Diving, endgame and lack of consumables

[Nick]

...or FAangband's store ordering.

[PowerDiver]

Is there any reason that potions and scrolls are not generated in stacks once they are sufficiently in depth?

I believe that currently stacks are special-cased on object type. Some scrolls drop in stacks, and some don't. There might be something about value. Junk scrolls drop 2 or 3 at a time fairly often, and it would be strange to code for that, and it is not like the typical 8 or 9 satisfy hunger.

IMO stacks are bad. They just increase the variance leading to feast-or-famine. I don't want to wait 20 DLs for 10 potions of restore strength. I'd prefer 1 every 3 DLs.

[nullfame]

I believe that currently stacks are special-cased on object type.

Two things come in stacks: common things available at the store and bad stuff. I inscribe anything found in a stack as such. I buy useful scrolls/potions to ID the flavor and sell all stacks. This leads to a lot more damaged counters and head trauma for shopkeepers but fewer villas constructed in my honor.

The deeper you go a stack is almost certainly bad (curse armor/weapon).

I'm not sure what my point is. Everything should potentially stack? Nothing should?

[Magnate]

Two things come in stacks: common things available at the store and bad stuff. I inscribe anything found in a stack as such. I buy useful scrolls/potions to ID the flavor and sell all stacks. This leads to a lot more damaged counters and head trauma for shopkeepers but fewer villas constructed in my honor.

The deeper you go a stack is almost certainly bad (curse armor/weapon).

I'm not sure what my point is. Everything should potentially stack? Nothing should?

We should certainly remove the metagaming temptation which arises from the current paradigm. IMO everything should come in stacks, even if a stack is only 1d2.

[Derakon]

Hm...I can't think of any potion that's so overwhelmingly powerful that the difference between having 2 vs. having 1 would be broken. So I'm fine with that suggestion.

But we do need to start making the game harder, too.

[buzzkill]

...or FAangband's store ordering.

As fond as I am of FA, the whole ordering stuff from the store mechanic isn't one of my favorites (and that's me being kind). I rarely use it because it's cumbersome to do unless you happen to be based in a small town, and there's not a lot that you need to order, except for speed. On the other hand, I suppose that maybe I've just never made it far enough to make store ordering truly useful or worth the trouble.

[Nick]

On the other hand, I suppose that maybe I've just never made it far enough to make store ordering truly useful or worth the trouble.

Precisely. It is chiefly meant for ?Geno, ?MassGeno, !*Heal* and !Life, so once you've found one, you can order and buy them instead of scumming DL99.

Obviously the small town thing wouldn't be a problem in V - you'd probably make ordering happen at the BM. Or add a Merchant to the town, as I've done in FA dungeon mode.

[Antoine]

Precisely. It is chiefly meant for ?Geno, ?MassGeno, !*Heal* and !Life, so once you've found one, you can order and buy them instead of scumming DL99.

Another solution to consumables problems is to make different types of monsters tend to drop different types of items.

Thus, a player who wanted to find scrolls and devices might kill (for instance) greater undead, a player looking for armor and weapons might kill humanoids, and a player looking for speed rings might kill dragons.

This would add interesting tactical challenge and potentially make it quicker to collect the necessary kit.

A.

[nullfame]

Hm...I can't think of any potion that's so overwhelmingly powerful that the difference between having 2 vs. having 1 would be broken. So I'm fine with that suggestion.

But we do need to start making the game harder, too.

"Overwhelming" is hard to define but !experience, !augmentation, !CON, and ?*acquirement* come to mind as pretty sweet if I found 2 at once.

Why not make nothing stack? I guess I don't see the point. Or, if the point is make useful things plentiful when money isn't implement a stacking curve. IMO no stacking is better since the change is trivial and doesn't distract from other priorities.