Sauron/Ring of Power?

[Egavactip]

I just killed Sauron and I was expecting that he would have the ring of power, but he didn't have it (or anything else of value). How does one come across the ring of power?

[debo]

I just killed Sauron and I was expecting that he would have the ring of power, but he didn't have it (or anything else of value). How does one come across the ring of power?

It's a (very, very) rare drop. I think on most recent versions of Angband, you can't find it until after you kill Morgoth -- it drops on floors even deeper than 100.

You can find three of the lesser rings -- Nenya, Narya, and Venya, or something like that -- as rare drops in the "normal" game. All three are quite awesome

[Egavactip]

Yes, I have two of them and they are nice. But I am a bit irritated that you can't find Sauron's ring until you kill someone else! My precious....

[Derakon]

It's a (very, very) rare drop. I think on most recent versions of Angband, you can't find it until after you kill Morgoth -- it drops on floors even deeper than 100.

This isn't true; the Ring can be found at any depth except the town (no artifacts drop in the town, period). However, its native depth is 100, so if you want to find it before then it'll have to pass out-of-depth checks or be generated in a vault that's gotten an appropriate level boost. For example, there are tiles in vaults that generate items with a +40 boost to their level, so you could find the One generated in such a vault at 3000' without having to pass out-of-depth checks.

Or you could just get obscenely lucky and have a novice ranger drop it at 500'. Things like that have happened before.

Still, you should assume that the One will not be generated in any given game, unless you feel like doing a lot of otherwise-pointless grinding.

[debo]

This isn't true; the Ring can be found at any depth except the town (no artifacts drop in the town, period). However, its native depth is 100, so if you want to find it before then it'll have to pass out-of-depth checks or be generated in a vault that's gotten an appropriate level boost.

Oops! I always forget how this works. Sorry for the misinformation.

[Timo Pietilä]

Oops! I always forget how this works. Sorry for the misinformation.

Also it is nowhere near as rare as it used to be, rarities just don't go high enough in current vanilla (I believe that is being corrected for 3.4) and The One is just as common as Vilya or Ringil or 7 other high-level artifacts. (rarity max is 1 and 10 artifacts have it). Only thing that makes it really rare is its depth, but if you roam around 93+ depths even lesser vaults can have it as native depth treasure.

[edit] typo fixed

[fizzix]

Also it is nowhere near as rare as it used to be, rarities just don't go high enough in current vanilla (I believe that is being corrected for 3.4) and The One is just as common as Vilya or Ringil or 7 other high-level artifacts. (rarity max is 1 and 10 artifacts have it). Only thing that makes it really rare is its depth, but if you roam around 93+ depths even lesser vaults can have it as native depth treasure.

[edit] typo fixed

Artifacts are much rarer in 3.4. Overall ego items are down as well (which means junk is up a bit). Consumable drops are up a small amount (except for stat gain pots which are a bit lower). Floor Items recovered in gameplay trail total floor items more than in past versions due to fuzzy detection. What I mean by this, is that you're more likely to go out of your way for the long sword than you are for a random item.

I've been monitoring item allocation pretty closely, both through test-playing and running stats. I'll probably push my last bit of suggested changes this weekend, which include returning floor item drops to 3.0.6 levels (up ~3 per level) and making caverns more generous. Suggestions on any current problems with item allocation in 3.4 would be very much appreciated.

[Derakon]

Artifacts are much rarer in 3.4.

But to be clear, this is a general reduction in the quantity of artifacts altogether; the rarity of the One Ring compared to the rarity of any other given artifact is unchanged. Correct?

That would still have the net result of making rare artifacts show up much less often though, which seems good.

[fizzix]

But to be clear, this is a general reduction in the quantity of artifacts altogether; the rarity of the One Ring compared to the rarity of any other given artifact is unchanged. Correct?

That would still have the net result of making rare artifacts show up much less often though, which seems good.

Yes. As far as I am aware, none of the artifact rarities in artifact.txt have been changed.

To be clear. Total artifact counts, as calculated by level-clearing stats runs, are down by about 30-40%. The actual amount of recovered artifacts in gameplay is even lower due to fuzzy detection and the fact that a normal player won't be clearing all graveyards/ainu pits/demon pits/vaults. This effect is much harder to measure.

[Magnate]

Yes. As far as I am aware, none of the artifact rarities in artifact.txt have been changed.

This has been fixed in v4, where The One is now 10x as rare (1 in 1000 rather than 1%). It might not be that hard to port this change to V, separate from the ego item changes. Fizzix - if you think this would be a high priority, let's discuss on IRC.

[debo]

This has been fixed in v4, where The One is now 10x as rare (1 in 1000 rather than 1%). It might not be that hard to port this change to V, separate from the ego item changes. Fizzix - if you think this would be a high priority, let's discuss on IRC.

If it's that rare, I think it should lose the Aggravate property

[Magnate]

If it's that rare, I think it should lose the Aggravate property

Not really - this fix only restores The One to roughly how rare it was under 3.0.x

[Derakon]

Aggravate on the One Ring is thematic, anyway -- wearing it made Sauron instantly aware of your location and brought his goons down on you right quick.