Monster AC -> absorption + evasion

[Estie]

I also futzed with shooting to_hit values. Since there are a large number of monsters that are now sitting ducks for archery, I wanted to toughen up the high evasion monsters. This has been accomplished by halving the player to hit value for archery.

Sounds good, but getting a bit worried about the quoted part. First off, I dont see why you boost the evasion monsters when the newly introduced absorbtion favours archery. Maybe im misunderstanding something, but I would think that the new absorbtion doesnt change much for archers, so why change the balance.

The other thing is "halving the player to hit value for archery". If that means youre gonna miss with your arrows I dont like it. Balance the damage but leave the to hit chance in the "high" area. Its depressing to miss.

[Derakon]

Perhaps it'd be worth having a Slay Construct or Slay Nonliving brand? Basically slays anything that Annihilation doesn't affect. The *Slay* ego could increase tunneling maybe, and if telepathy gets broken down into species-specific telepathy then it could be the only way to sense these creatures without detection spells.

[fizzix]

Sounds good, but getting a bit worried about the quoted part. First off, I dont see why you boost the evasion monsters when the newly introduced absorbtion favours archery. Maybe im misunderstanding something, but I would think that the new absorbtion doesnt change much for archers, so why change the balance.

The other thing is "halving the player to hit value for archery". If that means youre gonna miss with your arrows I dont like it. Balance the damage but leave the to hit chance in the "high" area. Its depressing to miss.

absorption acts on a per-blow basis. Archery has a much higher damage per blow than weapons. So, archery becomes a no brainer for high absorption monsters. I don't think this is a problem, but in order not to make archery a no-brainer for everything, I made it weaker for high evasion monsters. I've only just started testing this out. There will need to be a *lot* of tweaking if the concept looks promising. And there's a strong chance that the archery penalty will be scrapped altogether and I'll try something else.

suggestions are always welcome. so are playtesters.

[Estie]

absorption acts on a per-blow basis. Archery has a much higher damage per blow than weapons. So, archery becomes a no brainer for high absorption monsters. I don't think this is a problem, but in order not to make archery a no-brainer for everything, I made it weaker for high evasion monsters. I've only just started testing this out. There will need to be a *lot* of tweaking if the concept looks promising. And there's a strong chance that the archery penalty will be scrapped altogether and I'll try something else.

suggestions are always welcome. so are playtesters.

I understand how absorption doesnt affect archery, but that just means the status quo is preserved where it is a "nobrainer" now. Anyway, I am happy to playtest BUT I am not sure that I am the right person for this. In my opinion archery was rather on the weak side pre-nerf, now after the damage got vastly reduced by changing the formula, I only use it very occasionally (fleeing monsters or Qs).

If thats not a prob... gief windows executable.

[fizzix]

I uploaded a windows executable and the needed monster.txt file to github

https://github.com/fizzix/angband (under downloads, it's called angband_evasion_absorption)

[Estie]

I uploaded a windows executable and the needed monster.txt file to github

https://github.com/fizzix/angband (under downloads, it's called angband_evasion_absorption)

Thanks. Unpacked and replaced monster file with the one provided. Playing this, anything particular you want me to look out for ?

[fizzix]

Thanks. Unpacked and replaced monster file with the one provided. Playing this, anything particular you want me to look out for ?

Anything you think is broken or doesn't work well. This can range from basic mechanics to individual monster values. Do you find yourself wanting to use different weapons against different monsters? Do you even care what the absorption values are? (cheat_know is recommended)

A word of warning. Because of the change that displays damage/round instead of damage/turn it's hard to calculate how much damage you'll do. You have to multiply monster absorption by blows/round and subtract that from the displayed total.

[Estie]

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10996

I died to Tarrasque (yasd) and forgot to get last dump. For warrior at least, the game feels not much different (except for the weird tele other behaviour :P).
Without absorbtion, warrior usually loses some damage output when transitioning from starting dagger to a heavier ego; I suppose that is smoothed out with absorbtion (which is a good thing). Unfortunately I didnt get to the endgame, would have liked to melee some tough uniques.

I am kindof worried if a hobbit rogue can melee at all though at start. Gonna try next.

[fizzix]

(except for the weird tele other behaviour :P).

This is clearly a problem of me not understanding how git works.

edit: Actually checking the source, TO in this build should be a beam. What happened differently with it? I also verified that I did indeed put the correct build online.

[fizzix]

I am kindof worried if a hobbit rogue can melee at all though at start. Gonna try next.

You probably will not be able to melee any medium absorption monster early. These will need to be avoided. Then again, that's what a rogue is all about.

Also, randarts are going to be broken (as per Magnate) because of multiple pvals.

[jevansau]

I've been trying to have a go at this, but get the following error:
Parse error in limits line 32 column 3: : undefined directive -more-
with [Initializing array sizes...] as the status display
This is on the initial start of Angband (Windows 7)

I've tried using both 3.2.0 and the other fizzit download as a base and applying the exe and edit files supplied.

Any assistance appreciated.

Regards,
Jonathan

[fizzix]

I've been trying to have a go at this, but get the following error:
Parse error in limits line 32 column 3: : undefined directive -more-
with [Initializing array sizes...] as the status display
This is on the initial start of Angband (Windows 7)

I've tried using both 3.2.0 and the other fizzit download as a base and applying the exe and edit files supplied.

Any assistance appreciated.

Regards,
Jonathan

It could be something related specifically to windows 7, in which case I won't be of any help.

Although it sounds to me like it's trying to read the wrong edit file. It *might* have to do with multiple pvals and a misreading of artifact.txt. I made a new one and uploaded it. It should work out of the box, no need to copy anything. If it doesn't, we may have a platform based problem.

[jevansau]

Thanks, that seems to work. I'll play a bit and give some feedback.