-Crawl- YASD: I died, how sad :-/

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My HDHu at last died!

He died on Crypt:1, fallen under attakhs of curse skull's slaves after
former was already destroyed, being slow and weak after berserking.

That's it - I did not know that curse skull is such a thing. Next time
I will.

Please tell what do you think of:

Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.

Farcaster the Severer (Hill Dwarf)
(Level 18 Hunter)

Play time: 17:05:21 Number of turns: 83916

Experience : 18/284742
Strength 21 Dexterity 16 Intelligence 11
Hit Points : -7/144 (dead) Magic Points : 31/35
AC : 27 Evasion : 10 Shield : 8
GP : 689

You are in the Crypt.
You worship Elyvilon.
Elyvilon is extremely pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - the -1,+0 war axe of Fee Simple
It affects your AC (+2).
It affects your strength (+4).
It affects your intelligence (+4).

b - a +2,+5 crossbow of protection
d - the +6,+11 war axe of Stasis (weapon)
It protects you from cold.
It makes you angry.
Oh, I LOVED this item. If only I had "oRS!

Missiles
l - 7 +0 bolts of flame
V - 21 +0 bolts of flame
W - 14 poisoned +0 bolts
X - 12 +1 bolts
Armour
r - a +2 spiked helmet of intelligence (worn)
F - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
H - a +3 dragon armour (worn)
J - the +2 cloak of Ywif Wukiqug C (worn)
It partially protects you from negative energy.
It enhances your eyesight.

T - a +1 pair of boots (worn)
U - a +0 shield (worn)
Magical devices
i - a wand of fire (2)
p - a wand of digging (5)
w - a wand of slowing (9)
C - a wand of cold (4)
K - a wand of polymorph other (2)
M - a wand of draining (10)
N - a wand of digging (1)
Q - a wand of teleportation (1)
S - a wand of magic darts (10)
Y - a wand of digging (3)
Comestibles
n - a sausage
q - a lemon
u - 13 apples
y - a choko
z - 3 bread rations
G - a meat ration
O - a banana
And something like 40 rations of buth kinds scattered around dungeon.

Scrolls
c - 2 scrolls of teleportation
k - 2 scrolls of remove curse
o - 2 scrolls of immolation
A - a scroll of detect curse
Jewellery
e - a ring of levitation
h - the ring "Hebivopr" (left hand)
This ring increases its wearer's reserves of magical power.
It protects you from poison.

s - an amulet of the gourmand
L - a ring of protection from fire
P - a ring of protection from magic (right hand)
R - an amulet of warding (around neck)
Z - a cursed ring of teleportation
Potions
j - 2 potions of might
t - a potion of levitation
x - 2 potions of speed
D - 2 potions of invisibility
Miscellaneous
m - a disc of storms
v - a deck of tricks
E - a bottled efreet


You have 0 experience left.

Skills:
+ Level 14 Fighting
+ Level 22 Axes
- Level 3 Maces & Flails
+ Level 14 Crossbows
+ Level 8 Throwing
+ Level 14 Armour
- Level 2 Dodging
- Level 1 Stealth
+ Level 13 Shields
+ Level 2 Traps & Doors
+ Level 2 Spellcasting
+ Level 3 Divinations
- Level 9 Invocations
+ Level 6 Evocations
How's skills?

You have 17 spell levels left.
You know the following spells:

Your Spells Type Success
Level
a - Detect Creatures Divination Fair 2
b - Blink Translocation Bad 2

Mutations & Other Weirdness
You are agile (Dex +1).
You are dopey (Int -1).
You occasionally forget where you are.
You are frail (-10 percent hp).
I removed most mutations using !oCM found in swamp, but I met summoned
Neqoxec who made me carnivore, and some eye that made me omnivore again
but again clueless :-/

That's all kids! Gonna weep bitterly...

 

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bencillan@yahoo.com wrote:
> My instinct says that purification would not clear slowing, but that is
> just my first thought of the matter. Then again, I rarely worship
> Elyvilon nor get slowed, so I am not one to ask about this phenomenon.

Reading another recent topic, Erik says that purification does in fact
cure slowing. D'oh.

[snip rest of post]

 

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Ilyak wrote:
> My HDHu at last died!

Hi! You've already gotten some advice, but let me add mine. Let's
start with: don't say "at last" because you didn't really want your
HDHu to ever die, did you?

> He died on Crypt:1, fallen under attakhs of curse skull's slaves after
> former was already destroyed, being slow and weak after berserking.
>
> That's it - I did not know that curse skull is such a thing. Next time
> I will.

Second of all: you didn't say how many runes you collected. I will
assume since you are in the Crypt that you already had the runes
from the snake pit and the swamp, but maybe you didn't have the one
from the Vaults yet. I'm also working under the assumption that you
never entered the slime pits, but that you cleared the orcish mines,
elven halls, and the hive (including the wasps' nest).

Sorry to put all these assumptions on you, but you didn't mention,
and if I were to take a character into the crypt (and had never won),
it would probably be under these circumstances. Please correct me if
I'm wrong.

> Please tell what do you think of:
>
> Dungeon Crawl version 4.0.0 beta 26 character file.
>
> Farcaster the Severer (Hill Dwarf)
> (Level 18 Hunter)

Too low of a level to be going into the crypt with your choice
of character. A fire/earth elementalist or talismancer I can see
doing it. A melee/ranged character needs to be much more buff to
spend any amount of time there, even with Elyvilon. You were about
20,000 turns (and a few lucky finds) too early to even go in there.

> Play time: 17:05:21 Number of turns: 83916
>
> Experience : 18/284742
> Strength 21 Dexterity 16 Intelligence 11
> Hit Points : -7/144 (dead) Magic Points : 31/35
> AC : 27 Evasion : 10 Shield : 8
> GP : 689
>
> You are in the Crypt.
> You worship Elyvilon.
> Elyvilon is extremely pleased with you.
> You are not hungry.
>
> Inventory:
> Hand weapons
> a - the -1,+0 war axe of Fee Simple
> It affects your AC (+2).
> It affects your strength (+4).
> It affects your intelligence (+4).

I would have fed this to Ely.

> b - a +2,+5 crossbow of protection
> d - the +6,+11 war axe of Stasis (weapon)
> It protects you from cold.
> It makes you angry.
> Oh, I LOVED this item. If only I had "oRS!

I would have fed this to Ely. Didn't you find a fire enchanted
axe of a decent base type? Or a decent base axe and a vorpalize
weapon scroll? Or a decent base axe and the crusader's starting
book? In general, I think melee characters tend to do a LOT
better in the middle/late middle game with an ego item with good
enchants than an artifact with questionable abilities.

> Missiles
> l - 7 +0 bolts of flame
> V - 21 +0 bolts of flame
> W - 14 poisoned +0 bolts
> X - 12 +1 bolts

Nice collection. I've never fooled around with missiles
enough to know what good projectiles look like.

> Armour
> r - a +2 spiked helmet of intelligence (worn)
> F - a +0 pair of gloves (worn)
> H - a +3 dragon armour (worn)
> J - the +2 cloak of Ywif Wukiqug C (worn)
> It partially protects you from negative energy.
> It enhances your eyesight.
>
> T - a +1 pair of boots (worn)
> U - a +0 shield (worn)

I would have put the extra enchant on the helm, not the armour,
since you would probably have upgraded to gold dragon armour later.
Otherwise an excellent set for this character (the cloak especially).

> Magical devices
> i - a wand of fire (2)
> p - a wand of digging (5)
> w - a wand of slowing (9)
useless in the crypt
> C - a wand of cold (4)
"" ""
> K - a wand of polymorph other (2)
"" ""
> M - a wand of draining (10)
"" ""
> N - a wand of digging (1)
you only need one
> Q - a wand of teleportation (1)
keep these charged
> S - a wand of magic darts (10)
useless in the crypt
> Y - a wand of digging (3)
you still only need one

That's 3 wands you should have been carrying. For those of us who
got our start playing Nethack (myself included), we need to realize
that wands in Crawl are HEAVY. Even if you're a melee character who
puts all their stats into STR, dead weight is dead weight. Stash it
and forget it.

> Comestibles
> n - a sausage
> q - a lemon
> u - 13 apples
> y - a choko
> z - 3 bread rations
> G - a meat ration
> O - a banana
> And something like 40 rations of buth kinds scattered around dungeon.

This is 7 inventory slots you've devoted to food. For a berserking
character, food is very important, especially food that gets eaten
in one turn. I'd have kept the apples, the choko (since they seem
so comon anyways, I always carry them) and the two kinds of rations.
In any quantity, but the slots are important to keep clear so you
don't have to run back to your stash all the time.

> Scrolls
> c - 2 scrolls of teleportation
> k - 2 scrolls of remove curse
> o - 2 scrolls of immolation
> A - a scroll of detect curse

People might disagree with the scrolls of immolation, but I carry
them too. In this situation, surrounded by undead summons, it would
take 5 times that many to save you, but there are cases where they
could be of help. I'm sure that's not the popular opinion on this
NG, but like I mentioned before: I started with Nethack, where I
think every item is useful in some context.

> Jewellery
> e - a ring of levitation
> h - the ring "Hebivopr" (left hand)
> This ring increases its wearer's reserves of magical power.
> It protects you from poison.

Is poison a danger in the Crypt? If you didn't have anything better
than this, it's just a sign that your character really wasn't ready
for the area.

> s - an amulet of the gourmand
> L - a ring of protection from fire

I would keep this on over the protection from magic.

> P - a ring of protection from magic (right hand)
> R - an amulet of warding (around neck)

This was an excellent choice for the crypt. I also wear these
to the Elven Halls (I think many people prefer conservation or
resist slowing). All in all, I don't think you're carrying ENOUGH
jewellery. This is the one area of the inventory that I feel should
be allowed to run wild. I try to keep as many options for rings and
amulets on hand as I can, even if I never plan on using them. 2 turns
to swap might seem like a lot, but if you get used to planning every
fight it's not much worse than praying before you kill for the gods
that like that kind of thing.

> Z - a cursed ring of teleportation

> Potions
> j - 2 potions of might
> t - a potion of levitation
> x - 2 potions of speed
> D - 2 potions of invisibility

No healing? I guess you drank it all before you died.

> Miscellaneous
> m - a disc of storms
> v - a deck of tricks
> E - a bottled efreet

All worthless.

> You have 0 experience left.
>
> Skills:
> + Level 14 Fighting
> + Level 22 Axes
> - Level 3 Maces & Flails
> + Level 14 Crossbows
> + Level 8 Throwing
> + Level 14 Armour
> - Level 2 Dodging
> - Level 1 Stealth
> + Level 13 Shields
> + Level 2 Traps & Doors
> + Level 2 Spellcasting
> + Level 3 Divinations
> - Level 9 Invocations
> + Level 6 Evocations
> How's skills?

Your skills are great. You were a very well focused melee
character. A type that I'll admit I havn't had a lot of sucess
with (mostly because I can't resist turning to spells or rods
at some point). I believe that the dominant wisdom of the NG is
that shields are not worth it for an axe user because the two-
handers are so much better than the one-handers. However! don't
let this newsgroup dissuade you from playing your characters as
you see fit. Min/max optimization advice should never get in the
way of you enjoying this great game. However again! as a min/max
optimizer I would never use shields and axes together. In fact, I
would never use shields at all. Well, never is kind of extreme,
and also untrue; I would use a shield with a long blade user
whose dex was much higher than their str.

> You have 17 spell levels left.
> You know the following spells:
>
> Your Spells Type Success
> Level
> a - Detect Creatures Divination Fair 2
> b - Blink Translocation Bad 2

Hard to train spells in heavy armour, huh? I think a ring of
wizardry was what this character (and almost any other almost-
reaver) was wishing for.

> Mutations & Other Weirdness
> You are agile (Dex +1).
> You are dopey (Int -1).
> You occasionally forget where you are.
> You are frail (-10 percent hp).
> I removed most mutations using !oCM found in swamp, but I met summoned
> Neqoxec who made me carnivore, and some eye that made me omnivore again
> but again clueless :-/

AFAIK carnivore (one rank only) is a blessing, while herbivore is one
of
the worst mutations. Personally, random teleportation is the only
mutation that sends me searching for !oCM. I lost a level 27 demigod
fighter (really a talicemancer) who I took to Pan in search of !oCM
to cure random teleportation. It got cured on the first level of Pan,
but since I never found an exit, he YASDied.

So anyway, you had an overall great character. I hope I didn't come
off as being too harsh, but I think that if you havn't ever won (which
I don't remember reading any YAVPs by you) there are only two reasons
to visit any of the non-standard branches.

First, let me list the standard branches' (or my mis-memory of their)
names: main dungeon, lair, snake pit, swamp, orcish mines, hive,
vaults,
elven halls, and ZOT. This is about in the order I would visit them
with most characters. Well, the swamp should probably be later, and the
halls could be earlier, but that's pretty close.

Now, the only reason to go anywhere else if you've never won at Crawl
and desperately seek to: (1) Your character is too weak to survive
Zot: this is largely a judgement call if you've never been there. This
was the reason my only win went to extra branches, and by the time I
got to Zot it was too easy. (2) You want to post a truly awesome
YAFVP: I can't really fault you for that; I feel the same way.
> That's all kids! Gonna weep bitterly...

Don't weep, just look forward to crushing that bones file for TONS
of exp.

Ok, so I hope I wasn't harsh, but you asked for advice, so I gave you
my thoughts. The only thing I can really add is that you (and everyone)
should try to make an account of dungeon branches visited when a
character dump is posted. This would eliminate many of the
assumptions I made (which I don't like to make) and help us
all to give you much more specific advice. Also, let me add
that if you made it that far, I doubt it will be long before you do
post a YAVP. The time between my first visit to the Vaults and my
YAVP was less than a month.

Best of luck and kindest regards,

Sean

 

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s_p_lester@yahoo.com wrote:
>First, let me list the standard branches' (or my mis-memory of their)
>names: main dungeon, lair, snake pit, swamp, orcish mines, hive,
>vaults, elven halls, and ZOT. This is about in the order I would visit
>them with most characters. Well, the swamp should probably be later,
>and the halls could be earlier, but that's pretty close.

I'd seriously consider the orcish mines before the swamp and the snake
pit in some cases.

I think the factors determining whether to do the mines are:
* Have you found any useful shops containing things you want but can't
afford? There's lots of gold in the mines (and, indeed, often a
couple of shops IME).
* Is the entrance to the mines relatively shallow? Warlords and
sorcerers can really ruin your day, but if the entrance is shallow
you've got a reasonably good chance of not meeting any.
* Can you get from the entry point to a set of stairs to Mines:2
*and back* without difficulty? This may well require a combination
of magic mapping and one or more of digging, disintegration,
elemental summoning, or controlled teleportation.

The mines don't require any *special* equipment, just some combination
of good firepower and good damage prevention. The Snake Pit and the
Swamp can be very dangerous places if you don't have poison resistance,
and the final room of the Snake Pit can be very dangerous even if you
*do* have poison resistance if you are playing a conjurer. My second-best
conjurer ever got flattened by mystic blasts while trying to get to
the serpentine rune.

My best conjurer ever emerged victorious from the snake pits only to
IIRC subsequently die an unpleasant death involving a level that had
large unpleasant groups of large unpleasant monsters near *all* of its
up stairs.
--
Martin Read - my opinions are my own. share them if you wish.
illusion/kinetics controlling is love

 

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In article <1124634928.711356.40020@g44g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
<s_p_lester@yahoo.com> wrote:
>> He died on Crypt:1, fallen under attakhs of curse skull's slaves after
>> former was already destroyed, being slow and weak after berserking.
>>
>> That's it - I did not know that curse skull is such a thing. Next time
>> I will.
>
>Second of all: you didn't say how many runes you collected. I will
>assume since you are in the Crypt that you already had the runes
>from the snake pit and the swamp, but maybe you didn't have the one
>from the Vaults yet. I'm also working under the assumption that you
>never entered the slime pits, but that you cleared the orcish mines,
>elven halls, and the hive (including the wasps' nest).
>
>Sorry to put all these assumptions on you, but you didn't mention,
>and if I were to take a character into the crypt (and had never won),
>it would probably be under these circumstances. Please correct me if
>I'm wrong.

There's nothing terribly nasty in the Crypt except for curse skulls, and
they're pretty rare and don't move (unless they're near stairs and you
exit/reenter the level). If you've got Dispel Undead, the Crypt is
basically a walking mass of free experience, and even without it, IME
Vaults:8 and Elf:7 are a fair bit scarier.

>> Farcaster the Severer (Hill Dwarf)
>> (Level 18 Hunter)
>
>Too low of a level to be going into the crypt with your choice
>of character. A fire/earth elementalist or talismancer I can see
>doing it. A melee/ranged character needs to be much more buff to
>spend any amount of time there, even with Elyvilon. You were about
>20,000 turns (and a few lucky finds) too early to even go in there.

I guess I just don't understand this POV. Other than curse skulls,
what's going to happen to you?

>> Jewellery
>> e - a ring of levitation
>> h - the ring "Hebivopr" (left hand)
>> This ring increases its wearer's reserves of magical power.
>> It protects you from poison.
>
>Is poison a danger in the Crypt? If you didn't have anything better
>than this, it's just a sign that your character really wasn't ready
>for the area.

I can't think of anything that poisons in the Crypt either, aside from
perhaps a summoned Green Death.

-Andrew ()

 

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Ilyak wrote:

> P.S. What's levitation for, what does controlled flight do, and how is
> it exactly useful?

Levitation lets you move safely over deep water and physical traps. It
increases your carrying capacity. It slightly increases your stealth.
Due to the hackish way in which banishment to the Abyss works, it
prevents you from banishment to the Abyss, as long as you're Levitating
and not Flying ("if you can go down, you must").

It also prevents you from picking up objects and using downward-leading
entrances (down stairs, Abyss entrance, etc.).

Flying removes the latter two traits.

Sneak preview: in 4.1.x, Levitation also slows your movement speed and
reduces your combat ability (though it might already do the latter in
4.0.0; I'd have to look).

e.

 

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On 23 Aug 2005 07:57:12 -0700, "Ilyak" <ilya.kasnacheev@gmail.com>
wrote:

>Feeding is a bit hard if you have to go 10 levels down/go 10 levels up
>each 15 minutes. Ecumenical temple is far.

>Had absolutely zero problems with food. Never ate a ration thought all
>game, and almost always had satiation at full.

Then you had nothing to lose by going to the ET. Although 15 minutes?
Even without the Darshan patch, that's way slow.

>I don't use "fire" command.

Okay, that's the secret of taking more than a minute to find the stairs
on a known level: work at being inefficient.

>Yes, and another one have died already - check this thread for another
>morgue.txt.

Yeah, it happens so fast.

--
R. Dan Henry
danhenry@inreach.com