Proposal: Replace Ice Storm with Glaciate

[Siegurt]

It's in...

  Code:

commit cbd6d6ad29919e5500bc673c5f683331984d83f5
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Feb 25 22:45:16 2014 -0700

    Add Siegurt to CREDITS.txt.

commit 00493949ad5e73cc4a331c186bcfe53ed2e3f65e
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Feb 25 22:35:01 2014 -0700

    Speed up Glaciate animation (gammafunk).

commit d606b11bf2cfa8cf67e4b0631710028bf7dd4f62
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Feb 25 22:34:26 2014 -0700

    roctavian's block of ice tiles (#7760).

commit a674fa1aae7bf4b3b1aada265c5a508bf048c456
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Tue Feb 25 21:28:50 2014 -0700

    Fancy animations for Glaciate.

commit bfda3da51aaee884b17f1828b9c3c30042064e90
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Feb 17 11:03:45 2014 -0700

    Glaciate.
   
    Level 9 Conjuration/Ice; generates a cone-shaped great blast of ice
    around a specified target. The minimum range of the cone is 3, and the
    maximum is LOS at maximum spellpower; damage within a minimum-range cone
    is equivalent to Ice Storm, and falls off with the square of the distance
    for larger cones.
   
    Leaves freezing clouds over the affected area, like Ice Storm; they
    dissipate really quickly over large areas, though.
   
    Targets hit with Glaciate are flash-frozen; they are subject to slow
    movement for three turns.
   
    Targets killed with Glaciate have a 3/5 chance of becoming a block of
    ice (similar to a pillar of salt).
   
    Also contains a monster-castable version of the spell.
   
    Replaces Ice Storm; most of Ice Storm's code disappears (ZAP_ICE_STORM is
    TAG_MAJOR_VERSION == 34'd out). Go fight Lom Lobon to see the monster
    version.
   
    Large chunks of this either originate from a patch from Keanan Smith
    (Siegurt), seen at https://crawl.develz.org/mantis/view.php?id=7760, or
    from the following discussion on Tavern:
    https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=9854


[Yermak]

Ok, I've played with Glaciate and here is my thoughts:
Old Ice Storm could reach a monster immediately as it enters your line of sight. Glaciate can't do this with insufficient power. May be it is the damage that makes up for this, but unfortunately I can't compare because I'm not a big caster at all, I haven't had any storm-user in normal crawl game. But I absolutely like ice statues it creates. It is awesome!

Things that need to be fixed (in my opinion):

• Game asks you to confirm if you want to target your orb of destruction when casting Glaciate.
• Summoned monsters leave statues as well.
• Sometimes Glaciate produces a branch completely off the main cone. If it is intended so I think it is cool, but in most cases that detached branch aimed for my zombie ally.

[duvessa]

AFAIK Glaciate does the same damage as ice storm within 3 squares (this doesn't actually mean 3 squares because circlelos), and less damage further out. I am confused by Grunt's statement that it might be overpowered, it seems almost strictly worse than ice storm (it is better if you really need to hit something immediately adjacent to you or have exceptionally bad terrain, but far inferior at range and you can no longer use it to hit things outside LOS).

[wheals]

I also used glaciate in my most recent win, and it did seem weaker than Ice Storm. I was surprised that I never reached max range even with an enhancer, 27 Ice, and 20 Conjurations (this might have just been a weird interaction with vehumet's range extension). I also sort of expected the cone to be wider -- currently it doesn't take up 1/4 of the screen when fired in an orthogonal direction, but rather slightly less. That might seem minor, but the ability to hit more than two monsters adjacent to you would make sense if the idea behind the spell is to give you more damage in exchange for being closer.

Sometimes Glaciate produces a branch completely off the main cone. If it is intended so I think it is cool, but in most cases that detached branch aimed for my zombie ally.

Was this just in the targetter, or when you actually cast it? It seems like this might have been a bug that was fixed.

[Kate]

Sounds like this.