Diving and Greed

[ulrichvonbek]

I just lost a character without much gear at DL49 after getting an excellent message. Adunaphel was probably enough to warrant bailing on exploration, I then ran into Kavlax, who was kind enough not to breath on me. Looking back, that should have been an immediate ?TL. However after TOing him away, I stumbled onto Gorlim, who is annoyingly non-evil, an undetectable by a pally with poor gear. Being confused with you HP in the teens is kind of a depressing way to die, but I knew I was gambling on yet another TO.

So how much effort would a vetran diver put into exploring an excellent or superb level with iffy damage and lots of resistance holes? If there was nothing easy to grab, would you just move on at the fist sign of trouble?

[Hariolor]

Not sure I really qualify as a veteran...but Ive had a few winners and consider myself not entirely terrible at the game...

My answer?

Yep, bail at first sign of trouble if you're seriously trying to win with a character. TO is worth it if you've detected objects and there's something nearby with only one Big Bad in the way, but even then, be aware of your fail rate and how much damage the Big Bad can deal in one round - it may not be as worth it as you think.

The hardest thing (for me) in Angband was accepting the fact that the game is infinite, so as long as you aren't playing with Preserve Off, anything awesome you find could, eventually, turn up again.

[Derakon]

Level feelings are all but useless. They are far more likely to kill you through greed than they are to actually reflect the level having something interesting on it. Especially since "interesting" to you means "good item" but "interesting" to the game also means "nasty monster or pit" (and vault and so on).

[Chud]

In this case, the combination of Adunaphel and Kavlax was probably enough to generate the excellent feeling by itself, with nothing at all interesting to find (beyond what they might drop if they didn't kill you).

[Napsterbater]

I turned the level feelings off, as per Eddie's suggestion. I haven't missed them. I did also turn preserve on, so I wouldn't miss any artifacts, but I have no idea if that leads to a more fun game or not.

[Timo Pietilä]

I turned the level feelings off, as per Eddie's suggestion. I haven't missed them. I did also turn preserve on, so I wouldn't miss any artifacts, but I have no idea if that leads to a more fun game or not.

AFAIK preserve on is default.

In 3.2.0 that setting is "birth_no_preserve" which, if turned on, prevents preserving artifacts.

[Napsterbater]

Diving's my primary playstyle, and after I get past 2500', I just do what I can on a level. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's all I can do to get to the stairs. Pots of strength, dex, or con I'll risk a little bit for, but not for most anything else.

[Magnate]

AFAIK preserve on is default.

In 3.2.0 that setting is "birth_no_preserve" which, if turned on, prevents preserving artifacts.

Just in case anyone is interested, that mode (no_preserve) was broken for several years, thoughout most of 3.0.x, and was fixed during 3.1.2 IIRC. The fact that nobody noticed shows how few people play with preserve off.

[Timo Pietilä]

Just in case anyone is interested, that mode (no_preserve) was broken for several years, thoughout most of 3.0.x, and was fixed during 3.1.2 IIRC. The fact that nobody noticed shows how few people play with preserve off.

I played few games, but because that "8" block bug also existed I just considered myself lucky not losing any artifacts.

When you play preserve off you get a warning if there is a artifact on the level "special feeling", but because also pits etc. can cause that those few times I didn't find artifact I found something like pit or vault and though that it was the case.

[ulrichvonbek]

Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it's all I can do to get to the stairs. Pots of strength, dex, or con I'll risk a little bit for, but not for most anything else.

I need to keep this philosophy in mind until base speed is up and HP are over 600. Those levels where I can do a lot make me overconfident.

[Napsterbater]

I need to keep this philosophy in mind until base speed is up and HP are over 600. Those levels where I can do a lot make me overconfident.

My last character died to an OOD Great Wyrm of Balance inside a GV. I had TO at 25% fail, and a wand of TO with exactly one charge. He came into my line of sight, and instead of using the charge, I tried the spell. Spell fails and he breathes shards, one of the few holes in my resistances, and 450 health is gone.

Seeing as how I had so few charges on TO, and didn't need any more stat pots, I should have just used my last _*Destruct* charge. My first time to past level 70!

*edit* seems with the new nightlies *Destruct* would have been pointless.