Jackalband v0.1 (Formerly Coffeeband)

[wobbly]

Working on this again. Changed the name as fcpb uses coffee as an abbreviation already. Currently just latest master with a different blow system. Its no doubt still rough around the edges. Will add more bits of actual jackalband soon.

https://github.com/MichaelCourtney/Jackalband/tree/Jackalband

Currently source code only.

[wobbly]

Added an initial version of Small levels. Also some stuff that doesn't appear to be working, but doesn't seem to crash the game either.

[wobbly]

Gained a bunch of new rooms.

[rant]
Sil changed the code for building a crossed room until it did exactly what it did before the code was changed.
[/rant]

Also the code notes for Vs crossed rooms build a room running 'east/east' & then apparently determine the extent of room b followed by the extent of room b. east/east has been there since at least 2.9.3. Room a being labeled room b mysteriously happened between 2.93 & 4.2 despite looking like a perfect paste & copy job from the original.

[wobbly]

Converted a bunch of Sil lesser vaults to Vs format. I'm not sure yet how well they'll work, they're still based on Sil's power curve. Anyway I'm going to try placing them in the 1st 20 levels when V would normally not have lesser vaults & hope that just works.

At the very least they are here if anyone wants them in V format & doesn't feel like converting a whole bunch of $ into %. I've used:

Sil: 1,2,3,4 OOD monsters up to 4 levels V: 2 OOD monster up to 5 levels

Sil: *,& treasure & good treasure V: 3 object up to 3 levels OOD

Sil: s,+ secret door & door V: + secret door (seriously no real doors?)

Sil: a archer V: o orc(all orcs shoot)

Sil: b flyer V: b bat

Sil: H silent watcher V: g golem (forgot to switch on hidden horror, it'll be right in the next version)

Sil: 7 chasm JB: [ chasm (places water at the moment)

Sil: 0 forge JB: ) furniture (does nothing, I'm thinking it'll eventually work like a chest)

Sil: % quartz V: # granite

[wobbly]

Fidled with some stuff. Fixed a couple of bugs. Probably added a couple more bugs, you can look at the commit history if you want the specifics. Today I fiddled with weapon generation encouraging it to put more +dam on heavy weapons & more +accuracy on light weapons. It's possibly a bit hackish, it does a loop shifting +dam to +hit until it hits a boundary condition or rolls lucky. It then does the same moving +hit to +dam. Sometimes it generates non-standard weight or damage dice weapons.

This is probably taking enough shape to talk about where it's headed. First the name. I would have called it vultureband but that's the initials for a fairly mediocre beer. I guess I could of called it hyaenaband but then I might mistake it for a pencil, hence jackalband. Jackalband will be a scavenger taking stuff I like from a bunch of other bands. It'll be a V-like but some of the mechanics will probably end up more complicated similar to Henglikes. I'll be mainly concentrating on 2 things:

Mechanics I'm not happy with in V - stuff like blows calculation, AC, the dead stat range(3-18), the clockwork time system. The current plan with random energy is to put it mostly in move speed, so you won't have to deal with double-breathe, but will have to deal with move-attack, move-breathe & move-move. Movement on average will be faster.

Aesthetics of dungeon design, focused on the first 50 levels - When people were discussing terrain I thought about it & the place I'd most like to see it is, early on when game play can be a bit duller. The place I'm less fussed is, late game where it's more of a distraction. Level gen in jackalband is being designed around tapering into V level gen. e.g. the deeper you get the more it'll look like a V level (it'll actually be a V level eventually, those gens are still there). It'll also have smaller levels early game.

I might as well ramble about some other stuff going in. The plan for the object list is for it to be both bigger & smaller. As an example, I increased the alloc on daggers & decreased it on main-gauches. I then added the old Umoria daggers at a much smaller alloc. Similar with short swords & rapiers. The list of common weapons decreased, the list of all possible weapons increased.

I started flagging the monster list with 2 rows for monster placement. One row is for associated terrain. So occasionally when it places a trap it might place a rogue or a poltergeist. Occasionally when it places rubble it might place a centipede or ant etc.

The 2nd row is for variants. This'll be a massive pain to get right but hopefully be the end it'll be able to do theme levels by variant.

Anyway still in early stages, I just thought I'd outline the general plan.

[Nick]

This is sounding really interesting. I'll probably steal stuff from it, for FA if not for V.

[wobbly]

Mostly just been fiddling round building variations on the basic rooms. I've done a variation on each (except for large room, huge room & room of chambers). So I've now got:

• Mini-pits
• Terrain nests - circular nest with terrain (rough)
• Small rooms
• Square Garden rooms
• Sil style Cross rooms
• Circular terrain room
• Bridge rooms - an overlap room with terrain & a bridge in the centre

I've also converted all the sil interesting rooms to V least vaults (so they can be called separately). I think the only things I'm missing to draw a Sil theme level are:

• Sils room connector
• Sils monsters (not sure how much/if I'll bother here)
• Sils items (they'll be angband items, at most I'll spike some probabilities)

[wobbly]

Changed the armour encumbrance system. I'll put it here in case anyone feels like commenting. It has been tested as far as displaying on the character sheet but not yet tested for game balance. Here's how it works:

Minimum weight for encumbrance is based on both race & class, specifically the combined stealth bonus/penalty. Combinations with bad stealth effectively have an armour proficiency bonus. It ranges from 15lbs (hobbit rogue), round the centre is 40lbs (half-elf warrior, human mage) & at the top 65lbs (half-troll blackguard). Weapon weight counts (weapons in jb range from 1lb stiletto to 25lb MOD).

Mana penalties work the same as usual.

Up to -2 stealth. Current numbers were roughly based on -1 when a hobbit rogue wears a full set of armour & -2 when human warrior goes past chain mail with a 2-handed weapon.

Accuracy penalty from encumbrance replaces the (-x) on heavy armours. Str no longer increases +to hit instead it reduces this accuracy penalty. It works out at around -5 to hit for half-troll blackguard with maxed str in the heaviest possible armour with MOD & knight shield. It's about -55 for the same on a hobbit rogue, which is harsh but maybe fair considering.

Bonus to AC from dex is reduced by armour encumbrance.

[wobbly]

Hmm. So I have FA wilderness levels in the sense that I've got a file called gen-wilderness.c that's not yet included in the makefiles, a bunch of FA wilderness vaults & the change to build vault that's in FA & I'm wondering what else I need to get it to work. So all I really want is that plains gen for dlvl 1 & the mountain gen as a pseudo-cavern.

I don't need topologies.h right? I can do this from dungeon profiles instead?
I don't need localities.h, I don't have actual towns & wilderness.
I don't need the stuff that tracks player location, I'm happy to hack it to pick a random side for the up & down stairs.
So which extra bits do I need?

[Nick]

I don't have a detailed answer, but I think if you look at the commits to FirstAgeAngband from last September you should find most of what you need.

[wobbly]

Thanks for taking the time to answer. I think I've got all the bits that were simple to just copy & the rest I'll have to work through later. Some of it looks complicated, Moria levels were so much easier to add for some reason...

Anyway, town. Though the roads need work, I don't think Sane dragon programmed them to be visible, but still, it's close to ok. Need to work out how to fill the gaps to the shop door too.

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=4744

[wobbly]

The wild dogs in 4.2 cleared a space for jackals to return to their former glory:

{"Jackal"		    ,0x00000012L,0x00000000L,0x2032,    8,  30,
  12,  16, 11, 'j', {3,8}   , {29,0,0,0}		,    4},

Look at that brute. Kill item, kill wall, kill body, pretty much destroys everything in its path. Fear the j, fear it.

name:jackal
base:canine
color:U
speed:110
hit-points:14
hearing:12
smell:50
armor-class:16
sleepiness:30
depth:4
rarity:5
experience:8
blow:BITE:HURT:1d6
flags:PL_MORIA | PL_OLDBAND | PL_JB | PL_FA | PL_ZVARIANT | PL_OS
desc:It is a yapping snarling dog.

So I'm hoping to slot all of these in somehow, probably all around rarity 5. Some will be in there original form like the jackal or the drooling harpy, because you can't improve on perfection. I mean look at the drooling harpy, just like a white harpy, only it attacks to drool! For some I'll be taking liberties. I've moved the tacky 'novice' name to humanoids to separate them from their modern versions in summons, friends etc. The black yeek may end up modified into some kind of yeek blackguard. fcpb's 'ewok' is being reskinned as a 'green yeek', the greedy little gnome will be flaged for z-variants in place of leprechauns etc. etc.

Edit:Just looking at it jackals were rand_40, but I think I can leave that off.