Phail of Galadriel frequency

[PowerDiver]

I would have agreed a few weeks ago, but now that I tried a nobuying/selling type of game I think it changed my playstyle away from gather&sell, and so opened up more inventory space. Dunno, but it just feels a bit more fun to just play and not be "forced" to go up to sell so often.

I keep forgetting that you are playing with no buying. A rod of CCW might be quite useful in that context in the early to mid game.

[Magnate]

On that much we certainly agree.

The reason I won't ask for commit access to the V source is that I would feel obligated to remove selling entirely as my first action.

This is precisely what I hope will happen now we've moved to git: Eddie writes a no-selling branch and fixes gold drops, and takk pulls it into mainline ...

[PowerDiver]

Dunno, but it just feels a bit more fun to just play and not be "forced" to go up to sell so often.

On that much we certainly agree.

The reason I won't ask for commit access to the V source is that I would feel obligated to remove selling entirely as my first action.

But for now, early gold drops are inadequate and prices keep going up, so selling is a huge deal.

[ewert]

I would have agreed a few weeks ago, but now that I tried a nobuying/selling type of game I think it changed my playstyle away from gather&sell, and so opened up more inventory space. Dunno, but it just feels a bit more fun to just play and not be "forced" to go up to sell so often.

[d_m]

Even in the early game, would you save a single curing rod when preparing to recall knowing you could be taking home something to sell instead? I may be biased by my diving speed, but I'd expect to sell an item [say a random maul] for more money than any savings on !CCW on the next trip.

I'm not a fast diver, but I have found it to be true in my case also (I was trying to use a rod of curing I found with a Dunedain warrior last night and after about five minutes I gave up and squelched it). There are just too many other things that are either useful or worth money.

[PowerDiver]

And I guess it is more for the early game where you might actually not have the cash for infinite !ccw.

Even in the early game, would you save a single curing rod when preparing to recall knowing you could be taking home something to sell instead? I may be biased by my diving speed, but I'd expect to sell an item [say a random maul] for more money than any savings on !CCW on the next trip.

[ewert]

Ahh yes, I meant it more as a healing aide and for not-so-critical situations of course and for situations where the effects are more or less inconveniences rather than deadly right now.

Dunno though, now that I played some games with "noselling and superhomespace", I think it opened up a lot of room for me. I'd definitely gather the rods, enough of them and you could just fire em off after a phase etc. when fighting tougher mobs, saving towntrips to replenish CCW pots. And I guess it is more for the early game where you might actually not have the cash for infinite !ccw.

[Derakon]

I could see carrying a failure-prone Rod of CCW for use as a healing accelerator -- it'd reduce the amount of time I'd have to spend resting. I wouldn't actually use it in fights when I absolutely need the effect to go off, though. And yeah, it'd get dumped in favor of more useful stuff -- a carry-until-inventory-is-full item.

[PowerDiver]

As a side note, considering it has a failrate, rods of curing could be upgraded to full ccw (including healing) effect, as was brainstormed during some discussion ... Then it'd be quite useful.

Not so long as it has a non-0 failure rate to use when confused.

This is a game of slot management. If you are already devoting a slot to !CCW, it is a mistake to devote another to a rod of curing.

It used to be useful as a sort of equivalent to one of Sangband's 10K AU diamonds, but now it is pointless.

[ewert]

As a side note, considering it has a failrate, rods of curing could be upgraded to full ccw (including healing) effect, as was brainstormed during some discussion ... Then it'd be quite useful.

[Derakon]

If you upgrade, then lanterns of Everburning / Brightness will usually show up before the Phial does.

[krugar]

Remember that !CCW is a guaranteed cure-confusion (and blindness, hallucination, etc.). Also, your rod has a failure rate, which increases if you're confused. If I'm going to try to use a fallible item when confused, it'll generally be a Staff of Teleportation (or a Staff of Destruction), not a Rod of Curing. Better to get away from the thing that confused me before I try to heal myself up.

You also shouldn't come to depend on Teleport Self too strongly. It tends to bop you between two or three common places on the map, so it's all too easy to get stuck teleporting between a rock and a hard place. It's fine for now when most threats can be fled from, but later you should move to Teleport Level / Deep Descent, and Destruction.

Thanks will follow that advise for sure.

But, for clarity, the rod of curing wasn't part of any strategy. I just happened to be carrying it around for the money and it was instrumental in this case since I was about to run off !CCW.

...

Back on topic, my only small pet peeve with lights in the game is that so far, on all my plays, by the time I start seeing everlasting lanterns or lanterns of brightness, I'm already carrying the phial. A whole class of light improvements is ignored. But it really is nothing much, because on the other hand, for me at least, light is really the last thing I want to give a thought to. I do enjoy the fact the game tends towards removing that variable early on and allows me to concentrate on other more interesting things.

[Timo Pietilä]

Remember that !CCW is a guaranteed cure-confusion (and blindness, hallucination, etc.)..

Doesn't work on hallucination. Only potion of Life and mushroom of clear mind works on hallucination. CCW cures everything else though.

[Derakon]

Remember that !CCW is a guaranteed cure-confusion (and blindness, hallucination, etc.). Also, your rod has a failure rate, which increases if you're confused. If I'm going to try to use a fallible item when confused, it'll generally be a Staff of Teleportation (or a Staff of Destruction), not a Rod of Curing. Better to get away from the thing that confused me before I try to heal myself up.

You also shouldn't come to depend on Teleport Self too strongly. It tends to bop you between two or three common places on the map, so it's all too easy to get stuck teleporting between a rock and a hard place. It's fine for now when most threats can be fled from, but later you should move to Teleport Level / Deep Descent, and Destruction.

[krugar]

Teleport Self absolutely saved my life today when my level 28 (248 HP) Ranger found my first Enchantress on 1550' (L31).

She woke up as I was sneaking closer with designs on her pretty head. And before I could say "So sorry for waking you. Don't mind me. I'm on my way", there's 4 ancient dragons plus an entourage of mature ones, all wanting to have a word about my manners.

Several cycles of teleport self, going back, holy chant, and getting drunk on cure critical potions helped me have the final word on the debate. Which was a glorious "Who's da man!?"

I found the spell very reliable already at this level with only a 5% fail chance. But this fight had also taught me something very important about it. I can't rely on the book. One of the dragons used Confuse and that nearly got me killed if it wasn't for a rod of curing I carry.