NPP thoughts

[nppangband]

Okay, I've put the save for the flickering wall issue up here. * The terrain docs talk about dying instantly in certain terrains, which sounds a bit harsh. I'm assuming that they merely do heavy elemental damage...

A creature who walks into lava would take 200 hp damage per turn, unless they are native to lava. So yes, for a prestat gain character, it would be death. The game does give the player a warning and they must answer a prompt to walk into it if not native.

[Derakon]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

[Nick]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

Can you import it rather than opening it? I've been caught with that one in OSX.

[nppangband]

I remember something similar happening back when we were talking about the "start a new character at clvl/dlvl 20"; for some reason the savefiles modified by the character patcher weren't openable by Vanilla. I did something trivial and they started working; I wish I could remember what it was...

Would you like me to send you back the file I opened and saved? Maybe that will work for you again.

[Derakon]

Can you import it rather than opening it? I've been caught with that one in OSX.

Ah! That was it. I'm back in business; thanks!

[nppangband]

I should have BETA-3 out either today, in about 10 hours, or tomorrow, depending on how my night goes.

[tigpup]

Looking forward to that.

For anyone who's not played NPP; this is worth a download. Mass id, superior squelch, quests, store services & 4AI monsters are among the things to enjoy.

Beware the bigger hydras. Beware Azathoth. Other than that, it can be played like V with a few interesting tweaks.

If you get to Morgy; let him use up his mana (this is limited for all monsters in NPP, and shows up just like HP stars).

[Derakon]

I'm not so certain that NPP's squelch is superior to V's, actually. V is very clean here: squelched items simply disappear, but can be "retrieved" if you decide you want to see them later. This allows you to squelch items that you only need very rarely (e.g. restore-stat potions) and unsquelch them later if you find you do need them. With NPP, squelching is nonreversible, since squelched items are outright destroyed -- and they are displayed in-game (even if only as a purple dot) until you do destroy them by walking over them. Moreover there are a few edge cases where you can squelch an item and others of its type don't disappear immediately (mostly if there's multiple of the same item on the tile you're standing on when you squelch).

That said, NPP's squelch is miles better than no squelch at all. V's is just a bit more polished IMO.

[tigpup]

Agreed about irreversible squelch. The quality and ego aspects of NPP squelch are better than in V IMHO.

[tigpup]

My main gripe with NPP is the potential unavoidable instadeath of ranged gravity (and other eg nexus) traps. These get first move when you enter a level. I have been hit by them when using stairs or recall, but haven't yet been killed. I realise the odds are slim, but it is still a risk.

Is this fixable?

[nppangband]

My main gripe with NPP is the potential unavoidable instadeath of ranged gravity (and other eg nexus) traps. These get first move when you enter a level. I have been hit by them when using stairs or recall, but haven't yet been killed. I realise the odds are slim, but it is still a risk.

Is this fixable?

I changed it so the player should always get at least 2 turns before a smart trap fires. In reviewing the code there is an odd chance that occasionally the trap gets to fire befure the player gets a turn, but it won't from now on.

[nppangband]

NPP Beta 3 is out. Here is the announcement:

http://forum.nppangband.org/viewtopic.php?pid=3134#p3134

and the links:

source:

http://download.nppangband.org/npp-0.5.1-src-beta3.zip

Windows executable:

http://download.nppangband.org/npp-0.5.1-win-beta3.zip

[Derakon]

Okay, I'm still on the previous version for now.

* The Mouth of Sauron is a bastard. It seems like 3/4ths of his turns are spent casting spells that deal more than 300HP in damage even if you resist the element in question. And most of those stun. And he never comes close to running low on mana. According to monster.txt he only has 147 max mana...so just how much mana do monster spells cost? Clearly not enough. I'm thankful I'm a paladin and thus have access to a 350HP heal spell; I have no idea how non-holy casters are expected to deal with this guy. Even then I had to retreat four times to replenish my mana supply -- and this is with Ringil, resistance to everything but sound, and +22 speed before hasting. Warriors are double-screwed because they can't use any rods or staves when fighting him. He also seems to be able to drain energy from my pack for healing even when nothing in my pack has any charges left. Can he drain partially-recharged (i.e. not-yet-usable) rods or something?
* It would probably be a good idea to note somewhere what makes for a valid item for artifact creation. I could guess because I've played variants with the ability before, but it's not stated anywhere that I can tell. Amusingly, the guild made me a set of gloves with +7 speed, permanent light, and (+3, +3) to-hit/dam. How is the level for the randart determined? Hard-coded, or based on the player's level, or rating, or what?
* I just noticed that my light radius is 6. Thanks for removing the cap at 5. Pretty minor, but a nice detail.
* Thanks for giving dungeon spellbooks as quest rewards. That's quite nice.
* I'm gonna repeat my request for the targeting information to stick to the unit that you last attacked, instead of the unit that last attacked you (or the closest unit after you kill something). This is very annoying.
* Oh hey, I just discovered the extra character info screen that shows stats on your house items. Neat!
* The "Orb" greater vault has solid chunks of permanent rock that can't be mapped. Looks a bit odd when you have a source of magic mapping. Might as well put something in there.
* When I abandoned my quest (for 25 archliches...no thanks!) the message seemed to get stuck; by the time I cleared it I had somehow picked up a new quest (to clear a poison dragon pit; much better).

[nppangband]

Okay, I'm still on the previous version for now.

* The Mouth of Sauron is a bastard. It seems like 3/4ths of his turns are spent casting spells that deal more than 300HP in damage even if you resist the element in question. And most of those stun. And he never comes close to running low on mana. According to monster.txt he only has 147 max mana...so just how much mana do monster spells cost? Clearly not enough. I'm thankful I'm a paladin and thus have access to a 350HP heal spell; I have no idea how non-holy casters are expected to deal with this guy. Even then I had to retreat four times to replenish my mana supply -- and this is with Ringil, resistance to everything but sound, and +22 speed before hasting. Warriors are double-screwed because they can't use any rods or staves when fighting him. He also seems to be able to drain energy from my pack for healing even when nothing in my pack has any charges left. Can he drain partially-recharged (i.e. not-yet-usable) rods or something?

Did you know you can drain a monster's mana by throwing and hitting a monster with a potion of drain mana? That might help.

That's how NPP is balanced differently than V. Your character might get more powerful items, but the dungeon has many more creatures below 2500' that will be hitting you for 300-500 hp damage per round.

And I can't stress this enough: beware a black lowercase 'j' named Azathoth.

* It would probably be a good idea to note somewhere what makes for a valid item for artifact creation. I could guess because I've played variants with the ability before, but it's not stated anywhere that I can tell. Amusingly, the guild made me a set of gloves with +7 speed, permanent light, and (+3, +3) to-hit/dam. How is the level for the randart determined? Hard-coded, or based on the player's level, or rating, or what?

Right now, it is all kinds of equipment except for rings, amulets, and light sources. Randart rings and light sources will be added in NPP 0.6.0 (it requires a break in savefile compatibility).

The power of the randart is based on the player's fame. If your reputation is legendary, you are probably going to get a pretty great randart.

* I'm gonna repeat my request for the targeting information to stick to the unit that you last attacked, instead of the unit that last attacked you (or the closest unit after you kill something). This is very annoying.

This is in Beta-3. It should work the same as Angband.

* When I abandoned my quest (for 25 archliches...no thanks!) the message seemed to get stuck; by the time I cleared it I had somehow picked up a new quest (to clear a poison dragon pit; much better).

Are you saying you got a new random quest without requesting it? I will check into this. Thanks.

Beta-3 is savefile compatible with Beta-2, BTW.

[Derakon]

I either got a new quest without requesting it, or accidentally requested it while trying to clear the apparently-stuck message. I can't really tell.

Good to know on the potions of drain mana. Now if only I hadn't been squelching them all this time. It'd be neat if one of the magical realms included a "psychic drain" spell. Probably mage-only, I'd say. Reduce target creature's mana by clvl; gain clvl HP.