Competition 100

[tigpup]

Just a quick comment that if you don't already know NPP hydras they are not same thing as vanilla hydras. Think AMHD + Kavlax crossbreeds for top ones. Very very very nasty.

(unless they have been weakened, I haven't played NPP for a long time).

&

The hydras themselves haven't been weakened. But there are no longer hydra pits and nests.

The ones with over 10 heads are extremely dangerous.

Big hydras will turn-up in animal nests, and for animal-nest quests, some will be OOD. Combined with some of the nastier hounds (gravity, time etc), animal nests in NPP are dangeous places.

Azathoth (lowecase black 'j') is probably the most dangerous NPP addition. It starts showing up at around 3000', can pass through walls, and dish out damage like Morgoth.

Do not (as I did once) mistake Azathoth for a black-pudding; which is also a dark-grey j.

Was Azathoth orginally a replacement for vanilla's Azriel?

[tigpup]

Also, starting out this comparatively physically-weak warrior-type with a quest for Golfimbul is cruel. I thought I might be able to take him with some iron shots and a sling I'd found, but the sling turned out to be cursed...at clvl 9 with a magic dagger (only two blows!) in melee, with heroism and bless running, I got him down about three stars before he slaughtered me. Saving up for the crossbow in the weapons store doesn't really seem feasible when you only have access to dlvl 1. Maybe I should try to buy a wand of Magic Missiles with my starting cash?

I've managed to kill him twice at clvl7 with traps, 00dagger, !speed, ?phase, !hero, ?bless all from dlvl1 along with enchanted ammo (arrows once, shots once) and !CSW all bought from store. If you want to town-scum for Lotho Pimple at about clvl4, you might get a nice drop from him (although I think Jeff toned down his drops recently).

[Timo Pietilä]

Don't forget "can blink toward you out of a vault and breathe nether" - six years ago, but it still stings.

I had an encounter with CGV and Vecna with that at stat-gain region in NPP. It was truly hair raising experience, but I managed to get to stairs before he decided to use any of his instant death -spells.

This brings in my mind. In NPP it is important to be able to escape level. Not just region of dungeon.

[nppangband]

Just completing the task for this competition is a major feat in and of itself. Personally I wouldn't worry too much about turn count. Who wins in the (not terribly unlikely IMO) event that nobody manages to kill every unique? Most uniques killed? First to kill Morgoth?

The winner is the one who kills the most uniques.
In the event of a tie (ie multiple people have killed all 104 uniques), the tiebreaker is lowest turncount.

[Derakon]

Teleport_to now uses up almost two turns worth of monster energy, so you should get a turn to react before he get's in an attack (which will almost certainly be a 550+ damage nether breath. Definitely use an inventory slot for scrolls of teleportation at all times)

So he teleports to me, I teleport away, miscellaneous monsters where I teleport to get a turn on me, he teleports to me, I teleport away...

I'll give the traps a shot. The help described brigands as being nearly as good as warriors at melee and good with slings; I was all set to take him on when I found a sling, then it was cursed, so I said "Ah, screw it, might as well go down fighting". Did a credible job on his Snaga escort but the boss himself was a tough nut to crack.

Just completing the task for this competition is a major feat in and of itself. Personally I wouldn't worry too much about turn count. Who wins in the (not terribly unlikely IMO) event that nobody manages to kill every unique? Most uniques killed? First to kill Morgoth?

[nppangband]

Quote:
Originally Posted by nppangband
dragon sand demons

That is an awesome typo

Sounds like a great idea for a new monster race.

Don't forget "can blink toward you out of a vault and breathe nether" - six years ago, but it still stings.

Teleport_to now uses up almost two turns worth of monster energy, so you should get a turn to react before he get's in an attack (which will almost certainly be a 550+ damage nether breath. Definitely use an inventory slot for scrolls of teleportation at all times)

[nppangband]

Another thing to be aware of is that monsters that can teleport to you can do so from across the dungeon if they're awake. Thus it can be nigh-impossible to shake e.g. Radagast (to pick a comparatively minor example) once he's taken a shine to you; you can teleport him away but he'll just keep coming back a few turns later. You'll have to deal with him more permanently or leave the level, which can be nasty if you have a quest there.

And you get high level monsters teleporting out of greater vaults right next to you mid-game as well.

Also, starting out this comparatively physically-weak warrior-type with a quest for Golfimbul is cruel. I thought I might be able to take him with some iron shots and a sling I'd found, but the sling turned out to be cursed...at clvl 9 with a magic dagger (only two blows!) in melee, with heroism and bless running, I got him down about three stars before he slaughtered me. Saving up for the crossbow in the weapons store doesn't really seem feasible when you only have access to dlvl 1. Maybe I should try to buy a wand of Magic Missiles with my starting cash?

SET TRAPS!!!!!! A brigand is only a weak warrior if you play him as a warrior. He is part warrior, part Oangband rogue. He will definitely do more damage with a regular sling than they will with a regular crossbow. I was thinking a sling, some potions of speed, some scrolls of phase door. You should be able to find some some combat oriented potions and scrolls (heroism) to make sure you don't miss too much with the ammo.

Back to the traps, set the traps where the monsters can't see them, then lure them into walking onto them. (If they see you set them, they are much more likely to disarm them).

[Nick]

dragon sand demons

That is an awesome typo

Azathoth (lowecase black 'j') is probably the most dangerous NPP addition. It starts showing up at around 3000', can pass through walls, and dish out damage like Morgoth.

Don't forget "can blink toward you out of a vault and breathe nether" - six years ago, but it still stings.

[Derakon]

Another thing to be aware of is that monsters that can teleport to you can do so from across the dungeon if they're awake. Thus it can be nigh-impossible to shake e.g. Radagast (to pick a comparatively minor example) once he's taken a shine to you; you can teleport him away but he'll just keep coming back a few turns later. You'll have to deal with him more permanently or leave the level, which can be nasty if you have a quest there.

Also, starting out this comparatively physically-weak warrior-type with a quest for Golfimbul is cruel. I thought I might be able to take him with some iron shots and a sling I'd found, but the sling turned out to be cursed...at clvl 9 with a magic dagger (only two blows!) in melee, with heroism and bless running, I got him down about three stars before he slaughtered me. Saving up for the crossbow in the weapons store doesn't really seem feasible when you only have access to dlvl 1. Maybe I should try to buy a wand of Magic Missiles with my starting cash?

[nppangband]

Just a quick comment that if you don't already know NPP hydras they are not same thing as vanilla hydras. Think AMHD + Kavlax crossbreeds for top ones. Very very very nasty.

(unless they have been weakened, I haven't played NPP for a long time).

The hydras themselves haven't been weakened. But there are no longer hydra pits and nests.

The ones with over 10 heads are extremely dangerous. They breathe things like gravity, nether, nexus, or inertia. Also, hydras breathe ball spells, instead of cone shaped breaths like dragon sand demons. Cne shaped breaths damage is like vanilla, in that it gets weaker as the monster HP is reduced. Ball spells are different. They hit for a fixed damage every time. So if you have a hydra down to one star, it can still breathe at you for 350+ hp damage.

As a general rule, if the monster is in NPP but not vanilla, it is probably pretty nasty for its depth. Azathoth (lowecase black 'j') is probably the most dangerous NPP addition. It starts showing up at around 3000', can pass through walls, and dish out damage like Morgoth. You probably won't be ready to face it until you are close to being ready for Morgoth himself.

The player has plenty of help to counter all of this. The high level brigand can set and improve traps that, at later stages are strong enough to kill an ancient dragon. They can dish out a great deal of damage with slings as well. Due to the way the extra damage is calculated, the true damage isn't properly reflected on the to-hit and to-dam on the character screen.

[Timo Pietilä]

Mostly I was clarifying that when you say "monsters will hit you for 400+ damage", you actually mean "monsters will hit you for 400+ damage." On the first turn they see you. And on the second. And so on. NPP monsters are very spammy.

Just a quick comment that if you don't already know NPP hydras they are not same thing as vanilla hydras. Think AMHD + Kavlax crossbreeds for top ones. Very very very nasty.

(unless they have been weakened, I haven't played NPP for a long time).

[Derakon]

Vanilla isn't complete -- I don't think it gives average life rating or AC, for example -- but it does give almost everything.

[nppangband]

Sounds like an interesting competition.



Does this imply a single probing doesn't give complete information about a monster?

Correct. There are three flag sets for a monsters basic abilities, and you get to know 2 of them, chosen at random. There are 4 sets of flags for the monster spellcasting, and you get to know one of them (assuming they cast out of at spellset), chosen at random. 1 in three times you get to know which terrains the monster is native. Finally, you get to know one of the following three things: 1) their attacks, 2) thier awareness of you in the dungeon, 3) their max number of treasure drops.

Vanilla probing used to give you almsot nothing. I made it much more informative in NPP. Then I think Vanilla went further than I did and gave you complete knowledge of a monster.

[bulian]

Sounds like an interesting competition.

Every monster race in the game has been probed once, so the lore already has plenty of information about every creature.

Does this imply a single probing doesn't give complete information about a monster?

[nppangband]

Nasty. I though charge drain in NPP just healed the monster as in Vanilla. Especially since NPP rods are susceptible to charge drain.

It first tries to heal them. If there is any power "left over", it restores their mana. Any remaining power can temporarily haste the monster.

You must really hate warriors.

I am a maintainer. I hate all classes.

Warriors should be helped greatly by the stores. Most of the things they need are standard inventory or can be bought via a service in the stores. They can haul many more things back from the dungeon than to sell than the other classes, and use that extra money on store services for things like healing potions, scrolls of mass genocide, brand ammo.

There are other little things to help warriors in NPP. I have been coding this variant since 2002, so I don't remember all of them, but they aren't an unusually difficult class.