[CF-Devel] polymorph - worst exploit ever

[Andreas Vogl]

Mark W. wrote:

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      > o Polymorph items: [...]
     
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      Looking at the code, there is a major bug in it.  Instead of new
     
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      items having less value than the old value, it checks to see if the
     
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      new item value is greater than the old value.  That is a one character
     
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      change, and should fix that problem.
     
     
Fixing that is good, but it's not enough IMHO. Things like a
lava-slasher aren't of higher value than other artifacts.
Transforming a Chaos-Sword into a lava-slasher is still bad.
Nobody ever used polymorph on items for other than abuse.
You would need to specify TONS of special exceptions to define
a "fair" trade of one item into another. Comparing the value
only is not enough.
I say: Disable polymorph on items. As a mapmaker, it makes me
have nightmares.

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      > o Polymorph monsters: [...]
     
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      Currently, monsters get no saving throw - they are transformed.
     
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      That is obviously wrong.  A monster should get a saving throw as
     
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      well as bonuses for magic resistance.  That alone may make it
     
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      impossible to polymorph very powerful monsters.
     
     
Make all monsters above level 20 immune to polymorph. That, and
nothing less, would seem acceptible to me. Transforming high level
monsters is *always* bad. When I design a map, I want to rely on the
fact that a player must really fight the monsters I put in.
It is silly if a player can change the monsters to meet his personal
favour. And like with artifacts<->value it's impossible to determine
the true strenght of a monster just by looking at it's level!

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      > o Polymorph generators:
     
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      Do postmen generators exist?
     
     
Yes.

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      It would not be hard to remove the ability to polymorph fog,
     
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      but this doesn't help with respect to other generators.  More so,
     
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      this can be a problem - you could polymorph a wyvern generator in a
     
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      tight space such that you know the wyverns created are trapped and
     
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      use whatever skills in relative safely to knock them off.
     
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      Perhaps removing the ability to polymorph generators might be the
     
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      best balancing change for this?
     
     
Great, I've got nothing to add here =))
Except that the points above should be considered as well.


In general I have to say I see no point in spending massive amounts of
work to improve the polymorph code. Even if we managed to have a totally
balanced and fair polymorph-spell, it would still be invain since
nobody would use it then. That spell is only interesting for players
as long as they can cheat with it.
I know that the idea of removing (or at least crippling) a feature
might not cause enthusiasm, but in this case it seems neccessary.


Andreas V.