Sil 1.1

[HallucinationMushroom]

How are you dying? Is it a case of being surrounded or do even 1v1, 1v2 encounters prove too overpowering? Who/what is killing you? A 2/4/5/3, or 2/5/4/3 Feanor with melee/evasion as priority ought to be able to hang at 200' as long as you aren't biting off too much per encounter. If you are dying to being surrounded, try to make sure you do your fighting in corridors or at choked junctions to limit # of opponents. Or, if you are dying to 1v1,1v2, you could have a bad evasion to protection ratio. This often trips me up. It's hard to give out concrete numbers on that, since they are often inversely related and dependent on what you find (if anything!), but let's say your typical early character comes across only leather armor and leather boots, you want maybe +12 min. evasion, but if you add a shield and gauntlets and helm to that, maybe +9 is safe for a while. As long as your melee bonus is +8-10, you can focus on evasion, which I find more important to surviving a simple melee/evasion build.

[Starhawk]

I just started playing Sil last week and WOW, I love it!

But egads, this game is hard. Even following the advice laid out hereabouts (Feanorian with high Dex / Melee / Evasion / Stealth) I tend to get roflstomped before I reach 300'.

Given the strict time limit I'm finding that most of my characters don't find gear worth speaking of, and by the time they get to 200'-ish (if they live that long) they don't have the skills/abilities to compete. Am I missing out on xp somewhere?

I've been trying to sort-of clear levels... i.e. at least look through the rooms to make sure there aren't good drops on the floor that I'm missing. I don't hack down every monster.

It seems like the thing to do is find a strategy to get a few thousand XP quick -- what's the usual path you guys follow? I've been wondering if it would be worthwhile to go pure Stealth and try to quick-dive to get the buckets of XP from taking downstairs.

[Patashu]

Random usability/interface idea: When you get an ability that is passive and has downsides (mind over matter and flaming arrows come to mind immediately), the game could remind you in the message log when you exit that this ability can be disabled and enabled by doing so-and-so. Even if it's in the manual or tutorial or whatever it's great to have it closest to where it's relevant to the player.

[Psi]

I found an interesting bug (maybe feature or something) that I recently found regarding the Throne Room.

That's a feature. You have to be Herculian in Sil terms to pull it off though, so not many get to try it.

[HugoVirtuoso]

I found an interesting bug (maybe feature or something) that I recently found regarding the Throne Room. To avoid spoiling it here, I would like to direct you to my most recent Throne Room v1.1 survivor, Buster Hugo. http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=13590

Scroll down to the section that says "Here's the fun part... *I'm not sure if this is a bug. But, this is interesting*" (towards the end)

What do you make of this?

Because spoilers are involved, it's up to you if you want to check it out.

[debo]

I think that's the same thing as when you can see doors opening and closing even when they're out of LOS.

[WaveMotion]

Found a bug while retreating from a Shadow Spider: while blind, you can still see tiles in your line of sight get darkened if they were lit the previous time you saw them.

[Patashu]

Perhaps the amazing power of their attack needs to be telegraphed to the player a bit more, such as through the monster description.

How about with onomatopoeia in attack messages?

The Ururauko hits you! You are enveloped in flames! Ouch! Ooh! Argh! Ooh! Oof!

[half]

My understanding is that multiple sources of resistance are cumulative against *breath* attacks only. Against melee attacks, if you do *not* have the resistance, then the monster gets an extra die of damage. So if the info description says the monster gets 4d10 with a fire *melee* attack, then it always gets a 4d10 melee attack regardless of how many layers of resistance you have. Unless you have zero layers of resistance, in which case it gets a 5d10 attack. Plus criticals on top of that.

Almost exactly right. The only difference is that if you have negative levels of resistance (vulnerabilities), then you take an extra die of damage for each of these. Again, this is the same for the monsters -- so use your flaming sword against a Snow Troll etc...

[bron]

Fire resistance is cumulative against drakes and serpents, but NOT Ururaukar

My understanding is that multiple sources of resistance are cumulative against *breath* attacks only. Against melee attacks, if you do *not* have the resistance, then the monster gets an extra die of damage. So if the info description says the monster gets 4d10 with a fire *melee* attack, then it always gets a 4d10 melee attack regardless of how many layers of resistance you have. Unless you have zero layers of resistance, in which case it gets a 5d10 attack. Plus criticals on top of that.

[half]

We have a planned overhaul for the way elemental melee attacks work (which would make resistances stack), but this probably won't come in until after 1.3.

Yes, for now it works the same way as your own melee slays and brands (where one level of resistance removes all the extra damage).

Ururaukar are the glass battleship monster of Sil. You really want to avoid them getting even a single hit on you (e.g. through stealth, archery, accurate powerful melee attack, high evasion, speed, fear...). Perhaps the amazing power of their attack needs to be telegraphed to the player a bit more, such as through the monster description. At the moment, people often remember that they went down easily in melee previously, so they assume they mustn't be tough, when the whole point of them is that their offensive power and defensive power are very different.

[Scatha]

Ururauko hit 4d10. I don't know if that includes their extra damage die from fire, or not. Actually, I'm not even sure that elemental melee attacks work the same way for monsters as they do for the player.

It doesn't, and they do -- if you don't have fire resistance Ururaukar will get an extra d10.

We have a planned overhaul for the way elemental melee attacks work (which would make resistances stack), but this probably won't come in until after 1.3.

[debo]

This is sort of how I envisioning it looking once you let an Ururauko get a hit in:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efU_EHT6Nxo

[debo]

So I just got killed by a Ururauko. I thought that I was pretty safe attacking it since I had a ring of frost. Plus I had a potion of elemental resistance. Well I guess wrong.

Here are the last two combat rolls before I bit it.

R(+26) 36 21 15 [+13] & -> (5d10) 35 23 12 [6-12]

R(+26) 38 7 31 [+13]& -> (4d10) 13 5 8 [6-12]

So did the resistance work at all? Or do Ururauki do that much damage?

Ururauko hit 4d10. I don't know if that includes their extra damage die from fire, or not. Actually, I'm not even sure that elemental melee attacks work the same way for monsters as they do for the player -- perhaps they just add an effect (like burning items or popping potions).

Fire resist or not, 4d10 is no joke. Ururauko are glass cannons, they have low HP and prot but they hit like trucks. Don't take more than one hit from them.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Fire resistance is cumulative against drakes and serpents, but NOT Ururaukar. Against Ururaukar, having multiple sources of fire resistance DO NOT stack. This is the information from half or Scatha earlier this year. Correct me if I'm wrong.