ah. then maybe crystal statue as an item then? that is, so it can freely spawn above special terrain. we can check and don't spawn statue if there is another one already, to not make light emitation too bright.

of course, the bugfix works too, but with it, no crystals could be spawned above an open door, for example, or sofa, or fountain, or any other decoration. it is safe this way, but slightly less interesting, i think.

it is possible to change the code a little, and prevent spawning only over "important" olterra too, i actually implemented this fix first. maybe it is better than a new item, dunno…

p.s.: it is easy — just add `IsImprotant()` method to olterra, and make it return `true` for stairs. and check it in `ChangeOLTerrainAndUpdateLights()` (and don't forget to `delete` new terrain if update failed).

maybe we can create a new item instead, "crystalshard", or something. currently, crystals are "digged" to stones, but imp may explode into much smaller "crystal shards". or even special kind of fluid, so it cannot be picked up, but can emit light, and can be spilled around — because small crystal shards are very close to "fluids", actually.

maybe i'll try to experiment with this later.

this is prolly where we can agree to disagree.

i need to think about it for some more time, but currently my rationale is: PC has absolutely zero magic abilities. magic items for him is just like another kind of weapon — "press here, and it will make BOOM". just like with guns, PC can learn slightly better aiming, more hand and breath control for better shooting, but that's it. and it prefrectly fits to "weapon categories" this way. because from my PoV any kind of "magic affinity" inevitably leads to questions like "ok, why can't we learn some spells then?" of course, nobody is obliged to implement spellcasting even if some kind of mana stat is there, but putting it to "weapon kind" clearly indicates that spellcasting is not ommited by accident, it is conscious balance decision.

of course, i'm not insisting that i am the only one who's right here. both visions have their pro and contra. maybe my vision is biased, because to be fully honest, i am sci-fi person, i HAET magic with passion. so i see magic items more like some hi-tech artefacts, which require Int and skill to operate, not some special "magic ability". and this leads to "weapon skill".


p.s.: one of the reasons i love IVAN is because there are no stupid spells, "schools of magic", spellbooks, and all that. i know that you aren't going to introduce that… but i want to drive the game even further away from it, if it is possible.

the easiest fix, btw, is this:

void mirrorimp::CreateCorpse (lsquare *Square) {
  // do not replace any interesting terrain
  if (!Square->GetOLTerrain()) {
    decoration *Shard = decoration::Spawn(SHARD);
    Shard->InitMaterials(MAKE_MATERIAL(GLASS));
    Square->ChangeOLTerrainAndUpdateLights(Shard);
  }
  SendToHell();
}

also, just thought about mana more, and i have another idea. why it's a regular stat at all? for me, it belongs to "weapon expirience" stats — the more PC is using magic items, the more "magic weapon" expirience he get, just like with other kinds of weapons. and applying (breaking) wands should slightly decrease it, because that's not how magic wands are meant to be used!

interesting idea. not that we have many such potions now — mostly troll blood, blood of various frogs, and spider blood, i believe (too lazy to check right now). we need at least human blood too, which should have a healing effect on vampire (and work as a good nutrition for humans). and of course, vampires should spawn with several bottles of human blood in their inventory.

@red_kangaroo: wow! thank you! something is VERY wrong there. "_new" is a temporary thing, it should never be like that. as k8I keep saved games in the special archive, it is first writing new archive with "_new" suffix, and then replaces old archive by renaming. here comes the problem: in *nix, renaming will perform atomic replacement. in windows it will fail instead. i do delete the old file first in windows, but it looks like it's not enough.

the problem is that Wine still mostly uses *nix file logic, and with Wine everything works as expected. it looks like windows for some reason locked the old archive, renaming failed, and the chaos begins.

i'l try to check the code, but this one is really hard to debug: there is no bug on my system, so i can only guess what's wrong… T_T

as for "run" — it's there. `"u" — toggle running`. it took me some time to find it in "?" help too (i know that it's "u", that's how i run away from hengehogs after all! . i should prolly make a better description for it.


p.s.: the problem is prolly due to old file somehow being still opened when i'm trying to delete it. in *nix it's not a problem — deleting opened file will make it anonymous, and OS will delete it for real when it is closed. in windows, it is immediate failure. so old file cannot be deleted, new file cannot be renamed, the game is confused, everything is broken.

p.p.s.: i think i found it! i really did forget to close the old file. here, for once, windows logic would be better — with *nix silent deletion, i would never notice it!

by the way, i think that royal wizard of Aslona should have some additional uses too. maybe i'll allow him to create flaming weapons for PC. i love flaming swords (and flaming katanas in k8I, because why not? , so i want to have some way to get one besides PRNG good will. there is no fire system in k8I, but wielding a flaming weapon (or holy banana, for that matter) automatically burn webs (with a chance, of course).

and maybe imprisoned necromancer in Attnam should do the same if you accept his quest? after all, he wants you to succeed, so why don't help a little?

yeah, "mana" is prolly just a bad name. and i think that it can be merged with willpower, because what is magic if not the art of bending reality with your own will? so the player with high Will can just order the item to cooldown faster.

as for sirens, i used sound resistance and ESP items for that. full helms has some sound resistance, so sirens have less chance to charm the player (sound quality is very bad inside, definitely lo-fi! . as for ESP items, the rationale is that siren song is mind-bending, and ESP gives some protection against that. so our beloved tin helmet helps, full helmet helps a little less, and ring/amulet of ESP helps too. wear all that, and you prolly kill the siren before she manages to charm you.

...and made intelligent monsters refuse to eat zombies. my mistress eat a zombie corpse, and got leprosy. she definitely should knew better!

also, NPCs can drink antidote (if you're stupid enough to give this valuable thing to them), and water if exhausted.