CF: Experiments

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@Straylight.org>]

    I've been experimenting with some random changes and new ideas.  Some of
them appear to work well.  If there's a (positive) consensus, I'll patch
them into the CVS tree.
    Feel free to agree with some parts and argue with others.  Just let me
know what you think.


- overgeneration

    If your hit points or spell points are high enough, and you have enough
+regeneration or +magic items, you can max out your hp/sp regeneration at
one point per tick.  This probably also happens with grace, but I haven't
seen it yet.  For high level characters, this can be pretty annoying.  For
example, a wizard with 500 maxsp regenerates mana just as fast with magic +4
as with magic +14.

    I altered the hp/sp/grace regeneration code to remove this limit, making
it possible to regenerate multiple points each tick.  As a side effect, hp
and sp still cost at most 1 food per tick (each) to regenerate.  Less with
sustenance.


- merging Glowing Crystals

    I made Glowing Crystals mergable such that a group of _n_ crystals, each
with _maxsp_ maximum capacity, has an effective maximum of _n_ * _maxsp_. 
So a set of eight Glowing Crystals can hold 8000 sp.  Splitting them leaves
as much stored energy as possible in one group and the remainder in the
other group.  In this way, a mage in the middle of a battle only needs to
hit one key, bound to "apply Glowing Crystal" to tap the whole bunch of them
instead of scrolling through the inventory window to click on the one that's
still glowing.


- nrof 1

    I used a recursive find/grep "nrof" on the archetype tree to find all
the objects that were not mergable, and set "nrof 1" on the ones that should
be.  Artifact weapons, for example.  Unique is a seperate flag, and there
doesn't seem to be anything unique about artifact weapons yet anyway.  Other
examples include corpses, clocks, and books.  No reason to keep individual
copies of identical objects seperate.  Books will only merge if they contain
the same message (or lack thereof).  ...I just realized I'll have to change
the inscription skill code to only write in one book at a time, but that
should be pretty easy.

    Affected archetypes (87): elvenboots, idaten, levitationboots,
speedboots, Cloak of Magic Resistance, helmet_of_brilliance,
helmet_of_xrays, Wizard Hat, Power Dragon Mail, dragon mail, Gale Armour,
Midnight Robe, White Dragon Scale Mail, Demonspawn Shields (all 4), dragon
shield, eyeshield, holy shield, polished shield, Belzebub's shield, White
Dragon Shield, corpse, corpse1, corpse_pl, clock, flint_and_steel, chalice,
crown, torch_cyan, torch_indigo, torch_vermilion, book_read, book_clasp,
card, diploma, letter, note, quarto, scroll, scroll_2, tome, Golden Unicorn
Horn, horn, horn2, horn3, power_crystal, rod_heavy, rod_light, staff, wand,
neko chan's collar, Chaos Sword, Bonecrusher, Deathbringer, Defender,
Dragonslayer, Excalibur, Firebrand, Frostbrand, Harakiri sword, Staff of
Magi, Mjoellnir, Darkblade, Mournblade, Skullcleaver, Stormbringer,
Demonbane, Frost Hammer, lamestar, firestar, Gram, Holy Avenger, Kobold
Dagger, Lava Slasher, Katana of Masamune, Sting, Belzebub's sword, Unknown
Sword, nunchacu_1, nunchacu_2, shootingstar, shovel, stake, taifu, katana


- new attacktype: psionic

    Used by new spells (listed below) and new artifact weapon, "Mindblade". 
Will probably add new creatures with psionic attacks and/or spell
abilities.  Mind Flayer is a good place to start.

    Psionic attacks do direct damage, like weaponmagic, but not very much of
it (damage is halved).  When monsters get a meaningful Int score (next
release?) Int will be a factor in determining damage and Int 0 creatures
will be automatically immune (no mind to attack).  It then hits with
confusion, fear, slow, and paralyze.  Immunity to or protection from any of
those four still protects from that part, but not the others and not the
direct damage.  Immunity to or protection from psionics protects from the
whole attack, but not other forms of confusion. fear. slow, and paralyze.


- new spells

    Psionics (medium sp cost, low damage, medium increase)
psionic bolt  (similar to firebolt)
psionic blast (similar to burning hands)
small/medium/large mindstorm  (similar to fireball)

    Magic - raw magic attacks - (high sp cost, medium damage, fast increase)
manabolt   (similar to firebolt)
banablast  (similar to burning hands)
small/medium/large manaball  (similar to fireball)

    Grenades - create a bomb and throw it - like a fireball, but psysical
grenade - wizard spell
holy handgrenade - priest spell (I couldn't pass up that one)

    Weapon "Golems"
animate weapon - caster's current weapon becomes a golem
dancing sword - creates a temporary magic sword and animates it


- AT_MAGIC weapons

    There are two artifact weapons with attacktype _magic_.  That indicates
that the attack is a magical spell, not that it's a magical attack.  There
are many creatures that are immune to magic, and are thus immune to these
weapons, even if they have additional attacktypes other than magic.  Such
weapons simply don't make sense to me, so I changed them:

    Mournblade
Had (attack: magic,drain)
Changed to (attack: drain) which reverts to weaponmagic if target is immune

    Stormbringer
Had (attack: magic, drain) and (prot: magic)
Changed to (attack: electricity, drain) and (prot: magic, electricity)


- Mage artifacts with +2 Int and +0 Pow???

    My high-level wizard finally got through the snake pit and the wizard's
tower to get a Wizard Hat, Staff of the Magi and Midnight Robe, only to find
them less useful than the equipment he already had, a helm of Brilliance,
cloak of displacement, and a simple dagger he'd enchanted himself.  Until
then, I'd never noticed that _none_ of those three major artifacts, designed
for mages, had _any_ Power bonus.  This doesn't make any sense to me, so I
changed it.

    Staff of [the] Magi
Was (+2 Int, +1 Wis, +2 magic) (dam: 20) (Attack: physical, weaponmagic)
Added (+2 Pow) (wc: +5)

    Midnight Robe
Was (+2 Wis, +2 Int)
Changed to (+1 Wis, +1 Int, +2 Pow)

    Wizard Hat
Was (+1 ac, +2 Int, +5 magic)
Added (+2 Pow)


- tweaking various artifacts

    mithril chainmail of lightning - is no better in speed (except for its
+1 Str) or spell point regeneration than normal mithril chainmail. 
Shouldn't all that electricity running through a mesh of naturally magical
metal make it even less cumbersome for movement and sp regen?
Was (+2 Cha, +1 Str), max speed: 18, sp penalty: 5
Changed to (+1 Cha, +1 Str, +1 Speed), max speed: 27, sp penalty: 2

    Holy Avenger
Had (attack: weaponmagic), which is fine.
I just added (attack: blinding) to make it a little more unique.

    Deathbringer
Was (Attack: physical) - arguably the cheesiest, most misnamed artifact
Added (Attack: depletion) - more interesting, but still enchantable

    helm of Concentration
has a huge penalty to spell point regeneration and +1 magic.  Huh?
Was (+1 magic) sp regen penalty: 20
Now (+1 magic) sp regen penatly: 2

    high magic requirement + low chance = extreme rarity for no good reason
weapons of Gwormi, Kragi, Crolmi changed from chance: 2 to chance: 20
weapons of Rhyz, Glamdri changed from chance 1 to chance 10
weapon of Berserkergang changed from chance 1 to chance 5

    weapon of Demon Slaying vs. Demonbane artifact
Kept Demonbane artifact sword
Changed weapon of Demon Slaying to weapon of Valriel (slay devil)
Added weapon of Gorokh (slay angel)

    club of Slay Dragon???
weapon of Slay Dragon changed to sword of dragon slaying
(not to be confused with Dragonslayer artifact weapon)

    rare, highly enchanted shield, gives +1 ac for +20% weight???
shield of Deflection +2 was (ac: +1) (weight: 120%)
changed to (ac: +3) (weight:110%)

    weapon of Slay Beholder
renamed to weapon of no reflection
Added (prot: blinding) and descriptive message

    renamed
weapon of Slay Ogre              ==>  weapon of ogre slaying
weapon of Slay Troll             ==>  weapon of troll slaying
weapon of Slay Undead            ==>  weapon of re-slaying
dagger of Poisoning              ==>  dagger of venom
sword of Poisoning               ==>  sword of venom
missile of paralyze              ==>  missile of Paralysis
bolt of silver head              ==>  bolt of silver
cloak of protection from fire    ==>  cloak of cooling
missile of Assassinating Trolls  ==>  missile of Troll Slaying
missile of Assassinating Dragons ==>  missile of Dragon Slaying
missile of Slay Dragon           ==>  missile of dragon slaying
potion of resist confusion       ==>  potion of clear thought
potion of resist magic           ==>  potion of magic dissipation
potion of resist draining        ==>  potion of drain resistance
potion of resist paralysis       ==>  potion of free action
potion of resist poison          ==>  potion of poison resistance
potion of resist slow            ==>  potion of steady speed
potion of quickness              ==>  potion of agility
balm of invisible to undead      ==>  balm of invisibility to undead
ethrealness / ethreality ==>  changed all spellings to aethereality


-  new artifacts

    weapon of Banishment +3
(dam: x2.5, wc: +3) (slay undead, demon, devil) (Attack: physical, holy
word)

    sword of Sharpness +3
(dam: x2, wc: +2) (Attack: weaponmagic, death)
Chance of slaying outright, perhaps that's what a Vorpal Blade should do?

    metal weapon of Sorig
(weight: 85%, speed: 125%) (Attack: physical, electricity) (prot:
electricity)

    metal weapon of Ruggilli
(weight: 95%, speed: 110%) (Attack: physical, fire) (prot: fire)

    missile weapon of Might
(weight: 110%, damage: x2)

    missile weapon of Speed
(weight: 75%, speed: 150%)

    missile weapon of Thunder +2
(weight: 90%, damage 150%, wc: +2) (Attack: physical, slow, paralyze)


- divine intervention

    I changed the divine intervention code (for praying over your god's
altar) to notice if you're wielding a weapon sacred to a different god, yell
at you for it, and smite the weapon.  It loses one point of enchantment and
has the other god's name removed, but you lose no experience (unless it was
sacred to the enemy god, of course).  If you continue to pray with that
weapon, your god may choose to bless it, making it sacred to his/her/its own
cult.
    If your armour has been reduced to a negative modifier (by acid) prayer
may convince your god to reset the armour value and weight to normal for
that archetype, making it as good as new.
    I also added armour improvement, up to +(wisdom level/7) as compared to
weapon improvement, which can go up to +(wisdom level/5), and Enchant Armour
scrolls, which max out at +(total level/10).  The armour value is increased,
just as it is with a scroll, but it gains no weight.


-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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