Competition 121

[Nick]

Competition 121 is now available from the competition page; it is a DaJAngband 1.3.5 Hobglib Alchemist.

Note that you have 40 minutes to come up with a comp 120 winner...

[Gorbad]

That will just push ewan to complete a top-3

[will_asher]

Two of the alchemist's major weaknesses are stealth and alertness. I figure that should help to test the new feature that makes different actions make different amounts of noise.

Oh and there's a subcompetition: who will be the first to identify the monster feature that I censored on the announcement post. Only a few monsters have it.

[fizzix]

bah. I really wanted to try the next DJA comp. But with 3.4 needing test-playing it's hard to justify. Ok...maybe I'll just try a little...

[will_asher]

The ladder seems to be just sorting by the order that the dumps were uploaded (because there's no turncount), would it be easy to just copy the format of the DaJAngband ladder to this comp?

EDIT: sorry, I just realized that the DaJAngband ladder also still tries to show turncount. I guess it's awkward for the DAJ ladder when dumps from different versions of the game are in different formats...

[buzzkill]

I came upon a jammed door. I attempted to o)pen it and received the message "it appears to be stuck", but the door opened none the less.

[buzzkill]

I haven't played DAJ in quite a while and never with the Hobglib class. What's up with the pseudo ID. Is it weak in the sense that it is simply slow, or that it only gives {good} and {cursed} indications and omits {excellent} and {superb}.

I'll figure out in the long run, but I kinda need to know now. I'd hate to lose this character. It was a real PITA to get off the ground.

[will_asher]

I haven't played DAJ in quite a while and never with the Hobglib class. What's up with the pseudo ID. Is it weak in the sense that it is simply slow, or that it only gives {good} and {cursed} indications and omits {excellent} and {superb}.

I'll figure out in the long run, but I kinda need to know now. I'd hate to lose this character. It was a real PITA to get off the ground.

Weak pseudo ID (that only gives "good" or "cursed" feelings) has been removed from DAJ (as well as in V). The alchemist's pseudo is just kinda slow.

[buzzkill]

This was really a poor competition character submission. I've got nothing against the early game being tough, but this guy's situation borders on absurd.

1. He's so un-stealthy that he's practically aggravating. I've never seen anything that wasn't awake.

2. There's no phase door or teleport available in town for the initial dive.

3. His first few HP increases upon level up are minimal.

4. Although he starts out with knowledge of the stinking cloud spell, it's damage is pathetic for the first few levels, and kobolds and worms are immune or nearly immune.

5. SP regeneration is awful.

6. Poor infravision and measly damage (and a point blank penalty?) means that {average} bow and slings aren't as useful as one might think.

7. Although he's not terrible with a weapon, because of his pseudo-aggravation he eventually succumbs to sustained series of attacks or a faster enemy.

I must have tried at least 20 times. I'd say 50% died on DL1. 40% made it to DL2 or DL3 before getting shredded by one of Maggots dogs. One made it just a bit further, to DL5 or so, and only one had any real measure of success, getting through the first few level with a combination of oil flasks and a number of early found potions of speed. This is from a guy who typically plays hard to start characters.

In other words, if this is your first brush with DAJ. Don't judge the variant based on this competition.

PS, what might make this fun is if he started out with an amulet of ESP, or a dagger who's only enchantment was ESP (so that he would eventually outgrow it).

Congrats to those of you who found a way to make this guy survive, I'd love to hear the stories.

[buzzkill]

Upon recall to DL20, I find myself in a precarious situation. I get attacked three times before I even get to move. The RNG seem to think that "This level feels rather safe." My dragon scale mail and sword of slay orc bailed me out, and one of those pesky Uruks dropped my first found artifact, a broken dagger with +2 speed and +2 attacks and slay animal, which helped with the spiders.

[will_asher]

This was really a poor competition character submission. I've got nothing against the early game being tough, but this guy's situation borders on absurd.

1. He's so un-stealthy that he's practically aggravating. I've never seen anything that wasn't awake...

On one hand competition characters are kinda supposed to be tough and I think a lot of them have additional challenges like ironman turned on.
On the other hand, I knew a starting alchemist was tough, but I didn't think it'd be quite this tough. And when I decided to submit a savefile, I just started the game and saved it without doing anything with the character so of course I didn't know there were no phase or teleport (or CLW) in stock at the very beginning.
Would you say it's a tougher start than a gnome mage**? 'cause it isn't meant to be.

The thing about practically aggravating may be an indication that my stealth/noise changes need tweaking.

(** With this, I feel like the Count in the Princess bride asking Westley how he feels after the initial experience with his torture machine. Aren't all maintainers supposed to be a bit sadistic?)

PS: This character has bad alertness, there is no infravision in DAJ. All (or at least almost all) warm blooded invisible monsters are not invisible in DAJ. 'Clear' monsters are just more stealthy than others.

[buzzkill]

Here's a bug for ya... While fleeing from a rubble mimic, an intervening skeleton was nice enough to absorb the bits of debris it was hurling at me from the floor, but despite the skeleton absorbing all the debris, I kept getting stunned every time the skeleton got hit.

[will_asher]

Here's a bug for ya... While fleeing from a rubble mimic, an intervening skeleton was nice enough to absorb the bits of debris it was hurling at me from the floor, but despite the skeleton absorbing all the debris, I kept getting stunned every time the skeleton got hit.

......oops

[Nick]

Competition 121 is now officially finished; congratulations to cheekycatchymonkey for winning the competition (no game winners in this very tough comp).