How does "extra moves" work, precisely?

[hyperdex]

Hi all,

I recently found some randart footwear that had +4 speed and +2 extra moves. What does the latter do, precisely? Google Gemini seems to indicate that this is basically +20 speed for the extra moves and +4 speed for the extra speed, leading to +24 overall speed? Is this extra boost only when moving around the dungeon, and not applied during combat? (Gemini also suggested this to be the case.)

I am just curious as to how this works.

Dave

[PowerDiver]

Welcome back

Once again AI fails.

Most actions cost 100 energy. When you have +x moves, each move action costs 100 / (1 + x) energy. This is independent of speed. In general +4 speed would get you 1.4 actions, because it generates energy at 1.4 times unhasted rate, but if those are move actions you end up with 3 * 1.4 = 4.2 moves in a standard turn = 10 game turns.

More accurately, with spd+4 you generate 14 energy every game turn, and when your energy counter gets to 100 or above you move and your remaining energy is decremented by 33 rather than the standard 100. Unless it's 34, who knows. With high speed boosts it is not as simple as adding the plusses to 10, and you need to look at the energy table for the energy generated per game turn.

This is also related to the mechanic for multiple blows or shots. Each attack costs energy 100 / #attacks when decrementing your energy counter.

[hyperdex]

Thank you for the explanation!

Just to confirm my understanding...

Suppose I have speed+25 and +2 extra moves. (This was actually my situation before I took on Huan with three of the four basic immunities but I was missing COLD. D'oh!). Speed +25 corresponds to 35 energy, and +2 moves means that my energy per move is 33. Does this imply (after the game has been going a little bit so my energy is at least 67):

At the start of every game turn, I get 35 added to my energy, which will place my energy above 100. This allows me to take an action during that game turn, after which my energy will be decremented by 33, and will therefore still be at leaast 67. If my energy is still above 100 at this point will I get another action?

This means that I get at least one player action for every game turn.

Is my understanding correct here?

Dave

[PowerDiver]

No, presuming I understand your question.
Move does not mean take your turn to do an action in a game.

In this context, move means specifically that you use a movement key to step from one square to another. This does not include a melee attack even though you do that by pressing a movement key to "move" into the monster's square.

If you step from one square to another, without attacking or autopickup, I believe you are guaranteed an action in the following game turn. Actually autopickup comes first, which never made sense to me, but either way it takes energy at some point of another.

If you do a basic action, such as reading a teleport scroll, the basic action costs 100 energy. Besides movement, the only actions costing less than 100 that come to mind are multi-attack abilities that kill before using the full number of attacks.

[hyperdex]

Ah! Now it is much more clear to me. There are (at least) three types of actions a player can take. All of them generally consume 100 energy, but can be affected by items as follows:

• The energy required for movement to an unoccupied square can be affected by the extra moves attribute.
• The energy required to attack a foe can be affected by extra shots or extra blows. (I am glossing over the early kill energy you mentioned above.)
• The energy required to interact with (use or pick up) an object is (always?) 100.

Thanks again for your patience. I really appreciate your help here.

Dave

[PowerDiver]

Still a detail wrong.

Mostly right.

I miss the days of manuals for computer games.

Autopickup is only 10 energy. I don't remember whether that is per item or if you get the whole stack for 10. You also pay 10 (per item?) for autodrop due to squelch. I think intentionally dropping an item is 10. Using an item is the standard 100 energy.

You don't get energy for a kill. I should have been more explicit. The complication is that there is a separate messy rule.

Ranged attacks are simple. You do each individually using 100/#attacks energy. No autorepeat.

Melee attacks are treated differently, because e.g. with 5 attacks per round, no one wants to have to hit a key 5 times to do that.

Let's say you have 5 melee attacks. Each attack uses 20 energy. However, after the first attack you do not have the option to do something else. You are in repeat mode, where you continue attacking whenever energy 100+ for the full 5 attacks before you are allowed to do something else, unless a monster intervenes, which breaks the autorepeat. After each attack you lose 20 energy, and each game turn you gain energy according to speed. If the autorepeat is interrupted then you get a chance to do whatever you like as soon as your energy is over 100. The obvious ways the autorepeat is interrupted are if the attackee dies or gets a turn, or i f some other monster attacks you. I don't remember whether anything else interrupts this.

Partial blows adds additional complications. With e.g. 4.4 blows, you autorepeat sometimes 4 and sometimes 5.