Class/magic feature branch

[Voovus]

Two bugs:

* Stealing occasionally causes a crash.
Trying to steal from Farmer Maggot
Assertion failed!
(File z-rand.c Line 169 Expression M <= 0x10000000)

* Stores don't always display AC, to-hit, to-dam bonuses and known runes properly, and write a "{??}" instead.

[PowerWyrm]

Are you also going to change the the Ranger bonus to apply to different launcher types based on race? Or is it still only bows? I've always thought hobbits should have the bonus applied to slings, maybe half-trolls to crossbows, humans to either bow or crossbow, etc.

I'd leave Ranger with bows and add Archer for bonus to all shooters.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Determining the answer to that will require playtesting

My gut feeling is that it is about right. Especially with the added changes to artifacts and egos I have in development - Belthronding is +5, Slings of Buckland are +1d4, etc.

Are you also going to change the the Ranger bonus to apply to different launcher types based on race? Or is it still only bows? I've always thought hobbits should have the bonus applied to slings, maybe half-trolls to crossbows, humans to either bow or crossbow, etc.

[jevansau]

Played through a necromancer with randarts and my observations are:
The staying in darkness for extra con gets very painful later, both because of the non-use of the light spot and the need to avoid items with +light. After early - mid game, I gave up trying.

Most of the spells are useful, although Annihilate feels a bit expensive, and crush is almost never useful - it could be doubled or trebled in power without being excessive. Curse also seems too weak, especially given the HP cost.
I also never found a use for Command. If you didn't need line of sight, it would be useful. Vampire Form was extremely effective and used for taking down most of the late uniques (all the living ones).

I think I preferred the balance of 3 town, 2 dungeon books. It does feel odd that undead are the hardest creatures for a necromancer to deal with.

Overall, all of the magic classes are interesting, playable and feel different, so well done.

Now onto the hybrids

[Nick]

Have you over-nerfed extra shots a little?

Determining the answer to that will require playtesting

My gut feeling is that it is about right. Especially with the added changes to artifacts and egos I have in development - Belthronding is +5, Slings of Buckland are +1d4, etc.

[Antoine]

Have you over-nerfed extra shots a little?

A.

[Nick]

Interesting. How is extra shots messaged to the player now? Do items look the same as before or does it show as "+.1 extra shots" or "+10% shooting speed"?

It's still +1 in object descriptions, and details say "+1 to shooting speed" so far. You can see the exact effects on the character screen where it will show

Shots      1.1/turn

[Derakon]

Interesting. How is extra shots messaged to the player now? Do items look the same as before or does it show as "+.1 extra shots" or "+10% shooting speed"?

[PowerWyrm]

Massive nerf to extra shots (for everyone), where +1 extra shots now means 1/10 of an extra shot; rangers get +1 every 10 levels

Applause!!!

[Nick]

Build page now has new macOS and Windows builds, with the new Ranger class. Source zipfile is here.

Changes to rangers include:

• Nature spells, and not many of them
• Worse throwing, better melee, and the odd other skill tweak
• Massive nerf to extra shots (for everyone), where +1 extra shots now means 1/10 of an extra shot; rangers get +1 every 10 levels

Note that I'm not thinking of any of these classes as the finished product - I'm expecting to have to rebalance. The extra shot thing will probably mean some rebalancing too (for example randart power is going to be all wrong).

One more hybrid to go on current planning, the Blackguard - probably won't be out in such quick succession as the last three.

[Nick]

Build page now has new macOS and Windows builds, with Rogues (no changes to necromancers at this point). Source zipfile is here.

Changes to Rogues include:

• Less books (duh)
• Melee is worse to start out with, but gets to the same point at CL50
• Better throwing
• Can steal items from monsters (use the alter command, '+')

[Voovus]

Build page now has new Windows and macOS builds with latest master bugfixes, and Paladins.

Oooh, shiny!

Nick, before I forget: this is from a melee necromancer experiment.

1. Warg form should probably cure fear and give fear immunity. Could do with a bit more damage, though I find it hard to gauge just how much difference the to-hit bonus makes.

2. Darkness works well until the endgame, when I find it far too tempting to put on gear with extra +4Con and then use enlightenment, Arkenstone/randart lightsource and not worry about creature light radius. Not sure what a good fix would be. Maybe the right thing would be for the necromancer in a lit square to have a max Con of 18/180 instead of 18/200, though I realise that this is not consistent with usual rules.

3. At the risk of being shouted at by the veterans... ... Maybe if usual light sources had a significantly larger radius (like the necromancer's darkness vision), we wouldn't all be relying on the light area spell or rods.

4. On a happier note, the new noxious fumes is great. It's powerful, but its short radius makes it more dangerous to use than normal spells, especially against lit monsters. Also, this was the first time I actively collected Salt Water...

[Estie]

What about a link to the live server on the front page ? Maybe a tab "live play" or so.

[Gwarl]

And it's finally available to play online

[Nick]

Build page now has new Windows and macOS builds with latest master bugfixes, and Paladins. Source zipfile is here (note that this is just a link to the tip of the feature/magic branch, so will get the most recent push every time).