"Anxious feeling" = Exit level now?

[Medieval]

I'm not a very skilled Angband player. I've never gotten close to winning. But I had a good thing going with a 34th level warrior. Entering level 37, I received the message that I had an "anxious feeling" about the level. I'd never seen that before, but I ventured onward. I ran into a group of gelatinous cubes, which I promptly teleported away from to avoid having my armor destroyed. In the new area of the dungeon something breathed at me from the darkness, and in one turn I died. Apparently it was Scatha the Worm that killed me, though I never saw it.

So I was wondering...does getting an anxious feeling about a level mean you should run from that level ASAP? Because I can't believe I was killed that quickly.

[debo]

So I was wondering...does getting an anxious feeling about a level mean you should run from that level ASAP?

Not necessarily. "Omens of death" probably mean you want to leave, but the rest of the feelings are sort of hard to read. I prefer to play without them.

Because I can't believe I was killed that quickly.

Welcome to Angband

IMO try playing a Rogue. Warriors really aren't a great newbie class. Rogues get good detection, temp resist spells, and (IIRC) a temp haste spell. 50% of angband is knowing what is on the level, the other 50% is avoiding the sense of security you get from steamrolling millions of irrelevant monsters.

If you're going to play a warrior, you might want to try the current competition character, who is super overpowered and has immunity to the 4 basic elements: http://angband.oook.cz/competition.php.

[Derakon]

I wouldn't pay too much attention to the level feelings. They're super vague and don't really give you much useful information.

The important thing that you missed out on was to be aware of monsters before they enter LOS. As a warrior, your options for detection are pretty poor until you find Rods of Detection. Prior to that point, you should be carrying around at least one Staff of Detect Evil, and using it reasonably frequently. This would have let you see Scatha the Wyrm before he entered your LOS.

Also, regarding Gelatinous Cubes: you should have a ranged attack option. Probably your best bet is to get a decent crossbow and some bolts, but if you find a good longbow, that's fine too. Those, combined with a healthy stack of Phase Door scrolls (I never go into the dungeon with fewer than 15 if I can help it), will let you safely kill Cubes without any damage to your armor.

...though, as a warrior, you should be able to melee them down pretty quickly anyway. What depth were you at? What was your weapon, and how many attacks per round did you have with it? Hell, post a character dump if you have one.

[Carnivean]

Omens of Death and Murderous are usually way out of your depth.

Anxious, if you don't have good detection and escapes and healing, is a bad place to be.

If you are kitted up, and have a good idea of the type of monsters that you might encounter, then you can explore anything and get away with it. Kitted up would usually mean a source of ESP, or repeatable detection at least. If you don't know what you're getting into, then caution is the best option.

There is a risk vs reward element. A lot of the worse warnings come with Vaults, as they bring out of depth monsters and guaranteed good drops. However an OOD unique or undead or 2 could generate the same warning without guaranteeing a good drop.

[Carnivean]

but the rest of the feelings are sort of hard to read. I prefer to play without them.

I think you and Derakon might have played a bit much Angband. You could probably guess by the depth what monsters you're going to fight.

[Derakon]

I think you and Derakon might have played a bit much Angband. You could probably guess by the depth what monsters you're going to fight.

What I find from reading the forums is that the level feelings are a trap: they encourage players to make bad decisions. On the one hand, they may interpret a bad-sounding feeling as "I have to get off this level immediately even though I have no idea what I'm running from"; on the other hand, they may interpret a good-sounding feeling as "I have to stick around on this level even though I've encountered nasty enemies that I cannot deal with." Worse, the level feelings are hopelessly vague. You might be exploring a dangeous level in search of a spellbook that is useless to you, or a weapon that's outclassed by the weapon you already have.

The smarter play is to explore carefully and to make as informed of a decision as you can based on what you've seen of the level. Certainly, having experience with the game will help, but more important is having the best detection methods you can get. You can't avoid what you don't know is there.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

It seems to me that level feelings can still be helpful. I try to consider that they are bifurcated - Monster feeling and Treasure feeling, and then remember the following:

Monster feelings - innocuous feelings do not mean safety, do not let your guard down! Dangerous feelings, be doubly on guard. So, the dangerous feelings can be helpful in making me even more wary.

Treasure feelings - Good feelings do not mean treasure is worth pursuing (although I do tend to stick around, if I can, if it's Superb). Worthless feelings, the level is not worth exploring unless I happen to see uniques that are killable.

[quarague]

I use the level feeling mostly as a detection for vaults, if a level sounds very dangerous early on, it's probably because there is a vault in it.

[mushroom patch]

I suspect your problem is either having equipment that aggravates (a very bad idea outside of endgame unique fights) or terrible stealth. It should be almost impossible to wake up Ds unintentionally with a character of that level. I agree with others who have suggested playing rogues -- good stealth without bonuses from equipment and excellent detection spells.

Your real mistake, though, was not ignoring the level feeling -- you should be doing that anyway -- it's teleporting for a frivolous reason. You shouldn't teleport unless you have no alternative at all. If you're backed into a bad situation, you should be thinking teleport level, teleport other, banishment or destruction if you have it. You should be sure to collect teleport level, teleport other, etc. just so that you have an alternative to teleportation. If teleportation is the only thing you have, you should be extremely skittish about engaging with anything remotely dangerous.

Unless you thought the gelatinous cubes would kill you, you shouldn't have teleported. Getting your armor damaged is mostly just annoying. It doesn't even work on most armor you'd actually care about anyway. Teleporting, on the other hand, is one of the most dangerous things you can do.

[Khuzdul]

"Omens of Death", "Terribly Dangerous", "Murderous", "Anxious" and "Nervous" usually all mean that there are some kind of dangerous monsters there. These feelings usuall combine with "Superb Treasures" (And suchlike), so it may be worth looking around. Whenever I check one of these levels, I usually find a big pit made out of permanent rock (some bits aren't so you can get through). There's usually very scary stuff there that you probably can't defeat (I remember seeing Smaug, Dwar and Eol all in the same pit!). I have found Orcrist and The Longbow of Bard in one of these, but I have lost quite a few promising charaters to comepletly out of depth monsters!

Hope this helps.