Competition 61

[Nick]

The savefile for competition 61 is now available from the competition page - it's an Oangband110u High-Elf Assassin (cl15, dl30) submitted by Donald Jonker. Winner is fastest win, or failing that max experience/turns.

Note that this page also has a facility for submitting character dumps, and a mini-ladder ranked according to competition position - many thanks to pav for setting this up.

Oangband110u can be downloaded from here; a bugfixed version was just put up today, so make sure to get the latest.

Many, many thanks to Tony Holmes for running the competition so well for such a long time. I hope I can do it justice.

[Aristobulus]

I'm in.

Captain, set phasers to dive.

[Antoine]

The savefile for competition 61 is now available from the competition page - it's an Oangband110u High-Elf Assassin (cl15, dl30) submitted by Donald Jonker. Winner is fastest win, or failing that max experience/turns.

Stabby stabby stab!

So what's this unlight thing?

A.

[Nick]

So what's this unlight thing?

RDark, extra stealth (provided you don't wield a light), ability to read in the dark, vision radius of 2.

[Aristobulus]

Question, Nick-

Am I allowed to try again, even though I've already died? I guess I'm not positive on the rules.

[Nick]

Am I allowed to try again, even though I've already died? I guess I'm not positive on the rules.

You can try as many times as you like. I was intending for it to continue as Tony was running it - you email me your entry (presumably your best) before the end date, and final results are based on that. I'm not sure whether pav has set up the ladder so repeat entries overwrite your earlier ones or not, but in any case I think it should be the final savefile that determines results.

[pav]

Yes, entries do overwrite, otherwise you could not post a progress of a game. But I suppose you can easily rename your next incarnation, so it creates separate entry.

[Aristobulus]

Ah, ok. Good deal.

[Psi]

Are there any objections to me doing my shopping and then taking a new savepoint to start from, so I don't have to repeat the same tasks every time?

Si

[Seany C]

Working on the assumption that you'll pwn M and the competition on the first attempt, I wouldn't bother…

[Nick]

Are there any objections to me doing my shopping and then taking a new savepoint to start from, so I don't have to repeat the same tasks every time?

No, but I'm with Seany.

[Psi]

Working on the assumption that you'll pwn M and the competition on the first attempt, I wouldn't bother…

I've had rather more than that already... if I take the same starting route and recall, I get a superb level at 1500 each time. I've been determined to find out why it is superb, but keep running into problems with fire and water hounds in particular. Oh and uniques.

[Jungle_Boy]

Man I did not even know there was such a thing as competitions, this looks like fun.

After a few tries I've realized that level 15 and dungeon level 30 is MUCH deeper than I usually am at that level. I think I'll start at the stairs.

[Donald Jonker]

After a few tries I've realized that level 15 and dungeon level 30 is MUCH deeper than I usually am at that level. I think I'll start at the stairs.

In V, I've become used to diving straight down to statgain depth with HE warriors. The major limitations with that are 1. combat strength and 2. free action. In vanilla these limitations are fairly easily overcome: good damage is easily obtained with a light weapon getting enchanted up with scrolls that are available at the alchemist 50% of the time. And so long as you keep a staff of detect evil, you can avoid anything that might paralyze you.

So when I submitted the competition char, I figured the same principles would apply. To a large extent they do - you can avoid paralyzers fairly easily (although druids and the like seem to have a way of sneaking up on you that doesn't happen in vanilla).

Damage output is a different story. I find that powerdiving is only effective if you can safely kill enough monsters to keep your experience at a reasonable level. In V this means killing orcs, ogres, trolls, and young/baby dragons until you've chanced across some good equipment. In O I have trouble even with orcs in the current competition, meaning that as I dive I'm restricted only to snagas and cave orcs which really limits the drops and experience that would give you greater power. Enchanting to_dam also seems very ineffective.

In short, the solution seems to be to make one or several stair runs, hoping for a decent weapon (I've never been so happy to see a *thanc) before recalling to 1500'. Then again, I may be missing out on some combat subtleties, such as perhaps switching to a heavier weapon or launcher that may make such runs unnecessary. If one can kill frost trolls and weaker, I think one should be powerful enough to continue down.

[Bandobras]

Sling is your friend. I've just assailed a slightly slow Death Watch Beetle and slain it via walking around a larger rock section and pelting it with shots and magic bolts. Gained CL 17 (from CL 16). Vortexes are easy. Flies. Low-level uniques. Lone weak orcs and all lone kobolds. Light and dark hounds are best.