4.2.1 Druid feedback

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by Grotug

Had I read your comments on the Ents (and I would extend it to Huorns) after first playing 4.2 I'd be 100% behind you in your suggestion but I've slowly adapted to their difficulty and feel their unique behavior, albeit very annoying, add an urgency to certain situations that make the game more interesting. I actually find Huorns much more problematic than Ents because by the time they show up I don't have any good means of dealing with them and end up using a lot of ?phases or leaving the level. I feel like Ents are less common than Huorns as well.

Yes, I did include Huorns. I basically meant all the "l" characters which include Huorns. Huorns moving as fast as they do feels contrary to how I always envisioned them from the books. Something that doesn't really move at all, but hits pretty hard if you get next to them

Originally Posted by Grotug

One minor quibble I have about Angband is that there are *very* few spells that a Warrior cannot cast. I think having detect life is a great hole in the Warrior's kit of utility spells he has to make due without and giving him access to it would be an unwelcome buff to a class I love to play and would make diving much safer. I suppose giving blood falcons the EVIL flag could solve the issue for weaker non-life detectors, but I personally wouldn't be a fan of this solution. I think weakness holes like this one help distinguish the classes from one another and given that the early game is one of the more fun parts of the game to play dying early on isn't such a big deal.

I understand the concerns here. The balance trick is to avoid stuff that can be perceived as an unfair death while still giving the player challenging positions with varied threats. In the past the most canonical form of unfair deaths were stuff like drolem breaths on a priest/paladin/warrior. Or dropping into a darkened room full of high level hounds. Both of these happened at fairly high levels though. Also, drolems are fairly rare and hound pack sizes have been reduced significantly. I think I've lost 2 priests to undetected drolem breaths in the old days, and one unfair hound death (and none since pack sizes were reduced and you could no longer get hit with 20 plasma breaths without warning).

Blood falcons require some finesse. They are not that all that rare and appear in the early midgame. You absolutely will encounter one of these at a point where a single turn in combat will result in death. They absolutely will one-shot a squishy necromancer without warning. (A warrior doesn't have as much of a problem, since warriors are significantly beefier and often wearing heavy armor.)

The trick with a warrior is that each spell you want to cast requires its own slot. Having to carry around detect evil and detect life would be a burden in its own right, although less of a burden than not having detect life at all. If anything, I'd rather have detect evil changed to detect life in the staff form, if you're leery about giving the warrior both.

Weaknesses are certainly ok, but when the weakness gives you a high chance of instant death, then it's a poorly designed weakness, imo.

There are additional options here that are more far out, but require some codework. Certain monsters could give "warnings" about their presence. Maybe the blood falcon has a particular call. So if you're nearby to one you could get a message, "you hear a blood-curdling screech." These kind of special messages should only be attached to specific rare monsters that present a unique threat type. Also, never ones that appear in packs. You could "squelch messages" once you're at the point where they are no longer a threat.

[drquicksilver]

Originally Posted by fizzix

Interesting. When I was CL 30 (when the spell is first castable) I had 70ish SP and the fail rate was 50%, which meant that I couldn't reliably cast it and haste and I always prioritized haste. Also, at this point I was at DL 50+ and none of the monsters you mentioned (except for the unique trolls) was anything close to a concern. By the time it was castable, I already could wade through all those weak monsters without caring about the spell.

I didn't feel like I was playing quickly, but I guess I'm still a relatively fast player.

I'm sure I was going much slower than you. I think I'd already downed a bunch of stat potions and had a lot more SP. Will ponder on my next druid.