The Tavern

"It's ok that some races are stronger and some are weaker."
"Gargoyles aren't overpowered, they are strong but that's ok."
...
"Let's nerf Formicids again"

I'm confused. What are you perceiving as a Formicid nerf?

They stopped being able to wield GC/GSC, which was a minor nerf (Although nearby changes included bumping their HP, and reducing their XP gain back to more "normal")

I'd argue that particular change was part of a 'normalizing' effect which were intended to just make formacids less awkward to play.

Are we meant to be seeing a contradiction between those statements? If it's ok for some races to be weaker then yeah, it's ok to nerf an already weak species (although you'd be pretty hard-pressed to call what happened a nerf really).

They can't throw large rocks either in trunk, now.

GC/GSC?

1/S

Giant Club/Giant Spiked Club.

I think we need to nerf mummies, their hunger less casting is just way too overpowered.

KICk Them In the BALLS

Formicid shields were buffed too. They now count as Large for shield purposes, like Naga and Centaur. And unlike Na and Ce, you always want to use a shield with Fo. Fo also lost poison vulnerability.

I'd say overall that Fo were buffed a bit, but these aren't really significant changes. Major changes would probably be stuff affecting stasis and digging.

I wish their apt for bows was 0 so I can run a Longbow + Large Shield formicid
I know i can do the same thing with a xbow but Longbows seem to be more satisfying for me

You can just run Bows at -2, it's not that bad if it's your only relevant low apt.

On the other hand, high Formicid strength makes crossbows really good.

Huh didn't know about the shield thing. I guess I just find it weird that the aspect that to me is most interesting about Fo (Large-species benefits without the typical downside of armor restriction) is being stripped away from them, and I'm not sure why given that individual balance doesn't generally seem to be a big factor of crawl design.

The change wasn't made because formicids were too good (they aren't), it was made to further emphasize their unique benefit (being able to wield a shield with two-handed weapons). So it fits in perfectly with the idea of individual balance not mattering too much.