[Announce] PosChengband 7.0.0 Released

[Bostock]

I found one bug (I guess): it seems I can't wear / wield items that stay in Inventory's second page
Any advice on this?

I can corroborate this. I found myself forced to drop such items (as you can still drop them, just not equip) and equip from the floor. ...and then eventually to switch to a smaller font.

[debo]

I can corroborate this. I found myself forced to drop such items (as you can still drop them, just not equip) and equip from the floor. ...and then eventually to switch to a smaller font.

I think this has been around since 6.x -- I believe it's fixed in elliposcheng.

[jupiter999]

I can corroborate this. I found myself forced to drop such items (as you can still drop them, just not equip) and equip from the floor. ...and then eventually to switch to a smaller font.

I think this has been around since 6.x -- I believe it's fixed in elliposcheng.

Thanks guys, I thought I'm possessed (still playing Possessor currently)

[CyclopsSlayer]

Work Around

I found one bug (I guess): it seems I can't wear / wield items that stay in Inventory's second page
Any advice on this?

Work Around
Drag the Main Window open at least another 5 lines. This solves the issue as there will now no longer be a second page.

[jupiter999]

Work Around
Drag the Main Window open at least another 5 lines. This solves the issue as there will now no longer be a second page.

Shame on me I don't know that's possible! I thought resizing the game window has to be somewhere inside in-game options, but couldn't found any!
Oh man, shame on me... Thanks sincerely, CyclopsSlayer

[CyclopsSlayer]

Shame on me I don't know that's possible! I thought resizing the game window has to be somewhere inside in-game options, but couldn't found any!
Oh man, shame on me... Thanks sincerely, CyclopsSlayer

My pleasure. Confused me for a bit as well.

=-=-=-=-
Possible bug/issue

Started a new Ranger as my first 7.0.1 char.
Auto-Destroyer - On

Most corpses are handled properly, BUT! Novice Rogues, the 'S' Halflings and others are picked up and not destroyed. Mages, Priests, Bandits are destroyed as expected. Animals are destroyed.

[Fnord]

A couple more technical points of criticism:

• The device scaling is odd and needs lots of work. See below this list.
• The use of the new auras seems overdone. Everything (deep) having aura of fear is just annoying. Aura of gravity is hell for melees. The "cause [foo] wounds" aura means instant recall after combat to remve curses (without AM-like saving). And many things having a quadrillion auras... yeah. Didn't you state that melee needs help? Why make it harder for melee then?
• (This might be an earlier change, I haven't played in a while): The reforge/art power/slot weighting changes are a nasty nerf for various monster classes. Why?
• Related to above: If you want to stand by those changes, powers need to be be more universally available on various slots. Namely Anti Magic, Telepathy, Anti-Summoning (see summon complaints).
• Given the importance of multiple resists in pretty much everything, why not allow multiple same resists on an item?
• Related to above: The scaling seems insufficient. While I don't have it right now, even with 5xSeeInv I encountered things that switched between visibile and invisible. Yes, stacking searching might help, but really - there is no room for yet more otherwise completely irrelevant stats to stack up on.
• Stun: What can players do to prevent it? Need rStun maybe?
• Fear: Same as above - even with 3 rFear, I was being feared on occasion, especially by the many deep fear aura mobs. With 1 innate and required heroism to fight any of those now, I still get feared every other turn.

So a couple examples for the device scaling that seems broken to me:

• Two rods of Enlightenment in my home. One has fail 4.6, one 8.5. Only visible difference is one has 2 charges, the other 3. Effect is the same.
• Bunch of staffs of healing with their heal values, charges and fail rates:
  250, 6, 8.5
  258, 8, 6.5 (of Capacity)
  262, 6, 12.5
  282, 7, 22.3
  (and more)
• There were a lot more - stuff like:
  • heroic speed being almost impossible to cast while staffs of speed are trivial
  • Clairvoyance being pretty unusable while Eniightenment + Detection were trivial 20 levels ago
  • Rods of Restoring - same as above, available fairly trivially otherwise.

So for less than 10% more healing I more than triple my fail rate? Nah.

Different topic:
A more design philosophical rant:

What is it with the focus on devices? So many winner dumps (for many versions) that I check used wands of rockets or similiar to beat the Serpent.

Why? That just seems broken to me. I don't mind that devices are useful and powerful.

But in my opinion, a melee char should be able to win by doing just that - meleeing. He might need the right gear etc, which may be hard to get. But once acquired, that should do it. A shooter should be able to win by shooting. A spell caster should be able to win by casting spells. And all the mix classes should be able to win by using their own abilities. Sublemented and aided by consumables and maybe devices.

I'm not saying this is impossible currently, but I also don't think that generally nerfing device usability into the ground unless you even focus your gear on them (ie. +md) is the solution. The solution is to not require them in the first place.

[CyclopsSlayer]

Something seems off...

Did the L5 Thieve's Hideout Quest. Reward is below, was L6 on turn-in

a Ring of Protection
-3 to Devices
-15% to Device Power
Resist Confusion, Nether, Sound, Fear
Free Action
It is Cursed
*Ancient Foul Curse*
Score: 8.87k (L6)

[wobbly]

While we're talking quest rewards, a bunch of stuff get a chaos blade they can't use including ninjas & stuff with no arms.

Fought the Defiler & even with 2 levels of poison resist my counter went through the roof. Just a note for people who auto destroy curing staffs, may be worth keeping 1 for the big poison critters.

[wobbly]

Re: devices against the serpent. I used devices on both my caster wins (priest & force trainer), because it was a choice of spending another week or so hunting for !Restore mana or going and killing the serpent straight away. Maybe that's not so bad on a mage (eat magic) and yeah there's stuff like !enlightenment which allows quick level scumming for a specific item, but if you're ready anyway I'd prefer to just do the thing. Game is pretty long as is.

[Exo]

Played Quylthulg today, summons seem to disregard friendly fire and just attack even if the player is standing in the way. Seems to only affect bolt spells, not breath spells.

[Djabanete]

Chris, I regret having so little time to play your variant lately! It's still my go-to roguelike, but I haven't had a chance to play roguelikes for quite a while. When I play games I'm usually playing with my wife, and roguelikes aren't multiplayer games.

I'm impressed by your level of dedication to this game and I hope to give it another try soon. Things have evolved a lot since I last played, sometimes in unexpected directions. I'm always intrigued by the changes that come with new versions. I believe I can discern some of the guiding principles: You feel compelled to play as optimally as you can, so you've tried to ensure that optimal play is not scummy. I like that. It seems that you've also tried to transform meaningless game mechanics into meaningful ones (for example by making use of Charisma --- I'm fuzzy on the details though) and to move from binary properties to sliding scales, so that there are fewer stats that @ can ignore after getting past a certain threshold. And despite that the sheer number of classes/monsters/items makes balancing difficult, it seems that you're aiming for a game in which each type of character and each strategy have a certain reasonable level of balance. No pressure, but it encourages me to hear that you're pursuing your vision for the game and that you plan to stick with it. Go at whatever pace works for you and your life, and take breaks.

It's awesome that you're at version 7.0.1. If you get around to writing something about your design goals, I'll be interested in reading it. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I hope to try out the latest version and let you know if I have any balance suggestions or if I've found a bug. Keep up the good work!

[HugoVirtuoso]

I gotta say. Like what chris said, Chris not done with PosChengband. That's incredible how Chris, the grandmaster mastermind maintainer, craftily took the reins of the PCB monstrous and turned it into the most popular, wicked, significant variant masterpiece, besides Sil, of all-time without question, imo!

[CyclopsSlayer]

Well, I am not sure if it is 7.0.0 or 7.0.1, but Breeder/Summoners are out of control. A few Crypt Creeps @DL-6. 6 turns later I had a large room full of summoned z's and something invisible. I failed reading my Phase Door scrolls twice in a row and never got a third chance.

[Djabanete]

What's the command for looking inside your quiver?

Edit: Thanks Debo! Turns out it's the slash key, but your response put me on the right track.