Old School Needs Help With New School

[prh182]

Let me start by praising the developers for this game!! I started playing the original Moria when I was 8 and have always loved it. Now some 17 years later I find that this is what it has become and its fantastic.

However this old timer needs some help getting up to speed with this new version. I started playing again about a year ago in 3.0.? I have a lvl 32 hobbit ranger at about 1700 feet. In general things aren't that hard, however uniques still destroy me, I HATE HOUNDS, and I think i've only found one artifact, the Phial of Galadriel.

Some quick questions if anyone has the time to answer,

1) Can some explain how "auto scumming" works, what it does, and how you do it.

2) Sometimes I get relatively good feelings, "you like the look of this place" and "you feel strangely lucky" yet I don't really encounter many out of depth creatures or very good objects, at least nothing special, what gives

3) My AC stinks, had it as high as 80 before an unfortunate run in with water hounds now its 65, haven't found much to improve it and certainly haven't come across anythin special in the dungeon, any suggestions

4) Is the ability to see damage per turn for weapons new to 3.3?

5) What is with the double negatives in the preference screen? the one for random arts etc. It would be much easier it it was a statement and yes/no rather trying to figure out what no don't means

6) Also what is the difference between a vault and a pit and how do you find them?

7) Also is there an exchange weapon option anymore, used to be able to carry a secondary weapon (at least a pick or shovel for digging early on), and then switch between them with a single keystroke
Also if someone wants to see my character they will have to walk me through how to character dump, thanks.

[fizzix]

However this old timer needs some help getting up to speed with this new version. I started playing again about a year ago in 3.0.? I have a lvl 32 hobbit ranger at about 1700 feet. In general things aren't that hard, however uniques still destroy me, I HATE HOUNDS, and I think i've only found one artifact, the Phial of Galadriel.

Uniques are hard. Assume they are as difficult as a monster 10 levels deeper than they are. Hounds are annoying, and purposefully so. The later ones, specifically gravity and time, can also be deadly. Hounds are actually less common in 3.3 than they were in 3.0.x.

Some quick questions if anyone has the time to answer,

1) Can some explain how "auto scumming" works, what it does, and how you do it.

Auto-scumming no long exists. It used to be a settable option. It would generate levels until an 'interesting' one exists. But as you've noticed, sometimes what the game considers interesting isn't exactly interesting.

2) Sometimes I get relatively good feelings, "you like the look of this place" and "you feel strangely lucky" yet I don't really encounter many out of depth creatures or very good objects, at least nothing special, what gives

Any out of depth creatures or objects will increase the level feeling. For example, you could find a ?curse armor on dlevel 25 and get a very good level feeling. However, in most of these cases, it's likely that you're getting about 5-10 monsters that are 1-5 levels out of depth.

3) My AC stinks, had it as high as 80 before an unfortunate run in with water hounds now its 65, haven't found much to improve it and certainly haven't come across anythin special in the dungeon, any suggestions

Depending on how deep you are AC of 65 could actually be good. If you find that you're having trouble meleeing some monsters, use ranged attacks. If you can't do that, avoid them. Some monsters are not meant to melee, some are not meant to fight at all (like pretty much any golem)

4) Is the ability to see damage per turn for weapons new to 3.3?

This has recently changed from being able to see damage per blow, to damage per turn. I'm not convinced that per turn is better. Displaying this is relatively new, and goes with a general goal of making in game information, that could be discoverable by hand calculations, available at no cost to the player, in as clear a manner as possible.

5) What is with the double negatives in the preference screen? the one for random arts etc. It would be much easier it it was a statement and yes/no rather trying to figure out what no don't means

I agree that some of the wording could be improved here.

6) Also what is the difference between a vault and a pit and how do you find them?

Vaults have monsters and treasure in a self contained area of the dungeon. These have internal structure and sometimes permanent walls. Often they require you to dig to enter. Generally the treasure is better than what you might find elsewhere, and the monsters are more dangerous. Pits/nests are large rooms filled with monsters of various types. Some of these rooms have treasure littered on the floor. You find them by wandering the dungeon, eventually you'll run across them. Pits are somewhat common, vaults are rarer.

7) Also is there an exchange weapon option anymore, used to be able to carry a secondary weapon (at least a pick or shovel for digging early on), and then switch between them with a single keystroke

Probably the easiest way is to use inscriptions. You can inscribe both weapons with !w0 (make an inscription with the { key). Then typing w0 will cause you to wield the weapon inscribed with !w0. This will allow you to switch with two keystrokes. If you want to switch with one keystroke, you will have to map a key, like x to w0 so that typing x will give you w0.

In general inscriptions are very useful. The best basic use is to inscribe magic books so that you don't make errors casting when you lose a book to fire.

Also if someone wants to see my character they will have to walk me through how to character dump, thanks.

Go into the character screen with C. Use f to 'dump information to a file'. That file will be created in the lib/user/ directory and will be CHARACTERNAME.txt Then you can go to the ladder tab on oook, go to upload a character, and put in that file. You don't need to enter anything in the other fields. It will then allow you to look at your character, and you can copy the URL and post it here.

Good luck and happy adventuring.

[Nomad]

Probably the easiest way is to use inscriptions. You can inscribe both weapons with !w0 (make an inscription with the { key). Then typing w0 will cause you to wield the weapon inscribed with !w0. This will allow you to switch with two keystrokes. If you want to switch with one keystroke, you will have to map a key, like x to w0 so that typing x will give you w0.

I think 'X' still works, doesn't it? Inscribe both weapons with '@w0' and press X to auto-swap them.

[fizzix]

I think 'X' still works, doesn't it? Inscribe both weapons with '@w0' and press X to auto-swap them.

I wasn't sure if this still existed or not.

[prh182]

Thanks for the responses. I guess the problem with inscribing is that they still take up an inventory slot then, it used to be that the second weapon would get allocated the weapon list as a secondary weapon and not take an inventory slot.


Also.....

I have managed to boost my str and dex fairly well but armor/weight still encumber my movements and zap my SP, is this just a way of life or can it be overcome?

Also maybe it might be time to abandon this guy and start 3.3? I really would like to know how much damage i'm doing so I can figure is sacrificing swings per turn is worthwhile, and just feel bad abandoning my character.

[prh182]

With respect to vaults, I guess you can't rely on trap/door/stair location to find them then? But detect monsters should still work?

[Timo Pietilä]

Thanks for the responses. I guess the problem with inscribing is that they still take up an inventory slot then, it used to be that the second weapon would get allocated the weapon list as a secondary weapon and not take an inventory slot.

You have a bow now in use all of time. That took the second weapon slot. I miss the time when I killed things hitting them to head with my bow....

[Timo Pietilä]

With respect to vaults, I guess you can't rely on trap/door/stair location to find them then? But detect monsters should still work?

Yes and no. You need to recognize a pattern to be able to tell that there is a vault from monsters/traps. Traps are in many cases better giveaway than monsters. Doors very rarely.

Magic mapping helps. You can also detect items.

[prh182]

Sorry one more thing...can someone explain squelching, how you do it, how it works, thanks

[fizzix]

You might be able to continue the character in 3.3 depending on how old it is without abandoning. Copy the save and try to load it into 3.3 and see if it spits back an error. Make sure you copy the save first, because there's a chance that it will become corrupted.

For squelch, it's a way of hiding items that you don't care about anymore. A squelched item still exists but it's hidden from view. In 3.3 you can toggle between viewing all items and only non-squelched items with K. Also, there's no longer the ability to destroy objects, when you try to kill an object with k you'll get a prompt to either squelch all similar objects, or just that object. If you find that you've squelched something you didn't mean to, you can access the squelch menu with '= s'

[prh182]

Saddly i'm in 3.0.9b and from everything i've seen that means he is stuck there...poor Bilbo my hobbit ranger. It seems like hobbit ranger's should get more love, there only downside is hit on strength which I think is made up for by there other characteristics

[Derakon]

Hobbits also have poor hit dice compared to most other races, so they tend to have 100-150 fewer HP at the end, once CON is taken out of the equation. If this weren't the case, they'd be laughably overpowered.

Armor encumbrance has nothing to do with your STR/DEX; it's just a matter of how heavy the armor is that you're wearing. Each pound over 30 reduces your SP by 1; additionally, wearing bulky gloves (lacking Free Action/DEX boost, not Alchemist's Gloves) will cut your SP to 1/3rd. Boosting your INT can help overcome this by simply giving you more SP before encumbrance cuts in.

[Timo Pietilä]

Armor encumbrance has nothing to do with your STR/DEX; it's just a matter of how heavy the armor is that you're wearing. Each pound over 30 reduces your SP by 1; additionally, wearing bulky gloves (lacking Free Action/DEX boost, not Alchemist's Gloves) will cut your SP to 1/3rd. Boosting your INT can help overcome this by simply giving you more SP before encumbrance cuts in.

There is weight encumbrance which is affected by STR (up to certain point which I don't remember) and affects your speed. Any gear counts to that, including gear carried in inventory. Too much stuff carried and you get slowed down. There are monsters that drain STR in melee (Dreads & some others), be careful with those, if your STR gets low enough that you start to slow down, you are dead pretty soon after that.

[prh182]

Here is something else....

You get feelings about items, do always get feelings? Meaning if after a certain amount of time carrying an item, if you don't get a feeling can you assume it just a plain old whatever? Also is there set amount of time to develop a feeling about item, if so is it item, chrlvl dependent or what? Thanks again

[Derakon]

You're talking about what we call "pseudo-ID". Different classes have different pseudo-ID strengths; generally, warriors have the best pseudo-ID (strong and fast), hybrid classes have strong-but-slow pseudo-ID, and pure-casters (priests and mages) have weak and slow pseudo-ID. A "strong" pseudo-ID can recognize the difference between enchanted, ego-item, and artifact, as well as recognize if an item has no enchantment at all. Weak pseudo-ID just tells you if the item is magical (and will never tell you if it isn't).

Pseudo-ID works on a stochastic process -- each turn, you have a chance of triggering a pseudo-ID check, which then has a chance of detecting each of your un-ID'd items in inventory. This determines the speed of pseudo-ID -- warriors are more likely to trigger pseudo-ID checks than mages are.

As of 3.1.2, for the most part it's safe to simply wield an item that you haven't ID'd yet. This will immediately tell you if the item has obvious enchantments (like giving off light, making you stronger, etc.). Additionally you can learn if the item has magical pluses by hitting things with it (for weapons) or getting hit (for armor). The only gotchas are cursed weapons (the "Morgul" ego type and a small number of cursed artifacts), which are very rare but difficult to get rid of if you wield them. But test-wielding is quite useful up to around 1000', after which point you should be able to afford enough ID to make identification a non-issue.