Safe Non-Spoiler Comments: This patchset is incomplete. The result compiles, but a lot of stuff isn't finished yet, and there are known bugs. You have been warned. See below for details. The primary purpose of the Gehennom Fun Patch is to make the late game (with a particular emphasis on Gehennom) more fun. Key goals include reducing late-game tedium, introducing more challenge to the late game, and introducing more motivating rewards into the late game. As a side-effect, this patch probably makes the late game somewhat more difficult. However, it is still nowhere near as difficult as the early game. Obviously, this is all highly experimental. It is my hope that some of the features in the Gehennom Fun Patch will eventually make their way into other variants and possibly even into vanilla NetHack, but before that can happen some people will need to play with the patch and provide some feedback. I expect some aspects of the patch will prove to be better than others. Feedback is wanted. I particularly want to know which changes make the late game more fun, since that's the main goal, but feedback on balance and other issues is also needed. Feedback can be posted to rec.games.rougelike.nethack with the phrase "Gehennom Fun Patch" or the initials GFP in the subject line. You can also contact the author via email, jonadab (at) columbus (period) rr (period) com, but there too please put "Gehennom Fun Patch" or "GFP" in the subject. The next bit includes the filenames of the individual patches, some of which may constitute minor spoilers. For maintainability, I have divided up the changes into several patches. Some of these can be applied independently of one another, and others cannot. Applying the patches in the following order has been tested: A. artifacts.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs. B. minorstuff.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs. C. genocide.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs. D. items.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs. E. caswan.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs. F. changemaz.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. Possible bugs. G. debug.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. Causes technical data to be written to /home/wizard/gfp-debug.log Will eventually be excised when no longer needed. Currently required for several of the patches that follow. H. disint.diff - It is NOT possible to compile after applying, until the next one is also applied. Sorry. This is one of the more complicated patches, but most of its workings have been tested in other variants. I. monsters.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. Some features are incomplete, and there are probably bugs. J. roomtypes.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. No known bugs, but it's only been lightly tested. K. levels.diff - It is possible to compile after applying, but there will be problems at run time (when levels are generated in Gehennom) unless the next one is also applied. This patch has some bugs, but it also has some of the most compelling changes. L. splev.diff - It is possible to compile after applying. Known bugs. M. traps.diff - Very incomplete, has serious bugs, currently may make the game unplayable. Recommend not applying. Reading beyond this point will expose you to spoilers. Status codes: MAYBE - Still deciding whether to do this or not. Any feedback on whether it's a good idea should explain why, in as much detail as possible. PLANNED - The feature has not yet been implemented, but I intend to at least try it out. PARTIAL - The feature has been started but is not complete. ALPHA - The feature needs testing to determine whether it actually works as intended, on a technical level. BETA - The feature needs testing to determine whether its impact on gameplay is as desired and whether it has any unintended implications or bugs. GAMMA - The feature has been tested and is believed to be essentially complete. Testing is still needed, to determine whether the feature is enough of an improvement to warrant inclusion in other variants. DONE - The feature is tested and ready to go. It does not appear to require any more work. * Simple changes: + It's always night in Gehennom, regardless of real-world time. Time of day in other branches is unchanged from vanilla. (ALPHA) * Changes to existing objects: + The following objects become more common in Gehennom, under ordinary generation. (Their frequency outside Gehennom is unchanged. Mundane items become slightly less common in Gehennom to compensate.) (ALPHA) - boomerang (BETA) - magic lamp (ALPHA) + The following objects become more common in Gehennom, in monster inventory (replacing mundane items). (Their frequency outside Gehennom is unchanged, except for silver weapons, q.v. below.) - T-shirts (ALPHA) - magic helms (ALPHA) - silver weapons (ALPHA) - black, silver, or gray DSM (ALPHA) - katanas (because of certain new monsters) (BETA) - wand of death (MAYBE) + Arrow and dart traps in Gehennom can produce silver ones. (ALPHA) + Monster weapons and armor tend to be better enchanted in Gehennom. They can even potentially be overenchanted. (ALPHA) + The following objects become less common outside Gehennom, so you usually have to wait until then to find them: (ALPHA) - silver weapons (including silver sabers; most sabers generated outside Gehennom are now steel sabers, which are different only in that they are not silver) (ALPHA) - magic markers (but role starting inventories are unchanged) (ALPHA) + The castle wand of wishing is always (0:1). The intention here is to leave the player more likely to still be wanting some things after the castle, which may be found in Gehennom. (ALPHA) + The Wallet of Perseus (from Slash'em) is now available (cursed) from Perseus' statue a percentage of the time (if it does not exist already) and otherwise is wishable under normal artifact-wishing rules. (ALPHA) - However, in bones it reverts to an ordinary BoH. (ALPHA) + Scrolls of genocide have a chance of failure that increases with the number of species that have already been genocided. Up to five or so species it works the same as in vanilla, but as you genocide more and more it starts failing a higher and higher percentage of the time. This is intended mainly to discourage indiscriminate blessed-nuking of multiple classes, especially large classes containing many monsters (e.g., h). In conjunction with some of the new only-in-Gehennom monsters, this should ensure that Gehennom contains monsters that can credibly threaten the player character or his gear. (It is still theoretically possible to genocide everything genocidable, but some kind of farming would be required, and it would be tedious.) (ALPHA) + Wands of digging no longer restricted to digging a single tile; they work the same way as in the main dungeon. (PLANNED) * New objects (non-artifact): + silver darts. Can be obtained from dart traps in Gehennom. The only difference from regular darts is that they are silver. (ALPHA) * Changes to existing monsters: + Certain monsters become more common in Gehennom. (Frequency outside Gehennom is unchanged.) - Gremlins (BETA) - Titans (BETA) - possibly others (open to suggestions here) + Other roles' quest nemeses can appear in Gehennom. (PARTIAL) - These characters can be generated at level-generation time (ALPHA) - They can also be generated subsequently, while you are in the midst of exploring a level. (PLANNED) - If you happen to have *their* role's quest artifact, they are even more likely to appear, e.g., if you wish for the Eyes of the Overworld, Master Kaen will very likely come after you somewhere in Gehennom. (PLANNED) - I'd like to make them prefer to steal *their* role's quest artifact (if you have it) rather than yours. (PLANNED) + Extinction limit for certain kinds of monsters will be raised, perhaps to 1024 or so. (MAYBE, still need to decide exactly which monsters should have the higher limit.) + Vlad is a somewhat more respectable foe. (ALPHA) - His stats have been boosted. (ALPHA) - He has better weapons. (ALPHA) - He is more likely to see you approaching. (ALPHA) - He spits vampire blood (similar in principle to a cobra's venom attack), which drains levels (unless you are drain resistant, of course). (ALPHA) - He may still need further boosting. Testing is needed to determine how much. (MAYBE) + Various existing monsters can, if your max difficulty is high enough, be generated with higher numbers than before for such attributes as speed, hitpoints, and attack damage. (PLANNED) + Very-high-level spellcasting monsters are somewhat more likely to cast particularly worrisome spells (e.g., summon nasties) than in vanilla. (PLANNED) + Max monster difficulty is now proportional to not just XL and DL but also a weighted sum of your attributes (in your natural form), including Max HP and Naked AC. (MAYBE) + Killing the Wizard of Yendor (the first time) or performing the invocation ritual increases the difficulty of generated monsters for the remainder of the game. (PLANNED) + A new monster flag has been added, M3_CATCH, which indicates that the monster can catch any projectiles you throw/launch/fire at it, without taking damage from them. (PARTIAL) + A new monster flag has been added, M3_DETERMINED, which indicates that the monster will do anything in its power to reach and attack the player. (PARTIAL) - If weaker monsters are in its way, it will clear a path to you by using a wand of teleport (if available) or simply by attacking and killing the other monsters. (PLANNED) - If you are far away, and the monster is capable of teleport or has a wand of teleport, and the level allows teleport, the monster will teleport itself. (With the wand, this gives it a random location. If it's still far from you, it'll try again.) (PLANNED) - If you are near the down stair, and the monster cannot teleport, but it CAN dig down, it will, and it will come up the down stair. (This may be tricky to implement, due to weird edge cases wherein you change levels just after the monster digs the hole.) (PLANNED) - If you leave the level even while the determined monster is not near you, it will still attempt to follow if it can, e.g., if you go down and it can dig down, it will; if it is near the up stair and you leave via cursed gained level, it will follow. (MAYBE) I am still thinking about what monsters should have this new M3_DETERMINED flag. It seems inherently incompatible with M3_COVETOUS, and invisible stalkers occur too early in the game for this to be a good idea for them. + Certain monsters have their difficultly level adjusted slightly, so they appear a little later in the game. - wood nymphs and especially mountain nymphs (also beefed up, differentiating the three kinds of nymphs more) (ALPHA) (Note that water nymphs are unchanged, so they are now the lowest-level kind of nymph.) - chameleons (ALPHA) - cockatrices (MAYBE) - winter wolves (MAYBE) - leocrottas (MAYBE) - yellow lights and blacklights (MAYBE, and not by much) + The bribe amounts for the demon princes are much higher (PLANNED) * Unique named role-based characters who appear only in Gehennom: + Wizard of Yendor, Hostile Hum Wiz exactly as in vanilla. (DONE) + High Priest of Moloch, Hostile Hum Prie exactly as in vanilla. (DONE) + Belkar, Cha h Ranger dual-wielding knives ("Death's little helper.") Always has a ring of levitation #named "Jumping +20". Extremely fast and capable of dishing out quite a lot of physical damage, but he's not covetous. He does taunt you, and I am pondering the possibility of making him M3_DETERMINED, if that's not too much. (PARTIAL - mostly complete except for M3_DETERMINED behavior) + Rasputin, Cha Hum Mon who periodically resurects kind of like Rodney, but his attack profile is built around NetHack monk capabilities, with some special attacks based on Slash'em's monk #techniques. Unlike the wizard, Rasputin does not become more powerful each time he is resurected. (Also, he will not steal anything from you or warp to the upstairs to heal. He behaves like a powerful hostile monk.) (PARTIAL - very incomplete) + Thargor, a very-high-stat Law Hum Bar wielding Lifereaper (which see, below). Thargor is rather dangerous to fight, but he will not follow you to other levels, and furthermore he is guaranteed not to be generated on any non-teleport level, so controlled teleport and either extrinsic telepathy or astral vision will allow you to reliably avoid him if you choose (provided you are fast and not burdened). His high speed figure allows him to get in five hits every two turns normally, more if he manages to find a wand of speed monster (which he *will* pick up and use if one is laying around). As a special reference, if you are a Rogue named Pithlit or if you are named Zunni and polyselfed into a monkey, Thargor will be generated peaceful. (Otherwise, he is always hostile.) Stealing Lifereaper is guaranteed to anger him. He also has intrinsic slow digestion (so e.g. a purple worm cannot kill him with its engulfing attack) and a fairly high monster MR figure. Thargor (and only Thargor) is immune to wands and spells of death and to all forms of draining when wielding LifeReaper, but if you can get the sword away from him he becomes vulnerable to them. (PLANNED) + Flight, Law Dwa Val with ascension-grade stats, carrying an icebox containing 67 potions of booze. Always hostile. (ALPHA) + Musashi, Hostile Hum Samurai, dual-wielding an enchanted katana (which may be Snickersnee if it does not already exist in the game) and an over-enchanted wakizashi. Behaves like you would expect a high-level samurai to behave. Always hostile. (PLANNED) + Dr. Jackson, Neu Hum Arc firing a zat (energy bolts that stun); when defeated, ascends to higher plane of existence instead of dying, i.e., you may see him a second time on Astral. The first time he appears, he always has a spellbook of identify. You can't get the zat by killing him; it's not an item, just a special attack unique to this monster. (MAYBE) + Julian, Neu Hum Hea firing a phaser (non-reflectable beams of light that stun as well as doing damage). No, you don't get the phaser if you kill him; it's not an object, just a special attack unique to this monster. (MAYBE) + Marco, Neu Hum tourist/merchant originally from Venice. (MAYBE) + ???, Rog (MAYBE) + ???, Cav (MAYBE) + ???, Kni (MAYBE) + Fflewddur, a lawful human bard. He is generated with a magic harp, a broadsword, and a leather cloak and is initally accompanied by a tiger named Llyan. He may be peaceful for lawful heroes. (MAYBE) * Additional (new) monsters generated only in Gehennom: + R, disintegrator, from Nicholas Webb via UnNetHack (ALPHA) + @ Major, Colonol, General, Marshall: higher-ranking Yendorian army troops, more dangerous than Captains. (PARTIAL) - Following the pattern set by existing ranks, each rank has beefier stats and tends to get better equipment than the rank below. The higher ranks will tend to have enchanted armor. (ALPHA) - Generals and Marshalls have the ability to call in additional troops (in much the same way that certain demons can gate in more demons). (PLANNED) - Marshalls (the highest rank) may have a lower extinction limit than most things. I'm thinking a dozen or so. (MAYBE) + T, fire troll, a little stronger than Olog-hai, generated in small groups, and appear only in Gehennom. Oh, and it has a fire attack (for thematic reasons). (ALPHA) + l, gean canach, a monster that seduces you and steals your luck. These also appear in the Garden of Temptation (q.v. below). (ALPHA) + J, yora hawk, toned down significantly from the crazy over-the-top idea I posted in rgrn a while back. (PARTIAL) - Currently if you have good AC and MC3 all they do is miss, so I think I've toned them down too much. At some point I will rebolster them a little. (PLANNED) - If they sometimes dropped a large beak when killed, would that have any possible use? (MAYBE) + n, siren, a dangerous, amphibious female creature who charms you, removes and/or steals your armor and weapons, may steal other items you are carrying, may sap your strength and perhaps other attributes, and may lure you to step into the water (if there is water present). (MAYBE) + D, great [color] dragon, a much beefier and more threatening beast than the mid-level D. These are not randomly generated but occur in dragon lairs (see map changes, below). Their bite attacks do the type of damage that corresponds to their color. (For example, a great black dragon's bite attacks disintegrate, starting with your cloak and working in toward your skin on subsequent hits. Black DSM will protect your shirt and you but not your cloak. Intrinsic disintegration resistance will NOT protect your shirt, armor, or cloak.) Reflection works against ranged breath attacks but not in melee, so staying at range is a useful tactic. The claws are still just physical. (PARTIAL) + W, specters, are very similar to wraiths, except they are much faster (speed 30). Relatedly, their difficulty number is higher, and they occur only in Gehennom. Specters are generated in small groups normally. They can be randomly generated anywhere in Gehennom, but most players will first encounter them in the Valley (if the player's stats are high enough for them to appear), due to the graveyards there. Unlike wraiths, specters do not leave a corpse, but they are frequently generated with a potion of gain level (70% chance). (PARTIAL) + W, banshees, have a sonic attack that deafens you for several hundred (more) turns, causing "You hear" messages to not be displayed. (As a side effect, cockatrice hissing has no effect on you, since you can't hear it. But you also don't get any of the information that sounds provide.) (MAYBE) + R, reducer: drains charges from any chargeable items you happen to have in inventory (wands, chargeable tools and rings). (MAYBE) + R, reshaper, but very different from my original proposal: It polymorphs any monster it attacks, including you (if it doesn't miss). The polymorphed monster has a 25% chance of becoming a newt, or otherwise it works like with a polytrap. (MAYBE) + @, catcher, notable mainly for having M3_CATCH. Sometimes generated with an amulet of reflection. (ALPHA) + @, assassin. Notable for having the new M3_DETERMINED flag. Normally invisible, though most players will be able to see them anyway by the time they are encountered. (MAYBE) + i, wand breaker. (I am open to suggestions for a better name for them.) Will pick up any wand they can find and, as soon as they get next to you, break any wand that they have; sometimes generated with a wand of digging, otherwise with a random wand, subject to the usual probabilities. (MAYBE) + &, Magog, a high-level unique named demon who spends practically all of his turns doing one of three things: gating in other demons, recruiting Yendorian army troops, or casting summon nasties. Gated-in demons can include named unique ones. (MAYBE) + &, banisher. Has a ranged (beam-type) attack that levelports any monster it hits that does not resist. Anything carrying the Amulet of Yendor *cannot* resist (but can only be sent deeper; so if already in the Sanctum, there is no practical result). Anything not carrying the Amulet will always resist if it has both player-style MR and teleport control, OR if it has player-style MR but cannot teleport. Failing that, anything that has either player-style MR or teleport control gets a high percentage chance to resist, and anything with monster MR gets a chance based on that, which can be high or low depending on the MR number. Any monster that gets hit and does not resist is sent to another level. This applies to you, your pet, peacefuls, hostiles, anything. Destination is random (except that anything carrying the Amulet can only go down, not up). (MAYBE) + S, asphynx, from Slash'em, but changed to appear only in Gehennom rather than only everywhere else. (MAYBE) * Map changes: + Gehennom filler levels (but NOT the vibrating square level) are chosen at (weighted) random from the following types: - caverns (10%) (BETA) - rooms connected by corridors, dense (10%) (PLANNED) - rooms connected by corridors, traditional (5%) (BETA) - new-style mazes, which can have wider corridors and/or thicker walls. (40%) (BETA) - almost-traditional mazes, with embedded special rooms (see below for the special rooms, which are different from the ones in the main dungeon) (ALPHA) - "cramped caverns", an alternative design of cavern-like level where the spaces are cramped in direct proportion to depth in the dungeon, per ais523. (MAYBE) - traditional mazes as in vanilla, but with Pasi Kallinen's Changing Mazes patch applied. (10%, and the invocation level is always this type). (ALPHA) + In addition to the above changes, Gehennom filler levels can also have rivers of water or lava across them, which interrupt the level's other features. (PLANNED) + All demon princes and lords potentially have lairs, but they don't all show up in every game. (PARTIAL) In any given game you get 3-4 demon lairs: - Orcus Town (4 variants) (ALPHA) - Juiblex (3 variants) or Dispater (1 variant) (ALPHA) * I would like to improve the quality of these and maybe have a couple more variants. (PLANNED) - One of Asmodeus (2 variants), Baalzebub (2 variants), or Yeenoghu (1 variant) (ALPHA) - At most one of Demogorgon (1 variant) or Geryon (2 variants), with a 25% chance of no fourth lair at all (ALPHA) * I would like to have more versions of Demogorgon's lair. (PLANNED) + Demon lair positioning is adjusted so they are less likely to occur on adjacent levels to one another. (PARTIAL) - Demogorgon's or Geryon's Lair, if present, is in the bottom half of Gehennom, below the entrance to Vlad's. (ALPHA) - None of the demon lairs can occur on the level directly below the Valley. There is at least one guaranteed filler level there. (PLANNED) + Special room types for use in Gehennom: - Statue-lined "halls" (which also contain traps) (ALPHA) - Dragon lairs. Each contains one great D, 2-4 regular D of the same color, several baby D also of the same color, gold, gems, and special thematic items corresponding to the dragon color (e.g., fire-related items for red) (ALPHA) - Troll holes. Guess what class of monster they have. (PLANNED) - Small ponds of water or lava, possibly not encased in walls. (MAYBE) - Small pools of oil. Oil behaves mostly like water. If you have water-walking boots, you can dip potions to convert them to oil or oil lamps to refill them. Dipping a lit lamp or candle ignites the oil, dealing substantial fire damage to everything in the area that's not fire resistant (both monsters and items) and changing the terrain to empty pits. The lit object becomes empty if a lamp or is burned up entirely if a candle. The candelabrum would lose its candles but be otherwise unharmed. Pools of oil can also be ignited by fire-based attacks, including wands and breath attacks. (MAYBE) + New (small) optional branches can now be found from Gehennom: - Garden of Temptation (featuring nymphs, trees, fountains, pools, foocubi, ... (ALPHA) + If sirens are implemented, they should be included here. - I am trying to think of a multi-level optional branch off from Gehennom that would be genuinely interesting. (MAYBE) * Trap changes: + falling rock traps are no longer generated in the first three levels of the main dungeon. (ALPHA) - (However, they can occur on any level in the Mines.) (PLANNED) + level teleport traps can be generated on any level in Gehennom, including non-teleport levels. Generation in other branches is unchanged from vanilla. (ALPHA) + polymorph traps MAY be eliminated when triggered by a monster or pet, but the chance drops as you descend deeper into the dungeon, so the deeper you go the more likely the polytraps are to be good for many uses. To guarantee infinite uses, you need to be below dungeon level 35. (ALPHA) + curse trap, works like the curse items monster spell, in trap form. Can be converted to a pit via pick-axe. (ALPHA) + disenchantment trap, subtracts 1d3 from the enchantment of a random piece of your armor and may also curse it, depending on luck and random chance. Can occur starting on the Castle level and anywhere below that, but they are not very common. If a monster or pet steps on it, the trap will be revealed (but it will only actually do anything if the monster is wearing armor). (PARTIAL) + lava traps, found only in Gehennom proper (not the Valley, and not in branches off Gehennom, and not in the Sanctum). They look just like regular floor until discovered, and then they become just like regular lava. The danger can be evaded in the usual ways (levitating, flying, wearing fireproof water-walking boots) or preemptively eliminated with a wand or spell of cold. (PARTIAL) + hypoxic pits, generated only in Gehennom proper, are like regular pits except that you can only survive in them for 3 turns, unless you have magical breathing or are polyselfed into something that does not require air (or into an air elemental). (If you don't have either property, levitation works well for getting out quickly. Being out of the pit is enough; you do not have to leave the tile to breath.) Pets are vulnerable, unless they have one of the aforementioned protections. Pets that know how can also zap a wand of digging and fall through to the level below, converting the hypoxic pit into a hole in the process. (PARTIAL) + draining trap. Drains 1d3 levels and proportionally adjusts your other attributes to match. Only found in Gehennom, and drain resistance prevents them from working on you. Pets are vulnerable if not drain resistant. (MAYBE) + metabolic traps can occur in the main dungeon (but not on early levels) and in Gehennom; other branches are negotiable. Does nothing if you have slow digestion, otherwise drains 5d75 nutrition if you have intrinsic or extrinsic hunger, 5d40 nutrition if not, and it gives you intrinsic hunger. In either case, the amount of nutrition it drains is capped so that it never kills you outright -- but you may need to eat *immediately*, so carrying food in open inventory is advised if you do not have slow digestion. I'm open to suggestions about how deep in the dungeon you should have to be before these can occur. My initial thought is that they could start showing up around dungeon level 18 or so. (MAYBE) + electric traps occur starting at DL25. Rings and wands are vulnerable, and you get hit with a big shock if not resistant. Mosters and pets don't trigger this one unless they ARE shock resistant, in which case the trap is revealed but still active. Once you trigger the trap yourself, it disappears. (MAYBE) + cancellation traps occur only in Gehennom; when you move onto one, each item in your inventory (including worn and wielded items) has a percentage chance of being canceled, with the probability for each item being proportional to current dungeon level. If a bag of holding is so canceled, it blows up, destroying the trap in the process, but unlike with wand/bag explosion the contents of the bag are not destroyed (unless fragile, e.g., crystal items would break); however, some of the items that were in the exploded bag may be canceled, with chances similar to that for your immediate inventory items. (MAYBE) + disintegration traps, only found below DL35 (and possibly on Demogorgon's Lair, if it's above that). Each trap only works on the player once, so lifesaving will save your life (but not your inventory). Pets are vulnerable. Invocation items and the Amulet of Yendor are immune, as are black dragon scales and scale mail and any disintegration-resistant monster. Black DSM will save your shirt and you. I'm trying to decide whether intrinsic disintegration resistance should save your inventory, but on the whole I think not: it would be an interesting challenge to have to choose between (A) playing the bottom levels of Gehennom with only disposable equipment, (B) risking everything, (C) carefully searching for the traps, (D) using scrolls of gold detection, or (E) some hybrid approach. Note that certain monsters who may steal the Amulet from you are not resistant; if they trigger it while carrying the amulet, the amulet will land on the trap. Attempting to kick an object that is on a disintegration trap will cost you your boots and either disintegrate the object (if it is not resistant) or leave it still on the trap. However, if you are barefoot and resistant then it'll work. (MAYBE) * Artifacts + Lifereaper, an intelligent lawful barbarian broadsword. In bones and when wished for it is converted to an ordinary broadsword, so the only way to get it is to take it from Thargor. Be aware that it will blast you if you are not a lawful barbarian (and no, the possible starting alignments for the role have not changed). If you are neither lawful nor a barbarian, it will evade your grasp entirely. This sword has a -3 to-hit bonus (i.e., a penalty), so proficiency in broadsword is recommended. (The to-hit penalty does not apply when Thargor uses it.) A successful hit deals damage as follows: - The damage an ordinary non-artifact broadswords would do is calculated. Call this "the ordinary damage amount". (Enchantment and skill bonus do apply as usual.) - If the monster being attacked is not the player AND is not a type of monster normally represented by @, then it just does the ordinary damage amount, and that's all. - Otherwise, the "special damage amount" is calculated as 35% of the target monster's remaining hitpoints. The sword does either the special damage amount or the ordinary damage amount, whichever is more. - In practice, this means if you have 500 hitpoints and Thargor starts whacking you, your hitpoints go to 325 on the first hit, 211 on the second hit, then 137, then 89... That's if nothing else is happening to you at the same time. (PLANNED) + Trollsbane and Dragonbane may get their damage bonus multipliers improved, so that they are better than any other weapon for clearing out troll holes and dragon lairs, respectively. (MAYBE) + It is tempting to create a silver long sword that's not randomly generated, just so demonbane can be one, but I am not sure if this is a good idea. (MAYBE) KNOWN BUGS: GFP0002: In room-and-corridor levels in Gehennom, altars are sometimes aligned as they would be in the Dungeons of Doom. They should always be altars of Moloch. (RETEST) GFP0003: Some monster encountered a strange trap of type -533600. (RETEST) GFP0004: Maze-joined room levels (gmazroom) are not wallified. This is not worth fixing on its own, because the fix for GFP0005 will obviate it. (RETEST) GFP0005: Maze-joined room levels (gmazroom) are too similar to one another. I should write some actual custom level-generation code for these. (It could still call whatever code handles MAZEWALK, but the random rooms should be generated fresh each time, and the DES format is not flexible enough to handle that, unless Pasi Kallinen's levcomp patch is incorporated.) (RETEST) GFP0006: Maze-joined room levels can potentially be generated without the maze parts (i.e., five isolated rooms surrounded by solid rock). This is not worth fixing on its own, since the fix for GFP0005 will obviate it. (RETEST) GFP0007: Other roles' quest nemeses (e.g., the Master Assassin if you are a Tourist) say inappropriate things. (OPEN) GFP0008: Other roles' quest nemeses can be generated with the Bell of Opening. (OPEN) GFP0009: Something is causing the game to hang. It could be a bug in NH4, but I suspect it's more likely a bug in my GFP changes. It may or may not be related to the incomplete trap enhancements, and it may or may not be the same as GFP0003, above. (RETEST) GFP0010: Baalzebub's lair version 2 (asbaal-5) has open doorways where it should have doors. (RETEST) GFP0011: Lava traps display incorrectly (white d) when known (e.g., due to magic mapping). Also, one of the other traps (type -543464, when a monster encounters it) is displaying incorrectly as a white i, and doing anything to that one (as the player) crashes the game. (OPEN) GFP0012: Using a scroll of create monster (in wizmode) to generate higher-level Yendorian army troops (starting with major) works but causes an error message, odd mercenary 1243383360? Program in disorder. (RETEST) GFP0013: A one-line change related to Vlad and a twenty-line change related to Yora Hawks got mixed up in the disintegrators patch, creating an otherwise unnecessary dependency. (OPEN) GFP0014: A gean canach will catch any weapon thrown at it. This is intended behavior, but I am re-evaluating whether it is a good idea. Comments welcome. (OPEN) GFP0015: The stair to the Garden of Temptation deposit the player in the castle. (OPEN)