Good God! Those energy hounds!

[pav]

So the hockey stick exploit no longer works in 3.1.0?

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[Malak Darkhunter]

From what i've seen, sometimes they stop at the corner, like you illustrated, nice code by the way. I've noticed a few times they don't. Just like if your in a room and they enter it, you go down the corridor a bit and wait for them to come after you, sometimes they do, other times they simply stay in the room. I'm not sure what affects the (Monsters act smarter in groups does with this), but this is just simply what I've noticed, and either way you still get breathed on.

[pav]

I don't mean they stop there. I mean that once they get there, if you can kill them in a single turn, you are 100% safe from breaths.

[Malak Darkhunter]

That would work great, and be true to what you described, but usually by the time I reach hound levels, my character isn't powerful enough to kill them in one turn, you just simply don't have that kind of damage at that stage of the game. unless your using spells or something. I was using a (maul of venom 4d4 +6+6) it took a couple of hits most of them time, you only get 1 blow per round with this. After I found sting then yes I could carve them up quickly. I couldn't do anything with nexus hounds, if I was anywhere near them I got teleported away from ranged breath attacks.

[Pete Mack]

So the hockey stick exploit no longer works in 3.1.0?

That only works sometimes. Usually they won't come to the corner if you are lurking like that, but if there are a whole lot of monsters in line, they can get forced to move there.

You can still trick them by excavating a small cavern.

[Jungle_Boy]

That only works sometimes. Usually they won't come to the corner if you are lurking like that, but if there are a whole lot of monsters in line, they can get forced to move there.

You can still trick them by excavating a small cavern.

Another trick I've noticed is that if you are low on health they will come after you. So just get almost dead and try to hide around the corner, they'll come

[Malak Darkhunter]

You know playing Sang recently I've noticed that there's a world of difference between how hounds act in S then in V. Sang has the 4gai, so you would think that they would be more challenging, but they're actullay easier to dispatch then in V. Hounds in S will follow you out of rooms, so you can wait for them and then kill them one by one, and you can use the old hockey stick exploit, to put it simply, there's not nearly as many of them generated on a level, and they are easier to fight. There's obviously a difference between the code V uses and the one S uses, and maybe other variants as well. There are far more hounds in V, and a heck of a lot tougher to beat.

[Larvitz]

I am equally anti-hound, much like Malak.

They pose a challenge, but I'm just tired of my equipment that aren't artifacts melting to my flesh, and stuff... I like keeping mah good stuffs...

Maybe just less of them? There are enough challenges in the game... reducing hounds would make the game more fun for me, not less...

But that's just my opinion.

[Magnate]

Thanks to Malak for resurrecting this thread - I had missed it.

For several versions now I have made two small changes to monster.txt to enable me to enjoy the game:

1. I increment the rarity of all Z types by one. This makes the most common types half as common, with lesser effect on the rarer hounds, and I find it generates precisely the right number of hounds: enough to challenge, just short of enough to annoy.

2. I increment the rarity of magic mushroom patches by 999. These just don't belong in the game IMO - they ruin it for me. (edit: I think rarity is capped at 255 - last time I think I set their speed to -30 instead, as it was more satisfying to be able to wipe them out trivially.)

CC

[Zikke]

Thanks to Malak for resurrecting this thread - I had missed it.

For several versions now I have made two small changes to monster.txt to enable me to enjoy the game:

1. I increment the rarity of all Z types by one. This makes the most common types half as common, with lesser effect on the rarer hounds, and I find it generates precisely the right number of hounds: enough to challenge, just short of enough to annoy.

2. I increment the rarity of magic mushroom patches by 999. These just don't belong in the game IMO - they ruin it for me. (edit: I think rarity is capped at 255 - last time I think I set their speed to -30 instead, as it was more satisfying to be able to wipe them out trivially.)

CC

I like everything you have to say and I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[ChodTheWacko]

Anyway, as far as the 'Why have hounds if you have to run away from them?'
There are a few good reasons:

1) It's nice, it adds variety to gameplay. It's interesting to have monsters that are impossible to kill (for now) , as long as they don't greatly increase the chance of instadeaths.

2) Like many monsters, you run away from them at first, and take them
on once you have a decent ability. Once you have a decent ego,
you are good to go. (killing them around a corner, of course, if
they are willing. And if they aren't, then I don't waste any time
worrying about them)

Where hounds would get really annoying is if there are so many hounds
that you have no ability to explore the dungeon without having to
immediately run away. I haven't seen that to be the case.

It's common to avoid sections of dungeons that have monsters (not just
hounds) that I don't want to deal with yet. No big deal, that's just
part of the game.

I find magic mushrooms to be horribly annoying too, but that's OK, they
aren't that common, and they don't follow you. So they are cool.

- Frank

[Malak Darkhunter]

Where hounds get really annoying is if you have no ability to explore the dungeon without having to run away.....

That's exactly the problem there's way to many of them generated on hounds levels, many times I have seen 2 dozen hounds generated in one pack, with 5 or 6 different packs on the same level making it a grand total of over about 60 darned hounds on 1 dungeon level. Teleport here, there they are, teleport there, there they are ,constantly fighting or running from them. I have skipped whole levels just to get away from them. And then what's even more frustrating is if you do wipe them all off a level, they get generated right back to harrass you some more if you take to long on a level. No thanks no fun for me at all.
And further more, the whole idea and fun of the game, is to explore and find nice items, if I have to avoid certain areas of a dungeon, or levels for that matter because of the number of hounds generated all the time then I'm not enjoying the game, it turns into aggravation. My character is NOT going to run around like some scared little puppy because of a bunch dogs-Sorry-. This is about slaughter and conquest, THE FUN PART, not running away because a few people think it teaches you some kind of game play lesson. Look I know when my character is overmatched, or about to die for that matter. I don't need endless spawns of Hounds to teach me when I need to run away and hide.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I think we need to get a poll going....1. who think's hounds need to be tuned down a bit. 2. Who's thinks they are fine the way they are?

A poll would prove what the majority want's, what the majority want's the majority gets in my opinion.

[buzzkill]

Leave the poor doggies alone. You can always change their frequency (and other attributes) in your version.

[Pete Mack]

Leave the poor doggies alone. You can always change their frequency (and other attributes) in your version.

That's right. I to am fond of Tame Hounds. And for the others, well, their breath is worse than their bite.