One Russian Angbander's Thread (mostly questions here)

[Stan Belik]

Heya, forum! Decided to make this separate thread, 'cos I guess I'll have lots of questions in what follows

So, here's the dilemma - just found a pair of Boots of Stability (they give resist Nexus, which I lack for the moment).
It's DLvl 31 and I'm afraid of Nexus Hounds with their stat scramblimg attacks which I might meet someday soon.
Right now I'm wearing a pair of Sandals of Speed +2 and a Ring of Speed +6, so my speed is +8.
What's your advice - is it more important to have Nexus resistance with +6 speed factor or a +8 speed w/o Nexus res? (I'm Dwarf Ranger CLvl 30, all of my stats are 18/something, except for INT=13).

[Derakon]

At your level you should be able to cast Detect Monsters reliably to see if Nexus Hounds are in the area. Carry the Stability boots as a swap and wear them if you're worried. Losing +2 speed isn't a huge deal, but nexus resistance is such a niche resistance that I'd generally go without.

Looks like how effects are handled was rewritten since I last looked, but as far as I can tell you have a 1 in 7 chance of the stat-swap effect occurring when you get hit by an unresisted nexus breath, and you get a saving throw -- so if your saving throw is 50% then you're looking at a 1 in 14 chance of getting stats swapped. Then if we assume that a crippling stat swap must swap one of the stats you care about (STR, DEX, CON, sounds like) with one you don't (INT, WIS, CHA) then you're looking at a further .5*.6 = 30% chance of a crippling stat swap occurring. So overall any single nexus breath has a 1 in 46 chance of ruining your character. Just some math to consider.

Also: +8 speed by dlvl 31? Man, speed's too readily-available. What version of the game are you playing, and how many player turns have passed? (You can check player turns on the 'C'haracter screen)

[Stan Belik]

I'm playing Vanilla 3.3.2. I dunno what 'player' turns you meant, but all I see are:

Game Turns     2020955
Standard Turns  229552
Resting Turns    57664

BTW, just found this:

u) the Katana 'Aglarang' (6d5) (+10,+10) <+5, +1>
     Conjured forth by magic at 1550 feet (level 31).
     
     +5 dexterity, speed.
     +1 attack speed.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.
     Sustains dexterity.
     
     Combat info:
     5.0 blows/round.
     With +1 STR and +0 DEX you would get 5.1 blows
     With +0 STR and +2 DEX you would get 5.3 blows
     Average damage/round: 226.

So my speed wearing Aglarang, SoS & RoS is... 13! Is it cool enough for this far in the game?

[Derakon]

...holy crap, Aglarang is overpowered. Yes, +13 speed is more than enough for where you are. Back in the misty depths of time you used to be at 3000'+ before finding even one speed item.

Judging from your turns ("standard turns" are what I meant by "player turns") you're playing fairly slowly compared to average, but still. Yeesh.

[Stan Belik]

Well, I guess, I'm taking it delibaralety slowly - wanna make it through sometime already! :-)

Here's char dump anyway http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=12964

[fizzix]

...holy crap, Aglarang is overpowered. Yes, +13 speed is more than enough for where you are. Back in the misty depths of time you used to be at 3000'+ before finding even one speed item.

Judging from your turns ("standard turns" are what I meant by "player turns") you're playing fairly slowly compared to average, but still. Yeesh.

3.3.2 was way too generous with egos and artifacts. Both are down by a lot in 3.4. I'd wager that 3.4 is a lot closer to 3.0.6 with artifact and ego allocation, but it's hard to test that without a stat run.

However, even so, I'd wager that spending 1M turns in dlevel 20-30 might still find you some speed boots and a speed ring. That's a long time, you're going to turn up some good gear. This may have been less true in the misty days as well, but then again stat-potions and consumables were more common then.

[Stan Belik]

3.3.2 was way too generous

What do you mean 'was'? It's the latest release, isn't it?

[Stan Belik]

Finally my Arrows of Slay Dragon came useful.
Just killed my first Ancient Red Dragon (native DLvl 41) at DLvl 32!
And... He dropped a Rod of Probing along with

t) the Soft Leather Armour 'Hithlomir' [10,+20] <+3>
     Dropped by an Ancient red dragon at 1600 feet (level 32).
     
     +3 stealth.
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold, dark, nether.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.

Which in fact I think is better than my...

g) Metal Lamellar Armour of Resistance (-3) [58,+8]
     Found lying on the floor at 700 feet (level 14).
     
     Provides resistance to acid, lightning, fire, cold.
     Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold.

...despite its lower AC because it gives me 2 more resists.

[Derakon]

Dark will be useful mostly for not being blinded by darkness hounds. Later on there are powerful spellcasters who can invoke darkness storms that can deal a lot of damage, but they're not a concern where you are. Nether has a similar issue; very little where you are or will be for awhile will use nether against you, though it gets steadily more common as you go deeper.

Still, they have some utility, and +3 stealth is quite useful. That approximately doubles your stealth, so monsters should wake up half as quickly as they used to.

[Stan Belik]

Thanks for the tips!

Dark will be useful mostly for not being blinded

I can't be blinded, I'm a dwarf :-D

[Magnate]

3.3.2 was way too generous with egos and artifacts. Both are down by a lot in 3.4. I'd wager that 3.4 is a lot closer to 3.0.6 with artifact and ego allocation, but it's hard to test that without a stat run.

I'm happy to run some stats for 3.4-dev ... maybe when RC1 is frozen? It'll take a day or two to run them and another couple to analyse the results, but it should be do-able well within your RC1 window.

[Stan Belik]

Well, so here's my character so far: http://angband.oook.cz/ladder-show.php?id=12964

What do you think of him?
And any advice about which helmet to wear at the current moment? I've got three if them, I think, each giving some nice things the others don't.

[fizzix]

I'm happy to run some stats for 3.4-dev ... maybe when RC1 is frozen? It'll take a day or two to run them and another couple to analyse the results, but it should be do-able well within your RC1 window.

Oh I have the 3.4 information for both of these from the very basic stats run. Several 1000 iteration runs converge pretty nicely for total artifact counts. I just don't have the 3.0.6 values.

[Stan Belik]

What's up, forum?

Tell me - what do you think of having a digging tool late in the game? Am I the only one who feels that it becomes unnecessary thing, just occupying a precious inventory slot?

[fizzix]

What's up, forum?

Tell me - what do you think of having a digging tool late in the game? Am I the only one who feels that it becomes unnecessary thing, just occupying a precious inventory slot?

Generally I find digging tools to be unnecessary throughout the *entire* game. You can generally dig through rubble with whatever weapon you have. The only use for them would be to mine for gold if you have trouble surviving with your starting gear. Chances are you won't be able to tackle an early vault anyway...