mosier@iuvax.UUCP (03/15/84)
#N:iuvax:9800005:000:1026 iuvax!apratt Feb 24 16:22:00 1984 I still say it's unreasonable for a monster to kill you LIKE THAT. Especially with Rings of Attract (aggrivate?) monster around. I think a more reasonable approach would be the following: 1) You (stupidly or because you had no choice) swing at the eye. 2) You don't kill it. 3) It swings at you, and hits. 4) There's a chance that it will xfix you. Say 1 in 4. 5) IF it transfixes you, it sets your "transfixed" counter thusly: transfixed_counter = max (rnd (4), transfixed_counter); This way, if it misses or fails to transfix four times in a row, you will *definitely* wake up. I don't know enough probability calculations, but it looks to me like you could be stuck for a likely maximum of eight turns or so, though it could possibly hold you forever. Some clever tweaking would give a good result. Do any Rogue authors read this group? (By the way, `rnd(x)' above returns an int 1-x, and max is not a macro.) ---- "Can YOU whistle at 300 baud?" -- Allan Pratt ...decvax!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt
mcewan@uiucdcs.UUCP (mcewan ) (03/19/84)
#R:iuvax:9800005:uiucdcs:34500008:000:1687 uiucdcs!mcewan Mar 18 10:42:00 1984 I still say it's unreasonable for a monster to kill you LIKE THAT. Especially with Rings of Attract (aggrivate?) monster around. I think its unreasonable to have monsters strong enough to beat you to death. I think that this *BUG* can be fixed as follows: no matter how hard or how many times a monster hits you, your hit points never go below 10. Your suggested change is fine if you want a game you can never lose (yawn), but some of us prefer a challenge. An experienced player should know enough not to pick a fight with an eye (unless its from a distance) and to be careful with rings. The only way that you can be killed by an eye that is totally unavaidable is if you walk into a treasure room, the eye is the closest monster to the door, the eye is awake, you do not kill it instantly (eyes are pretty wimpy creatures, after all) and it transfixes you. If you don't like that to happen to you, tough. I don't like walking into a treasure room and getting pounded into the ground by a bunch of T's, X's and U's. For that matter, I hate it when I never find a decent sword or any good magic (ever had a game where you NEVER find a restore strength potion? Pretty tough when you hit level 17 with strength of 6.) But I don't want the game to be changed so that you're guaranteed to find all the magic you need, the monsters never gang up on you, rust monsters don't hit you if you're wearing your good armor, etc. Sure, sometimes you're going to get killed through no fault of your own. Forget it and start a new game. The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily those of any sane person. Scott McEwan pur-ee!uiucdcs!mcewan "Hitler was an idealist.""