Remove Hell Effect Glow


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Temple Termagant

Posts: 13

Joined: Wednesday, 11th July 2012, 04:29

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 00:00

Remove Hell Effect Glow

There's zero reason for this to exist still.

Glow contamination caused by Hell effects is extremely annoying, potentially crippling, but most importantly has no meaningful counterplay. There's no way to avoid it other than going as fast as you safely can, but the player is already going to be doing that as you have no reason to linger in Hell. Its pure RNG whether you get hit by glow and how much of it. A fast player could get contaminated multiple times while a slow one never gets hit by it. Also, none of the other hell effects harm your character in a permanent fashion, so it feels inconsistent. Getting hit by glow multiple times is just incredibly spiteful RNG.

The only way to negate hell glow is to consume cancellation potions, a rare consumable that you really don't want to waste. Plus you need them to cancel petrification in Dis, something that can easily kill even the strongest characters. The result is that I barely ever use these for most of the game because I'm so concerned about hoarding them for Hell, and this is often the correct choice. Having an RNG effect that boils down to a rare consumable check just isn't good design, both for difficulty and enjoyable gameplay.

I can't think of any compelling reason for it to remain.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 8786

Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 00:17

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

It's to stop you from scumming hell effect monsters for xp and items, and generally discourage spending time in hell branches. Not that it does a very good job of that, since ghouls (and other undead with infinite rot curing) are basically unaffected...

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 3037

Joined: Sunday, 2nd January 2011, 02:06

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 00:43

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

duvessa wrote:It's to stop you from scumming hell effect monsters for xp and items, and generally discourage spending time in hell branches. Not that it does a very good job of that, since ghouls (and other undead with infinite rot curing) are basically unaffected...


Given that there is no productive reason to allow scumming hell effects for xp, hell effect summons should just not give xp. We already have 'durable summons' as a game concept that does exactly that for situations that are in most respects similar, so I don't know why this isn't already the case.

Pretty sure glow is actually only on the hell effect list because it was on the miscast list, and it has remained grandfathered in even though it is a terrible effect to have on the hell effect list simply because nobody ever felt motivated to patch it out. The miscast list should probably never have been recycled for this purpose; most of the other effects on the list are also bad, irrelevant, or generic.

For this message the author KoboldLord has received thanks: 3
duvessa, Gigaslurp, VeryAngryFelid
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Zot Zealot

Posts: 982

Joined: Monday, 29th September 2014, 09:04

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 05:40

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

Is glow even a problem with new mutation potions? There are always lots of spare mutation potions to simply re-roll bad muts.

Lair Larrikin

Posts: 16

Joined: Thursday, 4th May 2017, 18:30

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 06:21

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

can you still use lich mode and yara's violent unravelling to explode the radiation off yourself and avoid mutation in exchange for rotting that can be cured with potions

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1233

Joined: Wednesday, 23rd April 2014, 21:57

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 07:25

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

chequers wrote:Is glow even a problem with new mutation potions? There are always lots of spare mutation potions to simply re-roll bad muts.

I doubt that glow can really cripple a character that's strong enough for Hell.

Temple Termagant

Posts: 13

Joined: Wednesday, 11th July 2012, 04:29

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 07:59

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

4Hooves2Appendages wrote:I doubt that glow can really cripple a character that's strong enough for Hell.


There are plenty of mutations that are really dangerous with just one level. From my personal experience, I once picked up blurry vision due to hell glow. That makes blink scrolls go from a guaranteed escape option to one with a slight delay, which might be all it takes to kill you when hellfire and torment are involved. Most of the time though its just an annoyance that might ruin a good mutation set by forcing you to chug.

You can split hairs about how much of a penalty various mutations really give a character, but at the end of the day the source here is pure RNG. Its just an annoying mechanic to deal with.

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1233

Joined: Wednesday, 23rd April 2014, 21:57

Post Monday, 5th June 2017, 08:16

Re: Remove Hell Effect Glow

Blurry vision is likely the worst thing you can pick up, I agree.

So at that point you quaff a potion of mutation, or possibly two. Considering that there are few other dangerous mutations and few other places that invariably cause mutations, there should be plenty available. When you start running low on potions, then I would suggest abandoning hell and proceeding to win the game.

Quaffing the potions earlier in the game, in the hopes of getting some good mutations, is a mistake in my view.

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