egoless win

[PowerDiver]

I've been playing based off of V r2041 where I changed object creation to disable egos as described in http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=3616. Each game I got a bit further, and I've finally won, ladder dump http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10718.

I think what got me over the hump was when I decided not to use ESP at all. I seemed to depend upon it too much, and screwed up when I played with it and then removed it.

I avoided all of the abuses I tend to rant about, except I did allow myself to cast create doors 1 time per DL. That was on the first move on a new level, with the 1 exception that I held off to place it more carefully before fighting M.

[Derakon]

Holy cow, congratulations! That's seriously impressive.

How much of an issue was blindness/confusion? Blindness in particular would seem to be the main factor for choosing a dwarf priest vs. a high-elf mage.

[PowerDiver]

How much of an issue was blindness/confusion?

Confusion was no big deal. Blindness from darkness was an issue. Against big darkness breathers, one option is to swap in pseudo DSM. Banishment works well too. Even when I had 0% fail, I carried rods of teleport other and/or staves of destruction for defense in case of being blinded.

One point is that against major foes, I'd use ranged attacks from a corner in a corridor. If they breathe to blind, step out of LOS and then quaff a potion. You don't want them to get too close, but that is what rift is for.

[Nick]

That's amazing. I like your high resist pane

Clearly DSMs now need to be redefined as egos...

[Timo Pietilä]

I've been playing based off of V r2041 where I changed object creation to disable egos as described in http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showthread.php?t=3616. Each game I got a bit further, and I've finally won, ladder dump http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=10718.

No weapons? Was this purely spell/devices-only win? Pretty fast too, only 1.6M turns. Especially lack of HXbow surprises me. x4 with mithril or seeker bolts is still something like 100 points of damage / hit even without slays or ego.

Funny collection of items including this:

g) 35 Rods of Detection {@z9} .

Why did you carry salt water? Or should I say that many salt water potions?

Congrats for win. I guess I should continue my game now too...or not. Maybe I should try dwarf warrior and see if I can manage to survive by high-HP and good melee only. Somehow I find that less complicated approach more fun.

[Derakon]

The salt water was to counteract bloating from quaffing potions. I have occasionally wished that I could tell my character to shove a finger down his throat...

Given the low strength of mages, keeping weight down is important. Paying 20 pounds for a launcher and then 5-10 more for ammo cuts down seriously on the amount of other gear you can carry, and if devices and spells can cover, then there's no need to carry a secondary offense.

[PowerDiver]

No weapons? Was this purely spell/devices-only win? Pretty fast too, only 1.6M turns. Especially lack of HXbow surprises me. x4 with mithril or seeker bolts is still something like 100 points of damage / hit even without slays or ego.

Funny collection of items including this:

g) 35 Rods of Detection {@z9} .

Why did you carry salt water? Or should I say that many salt water potions?

It was mostly spells and devices. I used oil at the beginning, and carried a longbow from DL14/103Kturns to DL36/246Kturns but I didn't use it much.

I wielded a BoC for a long while for chaos resist, and a shovel before that. I meleed wimps occasionally by accident or if they were in the way and I thought they'd die in 1 round.

I was seriously mistaken about the threat posed by M. I overprepped for the final battle by at least a factor of 20. I collected the salt water while scumming for mushrooms or terror, and kept them all because I don't know how much food potions of life etc do, and for some reason I thought I would use a lot of healing. Also, a slot is a slot, so why not keep them all?

For a long time I used the amulet of magi+4 for 0% fail and wielded acid-ignore armor in every slot except the elven cloak, but I had to get below 180lb vs M in the final dump.

I carried a minimum of 6 rods of detection. They show objects, and also playing without ESP I used them repeatedly. When I was scumming for mushrooms [lots of teleportation and stairs] I carried them all, and once actually managed to get them all charging, though I probably used 5 or 10 charges targetting snagas or something before that happened.

[bron]

Very nice! Congratulations! One question: as I followed your progress on the ladder, I noticed you managed to keep your Drain Life wands pretty much fully charged (i.e. charges at about 5x the number of wands). Is there some secret to successful recharging that I don't know? Or did you just end up not using them very much?

Congrats again! Maybe someday I'll make it there myself ...

[PowerDiver]

Very nice! Congratulations! One question: as I followed your progress on the ladder, I noticed you managed to keep your Drain Life wands pretty much fully charged (i.e. charges at about 5x the number of wands). Is there some secret to successful recharging that I don't know? Or did you just end up not using them very much?

I used them a lot. I tried to use them up entirely before returning to town, then dropped and recharged each one with 0 charges individually. Whether I recharged in town or in the dugeon prior to recall depended upon whether the turn counter had passed the 10K multiple for store restocking.

That should average 3 to 4 charges per wand. Maybe I tended to pick up a couple in the dungeon after recharge clearing pits? I tended to return home after most pits. Obviously then I had to recharge prior to sorting loot.

Speaking of which, recharge should change to add the typical number of charges found on the device, be it 15 for _id or 2 for _magi, instead of usually giving 3 or 4 in both cases.

[fizzix]

Speaking of which, recharge should change to add the typical number of charges found on the device, be it 15 for _id or 2 for _magi, instead of usually giving 3 or 4 in both cases.

I agree with this. Drain charges should do the same.