Added shoggoths.

[Soyweiser]

TEKELI-LI! TEKELI-LI!!!!!

Added shoggoths. They speak using the migo_speech.json file. changed the way that works. (Now you can add monster specific lines). They absorb objects they walk over. Which gives them bonus HP. They hit HARD, are hard to kill etc. Pretty dangerous. But slow. And very very rare.

Updated the DEVELOPER_FAQ.md a bit.

[Soyweiser]

I do not use tilesets, so anybody who does. Please inform me of any mistakes made. It also was my first monster and ability addition.

I wondered. Can "special_attack": accept a list of attacks?

[Rivet-the-Zombie]

Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

[Soyweiser]

There should be more work done here. Like differentiate between a stack of objects, one object etc. But I have no clear idea how to do that properly in the code. I know it was done somewhere, but I cannot recall where I saw it.

[i2amroy]

Special attack and the accompanying framework only accepts one attack at a time currently (though I wouldn't be opposed to an expansion).

[Soyweiser]

i2amroy: that runs into the issue that currently the special attack also has a special attack frequency. So simply making the special attack framework accept a list is not good enough. Thanks for the info!

[NaturesWitness]

If they absorb an object and gain bonus HP, can you then whale on them and knock the object out?

[i2amroy]

i2amroy: that runs into the issue that currently the special attack also has a special attack frequency. So simply making the special attack framework accept a list is not good enough. Thanks for the info!

That was included in my definition of "expansion". :P

[dwarfkoala]

Also, the common definition of shoggoth involves being made of horrible
melty otherworld-acid, which means that the item would presumably be
dissolved and unrecoverable. Fitting, I guess.

[dwarfkoala]

Sounds ambitious.

Can't wait to add another lovecraftian horror to my hitlist. Wonder if
we'll be able to punch out big C himself?

[NaturesWitness]

I suppose that makes sense. Darn, it would have been hilarious to be able to LITERALLY beat the stuffing out of these. Gives the phrase "loot piñata" a whole new meaning.

[KA101]

So I take it that this critter is intended as a Blob variant, or are you going straight Lovecraft?

(In general, grabbing stuff direct from other lore is Just Too Easy, and frowned upon.)

[Soyweiser]

I actually just wanted to create a monster that absorbed stuff, and always liked the shoggoths. But in a way it is a blob variant. I would also like for it to split into more shoggoths on high hp, have some special attacks. (Something with sanity probably). A sort of end boss blob monster. (Not that slime pits have an end right now, or even with the addition of the shog, but at least they are now a bit more dangerous, instead of just an endless swarm of blobs).

I also added it to the nether monsters list, so it can show up trapped in the same places as those do. The lore behind the nether monsters isn't totally clear to me, esp as we also have the mi-go monster. (And I assumed it was like the lovecraft monster, and came out of the lab teleport experiments).

So, there isn't a grand plan behind my addition. No method to my madness. ;)

[Rivet-the-Zombie]

(In general, grabbing stuff direct from other lore is Just Too Easy, and frowned upon.)

Generally, yes, but it seems that we make an exception for Lovecraft-monsters (and stuff from obscure Japanese horror flicks)? We've got quite a few and they're unchanged from source material and even have their proper names, so take from that what you will.

[KA101]

Thought the mi-go were a bit different from their Lovecraftian design, but wev.

[Rivet-the-Zombie]

Not particularly so.

Also, we rip off Left 4 Dead HEAVILY (and don't even have different names for them), Half Life 2 (Manhacks, again same name) and a couple other sources. C.H.U.D. was a horror movie about cannibals who live in the sewers and Graboids are the monsters from Tremors (same name, identical description) so the more I think about it, the more I realize that the folks who 'came up with' most of our current monsters just ripped them off of other things without even trying to hide the fact.

[KA101]

Spitter and boomer, yeah. Rest of 'em, nope. Never played HL2 so not familiar with manhacks there.

As for the rest, well, those date to Whales, IIRC. shrug

[Rivet-the-Zombie]

The spitter and boomer are both from L4D, and also the smoker, brute, hunter, and hulk, whereas the shrieker is straight from Killing Floor (at least they kinda/sorta/didn't really changed the names of some of them) but the manhacks are completely lifted from Half Life 2 without even the barest effort being made to obfuscate their source, the Gozu monster is lifted from a Japanese horror flick of the same name, and the C.H.U.D.s are taken from a movie called C.H.U.D. as well, and the previously-mentioned graboids are from Tremors. All three of those have the same names as their source material, completely unaltered. And of course, as was already pointed out, all the Lovecraft monsters are totally unaltered, just lifted straight from the pages of the books.

[KA101]

Well, then I guess the current policy is fairly new.