Trap changes

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Sounds excellent! I've got no complaints.

[jevansau]

Sounds very good.

One way to deal with the magical side would be to change the locate trap spells to a "improve searching ability/radius for a turn" spell.

Have you thought yet about the other side of the problem - disarming traps?

It is exciting to see work in this long neglected area.

Regards,
Jonathan

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by CunningGabe

Having monsters set off traps wouldn't be too difficult. But how do you decide how likely a monster is to notice or evade a trap? And once you figure that out, you need a lot of storage if you want every monster to maintain its own list of which traps it knows about. Maybe it would be easiest to only allow "obvious" traps to hit monsters.

Sangband deals well with monsters' awareness of player traps (you don't mention those, so I presume they're not in this phase). But I don't think it uses a separate trap layer - I think there is some hackery that treats traps as objects.

FA, however, does have a separate trap layer, or rather a more generalised separate terrain feature layer. I understand it's really quite brilliant - not sure how easy it would be to borrow rather than reinvent.

A traps.txt file is excellent, and fits well with my ideas for effects.

[d_m]

Sounds like a great plan.

Personally I would remove the (s)earch command altogether, since under your scheme the "optimal" play is to travel until you hit the "search detection boundary" and hit s. But maybe it wouldn't be such a big deal.

Probably, the best thing to do is get it coded up and let us all playtest it!

[Gorbad]

If we assume CunningGabe's plan is followed and the s key is only effective once, a magical 'detection-aid' could also be a timed effect which:

a) increases you search skill and/or radius for a timed period and
b) gives a guaranteed warning if a trap is within your radius (just not where) for that timed period ('Spidey sense is tingling')

This would increase anxiety (a good thing!) and provide the player with a choice ("I've dropped consumables earlier on the level, better get them before I hit a trapdoor" or "How badly do I want to see what that unID'd potion is over there, I know the area is trapped").

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Originally Posted by CunningGabe

1. Each trap has a rating of how hidden it is. A rating of 0 indicates that it is immediately obvious. A positive rating indicates that the trap starts out hidden.

Are you planning to randomize the concealment rating? For example, a trap door could have a rating 1d20, rolled when the trap is created. This would prevent gaming the system to get "just good enough perception to detect trap doors".

Originally Posted by CunningGabe

3. Whenever a hidden trap is within your search range, if your search rating is at least as high as its hidden rating, then the trap is revealed. This is completely passive detection; i.e., it does not require you to 's'earch or to be in 'S'earching mode.
4. Whenever you 's'earch, you make a check to spot traps as if you were using passive detection, but your search range is increased by 1, and your search rating is increased by 20. As before, if your (modified) search rating meets or exceeds the hidden rating, then the trap is revealed. 'S'earching mode remains the same as before; i.e., when it is on, you make a 's'earch with every step you take.

I would personally like to see Wisdom increasing Perception.

In D&D 3rd edition, Wisdom is associated with passive perception and Intelligence with active searching. Maybe INT could affect how much perception increases when you are searching?

I don't really think trap detection spells are worth implementing unless they add some tactical depth to trap detection. If the correct play is to always cast trap detection spell when you leave your detection area, it becomes just boring "extra work".

In Fay, I'm moving effects like Protection from Traps to scrolls to make them a limited resource. That way the player has to make a choice.

Also, only some kind of rooms are trapped. If a room has closets, it also has lots of traps on the floor; if a room has painted walls, it may have dangerous warding runes.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

One way of implementing trap detection spells in a strategically interesting way, and without extra work for the player, is this:

You only need to cast trap detection once per level. If you do, the spell lowers your maximum mana and increases your detection abilities for as long as you stay on the level.

EDIT: I really like Gorbad's detection-aid spell with the Spidey sense!

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Maybe Searching mode should be changed to work like this: If you are Searching, you will automatically perform the search command whenever there is an unsearched square next to you -- unless you see a monster.

That way you could usually just leave the Searching mode on and not bother with it.

Of course then you would need to track the searched status of each square. Or maybe even track the perception skill score used to search each square. Then you would only search if your current perception skill is higher.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I got an inspiration from this trap discussion.

I decided to add a monster ability SET_TRAPS. If a monster with SET_TRAPS is generated with the dungeon level (not summoned), it has put some traps in the nearby dungeon!

This replaces the Create Traps monsters spell.

[CunningGabe]

Originally Posted by Mikko Lehtinen

Are you planning to randomize the concealment rating? For example, a trap door could have a rating 1d20, rolled when the trap is created. This would prevent gaming the system to get "just good enough perception to detect trap doors".

That's a good point -- I'll introduce some variability into the hidden rating. I'm also thinking of using something like buzzkill's idea where a trap might be better hidden depending on where it is placed. Also, I am planning to give traps level ratings, so a vault would include out-of-depth traps, just as it does with monsters and items.

Originally Posted by Mikko Lehtinen

I would personally like to see Wisdom increasing Perception.

In D&D 3rd edition, Wisdom is associated with passive perception and Intelligence with active searching. Maybe INT could affect how much perception increases when you are searching?

One of the changes ewert made in his fork (and which I incorporated) was to make WIS and INT both contribute to searching skill. At the moment, they both contribute equally.