2013-04-28, 12:50 AM
The four curses of King's Field.
Here is a curse system that's come into its own of late.
Curse magic is performed sitting down. And the magic effects the area around where you are sitting and doesn't follow you after you get back up. There are four curses, for each elementary magic. They are all simultaneously helpful and harmful.
Generally the magic power of the caster determines the strength of the curse. But accessories can be equipped to make the curse less severe. Similarly there are accessories for lifting curses, which reverse the effect of the curse. It may be possible to simply perform the curse in a different but similar fashion to lift the curse. For example you could look down to cast the curse and up to lift the curse or something like that. But accessories could be used to improve the outcome either way.
Curses all bind to items. If you hold something in your hands only that item will be affected, otherwise the entire vicinity. Including any item or bag of items on the ground. And also monsters in the case of the undead.
Speaking of which. One thing curses do is keep the undead dead. Otherwise they will get back up after a short while. You can't make a weapon be the vector for the curse. You either have to cast the curse as magic or keep moving before the undead get back up.
Most undead are of the Earth. So Earth curse works best for them. But depending on where the undead hails from you want to use that kind of magic to keep them down.
Earth curse itself makes things very heavy. Especially the undead. It doesn't effect living things or things not of the earth. You might curse a bag of items if you want it to stay put. Otherwise some fiend or lucky passer by might abscond with it. Similarly if you find a item with this kind of curse, good luck carrying it away.
Water curse poisons things. Including edible stuff, and weapons. Pretty straightforward. Be careful if you find an edible item. It might be poisoned. In its simplest form it would introduce a random chance of poison to a stack of items. Anyway this is a pretty good way to let you use poisonous weapons.
Wind curse makes items a bit lighter. Great for heavy armor lovers. But it conversely makes your inventory heavier including everything not in hand. Especially things of the earth like gold coins. You must travel light and free yourself of want to reap the whirlwind. Thieves are not too fond of this curse. It forces them to choose between the cursed item or dropping their money.... sometimes boys are brought along to carry these things off separately.
Speaking of thievery. It's complicated, but I've been trying to devise a believable system for traveling with equipment in plain sight. So if a weapon can't fit in a backpack it must appear on the character for example. I recently thought about making a coin purse and canteen visible on the player as prime targets for thieves. Like the ubiquitous Steal option in turn based RPGs or yore. Canteens are special to KF I think thanks to its magical healing waters based game play. Crystal Flasks are fun, fun for KF2. But in any other KF I think a crystal canteen would be standard issue. More like the Estus Flask in Dark Souls. Edited: oh yes. The coin purse and canteen would fill up and then the number of bags in your inventory would increase after so many coins for example. So if stolen you'd just lose remainder currently in the purse at your side.
Finally Fire curse addresses just that. It's a classical curse where the cursed item is linked to the holders soul or whatever. Since Fire is linked to the soul. Another prime target for thieves is weapons since they can be easily plucked from their holsters. So a Fire curse ensures the weapon is bound to its owner by Fire. I reckon if anyone ever wants to player a King's Field MMORPG (heaven forbid) this sort of thing would be invaluable to players carrying coveted items. The other interesting thing about this is if you find a weapon on a dead man you know that its possibly cursed in this way. But you won't find out until you equip the item or try it out...
And if it is cursed the curse transfers over to you! If you can only carry so many weapons, including a temporary one for trying out newly picked up items. Then you must either use the cursed item as a temporary weapon, meaning you can't equip anything else. Or if you are traveling with a free weapon slot that will fit the item, you can move the cursed item to that slot. Either way you'll need to lift the curse before you can get it out of your inventory.
Oh and cursed equipment has its affinities shifted towards the curse. So weapon cursed with Fire will have a higher fire rating depending on the power of the curse. But you can't figure that out until you are cursed in the case of Fire. Earth curse makes weapons and equipment heavier. For weapons that can mean a harder hit. And for armor that yields a healing bonus. If you can take the weight. Likewise poison weapons have higher Water ratings, and Wind better Wind ratings. And also keep in mind that the elements have different weights for attack and defense. So Earth cursed armor has better defense qualities, Wind worse defense, and Fire the worst defense, but also the strongest attack.
The shift would also weaken its opposites. Which can be used to advantage also. And some accessories could interact with different aspects of the curses. Like reducing the weight of Earth cursed equipment so its manageable but retaining the other benefits. The same accessory could make Wind curses more severe so that you could not mix and match such equipment. Before an item can be cursed it cannot be already cursed, so its curse must be lifted.
Here is a curse system that's come into its own of late.
Curse magic is performed sitting down. And the magic effects the area around where you are sitting and doesn't follow you after you get back up. There are four curses, for each elementary magic. They are all simultaneously helpful and harmful.
Generally the magic power of the caster determines the strength of the curse. But accessories can be equipped to make the curse less severe. Similarly there are accessories for lifting curses, which reverse the effect of the curse. It may be possible to simply perform the curse in a different but similar fashion to lift the curse. For example you could look down to cast the curse and up to lift the curse or something like that. But accessories could be used to improve the outcome either way.
Curses all bind to items. If you hold something in your hands only that item will be affected, otherwise the entire vicinity. Including any item or bag of items on the ground. And also monsters in the case of the undead.
Speaking of which. One thing curses do is keep the undead dead. Otherwise they will get back up after a short while. You can't make a weapon be the vector for the curse. You either have to cast the curse as magic or keep moving before the undead get back up.
Most undead are of the Earth. So Earth curse works best for them. But depending on where the undead hails from you want to use that kind of magic to keep them down.
Earth curse itself makes things very heavy. Especially the undead. It doesn't effect living things or things not of the earth. You might curse a bag of items if you want it to stay put. Otherwise some fiend or lucky passer by might abscond with it. Similarly if you find a item with this kind of curse, good luck carrying it away.
Water curse poisons things. Including edible stuff, and weapons. Pretty straightforward. Be careful if you find an edible item. It might be poisoned. In its simplest form it would introduce a random chance of poison to a stack of items. Anyway this is a pretty good way to let you use poisonous weapons.
Wind curse makes items a bit lighter. Great for heavy armor lovers. But it conversely makes your inventory heavier including everything not in hand. Especially things of the earth like gold coins. You must travel light and free yourself of want to reap the whirlwind. Thieves are not too fond of this curse. It forces them to choose between the cursed item or dropping their money.... sometimes boys are brought along to carry these things off separately.
Speaking of thievery. It's complicated, but I've been trying to devise a believable system for traveling with equipment in plain sight. So if a weapon can't fit in a backpack it must appear on the character for example. I recently thought about making a coin purse and canteen visible on the player as prime targets for thieves. Like the ubiquitous Steal option in turn based RPGs or yore. Canteens are special to KF I think thanks to its magical healing waters based game play. Crystal Flasks are fun, fun for KF2. But in any other KF I think a crystal canteen would be standard issue. More like the Estus Flask in Dark Souls. Edited: oh yes. The coin purse and canteen would fill up and then the number of bags in your inventory would increase after so many coins for example. So if stolen you'd just lose remainder currently in the purse at your side.
Finally Fire curse addresses just that. It's a classical curse where the cursed item is linked to the holders soul or whatever. Since Fire is linked to the soul. Another prime target for thieves is weapons since they can be easily plucked from their holsters. So a Fire curse ensures the weapon is bound to its owner by Fire. I reckon if anyone ever wants to player a King's Field MMORPG (heaven forbid) this sort of thing would be invaluable to players carrying coveted items. The other interesting thing about this is if you find a weapon on a dead man you know that its possibly cursed in this way. But you won't find out until you equip the item or try it out...
And if it is cursed the curse transfers over to you! If you can only carry so many weapons, including a temporary one for trying out newly picked up items. Then you must either use the cursed item as a temporary weapon, meaning you can't equip anything else. Or if you are traveling with a free weapon slot that will fit the item, you can move the cursed item to that slot. Either way you'll need to lift the curse before you can get it out of your inventory.
Oh and cursed equipment has its affinities shifted towards the curse. So weapon cursed with Fire will have a higher fire rating depending on the power of the curse. But you can't figure that out until you are cursed in the case of Fire. Earth curse makes weapons and equipment heavier. For weapons that can mean a harder hit. And for armor that yields a healing bonus. If you can take the weight. Likewise poison weapons have higher Water ratings, and Wind better Wind ratings. And also keep in mind that the elements have different weights for attack and defense. So Earth cursed armor has better defense qualities, Wind worse defense, and Fire the worst defense, but also the strongest attack.
The shift would also weaken its opposites. Which can be used to advantage also. And some accessories could interact with different aspects of the curses. Like reducing the weight of Earth cursed equipment so its manageable but retaining the other benefits. The same accessory could make Wind curses more severe so that you could not mix and match such equipment. Before an item can be cursed it cannot be already cursed, so its curse must be lifted.