Not Used: Now where did I put those demon wings?

Hey, all!

An idea - wouldn't it be cool if a demonspawn PC could choose to suppress that demon side, and look like a normal PC? Let's say it runs on integers (0=no features, 1=wings, 2-tail, etc.) - a command like ";;suppress" could reset the demonspawn feature integer to zero and reset the PC's appearance to plain looking. Of course, after rest, the system would resume, and the PC might get a tail, etc. until the next rest/suppression. Equally cool would be to give the option to ";;revert" and allow the PC's demonspawn half to come back out.

The way I see it, this would be primarily a cosmetic/RP benefit, as a suppressed demonspawn would get none of the benefits from a tail/wing, and would still take the xp penalty.

What say ye?

As a PC demonspawn I actually see this as an adverse impact to RP for this sub-race.

The point of the randomness in ability/appearance I belive is to reflect the characteristic of the chaotic natue of the sub-race.

The PC and player can work within the limitations by:

1) Avoiding sleep when in the preferred state
2) Sleeping as much as possible until in the preferred state

Hmmm ...

odbo255, I was just thinking in terms of options for different styles of RP/character concept, that's all. Would be nice, too, if you're regularly pressed for time, to not have to fiddle around with sleeping lots until your pref.s came up.

Although I see the point of the chaotic unpredictable manifestation of the demonic appearance, personally I like the idea of having the control to be able to change from normalish to demonic in appearance.

Like we've seen in literature and movies, when a demon or vampire 'activates', then they go from normal looking to their monstrous appearance. I think I'd get more RP mileage out of being able to (OOC) control the change, so as to go into 'demonic' mode (or monster-face vampire mode) suddenly when RP triggered. You just don't want to make that kind of person angry, for example, because of what might happen. More surprise value, by far.

Good points in both posts.

My interpretation has one additional restriction over the description of complete control of the PC appearance - the tail is always present.

For me personally as a player, the current implementation has assisted in my *internal* RP. When Fren's appearance is other than her preferred (she prefers wings and is embarrassed by horns) having to work within the limitations further reinforces to me as the player the aspects of the nature of the characteristics of the PC.

So I guess to make this behavior universally acceptable, I would like for the sleep behavior to remain in place but wouldn't object to the addition of the VC options. This way folks who benefit from the restrictions like myself can elect not to utilize the VC, while those that prefer the player control of VC can do the opposite and immediately override whatever the current state is.

This seems like a good compromise.

This topic has come up multiple times over the years in different incarnations...

The discussion always centers on the concept of whether it is better to deny the player full control of the demonspawn features, limited control, or no control.

In truth, as odbo pointed out, the player has control as long as they have time and patience to deal with the hassle.

I personally think it should be evaluated from the standpoint of what is gained from that hassle...

I would say nothing. I think players should have more choice and control to suit their preference to either side of the scale of control.

Dave, I think our posts may have crossed. Can you check my previous post and see if you agree with its points?

Feel free to refer to me by my RL name: JT (I updated my profile to list it) and it now shows in my forum info on my posts.

Sure JT - I still think the sleep part is pointless beyond being a hassle. In your case, you can achieve the same effect in RP by using VC to give fren her non-preferred features occaisionally.

Yeah, that's true. But the point of maintaining the legacy randomness is to retain the control of the appearance (at least optionally) *out* of the hands of the player.

Perhaps a separate toggle in the VC that indicates if appearance should be randomly applied on sleep?

PS. And before it's suggested: yes I could roll a dice and execute the VC command to reflect the outcome. At that point though I think I've truly broken my illusion of disbelief in the play experience.

I get it. It's a valid concern. I would say that most folks would be on the other side of the spectrum but your idea of having the default be randomness and the VC toggling that off is a valid compromise.

I don't assign the value to the randomness like you do, so I would rather see it gone.

Yes, I'd love to have the random remain the default, but have an option to change it. As it really doesn't affect the PC, I can't see where this would be bad. And I know that has changed his mind about things in the past - the first time I asked him about player housing, he said "no way."

Fren has lost her tail and going back in her gallery, I think it happened about 2-3 weeks ago and I didn't notice until now.

I thought that demonspawn always had their tails?

Tails , Wings and Horns .. all appear or vanish at random each time you sleeo ... or that was the case...

What Rusty said.

At least that what I noticed when I played Bruce regularly...I usually stacks up on a couple hundred sleep potions at a time, then, if I does not get the appearance I want at the time I play, I can quickly rest up until it appears/disappears.

Spoiler:

I believe all three *were* random, but I could swear that the tail was revised to always be permanent.

Prior to 2-3 weeks ago Fren had *never* not had a tail that I'm aware of and she had done a lot sleeping as a lowbie. Wings, horns, wings & horns, and nothing at all, each combined with an ever present tail.

I tried searching for the post which discussed the change to the sleeping randomization for demonspawn, but can't seem to get search to return the thread I'm looking for.

EDIT: Confirmed. Fren's tail was restored by the vc command ;;tool fixmytail

What's interesting is that the loss of her tail has been persistent across many many resets.

I think I may even have the moment in which she lost her tail: when she first began to experiment with the invisible (due to a bug) stone horses. BTW, she's also discovered that the invisible stone horses can fly around with her when she's mounted, her wings are even stronger than they look I guess...

Angel of Death wrote:I usually stacks up on a couple hundred sleep potions at a time, then, if I does not get the appearance I want at the time I play, I can quickly rest up until it appears/disappears.

Fren never sleeps unless it's a complete crisis. She does this to avoid the humiliation of waking up without her wings or (even worse!) with horns.

odbo255 wrote:

Angel of Death wrote:I usually stacks up on a couple hundred sleep potions at a time, then, if I does not get the appearance I want at the time I play, I can quickly rest up until it appears/disappears.

Fren never sleeps unless it's a complete crisis. She does this to avoid the humiliation of waking up without her wings or (even worse!) with horns.

Well. Neither does Bruce ... That's what inn rooms / a quiet clearing is for!

I would like to add my support for a vc command(s) that allow more options i.e.
-One/two/three permanent, other(s) random
-One/two/three Permanent, other(s) disabled
-One/two/three random, other(s) permanent
-One/two/three random, other(s) disabled
-All disabled

I think that has all possibilities covered.

I understand that there is probably a huge amount of scripting that would have to happen to make this possible, and that it isn't in-line with the world lore (random features), but I think it could add more RP possiblities to demonspawn characters without detracting from those who like the randomness (I personally would like to keep the horns but have the other two cycle)

Previously Fren had 4 states that randomized:
Tail
Tail + Horns
Tail + Wings
Tail + Wings + Horns

Now Fren only appears to have 2 states:
Tail
Tail + Wings + Horns

This is an issue for her because her preferred state is Tail + Wings

I'm wondering if it has to do with her achieving level 40. She changed state to having horns without take a rest and hasn't been able to return to her preferred state since.

The previous behavior with the horns appearing and vanishing was a bug I recently fixed. They horns are supposed to appear with the wings (and small speed increase...when the demonic blood is in full effect), not when it's just a tail. The more visible demonic features were always supposed to be visible at the same time (aka, when the PC gets all the benefits of the subrace, they get the horns that they can't hide from everyone else).

The Amethyst Dragon wrote:The previous behavior with the horns appearing and vanishing was a bug I recently fixed. They horns are supposed to appear with the wings (and small speed increase...when the demonic blood is in full effect), not when it's just a tail. The more visible demonic features were always supposed to be visible at the same time (aka, when the PC gets all the benefits of the subrace, they get the horns that they can't hide from everyone else).

Ok, I'll start working on a RP for it, currently it doesn't match her preference to date.