[Announce] FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak released

[GrimaTheBold]

Archer vs. Weaponmaster?

I'm curious what the pros and cons are of playing an Archer vs. playing a Weaponmaster (bows, crossbows, slings)? Clearly the Weaponmaster gets some great class powers - I especially love the sling master's powers. The Archer gets the advantage of being able to effectively use all bows, not just one type. What else? Do Archers get better damage from bows? Are they better at melee? Because right now I'm struggling to see what advantage an Archer could have that would outweigh those Weaponmaster class powers.

[Seraphimus]

I'm curious what the pros and cons are of playing an Archer vs. playing a Weaponmaster (bows, crossbows, slings)? Clearly the Weaponmaster gets some great class powers - I especially love the sling master's powers. The Archer gets the advantage of being able to effectively use all bows, not just one type. What else? Do Archers get better damage from bows? Are they better at melee? Because right now I'm struggling to see what advantage an Archer could have that would outweigh those Weaponmaster class powers.

At a glance, the Archer is better at archery, having Amber [12] instead of just heroic, higher strength and con, better skills almost all the way across the board, save stealth and perception... (Though why do both archer specialists have poor perception), lower exp modifier better life rating, and... Don't underestimate the value of create ammo. The kind of ammo you create scales as you progress (dunno if it's depth or CLVL based) and can roll Ego ammo as well as higher quality types, like mithril bolts, or arrows of returning.

Essentially they lose out in the utility of the Bowmasters abilities for being better at basically everything else.

[MITZE]

Bug: Throwing and Throw Weapon Abilities

Had cause to look up how throwing worked, and noticed that due to the way that throwing multiplier context->mult is initialized in multiple places, it's also calculated in multiple ways, which results in some of those calculations not taking into account some things they probably should.

For instance, the Daggermaster's Dagger Toss initializes context->mult to (100 + (CL * 4)). However, in py_throw.c line 165, it's initialized to (100 + (100 if you have the throwing mutation) + (100 if the weapon has the throwing flag) + (a STR-based modifier)), only if context->mult isn't already initialized. This means that Dagger Toss won't benefit from you having the throwing mutation, the weapon having the throwing flag, or a STR-based modifier . . . which arguably, it should.

This probably applies some other abilities besides Dagger Toss as well.

[Thraalbee]

Wow

There are so many cool things to discover even after a long time. Small things like there is a suit of armor that allows you to breathe even when there is no air and that there is actually a monster in the game that makes this feature useful. But this made me laugh out loud when I found it ...
The Great Maul of Vice - activates for Lightspeed (speed 99) for 16 turns with only 1.6% fail rate for my Warrior. Useful as a swap unless you are a mauler.

The Great Hammer 'Great Maul of Vice' (8d8) (+8,+8) [+8] (+2) (charging) 
  {CnCh;NtNxFe;FaHl|EPV A:Light Speed} [70 lb]

Edit: An unexpected side effect -- It consumes gold, if in inventory or wielded

[HugoVirtuoso]

There's more...Do you know what happens when you run out of money?

[Thraalbee]

Interesting. Thanks for the warning! My guess would be it disappears but keeps drawing money from the player's gold pool.

[MITZE]

Bug: Thieving Monster Interactions

[13:51] reijesa: You attack the Ninja Tonberry: You cruelly attack it! (It retaliates: It hits.) You feel uneasy. You grab hold of your backpack! The thief flees laughing! Your weapon drains life from it! You swing wildly at nothing. It seems weakened. You swing wildly at nothing.

[13:52] reijesa: looks like the "can't attack if it's gone" fix doesn't check vampirism

[Thraalbee]

Monster Leprechaun starts with zero gold in Thrall mode.
Not a bug but that is a bit mean, isn't it?

[ster]

Resurrection Machine can choose Basement Cat, which won't ever generate randomly again. A similar bug was fixed with random Angband quest guardians but this one's still at large.

[MITZE]

Bug: Summon Gods

[16:40] picklenugget: Apparently casting summon gods crashes the game
[16:40] picklenugget: as a possesor

[Bostock]

Human transform for doppelgangers is oldhuman

A CL35+ doppelganger transformed into a human does not get a human weakness. Not sure if WAI or bug.

Note: this is in Salmiak. Haven't tested in Nightly.

[Bostock]

Putting on a ring with slaying maluses triggers the "do you want to switch fingers so you can... benefit... from these... maluses" message

[Thraalbee]

Corrupt savefile solution?

I got a 3-4 program crashes [Salmiak] when drops were generated after a kill. Eventually one of these led to a broken savefile. Ideas on how to solve?
I can start all over of course, but my level 41 snotling skillmaster was doing so well so it is a bit of a pain.

[Sideways]

I got a 3-4 program crashes [Salmiak] when drops were generated after a kill. Eventually one of these led to a broken savefile. Ideas on how to solve?
I can start all over of course, but my level 41 snotling skillmaster was doing so well so it is a bit of a pain.

If it were just the crashes it would most likely get fixed simply by upgrading to nightly; but a broken savefile will (probably) be more complicated.

Is the savefile small enough to attach here when zipped? I can't promise I can fix it, but I could give it a look tomorrow. (Any successful fix would still require upgrading to nightly afterwards, though.)

[Thraalbee]

Thanks! It is too big though, so I'll restart after downloading the nightly. Snotlings level up very fast and even if Glaurung does not drop his helm this time I'll find something else nice. Again, thanks for all the work on this great variant!


[EDIT] Where do I find the nightly?