Hardest Part mitigated by Anticipation

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  • Mark
    Adept
    • Oct 2007
    • 130

    Hardest Part mitigated by Anticipation

    Decided I would branch the The Hardest part of Angband thread to discuss a related idea.

    In that previous thread, I said it was hard to learn angband, because you could get one-shotted without warning (i.e. before you had chance to learn that one-shot was possible by that creature), and then have to start over.

    A solution I didn't propose, because I thought it would make the game too easy, would be to introduce a warning, one turn before a high-damage spell or breath. Such as

    "You see the Dragon's chest glow with inner fire..." (images of Hobbit pt2)
    and then the next turn
    "It breathes...you die."

    But something OOD Town drunk said on the previous thread

    Originally posted by OOD Town drunk
    Perhaps monster knowledge could be acquired via esp. At least for intelligent monsters. That would likely help newer players without breaking the game.
    Made me wonder if rather than changing the game so you always got a one-turn warning of high-damage attacks, you were only granted such warning via a telepathic ability. I would suggest a new ability, "Anticipation" / "Clairvoyance", rather than making ESP even more over-powered.

    Such an attribute is not entirely un-Tolkieny. Aragorn seemed to have foreknowledge of risk to Gandalf in Moria; and Galadriel and Elrond could in some way 'foretell'. Also, even non-magical creatures (us humans) can anticipate someone's next move when they are en expert in that area. (Such as noticing a mage incanting or a dragon drawing breath!)

    When you have to choose between +5 speed or Anticipation, the pro chooses speed and the noob chooses Anticipation. Everyone is happy.

    TL;DR
    How about some <ability> grants the user a message to warn of some incoming high-damage spells and breaths one turn before they occur. It wouldn't need to be 100% effective. The message would ideally be coloured differently in the message log to draw attention.

    Too powerful?
    Far too code-breaking?!
  • Derakon
    Prophet
    • Dec 2009
    • 9022

    #2
    I like it. That is a seriously neat idea.

    Comment

    • debo
      Veteran
      • Oct 2011
      • 2402

      #3
      Code:
      Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "THREE"
      You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
      Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "TWO"
      You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
      Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "ONE"
      You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
      Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon breathes Nuke.
      You die...
      Glaurung, Father of the Dragons says, 'You cannot avoid the ballyhack.'

      Comment

      • krazyhades
        Swordsman
        • Jun 2013
        • 428

        #4
        Hahaha debo I just collapsed laughing

        Comment

        • Zireael
          Adept
          • Jul 2011
          • 204

          #5
          Still, the OP's idea is good.

          Comment

          • Therem Harth
            Knight
            • Jan 2008
            • 926

            #6
            This is cool! Not sure it would be so easy to implement though. The way Angband is currently written it would probably need some kind of ugly global timer, or something...

            Comment

            • buzzkill
              Prophet
              • May 2008
              • 2939

              #7
              Don't enemies already "gather their power" on occasion, or am I thinking of a different game. Also, I have no idea what that means.
              www.mediafire.com/buzzkill - Get your 32x32 tiles here. UT32 now compatible Ironband and Quickband 9/6/2012.
              My banding life on Buzzkill's ladder.

              Comment

              • Therem Harth
                Knight
                • Jan 2008
                • 926

                #8
                ... Not that I know of. Not in V anyway.

                Comment

                • Nick
                  Vanilla maintainer
                  • Apr 2007
                  • 9633

                  #9
                  Originally posted by buzzkill
                  Don't enemies already "gather their power" on occasion, or am I thinking of a different game. Also, I have no idea what that means.
                  That's the "restoring mana" message for variants with monster mana.
                  One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
                  In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

                  Comment

                  • Derakon
                    Prophet
                    • Dec 2009
                    • 9022

                    #10
                    This doesn't seem like it would be all that hard to implement, incidentally. You'd need to have monsters make the decision whether or not to cast a spell the turn before they cast it, and then store that decision in the monster object so they can act on it on their following turn. This would have the side effect that no monster could cast a spell on the same turn that the player first enters LOS, though, which would make the game a bit easier. For example, you'd be perfectly safe in tunneling through a wall to a horrible unique and then teleporting it away, assuming you matched speed with it and had a 0% failure rate on Teleport Other.

                    Comment

                    • Patashu
                      Knight
                      • Jan 2008
                      • 528

                      #11
                      Originally posted by Derakon
                      For example, you'd be perfectly safe in tunneling through a wall to a horrible unique and then teleporting it away, assuming you matched speed with it and had a 0% failure rate on Teleport Other.
                      Give Teleport Other effects a 1 (or more) turn delay, ala teleportation delay in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Problem solved.
                      My Chiptune music, made in Famitracker: http://soundcloud.com/patashu

                      Comment

                      • Estie
                        Veteran
                        • Apr 2008
                        • 2343

                        #12
                        Originally posted by debo
                        Code:
                        Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "THREE"
                        You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                        Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "TWO"
                        You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                        Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "ONE"
                        You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                        Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon breathes Nuke.
                        You die...
                        Shouldnt Antiochia be in there somewhere ?

                        Comment

                        • Bogatyr
                          Knight
                          • Feb 2014
                          • 525

                          #13
                          Originally posted by Patashu
                          Give Teleport Other effects a 1 (or more) turn delay, ala teleportation delay in Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. Problem solved.
                          And new problems created. No, thanks!

                          Comment

                          • Mark
                            Adept
                            • Oct 2007
                            • 130

                            #14
                            Probably easiest just not to grant these '1-turn warnings' for actions that occur in the first turn in LOS.

                            Better to have a warning most of the time rather than none of the time.

                            Comment

                            • Magnate
                              Angband Devteam member
                              • May 2007
                              • 5110

                              #15
                              Originally posted by debo
                              Code:
                              Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "THREE"
                              You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                              Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "TWO"
                              You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                              Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon shouts "ONE"
                              You hit Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon (3x).
                              Bahamut, the Celestial Dragon breathes Nuke.
                              You die...
                              That is hilarious. Thanks.
                              "Been away so long I hardly knew the place, gee it's good to be back home" - The Beatles

                              Comment

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