[Announce] Poschengband 3.3.0 Released

[chris]

It's super duper beta this time. This release adds the new Mimic player monster race, which serves as a complement to the Possessor. But while the Possessor relies on controlling corpses, the Mimic is able to imitate living foes in front of them. As usual, documentation is lacking and I also apologize for not keeping up with recent posts concerning last release.

Source code and a list of changes are also available.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Just when I posted another Possessor (Hugo$oul 1082) on the ladder, this SUPER, SUPER announcement came up!!

Me must download this NOW(!!!!) and upgrade Hugo$oul 1082 and play a Mimic for comparison's sake!

[debo]

Amazinggggggg

[HugoVirtuoso]

I'm about to give the Mimic a spin...

Found a minor bug already:
While all other monster races have documentation via '?', the Mimic has NONE! At the same time, the Mimic DOES gets an intro once you select it, though.

This interesting bug:
Assuming that Mimicked monsters have a timer, if you go on the Overworld Map, you can keep the Mimicked monsters for extended periods of time while traveling...or not a bug at higher levels? At clvl 12, I Mimicked a Swordsman (non-learned form) traveled from an area halfway between Outpost and Morivant all the way to Morivant without the Mimicry wearing off!!

That said, how does the Mimicry timer work at upper clvls for learned forms vs. non-learned forms? What do players need to do achieve 'Learned forms' with any monster? I think I got lucky with Meng You, Brother of Meng Huo relatively early.

[UglySquirrell]

The Mimic looks like a very cool class, i really like the @mimic equipment idea.
Would it be possible to have your inventory temporarily expanded when you change forms, for your extra gear? I seem to remember playing a variant that would allow you to pick up key/quest items, even when your inventory was full.

I guess it would be best if it didn't even appear in your inventory, but just disappeared until you shifted into a form that could use it. No idea if it's possible to pull off though, just a thought.

Hmm, now that i think about it, i'm guessing that the equipment slots remain even when using a seperate form, and the slots that a form cannot use are just hidden? If that's the case would it be possible to leave equipped items on even if that form cannot use them, but set the value of the unuseable gear slots to 0?

[HugoVirtuoso]

Chris offered some input on my character, DoppleHugo VI, about Learning forms and how long do they last:

To learn a form in 3 easy steps:
[1] Mimic a nearby visible monster.
[2] Kill that monster.
[3] Get a lucky die roll.

There is no counter for mimicry. If the form is learned, it lasts forever (or until somebody dispels magic). But if the form is unlearned then the source monster needs to be visible or you will quickly forget how to copy it.

[debo]

Hey Chris, I know you asked before about features that could be implemented in future PosCheng releases.

Have you ever thought much about improving the stealth system / borrowing some ideas from other variants? I'm having a lot of fun trawling really deep levels with a random character that just happened to find a lot of stealth equipment, but the stealth game feels really crude and it's basically "oh, is anything awake? Recall out because they're just going to chase me forever even though I'm a billion miles away." If nothing's awake, I can basically move around with impunity, even when detection gets my brain frazzled and terrified from beholding the visage of some awesome monster.

I might try a Ninja next to see how this all works when it's a primary mechanic for a class (rather than just something I do when I get bored and want to risk a -1100HP death.) Have you ever had any thoughts on tweaking stealth in PosCheng?

[UglySquirrell]

If you like Stealth, you should ml love the Ninja class, they are tons of fun. I recommend trying out either the Doppelganger, or Vamire races they both make really fun Ninja. Doppelganger don't regenerate hp well in another form and one of the ninjas best abilities stops regeneration. The Vampire Ninja is one of the most self sufficient combos iv'e played. You pretty much never have to go back to town, and with create darkness can survive in the daylight.

Hmm, i just remembered something, is there any chance that the Ninja enlightenment spell (can't remember the name Right now) could not light up the level?

[chris]

Originally Posted by UglySquirrell

The Mimic looks like a very cool class, i really like the @mimic equipment idea.
Would it be possible to have your inventory temporarily expanded when you change forms, for your extra gear? I seem to remember playing a variant that would allow you to pick up key/quest items, even when your inventory was full.

Actually, next release (3.3.1) I think I have a better solution. The game tracks which item was previously worn when you shift bodies and eject some gear. Next time you shift, your pack is scanned and any object so marked gets equipped automatically. No need to inscribe. For the most part, this is working well.

As for inventory expansion, I'm a bit hampered by the current code base which uses a fixed size array with both pack and equipment adjacent combined with liberal hard coded assumptions of this fact sprinkled throughout the code base. I'd rather not tangle with that beast at the moment*. But if you think about it (and I'm probably rationalizing), the current system makes more sense. When you shift, you can no longer wield an object, and then where does it go? To your pack or even to the ground makes sense.

* BTW, I think other variants with body types implemented things differently. I know of at least one that simply increased the size of the global array and then set aside reserved regions for equipment of a certain type (e.g. 10 slots for each kind of gear). But this approach is very unflexible (jellies? quylthulgs? multiple arms?) so I'm glad I didn't do it that way.

[chris]

Originally Posted by HugoTheGreat2011

Assuming that Mimicked monsters have a timer, if you go on the Overworld Map, you can keep the Mimicked monsters for extended periods of time while traveling...or not a bug at higher levels? At clvl 12, I Mimicked a Swordsman (non-learned form) traveled from an area halfway between Outpost and Morivant all the way to Morivant without the Mimicry wearing off!!

Actually, I should probably make it so that you keep your form while in the special wilderness travel mode. After all, if you lose your form and your pack is full, there is no place for unwieldable objects to drop to, so you'll lose your stuff. Seems unfair. To compensate, there are no monsters to fight, nor can you cast spells or use powers.