to ironman or not to ironman

[DaviddesJ]

If you want to try a gentler form of ironman, in 3.5 the forced-descent aspect of ironman (can't replay any levels) and the can't-access-the-town aspect have been split into separate options. So you can set up a game where you only have 100 dungeon levels available to you, but you can recall back to town, access the home, etc. One of the recent competitions played in this mode. When you recall back to the dungeon, you move to the next lower level; recalling out of the dungeon is disabled on levels 99 and 100 until Sauron and Morgoth are dead, respectively.

Yes, I read about this, but given the ability to camp on levels indefinitely, to clone, and to stock lots of consumables, this seems much closer to "normal" than to "ironman" in difficulty. It's true that you might still have to flee a level and go deeper, but it should happen much less often since you aren't so concerned about conserving consumables. At least, that's my theorycrafting without actually trying it.

[Derakon]

What I don't understand about Ironman is how people avoid the enemies they just really aren't ready to fight. Sometimes you can teleport them away, but sometimes they just keep coming back. Do you just give up and descend in those cases, and hope it doesn't happen too often and force you deeper than you want to go?

Pretty much, sometimes you just have to flee the level. Fortunately there's enough levels in the game that you can afford to do this a decent number of times without screwing yourself.

If you want to try a gentler form of ironman, in 3.5 the forced-descent aspect of ironman (can't replay any levels) and the can't-access-the-town aspect have been split into separate options. So you can set up a game where you only have 100 dungeon levels available to you, but you can recall back to town, access the home, etc. One of the recent competitions played in this mode. When you recall back to the dungeon, you move to the next lower level; recalling out of the dungeon is disabled on levels 99 and 100 until Sauron and Morgoth are dead, respectively.

[DaviddesJ]

What I don't understand about Ironman is how people avoid the enemies they just really aren't ready to fight. Sometimes you can teleport them away, but sometimes they just keep coming back. Do you just give up and descend in those cases, and hope it doesn't happen too often and force you deeper than you want to go?

I can see how farming enemies can compensate for a lot of town trips, but I don't quite see how people handle the avoidance issue.

[AnonymousHero]

You'll certainly learn to not get too attached to your characters... which is actually a great recipe for winning (by learning to not fall into the "very careful, but takes 1% chances too often" trap), but personally I like to be kind of attached to my characters and still win .

To each their own, and Ironman is definitely something one should try at least once in one's *banding career.

[fizzix]

Ironman is a fun challenge and it's definitely worth giving it a go. It will at least change some of your perception of the game and let you feel that you can handle stuff that you previously didn't think was possible.

[Scraper]

No sale is an awesome option. It was suggested to me by Timo iirc a few weeks ago. It gives increased money drops which means you dont have to cart ego weapons back to town to make enough coin to keep your consumables at a managable level. It helps greatly with inventory space which is a meta-game untoitself. So as far as that goes, that wasn't a bad choice.

As far as your ironman choice is concerned, I have enough trouble winning the game playing standard, so I will abstain from voting.

Best of luck in your game.

[quarague]

I just started a new dwarf priest, first time messed around with the options and activated 'no sale' and 'randarts'. No sale means you get zero starting equipment and a little more cash to buy what you want. Not having much experience with buying my own starting equipemt, I forgot to buy a WoR, which I only noticed when I was at around 500' feet. The temple only had the beginner prayer book so I was struggling for a while. But by now I found spell books 2 and 3 (finally can cast Orb of Draining, makes life so much easier), a staff of id, and the first two rand arts, char is level 20 now.
I also found a WoR, and so now I am debating, should I ditch it and continue in the dungeon or just recall and play a regular game with a tough start due to my stupidity?
And tips and opinions welcome.