A Few Questions/Observations From an Old Player

[Derakon]

If I recall correctly, weapon weight has a moderately significant impact on the quality of critical hits you can get. For example, *GREAT* hits are basically only possible with a Mace of Disruption, or Grond. I don't really care to quantify that right now, though.

Durin is a 4d4 (+10, +20) weapon, compared to Ringil's 4d5 (+22, +25). Durin does have an acid brand, which is the best elemental brand (more or less); Ringil's cold brand is much less useful (it has similar damage ramifications but affects fewer monsters). Ringil does have the best demonslaying brand, and will also slay evil so it will get moderately boosted damage against many targets. Durin is excellent for dragonslaying though.

Bottom line is, it's a bit situational which does more damage. But Ringil should be better on average.

[Oramin]

I just found Ringil and I swapped it in for Durin. The interesting thing is Durin with Haste Self felt like it was doing more damage than Ringil (I'm in the +30 range in both situations).

Is the extra weight of Durin (23 lbs vs. 13 lbs, IIRC) really that important to the damage calculations?

[Derakon]

Let me put it this way -- I've been playing since the mid-90's or so and I've never found it (outside of ToME where it's integrated into the plot quests). I think I read about 2 people finding it outside of the period where artifacts couldn't be made properly rare; one of those was some lucky bastard who got it around 800'.

[Timo Pietilä]

Hey, does The One Ring spawn? I've found all three Rings of Power in my last two games but never The One Ring. (see if that works...)

It is supposed to be very very very rare. Like one in million chance (literally). Versions between 3.0 and 3.4 had rarity limitation which was fixed in 3.4, so it probably is again rare enough that not everybody finds it. Ever.

[Oramin]

Odd. I was looking through artifact.txt over at github. It indicates that it was edited a year ago, but just glancing through it, it seemed that the artifact names had been edited in the past couple of weeks.

Then I was looking at The Crown of Gondor which I thought had stunning resistance; it wasn't listed. I searched for the "stun" text and didn't find it. I didn't find it in the ego items file either.

Then I went and opened artifact.txt on my system. Sure enough, it found "stun" under Crown of Gondor.

1. Is the update figure at Github broken?

2. Is there a reason that resist stun seems to be going away?

Oh, btw, thanks for the comments on blindness. I'm currently running without actual named blindness resistance and I haven't had any problems yet while I'm hanging out on 94/95.

Almost forgot...

3. Does Balance Dragon Scale Mail spawn as a base type? I've seen all the other types including a couple of Power Dragon Scale Mails (last game) but never Balance Dragon Scale Mail. If it doesn't spawn, how can we get Mediator?

Edit:

Never mind, I just found some Balance Dragon Scale Mail from a Great Wyrm of Law on level 95. *blush*

Hmm, if asking causes things to spawn...

Hey, does The One Ring spawn? I've found all three Rings of Power in my last two games but never The One Ring. (see if that works...)

[Timo Pietilä]

There are three ways of being blinded - Light/Dark attacks, spells to blind, and melee attacks to blind. rLight+rDark deals with the first of these, 100% saving throw with the second. The third is rare, but there are about a dozen monsters that have it.

There is a similar issue with Confusion and melee attacks that confuse (Hummerhorns being the standout example).

Hummerhorns you can survive (fractional blows makes this easier). Titans are deadly.

[Nick]

If I have both Light and Dark resistance along with a 100% saving throw, do I need Blindness resistance?

There are three ways of being blinded - Light/Dark attacks, spells to blind, and melee attacks to blind. rLight+rDark deals with the first of these, 100% saving throw with the second. The third is rare, but there are about a dozen monsters that have it.

There is a similar issue with Confusion and melee attacks that confuse (Hummerhorns being the standout example).

[Derakon]

Yeah, I don't think that works -- I'm pretty sure you still need resistance to chaos (or protection from confusion) to avoid being confused by chaos attacks, for example. But I admit to not being clear on the details.

[debo]

If I have both Light and Dark resistance along with a 100% saving throw, do I need Blindness resistance?

I'm pretty sure 100% saving throw makes you immune to all status effects / bad things. (Not sure about disenchantment, but things like blindness, stunning, etc.)

But I might be wrong

[Oramin]

If I have both Light and Dark resistance along with a 100% saving throw, do I need Blindness resistance?

[Derakon]

It applies any time you invoke an effect from an item, as near as I can tell.

[Oramin]

Also, just to confirm, this bonus works with Artifacts and DSM as well?

[Derakon]

I don't think that information is exposed anywhere in-game; you'll have to check the edit files. Look at edit/object.txt. For example:

N:396:Annihilation
G:-:d
I:65:27
W:60:0:10:3000
A:20:60 to 100
P:0:1d1:0:0:0
C:1+d2
F:IGNORE_ACID | IGNORE_ELEC | IGNORE_FIRE | IGNORE_COLD | EASY_KNOW
E:DRAIN_LIFE4

The important bit here is the first entry in the line that starts with "W:". That's the difficulty level of using the item; thus, Wands of Annihilation are level-60 wands. If your device skill was 110, say, then you'd get a 50% damage boost when using them.

The first entry on the G: line is the graphic used to display the item; useful when there's multiple items with the same name but different base types (e.g. Identify).

[Oramin]

Is there a way to determine the level of the device other than by reading the code? In other words, how do we determine the amount of bonus damage we get?

[Derakon]

It should, yes. Mages who are not making use of devices, especially Wands of Annihilation, are significantly reducing their combat capabilities.