Mod Ren'Py Abandoned Time For Dragons - Defiler Wings: Deranged Dragon Mod [29-07-2020] [Jman]

[Jman9]

How to count a specific evolution? Like I want to count the number of delicate paws.

E.g.

len([x for x in dragon.anatomy['paws'] if x['id'] == 'paws_magic'])

Change burrows? You cant unless you have a digging head.

You can't have a burrow if you can't dig in the first place. And I said change lairs, not burrows.

You cant even catch a girl as a baby (realistically)

You can. You just have to evolve once so your power goes up and pick your targets (lonely farms girls are guaranteed to be power 1).

Keep infamy below 5? So starve to death...

You don't need to keep it below 5 all the time. Only for the monthly knight check, and possibly for weekly mobilizatation checks. You have to keep it below 20, instead. Entirely doable even on impossible.

Decoy treasures? Not when you are a baby dragon.

Yes, baby dragons can raid farms and small villages. Even on impossible.

Thief even came after me on the first day once...

Shouldn't happen. Never seen it, so I'd appreciate a save, otherwise it might be a bug, or a game engine issue, or just you misinterpreting things. I can't do much here without more information.

Would be nice to access as a baby dragon.

Being a baby is all about not being able to do cool things.

The original game seems a bit too easy to start - This one seems a bit too hard.

As I've said before: play on easy, start with a larger dragon, or come up with a concrete suggestion for a difficulty between easy and normal.

I am just offering suggestions that I feel would add balance to starting as a baby dragon.

Nobody is forcing you to start as a pet dragon.

why offer baby dragon as a start if it is near impossible to survive without 5 minutes of save scumming before every action

Because I like it and the target audience is me? And five minutes of save scumming only happens if you're in a very specific situation (and probably only on hard+ at that). I figure easy can be done with (almost?) no reloading at all.

Just offering suggestions to have a chance as a baby.

I played a baby to almost medium on impossible a few weeks ago. Babies are entirely viable on anything below that.

I am not attacking the modder.

Sure, I understand that. It's just that my goal with the mod is to crank the difficulty up so there's an actual game here. And newbie players jumping straight into normal and complaining that it's 'impossible' despite all the warnings is old hat by now.

You're free to change anything to your liking. Make fish available from the start, make girls fall in love with baby dragons, triple XP gains, whatever you want. I take suggestions, but these have to fit the rest of the mod, not just "make the mod easier because I don't want to play on a difficulty called 'easy'."

 

[zzczys]

        if thief.old_lair_location_data >= 100:
            call lb_event_thief_go_to_old_lair
        elif thief.lair_location_data >= 100:
            if thief.can_reach(lair.id) or thief.reach_cursed(lair.id):
                call lb_event_thief_go_to_lair
            else:
                call lb_event_thief_lair_unreachable

which line does this go?

 

[Jman9]

which line does this go?

About 8 lines above what's in the screenshot.

 

[zzczys]

Neat, thief tried to fly up to cloud castle and died. So there will be a new one coming. Trying to catch demons...

 

[Rexaureus]

i hate media fire i can never get it to download a file fully without it disconnecting from damn server

Strange, I never had that problem before, if you want, I can try to upload it to mega and send you the link.

 

[Rexaureus]

Question, is the needed or is it already in this mod?

 

[Jman9]

Question, is the needed or is it already in this mod?

I think it's in the mod. The mod is pretty much standalone, and if it wasn't included, I'd have to manually merge it, it wouldn't work as it is.

 

[zzczys]

Horny girls will always be in a good mood, and low tier girls (villagers and merchants) can be persuaded by offering them gifts (Trinkets you crafted or stole dureing your raids)

Possible to give things to captives?? Gotta try it.

 

[Jman9]

Possible to give things to captives??

Sadly only in the original DW. Was it a 1.4.1 feature, I don't recall?

 

[zzczys]

No I dont think its in eliont's version either. Something to think about?

Curiously;



All new heads provide 0%? I know theres already too many heads, 99, just curious why. Element bonus is 25, then 20 then 10 then 5 then 0?

 

[Jman9]

Something to think about?

The feature was internally so complex that I don't really want to. Someone implements this properly as a sub-mod, I'm not averse to adding it, but I consider it too much work for too little gain right now.

All new heads provide 0%? I know theres already too many heads, 99, just curious why.

Going beyond 12 heads risks all kinds of unintended behaviour. Looks like it's okay in this instance, but there could be issues somewhere else.

Element bonus is 25, then 20 then 10 then 5 then 0?

No, it's +35%, +25%, +20%, +20%, +10%, +10%, 6 times 5%, then the table runs out.

 

[flamewolf393]

"Just my opinion:
Having played original game and this one, this one needs balancing.
It is far far too hard to start as a young dragon unless you enjoy save scumming.

Why should the thief and knight even notice me until my noteriety gets to xx amount?"

Yep, in this version the start of the game is by far the hardest part, though I cant compare it to the original cause I couldnt stand the horrible translation and only played for a few minutes. And yeah its annoying how the thief is after you from the very start, and the knight isnt far behind. And considering the knight is the level of an end game boss by the time he finally gets to you, hes impossible to beat. The thief is also unbeatable unless you save scum every time she finds something good, which is basically every single sleep cycle. It really sucks you spend all this time building up your hatcheries and alters in a nice well defended lair, only to have to eventually abandon it when the knight finds you and have to start the buildings all over again.

edit: I think I came up with perfect solution for the thief/knight: cap the thief/knights available gear based on the dragons treasure amount/infamy level. If the thief hears the dragon has only a small hoard, then its probably a low level lair and doesnt need as much preperation. And the lady of the lake is hardly going to hand out her legendary sword for anything less than a world ending enemy, much less a tiny dragon thats kept its infamy level low.


"I am just offering suggestions that I feel would add balance to starting as a baby dragon.
(why offer baby dragon as a start if it is near impossible to survive without 5 minutes of save scumming before every action)
I am not attacking the modder. I LOVE the game. Just offering suggestions to have a chance as a baby. "

Unfortunately Jman is designing the game around what he likes rather than a larger audience, and hes mentioned on numerous occassions that hes a heathen that enjoys save scumming, and so save scumming became the norm for the game. Ive tried suggesting so many little ideas that I think would make the game so much better in so many little ways and he just brushes them aside cause he likes the game the way it is. So it basically comes down to play it the way it is, or mod it yourself



" Gremlins are moderately OP as it is. "
Not really? It just means you can spend money instead of satiety to build cages and traps. Thats very limited usefullness. I really think the list of things gremlins can build should be expanded to include every building you know how to make. Even magic buildings, they can do the satiety work and you just provide the mana. Whats the point of being a big mean dragon with minions if you cant make them work for you. Also I would like to see some purpose to hiring actual gremlins for your lair. They cost more than a goblin but are far worse fighters and dont do anything?

 

[Jman9]

Yep, in this version the start of the game is by far the hardest part

The theme of the mod is that you're one of a whole bunch of dragonlings periodically released to the Kingdom, and only the fittest survive. After that, you become more and more powerful and get to play more and more of a 'dragon does what dragon wants' sim.

In any case, I strongly suspect at least half of the difficulty is due to lack of systems mastery, not actual difficulty. Mods are usually meant for 'veteran' players, after all. Maybe that outlook isn't entirely justified here, but I'm sticking with it at least until the mod is feature complete.

Ive tried suggesting so many little ideas that I think would make the game so much better in so many little ways and he just brushes them aside...

Not true. If you come up with something genuinely better, I'm not averse to adding it. Lillibilli's animal/monster hunts, better evolution UI, demon invasion warnings, various people suggesting more quests, making crafting profitable, etc. I also tell you why I dislike your proposals, and if you can convince me the fears are unfounded, I'm capable of changing my mind. 'I think it would be so much better!' x100 does not work, and is the reason most actual game devs don't interact with their player base.

So it basically comes down to play it the way it is, or mod it yourself

Yes. And I'm willing to tell you how to mod things if you really, really want them changed. Maybe even add a little mod support, as with the permavirgins who exist only for zzczys.

It just means you can spend money instead of satiety to build cages and traps.

No, it means you spend money instead of satiety and stamina, which is huge.

Whats the point of being a big mean dragon with minions if you cant make them work for you.

You're a big bad dragon who magics tentacle pits out of thin air. Or at least summons and tames them. Why should gremlins be able to do that?

Making gremlins your dedicated builders also does nothing for gameplay except make money and satiety less distinct. Which is bad, IMHO.

Edit: Basically, all the 'why can't minions do X' requests lead to one of four approaches:

1. Undercutting an existing game mechanic, meaning the mod's resource management part loses out, all in the name of making the game 'more balanced', i.e. easier, the latter of which can be accomplished easier and cleaner via other means, mainly difficulty settings. I don't like watering down the mod like this, but you're free to do what you want with your copy.
2. The easiest solution: removing the minions altogether and going back to a more DW-style game. Not a fan, especially after all the work I've put into minions, but probably the most reasonable from both a game design and technical POV.
3. Adding minions everywhere they might have a reason to be and rebalancing the whole game. The effort to do that would be roughly comparable to what I've already spent on the entire mod so far, thus not going to happen.
4. Telling people to learn to play the mod as it is and patching only things that can't be bypassed or are broken in some manner. Which is what I'm doing right now.

Also I would like to see some purpose to hiring actual gremlins for your lair. They cost more than a goblin but are far worse fighters and dont do anything?

They have armor-ignoring poison damage (mostly for flavour) and man your workshops. I think you can also hire them in addition to goblins if you need a lot of cannon fodder.

 

[zzczys]

btw wheres the head damage calculations? I'm just not able to find it...

 

[Jman9]

btw wheres the head damage calculations?

Calculations are mostly in 'battlefield class.rpy', but there's also some duplication in knight.rpy and darkwood_battlefield.rpy. Maybe somewhere else, too.

If all you're after is head damage, then the 'const_elemental_damage' dictionary in define.rpy. I don't recall whether you can safely extend that to include more than 12 heads.

 

[zzczys]

No, it's +35%, +25%, +20%, +20%, +10%, +10%, 6 times 5%, then the table runs out.

sorry I should have been clearer, I mean where to find these values. Oh its in that function.

 

[zzczys]

include more than 12 heads.

Is there some kind of syntax limit or other for this specific number? Just being curious

 

[Jman9]

No, I just never bothered to make sure it works outside the intended number. It might very well be entirely okay, I just don't know.

 

[zzczys]

Ah ok. Well any more than that is too much already so I think I'll just leave it at that.

 

[caju]

So it basically comes down to play it the way it is, or mod it yourself

You are right.
I opened the game up and broke, changed, and altered everything to my liking.
Once I figured out where everything was located. it became easier.
I actually made easy starts easy and normal starts fairly normal.
It was just a matter of tweaking a few numbers.
Mostly, I just added a few satiety points to the goose, tuna, and a few other thing like turning down the infamy gotten from a half dozens events (in the plains, trade roads, and sea)
I have a couple more tiny things to find before I will find it more to my liking (I need to slow(slightly) the rate infernal seals break)