FAangband 0.3.6

[Psi]

Weapon Smith (in Belegost) is fixed to 5000 gold
Actually, I haven't been paying attention if the other shops may be "fixed" as well, but this one is the most annoying to me atm I'm pretty shure the shop owner has changed several times, but the cap for prices has stayed the same.

The shop owners all have their own max price set in the edit files. You have just been unlucky if each one you have had has had the same 5k top price.

!oSpeed is missing from the alchemy shops
They're generally very scarce. I found 1 in the dungeon, and had 3 at the black market, but they seemingly never show up at the Alchemy Shop !

The alchemy shop does not sell !Speed. You could always order them from the travelling merchants.

Rings/Amulets of Searching/Skill/+stat+ are pretty useless,
as by the time they show up aroud dlvl 30 you already have the first (rand)arts and you're looking to plug resistance holes rather than to get +2 searching or something. Either make them show up much earlier (dlvl 15+) or make them more interesting.
IMHO, having one item "of something" seemingly just because we have some flag and it so terribly convenient to simply e.g. slab that flag on a ring to get a "magical item" doesn't really make for interesting finds. I would rather like to see more "complicated" egos, randarts and arts ... .

=Searching is native to DL5, =Skill is native to DL25, =Stat is native to DL36. I'm somewhat concerned if you are finding (rand)art rings before that. I see no reason why skill and stat couldn't be a little shallower though.

Certainly I rarely use the stat rings and never use searching, but =Skill is very useful. The Eregion rings may cover the "complicated" egos (they have speed, a power and one or more resists).

[buzzkill]

Weapon Smith (in Belegost) is fixed to 5000 gold
Actually, I haven't been paying attention if the other shops may be "fixed" as well, but this one is the most annoying to me atm I'm pretty sure the shop owner has changed several times, but the cap for prices has stayed the same.
edit: Ok, went over to Khazad Dum and found the weapon smith having a cap of 5000 as well

Maybe a 3.6 change, but it doesn't sound like something Nick would do. Probably the RNG or a bug. You can set recall points in other towns for expedited selling.

!oSpeed is missing from the alchemy shops
They're generally very scarce. I found 1 in the dungeon, and had 3 at the black market, but they seemingly never show up at the Alchemy Shop !

I think the Black Market is the only place they naturally appear. I believe you'll find them most frequently on DL's 5-10 (based on experience, not spoilers). You can order them (once discovered) from the traveling merchant found in small towns.

[Nick]

The shop owners all have their own max price set in the edit files. You have just been unlucky if each one you have had has had the same 5k top price.

There are two with a max of 5000, a Beorning (Bearclaw) and a Dwarf (Borin). It is reasonably likely for those two to be in charge in Khazad-Dum and Belegost; let us know if anything else happens.

As for rings, as Psi says, Skill is great - very often useful (at least for a while) for anyone but mages and necros. Stat rings I frequently use when I can spare a ring slot - and I'd often rather have =CON for extra HP than resists.

At least, often when I get to that depth. Currently I'm playing random characters,
and am up to about 30, with only 2 of them (HE Ranger, HE Rogue) having reached Amon Rudh. Stupid game.

[Arralen]

Shopkeepers
I'll have an eye one them. Actually, now that I'm looking for their names, those 2 are in charge of those shops. But I could swear that the keeper in Belegost changes during the last 100 000 turns, and the cap stayed at 5000. Guess everything will work ok now, at least as long as I'm paying close attention :/

!Speed
Guess I'm confusing variants again ...

(rand)arts
No, I didn't get (rand)art rings at lvl30 or below. Sorry not to make myself more clear ... I meant I get ego and (rand)art weapon (and to a way lower extent armor) at this level already, and have trouble with resistance holes and free action etc., so I normally can't spare a slot for something "simple" as a ring that gives +2 on a stat or +9 on damage.
Btw., I think maybe something should be done about "item distribution" in almost all *bands .. you always easily get a sword, an armor, a cloak, because there are so many of them, but getting a ring or boots is quite a bit rarer. Or maybe it's the distribution-over-depth that makes my chars die before they get together the full gear


"Resistance to life draining" - how does it work?
Got it from my Angband weapon, and the "C"haracter screen simply notes "Hlife +" .. does it mean this is supposed to work 100% like free action, see invisible etc.?
Up to now, those "W" and "V" weren't able to drain me, but a skeletons serpents spit attack seemingly did 329 XP "damage" .. it's listed as 10d6+, so it looks like it did full damage ?!

[Nick]

"Resistance to life draining" - how does it work?
Got it from my Angband weapon, and the "C"haracter screen simply notes "Hlife +" .. does it mean this is supposed to work 100% like free action, see invisible etc.?
Up to now, those "W" and "V" weren't able to drain me, but a skeletons serpents spit attack seemingly did 329 XP "damage" .. it's listed as 10d6+, so it looks like it did full damage ?!

The XP usually taken by skeleton serpents is 10d6 + 2% of player experience. If you have hold life, you get a 95% chance to save; if the save fails, you lose 10% of the usual amount. So for a more advanced character, the .2% is much more significant than the (10d6)/10.

[PowerDiver]

I decided to give the comp a try. Where can I find spoilers on what effects the various cure potions remove, what percentage resist is necessary to avoid side effects of breath weapons, what food items like "cake of beornings" do, etc?

Also, the Ent has a '-' under intrinsic FF. Does that mean it takes one source of FF to break even and 2 would give FF effect? Or does that mean FF is always ignored?

[Psi]

I decided to give the comp a try. Where can I find spoilers on what effects the various cure potions remove, what percentage resist is necessary to avoid side effects of breath weapons, what food items like "cake of beornings" do, etc?

I'm not sure if such spoilers exist. I thought the potions were standard (apart from the new V percentage healing).

You need 20% min for breath effects except poison which is 80% IIRC.

Elvish bread and cakes of the Beornings heal a few HP other than that I really have no idea. Sprigs of Athelas heal the black breath.

Also, the Ent has a '-' under intrinsic FF. Does that mean it takes one source of FF to break even and 2 would give FF effect? Or does that mean FF is always ignored?

Ents can never get feather falling.

[PowerDiver]

I'm not sure if such spoilers exist. I thought the potions were standard (apart from the new V percentage healing).

Too bad. I cannot fully appreciate the game without spoilers. E.g. mushrooms of unhealth say "it can poison on contact". If I knew precisely what they do, they might be fun, but as it is they just go into the squelch list.

I am pretty sure that CCW does not neutralize poison in some variant[s], with a vague recollection that that might have been true in O or S. Also IIRC confusion reduction is not standard across all cure potions in variants.

[PaulBlay]

Too bad. I cannot fully appreciate the game without spoilers. E.g. mushrooms of unhealth say "it can poison on contact". If I knew precisely what they do, they might be fun, but as it is they just go into the squelch list.

Tried throwing them at monsters? (Not that I know what would happen

[Nick]

I decided to give the comp a try. Where can I find spoilers on what effects the various cure potions remove, what percentage resist is necessary to avoid side effects of breath weapons, what food items like "cake of beornings" do, etc?

Alex Wilkins' O0.7.0 spoilers at http://www.oangband.com/spoilers.php are close.

Potions have changed very little (CCW heals a few more HP now; Death and Ruination have been nerfed a bit; !Strength will only get you as far as 18 internal, after that you need *Strength*). A few other items are shallower (notably wands of TAway, rods of Perception). Egos are vastly different, so check new types when you see them (ID fully identifies everything).

Happy to answer any more questions.

[tigen]

As buzzkill said, moving to a big town is the best plan. For the low/medium difficulty races, either Belegost or Khazad-Dum are the easiest to get to (Dwarves start in Belegost; any of the other low/medium races can get there without going over difficulty level 6).
...
The other thing is that (unlike in Z and its children), you should think of the FA wilderness as an integrated part of the playing world, rather than on overworld that you have to go through to get to the dungeons.

But you do travel around the world to the different dungeons, right? Isn't that what you aim to do in the game? It says you get specialist abilities for defeating dungeon guardians. I was playing Adan Rangers. The nearest big town was Gondolin, which was quite difficult to get into (and I got kind of "stuck" there trying to get powerful enough to safely leave again). But going the other direction looked like a very long trek across wilderness that was decreasing in difficulty.

I just find it odd to be wandering through decreasing difficulty... doesn't that make traveling become boring? If it was scaled over time I thought it might make the early game feel more sane. Again, not just to make things easier, but to be more interesting. After all, even to be able to take a few steps out of my starting town meant shooting up quite a few levels. Also, the variety provided by the different wilderness types would be nice, except it's not worth exploring them when they're too low difficulty.

Having said all that, I found FA really quite interesting and will probably keep playing it once I return to Angband (I've become addicted to Stone Soup (Crawl) lately... which is refreshingly different in many ways. No town, persistent branching levels, religions, minimal scumming, fiendishly difficult...)

[PowerDiver]

Alex Wilkins' O0.7.0 spoilers at http://www.oangband.com/spoilers.php are close.

I found that one earlier googling, but did not see food or potions described. Am I missing something obvious?

[Nick]

I found that one earlier googling, but did not see food or potions described. Am I missing something obvious?

*Sigh* No. There is nothing about potions there (although mushroom damage is covered in attack types).

Of the main ones (and neglecting HP), CLW cures blindness, CSW also confusion, CCW also stunning, reduces poison by more than half and reduces cuts by a lot, Heal heals cuts and reduces poison by a lot, *Heal* heals everything including Black Breath.

[Nick]

I just find it odd to be wandering through decreasing difficulty... doesn't that make traveling become boring?

That's what running is for You're right, there are times in FA where boring travel is required - but mostly you can get through it fairly quickly, and the recall point system is designed so you only need to do each bit once.

Also, the variety provided by the different wilderness types would be nice, except it's not worth exploring them when they're too low difficulty.

You will get a fair spread of types by the time you get to Angband. Also, the different races get quite different wilderness experiences, both in what they're suited to and what they end up having to go through - trying a few different races might be an idea.

[PowerDiver]

*Sigh* No. There is nothing about potions there (although mushroom damage is covered in attack types).

Does anything about throwing skill come into damage a la [S] with throwing weapons? Are mushrooms well-balanced? Etc. I think that the same sort of throwing info you get from inspecting a throwing weapon [does avg D dam against monsters lacking resistance R] ought to be present when inspecting a throwing mushroom, and that you ought to be able to wield it into the quiver etc. Consider this a "feature request" if you like it, or an annoying inconsiderate complaint if you don't.

Personally, I read "does poison damage on contact" to mean I better not pick it up. Also, for consistency, IMO if a mild impact causes it to explode for damage, better not be carrying any when hit by a sound or shards breath!