[Nightlies] Zilla, the Terminally Bewildered

[Derakon]

Ladder link

Meet Zilla. Zilla is a kobold warrior currently trying to find a decent weapon, or at least some ammo with slay evil. Some extra STR and DEX would be nice, too. His gear is clearly intended for a mage or a priest, since most of the randarts he's found have boosted INT or WIS or both.

Zilla has no confusion resistance. Zilla has had no confusion resistance all game. He found one item that gave it, once: a randart battle axe that did nothing else useful. So he has gone without. This actually hasn't been too bad, so long as I avoid titans, the Cat Lord, nightmares, etc. Most big spellcasters will successfully confuse him once, but with enough healing backup it hasn't caused any significant disasters so far.

I've been taking notes as I go. Here's some excerpts:

============================================================
                   CHAR.
|   TURN  | DEPTH |LEVEL| EVENT
============================================================
    389895      0'   38   Just bought !CCW for the first time ever.

    442905   3600'   40   Found The Jewel Encrusted Crown 'Estolith'
    442913   3600'   40   Freakin' finally! New hat!
    442913   3600'   40   Which means I can wear new boots!
    442913   3600'   40   And not get blinded all the time!

    476210      0'   43   Aww, no more branding rings. Guess this 6d4 slay-less axe isn't useful

    478507   4050'   43   Found The Great Hammer of Nenollene
    478513   4050'   43   My third artifact with immunity to cold.
    478513   4050'   43   Not that I *mind*, but Slay Evil would have been much nicer...
    479809   4050'   43   Or, y'know, confusion resistance. That'd be nice too.
    480766   4050'   42   Or some CON boosts...

    486155      0'   43   And now I have resistance to everything but confusion.
    486155      0'   43   No confusion resistance *all game*.
    486155      0'   43   I'm at 4350' and I'm still carrying staves of teleportation!

    489781   4600'   44   Do =CON now only go up to +3? I haven't seen any bigger.
    489781   4600'   44   Not according to object.txt. Guess I've just been unlucky.

    496389      0'   45   Boots of Speed +9. 
    496396      0'   45   I can get to +46 speed unhasted.
    496396      0'   45   But still no confusion resistance.

    496791      0'   45   If I had better ammo, I could take on the endgame now, I think.

    499862   4850'   45   Have yet to find a non-ego DSM. Sample size ~10.

    501052   4900'   45   Level feelings are always superb/excellent these days...

    501313   4900'   46   ...I just enchanted an item to +11. There's a first.
    502374   4900'   46   AND to +12? Okay, now something must really be broken.
    502374   4900'   46   Looks like enchanting is easier now. 10% chance of going from 11 to 12

    505803   4900'   46   Monsters are pitiful at pathing labyrinths.

    506905   4900'   46   Hang on...this labyrinth has no up staircase! And I'm at 4900'!
    506905   4900'   46   Guess I'll just recall, then.

    510653   4850'   46   [s]Labyrinth[/s]Cavern levels seem kinda small sometimes.

    516755      0'   47   Horned Reaper: way more dangerous than the Mouth of Sauron.

    523901   4850'   47   Shimmering black reavers can get the same color as uniques.

    525766   4900'   48   Found The Beaked Axe 'Hilomur' (LOST)
    525769   4900'   48   Well. My first source of resist confusion! Finally!
    525769   4900'   48   And it's on an otherwise-worthless battle axe.
    525771   4900'   48   Goodbye, resist confusion.

    534802   4900'   47   ...nooooo, nice big tasty greater vault and I have no food. Arg
    534802   4900'   47   Stupid food requirement. Stupid discrimination against warriors

    542002   4850'   47   Amazing, non-ego DSM! I'm tempted to take it home.

    543391   4850'   47   Augmentation's more common than Vigor. That seems wrong somehow

[bulian]

Wow, multiple Pvals, new level types, speed on elven cloaks... Looks like the nightlies have already changed quite a bit from 3.2.

So here is a design question: why are boots of speed limited to +10 but rings can go significantly higher? I think boots are also a random 1d10 but ring Pval is weighted based on depth?

I'd suggest the rarity of BoS be decreased but the Pval algorithm be changed to be weighted on depth. Finding BoS +2 at DL20 isn't nearly as gamebreaking as BoS +9. Once really nice BoS are found (+5 or better) , there is no need to identify or try on non-artifact boots, since no other boots can compete. I don't think these things are desirable features. I might even suggest BoS should have the easy_know tag. Converse All-Stars anyone?

[buzzkill]

Converse All-Stars anyone?

When I think boots of speed, I think Wile E. Coyote, but to each his own. AAMOF, I want a 'silly' artifact set, all heavily cursed.

Acme's Undeniably Incredible Steel Boots of Flame. [6,-6]. A pair of shoddily crafted heavy steels boots that contain a wondrous enchantment.

When activated (by lighting the fuse) these boots fire a beam of flame, severely burning all enemies it engulfs, and recklessly propelling (+40 speed) @ in the opposite direction for 20d10 turns. During this time the player will have no control over the @ which will continue in a straight line until @ encounters a wall or creature. Walls will cause @ to ricochet and continue in a random direction, or become embedded in the granite causing the boots to explode. Creatures in the path of @ will take normal attack damage. If the creature dies, @ continues on. If the creature survives, @ rebounds in the opposite direction (and hilarity ensues). Any doors encountered will be broken down and passed through, rubble will be automatically tunneled through. This item only recharges upon the death of @ (usually 20d10 turns, since every encounter with any object or wall causes significant damage).

[Astaroth]

When I think boots of speed, I think Wile E. Coyote, but to each his own. AAMOF, I want a 'silly' artifact set, all heavily cursed.

Acme's Undeniably Incredible Steel Boots of Flame. [6,-6]. A pair of shoddily crafted heavy steels boots that contain a wondrous enchantment.

When activated (by lighting the fuse) these boots fire a beam of flame, severely burning all enemies it engulfs, and recklessly propelling (+40 speed) @ in the opposite direction for 20d10 turns. During this time the player will have no control over the @ which will continue in a straight line until @ encounters a wall or creature. Walls will cause @ to ricochet and continue in a random direction, or become embedded in the granite causing the boots to explode. Creatures in the path of @ will take normal attack damage. If the creature dies, @ continues on. If the creature survives, @ rebounds in the opposite direction (and hilarity ensues). Any doors encountered will be broken down and passed through, rubble will be automatically tunneled through. This item only recharges upon the death of @ (usually 20d10 turns, since every encounter with any object or wall causes significant damage).

This should go in funnies.

[Timo Pietilä]

When I think boots of speed, I think Wile E. Coyote, but to each his own. AAMOF, I want a 'silly' artifact set, all heavily cursed.

Acme's Undeniably Incredible Steel Boots of Flame. [6,-6]. A pair of shoddily crafted heavy steels boots that contain a wondrous enchantment.

When activated (by lighting the fuse) these boots fire a beam of flame, severely burning all enemies it engulfs, and recklessly propelling (+40 speed) @ in the opposite direction for 20d10 turns. During this time the player will have no control over the @ which will continue in a straight line until @ encounters a wall or creature. Walls will cause @ to ricochet and continue in a random direction, or become embedded in the granite causing the boots to explode. Creatures in the path of @ will take normal attack damage. If the creature dies, @ continues on. If the creature survives, @ rebounds in the opposite direction (and hilarity ensues). Any doors encountered will be broken down and passed through, rubble will be automatically tunneled through. This item only recharges upon the death of @ (usually 20d10 turns, since every encounter with any object or wall causes significant damage).

Please someone make this. Use borg code if necessary.

[bulian]

Not to detract from Buzzkill's hilarious idea, but I would be curious what people thought of the rest of my post about =speed and BoS.

Re posting for convenience:

So here is a design question: why are boots of speed limited to +10 but rings can go significantly higher? I think boots are also a random 1d10 but ring Pval is weighted based on depth?

I'd suggest the rarity of BoS be decreased but the Pval algorithm be changed to be weighted on depth. Finding BoS +2 at DL20 isn't nearly as gamebreaking as BoS +9. Once really nice BoS are found (+5 or better) , there is no need to identify or try on non-artifact boots, since no other boots can compete. I don't think these things are desirable features. I might even suggest BoS should have the easy_know tag.

[camlost]

Not to detract from Buzzkill's hilarious idea, but I would be curious what people thought of the rest of my post about =speed and BoS.

I'm pretty sure that S gives them a pval of randint(5) + m_bonus(5)

m_bonus is level dependent.