Pre-release 9 is now avaliable

[SirTheta]

eating also works. (easier to change equipment, but figured I'd mention it)

[grobblewobble]

Magic mapping no longer works on the bottom level of the minotaur maze.

Rewards I got for completing the maze:

1 Axe of the minotaur emperor, now boosted to (+12, 4d20 +16)
1 random artifact (silver arrow)
4 PoCC
6 PoGA
1 potion of strength
3 spellbooks (burning hands, darkness, disarm traps)

[SirTheta]

Those rewards are pretty damn excellent, but as I noted in the RFE: "If you beef up the rewards, it will make it disproportionately favor spellcasters, who can easily access the MM scrolls from BUGCAV, or the spell itself. (plus easy access to teleport)." At the moment, a Wizard of any elf class (and assuredly others) could easily wind up with [much] more To than an elf beastfighter or barbarian by expending a little effort doing the maze, which is now extremely hard for non-magic classes. sigh.

[_Ln_]

Suddenly I want to go there.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Those rewards are pretty damn excellent, but as I noted in the RFE: "If you beef up the rewards, it will make it disproportionately favor spellcasters, who can easily access the MM scrolls from BUGCAV, or the spell itself. (plus easy access to teleport)." At the moment, a Wizard of any elf class (and assuredly others) could easily wind up with [much] more To than an elf beastfighter or barbarian by expending a little effort doing the maze, which is now extremely hard for non-magic classes. sigh.

Well, let's see how it goes, and if after some time it turns out that every wizard goes there, we can request a nerf. Better that than doing a "meh"-style change that wouldn't make people want to attempt the maze.

Anyway, I think a nerf won't be needed. The Library is amazing for wizards and most don't go because it's dangerous. The maze is much more dangerous. And wizard's probably aren't going to use the axe much, only the PoGA's, whereas melee classes are going to get (and use) the most powerful weapon in the game.

I like this change.

[Grey]

Extra 10 damage on the axe is pretty snazzy. For wizards the path is easier but the reward is less relevant. For warriors the path is hard and the reward is glorious. All is well from my perspective.

[SirTheta]

imo, the reward is just as relevant, if not more, for wizards & such, esp. with the change to how stat potentials work. Plus, three random spellbooks can't hurt.

edit: The Maze is not as dangerous as the Library, imo [especially for spellcasters]. One of the reasons the library is so dangerous isn't because of the monsters (well, it is, but...), but because of the limited inventory you can bring in if you don't want to break things. Sure, the same applies for the maze, but once you've explored a little bit, it's not nearly as bad.

edit2: also the maze monsters are a known quantity, and if you have stun ray [a pretty common spell], nothing can hurt you. the library on the other hand, is much more dangerous.

[Grey]

Oh, just noticed the 6 PoGA. Yeah, that's a bit too awesome :/ Should only be one I'd say.

[Aielyn]

edit: The Maze is not as dangerous as the Library, imo [especially for spellcasters]. One of the reasons the library is so dangerous isn't because of the monsters (well, it is, but...), but because of the limited inventory you can bring in if you don't want to break things. Sure, the same applies for the maze, but once you've explored a little bit, it's not nearly as bad.

Wasn't the guaranteed item damage when entering the rift fixed in a recent pre-release? I thought that it turned out that "you always fall at least once" turned out to be a bug.

[grobblewobble]

The babbling mouth corruption blocks the unicorn quest. Could be a very nasty surprise if you didn't count on it.