Current master post-4.1.3

[Philip]

I have played a bunch of mages, and always ended up dying in extremely silly ways to missing resists (notably, not noticing that resistance apparently no longer gives resistance to poison?). Mana Channel is, to put it simply, broken. It's reliable, cheap, and sufficiently more impressive than any device you could possibly have around the point you get it that you would in fact rather tap all your devices and only really use them as batteries. Given how much work has gone into making devices fun over the years, it is disappointing to see the utility and device specialist use their devices primarily as batteries for mana bolts.
I think the Tap Magical Device + Recharging issue is largely a function of the prior issue. If using devices and then Recharging those devices and using them again were productive, then there would be no reason to abuse Recharging + Tap. Tap is fine as a last-ditch device drain, Recharging is a core gameplay component, and their interaction is, if a bit silly, not entirely free (destruction chance) and ultimately, fine, so long as Tap isn't objectively the best choice for any device. Unfortunately, it is, so long as Mana Channel is running.

[Sphara]

I just happened to finish a mage game half an hour after Voovus's post there and I can agree every 5 points he made.

I would add that Mana Storm having 16% failure rate for XL49 wizard with maxed INT doesn't feel right. Mana Storm itself isn't overpowered spell. Combined with Explosion knockback though, any attack spell starts to feel overpowered. Explosion - Mana Storm - Explosion - Mana Storm and Morgy went down even with several failed MS castings.

[Nick]

Thanks for the comments.

2. Mana bolt more or less obsoletes all the earlier damage spells. This is not so much an issue with mana bolt, but rather with the fact that very few late game monsters and uniques are specifically vulnerable to cold/fire/lightning/acid.

OK, noted.

3. Mana Channel could reasonably be replaced by a passive speedup to casting, like shooting speed for the Ranger.

True, and worth thinking about.

4. The combination Tap Magical Energy plus Recharging makes it possible to replenish SP during a battle. To some extent this is necessary, as the Mage's SP pool (even with max Int) is insufficient to deal with most late game uniques. Thematically, however, if feels a bit wrong. Tap Magical Energy converts wand charges into more SP than it takes for Recharging to put those charges back - surely this violates the first law of thaumodynamics? Maybe Tap Magical Energy should always blow up a wand?

I don't necessarily mind that (although points for "thaumodynamics"), but I'll think about the balance.

5. Mana Storm probably comes too late - my minions often finish before getting to character level 45.

One way to fix that is to make the game harder

Another thing is that (especially if you were playing High-Elf or similar) I'm planning for races, like the new classes, to have no XP penalty.

[Voovus]

Nick,

A few comments on the new mage. I appreciate that you're working on other aspects at the moment, but I'm liable to forget otherwise. These are all fairly minor.

1. I found the mage pretty powerful. There's a good selection of really excellent spells. The hp is low, as it should be, and the power for devastation is high at the end (Banishment, Mass Banishment).

2. Mana bolt more or less obsoletes all the earlier damage spells. This is not so much an issue with mana bolt, but rather with the fact that very few late game monsters and uniques are specifically vulnerable to cold/fire/lightning/acid.

3. Mana Channel could reasonably be replaced by a passive speedup to casting, like shooting speed for the Ranger.

4. The combination Tap Magical Energy plus Recharging makes it possible to replenish SP during a battle. To some extent this is necessary, as the Mage's SP pool (even with max Int) is insufficient to deal with most late game uniques. Thematically, however, if feels a bit wrong. Tap Magical Energy converts wand charges into more SP than it takes for Recharging to put those charges back - surely this violates the first law of thaumodynamics? Maybe Tap Magical Energy should always blow up a wand?

5. Mana Storm probably comes too late - my minions often finish before getting to character level 45.

[Nick]

Having an odd problem with the latest build - attempting to run: . direction moves one square and keeps prompting for direction. At that point hitting escape prompts with Cancelled. -more- and prompts one more time for direction.
the given direction works for 1 square and then I'm back to the original situation.
Windows 10, but other builds work fine.

Yeah, this is a known issue. Use the second-latest build.

[jevansau]

Having an odd problem with the latest build - attempting to run: . direction moves one square and keeps prompting for direction. At that point hitting escape prompts with Cancelled. -more- and prompts one more time for direction.
the given direction works for 1 square and then I'm back to the original situation.
Windows 10, but other builds work fine.

[Grotug]

Is it reasonable to request that warriors not shield bash enemies when doing so has no effect on the enemy? Some enemies aren't confusable or stunnable, yet @ keeps bashing them with his shield and stumbling instead of just thrusting his weapon into such enemies.

OK, here's a random question. If rogue-types drop ?PD, how come archers don't drop ammo?

Seems like a valid point. Of course, if an archer kobold dropped seeking arrows of wounding, after hitting you with arrows that did 18 damage one, might wonder why he wasn't using the seeker arrows.

Speaking of seeker arrows, maybe seeker arrows shouldn't have more dice than other ammo, maybe they should just have extremely high to-hit; like 20+ up to mid 30s and in super rare occasions low 40s. The word "seeker" implies arrows that always hit their target.

[gglibertine]

OK, here's a random question. If rogue-types drop ?PD, how come archers don't drop ammo?

[Nick]

There was always a flash of red text in the bottom of the screen that disappeared so quickly I never could read a single word of it.

Don't bother trying - it basically just says the game's crashing

[Derakon]

If you have a save from shortly before going down the stairs, you may be able to replicate the crash by taking exactly the same sequence of in-game actions between loading the save and going down the stairs. That would help with debugging.

[Sphara]

Yeah crash on going down the stairs usually means it's in level generation, and they're the hardest bugs to find, too. Thanks for the report.

Dang! I've also had this happen to me several times yesterday and once today playing angband.live master branch. There was always a flash of red text in the bottom of the screen that disappeared so quickly I never could read a single word of it.

[Nick]

Ugh! There's still a sneaky *CRASH* bug lurking about. Playing the comp on Angband.live, at DL39, mostly clear the level, killing the Three Trolls in the process, descend the stairs -- CRASH -- lose all progress from the level and back at the start of DL39. I'm on tilt and have to stop playing for awhile. Hopefully Gwarl can get a recovery file, but I don't think the savefile will help locate the bug, as it was at the end of the long-fought level.

Yeah crash on going down the stairs usually means it's in level generation, and they're the hardest bugs to find, too. Thanks for the report.

[Grotug]

Sorry for your loss. I feel your pain! At least when you replay it you know where the good drops are.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Ugh! There's still a sneaky *CRASH* bug lurking about. Playing the comp on Angband.live, at DL39, mostly clear the level, killing the Three Trolls in the process, descend the stairs -- CRASH -- lose all progress from the level and back at the start of DL39. I'm on tilt and have to stop playing for awhile. Hopefully Gwarl can get a recovery file, but I don't think the savefile will help locate the bug, as it was at the end of the long-fought level.

[Nick]

Thanks for the excellent druid comments. Its unsurprising I guess that the shapechanges aren't balanced correctly as they're so new. I think definitely shapechanged players should be able to pick up objects, but probably still not do anything else.