A Few Questions/Observations From an Old Player

[PowerWyrm]

5. Does anybody happen to know the Teleport percentage for Rift?

Monster depth (level) divided by max depth (128) chance to resist the effect.

[Oramin]

Are you folks sure that the Nexus resistance on Boots of Stability is working? I took about 400 points of damage from a dragon (think it was a Dracolich) on a breath weapon that it said I resisted. When I checked it said the max was 400.

Of course, Nexus is one of those odd resistances isn't it?

[Derakon]

Dracoliches don't breath nexus, but Dracolisks do. Nexus is one of the weird ones, yes, where your damage ranges from 1/2 to 6/7 of normal (and the max damage from a breath is, yes, 400). I would expect that resistances would still be working; I don't think anyone's changed that code in awhile. Still, it's reasonably easy to test; summon up a dracolisk in wizard mode and wait for it to breathe on you, then see what damage you take.

[Oramin]

Yeah, I was facing both a Dracolich and a Dracolisk at the same time since Glaurung was being annoying and I didn't remember which one breathed the Nexus.

I might have just been unlucky on the roll and had the 6/7 damage for 342. I was eyeballing the damage and didn't write down the numbers; I took about 400. As such, since I'm going to be lazy and not test it, I'm going to assume that it is working correctly. ;-)

[fizzix]

Yeah, I was facing both a Dracolich and a Dracolisk at the same time since Glaurung was being annoying and I didn't remember which one breathed the Nexus.

I might have just been unlucky on the roll and had the 6/7 damage for 342. I was eyeballing the damage and didn't write down the numbers; I took about 400. As such, since I'm going to be lazy and not test it, I'm going to assume that it is working correctly. ;-)

I've tested these all within the last year, and they seemed to be working fine then.

[Timo Pietilä]

Yeah, I was facing both a Dracolich and a Dracolisk at the same time since Glaurung was being annoying and I didn't remember which one breathed the Nexus.

I might have just been unlucky on the roll and had the 6/7 damage for 342. I was eyeballing the damage and didn't write down the numbers; I took about 400. As such, since I'm going to be lazy and not test it, I'm going to assume that it is working correctly. ;-)

Single resist cold from Dracolich or fire from Dracolisk also do over 300 points of damage. About 333 depending of the actual HP of the breather (might be little less or more). Don't actually know how big the variance in HP is currently, in old days it was forced max of some number for dragons, I think now it varies a bit.

[Oramin]

Ok, my level 50 Gnome Mage on level 89 just got tagged with amnesia while clearing an Undead vault. This is apparently a new effect from what I'm used to.

What does amnesia do (besides setting the failure rate on all my spells to 50%), how long does it last, and what are the options for dealing with it?

[Derakon]

Amnesia has the following effects, judging from my quick read of the source:

* Cannot read scrolls
* Cannot browse books (but can still learn spells and cast them)
* Device skill reduced to 80%

It used to instead clear your dungeon map and make you forget the identification state of all items you were carrying that weren't *Identified* -- flavorful but tedious. The new ailment is mostly interesting in that it makes scrolls un-usable, which nothing else in the game does.

[Timo Pietilä]

The new ailment is mostly interesting in that it makes scrolls un-usable, which nothing else in the game does.

Except confusion.

[Derakon]

...yes, thank you, and blindness of course. I wasn't on the ball last night.

[Oramin]

Actually, I can still browse my spellbooks. That's how I noticed the 50% failure rate. Once it said I was affected by amnesia and the map didn't go away I started looking for other changes.

Thanks, so how long does it last and how does one get rid of it? I did a little searching which indicated it is supposed to be temporary, so there should be an approximate duration. I also found a post which said that Healing potions (along with *Healing* and Life) should get rid of amnesia. The description for Healing, however, doesn't mention anything about amnesia; yes, I'm probably going to be chugging it anyway but I'm in the situation that I can back up and don't want to waste the potion unnecessarily.

[Derakon]

IIRC amnesia is usually pretty brief, but as always it depends on the cause. For example, eating a Mushroom of Emergency will make you hallucinate for far longer than getting hit by a weak chaos breath would.

Assuming I'm reading the source's (highly opaque) definition for the cause-amnesia spell correctly, they should last a flat 3 turns, which might vary depending on how fast you are; I'm not sure.

Also, several of the priest prayers cure amnesia (everything from Cure Critical Wounds on up), though of course you'd a) have to be playing a priest or paladin, and b) have to succeed despite the increased failure rate.

[Oramin]

Yep, I backed up for a few turns and the amnesia went away; no need to drink a Healing potion.

I also just killed off a Dreadmaster who was kind enough to finally drop the last spellbook - Kelek's Grimoire of Power.

Cool, I thought, I can finally just use Mana Storm to clear out the rest of the chamber.

First off, I learn the spell. A level 50 Mage with an Intelligence of 18:210 still has a 17% chance to fail. Really? That high?

Then I do a test shot so I can how much damage it will do when I use it. I shoot it at a wall which happens to be next to an Amulet of Trickery. The amulet gets destroyed.

So, I can use the spell as long as I don't mind *destroying* all the potential loot that is already lying around? And I don't even have a 0% chance of failure?

Folks, when working on the new version, it is fairly obvious that things like Fireball or Ice Storm will destroy objects, but it would be nice to know exactly what Mana Storm will destroy.

[Derakon]

Folks, when working on the new version, it is fairly obvious that things like Fireball or Ice Storm will destroy objects, but it would be nice to know exactly what Mana Storm will destroy.

Mana Storm destroys everything. There's your answer. Okay, artifacts will survive. No other items will.

As for the 17% failure rate, it's still your highest DPS spell even with that. At level 50 it deals 400 damage, no questions asked, plus lesser splash damage to adjacent tiles. By comparison, Rift deals 40 + 50d7 = average 240 damage per hit (max 390), unless you get it to hit twice, but monster resistance to being teleported goes up with monster level, and of course there's no guarantee that the monster will teleport to where the beam hasn't hit yet, so that's unlikely. Meteor Swarm is a flat 55*4 = 220 damage per cast, very reliable.

Even given the 17% failure, your average damage over several rounds with Mana Storm is .83 * 400 = 332 damage/round. So for pumping out damage as fast as possible, it's your best bet.

I do agree that it's a bit disappointing that the failure rate is so high, but the alternative would seem to be to decrease the damage it does per cast, and it'd be a bit disappointing to not be doing "big" damage numbers with it when it does work. Anyway, your failure rate should drop to IIRC 13% if you max your INT.

[Oramin]

I'd cheerfully give up some damage potential (say 250 to 300 range) for a lower chance of failure and not having to worry about destroying items. Frankly it is a bit discouraging to compare the Mage spells to Orb of Draining.

I need to constantly consider resistances and what items on the floor I want to destroy as a Mage. By the time I finally get Kelek's, I'm no longer trying to level, I'm engaged in an item search for the last few battles with the nastiest Uniques. The only reason I actually want to kill monsters is to get their drops.

Of course, I suppose I could look at it as having access to Banishment and Mass Banishment make clearing Vaults a lot easier so I have easy access to *those* items and the Kelek's spells do make it easier to kill individual monsters, including Uniques, if there don't happen to be items already on the floor that I need to worry about.

Well, I'll play with the stuff for a bit and see, but I'd still be happy to reduce the damage potential of Mana Storm for a lower failure rate and no item destruction.