Unangband 0.6.5

[Antoine]

Entered Isengard, War-ready. It was filled with War Drakes and the like, despite being nominally danger level 21. Got killed. Tried again, on way to Edoras. (save file scumming to learn this game is pretty much necessary.) This time it's full of fruit bats and wildcats. Most dangerous so far is a bitter soul.

What's a war drake?

[Pete Mack]

Sorry, guard drake, native to dl 34. Oh, looking at the edit file, Wormtongue has S_HI_DRAGON, which is a joke at cl 21. He is far, far tougher than I was expecting. Really, this is not remotely danger level 21. He's a level 54 monster!
Edit:
Recommendation: make the inner levels deeper, and have an "outskirts" that is shallow, and not guarded by wormtongue. Depth 22-40 isn't much use to a character who can kill wormtongue. This dungeon doesn't make a lot of sense.

[Antoine]

Sorry, guard drake, native to dl 34. Oh, looking at the edit file, Wormtongue has S_HI_DRAGON, which is a joke at cl 21. He is far, far tougher than I was expecting. Really, this is not remotely danger level 21. He's a level 54 monster!

Seems a bit out of canon

is it a pun on his name?

A.

[Pete Mack]

Not as much as killing Radagast, who was pretty easy to kill at cl 23.

I can travel to Edoras without killing Wormtongue in any case. I just didn't expect such a ferocious increase in monster difficulty. And I really don't understand why Isengard proper is so shallow, whatever the depth of the entrance area. Fill it up with Trolls and Giants.

[Pete Mack]

UI issues:

• Valuation should be appended to inscriptions. "worth 2929 gold pieces" makes inscriptions, and even bonuses, invisible in equipment/inventory lists. At the very least, shorten the message to @2929GP or something.
• Minor: Store lists are hard to read without a scrolling function, or at least a tie between item and price. I added a list UI to angband a while back; it's pretty nice--cuts back a lot on some seriously ugly code.
• Partial ID of ego items is bizarre. If the object modifies your light radius it should say it, not "it may modify your light radius." V gets this very much right now, with runes.
  Some things that should be obvious: See Invisible, light, ESP, Infravision

[wobbly]

So each throwing dart takes a full dose of poison. It makes more sense to me for them to be mini-stacks like arrows/bolts are.

[wobbly]

What's the deal with Tom Bombadil? He appears to be the dungeon guardian but is allied. Can't find a way to hit him in melee & he's pretty much ignoring me attacking him at range.

[MITZE]

What's the deal with Tom Bombadil? He appears to be the dungeon guardian but is allied. Can't find a way to hit him in melee & he's pretty much ignoring me attacking him at range.

This doesn't just apply to Tom Bombadil; I've had it happen with Farmer Maggot too. Not sure what could cause it, as it doesn't happen consistently.

[Pete Mack]

You can attack allied monsters with ctrl-dir and possibly _dir.

[wobbly]

Ctrl-dir tells me there is a monster in the way. _-dir tells me there is no store here.

[Pete Mack]

Hmm. I've been using ctl-dir against the occasional townsman with the roguelike keyset.

[wobbly]

Ah ok. That doesn't work for me in either the rogue-like or original command set. Started a new character & tested it in town, works on the townsfolk.

[wobbly]

Half-orcs have the man flag on the character sheet, yet can wield weapons of slay man.

[wobbly]

Had some wierdness trying to recall from barrow downs. Read recall then cast escape rising up through the ceiling. Wandered round the level for a long time. Didn't end up recalling. Read another scroll. Took a character dump. On the dump it says I will recall soon. Hit rest. Didn't recall. Wandered around the level for a while, then just gave up on it & went on & killed the guardian.

[Pete Mack]

Yes, barrow downs has an easy guardian compared to some others. Moria porch has most annoying. It's easy to get him down to one star. It takes forever chasing him around to finally kill him.

In my game, I finally can kill stuff. After giving up on the non-functional weapon "of the sun", I found a cold brand sword, then a nice high ego 'Firetongue' battle axe, doing 3d8 fire branded damage with two blows (or four with temp stats.) Now, after very many turns, I can finally kill stuff. (Including, presumably, Nar.)

I still don't see how to take on Smaug: can't shoot him, since I can't shoot anything. Can't melee him--while the weapon gives fire resistance, it doesn't have any bonus against him, and can't stand up to his damage. (I thoughtlessly sold the cold branded sword, though 2d5*3 isn't much against an 1800HP monster.)

Note: recommend Redhorn (Ogre stronghold) as a place to get gear. Ogres generally carry weapons, so at least some will be good. They also have good arrows. I finally found a place--and weapon--to dive.