The Rogue Game Competition

[Airhog]

Version Angband 3.0.3
You can download Angband here
http://www.thangorodrim.net/download.html

Rules
You cannot change any option that would affect the game play.
Auto-scum is to be left on, along with the monster behavior items.

The winner will be determined by the following

Whoever slays the deepest unique will be considered the winner. You must be Alive when you send me your file You must use the character I have pre-made. You have until 11:59 PM on August the 5th to send in your character to me. All submissions will be made via my e-mail at [email protected]



You are not allowed to cheat by copying your save files. I can only use the honor system here, but please don’t play if you feel you must cheat. You are allowed to restart this game as many times as you would like.

You are not allowed to use a borg to play for you. Maybe in a future contest we will run a borg game. But that kind of defeats the purpose of playing IMHO.

When you submit you’re save file, please send the save file. I would prefer all save files to be zipped, and named with your FOFC user name. This will make it easy to determine the winner. If this turns into a recurring theme, then the winner will be allowed to pick the Variant/Character/Unique Rules.

The score will be determined by the depth of the best unique you have slayed. Here are the tiebreakers
1. Character level will be used.
2. If all the characters have the same level then Experience will be used
3. If all the characters have the same experience then The rarity of the Unique will be used
4. If all the characters are still tied, then a tie will be declared.


Any questions should be posted here in this thread, or by sending me an e-mail.

Here is the character file.

[Abe Sargent]

Whoo-hoo!

-Anxiety

[Airhog]

I will start a thread in the dynasty section where people can give reports of their characters mishaps.

[Abe Sargent]

Dola -

Are Borgs legal?


-Anxiety

[sachmo71]

Ugh...I think I'll wait for the ADOM contest. I'm not very familiar with Angband.
If I do play, can't I send a bones file instead? Or do you have to live through it?

[Abe Sargent]

Wanted to make sure that my option changes were fine. The options that I changed:


Show Dungeon Level in Feet
Use Special Colors for Torch Light
Use Special Colors for Floor Grids
Use Special Colors for Field of View
Prompt for Floor Item Selection
Use Old Target by Default
Repeat Obvious Commands
Merge Discounts When Stacking
Open and Disarm on Movement
Hitpoint Warning at 30%

Off:

When Running, Ignore Stairs
When Running, Ignore Doors
Disturb Whenever Any Monster Moves (damn telepathy)
Disturb Whenever Boring Things Happen
Generate Dungeons with Aligned Rooms


Since some of these affect gameplay and information,. I just wanted to verify them as fine.


-Anxiety

[Vince]

Fantastic idea...except I'm going out of town and don't know much about Angband. I get back on Monday, so I'll probably give it a shot :) Good stuff Airhog.

[Airhog]

Okay after doing some research, I realize that it will not work if your character is dead. There is no way in angband to view a characters Unique list short of loading up their save game. I will edit the Requirements to reflect these changes.




Anxiety: yes, those are all fine.
Anxiety: I am going to not allow borgs this time. The reason being that it takes the fun out of playing.

Sachmo: we might do ADOM next, or any other variant :D
Hmm I am not sure if a bones file will work.

[andy m]

where should the file be unzipped to?

[Airhog]

Originally posted by andy m
where should the file be unzipped to?

Where did you install Angband too?

It normally goes into

C:\program files\angband\lib\save

[andy m]

thanks. wasn't sure which of the folders in there was the right one - (file, user, data, save - all seemed reasonably appropriate!)

[sachmo71]

Well, ADOM saves all of your kills, but you have to either die or win to see 'em!

I don't remember the bones files in Angband saving this sort of information. Terribly inferior, if you ask me. :D
I'll give it a shot anyway. Just for fun.

[Airhog]

I dont think vanilla Angband saves your kills, I think you can export kills in some other versions though.

[sachmo71]

Good, let's play ADOM!! :D

[Airhog]

Lol. Well if you win sachmo you can pick the game, and the challenge, so hop to it.


ON another note I have decided to make an adjustment to the rules. If you send me a character, that character can no longer adventure as part of the challenge. My reasoning, is that I dont want people to send me in multiple copies of their character. It also adds an another element of strategy, since you now have to think about stopping early, or continuing down further and risking death.

[Syrinx]

So how hard would it be for a newbie to pick this up and compete?

I played Rouge/Moria/NetHack in the late 80's and early 90's but never Angband.

[3ric]

I gave Airhog's challenge a try just now, and as a former Hack/Nethack player playing Angband for the first time, I can say there are enough similarities to get you going pretty fast. There are some differences, most noticably a capital "E" for eating rations compared to lowercase "e" in Nethack, wielding lanterns with "w" instead of applying items.

[Thomkal]

Syrinx,

It'll be a bit overwhelming at first because there are so many commands and so many things to consider, but Airhog made a great choice when he made a half-troll fighter for the character everybody uses. Simple to play, and with enough hit points that a rookie mistake might not cost you your life.

Read all the help files in game, and feel free to post questions on here-I'll be glad to help.

Dan

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by Syrinx
So how hard would it be for a newbie to pick this up and compete?

I played Rouge/Moria/NetHack in the late 80's and early 90's but never Angband.

With experience in the prerunners, Angband really should be the next evolutionary step anyway. It's not nearly as complex as the variants are. It took me 10-15 minutes to seguay from Moria to Angband. Took me a lot longer to gain proficiency, however. Of course, my predisposition to playing mages probably hurt :)

-Anxiety

[Syrinx]

Cool. I've downloaded everything. I'll probably try out a new (not for this challenge) character one evening this week, and then if it all works out, I'll start this up over the weekend.

I think it will be less of a problem un-learning the old way of doing things (it’s been nearly 10 years) and more of an issue of remembering the basics, and combining that with all of the new features.

Sounds like a lot of fun!

[Syrinx]

I just noticed what appears to be an inconsitency. Which is it?

Originally posted by Airhog
Rules
...
You must use the Generate aligned rooms option. Thanks Anxiety.

Originally posted by Anxiety
Off:
...
Generate Dungeons with Aligned Rooms

Not that I know what that means yet...

[Airhog]

Sorry I mis-read what Anxiety wrote :D

Dont worry about it. I dont think the Aligned rooms generation is going to significantly change the game.

Well now I see why He would turn it off, but I still dont think it gives him a great advantage.

[Airhog]

Originally posted by Thomkal
Syrinx,

It'll be a bit overwhelming at first because there are so many commands and so many things to consider, but Airhog made a great choice when he made a half-troll fighter for the character everybody uses. Simple to play, and with enough hit points that a rookie mistake might not cost you your life.

Read all the help files in game, and feel free to post questions on here-I'll be glad to help.

Dan

Yeah I purposely picked a fighter for this challenge. However, being a fighter is a tough once you get past the first few levels. He main advantage is the regeneration. His biggest weakness is a belly the size of a fridge.

[Airhog]

bumping this back up to page one for any stragglers.

[Abe Sargent]

I have turned back on Generate Aligned Rooms since it was an issue, even a minor one.

-Anxiety

[Airhog]

Anxiety: dont sweat it. I guess everyone should really just set it too on, since it gives a small increase in the number of lesser vaults.

[klayman]

quick question...how do we know how deep the unique is that we kill? Do they only appear on certain levels or do we have to save the game right after we kill the unique. I ask cause I've killed a couple (although they were not very deep) but can't find the information of the level of the unique or the level I killed him on anywhere.

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by klayman
quick question...how do we know how deep the unique is that we kill? Do they only appear on certain levels or do we have to save the game right after we kill the unique. I ask cause I've killed a couple (although they were not very deep) but can't find the information of the level of the unique or the level I killed him on anywhere.

All creatures and items in the game come with a base level. Items and creatures are determined for any given level with a complex mathematical process that allows items and creatures to be on a level lower then it (actually, higher, but you get the idea) but with decreasing frequency as you get farther fromt he item. once you pass the level, it can appear all the time.

The only base level that I know off the top of my head is Ringil, a sword that has a base level of 20, or 1000' deep. You can find Ringil earlier, but it's harder and harder the earlier you go. Creatures are the exact same way.

So you look at the unique's base level and compare. If you are interested in finding a creature's base level, go to the game, and type "/" followed by the symbol of the unique in question (if you have seen it). Scroll through all monsters with that symbol until you find your unique. Then recall the monster info and it will tell you where the guy likes to hang out.

Another way is to d/l the spoliers and load them into the game. Then you could look at the uniques exactly and see what their base level is.


-Anxiety

[Syrinx]

Ok you guys are all just pure evil. ;)

I was up 'til 1:30am playing this damned thing (I have to leave for work by 6:00am). I'm not a college kid anymore damn-it! 4 hours sleep doesn't cut it for me!

I killed 2 uniques, but I was use just using a character I had created to re-learn the game. Tonight I start for real! :D

[Syrinx]

Dola
How do you identify magic items? I have colored wands and potions, and scrolls that are nonsense.

Also, can a half-troll warrior even use wands and scrolls?

[sachmo71]

Can anyone help out with the level messages? I left a level with "You feel your luck is changing", did I screw up doing that?

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by Syrinx
Dola
How do you identify magic items? I have colored wands and potions, and scrolls that are nonsense.

Also, can a half-troll warrior even use wands and scrolls?

You can try using them and see what happens. Or you can use an identify scroll on them. Lastly, you can sell it to a shopkeeper and that will ID it for you. I usually sell scrolls and potions, ID wands, stafffs, and rods.

Yep, Trolls can use them. The more complex a magical item is, however, the more likely the guy is to fail. Mine takes me anywhere from 5-20 tries before he uses the Rod of Recalling corectly.

-Anxiety

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by sachmo71
Can anyone help out with the level messages? I left a level with "You feel your luck is changing", did I screw up doing that?


Just don't leave a "Special" feeling level without checking it out. Because Airhog has the autoscum on, every level has something interesting - an Out of Depth monster, items, vault, pit, artifact, etc.

-Anxiety

[Thomkal]

The front page on the Thangorodim site has a Angband Newbie guide which is incredibly old-1999, but much of the information is still useful there. There's also the Angband Manual at: http://angband.oook.cz/stuff/manual.txt that may help too.

As for level feelings here is a list that I believe is mostly correct-its missing the special level feeling which would be at the very top of course. There is also "Looks like every other level"-which occurs if you go down a level too quickly. The game wants you to stay at a level for a certain amount of time-In cases when I'm level diving, if I find a stairs down quickly on a level I've just arrived at-I usually rest for 100 turns or so to avoid getting this message.

Rating Message
101+ "You have a superb feeling about this level."
81-100 "You have an excellent feeling..."
61-80 "You have a very good feeling..."
41-60 "You have a good feeling..."
31-40 "You feel strangely lucky..."
21-30 "You feel your luck is turning..."
11-20 "You like the look of this place..."
1-10 "This level can't be all bad..."
0 "What a boring place..."

So no you likely didn't miss out on anything that super on the luck is turning level Anxiety-stop being so anxious about it. :)

On caution about selling un-ID'ed stuff to shopkeepers-Yep you get them ID'ed free of charge, but you also get them for a lot less money normally than you would had you ID'ed it. I normally sell un-ID'ed potions and scrolls I get from the early levels of the dungeons-mushrooms too-because many are hazardous to you, and you get money for something a shopkeeper would never have paid you a gold piece for had it been ID'ed. You have a house where you can store things-I will often keep other un-ID'ed things there until the stores have ID scrolls or I have enough money to buy them.

And Syrinx...welcome to the dark side...that is, if you aren't taking a nap right at the moment. :)

[Syrinx]

Originally posted by Thomkal
And Syrinx...welcome to the dark side...that is, if you aren't taking a nap right at the moment. :) No nap, I'm plodding through the workday.

I've been to the dark side before, it's more of a, “Welcome back. Look what we've done to spruce up the evil lair while you were away!” ;)

[JAG]

Just to add to the explanation of the level feelings and ratings, the feeling is a measure of how dangerous and how potentially rewarding a level is. The higher the rating, the more likely there are out of depth monsters (potentially much more dangerous than you would normally find on the level), monster lairs called pits and vaults, and powerful items. The better the feeling, the more likely you'll want to check out the whole level to make sure you aren't missing out on a great item...at the same time being careful for those dangerous monsters.

The other level of feeling is the 'you have a special' feeling message. On that one, you REALLY don't want to leave the level without exploring it fully because there might be an artifact there. The lower you go, the higher chance it is that it's an artifact. The other possibilities are pits and vaults I believe. Watch out for those, I had to battle an enormous amount of orcs on one of these 'special' levels.

Hope that explains it.

JAG

[Airhog]

Originally posted by Anxiety
So you look at the unique's base level and compare. If you are interested in finding a creature's base level, go to the game, and type "/" followed by the symbol of the unique in question (if you have seen it). Scroll through all monsters with that symbol until you find your unique. Then recall the monster info and it will tell you where the guy likes to hang out.

-Anxiety

There is an easier way, but revealing it could cause problems with cheating. Good thing Horns isnt around anymore

[Marc Vaughan]

I'm in (but will undoubtedly do badly - as I normally do in these games :D)

[Thomkal]

Bump to keep this on front page and to welcome Marc :)

[Vince]

Bump...it sucks to be at home where all we have for internet is a crappy iBook that my mom won't let me download anything to.

I'm back in SB later this weekend, so I'll get cracking then :) In the meantime, how is everyone doing? I don't want people to give away how far they are, but maybe some nice little teasers for me while I can't play? ;)

[thesloppy]

Originally posted by Vince
In the meantime, how is everyone doing? I don't want people to give away how far they are, but maybe some nice little teasers for me while I can't play? ;)

I've only put in a couple of hours, and at least half that time has been put into chasing Smeagol's dusty ass around. Screw that little freak and his gold-stealing-puff-of-smoke-disappearing ways. I ran out of food before I came close to ever putting him in the grave, and he managed to steal every bit of gold I had!

[Thomkal]

Vince check the dynasty forum to see how some of us are doing. :) I'm around 600' right now myself, but some of the others are about to head into stat gain area-near 1000'

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by Vince
Bump...it sucks to be at home where all we have for internet is a crappy iBook that my mom won't let me download anything to.

I'm back in SB later this weekend, so I'll get cracking then :) In the meantime, how is everyone doing? I don't want people to give away how far they are, but maybe some nice little teasers for me while I can't play? ;)

Check out the thread in the dynasty section for info on how peops are doin'.

-Anxiety

[sachmo71]

How can you tell how many feet you are at?
Also, on the main screen, under your experience, what does AU mean?

[Thomkal]

Sachmo,

Hit the equal sign key to get into the options menu. Look for Display Options-#5 in that menu I think. The top option there I think is to change the dungeon levels to feet. The level will appear at the bottom of the screen.

AU stands for your gold pieces.

[Vince]

Yeah, I should probably look around before opening my big mouth :) Great stuff guys, keep it coming.

[Alan T]

The one thing I dont like about this version that used to be the case in the old Rogue versions is everytime you change levels, it gets rid of all you have done so far..

If I remember rogue correctly, it would be random every time you start a game, but the levels would remain consistant (unchanging) for the period of that particular game.

This one it seems every time I go to town, the entire dungeon changes again... or is there some option I am missing somewhere?

[Alan T]

dola...

I just read the angband faq.. they call this "persistant levels" and they dont do that.. other versions do I guess.. Ahh well, guess I will have to get used to this :)

Anyone try that mangband? I guess it is multiplayer angband? Sounds interesting.

[Syrinx]

Originally posted by sachmo71
How can you tell how many feet you are at? Aside from the option mentioned, there is also an easy conversion: each level = 50 Feet.

So 1000' = Level 20

[mrsimperless]

A question for those of you with more experience playing this than I have. (Which is zero) How do I defeat monsters like Smeagol? Every time I start to do some damage to him he disappears in a puff of smoke. I'm guessing that he is teleporting? Is there a way to keep him from teleporting or to quickly locate him once he does?

[sachmo71]

Simp,

I had to chase him down and kill him. The first time he attacked me, it took my by surprise. I thought I could beat him, but he disappeared. I figured he would show up again, and I would hit him with some spells or something. I threw a potion of confusion at him, and a potion of sleep, and used a staff of sleep monster, some poison, and a ton of other stuff. He shrugged it all off. So finally I moved up and engaged him. When he took off, I ran around until I found him again, and killed him this way. Maybe something more powerful would have knocked him out, but I had to do it the hard way.

[mrsimperless]

You can throw potions at monstors and they will be affected?? :O

I have been throwing away all of the "bad" potions that I have been finding! I will have to start keeping them.

Also, what does "phase door" do?

[sachmo71]

Yes, you can throw them, but so far they have only affected weak creatures for me. I just drop them...now.

Phase door teleports you a short distance from your current location. It can save your butt when you are surrounded by critters.

[mrsimperless]

OK, more questions I haven't found the answers to online.

On my character screen, which stats are real? I see "Self" and "best". Also, after best there are some more numbers in yellow? What means what? Is there a thorough description of this screen somewhere, because I have a few other questions as well. (What are RB, CB and EB, etc.)

[mrsimperless]

Dola

Another major dilemma. I go back to town and no scrolls of identify! So I decide to rest for a while and see if the store restocks. 15 rations and 10 scrolls of satisfy hunger later & still no restock!! And now they are out of food too. This will suck if I die in town. How else can I identify items? Thanks!

[Thomkal]

The "Best" scores are your current scores and the one you see on the main town/dungeon page. Self scores are the base scores your character has before any bonuses during character generation for racial and class bonusses (RB and CB on that screen, EB is equipment bonuses I believe) There are some in-game help pages if you do a ? in game, not sure that info is in there or not.

As for Smeagol, he can be tough for a low level char, because he's so quick and can teleport away, but the good news is that you probably won't have much money when you meet up with him anyway, so it doesn't hurt too bad when he takes your cash.
Probably the best way to handle him is to try to keep him at a distance and use a missile weapon on him-you'll likely need one with a bonus to hit or damage (or on the missiles themselves). Phase Door scrolls are good for this-when he gets too close, phase door away (hopefully). If you can find a wand of stinking cloud or wonder, you can sometimes get some damage attacks on him. Beware the wand of wonder though-its powers are all random.

As for the no identity scrolls in town problem, this is another reason I prefer the variants to the original Angband. It's a pain in the butt when this happens with identity scrolls, word of recall, and lighting items. What I do is stock up on scrolls of satisfy hunger, make sure you read one before going down to 50'. Once there make sure there's nothing around you that's going to interrupt your rest, then sit on the stairs, and rest for 1000 turns at a time until the game tells you you are hungry again. Read a scroll or two, lather rinse repeat. I normally hang out down there for 5000 turns as I seem to recall this advice back when I played this version, but it may take less.

Normally you'll find whatever it is you are looking for upon your return. If not, either go back to store un ID'ed items in your home and go back to killing things for a little bit and try the stores again, or repeat the satisfy hunger method again for 5000 turns. If you have the money, you can use a staff of perception to identify things too, so keep that in mind.

[sachmo71]

I used a Wand of Wonder on a Cave Ork...and he turned into a Baby(thankfully) Blue Dragon! SweeT!

[mrsimperless]

One last ID-10T question here.

I am 450' down now and I got a special feeling. (My second one. The first one yielded an orc lair (or was it a vault?) and I got out of there just barely with a holy avenger sword.) However on this one I could not find anything. Finally I used a magic mapping scroll and I saw a "weird" area in the middle of the map. The best way to describe it is 3 "hallway-like" rooms all on top of each other. I used an object detection scroll and saw that the 3 hallways were loaded with items. I was finally able to tunnel my way into the middle hallway and there were a bunch of items, but nothing excellent. However, all both of the other hallways appear to be surrounded by permanent rock. I'm guessing there's an artifact or something coo' in one of the other hallways, but I can't get in!! Anyone seen this situation before?

[Thomkal]

Hmmm,

Can't picture the vault you are describing, but did you dig all the non-permanent walls around the entire vault and any ones in the vault itself? Sometimes you have to dig through the walls to get to the non-permanent wall on the other side of it. You can also examine every block of the wall. I use the roguelike commands which means I use the letter x, then it gives you a bunch of other keys you can hit. I use p, that lets me search (with the arrow or your movement keys) every block of wall that surrounds the vault. There should be at least one non-permanent wall there you can access to get into the rest of the vault. Did you search for secret doors in the areas of the vault you can't get into?

The vault I just died in-see the dynasty thread-had a situation somewhat like this-There were two corridors that ended in permanent rock-I knew there was a vault above it because I could see the traps and such above it. I had to dig into the corridor wall to the left of the permanent wall (the corridor was running to the north when it ended at the wall). I kept digging to the left when the permanent wall continued to the north...kept digging until the one square that was not permanent was revealed. Then I died soon thereafter. :)

Does this help any?

[mrsimperless]

OH NO!!! I finally got in there by tunelling all around. It took forever, as I had to set up a bunch of tunneling macros. Once inside I kept getting confused by something and it was using psionic powers on me. I kept running away and healing myself when it would get me down to around 50hps. On the third time I battled it I wasn't so fortunate and it ended up taking me out. Oh well. I played this stupid game ALL DAY LONG and now I have nothing to show for it. Time for some NCAA2004. :(

Here is my dump.


Name Mr. Simperless Self RB CB EB Best
Sex Male Age 30 STR: 17 +4 +5 +0 18/80
Race Half-Troll Height 73 INT: 11 -4 -2 +0 5
Class Warrior Weight 252 WIS: 14 -2 -2 +4 14
Title Swashbuckler Status 1 DEX: 10 -4 +2 +0 8
HP -40/247 Maximize Y Con: 17 +3 +2 +0 18/40 18/30
SP 0/0 Preserve N CHR: 9 -6 -1 +0 3

Level 19 Armor [24,+20] Saving Throw Good
Cur Exp 4483 Fight (+1,+5) Stealth Bad
Max Exp 4483 Melee (+8,+11) Fighting Heroic
Adv Exp 5280 Shoot (+11,+19) Shooting Superb
Blows 2/turn Disarming Fair
Gold 5451 Shots 1/turn Magic Device Fair
Perception Bad
Burden 146.8 lbs Infra 30 ft Searching Poor

Your father was a Stone-Troll Warrior. You have slime-green eyes,
mangy sea-weed green hair, and blue leprous skin.



[Last Messages]

> Your mind is blasted by psionic energy.
> You are confused!
> You are confused.
> You miss it.
> You hit it.
> You feel something focusing on your mind.
> You resist the effects!
> You are confused.
> There is a wall in the way!
> It hits you. <3x>
> Your eyes feel less sensitive.
> You are confused.
> There is a wall in the way!
> It mumbles.
> You die.


[Character Equipment]

a) a Small Sword (Holy Avenger) (1d6) (+7,+6) [+1] (+4)
It increases your wisdom by 4. It slays demons, undead, and all evil
creatures. It provides resistance to fear. It sustains your charisma.
It is blessed by the gods. It grants you the ability to see invisible
things.
b) a Short Bow of Power (x2) (+10,+19)
c) a Marble Ring of Resist Fire
It provides resistance to fire. It cannot be harmed by fire.
d) a Quartz Ring of Slow Digestion
It slows your metabolism.
e) (nothing)
f) a Brass Lantern (with 6245 turns of light)
It cannot be harmed by fire.
g) Chain Mail (-2) [14,-1]
h) a Cloak [1,+2]
i) a Small Leather Shield [2,+4]
j) a Hard Leather Cap [2,+5]
k) a Set of Gauntlets [2,+7]
l) a Pair of Hard Leather Boots [3,+2]


[Character Inventory]

a) 14 Flasks of oil
b) a Purple Potion of Detect Invisible
c) 2 Oily Yellow Potions of Neutralize Poison
d) 2 Scrolls titled "poso blurol" of Phase Door
e) 4 Scrolls titled "ur cosro" of Word of Recall
f) 3 Scrolls titled "oxy alabek" of Trap Detection
g) 2 Scrolls titled "pluapp ingther" of Detect Invisible
h) 18 Scrolls titled "prokag ashbar" of Satisfy Hunger
i) a Scroll titled "ox dalfklis od" of Monster Confusion
j) a Titanium Wand of Slow Monster (12 charges)
k) a Gold Wand of Magic Missile (8 charges)
l) a Maple Staff of Perception (5 charges)
m) a Rosewood Staff of Object Location (13 charges)
n) a Sycamore Staff of Trap Location (9 charges)
o) an Adamantite Ring of Feather Falling
It makes you fall like a feather.
p) Soft Leather Armour [4,+3]
q) a Set of Gauntlets [2,+0]
r) a Sabre (1d7) (+5,+1)
s) a Spear (1d6) (+5,+2)
t) a Beaked Axe (2d6) (+4,+4)
u) 45 Arrows (1d4) (+0,+0)


[Home Inventory]

a) 5 Violet Speckled Potions of Boldness
b) 3 Coagulated Crimson Potions of Resist Heat
c) 3 Indigo Potions of Resist Cold
d) 2 Smoky Potions of Heroism
e) a Scroll titled "absta cretue" of Object Detection


[Options]

Adult: Allow purchase of stats using points : no (adult_point_based)
Adult: Allow specification of minimal stats : yes (adult_auto_roller)
Adult: Maximize effect of race/class bonuses : yes (adult_maximize)
Adult: Preserve artifacts when leaving level : no (adult_preserve)
Adult: Restrict the use of stairs/recall : no (adult_ironman)
Adult: Restrict the use of stores/home : no (adult_no_stores)
Adult: Restrict creation of artifacts : no (adult_no_artifacts)
Adult: Randomize some of the artifacts (beta): no (adult_rand_artifacts)
Adult: Don't stack objects on the floor : no (adult_no_stacking)
Score: Peek into object creation : no (score_peek)
Score: Peek into monster creation : no (score_hear)
Score: Peek into dungeon creation : no (score_room)
Score: Peek into something else : no (score_xtra)
Score: Know complete monster info : no (score_know)
Score: Allow player to avoid death : no (score_live)

[Airhog]

mrsimperless: that is how it goes for Rogue games. You can put alot of work into the character only to have it get killed. What was it that killed you? Also, Greater vaults are no joke, even at 450'.

You really should carry a wand of teleport other around if you happen to run into one of those vaults. Just teleport the bad stuff out and snatch all the good stuff.

[Thomkal]

Sadly it will be the first of many roguelike deaths. :) There are just so many things that can kill a character no matter how careful you are and how much planning you do, you need a bit of luck to make it all the way to the end. But you learn from each death, and helps you in the long run when you really get a serious character.

[mrsimperless]

Originally posted by Airhog
What was it that killed you?

Mr. Simperless the Half-Troll Warrior, Level 19
Killed by Nar, the Dwarf on dungeon level 9

[mrsimperless]

Dola.

Another question from something I ran across in the dynasty thread. What is a phial? I dont think I have ever run across one.

And what does being blessed by the gods do for an item?

And how do I enchant stuff?

And...

heh, so much stuff I don't know about this game. :)

[sachmo71]

The phial is a light source. It was in the movie... :)

[Airhog]

The Phial is an artifact. At least I have never seen a non-arftifact Phial.

Blessed by the gods means a priest can wield it without edged weapon
penalties.

You can enchant weapons and armour by reading scrolls of enchant armor, and enchant weapon to hit or enchant weapon to damage. 9 is about the highest you cna enchant armor and weapons.

[mrsimperless]

Originally posted by Airhog
Greater vaults are no joke, even at 450'.

Are vaults (both greater and lesser) usually only reachable by digging? I'm on a "special" level right now, but I can't find anything special. There is one area of the dungeon I can't see, but I have no mapping scroll and I have searched everywhere for secret doors.

[Airhog]

Greater Vaults are always surrounded by Permanent rock, with only a few non permanent rock places. I havent seen one that required you to tunnel half way across the map.

Lesser vaults do not have the permanent rock.

If your one a special level, and there isnt a pit, or a vault, then there is probably an artifact. just pick up every weapon and armor piece and see if you get a special feeling from it.

[mrsimperless]

So how do you know if you should start digging around for a vault? Do you usually care scrolls to help you find it, or is there some other way you know?

And thanks for all the tips and advice. It is really helpful!

[Abe Sargent]

Originally posted by Airhog
Lesser vaults do not have the permanent rock.




That used to be the case but no more in this most recent version. I came across a lesser vault with permanent rock. But it was real small.

-Anxiety

[Airhog]

ahhhh, I hadnt seen one yet. I just thought that all GV had permanent rock, even if they were small

[Thomkal]

Most of the time you'll know there's a vault, because either:

1) You'll run into a dead end with permament rock facing you. Depending on what graphics you are using, it should look different than the regular room/corridor rock. You normally won't find a secret door leading into vaults with permament rock.

2) Via various detection methods, you spot an abnormal number of traps, monster, and/or objects next to each other.

If you have no means of detecting try looking for permament rock around the unexplored area using the method I described above. Likely though you have an artifact that you haven't got a feeling for yet or ID'ed.

[Abe Sargent]

bump casue it's due tomorrow

-Anxiety

[Airhog]

dont forget to send in your files tonight. I will try and process them tomorrow morning and post the results.

[Abe Sargent]

I died again on my last delving, so i'm out.

-Anxiety

[Thomkal]

Sadly I won't be sending one in-After my first guy died, I had a second one die fairly quickly, and the third one I'm working on is too young to have a chance to win. Ah well.

[Airhog]

well no-one sent in a character. Looks like my guy wins by default :D

SO what should the next challenge be folks? Give me your ideas, and we shall see :)

[Bee]

ToME is a good roguelike.

[Thomkal]

Hmmm,

Is it too late to send in my char then? :) Nobody sent one in?

TOME is good, I like Hengband a lot, and I suppose some consideration should be given to ADOM, though I suck at that one. :)

[Celeval]

Damn! My killing of Grip would have won!

[Celeval]

Dola...

I think the biggest problem with not getting entries was the fact you had to be living to submit. Whichever we do for a competition next, let us submit dead characters, you'll get more entries. ;)

Kevin

[sachmo71]

Could we judge by score?

Oh, and I vote for ADOM, but I'll have no problem playing another Angband variant. And there is always Nethack...

[Bee]

Here's some ideas about the goal for the next competition:

Best Score
Most Experience Points
Most Money
Most Monsters killed
Most monsters killed of one type (for example, most molds killed)
Most of 1 item collected (For example, most potions of water - probably best if it's something not sold in the stores)


Just a few ideas.

[JAG]

Originally posted by Bee
Here's some ideas about the goal for the next competition:

Best Score
Most Experience Points
Most Money
Most Monsters killed
Most monsters killed of one type (for example, most molds killed)
Most of 1 item collected (For example, most potions of water - probably best if it's something not sold in the stores)


Just a few ideas.

I like these ideas. For most monsters killed, I assume you meant most different kinds of that type (killing a yellow and seven brown molds would be a score of 2 for example). Of them, I'd probably vote for score, most exp, most money, and the most of one type.

As far as what type of variation/character to play next, I don't really have a preference, I'm game for anything.

[Syrinx]

According to the first post:

You have until 11:59 PM on August the 5th to send in your character to me.

That means tonight, not last night.... Right? I have a character file to send you.

[Vince]

Hey, if you're still accepting entries I'll keep going with my newer guy. Somehow he's at level 12 (I think only about 300' down) and hasn't killed a unique (not even farmer maggot's dogs).

[Abe Sargent]

If I had won, here was what I was going to choose:


Zangband. You may create your own character (I hated seeing every dump with Nuglof, made it hard to create a sense of self). You must, however, be a Beastman and Chaos Warrior.

Different Chaos Warriors would have different Chaos Patrons, leading to different Chaos gifts. Add the Beastman mutations and you'd have radically different characters all with the same premise.

Then I was looking at deepest artifact, most artifacts, most Cthulian uniques killed, most Amberites killed, etc. But I ultimately had decided that we use quests, and create quests in the dungeons every so many feet. And whoever clears the lowest quest wins.

Anyways, that was my thought on the matter. Might be some good ideas in there for you to think about.

-Anxiety

[JAG]

Originally posted by Anxiety
If I had won, here was what I was going to choose:


Zangband. You may create your own character (I hated seeing every dump with Nuglof, made it hard to create a sense of self). You must, however, be a Beastman and Chaos Warrior.

Different Chaos Warriors would have different Chaos Patrons, leading to different Chaos gifts. Add the Beastman mutations and you'd have radically different characters all with the same premise.

Then I was looking at deepest artifact, most artifacts, most Cthulian uniques killed, most Amberites killed, etc. But I ultimately had decided that we use quests, and create quests in the dungeons every so many feet. And whoever clears the lowest quest wins.

Anyways, that was my thought on the matter. Might be some good ideas in there for you to think about.

-Anxiety

I know I said I liked most of Bee's ideas, but this could be really entertaining. Good thought Anxiety.

[Airhog]

okay, sorry for the mixup.... I could have sworn that I said the 4th. So anyone that wishes to send in your last minute entry go right ahead....



Anxiety: I like some of those ideas, but Im really shooting for a devious challenge :D