Livestreaming Sil next Saturday.

[Tobias]

So, me and some friends have a regular 24-hour livestream marathon.

This time I intend to play sil for my turn.
I have barely played sil until now, so I would appreciate if some veterans of the game help me out on some hard spots.

Also, while I prefer them, true rougelike tend to look a bit confusing after stream compression. So if one of better tilesets got ported to sil, I would be using it. But it didn't look like there is one. Please tell me if I am wrong.

location: twitch.tv/tonberrytoby at Saturday 15:00 CET
for the whole marathon go to : http://voltronarmy.com/tv

[Scatha]

You're right that there isn't yet proper tile support for Sil.

You may well have thought of this already, but I thought I'd point out that you could partially alleviate the problem by using one of the bold-ish sans-serif fonts and turning your screen resolution down.

[HallucinationMushroom]

Hey cool. I guess I'm way behind the times, but I didn't realize people did stuff like this. I'll try to get it to work and check out your game after the Liverpool match. I don't think I'd be able to offer much help, but I'd like to sort of sit in the stands and cheer when the heads roll.

[Scatha]

Hi, I had a look at your video. I'm sorry you found the start of the game too hard.

I'm a bit confused, though. You said you'd played the tutorial, but you didn't seem to know how Smithing and Song worked (or more generally about the existence of Abilities), both of which are explained in the tutorial. Did you just look at the start of the tutorial and conclude it only contained things you knew already from Angband?

In fact you seemed to make several assumptions about the game being close to Angband which were incorrect:
- You're not trying to kill Morgoth (but to steal a Silmaril)
- The races aren't balanced against each other: the Noldor are the easiest
- You don't learn Songs from books (but from the Ability menu, with exp.)
- There is no town (I see you discovered this one!)
(- You misdescribed how up staircases work, but I think this was an understandable mistake)

All of this said, the video was actually kind of useful to see how people might just dive into the game, what they can get wrong, and to try to think of things which could make it easier for them to pick up. Thanks for taking the time to do this, and I hope that if you give the game another try some time (perhaps with more points in melee and evasion! Working out how to deal with groups of orc soldiers is a good first step) you'll find it less frustrating. The game is somewhat cruel, but it's prepared to put it right at the start: when you learn how to deal with the start you will be in a better position to go forward.

[Tobias]

Hi, I had a look at your video. I'm sorry you found the start of the game too hard.

I'm a bit confused, though. You said you'd played the tutorial, but you didn't seem to know how Smithing and Song worked (or more generally about the existence of Abilities), both of which are explained in the tutorial. Did you just look at the start of the tutorial and conclude it only contained things you knew already from Angband?

In fact you seemed to make several assumptions about the game being close to Angband which were incorrect:
- You're not trying to kill Morgoth (but to steal a Silmaril)
- The races aren't balanced against each other: the Noldor are the easiest
- You don't learn Songs from books (but from the Ability menu, with exp.)
- There is no town (I see you discovered this one!)
(- You misdescribed how up staircases work, but I think this was an understandable mistake)

All of this said, the video was actually kind of useful to see how people might just dive into the game, what they can get wrong, and to try to think of things which could make it easier for them to pick up. Thanks for taking the time to do this, and I hope that if you give the game another try some time (perhaps with more points in melee and evasion! Working out how to deal with groups of orc soldiers is a good first step) you'll find it less frustrating. The game is somewhat cruel, but it's prepared to put it right at the start: when you learn how to deal with the start you will be in a better position to go forward.

I played the whole tutorial. But it was more then a week before the stream. Maybe I should have gone through it once more beforehand.

And I didn't really understand how to learn songs from there. From what I understood smithing requires you to stumble onto an anvil in the dungeon.

What did I get wrong about the stairs? Does going up send you down instead of sideways?

In general, I don't think my preferred style of play is suited for a game where there is no town. So I doubt I will try again, unless I am really bored.

[HallucinationMushroom]

I showed up to this too late... I did see you jousting something, with graphics! I didn't realize I could watch the video after-the-fact -- I really am behind on the tech. Anyway, I'll try to stop by and watch another sometime, that was really neat. I watch some youtube replays but the whole live bit is cool.

[Scatha]

I played the whole tutorial. But it was more then a week before the stream. Maybe I should have gone through it once more beforehand.

And I didn't really understand how to learn songs from there. From what I understood smithing requires you to stumble onto an anvil in the dungeon.

What did I get wrong about the stairs? Does going up send you down instead of sideways?

In general, I don't think my preferred style of play is suited for a game where there is no town. So I doubt I will try again, unless I am really bored.

Songs and Smithing require abilities purchased with experience from the ability menu (tab). You're right that smithing also requires you to find a forge.

Using an up stairs can actually take you up, down, or sideways. There's a minimum depth based on turn count, and you're always forced to at least that depth when generating a new level. It starts out at 50', which is why you can't go up to the Gates when you start.