The Tavern

In 0.25, Okawaru is the only god remaining that gifts ammo. For bows, crossbows, and large rocks there is sufficient ammo on the floor to (eventually) adopt a hunter lifestyle at all ranges. This is not the case for sling bullets and javelins and darts, sometimes even if Shoals spawns, though there is a pull request to merge bullets and stones that I strongly support.

Meanwhile Xom is similar to scythes, in that it's a god that exists but one few would actively choose, and fewer among those with more game experience. Xom is the only mechanism I know of in the game for accumulating a long list of benemuts and can gift insane gear, but those possibilities (and being Xom they are only possibilities) is the only in-game reason I see to choose to worship Xom.

If Xom is guaranteed to gift ammo on a separate gift timer, in addition to his other gifts that come randomly from Xom actions and are only sometimes ammo, then there is a second incentive to actively choose Xom. Of course Xom isn't going to care about your skills when he gifts ammo (Oh, 26 Crossbows? Have some sling bullets). But if Crawl is attempting to remove no-brainers, this would mitigate 0.25's no-brainer of "worship Oka if you want to focus on ranged combat, particularly if you also want a shield."

I don't think Xom is the right god to propose adding guaranteed gifts to.

chequers wrote:I don't think Xom is the right god to propose adding guaranteed gifts to.

I suspect Xom would gift you ammo by shooting it at you... "Catch!"

There are like 10 better gods than Okawaru even for characters that use ranged combat a lot. Just because a god has apparent "synergy" with your character doesn't mean they're the best god, or even necessarily good.

duvessa wrote:There are like 10 better gods than Okawaru even for characters that use ranged combat a lot. Just because a god has apparent "synergy" with your character doesn't mean they're the best god, or even necessarily good.

Maybe for winrate.
If you want to go pure crossbow or pure chucker you're pretty much forced to go with an ammo-gifting god though. Also Oka Javelins really are insane, I can't see any other god/strategy being better than it in a quantifiable way.

Withregard to the OP, I don't think it would suit Xom to gift useful ammo, and even if he gave 'random' ammo it'd be hard to make it random enough. Maybe a tiny chance of getting a very large amount of ammo could work.

Siegurt wrote:
chequers wrote:I don't think Xom is the right god to propose adding guaranteed gifts to.

I suspect Xom would gift you ammo by shooting it at you... "Catch!"

That sounds like a cool Xom effect, if it isn't already there.

I like that.

"Catch!"

Arrows rain from the ceiling!

Grants ammo, does damage to everything on-screen, including the player. Very Xommy.

Aean wrote:I like that.

"Catch!"

Arrows rain from the ceiling!

Grants ammo, does damage to everything on-screen, including the player. Very Xommy.

I'm beginning to like this

wrt the details, maybe shooting D3 arrows (+0 shortbow base damage) / bolts (+0 hand crossbow) / bullets (+0 sling) / javelins (base damage) / darts / boomerangs (base damage, return to Xom after dealing damage) at every tile in LOS would work?

MainiacJoe wrote:In 0.25, Okawaru is the only god remaining that gifts ammo. For bows, crossbows, and large rocks there is sufficient ammo on the floor to (eventually) adopt a hunter lifestyle at all ranges. This is not the case for sling bullets and javelins and darts, sometimes even if Shoals spawns, though there is a pull request to merge bullets and stones that I strongly support.

Meanwhile Xom is similar to scythes, in that it's a god that exists but one few would actively choose, and fewer among those with more game experience. Xom is the only mechanism I know of in the game for accumulating a long list of benemuts and can gift insane gear, but those possibilities (and being Xom they are only possibilities) is the only in-game reason I see to choose to worship Xom.

If Xom is guaranteed to gift ammo on a separate gift timer, in addition to his other gifts that come randomly from Xom actions and are only sometimes ammo, then there is a second incentive to actively choose Xom. Of course Xom isn't going to care about your skills when he gifts ammo (Oh, 26 Crossbows? Have some sling bullets). But if Crawl is attempting to remove no-brainers, this would mitigate 0.25's no-brainer of "worship Oka if you want to focus on ranged combat, particularly if you also want a shield."

So in my view the point of Xom is to make the game more challenging by increasing randomness.

How would Xom gifting ammo support these design goals??

Ammo type would be weighed towards the players' lowest ranged skill, with bonus points for being completely unusable.
(So people can recommend starting CK as troll: "You'll never get unusable ammo gifts!")

Why aren't you killing anything teddy bear? This is BORING. Do you need ammo for your crossbow? Here.

You see here 253 arrows.
You hear Xom's maniacal laughter. You are now a very special plaything of Xom.

The Tavern

Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

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Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo

Re: Have Xom Explicitly Gift Ammo