Command me to return

[Djabanete]

I like "command return" exactly as it is. Its effects are a bit unpredictable, but more often than not, they are detrimental to the player when they matter at all. A single Tengu can ruin your day when you're in a dangerous fight.

[buzzkill]

It's fine to have a RNG and a random dungeon and randomly chosen monsters, but we shouldn't choose to ignore an obvious broken AI component that can be easily fixed. It's very odd that monsters methodically track us across the dungeon and then when the battle begins they flip a coin in order to figure out what to do next, and then does it, regardless of the obviously undesirable outcome.

Maybe we can come up with a curse that causes the player to do something completely random 1 time in 5, only while in LOS of an enemy .

[kurie]

What about the "Monsters learn from thier mistakes" option in the options? There are a few AI options in there I believe. I have not tried them, but maybe someone else has?

[z118]

I like "command return" exactly as it is. Its effects are a bit unpredictable, but more often than not, they are detrimental to the player when they matter at all. A single Tengu can ruin your day when you're in a dangerous fight.

Perhaps it's just my style of play, but I find "command me to return" to most often work to my advantage or at worst prove to be an annoyance. I can not recall a single instance where it worked to the advantage of the creature who cast it.

I can certainly see, as a relatively simple first step, that the critter doesn't bother with Teleport-To when you're already adjacent. The first, and maybe last, exception would be that you're on a rune...and then, only if he can tell. I'm not saying the others aren't valid situations where a really smart critter would do something to get you out of position; it's just a real pain to code in the situational analysis. KISS is probably better.

I agree with this completely.

[Derakon]

I've had several times where, when playing with the "smart monsters" mode on, "intelligent" spellcasters have proved nigh-impossible to kill. As soon as they got remotely low on health, they'd heal or teleport away. This is of course perfectly reasonable behavior, but it's not fun, because it means I can't kill them unless I can take them from half-dead to all-dead in one turn. And that's not really feasible for the beefier uniques.

In other words, we have to be careful with making our spellcasters smarter. A certain amount of stupidity is necessary to preserve the kind of gameplay that Angband is.

[Napsterbater]

I've had several times where, when playing with the "smart monsters" mode on, "intelligent" spellcasters have proved nigh-impossible to kill. As soon as they got remotely low on health, they'd heal or teleport away. This is of course perfectly reasonable behavior, but it's not fun, because it means I can't kill them unless I can take them from half-dead to all-dead in one turn. And that's not really feasible for the beefier uniques.

In other words, we have to be careful with making our spellcasters smarter. A certain amount of stupidity is necessary to preserve the kind of gameplay that Angband is.

Or give @ countermeasures. Like a spell or rod that will tele-to or maybe one the will zap you to the nearest monster.

[takkaria]

Thirded, it does look as if 'Command me to return' was changed, and not for the better. Blink hounds are even less dangerous now, they blinked me into a corridor.. I for one think this change is a good candidate to get reversed.

T.

It's not changed since I came on watch, except just now when I tweaked it so monsters won't already command you to return if they're already next to you (r1947). Thanks to Leon Marrick/Bahman for that, since I nicked it from O.

[fizzix]

It's not changed since I came on watch, except just now when I tweaked it so monsters won't already command you to return if they're already next to you (r1947). Thanks to Leon Marrick/Bahman for that, since I nicked it from O.

I don't like this change at all. It means Gabriel or Lorgan won't pull you out of an ASC, furthering their abuse. If there's any change to be made it's changing "commands you to return" to some other phrase.

[Hariolor]

summoners could simply behave like hounds - as in not entering corridors unless their quarry is sufficiently weak.

This simple fix would entirely remove the ASC from the game.

Whether that is a good thing or not I leave to the wisdom of the masses.

[Pete Mack]

@hariolor--
it's a terrifying idea. Not only ASCs would be out, but most ordinary corridors as well. No way do I want to fight them in an open room!