Blackguard first impressions and missing docs

[Pete Mack]

Best match for BG is likely Dunadan. You get plenty of HP and STR anyway. What you're missing is DEX, which really matters a lot with the 10lb weapon penanlty, well into the midgame. And decent INT helps too. H-T has one big benefit: Regen, which will help a bit with BG's weird HP mechanic, but won't do a thing for SP. That said, I haven't remotely figured out this class.

Specific details about the workings of HP and SP regen from melee would really help.

[Tom Warner]

H-T has one big benefit: Regen, which will help a bit with BG's weird HP mechanic, but won't do a thing for SP.

The regen has been really nice I think -- mostly haven't struggled with missing HP and while I go through potions at a decent rate, I've generally been able to replenish them just from what I find lying around.

The INT thing is brutal though. I've managed to find a cap of +2 int which is a huge help (raises it all the way to 8) but all my rituals are still at 50% fail and I have 12 SP at CL 23. I've honestly had to mostly play so far like a warrior with a couple utility spells, and so I don't feel like I'm really getting the intended experience out of the class until I reach stat gain depth or die trying. Live and learn though.

[archolewa]

I compile from source and it really isnt a pain. If youve already installed angband from apt-get then you should have all the dependencies, so compiling should just be a few commands away.

[Tom Warner]

I compile from source and it really isnt a pain. If youve already installed angband from apt-get then you should have all the dependencies, so compiling should just be a few commands away.

......apparently my Ubuntu install (latest vanilla version) does not have a C compiler installed, and trying to install GCC fails on some other bogus dependency error. I appreciate that this is a free game and all, this is a very first-world problem, but it really is kind of a stretch to expect people to compile it from source code as a "normal" part of the install process, especially when you don't know what dependencies may or may not be installed on their systems.

Ideally it would be available through apt but I get there may be access issues there, still, it would be very nice to be available either through a PPA or at least as a pre-built .deb package, like 4.2.1 was built here.

[Sphara]

Short starting tips for Blackguard:

Pick High-Elf race. Take two points off from CON and one point from DEX. Put all points to INT. Now you have 18/20 STR, 18/10 INT, 18/10 DEX, 13 CON.

Prefer heavier weapons at the start. Dungeon upgrades come up eventually.

Find Ring of Open Wounds. Activate it often for healing.

Buy Fear and Torment book as soon as you can afford it and are able cast Maim Foe spell. Use Maim Foe against everything nasty you decide to fight (does not work on undead afaik). It radically lowers melee damage taken by enemy hits.

[wobbly]

My understanding is that you have to have someone who is officially approved in some sense to contribute to the official Apt repo. Magnate (who still appears here occasionally) has done this in the past, but there isn't really anyone regularly doing it now.

I actually talked to Magnate not that long ago over at the freeorion forums. It sounds like he is pretty busy these days and I haven't seen him there for a while which is generally a sign that he doesn't have a lot of free time at the moment. I doubt he was update anytime soon.

[Tom Warner]

Pick High-Elf race.

My HT finally died of running out of healing potions while fighting a bunch of nasty orcs, but I actually re-rolled with a half-orc and put a few points in INT and it's been much smoother sailing now that the rituals are actually useful.

Find Ring of Open Wounds. Activate it often for healing.

Found one, it's a huge help. The impaired regen is quite dramatic and it's nice to have healing available from non-potions,

Buy Fear and Torment book as soon as you can afford it and are able cast Maim Foe spell. Use Maim Foe against everything nasty you decide to fight (does not work on undead afaik). It radically lowers melee damage taken by enemy hits.

Just got the book, 1 level away from learning the spell so I'm pumped

Another nice change: automatically swapping in the best digger in inventory is huge. It's so smooth to be able to just carry a Shovel of Digging and not have to bother with the manual swap dance.

[DavidMedley]

Try to never rest with Blackguard.

[Pete Mack]

@David--
Right. Also beware of gorging while sucking down enormous numbers of !CLW.

[Tom Warner]

Try to never rest with Blackguard.

Yep, one of the hardest adjustments was fighting my instinct to rest after every fight. Open wounds is a huge help and now I got an amulet of regen too so I do get HP back at a somewhat reasonable rate just running around between fights. Have definitely been mindful of the gorged thing--so far so good by mostly not eating unless my hunger drops below 20%.

[Tom Warner]

Should monsters with shrieks be able to haste themselves too? It doesn't really change anything I guess, the first shriek was enough, but I've had a couple experiences with shrieker mushroom patches and terrified yeeks and such screaming to wake everything, hasting themselves, and then screaming even more off the speed bonus they got. I could see it being more of a problem if there was something else nasty in the room that I didn't want getting hasted 3 times in one turn ........

[Sphara]

Should monsters with shrieks be able to haste themselves too? It doesn't really change anything I guess, the first shriek was enough, but I've had a couple experiences with shrieker mushroom patches and terrified yeeks and such screaming to wake everything, hasting themselves, and then screaming even more off the speed bonus they got. I could see it being more of a problem if there was something else nasty in the room that I didn't want getting hasted 3 times in one turn ........

I think "monster is moving even faster!" message from multiple hastes, means just that the monster will be hasted a longer period of time, not gaining ever more increasing speed. Otherwise Yeek royalties would easily gain something like >+50 speed in just couple of turns.

[Tom Warner]

I think "monster is moving even faster!" message from multiple hastes, means just that the monster will be hasted a longer period of time, not gaining ever more increasing speed. Otherwise Yeek royalties would easily gain something like >+50 speed in just couple of turns.

Ah, that makes more sense. I think it's still new that shriekers can haste themselves now too but it's also really funny imagining a scared little yeek racing around the room, screaming so loudly it scares itself even more and starts running even faster.

[Pete Mack]

In (significantly) older versions, haste really was additive: each call added +10 speed, and it never wore off. I believe this was considered unfair and bad for gameplay, since the usual response was just to flee the level.

[Tom Warner]

That would be terrifying!