Future development of 4.2.1. - canine issue

[wobbly]

Just about everything dangerous already is resistant or immune to poison

I don't think this is as true as people think. Most of the 'p's are not poison immune & stinking cloud is useful against the druadan mages. Its possible however that it needs a buff if the damage boost from device skill is going. Try necromancer or blackguard sometime if you want to see how many monsters don't actually resist poison.

[Anarchic Fox]

@AF--
They only give a lot of XP if CL is less than DL. The mobs are no longer big enough to give much XP beyond that. (There used to be 20 to 30; now there are 10 to 15.)

I didn't even care about the XP. I just went and killed them because I found it fun to kill them! The pack AI means that at some point their morale breaks, and I found that quite satisfying. In a stressful game like Angband, they provided stress relief, and concrete proof that yes, despite increasing difficulty as I descend, I am still becoming stronger. Of course, most people play much less impulsively than I do.

[PowerWyrm]

Yes there are too many wolf encounters in the early game. No need to do anything but increase the rarity of the packs.

[Anarchic Fox]

That sounds like a good solution! Make the packs rarer, but keep each one hefty for silly people like me.

[Sphara]

Yes there are too many wolf encounters in the early game. No need to do anything but increase the rarity of the packs.

I'd be mollified with this change
If I dared to ask for more, I'd lower the dice of escort wargs too, and replace them with more orcs. Well, not orcs for the late game breathing wolves ofc.

[quarague]

Playing a ranger now and running into 3 different wolf packs (maybe 20 total) was the only time of serious danger in the early game (until clvl 25 or so). That's definitely good for the game for me and should stay.
I also feel the time when wolfs are lucrative to kill is relatively short (I tend to dive very aggressively). They give massive xp in single digit char levels, so for ranged killers they are excellent targets. But by clvl in the late teens it is not that much xp anymore, so you kill them if they are in the way and ignore otherwise. In summary, to me it looks fine as is.

[mrfy]

I also like the wolf packs and think their frequency of appearance is about right. They should be difficult and give good XP early on, and I don't mind them later when they are easy to kill.

[Sphara]

Good chunk of community opinions already. That's what I was looking for.

Wolves are fun for some players. For me they are anything but.
Wolves being difficult? Perhaps if you dive even more aggressively than I do and move around carelessly on open areas.

Thanks for all the answers from my part so far!

[quarague]

The large wolf pack was dangerous because my ranger couldn't take a whole pack one at a time in melee range without running out of healing options half waay through. So I used phase door scrolls in a big open room whenever one got in melee range. Works fine for a single pack, can get hairy if the phase door takes you to a neighboring room that also has a pack a wolfs charging at you. Worked out in the end with all wolfs dead.

And yes, I do dive aggressively. My current ranger made it to dungeon level 90 with a little under 300 hp because I didn't find many Const potion yet and don't have any artifacts with extra con on them.