[Announce] Poschengband 3.1.0 Released

[Derakon]

I'd guess the pet "slots" remained used up, preventing future summoning attempts from working even though the pets themselves were gone because you changed levels. Or something like that. Manually dismissing the pets frees up the slots.

[debo]

BTW, if there is to be a competition on this (Debo?) I'll probably still do one last release making jewelry a tad more common (It is currently 3.5% of drops). Also, the BM is still using the old (broken) object allocation code, so jewelry is very rare in the BM.

Hurry up and report bugs

I think we should probably also consider it ok to have bugfix releases throughout the comp. This might include balance changes for things that are basically broken gameplay-wise (which I guess might happen lategame, since all of our current ring characters are still fairly young and glossy.)

[HugoVirtuoso]

* Rings cannot reforge artifacts in the town.

Boo! I guess that means my Hammerhand is now a piece of junk.

More questions about "the Ring":
Is there any easier way for "controlled monsters" to attack besides pressing '5'? When I use directional keys to "move the controller monster" into enemy, game says "You have no melee attacks."

Another thing, Scrolls of Monster Confusion are buggy. You get the "Touch Confusion", but your "controlled monster" will not use this "Touch Confusion" move at all!

[mrrstark]

Riding Lady Zhurong, The Avatar of Flame causes intermittent fire damage to the rider.

Also, it seemed like when I 'dismissed pet' on her, it might have killed her cause some gloves showed up beside me that I didn't notice before....?

[chris]

Summoners are restricted to 50 max summons. After that, every summon will return an existing summon from the level. It was an attempt at rebalancing the OP nature of monster summoning but had a bug in the implementation for pets. Should be fixed in the next release.

Hammerhand, and equipment in general, can be sold for gold. It just feels weird reforging items just to absorb them (And reforging for Death-swords is broken if you know how to exploit it). Rather, spend your gold gambling for rods if you must. Otherwise, troll the black markets for jewelry to absorb.

For pet attacks, they are your pets, but you don't get to control their every move. So if you have nothing to offer to a battle, then '5' or 's' is OK, and the pet will attack whenever it feels in the mood. But things work better when both parties are contributing, even if all you have to offer is a magic missile!

Sorry about ?MonsterConfusion. You'll never be able to attack, so the aura will never go away. Many things don't work both ways though it would be nice if they did. For example, my pet's invulnerability fails to cover my sorry butt!

[chris]

As for riding pets with auras, you will indeed take damage (and get disturbed quite often). The only way to avoid this is with immunity but that is unlikely. For the Ring, not many bearers have auras, I think, so it shouldn't be much of an issue. For riders in general, we might need a mechanic where the damage/disturbance shuts off once you have enough resistance. However, it used to be nigh impossible to ride a GWoP without suffering the auras, and I'd rather not make that too easy

Dismissing a pet won't kill it or generate drops. It should spawn again eventually.

[HugoVirtuoso]

However, it used to be nigh impossible to ride a GWoP without suffering the auras, and I'd rather not make that too easy

Are you telling us something we don't know? Riding a GWoP...

[Arjen]

Are you telling us something we don't know? Riding a GWoP...

Riding? Bleh, *be* a GWoP!

[Arjen]

Had an idea about "Detect Jewelry" to make it a bit more useful. Increase it range so you can detect the whole level. Because with the current range I almost never detect anything.

[chris]

Since there are no major bugs, I've pushed what is hopefully a competition ready release (3.1.3):

* Jewelry is now more common when playing a ring.
* Detect Jewelry now detects the entire level at once.
* Amulets now count as "tailored" drops for the Ring (e.g. by Scrolls of Acquirement)
* The Black Market now allocates objects the same way the dungeon does. Jewelry was too rare in the BM.
* Fixed bug with leaving your pet's summons behind. Eventually, your pet could no longer summon successfully at all!
* Finally, if a monster sees you being worn, then it becomes aware that you are not really a ring. So if you then leave your current bearer, it won't be fooled into picking you up. I fixed a bug that allowed sleeping monsters to notice you when in line of sight.

As usual, code and a full diff are available.

[debo]

None of those changes should really affect savefiles, should they? I created the comp dude last night

I have no issues rerolling if required. Just let me know.

[chris]

None of those changes should really affect savefiles, should they? I created the comp dude last night

I have no issues rerolling if required. Just let me know.

That is fine. I always try maintain savefile compatibility (upgrade) within a major version, so it won't be until 4.0 is released that there will be a problem.

[chris]

That's it, I'm going into hiding now until the comp starts. A final, final update before the comp is available here:

* Ring bearers no longer revolt in the town arena or battle areas.
* The code for losing your current ring bearer had the saving throw logic backwards (So it was easier to keep a more difficult pet, and harder to keep a weaker pet).
* Economical Mana, should you ever have achieved it, was not working!
* Scrolls of Summon Pet now always bring forth a ring bearer. So if you are worried about an untimely revolt during the final battle with the Serpent, you can stock up on these. (Personally, I think it would be much more cool to win without a ring bearer!)
* Finally, my limited playtesting led me to boost some of the damages slightly.

Source code is available here.

[Nivim]

* The code for losing your current ring bearer had the saving throw logic backwards (So it was easier to keep a more difficult pet, and harder to keep a weaker pet).

Haha; I had ~accidentally gotten an Ipsissimus at XL8 (blinked into an isolated hallway that a vault guardian had teleported into for some reason, picked up before my next turn), and was walking with fear waiting for the charm to break, thinking I was just being really lucky (or the creature revolt curve was really smooth and random numbers mattered more, or the check was just infrequent). Maybe I should release the Ipsi' before upgrading.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Another idea for "the Ring":
Apparently, monsters can toss you regardless if you are cursed or not. How about adding some "curse mechanism" that prevents monsters from tossing you? Maybe "Curse Ring" late-game spell that has different levels..."Curse" "Heavy Curse" This would require a monster's Saving Throw to exceed a certain number to break the curse in order to toss you!!

But wait! If this feature were added, will this prevent players from getting off the pet? If yes, then "Oh no!"...if you're stuck with a Hobo. But, YES YES!...if you're stuck with Combat-Echizen!

I'm sure this would have a big impact on gameplay!