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I haven't played V for a while. I have reviewed the changes implemented in 3.1 and would like to add my congratulations to Takkaria for a truly outstanding effort.
I've just finished playing the DaJAngband comp character, which is essentially V with a new monster set, and some spell tweaks combined with Eddies patch. I was struck by how cheesily *Destruction* is handled in V, primarily with respect to vaults, i.e. nuke vault, collect artifacts. When this is combined with connected stairs, it makes power-diving far less of a challenge than it should be. Optimum tactics become Buy lantern, dive to lvl98, scum until you have a staff of destruction, scum until you're next to a GV (especially a GCV), nuke GV, collect artifacts, kill Morgoth. OK, maybe there's a bit more to it than that, but I'm sure you get the general picture. I would favour disconnected stairs as standard, but can understand how this would put off many players. I think the main thing that needs fixing is *destruction*. A number of variants have tackled this problem:
1) NPP: Vault treasure is in chests, or carried by the monster guarding the square (even if this type of monster wouldn't normally carry any items.
2) FAA: (and presumably its parents- I can't remember) *Destruction* doesn't affect vaults at all.
3) Heng: *Destruction* removes all items - including artifacts, and has a random radius (11 - 19 if I remember correctly).
I have played variants with all these approaches, with many winners across all the classes, using play styles varying from slow-and-steady to fast to insane. My feeling on each option:
1) Although I like NPP a lot (probably my most played variant, through all its many stages of evolution), this is one feature I really dislike. Angband is a game of risk vs reward. Vaults are always very high risk, so unless you're very powerful for your depth (which for me would be very rare) you need to have a good idea that the reward is (at least very likely to be) worthwhile. Some of my favorite Angband experiences have been throwing every tactic and trick in the book, and inventing some new ones, to acquire a desirable item from a seemingly impossible location. The only advantage of this approach is that it also nerfs vault clearance via mass banishment.
2) I like FAA a lot also, but I don't like this way of handling destruction either (though I do think it’s better than 1). I think *destruction* should always be a fail-safe solution to getting out of trouble (albeit at the cost of destroying the items around you). Teleporting out of a vault with low HP's into a level filled with monsters you've tele-othered is very high risk, and I don't really like tele-level as the only get-out. Another problem with this method is that the boundary of the vault (ie. the point where destruction stops working) is not always particularly intuitive. I have suffered one FAA insta-death, and one near-death when destructing a unique that was clearly outside the vault, only to find that the game considered both the room (and walls of the room!) surrounding the vault to be part of the vault.
3) This is by far my preferred approach. *Destruction* is valuable both as a get-out-of-jail option and as a vault cracking tool. For the latter, great is care required and there can be some interesting tactics associated with its use.
With regard to raiding vaults with Mass Banishment, I am much less concerned. The scrolls are rare, and very valuable for the final fight. However, I would probably support the idea that they don't affect monsters in vaults al la the FAA branch (I can hear mage-lovers squealing, but I think mages suck anyway). So I guess my vote is clear. Thoughts?
I've just finished playing the DaJAngband comp character, which is essentially V with a new monster set, and some spell tweaks combined with Eddies patch. I was struck by how cheesily *Destruction* is handled in V, primarily with respect to vaults, i.e. nuke vault, collect artifacts. When this is combined with connected stairs, it makes power-diving far less of a challenge than it should be. Optimum tactics become Buy lantern, dive to lvl98, scum until you have a staff of destruction, scum until you're next to a GV (especially a GCV), nuke GV, collect artifacts, kill Morgoth. OK, maybe there's a bit more to it than that, but I'm sure you get the general picture. I would favour disconnected stairs as standard, but can understand how this would put off many players. I think the main thing that needs fixing is *destruction*. A number of variants have tackled this problem:
1) NPP: Vault treasure is in chests, or carried by the monster guarding the square (even if this type of monster wouldn't normally carry any items.
2) FAA: (and presumably its parents- I can't remember) *Destruction* doesn't affect vaults at all.
3) Heng: *Destruction* removes all items - including artifacts, and has a random radius (11 - 19 if I remember correctly).
I have played variants with all these approaches, with many winners across all the classes, using play styles varying from slow-and-steady to fast to insane. My feeling on each option:
1) Although I like NPP a lot (probably my most played variant, through all its many stages of evolution), this is one feature I really dislike. Angband is a game of risk vs reward. Vaults are always very high risk, so unless you're very powerful for your depth (which for me would be very rare) you need to have a good idea that the reward is (at least very likely to be) worthwhile. Some of my favorite Angband experiences have been throwing every tactic and trick in the book, and inventing some new ones, to acquire a desirable item from a seemingly impossible location. The only advantage of this approach is that it also nerfs vault clearance via mass banishment.
2) I like FAA a lot also, but I don't like this way of handling destruction either (though I do think it’s better than 1). I think *destruction* should always be a fail-safe solution to getting out of trouble (albeit at the cost of destroying the items around you). Teleporting out of a vault with low HP's into a level filled with monsters you've tele-othered is very high risk, and I don't really like tele-level as the only get-out. Another problem with this method is that the boundary of the vault (ie. the point where destruction stops working) is not always particularly intuitive. I have suffered one FAA insta-death, and one near-death when destructing a unique that was clearly outside the vault, only to find that the game considered both the room (and walls of the room!) surrounding the vault to be part of the vault.
3) This is by far my preferred approach. *Destruction* is valuable both as a get-out-of-jail option and as a vault cracking tool. For the latter, great is care required and there can be some interesting tactics associated with its use.
With regard to raiding vaults with Mass Banishment, I am much less concerned. The scrolls are rare, and very valuable for the final fight. However, I would probably support the idea that they don't affect monsters in vaults al la the FAA branch (I can hear mage-lovers squealing, but I think mages suck anyway). So I guess my vote is clear. Thoughts?
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