Re: [Zangband-discussion] ZAngband 2.6.0 preview (bug?)

[Robert R. <rue...@da...>]

"Larry Bassel" <la...@ix...> wrote:
> Robert Ruehlmann wrote:
> > > My character is a Half-Titan (mage) and goes into a shop
> > > "Silver Jeweler" run by Hoshak the Dark (Imp). He has
> > > a chr of 18/120. He sees a amulet of anti-teleportation
> > > (not that I'd want to buy it, just that this is an example
> > > of an expensive item with no plusses, so it simplifies
> > > what is going on) for 33000. The price in k_info.txt
> > > is 15000. He puts on his +4 chr amulet, but the
> > > price is still 33000. So I'm paying 220% of the "base" value here.
> > >
> > > He then goes into "Jeweler" run by Atal the Wise (Human).
> > > A ring of FA is 1765 with chr 18/120, 1699 with chr 18/160
> > > (and 1500 in k_info.txt). So in *this* shop, the price changed
> > > with the higher chr.
> >
> > That's not a bug.  Half-titans are more "popular" with Imp storeowners than
> > with human ones.  But shopkeepers will never sell/buy below the base price
> > (or a multiple of the base-price for greedy ones), no matter how handsome
> > you are.  So for certain combinations of character and shopkeeper race an
> > extra charisma bonus doesn't help anymore since the base price is already
> > reached.
> >
> > The "Silver Jeweler" already offers you the best price possible and
> > additional charisma won't help.  The base price for the amulet is is 15000.
> > The "Silver Jeweler" is greedy and wants twice the base price (similiar to
> > black-market), so the price-tag is 30000.  Add the 10% auto-haggle "tax" and
> > you are at 33000 as the final price that can't be improved anymore.
>
> Yes, this makes sense. Sorry for filing a "false alarm" bug report. I'm
> just trying to help with the playtesting of 2.6.0 (and enjoying it a lot) and
> I thought there might be something wrong here.

No problem.  I would rather have 10 false alerts than one bug that doesn't
get reported.

In fact I'll probably tweak the shop algorithm in one of the next versions
to allow the charisma and race bonus to be applied as long as the *real*
base price (as opposed to the inflated "greedy" price) of an item isn't
reached.  That would mean that greedy shopkeepers who want double or
quadruple prices for an item can continue to give discounts in the case
above, as long as they are still making a profit.

-- 
Robert Ruehlmann ( rr...@an... )
"Thangorodrim - The Angband Page" : http://thangorodrim.angband.org/
Visit the #angband chat channel at irc.worldirc.org