Sil-Q 1.4.1 release

[Quirk]

A new release, just in time for the holidays!

Archery has been overhauled. Dedication and Deadly Hail made it from the beta. Running Shot and Steady Hands didn't. Two new skills replace them, Blessing of Orome and Fletchery. I have wavered back and forth on how powerful Blessing of Orome is. Currently it's placed quite close to the start, skills-wise, because it's easier to get people to investigate it if it only takes a small investment.

The first level has also been overhauled, and has a new enemy and new terrain which both feed into Sil's light-matters theme. The new terrain may occur occasionally a little deeper in the dungeon, becoming rarer the deeper you get.

There are a number of quality of life improvements - starting with a sword equipped, staircases not falling through if you take them too fast on the ascent, staves no longer require a Will check, it's less likely to lose loot dropped on a crowded floor. There are many little bugfixes including level generation trying harder to generate a route downward that isn't blocked by a chasm and Song of Oaths not crashing the game.

Morgoth will be a little more challenging on the ascent - he arrives on the level a little closer to you than he did before. The more Sils you have the more closely he will pursue you.

Play. Enjoy. Have a merry Christmas.

Get it here:
https://github.com/sil-quirk/sil-q/releases/tag/v1.4.1

Thanks are due to a great many people including wobbly, Hugo, MITZE, Angriath, Jamba and Blinkhog.

I note incidentally that I didn't list all the bugfixes in the changelog - so double-identifying Esgalduin and wrath have been fixed, they just didn't get listed.

[wobbly]

Bit of a request. I had a room with sunlight & a phantom in it, so I played around for a bit trying to work out what was actually happening mechanically & ... I guess I could of looked at the rolls window, but it's actually a little unclear? I mean one of the nice things in the original is that for the most part mechanics were clear if you read the manual. So I checked before I embarrassed myself & hey nice a Sil-Q manual, unexpected, but I couldn't find it there either. Is it just an extra light radius? If it is it doesn't display on the character sheet if I stand in it.

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by wobbly

Bit of a request. I had a room with sunlight & a phantom in it, so I played around for a bit trying to work out what was actually happening mechanically & ... I guess I could of looked at the rolls window, but it's actually a little unclear? I mean one of the nice things in the original is that for the most part mechanics were clear if you read the manual. So I checked before I embarrassed myself & hey nice a Sil-Q manual, unexpected, but I couldn't find it there either. Is it just an extra light radius? If it is it doesn't display on the character sheet if I stand in it.

Good point well made. Standing in sunlight increases the existing light based penalty for light sensitive creatures to hit you by 3 (it didn't make sense to me to have you see further by standing in sunlight), and light sensitive creatures and undead cannot cross sunlight. I'll make an update to the next version of the manual.

The penalty starts as the light you have minus two, so adding three light when you're carrying a torch will be a -3 penalty (I calculated this as -2 initially but forgot to track the base light in a lit room).

I think I've neglected to add the calculation into darkness resistance - this interaction is unlikely to come up as darkness creatures exist much deeper than sunlight will usually be seen. I'll fix it anyway for the next release, possibly basing it more explicitly off the way Inner Light works.

[Thraalbee]

Nice release! Thanks! Note that the fixed 50k xp option has a hidden xmas gift, it will grant you another 50k xp in certain circumstances.

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by Thraalbee

Nice release! Thanks! Note that the fixed 50k xp option has a hidden xmas gift, it will grant you another 50k xp in certain circumstances.

Thanks for the heads up. Will be fixed for the next release.

[Infinitum]

Looks like there's some multiple threads going on but just wanted to say thank you for keeping up development! For the changes, I do like the staff change a lot (and keeps staffs in line with a horn change a few years back iirc).

Haven't really noticed the phantoms playing, but I generally go with high evasion/melee so they've probably just melted running into them. Like Scatha mentioned in that other thread I think they should become lowercase 'w's (which might also give them some instructional value in that they're demonstratably not worm masses).

Don't really play archers so can't comment on the skills. Blessing looks.. weird, but in a pretty thematic way. For fear archers? Fletchery might be a little plain (it's pretty much +3 archery early on and tapers off in the endgame with ego arrows becoming more abundant), and it does overlap a bit with smithing +3 arrows. Might be a decent dump for the free ability for non-archer elves?

Bit mixed on the sunlight spots. It's a decent little addition, but takes something from the doom and gloom atmosphere. Then again it does teach light level mechanics and breaks monotony some, which is nice. I do dislike the color though, I find bright colors in general do detract from the otherwise muted grey- and brownscale aesthetics (this also goes for a lot of other things of course, like glyphs of warding and certain monsters), and the yellow can be dificult to spot. Bright starlight could be an alternative and is a little more evocative of Tolkien imo (the sun and moon being the newfangled knockoffs of proper illumination that they are).

Starting with the sword equipped is either way for me; it being on the floor is a cool little piece of immersive storytelling (and instructive to newer players), then again I very seldomly have to restart the early levels so I can see it being repetitive starting out.

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by Infinitum

Looks like there's some multiple threads going on but just wanted to say thank you for keeping up development! For the changes, I do like the staff change a lot (and keeps staffs in line with a horn change a few years back iirc).

Haven't really noticed the phantoms playing, but I generally go with high evasion/melee so they've probably just melted running into them. Like Scatha mentioned in that other thread I think they should become lowercase 'w's (which might also give them some instructional value in that they're demonstratably not worm masses).

This is sensible, and I think I shall do this.

Originally Posted by Infinitum

Don't really play archers so can't comment on the skills. Blessing looks.. weird, but in a pretty thematic way. For fear archers? Fletchery might be a little plain (it's pretty much +3 archery early on and tapers off in the endgame with ego arrows becoming more abundant), and it does overlap a bit with smithing +3 arrows. Might be a decent dump for the free ability for non-archer elves?

Pretty much what I envisaged it being. The dedicated archer can probably invest better, but I think this is something that is more exciting for the less dedicated archer early game than Careful Shot and Precision were, and makes the free skill a bit more of a choice (I see some people now reaching automatically for Rout for the quality of life gained in thinning fleeing orcs, and I see this competing against that).

Originally Posted by Infinitum

Starting with the sword equipped is either way for me; it being on the floor is a cool little piece of immersive storytelling (and instructive to newer players), then again I very seldomly have to restart the early levels so I can see it being repetitive starting out.

I would kind of like to have the player equipped more thematically, as it's never been clear to me why precisely they are entering Angband unarmed, and unless I actually introduce orc slavemasters (the letter 'o' unfortunately has a lot of weight to carry here and restricts my theming) it seems to make more sense to have them at least be carrying their own shortsword.

However, that involves some amount of balancing and deciding what makes for a reasonable opening, and while I put that off for now I did cave a little bit to the mpa-derived desire for speedy descent.

[seraph]

hello! i've been on a hiatus from sil for a while. i have some thoughts on the new update, most of them positive. for now though, just a possible bug report.

smithing a vanilla shortsword is 0 difficulty
(+0,1d8) 1.5lbs = 4
(+0,1d7) 1lbs = 10
(+0,1d8) 1lbs = 19!

is this intentional? this doesn't seem to be mirrored in other items.

[Quirk]

Originally Posted by seraph

hello! i've been on a hiatus from sil for a while. i have some thoughts on the new update, most of them positive. for now though, just a possible bug report.

smithing a vanilla shortsword is 0 difficulty
(+0,1d8) 1.5lbs = 4
(+0,1d7) 1lbs = 10
(+0,1d8) 1lbs = 19!

is this intentional? this doesn't seem to be mirrored in other items.

Yes. The way Subtlety and Assassination work make the 1d8 1 lb shortsword the best weapon in the game for stabbers, notably better than the artifact shortswords. Basically it scales to be unhealthily good when you're getting large numbers of critical hits based on weight. Making it trivial to smith would make it an automatic choice on every stabber.

[seraph]

Originally Posted by Quirk

Yes. The way Subtlety and Assassination work make the 1d8 1 lb shortsword the best weapon in the game for stabbers, notably better than the artifact shortswords. Basically it scales to be unhealthily good when you're getting large numbers of critical hits based on weight. Making it trivial to smith would make it an automatic choice on every stabber.

should it not be the automatic pick? what's the competition, longswords? without rings of damage, deathblades and momentum, a 1d8 1lb shortsword is pretty much the only viable option. but at a difficulty of 19, one would probably be better off putting points into melee, stealth, perception etc. and grabbing the first 1d8 shortsword you find. heck it might even have an ego. the goal is to boost smithing after all.