Next competition

[MITZE]

Next Comp

Well, before we think about what race/class combo should be played we should probably think about what the point of this particular comp is.

Just showing off the game in general? Specifically showing off the innovative ideas (such as the new and interesting magic spells) in it? Something else?

I get the impression race makes a big difference to accuracy. I might try out a half-orc rogue & see if it melees any better.

Race does make a pretty noticable difference; I know that I've had a much easier time surviving as a dunadan rogue than I have as a man of Dale one.

[wobbly]

Yeah rogue is a fair bit weaker than in vanilla. The hit dice go up with size & I get the impression race makes a big difference to accuracy. I might try out a half-orc rogue & see if it melees any better.

[Pete Mack]

I'd say warrior, or paladin. Rogue is surprisingly poor at combat and archery, and has only 15 sided HD. Paladin has Detect Evil, and Detect Animal* rods are easy to come by. Going without detection is a huge pain for certain bosses (Dunlending agent, Azog, Ferny.) I don't know if Azog is even possible without at least detect evil. He runs far and fast.
My recommendation is to make it an open competition.

* There are tons of nasty critters it's best to avoid.

[wobbly]

So been playing this a bit & I'd recommend going with something fairly straight forward like a human,high-elf or dwarf warrior or rogue. A couple of things I definitely wouldn't recommend: hobbit warrior - at level 1 I couldn't hit. Like at all. Couldn't even hit throwing oil flasks unless the target was asleep. Ent shaman (w/druid realm) specializing in unarmed - didn't get an attack spell at level 1 & while I could hit by charging I'm pretty sure I was doing 0 damage. Plus I started with a speed penalty.

[MITZE]

UnAngband: Mage & Priest

Thaumaturgist mage tried. Didn't last very long because of squishy mage HPs, but didn't run into any obvious bugs.

EDIT: Priest was extremely short-lived. I recommend against going with one for the comp, as the priest's prayer system is incomplete according to documentation and the priest itself seems like it's *highly* reliant on luck for getting usable starting prayers.

[unic]

UnAngband has always looked rather intimidating to me, so my preference would be for a not overly difficult class/race combo. No idea what that would be in Un though.

[MITZE]

UnAngband: Warrior

Started simple and did a quick test run with a maia warrior. Still can't tell whether throwing is borked in some way, but otherwise ran into no obvious bugs.

[Pete Mack]

No, it looks like a plain old angband dungeon, with all the monsters mixed together. Avoiding the bosses at their native level makes a huge difference.

[HallucinationMushroom]

I've never tried dungeon crawl mode since the LoTR campaign seemed too good to pass up. Does dungeon crawl mode showcase the many different environments you would expect to see during the campaign?

[Pete Mack]

@HM
It's not the combat. It's the bosses. If you play in dungeon crawl mode, it's not so different from V. But having to get through multiple bosses, and being forced into particular dungeons makes it very tough indeed. And you absolutely must coat your weapons and arrows with bad mushrooms and potions. It's a game where bags of holding are pretty much a necessity. There is no way to win without a lot of small buffs.

[HallucinationMushroom]

The last un comp we did was some kind of trapmaster or something, only to discover that the core mechanic for the class was totally busted. I've been wary of running Un comps ever since.

To be fair, I recommended a strong race/class combo!

If the point of the competition is to make something barely winnable or unwinnable, because competition = challenge, then just about any sub-optimal combination in Unangband is going to satisfy that requirement because there is something a bit wrong with Un's combat balance.

If the point of the competition is to garner interest in Unangband and to showcase what is best in Unangband, (IMO the gorgeous procedurally generated dungeons), then I recommend picking something as min-maxxed as possible so your competition players experience as much as possible. The ladder recommends 'mage' as the go-to winner.

The game's atmosphere begs for roleplaying characters, but it's difficult to pull this off given how difficult combat tends to be. From my experience, I wanted to soak in the atmosphere and make interesting tabletop rpg style characters, but they just weren't powerful enough to endure what is, IMO, broken combat. So finally, if the point of the competition is to garner interest but also allow for opportunities to gather input for balance changes for the new maintainer, I recommend a high elf warrior.

[debo]

I'll probably try out some other combinations and relay the results here before next comp.

Thank you!

[MITZE]

UnAngband Comp

I've tried playing a fair few games with the newest version, though I didn't post any characters to the ladder; mostly I played spellstealing rogues specialized in dual-wielding, and aside from throwing working rather less than expected (I can't tell whether throwing is broken in some way or if my characters have just been bad at it), that particular character type seems to play fine.

I'll probably try out some other combinations and relay the results here before next comp.

[debo]

Thinking about doing an unangband comp for 203, using the new release. The release notes for the recent version are fairly short, so I'm assuming the maintainer is working themselves up to fixing the gazillion things that are broken in that variant

Can anyone suggest a race/class/game mode combo that they have personally experienced and had working for them on the new version? I don't have the time to do that much testing at the moment. The last un comp we did was some kind of trapmaster or something, only to discover that the core mechanic for the class was totally busted. I've been wary of running Un comps ever since.

[debo]

Sorry for the delay with the next comp -- I should have something up in the next couple days.