Poison: an anomaly in elements

[Timo Pietilä]

Hello.

I'm wondering if we should do something to poison as element. It doesn't fit well in either category, high or basic elements.

Basic: it has resists like basic elements: 1/3 constant, and can be double-resisted
High: it has side-effect and can be acquired as random high resist in ego-items
Neither: it has damage cap between both.

That makes it a surprise for new players who categorize it as high element and because of that they don't think they absolutely need the resist (before getting killed by it), and oddball to anyone else.

I suggest we make it a pure high element with 600 damage cap (still kills you, but is only 50 points more than nether) and variable, non-cumulative resist.

Alternative is to count it as pure basic resist with 1600 point damage cap and basic4 changed to basic5 so that elvenkind and resistance armors (and other basic resist items) always include it, with single-resist items too.

Comments?

[Nick]

I see your point, but I actually like it as it is - I think it provides interesting variation.

[Magnate]

I see your point, but I actually like it as it is - I think it provides interesting variation.

Though it pains me to do so, I agree with Nick. Oh no wait, that's Eddie. I'm very happy to agree with Nick ...

[Nick]

Though it pains me to do so, I agree with Nick. Oh no wait, that's Eddie. I'm very happy to agree with Nick ...

That sounds like a challenge

[Magnate]

That sounds like a challenge

I noticed the other day that I had passed Pete Mack to become the second-most-frequent poster on Oook. In order to get to the top I've got to stop you posting, somehow ... ;-)

[Nick]

I see your point

[Timo Pietilä]

I noticed the other day that I had passed Pete Mack to become the second-most-frequent poster on Oook. In order to get to the top I've got to stop you posting, somehow ... ;-)

Speaking of which, has someone seen Pete writing recently? Has he disappeared?

[Nick]

Speaking of which, has someone seen Pete writing recently? Has he disappeared?

He does tend to have gaps where he doesn't post for a while (although not as big gaps as Leon...); his last visit to the forums was November 19.

Maybe speaking about him will have summoned him

[ewert]

And back on topic ...

I wouldn't mind if it is changed to 600 max dmg (and no double resist). Not an issue either way for experienced players, but I kinda agree that if it isn't of the "base", it should not have max damages so big because those max dmgs can appear quite early relative to the rPoison.

[Derakon]

If we do that, though, then I vote for the per-turn poison damage from the poison timer to scale with the length of the timer, much like cuts do. Right now it's a constant 1HP/turn, which means that it's more threatening from its cancelling of regeneration than from the damage it deals directly.

(I just took a look at the code and noticed a couple of interesting things: first, being poisoned reduces your magic devices skill by 5%, and second, mortal wounds don't recover naturally)

[PowerDiver]

I do not want to see poison lumped in with the basic four. Poison is not what I consider to be an elemental attack. I've argued before that mages should not even get poison magic.

In the last game where I used wands of clone monster, I chose to clone swamp wyrms. That is a sign that when push came to shove, I thought poison had the lowest risk/reward ratio among flavors of wyrms. Changing things so that resisted poison damage goes up seems reasonable in that context. A different approach would be to make temp poison resistance harder to get.

I think the current situation is fine so long as numbers are apparent when you look at monsters. OTOH, it wouldn't bother me to see you change it to a 600 max high resist.

[Magnate]

I do not want to see poison lumped in with the basic four. Poison is not what I consider to be an elemental attack. I've argued before that mages should not even get poison magic.

In the last game where I used wands of clone monster, I chose to clone swamp wyrms. That is a sign that when push came to shove, I thought poison had the lowest risk/reward ratio among flavors of wyrms. Changing things so that resisted poison damage goes up seems reasonable in that context. A different approach would be to make temp poison resistance harder to get.

I think the current situation is fine so long as numbers are apparent when you look at monsters. OTOH, it wouldn't bother me to see you change it to a 600 max high resist.

As far as I can see, double resistance to poison is not actually implemented in the code (it's there but commented out). So it's basically a high element with a 2/3 resist rather than a random 1/6 to 1/2 resist.

[Timo Pietilä]

As far as I can see, double resistance to poison is not actually implemented in the code (it's there but commented out).

It is there. Look at the actual code that creates damage, it doesn't care about that comment in constants.h.

[Magnate]

It is there. Look at the actual code that creates damage, it doesn't care about that comment in constants.h.

Wow, thanks for pointing that out. Someone has reverted *all* the changes to use those DBLRES constants!! Ho hum.

[fizzix]

And back on topic ...

I wouldn't mind if it is changed to 600 max dmg (and no double resist). Not an issue either way for experienced players, but I kinda agree that if it isn't of the "base", it should not have max damages so big because those max dmgs can appear quite early relative to the rPoison.

I would prefer the cap not be decreased, in fact I'd rather it be increased than lowered.

However I'd not be opposed to lowering the division multiplier so that it's HP/4 instead of HP/3.