Two suggestions

[Pete Mack]

1. Bring back Azriel. Call him Mandos. That's way better than Radagast.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Mandos

2. Bring back full Detection in high-level spells, objects, and all artifacts. I always liked playing as a rogue in the past, but now I am playing 100% that way. Current priest has Holhenneth, but is still crippled for detection.

[Derakon]

1. Bring back Azriel. Call him Mandos. That's way better than Radagast.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Mandos

2. Bring back full Detection in high-level spells, objects, and all artifacts. I always liked playing as a rogue in the past, but now I am playing 100% that way. Current priest has Holhenneth, but is still crippled for detection.

Holy casters get Detection. Arcane casters have never gotten Detection (as I recall, anyway). Use rods instead.

Mandos does sound like a better option than Radagast though.

[Pete Mack]

I get that. The trouble is the rod of Detection only senses objects. It doesn't fully detect them. As far as I can tell, the *only* ways to get full detection is with the godlike priest spell or the low-level rogue spell.

Holy casters get Detection. Arcane casters have never gotten Detection (as I recall, anyway). Use rods instead.

Mandos does sound like a better option than Radagast though.

[krazyhades]

I get that. The trouble is the rod of Detection only senses objects. It doesn't fully detect them. As far as I can tell, the *only* ways to get full detection is with the godlike priest spell or the low-level rogue spell.

Well, there are potions that give good (non-fuzzy) item detection and mapping...those are pretty useful for their lategame utility.

Non-rogue arcane casters used to have the good detection spell too, but it was taken away from them. It's fairly easy to edit what spells a class has access too (within the same realm of arcane or divine that is) and I sometimes play wizards or rangers modded to have good instead of fuzzy item detection because that's a type of gameplay I have a lot of fun with.

[Pete Mack]

Detect Object was always a rogue spell only. The difference is that the Detection spell was nerfed for everyone, and rods of detection and Holhenneth etc got worse too. So !Enlightenment is all that's left until you find the Palantir down near level 100.

Well, there are potions that give good (non-fuzzy) item detection and mapping...those are pretty useful for their lategame utility.

Non-rogue arcane casters used to have the good detection spell too, but it was taken away from them. It's fairly easy to edit what spells a class has access too (within the same realm of arcane or divine that is) and I sometimes play wizards or rangers modded to have good instead of fuzzy item detection because that's a type of gameplay I have a lot of fun with.

[Timo Pietilä]

Detect Object was always a rogue spell only. The difference is that the Detection spell was nerfed for everyone, and rods of detection and Holhenneth etc got worse too. So !Enlightenment is all that's left until you find the Palantir down near level 100.

You don't get Palantir anymore. Arkenstone has clairvoiance activation now, but that too doesn't fully detect items.

[EDIT] tested that using debug-mode and noticed that you don't need to remember artifact names or their index anymore. That's great addition to debug-mode.

[Pete Mack]

Clairvoyance is fine. The trouble is everything else just "senses" (rather than "detects") as a red *, so unless you are playing a rogue, you have to go visit all the boring rooms during stat gain, along with the fun stuff like vaults.

You don't get Palantir anymore. Arkenstone has clairvoiance activation now, but that too doesn't fully detect items.

[EDIT] tested that using debug-mode and noticed that you don't need to remember artifact names or their index anymore. That's great addition to debug-mode.

[Timo Pietilä]

Clairvoyance is fine. The trouble is everything else just "senses" (rather than "detects") as a red *, so unless you are playing a rogue, you have to go visit all the boring rooms during stat gain, along with the fun stuff like vaults.

Clairvoyance spell doesn't detect items either. AFAIK only potions of enlightenment and *enlightenment* do, and maybe rogue spell, but I don't play rogues much so can't say that for sure.

That's the point of fuzzy detection, you need to visit rooms to actually see things. IMO that's improvement. Otherwise clairvoyance activation/spell would be way too powerful. Unknown is interesting. Without that game would be boring.

[Derakon]

Yeah, the nerf to object detection was very much intentional: you can only get it as a rogue or by drinking potions now. It was decided that strong object detection made the game too easy by, in combination with monster detection, letting players know the exact risk/reward of every potential encounter.

This is easy enough to "fix" for your personal version if you don't like it, but I doubt that it's going to get reverted in official versions without compelling reason.

[krazyhades]

Oh well. I recommend you instead play PosChengband, Pete Mack. It's from a lineage that never nerfed item detection, and yet is still a challenge (much more so than vanilla) despite that mark in the player's favor. I'm with you, I don't like how fuzzy detection feels even though I get the arguments supporting it.

[fizzix]

Yeah, the nerf to object detection was very much intentional: you can only get it as a rogue or by drinking potions now. It was decided that strong object detection made the game too easy by, in combination with monster detection, letting players know the exact risk/reward of every potential encounter.

This is easy enough to "fix" for your personal version if you don't like it, but I doubt that it's going to get reverted in official versions without compelling reason.

I don't think it was as much that the game was too easy, but that it led to an extremely boring style of play which was by far the most efficient and you were a sucker not to do it. The idea was you dropped down to level 90+. Detect objects. If you see a thing you want, you get it. Otherwise, you go up or down a level and repeat. If you were a priest with clairvoyance it was even worse, because then you could see the whole level.

This was efficient for time, and insanely efficient for turncount (esp. if you had something like create stairs/teleport level.) If you go and read the forums for fuzzy detection, you'll see a lot of complaints about how the endgame was insanely boring. I agreed with that sentiment.

[Pete Mack]

I can think of lots of ways to make the game harder that don't require this change...
One more thing: stat screen is getting dirtied. Don;'t know where the orcs came from. The rest came from viewing inside home.

Yeah, the nerf to object detection was very much intentional: you can only get it as a rogue or by drinking potions now. It was decided that strong object detection made the game too easy by, in combination with monster detection, letting players know the exact risk/reward of every potential encounter.

This is easy enough to "fix" for your personal version if you don't like it, but I doubt that it's going to get reverted in official versions without compelling reason.

[Estie]

I agree that the high level priest spell clairvoyance should act the same as enlightenment potion. Mages get the outrageous banishment (and thus dont need to carry scrolls of same anymore); in a similar (and weaker) way, priests should get enlightenment (and thus not need to collect the potions of same anymore).
Paladins dont get that spell anyway; it would be a fitting extra for highlevel holy caster.
Also, rename either the spell or the potion to the same.

[Derakon]

I can think of lots of ways to make the game harder that don't require this change...

Like how? Feel free to make suggestions; you're not the only one that doesn't like the "vague object detection" change, so a reversion that doesn't also result in "boring-but-optimal" playstyles would be welcome.

The big problem is addressing the stairscumming that fizzix mentioned. Even if you coerce connected stairs to off (which would be a huge can of worms itself), players who are convinced that there's nothing interesting on the level will make a beeline for the closest stairs to generate a new level. Forced descent also "fixes" this by making dungeon levels a limited commodity, but that does go against one of Angband's big concepts of allowing the player to grind as much as they like.

[Nick]

1. Bring back Azriel. Call him Mandos. That's way better than Radagast.

http://lotr.wikia.com/wiki/Mandos

2. Bring back full Detection in high-level spells, objects, and all artifacts. I always liked playing as a rogue in the past, but now I am playing 100% that way. Current priest has Holhenneth, but is still crippled for detection.

In case you haven't read it, here is an outline of the rough plan for versions 4.1 to 4.3. So far monster breath and player knowledge are more or less implemented in development, rune-based ID is next.

Once all that is done, the game will look a bit different. I would suggest we consider your two minor tweaks after the big changes have settled