Competition 118

[Nick]

Competition 118 is now available from the competition page - it is a Sil 1.0.2 Noldor of the house of Fingolfin.

Note that Competition 117 has less than a day to go.

EDIT: Note that Mac users should Import the savefile from the file menu, rather than trying to open it directly from the a-d choices at the start screen. And play the tutorial first

[Scatha]

Hi Nick,

The competition seems to be sorting by something other than score (perhaps experience/turns?); it is, for example, putting me higher up the ranking than I deserve, and if my guess is correct would be won by a character dump right at the start (since you start with 5,000 experience). Is it possible to fix this?

[Nick]

I've emailed pav - he can fix anything

[half]

A sub-challenge for this competition is to see how high a Slaying bonus you can reach. In my rather ignominious attempt this evening I reached a +6 bonus, but died while gorged with food at 350 ft.

[Fendell Orcbane]

How many times can you try? Or do you get one shot?

[Psi]

How many times can you try? Or do you get one shot?

If you mean at the comp, then assuming it runs like the previous ones you get as many goes as you want. You do get to learn the flavours though (you really want some sort of 'comp' flag on a savefile that scrambles them each time you restart).

[buzzkill]

How many times can you try? Or do you get one shot?

What Psi said. There is also a sticky with all the rules, but I have wondered how a 'one-and-done' competition, where you only get one shot at it, would wash out (since that's my preferred playstyle).

[Magnate]

What Psi said. There is also a sticky with all the rules, but I have wondered how a 'one-and-done' competition, where you only get one shot at it, would wash out (since that's my preferred playstyle).

Ew. I usually burn through somewhere between 7 and 25 chars every time I try a comp, so I would not welcome this! But it might work better for Sil, where death is .... er... no, that's not right ....

[ewan]

OK, how do I tell wheher I have a Slaying bonus and how big it is? Just look at the die roll box?

Probably never going to matter as it would break my sneak approach to sing anyway .

[ewan]

Slaying bonus.

OK, (i) I lied and (ii) it's blindingly obvious once you try it .

Turned it on for the first time after making it back to the Gates, in the orc-room top left. Hit +21 at one point but I forgot to eat Rage first; I'll try that on the other side!

[ewan]

OK, Rage-assisted and buffed I got up to +24, but at that point it's decreasing even if you kill each turn - needs to have >1 enemy dying each turn to get that high.

[half]

OK, Rage-assisted and buffed I got up to +24, but at that point it's decreasing even if you kill each turn - needs to have >1 enemy dying each turn to get that high.

Wow, that is a high bonus! There are quite a few times when one can get a rate of kills greater than 1 per turn, so it need not form the maximum. For instance, any song of slaying character worth their salt would surely get Whirlwind Attack.

[half]

Note to those who think Sil is too difficult:

ewan won with the competition character on his first attempt, scoring a major victory (3 Silmarils), in a very short time, playing the character against its strengths (ignoring one of the abilities it started with, using a style more suited to Dex focused characters etc). Great work!

Of course, this does not mean he has won the *competition*, but it is going to be pretty tough now! I think aiming to join him with a winner is a pretty respectable aim -- I'll try a few times...

[Scatha]

OK, Rage-assisted and buffed I got up to +24, but at that point it's decreasing even if you kill each turn - needs to have >1 enemy dying each turn to get that high.

The bonus is directly proportional to your Song, so that's the easiest way to boost it. (You got up to 170% of your Song, which is pretty crazy.)

[Fendell Orcbane]

Note to those who think Sil is too difficult:

ewan won with the competition character on his first attempt, scoring a major victory (3 Silmarils), in a very short time, playing the character against its strengths (ignoring one of the abilities it started with, using a style more suited to Dex focused characters etc). Great work!

Of course, this does not mean he has won the *competition*, but it is going to be pretty tough now! I think aiming to join him with a winner is a pretty respectable aim -- I'll try a few times...

On the other hand maybe ewan is just really, really good.