feature/monster

[MattB]

Soooo relieved that gelatinous cubes escaped their execution - I love/hate those little beggars! Whereas I feel no strong emotion either way for acidic cytoplasms. Black puddings do make me smile a little, though.

[tangar]

Healer replaced by tamer (novice druid)
Bandit replaced by ruffian (novice blackguard)
Easterling warrior renamed warrior
Master rogue renamed rogue
Black knight tweaked and renamed blackguard

- Tamer - is a guy who tame animals (in a lot of games it's so, like in Ultima Online). Healer is logical and understandable.

- Bandits are cool. Ruffians too. Let's have both?

- Easterling warrior.. I just get used for this guy, it adding 'salt', flavour to boring warriors.

- Master rogue.. Classic. Also do not want it to go. How much meetings with Master rogue had an unpredictable consequences.

- Black knight Why do we have ninjas then, which are certanly are off-Tolkien - this feels like double standarts (someone likes ninjas, so they should stay in the game no matter what?). How come that ninjas which are off classic fantasy genre at all are still in game and Black knights should go away? Blackguard is ok to add as a new monster, but it's even nearly close to Black knights 'spirit'.

New monster witch (novice necromancer)

'Witch' is a good name for town folk ('t'), not for a monster, and not for a necromancer especially..

[Nick]

I wanted novices for the three new classes. Tamer I agree isn't a standout, but it was the best I could come up with - happy to consider other suggestion. Ruffian I'm really happy with. And I'm actually pretty happy with witch too - reminiscent of the Witch-King. Healer was an introduction (in 4.1 IIRC) by takkaria to test the HEAL_KIN spell, and I think giving it to priests (and possibly some other monsters) seems like a sensible evolution.

Easterling warrior was OK, but I hope to have something more specifically Easterlingish when I do more on people, and I wanted to have each of the player classes appear as an actual monster. Similarly master rogue becoming rogue seems like a win, because master rogue and master thief are a bit similar, and I'd like to add some more interesting thieves (like maybe O's legendary hobbit rogues). Bandits could easily come back in, as could black knights - I certainly haven't finished with people. In fact, having blackguards be more like ninjas might be a decent plan.

As usual, opinions welcomed and considered.

[Sphara]

As the incentive seems to be adding as much Tolkien lore as possible, then why not use corsairs of Umbar as rogue/thief theme?

Something like

master rogue : corsair of umbar
master thief : elder corsair of umbar
Harowen : the Captain of the Haven

Ninjas/dagashi could just be renamed to 'assassins' of some kind.

[Antoine]

Could the littlest druid be an acolyte, novice or initiate?

A.

[Pete Mack]

Harowen doesn't come off as a master--he is annoying, but never lethal. I think the master should summon thieves and bandits (blackguards)

[Grotug]

I agree with Tangar's post, especially the bit about why are we removing black knight but keeping ninja? I would prefer losing ninja to black knight.

[Derakon]

Could the littlest druid be an acolyte, novice or initiate?

A.

How about hedge wizard?

I will also admit some fondness for black nights and death knights.

[Nick]

A few comments on various aspects of the last change.

The main reason for the black knight -> blackguard change was that black knights were almost exactly what I wanted as the blackguard player-class-monster type. A potential solution here is to change the player class name to black knight.

Novice druids - hedge wizard seems more like an uneducated wizard than a druid-type for me, and acolyte, novice and initiate all sound a bit more priest than druid. I'm really looking for something like treehugger (which is mildly amusing, but I think doesn't really work in Angband) or naturist (which doesn't work for a different reason). Something implying meditation, or mind over matter, would work (the spells they get are haste, slow and confuse).

I take Pete's point about trees/ents being vulnerable to axes, but having certain monsters affected differently by certain weapon types is a can of worms I'm not sure if I want to open.

One possible approach to the whole people/humanoids group is to leave all the existing monsters and add a bunch of new ones (which I think would please tangar), but I am a bit wary about expanding this group relative to the rest of the monster list, and I always have the tiles issue in the back of my mind.

I also note that most of the commentary so far is about names rather than what the monsters actually do

In any case, I think I'll delay pulling this branch into master for a little longer while some of this resolves a bit better.

[Nick]

OK, build page updated again with new Windows and macOS builds (source is here). Changes are:

• Old Man Willow now has an armor class
• Changes to people in response to, er, feedback:
  • Black knights restored to exactly as they were, new monster blackguard which is a bit weaker and shallower
  • Rogue is now the second shallowest thief, brigand is the third
  • Old necromancers are renamed dunedain of Angmar, new (shallower and weaker) necromancer introduced
  • Ninjas renamed southron assassins
  • Dagashis given archery and renamed southron archers
  • Former patriarchs buffed, pushed deeper and renamed lords of Carn Dum
  • New patriarchs introduced, same depth as the previous but with more priestly spells
  • Knights Templar removed
  • New colour scheme introduced in line with the new player books - warriors brown, priests yellow, paladins white, mages light blue, rogues dark blue, druids light green, rangers dark green, necromancers pink, blackguards dark grey

I think this alleviates a few concerns (and probably raises more). I know the colour changes will take a bit of getting used to, but it seemed like the logical thing to do given that mages used to be red and priests green in line with the books.

Opinions, as ever, welcome.

[fph]

Novice druids - hedge wizard seems more like an uneducated wizard than a druid-type for me, and acolyte, novice and initiate all sound a bit more priest than druid. I'm really looking for something like treehugger (which is mildly amusing, but I think doesn't really work in Angband) or naturist (which doesn't work for a different reason). Something implying meditation, or mind over matter, would work (the spells they get are haste, slow and confuse).

Random ideas for the name for the lower-tier druid: shaman, seer, warlock, witch-doctor, hermit, vedmak, witcher. (I quite like shaman, personally)

[mrfy]

"The druid spews a stream of poison.
You are poisoned!"

Ewwww! That's really disgusting.

I guess that comes from his ability listed to produce poison bolts. I like it.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

OK, build page updated again with new Windows and macOS builds (source is here).

Note that this is missing the URL link for the macOS build.

[Nick]

Note that this is missing the URL link for the macOS build.

Oops, fixed.

[Nick]

All right, this one I hope is the final build on this branch before merging. Builds for Windows and macOS are now on the build page (source is here). Changes are:

• Big changes to humanoids, with D&D dark elves generally replaced (close to just renamed, but losing light sensitivity) by dwarves of the east:
  • Dark elf replaced by eastern dwarf
  • Dark elven mage replaced by blacklock mage
  • Dark elven warrior replaced by stonefoot warrior
  • Gnome mage replaced by drúadan mage
  • Dark elven priest replaced by ironfist priest
  • Dark elven lord replaced by dark dwarven lord
  • Dark elven druid buffed, moved deeper and renamed drúadan druid
  • New monster green elf archer
  • Dark elven sorcerer replaced by stiffbeard sorcerer (this one's for HallucinationMushroom)
  • New monster Fëanorian raider
• Harowen buffed

That should be the end of the wholesale changes; I'm expecting further changes to be tweaking/rebalancing. Any opinions, especially about how it all plays, most welcome.