Competition 101

[Nick]

Competition 101 is a quick one - a Quickband Dwarf Paladin. Visit the competition page to play, or just watch.

[Antoine]

Competition 101 is a quick one - a Quickband Dwarf Paladin. Visit the competition page to play, or just watch.

The comp ladder is not showing turncount at the moment, but I've asked Pav and no doubt he will have this sorted in a jiffy

A.

[Roch]

On my machine running windows XP, I got an error saying that I was missing msvcr100.dll. So I downloaded one for free http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl...shtml?msvcr100 and put in in the same folder as the executable and that seems to have fixed it, FYI.

[Antoine]

On my machine running windows XP, I got an error saying that I was missing msvcr100.dll. So I downloaded one for free http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl...shtml?msvcr100 and put in in the same folder as the executable and that seems to have fixed it, FYI.

Thanks for the heads up. Someone else had the same problem and successfully did the same fix. I'm going to statically link the DLL to make your work around unnecessary in future.

A.

[will_asher]

I thought I'd give this comp a try since it's quick and it's been forever since I tried another variant.

- My @f1 inscription to fire my pebbles isn't working. It will only go by the 0 position in the quiver. But it worked later when there's something else to go in the 0 position in the quiver. Also the !* inscription to confirm actions doesn't work.
- after zapping a wand of sleep monster: "The ogre falls asleep. The ogre wakes up." It didn't stay asleep for even 1 turn.
- spear of light renamed to shock bolt? shock bolt sounds like it would be electricity damage, not light. Oh I see, it was renamed because it's now a (useless) bolt. Still, the new name is confusing.
- seems like a character with 18/40 strength should be able to dig through rubble easier.
- I have the "Items marked for squelch appear as dot" option turned on playing with tiles and squelched items are appearing as some weird tile instead of being invisible (or appearing as a dot).
- destroying an item takes a turn
- somethings seem to be already identified when I find them when I haven't seen any of that type before. When this happened with a !boldness I thought it might be a paladin feature, but later it happened with a =feather falling.
- I don't like the 'it got at your rations' message for the green glutton ghost because it used the same message when it ate my elven waybread. I'd like to know when it got my waybread as opposed to normal rations.
- melee weapons show damage in the description but ammo doesn't.

[PowerDiver]

- destroying an item takes a turn
- somethings seem to be already identified when I find them when I haven't seen any of that type before.

That's the npp base. If you go into a store, you gain awareness of all flavors for sale.

[Antoine]

I thought I'd give this comp a try since it's quick and it's been forever since I tried another variant.

- My @f1 inscription to fire my pebbles isn't working. It will only go by the 0 position in the quiver. But it worked later when there's something else to go in the 0 position in the quiver. Also the !* inscription to confirm actions doesn't work.
- after zapping a wand of sleep monster: "The ogre falls asleep. The ogre wakes up." It didn't stay asleep for even 1 turn.
- spear of light renamed to shock bolt? shock bolt sounds like it would be electricity damage, not light. Oh I see, it was renamed because it's now a (useless) bolt. Still, the new name is confusing.
- seems like a character with 18/40 strength should be able to dig through rubble easier.
- I have the "Items marked for squelch appear as dot" option turned on playing with tiles and squelched items are appearing as some weird tile instead of being invisible (or appearing as a dot).
- destroying an item takes a turn
- somethings seem to be already identified when I find them when I haven't seen any of that type before. When this happened with a !boldness I thought it might be a paladin feature, but later it happened with a =feather falling.
- I don't like the 'it got at your rations' message for the green glutton ghost because it used the same message when it ate my elven waybread. I'd like to know when it got my waybread as opposed to normal rations.
- melee weapons show damage in the description but ammo doesn't.

These are all from the NPP base (I think), I don't know the rationale for some of them, but Jeff may be around & able to comment...

A.

[buzzkill]

One of the things I really liked about my brief NPP experience is that (playing with tiles) squelched items appear as debris, specifically a broken bone. The broken bone simply disappears if you walk over it. This approach accomplishes two, maybe three things. It lets you know that there's a squelched item there*, and adds a little flavor, and doesn't in any way interfere with your game if you choose to ignore it.

* I believe it tells you what the item is when/if you walk over it, "You see a scroll of darkness", but you DON'T pick it up, and it's no longer there (I guess it's still there but un-visible) when you walk away.

I know it doesn't sound like much, but it was pretty much my favorite NPP feature. Every variant should adopt it, if only as an option.

[will_asher]

Yeah, it doesn't hurt gameplay, it just looks like a bug. (at least in the old tiles mode -I can't tell what that tile is supposed to look like. Maybe that tile just needs to be improved.)

[Derakon]

Actually, NPP squelched items are outright destroyed if you walk over them, so don't squelch anything you might potentially want later.

[ramela]

In NPP, Shock Bolt is a bolt of hard light. This is a throw back to Middle-Earth Roleplaying Game and the "advanced version" of MERP, a RPG called Rolemaster (or Rulemonster, for those of us that have played it). In those systems, Shock Bolt was the first Damage dealing spell available to Wizards/Mages on level 2 of the "Light's Way" Spell List. It was described as a bolt of intense light. (Though, it caused electical critical hits)

In NPP Shock Bolt is assigned to the Priest Spell set, since they have the most light related spells and it does a small amount of damage. The damage from hard light attacks can have several bonuses, which are cumulative:

1) + 50% if the monster is Undead.
2) + 50% if the monster is vulnerable to light. (Orcs, Trolls and so on.) EDIT: forgot to mention that many, but not all Undead also have this.
3) + 50% if the monster is non-corporeal. ("The light penetrates the monster, doing more damage")

These changes have a couple of effects. First, Orcs and Trolls are less vulnerable to light, a change that I implemented because I felt that the early Orcs might become too easy to handle for starting Priests, which would be somewhat out of flavour. And second, Priest have an easier time handling any early level Undead monsters. Particularly, IIRC most early 'G's die to a single Shock Bolt, if you can hit them. Detect Evil helps of course.

I don't remember doing the math on this though, so I can't be sure if Shock Bolt is better damage/mana/(1-failrate) against 'G's than Magic Missile or Acid Bolt. That would be the ideal, though.

So, are the spells directly ported from NPP?

[Antoine]

So, are the spells directly ported from NPP?

Yes, no changes at all (except to remove some high-end spells like Genocide or whatever it's called nowadays)

A.

[nppangband]

Actually, NPP squelched items are outright destroyed if you walk over them, so don't squelch anything you might potentially want later.

There are 3 settings in NPP & Quickband for squelch. Squelch (turns to purple dot, destroyed when you walk over it), always pickup, never pickup.

For the situation above (restore stat potions after stat-gain as an example), you would set to the "never pickup" option.

[Derakon]

But you still see them all the time, right?

This is one aspect of squelch in which IMO Vanilla is superior. Squelched items are invisible but are not destroyed, so they don't interfere with gameplay, but when you unsquelch them they also aren't gone. The recent addition of the 'K' key to toggle visibility of squelched items just makes this easier.

[buzzkill]

But you still see them all the time, right?

This is one aspect of squelch in which IMO Vanilla is superior. Squelched items are invisible but are not destroyed, so they don't interfere with gameplay, but when you unsquelch them they also aren't gone.

I'd say different but roughly equal, not superior. I like to know when something drops, even if it's a squelched item. V doesn't allow this, NPP does. If it means that after clearing an orc pit with a staff of dispel evil, the floor is littered with broken bones then that seem about right.

If I'm curious, I can look, or walk over to see what the items are. If not, I can simply ignore them, even as I walk over or through them (no need to side step or alter your chosen course). The only advantage That V has, as I see it, is the ability to change your mind about wanting a squelched item after you have both walked over it and declined to pick it up, and less flavor/screen clutter if that matters that much to you, but I guess that why NPP has options.