Sil-Q 1.4.2 release

[Infinitum]

At some point traps may undergo some sort of overhaul; as it stands they're not good game design and I've found making them more or less harmless to have few downsides. Making them viable would I think require either allowing enemies to be affected by them (Brogue does this very well) or giving thematic clues that let the player know they're in an area where traps could occur.

Please do! Role playing traps to me seems like a vestigal D&D feature to give rogue characters something to do more than anything.

As for thematic replacements, nests and spiderwebs are spot on (especially if the latter can be coded to spawn in close proximity to spiders). Having uneven/slippery terrain which can trip up the player unless spotted could also serve as a functional replacement to the minor nuisance traps. Maybe the thornbush enemies could be remade as a dungeon feature as well, blocking line of sight and causing minor damage as the player pushes through them.

[mibert]

If you have at least minimal investment in Perception you should be relatively rarely caught by traps.

At some point traps may overgo some sort of overhaul; as it stands they're not good game design and I've found making them more or less harmless to have few downsides. Making them viable would I think require either allowing enemies to be affected by them (Brogue does this very well) or giving thematic clues that let the player know they're in an area where traps could occur.

Hi Quirk, thanks for your answer. And many thanks for Sil-Q!
I'm just playing a Noldor with +3 Grace at start and no perception investment. I really dont think I have ever stepped on a trap. Very much unlike it used be.
I read the manual and noticed changes to how trap detection is calculated, so I guess it's that.

[Quirk]

Hi all, I'm playing both the git version and 1.4.2 and I somehow always notice traps and never step in them. Seems really odd, any ideas? Thanks!

If you have at least minimal investment in Perception you should be relatively rarely caught by traps.

At some point traps may undergo some sort of overhaul; as it stands they're not good game design and I've found making them more or less harmless to have few downsides. Making them viable would I think require either allowing enemies to be affected by them (Brogue does this very well) or giving thematic clues that let the player know they're in an area where traps could occur.

[mibert]

i never step in traps

Hi all, I'm playing both the git version and 1.4.2 and I somehow always notice traps and never step in them. Seems really odd, any ideas? Thanks!

[moosferatu]

I noticed that when I start a new character on linux that the keyboard becomes unresponsive if I select "New character" by pressing "b" rather than the down arrow.

I did a search of the forum, and it sounds like this may be a known issue with Sil that someone patched in a fork a few years ago:

http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=8427

Any chance the fix could be incorporated into Sil-q as well?

[ster]

i must have missed that change.

hand axes are... terrible. i found a 5d2 one and was decided my vanilla great sword was better. 5d4 vs 3d8. and this is a best case scenario.

the handaxe is also doing ~1.5d4 extra damage most of the time because of how trivial setting up whetting on them is, you get shields, it has slightly more accuracy etc. they were really strong if built around especially as a 1lb weapon.

[seraph]

I did forget about shields. lol

[Quirk]

In any case they're being changed for the next release because they were a bit on the broken side with smithing. They'll remain 1 lb but 4d2 base, so 4d3 with no bonuses, climbing to 4d5 with fine and Power.

If you compare either 4d5 or 5d4 with a 2d10 longsword, it should be fairly easy to see the axe has a better average without crits, a better worse case, and requires 1 strength against the longsword's 3.

[Quirk]

i must have missed that change.

hand axes are... terrible. i found a 5d2 one and was decided my vanilla great sword was better. 5d4 vs 3d8. and this is a best case scenario.

Not sure this is a fair comparison. Hand axes are one handed; you can use a shield. You might as well say that great swords obsolete longswords.

[seraph]

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...

i must have missed that change.

hand axes are... terrible. i found a 5d2 one and was decided my vanilla great sword was better. 5d4 vs 3d8. and this is a best case scenario.

[wobbly]

Had a tanglethorn spawn on a staircase which maybe shouldn't be happening

[wobbly]

I meant if you didn't move last turn. It would be a different rhythm to dodge/flanking which is move every beat, this is more move on the offbeat. No real strong feeling on it, just as long as it works with controlled retreat which is pretty much the only synergy block has at the moment.

[Quirk]

Hey Quirk, you mentioned changing blocking to any action other then moving? I'm going to suggest the same mechanic as controlled retreat, or maybe similar so you can flank with it as well if you stood & hit last turn.

Just to clarify, you mean block if you did not move on the previous turn? Or block if you are moving to a location that is not adjacent to the enemy?

I'm not sure I want it to work with Flanking - Dodging already does that, and I think thematically Flanking is mobility-based. It will still work nicely with Controlled Retreat.

[wobbly]

Hey Quirk, you mentioned changing blocking to any action other then moving? I'm going to suggest the same mechanic as controlled retreat, or maybe similar so you can flank with it as well if you stood & hit last turn.

[HugoVirtuoso]

So, apparently Flanking ?still works while confused. I encountered this while fighting Madthorns, but couldn't tell if it was because I was running into them or if 'flanking' took effect while going in a different confused direction around them. Let us know if this intended behavior. Thanks