Competition 120

[fizzix]

In Sil I also have 'u' be the universal use command (and allow the more specific (q)uaff etc but de-emphasise them). For the next version I'm also adding a nice lightweight main menu for all the minor UI commands like "show map", "show monster knowledge", "change options", "interact with colours", "quit" etc. With all three of these (control, 'u', main menu) you only need to know about 5 non-movement keys to play the whole game, and yet can do things directly if you want the old system.

I think that's the way to go. You want both an easy way that may need multiple keypresses, and a quick way that only needs one. Vanilla has that with the enter key which you can navigate to get to every possible command.

[ewan]

[Caveat: I suspect I appear to be only griping; apologies. The game is much fun, but it's also different for me, hence the plethora of comments.]

Current Q: when I manage (and yes, I actually planned this!) to have multiple fire-breathing monsters targetting me whilst I am fighting Scatha, why is he immune to their breaths?

[nppangband]

[Caveat: I suspect I appear to be only griping; apologies. The game is much fun, but it's also different for me, hence the plethora of comments.]

Current Q: when I manage (and yes, I actually planned this!) to have multiple fire-breathing monsters targetting me whilst I am fighting Scatha, why is he immune to their breaths?

Similar monsters with similar breaths don't hurt each other. This is kind of necessary with the cone-shaped breaths, otherwise the monsters tend to do more danage to each other than the player. This goes so far as a Chromatic (Multi-Hued) dragon will not be damaged by a breath from a red dragon.


I think what you want to set up is a poison, cold, acid or electricricity breather one one side, and a fire breather on the other side. They they can hurt each other a great deal.

[ewan]

But Scatha *is* a cold-breather..

[ewan]

Well, was; he's dead now. But yeah, that was the whole point: to get opposing elements breathing on each other.

[ewan]

And in the code, checking, he has the hurt-fire tag as I'd expect. So all very odd.

[nppangband]

I had to do a little source diving to get the complete answer. Here is how the damage of monsters getting hit by other monster spells can be reduced:

1) Only players (or player traps) can damage uniques, as well as quest monsters. They can't be hurt by monsters at all.
2) Monsters of the exact same race can't hurt each other (12 headed hydra getting splash damage from a 12 headed hydra breath).
3) Also the situation I described below. If the monster being hit breathes all of the same breaths that the attacking monster does, then they take no damage. (eg.....a Great wyrm of power getting breathed on by a great wyrm of thunder, but not vice-versa)

If that test fails, if the monsters are similar, such as the same display character (11 headed hydra getting splash damage from a breath from a 12 headed hydra), or are a similar kind of monster (dragon-dragon, demon-demon, undead-undead), then they only take 1/3 damage.

[buzzkill]

The one ring also, every 10 game turns (or 1 player turn at normal speed) has a 10% chance of permanently draining 1 xp. Not a big deal at the higher levels but I had a tough time getting from level 5 to level 6, as I could not find monsters who give good XP quick enough.

Should 1% chance per turn, and 1 XP per Character Level.

[ewan]

Ah, right: the 'uniques are immune to non-player damage' makes sense. Thanks.

I just ran into the same savefile issue - must have forgotten when I quit last night that there was a player ghost on the level. If you're willing to have me send the savefile for repair, that would be appreciated .

[nppangband]

Ah, right: the 'uniques are immune to non-player damage' makes sense. Thanks.

I just ran into the same savefile issue - must have forgotten when I quit last night that there was a player ghost on the level. If you're willing to have me send the savefile for repair, that would be appreciated .

Sure, please send me the broken savefile and I will send you back a repaired one.

[ewan]

Thanks, Jeff.

Umm - ok, I must be missing something . Tried the 'send email' via oook but you clearly didn't get that, and I don't see an email address in your profile or at nppangband.org...

...sorry to be clueless. I'm ewan dot mcnay at yale dot edu.

[ewan]

Duh. Looking at the title screen of NPP would help, huh?

Anyway - assuming that the verizon dress is still valid, you should have the file. Thanks again.

[nppangband]

Duh. Looking at the title screen of NPP would help, huh?

Anyway - assuming that the verizon dress is still valid, you should have the file. Thanks again.

I got it & sent back a savefile that should work. Let me know if you have any more troubles.

[nppangband]

OK, either all of my years of coding have made me a terrible player, or I seriously missed the mark with the difficulty of this comp. I am on about RogoBaggins @23 or so, and I have yet to get below 1050'.

How are others doing?

[nppangband]

Ewan brought up a good point, and that is how is this rogue going to kill Morgoth. It probably can be done, but only after a long, tedious wait for enough supplies.

So to eliminate that wait, the Comp rules are modified slightly. Any player who completes stat-gain (all base stats at 18/100 before race/class/equipment bonuses) and safely reaches level 3500' can email their savefile to me (address on the NPP title screen) and I will unlock the stores & store services in the savefile.