Comp 165

[debo]

This may not start right on time ("RL reasons") but will certainly be up and running this week.

[PowerWyrm]

There's one particular feature of IDDC that hasn't been mentioned yet: themed levels.

If you're familiar with ToME, then you know of the different dungeons in the game: Orc Caves, Moria, Rhun, and so on. Each dungeon has a particular feeling (terrain, monsters...). TomeNET has implemented these dungeons in its wilderness, expanding them with quests and challenges (boss monsters, ironman/force down/no recall dungeons).

For IDDC, dungeon floors are grouped along these "themed" dungeons. You can get Training Tower theme (arena) for 50ft-150ft, then Barrow Downs (trees) for 200ft-400ft, then Orc Caves (mountains) for the next 5 floors, and so on. If a specific dungeon has a boss at its bottom, then you may also meet him on the corresponding floor in IDDC! And usually, such boss guards a powerful artifact.

Because of these themes, you may consider playing specific race/class combos to be able to pass some of the special terrain features of each theme. In particular, there's a theme very early on (300ft or so) that generates a complete forest level with very few passages. If you cannot pass trees, you may be completely stuck and be forced to restart. Same happens later on with some themes: water level (need swimming/flying -- otherwise you may die from drowning), dense earth (need climbing/passwall -- stairs could be unreachable otherwise)... Races that will gain advantages are dwarf (climbing), draconian (flying), ent (swimming), yeek (forest crossing). Classes that will gain advantages are spellcasters (teleport spell), mimic/shaman/druid (polymorph into forms with pass trees/walls or flying ability), ranger (pass trees). You can even decide to play as a "fruit bat", gaining speed and flying ability at the cost of a portion of your hps (roughly 40%).

One crucial thing to consider if you plan to go far in IDDC: starting around 4100ft (yes it's deep, but it happened to me yesterday while diving my current IDDC character to oblivion to free a character slot for the comp) you will get the "Mount Doom" theme. In regular game, you will go to the corresponding dungeon to kill Sauron. Basically this means you'll get that theme up to 4950ft. What's annoying about that theme is the main terrain feature: lava. What this means is simple: you need immunity to fire. If you reach that depth without it, it's (almost) game over. The easiest way to get the immunity is to play a race or class that gets it intrinsically: druid (11-headed hydra/maulotaur form), mimic/shaman (any form with the immunity), corrupted maia (level 50), spellcaster with the Fire school of magic (level 48 -- 50 in the skill), red lineage draconian (level 25). Otherwise, you'll have to get it from an item.

[PowerWyrm]

A very important link:

http://www.tomenet.net/skill_builder.php

Useful to plan ahead your character build.

[Roguer]

Hmm what theme has trees blocking? I know Old Forest and Mirkwood but both actually have normal passages.
From what I experienced the only nasty themes are Submerged Ruins (mostly deep water) and Sacred Land of Mountains (all mountains and no passages).
However, long before you hit any of these, if they even exist in your run, you will hit one or two towns at 1000 ft and 2000 ft respectively and be able to buy a climbing set. This reminds me, is it fair in the competition to buy items cheaply from shoplifter characters lurking in the towns?
I know that all characters can actually swim if they wear light armour and light backpack, but I guess an item or class that grants flying or having an aquatic form (Druid class especially) can be helpful. Then again Submerged Ruins and Sacred Land of Mountains both have SHORT_IDDC flag which means that they'll only occur for very few levels (dunno maybe 3?) before theme changes again. So could just skip those annoying floors quickly maybe, if they even happen to spawn at all.
Regarding the lava, I think every town offers at least torches of immunity that can grant fire immunity. If you play a class that has resistance spell so that you can get double resistance (Istar, which is the Tomenet name for mage class, priest, paladin, ranger, shaman, maybe I forgot some..) I think you might be ok even without immunity.
Those themes are rerolled randomly every 24 hours by the way.

Oh and I just thought about account registration. In Tomenet your account needs to be validated once by an administrator, for spam prevention. That will probably happen automatically within a few minutes by an administrator or someone who has validation privileges lurking in the background or on IRC, but you could still already create an account now so you know it'll be validated when you actually log in to use it a day later or so. And depending on your preferences you could also already download a music pack. The music is somewhat dynamic and specific for each dungeon and can change in certain situations too, I know I love to play with music + sound pack installed. It's helpful additional info sort of and I like the sound effects and music themes.

[PowerWyrm]

Hmm what theme has trees blocking? I know Old Forest and Mirkwood but both actually have normal passages.

There's one early theme that has "real" trees, meaning green "*" symbols and not green "#", instead of doors. Corridors in this theme are disconnected, which can be a problem. Didn't get this one recently, so maybe it has been disabled, no idea.

This reminds me, is it fair in the competition to buy items cheaply from shoplifter characters lurking in the towns?

If you mean Zop, I think it should be fair to avoid buying from characters that are not in the comp. In fact, it should be fair to only trade items between party members. Of course, someone could make a rogue for the comp and steal for party members...

Regarding the lava, I think every town offers at least torches of immunity that can grant fire immunity.

Which was conveniently sold in the 4k town when I was playing, but didn't deign buying it. Big mistake...

Oh and I just thought about account registration. In Tomenet your account needs to be validated once by an administrator, for spam prevention. That will probably happen automatically within a few minutes by an administrator or someone who has validation privileges lurking in the background or on IRC, but you could still already create an account now so you know it'll be validated when you actually log in to use it a day later or so.

About accounts, since you can make multiple characters per account, I think it would be fair to only allow one character per account for the comp. This means only IDDC slot characters can enter the comp. It should ensure that people don't create multiple characters to gear a "super-diver".

[UglySquirrell]

"I know that all characters can actually swim if they wear light armour and light backpack"

Awesome, i did not know this thanks.

I almost forgot, the first thing you should do once you have gone down the stairs into the IDDC dungeon is use : to enter chat and type "/xorder" in the chat. this will start an extermination order quest. Normally you need to wait till level 5 to start one, but IDDC players can begin once they enter the dungeon.

Extermination Orders
--------------------
These are basically 'kill quests'. You need to venture out and kill a fixed
amount of a certain type of monster.
To receive an order, visit the major in the town hall (one of the '+'
doors in town), or simply type "/xorder" in the chat.
There is a certain time limit which in most cases is easily sufficient,
especially if you have the according ESP ability.

IDDC players have to kill less monsters than you would in normal mode, and get better rewards. The reward is still completely random but can help out a huge amount, iv'e been rewarded with helms of seeing, weapons of Aman and Thunderlords before.

If you complete it or fail it, just enter the command again for another quest.

[PowerWyrm]

Another thing that will be very useful...

When you die, you get two files generated in your /lib/user subdirectory: (nomchar)-death_(date)_screenshot.xhtml and (nomchar)-death_(date).txt.

Use the first one to post a screenshot of your death:

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=2815

Use the second one for the comp ladder:

http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=16928

Seems that the formatting is very ugly though...

[clouded]

Seems that the formatting is very ugly though...

For some reason the formatting has an extra space at the end of long lines causing the wrapping problem, if you edit it to remove those it will look like normal.

[Roguer]

Use the first one to post a screenshot of your death:

http://angband.oook.cz/screen-show.php?id=2815

Seems there is now a Tomenet category available for screenshots. Must've just been added.

[Arjen]

Still pretty quiet in Tomenet, no huge increase noob death.

For those who want more info about Tomenet I would recommend reading (parts of) the guide which can be found on this. That thing is huge and can answer almost every question you might have.

- http://www.tomenet.net/guide.php

There is a lot of useful info like how to build macro's and what every skill does. If you are new to tomenet you really should read section 0.1 of the guide about how to get started. Or go to here and follow the pictures.

And don't be afraid to die, because you will.

[Nivim]

Is there anything out there that makes it easier to just jump in and figure everything out along the way? Not a huge definitive guide, but a concise overview that gives links to the guide for when you need more info later. I keep having these horrifying flashbacks to MMO-ish games I played long ago, and it would be nice to have something reassuringly fast(+31).
(The "pictures" bit is just tutorial; I'm looking for something like that which tries to cover the whole game with a bunch of choice details.)

[Arjen]

Just try the game out is the best way to discover the game. You can move with Arrow keys and holding shift makes you run. If you start with warriors, you won't need to concentrate on spells/skills and just hack-and-slash. Strong starters are Vampire (you gain vamperic melee) Half Troll (regen), Dwarf (resist blind), Draconian (you get an esp radius at lvl 5 which grows).

And the players online are willing to help you a lot if you ask. You really don't *need* to read the whole guild, but I would advise to read the 0.1 section.

[UglySquirrell]

Hmm, there are actually tips as you level up, they help quite a bit. I recommend creating an IDDC slot charecter (Press E at Character Selection) just jumping in grabbing some healing potions, a lantern and flasks of oil, some +damage scrolls for ranged if going that path maybe a mage staff, and aspell or 2 if going the caster route, some phase door scrolls and a handful of satisfy hunger sscrolls as well.

Autoretaliation is automatic for melee, set up with @O on bows or @Oa on books "a" is the spell letter you want to cast, could change this to "e" "f" whatever spell you want. And remember to run with Shift. If you have questions, feel free to ask in chat.

I'm at work now so just thought i'd put a couple of sample builds and a bit of explanation for them.

Istar: Start off as a classic glass cannon mage type with a few spells, and a mage staff (these speed up your mana regeneration)

I say start off as a glass cannon, later on they gain access to an incredible spell called

Disruption Shield
Conjures a shield that protects you from taking damage.
Instead, the shield will consume your mana to absorb it.
Only Istari are able to really get the most out of it -
they get 1 mana point deducted for each absorbed point of
damage. Other classes will instead get 2 mana points
deducted for each damage point.
Required skill level for first spell level: 35.

With decent gear at end game your looking at a spellcaster with low hp but a magic shield that gives them a huge boost to survivability. 500hp +1200-1500 mana shield.

Here is a pretty standard Istar build will work with any race but i recommend Gnome or elf for low exp penalty


skill
SKILL_CONVEYANCE 6.400
SKILL_MANA 50.000
SKILL_FIRE 50.000
SKILL_EARTH 30.400
SKILL_DIVINATION 40.000
SKILL_TEMPORAL 50.000
SKILL_UDUN 50.000

Conveyance- Phase Door and Disarm

Mana-Disruption Shield, Resistance

Fire-Fireflash your main damage spell, does double damage to Evil later.

Earth-Dig,Stone Prison(creates walls around you,great to safely drink from fountains) at level 30 in earth you get shards resistance.

Divination-Detect Monsters,Identify,Greater Identify, Sense Hidden (detects Traps),Reveal Ways (detects doors/stairs) and Vision (maps level around you, at Lv25: Maps and lights the whole level.) 39 points into divination brings it to spell level 25.

Temporal-Haste Istar get a bonus to haste spells that no other classes get, makes them insanely fast late game. Magelock (glyph of warding spell)

Udon-Wraithform Turns your form immaterial. Let's you walk/run through walls. Hellfire (does double damage against good)

With your remaining points, you can easily max another school, or put them into spellpower to make your spells stronger. Considering that none of us will probably get past 50, i recomend maxing out mana with leftover points to make your shield more powerful.

Now this is the build i will be using i call it "The Lord of Darkness'er"
This build requires the Corrupted Maiar Runemaster. skill points are simple. And he/she becomes absolutely insanely powerful.


SKILL_NECROMANCY 50.000
SKILL_TRAUMATURGY 50.000
SKILL_R_DARK 25 50.000
SKILL_R_NEXU 50 50.000
SKILL_R_NETH 25 50.000
SKILL_R_CHAO 50 50.000
SKILL_R_MANA 50 50.000

Runespell tables

http://www.tomenet.net/guide.php?chapter=6.8c

Runes are easy to use just hit % for macros and z for the wizard. Now just follow the steps.

Traumaturgy means you will rarely run out of mana and Necromancy keeps your health up.

Inscribe runes once you find them

If you inscribe @O[a-g][a-g] on a rune in your inventory, you will retaliate
with a spell of the selected modifier and type. For example, if you set the
inscription to @Oac on a rune of light, the 'ball’ spell type will be
selected, with a 'minimized' spell modifier. It is advised to use the !R
inscription to prevent your last rune from being consumed in spell failure.

Buy a mage staff before leaving town, you have to kill the first few monsters with sword and boomerang. Cast acid ball centered on yourself to destroy non ego gear for identify, cloud spells are great early (cloud of sound=happy) enhanced ball spells are great mid, and enhanced bolt (turns into a nonreflecting beam) against end game or reflecting enemies. I dare you not to have fun playing this class.
.......

[Roguer]

Is there anything out there that makes it easier to just jump in and figure everything out along the way? Not a huge definitive guide, but a concise overview that gives links to the guide for when you need more info later. I keep having these horrifying flashbacks to MMO-ish games I played long ago, and it would be nice to have something reassuringly fast(+31).
(The "pictures" bit is just tutorial; I'm looking for something like that which tries to cover the whole game with a bunch of choice details.)

As Arjen said, the game actually throws "newbie hints" at you, which appear in the chat window in yellow colour. For example the first time you step onto a staircase a message will appear saying something like "You stand on a staircase downwards. Press the '>' key to enter.". If you watch those "newbie hints" you won't need to read much really.

What you should definitely read though is the paragraphs each describing the race and the class you picked! Which are listed in chapter (6.4) Races and (6.5) Classes respectively.
It'll tell you the intrinsic abilities, strengths and weaknesses as well as some hints about your race and class.

When you create a character and get to the stat point distribution menu the game will actually suggest minimum values for certain stats. For example iirc for warriors a min strength of 18/40 will be suggested. You should probably stick closely to those and you'll be ok in the early game.

Classes easiest/most forgiving to play for starters are: Warrior, Rogue, Paladin, Druid, Mindcrafter (just make sure to get Psionic Blast spell macroed right away).

Intermediate: Archer (easy when teaming up with a meat shield who keeps the monsters away from you), Mimic (mostly plays straight-forward like a warrior, but need to hunt for monster forms which can be hard for beginners, especially if they don't know much about monsters), Ranger (can do well in many fields such as melee, ranged weapons and spells, somewhat similar to an adventurer, probably requires some basic concept aka experience).

Hardest to play maybe: Adventurer (cause it's a jack of all trades so you can end up terribly mediocre in every regard if you don't know what you're doing), Shaman (triple-relation of forms, combat skills and magic spells), Priest (weak in almost all regards the beginning - great early on party asset though if he buys the 'Cure Wounds' spell and keeps healing his team mates from the back line!), Istar (glass cannon in the beginning, so if you are out of mana at the wrong time you could die fast), Runemaster (needs some time to get a grip of the spell system, and has not that high hit points, ie glass cannonish).

[debo]

Comp 165 is LIVE! Go go goooooo