Light effect stacking?

[ScaryMonster]

The first time I saw an angband with dungeon illumination code, I was in love. The linear leaps in lighting didn't bother me. Now that the whole thing has matured, perhaps it is time to consider another layer of sophistication.

There has been a lot of success in angband, in falling back to a pseudo-physical energy analysis for solving game play questions. This is just one of those areas that needs a little further elaboration than it has had previously.

The problem here is that the game and the code uses an linear progression of integers to model something that is not.

Light intensity falls off inverse to the radius squared. Which means that the additional light intensity that would take you from a radius of 1 to 2, would not take you from a radius of 2 to 3. To increase your radius from a 1 to 2, would be an increase in intensity of a 1 to 4, to increase radius from a 2 to 3, would be an increase in intensity of 4 to 9. It ought to require 3x of the 1 to 2 thingies to increase the radius from a 1 to 3.

It would be a very powerful magic item that offered a +1 to your light radius no matter what it started. It could be that lesser magic would be able to increase a light source up to a capped value. It might make a 1 to 2 or a 2 to 3, but that's it. Or it might increase both a 1 or 2 to a 3.

[emulord]

Giant amounts of light radius feel very satisfying. A cap is unneccessary. Light isnt even something that should be optimized for, so its a nice bonus when you get it.

I get that it can be powerful, so I like the suggestion above. We already have the speed->energy conversion for balance, lumens->light radius makes sense too!

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Originally Posted by emulord

Giant amounts of light radius feel very satisfying. A cap is unneccessary. Light isnt even something that should be optimized for, so its a nice bonus when you get it.

I get that it can be powerful, so I like the suggestion above. We already have the speed->energy conversion for balance, lumens->light radius makes sense too!

Sounds reasonable to me. Gandalf lit up the entire great hall in Khazad-dum for a brief time so the Fellowship could marvel at the dwarf city.

[luneya]

Originally Posted by Ingwe Ingweron

Sounds reasonable to me. Gandalf lit up the entire great hall in Khazad-dum for a brief time so the Fellowship could marvel at the dwarf city.

Yeah, but that's the "spell of light illuminates whole room" effect, not anything to do with light radius.

[AnonymousHero]

Originally Posted by emulord

I get that it can be powerful, so I like the suggestion above. We already have the speed->energy conversion for balance, lumens->light radius makes sense too!

If there's a falloff function it doesn't make sense to change the existing system, IMO. Light is nowhere near useful enough (as-is or with falloff) that somebody would try to maximize it intentionally.

Having a linear increase might make for some interesting trade-offs in equipment choice. (I'm not betting on it, but it's such a small change that it's trivial to have people play-test for a version.)

All, IMO, of course.

[Rowan]

What about removing caps, but increased light intensity adding something like aggravate monsters? I always thought it was strange that you could wake up monsters by using a light spell nearby, but not by walking right up to them with the Star of Elendil blazing.