Loving 3.5.0

[MattB]

Yeah but ego lanterns and helms always show up eventually. Still, it is a pain. I often end up collecting mushrooms of second sight to shore up the blindness hole.

Oh yeah, I often end up with a hat of seeing in my best equipment. I just meant that randarts seem pBlind light. ESP seems more common, for crying out loud!

But like you say, not a real issue thanks to egos.

[MattB]

It's a good point about oil drops. Although one flask of oil lasts for quite a long time that I usually don't run into problems. Were you running out of light?

I don't have this problem at all (although it probably stems from the fact that I recall too often). Whenever I pass a lantern or flask of oil I refill my lantern straight off the ground. When I'm in town I buy one or two flasks of oil and instantly refill. If you want a stack you can always buy 40 from the shop. Heck, you could even buy 400 if you want!

Also I'm with you on nexus stat swap. I disable it in my personal version and don't feel bad about it at all.

I know this has been covered before. Equally I would defend to the death anyone's right to mess around with their own version of Angband. However...
I think the game would be much reduced without statswap.
It's absolutely terrifying yet incredibly rare. This makes it a great mechanic in my book.
I mean, IF it breathes and IF you've got no rNexus and IF it scrambles and IF you fail your saving throw then...what?
Assuming you're not a warrior you've only got one junk stat. Which makes it unlikely that you'll be swapped against your junk stat. There are enough mathematicians on this forum to tell me those odds, but I make it 60% in my favour (maybe...).
Suffice to say that in my last hundred games I've never had a bad scramble. Even if you do, you're probably in statgain so it won't take long to sort out. But that's just my opinion.

[krazyhades]

Yeah but ego lanterns and helms always show up eventually. Still, it is a pain. I often end up collecting mushrooms of second sight to shore up the blindness hole.

[MattB]

I've had several games where I stick with a Lantern of True Sight the entire game; that SI+pBlind combo is vital and oftentimes with randarts you don't have another source of pBlind.

I too have found that pBlind is one of the hardest slots to fill with randarts.
Glad it's not just me!

[Derakon]

I've had several games where I stick with a Lantern of True Sight the entire game; that SI+pBlind combo is vital and oftentimes with randarts you don't have another source of pBlind.

Anyway, consequently I have experience with fuel in the lategame, and it's not a problem. The trick, though, is to not squelch lanterns. You can refuel from them as well as from flasks of oil, and in the lategame they're many times more common.

[fizzix]

It's a good point about oil drops. Although one flask of oil lasts for quite a long time that I usually don't run into problems. Were you running out of light?

Ego items are now weighted, specifically you are a lot more likely to find the weaker egos early, then they stop being dropped and late game your egos are more likely to be the more powerful ones, gondolin, HA, westernesse. To compensate for this change, weapons have a much flatter chance to be made into an ego in the first place. So yeah, you're going to find a lot of gondolin weapons in the late game, because any weapon that's made into an ego is going to be a "high" ego. You're also going to find a lot more boring magical weapons in the late game, than you would in any version since the war on Too Much Junk. Overall, your chance of finding a high ego early hasn't changed much, and neither are your chances of finding an uber-weapon late (Mace of Disruption Holy Avenger, for example), which was one of the design goals of this.

I'm glad people have noticed these changes, they took a lot of finicky manipulations and multiple runs of stat-gathering to get stuff that looked right, and in the end, I still feel like I kind of "guessed" the allocation levels. There certainly is room for improvement, especially with artifacts and the early game slay weapons.

Also I'm with you on nexus stat swap. I disable it in my personal version and don't feel bad about it at all.

[krazyhades]

Odd. I usually find more boots of stability than I know what to do with. Trickery always shows up sooner or later and makes it in to many of my builds. Come lategame it's more about finding a Trickery amulet with the best plusses. I've certainly seen flasks of oil in stacks on the dungeon floor, but I'm not sure about whether I've often monsters drop them in stacks. Q's still do have that summon chance and they can destroy you when they use it, so count yourself lucky. The gondolin and company of weapons show up a lot come mid/lategame but they're not really lategame items unless on a greater weapon IMO (scythe of slicing and pals).

The room variations are great, and fizzix's modification to monster group spawns definitely add fun, flavor, and variety (e.g. ice giants spawning with cold hounds).

Really glad to hear you're enjoying it even though I'm not one of the devs! They've done a lot of great work to make the most user-friendly version of the game yet, while maintaining the roles of luck and sheer unfair brutality. It's not the hardest it's ever been, but it is the best it has been. Good luck!

[UglySquirrell]

A few thought's on 3.5.0

Having spell users dropping books is great for ironman, and groups consisting of more than one type of monsters adds a more natural feeling.

The different level and room types is very refreshing, and i really enjoy the smaller more diverse pits/nests , i had lots of fun seeing and eventually killing my first pit of assorted J's and n's.

Equipment, especially early game seems to be really well balanced. Played a handful of guys to 30, and all of them had just enough good drops to keep them happy, and in decent fighting shape but not overpowered.

Just a few things iv'e noticed though,

Nexus resistance is insanely rare, i cleared around 120 levels in Ironman and have found a total of 3 sets of Stability boots and 1 Amulet of Trickery. I could have been just unlucky but i found more speed boots than nexus resist. Nexus breathers add an element of danger that i like mid level, but especially for classes with no detect, having your stats swapped because of lack of resistance, is in my opinion worse than being 1 shot.

The inclusion of ego lamps is also a really nice touch, but it seems flasks of oil don't drop in stacks.

Gondolin weapons seem to be really common now, iv'e found at least 20 on my mage.

One last thing, iv'e been killing every Q that i come across. Draconic, Greater, undead etc. and have not had any of them summon anything at all. They just teleport away.

Other than those relatively minor things, i am enjoying the game immensely and thank you again all for all your hard work