improvement idea for v4

[Tibarius]

1. If you reach a new Level you could get FULL hp and sp.

2. Any maintainer / coder going for v4 - i realy would like to overwork the Magic Spells. I think it could be added a lot more of variety and interest without touching power in General. Please leave me a message, so we can brainstorm how i could offer Support in further developing this great game.

3. I like the idea that each class becomes powers unique to that class. Currently i know of 2nd/3rd shot for rangers at lvl 20 and 40. And pFear for warriors at lvl20?

I propose that for v4 each class gets a unique power each full Level, that is at Level 10,20,30,40,50 - making it 5 unique powers. Maybe make it that the Player can choose between different powers - so that he can individualize his character. For example, if i Play a Hobbit ranger i maybe would prefer to use slings instead of bows, because in my Imagination slings and Hobbits fit together. So i could choose 2nd shot with sling instead of bow for example.

[Carnivean]

I think there will be great confusion between v4 the development playground version and Vanilla 4.0, especially when there is a v4 subforum.


1 is basic, but wouldn't make much difference overall.
2 has been the subject of thread after thread of discussion, to no consensus that I've seen.
3 is more like what you'd expect in a variant. If you add more player powers, then you need to make the end game monsters harder, which will just make players avoid them more.

[Nick]

I propose that for v4 each class gets a unique power each full Level, that is at Level 10,20,30,40,50 - making it 5 unique powers. Maybe make it that the Player can choose between different powers - so that he can individualize his character. For example, if i Play a Hobbit ranger i maybe would prefer to use slings instead of bows, because in my Imagination slings and Hobbits fit together. So i could choose 2nd shot with sling instead of bow for example.

Oangband has this, in the form of character specialties - you get to choose one specialty (two for warriors) at birth, one at L20 and one at L40.

Something like this is certainly not out of the question for Vanilla, but my current thinking is that there are other changes that will definitely happen, and I want to see how those play out first.

[AnonymousHero]

In general, I think you're going to have trouble convincing any people on these boards with theoretical arguments -- unless it happens to resonate with some sort of zeitgeist or prior gaming experience. One way to be constructive (and hopefully effective!) is to create your own fork of Angband on GitHub, apply your changes and ask people to try it out. If your changes are significant enough you can probably convince debo to do a competition with your "pseudo-variant" of Angband.

(If you cannot code, then obviously you'll have to convince someone to do that for you or learn enough C to do a reasonable job of it.)

EDIT: Just to lend a little credence to this whole "people can be convinced" thing: I was certainly convinced about a few minor gameplay tweaks by playing fizzix's "fizzix-tweaks" branch of Angband. I'm not part of the devteam, but at least now I can be informed by actual experience if/when discussions of these tweaks come up.

Btw, re: 3: Warriors get pFear at level 30.

[Tibarius]

re: improvement ideas

re: Carnivean

I would disagree that this is variant stuff alone. Thieves get detect objects, rangers 2nd and 3rd shot, warriors pFear. That are already class only unique character abilities. Yet they are not stringent implemented for all classes the same way. And new powers MUST NOT necessarily mean, more power. Most things are a matter of how they are implemented.

re: Hero
I like the idea of trying myself at the code. But i am not familiar with the GitHub Thing, i guess i would Need someone to "hold my Hand" in the beginning and answer my questions (which will surely come up). Is there anyone out there willing to give it a try with me? Please drop me a line here or under "reinhard.horst@ymail.com". Thanks.

[Magnate]

I like the idea of trying myself at the code. But i am not familiar with the GitHub Thing, i guess i would Need someone to "hold my Hand" in the beginning and answer my questions (which will surely come up). Is there anyone out there willing to give it a try with me? Please drop me a line here or under "reinhard.horst@ymail.com". Thanks.

I'm willing to help you get to grips with git and the source code. v4 is defunct and this forum will be removed/archived once Angband 4.0 is released.

Thing is, now is not a great time to be starting a project on the 3.5.x codebase. Vanilla 4.0 is not close - still several months away - but the code is already vastly different from 3.5. So it's a difficult time - 4.0 is too immature to be a reliable playground, and playing with 3.5 is almost wasted effort as the changes will need to be re-worked to apply to 4.0.

I don't mean to be discouraging, and happy to help you get started. But it's a difficult time to start from scratch. Do you have a favourite variant you could start to experiment on instead?

[Tibarius]

cool

Thanks Magnate, very Kind of you to offer my help getting the ropes.

1. Is there a preferred way i could contact you over, so that we can talk about Problems, ideas etc?

2. What do you mean with "the Forum will be removed"? Does it not serve a important functionality to give Players a base where they can Exchange hints/fun stories/questions etc?

3. I only Play vanilla. I tried some variantes some years back, but those i tried had no good (or other than i am used to) UI compared to vanilla and i left them alone.

[AnonymousHero]

Thanks Magnate, very Kind of you to offer my help getting the ropes.

1. Is there a preferred way i could contact you over, so that we can talk about Problems, ideas etc?

Please do it in the forums. That way others can learn and it'll show up in searches.

2. What do you mean with "the Forum will be removed"? Does it not serve a important functionality to give Players a base where they can Exchange hints/fun stories/questions etc?

Read carefully . He's talking specifically about the "v4" forum not the other forums around here.

[Tibarius]

thanks Hero

I have no objection against using the Forum (probably the development subforum) for Information Exchange, but since Magnate offered his help, i leave it up to him how we get in touch. Maybe he prefers Skype, or eMail, or phone, or personal Meetings (if possible from the living Locations).

I usually read carefully, but sometimes you just miss something or don't understand it. If i bothered you with my question, sorry and i try to read even more carefully in the future

[AnonymousHero]

I usually read carefully, but sometimes you just miss something or don't understand it. If i bothered you with my question, sorry and i try to read even more carefully in the future

I didn't mean it all that seriously -- it was just a little poke .

[Tibarius]

birth option names

While i just reported a bug in drop item for Version 3.5.1 (see seperate thread in vanilla Forum), i just thought that the birth Option naming is much harder to understand than it would be necessary because of the double-Negation in some Options.

Compare yourself:
Don't Stack Objects on the floor : no
Don't generate connected stairs : no
Don't Show Level Feelings : no

And now read this:
Stack Objects on the floor : yes
Generate connected stairs : yes
Show Level Feelings : yes

Isn't the 2nd row of Information much easier to understand?
If so, please rename this birth Options for v4.

[Derakon]

Tibarius: v4 is not Angband 4.0. v4 is a confusingly-named, defunct variant in which the Angband devs messed around with ideas that were too radical for Vanilla proper. If you have feedback or suggestions for Angband 4.0, the best place for them is probably in the Development forum.

[Tibarius]

thanks again

See, i thought v4 will be vanilla Angband 4.0. Thanks for informing me, that this is not the case.

[Magnate]

I have no objection against using the Forum (probably the development subforum) for Information Exchange, but since Magnate offered his help, i leave it up to him how we get in touch. Maybe he prefers Skype, or eMail, or phone, or personal Meetings (if possible from the living Locations).

Much as I enjoy meeting fellow 'banders I think it will be tricky for us since we live in different countries. That said, I have met the entire devteam by virtue of living in London, which almost everybody visits at some point.

I'm happy to write it up here on Oook as AH requested. I'd suggest you start a new thread in the relevant forum (Development, or Variants if you're choosing a variant).

If you haven't already, start with this thread and maybe also this page.

[MattB]

While i just reported a bug in drop item for Version 3.5.1 (see seperate thread in vanilla Forum), i just thought that the birth Option naming is much harder to understand than it would be necessary because of the double-Negation in some Options.

Compare yourself:
Don't Stack Objects on the floor : no
Don't generate connected stairs : no
Don't Show Level Feelings : no

And now read this:
Stack Objects on the floor : yes
Generate connected stairs : yes
Show Level Feelings : yes

Isn't the 2nd row of Information much easier to understand?
If so, please rename this birth Options for v4.

I couldn't agree more.