Stasis (teleport resistance)

[fizzix]

Nick's feature addition of cone breaths greatly reduces the problem of having multiple enemies in LOS at once. While not perfect, it currently may not be suicidal to attack Ancalagon with a great wyrm of balance summoned behind him (her?). This has led me to reconsider giving some monsters teleport resistance. Part of the reasoning is to remove some of the obvious "teleport other" decisions in the late game which make the latter half of the dungeon tedious.

There's another point of reference. A while back we had a competition with no teleport other. I think the consensus was that it was annoying to have to deal with every monster also. The conclusion I draw from this is that having the ability to remove every monster at will makes for tedium, and similarly, not being able to remove any monster is equally, or perhaps more, tedious.

But, what if there were only some monsters that could not be removed? Would that be interesting? Does it make the final fight with Morgoth more interesting or less? I don't know the answers yet, but I can set out what I think the stasis flag should do. A monster with the STASIS flag:

1. Cannot be teleported away
2. Cannot teleport itself
3. Cannot be summoned, except by "powerful" summons (to be defined later)
4. Gets a save against Destruction/Earthquake
5. Resists pushing effects (like gravity)

We could have a similar player status effect, which would be mostly negative, but you could throw on stuff like gravity/inertia/time resistance and it could be useful as a swap status.

[Antoine]

Well, but which monsters would have this attribute?

A.

[debo]

Poschengband says "hi". (I'm guessing that even zangband had teleport resist.)

You might also want to look at how destruction " resistance" works in poscheng.

[Nick]

You might also want to look at how destruction " resistance" works in poscheng.

You might want to tell the lazy amongst us

[Derakon]

Here I was thinking that stasis would be a status effect that you could apply to a monster that would prevent it from taking turns, but also prevent it from being damaged, moved, etc. in any way. It'd be a no-miss chance to postpone fighting a specific monster for a few turns.

[debo]

You might want to tell the lazy amongst us

If you destruct a monster, there's a chance it will resist and then become immune to destruction. Think of it as a destruction vaccine.

(There are a couple of monsters that flat-out are immune to destruction as well.)

Here I was thinking that stasis would be a status effect that you could apply to a monster that would prevent it from taking turns, but also prevent it from being damaged, moved, etc. in any way. It'd be a no-miss chance to postpone fighting a specific monster for a few turns.

Power Overwhelming

[Nick]

Here I was thinking that stasis would be a status effect that you could apply to a monster that would prevent it from taking turns, but also prevent it from being damaged, moved, etc. in any way. It'd be a no-miss chance to postpone fighting a specific monster for a few turns.

Yeah, that's what it does in O/FA.

[Nomad]

Part of the reasoning is to remove some of the obvious "teleport other" decisions in the late game which make the latter half of the dungeon tedious.

There's another point of reference. A while back we had a competition with no teleport other. I think the consensus was that it was annoying to have to deal with every monster also. The conclusion I draw from this is that having the ability to remove every monster at will makes for tedium, and similarly, not being able to remove any monster is equally, or perhaps more, tedious.

Maybe another, simpler solution to this would be to make Teleport Other only available as a wand? If you don't have the guaranteed infinite charges of the spell/rod versions, then the decision over whether to use up your precious charges becomes much more tactical, plus you're vulnerable to charge-drainers or wands being destroyed by recharging/lightning.

[MattB]

Maybe another, simpler solution to this would be to make Teleport Other only available as a wand? If you don't have the guaranteed infinite charges of the spell/rod versions, then the decision over whether to use up your precious charges becomes much more tactical, plus you're vulnerable to charge-drainers or wands being destroyed by recharging/lightning.

I've been thinking this exact same thing for a while now.
Remove rods and spells of TO, make wands immune to electricity and rare.
Solved!

[MattB]

but you could throw on stuff like time resistance and it could be useful as a swap status.

But surely I remember reading that nothing can resist time?

Seriously, I think it would be a bad idea to make time resistable. It would remove some dread from the game somehow.

[mushroom patch]

As people have mentioned, teleportation resistance has existed in variants for a very long time. It's not actually a good idea.

The problem with teleportation, all teleportation, is that it is instantaneous. Make teleportation mechanics interact with game time and space on the map and you will see a whole new world of possibilities open up.

The answer to angband's problems will not come from defining new resistances and putting new flags in edit files.

[debo]

As people have mentioned, teleportation resistance has existed in variants for a very long time. It's not actually a good idea.

The problem with teleportation, all teleportation, is that it is instantaneous. Make teleportation mechanics interact with game time and space on the map and you will see a whole new world of possibilities open up.

The answer to angband's problems will not come from defining new resistances and putting new flags in edit files.

I like crawl's teleport mechanics, but I also like poschengband's for more of that 'what the in the actual fuck' experience. It still has instant teleports, but in addition to teleport resistance on TO you also have to deal with fail rates on all your teleports, and you lose all your energy (so you can miss several turns) when a teleport-self ends.

[mushroom patch]

Sounds like something designed by people who think teleporting within a level is dangerous. A lot of misconceptions about the game is a big part of the problem, imo.

[debo]

Sounds like something designed by people who think teleporting within a level is dangerous. A lot of misconceptions about the game is a big part of the problem, imo.

Have you played poschengband? Even moving is dangerous

[mushroom patch]

Moving is dangerous in vanilla too in comparison to the alternatives. Since you usually want players to move in a game with a map and stuff, though, this isn't a selling point.