Competition 75

[Nick]

Competition 75 is now available from here; it is a V 3.1.1 ironman (ferric, whatever) Dunadan Paladin.

Note that comp 74 still has a couple of days to run.

[rdermyer]

So I don't really know very much about ironman Angband. I mean, I know basically what it is, but I don't really know what the strategy is, especially the opening buy (which seems probably pretty important).

[murphy]

Hi, I have played a lot of ironman so I can share some ideas, of course I'm sure others will have their own strategies. I like to:

1. buy some essentials (food, light, a weapon)
2. buy healing & escape magic
3. buy 1 each of any potion or scroll that you want to have identified for the future

For my current comp 75 attempt I bought

1 whip, 3 torches, 3 rations [ reason #1 above ]
10 ?phase door [ reason #2 ]
1 !ccw , 1 !clw , 1 ?satisfy hunger [ for reason #3 ]

Notes:
- The whip is the cheapest weapon available, and I expect to replace it pretty quickly with something I find in the dungeon
- The !ccw is very expensive, but I think having it id'd will pay dividends later
- I'm not buying much food and light, so I have to play fast from the start, that means:
no resting, always keep moving
don't waste turns collecting gold, its of no use anyway
don't need to completely explore the first few levels

Once I have collected more light and food in the dungeon, I can slow down and play a little more patiently.

Other misc ironman suggestions :
- don't wield or wear rings/armor/weapons until they pseudo-id average or better, if they are cursed you are really screwed
- identify magic is precious at the start, so use it sparingly. I only use identify for rings, amulets, and ego weapons/armor that I can't figure out otherwise
- quaff unidentified potions when you are not at full hp, but away from any danger
- read unidentified scrolls when you have cleared the level and are standing on the stairs
- unless you are starving, ignore all mushrooms, they aren't worth the trouble
- if you are really low on light, unwield your torch when you are resting or battling in a lit room

If you want to start with a little more of a beginner kit, maybe skip the !ccw, that will give you more money for food and light, a better weapon, and some armor. Have fun,

Murphy S.

[rdermyer]

You don't get a book, then?

[Pete Mack]

You get pb1, but pb2 is absolutely required for early priests and paladins. And a second copy of pb1 is nice insurance

[NiJabbieJabba]

Hi, I have played a lot of ironman so I can share some ideas, of course I'm sure others will have their own strategies. I like to:
For my current comp 75 attempt I bought

1 whip, 3 torches, 3 rations [ reason #1 above ]

...

Other misc ironman suggestions :
- don't wield or wear rings/armor/weapons until they pseudo-id average or better, if they are cursed you are really screwed

...

- unless you are starving, ignore all mushrooms, they aren't worth the trouble

Murphy S.

Heh. I am giving ironman a first try on competition 75, and your tips hit home. After about 10 early deaths, I have a pretty serious contender - level 23 at 850 feet (I took the cheap way out and farmed fleas for a few XP levels). I think he's unbelievably lucky, although I haven't found a single decent (read, useful ego) piece of equipment. Interesting observations or happenings...

1) Wore an amulet at 200 feet. Ooops, amulet of inertia! I survived at -3 speed all the way down to 800 feet where PB2 finally showed up. Has had me playing extra cautious and slowly, I guess - I feel like I need to be overpowered for the level. Hence the flea farming.

2) Your 3 torches/3 food suggestion boggles my mind. I bought 15 of each, plus 9 flasks of oil (for projectiles or fuel) and was running low on food when PB2 showed up. Yeah, I'm playing slowly and got mauled by a Green Glutton Ghost. But still, who wants to starve? I remain edgy about light, since no phial or everburning light has shown up.

3) In all my previous attempts, mushrooms were nothing but trouble. But this time, I hit a dart trap that dropped my strength, pre-PB1. First mushroom I ate was vigor, which was incredibly welcome. I may never eat another unidentified shroom this game, since I've already found the best one.

4) Why the whip? The main gauche has one higher damage per hit, same number of hits, and doesn't cost much more.

5) I may also have lucked out on stat potions. Found a Brawn and a Nimbleness early, draining Int and Con. The latter didn't impact my hit points, and the combination increased me to 3 blows per round with light weapons.

This competition would be a lot less cruel if the starting store held PB1 and PB2. It feels like success in the first thousand feet is heavily dependent upon those drops.

I wish some good equipment would drop, this feels like an unlucky character in that regard so far. Still wielding a plain +6,+8 rapier. Nothing better than a +x enchantment on any armor piece so far, and haven't found a single magical projectile weapon. Both interesting level feelings so far turned out to be orc pits, which I cleared for decent XP and no worthwhile loot. But I guess he's still alive!

[Nick]

You get pb1

Not in this game. I chose "gold instead of equipment" (or whatever the option is) and failed to check the shops...

[PowerDiver]

Not in this game. I chose "gold instead of equipment" (or whatever the option is) and failed to check the shops...

I figured you must have restarted a dozen times to make the shops as useless as they were. The starting town is only suitable for masochists.

[Nick]

I figured you must have restarted a dozen times to make the shops as useless as they were. The starting town is only suitable for masochists.

My talents are instinctive. Anyway, it will be nice to have a comp where no-one wins for once

[murphy]

Heh. I am giving ironman a first try on competition 75, and your tips hit home. After about 10 early deaths, I have a pretty serious contender - level 23 at 850 feet (I took the cheap way out and farmed fleas for a few XP levels). I think he's unbelievably lucky, although I haven't found a single decent (read, useful ego) piece of equipment. Interesting observations or happenings...

Nice!

4) Why the whip? The main gauche has one higher damage per hit, same number of hits, and doesn't cost much more.

The main gauche is slightly better, but I needed to free up some money for my other purchases. Gotta cut back somewhere in these tough economic times! But either way, I think by 250' or 300' you can count on finding something better than the starting weapon.

Murphy S.

[rdermyer]

You're right; no book. I had accidentally reloaded my save after I died but then realized that I had to copy over the file again instead.

[PowerDiver]

The main gauche is slightly better, but I needed to free up some money for my other purchases. Gotta cut back somewhere in these tough economic times!

The real question is whether to go down barehanded. In 3.0, I would often go barehanded, but it is harder now to survive until you find a weapon. That 40 gp would buy another ?dObj or 2 ?phase with cash left over.

[fizzix]

I have a question about these competitions. Not sure if this has come up before, but I didn't see it on the main topic. I didn't go searching through all the individual competitions though

Since we're all starting from the same save file each game, the flavors remain the same. After playing several attempts you remember what certain important flavors are. What's the etiquette for this? Do you have to pretend that you don't know that you're holding a potion of speed? On the flip side, can you record all the scroll flavors to use in a future attempt?

I guess the best would be if there was some sort of 'randomize all flavors now' option, but since, really, this is the only use for it, I don't see why there would be.

[Psi]

Since we're all starting from the same save file each game, the flavors remain the same. After playing several attempts you remember what certain important flavors are. What's the etiquette for this? Do you have to pretend that you don't know that you're holding a potion of speed? On the flip side, can you record all the scroll flavors to use in a future attempt?

Obviously if you die enough times, you are going to start to remember a few flavours - that can't be helped. I don't think it is in the spirit of the competition to start recording them though. I'd also suggest that any 'list flavours in descriptions' option is off (assuming it exists in the variant in question). Then you won't see the flavour name again in the game so are less likely to remember it and you won't get other people learning flavours via your dump.

[Rizwan]

Obviously if you die enough times, you are going to start to remember a few flavours - that can't be helped. I don't think it is in the spirit of the competition to start recording them though. I'd also suggest that any 'list flavours in descriptions' option is off (assuming it exists in the variant in question). Then you won't see the flavour name again in the game so are less likely to remember it and you won't get other people learning flavours via your dump.

Or instead of starting from the original savefile everytime, start from your dead character that will randomize all flavors etc.