Any original Moria players still around?

[Folk Star]

I am playing Moria (UMoria 5.5) again after a 10 year break. Was looking around online for others who may be playing it still. This is the best site i could find for camaraderie and advice and information.
So thats my deal. True story. Cheers folks!

[HallucinationMushroom]

I played Moria maybe 20 odd years ago. I still have Moria loaded on my computer, does that count?! I finally finished Moria 6, or 7 years ago, and haven't played since. When I did, I used this webpage for pointers, which still seems to be working. http://beej.us/moria/

Anyway, yeah, I love Moria but jeez, it's harsh after playing Angband and variants. For me, it was one of those, I just want to say I won it games since I played it so much back when.

[Folk Star]

rad sauce!

Thats great you beat it. I had a level 35 character a long time ago. That was the highest i ever got.
My current character is a level 30.
I swear it is the hardest game ever made haha.
Ill check out that site thanks!

[Mondkalb]

I have played Moria on my Amiga, more than 20 years ago. I found it hard, but very interesting. I never got very far, there were no spoilers available back in those days, no internet, just a public domain floppy disk with the game and some hints. ^^
At least the game had a graphical menu which made it more accessible for new players.
I remember stumbeling without any light source through the dungeon, groveling to the gods. The Salamander, I believe (or Leprechaun?), was one of those thievery bastards who stole stuff from my inventory. I had no ideas of any tactics or of the dangers of the dungeon.
A really cool feature, that I missed in Angband, was the possibility to get items identified by the shop keepers.
I also remember that too much haggling made the shop keepers angry and they wouldn't trade with you anymore.

Since there was no graphical version of Moria for PC I changed later to Angband. I then also could read the angband newsgroup, which was a lot of help to finally make some progress.

[debo]

Whoa I think that's the same beej who made the guide on sockets! I read that guide like 30 times when I was an undergrad

[HallucinationMushroom]

Because the game was so rough around the edges, I just assumed that they hadn't invented save files yet, so the game makers didn't know to do it. I save-scummed like insane since they forgot to add the feature. I was only 12 or so, and to me, Legend of Zelda was about the only game that had save files. It never occured to me that permadeath was purposeful, or to read the manual.

I still couldn't win back then. It didn't help that I had a version that had no working see invisible. The objects that granted SI didn't work, but staves of see invisible did. Game-breaker with, what, the invisible lich, invisible balrog... and is Iggy invisible... probably?

[debo]

The Balrog is invisible? How the shit is something that is ON FIRE become invisible? lol

[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.

[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.

[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.

[Derakon]

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

[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:

[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]

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!

[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...