Moving some things from CLIVAN to main line development

I have compiled a list of things from CLIVAN that I think are in keeping with the game and serve to make the game more challenging. They are mostly the additions that I am satified have more or less full functionality. I would like to share this list with you so I can gain feedback about whether you agree that they should be implemented in main line development, or whether some should be omitted or improved. Question marks denote things that I am not sure would be necessary additions. Most things will be revised as they are implemented, to ensure that they are balanced and operating properly.

The list:

Things:

- Throwing (AI)
- picking up items to throw (AI)
- Wand zapping (AI)
- Revision to sweat amount (make this proportional to END)
- Material softening algorithm (for Eptyron, Alchemists)
- Vampirism state
- Dip bodyparts into potions and fountains

Items:

- Eptyron
? Maps

Characters:

- Fruit bat
- Uldra
? Okapi
- Vampire
- Orc Shaman
- Goblin Warlock
- Kobold Alchemist
- Grenadier dwarfs
? Bare-hands doctor

Misc:

- Add Vladimir and Ivan image by blob to IVAN_LEVEL entering screen
- Change the maximum Attnam continent size to 700, down from 1000

I haven't played CLIVAN in a while; what are the maps you mentioned?

Everything else I agree with (especially okapis; I love those things). I'm a bit hesitant on the material softening, as it was a massive pain in the ass, but such is IVAN I suppose. I do remember a couple quirks from CLIVAN: I once ended up with an illithium Justifier, so there ought to be a way to prevent certain items from being softened, and I also don't recall ever seeing a grenadier dwarf throw a grenade, though that might have just been bad (good?) luck. Also, as far as LIVAN/CLIVAN features go, can we make Valpurium green? I think green Valpurium looks much better than 0.50's gold Valpurium.

The level entry screens are easily added via dungeon.dat; all we need is a properly formatted version of the image. I also noticed a bug while messing around with this that causes the loading graphic to be off center for every level generated after an entry screen is used.

Material softening as it stands is terribly overpowered IMO, as even blocking attacks with Eptyron seems to soften the striker's weapon. Going against one of these means that the moment your weapon is softened, you lose the accustomization bonus since it's not shared between materials, not to even mention having to burn through additional SoCMs. The soften also currently works against Neerc and Justifier, neither of which you can change the material of yourself.

So long as the softens are restricted to a single named NPC or such and the melee block soften nerfed, it could be fine.

To be honest I really don't like the green valpurium; it just somehow doesn't fit as the strongest armor material around. I get that Valpurus is green and by extension his material could be, but the neon green just looks off. The current golden is more of a holy radiant material of the gods.

The AI improvements would be great, but really, grenadier dwarves do not throw any grenades in my experience. They mostly blow themselves up and set off their grenades this way, trapping you in a cloud of mustard gas.

Eptyron rocks! And I also like the material softening spell of kobold alchemists, even though in definitely is aggravating as hell. Porting it with some of the JoKe's nerfs would be nice, especially all the named weapons should be soft resistant.

If fruit bats are added, please add that special room with number of magpies and fruit bats also.

Goblin warlocks are awsome, they generate in large numbers when your are strong enough and I was able to slay them without giving them any chance of useing their wands, yielding me literally HUGE number of teleport wands.

I personally like bare-hands doctors. They explain the eunuch so well. And the first time I've tamed one, of course I asked him to remove my head, just to see what will happen.

By the way, I've read somewhere there about sleeping gas grenades; what about them?

I agree, the material softening is overpowered and untested. The softening regime used by Eptyron is completely different to the one implemented for the alchemists. This was because I implemented Eptyron first, and then decided to create a "SoftenedMaterial" for each material in the material tree so I could make a relatively straightforward method for use with alchemists. I never got around to porting the latter method to Eptyron.
The bugs where softening works against Neerc and Justifier are indeed true bugs, so I will attend to those. I didn't really know what to expect when I put it in the game. Softening while blocking needs to be eliminated too. The weapon special effect (softening) probably needs to be made less frequent.

An alternative to having an artifact with this softening property would be to code a type of steel material, let's call it "goblin steel". You can't wish for this material, or harden to it, so you'd have to find it. A sword made from this material can have the property of softening the materials of the target during one in 20 successful hits or so. The caveat is that the softening property is only effective if you are polymorphed into a goblinoid (either kobold, goblin or orc). Could make INT a factor in how frequent the effect occurs.

It seems like warlocks need to have only mirrored wands in their inventory. That way the player can't accumulate them.

I'll have to look more closely at this, I know it is not 100% there yet I think they also throw grenades at walls when the player is on the other side of the wall, so their hostile detection scheme needs to check for walls in the intervening space.

I'll attend to these additions once fire is off the ground.

By the way, I like the green valpurium. Its color is completely different from all other materials and you can easily tell apart valpurium items. It is more special than golden valpurium as well, as there are several other golden materials (gold, phoenix feather, ...) and it feels right for a unique divine material (and the top material) to be unique even in color and thus be easily recognized.

And it reminds me of kryptonite, what adds more points.

However, I have a bit of problem with GOLDEN eagle feather being BLUE. That's simply not right.


That sounds reasonable to me.