Sil: What are your favourite features of Sil?

[Pete Mack]

The best and IMO most important feature of Sil to me is its approach to grinding and scumming - aka, you can't. Having a hard limit on how good you can make your character means that the game can be balanced around expecting you to be so powerful every so often, and your experience to match the balance. Unlike games like Nethack (which have ridiculously breakable mechanics) and vanilla Angband (where you can grind/scum for as long as you want without ever facing threats) the game fundamentally has a level of difficulty that you can't cheese.

TO be fair, it's perfectly possible to make V angband challenging. If you doubt it, try winning one of the competitions. You will need to keep CL = DL in 100's of feet (CL = DL/2).

[andrey]

Is there a plan to release new version of Sil? If so, what are the expected features?

Is there any chance that the poor Naugrim will not be so lousy in the next version?

[HallucinationMushroom]

Speaking of dwarves, it's not so much dwarves I have a problem with, but with axes. With the Noldor, you get double the good. Likely a larger dex score, and affinity with swords, which have lower, to no melee penalty. Dwarves usually have less dex, and affinity with axes isn't really useful, in my opinion, until late game. Picking up a -3, 3d4 weapon is rough for most of the game, especially early-game, which is arguably the hardest. The +1 to hit doesn't really help much. The throwing axe is so light as to negate the usually stronger str stat with dwarves.

I'm not advocating any change... it's just my observation, from a warrior player's point of view. If I dwarf, I usually longsword it until my melee is really high.

To negate a lot of my post... Charge is just about an auto-pick if you go battle-axe early, which can be loads of fun and is pretty effective. Anyway, one of my first winners was a dwarf and I distinctly remember thinking that the sword-guys have it much better... especially elf sword guys.

[taptap]

All the simple, elegant and balanced systems working in this game.

1. Criticals vs. damage side combat system
2. Song / smithing magic instead of spell magic
3. Races as difficulty levels
4. Char building not based on repetition
5. No level-ups, no exponentially increasing hitpoints
6. Viability of pacifism and song-based builds
7. Complete disclosure of game mechanisms
8. Best setting / atmosphere of any roguelike I have ever played - avoidance of spell magic, removal of tons of generic monsters really helps

[debo]

You know that thing that wraiths do to summon darkness? Can we have more monsters that do that? IT IS SO COOL

I think it would be way cooler if some of the monsters that currently default to just emitting darkness used this spell instead. The dark serpents and Unmourned seem like good targets for this, off the top of my head. Unmourned are kind of a joke monster for that depth.

I say this because a wraith finally chased me out of a room recently and I decided to engage it before orcs surrounded me, when suddenly it summoned darkness and the archers started shooting. I was totally freaked out. It is a really cool spell when there is the potential for group fighting, which is not the case in most situations with wraiths.

Anyways, I'd just like to see more monsters use this spell. It's so fun IMO

Edit: It's also cool (but not quite as cool as the darkness spell) that darkness breath also reduces light level on the squares it hits.

[decoy]

What do I love most about Sil?

Wow, now that's opening up a can of worms.

I love the fact that there are so many possible strategies to win. I've only been able to successfully implement one of them, but I've seen others make lots of cool strategies work.

I love how nicely balanced most things are. That said, I wish certain things were more common (light, armor-cutting weapons, a few low-level artefacts) and after playing a bit more I think the last down-tune to Vanish made it a bit too weak, but in general there's really no point in the game when you've got it totally "in the bag."

Unless you're a power-gamer specifically out to break it (cf. the ladder), it's a very finely-tuned game.

[decoy]

Oh my, one other thing to add:

After reading the other thread (least favorite features), I see that a lot of people want the races to be more "balanced."

Now, I don't think this is ever going to happen, and I'd just like to say "thanks for that."

The Noldor should be awesome, the Edain should be really difficult, and the Naugrim and the Sindar should be somewhere in the middle...Exactly as it says in the documentation. This is one critical "true to Tolkien" point that I absolutely love about Sil.

[wobbly]

A couple of interface comments. When firing, selecting f - for closest doesn't work when the target is off-screen. When I scroll the screen with the L command I can't get it to stick in the new position. Is there another command I'm missing?

Edit: Oops wrong thread.

[BlueFish]

One of my favorite little touches of flavor is how orc scouts are often found asleep.

[fph]

(1) shorter game than vanilla Angband; less commitment on the characters.
(2) no get-out-of-jail-for-free escapes such as ?teleport or ?destruction.
(3) no one-shotting -- in most "normal" conditions, at least.

[n1000]

I posted some comments on my ladder morgue but this is probably a better place for them.

I would like to briefly reflect upon this first Sil game. Please excuse my ignorance of Angband variants; the only roguelike I am at all proficient at is DCSS.

I cannot express how delighted I was while playing Sil. There are several features which particularly pleased me, but in truth, it is the gestalt which struck me most.

Each floor has an, apparently, simpler layout than the floors in Crawl. However, the enemy AI and the lethality of being surrounded make the tactics and logistics a fantastic puzzle. Archer AI was particularly impressive. It really took quite a bit of thought and tactical experimentation to defeat Umuiyan, a fast-moving Cat archer.

I began the game expecting to be frustrated by the lighting system but found it both interesting and fairly intuitive. Aside from initially conflating invisibility with darkness-causing, I was able to figure out most lighting issues from item descriptions and just doing what seemed best (not to mention the indispensable tip to pick up Keen Senses, Inner Light, Listening, given to me by some players I chatted with.)

Crawl is aestheticaly very light-hearted. Sil seems like a very serious game. My impression is that the developers are unwilling to compromise the portrayal of the First Age for the sake of any jokes or immersion-breaking ideas. To be sure, not every game needs to have serious and subdued aesthetics but I believe presenting such an atmosphere to be an admirable goal, and one which isn't attempted by many game designers. On this front Sil triumps. The only game which I have recently played that takes this much care (and succeeds) is Dark Souls.

There is another aspect to the atmosphere of Sil which is subtly different than its presentation or world buiilding. I'm not sure I can express this adequately, but lets call it the "impression." This is the sense and emotional response a player gets as they progress. The later floors of Angband, especially my first and second attempts at 950', were awesomely forboding. I wanted the items lying before me, but the drakes and serpents guarding them were simply too dangerous to fight. I wanted, but could not have. This, the increasingly imposing darkness, the shift from orcs->cats->drakes and rauko combined to manifest this impression of forboding I'm sure I've failed to convey...anyway, it's fantastic.

Thank you for this wonderful game. I can't wait to start another character!