Father Christmas

[hyperdex]

Hi all,

I was looking through the edit files trying to figure out which unique I had not seen -- grepping for "F:UNIQUE" showed 98 uniques, but I had only seen 95 and I knew about Sauron and Morgoth -- when I found Father Christmas listed as a town unique. Does he actually appear? I bounced back and forth in the town about 20 times, revealing monsters each time, and he did not appear.

This character is quite close. I just found my very first Power Dragon Scale Mail (after 15 years of on and off play) and that, together with a +2 attack bastard sword with which I can do about 1600 damage/turn means that I am now ready to take on the big guys. I have cleared out all of the other uniques and now just need to get some healing (I am a rogue) so that I am prepared for the big battles.

Dave

[Derakon]

1600 damage/turn? Cripes, man. You could win with a fourth that much damage. Got a character dump?

As for Father Christmas, never heard of him being in the game. ZAngband variants had/have Santa Claus; that's the closest you're gonna get.

A complete list of uniques:

% grep -E "^N:|UNIQUE" monster.txt |grep -B1 UNIQUE | grep -E "^N:" | cut -d: -f3
Farmer Maggot
Grip, Farmer Maggot's dog
Fang, Farmer Maggot's dog
Sméagol
Bullroarer the Hobbit
Mughash the Kobold Lord
Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman
Lagduf, the Snaga
Brodda, the Easterling
Orfax, Son of Boldor
Grishnákh, the Hill Orc
Golfimbul, the Hill Orc Chief
Boldor, King of the Yeeks
Ufthak of Cirith Ungol
Ulfast, Son of Ulfang
Nár, the Dwarf
Shagrat, the Orc Captain
Gorbag, the Orc Captain
Bolg, Son of Azog
Lugdush, the Uruk
Uglúk, the Uruk
Azog, King of the Uruk-Hai
Ibun, Son of Mîm
Khîm, Son of Mîm
Sangahyando of Umbar
Angamaitë of Umbar
Ulwarth, Son of Ulfang
Mîm, Betrayer of Turin
Uldor the Accursed
Draebor, the Imp
Beorn, the Shape-Changer
Lokkak, the Ogre Chieftain
Bert the Stone Troll
Bill the Stone Troll
Tom the Stone Troll
Ulfang the Black
Lorgan, Chief of the Easterlings
The Queen Ant
Castamir the Usurper
Kavlax the Many-Headed
Uvatha the Horseman
Medusa, the Gorgon
Gorlim, Betrayer of Barahir
Rogrog the Black Troll
Vargo, Tyrant of Fire
Waldern, King of Water
Adunaphel the Quiet
Quaker, Master of Earth
Ariel, Queen of Air
Akhorahil the Blind
Scatha the Worm
Itangast the Fire Drake
Ren the Unclean
Smaug the Golden
Eöl, the Dark Elf
The Balrog of Moria
Harowen the Black Hand
Ji Indur Dawndeath
The Phoenix
Shelob, Spider of Darkness
Ar-Pharazôn the Golden
Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw
The Lernaean Hydra
Baphomet the Minotaur Lord
Fundin Bluecloak
Saruman of Many Colours
Arien, Maia of the Sun
Ossë, Herald of Ulmo
Hoarmurath of Dir
Radagast the Brown
The Mouth of Sauron
The Cat Lord
Thuringwethil, the Vampire Messenger
Tselakus, the Dreadlord
Polyphemus, the Blind Cyclops
Glaurung, Father of the Dragons
Khamûl, the Black Easterling
Omarax, the Eye Tyrant
Ungoliant, the Unlight
Atlas, the Titan
Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer
Qlzqqlzuup, the Emperor Quylthulg
The Witch-King of Angmar
Maeglin, the Traitor of Gondolin
Pazuzu, Lord of Air
Draugluin, Sire of All Werewolves
Cantoras, the Skeletal Lord
Ancalagon the Black
The Tarrasque
Kronos, Lord of the Titans
Lungorthin, the Balrog of White Fire
Huan, Wolfhound of the Valar
Carcharoth, the Jaws of Thirst
Vecna, the Emperor Lich
Gothmog, the High Captain of Balrogs
Sauron, the Sorcerer
Morgoth, Lord of Darkness

[hyperdex]

Here is part of the 3.5.0 monster.txt file...

N:14:Battle-scarred veteran
T:townsfolk
C:B
I:110:32:10:36:250
W:0:1:0:0
B:HIT:HURT:2d6
F:MALE | HAS_LIGHT
FROP_40
F:RAND_50 | OPEN_DOOR | BASH_DOOR | TAKE_ITEM
D:He doesn't take to strangers kindly.

N:617:Red-Hatted Elf
T:humanoid
C:r
I:110:100:80:12:3
W:0:1:0:0
B:HIT:HURT:1d1
F:HAS_LIGHT | SEASONAL
friends:30:1d5:Same
D:It's Yuletide and this elf has had a few too many.

N:618:Father Christmas
T:humanoid
C:G
I:100:1000:80:12:3
W:0:1:0:0
F:HAS_LIGHT | SEASONAL
F:UNIQUE
FROP_1 | DROP_GOOD | ONLY_ITEM
F:NO_CONF | NO_SLEEP
S:1_IN_4
S:BLINK | HEAL
D:It's Saint Nick, out delivering presents to the town urchins.

This did not appear in 3.4.2 (or whatever the previous version was), so it is new. Looking it over I did not see anything that would make it impossible for Father Christmas to be generated, but the fact that he was not generated after numerous town trips indicates that I may be missing something.

The 1600 takes into account speed, blows, and damage per blow (ignoring branding). I am at speed +30 or so and getting 7 blows per attack, so it adds up quickly. I'll try to get a char dump in tonight when I am back home.

Dave

[Carnivean]

Here is part of the 3.5.0 monster.txt file...
F:HAS_LIGHT | SEASONAL

It's in my monsters.txt as well. I'm guessing the SEASONAL tag might be causing the failure to appear? It's about 10 months too early...

[Rydel]

While I haven't looked at the code, from the SEASONAL flag, I guess he'll only show up on or around Dec 25. You could try changing your system clock to test.

EDIT: Checked the code and it was added in this commit: https://github.com/angband/angband/c...09d823142a488d
Apparantly some compilers were complaining that the game didn't include Santa Claus.

It looks like they only appear 12/24-12/26

[hyperdex]

Nice catch! I missed that.

Now to grep for SEASONAL in the code base and figure out exactly how it works...

Dave

Edit: Apparently these monsters (Father Christmas and Red-Hatted Elves) can appear on the 24th, 25th, and 26th of December.

[Derakon]

Oops, I was looking at a previous version's edit files. Sorry about that.

[Timo Pietilä]

Here is part of the 3.5.0 monster.txt file...

N:617:Red-Hatted Elf

N:618:Father Christmas

Good catch. I will remove those from my copy.

[krazyhades]

For flavor reasons (non-Tolkein) or what? (if you don't mind my asking)

[Timo Pietilä]

For flavor reasons (non-Tolkein) or what? (if you don't mind my asking)

Flavor. And I don't like Christmas much, it's just a lot of stress and fuzz to me, so that too.

[Rowan]

Just ran into Father Christmas myself on 12/24/14, playing 3.5.0

If you want his spoilers:

---

"It's Saint Nick, out delivering presents to the town urchins.
This creature lives in the town, and moves slowly. It has an armor rating of 12, and a life rating of 1000. Killing this creature is worth 0 points for an 18th level character. It may carry a single good object. It illuminates its surroundings. It does not resist fire. It may cast spells which heal-self or blink-self, about 1 time in 3. Nothing is known about his attack."

(based on my encounter; didn't have a rod of probing)

I was disappointed that he doesn't seem to actually do anything but blink around the town (doesn't seem to have any kind of attack or dialogue), but I still think it's cool that they have seasonal characters. It felt SO WRONG to fight him, but I wanted to see what treasure he had- it was just a crappy magical leather cap. Poor Father Christmas!

Also, Father Christmas sucks at magic. His spells fail all the time.

-Rowan
"Hamfast," Hobbit Cleric

[Derakon]

It's Saint Nick, out delivering presents to the town urchins.

Oh, I see how it is! Less than a year in charge, and you've already promoted yourself to sainthood? Had to buy those votes too, apparently.

[Bogatyr]

Hey, I just saw him! Saw some red-hatted elfs, too!

[Nick]

Oh, I see how it is! Less than a year in charge, and you've already promoted yourself to sainthood? Had to buy those votes too, apparently.

Actually takkaria snuck that one in a year ago, so I must be about due for promotion. Any suggestions about what lies above Saint on the org chart?

Also if you think I need votes you have misunderstood my management style

[fruviad]

I just encountered a Red-Hatted Elf in town. It was a bit of a surreal experience. I was freshly recalled from an ugly scenario involving blink dogs, multiple I's and w's, and one M in particular that was intent on eating me.

I'd swatted some urchins out of the way as I stumbled towards Home and suddenly it registered on my subconscious that an Elf was attacking me.

"A Red-Hatted Elf?" I think to myself, confused. "Since when's that a town creature???"

My first idea was that somehow critters from the battle had followed me back to town. Immediately discarded as unlikely to impossible.

Then I wondered if it was a software update before realizing that couldn't be it, since this isn't updated automatically.

Then the significance of the date hit me. And I laughed.