New Player Questions

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Does one imply the other? I usually use them all out of habit: !s!d!k!v (even if I guess that at least !s is redundant).

I don't think so.

!v ask for confirmation before throwing (I never use this inscription, as throwing isn't a big part in Vanilla, though I might in FA).

!d ask for confirmation before dropping (I never use this, as I've not found it very helpful. It's ordinary enough for me to want to drop something, even inscribed with don't squelch that I don't bother with this).

!s don't know what that is.

!k don't squelch. (I use this quite often.)

!E ask for confirmation before eating (I use this on special mushrooms that I don't want to accidentally waste as food.)

!r ask for confirmation before reading (I use this on some scrolls)

!q ask for confirmation before quaffing (I use this on some potions)

=g (I use this on ammo, to automatically pick it up. I autoinscribe ammo with this so that if I ever do pick it up, then from then on I will retrieve any from that stack on walkover).

[Pete Mack]

Or just !*, which is a generalized 'prompt before use' instruction. This is what I mostly use instead of all the specific ones.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Or just !*, which is a generalized 'prompt before use' instruction. This is what I mostly use instead of all the specific ones.

I only use !* on stuff I really want to have to make extra keypresses for anytime I want to use it, to make sure I *Really* want to use it. e.g., ?Word of Recall, !Enlightenment, ?Destruction, ?Mass Banishment, ?Banishment, etc. But I don't want to be bothered with an extra keypress every time I use a magic book, or drop a mushroom, or any number of actions on items that I otherwise use an inscription upon.

[Pete Mack]

Ingwe, sure. Magic books get @m1;!g or the like, once I have enough of them. But in general, I don't bother with specific NOT inscriptions. If I don't want to read something, I don't want to drop or ignore it either.

[mibert]

* Sticky curses are basically gone because they strongly discouraged players from trying out items they found in the dungeon. Wielding an un-ID'd melee weapon could ruin the game for a melee character if it happened to be sticky-cursed. Instead of sticky curses, now the game has a bunch of mixed-blessing items, which weaken you in one way while strengthening you in another. The goal is to tempt the player into getting themselves killed; personally I find that more enjoyable than the old days of tediously identifying every single item I find.

Thanks for your answers!

It feels that sticky curses wouldnt be a big problem anyways, since you just recall to town and buy remove curse scrolls, right?

[fph]

!s don't know what that is.

Selling in a shop, I think.

[wobbly]

Thanks for your answers!

It feels that sticky curses wouldnt be a big problem anyways, since you just recall to town and buy remove curse scrolls, right?

Part of the issue. What point do they serve if they just mean a trip to town?

I think there's a reasonable argument for them on high enough power items. Something that doesn't ruin a character but is a choice between breaking a good object trying to remove it or living with it.

[Pete Mack]

Right. The other issue is sticky curses are only meaningful if you are likely to fall for them repeatedly. With runes, once you learn the curse, you never have to worry about it again. So there isn't much point to having them.

[Derakon]

Thanks for your answers!

It feels that sticky curses wouldnt be a big problem anyways, since you just recall to town and buy remove curse scrolls, right?

In principle, sure, but that doesn't help ironman characters, and even if you aren't ironman, it's more irritating than interesting to discover that you have to abandon your current dungeon run to return to town for Remove Curse.

The new curses are more insidious -- it may take some time for you to realize that the item is cursed, and it's still a working, potentially powerful item even despite the curse. So once you discover the curse, you may be tempted to continue using it anyway. "Power at a price" is IMO far more interesting than "this sword-shaped object is now glued to your hand".

[Adam]

In principle, sure, but that doesn't help ironman characters, and even if you aren't ironman, it's more irritating than interesting to discover that you have to abandon your current dungeon run to return to town for Remove Curse.

The new curses are more insidious -- it may take some time for you to realize that the item is cursed, and it's still a working, potentially powerful item even despite the curse. So once you discover the curse, you may be tempted to continue using it anyway. "Power at a price" is IMO far more interesting than "this sword-shaped object is now glued to your hand".

I must say that this curse system is really interesting and I like it.
How much pain do you accept for certain abilities? Like for an early ESP item? Own experience... besides other curses a ring had no teleport curse and I was still thinking about using it - when the final unknown rune showed aggravation
On the other side it could also make an interesting choice to have sticky curse on powerful items (to be fair it should be recognizable before equipping). Would you put on Narya if you couldn't remove it at will? So you couldn't just switch the elven rings between battles depending on what you face.

[Eisen]

Hello all,

I am currently finding my way into Angband, after some initial trouble I finally got a character rolling on dl21 cl21. He's a Kobold rogue. My question:
I have currently two rings equipped:
A Ring of STR+3, that allows me to get two attacks on my trident of slay orc +6,+4 which has been the best weapon I found so far and a ring of free action. I already read that Free Action is an important power to have but now I also found a ring of rFire and rCold. I am unsure which ring to ditch for now.

EDIT: Nevermind I died.

[Derakon]

Fire/cold resistance are important, but at the depth you were at I wouldn't consider swapping either of your other rings out. Lack of Free Action will get you killed at some point, and Strength rings are really solid in general, between the increased number of blows, increased damage per blow, and having your Strength sustained.

Where you start absolutely needing fire/cold resistance is when monsters start showing up that can breathe large amounts of fire/cold damage. That takes a little while, and if you know which monsters use those attacks, you can just avoid them, especially as a rogue.

[Pete Mack]

Use Fire/Cold while fighting red and white young dragons and the like, until you find armor or shield of resistance, or other similar item. (It won't be long.) But Free Action is much more important until you know the monsters, and damage (STR) is one the three most important stats (HP and speed are the others.)

[Eisen]

Thanks guys, I will keep that in mind for my next run.

[joe05]

Well, thanks to me, he's helped me a lot too.