Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)
Goodbye Hilda the Stupid Lady, ascending with +4 Excalibur, +4 silver
saber, her gray dragon and her ettin and her Xorn and her 4 purple
worms (or would have if they had all fit round the altar) for 5170000
points.
Gonna snip 90% of the comments.
Gotta say this was a straightforward ascension. Having sweated through
two ascensions as an Archeologist and a Wizard, playing through as a
Valk was pretty much like clockwork. I found that a lot of the tricks
I'd picked up as a weak character stood a not-so-weak character in good
stead so that the game became, if not easy, only moderately difficult
instead of rock hard.
Bit of advice for non-ascended readers: Start off by playing Tourists
or Wizards or suchlike. Those characters are weak, and you develop
eyes in the back of your head and learn to make the most of every
single trick. You learn how to engrave "E" with just about anything.
You learn to always have an escape route handy -- there's a REASON why
the RNG gives away scrolls of teleportation and wands of digging like
candy in a dime store.
Then, once you've learned to survive as a weak character, switch over
to a combat wombat like Valk or Barbarian and walk over the dungeon.
All the skills you've picked up as a weakling suddenly give your combat
wombat a quantum leap in effectiveness, and an ascension is usually not
far away.
Abuse: Yes, I finally had occasion to use my notes to refresh my memory
when a magic trap gated in a mind flayer and it ate my brain for 5
points of intelligence, leaving me with a 6-int Valk. At the time this
happened I was standing right outside Rodney's door, and I decided I
just didn't have the patience to go through all the dungeon scrounging
identify scrolls to rebuild my database. I did as much as I could from
my own memory, but then I realized that was out-of-character too --
that information was gone from my character's mind, so any rebuilding
of that info short of re-identifying was OOC, and I didn't have the
real-world time for that. So I used my notes. I'd come too far.
As it was, I had 75% of the 48-level dungeon maps wiped, and I spent
20000 turns and 4 real-time hours remapping the dungeon for my run. I
consider that punishment enough
.
Game-breaker: Found gauntlets of power early. This increased my
carrying capacity and allowed me to hit hard.
Funny moment of the game: Engagement ring identified as "ring of
conflict". As a married person for 11 years, I would certainly say that
would seem to be true to life, where you can be best friends with
someone but the minute you slip the ring on the quarrels never end
.
The wife hits! You are confused!-More-
The wife hits! You are stunned!-more-
Well, I thought it was funny anyway.
Biggest mistake: identifying a potion of sickness by quaffing it,
knocking my int to 4. Compounding that error by praying to get out of
trouble (on turn 10 of the game) and getting the "you are arrogant"
message, making my game deity permanently angry at me. I had to play
the first 5000 turns of the game without prayer despite mucho
sacrificing before I could find something big enough to mollify him.
This means I have to work hard to not be hungry, as if I run out of
food and nutrition I will simply die, no bailout.
I note that my ascending characters have bad things happen to them just
as the other ones did, but my ascending characters find a way out of
their jams. I guess that's because I've developed the smarts and the
mindset to be a survivor in the dungeon.
I-didn't know-they-could-do-that moment: Asmodeus reads a scroll and
levelported away! I know this is true because, 40000 turns later, I
found him just hanging around on level 19 above the castle while I was
re-mapping in preparation for the ascension run.
New tactic: When fighting demon lords, once they are awake use Orb of
Fate levelport to teleport to next level up, then descend the stairs
and stand there. Soon enough the bad guy comes along, and has no escape
since I'm standing on the stairs.
Firsts:
1. First ascension as a non-spellcaster class.
2. First time ascending a character who could NOT cast identify, or
indeed much of anything. This led me to conserve my identify scrolls
and play a much different game than I normally would have, using every
identify trick and, at the end, only identifying things I really cared
about.
3. First time Rodney stole the amulet from me. I missed with the WoD
and he managed to get it away from me. I sat there wondering where in
the dungeon I would find him next when he 'ported back next to me to
finish the job. Greedy dude. I happily smacked him down and took my
amulet back.
4. First time I actually *fought* Rodney, and indeed ran up a staircase
to get away from him. In previous games I used WoD (and did in this one
as well), but a bad roll meant I missed the shot a time or two.
5. First time ascending character without inherent teleport and
teleport control. I circumvented this with an uncursed ring of
polymorph and polymorph control.
6. First time ascending a lawful, rather than neutral, character. Since
I have a strict policy of never deliberately killing peacefuls nor
allowing my pets to do so if it can be avoided, this meant the game was
harder because I couldn't relieve the first dwarf I met of his mithril
and his mattock as interim armor for the opening game. It also meant I
almost never encountered a non-peaceful tengu, which meant no inherent
teleport control and therefore no inherent teleportitis.
7. First time ring of conflict NOT used on astral. Well, not entirely
true. I started out with it but took it off when I had a whole bunch
of nasties including a purple worm summoned on top of me. Fortunately,
I had TWO magic harps, and whenever a suitable pet got close I would
tame it with the harp. I eventually had 5(!) tame purple worms roaming
the astral, devouring angels and priests alike in one turn. I must
confess the multiple "Buurrrrrp!" messages gave me the giggles.
8. First time brain eaten by mindflayer. Lesson: Even if you have to
burn a wish, make sure the darn things are genocided before entering
Gehennom.
9. First time fought Death hand-to-hand. I had feared his touch, but
when he finally caught me and I saw I wasn't losing max hp potential
but only current HP (easily fixed with ! of full healing) I cast aside
restraint and beat him down.
10. First time I have to hit all the astral altars. First time fight
all three horsemen, killing Death 5 times, Pestilence twice and famine
once. Shriveled once by famine but I must have been full enough I
didn't even get hungry.
11. First time successfully navigate on plane of water. I see the
portal, I see the direction it's drifting in. I stuck on the ring of
levitation and chased it down. This is also why I wound up on astral
with =ofConflict, because I keep it on in water so that the electric
eels will have something else to pick on besides me.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
Goodbye Hilda the Stupid Lady, ascending with +4 Excalibur, +4 silver
saber, her gray dragon and her ettin and her Xorn and her 4 purple
worms (or would have if they had all fit round the altar) for 5170000
points.
Gonna snip 90% of the comments.
Gotta say this was a straightforward ascension. Having sweated through
two ascensions as an Archeologist and a Wizard, playing through as a
Valk was pretty much like clockwork. I found that a lot of the tricks
I'd picked up as a weak character stood a not-so-weak character in good
stead so that the game became, if not easy, only moderately difficult
instead of rock hard.
Bit of advice for non-ascended readers: Start off by playing Tourists
or Wizards or suchlike. Those characters are weak, and you develop
eyes in the back of your head and learn to make the most of every
single trick. You learn how to engrave "E" with just about anything.
You learn to always have an escape route handy -- there's a REASON why
the RNG gives away scrolls of teleportation and wands of digging like
candy in a dime store.
Then, once you've learned to survive as a weak character, switch over
to a combat wombat like Valk or Barbarian and walk over the dungeon.
All the skills you've picked up as a weakling suddenly give your combat
wombat a quantum leap in effectiveness, and an ascension is usually not
far away.
Abuse: Yes, I finally had occasion to use my notes to refresh my memory
when a magic trap gated in a mind flayer and it ate my brain for 5
points of intelligence, leaving me with a 6-int Valk. At the time this
happened I was standing right outside Rodney's door, and I decided I
just didn't have the patience to go through all the dungeon scrounging
identify scrolls to rebuild my database. I did as much as I could from
my own memory, but then I realized that was out-of-character too --
that information was gone from my character's mind, so any rebuilding
of that info short of re-identifying was OOC, and I didn't have the
real-world time for that. So I used my notes. I'd come too far.
As it was, I had 75% of the 48-level dungeon maps wiped, and I spent
20000 turns and 4 real-time hours remapping the dungeon for my run. I
consider that punishment enough
.Game-breaker: Found gauntlets of power early. This increased my
carrying capacity and allowed me to hit hard.
Funny moment of the game: Engagement ring identified as "ring of
conflict". As a married person for 11 years, I would certainly say that
would seem to be true to life, where you can be best friends with
someone but the minute you slip the ring on the quarrels never end
.The wife hits! You are confused!-More-
The wife hits! You are stunned!-more-
Well, I thought it was funny anyway.
Biggest mistake: identifying a potion of sickness by quaffing it,
knocking my int to 4. Compounding that error by praying to get out of
trouble (on turn 10 of the game) and getting the "you are arrogant"
message, making my game deity permanently angry at me. I had to play
the first 5000 turns of the game without prayer despite mucho
sacrificing before I could find something big enough to mollify him.
This means I have to work hard to not be hungry, as if I run out of
food and nutrition I will simply die, no bailout.
I note that my ascending characters have bad things happen to them just
as the other ones did, but my ascending characters find a way out of
their jams. I guess that's because I've developed the smarts and the
mindset to be a survivor in the dungeon.
I-didn't know-they-could-do-that moment: Asmodeus reads a scroll and
levelported away! I know this is true because, 40000 turns later, I
found him just hanging around on level 19 above the castle while I was
re-mapping in preparation for the ascension run.
New tactic: When fighting demon lords, once they are awake use Orb of
Fate levelport to teleport to next level up, then descend the stairs
and stand there. Soon enough the bad guy comes along, and has no escape
since I'm standing on the stairs.
Firsts:
1. First ascension as a non-spellcaster class.
2. First time ascending a character who could NOT cast identify, or
indeed much of anything. This led me to conserve my identify scrolls
and play a much different game than I normally would have, using every
identify trick and, at the end, only identifying things I really cared
about.
3. First time Rodney stole the amulet from me. I missed with the WoD
and he managed to get it away from me. I sat there wondering where in
the dungeon I would find him next when he 'ported back next to me to
finish the job. Greedy dude. I happily smacked him down and took my
amulet back.
4. First time I actually *fought* Rodney, and indeed ran up a staircase
to get away from him. In previous games I used WoD (and did in this one
as well), but a bad roll meant I missed the shot a time or two.
5. First time ascending character without inherent teleport and
teleport control. I circumvented this with an uncursed ring of
polymorph and polymorph control.
6. First time ascending a lawful, rather than neutral, character. Since
I have a strict policy of never deliberately killing peacefuls nor
allowing my pets to do so if it can be avoided, this meant the game was
harder because I couldn't relieve the first dwarf I met of his mithril
and his mattock as interim armor for the opening game. It also meant I
almost never encountered a non-peaceful tengu, which meant no inherent
teleport control and therefore no inherent teleportitis.
7. First time ring of conflict NOT used on astral. Well, not entirely
true. I started out with it but took it off when I had a whole bunch
of nasties including a purple worm summoned on top of me. Fortunately,
I had TWO magic harps, and whenever a suitable pet got close I would
tame it with the harp. I eventually had 5(!) tame purple worms roaming
the astral, devouring angels and priests alike in one turn. I must
confess the multiple "Buurrrrrp!" messages gave me the giggles.
8. First time brain eaten by mindflayer. Lesson: Even if you have to
burn a wish, make sure the darn things are genocided before entering
Gehennom.
9. First time fought Death hand-to-hand. I had feared his touch, but
when he finally caught me and I saw I wasn't losing max hp potential
but only current HP (easily fixed with ! of full healing) I cast aside
restraint and beat him down.
10. First time I have to hit all the astral altars. First time fight
all three horsemen, killing Death 5 times, Pestilence twice and famine
once. Shriveled once by famine but I must have been full enough I
didn't even get hungry.
11. First time successfully navigate on plane of water. I see the
portal, I see the direction it's drifting in. I stuck on the ring of
levitation and chased it down. This is also why I wound up on astral
with =ofConflict, because I keep it on in water so that the electric
eels will have something else to pick on besides me.
Respectfully,
Brian P.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram