Sil : Suggestions

[seraph]

forges that temporarily grant a random smithing ability, similar to enchanted forges.

[Infinitum]

Been wailing on the crown for several hundred turns now what with no sharp weapons spawning all game long.

Does it really need to be a protection roll, and if so - 30d4? As is having a fraction of a percent's chance to break it out and unlock winning with the curse is just obnoxious.

[seraph]

you're using ringil? is the crown affected by frost brand (or any brand)?

[wobbly]

Pretty sure it isn't. 2lb longsword like Ringil I doubt you'll get it without sharpness & a slaying bonus. Even with 8 str, power, momentum, dramborleg, song of sharpness I ended up carrying the crown around for a bit till I could build up a slaying bonus on my last run.

It's pretty annoying with Morgoth dead. Personally I think Grond should be able to smash the crown. Then you'd be guaranteed 3 sils with him dead.

[Infinitum]

Twohanding some random 3d5 battle axe. There is a 4d5 greataxe as well but that ends up critting less due to weight. Topped out damagewise around 65 which is incidentally the low mark for the crown itself. Ran out of strength pots fighting morgy and broke Grond on the third Sil. Down to 3 rage herbs I want to save for Carcaroth. Just gonna bite the bullet and make it a 2-sil victory I think; it is theorethically possible toget it out but cannot be bothered tbh.

[Infinitum]

On a different track, is anyone else bothered by the fact that everyone and everything in the game is implied to heal what should be mortal wounds in minutes? This is an old complaint and weakness in most every game featuring "realistic" combat (see: cover shooter of your choice).

One suggestion I've seen thrown around every now and then is having what is essentially luck replacing hit points - eg instead of tanking/regenerating hits until hp reaches 0 and the character is dead the game treats everything about 0 hp as a near-miss. Once hp reaches 0 the player runs out of hail marys, is struck by an attack penetrating his or her armor and dies horribly.

Example of what being reduced to 1 hp might look like.

So, mechanicswise it would work identical to the current system but with name swaps. Eg "Hit Points" could be "Fate" and "Constitution" could be "Providence" or somesuch. Given how much JRR goes on about fate and the guidance of the Valar it seems fitting (it also implies the player in front of the computer is a god guiding the pc, so there's that).

[taptap]

On a different track, is anyone else bothered by the fact that everyone and everything in the game is implied to heal what should be mortal wounds in minutes?

I proposed a no regeneration challenge mode. I even tried myself accounting for hits (in a stealth run) and only healing via potions. Would lead to stealth and archery heavy play or a sudden fancy of vampirism weapons, but that would be fine with me.

[Infinitum]

There's that, but healing potions doesn't make sense in a vaccuum either.

Another stream-of-consciousness thing; rewarding xp for monsters fleeing through stairs/chasms? Possibility of them dropping items in their terror as they do so? Uniques would obviously count as killed for the rest of the playthrough to avoid xp farming. Bane could be reworded (as could monster memory) to "defeated" instead of "killed" enemies for consistency.

At the moment I avoid Elbereth/Majesty out of fear of missing out on loot and xp, but there are winners that have won by scaring most everything off. Could be a fun playstyle to enourage.

EDIT: Oh hey, just realized it's been suggested at post #1 of the thread.

[bagori nd]

So, mechanicswise it would work identical to the current system but with name swaps. Eg "Hit Points" could be "Fate" and "Constitution" could be "Providence" or somesuch. Given how much JRR goes on about fate and the guidance of the Valar it seems fitting (it also implies the player in front of the computer is a god guiding the pc, so there's that).

Heh, that's not far from how I always interpreted hitpoins in Sil: the Noldor "are tall and lithe, yet so strong of spirit that they can endure vast hardship." So it's not that elves are super beefy or whatever; it's that they have a combination of luck, grit, and pseudo-mystical Tolkienish personal power that lets them turn otherwise fatal blows into less serious ones.

(The real challenge to my suspension of disbelief is the advancement rate: the player goes from an average Joe/Jane/whatever to a warrior/singer/smith of legend in a matter of days, if not hours. I rationalize this by supposing @ was always that badass--it just takes them a while to get their sea legs after a taxing journey to Angband, and maybe at the late stages of the game they experience some heroic inspiration.)

[HallucinationMushroom]

The real challenge to my suspension of disbelief is the advancement rate: the player goes from an average Joe/Jane/whatever to a warrior/singer/smith of legend in a matter of days, if not hours. I rationalize this by supposing @ was always that badass--it just takes them a while to get their sea legs after a taxing journey to Angband, and maybe at the late stages of the game they experience some heroic inspiration.)

This is the big problem for me as well. To combat this, I sometimes make debug-mode characters, give them a pool of XP to start and spend, and then never allow them to spend any more. I used to do 45k, which is roughly half of what you can expect to finish with. You could experiment with other values... it's just for fun and imagination, after all.

[bagori nd]

that sounds really fun and interesting--I'll give it a try sometime!

[taptap]

Fun fact: 45k is more than the first winner used.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Fun fact: 45k is more than the first winner used.

Don't remind me. I was trying very hard to be first. The second winner had 71k...

Satyrs was the perfect way to win considering the lore. Nobody went on to sing for victory for a long time after that iirc.

[seraph]

This is the big problem for me as well. To combat this, I sometimes make debug-mode characters, give them a pool of XP to start and spend, and then never allow them to spend any more. I used to do 45k, which is roughly half of what you can expect to finish with. You could experiment with other values... it's just for fun and imagination, after all.

that sounds interesting. i would probably edit the early monsters to make them more difficult. i'd probably make stat drain (and restoration?) more common too, to simulate being worn down over time.

i guess another way to look at it is that, like bagori said, @ was always bad ass; they've just been "skill drained".