Throwing nets

Throwing nets are situationally useful or scary, depending on who's throwing them. However, they suffer from only working on small creatures, so they only really work in the early game, and are not powerful enough for being pretty much single-use items. This means that they're not really worth being carried around.

In general, it seems that nets work much better when used by monsters since by definition, that's always a situation where being unable to fight or flee is bad. This is okay, but they should also be somewhat useful when used by the player. The problem is that their strategic value doesn't scale well with their scarcity and low durability. I don't actually think they need to become more common, but they should last longer.

The basic concept was the following:

• For small creatures, escaping a net is easier than for larger ones.
• Large creatures can only escape by destroying the net.

I like this sort of size differentiation, but in practice it means that nets have little effect when used on large monsters.

• For the player, strength factors into destroying, dexterity into escaping a net.

Offhand, I don't know how much this actually factors in, and whether it even applies to players of non-medium size.

• Insubstantial monsters are unaffected.
• Oozes and pulsating lumps “ooze right through the net”
• Flying actors are unaffected, unless confused (there's a 1/3 chance then)
  • If confused flying actors are caught, they're dropped to the ground.
• Levitating actors are caught, but don't drop.

A couple of restrictions have been placed on which monsters are eligible for being caught in nets. Being unable to catch insubstantial monsters makes sense (though it would be cool to get some kind of brand that also catches ghosts, etc.) The restriction on flying monsters was added mostly because I didn't want to deal with instant drowning deaths for both player (we certainly don't want that!) or monsters (potentially overpowered). Maybe we could come up with a solution where throwing nets hinder flying monsters (make them slower, whatever), but not cause them to plummet right away.

I think catching flying monsters would be ok. Nets are a limited resource, and you'd lose the net to deep water/lava. Also, confusion drowning is much more cheap than this. On the other hand, player instadeath from net when flying over lava would be awful. Player-monster asymmetry here would be ok. — evktalo 2010-03-02 18:32

There's no reason why a net should interfere with *magical* flight. If you are magically flying, the net does not impair your motion, but does restrict actions. Conveniently, all forms of flight available to players are magical (except, arguably, the Dr 'large wings' mutation). — sorear 2010-04-02 22:44

• Being caught prevents fighting, throwing and operating doors (and probably disabling traps?).
• Spellcasting, invocations, evocations and use of blowguns are still allowed.
• Use of items (reading, quaffing, eating etc) is allowed.

Again, this is mostly due to realism. Nets would be much more powerful if they also hampered spellcasting (make it slower, increase failure rate, lower power?)

I think it's really neat that you can act *inside* the net as you like, but cannot interact with the outside world. :) — evktalo 2010-03-02 18:32

I like an increase of spell failure rate, as it's in line with blade hands' penalty - I guess demons would be immune? — og17 2010-03-02 22:07

1. Struggling damages the net, eventually leading to its destruction.
2. Enchanting them for (instant?) repair is possible, but not worth it.
3. Someone actually using throwing nets will quickly end up with all of them taking up different inventory slots because of their enchantment.

Points 2 and 3 could be addressed by reducing the range of possible enchantments: just have e.g. “slightly/strongly frayed”, and make struggling much less likely to cause damage. Basically, use a chance of a net getting damaged depending on creature size instead of all but guaranteeing damage/turn. In turn, this would result in monsters always being caught at least X turns as the net moves from whole over slightly frayed and damaged to completely tattered.
Also, the size restrictions could be loosened so that even an ogre has a chance of escaping a net at its last stage before destruction. As long as it's not berserk, I guess. :p This would mean that the player would have a higher chance at keeping their nets, even after used on larger monsters, and can then enchant them to make them good as new again. Huge is the limit, though. Catching giants in nets doesn't make sense.

Giant enemies could still be slowed in some way, though; it makes sense that they'd be hampered by part of their body being tangled up. — og17 2010-03-02 22:07

Nets could self-repair when not in use, using a system similar to rods. They'd grow increasingly ineffective with negative enchantments, but never be outright destroyed. Focused net use is unlikely without something along these lines; the items are prohibitively rare to invest in. With this, the net-user wouldn't ever be left with nothing (unless he was careless near lava or water), but regeneration speed could be tuned so they effectively still wouldn't be a freely available resource.. “Specialty” net brands like those described below should likely remain limited-use, so self-repair could be a relatively common brand, or “unbranded” nets could self-repair (flavor would need to be innately magical) while branded nets would degrade normally - which to go with may depend on if temporary brands are allowed. — og17 2010-03-02 22:07

1. For large creatures, nets aren't restrictive enough, getting destroyed quickly.
2. Even medium-size creatures destroy nets more often than not, especially already frayed ones.

For point 1, see above. For the relationship between escaping a (possibly already damaged) net and the struggle damaging it (further), we really need to review and probably overhaul the formula.

I'll have to check the code and extract the current formula as I don't have my original design sheets anymore.

The way the ensnaring nets are tracked (on the floor, but unpickable) is a bit problematic: see 990.

Solution: for all actors, add an “inventory” of items that are attached/caught on to the actor but aren't operable by it. This way, the road is open to other comparable items, or use two types of nets (see brands below) against a monster if you desire. (Of course, that has to be handled. I suggest that the actor struggles against all the nets at the same time, in such a manner that throwing two nets on top of a monster doesn't give double duration.)

Once normal nets have been overhauled and become more viable in strategic use, it might be interesting to add a few, interesting brands. In general, I think that adding plain poisoned/flaming etc. variants would be a bit boring, though they could still be added, of course. Brands specific to throwing nets should really play off and enhance their one unique feature: their ability to hold monsters in place.

Some suggestions off the top of my head:

• warp net: For the duration of being caught, has a chance of blinking/teleporting the creature each turn.
• phantom net: Enchanted to specifically entrap ghosts, demons and undead. (Maybe silver?)
  • Silver doesn't affect demons or even insubstantial undead (ghosts) anymore. “Holy net” or so would be proper. — evktalo 2010-03-02 18:28
• electric net: extra damage while caught, arcs lightning into the surrounding area every time the net is damaged.
• torment net: similarly, every time the creature struggles, everyone around also gets tormented.

General comments and more suggestions welcome!

Some ideas: — evktalo 2010-03-02 18:28

• stasis net: *prevents* teleportation/blinking.
• silver net: would sear a suspectible creature each turn.
• steel net: heavier and more durable.
• weighted/heavy/? net: would also slow the trapped creature.
• poisoned net: would apply light poison to the creature each turn.
• antimagic net: would hinder spellcasting

vitara I wonder if an unrand artefact can be made out of a net? One idea might be:

• NAME: “Net of Curses” or “Net/Prison of Eternal Punishment”
• APPEAR: Fiery [throwing] net
• ACC: -3 (or even -5)
• COLOUR: BLACK
• BOOL: special
• CURSED: 3
• VALUE: 1000
• DESC: An unusual [throwing] net with burning runes written all over it.
• DESC_ID: This [throwing] net was given by a chaotic deity to a powerful and zealous knight who used it to bind countless enemies to their fiery doom. Nobody ever escaped from the net's grasps, including the knight himself when the deity spread the net on him as punishment for converting to an opposing deity.

Properties:

• Generated cursed; has a 1 in 3 chance of recursing itself [NOTE: throwing / quivering it does not make it stick to the player, but will do so only if the player wields it for any reason - could be moot]
• -3 [or -5 for item balance] accuracy
• Insubstantial creatures (such as ghosts, demons, shadows etc.) will never be trapped
• INDESTRUCTIBLE
• Prevents the trapped creature from teleporting
• Increases the trapped creature's spell failure rate
• Causes “Sticky Flame” on the creature for every turn it is trapped inside
• Monsters cannot pick up and use the item

I like this. — noxn 2010-03-03 13:44

The traps could be made slightly more dangerous: instead of trapping a creature that walks exactly on top of them, they could catch a creature that walks to an adjacent tile. — evktalo 2010-04-02 21:19