Remove the shooting lightning ability from monsters

[BalthazarArgall]

Summary

Content "Remove the 'Shockstorm' attack from monsters that have it"

Purpose of change

I dislike the "Shockstorm" ability for a few reasons but mainly because shooting arcs of electricity at this scale would require absurd amounts of energy. Now, I was told this isn't an issue in itself but I'm still putting the PR up for the sake of discussion and also because it turns out that this belonging in the game may be a "vibe"/"magic" issue that I can't have a say on (not that I'm complaining).

Describe the solution

Remove the Shockstorm attack from monsters that had it. The attack stays in the code as well as the monsters because they're probably getting updated in the future.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Severely reduce the range of the shockstorm but even a 1m arc would require too much energy for something as big as a hulk to produce, so even then it'd be very very magic.

Testing

None, but there is no way this breaks anything (probably).

Additional context

[Swootch]

I've seen the topic of the shocker zombies come up a few times now. The electric arcs are unrealistic, but it would make sense if the zombies were to spew a stringy slime through which the electric shocks would travel. We already have several variants of spewing zombies, this would fit in with the rest of them.

[KHeket]

it would make sense if the zombies were to spew a stringy slime through which the electric shocks would trave

But in this case shockers should have large capacity of this slime
More realistic, as I think, to make shockers have tentacles, we already have tentacle-hand zombies, or something like long and thin tail/tongue. Tail/tongue touch you - and work similar to long range shockers from real world, also tongue can be slime/wet to improve conductivity

[aapocalypseAArisen]

If the topic of electric energy expenditure is on the table at the moment, then the Incandescent Husks constant cloud of electricity and a emp field is going to be extremely high.

Also the Zombie Bio-operator is described as having unspecified broken equipment that somehow has enough power to constantly give off lethal amounts of electric energy. I cant fathom what that equipment might even be. The equipment it carries is the same as a soldier zombie. Its equipment is battery powered.

[anothersimulacrum]

None is an inappropriate summary line for this. This is exactly the kind of change that belongs in a changelog.

[BalthazarArgall]

None is an inappropriate summary line for this. This is exactly the kind of change that belongs in a changelog.

I have absolutely no idea what the appropriate category for this is. This is not really about balance, it's not really a feature, I'm picking content because it's technically content and I'm removing it I guess.

[Procyonae]

Just ripping this out without adding some new thing for the shocker lines is an awful change imo, we have too many boring evolutions as is and shocker zeds are one of the more common scary enemies that you see early that actually require the player to behave differently.

[kevingranade]

This is absolutely the direction we want to go, I just haven't had the time/ interest to knock it out myself. I'd like to have some kind of stunning and/ or sensory enhancement to replace it, but that's not necessarily to happen in the same PR.

Affected monsters need to lose their ranged attacker flags, and it might be cleaner to remove the shocker skeleton entirely since it doesn't seem to have any distinctive abilities left. Does just the electric flag do enough to justify the whole monster type?
The others have electrical components to their melee attacks and zapback, which is plenty.

[Procyonae]

You can wear thick 1mm gloves and zapback will never affect you so I don't see how that's enough

Cataclysm-DDA/src/mondefense.cpp

Lines 55 to 59 in bc9ff31

	if( const Character *const foe = dynamic_cast<Character *>( source ) ) {
	// Players/NPCs can avoid the shock if they wear non-conductive gear on their hands
	if( !foe->worn.hands_conductive() ) {
	return;
	}

[BalthazarArgall]

This is absolutely the direction we want to go, I just haven't had the time/ interest to knock it out myself. I'd like to have some kind of stunning and/ or sensory enhancement to replace it, but that's not necessarily to happen in the same PR.

Affected monsters need to lose their ranged attacker flags, and it might be cleaner to remove the shocker skeleton entirely since it doesn't seem to have any distinctive abilities left. Does just the electric flag do enough to justify the whole monster type? The others have electrical components to their melee attacks and zapback, which is plenty.

Alright, cleaned up a little, turns out the zaptor didn't even have the ranged flag to begin with. The shocker skeleton has been removed but I can also bring him back with zapback and electric damage attacks if someone has a use for it.

[Maleclypse]

Ok I think this is in the right direction but I'll try and spend some time this weekend tweaking the application. I would specifically think that a small sparks radius wouldn't be out of the question for these or at least to keep the skeletal shocker with a small sparks radius. I want to spend some time looking at how often electrical damage zaps players and so I'm marking this up to make sure I remember to do so.

edit: hadn't seen Kevin's comments until just this moment. I'll defer to those.

[BalthazarArgall]

Skeletal shocker has been restored and updated to be more in line with the other "electric" zombies. Are there other changes that need to be made? I can't see what specific changes are being requested.

[Procyonae]

In my eyes this PR is removing the only impactful unique quality of the shocker line which is effectively equivalent to removing them.

[BalthazarArgall]

In my eyes this PR is removing the only impactful unique quality of the shocker line which is effectively equivalent to removing them.

Are you suggesting we wait until electric zs get something to "replace" shockstorm before we go through with the removal?

Edit: Yes you are, I forgot your earlier comment.

Kevin is already looking at this.

[ADekema]

I really dislike the skeletal shockers and would be all for removing them. They are just a skeletal and shocker zombie slapped together and as such aren't really original or distinct. I do however like the idea of a armored enemy that shocks you if you attack it in melee. I think it would be better to give the shocking ability to rust and metal zombies. Metal conducts electricity far better than bone so it would be more thematic. I also wouldn't give the metal zombies a ranged attack. This way you still have the niche of armored shocker enemy in the game while making it really distinct from either skeletal or shocker zombies.

The normal shocker line should probably be changed to include some kind of biological ranged taser attack. Maybe we can simply replace the shockers electric arc attack with a fake gun that does electric damage. Similar to acid zombies that use fake "guns" for thier acid attack.

[kevingranade]

A taser is not happening.