Next competition

[Bandobras]

Nick, I've emailed you a save file for an Oangband-110u High-Elf Assassin. He's at clev 15, 1500' with no resists. Comments are welcome (from everybody).

Is he at 1 HP surrounded by Hydras with empty inventory?

Seriously though, any uniques killed? Any artifacts lost/found? Egos?

Is he now in town? Is there enough food/oil/WOR/ID/whatever in town right now? If not in town, is his backpack overfull? Does he have enough consumables on him?

How many 1d5 daggers in his quiver? (I like O assassins.)

Why such a cheesy race? I'd prefer a Hobbit, for example.

[Donald Jonker]

Seriously though, any uniques killed? Any artifacts lost/found? Egos?

No uniques (...except maybe Lotho Pimple and some Maggot dogs), no artifacts, no egos.

Is he now in town? Is there enough food/oil/WOR/ID/whatever in town right now? If not in town, is his backpack overfull? Does he have enough consumables on him?

He's in town, with enough essentials. Pack is empty except for basic kit.

How many 1d5 daggers in his quiver? (I like O assassins.)

Two {good} 1d4 daggers.

Why such a cheesy race? I'd prefer a Hobbit, for example.

Well, this was my second [O] character ever, so I wanted to make a character that at least had a shot. Besides, I always cherish the fact that you don't have to worry about see inv.

--

I'm gathering from the tone of your post that you think this char is too tough... My idea was to have an essentially blank-slate character that starts at stat-gain. I figured folks would like to find their own artifacts and have the thrill of killing Wormtongue.

The inexperienced can scum for stat pots if they want to, and players are forced to learn survival skills that don't involve spending an eternity at low levels building their kit, i.e., the kind of tactics that become necessary if you want to survive past 2000'.

So yeah, it's a bit of a challenge game, but a useful exercise, IMO. But maybe that's not what people want in a competition char.

[Bandobras]

You've got me all wrong. It's really great that there are no artifacts nor uniques killed. If the character is too tough for some lousy players (like me, for example) they can always get to some shallower depth and scum there (if there is WOR depth reset in O, I don't remember). I'd play in that compo.

[Big Al]

A later starting point would be interesting - it would give a chance for newbies to play an advanced character even if they can't normally get that deep on their own. Which isn't really the point of the competitions I know, but still fun...

Also just thought of another idea: a series of mini-competitions that last only a few days or a week each. The point of these would be to accomplish some specific task: for example they would be given a savefile with a certain unique on the level, and you have to kill that unique in the fewest turns. Or you need to retrieve a certain item from a vault. The players would be limited to the kit they are given (or can find on the level), because they wouldn't be allowed to leave the level. Perhaps give them an odd set of equipment and make the players deal with what they have. Would this be fun? Thoughts?

I was thinking of chess: playing full games is fun and all, but once and a while it's also fun to solve the "mate in three moves" problems.

[Donald Jonker]

Also just thought of another idea: a series of mini-competitions that last only a few days or a week each. The point of these would be to accomplish some specific task: for example they would be given a savefile with a certain unique on the level, and you have to kill that unique in the fewest turns. Or you need to retrieve a certain item from a vault. The players would be limited to the kit they are given (or can find on the level), because they wouldn't be allowed to leave the level. Perhaps give them an odd set of equipment and make the players deal with what they have. Would this be fun? Thoughts?

This sounds really cool. But I wonder how difficult it would be to set it up. I'm not even sure how you'd go about it. At the very least, it sounds like a fruitful idea for an intrepid developer...

[buzzkill]

Also just thought of another idea: a series of mini-competitions that last only a few days or a week each. The point of these would be to accomplish some specific task: for example they would be given a savefile with a certain unique on the level, and you have to kill that unique in the fewest turns. Or you need to retrieve a certain item from a vault. The players would be limited to the kit they are given (or can find on the level), because they wouldn't be allowed to leave the level. Perhaps give them an odd set of equipment and make the players deal with what they have. Would this be fun?

I like it, but I don't know how many others will. I think that the simple fact that you can't scum will irritate quite a few.
Upon reading your post, I immediately thought of Worms (Worms 2/Armageddon), the PC game (which I happen to play a lot). It's a slightly different take on your idea, but I frequently limit commonly used weapons, and power-up the lesser used, so that I will be forced to learn how to play, and win, the game without them. Else I would have to take the time to build a more familiar kit. Without the luxury of time, in this turn count competition, they will likely have to use the starting kit to some degree.

This is the problem I forsee. Given that you are not allowed to leave the level, the game becomes very static and a lot less random, and random dungeon generation is the very heart of Angband. A great deal could be learned from your early failed/sucessful attempts because the dungeon design and creature/object placement wouldn't change from game to game.

[Djabanete]

Also just thought of another idea: a series of mini-competitions that last only a few days or a week each. The point of these would be to accomplish some specific task: for example they would be given a savefile with a certain unique on the level, and you have to kill that unique in the fewest turns. Or you need to retrieve a certain item from a vault. The players would be limited to the kit they are given (or can find on the level), because they wouldn't be allowed to leave the level. Perhaps give them an odd set of equipment and make the players deal with what they have. Would this be fun? Thoughts?

That sounds awesome. Bounty hunting and vault cracking --- good times.

[Nick]

Why such a cheesy race? I'd prefer a Hobbit, for example.

There are no cheesy races in O - HE is just slightly less suicidal

Also, I used a FA Hobbit Priest in a recent comp and everyone just died horribly - Hobbits really are challenge characters in O (as are Shadow Fairies ).

[Nick]

I have always been interested to try a competition, but am discouraged by all the unfamiliar variants.

What if each month there were a V competition and also another one with a variant that changes every time?

I'll see how it all progresses. I think I'll probably go back to a comp per month soon (although I'll keep the current one at two months); I don't know about multiple comps at once, but I think making sure there's a V comp at least 1 in 3 months is probably a good thing to aim for.

Out of curiosity, how are the savefiles created?

It would be handy if we knew a way to hack the savefile to turn off the "cheater" bit so that Wizard mode could be used.

Someone just creates a character, sometimes plays it for a bit, then sends it in.

This has been done before (Eddie Grove made a hobbit warrior with a perma-cursed Sting wielded), and may be done again, as it was popular. I would certainly be able to create such a thing, or turn off the cheat bit if someone sent me a wizard mode savefile.

[Psi]

I like the competition-centric mini ladder idea!

pav - love the new comp mini ladder. One request, can there be a sortable column for last updated (which is the submitted date if no updates)? As they don't appear on the homepage I have no quick way of checking for updates. Thanks!

Si

[pav]

Yeah, I don't know why I went with 'submitted' instead of 'updated', in the first place. So, fixed :>

[Nick]

One request, can there be a sortable column for last updated

(none of them sort for me)

[pav]

Click the View full listings below the table first. Then they will sort

[Psi]

Yeah, I don't know why I went with 'submitted' instead of 'updated', in the first place. So, fixed :>

Thanks very much pav... however something is still a little awry. When I sort on that column, it doesn't actually sort properly:

5 Harry II High-Elf Assassin 18 4,198 156,857 3 comments new 11.11.2008 07:59 new Psi 
4 Harry II High-Elf Assassin 20 8,506 219,150 1 comment new 10.11.2008 22:39 new Seany C 
8 Harry the wimp High-Elf Assassin 10 2,457 114,603 2 comments new 10.11.2008 21:26 new Bandobras 
11 Harry High-Elf Assassin 12 2,493 146,255 4 comments new 11.11.2008 01:42 updated Bandobras 
1 Harry V High-Elf Assassin 25 27,784 341,967 5 comments new 11.11.2008 11:12 updated Nick 
2 Harry High-Elf Assassin 20 8,212 163,454 4 comments new 10.11.2008 13:09 updated Psi 
10 Harald High-Elf Assassin 16 2,753 151,640 3 comments new 10.11.2008 21:57 updated petebull 
6 Harry High-Elf Assassin 19 5,428 205,950 2 comments new 10.11.2008 22:01 updated Donald Jonker 
3 Harry High-Elf Assassin 21 10,056 220,837 6 comments 9.11.2008 12:29 Nick 
9 Hareth High-Elf Assassin 15 1,898 100,353 4 comments 9.11.2008 05:19 antoine.from.rgrd@gmail.com 
7 Harry High-Elf Assassin 16 2,717 112,083 4 comments 9.11.2008 04:22 Aristobulus

I get those two 10.11.2008 in between the 11.11.2008s ...?

[pav]

I get those two 10.11.2008 in between the 11.11.2008s ...?

My fault. Try now.