[BMA] cloning...

[Herbert]

definitely, the combination of clone wand+ice-wyrms+crystalDSM is to be reviewed ! make the game cheez, just go and see 4000ft what i've done with the help of kal-tiv (all you need is someone to hold the level...)<br><br>What i suggest for clone wands: make one clone, make one different monster (bigger), so that when you clone ice wyrms you have a big chance to get other non-ice wyrms (like hell of chaos, or ballance).<br><br>Herbert ^_^

[Berendol]

The current plan is to fix destruction so that when it happens through a clone wand, the items on the floor get destroyed. Also, remember that not all of the monster abilities are fully coded yet.

[herbert2]

Actually, i think i won't change anything
Because what I do (and I guess other player do so too) is:
1- clone the wyrms, then tele some away, then clone again...
2- when you have anough wyrms on the level, choose a big room and kill them in that room 8D

So destro will change nothing, i don't plan to aim the wand in a room full of goodies...

Is there a technical reason for cloning to be only same kind ?
Remember what happened on Rohnan, clone wands had to be disables... definitely not an easy problem to solve  ???

Herbert ^_^

[Berendol]

I definitely remember that. I also recall having to edit the sources to re-enable them for my server, as well.

The technical reason for cloning to only be the same kind is that it's currently very hard to determine what else each monster should morph to. I'm NOT about to sit and write up a table of each of the 617 monsters' morph possibilities.

I think that the random destructions hinder the ability to clone lots of monsters a bit. Seriously, though, wasn't it a bit annoying? If you clone something, it spawns some extra copies. If the original monster screams and rocks rain down around it, then the others die, and you now have a wall in the way most of the time. Then, you have a chance of polymorphing the original, also. Is this not happening often?

Perhaps I should have more possible side effects, like the occasional release of magical energy [in the form of manabolt/manaball] back at you. Perhaps the probability of this would be depth-influenced.

[Narchan]

I think the monsters should polymorph more frequently when cloned.  It hardly ever happens and I have only had a "hard" monster created once (it was an archlich).  Or make it so the multiple spawns might polymorph too.
That would be wicked...you are cloning and all the sudden you get like 5 druj.

[Maegdae]

The polymorph effect is EXTREMELY rare.  Nastiest thing i've ever heard of it producing is a great perplexity wyrm.  
Currently the rock-destro effect isn't hardly even an annoyance.  The wyrms prolly standing in the last wyrms stuff.  Even if it destroys items it's still too rare to really make a difference.  
Polymorph is incredibly rare; the biggest thing i've ever seen from it was a great wyrm of perplexity.

I think a chance of ALL copies of the monster spawning into the same random monster with +30 speed and  
above the minimum level requirement of the level you are on (max level requirement could be something like 4k)

So.  You clone a great wyrm on 3500, if it polymorphs you won't get a white icky thing or an orc as before.  You'll probably get a greater demon, dragon, undead, or somesuch.  Multiple copies of it, too.  And they'll probably be moving faster than you are.  

[Berendol]

Here's the trouble. Polymorph and clone are real hacks. There's no way to reference the newly created monsters. I have a lot of ideas - and you guys are touching on some of them already - but the codebase is way too limiting to make certain things happen without being the ultimate pointer guru, or parsing all the monsters in the game after the clone. I really like the idea of someone cloning an Ice Wyrm for goodies at 4000' and getting an average of, say, 5 aggravated GHW's, GWoC's, or GWoP's.

By the way... why did you pick 4000' to do this? I'm curious.

[herbert2]

No particular reason, just that Kal-Tiv and I met there and we found an Ice Wyrm. The fact is that 4000 is not deep enough to get a balance DSM amond the goodies, so we'll have to do it again at 6350ft... when morgy it away...  ;D
Maybe we'll be lucky enough to find a power DSM  8)
Herbert ^_^