Ok folks, this may be just a gameplay balance question, and it may have been addressed elsewhere for Book1 or Book2, but I sure couldn't find anything searching the forums. Basically, the situation is this (works in Book 1 or Book 2 under Linux.. haven't tried other versions):
- aggravate some enemies at night/in near-darkness
- retreat to position where Hidden in Shadow is indicated, against tree clumps is always good
- flame on the torch
- play whack-a-mole on their heads
- **BUT THEN FLAME OFF THE TORCH BEFORE THEY CAN SWING/HIT**
- laugh as they either miss from huge % penalty or they even just wander about you, not seeing you but still aggravated
- flame on the torch, rinse and repeat.

The base "problem", if it can be classed as such, is that torch on/off status takes no time, and that you can toggle it at any point during the turn.

Sooo... my question really is: Is this _supposed_ to be this way? Am I supposed to have the "Flick Your Bic 'Insta-Torch'" ?

I rather hate to even bring it up, since it's one of my favorite techniques for adventuring beyond where I normally would be "safe" going for a given level.

However, since BW is still wrangling bugs and such for Book2, I thought I would ask. Since he's made equipment swapping take a tick/round of time, I thought this one ought to be fixed (or at least made toggle-able) as well.

Any thoughts? Bueller?

Unless you're having a bug, lighting your torch in Book II definitely takes me a round. However, I think you may not lose the Hidden status until the following round. Not sure about that. As for flicking it off as you swing, that's a consistent issue with pretty much any turn-based engine I think. When you essentially enter two actions at the same time, sometimes you actually get to do both in that turn.

Um, OK. I was more than a little bit puzzled by this statement, and went back and checked both Book1 and Book2. And I found the loophole.

Lighting/extinguishing the torch DOES NOT take a time/round if you use the keyboard 'T' shortcut!

If you use the clickable icon, then indeed the lighting/extinguish triggers a handoff of the turn to the AI.

I haven't tried all of the keyboard shortcuts for the game, but as a programmer I favor the keyboard. Hence I have been using a couple of them all the time.

Sooo.. I suppose my original question remains. Is this a feature, or a bug? Guess it's up to Basilisk Wrangler to decide what to do with it.

I just had a look and can confirm for both Book I and II pressing the shortcut key 't' does not count as a turn, but manually clicking the icon for the burning torch does count as a turn.

Version 1.05 for Book I, and version 1.03 for Book II.

I'm a Mac-head, so I do a lot of clicking. One way taking a turn and the other not taking a turn definitely sounds like a bug, though.

Hmmm.. sounds like the potshots while walking type of bug. If you're fast, you can smack NPCs in the back of the head as they walk away, because the game hasn't registered their movement yet, although the attack counts as if they were in the new square (for lighting purposes and so forth).