Next competition

[PowerWyrm]

I believe, if I coded everything properly, regardless of how many levels you set, Sauron should appear on the second to last level. So if it's 10 levels, Sauron is on 9.

Setting a step of 10 levels will actually generate 11 levels: 10-90, 99, 100. In fact, you will always generate n+1 levels unless n is the default value n=1.

[Derakon]

forced descent too? I think 20 levels forced descent might be winnable, you would need significant luck. 10 levels forced descent is probably impossible to the point of not being fun. I could be wrong though, I haven't tried it.

Forced descent is almost certainly excessive; players would have to spend a lot of time waiting around for new monsters to spawn to get the items they need, which doesn't sound fun. But definitely turn off connected stairs! The game would be a series of raids into levels you probably aren't prepared for.

...mm, and maybe do it with a warrior too, so you're operating blind for most of the game.

[debo]

I'm strongly inclined to do a Halls of Mist competition next as a tribute to David Bowie.

[fizzix]

Do a Vanilla competition with the skip-levels setting set to 10, so there's only 10 dungeon levels in the game.

forced descent too? I think 20 levels forced descent might be winnable, you would need significant luck. 10 levels forced descent is probably impossible to the point of not being fun. I could be wrong though, I haven't tried it.

I believe, if I coded everything properly, regardless of how many levels you set, Sauron should appear on the second to last level. So if it's 10 levels, Sauron is on 9.

[Derakon]

... or do an almost unwinnable comp, so the winner would be someone who survives farthest. ToME lost soul? Vanilla with 50 levels ironman artifactless elf priest?

Do a Vanilla competition with the skip-levels setting set to 10, so there's only 10 dungeon levels in the game.

[PowerWyrm]

... or do an almost unwinnable comp, so the winner would be someone who survives farthest. ToME lost soul? Vanilla with 50 levels ironman artifactless elf priest?

[bron]

As 184 is winding down, I thought I'd post my thoughts about a competition I'd like to see some day. Most competitions use "speed" as the ranking criterion for winners. I don't like this, both because I personally usually play slow, and because I think there are many other varieties of difficulty that are worth exploring. Also, I find that far too many competitions (in Vanilla especially) come down to who found a good artefact the soonest. Playing without artefacts doesn't completely eliminate this problem, since some of the ego items can be pretty good, but it does IMO substantially mitigate it, since the effects of non-artefact items are usually a lot less.

So here is what I propose: A sil competition, with no artefacts, where all levels of winning are counted as the same (i.e. getting out with one sil is just as good as killing Morgoth and getting out with all three). The ranking criterion for winners is the race/class used. For simplicity, I'd propose just using the ordering as presented in the startup menus, e.g. any level of win by a Nagrim Belegost is better than any level of win by a Naugrim Nogrod, as well as better than any level of win by any Sindar or any Noldor. Players are free to create any character they want as long as the "no artefacts" birth oprion is used.

I think it would create an interesting tension: you could spend the whole time going for the win with an Edain Hador character, but you might well not succeed in time. Ot you could play it safer with a more powerful race, but then other people might pass you. Also, a player might run multiple entries: start with a Noldor and work down the list to see how far you can go. I think this is a good thing, as the competition could (potentially at least) hold your interest for a longer time and for multiple characters.

The main drawback from my point of view is that I wouldn't win .

[HugoVirtuoso]

Or we could have a Sil 1.3 compo!

[caruso]

What about a Tome 2.3.5 lost soul maia rogue with small levels and connected stairs off? You start out at dungeon level 99 with inherent aggravate. Winner would be the first player to get to turn count 100.

I like that one

Or how about an UnAngband comp, to celebrate that a new version has been released after almost four years?

[Yottle]

What about a Tome 2.3.5 lost soul maia rogue with small levels and connected stairs off? You start out at dungeon level 99 with inherent aggravate. Winner would be the first player to get to turn count 100.

[fph]

Sounds accurate...

Evil Overlord List item #80: If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

[wobbly]

Why wait for 50'? Surely Morgoth pops in to town from time to time to do his shopping.

[Thraalbee]

And small levels only. Otherwise too easy. Right?

[HugoVirtuoso]

Let's say the winner would be the one with the most Morgoth kills

[PowerWyrm]

A nice competition would be to take any variant and tweak the code so that Morgoth gets generated on *every* level, starting at 50ft. The goal being to kill him before he kills you...