if they don't believe you. With this ritual you'll demonstrate the power of your own belief to someone else, making them doubt their own strenght. In Disc terms, the priest will sacrifice his own hp to make the target lose gp.

Firstly, the priest will call upon his God and cut himself in various places to demonstrate his strong belief. Then _if_ the target is impressed (check priest's fa.ri.of against target's overall faith), he will lose a bit of gp with every cut the priest makes. As a hp to gp ratio, I'd suggest 5 to 8 hp for every gp, depending on the priest's fa.ri.sp bonus.

The priest will keep on cutting himself (and dying) until the target's faith gp runs out, or until the priest decides to "abort". Once the priest has stopped, he's try to staunch all his wounds (same skill check as "staunch bleeding" in holy sacrifice. fa.ri.cu?).

Possible output: > A thin man is standing here. perform faithful denigration on man > You call upon Sek to grant you the strenght to demonstrate your mighty believe in the Seven-handed God. You take on a dramatical pose and scream loudly as you raise your dagger. You put your dagger to your cheek and make a deep incision. Hp: 2289 (2500) Gp: 300 (417) Xp: 23890 The thin man looks slightly impressed. You put your dagger to your left arm and make a long incision. Hp: 2003 (2500) Gp: 306 (417) Xp: 23896 The thin man shuffles uncomfortably. You put your dagger to your right thumb and stab it. Hp: 1900 (2500) Gp: 312 (417) Xp: 23902 The thin man doesn't look too impressed about this. > abort denigration You put down your dagger and decide to stop showing off your belief.

A failed abortion: You try to focus on your severe blood loss, but you're too absorbed by your own display of faith. A successful "sucking of gp": You put your dagger down contentedly as you notice that the thin man has lost every bit of confidence.

Pro's and con's

Needless to say this is a _very_ dangerous ritual. Probably even more dangerous than holy sacrifice, because you'll be tempted to suck every gp out of the target. PKs will no doubt attack you as soon as you start performing this ritual. I think this nicely balances out the fact that it's a powerful ritual.


To further balance the ritual, it could trigger an auto-attack from npcs. I think this ritual would be best suitable for Sek, since he's the most offensively oriented god.

Holy wander by LaoTzu


When performing this ritual, you will be able to transcend your earthly being and wander around as a free mind for a limited amount of time. This ritual requires a set of prayer beads and a copy of the prayer "Visions of a better self".


perform holy wander wander <direction> wander home

Skills used

fa.ri.mi.se to determine the success rate (bonus 360) fa.ri.sp to determine the distance one can travel (nr. of rooms = (bonus - 200)/20)


This could be described as a "scouting" ritual. You leave your body and scout your immediate surrounds for a while. It's not as useful as scrying, find or find corpse, but it sure beats stepping into the croc pit to see if the body is still down there! Whilst wandering, your body would be left behind mindlessly, so it could be subject to any attack without you knowing it...

Example of output: > perform holy wander You concentrate on your mind and the emptiness around you. You call upon Hat to assist you in freeing your mind. As the Hand of Hat reaches into your head, you feel your mind getting sucked out! <insert room description> Minister LaoTzu is staring into space here.

You feel liberated and ready to wander. >wander west <room description>

>wander west <room description>

You feel your mental link weakening.

>wander west <room description>

Suddenly everything goes black as you seem to lose the strenght to wander on. <Player unconscious because he wandered off to far or ran out of gp> You groan as you regain consciousness.

"wander home" will take you back to your body, without side-effects.

I'd mainly see this ritual for three gods: Pishe (helping and ressing), Sandelfon (let the mind wander through the corridors) and Hat ("Hi! I'm your neightbour and I'm mentally visiting you!")

Pro's and con's

You'd be able to scout ahead, without endangering yourself too much. Also, you'd be able to spy on a nearby subject without being seen. Wandering would cost 220 gp to perform the ritual, and drain 5 gp per heartbeat to maintain. This would leave the average priest enough time have a look around and explore the limitations of the ritual. The fact that your body stays behind unprotected and passively is not to be neglected, especially not for PKs, or in more dangerous areas...

Multi-priest res by Polleke

Since multi-priest rituals seems to be the new thing to speculate about, I thought I might add to the madness by submitting this idea report.

The basic idea is to make the Pishite resurrect ritual optionally include other (non-pishite) priests. (I say optionally here, but there could be a split so there's 2 rits: the old one-priest res and the new multi-priest one -should someone decide to code it of course ;)- ).

So what could these other priests contribute to bringing someone back to life ? My answer is: spell and rituals (yes, res currently restores some rits, but I'll try to specify how I see it happening with this new version).

The way I think the ritual might work: the pishite initiates the ritual and every priest in the room gets an option to join and thus help perform the ritual. The pishite maintains control, so he/she decides when the ritual starts (so essentially they have control over who else can help perform).

And now the fun part: how would the bringing back spells/rits work :) My idea is that different Gods would grant different spells/rits to be restored. A rough guide could be: Sek/Hat -> offensive rits/spells Fish/sandelfon -> misc rits/spells Gufnork/Gapp -> defensive rits/spells

You'll notice this doesn't mention what would happen if a second Pishite priest would participate in the rit. Options for this event could be: - higher xp return to the target - better chance of success - healing included in the resurrection - ...

Before cries of "OVERPOWARD!" are shouted, I'll try to address the balance issues as I see them. - Too easy to get all your rits/spells back: A solution for this could be twofold. You could limit the number of participating priests, so only 2 groups of rits/spells could be restored. And as a second measure the number of rits/spells restored should depend on the skills of the participating priests. (For example a check could determine the maximum mindspace the restored spells can occupy, then random spells are restored until this space is filled).

- Not fair that you get an xp return and rits/spells back: To me this isn't an issue really, because I don't think it'll be easy to get the cooperation of the maximum number of priests. Anyone who plays this game knows it's not always easy to get even one pishite to come resurrect you, so once you'll start asking for an extra sekkite, fishite, ... it won't become any easier to coordinate. So in this case I think the benefit is justified by the effort made.

Fish's Big Voyage by Polleke

Summary: Fishite ritual that can only be performed underwater (and only in a large enough room) to summon a whale or other large seacreature that give the priest (and maybe his group) a lift to the surface.

Elaboration: As a Fishite being stuck on the bottom of the ocean is only an inconvenience (seeing as how you can perform breathe underwater to prevent drowning and allow you to passage out), so this ritual would probably only be a toy rit. But it would be very in-character to get help from seacreatures in getting to the surface. And what big animal would be more fun than a whale! :-) You summon it, it winks, you hold on and it swims up with you. Maybe you could even convince it to swim around on the surface so you could search for land with it. (I can just see the whale pirate fleet of fishites forming if this ever makes it into the game :-D). As said in the summary maybe it could also carry the whole group the fishite is part of (even bigger pirate fleets!).

Maybe a failure of the ritual could summon the wrong seacreature. Options could be: - a sardine (obviously too small to carry you to the surface) - a stoned seaturtle, maybe accompanied by a clownfish ;-) - a shark (which may or may not attack you, this would likely be insta-death for weaker priests if they are anything like the sharks in tuna bay) - a mermaid (or merman, in both cases the fishite would try to grab the wrong spot to hold on and the mermaid/man would tailslap him/her)

So, in conclusion, please please consider coding this :-)

Player-built golems by Pythium

I would like to see player-created golems on the disc. The following are my ideas on how golems could be created, controlled, and maintained. Creating a golem would consist of two activities, making the actual physical shape of the golem, and writing the scroll. The creation of the physical shape would involve pottery skills: cr.pot.fo for the shaping of the golem, and then cr.pot.fi to complete the baking of the golem. It requires enough clay to form the golem, which first needs to be consecrated by the priest. Once the clay has been formed, it needs to be baked in a proper oven. The second part of creation is to write the words to go into the golem's head. This would use the skill fa.it.sc to write. The scroll would contain information such as to whom the golem belongs, as well as which actions the golem can perform. These activities would be, for example, crafts commands, such as fix or leatherwork, or other commands such as judge or vurdere, or even covert commands such as steal, hide, plant. The bonuses in the skills used for these commands would be the average of the writing priest's bonus in the skill and the priest's bonus in fa.it.sc. The number of commands the priest can write on the chem is also decided by his bonus in fa.it.sc. The golem can be instructed by its owner to pick up items, give items to its owner, and to perform the commands it knows. For example, the golem could be instructed to pick up a damaged weapon, fix it for its owner, and return it. The golem is by nature a pacifist, and will not fight, not if instructed to do so, nor when attacked itself. It will attempt to block all attacks made against it, but otherwise will not involve itself in combat. Over time, the golem can sustain wear; should the golem be attacked and unable to block blows, it will damage sooner. To repair this damage, the golem must be given clay and be instructed to repair itself. The golem will not have a state of health, such as an npc, but rather a condition; should it sustain too much damage, the clay will shatter, and the golem be destroyed. The golem would be unable to speak, however it could report using a slate, what would be told in the case of commands like judge, or vurdere, as well as notifying the owner if it was damaged.