tips wanted

[will_asher]

I'm having a better than usual game right now and I could use a few tips.

1) It's the first game where I've found Calris. It seems to me that enchanting arrows is a higher priority than fixing the to-hit penalty on Calris. What do other people think? Or should I shop scum so I can do both?
Also, when I uncurse Calris does it stay uncursed or does the curse ever come back (like if I unwield it and then wield it again)?

2) Is it worth keeping a ring of speed that's only +2 ? Right now I'm thinking the rings I'm wearing are more important (+4 STR and rst-poison).
I recently ditched a +5 ring of intelligence to wear the =rst poison.
The intelligence ring didn't seem to make very much difference in my fail rates.

3) I'm also wondering if it's worth keeping Nimthanc or the lightning branded hammer. The thing that makes me think they might be worth keeping is that Arunruth doesn't have a brand and branded weapons might do more damage.

Here's the dump:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=7476

Since I made the dump, I noticed there was a cloak of the Magi in the black market, so I bought it (the fact that it doesn't get damaged by acid is more attractive than the +1 intelligence). It's random ability is see invisible which isn't that important when I already have telepathy. (Quylthulgs are not invisible in DaJAngband).

EDIT: Ugg. nevermind, I just died. Killed by a new unique with a darkness storm. I thought I had taken darkness storms away from him once I found out how powerful they were. I guess I'll fix that now (and update the download with the change).

EDIT2: The DaJAngband download is now updated. I've taken BA_DARK away from 2 or 3 uniques and 1 or 2 other monsters who shouldn't have had it.

[aeneas]

I'm having a better than usual game right now and I could use a few tips.

OK, I see you're dead, but I have a few general tips for you.

1) It's the first game where I've found Calris. It seems to me that enchanting arrows is a higher priority than fixing the to-hit penalty on Calris. What do other people think? Or should I shop scum so I can do both? Also, when I uncurse Calris does it stay uncursed or does the curse ever come back (like if I unwield it and then wield it again)?

Calris is very nice later on- it really kills dragons. Dragons tend to have a very nice risk-reward ratio. But you won't need Calris to kill them until you start seeing Wyrms. And as a Ranger, if you can find Tenser's first (or a really good bow), you won't need Calris at all. At 1650' I'd stash Calris at home if I were you. I think shop-scumming for anything other than things like arrows or ?Recall is likely to hurt your enjoyment of the game. And the curse won't come back once it's gone.

2) Is it worth keeping a ring of speed that's only +2 ? Right now I'm thinking the rings I'm wearing are more important (+4 STR and rst-poison).
I recently ditched a +5 ring of intelligence to wear the =rst poison.
The intelligence ring didn't seem to make very much difference in my fail rates.

At 1650' the speed ring is better than =RPoison, IMHO. There aren't a lot of big poison attacks at that depth. Around 2000' that changes- small vaults start having big breathers then. =STR is only important if it gets you an extra blow with a nice weapon.

3) I'm also wondering if it's worth keeping Nimthanc or the lightning branded hammer. The thing that makes me think they might be worth keeping is that Arunruth doesn't have a brand and branded weapons might do more damage.

For your character Arunruth is best just because of FA- it frees up a ring slot. I'd sell the others- they aren't good enough to hang onto.

Here's the dump:
... It's random ability is see invisible which isn't that important when I already have telepathy. (Quylthulgs are not invisible in DaJAngband).

Well, I guess this is hard to assess, as it is entirely specific to your mod. In V you would prefer SI at that depth, but.. as a High-Elf you would have it. Even so, it's hard for me to imagine that Magi with SI is not better than a normal cloak.

The main thing I notice in your dump is that you spent over 4 million turns getting to 1650'. That's _insane_. I mean, yeah, the game should support all styles of play, blah, blah, blah, but... seriously, that's nuts. You ought to try to cut that by 90% just as a start (1650' at 400k turns is still pretty slow without quests, etc.) You won't get better at the game if you don't, but more importantly for your mod, you won't be able to understand balance if you don't.

[Pete Mack]

The main thing I notice in your dump is that you spent over 4 million turns getting to 1650'. That's _insane_. I mean, yeah, the game should support all styles of play, blah, blah, blah, but... seriously, that's nuts. You ought to try to cut that by 90% just as a start (1650' at 400k turns is still pretty slow without quests, etc.) You won't get better at the game if you don't, but more importantly for your mod, you won't be able to understand balance if you don't.

Heh, yes that is a good point.

will -

I have been wondering about your claim that centipedes are unbalanced--centipedes are hardly even on my radar. My current character is a High-Elf Warrior at cl 21, dl 28, 145K turns. He has killed 435 creatures, of which exactly 1 is a centipede.
The most common kills are:

men     - 86
orcs    - 70
hounds  - 62
canids   - 61
giants  - 19
hominids - 10
insects - 9
All others - 8 or less

Of course, he is still pretty weak in the equipment department. No FA, no RCold. His most useful finds are a Dagger(+4,+7) at 50', and a Wand of Teleport Other at 1300'.

The reason he is still alive is that he's killed only 435 enemies, and he spent only ~5k turns (500 player moves) on each dl.

I lose a few characters to running out of resources around 750'-1000'. But with so few kills, I haven't had much chance to die by stupidity. It really is easy to get to 1500'. If I played for 4M turns I would almost certainly die to stupidity or boredom.

[will_asher]

I have been wondering about your claim that centipedes are unbalanced

When did I say that centipedes are unbalanced? I've never said anything like that. Are you referring to my signature line? That's about centipedes lacking flavour and character, it has nothing to do with balance.

The main thing I notice in your dump is that you spent over 4 million turns getting to 1650'. That's _insane_. I mean, yeah, the game should support all styles of play, blah, blah, blah, but... seriously, that's nuts. You ought to try to cut that by 90% just as a start (1650' at 400k turns is still pretty slow without quests, etc.) You won't get better at the game if you don't, but more importantly for your mod, you won't be able to understand balance if you don't.

nuts? cut turns by 90%? That would be diving ten times faster. I thought only speed divers went that fast, do most players really do that? I never pay any attention to turncount. I do like exploring most of the level most of the time before I go deeper, and I realize that's probably a bad habit still hanging on from my Nethack days. But ten times faster? That sounds insane to me.
hmm, some of those turns may be from shop-scumming which I do when there's no scrolls of staves of identify in the town or if I need a restore stat potion for an important stat (usually STR) that's not in the alchemy shop.

The reason he is still alive is that he's killed only 435 enemies, and he spent only ~5k turns (500 player moves) on each dl.

They way I understand it, killing monsters is a good thing because you get experience and items. What's important is being willing to run away and not trying to kill monsters that are too tough or groups of monsters that can overwhelm. What am I missing here?

Of course, he is still pretty weak in the equipment department. No FA, no RCold. His most useful finds are a Dagger(+4,+7) at 50', and a Wand of Teleport Other at 1300'. ..I lose a few characters to running out of resources around 750'-1000'. But with so few kills, I haven't had much chance to die by stupidity. It really is easy to get to 1500'. If I played for 4M turns I would almost certainly die to stupidity or boredom.

yes, it's really easy to get to dL30. It's also really easy to die there if you don't have decent equipment which you don't find as much of if you dive that fast.

[Nick]

nuts?

Yeah, that's nuts as in "everyone who plays differently to me is nuts"