Tartarus Sorceror
Posts: 1698
Joined: Saturday, 18th June 2016, 13:57
Wednesday, 21st December 2016, 02:13
"Whisper farewell when you leave", Wandy.
Because you can't leave Gammafunk to be the only one to wield the wild power of meme creation.
Very recently, something happened in the Crawl world. All the good wands are gone. Part of the player base revolted, so here are some words to explain the inexplicable.
For quite a while it was realised that HW, Haste and Tele are too close to each other than is good for well-differentiated variety. In other words, developers agreed that cutting a wand of the three would be an improvement. This was not urgent; that’s why it isn’t announced on the quinquennial plan or anywhere else. However, it is also not a big change, so when we got the details ready in a session or two, we commenced with the wipeout, we got a bit overzealous, and deleted all three.
First, theme. Heal Wounds are sacrosanct by DD’s protection. Even if you don’t like the DD, there is no way we would get rid of DD as a player species, so we just bypassed the problem by giving them an ability. Choosing between Haste and Tele, the lot hit the former. The reasons are less forcing than with HW, but are reasons nonetheless: Haste has a potion equivalent whereas Tele has not (the scrolls cannot be read while silenced). Tele has an ancient mythos behind it (Star Trek, Spok, the beam thingy) as well as a Xom vault in the game. Haste on the other hand is the archetypical Monday morning-style rush, which in my book is a severe demerit. Then we took Tele away, because, why not?
Second, aptitudes. Removing a wand does not happen in empty space. It might have impact on nearby wands, and it certainly did so here. A table of the old and new wands for Mi, HO and old MD isn't at the end of this text, because I didn't feel like editing a table. The summary is this: new HW ca be used by DD in certain areas (e.g. when wounded, rotten, almost dead, but not if they are dead). Hill Orcs are the usual smug bastards.
Third, to dispel a myth. We didn’t use winning rates, or number of games played in order to make a decision, you foolish mortals.
Anyway, with some luck and effort, 0.10 will see more interesting Demigods.
Very recently, something happened in the Crawl world. All the good wands are gone. Part of the player base revolted, so here are some words to explain the inexplicable.
For quite a while it was realised that HW, Haste and Tele are too close to each other than is good for well-differentiated variety. In other words, developers agreed that cutting a wand of the three would be an improvement. This was not urgent; that’s why it isn’t announced on the quinquennial plan or anywhere else. However, it is also not a big change, so when we got the details ready in a session or two, we commenced with the wipeout, we got a bit overzealous, and deleted all three.
First, theme. Heal Wounds are sacrosanct by DD’s protection. Even if you don’t like the DD, there is no way we would get rid of DD as a player species, so we just bypassed the problem by giving them an ability. Choosing between Haste and Tele, the lot hit the former. The reasons are less forcing than with HW, but are reasons nonetheless: Haste has a potion equivalent whereas Tele has not (the scrolls cannot be read while silenced). Tele has an ancient mythos behind it (Star Trek, Spok, the beam thingy) as well as a Xom vault in the game. Haste on the other hand is the archetypical Monday morning-style rush, which in my book is a severe demerit. Then we took Tele away, because, why not?
Second, aptitudes. Removing a wand does not happen in empty space. It might have impact on nearby wands, and it certainly did so here. A table of the old and new wands for Mi, HO and old MD isn't at the end of this text, because I didn't feel like editing a table. The summary is this: new HW ca be used by DD in certain areas (e.g. when wounded, rotten, almost dead, but not if they are dead). Hill Orcs are the usual smug bastards.
Third, to dispel a myth. We didn’t use winning rates, or number of games played in order to make a decision, you foolish mortals.
Anyway, with some luck and effort, 0.10 will see more interesting Demigods.
I Feel the Need--the Need for Beer
Spoiler: show
