Angband User Manual Wiki

[JamesDoyle]

Another batch of questions! I'm still mainly playing in 3.0.6, and have been accumulating info while playing that, so if any of this (or what I've added to the wiki) is modified or irrelevant or simpy wrong for 3.0.9, please let me know!

Do characters still get a default weapon? My many game starts in 3.0.9 while checking on character generation seem to have resulted in characters with a varying start weapon. Or have I got confused?

Why does my character (Dunadan Ranger) have knowledge of Swords, Polearms and Hafted Weapons of *Slay Evil* and Slay Troll from the start?

Is it still possible to have 0 HP?

Can sustained characteristics ever be affected? i.e. is it immunity or resistance

What are the breakpoint percentages for the colours of the monster health status?

What is the criterion for a monster becoming afraid due to damage (is it losing a certain amount of HP in one combat turn)?

Are there other wounds besides: Graze; Light Cut; Bad Cut; Nasty Cut; Severe Cut? And if so, where do they come?

When using the mouse for movement, what are the rules for how far away you can click and successfully move?

Think that's all for now!

Thanks

[zaimoni]

Is it still possible to have 0 HP?

Yes.

Can sustained characteristics ever be affected? i.e. is it immunity or resistance

Yes. There is no such thing as resist Time in V.

What are the breakpoint percentages for the colours of the monster health status?

Assuming that no status has overridden the colors: 10%, 25%, 60%, 100%.

What is the criterion for a monster becoming afraid due to damage (is it losing a certain amount of HP in one combat turn)?

At 10% of max hp, or 50% of current hp in one hit (4 in 5). The "damage cures monster fear" check is made first.

Are there other wounds besides: Graze; Light Cut; Bad Cut; Nasty Cut; Severe Cut? And if so, where do they come?

Deep gash and Mortal Wound are even more impressive cuts, with thresholds 200 and 1000 respectively. Mortal wound performs as advertised (0 physical regeneration, including all of hp, stun counter, and cut counter).

When using the mouse for movement, what are the rules for how far away you can click and successfully move?

Radius 50, path length 250, pathfinding algorithm actually understands what you indicated.

[takkaria]

What are the breakpoint percentages for the colours of the monster health status?

That kind of info shouldn't really be in the game manual, just because it might become interface-dependent in future. Other than that, cheers for all the work!

[JamesDoyle]

Useful to know, thanks, Andrew.

I hadn't intended it to be first line information as it's out of context for flavour-based instructions, but had thought about putting it in as a secondary page. But I'll hold off on that.

And thanks, Zaimoni, ,for the input. Re mouse movement - 50 and 250 what?

[zaimoni]

And thanks, Zaimoni, ,for the input. Re mouse movement - 50 and 250 what?

Distance is from the V distance function ((delta-y)+(delta-x))/2, where /2 is an integer division.

That is, the pathfinder won't even try to navigate all the way across the map.

If no running-legal path can get there in 250 moves, it won't try to move you. [Note that this means the pathfinder won't cut corners, as that option has been removed from recent V and forced false.]

[JamesDoyle]

OK, I'm back - it's been a while, as Christmas and various other things got in the way, plus I've been playing the current version a bit to get a feel for how to write the upcoming sections, and also hopefully either answer some questions myself or find out they've been rendered irrelevant by changes to the game.

So, here goes:

Is there a list somewhere of items that are always in stock? If it's not obviously available to players/characters, then I don't need to refer to it in the Manual, but point me to it if it's there.

I know what PLite does, but what is it short for? And while we're on PLite, the Phial of Galadriel doesn't flag this attribute on the status screen, but surely it should (this confused be greatly when trying to understand PLite)?

A question on overall approach to writing the Manual: so far, I've been trying very hard to separate the player from the character, so when I say 'You' I mean the player. This means, obviously, that it is at times quite unwieldy/inelegant as I hav to keep saying 'Your character will' or 'He or she will'. What do people feel - should this separation be maintained, or would you prefer to see the two merged so I would refer to 'You' throughout?

I've come across the new (to me) flag 'Amnesiac'. This went away after a while and my character regained knowledge of what he was carrying, although the cause of the Amnesia (Angamaite, IIRC) used to cause permanent memory loss. Is Amnesia always temporary now, or was I lucky? And can it still be partial (my characters often retained memory of some artifacts through this), or is it a tradeoff that it's now temporary but total.

On object knowledge, my characters seem to start with some knowledge of ego items. Note that I don't mean retained knowledge from previous generations in the save file, but even when starting a blank character the first time I used 3.0.9, he/she knew about two or three ego items. Is this a feature now, or is it a bug?

Talking of bugs (which should probably go elsewhere, I know, but I'm on a roll) I noticed that picking up batches of unidentified bolts, they merged into a single item in the inventory. This has always happened with pebbles, in my experience, but bolts used to be like arrows, and each unidentified batch was separate until known to be the same (arrows still do this). I noticed that at one point I did get a separate batch in the inventory, which turned out to be enchanted - the merged batches were of course all 0,0. I suspect this isn't supposed to happen...

That's all my questions, but playing and writing the manual has spurred me on to identify some feature requests and enhancements I'd like to propose. I'll post these elsewhere, as requested by Andrew

[takkaria]

Is there a list somewhere of items that are always in stock? If it's not obviously available to players/characters, then I don't need to refer to it in the Manual, but point me to it if it's there.

http://dev.rephial.org/trac/browser/trunk/src/store.c#L1319

I know what PLite does, but what is it short for? And while we're on PLite, the Phial of Galadriel doesn't flag this attribute on the status screen, but surely it should (this confused be greatly when trying to understand PLite)?

"player light", I believe. Gladriel should flag it up, yeah, and Eddie's patched version fixes this -- I should be importing that before the next release.

A question on overall approach to writing the Manual: so far, I've been trying very hard to separate the player from the character, so when I say 'You' I mean the player. This means, obviously, that it is at times quite unwieldy/inelegant as I hav to keep saying 'Your character will' or 'He or she will'. What do people feel - should this separation be maintained, or would you prefer to see the two merged so I would refer to 'You' throughout?

I think the game has been pretty loose with this in the past, and I can't see that changing -- even the source confuses the player with the character. People understand what you mean, so just use whatever feels most comfortable.

I've come across the new (to me) flag 'Amnesiac'. This went away after a while and my character regained knowledge of what he was carrying, although the cause of the Amnesia (Angamaite, IIRC) used to cause permanent memory loss. Is Amnesia always temporary now, or was I lucky? And can it still be partial (my characters often retained memory of some artifacts through this), or is it a tradeoff that it's now temporary but total.

It's always temporary, and it no longer causes any permanent memory loss. It cuts in half you chance of casting spells or using rods, wands, or staffs correctly.

On object knowledge, my characters seem to start with some knowledge of ego items. Note that I don't mean retained knowledge from previous generations in the save file, but even when starting a blank character the first time I used 3.0.9, he/she knew about two or three ego items. Is this a feature now, or is it a bug?

If you've been looking around the shops, that explains it. Otherwise, it's a bug.

Talking of bugs (which should probably go elsewhere, I know, but I'm on a roll) I noticed that picking up batches of unidentified bolts, they merged into a single item in the inventory. This has always happened with pebbles, in my experience, but bolts used to be like arrows, and each unidentified batch was separate until known to be the same (arrows still do this). I noticed that at one point I did get a separate batch in the inventory, which turned out to be enchanted - the merged batches were of course all 0,0. I suspect this isn't supposed to happen...

This is completely intentional, if you're playing the nightly builds.

[Djabanete]

"player light", I believe.

I figured it was Permanent Light.

[takkaria]

I figured it was Permanent Light.

I defer to the gentleman more knowledgeable about these things than I.

[JamesDoyle]

This is completely intentional, if you're playing the nightly builds.

So bolts are different to arrows now? Or will arrows merge batches in a future update?

It's a bit of a giveaway, now you know that merged batches are almost certainly +0,+0

And if I need to read the code to see what's in stock, I guess it's not common knowledge!

Thanks, Adnrew, very helpful

[takkaria]

So bolts are different to arrows now? Or will arrows merge batches in a future update?

All unidentified items that would stack if identified will stack.

It's a bit of a giveaway, now you know that merged batches are almost certainly +0,+0

That's half the point... the other half is so that you don't end up with 3 piles of {average} arrows.

[Swede2378]

Why can I choose Dunadin Rogue?

In the manual it states clearly that certain race/class combinations are not allowed, and when generating a character these combinations are darker in color, but they are still allowed... is there a penalty for choosing, for example, a Dunadin Rogue? Or should this not be allowed at all?

[Big Al]

There's no penalty nor anything from preventing the player to play it - it's just a 'for advanced users only' warning. That should probably be changed in the manual.

[will_asher]

I think combos like dunadain rogue, high elf priest or paladin, or dwarf ranger should be disabled and not just greyed out. Some combos only available in variants should definetly be disabled: shadow fairy knight, ent mage..

No ent ever should be willing to cast a fire bolt/ball spell (or maybe even use torches).

[Djabanete]

I think combos like dunadain rogue, high elf priest or paladin, or dwarf ranger should be disabled and not just greyed out. Some combos only available in variants should definetly be disabled: shadow fairy knight, ent mage..

No ent ever should be willing to cast a fire bolt/ball spell (or maybe even use torches).

Some people might like these combinations. Why spoil their fun?