The Speed System
Speed is one of the most important character (and monster) attributes
in the game; but it works in complicated and at times unintuitive ways.
Player and monster speeds can be displayed in either of two formats: as
raw speeds like -10, +0 or +10, where +0 is normal speed; or as energy
multipliers (effective speeds) such as 0.5x, 1.0x and 2.0x, where 1.0x
is normal speed. The effective_speed display option (see [a]) toggles
between these display methods; effective speeds are the default in
Beginner Mode (they help explain to new players the practical meaning
of an otherwise obscure number), while raw speeds are the overall
default and what most experienced players are accustomed to.
For new players it should be enough to read the quick overview below;
the subsequent sections are highly technical, and explain the inner
workings of the speed system.
Quick Overview for Newbies
Speed is hugely important, especially in the early game. More speed
means you get more turns compared to everybody else, whatever it is you
are doing - walking, fighting, zapping devices, or just standing there
taking way more punishment than you'd like. Often, replacing a damage
item with a speed item not only improves your speed, it effectively
also improves your damage output - yes, you might do less damage per
turn, but you also get more turns to deal damage in!
Potions of Speed, which provide a temporary +10 speed bonus, are your
first and most important source of extra speed when you are getting
started. Going from +0 speed to +10 speed doubles your effective speed,
which needless to say makes an enormous difference! Potions of Speed
are not particularly rare, so use them freely, but not too freely -
unless you have a very large pile of them, it is best to save them for
situations where you really want to take on a particularly dangerous
monster (quests and dungeon boss fights come to mind!), and for sudden
emergencies like confusion lock ([b]).
Up to a raw speed of +26, the effects of extra speed are linear - +0 is
1.0x, +1 is 1.1x, +2 is 1.2x, +5 is 1.5x, +10 is 2.0x and so on. This
already means the returns for having more speed are diminishing: the
move from +0 to +10 (1.0x to 2.0x) doubles your speed, but +10 to +20
(2.0x to 3.0x) is only a 50% increase. After +26/3.6x, though, the
returns become even more diminishing - in fact, +27 is still 3.6x, the
extra +1 speed does nothing! +28 does give you 3.7x speed, and piling
on enough additional bonuses can eventually take you as high as
+70/4.9x, the highest effective speed possible.
If a monster is faster than you, it will occasionally get two moves in
a row against you; this is commonly known as a double-move, and is
often very dangerous. An extremely fast monster might even triple-move
or quadruple-move you! Of course, if you are faster than a monster, you
can turn the tables...
The practical effects of speed are somewhat random, so you might
occasionally be double-moved by a monster who is technically slower
than you, or in turn double-move a monster faster than you are.
Despite the high importance of speed, it is not the be all and end all;
you may want to compromise your speed to keep key resistances covered,
to get your stats up, or to equip a weapon with extremely high damage;
and Potions of Speed and other sources of temporary speed provide a lot
of help when it matters the most.
Technical Explanation
This and the following sections cover the energy
system, a very advanced topic, and largely consist of
detailed, highly technical explanations of why all the
easily understandable explanations given elsewhere are
oversimplified. Full understanding of the energy system
is in no way required to play and enjoy the game.
Almost every action you take in the game - walking, casting a spell,
hitting a monster, drinking a potion, refueling a lamp - consumes a
certain amount of energy. Most actions eat up exactly 100 energy, and
so actions that cost 100 energy are frequently glossed as costing "1
turn" while 200 energy is "2 turns" (and 50 energy is "half a turn");
this is technically inaccurate in more than one way, but still explains
the practical difference nicely.
Actions themselves are instantaneous - it is recovering the lost energy
that takes time. This is where speed comes in. A speed of +0 (1.0x)
means you recover 10 * 1.0 = 10 energy per game turn; a speed of
+20/3.0x means you recover 10 * 3.0 = 30 energy per game turn. The
usual action cost being 100 energy, it will take many game turns of
silent energy recovery until you get another player turn - but monsters
might spend those game turns doing something else besides...
The table below shows every possible speed from -50 to +99, and the
energy recovery per game turn for each, indicated in blue. (There is no
underlying formula - the game is looking at the same table you are.)
Note the linearity of the table between -3/0.7x and +26/3.6x; most of
the game will be spent within this linear range.
Speed/Energy Conversion Table
-50 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 -41
-40 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 -31
-30 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3 -21
-20 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 -11
-10 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9 -1
+0 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 +9
+10 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 +19
+20 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 36, 37, 37 +29
+30 38, 38, 39, 39, 40, 40, 40, 41, 41, 41 +39
+40 42, 42, 42, 43, 43, 43, 44, 44, 44, 44 +49
+50 45, 45, 45, 45, 45, 46, 46, 46, 46, 46 +59
+60 47, 47, 47, 47, 47, 48, 48, 48, 48, 48 +69
+70 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49 +79
+80 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49 +89
+90 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49, 49 +99
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Energy Randomness
The energy costs of all actions are somewhat random. Walking 1 square,
for example, nominally costs 100 energy; but on any one occasion, the
cost might be as low as 67 energy if you are really lucky, or as high
as 133 if you are unlucky. This sounds like a very large range, but it
generally feels much narrower in play; the cost will usually stick
fairly close to the nominal value, and even when it wanders off to the
upper or lower limits, the practical effect is usually small enough to
not be noticed by the player. The randomness is also more limited at
higher speeds. Nevertheless, every once in a while it does make itself
very noticeable in an extremely painful way...
Energy randomness has two important effects on the game. It greatly
reduces the effectiveness of pillardancing, monster kiting and other
old Angband strategies that rely on an enemy doing what you expect when
you expect it. It also increases the frequency and unpredictability of
double-moves, and means you can be double-moved by a monster nominally
slower than you. For such a double-move to not just occur but occur in
a way that really hurts you, you will have to be very, very unlucky -
but it's a long game with many opportunities for bad luck to hit you...
The double-move threat can be handled in any (or all) of several ways:
you can pile on more and more speed to reduce the frequency of monster
double-moves; you can invest in hit points and resistances (and heal
yourself as early as reasonable) to make the double-moves that happen
more survivable; you can try to keep fights against potentially deadly
double-movers to the absolute minimum; or you can simply accept the
non-zero but low risk of death, and count on it not happening; such
brave play can even help indirectly by allowing faster progress.
Energy Cost of Actions
While most player (and monster) actions consume 100 energy before
randomness is accounted for, this rule is by no means universal.
Walking into a normal square might only cost 100 energy; but walking
into a tree square consumes 200 energy because you have to find your
path and dodge all those low-hanging branches. (Levitating players, and
a few races like Ents and Centaurs who feel particularly at home in
forests, can move in wooded areas at normal speed.) Likewise, for most
races walking in snowy areas without Levitation consumes 133 energy at
a minimum - more if you are badly overburdened and get bogged down in
the snow. The good news is that monsters receive similar penalties!
The action cost of archery depends on how many shots you get per round;
if you have 1.6 shots per round, that simply means each individual shot
only consumes 100 / 1.6 = 62 energy (and so you would be at less risk
of a nasty double-move while shooting!). Note that melee blows do not
work in the analogous way; a turn of melee always consumes a nominal
100 energy, except in the special situation where a Beorning in bear
form, a Berserker or a character with the Fantastic Frenzy demigod
talent kills a monster in the middle of the round.
Some spells and class powers have special action costs, costing less
(or more commonly more!) than the standard 100 energy. Changing shape
as a Beorning, for example, costs 200 energy; and Hounds can activate
the Stalk toggle without any energy cost at all.
Even the cost of common actions like walking and book spellcasting is
not completely fixed. The Fleet of Foot demigod talent ([c]) reduces
the energy cost of walking by 40% (from 100 to 60); Quick Walk on
Ninjas (and Ninja-Lawyers) is even more effective. Yellow-Mages can
cast spells extremely rapidly, consuming far less than 100 energy per
spell; Yeqrezh Disciples with the Quick Spelling gift can also cast
spells rapidly, though not as fast as Yellow-Mages. Devicemasters can
use their speciality devices in less than a full turn.
Temporary Haste and Slowness
Temporary effects can make you significantly faster or slower.
Temporary speed or haste usually refers to a speed bonus of +10; this
is what Potions of Speed and spells like Haste Self provide. As noted
above, this can double (or potentially more than double) your speed in
the early game! In the late game, when your unhasted base speed is
higher, the effects of temporary speed will be less dramatic; yet it
remains strong enough to be a key part of your toolkit into the latest
parts of the game. Staves of Speed and Rods of Heroic Speed may even
allow you to spend almost the entire endgame hasted.
Temporary slowness is usually caused by monster spells or attacks,
although it can also be induced by other sources like traps, potions
and mutations. It comes in two different forms: a lump penalty of -10
to speed (the opposite of haste), and incremental mini-slowness that
can range from -1 to -10. These two types of slowness partially
combine, for an overall penalty of up to -12 if you are afflicted with
both; see [d] for more detail.
Monster Speed
Monsters use the same speed system players do; they use the same energy
table, they usually consume 100 energy per action (and apply the same
energy randomness formula), they recover energy the same way players
do, they can be temporarily hasted or slowed in the same ways; they
receive similar (though not always identical) energy cost penalties for
certain moves, like entering a tree square without the ability to fly
or pass through obstacles.
One important note, though, is that individual non-unique monsters can
be somewhat faster or slower than the average for their race. If you
are at +2 speed and still getting double-moved by a "+0 speed" hill
orc, you might just be unlucky with the energy randomness... but you
might also be dealing with an unusually fast orc. Probing such a
monster will reveal its individual speed.
Where Do I Get More Speed?
Even with a Rod of Heroic Speed, temporary speed can only take you so
far; sooner or later, you need to get your unhasted base speed up as
well. You might get some speed from your race, class, personality or
mutations; but the most important source of speed bonuses will always
be your equipment. Rings of Speed, Boots of Speed, and artifacts and
ego items with speed bonuses will eventually take you to +16 (meaning
+26 hasted!) and most likely well beyond.
Speed items, like most items, can drop anywhere; but if you desperately
need a speed item specifically, there are three good places to look.
The Cloning Pits quest is fairly dangerous, and its rewards are random
within limits; but quite often the reward will be a pair of valuable
artifact boots with a speed bonus on it. The Underground City quest is
even more dangerous, but a Ring of Speed is guaranteed to appear there,
and is often stronger than other speed rings at the same depth.
Finally, there is a jeweller in the town of Zul who sells rings and
amulets, often including Rings of Speed and sometimes an Amulet of
Trickery with speed bonuses. He might even bring out new merchandise if
you pay him enough!
Note that if you ride a pet, your speed (for all purposes!) will depend
entirely on your Riding skill and the speed of your mount. Speed
equipment will not help you any, nor will quaffing a Potion of Speed;
you can, however, temporarily haste the mount. Many mounts are very
fast, allowing you to reach a high speed without much investment in
speed equipment - but watch out, that could come back to bite you if
you get thrown off...
Overburdening
You can only carry so much weight without it slowing you down; and
overburdening is the bane of speed, especially for early-game
characters with low Strength.
Your burden limit ranges from 50 pounds at minimum STR to 195 pounds at
maximum STR; and all carried objects - your inventory items, your
equipment, the projectiles in your quiver, even the ice bag and
infusions of an Igor Alchemist - count towards that limit. The i Show
Inventory command (and the closely related e Show Equipment command)
include a line showing the total weight of all items presently carried,
and how it compares (as a percentage) to the maximum capacity. If the
percentage exceeds 100, you are overburdened.
Mild overburdening does not actually affect your speed at all (although
it will cause you to drown in deep water if you lack Levitation). The
first -1 to speed kicks in at 120% of capacity, with another -1 for
every additional 20 percentage points. This doesn't sound too bad (and
mostly isn't!), but in the early game it can get very severe. The most
common cause of truly major overburdening is exceptionally heavy quest
loot (in which case the quest is hopefully over, and you can soon sell
the loot or drop it at home); but unexpected severe overburdening can
also happen if you spend too much time around strength-drainers...
Riding characters have special burden limits, which depend on their
Riding proficiency and the level of the mount.
Speed Display
Unless your speed is exactly +0, it will be displayed in the main
screen sidebar, below the hit points, spell points and various
health/status bars.
The coloring of the sidebar speed display varies depending on your
status. The examples below show raw speeds, but the same colors are
used to display effective speed:
Fast (+43) Player is temporarily hasted
Fast (+43) Player is riding a hasted mount
Fast (+33) Player is faster than +0, but not slowed or hasted
Fast (+33) Mount is faster than +0, but not slowed or hasted
Fast (+23) Player is temporarily slowed or riding a slowed mount
Fast (+33) Player is temporarily hasted and slowed in equal amounts
Fast (+21) Player is filibustering (Politicians only)
Slow (-3) Player is slower than +0, but not slowed or hasted
Slow (-3) Mount is slower than +0, but not slowed or hasted
As noted at the top of this document, speed displays can show either
the raw speed or the energy multiplier (effective speed). Both display
methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Raw speed is affected
by bonuses and maluses in intuitive ways - if you start with +2 speed
and add a -10 penalty, you end up with -8 speed. What it doesn't tell
you, though, is what -8 speed actually means! Effective speed will tell
you the -10 penalty took you from 1.2x speed to 0.5x speed - your speed
was cut in less than half! - which is important practical information;
but it leaves it quite mysterious why a speed of 1.2x plus a -10
penalty should add up to a speed of 0.5x. While only one display method
is used at a given time, it helps to understand both, as each is
explained by the other.
A slightly different speed display appears near the top of your
Character Sheet; this display uses generally similar coloring, but
shows the base speed and temporary effects separately. It is also the
only speed display in the game that always displays the raw speed; if
you otherwise you effective speeds, it is the other place (besides the
[e] conversion table above) that will tell you what your raw speed is.
Duration of Timed Effects
There is a fundamental disconnect between game turns and player turns.
In the early game, with actions costing 100 energy and the player (at
+0 speed) recovering 10 energy per game turn, there are on average 10
game turns to each player turn... but that discounts energy randomness,
and not all actions have the same cost! Walk into a tree and you have
20 game turns to a player turn; quaff a potion of speed and you have
only 5 game turns to a player turn; sleep for the night at the inn, and
40,000 game turns might go by in the blink of an eye.
Game turns are when the game processes the player, the monsters, and
everything else; but it is also possible to think of a game turn as a
fixed unit of time. Indeed, game dates and the day-night cycle are
based entirely on the game turn as the underlying unit, with 100,000
game turns corresponding to 24 hours.
A player turn, on the other hand, does not represent any fixed amount
of time; it is simply an opportunity to do things and to consume
energy, which itself cannot be directly converted to either game turns
or player turns.
This disconnect is the key to understanding durations and why they
sometimes work in unintuitive ways. Durations usually correspond to a
fixed amount of time, and so do not correspond to a fixed amount of
player turns; a duration of "25 turns" actually means 250 game turns,
which is 25 "average" player turns at +0 speed, but could easily mean
100 actual player turns by the endgame.
Some oddball timed effects are decremented on player turns rather than
on every tenth game turn, and so their durations correspond to player
turns and not time. Effects of this type include temporary Light Speed
and the No Spells status. For all other effects you can safely assume
that any durations displayed use a unit of 10 game turns.
Wounds and the poison counter are processed once per player turn, the
poison counter being fully independent of time. (Wound damage adjusts
for time, so the total cut damage suffered is ultimately the same over
a fixed amount of time rather than a fixed amount of player turns.)
Original : FrogComposband 7.1.salmiak