[FA] FAangband development

[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

[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]

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...

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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]

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...

[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]

New speciality idea:

Taming - Your grasp of nature magics grants you an authority over the animal kingdom. Available to Druids and Rangers

This would work similarly to superstealth, but just for monsters that are flagged ANIMAL and not EMPTY_MIND (maybe half effective for WEIRD_MIND?) or UNIQUE.

New artifact: (since there aren't any art robes it would be nice to have something with lowish AC, but pluses for full casters - and a tempter for those going for evasion)

The Robe of Someone or Something [2,+13] (+4)

INT | WIS | SPEED | SUST_INT | SUST_WIS |
RES_ACID | RES_ELEC | RES_FIRE | RES_COLD |
RES_DISEN | RES_CONFU

[Psi]

Interesting thought. My main thought on druids is to give them a shards attack - maybe replace poison bolt or fire bolt.

Now spell changes is another discussion entirely! Druids lack Teleport, TL, WoR, Banishment, Destruction, Genocide... etc Their only useful spell of that ilk is Teleport Monster. A Shards attack would definitely be nice (as any non-elemental attacks are for spell casters), but a destruction or banishment spell ought to be on the list too.

Interesting ideas. I don't have any strong opinions about specialties yet, so I'm still able to be influenced

I'll keep thinking then!

I'll have to think about the implications of this one.

For reference, this was regarding a possible Magestaff of Power. My thinking behind this is something to stop strong casters wandering around with standard warrior weapons purely for the stats/powers/resists. Chances are, most characters would still take Ringil given the choice, but it would make the decision more interesting on other artifact weapons.

[Psi]

Another advantage the "more difficult" starting positions have got are the weapon upgrades (apart from the poor druid of course). These provide many intrinsics or a potential windfall of cash if you sell up. Especially now that the wilderness is less populated, these weapons probably give too big a headstart. I can see the merit of having SeeInvis (would be very unfair otherwise) so perhaps give out a (+3,+3) (Blessed) (+1) weapon with the power forced to SeeInvis instead? It might also be worth upping the starting gold, so suitable survival consumables can be purchased too.

[Nick]

What it needs now are more 'interesting rooms' to use dungeon speak (which could include flower patches...). I'd also like to see the river weave around in the Sirion Vale rather than being straight up the middle each time. Also I think it would be great to have water monsters that don't stray from water terrain.

Yes and yes. And yes.

Perhaps Druids could be given a sling to start out with and then give the harder races a Sling of Extra Might perhaps?

Interesting thought. My main thought on druids is to give them a shards attack - maybe replace poison bolt or fire bolt.

Since Bandobras' comment on Enhance Magic I have realised that this is only available to Paladins outside of the Strong Casters. I reckon this speciality would probably be more beneficial to melee types with the enhancements to the combat buffing spells. Perhaps open this one up to every class?

Perhaps some of the weapon specialities could be opened up to be selectable? For example Druids have a reasonable shooting skill - I reckon a Grey Elf Druid taking a BOW_SPEED_GREAT speciality would make a very interesting character.

Interesting ideas. I don't have any strong opinions about specialties yet, so I'm still able to be influenced

There are already specialities which raise the casting level of spells. Perhaps there could be items that do this too. ToME already has a similar concept with raising spell power. Borrowing an idea from there would be to have magestaff egos that increase your casting level - A Magestaff of Power (+16) perhaps? Similarly you could do the same on hats or rings/amulets if you wanted to.

I'll have to think about the implications of this one.

Easterling - not sure why he has 9HD instead of 10?

Me neither. I'll probably increase that, and may tweak some other stuff too. They're still D&D humans, really.

Green-Elf - give them +1 or +2 to speed

They'll probably get more stealth, and maybe better hit die.

Grey-Elf - BOW_SKILL and WIS make them better than High Elves for some classes. They are better than Green-Elves in most departments already. Probably leave them as they are.

Agreed.

Hobbit - I think this is a real challenge character. As I've said before give them SUST_CON and HOLD_LIFE. To make them a real contender give them REGEN (the amount of meals they have per day suggests they might have this... )

Agree on the approach - low hit die, but bonuses.

Petty-Dwarf - another challenge race. Give them rBlind like the other dwarves and they are suddenly an interesting choice for an INT based spellcaster.

Gnomes in all but name. Need work.

Dwarf - there is no reason to take a dwarf over a longbeard. Perhaps Dwarves could be more stealthy (well less noisy) than Longbeards and/or have more HD.

They get a starting weapon with +1 speed. I could make that +2; thematically I want them basically inferior to longbeards, though.

Adan - no need to change

Actually, I probably will change them a bit. I don't like their racial specialty, and may tweak everything else a bit too.

High-Elf - I'm always surprised that High-Elves don't have a thn boost per level, but then again the whole package is strong enough already.

Yes.

Maia - never tried one, but somehow I don't think they need changing (except maybe not allowing them on the ladder...)

Dark-Elf - give them rDark (c'mon they're _Dark_ elves!) and maybe rBlind.

They should be very similar to Green Elves, really. Probably weaker and stealthier.

Ent - another great race. However I do think they should have their stealth bonuses whilst stood on any forest *terrain* rather than on any forest level. I would get suspicious seeing a tree walking across a glade for example or attacking a warrior settlement wilderness vault! It also doesn't make sense that an ent can't hide in all the trees on a river level. There may need to be a slight AI change for monsters to make them head for tree squares when they lose sight of an ent (eg if there is only one tree terrain grid then its pretty obvious where the ent is...).

Yeah, I want to tweak that a bit.

[Psi]

Ahh, so I've noticed I can put daggers and such in my quiver. To throw them I use 'v' right?

Yes and then / to select from equipment rather than inventory.