NPP thoughts

[Nick]

PS: don't forget to update the stuff in Makefile.src as well.
Probably $NAME should be there, too...

I've done a patch for V which (if it works) will put $NAME and all other variant-specific stuff in Makefile.src. The only other makefiles that need specific editing then are Makefile.win (which seems to need the EXE line first) and Makefile.nmake, which I can't test.

[Philip]

Hmm. I got a quest for Golfimbul on dlevel 3, which isn't too bad, because he had no escorts and my druid had the cash for a light crossbow +2+4 and some(99) bolts. He didn't need 99 because Golfimbul was down to half stars by the time I ran out of mana, so I started pelting him. I was lucky if I got in a shot in only two phases, but my bolts did one star of damage, which is around 24 damage, so it evened out. I used 17 out of 30 phase doors and my quest reward is cash. About as much as the crossbow cost, in fact. Maybe with some phase doors thrown in. On the other hand, the stuff he gave me was well worth the wait, although all three of them are weapon's and I had a 'good' dagger and there was a broadsword, a pike, and a broad axe, I used none of them because of damage. You see, I bought a staff of perception, and it turns out that the good dagger from dlevel one was *slay orc* +4+13. A warrior would kill Golfimbul with three phase doors and 10 cure light wounds with that. Nice quest and probably too easy.
EDIT: I kill some priests, and again my money from quest is bad, and haul as well. Maybe swordsmen. Also, Lotho Pimple dropped a mace of poison rpoison which is too much for a simple weapon. Rpoison is powerfull. And why is the General store selling a Cloak of the Magi{telepathy} for only 4000? Such a bargain.

[slinberg]

Right. I did rename the app to NPPAngband, but it still nuked ~/Library/Preferences/Angband.

[Pete Mack]

@Jeff-
Pref files don't work that way--they are kept in ~/Library/Preferences, not in current working directory. Fortunately, if you are using the Vanilla makefiles, all you need to do is edit the various NAME fields in Makefile.osx--in particular NAME should be NPPAngband not ANGBAND.

If you really want to know how that is used for configuration, it's in osx/Angband.xml, which is deployed with pattern replacement of things like $NAME$ and $EXECUTABLE$.

EDIT:
PS: don't forget to update the stuff in Makefile.src as well.
Probably $NAME should be there, too...

[nppangband]

Would it be possible to make NPP use its own prefs area so it doesn't clobber the Vanilla prefs, and the two can coexist side-by-side? It blew mine away last night and I was irked. I'd like to try it, but manually shuffling prefs around every time I want to switch back or forth is a hassle.

(This is beta 6 on OSX, built from source)

I didn't know it did this. Shouldn't there be completely separate folders for the two games?

[Derakon]

Just rename it from Angband.app to NPPAngband.app.

[slinberg]

Prefs

Would it be possible to make NPP use its own prefs area so it doesn't clobber the Vanilla prefs, and the two can coexist side-by-side? It blew mine away last night and I was irked. I'd like to try it, but manually shuffling prefs around every time I want to switch back or forth is a hassle.

(This is beta 6 on OSX, built from source)

[Derakon]

Great! Glad to hear it. I haven't been playing NPP much lately; my *band time has been poking at the competition and my current character is stuck on an annoying quest (a bunch of Servants of Yavanna). But I'll pick it up again in a bit, I'm sure.

[nppangband]

@Derakon - I found the problem that was causing unnecessary disturbs when shosts were moving through walls at you. It is fixed for the final release.

[ramela]

Radagast does not resist Fire, so Haste + Fire-Branded weapon / ammo does well against him. Dealing Damage to him quickly forces him to heal himself instead of summoning and attacking, which can be key.

Each of the failed Istar (Radagast, Pallando, Alatar and Saruman) is weak to one of the basic elements or poison. Radagast (and the others) also has an exceptional drop, I've found them worth the trouble.

The others will be challenging as well, the one which has caused me most grief is propably Pallando. The fact that Priests have the most difficulty with Ainur is not a coincidence!

[Derakon]

Okay, running on beta6 now.

* Something seems to be screwy with targeting. I target a monster in one direction and when I cast Orb of Draining it goes in a different direction, or sometimes it explodes prematurely. The specific context here was trying to target the middle of a troll pit while being attacked from another direction.

* Is it really expected that breath weapons use no mana? That seems overpowered; monsters with breath weapons are fully willing to spam them ceaselessly.

* In my opinion, doors should only burn for a few hundred turns at most.

* Terrain recall should mention which elements have their damage affected by that terrain.

* Squelched items shouldn't be mentioned when hit by areas of effect, e.g. mass identify, breath destruction.

* Incidentally, it took my character until clvl 36 and dlvl 2200' to get the Phial. And I still can't use it, because I need the See Invisible that my lantern gives! And I'm having to wear a Ring of Free Action! No real point here, just equipment's been a bit sparse.

* If Winged Horrors can breathe nether, then they really should be evil.

* The adventurer's guild's probing function doesn't tell you anything about the monster's melee attacks. This is very slightly important information...

* Radagast is a pain. There's no escaping him throughout the dungeon, he hits to disenchant, he summons natural monsters (like, say, gravity hounds), he's durable and immune to damn near everything, he has plenty of annoying other spells (including heal-self), he shows up at a mere 2500' when most characters are only barely scraping by and having to be very careful about what fights they get into...he's even always awake! So shortly after you enter the level, he teleports to you and starts smashing your face in with powerful spells. If you teleport him away, he just comes right back. About the only way I see to deal with him is to keep destructing him away until you're powerful enough to just tank what he throws at you. Usually I assume that uniques are at least meant to be possible to take on at the depth at which they first appear without requiring excessive luck, but I don't buy it for this guy.

[Derakon]

As long as they don't simultaneously all cast their most powerful spells, fights like this are alot of fun.

Per my rant when I was fighting Sauron with a previous character, it seems ilke high-level monsters do nothing but cast their most powerful spells every turn...but okay, I'll give a druid a shot when I'm done with the priests.

[nppangband]

Druids become extremely strong at the higher levels. One of their spells becomes more powerful the more creatures you are facing. Check out some of the groups of uniques my druid winner simultaneously beat:

My druid did battle 5 ringwraiths, Tselakus and their summons of at least a dozen other greater undead creatures....all while standing in the middle of a room, and crushed them all. He even killed three on one turn.


| 1581748 | 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Adunaphel the Quiet
| 1581748 | 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Akhorahil the Blind
| 1581796 | 3050 | 50 | Quest: Destroyed Tselakus, the Dreadlord
| 1581796 | 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Dwar, Dog Lord of Waw
| 1581796 | 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Ren the Unclean
| 1581806 | 3050 | 50 | Destroyed Hoarmurath of Dir



This one was even harder. At least a dozen black reavers and probably 20 other liches got summoned to this battle.

As long as they don't simultaneously all cast their most powerful spells, fights like this are alot of fun.


| 1653818| 3450 | 50 | Killed Maeglin, the Traitor of Gondolin
| 1653818| 3450 | 50 | Killed The Cat Lord
| 1653941| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed Feagwath, the Undead Sorcerer
| 1653946| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed The Witch-King of Angmar
| 1653984| 3450 | 50 | Destroyed Khamul, the Black Easterling

[Derakon]

Ah, I haven't played any druids yet. Given what I've seen of high-level monsters, I don't want to take a physically frail character after them just yet...

[ramela]

Orb of Draining is supposed to deal equal damage to all affected squares, that is the distinction between an Orb and a Ball.

Also, Druids tend to do well against weak breeders with Poison Cloud.