Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.misc (
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Martin Read <mpread@chiark.greenend.org.uk> moaned:
> Tina_Hall@kruemel.org (Tina Hall) wrote:
>> Darshan Shaligram <darshans@aztec.soft.net> shouted:
>>> Tina_Hall@kruemel.org (Tina Hall) wrote:
>>>> Martin Read <mpread@chiark.greenend.org.uk> growled:
>>>>> Deep Elf Wizard: Start off nicely (gotta love that big fat
>>>>> spellcasting skill) but I keep getting killed when I hit DL5
>>>>> with no sign of a source of Bolt of (Cold/Fire/Magma). (Yes,
>>>>> V. or S.M. would dish it out eventually, but...)
>>
>>>> What's 'V.'? (I can guess that S.M. might mean Small Mammals,
>>>> but it doesn't look right, either.)
>>
>>> Vehumet and Sif Muna.
>>
>> Ah. That's completely outside my expectation.
> *blink* *blink*
In other words, that as explanation for the abbreviations wouldn't
have come to my mind in a million years.
>> Expecting books from gods that early is a little strange, too.
>> (Ok, a book from the game then or even three times that later
>> would be nice...)
> Yes, that's what the "but..." is about
> Getting a book out of Vehumet or Sif Muna by DL15 isn't *that*
> hard, though, unless you had to wait until DL7 for the Ecumenical
> Temple stairs. There's an awful lot of stuff to kill between DL5
> and DL15, and Vehumet really, really likes it when you kill
> things.
I miss some god appreciating my kills (my current Demigod, rather).
Did miss that with Sif Muna, in the SEEE game, too. The deaths seem
so wasted when no one cheers them.
(Of course my Demigod could
perform a little jig at each 'you kill the foo', as he's gathering
souls for his own use.)
> Not being inclined to hoover every inch of the dungeon helps, too.
I've got a truly bad memory, so every item that's not sorted could
be something I haven't seen yet. Thus I cart it around and dump it
into corners. (Also helps when I find that that empty wand of cold
or fire is better recharged instead of lying in a garbage heap. I
know which garbage heaps to look at to find the thing again.)
>>>> What's 'ENOMANA'?
>>
>>> No mana error.
>>
>> What's the source for that expression?
> It's one of the ways that Unix geeks write. Running out of any
> resource is sometimes expressed as "ENO<foo>", derived from the
> standard error code ENOSPC (no space on device).
So it's 'ENd Of'? ("Eh, NO" would sound more interesting.)
>>>>> giant bats (do these *really* have to be three times as fast
>>>>> as the player?)
>>
>>> They need to be fast, or what's the point?
>>
>> Besides, when you step away instead of futilely trying to run
>> after them, they usually get right into position to get a whack
>> over their speedy heads.
> It goes like this:
> I spend my last point of mana finishing off a hobgoblin. A giant
> bat then comes round the corner. I run like hell.
That's the mistake. The bat will hit you anyway, so just step back,
whack it, step back, whack it again...
> Sometimes, the giant bat meanders away and I live. More often, it
> comes after me and nibbles me to death, and because deep elf
> conjurers have pitiful melee skills I can't even hit the damn
> thing.
Better trying than falling into the shredder, no? You might get some
mana regenerated, too, while trying to fight it.
One thing I have to keep remembering is that faster typing doesn't
mean faster running, just faster getting killed. Chose your path,
step by step, try to get it into a corridor. You might even lose it
around a corner. Ideally, of course, a slower monster, like a rat,
will close up behind the bat in the corridor, so it can't flap away.
> Giant cockroaches are nearly as bad, because while they're slower
> than bats (I estimate ~125% of player speed), they chase you a
> lot more reliably and are a lot harder to kill. A giant bat
> usually goes down to a single magic dart even from a beginning DE
> conjurer; I've seen a giant cockroach soak four without ever
> going below "moderately wounded".
True. Don't know what to do about that, except make the Rickety
Noble Gardener happy, for better success in attacks.
I think I have a new dislike for giant geckos, though (hob)goblins
aren't exactly nice, either. I think the only monster I like early
on is rats.
--
Tina the Cudgeler - the Favourite Plaything of the Rebuked New Goat
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