Competition 130

[Mikko Lehtinen]

It's actually a zip package with three savefiles! It doesn't have the .zip extension for some reason but you can rename it if necessary.

[ewan]

Thanks, folks. Works. Don't know what I am *doing*, but it works :-).

[What is this 'broken back' effect?!]

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Broken back is a wound that you got when your hits went under 0. You temporarily lost some stat points, either Dexterity or Presence. If you ever get the same wound again (there are three different wounds), you die.

Deep in the dungeons (DL 25+) wounds cause also some permanent damage to stats.

[Nick]

Broken back is a wound that you got when your hits went under 0. You temporarily lost some stat points, either Dexterity or Presence. If you ever get the same wound again (there are three different wounds), you die.

Ha! So that's what happened to me.

[ewan]

Random comments, not comprehensive:

* I like the effects of terrain and furniture
* Conversely, I dislike the ID. But I'm used to being able to reach reliable ID in almost any variant.

* What's "An ancient tome"? Kavlas dropped it, but inspecting doesn't reveal anything and it does not contain spells (?) - that latter is questionable since I just found a magic book labelled as such that also is unbrowseable, and I assume mage-only or somesuch?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

You need to identify the artifact tome to know whether you can use the spells. It also contains a ritual that any class can use, but you need to Fully Identify the tome in a Circle of Knowledge to learn about the ritual.

From my point of view, always reaching a point where id is reliable means that the game would be better off without an id system. Id system is only justified if it forces the player to make hard choices. (What to identify, is it worth it to boost MEM for better id, whether to risk id by use, should you use a powder for combat or a Circle of Knowledge, etc.)

At the moment id is a bit too cumbersome. In the next version Circle of Knowledge abilities require two identify points but they always work.

[ewan]

Oh. Well, I eventually relied on the help files (which state that if it's grey, it's unusable by your character) and hence dumped it. Oh well.

I have accumulated a bunch of the 'ritual' books but none of the materials needed to create appropriate circles. Oh well again.

Latest annoyance is that it appears impossible to voluntarily walk onto traps - so the vault I'd like to explore becomes inaccessible .

[ewan]

Gripe part 3 - sorry! The game itself is I think interestingly designed - is the inability to affect enemmies in walls even though they can hit you .

[buzzkill]

Latest annoyance is that it appears impossible to voluntarily walk onto traps - so the vault I'd like to explore becomes inaccessible .

I get a "are you sure (y/n)" prompt when trying to walk on a known trap (Win7). Maybe check your options.

[buzzkill]

Gripe part 3 - sorry! The game itself is I think interestingly designed - is the inability to affect enemmies in walls even though they can hit you .

I had the same gripe... it's designed to push combat out of corridors and into open areas. There are also magic devices than cause great damage to enemies in walls.

[ewan]

@buzkill - I wonder whether turning on easy_alter was the issue? I'll check - thanks for the thought.

Other than the interface/overall design issues, the only 'gameplay' gripe really is that monster healing appears to be unlimited, so that an enemy with heal is often impossible to sensibly kill.

I've just been forced down to level 48, so we'll get a result one way or the other..

[mtadd]

In shop 5, you can buy powder vials to complete most of the ritual circles.

[ewan]

Playing a Rinaldo now: my first circle of permanance, but it does not appear to work. I was excited to then find 2 scrolls of Absorb Hit, so ran back to the circle to read the second, but it wore off pretty fast.

[Toting assorted ego items around in the hope of finding altars, but no luck thus far! Still, plunging down pretty fast.]

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Playing a Rinaldo now: my first circle of permanance, but it does not appear to work. I was excited to then find 2 scrolls of Absorb Hit, so ran back to the circle to read the second, but it wore off pretty fast.

[Toting assorted ego items around in the hope of finding altars, but no luck thus far! Still, plunging down pretty fast.]

Absorb Hit is a special case, I think. It does last forever if you don't take damage, but taking damage does wear it down.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Ewan, btw, how would you balance the spell Absorb Hit? Just quintuple the mana cost maybe?