Midgame malaise

[DavidMedley]

Originally Posted by wobbly

Don't teleport after TO-ing a vault, odds on you end up in the same place they did.

Is this fatalism or actually build into the game???

[DavidMedley]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

Big base-element breathers [breath damage] quickly goes down as the monster takes damage.

Is that true? I thought breath damage is based on max hp, not cur hp.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by DavidMedley

Is this fatalism or actually build into the game???

Kind of built in - the teleport routine looks for empty grids at the right distance, and for any starting point there will be a limited number of landing points.

Originally Posted by DavidMedley

Is that true? I thought breath damage is based on max hp, not cur hp.

Nope, current HP. The first part of a fight against a big breather is much more dangerous than the last.

[DavidMedley]

OK, two very good things to know. I don't want to spark a debate here, but just curious what the rationale for the breath damage declining is? I've never been a fan of the idea that something at 1 HP does the same amount of damage as something at full HP, but that's the standard in Angband and elsewhere. I presume this decision was made by someone in the long-long ago.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by DavidMedley

I don't want to spark a debate here, but just curious what the rationale for the breath damage declining is?

I've always assumed it's just that the weaker something is the less powerfully it breathes. Why that argument doesn't carry over to melee and spellcasting success is another question

[Derakon]

It's one of the big ways that breath weapons are distinguished from spells. They usually have a much higher damage cap than spells do at the starts of fights, but become far less dangerous as the fight progresses, while spells remain equally powerful throughout. That's an interesting distinction IMO.

(of course, Vanilla has conical breaths now, which is another way to distinguish them...)

[Pete Mack]

One other thing: most breath damage goes down as a function of distance, EXCEPT lightning breath. So electricity is doubly dangerous: no distance attenuation, and no double resistance (unless you are playing Mage.) At 20 squares away, breath will be doing 1/2 to 1/3(?) of nominal damage. For more powerful monsters, the radius at which attenuation begins can be as high as 10 squares.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

One other thing: most breath damage goes down as a function of distance, EXCEPT lightning breath.

Wait, really?

[Pete Mack]

I assume so, since it is a beam rather than a cone.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Pete Mack

I assume so, since it is a beam rather than a cone.

Lightning breath is in cones, same as everything else - I just checked a couple of monsters. Are you thinking of rods of lightning?