Competition 114

[nppangband]

Anybody who prefers 32x32 tiles can now grab the necessary files at mediafire.com/buzzkill. It's incomplete, but better than nothing. It should last till mid-game with very few omissions/errors.

BIG EDIT: It should last until about DL10 or so before most foreign terrains start showing up as ASCII, ditto cloud effects. Ooops.

NPP: you should consider grabbing the flvr-dvg.prf and including it with the main distro. I updated it to include the new flavored items, and it plays nice with the standard (Vanilla) 32x32 tileset (no 'new' graphics referenced).

@Buzzkill: I will add this as soon as I can. It seems that mediafire is down. I did incorporate the latest 32x32 tileset, but I couldn't get it to open. Do you have any issues when you open it, or did you make any modifications?

[buzzkill]

@Buzzkill: I will add this as soon as I can. It seems that mediafire is down. I did incorporate the latest 32x32 tileset, but I couldn't get it to open. Do you have any issues when you open it, or did you make any modifications?

There are some changes to the tileset. A few new terrains have been added, but there's a lot more to do. Furthermore, the terrains I have added are of fairly weak quality. While (hopefully) recognizable, they are basically placeholders until I draw something better to replace them with.

I just downloaded the mediafire zip file and had no problems opening any of the files in an editor. I would assume that they would work fine for me in game as well, after all, that's where they came from (although I didn't test).

I'm not a coder. The only modification I may have made would have been to manually edit to the first few lines of the .ini file. Nothing fancy mind you, it's just easier than doing it in game. If you're using the enclosed .ini, I don't know what the problem might be, except for this... Are you getting a "main window too small" popup? Try starting the game in a smallish window. You can maximize the window once the character is loaded/created, that is he/she in the town or dungeon.

[nppangband]

I am not sure why it isn't working, but when I click on the link in your siganture, I get a ERROR 404 web page. So I haven't downloaded any of your files yet. I first tried the 32x32 tileset from the latest vanilla, but it won't work.

When I try to open the tilesets in the latest NPP, only the 8x8 works. Both the 16x16 and the 32x32 say "failed to initialize". I am sure this is easily fixed, but I need to work on it. I was just wondering if they worked for you.

[buzzkill]

I'm using 32x32.bmp and mask32.bmp, you're not using the .png are you?

[nppangband]

One thing that is worth mentioning....

In NPP there is a minimum depth enforced when selecting dungeon monsters, with a ratio of 5:1. Eg...You won't see any level 1 monsters at level 6 or below. You won't see any monsters from 500' and below when you hit 2550', etc...

I am thinking that the best way to approach this comp is to forget about turn count and monster kills and concentrate on getting through stat gain first. The druid does get some incredibly powerful spells later in the game, and some nice attack spells that almost no creatures resist. I think the hard part is to survive enough to get them.

Also, keep checking the bookshop as well as the black market. Dungeon spellbooks do turn up there occasionally.

The key to a druid is picking the right type of spell for the situation. They have some nice beam spells if you can get monsters lined up in the corridor. Barkskin is a nice early spell that makes it very hard for low level creatures to get in a hit. Life draining bursts works a little differently than most spells. It creates a series of time released explosions on a dungeon area, but they only go off if you are in line of sight (and that particular spell does no damage to the undead). But if you can survive being in line of sight with a group of monsters, its a great way to take them all down if you can survive the wait.

Eventually the druid gets powerful enough that you prefer being in the middle of a room with as many creatures in LOS that you can stand. Here is the type of damage you can do with spells from Nature's Fury (The deepest dungeon spellbook for druids:

| 1581748| 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Adunaphel the Quiet
| 1581748| 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Akhorahil the Blind
| 1581796| 3050 | 50 | Quest: Destroyed Tselakus, the Dreadlord
| 1581796| 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw
| 1581796| 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Ren the Unclean
| 1581806| 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Hoarmurath of Dir



| 1653818| 3450 | 50 | Killed Maeglin, the Traitor of Gondolin
| 1653818| 3450 | 50 | Killed The Cat Lord
| 1653941| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer
| 1653946| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed The Witch-King of Angmar
| 1653984| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed Khamul, the Black Easterling

I just stood in the mittle of a room and attacked them with water chain. The second battle had at least a dozen black reavers and other liches in the room as well. The spell gets more powerful with more creatures in LOS.

[ewan]

Good to know. I'm at a point where anything with an elemental weakness appears OK *unless* they have a return non-elemental range attack. So ancient chromatic Ds are OK but e.g. I decided not to open a vault chamber containing Shelob, given my lack of rDark!

I'm approaching mostly as you suggest: basically my plan is to try to win first, then go back slowly and hunt down missing monster types with (I hope) better detection ability.

[buzzkill]

I'm the proud owner of both a wand of trap/door destruction AND a wand of disarming. They seem very similar. Does NPP really need both?

[Derakon]

They're both in Vanilla; that's why they're both in NPP. Trap/door destruction naturally destroys doors, which is occasionally annoying, but it's such a marginal difference IMO it's not worth the distinction.

[buzzkill]

(NPP) Are black mambas warm blooded??? I thought I just saw one with what must be infravision. Shouldn't snakes and reptiles be cold.

[nppangband]

(NPP) Are black mambas warm blooded??? I thought I just saw one with what must be infravision. Shouldn't snakes and reptiles be cold.

It looks like none of the snakes are cold-booded. This holds true in the a recent version of Angband I have downloaded as well (from April.)

I agree snakes should be cold blooded. All these year and nobody noticed this? Amazing.

[LostTemplar]

Cold vortex probably should be cold too

[myshkin]

It looks like none of the snakes are cold-booded. This holds true in the a recent version of Angband I have downloaded as well (from April.)

I agree snakes should be cold blooded. All these year and nobody noticed this? Amazing.

Technically, cold-bloodedness doesn't imply being exactly the same temperature as one's surroundings, nor does the opposite apply. (Apparently polar bears are very difficult to pick up on infrared cameras, thanks to fur that's very efficient at preventing heat loss.) I suspect most of the monsters with COLD_BLOOD would be detectable via infrared vision of some kind. That said, I have no objection to adding COLD_BLOOD to snakes, as they're probably on the more difficult end of detection, and it is unlikely to change gameplay all that much.

[buzzkill]

(NPP) Bad messaging. I was wielding an 'too heavy' crossbow. I then switched to a 'just right' sling and received the message "You have no trouble wielding your bow".

[zaimoni]

Ahem...cold vortexes are most plausibly too cold to be invisible to heat-based infravision. [Assuming there was no playability effect from being physically realistic.]

[Derakon]

Cold vortices could be visible by dint of being colder than their surroundings, though. Unless you're saying that the dungeon is just as cold as the vortices are.