Level exploring strategies w/o mapping?

[bughunter]

In the early game, most @ don't have the luxury of an endless supply of ?Magic Mapping or suchlike. How do you play?

Starting spellbooks give access to "Find Traps, Doors, and Stairs" and "Detect Evil" or "Detect Monsters" that give pure or hybrid spellcasters some clues as to the level layout.

If the level's treasure feeling is low, I'll just head for the nearest >. These are pretty trivial cases.

But if it's high, I've long stuck to the old dungeoneer's "Right Hand Rule" - Follow the right hand wall, and take the first unexplored door or corridor on the right.

It never seemed efficient, though, resulting in a lot of loops and leaving branches I needed to backtrack and explore.

Lately, though, I've been trying a new tactic: explore the paths that map out the perimeter of the level first. It seems to be somewhat more efficient, avoids many looping exploration routes, and leaves the last unmapped areas towards the middle of the level, which are usually more connected.

Other tactics:

• When encountering a room, I'll light it or explore the perimeter, and continue with the first unexplored exit that fits the algorithm.
  
• I'll make exceptions to the RH or Perimeter rule to map out obvious short corridors connecting to already explored sections to make sure I didn't miss that ! or ? bumping up the feeling.
  
• If @ has a "detect" ability, I'll first choose to eliminate any awakened threats, like f's or Z's or to avoid OOD uniques and pits of caffeinated kobold shaman.
  
• If @ has a means to detect treasure, that usually directs my exploration if I haven't decided to just find the nearest >.

Any other strategies or tactics you find helpful?

(I've been playing a lot of early game lately lol)

[Pete Mack]

Without any detection at all, I explore as vertically as possible from one side to the other. Since stairs are tucked away, you need to be systematic.

[Selkie]

Nothing like a double shot of caffeinated kobold shaman to start the day.

I've often wondered the best way to explore the dungeon blind. I'm totally erratic and bounce around a level like a pinball. I've found no consistent method for discovering stair location.

[Pete Mack]

@selkie--
So long as you are thorough in each section, that's fine. But I really hate exploring the whole level, then realizing there's a little tag of hallway i missed all the way back on the other side

[Sky]

i try to get to the bottom edge. Any edge really, but i generally start from the bottom.

Looking for stairs is rarely an issue for me. I first want the LF to pop out, so that takes a bit of exploring.

[tangar]

in Tangaria all mapping are heavely restricted:
1) reduced radius
2) when you cast any spell (or scroll) to map - you hallucinate for some time.
so you use Magic Mapping only in crucial places where you _need_ to know exact layout.. also add to it disconnected stairs

I prefer to explore from corner all way round level; and a the end I look in the middle. It gives good chances to teleport away from danger.

[bughunter]

I prefer to explore from corner all way round level; and a the end I look in the middle. It gives good chances to teleport away from danger.

That's a good strategy, I notice Teleport and Teleport Other tend to put the target at the far end of the dungeon (speculatively, I suspect statistical bunching due to the average random distance being on the order of the dungeon width, or larger). Not always, but frequently enough to be noticeable.

So, if you stay at the edges, you'll get more separation between you and the baddie out of -TO or _Tele, and more time to recover or reach the stairs.

Adding that one to the list.

[Grotug]

I have no system of exploring and am pretty bad at it generally:

https://youtu.be/eTejFCLD6u0

[Ingwe Ingweron]

Find the downstairs, get a Treasure level feeling, descend.

[Selkie]

I have no system of exploring and am pretty bad at it generally:

https://youtu.be/eTejFCLD6u0

Your videos are so funny. I was feeling your pain in the Pacman level, the very last square!

[Pete Mack]

I definitely would kill Fang, just so he couldn't interrupt running. And of course the stairs are in the last place you looked.
Also: how on Earth do you explore so fast?

[Grotug]

I definitely would kill Fang, just so he couldn't interrupt running. And of course the stairs are in the last place you looked.
Also: how on Earth do you explore so fast?

Umm... video editing software?

From about 2:07 in the video the game has been sped up. Some deletion of boring parts has also taken place to move things along. The problem with recording videos of Angband play is the game is very slow going in general. I spend a lot of time deliberating over which inventory item to drop, for example. Or I do a lot of needless and senseless backtracking. That said, I don't think I deleted any parts from the pacman level. Just sped it up. The reason a lot of the audio is normal speed in the pacman level is because I did some sound editing to make that work while keeping the audio at the appropriate parts of the video.

Your videos are so funny. I was feeling your pain in the Pacman level, the very last square!

Thanks Selkie!

[DavidMedley]

I also explore the edges first because you'll often be forced to move through the middle. I use rods of light a lot to look around.

[Jay]

I usually move towards whichever edge is closest and then continue around the perimeter. Exceptions to this are if I have some level of detect monster and see something nearby that might offer a good drop.

In other news, if I didn't know better I'd say the server has updated to a new version of PHP. Don't ask me how I know — I just get these feelings sometimes.

[Estie]

I avoid searching for the stairs like the plague. If it is available, I buy a ?mapping first thing from my starting money (in case I read unidentified ?descent) and I dont explore unless theres a good treasure feeling. Among the basic consumables, mapping (? or _) ranks 3rd after ?phase and !curewound.

The best way to search (if playing with connected stairs) is to go up and down and check the immediate vicinity: often there are staircase rooms with many stairs nearby. If thats not the case (no pun intended), rather than wander off in search of >, reroll the level.

The rare case where I am forced to search occurs mostly when I have run out and cant get mapping in town before recalling back down, either for lack of cash or because neither shop has it in stock. It happens, but less than 1x/game on average Id guess.