FAangband 2.0.1

[MITZE]

Crits

Was looking into Mana Burn, but noticed something about crits in general that I'm confused by.

player-attack.c, line 804 seems to imply that melee and throwing share the same crit tiering (and consequently that shooting has a different tiering).

However, the critical_shot function starting at player-attack.c, line 435 seems to imply that shooting and throwing share a crit tiering (and that consequently melee has its own).

Do melee, throwing, and shooting have differences or limitations in which crits they can get? Or is this just the result of obtuse/old code comments resulting in me having the wrong idea? (Also, and I'm pretty sure this has been brought up before, probably even by me, but are crits in fact working as intended?)

[swim]

For the "Evasion" special ability, do shields count towards the weight to be considered lightly armored?

[Nick]

For the "Evasion" special ability, do shields count towards the weight to be considered lightly armored?

Yes, armor is used in the broad sense - so body armor, cloaks, shields, boots, gloves, hats.

[swim]

Yes, armor is used in the broad sense - so body armor, cloaks, shields, boots, gloves, hats.

What about amulets?

[Nick]

What about amulets?

Nope, doesn't count amulets, rings or lights.

[swim]

Nope, doesn't count amulets, rings or lights.

Thanks!

[MITZE]

Bug: Ya Still Got Jewellery Shenanigans



Never again, huh.

[MITZE]

Question: How do resistances and vulnerabilities work?

I could have sworn that resistances stacked multiplicatively, with diminishing returns (i.e. 50% + 50% = 75%) and that vulnerabilities were applied last, multiplicatively, to the resistance total (so if you have 80% resistance and 50% vulnerability your actual resistance is 40%).

However, Eriloth has a character with rCold (50%, 34%, -55%, 40%, 10%, 35%) which tallied up to ~83%, which seemed too high to me.

Did it work differently in FA1, and I'm remembering from that?

[Nick]

I could have sworn that resistances stacked multiplicatively, with diminishing returns (i.e. 50% + 50% = 75%) and that vulnerabilities were applied last, multiplicatively, to the resistance total (so if you have 80% resistance and 50% vulnerability your actual resistance is 40%).

However, Eriloth has a character with rCold (50%, 34%, -55%, 40%, 10%, 35%) which tallied up to ~83%, which seemed too high to me.

Did it work differently in FA1, and I'm remembering from that?

83% is correct. The easy way to check is to calculate the amount of damage that gets through, multiplicatively - so 34% resist is 66% damage, etc. In this case,

.5 * .66 * 1.55 * .6 * .9 * .65 ~= .17

so roughly 83% resist.

[ATTACH]2122[/ATTACH]

Never again, huh.

Hm, maybe one of the changes I pulled in from V broke something.

[backwardsEric]

Hm, maybe one of the changes I pulled in from V broke something.

In obj-design.c's get_property() the handling of OBJ_PROPERTY_MOD and OBJ_PROPERTY_STAT seems suspicious. According to line 235, the passed in value is being treated as an increment to the current value, but the calculated cost for the adjusted value (from line 224) only accounts for the increment and does not include the current value. There's something similarly suspicious about the handling of OBJ_PROPERTY_ELEMENT.

[quercus]

Effect of Enhance Magic specialty

Do the following qualify as "beneficial magic effects" for the Enhance Magic specialty? If so, which aspects of the spells are modified (duration, stat gains, damage modifier, etc.)?

-Temporary brands such as Smite Evil, Demon Bane, etc.
-Polymorphic spells such a Bat Form, Bear Form, Vampire Form, etc.
-Vampire Strike (as healing spell of sorts)

[quercus]

How does the Holy Light specialty really function?

I don't fully understand the description/effects of the Holy Light specialty of priests and paladins. I have noticed the light radius and light resistance bonus. However, the damage modifier does not seem to be viewable or noticeable.

The damage bonus does not appear when examining a weapon as though the character gains an innate melee brand of slay evil, slay undead, or a light brand (pretty sure light/darkness brands are not a thing). I cannot say that evil, undead, or light sensitive monsters seem any easier to dispatch in melee combat. Critical hits do not appear to be more frequent either. Likewise, the combat messages with unbranded weapons do not change to "you smite the undead/demon/evil creature," for example or "you strike with extra force..."

The description indicates that it "causes undead, evil, and light-sensitive creatures to take extra melee damage and makes them fear your light-based spells." The last bit about light-based spells sounds like it would be very helpful, especially early in the game, but I have never witnessed an otherwise non-light sensitive evil or undead creature suffer any effects (neither damage nor frightening effects) from a light based spell after choosing the Holy Light specialty.

Does it only effect a creature if it is undead AND evil AND already light-sensitive? If so, that would be somewhat useless because such creatures would be susceptible to light-based attacks anyway without the Holy Light specialty. Or does it function like a very low level scare monster spell that can't even frighten a cutpurse. Again, that too would be somewhat useless.

Ultimately, Holy Light feels like wasted specialty selection as opposed to Martial Arts where the effect is pretty obvious. I think it would be pretty neat if you actually did get an innate slay evil melee damage bonus from Holy Light that could stack with the Martial Arts specialty.

[backwardsEric]

Do the following qualify as "beneficial magic effects" for the Enhance Magic specialty? If so, which aspects of the spells are modified (duration, stat gains, damage modifier, etc.)?

-Temporary brands such as Smite Evil, Demon Bane, etc.

The temporary brands and slays gain duration (1.5 times the duration without the specialty) but there's no effect on the damage modifier.

Polymorphic spells such a Bat Form, Bear Form, Vampire Form, etc.

The only effect on the polymorphing spells is the duration of the beneficial timed effect that some of them have immediately after transforming (super heroism for warg and werewolf forms and the vampiric attacks that the vampire form has for a period of time).

Vampire Strike (as healing spell of sorts)

Enhance magic has no effect on the damage or healing from Vampire Strike.


In general, Enhance Magic only affects timed effects that are applied to the player. The beneficial ones gain in duration (1.5x). The +hit and +armor from the blessing timed effect increase (an additional +5 for each). The +armor from the shielding timed effect increases (an additional +15). The +hit from the heroism timed effect increases (an additional +6). The bonus to melee skill from superheroism increases. The bonus to speed from temporary speed increases (+13 rather than +10) as does the bonuses from temporary infravision and stealth. There's an outstanding issue, https://github.com/NickMcConnell/FAangband/issues/343 , that the spell descriptions don't reflect the bonuses from Enhance Magic.

[backwardsEric]

However, the damage modifier does not seem to be viewable or noticeable.

The effect from Holy Light on weapon damage is not currently shown in object descriptions and, since it's not handled like a slay for undead or evil, there isn't a message like those for a slay when the weapon hits a vulnerable monster.

The description indicates that it "causes undead, evil, and light-sensitive creatures to take extra melee damage and makes them fear your light-based spells." The last bit about light-based spells sounds like it would be very helpful, especially early in the game, but I have never witnessed an otherwise non-light sensitive evil or undead creature suffer any effects (neither damage nor frightening effects) from a light based spell after choosing the Holy Light specialty.

Does it only effect a creature if it is undead AND evil AND already light-sensitive?

The additional fear applied from light-based spells should affect either undead, evil, or light-sensitive monsters. The monster only has to be in at least one of those categories. At best, the fear is only applied 20% of the time, and there's an additional saving throw (depending on the player's level compared to the monster's level) that can further reduce how often the fear is triggered. When the fear is triggered, you should see '... is dismayed by the Light' rather than the usual '... cringes from the light'.

[quercus]

melee bonuses of certain races, classes, or specialties

Can anyone help to quantify the melee bonuses of certain races, classes, or specialties. Attributes such as polearm_skill, woodsman, or the Holy Light specialty do not appear to be readily quantifiable in-game (at least not to me). I did find some formulas in player-calc.c and player-atttack.c and have a a general idea about what some of these do mathematically, but less so about the practical implications for the gameplay experience. I'm not much of a programmer therefore a plain English explanation would be helpful.

For example, what would be the quantifiable difference (to-hit, avg damage per hit, or other) between a Lv10 dwarf paladin wielding a spear (1d6)(+1,+1) vs a rapier (1d6)(+1,+1), assuming the number of blows are the same? With or without Holy Light against a cave troll? What if it's blessed or not?

I know some of these scale up with player level, but it is unclear to me how impactful it is. I can't tell if an Ent priest is better off avoiding a halberd like its a brush fire even if it is enchanted. How much less bad would it be if it was blessed? Will it even matter by player level 20 or a certain STR/DEX threshold because the overall effect is negligible?

I'm similarly curious about things like the dodge bonus for dwarves in the mountains. Is a longbeard better off running through Ered Luin in naught but his skin because of the weight based evasion formula, or is the best heavy armor still the better protection in most cases even if the weight cancels the evasion? The latter probably, but I imagine a better understanding of the numbers would inform certain tactical decisions in special circumstances (e.g. take off the heavy armor for a dodge bonus to avoid hits when surrounded because the armor won't deduce damage dramatically and you'll take more hits wearing it) or generally to optimize your equipment.