Chaosforge Forum

DoomRL => Requests For Features => Topic started by: ParaSait on July 09, 2008, 13:06

Title: About Arch-Viles
Post by: ParaSait on July 09, 2008, 13:06
They should really be made a little weaker. I noticed that they can resurrect any enemy every turn! So I suggest the following: The stronger the resurrected enemies, the longer it takes to resurrect them.

I must notice that they are really pissing me off, as they always spoil the cake when I'm about to plant the flag of victory. My death reason in 75% of all cases a Vile. And yes I know, they actually ARE meant to be powerful, but now they're really TOO powerful. Please change that... thanks =)
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Potman on July 09, 2008, 14:30
Just make them only be able to resurrect monsters adjacent to them, and they're fine.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: ParaSait on July 09, 2008, 15:22
What do you mean with "Adjacent"? The space directly next to them or, for example, 5 spaces away?
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Luksa on July 09, 2008, 15:31
heh. I find them one of the funniest creatures in Hell... because I usually turn my tail between my legs and run away as soon as I see them. Or better I use Rocket launcher or something that keeps them as far away as possible from me.

If they happen to be behind a door and I open them, then I usually greet them with a nice shot from Plasma/shotgun.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Titt on July 09, 2008, 18:37
Archviles are very dangerous, definitely the most dangerous enemy that you see in the game before the Phobos Arena, but I think they work very well in the game as it is--beating Ao100 on M difficulty, for instance, would actually be much easier if Archviles were toned down, because for the last 40 or so levels, on each level your main threat is the Archviles and your highest priority is to locate and kill the Archviles. This makes the game way more strategic than it would otherwise be, and actually much more strategic than almost any other situation in any Roguelike game at all--you have to carefully adapt to your surroundings, the walls and doors and layout of the particular level you are on, in order to stay behind cover and avoid taking fire from monsters which you effectively can't kill because of a nearby Archvile; halfway through Ao100 you have enough equipment, weapons, and traits that you're basically a killing machine, but you can't afford to take sustained fire from a bunch of monsters while you race past them to get to an Archvile behind them. So you have to be careful and sometimes very clever, finding ways to locate and kill the Archviles first, and then cleaning up the remaining monsters (which is usually pretty easy, once the Archviles are gone). I think this is a big part of why Ao100 is such a great challenge.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Titt on July 09, 2008, 18:43
Their ability to rapidly, repeatedly resurrect monsters at a distance is also the basis for the trick where you kill a former captain near an Archvile which is out of your LOS, let the Archvile resurrect the former captain and then kill the former captain again, and repeat the process several times, until the Archvile gets close enough to start attacking you directly (and then you kill it). This is sometimes a very risky trick but it nets you a huge amount of 10mm ammo which sometimes is a lifesaver when in Hell and 10mm ammo is scarce. Toning down the Archviles' resurrection ability might make this trick more difficult or impossible to do, which would be a shame, as it's a neat trick--very few Roguelikes have interesting enough behavior to produce these kinds of off-the-wall tricks, Nethack and ADOM being the only others I can think of right now.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Psion on July 11, 2008, 13:34
That's some serious sorcery!  It can raise the dead and create ammo from thin air.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Darkwaterotter on July 11, 2008, 13:42
and it always seems to me at least that an ass lode of enemies are always spawned right next to it
like five former humans and three former captains and a former commando
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: TFoN on July 12, 2008, 19:06
Titt - ever used the Horn of Geryon to block a raging Executioner? Please give Crawl the respect it's due :)

In loving memory of Typhon, the lvl 25 Mummy Sorcerer, who was slaughtering the minions of Ereshkigal when he came to an untimely (final) death, slipping on a banana peel. We miss him dearly - the Hell curse did not.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Titt on July 12, 2008, 21:33
Death by slipping on a banana peel is something I have only experienced in IVAN, despite many games of the Stone Soup branch of Crawl. Crawl is a really wonderful game, you're right, and I think it's the first example of what I hope will be a "next generation" of roguelikes--any roguelike with large levels populated only sparsely with monsters, like Nethack or Incursion (but not DoomRL) now seems to me to be missing something if it lacks the auto-explore command that Crawl has. I hope that auto-explore and the excellent map system from Crawl will become a standard feature in all "large" roguelikes.
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: ParaSait on August 05, 2008, 06:44
Argh those frickin' Archviles got me again! It's not fair!! I was playing an AoMr with fully modded pistols 3*SoG, 3*SoB (So maximum damage!) and 1*Badass. And then I was spawned in an Arena level with 3 Archviles, each surrounded by former humans and they ruined it all! They're really pissing me off >=[
Title: Re: About Arch-Viles
Post by: Elnar on August 08, 2008, 17:17
Quote
I was playing an AoMr with fully modded pistols 3*SoG, 3*SoB (So maximum damage!)
Versus Arch-viles firing speed is better than damage.