Barkeep
Posts: 3890
Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25
Location: USA
Vampiric weapons, revamped
1.) Too strong.
They were nerfed a while back to trigger 3/5 of the time, rather than 4/5. That helps, but I've still found vamp weapons to be too good. Direct healing effects are for the most part limited to consumables and gods in DCSS, and for good reason. With a good vamp weapon in hand, I find that the situations in which good tactics actually matter are substantially reduced. Play doesn't become completely mindless, of course, but the closest DCSS comes to being a "tabfest," in my experience, is when a character with decent HP and defenses finds a good vamp weapon.
2.) Hunger cost.
I'm honestly not sure why this cost exists for vamp weapons. To prevent frequent swapping? Some species don't care about the hunger cost, so they can do so anyway, as can most species with gourmand amulet. To prevent swapping in at low HP? Most species can do this in dangerous areas if you take the trouble to stay at "full" or, if you are cool with longer swap and got fruit/jerky, just below full. In either case, doesn't prevent swapping, just makes it much more annoying to do. To balance vamp weapons with certain strategic costs? You can still do ranged combat (throwing), most evocations, and as long as you don't swap *constantly* the cost is not sufficient to prevent normal to semi-frequent use of blowgun+curare and rods, because there is plenty of food in your average game.
At the same time, hunger cost means that you get prompts when wielding or unwielding vamp, which is a big interface nuisance, and having an item that provides a real advantage if you are willing to stay at "full" or above is a huge nuisance for most species, as well. The hunger cost doesn't prevent in-combat swapping; the annoying interface that comes with the hunger cost just makes it a big hassle.
3.) Makes DD into a different species.
This is a much more specific problem, but I'll mention it nonetheless. One can argue about whether or not Deep Dwarves are a good idea for a species in the first place, but if their whole raison d'être is to move HP toward being a limited, strategic resource rather than only a tactical one, it is a bad idea to have a weapon brand that effectively negates this distinctive trait. (While the flavor of vampiric weapons healing Deep Dwarves makes better sense, functionally in terms of design this seems to me a little like allowing mummies to quaff potions, if and when they wield a weapon of chaos.) That vamp heals DD also means there are situations in which you might want to go beat up on weak stuff with any vamp weapon on hand (even a crappy one) in order to heal. The spell vampiric draining has similar problems. In both cases there is a simple solution, fortunately: Vamp weapons and spell vampiric draining should not heal DD.
(Slight tangent: Gods also loosen the DD conduct greatly, but whether one likes it or not, the dev team often allows divine powers to be exceptional in such cases; cf. bend space on formicids, potion petition on mummies.)
So, here's what I'd propose:
1.) If you want to discourage someone from swapping to vamp when low on HP in combat, then the hunger cost is a very bad way to do this, and should be replaced by something with less interface hassle. In other words, this new feature would need to have a cost that does not require a prompt. I think it would be sufficient if vamp weapons simply had to "power up" for a period of time upon being wielded, similar to gourmand. ("A vampiric thirst is awakened in you / Your thirst grows stronger / You are ready to feast on your enemies' power.")
2.) A further nerf to 50% trigger rate for vamp weapons should be considered. (Quick aside: If you wish to make the unrandart Leech more distinctive, let it have a higher vamp rate (mentioned in the description). Or let Leech restore some MP along with HP. It is not a very unique unrandart at the moment...)
3.) Vamp weapons and vampiric draining spell should not heal Deep Dwarves.
EDIT: A suggestion I made regarding Leech is already in the game, apparently. Thanks for pointing that out, Sar.