CF: more updates soon, comments/votes requested

[David Andrew Michael Noelle <dave@Straylight.org>]

I'm finishing testing on some of the experiments I've been working on,
so I'm asking for comments, suggestions, votes, whatever.

- Portal spell

"invoke portal set" to set a destination where you're standing.  For
maps that are marked "portal safe" and/or unique, the recorded
destination will note that fact to save some checking later.  For
other locations, a duplicate marker is left at the destination.

"invoke portal open" to open a portal in front of you, connected to
the marked destination.  The portal takes a few seconds to form,
depending on the caster's level, lasts for 3 seconds +1 for each level
above the minimum to cast the spell (12), then vanishes.  If the
destination was not marked as being a "portal safe" zone, attempting
to open the portal will check that a) the map has been loaded and b)
the matching destination marker is still there.  If either of these
fails, the destination is invalid, and the spell aborts, deleting the
player's destination marker.

Casting portal without an argument will open a portal if you have a
destination marker, or set the destination if you don't.  Dropping a
"portal stone" on the ground and applying it counts as a "set" and
applying a portal stone that you're holding counts as an "open."


- Word of Recall

Praying at your god's altar sets the destination for Word of Recall to
a random space adjacent to that altar.  If you have not prayed at an
altar, you have no selected destination, so a Word of Recall will
function as it does now and drop you in the middle of Scorn.


- Recoverable drain

After being drained by undead, a potion of restoration will bring your
experience back up to where it was before you were drained.  This will
not lower experience if you have gained more since then than you lost,
and it will only bring experience back up to where it was, not add the
amount you lost.

Experience lost by death is still permanent, and a potion of
restoration will not restore experience if you've died since it was
drained.

Praying at your god's altar also has a chance of restoring experience
in the same way, just as it has a chance of restoring depleted stats.


- Sacred weapons and armour

Each god now has some sacred weapons, one or two forms of armour, and
maybe a bow and/or crossbow.  With this change, divine intervention
(for praying excessively at an altar) has a chance of evoking the
god's blessing on readied equipment that matches an archetype that god
prefers.

A negative magic bonus will be reset to zero, or a non-negative bonus
will be increased by one.  This bonus will only go up to 1/5 of the
player's wisdom experience level.  (Previously, this only applied to
weapons, and applied equally to all weapons.)  Once the object is
magical enough, it may become a sacred artifact of that god, gaining
all the benefits of that artifact type.  Weapons may also gain the
god's attacktype or be enchanted to slay the god's enemies.  (That
part isn't new, either.)


- Hunger and starvation

Instead of costing one food point per hit point or spell point
regenerated, food consumption is doubled while regenerating spell
points and quadrupled while regenerating hit points.  Zero food is no
longer lethal, but -1000 is.  When food drops below zero, a warning is
printed for every food point consumed, and the lower your food gets
below zero, the slower your regeneration gets.

0 .. -249 : "You are hungry." (orange)

-250 .. -499 : "You are very hungry." (red)
Each time this message is displayed, there is also a small chance,
which increases the lower your food gets, that a point of strength or
constitution will be depleted.

-500 .. -749 : "You are starving." (red)
The lower your food drops, the more often you'll be depleted, and now
all stats are included.

-750 .. -999 : "YOU ARE STARVING!" (red)
Stats drop faster and faster and are now accompanied by 1 hp damage.
Regeneration is effectively stopped at this point, even with +regen
magic.  Only high level characters are likely to survive this for
long.

-1000 : "YOU ARE STARVING TO DEATH" (red)
Time's up.  Any stats that aren't already at 1, will be real soon.
Hit points drain quickly.  Nobody survives this for long.  Eat now or
die.


- Magic Recharge

Since nobody has said much of anything about my proposed god of magic,
I'll add him, build a couple temples, and install a special pentagram
in each of his temples which serves as a spell point recharge station.
Simply stand in the center of the pentagram and drop some money.  For
as long as you stand there, with enough money on the floor, and either
your spell points are below maximum or any of your Glowing Crystals
are below maximum, the pentagram will glow and your spell point
regeneration will be increased.  As soon as you and your crystals are
fully charged, or your money runs out, the pentagram deactivates
automatically.  It will also automatically deactivate if you move from
the center of the pentagram, and reactivate when you return, if the
money is still there.

By default, your sp regen rate is doubled for one second for every 20
silver the pentagram eats, (actually, it's 2 ticks for 5 silver) and
each of your Glowing Crystals will be charged 5 points for every point
you regenerate.  These numbers are parameters of the recharge object,
so they can all be set differently for individual recharge stations.


- Magical / Holy "grenades"

The Grenade and Holy Handgrenade spells allow mages and priests to
damage creatures that are otherwise only vulnerable to their pets or
golems.  The Grenade spell magically creates a physical grenade, so
magic immunity doesn't render it harmless like all the other mage
spells.  Holy Handgrenade gets all the usual adjustments of attack
prayers, including the god's attacktype and slaying list, but it's
still basically a physical explosion.  Enemies will be damaged more,
but everything in the area will take damage.  Both spells are
significantly more expensive to cast than any other spell that does a
similar amount of damage.

-- 
            -Dave Noelle,                 dave@Straylight.org
            -the Villa Straylight,  http://www.straylight.org
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