so i implemented "fixed rate updates". it seems to affect UT difficulty a little, but it is hard to say for sure. anyway, i am trying to find a good rate. the old was 870 (this is the total number of all possible monsters), but i thing that something around 200 should be better.

yet it is really hard to tell if this matters much. i've seen sirens in UT several times with powerful gear (lucky me . this is prolly right, because IVAN shouldn't be easy, and UT was way too easy. yet the more you play, the less effect update rate has — mostly because you're sticking to your gears. so i will prolly make updates even faster (150, or even 100).

by the way… i believe that we made the game less "adaptive" with all new golems and such. `game::CalculateNextDanger ()` updates danger map one monster config at a time. this was prolly done to speed up the game (the updater is called on each turn), but i don't think that it matters much today. yet more monsters means slower danger map recalculation, and hence slower "spawn autoleveling".

this may not be a problem, but i think that we should make updates a little faster. i tried to update all monster configs at a time instead. this mostly processes all zombies, skeletons and golems in one step, so full update is ~150 turns instead of ~600. let's see how this will affect the game.

maybe we should switch to "fixed update rate" instead, so added monsters will not matter anymore. i.e. let's say that the whole danger map should be updated in 100 turns, and process enough monsters on each step. or maybe update the whole danger map on each turn, but smooth the changes, so all monsters will be updated, but not with a sudden bumps.

this needs more investigation, because i don't fully understand how danger caluclations work. maybe we can even completely throw the danger map away: it looks like it was created mostly for speed reasons. our CPUs are fast enough these days. it is used in `BalancedCreateMonster()`, but maybe we can simply simulate the fights, as the updater does instead. i will prolly implement this as a hidden debug option and check.

k8I doesn't have vials, so one problem less. and yes, i think that 300-600 ml will be spilled/dropped. drinking from cans will prolly use half of a can, and the other half will be spilled (and the can dropped sometimes).

as for the wand name… i'm all ears!

btw: are you all throwing useless items away too instead of simply dropping them? free expirience!

yeah. but still, the chance for their song to succeed is high, so if PC doesn't instakill them… so i felt that some protection would be nice. 2-3 sirens are still a threat, so it doesn't change much: you'll still want to fight them one by one. this is mostly so i could switch weapons, or avoid dual-wielding, and still have better chances. otherwise they are quite easy to get rid of, of course, by the time PC need to deal with them.

i believe that it should work as expected. magpie AI already deals with the case where no neighbours found, so it should be ok. i refactored the visibility check a little, though: this could be the case why old code failed. at least i've seen no problems yet.

oh, thank you! i tend to forget about gods system all the time! yes, this is great too. so far i have those possible effects:


1. failing to read the scroll (maybe with some undesirable magic effect).
2. spill some fluid on drinking.
3. drop the bottle on drinking (and it shatters).
4. change the direction of magic wand shot.
5. activating a trap: drop it down, and it traps you (the mine explodes).
6. throwing something changes the direction, like for wands.
7. One more effect might be a 10% chance to mispronounce a prayer, resulting in the punishment instead of the boon.
8. (undecided yet) maybe increase the chance to miss with the attack? …and increase critical chance too, just to give some effect PC may want.
9. spellcasters sometimes fail their spells, siren fails their songs.

btw. hiccups state does nothing for now. i have the ideas for hiccups effect:
1. failing to read the scroll (maybe with some undesirable magic effect).
2. spill some fluid on drinking.
3. drop the bottle on drinking (and it shatters).
4. change the direction of magic wand shot.

also. "scroll of hiccups" (or wand of hiccups). cursed wizards will fail their spellcasting, sirens will be unable to sing properly.

btw, my lucky character. ESP from floating eyes (that's how i died: tried to buff it to permanent). telecontrol from blink dogs, hasted from mushrooms (lucky bastard! yep, the amulet of speed helps too, but i got it much later). i have several other rings in the inventory, and switching them. SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text. proud atheist, never prayed to any god. explored Salty Cave just for fun.

that's me savescumming to the moment where i trying to get the kid. due to the number of monsters in prison the easiest way is SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text.

killed white unicorn, and found that i cannot can its flesh. why? need to find out yet. (upd: because i'm dumb, and forgot to remove that flag.)

also, i feel that we need the easier way to access BM. i mean, i could farm a lot of money, but there's nothing to do with them.

thank you! tbh, new builds are not really "releases" per se: it's just a way for other people to try new features. there is no schedule, new build pushed away when i believe that it is stable enought for others to play (and i am often wrong, lol).

i am bumping "n" in "v0.666.n" just for convenience, it is more like a timestamp.

also, i really hope to start working on random encounters soon. this is somewhat scary part: while i know what to do, it is more like "ok, i need to touch it somewhere in that area" knowledge. it is still little scary to dive into mostly unknown code parts, so i keep pushing this to "next time". need to stop doing that, and do the real thing instead.

btw, this (free GC) still bothers me. it feels like a game breaker. but hiding GC until Petrus takes away encrypted scroll doesn't feel right too.

i can't even imagine how to catch royal wizard, tbh. detect, telecontrol, teleport and luck, i guess.

tbh, i simply couldn't find anything else to use as protection, it was a desperate shot. because i think sirens are way too overpowered without a way to protect yourself somehow. if you cannot one-shot her, it usually means death: either you will be killed while unconscious, or she will steal your weapon and armor, and you're done again.

also, i made skulls wearable too ("too" — i mean, i shamelessly stole it from vanilla), and it seems that one siren managed to wear the skull. i guess that one was a death metal fan.

you pointed me to `humanoid::GetGlobalResistance()` in vanilla somewhere in this thread, so i took that part. shields added to global defence — that's why i buffed my shield several times. the only change i made is divided physical bonus by 2.

i also made humaniods to block with the shield first (see `humanoid::CheckForBlock()`), and blocking with the shield uses less stamina (see`character::CheckForBlockWithArm()`). this way shields are useful even in midgame: buffed shield can absorb good amount of damage for smaller stamina penalty.

btw, `character::GetRandomNeighbour()` should check for visibility, i believe: i can't see why magpies are able to steal from invisible player. either i illuminated as a christmas tree and NOT invisible, or they should not be able to see my valuables. the exception is mind worms: they don't care.

also skunks, rogues, fruit bats… they all use this method to find a victim. so it is logical to check for visibility there.

i wonder if it is possible to finish all Aslona quests without pets and prayers.
SPOILER ALERT. Click here to see text.
i also found that anti-siren full helmets seems to work rather good. one siren is mostly harmless this way (not fully harmless, they managed to steal some of my gear; lucky me, not a helmet). two sirens is a threat, three sirens is usually death. i think it's ok.