Next competition

[debo]

Betacomp should be up in the next 24 hours. Prepare yourselves!

[the Invisible Stalker]

I guess it will be a while before the next FA comp, but when the time rolls around again my suggestion, for what it's worth, is to make it as specifically FA as possible. So,
- Wilderness rather than dungeon.
- A non-V class. Necromancer this time was a good choice. All FA classes have been done at some stage, although some haven't been done for a long time.
- A non-V race? This is less important than class, in my opinion, but just for variety it would be nice.
- Thrall mode. This is really what makes FA unique, so it's a pity that there's only ever been one thrall mode comp: the crazy thrall ironman comp won by Psi back in 2009. To make this viable one would need to choose a very stealthy race/class combination, which is only partly consistent with the previous two points. Thrall mode should really be combined with disconnected stairs. I know that sounds brutal, but otherwise the early game becomes an exercise in stairscumming, and stairscumming is boring. Fleeing for your life, on the other hand, is exhilarating.

[debo]

I guess it will be a while before the next FA comp, but when the time rolls around again my suggestion, for what it's worth, is to make it as specifically FA as possible. So,
- Wilderness rather than dungeon.
- A non-V class. Necromancer this time was a good choice. All FA classes have been done at some stage, although some haven't been done for a long time.
- A non-V race? This is less important than class, in my opinion, but just for variety it would be nice.
- Thrall mode. This is really what makes FA unique, so it's a pity that there's only ever been one thrall mode comp: the crazy thrall ironman comp won by Psi back in 2009. To make this viable one would need to choose a very stealthy race/class combination, which is only partly consistent with the previous two points. Thrall mode should really be combined with disconnected stairs. I know that sounds brutal, but otherwise the early game becomes an exercise in stairscumming, and stairscumming is boring. Fleeing for your life, on the other hand, is exhilarating.

I'd be game to try this. What race do you suggest?

[Nick]

I'd be game to try this. What race do you suggest?

I think Dark-Elf Assassin would work.

[the Invisible Stalker]

Dark-elf would be good, since they are the stealthiest race and are FA-specific, although heavily based on O's shadow fairy. They are quite fragile, but all thrall characters are fragile. In principle any class of dark-elf is playable, but people are likely to get bored very quickly of any class which doesn't have high stealth or access to the unlight specialty. Assassins and rogues have both. I think either would work well. FA rogues are quite different from V rogues, by the way. V assassins are, of course, not a thing.

[the Invisible Stalker]

The early game in thrall mode is, not surprisingly, quite different from non-thrall mode. To prevent people from getting really frustrated I should probably put together some sort of guide for thralls and post it a separate thread. Other thrall addicts can add their own advice there.

[AnonymousHero]

I think Dark-Elf Assassin would work.

Not sure about the Dark-Elf bit, but Assassin is definitely one of the more entertaining classes in FA. Indeed, it's probably my favorite!

[the Invisible Stalker]

In a regular game dark elves are something of a challenge race. In thrall mode the situation is more complicated. They have a tougher end game, because they never seem to have enough hitpoints, but the early game is much easier, due to their high stealth. In the midgame the two effects sort of balance out. I'd say they're a good choice for the competition, because you'll have a lot of people with little or no experience of thrall mode, and they are likely to get bored quickly if their first twenty or so characters die before reaching town.

[HugoVirtuoso]

If there is any intention of having the next competition on PosChengband 3.5.0, DON'T base it on Draconians (since they're buggy in 3.5.0). Instead, let's consider having a competition with 3.5.0 Golem Rage-Mages. Any takers? We have yet to get a Rage-Mage winner on the ladder at all.

[debo]

Next competition is probably Animeband. Poscheng 3.5.x will be after that (we just recently did a poscheng competition.)

[Nick]

I'm going to suggest having a few V comps with different game settings - this can be done easily by having a changed constants.txt file that people can download and stick in their user directory while they're playing the comp.

My first idea is a "reduced size" game - forced descent, stair_skip set to 2 so only 50 levels, dungeon dimensions to 44x132 instead of 66x198, max view and missile ranges down to 10 (or even less) instead of 20.

Opinions?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

I'm going to suggest having a few V comps with different game settings - this can be done easily by having a changed constants.txt file that people can download and stick in their user directory while they're playing the comp.

My first idea is a "reduced size" game - forced descent, stair_skip set to 2 so only 50 levels, dungeon dimensions to 44x132 instead of 66x198, max view and missile ranges down to 10 (or even less) instead of 20.

Opinions?

Nick, you are a sadist!

[Thraalbee]

Sounds good, I'm on!

[PowerWyrm]

Make that ironman artifactless half troll mage and I'm in

[debo]

If someone provides and tests the file, I'm game.

If you're using this constants.txt on OS X do you need to drop it in some obscure subdirectory of the application package, or does it go in your angband application data directory? Or some other mysterious place? Basically what I'm saying is I really don't want to write the instructions for this on every platform