NPP Quests: Will character level affect quest difficulty??

[Nemesis]

I know NPP Angband have their own forum and that I'd probably find it easier to get my question answered there, but I'll give it a shot here anyway as I'm too lazy to register an account.

What determinates how difficult your quests will be at the Adventurer's Guild?? Is determined by character level or is it deepest dungeon level reached or something else?

I'm also wondering what happens if you quaff a potion of Lose Memories?? I've always been a good boy never drinking unknown potions from strangers but I now I'm thinking of lowering my level a bit before I take a quest so they will be easier. But will I lose experience permanently by drinking that Lose Memories potion or will it just be like getting hit by a nether attack, easily fixed by quaffing another potion or casting a spell? And what happens when you equip those heavily (or permanently) cursed ego items and artifacts that drain xp, can you get it back by quaffing a potion too?

Finally, I'd like to ask if you suffer any permanent consequence from losing levels. Maybe a stupid question, but I remember reading that casting spells without proper mana could give permanent handicaps to your player. I can't recall exactly how it was explained, but I think it had to do with losing constitution. That affects your hit points of course and so does losing levels from Lose Memories and wearing stuff like Morgul ego items, Calris and some Rings of Power.

If you can't answer all my questions, answering those can is still appriciated. Thanks in advance and sorry if my English is bad.

[Nick]

What determinates how difficult your quests will be at the Adventurer's Guild?? Is determined by character level or is it deepest dungeon level reached or something else?

I'm pretty sure it's just deepest dungeon level.

[PowerDiver]

I'm pretty sure it's just deepest dungeon level.

I think it is a little more complicated than that. I remember the first quest seemed to depend upon what class I was playing. Or maybe we agree, in that I don't think CL makes any difference.

[Nemesis]

I think it is a little more complicated than that. I remember the first quest seemed to depend upon what class I was playing. Or maybe we agree, in that I don't think CL makes any difference.

Oh no, if it's deepest dungeon level failing quests can have horrible consequences!

As every quest forces you to descend deeper than you have been before, iyou can only do so many quests before you end up having to deal with a Time Hounds, Hydras, Wyrms and Eru Ilúvatar knows what else! And failing quests still requires you to visit the level in question and thus raising the difficulty for your next quest - and if you failed the last one you won't have a reward from the last one helping you and you might have used up healing/escape items and so on, putting you in a worse position than before. It can easily become a vicious circle!

And worse still, it encourages you to grind the same levels over and over again to gain xp/money/stuff that will help you complete the next quest AND it discourages diving. If you dive, you'll raise the difficulty of your next quest and the total number of quests you can do before they become all but impossible. The more brave you are as a diver, the more stupid bravery you'll be forced to have when doing your quests!

I didn't think I'd be so pissed off on my own birthday! Someone ought to tell the NPP maintainers that their way of determing the quest difficulty sucks big time. I'm not saying character level would be fairer, it would make the game easier for Dunadans and High Elfs as they are stronger but at the same time probably at a lower character level and it would encourage people to quaff memory loss potions. Actually, I think the best, most balanced way of doing it would be to have the Advunturers' Guild ask the adventurers what difficulty they want. Then the adventurers would have to estimate their strenght, choosing too high difficulty could result in death while choosing too low difficulty would do you no good as the rewards would be stuff that only low level characters find attractive.

When I get myself to register an account on the NPP forums I'll have to tell them how bad it currently is. Ok, vicious circles are unforgiving but even though I don't like them maybe other people do as Angband and other roguelikes generally are pretty unforgiving, even though Angband might be less so than, say, NetHack or ADOM. Keeping players from diving and encouraging them to stay at the same dungeon depth for a long time and grind is what makes the whole thing really bad. I mean, aren't the quests there to make the game less tedious and rewarding brave players instead of making life harder for the fearless diver and easier for the wimpy grinder?

[Pete Mack]

There's no reason to take any quests at all, except the one at dl1. After that, diving fast generally pays of more than quests. (Vault quests being the possible exception). Monsters in NPP can be insanely dangerous, but the frequency of good loot (not to mention unlimitted branded ammo, !Heal, and attenuated breath damage) more than makes up for it.

[pav]

If I recall correctly, you *do* choose the quest difficulty. If you want to take easy quests all the time, you can. (Not that it would make any sense, 'cause easy quest have only monetary rewards.)

[Nemesis]

If I recall correctly, you *do* choose the quest difficulty. If you want to take easy quests all the time, you can. (Not that it would make any sense, 'cause easy quest have only monetary rewards.)

Your information must be from an older version of NPP, in this you can only choose the type of quest you'd like to take (kill a unique or ~10-20 out of depth monsters), kill a pit filled with almost 100 monsters, break into a vault and grab a quest artifact or kill like 250 monsters in a stronghold! Of these, only the first one is easy. But it as I said, it gets easier if you have been grinding for xp, items and money (money is of much more use in NPP) or if you have been diving.

But still my heart wants to hope that character level plays a role in how hard quests you get too (no one has yet answered my initial "Potion of Lose Memories" question btw).

There's no reason to take any quests at all, except the one at dl1. After that, diving fast generally pays of more than quests. (Vault quests being the possible exception). Monsters in NPP can be insanely dangerous, but the frequency of good loot (not to mention unlimitted branded ammo, !Heal, and attenuated breath damage) more than makes up for it.

What makes monsters more dangerous in NPP? If the insane breath damage of some beasts have been lowered it seems to me that they're not as dangerous as the monsters in Vanilla. But maybe other monsters have been more deadly.If so, which ones have been made nastier in NPP?

However, I'd like to alternate between quests and diving and diving but if the quest difficulty comes from checking a character level diving would make that totally impossible and unfair!

[Psi]

I've only played a little NPP, but I'd be very surprised if the quests were not related to the DL they appear on - that is the only measure that really makes sense. Anything related to CL would be meaningless given the abuses possible with Lose Memories as you have mentioned.

I found that each quest pretty much left my character ready for the next one (in terms of leveling up - and I only went for the ood/unique monsters ones) - it made for a smoother albeit slower game.

Regarding monster danger - things like confusion auras can be deadly if you are not equipped for them.

[Matthias]

What makes monsters more dangerous in NPP? If the insane breath damage of some beasts have been lowered it seems to me that they're not as dangerous as the monsters in Vanilla. But maybe other monsters have been more deadly.If so, which ones have been made nastier in NPP?

It has been a while since I played NPP... There are new hydras with more heads that are very dangerous. Also there a several monsters that can teleport directly next to you, and follow you if you teleport away. Vecna is the worst offender.

However, I'd like to alternate between quests and diving and diving but if the quest difficulty comes from checking a character level diving would make that totally impossible and unfair!

Take it as two possible ways to play while keeping the challenge level up. The usually diving approach, or playing quests. You are right that you can't mix the two, but that's not because of the quests but a sideeffect of diving.

[pav]

Your information must be from an older version of NPP, in this you can only choose the type of quest you'd like to take (kill a unique or ~10-20 out of depth monsters), kill a pit filled with almost 100 monsters, break into a vault and grab a quest artifact or kill like 250 monsters in a stronghold!

That's exactly what I had in mind - each of these options is distinctively harder and the previous one. And you can choose from them.

[Nemesis]

That's exactly what I had in mind - each of these options is distinctively harder and the previous one. And you can choose from them.

But still, let's say you're a lvl35 character who made a very daring dive all the way down to dungeon level 98 by always detecting monsters and loot close to the stairs... After coming back alive from such a dive, even the easiest quest alternative would be impossible!

[camlost]

But still, let's say you're a lvl35 character who made a very daring dive all the way down to dungeon level 98 by always detecting monsters and loot close to the stairs... After coming back alive from such a dive, even the easiest quest alternative would be impossible!

So don't take a quest.

Not that I expect that you can get a quest if you deepest dungeon level is 98, or perhaps that quest is Sauron on 99. But that's being pedantic.