Diversify venoms #45416
Diversify venoms #45416
Conversation
Static dmg, scaled chance
Bees, wasps and jumping spiders
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Combat testing (melee only): A midgame char can handle single mobs without much difficulty and sometimes packs of 2-3 while getting properly bloodied. Wasp nests can be cleared with a lot of luck, but it will be a slog. Beehives are places to avoid if you don't have a deathwish. A proper lategame character kitted out fully can clear out a beehive in a day of smart play, with kiting and backing off to regen stamina. Barging into the middle screaming goes well till you run out of stamina and because of that dodges, get hit a few times and then the venom debuffs start coming into play and you get picked apart in short order. Generally most of the critters are pretty fragile, so you should aim to dispatch them before they build up your venom intensity. With both poisons the tide will start turning against you if you let them get 2-3 hits in ( depending on the mob). Generally the weakening poison felt more dangerous, but the pain debuffs can stack up quick too and I did see an unprotected arm breaking after winning a combat. |
* Set Ward Against Poison to protect against the new venom effects too. * Gave summoned triffids damaging venom instead of generic VENOM flag. Update to DDA version due to CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA#45416
Summary
SUMMARY: Content "Diversify venoms"
Purpose of change
Venomous creatures are currently barely more threatening than a non-venomous equivalent, with the actual effects ranging from barely registering (poison) to mildly annoying (badvenom) without any form of scaling. Also, almost all of them use the hardcoded flags leading to a cat-sized wasp and a car-sized centipede both envenoming you for exactly 4 minutes per bite.
Since IRL the toxicity of venoms vary wildly from species to species and predatory venoms are generally made to kill/incapacitate the usual prey animals I tried adding some granularity and danger to the venom effects.
Describe the solution
Added two new effects:
Both of them can be removed by Panaceus and RX12 healing shots.
I also added them to some select arthropods, to get some after the fact playtesting done if this merges.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Calling the effects poison and badpoison, so any newly-added monsters with the VENOM/BADVENOM flag would use the new effects, or redirecting the code to use the new effects. I wasn't sure if that was desirable, but if you think that's a good idea I can get that done too.
Adding the new effects to all venomous creatures, but most of them are bugs that I'm planning on redoing anyway in the nearish future.
I initially wanted to leave the decay up to intensity_decay without working with durations, but that only scales down to one.
To add an overhead on duration I could have used max_effective_intensity, but that does nothing currently.
The probability scaling would be nicer if chance_bot variables worked as expected, but there's something fishy with those as well.
Testing
Adding the effect gives the expected messages, the effects scale as desired depending on intensity. The creatures with the new venoms apply them correctly, in the desired amount. The cures remove the effects.
In combat the effects feel the right kind of dangerous: you can fight through both and generally dispatch whatever envenomed you, but it makes the critters punch above their weight so they aren't just chitin pinatas anymore. Also, clearing a bee hive is a proper challenge now.
Additional context
Venom effects, in parentheses the amount applied to poison resistant characters. Probabilites given as value*chance. Both venoms have a maximal intensity of 100.
Venom_dmg:
Venom_weaken:
Effects are only applied if the attack penetrates the armor of the hit bodypart, so for now they fall off in the lategame hard.
Tangentially related to #45030, since most venomous mobs are arthropods. I kind of had to get this out of the way so that I don't have to balance those twice.