Random questions - randarts and artifacts

[dhegler]

I think there should be a way to revert to randarts mid-game (in case like me you forget to turn it on at birth). Is there any way to really take advantage of that potential feature? Also, I thought someone told me to switch birth options the next time I created a character and it would "stick" to randarts = yes. Well, it didn't for me in 3.1.1 and now I am stuck without randarts ofter playing up to level 26 dlvl 20 and finding the Phial, realizing what had happened.

Also, is anyone else upset that uniques don't drop more artifacts like they used to in early(ier) version of Angband? Perhaps I am crazy, but I just remember getting a lot better stuff from uniques...

I saw someone mentioned that we should "flavor" item drops to the monster who dropped them. That would be a great idea IMHO, if it is at all possible. Mages (h's) would drop spellbooks, potions, scrolls, etc with a small chance of anything but their base items, etc. What the heck is that swordsman doing with that spellbook anyway?

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by dhegler

I thought someone told me to switch birth options the next time I created a character and it would "stick" to randarts = yes. Well, it didn't for me in 3.1.1

I remember telling someone here to change the option ASAP. That means while playing the current game in prep for the next. I hope it wasn't me who steered you wrong.

You have to change the option before the birth for it to take effect at birth. Unfortunately, I think the startup has changed since 3.0 so that you can no longer access birth options through '=' until after birth. I know I haven't figured that out the couple of times I tried it. I have to start, change, suicide, restart.

DL20 is not that deep. Quit and restart. Well, double-check the birth options menu first of course! It's a pain, but you'll be glad you did.

[bron]

Originally Posted by dhegler

I saw someone mentioned that we should "flavor" item drops to the monster who dropped them. That would be a great idea IMHO, if it is at all possible. Mages (h's) would drop spellbooks, potions, scrolls, etc with a small chance of anything but their base items, etc. What the heck is that swordsman doing with that spellbook anyway?

There was a discussion about this sort of thing almost exactly 1 year ago (http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=1180). I think it would add a nice "flavor" without really changing the game play significantly. Don't think that the idea ever went anywhere (the other thread eventually wandered off into a discussion of parsing the *.txt files).

[konijn_]

Originally Posted by dhegler

I think there should be a way to revert to randarts mid-game (in case like me you forget to turn it on at birth). Is there any way to really take advantage of that potential feature? Also, I thought someone told me to switch birth options the next time I created a character and it would "stick" to randarts = yes. Well, it didn't for me in 3.1.1 and now I am stuck without randarts ofter playing up to level 26 dlvl 20 and finding the Phial, realizing what had happened.

Also, is anyone else upset that uniques don't drop more artifacts like they used to in early(ier) version of Angband? Perhaps I am crazy, but I just remember getting a lot better stuff from uniques...

I saw someone mentioned that we should "flavor" item drops to the monster who dropped them. That would be a great idea IMHO, if it is at all possible. Mages (h's) would drop spellbooks, potions, scrolls, etc with a small chance of anything but their base items, etc. What the heck is that swordsman doing with that spellbook anyway?

Personally, I feel the game should offer artefacts + randarts like any decent variant.

T.

[fizzix]

Originally Posted by konijn_

Personally, I feel the game should offer artefacts + randarts like any decent variant.

T.

I don't think this is necessary. Although if you can alter egos to have more than one random effect and more than one random pval, you'll pretty much get that.

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by PowerDiver

I remember telling someone here to change the option ASAP. That means while playing the current game in prep for the next. I hope it wasn't me who steered you wrong.

You have to change the option before the birth for it to take effect at birth. Unfortunately, I think the startup has changed since 3.0 so that you can no longer access birth options through '=' until after birth. I know I haven't figured that out the couple of times I tried it. I have to start, change, suicide, restart.

No. You can press = at any time during character creation to get to birth options.

However, since the "quickstart" feature came in, you don't do character creation at all. So if you want to change birth options, you have to press N to reject the offered quickstart character, and go through the normal character creation process (which now offers pretty well optimised stats IMO, so it's not hard).

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by bron

There was a discussion about this sort of thing almost exactly 1 year ago (http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=1180). I think it would add a nice "flavor" without really changing the game play significantly. Don't think that the idea ever went anywhere (the other thread eventually wandered off into a discussion of parsing the *.txt files).

It didn't go anywhere because it's a colossal amount of work for relatively little gain. There are over two hundred other things that I would rather spend my time improving, and though I can't speak for other devs, it won't happen until someone decides to code it.

(Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it - I just think there are many higher priorities.)

[Magnate]

Originally Posted by fizzix

I don't think this is necessary. Although if you can alter egos to have more than one random effect and more than one random pval, you'll pretty much get that.

I don't see the point of non-random artifacts at all - with the exception of a tiny handful of themed mega-items. That said, fizzix is absolutely right - the time to make this change is once we have sorted multiple pvals. No idea what Takkaria will think, but if it were me I'd introduce an extra tier of items between ego and artifact, with more powers. Then we could reduce the artifact set quite a lot, and still have plenty of variety of kit.

@dhegler: artifacts are fixed at birth, so no you cannot revert to or from randarts during a game.

[PowerDiver]

Originally Posted by Magnate

No. You can press = at any time during character creation to get to birth options.

However, since the "quickstart" feature came in, you don't do character creation at all.

Silly me, I think of quickstart as a means of character creation. I'm sure you are right that my failure to change birth options was after a quickstart.

[Nick]

Originally Posted by Magnate

I don't see the point of non-random artifacts at all - with the exception of a tiny handful of themed mega-items.

Well, the point is that the game is at least notionally Tolkien-themed. The classes aren't, the objects aren't, only a few ego-items are, the races are filtered through D&D, the monsters largely aren't; artifacts are just about the main thing that stops the game from degenerating into bland generic hack and slash.