Re: CF: Gameplay issues and misc stuff

[Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se]

Before the dawn of time (actually, last Wednesday), Mark Wedel wrote:
> Quite a while ago, Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se wrote:
[...]
> >- The new attack code will sometimes produce the same kind of
> >  unfortunate side effects as the ones I tried to fix in my patch to
> >  0.92.4: if your weapon is "improved" by getting some god's attack
> >  type (e.g. weaponmagic and fear for God), it can become useless
> >  against some monsters.
[...]
>  Acid spheres are immune to weapon magic and fear, so at least in that
> regard, the program is running properly.  I don't think acid spheres
> should be immune to weapon magic, but it stands now, the code is doing the
> right thing.

Hmmm...  So this means that ORing the attack type with AT_FEAR and
AT_WEAPONMAGIC also removes the default physical attack?  That could
explain a few things.

> >  This also happens if you get the "Essence of Flame" that gives you
> >  the attack type "fire".  If you wear it, you are unable to hit some
> >  monsters.  Isn't there a way to fix that?
> 
>  I am guessing that the some mosnters are things like wyverns and dragons?
> Once again, if the attacktype is only fire, and the creature is immune to fire,
> the code is doing the right thing.

The "Essence of Flame" is actually a modified "bracers" archetype, which
should add the attack type "fire" as well as "physical" to your current
attack type (I just checked, it adds "physical", not only "fire" as I
wrote before).  Well, in some cases it doesn't seem to work properly.  I
will try again to see exactly in which cases it gives unexpected results.

Now we also could discuss about the fairness of this item, because adding
AT_FIRE when you are already wielding a powerful weapon could be a bit
unfair (it also adds Path_Denied frost, but that is not much).

> Perhaps make sure all weapons attack with at least physical? (note, to do this
> in the code could be difficult, [...]

Hmmm...  Right, it would be much better (even if it would be a pain)
to change all archetypes for the weapons.  If I understand correctly,
this would be the only way to get rid of the unfortunate side effect
that a weapon without any special attack type stops working when some
new attack type is added to it (because it doesn't default to the
"physical" attack as it did before the improvement).  Am I right?

> >- The alchemy code, when combined with god intervention, can affect
> >  play balance (a lot).  [...]
> 
>   I think Brian already fixed this?  Obviously, setting the value to
> created items to 0 is an easy solution - makes alchemy only useful for
> person creation, and not money making.  I would guess taht you could
> also read a remove curse scroll and get the same benefit of praying..

As I wrote to Brian in a separate message, setting the value of the
items to zero does not solve the problem.  Even if they cannot be used
for making money, they can still be used for their "normal use".  For
example, I can easily collect a few dozen potions of invulnerability
by sacrificing a few silver coins, foods, and various useless items.
Even if I cannot sell these potions, I can still use them.  That is
why I suggested to Brian that the failure code for alchemy spell
should only create cursed items that have a nominal value (when not
cursed) which is less than the total value of the items that are in
the cauldron, without setting their value to zero artificially.
Otherwise, the items would always be too poweful (because one can
remove the curse easily).  Note that this only applies to failed
formulae: there should be no limit for the value of the items in a
successful transformation.

-Raphael