V 3.5 now in feature freeze

[Nomad]

Is it just me, or is it raining artifacts?

Can't speak for the later game, but to add some more anecdata, I've had two randart warriors reach around 2000' feet and they both found one artefact each. So either the RNG likes you, it doesn't like me, or I keep dying just before the rain of artefacts starts.

[takkaria]

Sounds like it's time for some stats. Does the stats module still work?

Btw, sad to see there isn't a new forum title at 5k posts!

As far as I'm aware. All of our stats magicians are inactive at the moment though!

[Magnate]

It's certainly more generous than 3.4 was. What exactly the right distribution is, is difficult to say. Those of us who got used to 3.4's paucity will think that 3.5 is overgenerous, but I rather suspect it's still less generous than 3.1.2 was.

Sounds like it's time for some stats. Does the stats module still work?

Btw, sad to see there isn't a new forum title at 5k posts!

[Derakon]

It's certainly more generous than 3.4 was. What exactly the right distribution is, is difficult to say. Those of us who got used to 3.4's paucity will think that 3.5 is overgenerous, but I rather suspect it's still less generous than 3.1.2 was.

[MattB]

I realise a sample size of one can't be statistically significant, so I'm asking everyone else playing 3.5:

Is it just me, or is it raining artifacts?

I'm running a HT warrior and I'm finding it ridiculously easy (not that I'm complaining, but I'm really not very good).

If it's just me I'll sit back and enjoy the RNG's unusual generosity (and then die to the Terrasque OOD at dlvl 55).

[MattB]

Un-ID'd items look like their basic type. This changed sometime after 3.1 IIRC.

That's alright then
I'm not very observant.

[takkaria]

Is it intentional that un-ID'd artifacts can have the wrong dice listed?
See Ringil below...
(For all I know this could always have been the case and I've been too dozy to notice).

Un-ID'd items look like their basic type. This changed sometime after 3.1 IIRC.

[MattB]

Is it intentional that un-ID'd artifacts can have the wrong dice listed?
See Ringil below...
(For all I know this could always have been the case and I've been too dozy to notice).

[krazyhades]

1. Have Scrolls/Staves of Probing which can be purchased in the stores.

2. Have Scrolls of History which can be found/purchased which give you information about monsters.

I would like this change a great deal.

[krazyhades]

* Replace rings of rFire & rCold with one ring, rFire&Cold

Definite improvement and makes thematic sense with the existence of the priest spell of the same name. Potentially suggests a template for future non-artifact rings that provide more than one resist. Regardless of future implications, a great change that makes a grind-out-this-squelch find into an item that is useful for much longer.

* Move =Flames/Ice/Lightning/Acid higher in the dungeon

Feels really really good when a player has one or two such rings, which I like. Cycling through more than 2 or 3 at the start of every major fight feels bad, both because it's very strong at certain stages of the game and it afterwords begs the player to rest multiple times with different rings on in order to recharge them all. This is made even more unpleasant and weird by the fact that the rings stack or not based on their [+AC] stat, so I'd often rather have 3 [+6] rings of ice over 3 nonstacking rings of acid.

tl;dr great change, overall love it, and I would love to see continuing attention put towards getting ring gameplay right.

* Radically improve Slow Digestion (you nearly never need to eat with it).

Definitely like this change. It's not transparent to me how this interacts with regeneration, but that has nothing to do with this specific version. Rings of slow digestion feel much better when you're waiting on a real ring to show up, and the stat is more relevant (but still a waste of potential item power) on artifacts. Not really so important for classes that can magically feed themselves, but a nice bone to toss to the Warrior and Troll.

- fast recovery heals some HP, clear mind heals 10SP.

Feels good. The hp gain loses most of its relevance during the midgame, when the cc-removal is most relevant due to there being stronger monsters and gaping resist holes, but I definitely find myself carrying these shrooms.

- substantially increase duration of telepathy from ,SecondSight and rConf from ,ClearMind.

Yeah wow. That telepathy lasts a long time, often for multiple fights. The rConf feels really good, and rewards one for using the mushroom preemptively.

- Terror now gives you +10 speed

I still almost always squelch Terror as soon as I ID it, but this change makes for some fun stories! Definitely like it. Once, and only once, a "what the hell I'll not drop it yet" Terror saved my life.

Also, IIRC fizzix's pack spawn changes in this version, and they're great. Ditto for the HP gain changes.

My biggest critique of the feeling of exploring the dungeon right now is definitely the fact that it's annoying to explore the weird dungeon areas that are created around circular rooms. Hopefully we'll be able to see them created in a way that doesn't tear the dungeonscape so (and make them identifiable from a mile away).

Love the changes! A big THANK YOU to all the people who helped bring them about.

[Timo Pietilä]

From the very beginning, one of the core principles of Angband was that everything in the game is open and public. It's easy to look up for yourself what monsters can do, how spells work, what various pieces of equipment do, how the time model works, etc., etc. You don't even have to interpret the source code, there are "spoiler" files that present all of this information as conveniently as possible.

That's not quite true. At beginning game made some things vague on purpose, like saving throw (heroic -> legendary where legendary was more than 100%), and files you refer didn't contain info about artifacts, that was part of the source and so on. No info about how much damage you do, you needed to calculate it yourself.

It's a lot more "open" now than it was at the beginning. What was open was coding the game, it was made easy for everyone to tweak their own copy at will so for coders it was "open". For non-coders not so much.

[DaviddesJ]

Some games are designed to be played once only, and some games are designed to be played over and over again.

If you have a game with hidden information that is only supposed to be played once, and there's no point in replaying because once you've played through it you know the hidden information (e.g., the point of the game is to find locations, and once you know where they are then the game is uninteresting), then revealing the hidden information before you play would sap some of the point of the game.

On the other hand, if the game is designed and intended to be played many times, then it's expected that you will may know the map (from previous playings) and the game will still maintain its character. In that case, it would definitely make sense to have an option (or even an automatic choice) to reveal the map from the start, and it doesn't make any sense to call that "cheating". It's just giving you information that everyone can already have from previous playings. Some people might prefer to reveal information as they go, in their first playing, while others might prefer to just see it all from the beginning. Everyone should play as they want and there's no reason to call one approach "cheating".

If knowing the map is a big advantage, but you want to make the game replayable, then the best solution is to make the maps random rather than fixed. That way it can be different every time and hidden from the start.

I used to play multiplayer AOWSM, sometimes on fixed maps and sometimes on random maps. When we played on random maps, we would usually play with the map hidden from the start, and each player would have to explore to discover the map. When we played on fixed maps, we would generally expose the whole map to everyone from the start, so that some players don't get an advantage over others from knowing the map better. Exposing the map there is not "cheating", it's a balancing mechanism. To say that some players have the map exposed from the start, because they have played it before and it stays revealed for them, while others have to explore it from scratch, with no peeking, would seem unfair to me.

This is my best attempt to answer (one of) your hypotheticals. That's about as much effort as I care to invest in this. If you need to refine or elucidate or interpret your examples further, I suggest you at least make a new thread for them.

[Oramin]

Oh my god you two just make out already.

Pretty sure he's not my type (since based on the name he's a 'he').

David:

Don't worry, I'll cut off the analysis soon enough since I do have other things to deal with; I'm just trying to make a point by presenting those two hypos. After that, I'll explain the point and then make sure you get the opportunity for the last word.

[DaviddesJ]

Oh my god you two just make out already.

I'm trying my best to limit the off-topic discussion here, but he keeps insisting that I analyze various hypothetical scenarios in various other types of games. I don't like just ignoring questions, but if I keep trying to answer we could be at this forever.

[Derakon]

Oh my god you two just make out already.