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From: J. A. H. <al...@av...> - 2001-03-26 14:50:02
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Hi guys,
As many of you will be aware, Robert Schneck and I have been discussing some
balance issues in rgrn. In particular, Robert wrote:
> I collect magical armor and
> tools (unicorn horns are the most common), then polypile the armor
> until I have my ascension kit (using the few found potions of restore
> ability on these, usually), then polypile the tools until they disappear
> or become magic markers, which I use right away. (I'll keep some
> other tools if I hadn't found them anyway, too.)
>
> Maybe non-magical items obtained from magical originals should (have a
> chance to) stay polymorphed and not revert. You could occasionally
> obtain desired items without spending a potion of restore
> ability, but getting magic markers and ascension armor would be harder
> this way.
At the time I was concerned that this suggested fix would be ill-advised due to
the fact that gnomes could subvert it using the tinker technique. On further
reflection, however, I believe that it's actually upgrade_object() (used by
both the tinker technique and dipping into potions of gain level) that is too
powerful.
This was conceived as a "poor man's polymorph". Since the new algorithm that
the NetHack dev-team introduced to limit polymorph abuse (ie., reducing the
likelyhood of morphing a non-magical item into a magical item), it has in
practice become the rich man's polymorph.
I propose, therefore, that we implement Robert's suggestion and also tune down
upgrade_object() so that non-magical objects never become magical by this means.
I've been through the conversions and listed the problem ones with suggested
replacements:
Object Currently upgrades to Proposed replacement
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Robe Robe of protection/ Leather armour
robe of power
Dwarvish cloak Elven/Oilskin cloak Oilskin cloak
Orcish cloak Elven/Oilskin cloak Dwarvish clock
Oilskin cloak Cloak of protection/ Orcish/Dwarvish cloak
invisibility/magic resis./
displacement
Dwarvish iron helm Helm of brilliance/ Dented pot/helmet/
helm of telepathy orcish helm
Leather gloves Gauntlets of swimming/ Stays as leather gloves
Gauntlets of dexterity
Sack Oilskin sack/bag of holding Oilskin sack
Tin whistle Magic whistle Wooden flute
Wooden flute Magic flute Tooled horn
Tooled horn Frost horn/fire horn/ Bugle
horn of plenty
Wooden harp Magic harp Wooden flute
Flint Luckstone/Healthstone Rock
One other possible enhancement would be to seperate the tinker technique
and the effects of potions of gain level. Potions of gain level are rare
enough that I'd be happy to let them create magical objects out of non-magical
objects if the tinker technique did not.
Any thoughts?
--
Ali Harlow Email: al...@av...
Research programmer Tel: (020) 7477 8000 X 4348
Applied Vision Research Centre Intl: +44 20 7477 8000 X 4348
City University Fax: (020) 7505 5515
London Intl: +44 20 7505 5515
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