Class/magic feature branch

[Tibarius]

fast and furious

OK, new builds are up on the build page with improvements to spell info and tweaks to new mages and druids. I meant also to improve mage recharging; that will have to come next time now.

We can team up as fast and furious Nick, that was realy a fast reply and new build from you! And if i play the new mage i am the furious - because if you are used to haste self, light, teleport, stone to mud and must play without it is unfortunately a big frustration.

I think weapon damage is too important in Angband, even for mages.

My mages never go into melee combat - never. Except if it is a hit or die situation.

My mages carry weapons only for additional resitances or int/con boost basically.

I actually like "light magic" and "shadow magic" for the spiritual realms - what do others think?

A point i notice now for the first time: until now priests and paladins used prayers and no magic. Prayers involve superior beings answering those prayers while magic is somehow learnable stuff(?). Do we switch away from prayers and make paladin and priest use light / holy magic instead? The word holy does connect more to priests than light does for me. Just naming ... but if you can't name things you are usually without a clear picture of it.

[Tibarius]

window preference file

Isn't the window.prf file in the /lib/user directory the sub window preferences?

I would like to avoid to setup my windows / fonts each time i install a new build version. So i copied window.prf file from the 35 build to the 38 build but neither fonts / nor window positions are taken from the preference file.

What do i do wrong please?

[Nick]

Isn't the window.prf file in the /lib/user directory the sub window preferences?

I would like to avoid to setup my windows / fonts each time i install a new build version. So i copied window.prf file from the 35 build to the 38 build but neither fonts / nor window positions are taken from the preference file.

What do i do wrong please?

I'm actually having problems with that too. I will look into it.

[Derakon]

Sorry for assuming you didn't know the controls, Tibarius. Sometimes it can be hard to tell; in the past we've had people who had played the game for years without learning about e.g. the animation delay setting that makes spell animations visible.

I hope at any rate that your character that died did not have too much time invested in them.

[Tibarius]

testplaying

I hope at any rate that your character that died did not have too much time invested in them.

Testplaying is basically playing with the knowledge that any time spend is 'wasted' in that sense, that you play under conditions which might change again.

CL14 DL 16 currently with the 38 build. Damage spells still do not develop fine.
Damage from electric arc is way too low to use it in a good way, even tho it has low mana costs.

Frost Bolt costs 5 mana now. And you got the main attack spell based on acid not in bolt form anymore. And it is just one big frustration to play without light / spear of light. Sorry to repeat me Nick

Cannot realy say anything about recharge - not enough experience with that spell yet.

I think detect treasure is a rogue type spell and has nothing to do with arcane magi at all.

And last but not least - i hate developing software in that way. The time wasted on test playing not thoroughly thought out things is way way more than it would cost to discuss things first and then implent a version which got an ok from the majority of people.

[PowerWyrm]

It's meant to be a strike from above, it's not coming from the player - so the target gets hit by the lightning, and then there's a sound ball centred on the target (again, not coming from the player). This is exactly what I'm seeing happen.

Weird... when I cast the spell, the only way for me to harm something is to stand in melee range so the ball, which is centered on the @, can hit the monster. I'll check with the new build.

[PowerWyrm]

the burning hands idea fits with plans I have for more temporary melee effects (like current monster confusion).

Here's what I did for my Elementalist:

- Burning Hands: level 1 bolt spell, range 1 (melee range), very low damage (your first level spell to deal with weak monsters before you get the real bolt spells for higher damage)

- Shocking Grasp: temporary buff, grants lighting brand to melee attacks

[PowerWyrm]

Hmm is there a way to save your character preferences now? I'm tired of reselecting all the user interface options each time I start a new character...

[PowerWyrm]

Weird... when I cast the spell, the only way for me to harm something is to stand in melee range so the ball, which is centered on the @, can hit the monster. I'll check with the new build.

Ok it works when you target manually, it's just when choosing a direction that it doesn't work.

[PowerWyrm]

Hmm I thought shapechanged druids could interact with the floor... it's not the case.

[kaypy]

Damage from electric arc is way too low to use it in a good way, even tho it has low mana costs.

Really? By my math its about the most effective spell I have...
If I (with my current level and fail rate) have 3 targets in a line, EA does 82.3 damage per turn or 41.16 damage per mana (I have a spreadsheet). Frost Bolt does 89.4 damage per turn but only 17.9 damage per mana. And EA just gets better and better the more opponents I can lure into a passage...

And it is just one big frustration to play without light / spear of light. Sorry to repeat me Nick

I dont think carrying a wand or rod for light is *that* arduous

I think detect treasure is a rogue type spell and has nothing to do with arcane magi at all.

I have to agree here. Maybe only rogues should get that and mages should get a light spell instead? (maybe I dont think a light spell is *necessary*, but probably more thematically appropriate at the very least. Is the notable user of light spells Gandalf a cleric or a wizard?)

And last but not least - i hate developing software in that way. The time wasted on test playing not thoroughly thought out things is way way more than it would cost to discuss things first and then implent a version which got an ok from the majority of people.

But noone knows what they want or pays any attention until you have something concrete to put in front of them

[PowerWyrm]

Gandalf can definitely use his staff to light the way. See LoTR in the Moria.

[Tibarius]

But noone knows what they want or pays any attention until you have something concrete to put in front of them

I do! And i could even write it down so that a developer like Nick just needs to implement it

By the way Nick, the new information update was good work from you. Not only damage, but also range for ball spells and length for electric arc. That's what i call love for detail!

And the electric arc spell was also good work, even tho i don't like it.

I realy would love to see that mage players can 'build' their character more to their likings. We already experienced that even amoung the few active posters in this thread the way of playing mages is very different.

The mage spells fireball, frost bolt - that are basically elemental magics and have not so much to do with arcane magic in my imagination.

What i realy would love to see is that we leave the spells thematic, i think that makes sense, but that the player can choose what spells he learns.
A simple mechanic would be that he gains 1 magic point per CL. So the first
spells cost 1 magic point to learn, later stronger spells or spells from other realms than your main realm cost more points. So that in the end the player can learn somewhere around 20 to 30 different spells.

That would allow the player to individualize his character while we also ensure that from game power no hyper-chars are possible.

a) Is that something you consider implementable Nick?
b) if the answer to a) is yes, would you also be willing to do so?

[Tibarius]

test

check 1 .. 2 .. 3

Is there my profile picture visible now???

Edit: Ahhh - it is called Avatar and not profile picture ... and now it is! *cheer*

[PowerWyrm]

Having info for multiple effects is nice... but the space to display it is way too small to display everything.

Since most books have very few spells, it would be nice to get the info under the spell name:

Name                           Lv Mana Fail
a) Cure Poison                  4    4   1%
b) Resist Poison                7    6   1%
     Info: dur 20+d20
c) Turn Stone to Mud            8    3   1%
     Info: dam 20+d30
d) Sense Surroundings           9    4   1%
e) Lightning Strike            12    6   1%
     Info: dam 10d4; dam 48, rad 3
f) Earth Rising                14    5   1%
     Info: dam 16d6, len 12