Death Cobs --> Torpor Corn???

[Tiktacy]

  Code:

Replace death cobs' hungering attack with AF_DRAIN_SPEED

On such a fast monster, AF_HUNGER tended to only allow for a fairly limited
response, since actually staying in combat and eating to counteract it was
pretty ineffective.

AF_DRAIN_SPEED keeps some of the intended behaviour of the hungering effect
(giving the player less turns in combat, due to plain slowness rather than
having to spend some turns eating), and should still be a relatively dangerous
effect in Zot.

If I am understanding this correctly, death cobs hungering effect is being replaced with a slowing effect? This sounds to me like it would be going backwords, turning death cobs back into popcorn instead of a force to be reckoned with.

Starvation also stopped the player from casting spells, which is one of the things I found most dangerous about them. Perhaps they could also get anti-magic branded attacks? Otherwise they are basically just torpor snails that faceroll into your great mace. I mean, they wouldn't exactly be harmless, but just giving them the "slowing" mechanic would be extremely dull compared to what they were before in my opinion.

If I am misunderstand any of these changes, feel free to correct me and I will adjust my response accordingly.

[Sprucery]

A single death cob with the hunger attack wasn't a big threat, and a single death cob with this drain speed attack isn't either. Combined with other monsters they both are more dangerous (you probably want to kill the death cob first). So maybe the change isn't so big, I don't know.

That said, I quite liked the hunger attack. The only problem in the implementation was that a previously harmless monster was changed to be a death trap for a player who just starts playing a new version without reading the changelog.

[Siegurt]

Yeah, I probably would've kept the hunger change intact and just renamed them to "greater death cobs"

[Tiktacy]

For the record, I also liked the hunger attacks quite a lot.

[duvessa]

please just let death cobs die already

af_hunger is an awful mechanic and klowns already have drain speed

[nago]

And no body thinks of poor stupid hungry ghosts!

[Tiktacy]

please just let death cobs die already

af_hunger is an awful mechanic and klowns already have drain speed

I'm actually quite surprised at how divided on these guys people are.

It really seems like 50/50 when it comes to like/disliking death cobs.

Klowns don't drain speed, they do chaos brand last time I checked. Thats not a fair comparison.

[tabstorm]

They have a special attack flavor, af:klown that can drain speed, among other things. Not many people know this, because Klowns never hit anyone.

[Tiktacy]

They have a special attack flavor, af:klown that can drain speed, among other things. Not many people know this, because Klowns never hit anyone.

[Wahaha]

A monster doesn't need to be able to solo the player to be a good monster.

[Shard1697]

Changing them to drain speed was a great change that makes death cobs not incredibly annoying to fight for melee-focused characters. I'm honestly surprised to see anyone asking for hunger-draining death cobs back, as if eat fruit->swing->eat fruit->swing isn't the most annoying thing in the world.

[Reptisaurus]

I'd rather have that (as one of several options even for the meleeist of melee guys) than just tabbing everything in Zot 1:4.

RIP HungryCobs. I'll go...err... eat some corn in your honor.

[Shard1697]

I've never had a melee character who could actually just mash tab through zot. Or even seen it, actually. The closest was back when the double damage bug existed, but even then I had to be careful a couple times when multiple scary enemies(aliches, OoF's) entered LoS.

[Reptisaurus]

Sorry; Meant Zot 1-4 but a colon got in there.

I think Zot 1-4 are a tad easy (I like Zot:5 a lot) and Death Cobs were one of the most challenging elements. I never died but I always had to stop and think a bit.

[nago]

I've never had a melee character who could actually just mash tab through zot. Or even seen it, actually. The closest was back when the double damage bug existed, but even then I had to be careful a couple times when multiple scary enemies(aliches, OoF's) entered LoS.

Most of my chars tab everything in zot, and I usually bother to buff or use tactics only in zot 5. This include "mage" char.
Yeah sometimes I die or get in totally avoidable bad situations because melee ing 10 draconians at once isn't smart, but who cares, that game is already ended since long time...