v0.04 released. Lots of tweaks, plus new sprites.
I thought I'd comment specifically on the base encumbrance changes. So, base encumbrance should be related to how much energy you have to spend to move yourself around. We'll use humans as a baseline. They have base encumbrance 3, generally, and have a certain amount of strength relative to their mass. (In game terms, this is roughly saying they have a particular strength to size ratio - 10 : 2).
Now, as strength to mass improves, less exertion is required to move yourself because that mass isn't as significant relative to your strength. So Bandar, who have a higher strength to size ratio (16 : 3 is only slightly better, but remember that Bandar are actually intermediate between size 2-3, since they're smaller than all other size 3 creatures in the game, so they're more accurately a 2.5), should be less encumbered than a human. Now, the base encumrance scale isn't especially finely divided, so its a judgement call whether this actually warrants dropping to a base enc of 2, but since Bandar aren't exactly spectacular units, I felt it was suitable and might make them more appealing.
Now, anyone who knows anything about scaling in biology knows that given an identical bodyplan that's simply scaled in size (say Giants are scaled up humans), the muscle strength scales as L^2 but the body mass scales as L^3. (L for a human-type individual is height). Remember we cared about strength to mass scaling? Since mass grows faster than strength, giants should actually be more encumbered than humans! But does the game agree with us? Consider the Niefl Giant. Str 25, size 5. Well, the game actually thinks he's got the same relative strength as a human. So why do size 5-6 Giants uniformly have base encumbrance of 2?
And of course, giant units have been rather problematic from a game balance perspective. A large part of the problem is they have base encumbrance 2, which tends to mean an E9 bless lets any large sacred giant be fatigue neutral. Combined with their generally good to great protection and large sack of hp, this leads to them being 'too good'. So for reasons of both internal consistency (relative strength as measured by the game) and game balance, virtually all recruitable giant units have had their base encumbrance set to 3. (The Yomi Dai Oni hasn't because its a demon, and all Oni have base encumbrance 1, so there seems to be some internal Oni (and possibly Demon) logic at work here. Its also not a particular balance concern at this time. So I left it as it was).
For completeness sake, do note that apes, giants, and humans are all roughly comparable because they share the same body plan. The Naga has a vastly more efficient bodyplan from a muscle strength point of view (the snake form is remarkably efficient), and can't be compared directly by game numbers to justify the change. (Although if we assume naga actually have muscles, the change is certainly justified. And it might cause people to actually use those patala sacreds...).
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