I do like where this is going. Items could be dungeon-locked, too -- So you're using a halberd, and hoping to find Mjolak? Well, you should probably go check out the Black Fortress over there, because that's the only place it'll spawn.

My only problem is that as you said, players may be more inclined to play Dungeon C instead of Dungeon B, for whatever reason -- maybe it's cooler, or maybe it's easier, or what-have-you, and this may alter their choices even in the UT once they understand what is most useful in the place they want to go. Though, I suppose this isn't really a bad thing; score multipliers could be modified for endings in the easier dungeons, and possibly the Really Cool Dungeons could have additional requirements to get in beyond simply passing through UT.

I dunno. Great thinking, Squash.

Wow, it HAS been 5 years. Hi, Squash. Long time no see.

The nearly-anticlimactic ending of my win counts for this: On my way back up with Elpuri's head (after beating him down with two Neerc se'Ulb), I discovered that I had leprosy and no way to cure it. That head is heavy, too; no way I could carry it without both legs. So I chugged all my healing potions on my way to the surface to replace lost legs. Got there, started crossing the expanse between the GC and Attnam... leg falls off. Can't move. I figure, "Well this is it... so close and yet so far away. Nothing left but to starve in the wilderness..." So I starve. And then I'm resurrected! With both legs! Thank you AOLS! Realizing what happened, I quickly equipped my backup and resumed my journey. Sure enough my legs fall off again, and have to use my second AOLS. Luck was with me and I didn't lose any more limbs between then and Petrus.

Nice find. I've been trying to make that happen for years.

Awesome, glad to hear it! I look forward to seeing your YASD. Er... I mean, your YAVP...

Perhaps; that's another thing I'd like to see, is the code behind damage calculations. As we already saw, HitStrength is capped at 10, so unless damage calculations use a different modifier the same cap may apply.

I think the biggest game-influencing thing I've learned from this so far is that, while it's probably a good idea to work towards that 10 hit strength cap (10 AStr above the minimum), there's no point training beyond that. If you know you're going to be using a long sword for the rest of the game, you really won't ever need more than ~15 AStr -- and usually you won't even need that much, unless you're using adamant or another high-density material (which there aren't any at high levels).

How is this coming along?

Warheck: You should check out Squash's parsing, linked in my first post; this is in there. However verification is nice.

Last night I had gone ahead with the assumption that WeaponToHitValue was the attacking parties' ToHitValue. Even if it belonged to the blocking party, since the both blocker and attacker in my simulation are Guugzamesh, this value would still be ~43.3. I ran this value through, assuming no previous blocks, and came back with the 17% block chance. I'm still not entirely sure this is accurate but I'm going to run with it for now. That gives him a final tally, counting both arms, of having 31% chance to block 18 damage, and roughly 20% chance to block 36. (I don't suppose someone has a lot of time on their hands and is willing to make an extensive empirical test? Where's Z when you need him...)

I do not believe that WeaponToHitValue is the defender's THV. If it were, high THV would actually make blocking MORE difficult, rather than less.

I appreciate the code-diving, Warheck. I'm still pretty confused about the position of certain variables in the code; particularly the position of GetTHVBonus: it's position again seems to indicate the opposite of what is expected, and that plus values actually negatively impact THV (though on a really quite miniscule level). Confusing.

My next task is the real purpose of me bringing this whole thing up: determining just how much more effective blocking with shields is to blocking with weapons, and thus how much more defensive ability is gained by using one over using a second weapon. I'll go to that tonight.