[Announce] PosChengband 1.0.0

[chris]

Does it stack? As you don't see a % behind it like the resists.

It does stack, but there is no sensible way to display a percentage as your odds of saving depend on the monster (and sometimes nearby monsters as well). Each source of resistance gives an extra saving throw (no resistance is 1 save, etc.) so it definitely pays dividends to get at least two sources. Don't forget those !Heroism.

Oh, and Berserk gives immunity to fear if you really need it.

[bron]

Is there any documentation anywhere about "reforging" ? I see it in the source, and others have mentioned it, but I don't seem to see anything that explains how it's suppose to work. And where is this service found? I'm sure I can just paw through the code and eventually figure it out, but I was hoping for something a little easier ...

[chris]

Is there any documentation anywhere about "reforging" ? I see it in the source, and others have mentioned it, but I don't seem to see anything that explains how it's suppose to work. And where is this service found? I'm sure I can just paw through the code and eventually figure it out, but I was hoping for something a little easier ...

Sorry ... Reforging is rather new. Also, updating helpfiles is my one major outstanding task, but it is dreadfully tedious to do.

Reforging is available as a town service in the Fighter's Hall of Morivant. To use this service, you need to acquire enough fame. After all, the smith will only trouble himself with characters who have distinguished themselves in battle!

The service requires you to pick a source artifact and a non-artifact, non-ego destination object. You will pay a price based upon the power of the source artifact and the power of the resulting artifact will likewise depend on the power of the source. Keep in mind that it is the total overall power of the result that is judged, not simply the power of the "additions" during the reforge. So, picking destination objects that are already powerful, for example, rings of speed, might not give the best results. In fact, starting with next release the game will force the source artifact to be more powerful then the starting destination object. At the moment, there are some bugs here.

But otherwise, the reforged artifact you get is completely random. Also, you never quite get the full power of the original, and there is some randomness in how much you will actually get. At the moment, this is something like (50 + 1d50)% but I'm likely to tone this down in the future.

Finally, the reforged artifact is reforged at a "depth" that depends on your fame. This is relevant because some things, like immunities, extra attacks, kill evil, etc have depth restrictions. The more famous you are, the better the results you can expect.

Player fame is acquired by killing uniques, completing quests, winning in the arena (town) and by conquering dungeon guardians. You can ask the Inn Keeper about your fame ... for a small fee.

In the current version (1.0.37) reforging is still a bit too powerful. But I hesitate to nerf it just yet as I think I am the only player who has noticed this, or complained about it. The feature was added so that player monster races with severe equipment limitations (e.g. Beholders and Hydras) would have a chance at finding/creating suitable gear.

[bron]

Thanks! Very useful to know.

The feature was added so that player monster races with severe equipment limitations (e.g. Beholders and Hydras) would have a chance at finding/creating suitable gear.

Yes, exactly! I'm playing a Hydra in the competition, and while it seems like a very powerful character in the early going, it is already clear that I'm going to suffer badly in the resistances department in the late game due to the inability to equip body armor or a shield (or wear rings or boots or carry a weapon), so creating a couple of extra artifact amulets and/or hats, which hydras can wear multiples of, seems like a useful (possibly critical) thing to do.

[DaviddesJ]

I tend to have the opposite attitude, some of the races have very powerful powers and abilities, the equipment restrictions should be a major disadvantage. One of the historical weaknesses of Angband is that characters end up looking more or less the same, so the very different equipment configurations is a brilliant way to mix that up. But less effective if you make it too easy for each race to just get equipment of whatever type it needs.

[chris]

I tend to have the opposite attitude, some of the races have very powerful powers and abilities, the equipment restrictions should be a major disadvantage. One of the historical weaknesses of Angband is that characters end up looking more or less the same, so the very different equipment configurations is a brilliant way to mix that up. But less effective if you make it too easy for each race to just get equipment of whatever type it needs.

That's a good point. There are some builds that require excessive grinding, IMO, and it is these I am attempting to address. Ideally, I'd like the reforging to be motivational and fun, but quite a bit weaker than it currently is.

[DaviddesJ]

In compiling PosChengband and looking at compiler warnings I noticed a couple of things that look like bugs.

In files.c:

                        if (i == slot_type == EQUIP_SLOT_HELMET)
                            adj += 2;
                        if (i == slot_type == EQUIP_SLOT_LITE)
                            adj += 1;

It's hard to believe this is what you want. Maybe the "i ==" should just be deleted? This seems to only affect display.

In cmd1.c:

                else if ( ( ( m_ptr->hp < maxhp/2 && one_in_(num_blow*10))
                           || one_in_(666)
                           || ((backstab || fuiuchi) && one_in_(11))
                       && !(r_ptr->flags1 & RF1_UNIQUE)
                       && !(r_ptr->flags7 & RF7_UNIQUE2)) )

Maybe this is what you want, but the indentation and parenthesization is confusing. There's an extra set of parentheses wrapped around the whole argument?

[chris]

Thanks. Both appear to be bugs (not code I wrote, but code I am maintaining).

For the second, the original Hengband code is:

else if (((m_ptr->hp < maxhp/2) && one_in_((p_ptr->num_blow[0]+p_ptr->num_blow[1]+1)*10)) || ((one_in_(666) || ((backstab || fuiuchi) && one_in_(11))) && !(r_ptr->flags1 & RF1_UNIQUE) && !(r_ptr->flags7 & RF7_UNIQUE2)))

That is completely incomprehensible to me ... Changing it to

else if ( (m_ptr->hp < maxhp/2 && one_in_(num_blow*10)) 
       || ( (one_in_(666) || ((backstab || fuiuchi) && one_in_(11)))
         && !(r_ptr->flags1 & RF1_UNIQUE) 
         && !(r_ptr->flags7 & RF7_UNIQUE2)) )

at least makes it obvious that it is disjunction with a conjuction in the first branch, and two in the second. Trust me, there are thousands of equally cryptic pieces of code laying about ... You don't want to go there.

[Brouhaha]

Death Sword with low light radius

Death Sword checking in here! I absorbed some glow in the dark weapon or another and got a +1 bonus to my light radius. By all rights, I should shine like a lantern now, instead of a meager torch. Not the case, unfortunately. I still just illuminate one square around my steely self.

Edit: are there any weapons that give you Levitation essences?

[Arjen]

Death Sword checking in here! I absorbed some glow in the dark weapon or another and got a +1 bonus to my light radius. By all rights, I should shine like a lantern now, instead of a meager torch. Not the case, unfortunately. I still just illuminate one square around my steely self.

Edit: are there any weapons that give you Levitation essences?

You're a sword! Not a light!

And yeah, egos with a random flag can get them, like Blessed/Trump weapons. And Artifact, like Dr. Jones whip.

[Brouhaha]

Just found a quarterstaff of Extra Attacks. Got VERY excited. I now have one of 25 essences that I need. No longer quite so excited

About the light thing, though, will my radius ever improve? I hate feeling blind almost as much as I hate lugging staves and rods around to illuminate the dark corners of the dungeon.

[Arjen]

Just found a quarterstaff of Extra Attacks. Got VERY excited. I now have one of 25 essences that I need. No longer quite so excited

About the light thing, though, will my radius ever improve? I hate feeling blind almost as much as I hate lugging staves and rods around to illuminate the dark corners of the dungeon.

It will improve. At least if Chris didn't create a bug between my last death sword character and the newest version.

[chris]

It will improve. At least if Chris didn't create a bug between my last death sword character and the newest version.

I hope I didn't

And I promise to fix the light bug for the next release, which is pending the end of the current comp ...

[Arjen]

Btw, why is the general store value extremely low? It would be nice if you could sell lights for more than the max of 750 gold.

[Nick]

Various people have tried to revive Posband, and I have played with the idea of including Pos-style monster races in FA. Having now played PosCheng a bit for the competition, I am really, really glad that none of the other attempts succeeded, because I can't imagine it being done better than this.

The main things I see as missing from the original Pos are

1. the massive slowdown when teams of oppositely aligned monsters were fighting each other on your level;
2. the consequent piles of free loot;
3. the frequent, hilarious bugs and
4. the Possessor class

I would like to see number 4 if you ever get the time and inclination to implement it; losing the others is an improvement.

Awesome job!

EDIT: Beating the warg quest by throwing the wargs at walls and each other is hilarious.