Re: CF: Gameplay issues and misc stuff

["Mark Wedel" <mwedel@pyramid.com>]

Quite a while ago, Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se wrote:
>Here are a few random comments related to 0.92.5:
>
>- The new attack code will sometimes produce the same kind of
>  unfortunate side effects as the ones I tried to fix in my patch to
>  0.92.4: if your weapon is "improved" by getting some god's attack
>  type (e.g. weaponmagic and fear for God), it can become useless
>  against some monsters.
>
>  Example: I got Mopoon's Dragonbane (very powerful weapon, with dam
>  +81).  After having prayed over an altar of God, it received the
>  attacks weapon magic and fear.  After that, it always missed the
>  acid spheres and some other monsters.  That happens less often than
>  with the bug that I fixed in the previous version of the code, but
>  sometimes the "best attack type" that is chosen by the new code is
>  one to which the monster is immune.

I was just perusing the spoiler, and things clicked in.

 Acid spheres are immune to weapon magic and fear, so at least in that
regard, the program is running properly.  I don't think acid spheres
should be immune to weapon magic, but it stands now, the code is doing the
right thing.

>
>  This also happens if you get the "Essence of Flame" that gives you
>  the attack type "fire".  If you wear it, you are unable to hit some
>  monsters.  Isn't there a way to fix that?

 I am guessing that the some mosnters are things like wyverns and dragons?
Once again, if the attacktype is only fire, and the creature is immune to fire,
the code is doing the right thing.

 However, with the new attack code, havign a lot of attacktypes is better.
Perhaps make sure all weapons attack with at least physical? (note, to do this
in the code could be difficult, since the hit_player stuff gets used for
all sorts of attacks (spells, missiles, etc, and if physical is always
hardcoded in, many spells would become unexpectedly powerful (you could
in theory kill dragons with fireballs))

>
>- The alchemy code, when combined with god intervention, can affect
>  play balance (a lot).  Here is how: put four or five cheap objects
>  in a cauldron (e.g. one silver coin, one arrow, one food, one booze)
>  and use the alchemy spell.  Do that several times and collect the
>  items every time.  If you identify them, you will see that all of
>  them are cursed.  Now go and pray over an altar, and the curses will
>  be removed.  Result: with a few cheap objects, you get several very
>  valuable items (you can sell them and get 100 times the value of
>  what you originally put in the cauldron).
>

  I think Brian already fixed this?  Obviously, setting the value to
created items to 0 is an easy solution - makes alchemy only useful for
person creation, and not money making.  I would guess taht you could
also read a remove curse scroll and get the same benefit of praying..

>
>- The dragon steaks are not counted as food anymore.  They are much
>  lighter than before and have the same "food value", even if they
>  taste terrible.  Thus they become more interesting than
>  waybreads... except that your character will not eat them
>  automatically when the food drops below zero.  Consequence: I was in
>  a battle, using a lot of mana (and food for regeneration), and
>  suddenly my character died although I was carrying several dragon
>  steaks.

 I know the brian has fixed up the weight problem some (body parts are no
longer as superlight, but may still be a bit lighter than normal..  Perhaps
food value should also be based on weight?  After all, a dragonsteak from
a fairie dragon probably should not have as much food value (and mass) as
one from a full dragon)

 I am not sure why brian needed to create the flesh type for these items -
perhaps he can elaborate.  Ideally, flesh, drink, and food should be the
same item type (as far as I know, the only reason drink needs to be
different than booze is the message it prints out (you drink instead of
you eat).

 Hopefully, I haven't rehashed too much old stuff.



-- 
 --Mark