*** Chaos Ideas List - Compiled by SEPTiMUS - last updated 06:59 PM 26/04/2003 *** Foreword: These are changes meant for a dream-version of Chaos that I've always wanted to see. I have compiled an extensive list of ideas for people willing to expand on this incredible game. It's true that some ideas - or the very excess of ideas - will put people off, or accuse me of overcomplicating what is a very simple and elegant game. My only reply to that is that by doing this, I feel I can extend the life, or add more to the strategy of this game. I am not happy with Julian Gollop's current game (Laser Squad Nemesis) as I feel it's vastly oversimplified, and isn't really fun to play after a few games. I like being able to configure and alter things, and to do it in a game adds a lot for me, and I'm sure many others. The randomness (or the chaos ;)) and flexibility of a game is its deciding factor. The ultimate aim of this document is to turn Chaos into a hybrid of mainly Lords of Chaos, mixed with lots of other RPG influences - yet keep the basic simplicity and ease-of-use of the original game. I believe with these changes in place, Chaos would become a hugely addictive and fun game, and if given to the Laser Squad Nemesis community, a major hit. I'm sure people would be willing to pay for a game such as this. I certainly would! :) Some notes on references in this document: Any mention of 'balance' refers to the shift between law and chaos. Effects which last for a duration are measured like so: If the target has already moved, the next turn will count as their first, if the target has not moved, the current turn will count as their first. This should keep things fair regardless of your wizard's starting slot. Chaos+ and Law+ mean double-strength (such as the original Red and Gold dragons being 2 points of chaos and law) *** Monsters: *** Old Name Undead Flying Mount Balance Combat Defense Mnvre Resist Mvmnt Ranged Range Rng Cmbt King Cobra Law 4 1 1 6 1 Dire Wolf Chaos 3 2 2 7 3 Goblin Chaos 2 4 4 4 1 Crocodile Neut 5 6 2 2 1 Faun Chaos 3 2 8 7 1 Lion Law 6 4 3 8 4 Elf Law+ 1 2 7 5 1 X 6 2 Orc Chaos 2 1 4 4 1 Bear Law 6 7 2 6 2 Gorilla Neut 6 5 2 4 1 Ogre Chaos 4 7 6 3 1 Hydra Chaos 7 8 6 4 1 Giant Rat Neut 1 1 2 8 3 Giant Law 9 7 5 6 2 Horse X Law 1 3 1 8 4 Unicorn X Law+ 5 4 7 9 4 Centaur X Law 1 3 5 5 4 X 4 2 Pegasus X X Law+ 2 4 7 6 5 Gryphon X X Law 3 5 6 5 5 Manticore X X Chaos 3 6 8 6 5 X 3 1 Bat X Chaos 1 1 4 9 5 Green Dragon X Chaos 5 8 4 4 3 X 6 4 Red Dragon X Chaos+ 7 9 5 4 3 X 3 5 Golden Dragon X Law+ 7 9 5 4 3 X 5 4 Harpy X Chaos 4 2 5 8 5 Eagle X Law 3 3 2 8 6 Vampire X X Chaos+ 6 8 5 6 4 Ghost X X Chaos 1 3 6 9 2 Spectre X Chaos 4 2 4 6 1 Wraith X Chaos 5 5 5 4 2 Skeleton X Chaos 3 2 4 3 1 Zombie X Chaos 1 1 3 2 1 Magic Wood Law+ 0 5 0 9 0 Shadow Wood Chaos+ 2 4 0 9 0 *** New Name Undead Flying Mount Balance Combat Defense Mnvre Resist Mvmnt Ranged Range RngCmbt Notes Kobold 80% Law 3 3 3 4 1 Basilisk 60% Chaos 5 6 2 9 1 Rock Golem 50% Neut 3 8 5 9 1 Iron Golem 40% Neut 5 9 3 9 1 Gem Golem 30% Neut 7 9 1 9 1 Chimera 40% Chaos 5 3 4 3 2 X 4 5 Fire Elem 40% Neut 7 2 2 5 2 X 4 4 Water Elem 40% Neut 6 2 7 6 2 Earth Elem 40% Neut 7 6 2 6 1 Frost Giant 30% Law 8 9 5 6 2 Minotaur 40% Chaos 7 5 2 1 1 Cyclops 30% Chaos 8 6 2 4 2 Werewolf 50% Chaos 5 7 6 5 3 Mammoth 60% Neut 6 7 2 3 1 Scorpion 80% Chaos 6 1 1 1 1 Yeti 70% Chaos 5 4 3 6 1 Will-o-wisp 80% Law 3 2 7 4 2 Giant Spider 80% Chaos 2 2 4 4 1 X 2 4 Dwarf 70% Law 6 5 4 7 1 Obelisk 40% Neut 0 5 0 5 0 X 5 5 Dark Horse 40% X X Chaos 1 2 5 3 4 Carrion Fowl 30%X X X Chaos 2 1 3 2 5 Wyvern 50% X X Law 4 3 7 4 5 Angel 10% X Law+ 9 7 5 7 2 Automatic Sanctity White Dragon 10% X Law 9 9 4 9 3 AirElemental 40% X Neut 5 8 9 4 3 X 6 1 Banshee 60% X X Chaos 3 1 6 1 4 X 3 3 Black Dragon 10%X X Chaos 7 8 6 8 4 X 4 5 Demon 10% X X Chaos+ 9 7 5 7 2 Automatic Sanctity Imp 90% X Chaos 2 1 6 2 1 Mummy 80% X Chaos 3 2 2 6 1 Gorgon 50% X Chaos+ 3 3 4 2 1 X 4 4 Ranged attack gets rolled against resistance, if gorgon wins, target is rooted and has its combat reduced to 1 for 1 turn Poltergeist 60% X Chaos 3 3 1 2 1 X 3 2 *Phantom 70% X Chaos 2 1 7 2 2 Skel Archer 60% X Chaos 2 2 4 3 1 X 6 2 * Can walk through walls, trees and other non-moving obstacles, thus impervious to magic fire or gooey blob. *** Wizard archetypes (note, archetype does not show on wizard in-game, so enemies have no sure way of telling which archetype the wizard has chosen): Necromancer - higher chance of receiving undead-related spells, dark citadel, shadow wood etc. and antibuffs Druid - higher chance of receiving beasts (such as eagles, horses, lions etc.), magic fire/gooey blob and magic wood Warlock - higher chance of receiving direct-attack spells such as lightning, magic bolt etc and antibuffs Augmenter - higher chance of receiving wizard-upgrades such as magic sword, shield etc, and buffs (see new spells) Battlemage - higher base-stats at the cost of either reduced spell capacity or reduced casting chance Olympian - higher chance of casting mainly greek mythical units such as hydras, gryphons and harpies Dragonlord - higher chance of casting dragons and receiving dragon spells (must have at least 2, or class becomes useless), but with lower base stats *** possibly balance by reducing base stats per dragon spell received at spell generation time? Arcane Scientist - +20% chance to all spells, but with reduced stats and inability to mount Illusionist - all monster spells are illusions, but his illusions have 50% resistance against disbelieve *** possibly change 50% to unit resistance against disbelieve rolling a 5 Chaosbringer - higher chance of receiving chaotic spells Lawbringer - higher chance of receiving lawful spells *** New Spells: *** Buffs - can only be cast on monsters: Adrenaline - combat +1 Rage - combat +2 Fury - combat +3 Shield - defense +1 Bulwark - defense +2 Barrier - defense +3 Rampage - combat +4, defense -4 Steel Skin - combat -4, defense +4 Haste - movement range +1 - lasts 6 turns Celerity - movement range +2 - lasts 3 turns Rush - movement range +3 - lasts 2 turns Agility - manoeuvre +2 Invisibility - manoeuvre 9, defense 9, combat 1 - lasts 3 turns Resist - resistance +1 Deny - resistance +2 Impregnable - resistance +3, defense +3 Avatar - increase all stats to 9 Trueshot - ranged attack +2, range +3 Sanctity - resistance 0 (cannot be harmed by spells) *** Antibuffs - can only be cast on monsters: Dubious - combat -1 Fear - combat -2 Terror - combat -3 Weaken - defense -1 Stricken - defense -2 Disease - defense -3 Plague - defense -5, resistance -5 - chance of passing it on when attacking *** each subsequent pass could reduce the potency until after 5 hops it vanishes Cripple - movement range 1 on anything Taint - resistance -1 Vulnerability - resistance -2 Endangerment - resistance -3 Confuse - cause unit's owner to lose control, unit will randomly seek out targets under AI control for 1 turn Bewilder - cause unit's owner to lose control, unit will randomly seek out targets under AI control for 2 turns Unhinge - cause unit's owner to lose control, unit will randomly seek out targets under AI control permanently Condemn - reduce all stats to 1 Root - movement range 0 for 1 turn Freeze - movement range 0 for 2 turns Petrify - movement range 0 for 3 turns Blur - ranged attack -2, range -3 Curse - all stats reduced to half for 3 turns *** Direct Attack: Hellfire Bolt - strong, short range Flame Bolt - medium, mid-range Cinder Bolt - light, long range Explosion - strong, no line-of-sight, short-range Flaming Arrows - light, 3 shots, long-range Agony - strong, medium range, only works on the living Torment - strong, medium range, only works on the dead Death March - causes targetted monster to die after 3 turns, short-range *** Wizard Spells: Magic Eye - removes line-of-sight from spells Deploy - allows wizard to cast monsters an extra 2 squares away from themselves Teleport - wizard teleports to a random uninhabited area on the map Lich - wizard becomes undead Lycanthropy - when wizard dies, he becomes a werewolf incapable of casting, if he dies again as the werewolf, he's gone for good Flame Shield - allows wizard to attack magic fire, and stops magic fire from spreading over him (i.e. destroying him) Fate - changes the balance of the universe randomly *** Misc Spells: Chaos Gate - allows wizard to place two structures down (with infinite range) which will teleport any unit from one to the other - gates will self-destruct after a random time period like castles/citadels Divine Gate - allows wizard to place two structures down (with infinite range) which will teleport any unit from one to the other, gates only accept living units but stay indefinitely Dark Gate - allows wizard to place two structures down (with infinite range) which will teleport any unit from one to the other, gates only accept undead units but stay indefinitely Magic Tower - behaves like a castle/citadel, but on destruction, will grant a spell Gravity Blast - projectile that can be fired at any square within range, causes units in a radius of epicentre to scatter and move outwards Telekenesis - allows wizard to pick up and move any unit other than buildings/structures and other wizards Interference - works on wizards only, causes all of their creations to be moved randomly around the screen Tangle Vine - like gooey blob, but has ability to engage enemies Keep - like wall, but allows you cast 5 wall blocks, 2 towers and 1 gate block - gate blocks allow passage of your own creations and wizard, but cause enemies to attack it (has 9 defense), towers allow wizards and creatures with ranged attacks to hide in them and fire from them without being subjected to melee attacks *** Misc Ideas: Larger spell selection, maybe using a scrolling menu with the names, chance and balance, each with a popup or right-click info window containing the spell's graphic and stats (if applicable) and a description Larger, scrolling (zoomable?) maps, possibly featuring pre-laid terrain. If so, a simple tile map editor should be very easy to implement, as well as a random map generator much like X-Com's, using a grid of prefabricated sections (graveyards, castles, swamps) Terrain, such as swampland (hinders movement), fog (hinders ranged combat), lava (rolls an attack on all units standing on it each turn) etc Collectable spell scrolls (containing either set spells, random spells from a list, or totally random spells) Neutral creatures (hostile and passive) Rescuable creatures (if the gate to their cell is broken, they join your side) Of course, the option to play with original rules, or maybe the option to toggle different things on and off (new monsters, new spells, large maps, original bugs etc) Online play (in theory it should be easy to implement something along the lines of Laser Squad Nemesis's play-by-mail system, without a centralised server (ending turn sends an email with an attachment to opponent, on opening attachment, Chaos opens and client checks the incoming move against the previous move to see if everything is valid and legal)) The same for direct network play (same idea only it sends the data via TCP packets to the opponent's listening client) Links: http://www.codogames.com/ (Julian Gollop's current residence) http://www.lasersquadnemesis.com/ (Latest game made by the afformentioned) http://www.shadecat.com/ (Seemingly the only active remake of Chaos, and a blindingly good one at that!) http://www.tonyaustin.com/alt-tab/games/chaosrules.asp (A great guide to playing Chaos) http://www.worldofspectrum.org/emulators.html (A selection of emulators to play Chaos on, I recommend Spin for Windows users) All text ©2003 Lewis 'SEPTiMUS' Lane. Tree image taken from the public domain game Chaos: Battle of the Wizards CoDo and Laser Squad Nemesis are both copyrights of CoDo Technologies LTD