Sil 1.0.2

[debo]

Originally Posted by half

I've made a few changes to 1.0.3 in light of these recent comments (I read all of them!):

- zone of control & opportunist no longer attack unwary creatures
- zone of control, opportunist, flanking and controlled retreat no longer attack during the truce

(in both cases this is almost always the desired effect, and it is often a surprise to the player when it doesn't happen)

- violet molds are half as common again (there were already twice as rare as other molds)

- dragonfly health has been reduced in line with other insects
- all insects/centipedes now have 2d4 health and gain their defence primarily from evasion/protection

Awesome!!! Thanks half I'm excited for 1.0.3!!

[HallucinationMushroom]

I've been playing artifactless, among other things, and just killed Boldog who dropped his spear. I haven't managed to kill Nan or Maeglin or the other uniques who have a guaranteed drop, but I would guess they drop their artifacts as well. Just a heads up in case this is not-intended behavior.

[Djabanete]

(Turn on Artifactless)

You see The Spear of Boldog.

(Turn off Artifactless)

You see a Spear of Boldog.

(Turn Artifactless back on)

You see The Spear of Boldog.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Are you saying that if I squint I can use it without breaking my anti-artifact challenge? Hehe.

[T-Mick]

Speaking of artifacts, I have a few questions. How true does the game stay to Tolkien's writings? Are there any artifacts that did not exist during the First Age that are in Sil? Are there artifacts that were made for the game only? In general, how true to Tolkien is Sil?

[debo]

Originally Posted by T-Mick

Speaking of artifacts, I have a few questions. How true does the game stay to Tolkien's writings? Are there any artifacts that did not exist during the First Age that are in Sil? Are there artifacts that were made for the game only? In general, how true to Tolkien is Sil?

If you look in artifacts.txt or whatever it is, they actually documented the origins of each weapon quite thoroughly. It's fun to read

There were non-canon artifacts added, with Delmereth being my favorite of the bunch lol

[Scatha]

Originally Posted by T-Mick

Speaking of artifacts, I have a few questions. How true does the game stay to Tolkien's writings? Are there any artifacts that did not exist during the First Age that are in Sil? Are there artifacts that were made for the game only? In general, how true to Tolkien is Sil?

In general, the game tries hard to stay as close as possible to the world Tolkien describes, subject to providing a good game (I'm not sure whether it's quite in fitting that a hero would gain so much power while descending through Angband, but starting out strong and having your resources slowly eroded would be a very different game, and I suspect less enjoyable).

There aren't any unique monsters or artefacts which are known not to have been around at that time. There are some where it's unclear whether they were around, and these have generally been put in but are rarer. On the other hand almost everything which Tolkien does mention as having been around is in the game, including some which are only mentioned in a single line of a poem.

There is a general issue there isn't quite as much canonical material as the game wants, so we have stretched it, trying to keep things in fitting with the world. Many (most?) of the artefacts are in some sense invented, in that they weren't mentioned explicitly by Tolkien, but they are attached to a particular canonical character or place. Without this, there would be a dozen artefact swords and very little else! There are also a handful of other inventions; as debo says, the origins are in comments in artefact.txt.

Similar things are true of the monsters generally and the unique monsters. So far as possible, they are taken straight from Tolkien, but some of his descriptions are vary vague so we've filled in some gaps, and there are some minor additions.

I've been saying "we", but I should say that a large majority of this had been done by half before I ever saw the game and started helping development.

[T-Mick]

That's good to hear. Grabbing Anduril to fight Morgoth always feels wrong.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Question about criticals in example form:
So, let's say I have a 1.9lb spear and a 2.0lb spear.
Does this mean the 1.9 spear criticals in increments of 8, and the 2.0 lb in 9?

[Scatha]

Originally Posted by HallucinationMushroom

Question about criticals in example form:
So, let's say I have a 1.9lb spear and a 2.0lb spear.
Does this mean the 1.9 spear criticals in increments of 8, and the 2.0 lb in 9?

No, you'll need to hit by (8.9)*n for the nth critical with the lighter spear, and 9*n with the heavier one.

There's a question about what's done with these numbers when they're not integers. They used to be rounded up, which is the most natural rule but gave strange behaviour -- a (+0) 2.0lb longsword was almost as good as a (+1) 2.1lb one. They're currently rounded to the nearest integer.

Suggestion for half: looking at this again now, it seems rounding down might be more natural but without the bad gameplay. I don't remember discussing this as a possibility, but I'm not sure why not!