Current master post-4.1.3

[Nick]

New builds on the nightlies page with the following changes:

• Mages and druids (the monsters) no longer evil
• Adopted Grotug's description for the blood falcon
• Great wyrms of chaos and law are back
• Ossë is back, a bit deeper and a bit nastier
• Some fixes to pits that weren't working because of monster changes (thanks mrfy)
• A couple more changes of monster colour
• Priests marked as having the right number of books (thanks PowerWyrm)
• Teleport description fixed (thanks Estragon)
• No teleport curse now prevents teleport to and teleport level (thanks Thraalbee)
• Fixed radius description in spellbooks (thanks mrfy)
• Randarts nerfed a bit

Let me know how randarts are going now. I have just done a quick fix*, and I have plans to have a more thorough look at generation method.

*For those interested in the detail, the current method of assigning power for an artifact of a particular type (sword, cloak, etc) is

1. Calculate the average, minimum and maximum power of the standard artifacts of the given type
2. Pick a power by sampling from a normal distribution with mean the average just calculated, and assuming that the maximum is M standard deviations above the mean, and the minimum is m standard deviations below

I have just changed from M=3 and m=2.5 to M=m=2.

[Voovus]

*For those interested in the detail, the current method of assigning power for an artifact of a particular type (sword, cloak, etc) is

1. Calculate the average, minimum and maximum power of the standard artifacts of the given type
2. Pick a power by sampling from a normal distribution with mean the average just calculated, and assuming that the maximum is M standard deviations above the mean, and the minimum is m standard deviations below

I have just changed from M=3 and m=2.5 to M=m=2.

I thought one of the main issues was that certain bonuses weren't given an appropriate power value, e.g. I recently found boots of speed +7 at 1100' and they only generated a level 5 feeling. This fix doesn't correct that, right?

On a related note, I'm finding the current curses poorly balanced. More precisely, I don't think I've used a *Remove Curse* in ages. When you first introduced them, curses often appeared on exceptionally strong artifacts, and that was much more fun.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

When using Smite Evil or Demon Bane spells, can the damage be reflected on weapon inspection? Right now, it is just a temporary indicator at the bottom of screen, with no idea how effective or ineffective the spells actually are.

[Nick]

I thought one of the main issues was that certain bonuses weren't given an appropriate power value, e.g. I recently found boots of speed +7 at 1100' and they only generated a level 5 feeling. This fix doesn't correct that, right?

No, it doesn't; moreover trying to work out how to change that made me realise I need to revert object power from an unreadable edit file to a readable .c file

On a related note, I'm finding the current curses poorly balanced. More precisely, I don't think I've used a *Remove Curse* in ages. When you first introduced them, curses often appeared on exceptionally strong artifacts, and that was much more fun.

OK, I'll have a look at that.

When using Smite Evil or Demon Bane spells, can the damage be reflected on weapon inspection? Right now, it is just a temporary indicator at the bottom of screen, with no idea how effective or ineffective the spells actually are.

Yes, that's a sensible suggestion.

[Chud]

Necromancer first try

Hi,

I took a break for awhile and I'm now back and trying out some of the current changes, with a necromancer at the moment. Overall I like it -- it does feel a little underpowered when it comes to offense though; I'm currently CL19 at DL13 and still using nether bolt pretty much all the time. It did take me a little while to figure out that I get a casting penalty for being in the light though.

Tap Unlife is cool, but it's also my only magic weapon against undead, and its high failure rate make it a little sketchy (though you can't argue with the mana cost). It seems like it will be dangerously slow to kill anything except the entry level undead.

Am I right that Noxious Fumes just does poison damage to monsters once - they are not continuing to be poisoned over time, possibly dying on their own a bit later, the way the player is? This will be a lot more useful after I get rPoison.

Does Create Darkness give you any advantage other than removing the penalty for being in the light, if you are?

[Chud]

So, I just found a whip which "drains experience" and also "sustains your life force."

Umm.... so, does nothing? :-)

[Nick]

I took a break for awhile and I'm now back and trying out some of the current changes, with a necromancer at the moment.

Excellent - I just tried one of those too (although died too early to test much beyond the second book).

Overall I like it -- it does feel a little underpowered when it comes to offense though; I'm currently CL19 at DL13 and still using nether bolt pretty much all the time. It did take me a little while to figure out that I get a casting penalty for being in the light though.

Yes, I found this too. It should get better when you can use Disenchant. I'm considering whether any adjustment is needed to the early spells.

Tap Unlife is cool, but it's also my only magic weapon against undead, and its high failure rate make it a little sketchy (though you can't argue with the mana cost). It seems like it will be dangerously slow to kill anything except the entry level undead.

I think it probably should do more damage, but give back less mana.

Am I right that Noxious Fumes just does poison damage to monsters once - they are not continuing to be poisoned over time, possibly dying on their own a bit later, the way the player is? This will be a lot more useful after I get rPoison.

Yes, there isn't any poison counter for monsters like there is for the player.

Does Create Darkness give you any advantage other than removing the penalty for being in the light, if you are?

It also maps and darkens the room if you're in one.

[Estragon]

Yes, I found this too. It should get better when you can use Disenchant. I'm considering whether any adjustment is needed to the early spells.

Disenchant is amazing when you get it, as is Crush. The biggest nuisance I've found when playing necromancer is that the first ~6 artifacts (bar one) I found all had a light bonus, which only encouraged me to almost completely ditch magic and hammer my way through with melee. Having found a set of non-light artifacts, I still find myself missing the additional resistances that artifact lights can provide. Perhaps necromancers could learn a spell to remove light bonuses from equipment?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Considering the light penalty for necromancers, I think I remember floating an idea to Nick that the Palantir be brought back as a "un-light" source for necromancers, mapping and darkening similar to the Arkenstone, but oh so different.

[Nick]

Considering the light penalty for necromancers, I think I remember floating an idea to Nick that the Palantir be brought back as a "un-light" source for necromancers, mapping and darkening similar to the Arkenstone, but oh so different.

I've been playing with this general idea a bit - starting by trying to introduce an ego lantern of Shadows - but haven't got it working satisfactorily yet.

Also the spell to remove light bonuses sounds like a possibility.

[wobbly]

Not sure how familiar you are with the poslikes but they have a darkness flag that can appear in various slots. I'd consider adding a darkness curse which may work in general anyway. There's also shadow cloaks to consider.

[Nick]

New builds are up on the nightlies page, with the following changes:

• Remove nerf to no-selling gold drops in the first five levels (reverting a change that ruined the game in 2011)
• Reduce first cast experience for many spells
• Allow shapechanged players to pick up items
• Change percentage heal value of Minor Healing from 3/4 player level to 1/4 player level
• Make Tap Unlife do more damage but give less mana

Not a lot of changes, but aimed at fixing some of the more glaring problems.

[Derakon]

changes:

• Change percentage heal value of Minor Healing from 3/4 player level to 1/4 player level

If I'm reading this correctly, at level 50, this spell will restore 12.5% of the player's max HP? In other words, likely a bit over 100HP for most endgame characters. That still feels like "super-regeneration" to me (8 turns of trivial spellcasting instead of resting, and you're back at full health). But at least it's not so powerful that you'd use it in the middle of a fight, which I gather was an issue with the previous version of the spell.

My intuition is that if you want a healing spell that's mostly only useful in the early-to-midgame, it shouldn't restore any percentage of the player's HP, rather being fixed values only. Like, from 10 up to maybe 50 HP.

[Nick]

My intuition is that if you want a healing spell that's mostly only useful in the early-to-midgame, it shouldn't restore any percentage of the player's HP, rather being fixed values only. Like, from 10 up to maybe 50 HP.

The idea was to replace all the minor healing spells with one that scaled; I'm happy to take input on what would do that best

[mrfy]

The Hydra changes seem to be a bit much. Ran into a pit at 2500', mostly 9-headed (at least 15). Lured one away and the battle quickly became unmanageable with its summons.