Ghouls are going to be interesting for all aspects of DHS. Roleplay, customization, traversal, combat. That’s what I’m going to just speculate on.
So roleplay. I sort of touched on it in one of my other forum posts. Ghouls are portrayed as animalistic and twisted undead. I imagine normal roleplay will be somewhat difficult, especially with human NPCs. I think a lot of roleplay potential will be with how you strike fear into NPCs. Ghouls are likened to a skinwalker, they should be scary and gross like one. If there’s any activated voice lines or emotes, will ghouls actually talk like in the inquisitor chronicles, or just various growls and hissing? It would be pretty weird if they didn’t talk, so they should. I’d like to have hissing on demand, but that could get annoying quickly. For quests, I think ghoul specific quests would have them acting as hunters or scavengers. That’s probably where they excel at best. I don’t know what a hunting mission would look like, but my hope would be using a ghoul’s superior traversal and detection abilities to find a hidden target. This would create a cool opportunity for roleplay as you feel like a terrifying monster on a hunt for meat. A high level ghoul should be spoken of the same way a legendary bear or crocodile is spoken of. You know, the ones in games and media that have arrows sticking out, maybe missing an eye. The ghoul of Jelrass. The beast of the south. Player-Ghoul, soul eater. The horror of Deadhaus. Actually I really like that one for banshees or wraiths. Or a general title for any undead.
And like that last post, let’s move to customization. Here, I’m pretty torn on ideas. One idea is that you buy cosmetics that give ghouls a more skeletal look, some form of clothing, more bones, more blood, etc. Another idea is giving ghouls very different cosmetics like a deer head or hooves, so that you imagine that the ghoul eats a lot of venison. Or roleplay a ghoul that eats a lot of avian creatures (notice i didn’t say birds) and you buy a cosmetic that gives it some feathers or talons that resemble birds. The other idea I have is that eating during the game affects how your ghoul mutates and transforms throughout combat. So a ghoul that eats tanky enemies gains a physically noticeable skin-armor. Or back to the deer idea, eating a deer gives ghoulish antlers. The way you affect these transformations is through what cosmetic enhancements you buy. So if you buy a gold-bone ghoul cosmetic, and you eat a deer, you get gold antlers. It sounds really cool to me, but it severely limits what customization a ghoul gets. I’m sure both could exist though. If eating a highly offensive enemy gives you longer claws, the claws can still look like your bird talons you bought. Can I put armor on my ghoul? That would be pretty sick.
Okay traversal! Ghouls really deserve the scariest means of traversal. I mean I want to feel like a xenomorph. It may not be possible and that’s fine, but some form of crawling on walls is very much desired. How much a ghoul can crawl around is actually going to affect things like secrets or traversal puzzles. If I just need to climb up here, that’s no problem for the ghoul. I’m sure some limitations will have to be put in place, like hazards. Some anti-ghoul spikes would do the trick. That would force ghouls to climb and jump in a meaningful way instead of just cheesing to a hidden secret. Also, on the classes page, ghouls are shown to be of moderate essence on the triangle. Will they be able to willingly shift to the essential realm for more parkour? Or will it be more for combat? Time will tell I suppose. Ghouls, when in a party of non-ghoul players, should act as the team’s guide. They will probably sniff out the location of an enemy or the next objective. The traversal will let them scout ahead, or go upwards to get an overview.
I’ve got nothing else for traversal here.
In combat, what does a ghoul do? On the triangle, the ghoul is of moderate essence and vitality. I want to say it does some soul based attacks and physical based attacks. Physical attacks are going to be a bit obvious. Bite, scratch. So you bite something, or fully eat it. Does it grant you that creature’s abilities? Or an enhancement to stats based on the enemy type? I imagine the ghoul as a grotesque Kirby, less pink though. So say in front of me there’s a human tank enemy. The enemy is stronger in defense and health. So when I eat it, do I gain a boost to defense and health? Or do I get other defensive buffs, in which my back spines grow and deal damage to enemies who deal melee damage to me? Personally, I’d prefer the latter. One, it’s cool as hell. Two, there’s a greater incentive to choose what I eat.
Okay what does soul based attacks do? I think they are attacks that channel essence to deal physical or soul damage to an enemy. I let loose a spectral scream which physically stuns nearby enemies. Or I… laugh to lower the enemy’s defense. I’m really not sure about that. I know that essence is strictly a combat thing, or if it's used in combat, it may not be a direct attack. It could be a buff or something. Oh wait? What if you expend essence to forcefully alter your body instead of needing to eat something? Actually I REALLY want that. One, gives a way to use essence in combat. Two, that allows a player to offer up essence for a chance to take down an enemy and eat them, starting a chain effect. This sounds really cool. Apocalypse, write that down. Hurry, someone might eat it.
Okay I’m not sure if I’ve asked this already, but what actually happens when a player is forced out of the physical realm? Does their body just fall over? Is the body still there? Are they turning invisible? Do they explode?
I’m sure this is dependent on what class you’re playing. If the wraith is in the essential realm, that’s probably their stealth ability. More on the wraith in a future post.
That’s all I got here. As always, developers can and definitely should use anything from my posts. Vae victis.
So roleplay. I sort of touched on it in one of my other forum posts. Ghouls are portrayed as animalistic and twisted undead. I imagine normal roleplay will be somewhat difficult, especially with human NPCs. I think a lot of roleplay potential will be with how you strike fear into NPCs. Ghouls are likened to a skinwalker, they should be scary and gross like one. If there’s any activated voice lines or emotes, will ghouls actually talk like in the inquisitor chronicles, or just various growls and hissing? It would be pretty weird if they didn’t talk, so they should. I’d like to have hissing on demand, but that could get annoying quickly. For quests, I think ghoul specific quests would have them acting as hunters or scavengers. That’s probably where they excel at best. I don’t know what a hunting mission would look like, but my hope would be using a ghoul’s superior traversal and detection abilities to find a hidden target. This would create a cool opportunity for roleplay as you feel like a terrifying monster on a hunt for meat. A high level ghoul should be spoken of the same way a legendary bear or crocodile is spoken of. You know, the ones in games and media that have arrows sticking out, maybe missing an eye. The ghoul of Jelrass. The beast of the south. Player-Ghoul, soul eater. The horror of Deadhaus. Actually I really like that one for banshees or wraiths. Or a general title for any undead.
And like that last post, let’s move to customization. Here, I’m pretty torn on ideas. One idea is that you buy cosmetics that give ghouls a more skeletal look, some form of clothing, more bones, more blood, etc. Another idea is giving ghouls very different cosmetics like a deer head or hooves, so that you imagine that the ghoul eats a lot of venison. Or roleplay a ghoul that eats a lot of avian creatures (notice i didn’t say birds) and you buy a cosmetic that gives it some feathers or talons that resemble birds. The other idea I have is that eating during the game affects how your ghoul mutates and transforms throughout combat. So a ghoul that eats tanky enemies gains a physically noticeable skin-armor. Or back to the deer idea, eating a deer gives ghoulish antlers. The way you affect these transformations is through what cosmetic enhancements you buy. So if you buy a gold-bone ghoul cosmetic, and you eat a deer, you get gold antlers. It sounds really cool to me, but it severely limits what customization a ghoul gets. I’m sure both could exist though. If eating a highly offensive enemy gives you longer claws, the claws can still look like your bird talons you bought. Can I put armor on my ghoul? That would be pretty sick.
Okay traversal! Ghouls really deserve the scariest means of traversal. I mean I want to feel like a xenomorph. It may not be possible and that’s fine, but some form of crawling on walls is very much desired. How much a ghoul can crawl around is actually going to affect things like secrets or traversal puzzles. If I just need to climb up here, that’s no problem for the ghoul. I’m sure some limitations will have to be put in place, like hazards. Some anti-ghoul spikes would do the trick. That would force ghouls to climb and jump in a meaningful way instead of just cheesing to a hidden secret. Also, on the classes page, ghouls are shown to be of moderate essence on the triangle. Will they be able to willingly shift to the essential realm for more parkour? Or will it be more for combat? Time will tell I suppose. Ghouls, when in a party of non-ghoul players, should act as the team’s guide. They will probably sniff out the location of an enemy or the next objective. The traversal will let them scout ahead, or go upwards to get an overview.
I’ve got nothing else for traversal here.
In combat, what does a ghoul do? On the triangle, the ghoul is of moderate essence and vitality. I want to say it does some soul based attacks and physical based attacks. Physical attacks are going to be a bit obvious. Bite, scratch. So you bite something, or fully eat it. Does it grant you that creature’s abilities? Or an enhancement to stats based on the enemy type? I imagine the ghoul as a grotesque Kirby, less pink though. So say in front of me there’s a human tank enemy. The enemy is stronger in defense and health. So when I eat it, do I gain a boost to defense and health? Or do I get other defensive buffs, in which my back spines grow and deal damage to enemies who deal melee damage to me? Personally, I’d prefer the latter. One, it’s cool as hell. Two, there’s a greater incentive to choose what I eat.
Okay what does soul based attacks do? I think they are attacks that channel essence to deal physical or soul damage to an enemy. I let loose a spectral scream which physically stuns nearby enemies. Or I… laugh to lower the enemy’s defense. I’m really not sure about that. I know that essence is strictly a combat thing, or if it's used in combat, it may not be a direct attack. It could be a buff or something. Oh wait? What if you expend essence to forcefully alter your body instead of needing to eat something? Actually I REALLY want that. One, gives a way to use essence in combat. Two, that allows a player to offer up essence for a chance to take down an enemy and eat them, starting a chain effect. This sounds really cool. Apocalypse, write that down. Hurry, someone might eat it.
Okay I’m not sure if I’ve asked this already, but what actually happens when a player is forced out of the physical realm? Does their body just fall over? Is the body still there? Are they turning invisible? Do they explode?
I’m sure this is dependent on what class you’re playing. If the wraith is in the essential realm, that’s probably their stealth ability. More on the wraith in a future post.
That’s all I got here. As always, developers can and definitely should use anything from my posts. Vae victis.