Any original Moria players still around?

[scud]

Bashing the Balrog.

This sounds euphemistic.

[bron]

bashing the balrog? I don't know this one.

Moria permits a Bash attack with your shield. It doesn't do much damage by itseld, but it temporarilly stuns your opponent. Trouble was, it stacks, and even the Balrog was vulnerable to it. So if you get in a couple of Bashes to get started, you could then just bash and bash and bash, gradually building up the Stun counter, and eventually enjoy 100+ uninterrupted turns of attacking the Balrog with impunity. Sort of like Mastery.

I'm pretty sure this got fixed for 5.5 however.

[debo]

I'm astonished at how similar this is to V. I knew Angband was a descendent but I didn't realize how much of the core mechanics were already in Moria way back all those years ago!

[HallucinationMushroom]

I think if you've got a monster who can insta-kill you with poison, which you can never resist, pillar dancing is only fair. But, to each their own. What is this, bashing the balrog? I don't know this one.

[bron]

tackled a few mature multi-hued and a few Ancients and won fair easily. Couple times they breathed gas and i had to teleport away.

This is almost always a mistake. If a full-strength AMHD breathes gas on you, and you aren't currently under the influence of Invulnerability, you die. End of story. Sometimes you can pillar dance to avoid giving the AMHD a chance to breathe on you, but if you screw-up the dance ...

Anyway, I advise against it. And pillar dancing is sort of borderline cheating. Like Bashing the Balrog.

[Folk Star]

Ill have to read up on the pillar dance for when i feel confident for an Ancient Multi-Hued!
Then ill teach that bastard the two-step of death.

Though i have tackled a few mature multi-hued and a few Ancients and won fair easily. Couple times they breathed gas and i had to teleport away.
I found a staff of speed as well. So i can achieve 'very fast'. When i can get the staff to work haha.

Youre welcome for the screen shots. Ill throw some more up sometime for fun. When i have some nicer swag.
I first played Moria a long time ago as well. In 1990 when my mom bought a Tandy 1000. It had 20mb hard drive. 1mb of ram. And a 12mhz processor i believe.
Moria and Wing Commander ruined our social lives for a while.
Good times.

[Djabanete]

I played Moria a long time ago! Thanks for the screen shots... that's some nostalgia there.

[HallucinationMushroom]

If you can beat Moria, you can beat anything... especially with a warrior in Moria. I love warriors more than anything, but in Moria I had to go Rogue or Ranger simply for identify and other things that spells cover that aren't guaranteed to be in shops, or if they are, in lots of 1. Hooray, 1 whole identify scroll! Good job on finding the ring-o-speed and the amulet. Just one more ring-o-speed and you can go dragon huntin'! Pillardance, pillardance! Shimmy and shake. Grab your partner, doe-see-doh...

[Folk Star]

thanks dude

Thanks.for the advice. It wasnt anything new really but it helped put it back into perspective. I use the restore potion if its there. If not i dont fret too much... and just keep rolling in.
Im up to level 33 now. And found a ring of speed and an amulet of the magi. So thats awesome.
Fucking Emporer Liches though! Ugh.
Maybe after i beat it I will try Angband!

[bron]

I mostly have problems with undead creatures that drain life

Sadly, there's not really a lot you can do about this, other than killing them from a distance. Orb of Draining is often a good choice for that, since in Moria undead are also always evil.

There are three main approaches I know of to life draining: (1) Hope the store has the potion. (2) Devote an inventory slot to keeping the potion on hand, or (3) Just ignore it and keep playing. It sounds like you are doing (1); I mostly did (2) when I played; but ultimately I think (3) is often the right approach. It depends of course on just how badly you get drained, but it seems that many players are overly paranoid about the loss of a level, or even just a few exp. Drain life is typically only really serious if you lose a bunch of levels and can no longer survive at depth. There's nothing wrong with popping up to check if the store has a potion. But if they don't, most of the time the thing to do is to just go back down and keep playing. You'll often re-gain the exp before the next store re-stock cycle, and if not, well, you can always check again.

I guess I'm saying you should either (a) worry about it enough to stock up and devote an invetory slot to it, or (b) don't worry about it too much. I realize that isn't particularly helpful.

[Folk Star]

Could use a bit of help or advice at the least..

Well, I haven't actually *played* Moria in a good many years. Although, if you look in the ERRORS file of 5.5.2 source distribution, you should see my name,
way back when I did a small amount of beta testing for Jim Wilson. So I probably ought to be able to answer questions.

I mostly have problems with undead creatures that drain life. I run into soo many of them. They are not a problem to kill but they drain experience. Then I have to word-of-recall back up. Hope the store has a potion of restore life levels. Then go back down. It slows my progress down sooo much. Any tips?

Here is my character, inventory and armour/weapons:

[Derakon]

Whelp. Thanks for the corrections, Nick. I guess it has been the better part of two decades since I last read the books.

[Nick]

IIRC Tolkein mostly described the Balrog as being cloaked in wings of shadow, that kind of thing. The association with fire was added by other people.

From the source:

Something was coming up behind them. What it was could not be seen: it was like a great shadow, in the middle of which was a dark form, of man-shape maybe, yet greater; and a power and terror seemed to be in it and go before it

The flames roared up to greet it, and wreathed about it; and a black smoke swirled in the air. Its streaming mane kindled and blazed behind it. In its right hand was a blade like a stabbing tongue of fire; in its left it held a whip of many thongs

It raised the whip, and the thongs whined and cracked. Fire came from its nostrils.

The Balrog made no answer. The fire in it seemed to die, but the darkness grew.

[bron]

Moria (UMoria 5.5)

Well, I haven't actually *played* Moria in a good many years. Although, if you look in the ERRORS file of 5.5.2 source distribution, you should see my name,
way back when I did a small amount of beta testing for Jim Wilson. So I probably ought to be able to answer questions.

[Derakon]

IIRC Tolkein mostly described the Balrog as being cloaked in wings of shadow, that kind of thing. The association with fire was added by other people.