[Announce] PosChengband 1.0.0

[Arjen]

You don't get Warning from weapons.

[Brouhaha]

Do the centaur's hoof attacks improve with level or will they always be 1d4?

They're a godsend for any martial artist character who normally suffers their first levels with just one weak hit per round. I think it would be pretty cool if the hoof attacks would trigger martial art kick/knee attacks.

- Brouhaha!

[chris]

Originally Posted by Brouhaha

Do the centaur's hoof attacks improve with level or will they always be 1d4?

They're a godsend for any martial artist character who normally suffers their first levels with just one weak hit per round. I think it would be pretty cool if the hoof attacks would trigger martial art kick/knee attacks.

- Brouhaha!

Your innate attacks will improve with level (I can spoil if you like). That would be cool if the innate attacks mixed with your monk powers ... I'll need to think on that one, but it is pretty powerful already

[Brouhaha]

Originally Posted by chris

Your innate attacks will improve with level (I can spoil if you like). That would be cool if the innate attacks mixed with your monk powers ... I'll need to think on that one, but it is pretty powerful already

I just saw the hooves go from 1d4 to 2d4 around level 15 or 16. So that's cool.

Another weird monk-ism. When you roll a sexy female (love them +1s!) your character starts with a whip. The monk is actually proficient with it and it's a better weapon than her fists until level 10! Also, the Death Sword monster starts off as a whip, not a broken death sword

- Brouhaha!

[chris]

I just uploaded 1.0.32 here:

* Quylthulgs! These are obviously everyone's absolute favorite monster, and now you too can enjoy their quivering, pulsating power! Consider this a beta release, though, as I haven't done too much balancing. I suspect they will be powerful, yet fragile throughout the game, especially in the early going. Their powers are lifted with very little change from Posband, though I did tweak the flavors of summoning slightly and adjusted resistances a bit. Hat tip to Posband!

As for the Hengband pet system, I had to make some changes. Quylthulgs get full experience whenever their pets kill something (Hengband is 0% and Chengband is only 20%) as well as getting full drops (Hengband is no drops). Finally, your pets can kill uniques and I really, really hope I found all the places in the code to make this happen. If you notice an invincible unique, please let me know.

* Thanks to everybody for helping me playtest the Deathsword. I made a few small tweaks. They keep their impressive melee power, of course, as it is hard to imagine a Death Scythe being anything other than ... well, deadly! But they lose their uber-high AC. In fact, the Death Scythe object grants -50 AC so the final form gets that "bonus" too! In addition, I changed the way both speed and AC essences calculate so that the cost per increment increases just like everything else. Expect speed to top out around 27 to 30 and AC at about 150 to 160. And Victor, please keep posting your dumps

[kingvictory2003]

Originally Posted by chris

And Victor, please keep posting your dumps

See told ya

And no probl, will keep posting, but now I'm tempted to try Mercenary Kings...

[emulord]

Something I liked about the original posband was the rapidity of the evolutions for Trolls and Giants. Maybe you should make those races like that again. It was a nice serotonin boost

[chris]

Originally Posted by emulord

Something I liked about the original posband was the rapidity of the evolutions for Trolls and Giants. Maybe you should make those races like that again. It was a nice serotonin boost

Hmm ... I actually like the current troll evolution:

                             |Ice Troll             |                      |Ettin
Forest--(10)-->Stone--(20)-->|Fire Troll            |--(30)-->Olog--(40)-->|Storm
                             |Algroth--(25)-->Aklash|                      |Spirit
                                                                           |Troll King

I really dislike mixing the various elemental flavors (e.g., going Ice->Fire->Poison) and I think having subrace choices adds depth. Each of the final forms have distinct benefits (e.g. Ettins have two heads so gain an extra helmet slot, Storm Trolls are fast and have some offensive abilites, Spirit Trolls are slow, but have passwall, etc.).

So you get 4 or 5 evolutions, which is enough IMO. Posband has 8 evolutions, but it doesn't seem like some of them are very different (e.g Cave -> Water -> Olog ... They're just trolls!). But, while peeking at Posband, I do see some interesting powers (Berserk, etc) so perhaps I will "borrow" some of these ideas.

On the other hand, I think giants are a bit sparse:

                           | Fire Giant
                           | Frost Giant
Hill--(20)-->Stone--(30)-->| Cloud Giant  --(40)-->Storm
                           | Lesser Titan --(40)-->Greater Titan
                           | TODO: Hru

Again, I like the subraces over the single evolutionary line, but 2 evolutions might not be enough, though I am OK with 3. Perhaps Fire and Frost need some higher forms as well? Also, I've been meaning to work in Hrus at some point. Again, each final form offers distinct advantages and abilities, so there is more replay with Giants than a single evolutionary line would offer. Also, for the giants, each flavor has a different boss and a different reward.

I'm open to suggestions for new evolutions, but I'd prefer to keep the subrace flavors.

[emulord]

Maybe you should make it like:

                           | Fire Giant          |               
                           | Frost Giant         |               
Hill--(15)-->Stone--(25)-->| Cloud Giant--(33)-->|Storm Giant-(38)->Lesser Titan --(45)-->Greater Titan
                           | Hru                 |

OR move the merging to after storm giant. Having Titans be the strongest giant type at the end makes more sense. (Greater titan vs Frost giant huh?)

[chris]

Originally Posted by emulord

Maybe you should make it like:

                           | Fire Giant          |               
                           | Frost Giant         |               
Hill--(15)-->Stone--(25)-->| Cloud Giant--(33)-->|Storm Giant-(38)->Lesser Titan --(45)-->Greater Titan
                           | Hru                 |

OR move the merging to after storm giant. Having Titans be the strongest giant type at the end makes more sense. (Greater titan vs Frost giant huh?)

Greater Titans are quite a bit weaker than Hrus, though. I really don't want the single end form as it defeats the variety. Fire, Frost and Storm giants have unique elemental abilities than some players might want to keep, and Titans get confusion attacks as well as unique powers.

Something like:

                           | Fire Giant   --(40)-->Greater Fire Giant (New)
                           | Frost Giant  --(40)-->Greater Frost Giant (New)
Hill--(20)-->Stone--(30)-->| Cloud Giant  --(40)-->Storm Giant
                           | Lesser Titan --(40)-->Greater Titan
                           | ???          --(40)-->Hru

Is what I had in mind, which requires me to come up with 3 new monsters.

Keep in mind there are very flavorful bosses for at least 3 of the subtypes (Surtur, Ymir and Kronos), and you would lose that with a common end form.

Really, I think the long unbranched evolutionary chains in Posband are a mistake. Once you've played it once, why play it again?