In my variant, which is based at PWMAngband (which is based at latest V) – I’m adding new ‘monsters’, which will work like an ‘objects’ – barrels, crates, statues, altars, obelics, etc. They will have ~ such config:
name:wooden crate base:hybrid color:y speed:10 hit-points:1 hearing:1 armor-class:0 sleepiness:0 depth:10 rarity:1 weight:0 experience:0 flags:NEVER_BLOW flags:FORCE_SLEEP | NEVER_MOVE | STUPID | EMPTY_MIND flags:COLD_BLOOD flags:NO_CONF | NO_SLEEP | NO_FEAR | DROP_40 desc:Crude old wooden crate. Small beetle sits on it's lid.
So you could smash them and get a treasure (sometimes).
It’s cool, but there are some problems come with such implementation:
1) as this objects appears as ‘monster’ – they interfere with monster’s population and exp gain in the dungeon; they take place of regular monsters which breaks game balance a bit
2) it’s not possible to assign to this objects some interesting effects. For example, barrel could explore (mmm.. Diablo barrels), altar could strict you with a lightning, from the crate which you smashed could appear scorpion or snake, etc. And without such effects it’s too EZPZ way to get a treasure, which breaks item/gold income balance.
I see certain workaround with EFFECTS – to assign spells to monster-object (mobject) with very low probability, eg:
spell-freq:100 spell-power:1 spells:S_ANIMAL | S_MONSTER | S_SPIDER
..which together with very small ‘monster’ speed could work somehow. But still, it won’t solve all troubles.. and it’s not possible to bind EFFECTS on monster’s death.
Yet another workaround is to put mobject to deep sleep (255), give him normal speed and spell-freq:1. But it will ruin aggro players, and shrieks will create a real bedlam 😉
It will be great if V devs could consider to create a new type of ‘mobjects’ in V which will not interfere with monsters and will have EFFECT bahaviour – like traps, but no traps 🙂
The minimalitic solution (without adding new ‘mobject’ type) could be just to add new flag to monsters which will generate certain action on monster’s death. It could also enhance some other monsters to good (expoding golems could be fun.. remembering dolls from D2 hehe)..