Analytics - Winning and Dying

[Mondkalb]

Sounds reasonable.

[debo]

They also didn't feel like uploading the 200000 dead CL1 gnome priests that came before their winners

[Timo Pietilä]

Sampling problems. Presumably there are only 4 Gnome Priests and they are all played by people who know what they are doing, and thus more capable of dealing with oddball combinations.

Gnome is actually pretty good priest race. It's not oddball, but I think sample size is too small to get real info about them. They make better mages than priests though.

[Angrist]

And what about the Hobbits, as the most successful in terms of winning the race? After all, they have the least "Hit die" of all.

[mrrstark]

Listening to the Roguelike Radio dev chat, where they talked about difficulty and fun-factor of various stages of the game...

And then seeing this thread which is based only those who have volunteered to upload to the ladder...

What about incorporating anonymous opt-in (ask) analytics to Vanilla? That way the devs would have more info about what non-dev players are doing, getting stuck on, and get a sense of the real playstyles in the community.

For example, a couple times in the Radio talk Fizzix described how he plays, and then one of the other devs pointed out how Fizzix is a top-tier player (winning like 75% of characters )

And in another part of the Radio talk, they were discussing how they think but aren't sure about whether people are playing mostly by diving or conservative, etc.

[Derakon]

And what about the Hobbits, as the most successful in terms of winning the race? After all, they have the least "Hit die" of all.

Hobbits have pretty insane stat boosts. Hit points are incredibly important, but they aren't the only thing in the world. Hobbits have great stats (except STR), and excellent stealth and skills.

It doesn't hurt that hobbits get +2 CON, which makes it considerably easier for them to max their CON compared to many other races. Note that the hobbit's d7 hit die means that on average they'll have 75 fewer HP at level 50 compared to a race with a d10. However, if their +2 CON allows them to go from 18/180 to 18/200 CON, then they'll gain an extra 125 HP just from CON. Of course, most players will be doing their best to max CON by hook or by crook, but doing so may require them to sacrifice other abilities, so having a positive CON modifier is very useful.

...actually, looking at the race definitions, why on earth do kobolds get +2 CON? Shouldn't they be more fragile rather than less?

[Angrist]

I am also interested to know whether the experienced players play high elves?

[Zikke]

...actually, looking at the race definitions, why on earth do kobolds get +2 CON? Shouldn't they be more fragile rather than less?

Well hobbits are pretty diminutive also. Perhaps the CON bonus is based on the literal definition of constitution as it relates to tenacity and a resilience (and a strong stomach)?

[Derakon]

Well hobbits are pretty diminutive also. Perhaps the CON bonus is based on the literal definition of constitution as it relates to tenacity and a resilience (and a strong stomach)?

Sure, but I was talking about kobolds, which as I understand it have always been kind of scrawny.

[Raajaton]

There was a time early on where I almost exclusively played high elves. I was scared to death of invisible monsters and at the time didn't want to live without having see invis all the time. I hadn't played a high elf for a very long time, until somewhat recently I ran a high elf ranger which ended up being quite successful.

[Mondkalb]

I am also interested to know whether the experienced players play high elves?

There was a time early on where I almost exclusively played high elves. I was scared to death of invisible monsters and at the time didn't want to live without having see invis all the time. I hadn't played a high elf for a very long time, until somewhat recently I ran a high elf ranger which ended up being quite successful.

I started out years ago (if not decades ... ) with playing lots of high elf rangers.
Later I changed my playstyle and my first winner was a dunadan paladin.

For new players certainly high elf and dunadan are tempting because of their high stats, high elf in particular because of see invisible. OTOH the experience penalty leads to a bit of grinding early in the game and also later on, when you want to achieve certain levels in oder to get spells or something.

During the last years I came to appreciate other races like hobbits, gnomes, and Kobolds. Playing rogues with these races is lot of fun. I have changed my playstyle completely and use to dive very fast nowadays.

[Angrist]

dive very fast

And how quickly you dive? I had tried to go down pretty quickly, but my characters quickly died.

[Mondkalb]

Can't really say exactly, but I often find my rogues midgame at Dlevel=2x Charlevel. Rogues can easily do that because of high stealth.

[Angrist]

high stealth.

And how do you protect yourself from the hounds, when you deeply? After all, since dL51 appears Plasma hounds.

[Mondkalb]

And how do you protect yourself from the hounds, when you deeply? After all, since dL51 appears Plasma hounds.

Well, detect and leave.