Quickband to-do list

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Antoine wrote:

> - Tone down some artifacts, including the Glaive of Pain, the Boots of
> Thror, the Plate mail of Celeborn, and Cubragol (just tweak the
> numbers, don't add/remove abilities)

Please rename them if you change them, or make them really rare like Feanor
and Bladeturner.

> - Remove ALL destruction/genocide items and spells

Genocide scrolls are really rare, I have only seen two total. Destruction
via staff is more common I see it in about 1/4 of the games I never saw the
scroll . You could just double the rariety on the staff.

> - More mana for Saruman

I never had him ever run out, I didn't even know monsters could run out.

> - Consider making Saruman a little faster or giving him better attacks

What you have to be careful with his is if he is challenging for the very
powerful classes like half troll warrior, he will be near unkillable for a
~225 hps mage who tries to beat him with ~80 hp's ball spells.

I would give him more physical attacks, less damage, more effects :

hit to cold/fire/acid
hit to melt (acid)
hit to drain charges
hit to drain exp/stats

With teleport to, this makes him harder in that you need more resources but
not instant kill. And remove his meaningless attacks like create traps. He
could also dispell magic which again force more retreats but not instant
kill. Give him back the water attack, but tone it down so it isn't instant
death for mages, ~125-175 hp's plus stun.

It is possible to get silly speed if you clean the levels a lot, but looking
at game turns, you are then approaching the speed at which you can win
Angband, so this is kind of pointless. Based on about a dozen winners, only
one was really overpowerered, most hit him at +3 to +6 speed. So you are
usually fighting him move to move with a speed potion.

If he was at +20 you would either have to spend vanilla level turns trying
to match him in speed, or face him double moving you. I would just make
sure no speed item is actually more than +5. Or if they are make them really
rare. Or he could haste but only give him rand(+5) speed which would give
him the occasional move and make him a lot harder, but still do able.

> - Lurtz should hit to stun more often? (Or something)

Can you hit to cause wounds?

If you want to be really cruel, give him evasion as right now he is weak to
ball spells. I have had really low level character dive and take him out
with two wands and some phase door scrolls. However if he has this mages
will find it insanely difficult to beat him. Unless evasion gave him the
ability to avoid balls not simply avoid them every time.

> - Lurtz's drop is too big / too good.

I have only had this actually matter in one game, it usually gives one
usable item and is your big chance to get the missing ability usually
darkness or disenchantment.

> So's Saruman's. (Give Saruman a
> specific drop like morgoth? A Palantir?)

Who really cares if Saurman dropped every artifact, the game is over then
anyway. A specific item would be nice, a potion of augmentation would be
funny the Palantir makes sense and a mage staff of course.

--
Cliff Stamp
sstamp@physics.mun.ca http://www.physics.mun.ca:80/~sstamp/

The one unforgivable sin, the offence against one's own integrity,
is to accept anything at all simply on authority -- Maureen Johnson Long

Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm. -- Publilius Syrus

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Cliff Stamp wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Antoine wrote:
>
> > - Tone down some artifacts, including the Glaive of Pain, the Boots of
> > Thror, the Plate mail of Celeborn, and Cubragol (just tweak the
> > numbers, don't add/remove abilities)
>
> Please rename them if you change them, or make them really rare like Feanor
> and Bladeturner.

Because you don't like artifacts to be nerfed in variants? You
mentioned this in a previous post... I can see the sense of it.

> > - Consider making Saruman a little faster or giving him better attacks
>
> What you have to be careful with his is if he is challenging for the very
> powerful classes like half troll warrior, he will be near unkillable for a
> ~225 hps mage who tries to beat him with ~80 hp's ball spells.
>
> I would give him more physical attacks, less damage, more effects :
>
> hit to cold/fire/acid
> hit to melt (acid)
> hit to drain charges
> hit to drain exp/stats
>
> With teleport to, this makes him harder in that you need more resources but
> not instant kill. And remove his meaningless attacks like create traps. He
> could also dispell magic which again force more retreats but not instant
> kill.

Good ideas

A

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

I might be just a bad player,

but I can kill Lurtz easily, he almost had me ( 54 hitpoints ) but I
recovered and killed him. Sauron on the other hand keeps killing me ( I
start from a save file to practice ) and there is no way I can kill
him. Even though I have enough wis(+6), +1 speed , +3 con etc.

I can confidently kill anything on dlevel 12 except Sauron, which makes
me have to scum for the longest time, which is not the goal of
QuickBand I hope.

So please dont make artifacts more rare, it feels just good to me.
Also, please dont generate unusable artifacts since that would like
waste 'exceptional items drops' ( if that is what they are called )

- Rebalance classes/races - stat bonuses are now more important and xp
penalties less important, so...
Why ? Giving higher xp penalties slows down the game.

- Lower the quality of items found in the Black Market
Funny, I was just considering to up the quality of items found in the
Black Market. The only usefull things so far in Quickband I could buy
there is potions of Restore mana and scrolls of teleport level. There
should be no 'good' weaponry or armor in the Black Market, only ego
items, I mean good weaponry is found by the dozens in the dungeons,
what is it doing in the Black Market, who would buy that stuff ?? So
personally I would put much more interesting stuff in the Black Market,
possibly maybe making it more expensive. I want to see soul shredding
choices in Black Markets where you have to choose between putting
100000 GP in a dwarven suit+2 or an avenger +3 or ancient dragon shield
( acid ), not dagger(+1,2) , axe(+6,+1) and leather suit [5]+4 as it
is now.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

> How are you dying and preparing

Prep is enlightenment of the level, transporting quite a bit around to
earthquake a bit to set up a terrain so that I can blink , heal and get
back into action. I have now 8 potions of restore mana and quite a few
potions CCW and 5 ( I think ) full healing potions and 8 or 9 speed
potions. I keep getting stormed to death, it seems I have to be at full
healh or else. The only thing could be that I need more speed and hp,
but then I would definitely _not_ make Sauron faster or tougher, since
except for Sauron there is no more challenge in the game.

I should post a char dump here, will do in a few hours.

Cheers,
T.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

>Darkness storm only does ~145 hp's.

Resisted damage, right ?

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Cliff Stamp wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Antoine wrote:
>
> > - Tone down some artifacts, including the Glaive of Pain, the Boots of
> > Thror, the Plate mail of Celeborn, and Cubragol (just tweak the
> > numbers, don't add/remove abilities)
>
> Please rename them if you change them, or make them really rare like Feanor
> and Bladeturner.
>
> > - Remove ALL destruction/genocide items and spells
>
> Genocide scrolls are really rare, I have only seen two total. Destruction
> via staff is more common I see it in about 1/4 of the games I never saw the
> scroll . You could just double the rariety on the staff.
>
> > - More mana for Saruman
>
> I never had him ever run out, I didn't even know monsters could run out.
>
> > - Consider making Saruman a little faster or giving him better attacks
>
> What you have to be careful with his is if he is challenging for the very
> powerful classes like half troll warrior, he will be near unkillable for a
> ~225 hps mage who tries to beat him with ~80 hp's ball spells.
>
> I would give him more physical attacks, less damage, more effects :
>
> hit to cold/fire/acid
> hit to melt (acid)
> hit to drain charges
> hit to drain exp/stats
>
> With teleport to, this makes him harder in that you need more resources but
> not instant kill. And remove his meaningless attacks like create traps. He
> could also dispell magic which again force more retreats but not instant
> kill. Give him back the water attack, but tone it down so it isn't instant
> death for mages, ~125-175 hp's plus stun.

Come to think of it, Saruman should be able to summon!!

But summon what, I wonder...

A.

Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.angband (More info?)

Hugo Kornelis wrote:
> On 3 Aug 2005 20:35:00 -0700, Antoine wrote:
>
> >Come to think of it, Saruman should be able to summon!!
> >
> >But summon what, I wonder...
>
> Hi Antoine,
>
> High uniques? <evil grin>
>
> Saruman casts a spell and laughs hysterically. -more-
> Morgoth, Lord of Darkness appears! -more-
> Sauron, the Sorceror appears! -more-
> Ancalagon the Black appears! -more-
> You die. -more-

[LOL]

Don't think Saruman would have been real big on summoning Sauron, based
on the book...

But I had thought of giving him the ability to summon uniques that had
not been defeated yet, as per Morgoth... Not sure.

A.