🚀 go-pugleaf

(1) Have dead ghosts leave a "shred of ectoplasm" behind.  Eating this will
make you etherial, raising your AC to equal that of a ghost (-1 ?) and
giving you the ability to walk through walls (as in super-rogue) for
50+d12 turns.  If you are inside a wall when you rematerialize then you
die ("You hear a faint cry of anguish").  You can also go down or up whenever
you'd like during this time.  If this is implemented, might as well throw
in a potion of etherialness too.

(2) Since humans are already in hack, might as well have a wandering monster
human, bandits, either fairly wimpy and occurring in big groups, ala orcs,
or very tough (= to shopkeepers/guards) and appearing only deep in the
dungeon.

(3) I think a major change that should be made to hack (and rogue) is to have
monsters with levels, and wearing and wielding armor and goods just like the
rogue.  This would seem to involve two major pieces of code:

First, the monster creation routine has to be modified to roll up a monster's
level and possessions when he is created.  This shouldn't be too difficult,
just a matter of changing the monster data to indicate the possible range of
levels for each monster and thinking up a reasonable algorithm (so that 14th
level hobgoblins don't show up on level 2).  I think it would be reasonable
to let the monster know what it had (i.e., staff of fire) but not how
many charges, whether or not it was cursed, etc.

Secondly, the routine that decides a monster's actions has to be modified so
that the monster will make use of the goods that he has.  I suggest a set
number of strategies, one of which will be picked for each monster as created,
though some might always have one strategy or the other:

(a) Mean.  This type always uses the best weapon it has (i.e., staff of
fire, missile weapons, etc.), always tries to make best use of what it is
carrying (wears all its armor, ring of + damage, etc.).

(b) Cautious.  This type acts like a normal monster (i.e., hand to hand
attack) until things become desperate, at which point it might try its
wands, etc.

(c) Random.  Picks randomly between its options (which should include
reading scrolls:  "You hit.  The hobgoblin's sword glows green.").

(d) Wimp.  Runs away, only fights when cornered, but then fights as
"Mean" above.  Might drop its treasures as it runs away to distract you.
(This might be a good tactic for the rogue as well, dropping things that
the monsters will pause to pick up.)

You might want to pick between the strategies based on the monster's relative
level.  That is, a 10th level hobgoblin on level 5 of the dungeon might be
Mean, whereas a 3rd level hobgoblin on level 10 would be a wimp, etc.  Note
that these only apply to "intelligent" monsters: CDeGhHiIJKmnQTUVYZz.  I
leave out monsters that already have special behaviors: LNOdEaI.


						-- Scott Turner