Invisible archer

[thomasd3]

I'm at 200ft; there is some invisible dude that keeps shooting arrows at me; I can't see him and I can't catch him either as he is faster.

It keeps going back and forth because I close doors; as soon as I walk away from the door it opens and he sends an arrow.

I have sent a bunch of poisoned arrows on him, but it's still happening and I just can't see the guy!

What is it and what's the strategy here?

[thomasd3]

so it turned out that it was a whole group of orc archers and we were in a dark place.

I had them follow me to a bright place and I could see them. As I have a torch, how comes I can't see them?

(Just met my first orc warrior and he killed me in 2-3 hits)

[Pete Mack]

If you are getting killed by orc warriors, you don't have enough evasion (and you probably don't have enough melee.)
For archers, you need to lure them into a small(ish) room, then corner them, one at a time. You can experiment, or you can watch suitable videos on youtube. Archery works against them pretty well too--they have lousy evasion skill. Put just a few points into it and you'll be able to hit them in the dark.

[Patashu]

I also recommend Sprinting against archers. Since you run faster than they do, no matter what direction they run in, you'll always be able to catch up and finish them off. And this is just one of the many benefits Sprinting gives you.

[Gwarl]

I also recommend Sprinting against archers. Since you run faster than they do, no matter what direction they run in, you'll always be able to catch up and finish them off. And this is just one of the many benefits Sprinting gives you.

If chasing down archers is our metric, opportunist beats sprinting every time.

[Patashu]

If chasing down archers is our metric, opportunist beats sprinting every time.

I concede the point

[seraph]

debo explains how to manipulate archer ai here: http://angband.oook.cz/forum/showpos...1&postcount=13

regarding the light issue: some rooms are dark. in such rooms you can only see x squares away from you, where x is your light radius. with just a torch your light radius is one. a lantern, helm of brilliance or amulet of the blessed realm etc. are all items that can increase your light radius. a staff of light makes the room lit.

edit: also the targets of archery have their evasion halved (and halved again if you can not see the attacker). having heavy armour to swap to can help.

[Thraalbee]

Invisible archers? Heh, that would be cruel. But not sadistic.
So what game designer would bother to add those to the game? Unless of course they were also faster than you and smart about their movements. Throw in equally fast and strong melee dudes supporting them and then were talking! Make you wonder, why bother to add the [actually quite] whimpy orc archers?
Could it be a forewarning to what will come later? A hint - I recall having used the F-world with lower case more than once...