New enemy types?

Talk about the mods you'd like to see in Daggerfall Unity. Give mod creators some ideas!
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Sylanis
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New enemy types?

Post by Sylanis »

Hey there! My first post on the forums! I had an idea for more enemies, maybe other types of undead or daedra that you see in the later games? Or just higher (or lower) levelled versions of existing monsters with a subtle sprite change? (Brittle/broken bones for a weak skeleton or some super fancy armor for a strong one) I have not seen any posts talking about something like this, is it even possible for Daggerfall to add more monsters?

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Jay_H
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by Jay_H »

Welcome to the forums! :)

It's a topic others and I have brought up in the past. However, no DFU dev has commented on the possibility.

As an entirely unofficial opinion, I would say yes, it is possible; since the source for DFU is open, practically anything can be added as long as a computer can run it. It does open up several other questions though, such as dungeon spawning tables, which are a very fixed resource.

It would likely be a question for the mid-far future since DFU development over the last several months has clamped down for progress towards 1.0 specifically. So there may be a good wait for something like this to get more attention, assuming a dev and/or modder decided to take it up.

Sylanis
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by Sylanis »

Very insightful! I suppose only time will tell, thank you for the reply!

meritamas
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by meritamas »

I agree that this is a good idea.

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pango
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by pango »

Personally, what I'd like, for old and new enemies alike, is more uniqueness:
- some enemies (animals, atronachs?) should not use the most advanced attack patterns that the AI now provides;
- some enemies (spiders, scorpions) could strafe more liberally than others;
- some enemies (rats and bats? but not only) could sometimes spawn and attack in packs;
- maybe some enemies (spriggans?) could only attack when cornered;
- some enemies (thieves-like) could prefer ambush or outflank than straight combat, given the choice;
- some enemies (skeletons, zombies?) may not feel pain so not turn around when attacked from behind;
- some enemies (harpies, nymphs ?) could have temporary blinding attacks;
- I'd like atronachs to get the area-around-caster elemental damage they were planned to have in classic Daggerfall; Talking of that, have all the (dis)advantages listed in the bestiary been implemented?
- maybe ghosts and wraiths could not be stopped with doors. I'm not sure about walls. Not being stopped by any wall may not be a good idea, as they could attack thru the ceiling, for example;
- some enemies could only appear in some regions, or local features (mountains, nearby waters,...) so you'd have to travel around to get different dungeoneering flavors; Maybe there's some region without the spiders that keep paralyzing you...
- ... etc
I'm certainly missing some obvious stuff (should probably go back to mythology and d&d books for inspiration) but you get the idea, that would make encounters more tactical. For this, make enemies behavior modular, then flag each enemy type to use some of the modules; that could then be used to add new enemies with other behavior combinations.
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meritamas
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by meritamas »

Sylanis wrote: Tue Nov 27, 2018 2:58 pm Hey there! My first post on the forums! I had an idea for more enemies, maybe other types of undead or daedra that you see in the later games? Or just higher (or lower) levelled versions of existing monsters with a subtle sprite change? (Brittle/broken bones for a weak skeleton or some super fancy armor for a strong one) I have not seen any posts talking about something like this, is it even possible for Daggerfall to add more monsters?
It would be nice to have these. It would also be awesome to see all the things pango described implemented in the future. Just a few thoughts to add:
pango wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 8:11 am - I'd like atronachs to get the area-around-caster elemental damage they were planned to have in classic Daggerfall;
+1
pango wrote: Sun Apr 07, 2019 8:11 am - maybe ghosts and wraiths could not be stopped with doors. I'm not sure about walls. Not being stopped by any wall may not be a good idea, as they could attack thru the ceiling, for example;
It would be more realistic is they could go through any wall/ceiling/floor, so if it does not break the fabric of in-game reality, I am inclined to say yes even though I see how this could make things more difficult to the player.
Ghosts going through doors: definitively yes
Through ceilings/walls: perhaps an option that could be set to yes or no in the GUI by the player.

I would also consider - especially in the case of the strongest potential enemies - to have very strong versions, even versions so strong that are practically impossible to kill under normal circumstances (like attributes up to 100 and without special artifacts that can only be acquired through completing next-to-impossible quests - I'll write about these ideas in another thread soon). From a role-playing perspective, I can very well imagine daedric creatures so strong that they are out of the reach of mortals or a vampire/necromancer so ancient and so strong that it is close to impossible to defeat. In this case, the prudent decision on the part of the PC would be to leave the monster alone - at least for the time being - and look for other quests to pursue. It would be player-friendly to find a way to warn the player that the foe he is facing is extraordinary.

UPDATE: I discussed the aforementioned quests in this thread
Last edited by meritamas on Mon Apr 29, 2019 3:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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King of Worms
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Re: New enemy types?

Post by King of Worms »

If we ignore technical aspects of implementation, than very easy way of creating variations will be:

Different size
Imagine cute little spiders! Or a pack of such spiders. Or a big azz spider...

Different colors
We can swap colors i SLADE very easily.
White vampires. Black werewolf. Red spiders. Different armor on humanoids!

We can have so many variants using original assets.

Plus next step is different abilities ofc.

Lets hope...

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