Comp 169

[debo]

Comp 169 is up. It's an Angband 3.5.1 Human Ranger with birth options turned up to 11

G L H F, and thanks to the devteam for a great release!!

[klassik]

i've been checking that site for new pages for 2 years.

i hope parenting hasn't cut it short.

and now back to repeated deaths in angband 3.5.1

[PowerWyrm]

Originally Posted by klassik

i've been checking that site for new pages for 2 years.

i hope parenting hasn't cut it short.

and now back to repeated deaths in angband 3.5.1

Unfortunately the Penance comics is probably history. It has been seven years since last page and four since last post.

[Raajaton]

Oh boy, this comp sounds truly sadistic! I'm firing it up now!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Debo, I was just thinking that I may have screwed up. What's the ruling on prodigy characters? When Leon died and I opened the file to start again with Leon II, I used the old character. All starting stats are the same, but it is different than the original savefile in two respects: (1) knowledge gained by previous incarnation is retained; and (2) town is in a different configuration. Well, three respects if you count the character description change, but that has no gameplay effects.

Do I need to kill off Leon II and redownload the original savefile?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Nevermind. I just read Nick's sticky post on the competition rules and, yep, there it is. Can't use the birth process to start the new character. Leon II must die. I'm going to run him into the next monster and stand there, suicide by cop style.

[debo]

I just caught up on this issue now -- IMO expecting players to abide by some sort of 'honor code' when we have no way to enforce it is kinda dumb.

In this comp, for example, the birth options are so damned hard that I can't see what rebirthing for convenience will really get you, unless you are startscumming -- which you would not be doing if you were following the more general rule of "don't be a jerk".

The same thing happened last poschengband comp, just because it's way more convenient to use the rebirth for some people than it is to recopy the file (and easy to forget!) and that has arguably a greater effect in that game because it rerolls your stat maxes, life rating, etc.

I might go update those rules, I honestly didn't even remember those existed. Thanks for taking the honorable route, but I'm sad to see that a good potential winner was suicided for trivialities

[bron]

Two things:

1) Given how hard the comp is, how about extending the deadline to the end of the month? That would help a plodder like me, although I admit some might see that more as horribly prolonging a painful illness, rather than as extra time to meet a challenge

2) I'm of the opinion that the competition rules, for Vanilla at least, should continue to insist on restarting from the savefile, and not allow a rebirth. One thing that changes with a rebirth is that all 50 levels of Hit Dice get re-rolled, and the HP progression can have a significant effect on the character, especially in the early going. This doesn't happen with, say, Sil, but for Vanilla I think it is important.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Originally Posted by bron

I'm of the opinion that the competition rules, for Vanilla at least, should continue to insist on restarting from the savefile, and not allow a rebirth. One thing that changes with a rebirth is that all 50 levels of Hit Dice get re-rolled, and the HP progression can have a significant effect on the character, especially in the early going. This doesn't happen with, say, Sil, but for Vanilla I think it is important.

Thanks, Bron. That makes me feel better for having "suicided by cop" my Leon II when I realized I'd used the birth-process. Now I know it was the right thing.

[AnonymousHero]

Originally Posted by bron

Two things:

1) Given how hard the comp is, how about extending the deadline to the end of the month? That would help a plodder like me, although I admit some might see that more as horribly prolonging a painful illness, rather than as extra time to meet a challenge

2) I'm of the opinion that the competition rules, for Vanilla at least, should continue to insist on restarting from the savefile, and not allow a rebirth. One thing that changes with a rebirth is that all 50 levels of Hit Dice get re-rolled, and the HP progression can have a significant effect on the character, especially in the early going. This doesn't happen with, say, Sil, but for Vanilla I think it is important.

I must say that I kind of agree, but unless the game makes this less error-prone, I don't think "the noobs" should be punished for restarting. They weren't to know!