DCSS Missile Lab

[Caethan]

So I built the spell lab when I was trying to win with a DEWz, and now I'm trying to win with a HuPr using ranged weapons, so I built a new tool to figure out what ranged weapon will work the best: a Missile Lab, available as a google doc. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc ... k04Rmx2Q0E

This is using a different approach than the spell lab: missile damage and to-hit calculations are complicated enough that I can't easily calculate the direct probabilities and mean damage. Instead, I'm using a Monte Carlo approach where the spreadsheet simulates 2000 attacks from a given set of equipment, and estimates chance to hit and damage from the results. This means that I can provide not only an estimate of mean damage, but also a graph of the damage distribution.

It currently is built to simulate the 0.9 build, and I'll likely incorporate any relevant 0.10 changes before too long. It accounts for weapon and ammo brand, and handles all "useful" weapons and launchers (sorry, no thrown war axes). Slaying bonuses and monster defenses are also incorporated. Just as a note, the Monte Carlo section gets recalculated every time the spreadsheet changes, and it can take a couple of seconds to do so, so don't try and make a bunch of changes at once or some of them may get reverted. If it bothers you, feel free to cut down some of the rows in the Monte Carlo section. That will speed up the recalculation at the cost of making the results less accurate. As before, just make a copy of the public spreadsheet for your own use.

[CommanderC]

Excellent job! It seems vorpal longbows/crossbows + flame/frost ammo is the way to go.

BTW I think there is a bug in the delay calculations. If you set weapon to crossbow, ammo to bolt and shield to None, then delay is set to zero.

[Caethan]

Excellent job! It seems vorpal longbows/crossbows + flame/frost ammo is the way to go.

BTW I think there is a bug in the delay calculations. If you set weapon to crossbow, ammo to bolt and shield to None, then delay is set to zero.

Thanks for the bug report --- the problem should be fixed now. One thing I was surprised by was that flame/frost weapons and ammo aren't affected by elemental resistances for whatever reason, so they're just a flat 30% increase in damage.

[njvack]

Sorry for being dense, but I can't find a way to change anything in it... am I missing something?

[Galefury]

You have to make a copy for your own use. Letting everyone mess with the master copy would be bad.

Log in, then use File --> Make a Copy.

[Tiber]

I don't know where you got this from, because it's extremely wrong. Flame/frost ammo is 100% elemental damage, which means an ice beast is completely immune to +9 bolts of frost from a +9 crossbow wielded by a character with 27 Crossbows. (Protip: flame/frost ammo is terrible.)

I've been meaning to ask what the point is of arrows working this way. An arrow that's on fire is still an arrow. Ammo weighs enough and takes up enough different slots that it's just not worth it to carry them unless you know you're going into an area where everything is vulnerable. Not only that, it goes against players' expectations and is spoilery/non-obvious.

[njvack]

Log in, then use File --> Make a Copy.

Ah, I wasn't logged in, oddly, so "Make a Copy" was greyed-out. Thanks!

[CommanderC]

(Protip: flame/frost ammo is terrible.)

I think this is a bad advice. Once you have a 1k+ stack of normal ammo enchanted to +7 or +8, and your vorpal launcher is well-enchanted, you should enchant those elemental-branded stacks of ammo, and use them in difficult battles. Many of the most dangerous monsters in the game are vulnerable to an element, or at least lacking one of the two resistances.

The main problem of elemental ammo is the mulch rate, that's why I say you should enchant normal ammo first.

[njvack]

Carrying a couple branded launchers and highly-enchanted unbranded ammo solves the 'vulnerable to an element' monsters, probably more efficiently than branded ammo. ?EW aren't that common, after all.

[Caethan]

One thing I was surprised by was that flame/frost weapons and ammo aren't affected by elemental resistances for whatever reason, so they're just a flat 30% increase in damage.

I don't know where you got this from, because it's extremely wrong. Flame/frost ammo is 100% elemental damage, which means an ice beast is completely immune to +9 bolts of frost from a +9 crossbow wielded by a character with 27 Crossbows. (Protip: flame/frost ammo is terrible.)

Actually, there's a comment in the source code about it: item_use.cc,2750-2751:
// Note that branded missile damage goes through defender
// resists.
I didn't see anything contradicting that in the throwing code in throw_it, but now that I look more deeply, I see that the missile set up has that effect, modifying the beam to a beam of fire for flame weapons and a beam of frost for frost weapons. I should probably submit a patch to remove the misleading comment.