make stolen drops non-sqelchable

[Sky]

hereby i request that coins stolen from master thieves be dropped in a shape that is not squelchable.

or don't, it's not really *that* important. by the time you find master thieves, you got gold coming out of your ears.

regardless, do i understand that mobs which steal gold, will always drop coins in the form of GOLD ? instead of say, silver, rubies, etc. so if i leave my option of gold unsquelched, but squelch all other coins, i will see the drops?

it hurts when a master thief makes away with 27.000 gold.

[kandrc]

it hurts when a master thief makes away with 27.000 gold.

Don't melee them.

[Sky]

they do have +20 speed, you know.

[mrfy]

Once you acquire gems, bronze, silver and gold coins etc., the magical First Bank of Angband converts them instantly into gold coins and you store them in the ether (since they don't weigh anything). If you want make sure you notice when thieves drop them then don't squelch gold coins.

Wouldn't squelching coins be a bad thing if you happen to come across the creeping variant of monster?

[Sky]

yes in theory, no in practice. by the time you squelch coins, those monsters die in 1 hit by anyone, mages included.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Solution: Don't squelch any money in any form until @ doesn't care about money. The handling of ignoring money is also an exception from other ignores, in that money is merely made invisible, but is still "picked up" by @ when walked over.

I ignore money: (a) when playing ironman no recall - and @ is powerful enough that creeping coins no longer are a threat; or (b) in normal play, when @ has enough money that it is no longer an object. But, I either ignore it all or none. A stack of 15,000 copper is just as good to me as a small stack of gems. And, as mentioned earlier, @ will still pick up money; I just won't be distracted by seeing it on screen or purposely walking to collect it.

[dreembeard]

hereby i request that coins stolen from master thieves be dropped in a shape that is not squelchable.

or don't, it's not really *that* important. by the time you find master thieves, you got gold coming out of your ears.

regardless, do i understand that mobs which steal gold, will always drop coins in the form of GOLD ? instead of say, silver, rubies, etc. so if i leave my option of gold unsquelched, but squelch all other coins, i will see the drops?

it hurts when a master thief makes away with 27.000 gold.

I have a counter-proposal: I call for some thief AI, to let it hurt some more.

Let thieves (all thieves, including town urchins) actively flee from the player once they stole from him, by trying to get out of sight if you get them into LoS, or farther away if you get closer to them than, say, 100 ft (maybe depending on p_stealth vs m_sleepiness). And when they happen to see a stairway, they move next to it to rest, and gloat over what they stole from you. Then when you get them in LoS, you have exactly 3 turns to get your stuff back, for the thief will

1. move onto the stairs
2. moon you
3. disappear from the level

[Derakon]

It is generally considered to be poor form to write behaviors explicitly designed to annoy into a videogame.

[EpicMan]

Just running away from you is bad enough, as anyone who has played Brogue can attest. (The monkeys in Brogue will steal a non-wielded/worn item from you when they attack, then run away from you. Moving through deep water can also result in items getting dropped and floating away from you).

The problem in Angband is that everyone has different speeds, so either the thief is too fast to catch and just gets away, or you are faster and can run them down easily. I think the current approach (thieves phase door away from you) is pretty good for Angband's system.

[dreembeard]

The problem in Angband is that everyone has different speeds, so either the thief is too fast to catch and just gets away, or you are faster and can run them down easily. I think the current approach (thieves phase door away from you) is pretty good for Angband's system.

I respectfully disagree. Even if you are faster than the thief, you may not be able to catch him if he was lucky enough to land near a stairway. And when he is faster than you, you may still have a chance if you have a sufficiently strong distance attack.
More importantly, depending on the level layout, you may be able to use smart tactics to manipulate him into a corner or dead end when he is fleeing from you.
At present, all you need to do is get within his detection range and he will approach you again. Not much tactics there!

And also in other respects, normal thieves are currently too easy. Since they were given a purse, so that you get everything back that they stole from you when you catch them, they have become almost trivial.
Unless you are deeper than you should be, of course. Or in a vault, with some dangerous critters teleported away. Then a thief that steals from you may end up behind some critter that is way out of your league.

[dreembeard]

It is generally considered to be poor form to write behaviors explicitly designed to annoy into a videogame.

Oops. I better stick to behaviors explicitly designed to kill then...