[FA] FAangband development

[dionysian]

i don't know if i could suspend disbelief for that one... wouldn't the others realize what just happened? all but the dumbest monsters would put two and two together and realize you just killed their associates.

[Psi]

First one is territorial monsters - largely animals. These would have an area which they would defend, but would not want to get too far away from... ...All this I'm thinking would just be for wilderness - dungeons are haunts of evil things, and everything in them is affected by that (maybe monster behaviour should change when the guardian is killed, though).

Had a thought about this. Maybe you could have your beastmasters as the controllers of the animals on a level. Therefore if the beastmaster is killed, the animals revert to being territorial rather than hunting you down? You could either have it so that there is one specific beastmaster in charge of a pack or a simpler model where if all the beastmasters on a level are killed then the animals will return to their territories (a radius around their spawn points).

[Seany C]

The "beastmaster as leader" idea is cute but might make the game turn too much on killing off the beastmasters on each level before doing anything else... (at least until the character is powerful enough not to fret about most animals, say CL35 or so)...

...the other general issue is of game balance overall - if the game is currently set up to be difficult-but-winnable with everything attacking you once awake, will adjustments have to be made to avoid it getting too easy if a lot of early-level creatures become 'neutral'?

[Nick]

Another development idea that came to me last week (not fully thought through, though*) is regarding the proportion of the ME map actually used. At the moment. the 'standard' path is often just "Initial Home -> Big Town (if IH isn't one) -> Amon Rudh -> Nargothrond/T-I-G -> Angband**".

The problem is easier to define than the solution but is there any way to rejig the FA map to end up using more of Beleriand in practice, without creating lots of pointless treks?

I've given this a fair bit of thought, too, and I'm not sure exactly what to do. In some respects, I quite like it that there are areas of the map that a standard game doesn't explore. There's also a gameplay issue there, in that already the player has to visit a lot more levels than in a dungeon-only game. Mind you, we've just had the first sub-CL50 winner, so maybe that's OK as it is.

Part of my intention in making the races more distinctive was actually to encourage a less standard path through the game. For example, all the dwarf races get an advantage from mountain terrain, so basing themselves at Belegost and heading north through the mountains might be a good idea.

Another interesting question is Nan Dungortheb. It seems that I've made it so horrible that no-one wants to go there, which was kind of the intention, but kind of not too. So should that be different, and if so, how?

[Nick]

Had a thought about this. Maybe you could have your beastmasters as the controllers of the animals on a level. Therefore if the beastmaster is killed, the animals revert to being territorial rather than hunting you down? You could either have it so that there is one specific beastmaster in charge of a pack or a simpler model where if all the beastmasters on a level are killed then the animals will return to their territories (a radius around their spawn points).

This is more structure than I want, I think. Monsters should for the most part still be just random things that you encounter on walking through the wilderness; orcs will attack you, animals will defend their territory, others (Gaveronians, for example) it will depend on the individual. Maybe. I still don't know if I like this idea.

[Nick]

i don't know if i could suspend disbelief for that one... wouldn't the others realize what just happened? all but the dumbest monsters would put two and two together and realize you just killed their associates.

Well, maybe they just ran after you into the wilderness and got lost - which is something that may be feasible in actual gameplay, too.

[Nick]

...the other general issue is of game balance overall - if the game is currently set up to be difficult-but-winnable with everything attacking you once awake, will adjustments have to be made to avoid it getting too easy if a lot of early-level creatures become 'neutral'?

I should think there would have to be at least some rebalancing. Lots of playtesting

[Seany C]

I've given this a fair bit of thought, too, and I'm not sure exactly what to do. In some respects, I quite like it that there are areas of the map that a standard game doesn't explore. There's also a gameplay issue there, in that already the player has to visit a lot more levels than in a dungeon-only game. Mind you, we've just had the first sub-CL50 winner, so maybe that's OK as it is.

That's true - there's nothing inherently wrong with certain areas of the map not being compulsory for a visit.

Part of my intention in making the races more distinctive was actually to encourage a less standard path through the game. For example, all the dwarf races get an advantage from mountain terrain, so basing themselves at Belegost and heading north through the mountains might be a good idea.

True - especially for Ents and forests...

Another interesting question is Nan Dungortheb. It seems that I've made it so horrible that no-one wants to go there, which was kind of the intention, but kind of not too. So should that be different, and if so, how?

Heh, I'm the wrong person to ask as I've never been there yet. Part of the problem(?) is that you don't get a speciality for the 3rd 'guardian' and Mim and Glaurung are relatively easier than Ungoliant and Sauron to bump off.

So maybe an incentive (a minor 4th speciality? an artifact not found elsewhere?) should be put in place for clearing out ND and/or TIG to reflect their greater difficulty...or maybe not, as I don't hear anyone else complaining...

[Seany C]

Ick - that blue ink was a bad idea.

[andrewdoull]

Ick - that blue ink was a bad idea.

My eyes....

[Nick]

Ick - that blue ink was a bad idea.

Someone needs to test this stuff out...

[Psi]

Heh, I'm the wrong person to ask as I've never been there yet. Part of the problem(?) is that you don't get a speciality for the 3rd 'guardian' and Mim and Glaurung are relatively easier than Ungoliant and Sauron to bump off.

So maybe an incentive (a minor 4th speciality? an artifact not found elsewhere?) should be put in place for clearing out ND and/or TIG to reflect their greater difficulty...or maybe not, as I don't hear anyone else complaining...

As I've said elsewhere, I think a randart (of a guaranteed minimum power) should be the prize for the other guardians. As it is I don't mind taking out Sauron, but ND is horrible and Ungoliant is welcome to it!

[Chris Wesling]

I'm definitely thinking about awake = aware of the player. However, I don't have any concrete way of displaying the difference between an 'awake' monster and an 'aware monster'. I was thinking of changing the line of sight routine if the player is 'sneaking' by having monsters display their cone of vision. However, this is a slightly difference mechanic.

Actually, when you have telepathy there do seem to be certain ranges where you can see that a monster is awake, but you're still out of its perception range. (At least in Vanilla.) They mostly just sit around doing nothing until you do come within their perception range, and then they start moving toward you pretty obviously. So you don't really need to be told that they've just detected you. So that's something to consider.

If you want them to engage in seemingly purposeful activity before they detect you, that might make it harder to tell when they do detect you.

[Pete Mack]

When you do this, have a long hard think about two things:

2. Secondly, once you've got the behaviour you want: How do you impart the information to the player? F.E.A.R.'s AI is particularly impressive because it tells you what the enemy is doing at all times. In fact, they 'fake AI' occasionally by having a command 'call for reinforcements' if one guys is left by himself: that does nothing.

If you want neutrals, maybe replace their monster symbol with an 'N' until they attack the player. etc.

There's an unused side-band in text mode that might suit for this: use overstrikes with various diacriticals, although some 'bands are using accents already as decoration.

A Wolf with tail between it's legs: Ç
A crosseyed (confused) Floating Eye: ë
A hasted Elemental: É
A slowed Insect: Ě
A haloed (neutral) Angel: Ĺ

You need font metrics to do this properly for multi-glyph characters that don't have default encodings, but it's available on many platforms.

No idea how to do it with graphics.

[andrewdoull]

There's an unused side-band in text mode that might suit for this: use overstrikes with various diacriticals, although some 'bands are using accents already as decoration.

A Wolf with tail between it's legs: Ç

A crosseyed (confused) Floating Eye: ë

A hasted Elemental: É

A slowed Insect: Ě

A haloed (neutral) Angel: Ĺ

You need font metrics to do this properly for multi-glyph characters that don't have default encodings, but it's available on many platforms.

No idea how to do it with graphics.

You display the monster health bar over or under the monster graphic, with the colour coding representing the monster health state.

Andrew