Weapons breaking?

[icefyre]

Hello everyone,

I just started a game of Angband (v3.5.1) and threw a dagger at a rock lizard. To my surprise the dagger broke? Is that common? Can all weapons break or just non-magical ones? Do they only break when you throw them or can they break when I wield them?

Thanks!

[Pete Mack]

I think it's a 1% chance. Artifacts cannot break when thrown.

[Selkie]

I like the way they can break by chucking them at a lizard but tunneling through magma vein doesn't even blunt them.

[DavidMedley]

See, this is the kind of unpopular stuff that I propose! Yes, tunneling SHOULD blunt your artifacts!!

[Selkie]

See, this is the kind of unpopular stuff that I propose! Yes, tunneling SHOULD blunt your artifacts!!

It would really incentivise carrying a mattock or pick if tunneling with your main weapon blunted it. Maybe every 100 turns in granite you could lose -1 to damage. Every 200 turns in magma the same.

[bughunter]

See, this is the kind of unpopular stuff that I propose! Yes, tunneling SHOULD blunt your artifacts!!

Maybe not artifacts but otherwise, I would not oppose this change.

As a nethack grognard, I was actually a wee, tiny bit disappointed when I found out that tunneling thru rubble with a rapier was even possible...

But then, there is an elegance to the streamlined rules in Angband.

[invisibletroll]

It would really incentivise carrying a mattock or pick if tunneling with your main weapon blunted it. Maybe every 100 turns in granite you could lose -1 to damage. Every 200 turns in magma the same.

How about carrying a sharpener?

[DavidMedley]

Addressing the non-realism of tunnelling through granite with a sword is not a high priority, of course. But if something were to be done about it, the pain could be reduced by adding a "digger" equipment slot. +Dig items only; no statstick daggers!

[whartung]

Addressing the non-realism of tunnelling through granite with a sword is not a high priority, of course. But if something were to be done about it, the pain could be reduced by adding a "digger" equipment slot. +Dig items only; no statstick daggers!

But we already have that implicitly, since digging will automatically swap with the digger in your bag.

Sure, I'll take a free gear slot to free up a bag slot any day, but effectively that's what's happening now.

I only wish it would swap to a digging ring if I had one so I could carry that instead of the annual output of the Pennsylvania Steel Industry in my bag.

[DavidMedley]

Picture a world where Nick (or someone else) decides that you effectively have to carry a digger from now on. What do you think the reaction will be from players who just lost one of their precious few inventory slots?

I suppose another solution would be to add an inventory slot. Why do we stop at w anyway? Space limitation on some 1990s terminal screen?

[sffp]

Addressing the non-realism of tunnelling through granite with a sword is not a high priority, of course. But if something were to be done about it, the pain could be reduced by adding a "digger" equipment slot. +Dig items only; no statstick daggers!

Oh - but you could find some fun randarts digger second weapons

The downside to the need of having a digger would be its greater effect on the strength impaired. I usually try and find a ring of digging for those - would that fit into your digger slot?

[Pete Mack]

The digger must be of base type digger. And if you have TUNNEL (even off-weapon) no damage accrues.
I can kind see this. But in the late game (or even late middle-game), it's a recipe for seriously annoyance.

[Whelk]

But we already have that implicitly, since digging will automatically swap with the digger in your bag.

I did not know this. Awesome!

I only wish it would swap to a digging ring if I had one so I could carry that instead of the annual output of the Pennsylvania Steel Industry in my bag.

This would be amazing. Rings of digging are one of my favorite items in the game.