Competition 136

[Nick]

Competition 136 is now available from the competition page; it is an NPPAngband Dwarf Priest with benefits.

Note that comp 135 has just a few hours to go.

[nppangband]

::crickets::

{Just wanted to check that there wasn't something majorly wrong with the comp or the savefile or something like that. It's a dwarf priest with good stats starting with Feanor on thier feet}.

[Roch]

::crickets::

{Just wanted to check that there wasn't something majorly wrong with the comp or the savefile or something like that. It's a dwarf priest with good stats starting with Feanor on thier feet}.

RL gets in the way. I took one shot so far and died at cl25, dl25 when I drank an un'id'ed death potion. I was doing quests, but when I try again I may do fewer in favor of saving turns.

[nppangband]

I am guessing the winner won't have to do quests, since they are already starting with +15 speed. It is probably best to dive.

But thanks. I just wanted to make sure everything was working OK.

[AnonymousHero]

(Not that I'm huge on competitions, but...)

It doesn't run on my Linux setup and at least one other person has reported that it doesn't run on theirs (posted elsewhere). I'm not sure what the distribution of Linux use is among the competition players, but this might have an effect on participation.

[Mytten]

I am not able to get npp to work under Linux either. However the windows version seems to work well so far when i am using wine.

That might be a way to participate even if you are running Linux, but i have just played a level so far, so there might be problems later.

[nppangband]

@Mytten - Which version of Linux? I had no idea this was a problem.

[Mytten]

Ubuntu 12.10. I can compile npp, but when i try to load the competition save, or really any save game npp crashes. I will try to get a fault message when i get home tonight.

It seems to work well running the windows version in wine so far though.

<edit>
When i try to start with a savefile i only get these messages

Error (Cannot parse savefile) reading 6.1.0 savefile. -more-

Loading a 6.1.0 savefile...
Can't create a temporary file for notes

nppangband: broken savefile

[nppangband]

Ubuntu 12.10. I can compile npp, but when i try to load the competition save, or really any save game npp crashes. I will try to get a fault message when i get home tonight.

It seems to work well running the windows version in wine so far though.

<edit>
When i try to start with a savefile i only get these messages

That seems to be a file sharing issue. I think the operating system needs permission to read and write to the folder. I personally used the --with-no-install option so the notes file and save files are written in the same directory that NPP is stored. It makes it easier to grant permission.

-Jeff

[nppangband]

Well, this has been an interesting competition......mostly dead characters despite starting with Feanor and +15 speed, adn no winners. All other NPP comps have had multiple winners, despite all kinds of things to make the game harder, rather than easier.....

I am trying to draw a logical conclusion from this, but I can't. Unfortunately RL kept me from playing. Do any of the players have any theories?

[ShadowTechnology]

Well, I'll mostly defer to the players that made it further. But I will offer a few thoughts. I seems to me that both NPP and Vanilla have gotten "harder" in their last few incarnations. To an experienced player, "harder" does not necessarily mean more likely to die, it just means a slower game, taking more time, and tending to become stale and boring in the middle levels. The exception to this, of course, are contests that depend on turn count. In this case, harder does mean deadlier. My first three Felebs died relatively early when I got in over my head (which is easy to do with shafts that go down 2 levels at a time). My current Feleb has been more cautious, but painfully slow to gain power. By CL29/DL43, I think I should have found more than a mere handful of stat potions, at least one dungeon spell book, some form of poison resistance, some from of teleport other, at least one ego priest weapon, at least one ego missile launcher, at least one ego cloak and ego gloves, some form of resist confusion, etc. The tactic of diving deeper in the hope of accelerating character advancement doesn't work well when the danger level increases much faster than the rewards. You either end up getting deader quicker, or end up fighting a loosing battle of attrition and spend the consumables you were hording for the end game just to survive a little longer. I think the pendulum of game balance has swung too far in the direction of difficulty, and needs to swing back towards rapid character advancement. I don't want to spend 50+ hours advancing a character to fight Morgy (RL doesn't allow it, even if I did enjoy it). Think about how rapidly a new character advances during the first 20 levels. Why can't that momentum carry through the entire game? With some experience and a little luck, a game that lasts 15-20 hours would be perfect!

[Roch]

There may have been a little feanor-based over-confidence that paid off up to dlevel 40 but which turned deadly after that, often due to time hounds or somesuch coupled with a chronically low hp situation. I probably wouldn't force inferences from this comp.

[Nick]

Competition 136 is now over; congratulations to ranger jeff for winning, and commiserations to Shinedog for dying to Morgoth and yet being beaten into second.

[ranger jeff]

Well, this has been an interesting competition......mostly dead characters despite starting with Feanor and +15 speed, adn no winners. All other NPP comps have had multiple winners, despite all kinds of things to make the game harder, rather than easier.....

I am trying to draw a logical conclusion from this, but I can't. Unfortunately RL kept me from playing. Do any of the players have any theories?

Yeah, I really shouldn't have won. Tried a few more times after my 1st death, never got too deep before YASD.

1) it seemed like not too many people played this comp, at least not the usual suspects in terms of game winners
2) my 1st character felt pretty solid except for me getting lazy and so killed, could have been a winner
3) already commented on this, and not sure how many others were bothered by it as well, but the way the targeting cursor would disappear when trying to scan the baddies was more than just a minor annoyance for me, and made me less enthusiastic about trying seriously with my 2nd and 3rd attempts

[nppangband]

3) already commented on this, and not sure how many others were bothered by it as well, but the way the targeting cursor would disappear when trying to scan the baddies was more than just a minor annoyance for me, and made me less enthusiastic about trying seriously with my 2nd and 3rd attempts

I know. I am frustrated by that one. The cursor is drawn, but the game goes into low-level code and erases it. I have even tried to have the game specifically draw it again after it gets erased, and it just gets wiped again.