[Announce] Poschengband 3.3.0 Released

[Arjen]

Don't we have a pure summoner in the form of the Q's monsterclass?

[debo]

Don't we have a pure summoner in the form of the Q's monsterclass?

Of course, there is one summoner build that breaks the rules: The Quylthulg (who starts with -10 speed). If you want pure summoning, then this is the only option.

A few posts back

[AnonymousHero]

ToME has summoning too. In that variant, there is no EXP penalty (unless I'm wrong) for letting pets kill monsters.

Not to hijack the thread, but "someone's wrong on the Internet": There is actually an EXP penalty from the outset, but it's countered by the Monster Lore skill. Indeed according to code comments you end up with 120% per pet kill if your Monster Lore is 50 (max).

In some cases, I've had Loremasters move up from clvl 30-something to 50 in a few hours because of this. Again, that's summoning in ToME.

I'm surprised it would take that long . Summoning is another skill that's totally broken in ToME 2.x. If you go to Erebor and just summon a few chain-summoning ancient dragons you can clear whole levels in a few minutes. Also, if you're a symbiant[1] you get all your summons for free! Of course there are dangers such as getting caught in the breath of one of your own pets, but usually it's not much of a problem. Just get a mountain-climbing digger and hide out where absolutely no monsters can reach or see you. (There are lots of broken things about summoning in ToME, but chain-summoning is one of the worst. In fact, writing out this post, I'm kind of wondering why I even like it. Perhaps it's the Unbeliever class/Anti-magic skill...)

[1] Actually, scratch that, just be a Sorceror and get Symbiosis to 0.5 multiplier via Lost Sword quests and bump to 35. That'll get you the summoning power of a Greater Q and you can also have it take damage for you once in a while (35% of the time?).

EDIT: Sorry, didn't mean to go into full-on rant mode there.

[Zireael]

Guys, how do I enable cheats in this variant? I just want to goof around to see how the Possessor and Beastman work, I don't care about the hall of fame...

[UglySquirrell]

Guys, how do I enable cheats in this variant? I just want to goof around to see how the Possessor and Beastman work, I don't care about the hall of fame...

Hmm, not sure about the cheat code, but if you choose Munchkin personality when creating your guy/girl. You start with a huuge amount of gold, have really big stat boosts, automatically identify items and all the levels are mapped out for you. You level really fast as well.

[chris]

Guys, how do I enable cheats in this variant? I just want to goof around to see how the Possessor and Beastman work, I don't care about the hall of fame...

You'll need to compile a debug build for this. On Windows, open the project and change the target from release to debug. Recompile. Warning: This will also turn on a bunch of debugging code as well so is not recommended.

But why not just fire up a Possessor and play one? There are plenty of dumps on the ladder to explain good strategies to use as well as what corpses to look for when.

Beastmen get a starting mutation which you can (unfortunately?) scum for. They also mutate like crazy in an unpredictable fashion, as they level up (I think each level up has a 1 in 5 chance of mutation). They are not particularly fun to play as you are prone to just getting screwed at any point in the game by a bad mutation (And some mutations are intolerable to play with). Removing a mutation is available in Zul for a price, but it removes them randomly so you usually end up removing all the good ones first. Plus, you'll need levitation to get there so you might get stuck early on with really bad mutations. Still, if you like a random unpredictable game, then they can be fun. And you can pair up with the Chaos Warrior class for the ultimate in unpredictability.

[debo]

Are we sure that the Fell Sorcery demigod power does anything? I grepped through the codebase trying to find its real effect with no luck. (I'm not sure if the number that it maps to is used directly somewhere else.)

If so, how does it work?

[chris]

Are we sure that the Fell Sorcery demigod power does anything? I grepped through the codebase trying to find its real effect with no luck. (I'm not sure if the number that it maps to is used directly somewhere else.)

If so, how does it work?

Yes it works. Take a look at fell_sorcery_mut in mut_a.c and it should be obvious.

[debo]

Yes it works. Take a look at fell_sorcery_mut in mut_a.c and it should be obvious.

Whoops! Thank you

[MarvinPA]

Whoops! Thank you

Heh, I managed to make exactly this mistake a while ago too: http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthr...9188#post89188

Actually, looking at that post, I think possibly the wizardstaff bug is still around? I have a local commit fixing it but I can't see a fix in master.

[chris]

Actually, looking at that post, I think possibly the wizardstaff bug is still around? I have a local commit fixing it but I can't see a fix in master.

Oops. Should be fixed for real this time for next release.

[riftor_77]

Yes, this is exactly why there are Samurai, Maulers, Weaponmasters, etc. To make warriors less boring.

Couple ideas for class changes:

1. Give warriors, rangers, paladins, samurai, weaponsmasters, and any other weapon class I am forgetting the berserker's ability to dual wield heavier weapons and give them the ability to achieve max dual wield. I don't think this change is very unbalancing, as dual wielding causes slower progression in weapons skills and makes it more difficult to hit. I'm also really enjoying dual wielding right now, but wish my samurai didn't have to diminish himself to small weapons.
2. Give the same classes the ability to ride and get rid of cavalry and berserker. The lasso ability would show up when your riding skill reaches x number. I really like the idea of riding and think it should be more widely available. After all, what's a paladin without his trusty hippogryph? (see pet thoughts below for how to balance it)
3. Change the ranger class by:
   • Taking away the secondary spell realm
   • Allowing the ranger to choose either sniper or scout skills instead
   
   I make this suggestion because I see the ranger class being able to go in a lot of different ways. You could easily have a dual-wielding arrow-slinging frontal ranger, a stealthy sniper ranger, a mounted ranger, a ranger and his trusty wolf companion, or any combination thereof. (Chris may like ninjas, but I *love* rangers.)

While I am here, I would like to propose a radical change for pets. The character can have as many pets as he or she wants. You share resistances and vulnerabilities with your pet(s). Here's the catch: the XP received from kills by your or your pet(s) is divided equally among the group. E.g. if you have three pets, each character receives 1/4 of the XP for each kill. I like this idea because it changes the role of the pet from cannon fodder to indispensable ally.

Finally, please have the following items always be in stock:

• Scrolls WoR
• Scrolls of Remove Curse and *Remove Curse*. (I had to buy out the entire priest shop just to unstick a stupid shovel that I accidentally wielded.)
• Scrolls of Teleportation
• Potions of CCW and possibly CSW
• Rations of food
• Flasks of oil
• Digging implements (not counting that stupid cursed shovel)

Thanks for a great game and more thanks for getting rid of the bleeping virtues system.

[chris]

I like your ranger and pet ideas and will give these some thoughts.

For riding, currently Rangers, Paladins and Warriors can actually become Expert riders. I never realized this before and consequently, never tried to actually ride when playing one of these classes.

For dual wielding, I need to be careful as this is one way to unbalance the game. Samurai have some very nice, very light options: Aglarang and Zanetetsuken. Also, there is Chain Sword. Finally, it might not be obvious, but one of the benefits of Genji gloves is to reduce the dual wielding penalty for heavy weapons. My intention was to make effective end game dual wielding somewhat dependent on these gloves, except for certain classes like Warriors, Samurai and even Ninja. I'm trying to keep a tight lid on melee damage and nerfing the availability of extra blows was one step I took. But what is dual wielding if not a whole bunch of "extra blows"?

[chris]

Finally, please have the following items always be in stock:

• Scrolls WoR
• Scrolls of Remove Curse and *Remove Curse*. (I had to buy out the entire priest shop just to unstick a stupid shovel that I accidentally wielded.)
• Scrolls of Teleportation
• Potions of CCW and possibly CSW
• Rations of food
• Flasks of oil
• Digging implements (not counting that stupid cursed shovel)

I'm OK with most of these, but I'll tell you what happens if you add !CCW. Always in stock means I can buy as many as I like, no? Well, what players used to do in the past was to town scum 3 stacks of 99 !CCW and then go fight a single foe (Great Wyrm or even end game unique). You can dig ASC and phase door out of line of sight and begin chugging !CCW to your heart's content (Or just teleport away and chug someplace quiet). 10 !CCW equals 1 !Healing. Recall and town scum for more potions to replenish your supply. Repeat.

One of my goals was to remove any form of Town Scumming and shift resource acquisition from the boring shopping mechanic to the exciting dungeon exploration mechanic. It might not be there yet (It's hard when even rarity 1 objects are rare) but I'm still working on it.

EDIT: Teleportation is intentionally scarce, so I will skip that one as well. Actually, I don't like making all utilities guaranteed to be available in unlimited supply. For one thing, this makes utility classes/realms irrelevant. (A pet peave of mine in Hengband was the Trump/Sorcery mage who also feels the need to carry scrolls of teleport despite the cheap easy to cast spell). For another, it removes certain aspects of game play (albeit, what some players might call annoying). Food, Light and Diggers are OK. Other resources, should be intermittent (hence bought preemptively) or better yet, found in the dungeon.

[krazyhades]

Word of Recall is the main one that is incredibly frustrating for me to not find in the shops, especially because I have had mostly bad experiences exploring the overworld for loot/levels. Similarly, starving to death or running out of light feels awful (except the first time, when it's like "Welcome to Angband!").

Your point that when it's always available makes the rest of the game uninteresting has some merit, to be sure, but when I run out of ?Teleport or !CCW, I basically feel like I can't do anything interesting until I get more. Though now that I think about it, as much as it's nice to have escapes/healing to avoid or power through tough fights, the thing that really is annoying is getting chain-cc'ed (confusion, etc) by something without counterplay once you get caught initially. I wouldn't mind seeing some sort of !Curing-like-effect, perhaps less powerful (not 100% chance? not cure hallucination? Not remove the debuffs but make you unaffected by them for N rounds?).

Anyways, just my two cents. Already I'm pleased by your favoring shops stocking !WoR, food, and light.