Sil-Q 1.4.2 release

[Quirk]

Feature request:
When you have an un-Ided weapon with a slay on it, make a message that says 'your short sword {special} glows if a suitable monster is near by, even if the weapon is 'in your pack'. The nonsense of dropping it on the floor to check is just unnecessary tedium. (Possibly have the message even if the weapon is ided.)

Looked at this today, but it's not really viable. The condition for the weapon to glow is met on an ongoing basis, and may easily toggle back and forth a lot when you're nearby enemies without closing on them, so the message would get very spammy. Not sure why you'd drop the weapon on the floor rather than wield it.

Auto-IDing from the glow isn't so hot either - surrounded by wolves and orcs, your weapon could be either Gondolin or Doriath.

Have added a colour change when you look at your inventory - glowing weapons will highlight in cyan.

[wobbly]

From the manual: "The only sources of protection that count are special protection from special abilities, or magical rings and amulets. If it is fire or cold damage, you can also count the protection from your shield."

This one is actually a bit confusing, as there is fire breathe that works as above, and fire melee(balrogs) where it's physical damage with an extra die if you lack fire resistance.

[Quirk]

Found a 'bug' and I don't know if this persisted since Sil-Vanilla 1.3.0. When wielding Gaurin (and maybe other Sharpness weapons), Staff of Self Knowledge reveals: " Your weapon cuts easily through armour (ignore 500f protection)".

Thanks.

Also:
How do betrayal artefacts work? e.g. Bloody Hand (as in this case)

Separate question unrelated to betrayal artefacts:
If I don't have Fire Resistance, abundant protection reduces its damage too, right?

Betrayal artefacts tend to fail you at bad moments. In the shield's case, it's likely to fail to block a blow capable of almost killing you when you're already quite badly injured. The effects of betrayal are never directly fatal, but can leave you in a sticky situation.

From the manual: "The only sources of protection that count are special protection from special abilities, or magical rings and amulets. If it is fire or cold damage, you can also count the protection from your shield."

[HugoVirtuoso]

Found a 'bug' and I don't know if this persisted since Sil-Vanilla 1.3.0. When wielding Gaurin (and maybe other Sharpness weapons), Staff of Self Knowledge reveals: " Your weapon cuts easily through armour (ignore 500f protection)".

Also:
How do betrayal artefacts work? e.g. Bloody Hand (as in this case)

Separate question unrelated to betrayal artefacts:
If I don't have Fire Resistance, abundant protection reduces its damage too, right?

[Quirk]

Is it just me or is Sil-Q digestion rate much slower than Sil-Vanilla by default? Rationale?

It's just you. The only change to food in Sil-Q is around the removal of the Gorged status.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Is it just me or is Sil-Q digestion rate much slower than Sil-Vanilla by default? Rationale?

[Quirk]

I believe hand axes are not flagged as throwing items. The combat rolls indicate that they have a thrown melee score of 4 when it should be 9, and 1 damage side when it should be 2. This penalty does not occur when wielded normally.

Yeah, they're not throwing axes any more. I don't think there are actually any instances of axes being thrown in Tolkien (though I'm amenable to being proven wrong). Of course the same could probably be said of daggers...

[seraph]

I believe hand axes are not flagged as throwing items. The combat rolls indicate that they have a thrown melee score of 4 when it should be 9, and 1 damage side when it should be 2. This penalty does not occur when wielded normally.

[Quirk]

Standfast doesn't show up with staff of self knowledge

Thanks, will fix.

[DavidMedley]

Very subjective, but I feel the terms "mindless" and "unintelligent" are too similar. I have it figured out now, but it took me quite a while.

[wobbly]

Standfast doesn't show up with staff of self knowledge

[Quirk]

1.4.2 Manual says "blunt weapons are useful against armour" and "Song of Whetting • Grants sharpness" but neither of these things have any details. Is sharpness the same 2% per Song pt as in Sil?

If blunt weapons are still listed as useful against armour, that's a bug in the manual. Previously quarter of the damage blunt weapons dealt ignored armour, but this was revised in 1.4.2 as it was felt to be inelegant.

Sharpness reduces armour by 50%; this is the case with all sharp weapons in Sil. Song of Sharpness was the anomaly here. Song of Whetting grants actual sharpness.

[DavidMedley]

Blunt and Sharp

1.4.2 Manual says "blunt weapons are useful against armour" and "Song of Whetting • Grants sharpness" but neither of these things have any details. Is sharpness the same 2% per Song pt as in Sil?

[DavidMedley]

Thanks for the response!

[Quirk]

Not sure where to post this question. One section of the manual describes "trap" skills in Sil. Careful Shot and Mind Over Body I get. But why say "Throwing Mastery offers an inferior ranged option"? Seems useful enough, but maybe the problem is it drives up the cost of other Melee skills which would be even more useful? Or is it that thrown weapons' range is too limited?

Throwing Mastery was actually the "worst" skill in Sil 1.3.0, according to http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8157. Why is it so bad compared to Archery?

Firstly, Archery rolls against one-half your opponent's Evasion, throwing weapons rolls Melee against full Evasion. Archers hit more and score more criticals, so in the late game arrows do much more damage.

Secondly, daggers and throwing axes are fairly miserable damage wise, and the criticals they do get are worse than bows.

Thirdly, spears have miserable range: you need to reach 7 strength to pass the range of a shortbow.

Fourthly, Archery has an entire skill tree of goodies powering up bows further.

Fifthly, bow and arrow enchantments compound - while this has been dialled back in Sil-Q, in original Sil you could be firing Flaming Arrows which had an enchantment of Piercing from a Bow of Nargothrond. Archery was somewhat overpowered.

Sixthly, while a stack of vanilla spears or throwing axes might be fine at 50', by late game they look surprisingly sad. It's relatively rare to accumulate a stack of good throwing weapons which have some kind of slay on them, you're much more likely to have multiple bows with different slays in Sil (or arrows in Sil-Q).

There are probably a bunch more reasons why throwing weapons are terrible including, as you mention, driving up the cost of other Melee skills - but much would require to be done to make throwing into a comparably viable ranged option. Throwing being a relatively niche single combat action little mentioned in Tolkien didn't help its case either, nor did the relatively clumsy interface compared to archery, so I opted to drop the skill entirely.