Snake Sneak
Posts: 107
Joined: Saturday, 25th February 2012, 10:49
Tuesday, 3rd April 2012, 20:46
problems with the Shining One
I played some characters with the Shining One, and noticed the following problems (some of them applies to the other good gods):
1) When a follower of a good god meets a holy creature, it becomes good neutral with PIETY in MAX_PIETY chance; and you get new attempts when you gain a new piety rank or when the god is mollified after penance, so if you meet a holy with piety between the highest rank (****** = 160 piety) and MAX_PIETY = 200, it has a chance up to 1/5 of remaining hostile, and then you can only (a) avoid the creature (b) lose a piety level or get penance and then regain piety/get the god mollified to pacify the holy creature [killing it doesn't work, see problem 2)]. The second is very counter-intuitve and shouldn't be possible, and the first shouldn't be the only solution here. I suggest that every holy creature shall get a piety requirement which may be based on HD and may be randomized, but should be fixed for the given creature (so either it is saved after it is generated randomly or it is a hash function of some internal identifier of the creature); and the creature becomes good neutral if it meets you when your piety is over its requirement. I think ****** = 160 piety should be always enough to pacify a creature; because piety decays and it can be near impossible to reach a creature with (for example) 197 piety.
The current system can cause other serious problems like that if you oscillate between * and ** piety (use divine shield, kill a few skeletons, use divine shield etc.) repeatedly meeting the holy creature when you're at **, you will eventually pacify it.
2) The description of the Shining One says that he hates when "you or your allies kill non-hostile holy beings" but when Mennas remained hostile despite my ****** TSO piety and I summoned two angels and the angels killed Mennas, I got penance for it (telling them to attack Mennas and lightning bolting etc. Mennas did't bother the Shining One). Either the description or the code needs to be fixed; I don't know whether it is better to have followers of the good gods fight against holies or force them to run away from the hostile ones.
3) With air elementalists it is very easy to get penance for accidentally hitting monsters with Shock. As warnings like "This beam is likely to hit you. Continue anyway?" are already displayed I think it would be nice to display warnings like "This beam is likely to hit the helpless orc. Continue anyway?". I don't know the deatils but other spells like fireball, refrigeration, LRD etc. may also cause similar problems. Because at high piety the halo alerts everyone, this problem mostly applies at low piety, but it is very easy to get penance now.
4) Using a shield of reflection is very unwise as a follower of TSO, because a reflected poisoned arrow/bolt or sting spell can cause penance. I think this shall be special-cased ("The Shining One accepts that Nessos is harmed by his own unchivarlic attack.") maybe with the extra penalty that you won't get xp for the kill as you think it is not you who caused the death of the creature. I don't know whether this is possible with the other good gods (reflecting thrown spear/dagger of draining/chaos/etc, missles of reaping, bolt of draining ...?), but I got penance twice when I used Donald's shield of reflection on a follower of TSO.
1) When a follower of a good god meets a holy creature, it becomes good neutral with PIETY in MAX_PIETY chance; and you get new attempts when you gain a new piety rank or when the god is mollified after penance, so if you meet a holy with piety between the highest rank (****** = 160 piety) and MAX_PIETY = 200, it has a chance up to 1/5 of remaining hostile, and then you can only (a) avoid the creature (b) lose a piety level or get penance and then regain piety/get the god mollified to pacify the holy creature [killing it doesn't work, see problem 2)]. The second is very counter-intuitve and shouldn't be possible, and the first shouldn't be the only solution here. I suggest that every holy creature shall get a piety requirement which may be based on HD and may be randomized, but should be fixed for the given creature (so either it is saved after it is generated randomly or it is a hash function of some internal identifier of the creature); and the creature becomes good neutral if it meets you when your piety is over its requirement. I think ****** = 160 piety should be always enough to pacify a creature; because piety decays and it can be near impossible to reach a creature with (for example) 197 piety.
The current system can cause other serious problems like that if you oscillate between * and ** piety (use divine shield, kill a few skeletons, use divine shield etc.) repeatedly meeting the holy creature when you're at **, you will eventually pacify it.
2) The description of the Shining One says that he hates when "you or your allies kill non-hostile holy beings" but when Mennas remained hostile despite my ****** TSO piety and I summoned two angels and the angels killed Mennas, I got penance for it (telling them to attack Mennas and lightning bolting etc. Mennas did't bother the Shining One). Either the description or the code needs to be fixed; I don't know whether it is better to have followers of the good gods fight against holies or force them to run away from the hostile ones.
3) With air elementalists it is very easy to get penance for accidentally hitting monsters with Shock. As warnings like "This beam is likely to hit you. Continue anyway?" are already displayed I think it would be nice to display warnings like "This beam is likely to hit the helpless orc. Continue anyway?". I don't know the deatils but other spells like fireball, refrigeration, LRD etc. may also cause similar problems. Because at high piety the halo alerts everyone, this problem mostly applies at low piety, but it is very easy to get penance now.
4) Using a shield of reflection is very unwise as a follower of TSO, because a reflected poisoned arrow/bolt or sting spell can cause penance. I think this shall be special-cased ("The Shining One accepts that Nessos is harmed by his own unchivarlic attack.") maybe with the extra penalty that you won't get xp for the kill as you think it is not you who caused the death of the creature. I don't know whether this is possible with the other good gods (reflecting thrown spear/dagger of draining/chaos/etc, missles of reaping, bolt of draining ...?), but I got penance twice when I used Donald's shield of reflection on a follower of TSO.
