New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Issues, news, and discussion specific to the PWMangband variant.
PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Sat 03.03.2012, 17:15

This is the class counterpart to Yeeks. Abysmal stats except WIS and CHR. A Yeek Summoner will be... interesting (-10 STR/INT/DEX/CON).
Summoner can be seen as a priest of nature, with control of invoked creatures to compensate for their natural weakness.

- friendly summons from scrolls/staves of summoning
- set of summoning spells (can summon random or special monsters like jellies, golems, vortices and hydras; can charm or control summoned monsters)
- set of basic survival spells (phase door, detect monsters, detect and disarm trap/doors...)
- set of nature spells (healing, restoration, regeneration, defensive buffs...)
- set of antisummoning spells (suppress summon, banishment...)

I playtested the class a little, but I fear a lot of balancing will be needed before it's playable (it was way too hard before I beefed them up a bit yesterday).

The class is playable in the new PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta released today. Note that this version will be released as non-beta as soon as V3.4 is released and all features implemented, so it could take a while (V dev seems to be on hold atm...)

Files updated: client, server and lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

If someone could put a 1.1.9 beta server up for beta testing, it would be great!

Emulord
King Vampire
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon 30.04.2007, 20:19
Location: UIUC

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by Emulord » Mon 05.03.2012, 21:45

Okay, so I'm pretty sure my summons have killed me a few times :P. Are they not friendly if out of depth?
Also, summons hardly last any time at all. I expected a few minutes of time, or maybe having a summoned creature slows your mana regen or something.
The only way summons were viable in posband was from the fact you could fill entire rooms/levels with them. OOD uniques would kill everything you had anyway. The difference is that character (quyluthulg) had -5 speed/stats, +chr, terrible equipment slots, and no melee attack.
So I suggest summoners have either less bad stats, which turns them into a boring warrior type, or longer lasting summons with better AI (run off and attack stuff rather than sitting behind you X_X).

Random point: Shouldn't yeeks have innate resist acid (!) instead of slowfall?

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Tue 06.03.2012, 12:41

Summons are not all friendly. For now, they have roughly a 20% chance of being generated hostile (depends on player and monster levels, and player charisma), and all uniques are hostile. There are two spells (Charm and Summon Control) that will turn summons friendly, and Charm is quite low level.
The lifespan of summons is directly proportional to their level, so a lvl 1 summon will last only 1 round, while a lvl 50 summon will last 50 rounds (and deeper this is more than enough). Note that there is a spell available at high level that doubles the lifespan of summons (Resilience), and it's cumulative (up to 2xmlvl), so basically at high level you can keep high level summons quite a lot of time. If low level summons are not lasting long enough, I'll add a small fixed boost to improve it.
Concerning the AI, summons are basically dumb. A high charisma will help getting useful summons. The Summon Control spell at high level will turn all summons into attacking machines.

The purpose of the class is to give a real challenge, like choosing Yeek for class. I'm aware that the early game will be awful (no offensive spells, no melee, no shooting). Summoners start with a Quarterstaff which has a correct dice to kill low level stuff. Using a race with high wis/chr like Dunadan should help too.

Emulord
King Vampire
Posts: 252
Joined: Mon 30.04.2007, 20:19
Location: UIUC

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by Emulord » Tue 06.03.2012, 22:50

Ah I thought it was int, not wis/chr. I'll play a pretty character then.
Id suggest giving the summon time a +5 or 10 turns. Otherwise its nearly impossible to level without partying. Without good AC (low starting money), sometimes you'll summon 2 jellies, then miss too many times in a row and the enemy will kill you :P. Even playing very conservatively. Once you get to level 3-5 the danger has passed and you can scum dlvl 1 for piles of copper coins to get to 30 AC then you can descend :(

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Wed 07.03.2012, 12:32

Ok I'll add a small fixed +5 boost to the lifespan of summons. It should fix the first few clvls.

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Sat 10.03.2012, 18:26

PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta has been updated. The lifespan of summons has been slightly lenghtened, especially at low level. And I started to rework the 32x32 tileset to match the new UT32 tileset that will be incorporated into the next V release.

Files updated: client, server and lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Fri 06.04.2012, 17:57

PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta has been updated again. The new UT32 tileset has been ported and the pseudo-3D tileset has been remapped using the same pref files as the 32x32 tileset.

Files updated: client, server and lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

Note: savefiles are incompatible with the last update, please restart clean instances to play with the new beta update

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Tue 10.04.2012, 17:17

PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta has been updated again, this time with a couple bugfixes from V and a few adjustments to summoners.

Files updated: client, server and lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

Note: savefiles are incompatible with the last update, please restart clean instances to play with the new beta update

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Fri 15.06.2012, 21:15

It's been a while, but PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta has been updated again. This new update adds MP3 support and a new 64x64 tileset (experimental -- I still need to get permission to use it from the author). And I've fixed some glitches on the different clients...

Files updated: client, server, lib files and sound fx patch (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

Note: files are now stored using MS SkyDrive (powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr only allows 20Mb storage, and I can't upload files greater than 1.5Mb, which makes it useless) -- tell me if you have problems using the links)

Note: savefiles are incompatible with the last update, please restart clean instances to play with the new beta update

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Tue 26.06.2012, 20:19

New PWMAngband 1.1.9 beta update. I've revamped the Expensive Black Market: now it doesn't sell ego/great items only, but any item in the game... and by pressing 'o', players can order items. So if you want a power dragon scale mail (and have the patience for it to be generated in the XBM), or simply a few magic arrows -- and if you're willing to pay an insane price -- you can order them in the XBM now.

Files updated: client, server, lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Fri 06.07.2012, 20:22

And another update, mainly to fix a bug in the calculation of experience for summoners. Now you can really gain experience from kills by summoned creatures.

Files updated: client, server, lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Fri 13.07.2012, 20:08

New update:
- no more wanderers in town, all townies now respawn asleep and old wanderers ignore level 1 players
- no more 1xn houses
- minor fixes

Files updated: client, server, lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Mon 23.07.2012, 20:46

New update with bug fixes concerning summoners. Now they should be fully playable!

Files updated: client, server, lib files (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Fri 27.07.2012, 19:09

New update focusing on NotEye compatibility, plus some minor fixes (see noteye.txt in the client package). This is probably a good release candidate for 1.1.9, as almost everything I planned to add is implemented now.

Starting with this release, the sound fx patch and the lib files will be directly included in the client and server packages, since I don't have space/file size issues on my web page anymore.

Files updated: client and server packages (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

PowerWyrm
Balrog
Posts: 1574
Joined: Sun 27.11.2005, 15:57

Re: New class: Summoner -- Beta testers wanted

Post by PowerWyrm » Thu 02.08.2012, 22:57

A quick update before my annual 3-week summer break. I've found a bug in level generation (labyrinth levels) that could crash the server and fixed it. I'll be back at the end of August.

Files updated: client and server packages (source code will be updated once the non-beta version gets released).
Files are available for download at the usual location: http://powerwyrm.monsite-orange.fr

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