Oposband 0.3 Release

[EpicMan]

Oposband 0.3.0 "Break the world"

(Latest version 0.3.6)
Windows binary: https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/...band-0.3.6.zip
Source on Github: https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/releases/tag/0.3.6

Major changes:
-Probing & ID spells and abilities replaced with other abilities.
-Can use 'x' at birth screen to fully randomize character, and 'S' to randomize sex
-Modified weapon and body armor lists. Many redundant items were removed, names were shuffled around. A few more axe and dagger weapons added.

New options (default):
-Show damage numbers in combat (on), improved message flow and no longer affects score.
-Use XP modifiers as score penalties (or bonuses for < 100%) instead of XP requirements (on). If on all players have a 150% XP modifier (which is lower than the average 190% of normal scores). Replaced smart_learn option.
-No ID (OFF): all items begin the game IDed, all flavors known, etc. All of the normal ID mechanics are still there but now useless.

Minor changes:
-Heaven dungeon is now City of Amber
-Hell dungeon is now Nether Realm (maybe should be Courts of Chaos instead? Then stairway to hell monster could be the Black Road).
-Launchers of Accuracy replaced with Infravision-granting Launchers of Keen Sight
-Priests' water potions are holy water potions and are better for them when quaffed or thrown.
-Water hounds renamed/recolored Acid hounds and new Water hounds added that resist and shoot water.

[ster]

[14:58] StNightmaer: Surgol Logrus
[15:02] StNightmaer: @Gwarl didn't you see. he wants to add tik's and fastitocalons to a poslike
[15:02] StNightmaer: breaking new ground
[15:04] StNightmaer: looks like there was some effort to fix the really bad new monsters but the wyrms all still have acid auras and hasty ents still have friends
[15:07] StNightmaer: easy thalos nerfing score (lol) super-gwarlvision (lmfao)
[15:12] StNightmaer: uhhh did he remove poison needles with no replacement or do i need my coffee before posting
[15:12] StNightmaer: hopefully this means babbles go with no replacement but i doubt it

[EpicMan]

[14:58] StNightmaer: Surgol Logrus
[15:02] StNightmaer: @Gwarl didn't you see. he wants to add tik's and fastitocalons to a poslike
[15:02] StNightmaer: breaking new ground
[15:04] StNightmaer: looks like there was some effort to fix the really bad new monsters but the wyrms all still have acid auras and hasty ents still have friends
[15:07] StNightmaer: easy thalos nerfing score (lol) super-gwarlvision (lmfao)
[15:12] StNightmaer: uhhh did he remove poison needles with no replacement or do i need my coffee before posting
[15:12] StNightmaer: hopefully this means babbles go with no replacement but i doubt it

-Tik will be guarding angband 127.
-Wyrms have auras in Frogcomposband.
-Hasty ents will lose friends and regen in next version.
-Needles and babbles are both still there. Babble was supposed to be slower but that change didn't get added.

[EpicMan]

Oposband 0.3.1

Minor update:
-Obsolete Research monster function replaced with ferry to Thalos, replacing easy_thalos option.
-Tik'srvzllat from TOME now guards Angband level 127
-Added tomte monsters based on aquatic elves in ToME2
-Hasty Ent no longer has friends
-Metal Babble is slower
-Fixed birth stats menu showing old 18/XXX stats style
-Fixed thieves quest reward for paladins being better than it should have been

EDIT: Link in OP has been revised, new release is here: https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/releases/tag/0.3.1

[EpicMan]

Oposband 0.3.2

New bugfix release 0.3.2
Links in original post updated, here they are as well:
Windows binary: https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/...band-0.3.2.zip
Source on Github: https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/releases/tag/0.3.2

Renaming monsters breaks many quests it turns out. All the quests should be fixed now. Damage messages improved as well.

Weremonsters now often appear as humanoid creatures, then transform when you kill their first form.
Items that were specifically dangerous to werewolves are now equallt dangerous to wererats, werebears and wereworms too.

[EpicMan]

New Release 0.3.3
-Incorporated the many, many QOL/bugfix/English improvements from Frogcomposband-7.1.Liquorice
-Two new races:Icky Things, which can enter symbiosis with immobile monsters (works like the Ring monster, but in reverse - player is the bearer), and Ghouls (from Zangband) who have a paralyzing touch attack and can sense the living.
-Tables in some rooms (from Halls of Mist) - make a DEX check to climb onto, monsters have a % chance to climb onto it.
-Pets/friendlies can kill uniques for you, and player always is alerted when a unique dies, even offscreen.
-Blue mages and Imitators reimplemented based on Frogcomposband's Blue Mage.
-Unarmed players with hands can make a 1d2 punch attack instead of being completely helpless.
-Nagas can now wield weapons, Hobbits cannot wear shoes anymore.



(Links in OP also updated)
NOTE: Release had a bug, see below for fixed re-release

[Gwarl]

Cool I put 0.3.2 on .live recently but I'll add this and I think we'll run a competition. Good shout on incorporating the ghoul.

[EpicMan]

Thanks Gwarl, I hadn't noticed the newer version up yet.

[EpicMan]

Of course I don't notice a big problem until after the release. The Imitator's class power wasn't implemented, it was just a stub.

Fixed now and a new release has been made. I am updating the links in OP.

Fixed binary is here:

https://github.com/EpicMan/Oposband/releases/tag/0.3.3v2

[HugoVirtuoso]

I have these requests, more like Hugostyle requests because they affect my playstyle or why I do certain things mostly for IRL-realism-reasons:

'Death and destruction!' This pleaseth me! *chaos patron reward*: This normally *Destructs* the non-permanent wall areas around the player inside dungeons only. But it has no effect in the wilderness. Sideways (aka rodent @ angband.live) says it shouldn't do anything in the wilderness, regardless of mountains or trees, because it would be weird. Dean Anderson's Cthangband's version of the destruction actually 'destroys' the nearby wilderness surroundings. That said, I really think it should destroy the nearby wilderness surroundings. And if not, it should auto-teleport players when it doesn't work

'Let me relieve thee of thine oppressors!' *chaos patron reward*: This either gives player the chance to genocide a monster type or mass genocides everything in the neighborhood WITHOUT causing the player to take HP damage. Sideways says players don't suffer any HP damage because it uses the chaos patron's HP (who knows much HP the chaos patrons really have --maybe make this like the Guardian Forces in FF7/FF8). I'm interested on what the Zangband devs had in mind. imo, this chaos patron action should drain the HP because that's just me. And also make this always teleport the player when it genocides - why? 1) Chaotic effect 2) kind of protective effect for player 3) #1 plus #2

Player blindness mechanics should be changed so that the player doesn't see objects on the floor. Instead, it should 'read feet knocking over a Broad Axe' for example. I tend to want to view *band as a Microsoft Simulator 2021. Hehe. I don't know if a blind-HUD is even a good idea. I've had many discussions about the player-blindness should work and this is an example.

Corpse weights and skeletons should be their true IRL-like weights, not just 4lb for corpses and 2lb for skeletons. Do this for all classes. Or at least do this for the Chaos-Warriors because they're Chaotic after all. I might be the only one who thinks this should be the case for IRL-realism reasons.

If you don't know already, Confusion has nil effect on Staves of Teleport and Staves of Curing. I think Confusion should make it harder for players to use these Staves. Though, Confusion should make the Staves of Curing somewhat harder to use, rather than straight-up make it hard to use.

I already discussed the above several times with the angband.live folks. FCPB will not incorporate these because they're aren't popular and due to QOL reasons. But I feel like Oposband can be a new ground to try such ideas to make the game much harder in intuitive ways.

[HugoVirtuoso]

*Spoiler*
Clairvoyance and Enlightenment equipment activations have very low failure rates by default and in my opinion should be balanced by INT + race+class+personality ability to use magical devices + clvl.

[EpicMan]

I have these requests, more like Hugostyle requests because they affect my playstyle or why I do certain things mostly for IRL-realism-reasons:
'Death and destruction!' This pleaseth me! *chaos patron reward*: This normally *Destructs* the non-permanent wall areas around the player inside dungeons only. But it has no effect in the wilderness. Sideways (aka rodent @ angband.live) says it shouldn't do anything in the wilderness, regardless of mountains or trees, because it would be weird. Dean Anderson's Cthangband's version of the destruction actually 'destroys' the nearby wilderness surroundings. That said, I really think it should destroy the nearby wilderness surroundings. And if not, it should auto-teleport players when it doesn't work

I think the idea behind the walls created by destruction is the roof collapsing, which is why it doesn't happen on the surface. I kind of like the idea of something happening, though, but weaker than if underground. Maybe it should create lava or rubble or dirt instead of walls if on the surface, and only affect a % of the tiles in radius. I'd have to be careful with town interactions to make sure a player couldn't ruin their game if you're in no_wilderness mode and destroy the only town.

'Let me relieve thee of thine oppressors!' *chaos patron reward*: This either gives player the chance to genocide a monster type or mass genocides everything in the neighborhood WITHOUT causing the player to take HP damage. Sideways says players don't suffer any HP damage because it uses the chaos patron's HP (who knows much HP the chaos patrons really have --maybe make this like the Guardian Forces in FF7/FF8). I'm interested on what the Zangband devs had in mind. imo, this chaos patron action should drain the HP because that's just me. And also make this always teleport the player when it genocides - why? 1) Chaotic effect 2) kind of protective effect for player 3) #1 plus #2

I don't follow your logic for why you would want to be teleported right after the local area was genocided. Wouldn't that be less helpful? I also don't think it makes sense to drain your HP, since its the patron's casting and they're trying to help you.

Player blindness mechanics should be changed so that the player doesn't see objects on the floor. Instead, it should 'read feet knocking over a Broad Axe' for example. I tend to want to view *band as a Microsoft Simulator 2021. Hehe. I don't know if a blind-HUD is even a good idea. I've had many discussions about the player-blindness should work and this is an example.

Something like "you feel a broad axe on the floor"? What might make sense would be to prevent auto-ID/pseudo on walkover if you are blind, and then check the pack for items that need IDing/pseudo when you can see again. 'Bands basically assume the player is anal about mapping and remembering exactly what items are where on the map, so anything you had already found should still be known if you walk over it blind.

Corpse weights and skeletons should be their true IRL-like weights, not just 4lb for corpses and 2lb for skeletons. Do this for all classes. Or at least do this for the Chaos-Warriors because they're Chaotic after all. I might be the only one who thinks this should be the case for IRL-realism reasons.

I've never paid attention to the corpse weights. Realistically they should be much heavier than weapons, but that might make it too onerous to carry wanted corpses and skeletons back to the surface. A lot of games have you collect scalps or tusks or something like that as evidence of kills, as opposed to the whole corpse, so something like that could be possible, but a lot of effort as you would almost need a different name for each monster corpse/skeleton type. Making the corpse objects weights be based on a % of the mob weight is probably doable, but might make playing Balrogs (who carry them around for food) unworkable.

If you don't know already, Confusion has nil effect on Staves of Teleport and Staves of Curing. I think Confusion should make it harder for players to use these Staves. Though, Confusion should make the Staves of Curing somewhat harder to use, rather than straight-up make it hard to use.

I'll look at it, although I still want both of those (especially teleport) to be usable for most characters even while confused. Maybe just add 5-10% fail rate while confused, if it really is negligible.

[EpicMan]

*Spoiler*
Clairvoyance and Enlightenment equipment activations have very low failure rates by default and in my opinion should be balanced by INT + race+class+personality ability to use magical devices + clvl.

I'll take a look at the activation rates. My current thought is to adjust cooldown times (or recharging rate) based on the players devices skill and possibly INT.
A devicemaster might be able to use DSM breath attacks fairly frequently, making them pretty useful for that class.

My plan for 0.4 is to revamp items pretty extensively, having more less ego flavors that are giant grab bags of all the resists and bonuses, but having separate prefix and suffix egos, and letting items potentially have one of each.
There would be many more types of egos but far fewer actual artifacts, mainly for very special items (Serpent drops, the one ring, lazy artifacts, etc)

Weapons will be divided into # hands or sizes, a long sword would be a one-handed weapon for a human, that could be wielded with both hands, while a hobbit might always need to use two hands to wield, and a giant could wield a two-handed weapon with one hand.
I don't know if armor would be treated the same way, as there is no gameplay equivalent of hands being used for armor. it would mostly just mean X% of armor drops are unusable for characters of race Y. Armor may be more divided into light (robes, etc) medium (soft) and heavy (hard) or something like that. Not in a 'you can't equip heavy armors period because you're a mage' way, but penalizing it so you normally wouldn't wear heavy armor as a mage, but maybe you find something amazing that makes it worth the impact.

[Nick]

I think the idea behind the walls created by destruction is the roof collapsing, which is why it doesn't happen on the surface. I kind of like the idea of something happening, though, but weaker than if underground. Maybe it should create lava or rubble or dirt instead of walls if on the surface, and only affect a % of the tiles in radius.

If you want to mimic actual earthquakes, water.

[EpicMan]

If you want to mimic actual earthquakes, water.

Fascinating. I suppose sprinkling in a bunch of pit traps would work, too, mimicking the quicksand effect.