Domina Powers

[george moromisato]

I'm working on new powers for Domina and would love to hear some ideas.

Some guidelines below:

1. Ideally, I would like different powers for different levels. For example, some powers should be useful in the early levels, other powers should be useful in Sung space, and the higher level powers should be useful in Ares space.

2. Conceptually, the powers of Domina come from her influence over consciousness (she can influence some sentient beings) and from her ability to manipulate dark matter and dark energy (which permeates the Galaxy). Thus her powers are generally limited to the following:

2a. Giving knowledge to the player (location of stuff, etc.)
2b. Influencing other intelligent creatures (causing enemies to flee?)
2c. Creating an energy field of any sort (e.g., energy field that absorbs damage)
2d. Moving objects (including the player ship) through transpace (like a jumpdrive or gate)
2e. Moving objects (including the player ship) through time (although this power may prove too hard to implement)

3. Assume that new powers cannot be used too often (just like sustain now). That is, if the player uses a power, she cannot use it for some period of time.

4. As always, the most interesting thing to consider is how this power will add interesting choices for the player. Is there a trade-off in the power? Does the player need to worry about timing (e.g., use against this enemy or wait for a better opportunity)? Might the power backfire?

5. I am mostly interested in creative ideas for mechanics (i.e., what the power actually does in the game). It's not that important to come up with flavor text or cool new visuals.

Thanks for any help you all can provide!

[Betelgeuse]

"scatter" stuns all enemies within a distance from the player and makes them fly away at a speed greater than their max speed.

"armageddon" all ships within a large radius to the player ship get teleported to near the player ship

"sleep" causes both the player ship and enemy ships to be stunned for a period of time

"offset" causes enemy ships to become "ghosts" for a time there shots can't hit you and you can not hit them

"forgiveness" causes crimes to be forgotten but removes all the players money

"friends" stops enemies from attacking as long as you do not fire your weapon and keep your shields disabled

"guide the way" points the way to all the gates in the system

"guide the way v2" points the way to all the sisters in the system

"far sight" allow you to see the LRS in nebula for a time

thats it for now

[FAD]

Really, the one major power I wish would happen is one that would completely eliminate all B-line gate spawners (those that aim for the playership only). Gate spawners assigned to replenish their base is fine.

Gate spawning B-liners are fine for the first half of the game (up to St. K's) but after that the player is usually too powerful for them and it simply boils down to calling them Kamikaze's, seriously! One zap from a Domina power and B's b gone! Of course that should require some type of tradeoff.

[Periculi]

Domina powers? I have never even tried it.

They seem superfluous to the game to me.

That said, I would love to see more role playing action out of the Domina powers, and save the ship effects and environ effects control for devices.

So what could Domina powers be to help the adventuring neo-pilgrim?

Trade & Vendor influence- use your domina mind tricks to get better deals.

Trap Detection (requires additional tricks and traps mod, coming soon...) and other bat senses- more dangers in the game and powers of Domina ability to sense them could be a good dynamic. (Why don't pirates ever set the auto-destruct? If they did, Domina could warn you about it before you blew yourself up again)

Transpace teleportation- Sisters shrines can become 'waypoints' that the devout pilgrim of Domina can jump to when favored by Domina.


Domina Powers for the sake of Domina related storyline and plot - develop neo-mystic powers that give you insight into relics and Domina artifacts to seek out in the dim, forgotten corners of Earth Space.

[digdug]

"shrine position knowledge" or "eye of Domina" guides you to the nearest Shrine from your position, even if it is a couple of systems away (may need a limit to the distance)

"invisibility" creates an energy field that render the ship completely invisibile

"dark energy blast" create a wave of dark energy to repel or destroy nearby enemy ships.

"attract followers" spawns a random number of wingmens, solitary travelers like you, that want to reach the core.

"resurrection" works like the insurance

[Arisaya]

for #4) powers shouldn't backfire- I don't think a god-like sentience would be sloppy enough to allow that to happen, but using them should have draw-backs or a cost.

[OddBob]

Gate spawning B-liners are fine for the first half of the game (up to St. K's) but after that the player is usually too powerful for them and it simply boils down to calling them Kamikaze's, seriously! One zap from a Domina power and B's b gone! Of course that should require some type of tradeoff.

I wouldn't like this as a Domina power at all, it seems silly to address a problem like this from inside the game in such a way. I would like it in general as an overall change, however that is a different topic.

for #4) powers shouldn't backfire- I don't think a god-like sentience would be sloppy enough to allow that to happen, but using them should have draw-backs or a cost.

It doesn't have to be a mistake on Domina's part, it can be a mistake on YOUR part for asking for something that might hurt you - consider this power:

Delay: every ship or projectile that comes within a certain distance of the player ship is frozen in time, although it maintains it's position relative to the player's ship. After a certain amount of time or a certain amount of mass frozen the objects are released - they may also be released by invoking it again.

Now used carefully you could drag enemies into a trap or 'catch' their projectiles and send them back to them all at once when the effect ends, but when the effect releases you may find you caught five kilotons in the effect and then they all hit you at once. (If you cause any projectiles touched by the field to slow down and then stop, freezing their position relative to the ship at wherever they stopped, I think it would help a little to alleviate that.)

Martyr: all energy type weapons have their damage split up and applied to everything onscreen (including you and your weapons)

Prescience: Everything freezes for 60 seconds except you - at the end of the time, you are returned to the space and time at which you invoked it. Good for getting a look at what you are up against.

Prescience (alternate): 60 seconds after invoking this you are returned to the space and time when you invoked it. Instead of just letting you see what is a head you can try out ways to interact with it without any consequences (perhaps no docking though). This could be a time travel thing or just a mental thing - the "practice" scenario could be created by Domina in your mind.

[Betelgeuse]

ok we where talking about Domina powers in IRC and here is what we came up with.

1. Domina powers don't really fit in the game right now. The two main reasons why this is that nothing else uses powers and the sisters are the only source of them. These can be solved by giving enemies powers (doesn't have to be powers the player gets) like special penitent ships and giving the player other means to get those powers.

2. In parts two and three powers would be more common to have and use but there would be enemies with resistances and immunities.

3. Having the powers be a part of the game would allow some players to specialize in Domina powers that wouldn't be useful to non specialized players due to they would need to be used together to get the most out of them, for example an damaging energy field that doesn't move and a power that allows you to sneak up on an enemy.

[george moromisato]

3. Having the powers be a part of the game would allow some players to specialize in Domina powers that wouldn't be useful to non specialized players due to they would need to be used together to get the most out of them, for example an damaging energy field that doesn't move and a power that allows you to sneak up on an enemy.

I don't quite get this. Seems to me that players should be able to specialize in Domina powers regardless of whether or not other enemies have them. Maybe I don't understand what you mean by "specialize".

Can you come up with a concrete example where "having the powers be part of the game" allows a player to "specialize"?

[Betelgeuse]

the problem I have in specialize in Domina powers right now is that they don't seem to be part of the universe. Most other things have opponents using them even if you don't understand how they work but with Domina powers it is you have magical powers no one else has. Adding things like specializing in that seems akin to specializing in playing pacman to win the game (eat dots around the system to advance to the next system) it has nothing to with the rest of the game so expanding it without putting it in the game seems like a wasted effort.

Currently I never use Domina powers or halo gems and even if you add more I wouldn't use them because they are not integrated into the game, they seem tacked on after the fact (no offense but it is just everything else you do can be seen being done by other ships).

Can you come up with a concrete example where "having the powers be part of the game" allows a player to "specialize"?

Its not that "having the powers be part of the game" allows the player to specialize it is more of a thing that would need to be done first before you can expect some players to specialize in Domina powers.

When I say specialize in Domina powers I mean a player that follows a set of rules weakening themselves to use the powers easier.

[george moromisato]

Thank you, that explains it better for me.

Nevertheless, I respectfully disagree. I don't mind using Domina powers even if the rest of the universe does not.

I'm not saying you're wrong to feel the way you do, but I am saying that not everyone feel like you do.

In part II and III there will almost certainly be enemies and friends using Domina (and Oracus) powers. But for now, the player will remain the only one who uses Domina powers.

[OddBob]

I was the one that brought up specializing on IRC, let me explain more:

The 'specializing' was more of an idea that was "domina as a playstyle", meaning that you would use domina powers as exclusively as possible. We came up with the idea of conducts or rules - say, for example, the player taking a vow of poverty and not equipping a weapon past a certain level (we don't know what domina's goals are so we just sort of took a 'good natured' approach but either of those things could have any motivation) as a way to not allow everyone to use them in this way - you would need to take some kind of commitment or investment to do this, and anyone who did that would get much greater use of powers.

All that said I am not sure how much I like it anymore, but there it is.

[Betelgeuse]

ya I can't really support the player having things nothing else has. That parts two and three have others use them doesn't really matter due to each game should stand on its own in consistency and fun. It was fine before because we knew the game was still in development. I wonder how many people not use Domina powers.

[george moromisato]

The 'specializing' was more of an idea that was "domina as a playstyle", meaning that you would use domina powers as exclusively as possible.

I liked (and like) that part of it. Another way of saying it (I think) is that the player should give something up in exchange for gaining Domina powers. Today, the only way to gain Domina powers is to donate stuff (or money) to the Sisters. As you said, perhaps there should be other costs too.

[Wouldn't it be mischievous if the only way to gain high Domina powers were to donate the Lamplighter?]

Some ideas along those lines:

1. Though the Sisters worship Domina, it is not necessarily true that Domina cares about the Sisters (or perhaps she cares only in so far as they help pilgrims). Still, the Sisters have a higher proportion of people "attuned" to Domina and so they are likely to know things about Domina that others don't. Their Sanctums, for example, are one of the only ways in Human Space to "commune" with Domina. Thus they can charge money in exchange for access to the Sanctums. So one trade-off is pretty obvious: you need to spend money to gain Domina powers.

2. I think offering items also makes sense. But today, the items that Domina cares about (Death Cubes, Abbasid Thanograms, etc.) are not valued by anyone else. Maybe there should be some other use for these and the player has to decide which to use it for. For example, maybe the same items are valued by the Black Market.

3. What if gaining certain Domina powers caused certain enemies to attack you more often? In other words, one might expect that if Domina is giving you powers then maybe someone else (like Oracus) might start to notice that you're important and to attack you more often.

4. Perhaps in order to use the higher powers of Domina you need some piece of equipment (or even an installed device of some kind).

[Betelgeuse]

oddbob said I wasn't clear here so I will state my position in a different way.

what I am saying it that the "power" needs to be part of the universe for it to be consistent and for that you need to show it in some way by scripted events, sisters using it to defend their station, or anything as long as it was shown to the player. If I saw that other ships using powers I wouldn't hesitate to use powers due to they would just be a part of the universe that I don't understand (like how thermo weapons work).

Personally I am against using things that the enemy can't (they can even have enhancements I believe) but I understand that Domina had to choose someone and Domina has an interest in making sure they didn't waist their time in that choice (and any other reasons they might have).