Z+Angband 0.3.2 stable release

[Mangojuice]

Indeed, I think some quests are best left un-tackled. Remember, your mid-game goals should be to gain experience and improve your stats and inventory/equipment as much as possible. Some quests are good for that, others aren't as good.

I find the clear X levels quests to be rarely worth completing, but they are often worth considering as a place to gather XP and items. In contrast, quests that send you after a single monster are better for getting at the quest rewards quickly.

The only harm to abandoning quests is that to win the game you have to unlock the winner quests, which is done by doing all the quests in a town hall / keep / castle. So you can abandon quests in as many as 19 different towns and still ultimately win.

Hard quests in the middle game are worth it only if they come with a kind of reward you are really looking for. For instance, if you are desparately looking for your 3rd book/s, it may be worth attempting quests from a Mages Guild or Cathedral. If you have lousy weapons or armor, a Warrior's Guild or Ranger's Guild quest is good. And Thieves' Guilds give you only gold: they're good for that but not for anything else (apart from gaining membership, if you need ID).

[buzzkill]

"Some of the liquid falls through your jaws."

I'm playing a Skeleton Monk and get this message every time a quaff a potion. Is this just for the visual of me drooling on myself, or does it actually alter the potions effectiveness?

[RogerN]

I'm playing a Skeleton Monk and get this message every time a quaff a potion. Is this just for the visual of me drooling on myself, or does it actually alter the potions effectiveness?

Some of the liquid will "splash" onto any adjacent monsters. This can be a very bad thing if you're quaffing a poition of speed, for example. All the adjacent monsters will also receive a speed boost. The same holds for healing potions.

I learned all of that the hard way.

[RogerN]

My Chaos Warrior just received a truly terrible mutation... vulnerability to all four basic elements! Nasty breathers just became much, much worse...

What is the probability that exposing yourself to raw chaos (in the mutalist shop) will cure all mutations? I'm concerned that I won't be able to survive at depth 75 long enough to find a cure for my mutation. Potions of New Life are extremely rare.

[Mangojuice]

My Chaos Warrior just received a truly terrible mutation... vulnerability to all four basic elements! Nasty breathers just became much, much worse...

What is the probability that exposing yourself to raw chaos (in the mutalist shop) will cure all mutations? I'm concerned that I won't be able to survive at depth 75 long enough to find a cure for my mutation. Potions of New Life are extremely rare.

None. But going to the mutatalist will give you a chance of getting rid of that mutation anyway. Sometimes, exposure to raw chaos will make you lose a mutation instead of gaining one (basically, if a random mutation chosen for you is one that you already have). Also, there is a mutation that makes you randomly lose mutations over time. And there is another mutation that gives you the ability to cast Resistance as a racial power. Doesn't exactly nullify the bad one but it helps.

[buzzkill]

Some of the liquid will "splash" onto any adjacent monsters. This can be a very bad thing if you're quaffing a poition of speed, for example. All the adjacent monsters will also receive a speed boost. The same holds for healing potions.

I learned all of that the hard way.

I learned that same hard lesson, only with a Potion of *Speed*. Not only does it splash on those adjacent to you, but also (at least some of) those 2 squares away. I know this because that if where the 'random unique' Uruk was standing when he started moving faster.

[buzzkill]

Mango, a tiny fix (maybe)...

The Sparrow, commonly found in town 'bites' for his attack. Shouldn't he instead 'claw' or 'peck'.

and a three-part question...

As a Skeleton, I have natural resistance to Cold, 66.6% resistance, right?
Therefore an item, such as a Shield, or Ring of Resist Cold would grant no additional resistance, right?
And the only way to gain additional resistance is with potions or spell effects, right?
Which would raise the total resistance to 88.8%, right?

and another...

Only mind-flayers can't belong to a guild, right?
Which guild does my Skeleton Monk belong to?
Why isn't there one located in my home town?

[Mangojuice]

Mango, a tiny fix (maybe)...

The Sparrow, commonly found in town 'bites' for his attack. Shouldn't he instead 'claw' or 'peck'.

and a three-part question...

As a Skeleton, I have natural resistance to Cold, 66.6% resistance, right?
Therefore an item, such as a Shield, or Ring of Resist Cold would grant no additional resistance, right?
And the only way to gain additional resistance is with potions or spell effects, right?
Which would raise the total resistance to 88.8%, right?

and another...

Only mind-flayers can't belong to a guild, right?
Which guild does my Skeleton Monk belong to?
Why isn't there one located in my home town?

I don't think a Sparrow could claw you. And "bite" is close enough to "peck" for me.

That's right, Skeletons' resistance to cold is like having a built-in ring of cold resistance.

Your Monk belongs to the Cathedral, and there should be one in your home town.

[buzzkill]

Another fix needed, specific to the DVG graphics.

When an enemy fires an arrow at you, it display is orientated in exactly the opposite direction that is should be. It appears to be traveling backward, feathers first.

When you fire an arrow at your enemy, the orientation is off by 135 degrees. It appears to be traveling backward diagonally.
EDIT: Acutally, that's incorrect. The fired arrow always points to the north-east regardless of direction of travel.

Bolt spells (at least Malediction) seem to 'appear' OK.

You'll probably need to turn up your base delay factor in order to observe this.

Mango, if the solution lies outside the source code, in a pref file, just point me in the right direction and I'll take care of it myself.

[buzzkill]

General Z+ knowledge questions

On my world map, two (non-quest) dungeons are visible. They are both represented by an ASCII "2". One is an underground lair, and the other is a hidden temple. I'm assuming the "2" relates to the difficulty in some way. Is there any point in me tackling these dungeons, or should I go on merrily completing quests?

Unrelated. Is the world map static from game to game, or is it randomly generated for each character? What about the location and contents of towns on the map? What about the location of non-quest dungeons such as those mentioned above?

[buzzkill]

and a feature request

How about an in game message when you are wandering around the wilderness and your 'level feeling' changes. I'd rather just have it pop up there whenever it changes, rather than my current practice of constantly pressing ctrl-f (every 20 steps) while in the wilderness. It seem that the wilderness is the one place in the game where you can unknowingly wander, rather quickly, into an area that you are totally unprepared for, and for which there is not really an easy escape.

[RogerN]

I'm assuming the "2" relates to the difficulty in some way. Is there any point in me tackling these dungeons, or should I go on merrily completing quests?

The "2" is indeed related to difficulty. Multiply by 10 to get the corresponding depth. In other words, if you enter a "2" dungeon then you'll end up at dungeon level 20 - 30. Also, the "guardians" of the dungeon (hanging around the entrance in the wilderness) are related to the difficulty.

Eventually you'll need to enter at least one of these dungeons. The Serpent of Chaos can only be found inside of the more dangerous dungeons (Cavern, Pit, Catacombs, Crypt, Planar). Otherwise it's up to you whether you want to explore inside them. Personally I stick to quests until I'm around cl28, since that's about when quest XP doesn't help much. You might also keep doing quests if you want to finish maxing out your stats.

Unrelated. Is the world map static from game to game, or is it randomly generated for each character? What about the location and contents of towns on the map? What about the location of non-quest dungeons such as those mentioned above?

The world is generated randomly for each character, along with all the towns, shops, dungeons, and quests. Everything about the wilderness is random, except for the town you start in. The starting town already has the same stores and a suitable guild for your character.

[Daniel Fishman]

You say you keep doing quests until ~cl28, but what do you do straight away? The majority of the quests I've seen have been far too hard for a cl <10 character.

[RogerN]

You say you keep doing quests until ~cl28, but what do you do straight away? The majority of the quests I've seen have been far too hard for a cl <10 character.

If potions of poison are available in the temple then I buy a few of them and then go kill something in the wilderness. If you bag a tiger or similarly difficult beast then you gain enough levels to be ready for some simple quests. This method is risky, but I'd rather die and re-roll the character a few times than spend fifteen minutes mucking around in the town sewer.

If poison is not available in the temple (or if I'm not in the mood to risk re-rolling right away) then I'll muck around in the sewer anyway. I typically do what it takes to buy ?WoR and then dive in the sewer until I find a lantern (they start appearing around dl5). By then you've usually earned enough XP to look for an easy quest.

[buzzkill]

I find that I can typically complete quests that are twice my CL. Maybe even 2.5-3 times my CL if I'm well equipped for it. I'll gain my first CL or two in the town sewers. At CL 3 I'd probably attempt up to a level 10 quest (which shouldn't be too hard to find), and would probably succeed, or at least survive and maybe gain a CL in the process. Once that first quest is completed, you should gain several CL's and be off to the races.