[Announce] Poschengband 3.0.0 Released

[Raxmei]

Thanks! I wish I could take credit for the Possessor idea, but its been around for quite some time. I think Posband had it first but I'm not sure.

The first I recall seeing it was Pern.

[Flauterfiddle]

Yes, the possession aspect is truly nifty, opens up an entirely different kind of gameplay IMHO.

Minor gripe, however. Since you cannot gain exp past your body's max. level (or max. level + 5, it could be made clearer when you will stop gaining exp. The monster memory tells you the level of the current body, sure, but a gameplay option/message on the lines of you "feel tired of this body", or "you feel you have seen it all", i.e. experience maxed out, would be good. I kept checking the exp when I slowly realized I was no longer levelling with a novice something-or-other.

On the other hand, the level parameter as the base for exp is very good. There are some "weaker" monsters that occur lower down who can be possessed for longer, since their higher level offers more room for exp. My current choice of warg is a good example, base level 14 offers plenty of room for levelling early on. Even though wargs are not the most powerful thing out there at level 14.

Oh, and one other gripe. I possessed a clear hound in one of the quests, more out of desperation than anything else (I was out of my depth in that quest anyway). And then found that clear hounds cannot see other clear hounds. Surely some mistake? Invisible creature does not have see invisible?

Still navigating through a number of other new features I'm not accustomed too, though. Is there a general announcement covering things like level feelings and quests?

I've notice the level feelings seem to change dynamically, i.e. one minute you're feeling lucky, the next minute the feeling changes, even though you are still on the same level.

And with quests, my three quests from the mayor were level 5, level and then ... level 48. Is the mayor trying to tell me I'm not welcome in his town any longer? :=) :=) The pub also gave me Old Man Willow for starters, which is 22. Both Outpost naturally. So my 13-level Warg is gonna need to find someone else to work for. I like the idea of quests btw, they give the game a nice narrative structure, which scumming dungeon levels does not...

[Arjen]

Oh, and one other gripe. I possessed a clear hound in one of the quests, more out of desperation than anything else (I was out of my depth in that quest anyway). And then found that clear hounds cannot see other clear hounds. Surely some mistake? Invisible creature does not have see invisible?

That surely is funny, as they are capable of forming groups.

Still navigating through a number of other new features I'm not accustomed too, though. Is there a general announcement covering things like level feelings and quests?

I've notice the level feelings seem to change dynamically, i.e. one minute you're feeling lucky, the next minute the feeling changes, even though you are still on the same level.

When the feeling changes something has happened on the level, like you killed so many monsters the level became "boring" or a out of depth unique with escort spawn and suddenly "you fear for your life" kind of messages are spammed. If you are feeling lucky and later you don't, you might have picked up a nice item which no longer is on the level as you did pick it up.

And with quests, my three quests from the mayor were level 5, level and then ... level 48. Is the mayor trying to tell me I'm not welcome in his town any longer? :=) :=) The pub also gave me Old Man Willow for starters, which is 22. Both Outpost naturally. So my 13-level Warg is gonna need to find someone else to work for. I like the idea of quests btw, they give the game a nice narrative structure, which scumming dungeon levels does not...

Yeah, don't do the level 48 Haunt House quest, you will die.

But at the beginning only the Thieves and Wargs are doable, even that Old Man Willow quest is tough untill level 25-30, depending on who you are. Try conquering some dungeons or travel to other towns for some extra work. (You can travel over the worldmap pressing '<' while on the surface.)

[Flauterfiddle]

The sinking feeling...

Thx for the tip on quest feelings, Arjen.

I guessed it might be something like that, and I do like the dynamic feature, I must admit. It makes sticking around on a level much more interesting. The help text needs updating though, since it states that the feeling is generated once per level, when you enter. The colouration (bottom right) is also a very, very neat feature.

And I guess shafts (rather than stairs) take you up more than 1 level sometimes? Or down more than one? I also have no idea why I sometimes go back to the exact same dungeon level.

So much to discover. Well, I only beat Angband once in a lifetime of playing it :=) High-Elf Mage, of course...

Oh, and one more feature request or question: a Recall scroll for getting back to the safe haven of a town would be really neat. Once, surrounded by a bunch of tough critters in the Wilderness, I recalled to a dungeon, recovered and then recalled back out, only to find myself still in the Wilderness with all the lovely nasties around me that I'd tried to escape. Since recall depth can be reset, a new scroll to reset recall to a town would be very useful. If you can reset depth, it would be useful to reset target as well... Word of Town Recall? Word of Safe Haven? Or is this a deliberate penalty? I generally like the Wilderness in this version, though. The Zangband wilderness got insanely dangerous very, very quickly, as I recall (pun intended)...

[getter77]

The site seems to have been down the past couple days now.

[chris]

The site seems to have been down the past couple days now.

Which one?

I currently can get to both https://sites.google.com/site/poschengband/ and https://github.com/poschengband/poschengband. I haven't noticed any problems recently, but I rarely visit the google site. Google has had multi-day outages in the past, though (at least, code.google has).

[chris]

Oh, and one more feature request or question: a Recall scroll for getting back to the safe haven of a town would be really neat. Once, surrounded by a bunch of tough critters in the Wilderness, I recalled to a dungeon, recovered and then recalled back out, only to find myself still in the Wilderness with all the lovely nasties around me that I'd tried to escape. Since recall depth can be reset, a new scroll to reset recall to a town would be very useful. If you can reset depth, it would be useful to reset target as well... Word of Town Recall? Word of Safe Haven? Or is this a deliberate penalty? I generally like the Wilderness in this version, though. The Zangband wilderness got insanely dangerous very, very quickly, as I recall (pun intended)...

There currently is a Sorcery spell, Teleport to Town, which would do what you like: Casting it in the wilderness prompts the player to choose a town they have previously visited, and teleports them thither. I wouldn't mind adding a scroll to do the same.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Zul's Inn (assuming it has one) should have an option to teleport to the other 4 towns. I don't see why not.

[Flauterfiddle]

A FAQ for PosChengband/Variant Angband?

Keep coming up with more questions, wondered if there was a more appropriate place to ask them than spamming this thread :=)

Such as, e.g., "Can you die in the Arena?". I guess YES is the answer, but since there is no info on the Arena anywhere (AFAIK), I am not 100% sure. I have been ploughing through monsters with my highly useful possessed Giant Tarantula, but after a Dark Elven Lord did in fact use magic when it is supposedly banned (or is it just the player who cannot use magic?) I decided to leave off monster bashing until I was sure that all combat was to the death.

As said, I need a FAQ - or would be happy to start/run one.

[getter77]

It was the Google page, which seems to be up just fine now with beta v3.0.2---awesome.

[Arjen]

Keep coming up with more questions, wondered if there was a more appropriate place to ask them than spamming this thread :=)

Such as, e.g., "Can you die in the Arena?". I guess YES is the answer, but since there is no info on the Arena anywhere (AFAIK), I am not 100% sure. I have been ploughing through monsters with my highly useful possessed Giant Tarantula, but after a Dark Elven Lord did in fact use magic when it is supposedly banned (or is it just the player who cannot use magic?) I decided to leave off monster bashing until I was sure that all combat was to the death.

As said, I need a FAQ - or would be happy to start/run one.

Ill answer some, can you die? YES! You even will loose fame and will be kicked out of the arena. (you more likely fainted instead of actually dieing). So no permanent death.

The use of magic devices/potions/activations/scrolls is banned in arena. Magic spells from magical creatures isnt.

[HugoVirtuoso]

>Magical spells from magical creatures isn't.

*Spoiler*
Not only that, use of player racial abilities (via 'U' command) isn't banned in Telmora's Arena either.

[Avenger]

Um, major problem.

I found a whip of Slay Giant that was permanently cursed.

I found this by wielding it.

Is this a bug, or a feature designed to prevent anyone from ever using anything un-id'd ever again?

Dump is attached, though it's rather lacking in detail about the weapon - I tried a dump while playing, noticed it lacked information and assumed that was designed to avoid spoiling stuff for still active characters, and decided to suicide in the ocean, since there's no point playing with a permacursed garbage weapon. The death dump isn't much more informative, though =\

Edit: One other gripe, while I'm here. Escaping from bad situations in the wilderness is now all but impossible. An infinitely scrolling wilderness is a nice idea, and perhaps more realistic, but in practice, I feel like it's more of a headache then it's worth. Is anyone aware of positive features of it? Perhaps if I can find a bright side to look on, I'll be happier about it =P

[chris]

Um, major problem.

I found a whip of Slay Giant that was permanently cursed.

I found this by wielding it.

Is this a bug, or a feature designed to prevent anyone from ever using anything un-id'd ever again?

You should never wield an un-id'd item or quaff an un-id'd potion ever. That's nothing new as the item could be a permacursed artifact or the potion could be death, both of these options having been around forever. So at the very least, you should be waiting for pseudo-id. At that point, never ever wield a {cursed} item without *identifying* it (This is new).

That being said, I could be persuaded to remove perma-curse from ego items. (It's always been around for artifacts.) Or at the very least, I could put a power threshold so that only very powerful cursed items have an appreciable chance of being permacursed.

You can "remove" permacursed items with a scroll of mundanity (which destroys the object as well). But these are a bit rare.

Edit: One other gripe, while I'm here. Escaping from bad situations in the wilderness is now all but impossible. An infinitely scrolling wilderness is a nice idea, and perhaps more realistic, but in practice, I feel like it's more of a headache then it's worth. Is anyone aware of positive features of it? Perhaps if I can find a bright side to look on, I'll be happier about it =P

Well, the old wilderness edges were rather scumable. Simply move to the edge and then wiggle back and forth until a desirable monster spawns to fight. It's rather silly this way and Hengband dealt with it by making the Wilderness an annoyance only feature (i.e., huge experience reduction and crappy drops).

To escape trouble in the wilderness, all you generally need is ?Teleport. Also, it is somewhat prudent to grab a few early experience levels before leaving the proximity of Outpost as the walk (say) to the Orc caves might be risky for a newborn player. Usually CL10 is enough to handle the wilderness just fine. Stay on the roads and try to travel during the day. If ambushed, teleport usually lands you someplace safe.

So, the bright side of the new wilderness is:
* Player now gets full experience from any monster slain.
* Player now gets drops at the current danger level.
* There are a few random wilderness encounters (very few at the moment ... I'll be adding more later).

[Avenger]

You should never wield an un-id'd item or quaff an un-id'd potion ever. That's nothing new as the item could be a permacursed artifact or the potion could be death, both of these options having been around forever. So at the very least, you should be waiting for pseudo-id. At that point, never ever wield a {cursed} item without *identifying* it (This is new).

While this is true, there were very few permacursed artifacts(short of rand-arts, I suppose - I haven't played many variants with those, though), and none of them were whips. Moreso, none of them were available so incredibly early - if memory serves, this one came out of the thieves' den quest. While one can certainly expect cursed items and associated consequences at this point, a permacurse is not something that would have ever occurred to me so early in the game. Luckily, being that early, it didn't really ruin anything in progress - it was just a complete shock.

That being said, I could be persuaded to remove perma-curse from ego items. (It's always been around for artifacts.) Or at the very least, I could put a power threshold so that only very powerful cursed items have an appreciable chance of being permacursed.

My suggestion would be to keep it on bad items. This was a good ego type, one I'd never have expected anything bad on, much less something game-endingly bad. Granted, that doesn't do much for wielding it un-id'd, but come on - why would a good item type carry a curse? Much less an unbreakable one?

You can "remove" permacursed items with a scroll of mundanity (which destroys the object as well). But these are a bit rare.

I have never seen one of these, though to be fair the majority of my games don't go very long. It's fair to say that, as a level 4 character, I would have been stuck with that item for a very, very long time, and it would have made the game far more of a challenge then it was worth, even had I known there was that option.

Additionally, it's not an option available to every class - perhaps you could apply Mundanity to any object forcefully uncursed by a Berserker? I can't think of any other exceptions at this point, but having just played one of those, it came to mind.

So, the bright side of the new wilderness is:
* Player now gets full experience from any monster slain.
* Player now gets drops at the current danger level.
* There are a few random wilderness encounters (very few at the moment ... I'll be adding more later).

Hmm. Is exploring the wilderness a viable alternative to dungeoncrawling, then? That might be worth looking into, if so.

As far as I'm concerned, the heng/cheng/entro(I've played all three at various stages of development) wildernesses were just an annoying obstacle to be traversed on the way to other towns and dungeons, and then never used again. Sure, I'd try to scum the occasional blue mage on a high level water monster, but otherwise I had no real use for the wilderness.

Perhaps that's changed and it's now actually worth exploring...

Thanks for the reply.