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Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 7, 2017 at 12:20 am
fejoa wrote
Hehe, it's in the community version only

Well, I consider it the official version now.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 6, 2017 at 10:55 am
Added ring of detection which rarely lets you detect any material while worn. Also added horns of confusion.

Some screenshots for you:
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 6, 2017 at 8:27 am
You need to zap a pile of 5 bones and a skull to raise a tame skeleton with a wand of necromancy. However, if you zap the pile with at least 30 Int, you will raise a skeleton warrior instead.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 5, 2017 at 12:52 am
I added several magic weapons.

As discussed somewhere else, the zombie of Khaz-zadm now wields her own special axes instead of the boring valpurium battle axe. Much more interesting this way!

Chilling axes sometimes slow your target. Scythes of terror sometimes panic your target. Banshee sickles (based on old dev notes in Doc/Old) do additional sound damage as they scream at your target.

fejoa wrote
That's cool about the CLIVAN woods, I think I have a list of some of the other features I'd like to port over to the master dev branch. Just need to see if I can find it. There were also some features that I'd prefer never to see the light of day, basically anything that wasn't on the list.

I have several more item I would like to try to port, too. Specifically, I rather like scrolls of fireballs, even though they should be rare. Bone of Ullr also could be cool as there is no artifact wand yet, plus now it can give you swimming, like in the legend.

I'm also thinking about porting the celestial monograph of Solicitus (but not Solicitus himself). As the book can completely reset your standing with all gods (it makes you forget all gods and resets your relation with them to 0), I can see it having a nice niche use if you can find it.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 4, 2017 at 9:02 am
I was playing through TX recently, trying to get better acquainted with the dungeon. I must say I still find TX a bit harder than GC - it might be just me, it might actually be harder, but I'm not complaining in either case, it's fun. Anyway, I have some questions and suggestions.

Maybe the Temple should be an owned room, just like the Cathedral and Decos' residence. Right now, it's possible to lead dangerous monsters back upstairs from TX 1 to the Temple, whre they will be dispatched by all the guards while leaving their loot on the floor for you to pick up. This is especially egregious when the vampire room happens to be on TX 1, making the vampire too easy.

BTW, it would be great to have a generic owned room type, where you would anger the team of the room master (adjustable with a script), to handle other rooms the player should not steal from without punishment. The hardcoded rooms we have now are not very flexible in that regard.

I really like the paradise island, but I'm wondering how many people will actually see the mirrored items in the chest. I'm only rarely equipped to deal with the kamikaze dwarf and open the chest fast enough the first time I come to the island room, before the items disappear.

Zombies with nuts as food are awsome!

Gas chambre should not be generated on enner level. It happened to me several times by now, and it's not fun when the whole chambre explodes just as you enter the level.

I'm generally quite struggling when I come to the golem level depth. The maze room with five random golems seems to generate very difficult golems quite often - several times I ended with ommel bone golems. It's not that hard to try to avoid the unmanageable golems, but as this level is quite high in the dungeon, I generally tend to run through it repeatedly, which gets hairy if I still cannot dispatch the golems by the time I want to return.

BTW, drawing inspiration from GC golem room, the golems could guard a scroll of golem creation. A small guaranteed reward if you end up fighting a light crystal or an ommel bone golem like I tend to do.

The priestess experimental chambre is very nice. How do you deal with the priestess, though? I found out the hard way how quickly you can get swarmed if you ignore her, she summons some necromancers and then they start building a horde that will crush you. Do you try to kill her as soon as possible?

Also, I think it would be nice to have some reward for fighting the creatures locked in the cages - right now, there is no incentive, so they are only a decoration. Giving them some loot would make it an interesting decision when to try to open the cages. At least the mutant bear should get some loot, IMHO. He seems to be intended as a mini-boss, but him being locked in a cage with no reason for me to fight him... A bonus enchanting scroll, or a random ring, or something similar would make him more interesting. If the other two also get some minor reward, it sould be much more mundane - with the amount of food TX offers, even a loaf would be nice.

I'm seriously struggling with the four special rooms level (necromancers, vampires, mages and werewolfs, I think). All except the necromancer room are manageable for me - but if I don't kill the master necromancer fast enough, he starts ti teleport all around the level, raising zombies of all the other tough monsters I already killed again and again. This is especially problematic because of the room-and-corridor type of the level - while on zombie level in GC you can ignore the zombie horde and hunt down the necromancers, or simply avid everyone and run a circle around them to the stairs if it becomes too much, here you are clogged up with the ever-respawning zombies and cannot kill them fast enough to reach the necromancer before he teleports away, again and again. Wands help, but there is only so much charges you have.

Another problem I had was with leprosy - here is the one place in the whole game where it became a true killer. With the number of zombies, I was infected very quickly. Movement was difficult because of the zombie horde in all corridors. Antidote is very limited, priests are generally far away. I'm loosing way too much stats and limbs on that level. I would seriously like to have / be able to wish for an amulet of disease immunity. (Thinking about it, maybe this could even be the reward for fighting the mutant bear.)

I cannot comment much on the fights with Xinroch, I generally tend to die there.

Finally, I rather miss a shop in TX. It's nice to have Merka in GC for one more chance of a good item you will want to buy, especially when Hulbo has nothing of interest. Plus it's quite nice you can sell your spoils of adventuring without returning all the way back to Attnam. While it would not fit the flavour of the Tomb to have a shop in there, maybe there could be a shop on the above ground Temple level? Of course it should not sell any food, to preserve the hunger you battle in TX.

I'm quite sure I'm not playing very efficiently, so... Does anyone have some nice strategy for TX they want to share?
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 3, 2017 at 11:23 am
Good news, everyone! Amulet of magic breath / unbreathing now also gives Swimming status, so you don't drown in water.

Cloak of flying was added to Cathedral treasury, so that the palyer knows they can wish for it. I'm leaving the cloak wish-only, not to devalue the belt quest.

I buffed AoGH a bit, bringing it about on par with chainmail - it's still a bit heavier and increases your danger level, but useable. Armor of great health was before nearly useless, as it was weak, heavy and with too high penalties (it had inelasticity penalty 50, while plate mail has only 20!).

I also added three new wood types - kauri, rata and sidgure. The first two are New Zealand woods lifted from CLIVAN, the last one is wood from a magical mango world-tree upon which Lunethia the elven city in the Dark forest rests. Their stats were a bit buffed to be better than ebony, sidgure is on par with iron (or slightly better, as it's lighter). This change is because wooden weapons are currently totally useless. Now you can harden your weapon enough to make it at least useable.

Spears and quarterstaffs can now be generated made of these three new woods. I've taken the material probability for the woods from comparable materials the weapons could already generate as, so don't fret, no power creep is going on - you're only more likely to find a wooden weapon you will want to use.

I also added rolling pins and frying pans for housewives - there were already graphics for them, so of course the housewives demanded to have them!

Batman? wrote
I am not sure if this is the same thread where wind/belt effects were being discussed, but I think if you are blown into a wall or object you should have some or all of the contents of your pack spilled across the floor. Same for a kick.

Wind effects would definitely be cool, but they are way beyond my level of skill. So don't expect them in this build.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Oct 1, 2017 at 8:26 am
Thank you all for the replies!

Regarding stat belts, I see the concerns.

One edge the stat belts have is that they can be normally generated - I may try to increase their possibility to levels comparable with carrying. So maybe it won't be a competition of stat belt or levitation, but rather carrying or a stat belt.

While there is a guaranteed belt of levitation through the quest, I don't always go for it, especially if I don't feel strong enough early on, because after I clear the first part of GC, I don't feel especially pressing need for levitation to return back for it. So I would definitely pick even between carrying or a stat belt. Then again, I'm not particularly good or optimal player.

chaostrom wrote
Rather than minimal strength boost, how about a damage multiplier? Instead of minor DEX/AGI, how about a crit multiplier? If the belt of carrying increases your weight limit without increasing leg strength surely such things are possible?

It surely is possible, just not with my level of coding skill.

JoKe wrote
One thing I do have to point out: I highly doubt any player will be able to find an amulet that's only wishable. Perishable amulets are an interesting idea, but they do need to be able to be found without spending wishes.

Good point. I don't personally mind spoilers much, but I can make it rarely generated to give the palyer a chance to encounter it.

JoKe wrote
Cloak of flight again is not really something a new player will be able to find out without outside sources, there should at least be a tiny chance of it spawning naturally.

Here I would disagree with making it randomly generated, bacause there already is the belt quest for a source of levitation and sometimes randomly giving you permanent levitation without the quest would feel awkward, IMHO. I can, however, add some line of a dialogue to hint the player into the cloak's existence, and/or add a cloak of flying into the Attnamese treasury. Thus the player will see it exists and can consider wishing for it.

JoKe wrote
I'm not so sure about the artifact changes. Keeping the player from multiples of artifact weapons is might be fine (rip 2x Turox, you were the best), but denying material changes will simply mean some of them will be even less viable. Take Saal'Thul for example: invisibility is easy enough to come by from wands or rings for ordinary adamantine or valpurium short swords to be preferrable in every case. I don't think the change works flavour-wise either, if mortal magic scrolls of enchantment or repair can still be used.

I see. Maybe only some artifacts should be un-material-changeable? Enchanting and repairing is like when Narsil, Aragorn's broken sword from LotR, was reforged into Andúril - it did not fundamentally change the weapon. If Narsil was changed from elven steel into bread, though, that would be weird. But I will definitely think about this more.

Maybe Saal'Thul is underpowered in its current state? I think it's the only artifact that has the problem of not being really viable. Maybe it could be changed to adamant? Or have haste added as its effect? Do you feel any other artifacts are underpowered?

Batman? wrote
unbreathing should negate the insta-death for drowning, if thats possible in the current setup.

Now that amulet gives gas immunity. I'll see if I can add swimming as a status the amulet could also give, because there is no code support for not breathing on water floor - you simply die unless you can swim or fly.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Sep 27, 2017 at 12:39 pm
Anything that has vampirism status and undergoes an uncontrolled polymorph should automatically polymorph into a vamprie bat instead of a random creature.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Sep 26, 2017 at 2:23 am
chaostrom wrote
As far as the +1 stat per 2 enchantment goes, considering you can only reliably enchant up to 5 means people will naturally pick the gloves and boots every time, especially since there are no better alternatives for hands and feet at present.

The belt, however, give +1 to two attributes - belt of giant strength to both Astr and LStr, while thief's girdle to both Dex and Agi. That's why it's only +1 per +2 - it's actually same bonus you gain from the gloves and boots and otherwise it would be too good, IMHO. While people will use gloves and boots, you still can use both gauntlets of strength and thief's girdle to boost all stats, or stack gauntlets of strength and belt of giant strength for bigger bonuses.
Posted by red_kangaroo, Sep 25, 2017 at 2:15 pm
I'm working on some new items and I'd like some feedback from you, especially for balance concerns and errors I might have made. GitHub fork is here.

Of the new items added, there are several new magical items to increase the diversity, so that the player has choices what kind of bonus he wants from each of his equipment slots, plus there are some new aritfacts, especially non-weapon ones, because we have way too few non-weapon artifacts.

New helmets include a helm of indomitable will, which increases willpower - not useful now, but hopefully willpower will have uses in the future, and in the meantime the helm is very rare and quite good even without the magical bonus.

Helm of telepathy (ESP) and teleportation (teleportitis) - give the player options to pick from. I don't believe helm of telepathy makes amuelt of ESP obsolete - all magical helms are rare, so you're more likely to ahve the amulet than the helm, and if you wish for one - go for it, that's exactly the kind of choices I would like to see. Helm of teleporation is of course most useful with ring of telecontrol.

And an artifact radiant helm of Macula. It gives enchantment to perception and infravision.

New belts include a belt of protection, which is harder, heavier and generated with better materials than normal belts. I'm thinking about making it indestructible, but I'm not sure about this. However, I want some belts that could conceivably be used instead of belt of levitation, so what do you think?

Then two atribute bonus granting belts - belt of giant strength and thief's girdle. Inspired by CLIVAN, those give bonuses to AStr/LStr for giant strength and Dex/Agi for thief's. However, they are very, very rare and only give +1 attribute per +2 enchanment, so they are actually not more efficient than the respecitve gloves or boots. They can of course be used to stack bonuses, or used with different gloves/boots for overall bonuses, whichever the player prefers. I actually think those might work very nice as an alternative to use or wish for instead of belt of levitation.

Amulets were also changed a bit - amulet of elemental protection had its resistance bonuses halved. It is now on par with resistance rings, still making it powerful (three rings combined), but not so incredibly overpowered as it was before. Please try it out and tell me if you feel the same way.

Amulet of unbreathing grants gas immunity, to prevent those pesky mustard clouds from trapping you.

Then two amulets were added that are temporary - both are made from spoilable materials and cannot be material changed, thus making them powerful but temporary boon for the player. Amulet of speed grants haste, while amulet of phasing grants ethereal. Yes, amulet of phasing is powerful, but it was given rather short spoil time, plus it is not generated normally and can only be wished for - it might be good to wish for before some major battle or to quickly run through a floor, if you ahve the wish to spare, but it will hopefully not break the game. Shadow veil is still vastly superior, being a permanent source of ethereal.

Ring of light is a small novelty item - it glows! I also ported sol stones from CLIVAN, as they are IMHO very interesting item.

Two artifact whields from CLIVAN weer added - now I hope some of you who find them will actually use shields. Blessed shield of the Phoenix grants life saved while wielded - just don't haev your arm chopped off before it can save your life. Aegis is then an unbreakable shield with some small resistance bonuses, making it rather nice is you lack some resistance rings.

Several new cloaks were added, two of them artifacts:

Werewolf fur cloak is based on CLIVAN, giving lycanthropy.

Mantle of Al-Khan gives several nice powers - it gives uncontrolled teleport and both enchantment to endurance and invisibility, so it will increase danger level like crazy. Plus it cannot be material changed from expensive fabric - the rewards are worth it, but the risk is high.

Cloak of flying and quickness is based on suggestions on forums by Ischaldirh. Cloak of flying can only be wished, it's a possible substitute for belt of levitation, to let you decide which slot to use for levitation. Also it's red. Cloak of quickness affects agility, but only gives +1 Agi per two enchantments.

Cloak of protection is a heavy armor special claok, a metal cloak with low penalty to Dex and Agi. Still very heavy, so the choice between resistance cloak made of light material or high-AV cloak of heavy material makes the player think.

Finally, one artifact weapon was added - the mage staff named Y'yter Durr. It give you both polymorph and polymorph control - IMHO, this will lead to cool and rather unusual gameplay. Try for yourself.

I also changes how artifacts work - they no longer can be wished nor material changed. Artifacts should be special items, legendary and ancient. How comes you can easily change them with mortal magic, transmuting them without any difficulty? And they are all already powerful enough with their original materials, no need to make them overpowered by changing them into better materials. As for no wishing,
it allows to easily gain copies of the same artifact, while artifacts already were not cloneable. You shouldn't have multiples, plus no wishing makes them more special and the player will treasure them more
when he can only find the artifacts and cannot wish for his favourites every game. With more artifacts added, this does not make the game poorer in artifacts, only makes artifacts an unpredictable bonus to your run. What do you think?

I will attack a compiled game with the changes - it works well on Linux, but I unfortunatelly cannot try it out on Windows right now, so hopefully it will also work.

Thanks!
Attached files
ivan_in_dev.tar.gz (2.15 MB)