[FA] FAangband development

[Seany C]

That taming one is interesting - maybe even a "turning" speciality for necros (undead) and druids/rangers (animals) that gives you a chance to turn that creature into a pet or to summon? (without chain-summoning, though)

Or would that be a bit too Z/ToME?

I like the robe idea - an artifact whip would be nice too - maybe an enhanced defender, aimed at casters. If the number of artifacts is an issue then a fair few *swords could be disposed of (I'm looking at you, Elvagil) without too many tears...

[Psi]

That taming one is interesting - maybe even a "turning" speciality for necros (undead) and druids/rangers (animals) that gives you a chance to turn that creature into a pet or to summon? (without chain-summoning, though)

Or would that be a bit too Z/ToME?

I think it probably would be - summoning just invites cheesiness (and I should know, I used to chain summon GWoPs with Symbiosis in ToME...)

I like the robe idea - an artifact whip would be nice too - maybe an enhanced defender, aimed at casters. If the number of artifacts is an issue then a fair few *swords could be disposed of (I'm looking at you, Elvagil) without too many tears...

There are plenty of unused slots in the weapons section, so Elvagil would get a stay of execution for the time being...

[andrewdoull]

I think it probably would be - summoning just invites cheesiness (and I should know, I used to chain summon GWoPs with Symbiosis in ToME...)

I'm trying to work on non-cheesey summoning in Unangband so suggestions are welcome.

Andrew

[Psi]

I'm trying to work on non-cheesey summoning in Unangband so suggestions are welcome.

Ok, here's an idea. Have the player have to maintain the allegiance of his summons to prevent them turning on him. Give the player a summoning 'reserve' - some function of CLevel. Each summons depletes this reserve by monster level. If the 'reserve' becomes overdrawn then each summons has a 1 in whatever (inverse funtion of 'overdraft') chance of turning hostile each turn. There would need to be some indication of approaching this limit - but I'll leave the implementation to you!

I'd also ban the summoning of summoners or breeders - however it would be amusing to watch given the above model as more and more become hostile and turn on each other and you.

[Ghen]

trying to get the right combo of visibility and graphics on my work computer is pretty tough. Its a 17" Panasonic CRT from a long time ago. Anyway I was fooling around with the options and happened upon this fun little glitch

here

12x24 font, old tiles, enable nice graphics, bigtile mode, probably not repeatable anyway.

"Small Screen mode" works pretty well, although some of the shortened phrases and names will take getting used to.

[Nick]

I'm trying to work on non-cheesey summoning in Unangband so suggestions are welcome.

Have you looked at how it works in Pos? I suspect it's not completely balanced there, but that general idea may be balanceable.

[Psi]

I was thinking about how melee types buff themselves before battles with heroism/beserk strength/blessing etc and was wondering if there could be something similar for mages. Going back to the spell power idea (increasing casting level), you could have Potions of Acuity (or whatever) that temporarily boost your casting level by 10 say (got to be high enough to be worthy of a precious slot!) and maybe adjust failure rates accordingly.

I was also trying to think of something to make Dark Elves useful and wondered if perhaps there could be a nifty speciality which has the downside of causing aggravation - unless of course you happen to have the SHADOW racial ability so can't aggravate...

[Wisp]

Hey Nick, I was playing with Cheat_Live on, (Not too familiar with FAng) and my Dark Elf Rogue respawns in town... Inside of a wall. A ?oPD sorts out the problem but still...

[Nick]

Hey Nick, I was playing with Cheat_Live on, (Not too familiar with FAng) and my Dark Elf Rogue respawns in town... Inside of a wall. A ?oPD sorts out the problem but still...

Yes, that happens to me in wizard mode too. I'm not sure what it is, and have never bothered to track it down because it never appears with cheat_live off - I suspect something to do with arly changes I made to get multiple towns. It's a bug that needs fixing, but not a very high priority one...

Nice Race/Class choice, btw. Remember to set traps

[Wisp]

Err, about the traps... I usually play any type of mage, but I have *never* played a rogue... How do you set traps?? T_T

[camlost]

I'd try pressing '+' and then a direction, or pressing ctrl-arrow. That's what it is in Sangband. I think in O/FA, you can modify the trap with another distance of the same command, or maybe it's like S, and you have to drop stuff in that the trap will use.

[Nick]

I'd try pressing '+' and then a direction, or pressing ctrl-arrow. That's what it is in Sangband. I think in O/FA, you can modify the trap with another distance of the same command, or maybe it's like S, and you have to drop stuff in that the trap will use.

Yep, that's right - '+' to set, another '+' to modify. FA traps are like O, not S - traps can be modified, but not loaded with items. And traps are really useful.

[Wisp]

Thanks... also, my ability is the ever useful Unlight... Combined with the boots of stealth I found, dare I say it, my DERogue may be one of the stealthiest classes! *Gets mobbed by Hill Orcs*

[Psi]

One problem that I have hit now that I am diving faster is that I do not tend to have the speed I need for Morgoth by the time I reach the bottom of Angband. For example my current char is now having to scum between Ang98 and Ang99 to get an additional +5 speed in order to be able to haste to +30 (with my HP, a double move by Morgoth would be fatal). In most other variants (except O?), I would be at that point already as Cubragol would be +10. I think this highlights the problem really, most of the big speed items have a lower pval (Cubragol and Feanor lose +5 each) and a lot of other arts do not have speed at all (Thalkettoth, Aglarang etc). This makes acquiring the necessary speed very difficult - you either need Ringil or a *very* good RoS.

[Seany C]

>>This makes acquiring the necessary speed very difficult - you either need Ringil or a *very* good RoS.

Or the Fury speciality, but you'd still be at risk of a double-move for the first few combat turns (unless you speed-buffed by hitting some Snagas first - sort of like nets practice)...