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Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems that when a monster "commands you to return" and there are no unoccupied spaces closer to that monster, you actually end up farther away. When this happens, the effect of the spell doesn't jive with the message "commands you to return" and it makes me go ??? I can think of a couple of ways to "fix" this but, not knowing how things are coded, don't know which changes would be trivial to make and which would be totally unfeasible.
1) Disallow the casting of the spell if there are no strictly closer positions to which to be teleported.
2) Never disallow the spell, but allow @ to stay in the same position if there are no free positions which are closer.
3) Keep the spell as it is, but change the message to something like "sends you away" or "dismisses you" in the case that you end up farther away.
4) Simply change the message to something like "The [monster] mutters. You find yourself moving against your will."
Of these options, I would say that #3 is my favorite followed by #4, then #2 and #1. My reasoning is that I actually like it when spells hurt me. Positioning your @ carefully is a huge part of the game, and it can be really irritating and/or deadly when a foe has the ability to change your position. #1 and #2 limit that ability. If I am adjacent to a monster, it is usually because I want to be, same as if I'm keeping my distance, so giving him the power to send me away as well as draw me to him makes him more difficult to deal with. For example, the first time I really noticed this effect was the first time I faced a greater titan. I meleed him outside a giant pit and found out he was pretty tough. Then he summoned some animals so that I was surrounded. Then he commanded me to "return" while I was standing adjacent to him. I ended up inside the giant pit and got wailed on a bit before I had a chance to teleport. It was a great move by the RNG, but "commands you to return" didn't descibe what had just happened. OTOH, allowing a spell called "teleport to" to send you farther away seems against the spirit of the spell, so I'd understand If people would prefer something like #1 or #2.
I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts. What prompted me to write this is the fact that stinking Azriel keeps summoning me out of my nice anti-summoning corridors that I so carefully dig. Owing to the fact that it is like 3 a.m. here, that's liable to cause me to do something stupid and get myself killed. BTW how deep do you need to be to find the last two priest books? I'm at DL 70 and have seen all of the mage books multiple times. The priest books must just be deeper and/or rarer? (and hopefully therefore more powerful?) OK now I'm rambling. Time to avoid death by going to bed.
1) Disallow the casting of the spell if there are no strictly closer positions to which to be teleported.
2) Never disallow the spell, but allow @ to stay in the same position if there are no free positions which are closer.
3) Keep the spell as it is, but change the message to something like "sends you away" or "dismisses you" in the case that you end up farther away.
4) Simply change the message to something like "The [monster] mutters. You find yourself moving against your will."
Of these options, I would say that #3 is my favorite followed by #4, then #2 and #1. My reasoning is that I actually like it when spells hurt me. Positioning your @ carefully is a huge part of the game, and it can be really irritating and/or deadly when a foe has the ability to change your position. #1 and #2 limit that ability. If I am adjacent to a monster, it is usually because I want to be, same as if I'm keeping my distance, so giving him the power to send me away as well as draw me to him makes him more difficult to deal with. For example, the first time I really noticed this effect was the first time I faced a greater titan. I meleed him outside a giant pit and found out he was pretty tough. Then he summoned some animals so that I was surrounded. Then he commanded me to "return" while I was standing adjacent to him. I ended up inside the giant pit and got wailed on a bit before I had a chance to teleport. It was a great move by the RNG, but "commands you to return" didn't descibe what had just happened. OTOH, allowing a spell called "teleport to" to send you farther away seems against the spirit of the spell, so I'd understand If people would prefer something like #1 or #2.
I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts. What prompted me to write this is the fact that stinking Azriel keeps summoning me out of my nice anti-summoning corridors that I so carefully dig. Owing to the fact that it is like 3 a.m. here, that's liable to cause me to do something stupid and get myself killed. BTW how deep do you need to be to find the last two priest books? I'm at DL 70 and have seen all of the mage books multiple times. The priest books must just be deeper and/or rarer? (and hopefully therefore more powerful?) OK now I'm rambling. Time to avoid death by going to bed.
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