Competition 110

[buzzkill]

A couple more bugs, maybe fixed already, still playing v123.

Can't close open doors.

When moving through a terrain that takes more than 1 move (100 energy??? with enemies in proximity), if you change your mind and and try to move in a different direction on your subsequent turn, it will be ignored and you will instead move into the grid you first moved toward. At least that is what I think is happening.

[Seany C]

A couple more 'maybe bugs, maybe features' points:

* Items that were always excellent in previous versions are now often 'perilous' with negative AC (armour) or +hit/+dam (weapons) - e.g. "Metal Cap of Serenity (3,-6);

* The 'map' view seems to capture far fewer monsters/objects than previous versions (previous versions would show 80%+ of monsters, etc; the current map barely shows 20% of visible monsters).

[Nick]

Can't close open doors.

Yep, fixed in 1.2.4 (I think).

When moving through a terrain that takes more than 1 move (100 energy??? with enemies in proximity), if you change your mind and and try to move in a different direction on your subsequent turn, it will be ignored and you will instead move into the grid you first moved toward. At least that is what I think is happening.

Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. I just found that a little while ago too, and am trying to work out how to fix it.

[Nick]

If it's not too much trouble, can you delete my comp character from the comp ladder. I've got a better one that I can't post.

The name change bug should due fixed in 1.2.4 too.

[Nick]

* Items that were always excellent in previous versions are now often 'perilous' with negative AC (armour) or +hit/+dam (weapons) - e.g. "Metal Cap of Serenity (3,-6);

Yep, that's intentional. 'perilous' means 'ego with some drawback, which can range from boots of speed [2,-1](+10) to boots of pitiless torment.

* The 'map' view seems to capture far fewer monsters/objects than previous versions (previous versions would show 80%+ of monsters, etc; the current map barely shows 20% of visible monsters).

Yes, I've noticed that too. I probably added an inferior section of Vanilla code

[Psi]

Haven't played any bands for ages, but just noticed that the current comp is FA! Most of the chars on the comp ladder don't seem to have got very far - just interested to know what the stumbling blocks are?

[Roch]

Haven't played any bands for ages, but just noticed that the current comp is FA! Most of the chars on the comp ladder don't seem to have got very far - just interested to know what the stumbling blocks are?

I've been burning through characters at a fairly fast clip. Mostly the problem is that you are starting with 4th level character, and you can only go to level 19/20/21 level wilderness levels. So you need to find easy kills to level up, but it is fairly easy to get surrounded or blinded or both. Hounds, black mambas, and gazing eyes are among the things I run from the most. I look for orcs, ogres, and giants at the start to take advantage of the slays on the starting weapon.

Even after leveling up a bit and making it to Amon Rudh, life is a challenge. Escapes are still hard to come by (words of wisdom only has blink -- no portal spell). So while grinding to make it to the bottom of the dungeon is doable, getting strong enough to take on Mim has been very difficult for me.

[Seany C]

Haven't played any bands for ages, but just noticed that the current comp is FA! Most of the chars on the comp ladder don't seem to have got very far - just interested to know what the stumbling blocks are?

Evening - the factors that come to mind:

1) Disconnected wilderness stairs in this competition - eek;
2) Not much in the stores initially in 1.2.x - so not many escapes;
3) There seem to be fewer ego armors, etc, in 1.2.x (although not played enough of this version to verify) - actually, that could be just that autoscum is turned off in this competition;
4) Competion time, so everyone's playing comparatively recklessly;
5) Adan Paladins are less of an optmised class than first appears - slow movement through both trees and rubble is occasionally an early killer;
6) You haven't been around to post a 150K turn winner yet.

[ewan]

Things causing problems:

* lack of WoR
* lack of ID (have had decent luck finding _ID, but not enough)
* lack of spell books
* lack of ability to restore stats
* lack of knowledge (player, not character): where are town(s)? What's a good survival direction? etc
* lack of significant healing
* the bizarre change so that flavours do not stay constant - e.g. a Chalcedony amulet of DOOM does *NOT*, it seems, mean that the next Chalcedony amulet will be bad - it could be splendid. Which makes lack of ID that much harder.

That'll do for now; the problems w/ the starting character location are real, but less interesting; scumming for some orcs to level up was annoying but not usually that bad, and if it failed the char was toast rapidly.

I'm on I think my 12th or so character, and have just had one survive to get to Mim. I have no clue what to do next :-/

[Nick]

* lack of WoR
* lack of ID (have had decent luck finding _ID, but not enough)
* lack of spell books
* lack of significant healing
* lack of ability to restore stats

Combination of starting in a small town, the shops apparently stocking less stuff (I'm not sure why this is happening, but it does seem to be) and really bad starting shops have had a bad effect here.

* lack of knowledge (player, not character): where are town(s)? What's a good survival direction? etc

Look at buzzkill's world map, link in post #14 of this thread. This should really be included in the mac version, but isn't. Also there is a rudimentary map in the help (?, 5, 5).

* the bizarre change so that flavours do not stay constant - e.g. a Chalcedony amulet of DOOM does *NOT*, it seems, mean that the next Chalcedony amulet will be bad - it could be splendid. Which makes lack of ID that much harder.

Rings and amulets are no longer flavoured - they're all kind of like mini-randarts. The different types (metals for rings, gemstones for amulets) represent the quality - the more valuable the material, the better the object has a chance to be.

For rings, that's:
Steel
Pewter
Galvorn
Brass
Bronze
Copper
Silver
Gold
Adamantite
Mithril

and for amulets:
Chalcedony
Malachite
Opal
Garnet
Pearl
Amethyst
Sapphire
Ruby
Emerald
Diamond

I'm on I think my 12th or so character, and have just had one survive to get to Mim. I have no clue what to do next :-/

I've played like 40. I'm too impatient.

[ewan]

Nick -

- thanks for the explanations . The ring/amulet system makes sense now, at least.

Note, also, that none of this is complaint - it's good to have a tough challenge and to get out of ruts, no worries.

[ewan]

p.s. While I am here - just encountered some sort of huge theme levell heading back up from Mim; a zillion orcs, some Qs, Ps, etc. There's a bunch of giant paladins I am trying to lure out, and at least one scary storm troll, but there are also now piles of loot...

[buzzkill]

Selling your starting weapon will garner you enough GP to buy everything you might possibly want (mostly TL and CLW) from the starting town and still have quite a bit of GP left over.

It's probably the optimal starting strategy. Feels a little cheesy to me (though I did try it, just once).

[Psi]

Thanks for all the comments. I must give it a go before time runs out!

Disconnected wilderness sounds like the real killer to me. When it was possible to make an immediate exit from an unpleasant starting position, it didn't matter that you were starting in tough wilderness. That said, LostTemplar was running ironman characters out of Ephel Brandir so it has to be doable.

I can think of friendlier starting races/classes to play from that position - never been a fan of Adan or Paladins. I guess this is a real challenge comp.

[Psi]

4) Competion time, so everyone's playing comparatively recklessly;

I think that one will be a big issue for me too. I'm pretty certain that with enough time, one could go backwards, build the character slowly and win the game. However I've always got one eye on the turncount and the thought that unless you pull off the only win, the exp/turn criteria will bite you.