Infected

Infected

Hey! I decided to post a beta in the hopes of getting some inspiration and feedback on various mechanics. Everything from talent names to design goals to specific trees is appreciated :)

The infected is afflicted by various infections; unique diseases which they spread to their enemies upon touch. These slow, durable melee fighters can use both attacks and magic to afflict their enemies with a plethora of diseases, eventually killing anything. They lack mobility but have many ways to heal and reduce damage. Infected relies on strength, magic and constitution.

  • Note: This overloads the Corruption/Scourge tree, meaning it will be changed for the reaver class too. The only change is that the talents useable even if you don't dual wield.

Thanks to:
Minmay for explaining a ton of concepts when I just started out, and discussing ideas and mechanics later.
Pot for linking me the GitLab with all the engine functions.
Dr. Root, nsrr, and others for helping with questions.


Since I'm looking for feedback I'll share what I'm looking for feedback on and my future plans. (No reason to read this before trying the mod ;)
--- Design Goals ---
The infected is intended to be a tanky melee/spellcasting class that slowly stack up infections (their unique diseases) and debuffs over time versus stronger enemies, while using their weapons or magic to deal with weaker ones.

Intended Strengths:

+ Has damage smear, which makes infected really hard to burst in a single round.

+Great healing and durability.

+ Good damage after a while, unlike bulwark where you get fights that just seem to go on forever.

Intended Weaknesses:
-Low mobility
-No powerful cc.
-Unable to quickly burst enemies
-Weak aoe.
-Deals a mix of physical, blight and acid damage, making it harder to stack damage modifiers.

Have I managed/failed to achieve any of these? Are some of these are just bad ideas?

--- Problems, Plans and Thoughts ---
-I've made some changes since I last playtested it. In particular I just added the Curses and trees in order to try them out. Should they stay, be locked or removed?
-Infected is too tanky at early levels. I'm not sure about how it is later in the game (haven't tried far east yet).
-I'm considering whether to keep the doom shield tree, replace it with a similar tree, or simply remove it.
-Cyst burst deals way too much burst damage. I'm considering whether to nerf the damage or replace it with another ability which spreads diseases. Catelepsy will be removed.
-The last 2 talent in the conditioning tree do basically nothing for this class. Arguably the second one, unflinching resolve, doesn't either, but I would like to make it work somehow since I think it's a fun talent.

-An unarmed tree!
-Currently "damaging" infection is the infection that deals the majority of the damage, I'll probably revert to an earlier version where each infection did damage. As soon as I've come up with a fix for the synergy it has with osmosis shield.


Infected on Steam's Workshop
See addon usage in the character's vault.
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Name Module Version Required Released File
Class: Infected 1.7.6 2024-08-02 19:46
tome-infected.teaa

Decaying effect broken?

Found a bug, one of those nasty ones that completely breaks the UI and makes the game go "black-screen":

error = "Game version: tome-1.7.6\
Addons: buff_wrap-1.7.0[X], bald_fix-1.7.0[X], no_rare_spawn-1.0.4[O!], particle_cleanup-1.7.0[X], obj_act_cleanup-1.7.0[X], hotkey_no_scroll-1.7.0[X], rod_dissip-1.7.0[X], auto_notes-1.7.0[X], ashes-urhrok-1.7.4[O], kryl_map-1.7.0[X], sanctum_50-1.1.0[X!], inven_tab_def-1.7.0[X], infected-1.7.6[X], virtimg-1.7.0[X], transmo_tab-1.7.0[X], cosmetic-shimmer-plumpkin-1.6.0[O!], worm_b_gone-1.3.0[X!], black_bikini-1.7.0[X], godling-1.7.6[X], nur_kit-1.7.0[X], later_gunsnake-1.7.0[X], json_addon_ver-1.7.0[X], schematic_transmo-1.6.6[X!], no_escort-1.3.0[X!], online_icon-1.1.0[X!], bunny_savior-1.7.0[X], butler_tile-1.7.0[X], dr_inscr_4-1.7.0[X], ambush_escape-1.7.0[X], fu_ass_lord-1.3.0[X!], disable_sawbutchers-1.4.5[X!], offhand_note-1.7.0[X], lore_order_v2-1.7.0[X], swl_cavern-1.7.0[X], dlg_inven_no_use-1.7.0[X], lumberjack_map-1.7.0[X], merchant_map-1.7.0[X], text_tweaks-1.7.0[X], orcs-1.7.4[O], zomnibus-1.7.4[X], penta_crypt-1.7.0[X], neka_qol01a-1.7.5[X], cloud_flasher-1.7.0[X], items-vault-1.7.6[O], retro_kit-1.6.0[X!], nonpcaggro-1.0.5[X!], solid_subvault-1.7.0[X], tip_talent-1.7.0[X], lite_in_stores-1.7.0[X], no_pride_randboss-1.3.0[X!], valley_water-1.7.0[X], neg_eff_fix-1.7.0[X], rage_quit-1.7.0[X], utility_supplies-1.7.0[X], anno_hotkey-1.7.0[X], less_weird-1.7.0[X], seal_portal-1.7.0[X]\
\
Game version (character creation): tome-1.7.6\
Lua Error: /mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:1168: bad argument #3 to 'long_desc' (number expected, got nil)\
  At [C]:-1 \
  At [C]:-1 long_desc\
  At /mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:1168 handleEffect\
  At /mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:1383 super_displayBuffs\
  At ...addons/zomnibus/superload/mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:244 displayBuffs\
  At /mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:2027 super_display\
  At ...addons/zomnibus/superload/mod/class/uiset/Minimalist.lua:105 display\
  At /mod/class/Game.lua:1957 "
seen = true
reported = false

From investigation, it looks like the problem is in the Decaying temporary effect's .long_desc() method; apparently the eff.dam1 field isn't in place by the time the UI tries to display the effect. (If it helps, the affected character is of the Engineered race from starslayer's Godling addon, which may have some global speed boosts that muck up timing for getting the relevant values into place.)

[Oh, and another small thing while I'm here: if you're planning to stick with shield fighting, I'd suggest adding the following line:

show_shield_combat = 1,

to the .copy{} sub-block of the Infected subrace descriptor (same as the Cursed descriptor has), so that players won't need to enable the "UI | Always show shield combat properties" option to see combat stats for their shield.]

"There are 0 nearby enemies."

Small sort-of bug to report: looks like you left a debugging log in your Enduring talent, leaving a stream of "There are 0 nearby enemies" as you run around. Only mildly annoying, but hey.

Also, if you decide to keep the Corruption/Doom Shield tree, you'll probably want to explicitly require the Ashes of Urh'Rok DLC by adding the following line to your init.lua:

requires_addons = { 'ashes-urhrok' }

In my tests, creating an Infected character without Ashes enabled doesn't choke, but the Doom Shield tree is missing.