ZooM needs a new inventory item...

ZooM has 6 inventory items right now (medikit, light visors, invuln, invis, grenades, and the disc of repulsion) and we're wanting to add another for variety but none of us can agree on what to add. Please vote.

I should probably note the pros and cons of each item so you can consider it while voting.

* ArtiDarkServant - He doesn't stay in the level long, and with everyone running around he probably won't hit anyone. He is hard to kill though and stands in the way sometimes.
* ArtiTimeBomb - The sprite floats and is transparent. I can't think of any bomb that would do that. Also we already have grenades and mines that do mostly the same thing in different ways. It might be good for getting people off your back though.
* ArtiSuperHealth - 100 is a lot of health to heal. Especailly if you stock several. Keep you from dying though!
* ArtiEgg - The effect lasts for a while and if nobody kills you you can't really hurt anyone. Although it'd be fun to turn people into chickens. We though of roadrunners or "mini" mode as alternatives.
* ArtiPork - See above.
* ArtiSpeedBoots - Lasts a really really long time. We already have a powerup that doubles your speed for a shorter time, but it is activated immediately.
* ArtiFly - No obstacles to go around makes you faster, but it lasts a long time. We also already have a temporary fly mode.
* ArtiBoostArmor - A boost to your armor makes you harder to kill temporarily. Can't see any real cons for this one...

By the way I picked ArtiBoostArmor because it's probably the most practical.

stop turning on box mode!

ArtiEgg
ArtiPork
ArtiBoostArmor

The rest seem lame.

Why? You can still vote for just one thing if you want, but if it's a tie between two or more things you might as well vote for them both.

Bleh, armor seems the best one. Pork/Chicken would probably get tiring really fast. It could be funny the first few times, but it could be too easily abused by people transmogrifying you and then letting you suffer it out.

We were also thinking of adding a suicide button in case you need to kill yourself for any reason. =P

Nahh, that would just turn the porkelator into an instant death device... woo

Essentially yes, which is why I'm against it.

Not to mention that if you turned into a chicken you'd be floating in the air for ages before landing.

Either the timebomb or the armour boost, I think.

* ArtiDarkServant - He doesn't stay in the level long, and with everyone running around he probably won't hit anyone. He is hard to kill though and stands in the way sometimes.

That sounds like fun. :D

if i have to choose one, i choose the temporary armour. i don't want to see anything else on that list in zoom. either because they would a) not work good in it or b) be far too undoomish for my taste.

I voted temp armor boost. Seems to be the best thing in the list. I agree with Sarge's A point.

Looks like armor is winning.

What do you suggest for the inventory sprite? Red body armor?

hmm, i don't know, i'll think about it. a suit of armor that works temporarily seems a little simple, there might be a better idea out there.

Porking or Chickening, but only if it turns you into one as well.

i was thinking about making a race where everyone's a chicken in a coop, but nami a) didn't know how to script that b) thought it was a stupid idea.

Nanami said:

Looks like armor is winning.

What do you suggest for the inventory sprite? Red body armor?

Make it some sort of energy armor, like Quake 2's energy armor. That provides a logical reason for it to be temporary (power supply runs out).

Oh yeah, I voted Dark Servant, Chicken/Pig, and Armor.

I'll sell my immoral soul for chicken armor.

sargebaldy said:

i was thinking about making a race where everyone's a chicken in a coop, but nami a) didn't know how to script that b) thought it was a stupid idea.

Well I might add it if I knew a way to keep the players chickens the whole time.

The Morph ovum sounds like a good powerup. [edit]if it was a rare item(like for the holy sphere or something)[/edit] The dark servant and Armor Bracers sound good too.

[edit]I forgot to mention: The tome of power can be used to undo chicken/pork mode so you can give that to a player to use if he gets morphed.[/edit]

ArtiRegeneration - Slowly restores your health over a period of a couple of minutes.
ArtiChaos - Mixture of Chaos Device and Banishment Device. Any player hit by this will be instantly teleported to another part of the track (usually backward progress, but there's a chance you'll send the target even further along the track).
ArtiConfusion - Any player hit by this will reverse their controls (back is forward, left is right, etc.) for a short time.
ArtiSpeedBoost - No, it's not the Boots of Speed. I'm sure it's possible to create an artifact which uses a Disc of Repulsion effect on the user, sending him forward very quickly for a brief moment, but he won't have any control for that time.
ArtiCurse - Use this on someone and their weapon power decreases by one half, and they also take twice the damage as normal. Lasts for a short time (around 10-15 seconds).

And if you can't use brand new artifacts, I'd go with the Porkelator and/or ArtiBoostArmor.

Ichor said:

ArtiRegeneration - Slowly restores your health over a period of a couple of minutes.

the holy sphere has a regeneration effect

ArtiChaos - Mixture of Chaos Device and Banishment Device. Any player hit by this will be instantly teleported to another part of the track (usually backward progress, but there's a chance you'll send the target even further along the track).

we have a throw effect on the chaos sphere already that randomly throws the runner somewhere.

ArtiConfusion - Any player hit by this will reverse their controls (back is forward, left is right, etc.) for a short time.

that's also a chaos sphere effect. the problem with making something like this an artifact... is that no one would ever use it. works better as a powerup you have to avoid running into.

And if you can't use brand new artifacts

we can't, zdoom doesn't allow for scriptable artifacts yet :(

Ok, then maybe use something like the cleric's Flechette. Drop a couple and anyone behind you will risk running into a nasty poison cloud.

Nanami said:

We were also thinking of adding a suicide button in case you need to kill yourself for any reason. =P

bind k kill?

Nanami said:

We were also thinking of adding a suicide button in case you need to kill yourself for any reason. =P

If you try to do that with a script I will laugh at you very, very loudly and obnoxiously.

EDIT: FUCK, Ling beat me.

Ok...

ArtiRegeneration - Slowly restores your health over a period of a couple of minutes.
-- Yes, it can be done via scripting by creating a fake inventory.

ArtiChaos - Mixture of Chaos Device and Banishment Device. Any player hit by this will be instantly teleported to another part of the track (usually backward progress, but there's a chance you'll send the target even further along the track).
-- You'd need some way of determing what got hit by the projectile(assuming it's a scripted projectile) to do this or you can add some kind of menu to select what player will be affected or even cause it to affect the nearest player by comparing coordinates(I'll help with that if needed).

ArtiConfusion - Any player hit by this will reverse their controls (back is forward, left is right, etc.) for a short time.
-- Same.

ArtiSpeedBoost - No, it's not the Boots of Speed. I'm sure it's possible to create an artifact which uses a Disc of Repulsion effect on the user, sending him forward very quickly for a brief moment, but he won't have any control for that time.
-- Yes. You can use ThrustThing to "throw" the player forward when used.

What do you think?

[edit]do I really type that slow!? hmm I started typing at 9:49 and I finished by 9:57... That's pretty slow.[/edit]

I believe you can use that set APROP command to modify a player's speed in a script. I forget exactly how, but there has been some discussion on it in the ZDoom forums...

ham and eggs!

it would so not get old turning people into a chicken or a pig

'suicide button' is hardly necessary though, as ling said, just type kill in the console (or bind a key to it)

if artiegg or artipork don't win I'm going to have to rig this poll!! :P

I'm with Cyb. ArtiEgg and ArtiPork sound awesome!! Anything that is somehow associated with breakfast foods is cool in my eyes!

Hey, how about a monster with some sort of a rocket or fireball that turns a player into a donut for about 30 seconds? Wouldn't that be wicked. You get hit with the fireball, and the other monsters crowd around and eat you for breakfast!!! :D

Linguica said:

bind k kill?

heh yeah, what were you thinking nami =P i wasn't the only one going around killing myself during zoom testing.