Unique proposal: Myrmecia, Champion of Formicids

[Grudge]

Myrmecia is intended to be the mid-game equivalent of Sigmund or Rupert.

[Hirsch I]

sounds like something I would never, ever, fight in any circustances, but, again, most uniques are like that.
I'm liking this one a lot, though. sounds a little bit like (Mennas + Rupert)/2. and I can see people drooling for that CPA and Bardiche, and dying for it, and this is awesome.

[dpeg]

Hirsch: isn't the idea that sometimes you cannot avoid fighting her?

[duvessa]

Hirsch: isn't the idea that sometimes you cannot avoid fighting her?

Situations where you cannot avoid fighting uniques are very rare, and situations where you cannot avoid uniques that don't appear in early D are so vanishingly rare they pretty much don't exist (I don't think I've ever seen one). Since most of Crawl's uniques are designed to never be anywhere near worth killing when you first find them, it would be pretty damn noticeable if "cannot avoid fighting" happened with any significant frequency after early D.

[dpeg]

duvessa: I kow, and xp has been improved recently (I still think that uniques should always provide semi-good items, just to make players more like itchy, e.g. Gastronok's hat should always be glowing). That Fo unique at least has a mechanic that's trying to be sometimes relevant, plus items that can be relevant occasionally.

But sure, odds are always stacked in favour of the player. Not good... need more dead players.

[Sprucery]

Not good... need more dead players.

So it's not enough that we provide dead characters anymore? You're a true evil dev...

[Grudge]

There are certain situations were it is almost impossible for a speed ten character to escape by running. If running fails, you can try to tele, but I have known her to cast stasis on the same turn as I read ?tele.

In this situation, she will dig through the wall diagonally right, and cut off your escape.

  Code:

#########
#........
#@#######
#.#
#.#
#.#
#.#
#.#
#M#

Like this

  Code:

#########
#......@.
#.#####M#
#.####.##
#.###.###
#.##.####
#.#.#####
#..######
#.#######

[dpeg]

Grudge: That sounds great. Obviously, there will be future narrow-minded threads with topics like "Unavoidable Myrmecia death, !#%&"* just remove that dumb unique", but we have learned to transcend beyond such petty details.

[bel]

Someone mentioned this earlier: it might be good to have stasis field, or dig, but not both. Might be too tough then.

[Grudge]

It is usually possible to eventually escape, as she has to use a turn to cast stasis, and you can get some distance away and escape when she does. Also, the areas that she spawns (Vaults, Elf, Snake, Spider) generally don't have lots of twisty corridors.

If you run long enough, there will be a time when you are not under stasis. At that point, you can read ?blinking and get away.

[bel]

Vaults has usually stone/metal walls, so dig won't do much there. Perhaps make it appear in Depths.

[Hirsch I]

like I said, I like her a lot! she will be hard to just dodge, will give a sweet reward if you kill her, is dangerous, and interesting in general. the problem is with uniques in general, not her.

[njvack]

Someone mentioned this earlier: it might be good to have stasis field, or dig, but not both. Might be too tough then.

She also has a reasonable MR, so hexes can help out.

[Grudge]

The Myrmecia patch has been released on Mantis.

[Siegurt]

Vaults has usually stone/metal walls, so dig won't do much there. Perhaps make it appear in Depths.

Seconded on this point.
(We don't want another situation like we had with Jory usually spawning with silent spectres)

[Grudge]

That's a good point. I removed Myrmecia from Vaults.

[PleasingFungus]

MarvinPA suggests that re-using Dimensional Anchor is simpler than adding a new Stasis Field spell/mechanic.

[Grudge]

I am not strongly opposed to dimension anchor, but I am in favor of stasis field because it also prevents and cancels haste.

Also, I noticed a bug in the myrmec branch: apart from amulets, monsters are only under stasis if they are formicids and in a stasis field.

  Code:

bool monster::stasis(bool calc_unid, bool items) const
{
    if (mons_genus(type) == MONS_FORMICID
        || type == MONS_PLAYER_GHOST && ghost->species == SP_FORMICID)

    if (stasised(pos()))
        return true;

    return actor::stasis(calc_unid, items);
}

[pubby]

I've tried Dimension Anchor + a permanent Leda's Liquefaction effect before. Make the unique immune to the liquefaction and it works okay. Stasis is better though.

MarvinPA suggests that re-using Dimensional Anchor is simpler than adding a new Stasis Field spell/mechanic.

I judge simplicity by how easy it is to understand something. "Stasis other" is simpler than "Dimensional Anchor" because the former does not require looking it up to figure out what the hell it does. If you want to simplify things rename anchor to "-Tele Other", and also rename all the other convoluted spell names that have been introduced these past versions.

[mps]

I think this unique should shout "OH YEAH!" whenever it comes into view by breaking through a wall.

[Kate]

I judge simplicity by how easy it is to understand something. "Stasis other" is simpler than "Dimensional Anchor" because the former does not require looking it up to figure out what the hell it does.

Personally I have trouble believing that it's difficult to figure out that a spell that gives the "-Tele" status light, does, in fact, apply the -Tele status. The spell's description (which is directly linked to from the only place in-game you can see the spell name) also reads "This spell, if not resisted, blocks any translocations attempted by the affected target, be they voluntary or not.", which again seems relatively easy to understand to me. Certainly there are a bunch of pretty convoluted spells that exist, but I don't really think Dimension Anchor is one of them!

A formicid warrior with death scarab allies seems pretty weird flavourwise, to me.

[Grudge]

A formicid warrior with death scarab allies seems pretty weird flavourwise, to me.

My logic is that they are both insects. They are about the right toughness, and they make more sense than most other things of that toughness. It might be good to make the band only consist of boulder beetles.

[pubby]

Personally I have trouble believing that it's difficult to figure out that a spell that gives the "-Tele" status light, does, in fact, apply the -Tele status. The spell's description (which is directly linked to from the only place in-game you can see the spell name) also reads "This spell, if not resisted, blocks any translocations attempted by the affected target, be they voluntary or not.", which again seems relatively easy to understand to me.

Difficult? No. It's mostly just unnecessary and slightly inconvenient. It's akin to programming with identifiers like "std::wcrtomb" or "std::atoll" and expecting to know what they mean at a glance.

[Siegurt]

Does dimensional anchor negate also slow, haste and fast movement? (I was under the impression that it only prevented teleportation, and was subject to a MR check)

I was also under the impression that one of the intentions with this unique was that stasis be a field, so that it both bypassed MR, and suppressed the some of the more conventional ways of getting away (i.e. walking away while haste/swiftness)

[Grudge]

Siegurt, you are correct on that point except for the fact that stasis does not prevent swiftness.

[Siegurt]

Siegurt, you are correct on that point except for the fact that stasis does not prevent swiftness.

Hm, I don't know why I thought it did, I should totally be using swiftness on my formacid characters

[nago]

For a good period they couldn't cast it, maybe you never realize the change?

[bcadren]

Situations where you cannot avoid fighting uniques are very rare, and situations where you cannot avoid uniques that don't appear in early D are so vanishingly rare they pretty much don't exist (I don't think I've ever seen one). Since most of Crawl's uniques are designed to never be anywhere near worth killing when you first find them, it would be pretty damn noticeable if "cannot avoid fighting" happened with any significant frequency after early D.

Tomb: 3 -> Khufu, Mennas, Saint Roka. [Happened to me]. Was possible to avoid them; sure; but not avoid them AND get the rune.

[treerex5]

I think this unique should shout "OH YEAH!" whenever it comes into view by breaking through a wall.

Rename to Balrog, all quotes are "OH YEAH!" and "HUZZAH!"

[adozu]

it would also burrow from the floor above on top of you when shouting "HUZZAH"?

[treerex5]

Comes with a unique called "Misery", chance that Misery self-banishes and turns Balrog into a frog

[PleasingFungus]

Personally I have trouble believing that it's difficult to figure out that a spell that gives the "-Tele" status light, does, in fact, apply the -Tele status. The spell's description (which is directly linked to from the only place in-game you can see the spell name) also reads "This spell, if not resisted, blocks any translocations attempted by the affected target, be they voluntary or not.", which again seems relatively easy to understand to me. Certainly there are a bunch of pretty convoluted spells that exist, but I don't really think Dimension Anchor is one of them!

am I crazy or did dimensional anchor knock out phase shift at some point? it doesn't seem to now.

[Arrhythmia]

Personally I have trouble believing that it's difficult to figure out that a spell that gives the "-Tele" status light, does, in fact, apply the -Tele status. The spell's description (which is directly linked to from the only place in-game you can see the spell name) also reads "This spell, if not resisted, blocks any translocations attempted by the affected target, be they voluntary or not.", which again seems relatively easy to understand to me. Certainly there are a bunch of pretty convoluted spells that exist, but I don't really think Dimension Anchor is one of them!

am I crazy or did dimensional anchor knock out phase shift at some point? it doesn't seem to now.

New monster spell: Dimension Anchor

This is a resistable hex (though harder to resist than average) which
prevents the target from teleporting or blinking while it lasts.

It also cancels the effect of phase shift and prevents recasting it for
the duration. Gameplay-wise, this seems less relevant, but when the spell
talks of anchoring you in space, it seems that another spell which causes
you to partially leave the plane you're on should also be blocked. I am
not strongly attached to this facet of the spell if people consider it
bad, though.