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I noticed in the discussion you talked about abuse of StM to get nonstop hockey sticks on Morgoth. I'm not experienced with V, but I've beaten Morgoth once in S, and just like in V (I checked V spoilers just now), he bores through walls. Wall-boring in S creates jagged terrain, which monsters can, and oh so often do, duck behind to escape blows and spells. If it's ever added to V (I assume it's not in since I see occasional discussions about adding terrain), it might boost Morgoth a bit.
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So you ride yourselves over the fields and you make all your animal deals and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick. -
Sorry... I meant Stone to Mud.
Though actually, I'm not sure I made any sense overall.
So you ride yourselves over the fields and you make all your animal deals and your wise men don't know how it feels to be thick as a brick.Comment
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One new player won quickly.
Did he have prior experience with other roguelikes?
Did he take advantage of spoilers to bypass the normal roguelike learning process?
was he just unusually lucky?
We do know he dived. Diving seems to have broken the game with far more wins even in proportion to the population since it became common. We know he was here, so he had access to all the accumulated knowledge of the game's dynamics. Past that it's just execution. Now that instadeath has been largely eliminated, as it should be as long as Angband is and as harshly as death is punished, winning is simply a matter of knowing what to fear and not making mistakes.
Punish diving somehow, or equivalently make meticulous play easier while simultaneously making the game harder in general, and the game gets closer to its historical difficulty profile.One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to bind them.
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness interrupt the movie.Comment
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Any player who is not a complete newcomer to roguelikes will be spoiled. Once you make the connection knowledge = power, you want to find and read spoilers/monster info, etc. You want to do this because you know learning the hard way is much slower, and if you've player nethack, ADOM or it's ilk you expect that you CAN'T learn everything you need to survive in a reasonable timeframe through playing, so you spoil yourself because you don't believe you can learn it on your own.
In light of this, I think (1) monster memory should be complete, at least as a non-cheat option. The knowledge makes no difference to me, since I am familiar with most monsters in Angband, and isn't a skill/technique thing, just knowledge of what can one-shot you when.
We need to assume that play will be spoiled (that's why roguelikes randomize potions, scrolls, etc) when trying to adjust game difficulty.
Secondly, making the game harder to play (i.e. poor or lacking UI) is not the same as making the game harder, and leads to frustration rather than thrills.
The third thing is that, given time players will accumulate as many consumables as they think they need to win. Increases in difficulty must not be able to be countered with more potions/scrolls/etc.
So giving Morgoth more damage/blow or more HP is not a good way to make the game harder, because it just means more potion scumming, while reducing the power of detection/ESP *might* be, since neither can be countered with consumables. It might not lead to more fun + more difficulty, but it *could* work and is worthy of testing.Comment
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The other solution is to eliminate spoilers by randomizing -monsters-. I would do so on a per savefile basis so that knowledge can be built up between games as is traditional with roguelikes, but re-randomize when a savefile is loaded after a winner has been retired.
Even a little randomization goes a long way. Maybe every spell using monster gets a fraction of its spell list and the colored/flavored monsters are randomized. Randomize resistances on selected monsters as well.
Who knows what a Baby Fuscia Dragon or a Phlebotinum Hound breathes? Maybe in this game Rotting Qulthulgs shoot nether bolts instead of summoning undead. Hope you kept one of each elemental branding ring because who knows what Sauron's resistance hole landed on.
Randomize damage caps too within limits. Maybe nether breath maxes at 200 this game, but maybe it's 350.
There's all sorts of stuff that can be done to kill spoilers.
Some monster sets would be easy and some hard just like randart sets, but even with an easy set the game would be more exciting because spoilers woulnd't be useful, and who knows whether the set takes a sharp increase in difficulty just a little deeper into the dungeon.
As a bonus rods of probing would be good for more than dirty jokes in TAC.One Ring to rule them all. One Ring to bind them.
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness interrupt the movie.Comment
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So is an ironman egoless human warrior the next challenge?Comment
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Have you seen this?One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.Comment
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Boo, that was enchanted shovel
Ironman egoless unenchanted shovel human warrior would probably mean winner by devices. Plenty of teleport other, banishments and wands and staves of of big damage (Annihilation, dispel evil, others?). Too bad that potions of detonations do not exist any more.Comment
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Are Blades of Chaos and Sythes of Slicing counted as egos?
I think an egoless human warrior should be possible. Not sure about just using a shovel though.Comment
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