[Announce] PosChengband 1.0.0

[HugoVirtuoso]

I found a reproducible bug in the newest version (1.0.15).

Bug: ALL Monster Troll subraces start as Forest Troll in Outpost.

e.g., I pick Ettin, Spirit Troll, etc. When the game starts in Outpost, I'm a Forest Troll, regardless of subrace (e.g., Troll King, Ettin, etc), subclass (e.g., Mighty, Combat, etc), gender, and autoroller options. What's going on?

This bug affects all Troll monster subraces.

[chris]

I found a reproducible bug in the newest version (1.0.15).

Bug: ALL Monster Troll subraces start as Forest Troll in Outpost.

e.g., I pick Ettin, Spirit Troll, etc. When the game starts in Outpost, I'm a Forest Troll, regardless of subrace (e.g., Troll King, Ettin, etc), subclass (e.g., Mighty, Combat, etc), gender, and autoroller options. What's going on?

This bug affects all Troll monster subraces.

This is by design. Trolls evolve Forest->Stone->[Fire | Ice | Algroth->Aklash]->Olog->[Ettin | Storm Troll | Spirit Troll | Troll King]. In other words, only that last evolution differs among the various kinds of trolls.

[chris]

I just uploaded 1.0.15 here.

This release adds trolls ...

Ugh ... apologies as I really do need to do more playtesting before releasing. Trolls work, but are a bit too weak to start, so here is 1.0.16:

* Trolls start more quickly. Their starting club is now only 10 lbs, they get a bite attack, and they also start with a ring of damage +7. So, they kick butt early on
* Trolls now get a small AC bonus.
* (Defender) weapons are now bipolar. Sometimes they cover resist base. Sometimes, they offer multiple high resistances.
* Slaying weapons are now (Armageddon). Instead of only offering poison brands, they now may offer any elemental brand.
* Weapons of sharpness are now more useful.
* Added Rings of Extra Might (for shooting).

[HugoVirtuoso]

Ugh ... apologies as I really do need to do more playtesting before releasing. Trolls work, but are a bit too weak to start, so here is 1.0.16:

* Trolls start more quickly. Their starting club is now only 10 lbs, they get a bite attack, and they also start with a ring of damage +7. So, they kick butt early on
* Trolls now get a small AC bonus.
* (Defender) weapons are now bipolar. Sometimes they cover resist base. Sometimes, they offer multiple high resistances.
* Slaying weapons are now (Armageddon). Instead of only offering poison brands, they now may offer any elemental brand.
* Weapons of sharpness are now more useful.
* Added Rings of Extra Might (for shooting).

I knew something wasn't right...The 1.0.15 Troll subraces were indeed too weak in their primitive forms, imo.

Thanks for giving the Trolls the much necessary upgrade to make them actually fun to start with.

[wobbly]

A small annoyance, your starting equipment doesn't start fully identified

[wobbly]

Am I not understanding some advantage of potions of boldness over heroism?

boldness - removes fear, costs 297 gold
heroism - removes fear, causes heroism, heals for 10, costs 51 gold

[ThunderToads]

Always liked Heng and Cheng, PosCheng is looking like the best version so far.


I've noticed that having the Temperance virtue has a huge effect on your alignment just for going hungry a little. If you only eat when you're hungry, you'll quickly end up Lawful no matter what else you do. This is a little weird in and of itself, but it's a special pain for characters using an 'evil' magic school where spell failure rate is affected by alignment.

Also Giants throwing rocks! The damage they do seems high for their depth.

The Knights of the Round Table are nasty too, but in a good way - they made for some interesting mid-game battles.

[chris]

A small annoyance, your starting equipment doesn't start fully identified

That's easy to fix

Am I not understanding some advantage of potions of boldness over heroism?

boldness - removes fear, costs 297 gold
heroism - removes fear, causes heroism, heals for 10, costs 51 gold

Heroism does not remove fear. In fact, very little in the game will remove fear (mushrooms of cure paranoia, potions of boldness, the Boots of Flora, the spell Remove Fear and walking the pattern come to mind). So if you are fighting Tiamat and suddenly become Terrified, then a potion of heroism won't help at all, but a potion of boldness will.

Heroism gives resistance to fear, which increases your saving throw against scary stuff, but fear resistance is no longer fear immunity!

[chris]

I've noticed that having the Temperance virtue has a huge effect on your alignment just for going hungry a little. If you only eat when you're hungry, you'll quickly end up Lawful no matter what else you do. This is a little weird in and of itself, but it's a special pain for characters using an 'evil' magic school where spell failure rate is affected by alignment.

I too have noticed that alignment is susceptible to wild swings in the early game (but it often settles down later in life). Temperance is by far the easiest virtue to control. Don't eat when you are hungry to "be good" and eat to become bloated to "be bad". Its rather easy to game your alignment when you have this virtue.

I'm not a fan of Hengband's alignment system but am not sure what to do about it. Basically you have a bunch of hard to guess mechanics to alter your virtues (like selling empty bottles for nature???!) and a complete lack of feedback whenever you do something virtuous or not (The only feedback you get is if your virtue score suddenly crosses one of the description boundaries so that the text changes). So you either source dive to see what all the triggers are or, if you are like me, ignore the system altogether. The effects are small enough and I even halved the spell fail rate, though 10%->5% for wisdom casters is still rather significant. This matters for my nature monks, but there is always the Rebalancing Ritual in Zul.

I'm not really sure what to do with the virtue system. I don't see a way to fix it and it is currently rather relevant for summoning characters. If your alignment doesn't "match" than you can't summon certain creatures. Moreover, summoning a good monster makes the player good and summoning an evil monster makes the player evil (if neutral). This prevents squabbles among your children

[AnonymousHero]

I'm not really sure what to do with the virtue system. I don't see a way to fix it and it is currently rather relevant for summoning characters

The answer is simple: remove it. Most of the Hengband mechanics are pretty obvious, but this is not one of them. The summoning issue is moot, IMO -- behave as if the player were exactly on the dividing line.

[wobbly]

Found Frescia wondering around level 1 of Camelot. Was open door, dead for my little gnome.

[Djabanete]

I don't think virtues add much to the game right now because
the player doesn't know what benefits the various alignments
confer, and doesn't know how to change his alignment in any
case.

And even if one *does* know what changes alignments --- and I
did peruse the old Hengband online spoilers to find out about
this --- the actions required to leverage this knowledge would
lead to tedious gameplay.

If I were in your shoes I would scrap alignment/virtues.

A simplistic system that just had 3 alignment levels (Good/Neutral/Evil), or the 9 of D&D (add a second dimension of Lawful/Neutral/Chaotic), could possibly be successful, perhaps with alignment depending on equipment instead of player actions (so annoying gameplay isn't rewarded).

For example I could imagine a Helm of Evil that might favor Death spellcasters and hamper Crusade spellcasters, etc.

[wobbly]

I'd favour scrapping virtues, or perhaps just leaving it for specific classes where it was thematic (priests,monks..)

by the way I notice potions work thrown (sleep potions will sleep monsters they hit, great for my ninja). Is there an easy way to stop auto-pickup auto-destroying them?

[chris]

by the way I notice potions work thrown (sleep potions will sleep monsters they hit, great for my ninja). Is there an easy way to stop auto-pickup auto-destroying them?

You can use pickup preferences for this. Type '_' to invoke the editor and add a line like:

potion of sleep

to the file.

[chris]

OK, I will remove the Virtue System.

Player alignment will still exist but will no longer be influenced by your virtues. For example, Balrogs are still evil (so won't be able to summon good monsters) and Archons are still good (so won't be able to summon evil monsters). Most everybody else will behave as if they are "neutral".

For a Trump summoner, it will be harder to spam Great Wyrms of Power from Trump Ancient Dragon (unless you play an Archon), but this is probably a good thing!