I made what I consider a fixmod for Slowdown Arrows:
http://www.filedropper.com/slowdownarrowfix-mod
It:
- Makes Slowdown Arrows do Earth Damage. While most rangers would consider this a nerf, it's done for the sole reason that currently in the game, all damage types are represented in special arrows except Earth.
- Makes Slowdown Arrows create a small (1m) oil surface right beneath the target. I would've liked it to be 0.5m, but fractions do not seem to be accepted.
- The Slow effect of Slowdown Arrows pierce all armor. This was achieved by creating a new Status Entry ("SLOWEDPIERCE") that stacks with and replaces the regular one ("SLOWED"); whichever is the longest will take precedence.
Again, fair warning, this will objectively make the game easier by making Slowdown Arrows more powerful, but I think the change makes sense, and makes Slowdown Arrows worthwile, and a meaningful tactical choice in combat, and with them being created with oil (implied to be oil-filled flasks on arrows), I think it only makes sense. If the oil beneath the target proves too powerful, I'm open to criticism after testing on the subject - it was a "makes sense" decision, uncaring for balance, which might not be warranted.
As always, feel free to distribute. I'm not going to post this onto the Nexus or anything myself.
Edit: Almost forgot, I must credit
LaughingLeader on the official boards for showing me how this could be achieved.
They're basically poison clouds except not poisonous. They're volatile, so they explode when ignited, but they're not poisonous. They're actually used in the game. Somewhere.
On a slightly related topic, I'm considering actually making poison non-explodeable, just to see if that would help with the whole "Everything devolves into a cursed fire hellscape" and play up other resistances than fire. Would be interesting to see what dynamics could evolve if you can have things such as poison rain that puts out fires, and actually see surfaces push eachother around. Or, I dunno, actually see poison clouds evolve naturally on the battlefield for once. I have no idea how to do this yet, but it should be doable.
I wonder how the AI would react; if they are coded to treat poison as ignitable surfaces, or if they're coded to take advantage of ignitable surfaces (and thus will change their behaviour). So far I'm pleasantly surprised by the AI:s ability to take advantage of changed circumstances. For example, enemies with Slowdown Arrows
will take advantage of the mod I made, just like they
will take advantage of the mod I made that makes Rain of Blood use Wet.
i think ive seen cursed blood? not sure.
Cursed electrified water? Is cursed water a thing?
There's practically cursed everything. Cursed Steam, Cursed Electrified Steam, Cursed Oil, just like there's a lot of clouds that have a questionable claim to existence: Burning/Flaming clouds, for example.
Cursed Fire that turns into Cursed Burning Clouds look baller, though. Cursed Smoke, too.
The only annoying thing is how extremely fucking prolific this becomes the longer the games continue. Voidwoken not only casts Curse on everything, but they bleed Cursed Poison, that explode into Cursed Fire, and then spread to regular fire, turning THAT fire into Cursed Fire.
The more I think about it, the more I think would be fixed by making Poison not ignitable, actually. It's a radical change, considering that flammable poison/ooze has been with us since D:OS1, but in D:OS2, with it's extreme reliance of surfaces, it's become a hindrance.
Edit: By the way, I tried the "BloodPurified" entry, and it just instantly turns into regular Blood. I believe the "purified" entries are simply what is used to turn Cursed Surfaces/Clouds back into regular Surfaces/Clouds.