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  • wobbly
    Prophet
    • May 2012
    • 2628

    That's crawl-style passwall if you didn't realize. So you can look how it work there, though different balance in general.

    Comment

    • Derakon
      Prophet
      • Dec 2009
      • 9022

      ToME 2 has a "probability travel" ability that works like a superpowered version of that: you can step into a wall, and appear either on the other side (no matter how far away, basically the first unoccupied non-wall tile in a straight line), or at the edge of the map, whichever comes first. In the latter case it also removes a wall tile automatically so you can land without coexisting with the wall. It's great for fast travel and escapes, but has limited tactical value simply because any use of it is likely to take you a long distance from your fight. I would definitely characterize it as less powerful than being able to take single steps through walls.

      ...y'know what could possibly be interesting? An ability that temporarily gives players the ability to destroy walls as they move through them, Umber Hulk-style.

      Comment

      • Ingwe Ingweron
        Veteran
        • Jan 2009
        • 2129

        Let's just get the rare artifact Rod of Delving. FAAngband has this! (To steal Nick's quote. )
        “We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school. Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive. But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood. Blood is compulsory. They're all blood, you see.”
        ― Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

        Comment

        • Pete Mack
          Prophet
          • Apr 2007
          • 6883

          @Derakon-
          That'd be a recipe for abuse: any time you see a dangerous monster, run away at an angle and make a little knight's move funny. Then blast away from out of LOS.

          Comment

          • Derakon
            Prophet
            • Dec 2009
            • 9022

            Originally posted by Pete Mack
            @Derakon-
            That'd be a recipe for abuse: any time you see a dangerous monster, run away at an angle and make a little knight's move funny. Then blast away from out of LOS.
            OK, so fix asymmetric LOS while we're at it.

            Comment

            • Moving Pictures
              Adept
              • Mar 2018
              • 191

              An idea...

              Odd thought, halfway through the morning coffee...

              Mages (etc) choose spells when the slots are available. As part of an entry-level mechanic, would it be possible to diminish the spell failure of spells first chosen, compared to others?

              What I mean by that is that if I choose spell (a) early, say CL4, its failure rate would be far less than if I chose that spell at CL 15. I suspect, however, that doing so would be a coding nightmare, so ...
              Last edited by Moving Pictures; June 22, 2018, 14:01.

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              • fizzix
                Prophet
                • Aug 2009
                • 3025

                Quick bug and some more detailed thoughts.

                One bug I noticed is that if you "banish evil" a sleeping monster, it doesn't awaken. I'm not sure if that's as designed, but it feels weird to me.

                My dunadan priest is squarely in the endgame. He's pretty much in "mop up duty" where it's a manner of staying awake long enough to kill enough uniques and gather enough gear to kill Morgoth. This part of gameplay has become less and less interesting to me over the years, so I'm not sure I'll finish. Especially since a crash on angband.live erase nearly a full level of progress, but that's neither here nor there.

                Overall my thoughts on priests are that they need a few things:

                1) They need a way to handle non-evil monsters in the early game. They have crappy combat and until they can cast Orb of Destruction a few times reliably, no way of damaging anything. Combined with lack of detection options, means that they really struggle when they get surprised by fast moving, non-evil monsters. Monsters like panthers and crows are absolutely deadly to priests. Otherwise you really need to grind those first two dungeon levels to get enough XP levels to survive. I recommend some early spell options to pacify non-evil creatures, but there are other options available. Weak glyphs that allow you to block movement of very weak creatures are a possibility. As is a means of detecting these monsters. I'm not sure what works the best.

                2) Priests in the midgame are one trick ponies, and the trick is orb of destruction. Every once in a while you'll cast spear of light, but in general Orb just outclasses every other spell, that it's pretty monotonous.

                3) Priests struggle greatly with resistances. The generally low HP means that high elemental damage monsters will really hurt, even through single resistance. Lack of "resist fire and cold" hurts them in the midgame. Fortunately or unfortunately for the dunadan character, randarts are broken and I found very early sources of Fire Immunity. Perhaps !resistance could be an option here. Those might deserve a slot, especially if they're common enough.

                4) Removing a mid-level heal from priests (something ~100 HP) was a bit mean. It makes consumables necessary for midgame battles.

                5) The damage spells in the final priest book come way too late to be useful. You'll probably never get the fail rate down far enough to actually want to cast them, as opposed to the good old melee & heal. I don't know for sure because getting to character level 50 is such a grind, I never bother doing it. I do feel that at level 50, all spells should be 0% fail though, which I don't think is the case. I would move a light damaging spell into the 2nd town book, maybe unlocked around level 25, and move the dispel evil/dispel undead into the 5th book, since those are really spells to help clean-up duty. The grindiness of the endgame leads me to my next point.

                6) Not generic to priests, but I find Angband's endgame to be too drawn out and not much fun. This is a problem that is generic to a great many games, not just Angband. I find the same with games like Civilization or Rimworld. The end feels like mop-up duty and it lasts too long. There are too many high level uniques, and most high level monsters just aren't worth dealing with. The last 60 levels of Angband feel like the "extended" game of DCSS. (for those not in the know, DCSS has extra hard optional areas. They're long and pretty tedious). I feel that once you can defeat Saruman, you're essentially in cruising mode. So to me, that's the point where the game stops being fun. I don't know the solution here, it probably comes down to personal preference, that is likely not shared by many.

                7) Another issue not generic to priests. My character almost died in a totally unfair way, that should have been preventable with a better disturb system. I ran down a hallway, the character turned round a corner and walked into a long line of time hounds. Now, the time hounds were detectable by ESP, since I had it, so my character knew they were there. I of course, did not know they were there when I started running, since it was a fairly long corridor. I wound up eating a bunch of time hound breaths, dropping my HP from full (720 ish) to about 100, which is when I gained control of @. I only had 720 HP because my gear was OP too. There are two problems here. Time hounds are still way too overpowered, in a totally not fun way. Also the disturb algorithm is clearly broken. The run command should never take you into LoS of any monster if you know it's there. Also there used to be an option to disturb when any known monster moved. I really wish that was still in the game, I lobbied hard against its removal, but no one agreed, it seemed.

                Angband shines between DL 1-50 and CL 1-30 after which it becomes significantly less fun IMO.

                Comment

                • Derakon
                  Prophet
                  • Dec 2009
                  • 9022

                  I symathize with the disturb issue, but unless you have full map knowledge, how do you know when the next step will take you into LOS of a monster? For all you know there's an oxbow in the corridor, or a pile of rubble, or the corridor just dead-ends and the monsters you're detecting are only reachable via a completely different route.

                  Comment

                  • fizzix
                    Prophet
                    • Aug 2009
                    • 3025

                    Originally posted by Derakon
                    I symathize with the disturb issue, but unless you have full map knowledge, how do you know when the next step will take you into LOS of a monster? For all you know there's an oxbow in the corridor, or a pile of rubble, or the corridor just dead-ends and the monsters you're detecting are only reachable via a completely different route.
                    In this case I did have map knowledge because of priest's clairvoyance. But let's be honest. If the next step *can* take you in the line of sight of a known monster, you should not be running anymore.

                    Alternatively, since we're redesigning a lot of stuff anyway, drop max-range down by at least half.

                    Comment

                    • Derakon
                      Prophet
                      • Dec 2009
                      • 9022

                      Originally posted by fizzix
                      In this case I did have map knowledge because of priest's clairvoyance. But let's be honest. If the next step *can* take you in the line of sight of a known monster, you should not be running anymore.
                      I see. So the logic should be "assume all tiles I do not have prior knowledge of are open, and stop if that would allow a monster I know about to see me." That sounds reasonable. There's an edge case where walls get destroyed without the player's knowledge, but outside of that .01% case it sounds pretty reasonable to me.

                      We've had a reduced-range option for years. I've never used it myself, but surely someone on the forums has and can comment on the balance implications.

                      Comment

                      • Moving Pictures
                        Adept
                        • Mar 2018
                        • 191

                        Traps

                        I thought we'd addressed traps. A chest that fires nine needles? Really?

                        Comment

                        • Nick
                          Vanilla maintainer
                          • Apr 2007
                          • 9634

                          A few quick thoughts:
                          • Rangers will not be a complete looking class until the monster list is redone; I'm aiming to have monster tracking of the player done by smell, sound, sight and "life force detection", and rangers will get spells to manipulate the first two or three of those
                          • For now I'll probably give rangers better archery, and possibly do monster traps
                          • Some of fizzix's priest issues are improved by removing race experience modifiers; I'm also considering playing with the experience curve
                          • Monster list redo is needed to improve pacing as well (some actual deep monsters, for example)


                          I hope to get an update out this weekend which will address some of the class issues that have come up during the comp (note - few complaints about rogues or paladins...)
                          One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
                          In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

                          Comment

                          • Nick
                            Vanilla maintainer
                            • Apr 2007
                            • 9634

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            Just beat M with HE mage

                            Some comments:
                            Here is what I've changed for the next build:


                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            + Losing CurePoison. Annoying, but non lethal. I used to mbd and R& (both macroed), which takes <5 seconds. Now I have to spamwait to wear off Pois, while !CLWing to top myself up, while watching for monsters. Annoying. !CCW and !NeutralizePois is not always available at this stage
                            There are a few like this which have gone because of class differentiation, and an attempt to get away from "everybody gets everything, except warriors" syndrome. Made !NeutralisePoison a bit more common.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            + Losing SatisfyHunger. Annoying, but non lethal. It used to be when PermLight was available I could keep going without surfacing. Now I have to use a slot or two on food / ?SatisfyHunger (more weight), and keep food unsquelched (more junk on floor to parse). Although food is almost always available in the dungeon, it's annoying when you've spent alot of time clearing a vault and go hungry without food on the level
                            Nothing yet - there may be some changes to food coming to make it more interesting generally.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ++ Losing DisableTraps. There is no way to overcome traps if I haven't found devices or book2. If I want to walk through a corridor in a mini vault with a trapdoor or summontrap in the way, I used to disabletrap, or tunnel around the problem. Now I can do nothing except turn back, or roll the dice and pray
                            Third book is now a town book; this should fix several issues..

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ++ Losing SpearOfLight. Ranged lighting into rooms and down corridors was a crucial spell in the mage repertoire for advance vision and gathering intel at all stages of the game. Now I'm crippled until I find devices, and they occupy a slot in my inventory nearly the entire game (unless I find 'A' enlightment)

                            ++ Losing StoneToMud. Terraforming the environment is another crucial mage spell, for gaining tactical advantage, taking shortcuts, getting to vaults, and is relevant at all stages of the game. Similar to previous I have to collect devices and occupies a slot in my bag the entire game, and I feel crippled without it
                            More casualties of class differentiation. Added wands of Light and StM to magic shop (and removed wands of Stun and Hold Monster).

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            +++ Losing TeleSelf. This one is lethal. It used to be available at cLvl 7, now I need _Tele which costs 2900gp and isn't always available in the shop. The spell isn't just escape, it disengaged. Now if I get into a bad situation I spam ?Phase and run to staircase hoping whatever isn't fast and doesn't catchup
                            Now in a town book.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            + Acid Spray. Barely used. Failrate too high, range too low. Used FrostBolt 98% of the time. By the time it becomes decent I had other options
                            Reduced failrate, made it radius 10 instead of 4. See if that's useful.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            + Disruption. Barely used. TO was good enough, and I like to think that if you're in a situation that requires you to TO a clump of enemies you probably screwed up anyway (short of summoners)
                            I think you're right, I've removed this.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ++ TapEnergy. I love the concept behind this spell, but I couldn't make it work. Failrate is too high when I get it. When the failrate is low enough the amount of sp I get in return is too low to justify it's usage. I tried to continously recharge a stack of low wands + tap combo, but it's not worth the effort. It's easier to just R& in a safe spot, or !Mana during a fight.
                            Reduced failrate and doubled the amount of mana.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            +++ Losing Haste. This one is lethal, and huge. Without perm/temp speed, +10+ speed mobs are downright terrifying. Mages are already squishy enough, combine that with mobs that can run up to you and hit you for 3/4 hp. I mostly ran or TO'ed them away
                            Another class differentiation casualty - I'm trying to avoid giving this back to mages, we'll see how it goes.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ++ MeteorShower vs ManaBolt. I used to take down mobs using a combination of Haste + MeteorShower. ManaBolt feels like a poor replacement. The damage dice is actually almost similar to FrostBolt, but costs 3sp more. If the monster doesn't resist cold I just used FrostBolt, if it does and it's tough I just avoided. In fact I barely used ManaBolt throughout the whole run
                            Increased the damage considerably.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ThrustAway. Didn't use it, didn't see a need.
                            This is actually a powerful damage spell as well as the thrusting effect - I made it high level because of that. I've left it as is for now, but maybe it should be earlier.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            ++++ FastCast. I love the concept of this spell, it gels so well with how mages are supposed to play. Unfortunately, it's only available so late in the game. But when I got it, it's so overpowered when used in conjunction with temp speed that I feel it should be nerfed. I used this together with ManaStorm to blow away all the end game content
                            Noted - it's now in the third book.

                            Originally posted by bunnies
                            + MageBook is same colour as RogueBook is same colour as potions. It's slightly confusing, and could do with differentiation, since the books are mutually exclusive
                            Chenged the rogue book map colour, and the inventory colour for arcane and divine books.
                            One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
                            In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

                            Comment

                            • bunnies
                              Scout
                              • Apr 2008
                              • 31

                              Love the changes! Some comments:

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              There are a few like this which have gone because of class differentiation, and an attempt to get away from "everybody gets everything, except warriors" syndrome. Made !NeutralisePoison a bit more common.
                              I don't have an issue with spell removal, I'm actually quite on board with the changes. But I'm not sure if making !NeutralisePoison more common is the solution for this one though though.

                              The key issue here is one of user experience, and I think DCSS's solution for this one is pretty good. Translated to Angband, it would look like this:
                              • On poison, display 3 numbers for HP: current / afterpoison / max e.g. 100(80)/150. 80 is the remaining HP after poison wears off
                              • On a single R&, wait until poison wears off. If poison would cause death i.e. afterpoison HP is < 0, warn user, or disallow R&
                              • On subsequent R& without poison, heal to full as per normal

                              Only two commands required for healing to full. No more "wait spamming" until poison wears off, it's annoying and dangerous. I think this would be a "truer" solution, and !NeutralizePoison doesn't have to be made more common, although it could serve as a stopgap fix

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              Third book is now a town book; this should fix several issues..
                              Will test to see how it plays out

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              More casualties of class differentiation. Added wands of Light and StM to magic shop (and removed wands of Stun and Hold Monster).
                              Love this one! I think these are core functions regardless of class

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              Reduced failrate, made it radius 10 instead of 4. See if that's useful.
                              Reduced failrate and doubled the amount of mana.
                              Increased the damage considerably.
                              Need to test these as well

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              Another class differentiation casualty - I'm trying to avoid giving this back to mages, we'll see how it goes.
                              (On removing haste) Might work with FastCast in Book 3

                              Originally posted by Nick
                              This is actually a powerful damage spell as well as the thrusting effect - I made it high level because of that. I've left it as is for now, but maybe it should be earlier.
                              No idea, I'll give it another go

                              Comment

                              • Sphara
                                Knight
                                • Oct 2016
                                • 504

                                Played the new HE mage to 1300ft using 3 deep descents. Just some thoughts:

                                Didn't miss Stone to Mud as much as bunnies. It was a goddamn powerful spell and would have seemed a bit like an overkill to me as mage's starting book also have Detect Monsters and Detect Traps. Disabling traps in some unfortunate situations might become some kinda russian roulette, though. But didn't happen to me yet.

                                Acid spray I still barely have any opinion as frost bolt kills everything that isn't cold resistant. Fail rate is still pretty high.

                                Otherwise I played it just as I used to.

                                Comment

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