Sil 1.0.2

[half]

Sil 1.0.2 is now available.

It contains numerous bugfixes and minor balancing changes. It is savefile compatible, but I'd always recommend making a backup just in case it doesn't go smoothly. It now should also work on Linux using X11 or the terminal.

Rumour has it that there will be a competition using this new version quite soon...

- Sil 1.0.2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- linux version
	- X11, GCU & CAP should work now
		- GCU & CAP are fairly unplayable though (mainly due to lack of decent colours)
	- fixed Makefile.std
	- removed a crash straight after launching due to a default filename being set
	- fixed colours for X11 (no more green dungeon walls!)

- races/houses
	- adjusted the dwarven race/houses slightly
	- added a new Sindar house
	- now all houses add a similar level of bonus to the race
		- 1 stat point, and 1 affinity

- items
	- made Mattocks a bit less damaging (5d2 from 6d2)
		- but left the artefact mattock as is!
	- changed Shovels from 3d1 to 2d2
	- daggers of accompaniment
		- no longer go into your off-hand before being identified
		- can no longer be switched out leaving two weapons without the ability
	- handles artefact lanterns better
	- made some artefacts a bit less common:
		- knife of Nargil
		- Orcrist
		- Axe of Hurin
	- wrath now stacks
	- danger now stacks
	- danger now affects you even from your inventory
		- this is odd, but otherwise it is so clearly best to remove the item
		  for one turn when descending the stairs

- status effects
	- fear
		- trying to attack while afraid no longer costs you a turn
		- throwing items now also fails when afraid
	- stunning
		- now capped at 105 for all causes
		- so at most 5 turns knocked out before you can act again
		- fixed bug where knock out / entrancement wasn't setting evasion to [-5]

- monsters
	- made uniques who were famous only in later ages less common
	- made crebain much less damaging 1d5 -> 1d3
	- changed the Will levels of many monsters, spreading them out more
	- Morgoth is now immune to Elbereth
	- 'auras' of Ancient Serpents
		- now damage monsters as well as you
		- now explained better in monster recall

- smithing
	- difficulty of forging things in the 'minor slots' is increased by 20%
		- rings, light, cloak, gloves, boots, arrows
		- the 'major slots' are:
			- weapon, bow, amulet, body armour, shield, helmet
	- difficulty is no longer reduced for two handed weapons
	- the time taken is now proportional to the difficulty
	- the bonus from Song of Aule is reduced from Song/3 to Song/5
	- fixed bug where display of experience wasn't changed when it was used up
	- changed light source radius to not depend on the special value (pval)
		- now can make Feanorian Lamp of Grace <+1> without reducing its radius

- interface
	- changed key for options in creation menu from (=) to (O) to match normal play

- display
	- added a 'previous round' of rolls to the combat rolls window
	- fixed the bug with deleting the hunger display on minimum height terminal windows
	- added the . for empty floors on the mini screenshot when you die

- notes
	- stopped saying you have 'found' the further versions of the iron crown
	- 'subdued' deathblades instead of 'destroyed'

- endgame
	- monsters now get a +5 bonus to perception during the escape as they are vigilant
	- Morgoth will no longer leave the Throne Room
	- The monsters coming through the stairs during the pursuit are now always powerful ones
	- There are now many more monsters in the pursuit when carrying 2 or 3 Silmarils
	- minor changes to the method for knocking off the crown 
		- (now takes two, slightly smaller hits)
	- fixed bug where you used to get the curse message even when failing to get the silmaril

- dungeon
	- fixed a bug where an up-shaft was incorrectly created for you when stairs crumbled
	- rubble can now be cleared by staffs of freedom and song of freedom

- abilities
	- Lore-master now correctly displays monster Will and Perception in the monster memory
	- the bonus from Song of Slaying now decays more slowly
		- it now decays at the old speed when not being sung
		- and half that speed when being sung
	- Song of Elbereth now costs 1 point of voice per round
	- monsters that are resistant to criticals are now immune to Cruel Blow

- skills
	- easier to spot dungeon traps
		- -5 difficulty compared with version 1.0.1

- misc
	- interacting with your own square when there is nothing there no longer takes a turn

[debo]

Nice changelist!! Looking forward to seeing the new Sindar house! Not so thrilled about the elbereth and smithing changes, even though I agree they're better for the game and I'm just being a wimp.

Sil is the best game of any type I've played in years, and I'm thrilled to see it keeps getting better!!

[Fendell Orcbane]

Why did you have Morgoth not leave the Throne room?

[half]

Why did you have Morgoth not leave the Throne room?

Ah, this may not have been written clearly enough. When you are at 1000 ft he now cannot leave (which would make the game unwinnable if you haven't got his crown). You still encounter him on the way back up.

[half]

Nice changelist!! Looking forward to seeing the new Sindar house! Not so thrilled about the elbereth and smithing changes, even though I agree they're better for the game and I'm just being a wimp.

Sil is the best game of any type I've played in years, and I'm thrilled to see it keeps getting better!!

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it so much!

This version has not yet incorporated every small balance change we have planned, but there is word of a Sil competition, so I wanted to release a version beforehand. While we currently have a version every 20 days or so, this pace of development will definitely settle down, as it approaches the best that Scatha and I can balance the current mechanics. Then there will be some more mechanics etc. My guess is that it will approach a new version of some sort (0.1, 0.0.1) every 3 months.

[PowerWyrm]

... and the competition starts now

[getter77]

I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it so much!

This version has not yet incorporated every small balance change we have planned, but there is word of a Sil competition, so I wanted to release a version beforehand. While we currently have a version every 20 days or so, this pace of development will definitely settle down, as it approaches the best that Scatha and I can balance the current mechanics. Then there will be some more mechanics etc. My guess is that it will approach a new version of some sort (0.1, 0.0.1) every 3 months.

Very nice to see a relatively lively pace being the intent here.

[Fendell Orcbane]

Ah, this may not have been written clearly enough. When you are at 1000 ft he now cannot leave (which would make the game unwinnable if you haven't got his crown). You still encounter him on the way back up.

I noticed : ) But I didn't know that you COULD leave the throne room if you didn't have a Silmaril. I haven't been able to at least.

[will_asher]

I'm trying real Sil again to try the new version and the competition character. I like most of the new changes, but the nerf to smithing seems to make smithing not worth investing in anymore.

I noticed that the bug preventing the notes from working for me hasn't been fixed. I copied the notes code for DaJAngband from NPP (IIRC) and that worked for me, so maybe you could look at the NPP code to see how he got it to work.

In my current game, I spend 40+ turns to open a locked door. On the next level (dL3), I made over 100 attempts at opening a locked door and still couldn't open it. One more level later, I spent 146 turns to open a chest (to get two average shortbows and a few arrows). What is the purpose of having opening doors so hard?

There's another thing I wanted to say about Sil, or rather about my attitute towards it. I've made a lot of negative comments about the difficulty of Sil, and I'm sorry to be negative so often. I don't mean to be so critical and whiny. The reason for my critism is this: I really like a lot of aspects of Sil, the simplicity, the skills system, the tactical situations, etc. I know this would be hard to do, but I think ideally, the game should be challenging and fun for both experts and not-so-good players like me. It's definitely challenging, but it gets to the point where it isn't fun. I feel rushed and the game seems to consistently give you 'bad deals'. Seems like everything that gives an advantage also gives at least one disadvantage. I got excited about finding _recharging, but it only puts one charge in a staff. In Angband, there are several easier race/class combinations, and some challenge race/class combinations. In Sil, Noldor is the only race that isn't a challenge race.
I don't really know how you could make it just as challenging for the experts and yet not so unforgiving for the casual players. Anyway, I'm sorry I've been so negative about it.

[Fendell Orcbane]

There's another thing I wanted to say about Sil, or rather about my attitute towards it. I've made a lot of negative comments about the difficulty of Sil, and I'm sorry to be negative so often. I don't mean to be so critical and whiny. The reason for my critism is this: I really like a lot of aspects of Sil, the simplicity, the skills system, the tactical situations, etc. I know this would be hard to do, but I think ideally, the game should be challenging and fun for both experts and not-so-good players like me. It's definitely challenging, but it gets to the point where it isn't fun. I feel rushed and the game seems to consistently give you 'bad deals'. Seems like everything that gives an advantage also gives at least one disadvantage. In Sil, Noldor is the only race that isn't a challenge race.
I don't really know how you could make it just as challenging for the experts and yet not so unforgiving for the casual players. Anyway, I'm sorry I've been so negative about it.

I know how you feel about Sil...and while I DO agree that its really unforgiving, like playing V ironman style...the game is really short too...so once you get a Silmaril, its pretty easy. But the game is so short that if it were easier it would be over really quickly...Another thing that you might want to consider is that you shouldn't try and fight everything. If you have some bad luck with a dragon you could be dead no matter how powerful you are.
Its pretty funny to me that Sil is the opposite of Cavestory, it starts really hard and ends really easy( well as easy as a rogue like can get). Cavestory on the other hand is super easy and then becomes super hard. I still haven't beaten it. But I KNOW that anyone can beat Sil, you just need to find the right abilities at right time for your playing style. Also, think about what is consistently killing you and how you can work around that...for me it was Wargs. They would ALWAYS find me, but since I was super invested in stealth i couldn't really fight them effectively. SO then what I did was put more points into evasion and melee...Wargs weren't a problem anymore...ditto Trolls and Giants.

[Psi]

I'm trying real Sil again to try the new version and the competition character. I like most of the new changes, but the nerf to smithing seems to make smithing not worth investing in anymore.

Time will tell on that one. The changes are probably my fault after smithing my way to killing Morgoth - so sorry! On first glance it looks like Aule is no longer worth the cost unless you are going for a really big song build anyway and the other changes will make the start harder - particularly for jewellers.

In my current game, I spend 40+ turns to open a locked door. On the next level (dL3), I made over 100 attempts at opening a locked door and still couldn't open it. One more level later, I spent 146 turns to open a chest (to get two average shortbows and a few arrows). What is the purpose of having opening doors so hard?

If I can't open a door in a few turns, I just bash it down. If it is becoming a problem just increase perception. One char I had found a =Perception(+4) which he kept as a swap for finding and opening doors. I must admit that they do seem a little too difficult in the most part though.

There's another thing I wanted to say about Sil, or rather about my attitute towards it. I've made a lot of negative comments about the difficulty of Sil, and I'm sorry to be negative so often. I don't mean to be so critical and whiny. The reason for my critism is this: I really like a lot of aspects of Sil, the simplicity, the skills system, the tactical situations, etc. I know this would be hard to do, but I think ideally, the game should be challenging and fun for both experts and not-so-good players like me.

Like any game, you need to learn how to play it. What situations to avoid and how to improve the odds in your favour. First few times I played I'd get killed by white wolves every time, then it was sword spiders, then Wargs, then Cat warriors... etc. Today for example I started playing the comp, I saw my first distended spider and quickly nipped around a corner where it wouldn't follow me. I shut the door on it, but then thought to myself "I can take that". I opened the door and of course it got a huge poison attack in on me and I hadn't found any form of healing yet. I died a few turns later. Of course there were probably things I could have done differently, like running sooner etc, but the real mistake was reopening the door in the first place. Sil is unforgiving - one slip can quickly spiral out of control.

[half]

the nerf to smithing seems to make smithing not worth investing in anymore.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=12490

I noticed that the bug preventing the notes from working for me hasn't been fixed. I copied the notes code for DaJAngband from NPP (IIRC) and that worked for me, so maybe you could look at the NPP code to see how he got it to work.

I'm going to get rid of the notes 'file' (but keep notes of course).

I made over 100 attempts at opening a locked door and still couldn't open it.

The mistake here is imagining that your character can do everything. Most characters are bad at picking locks (think Fighters, Mages, Clerics from D&D if you like). Some excel at it. They are the characters with high perception. If your perception is low, give up and bash down doors. Stealthy characters might want to avoid this and thus invest in perception, becoming a bit more like D&D Thieves.

This could actually be where most of your trouble in playing is coming from. I wouldn't spend more than 20 turns trying to pick a lock. At that point I'd decide whether to increase perception, go another way, or bash it down. You may have been spending more than half the turns in the game picking locks, which would explain the feelings of time pressure etc.

In general, if there is a skill for something and that thing is too hard, then it is too hard *at your current skill level*.

the game seems to consistently give you 'bad deals'. Seems like everything that gives an advantage also gives at least one disadvantage.

It gives you deals and you have to work out which work best for you. Where should you stop on the scale of light to heavy armour for example? This is an interesting choice in Sil. In D&D (before 3rd edition) you basically go for the heaviest that your class is allowed to wear, taking any interest out of the choice. In Sil, you think about your relative preference for high evasion, high attack, high protection, and low weight and see how they fit this. Scatha and I put hours of effort into making this an interesting choice for many different playstyles. We see the idea that things have disadvantages as a key improvement of Sil, and are certainly not going to change this. If you don't like that kind of thing, then Sil is probably not the game for you.

I got excited about finding _recharging, but it only puts one charge in a staff.

Staffs of recharging are amazing in Sil -- a really useful item, equivalent to the best staff you have (or will find soon). One thing to note is that they don't destroy your staffs like in Angband -- I think the tradeoff of working out where to spend the charges is much more interesting and less frustrating than that of getting unlimited charges, but having chances to destroy your things.

[Scatha]

Time will tell on that one. The changes are probably my fault after smithing my way to killing Morgoth - so sorry! On first glance it looks like Aule is no longer worth the cost unless you are going for a really big song build anyway and the other changes will make the start harder - particularly for jewellers.

Broadly we tried to make Smithing weaker for the crazy uber-smiths while not hurting it too much for dabblers (making (+2) and [+2] rings less attainable at the start was a consequence of the natural system, but I'm not convinced it's a bad one). I think you will still be able to do some very strong things with Smithing, maybe even to the point we'd still call it abusive, though obviously it is toned down compared to the previous version. (It's also possible that we've overshot slightly, but I'd like to see the Smithing experts try seriously to break the new version before they come to this conclusion.)

I think Aule will no longer be universally taken by Smiths, but it will still be used. It's one of the prerequisites for Song of Sharpness, so if you're after that (but not Slaying) you can pick it up essentially for free in passing. And if you've boosted your Grace high enough it will eventually be cheaper to learn Aule than increase Smithing by the equivalent amount.

[Psi]

Turgon found an enchanted forge(3) at around 300' as well a normal one(4) and just couldn't help himself - ploughing as much xp as he could into smithing. 10 turns per point of difficulty was quite a shock!

An amulet of danger takes -20 turns to forge according to the info... though I didn't notice any time travel making it!

[half]

Turgon found an enchanted forge(3) at around 300' as well a normal one(4) and just couldn't help himself - ploughing as much xp as he could into smithing. 10 turns per point of difficulty was quite a shock!

An amulet of danger takes -20 turns to forge according to the info... though I didn't notice any time travel making it!

There is a minimum of 10 turns, but I evidently didn't apply this to display, just to the actual time.