Halls of Mist 1.3.0

[Mikko Lehtinen]

A quick idea: non-spellcasters should get double the normal bonuses to Spell Save from high Knowledge. This makes it much easier to balance the stats for all classes.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

What if all spellcasters had two extra skills, Spellcasting and Spell Mastery?

Spell Mastery skill would be used when your level is at least ten higher than the spell's level. Spellcasting skill would be used otherwise.

They'd be shown on character sheet like this:

13 STRENGTH
   61%  Bash         burden       30.3/108
   53%  Pierce       max weapon weight  13
                     jumping in armour  22
                     thrown range  3+blows
14 DEXTERITY
   59%  Aim          max blows           3
   55%  Jumping      current blows       2
   29%  Parry         
   72%  Slash         
10 CUNNING
   15%  Ambush       night vision        0
   38%  Perception    
   40%  Stealth       
10 KNOWLEDGE
   28%  Alchemy      Spellcasting      70%
   48%  Navigation   Spell Mastery     91%
   43%  Spell Save   known spells        6
10 AURA (max 12)
   41%  Device       spell range         8
   29%  Presence

What do you think? Are individual spell fail rates interesting enough to justify the clumsy mechanics?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Here's how equipment would look like under the new system (taking cue from Sil). Numbers are made up for this example.

a Short Sword (+5,1d8,x4)[+5]
a Ring Mail (-5)[-5,2d6]
a Set of Gauntlets [+5]
a Leather Cap [1d4]

In parentheses: bonus or penalty to hit, damage dice, maximum number of blows. (Your dexterity limits your actual number of blows in melee.)

In square brackets: bonus or penalty to parry, armor dice.

Bonuses or penalties are applied directly to the used skill. For example, if your starting Parry skill is 40%, it would raise to 45% with a Short Sword or decrease to 35% with a Ring Mail. With both, it would be 40%. I think bonuses to hit will also apply to the Ambush skill.

Armor dice would be substracted only from hits to that particular location. The relevant locations are head, body and feet. (Gauntlets increase Parry instead.)

All monster attacks have the attack location defined in the monster.txt file. Most attacks will target your body. Usually only rats, cocroaches, snakes, spiders, small faeries, etc. will target your feet; if any damage gets through, you might get poisoned, diseased, or crippled (50% fail chance to walking while the status effect lasts), depending on the attack. I will create similar special effects for monster attacks targeting your head. Engulfing vortices or flying swarm monsters might have three attacks, one against each body part.

Your Parry score is just as relevant against every monster, no matter how dangerous. If you make your percentage check, the attack misses. Period. The armor dice are different -- they tend to be much more important against low-level threats than against heavy hitters.

To dodge ranged attacks, make a Jumping skill check instead of Parry. If your body armour is too heavy for your Strength, you don't get any Dexterity bonuses to Jumping.

I'm trying to make throwing mechanics as transparent as possible. Just by seeing the weapon in your inventory list you should be able to determine its effectiveness as a throwing weapon.

• Range is max blows + (STR / 4).
• When throwing perfectly balanced weapons, make an Aim skill check to determine damage multiplier. The multiplier is equal to max blows if you make your Aim skill check. If you fail or if the weapon is not perfectly balanced, the multiplier is blows minus one, x3 at maximum.
• Perfectly balanced weapons should me marked somehow... Maybe Dagger (+5, 1d4, t7) ?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Nope. You can only get "double blessing" for a while if you are already a permanent follower and offer an ego item or artifact.

[buzzkill]

Can I get 2 seperate blessings from the same goddess at the same time? I found two of the same altar on the same level.

[buzzkill]

How *should* the scroll function? Opinions?

Assuming it's being used to escape a tight spot... gotta give some mana. Full mana if you go down... 1/2 mana if you go up??? (or up could take you back to town).

[Mikko Lehtinen]

It probably increased Min Depth by one. IIRC it chooses up or down randomly unless your Min Depth is too close to current depth.

I didn't remember to update the spell for ironband mana. Making it worse wasn't a conscious decision at all...

How *should* the scroll function? Opinions?

[jujuben]

So, how is ?Teleport Level supposed to interact with min depth and mana? I just used one, and don't remember whether of not it incremented min depth (forgot to check), but it did not reset mana - which was not what I was expecting at all.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

All dungeon books contain a ritual. Anyone, even non-spellcasters, can perform the ritual in a right kind of a magic circle; the book is consumed in the process. A ritual might increase STR or summon mighty weapons, for example, one point or one weapon per power point.

[ekolis]

What are rituals? Are those spells?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Some progress in my quest to turn everything into skill checks.

Currently, rituals work like this: Roll MEM + WIS - 1d20. For each remaining 10 points, gain a power point.

They will work like this: First, make an Alchemy skill check to get your symbols straight and all the props just right. Then make a Presence skill check to perform the incantations with poetic skill and power. For each successful skill check, gain a power point.

I also realized that thrown weapon range should be something like (STR / 4) + the weapon's maximum blows. I'm glad to get rid off another arcane formula.

Ekolis: another thing that makes AC impossible to comprehend currently is the fact that different kinds of monster attacks have very different chances to hit you. A given monster might hit you routinely with it's damaging attacks while its attacks to drain STR almost always fail against your AC.

[ekolis]

it's impossible for the player to judge how important AC is.

Amen to that! +4 AC? What's that do? Does it make you 4% less likely to get hit? Reduce damage by 1d4 points per hit? Nope, it goes into some arcane formula that's not explained ANYWHERE in-game, and (unless it's been added recently) you can't even see its effects on anything other than by trial and error!

(Note that this is not a complaint about Mist in particular, but about Angband+variants in general! )

[Mikko Lehtinen]

One quick and easy thing I'd like to see for thrown weapons before you start rebalancing/playtesting them: a line in the info display about how suitable for throwing the weapon is, and how much thrown damage it currently does. I've seen this in many variants, so the code for it is presumably out there.

I'll try to make it clear.

For the moment I think thrown weapons will work like this:

- To hit with an edged weapon, make a Slash check against lightly armored monster, or Pierce check against heavily armored monster. Thrown clubs always use the Bash skill. (Melee attacks use the exact same system.)

- Any weapon light enough to have at least two blows may be thrown effectively. Damage multiplier is normally weapon's max blows minus one, topping at x3.

- If you're throwing a perfectly balanced weapon and succeed in your Aim skill check, damage multiplier = weapon's max blows.

For example, a dagger's thrown damage multiplier is either 3x or 7x, depending on your Aim skill check.

Aim skill is also used for hitting with powder vials or for getting +1 to powder's radius. They will function a bit more like grenades in the new system.

[jujuben]

One quick and easy thing I'd like to see for thrown weapons before you start rebalancing/playtesting them: a line in the info display about how suitable for throwing the weapon is, and how much thrown damage it currently does. I've seen this in many variants, so the code for it is presumably out there.

[buzzkill]

Unbalanced weapons might be the biggest problem right now, so I'm not particularly concerned about breaking things. Similarly, armor is too good at the moment, and it's impossible for the player to judge how important AC is.

AC is hard to come by though. Gold is scarce enough that you don't want to flat out buy it. Enchanted armour drops aren't exactly common and are typically only +1 or +2. Also, many characters don't have the strength to wear heavy armour, so they have to assemble an enchanted kit of lightweight pieces. By the time this happens, you're deep enough that having a respectable AC doesn't gain you all that much. Having AC also encourages open space brawling.

I guess what I'm saying is that the current AC system seems to work OK, at least IMO.