Competition 76

[will_asher]

I just tested the selling option and it seems to work fine. What happens that doesn't work when you use that option?

Also, the wizard-realm light area spell works too. I guess it might look like it doesn't because you can't always see the whole room even when the room is lit, because the dungeon is never more than dimly lit.

[Bagplant]

You & I must play very differently, at times I find 2 {splendid} items on a level which would sell together easily for 30.000 gp depending on store owner of course. There is no way that I could find 30k in dungeon money drops on that level if I killed everyone on that level.. Uniques for example dont drop any money, but drop often more than 20000 gp in useless equipment.

We definitely play differently - it's common for me not to find even one big-ticket item (defender, holy avenger, westernesse) before 1500'. My first competition character found none in that range - my second found one, a holy avenger. I rarely ever have 30,000 gp to play with before stat gain, and at that stage you're starting to see dragons and hydras so the money drops go up a lot as well.

I usually dive pretty fast in the early game though.

[konijn_]

Competition 76 is now available from here; it is a DaJAngband Dark Elf Archer.

Note that comp 75 still has a few hours to run, and is about the most exciting finish we've had. Have that ladder open in your browser and keep refreshing!

Things go wel but

1)
It would be nice if someone could check out my crossbows, I am not sure which is best
Heavy crossbow extra shots(+1) +9,+9
or Heavy crossbow of accuray +17,+16
or long bow of accuracy +20,+15

2)
Also, dust bunnies, I wanted to collect them, but now I have 2 tan dust bunnies and 1 silver dust bunnies. It's rather heart breaking, what should I do with those ?

3)
Frickin' Storm Giant blew up my rod of Acid Balls !! Jerk..

4) I killed Uvatha who killed me twice in Angband this month, yay !

5) Phial of Galadriel, keep or junk ? It gives no dark vision which is fairly crucial I find.

T.

[PowerDiver]

Heavy crossbow extra shots(+1) +9,+9
or Heavy crossbow of accuray +17,+16

or long bow of accuracy +20,+15.

Between the xbows, extra shots does more damage but burns through ammo twice as fast. I'd use accuracy.

The longbow is not comparable. You carry the launcher according to the ammo you are carrying. With boring ammo, the xbows do more damage but involve a lot more weight.

[will_asher]

1)
It would be nice if someone could check out my crossbows, I am not sure which is best
Heavy crossbow extra shots(+1) +9,+9
or Heavy crossbow of accuray +17,+16
or long bow of accuracy +20,+15

It is traditional for an archer to use a long bow. (Like the ranger in V, the archer gets extra shots with bows starting cl20, but not with xbows or slings)

2)
Also, dust bunnies, I wanted to collect them, but now I have 2 tan dust bunnies and 1 silver dust bunnies. It's rather heart breaking, what should I do with those ?

(laughs at the silly people playing with dust bunnies, then laughs at himself for being silly enough to put them in the game..)

5) Phial of Galadriel, keep or junk ? It gives no dark vision which is fairly crucial I find.

Darkvision's helpful for sure. It pretty much eliminates the need to light corridors with rods of light, but I don't know how it could be crucial when everyone who plays vanilla does without it. Also the phial lights up rooms better than the archer's light spell.

[buzzkill]

Also, dust bunnies, I wanted to collect them, but now I have 2 tan dust bunnies and 1 silver dust bunnies. It's rather heart breaking, what should I do with those ?

Here's a stupid development idea. Give a stealth (+1) bonus for each dust bunny carried, under the premise that it helps you blend in with the surroundings. Of course, don't document this ability anywhere. Maybe vaguely refer to them as something useful upon ID. Enough people carry them around anyhow, it might be fun.

[PowerDiver]

It is traditional for an archer to use a long bow. (Like the ranger in V, the archer gets extra shots with bows starting cl20, but not with xbows or slings)

I believe like V, the power is in ego ammo. Keep your best xbow so you can make use of ego bolts. I have had multiple V rangers use a xbow against Sauron, not to mention assorted demon or undead uniques.

Or is there a spell for acid branding or slay xxx on ammo available to archers in DaJ? That would change everything.

[will_asher]

in a town book, archer's get the 'acid coat' spell which gives ammo a weaker x2 acid brand. In the Missile Magic dungeon book, they get other ammo-enhancing spells, but no x3 acid brand.

[Bagplant]

Check the longbow to see if you get extra shots with it (some variants give archer/ranger types extra shots with any launcher, some only with bows). If you do then it's probably the best choice. If not I agree with PowerDiver.

[konijn_]

in a town book, archer's get the 'acid coat' spell which gives ammo a weaker x2 acid brand. In the Missile Magic dungeon book, they get other ammo-enhancing spells, but no x3 acid brand.

Cool. Just got to level 40, how does poison brand compare to acid brand ?

T.

[will_asher]

what it says on the cover:
Poison brand is a full x3 multiplier, but a lot more monsters are resistant to it.
Do not confuse acid coating (x2 from the alchemy realm spell) with acid brand (x3).

[fizzix]

what it says on the cover:
Poison brand is a full x3 multiplier, but a lot more monsters are resistant to it.
Do not confuse acid coating (x2 from the alchemy realm spell) with acid brand (x3).

I finally was able to cast the acid coating spell. There seems to be a bug on the damage report. Acid coated arrows give damage report as if they were +0 +0 regular arrows. chardump here.

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=9509&ok

(i've been compiling a list of bugs as I go, most are extremely minor, misspelled words and such, this one though is significant enough that i think it warranted immediate comment.)

[PowerDiver]

in a town book, archer's get the 'acid coat' spell which gives ammo a weaker x2 acid brand. In the Missile Magic dungeon book, they get other ammo-enhancing spells, but no x3 acid brand.

Do your archers get a second extra shot at CL 40? If so, the typical late game comparison is

xbow (x4) * (2 shots) * (3x brand)
lbow (x4) * (3 shots) * (2x brand)

That comes out pretty similar, so it probably wouldn't hurt to ignore xbows unless you find monster bonuses on the xbow.

EXCEPT: your typical best xbow with slay evil ammo will do more damage to Morgoth than a typical best longbow without slay evil ammo. So you should still save your best xbow at home just in case you want it for the final fight, until you are swimming in slay evil arrows.

[will_asher]

I finally was able to cast the acid coating spell. There seems to be a bug on the damage report. Acid coated arrows give damage report as if they were +0 +0 regular arrows.

I just finished a game as a hobbit archer, got just about as far as I've ever gotten. I started using the acid coating spell on all my ammo as soon as I got the spell, and still I never noticed this bug..
(will be fixed in 1.1.0)

Do your archers get a second extra shot at CL 40?

Extra shots work the same way as they do for vanilla rangers (yes).

[fizzix]

I just finished a game as a hobbit archer, got just about as far as I've ever gotten. I started using the acid coating spell on all my ammo as soon as I got the spell, and still I never noticed this bug..
(will be fixed in 1.1.0)

Does it mean that acid coating doesn't do anything, or is just the damage shown on inspect wrong?

I guess I can find out empirically...