CF: Gameplay issues and misc stuff

Here are a few random comments related to 0.92.5:

- The new attack code will sometimes produce the same kind of
  unfortunate side effects as the ones I tried to fix in my patch to
  0.92.4: if your weapon is "improved" by getting some god's attack
  type (e.g. weaponmagic and fear for God), it can become useless
  against some monsters.

  Example: I got Mopoon's Dragonbane (very powerful weapon, with dam
  +81).  After having prayed over an altar of God, it received the
  attacks weapon magic and fear.  After that, it always missed the
  acid spheres and some other monsters.  That happens less often than
  with the bug that I fixed in the previous version of the code, but
  sometimes the "best attack type" that is chosen by the new code is
  one to which the monster is immune.

  This also happens if you get the "Essence of Flame" that gives you
  the attack type "fire".  If you wear it, you are unable to hit some
  monsters.  Isn't there a way to fix that?

- The alchemy code, when combined with god intervention, can affect
  play balance (a lot).  Here is how: put four or five cheap objects
  in a cauldron (e.g. one silver coin, one arrow, one food, one booze)
  and use the alchemy spell.  Do that several times and collect the
  items every time.  If you identify them, you will see that all of
  them are cursed.  Now go and pray over an altar, and the curses will
  be removed.  Result: with a few cheap objects, you get several very
  valuable items (you can sell them and get 100 times the value of
  what you originally put in the cauldron).

  Suggestion 1: when generating cursed items, only create items that
  have a lower value (when not cursed) than the total of what is in
  the cauldron.

  Suggestion 2: use the material types to put some limitations on what
  can be created by the cauldron (if we assume that alchemy doesn't
  always mean transmutation).  The material types of the objects
  should be ORed together, then only create new items if all materials
  for the new item can be found in the cauldron.  This would not
  prevent people from "cheating" (so it should be combined with the
  first suggestion), but it will put some limits on what can be done.
  Creating a (cursed) potion of invulnerability from a silver coin, a
  gold coin, a platinium coin and an arrow doesn't seem very realistic
  to me.

- The dragon steaks are not counted as food anymore.  They are much
  lighter than before and have the same "food value", even if they
  taste terrible.  Thus they become more interesting than
  waybreads... except that your character will not eat them
  automatically when the food drops below zero.  Consequence: I was in
  a battle, using a lot of mana (and food for regeneration), and
  suddenly my character died although I was carrying several dragon
  steaks.

- I'm thinking about creating a new skill for smithery (alas, there is
  already a skill with that name and it is powerful enough, so I have
  to find a new name).  It would do the same kind of things as the
  alchemy spell: you drop some weapons and raw materials on an anvil,
  and you use the skill to create a new weapon.  For example, a sword
  combined with ten "potions of cold resistance" would create a sword
  protected from cold.  But this could also affect play balance a lot,
  so I will first wait and see what happens with the alchemy code.

Thanks to Brian Thomas for the patches.

-Raphael