The Rogue Competition Dynasty
 

Post things like your character dump, YASD stories, etc.

Does it have to be Rogue, or just roguelike?

YASD stories. Man I am frothing at the mouth.


-Anxiety

See the thread in the general forums, about the rogue competition.

Man, I am like wand boy. I just got back from an excursion all the way to...um...250 feet (which is nothing, of course). And I have the following wands:

Runed
2 Gold
Titanium
2 Tungsten
3 Chromium

plus a Willow Staff and an Executioner's Sword.



-Anxiety

well, i am doof dude. i hadn't played in ages and forgot that things could be cursed, so i put a ring on. and now every minute or so i get teleported somewhere within the map. gah. currently level 11 and probably not going to last too much longer unless i can get uncursed :)

Well my first character is dead, and he was going nicely. But I ran out of food 1 level shy of the surface. I explored the whole level, and couldnt find an up staircase.

My character got some good luck from bad luck-tripped a trap door on level 1 after I had almost explored all of it and was ready to go back to town-tripped a summon monster trap there that got me up to Level 8 or so in just 30 minutues of play. Sweet. :) Also had bad luck when a green worm mass spit acid on a sling I was carrying that had been fighter I.d.ed as good.

I ran into my first special feeling level. Turned out it was a pit full of orcs and such. I slayed them all, then ran into a unique, bullroarer. he dropped a *slay Evil* sword. I might just have to use it. It has been blessed by the gods. Too bad there isnt any *identify* scrolls in town.

And WHAT, might I ask, do you have against Evil?

I have nothing against Evil, it just stands in front of my way to win!


Found my second special level. And I get the cloak Colannon. It gives me a nice +3 speed boost and a +3 to stealth. Im sitting about 500 feet deep now. Looking for something that provides free action, and something that provides fear and or confusion resistance.

Well I finally bought an Amulet of Infravision, which is a step in the right direction. Still looking for something to protect against Paralyze, Fear, and Confusion for now. I am at 600' now, and will soon be diving to 800 or 900. My character is level 19 now.

YASD!

First time playing straight angband in a while. So I forgot while fighting a slew of green worms that the acid was killing my Armor Class. So when my nice 9th level half-troll warrior was working his way back to the surface and ran into some problems with paralysis...

Level: 9
Exp: 435
AU: 139
Killed on level 1 by a Floating eye.

Ouch....

how do you remove curses by the way? :)

find a remove curse scroll

Unless it is a *curse*

which you will need a *remove curse* scroll to get rid of it.

ah, as simple as that. thanks :) hopefully i can buy some to keep this character going, i found an 'excellent' weapon not long before i saved last night.

they are pretty cheap. Usually can be found in the priests store.

I find 1 or 2 excellent weapons per trip. Its what keeps the cash going.

Damn Smeagol...

I had a tragi-comic romp through 150' trying to kill his ass. Stole all my gold before I finally put the sword through him...and realized that this is not like ZAngbandTK where you retrieve your gold if you can find and kill the thieving monster. Better to learn the lesson now with only about 300 gold. :)

For my trouble, I did get a nice 6+,6+ Flaming Lance.

Currently running around 300 ft, lvl 9.

Question for anyone who might know. After I exit and restart, I can't seem to use graphics anymore. I get a "can't read bitmap file '32x32bmp' and "can not initialize graphics' message even though it worked fine before I had closed and restarted the program. Anyone else have this problem?

JAG: I have not seen that problem before. You could do a search on the internet for it.

What folder do you have the 32 X 32bmp file in?

In the lib/xtra/graf folder. The weird thing is it worked fine the first time I tried using it, but after I quit Angband and then started it again, it gave me that error message. I'll try poking around with Google, just thought someone might've had it happen before.

Quick Starting Guide to Angband

This guide is for our new players, to help them get a good solid character off the ground.

You start in town, and do the following.

1. Sell your weapon, and buy a new weapon. Whips, Daggers, and Glaives work well. You are looking for a weapon with the most attacks per round. You will do more damage for now.
2. You need more food as a Troll than normally. I carried about 15 rations to begin with.
3. You should buy a cloak, some leather shoes, and some gloves.
4. Sell your potion of heroism if you need too. At this point in the game you shouldn’t worry too much about death, since it only takes a few minutes to restart
5. Purchase 1 or 2 scrolls of phase door. These can be very handy.


Now go into the dungeon, and explore the first 4 levels fully. Since you are a warrior, you pseudo-ID all weapons and armor. Wear anything that comes up as good or excellent, even if you can’t ID it yet. You might wish to also keep the items that come up as being average too, just to sell. Save any staffs, wands, rings, etc to sell also. At this low depth, I usually just quaff any potions and read any spells I find. You can always ID the ones that don’t reveal themselves at a later date, but I don’t bother to bring those up with me since they rarely make much cash.

Climb back out of the dungeon now, you don’t need to explore fully unless you just want too.
In town you should first buy scrolls of ID. Id all the weapons and armor that is good or better. Then sell it. You will make more off the items that way. Also sell all of the average stuff. ID all of the Staffs and wands. Sell the good ones and drop the others.

By now you should have 600+ gold coins. Buy the following stuff

1. More food
2. At least 2 scrolls of recall. At later depths you want to carry 4 or more, but for now 2 will do
3. A Lantern and 3 flasks of oil. Go ahead and fill the lantern with one flask.
4. A shield and a helmet if you have the cash.
5. If you still have over 1000 coins, which you probably won’t yet you can buy a staff of perception. This will allow you to Id stuff in the dungeon. When in the dungeon, only ID stuff don’t want to carry to the surface. After a few trips you will begin to see the biggest money making items. I never ID weapons or armor in the dungeon unless I plan to wear it or use it.

Now you are pretty much set to go back down and start making your way to level 18 or 1900 feet. You should stop here for awhile, until you have free action. There are some nasties that lurk at 1000 and deeper that will paralyze you and suck the life right out of your ass,



So, this guide should help you pretty much. Remember, stop and explore any level that gives you a special feeling. It will either be an orc pit, or an artifact. Both are really nice.

Damn,need to be a Mage. Just found Kelek's Grimoire of Power massivey out of depth. One of the key tomes to get. Made a cool 15k though. Almost enough to buy that Holy Avenger sword in the shop.....


-Anxiety

Dola -

Airhog, I got a special feel at 350' and it was a lesser vault. Nothing good in it, but neither an orc pit or an artifact.

-Anxiety

Anxiety: I didnt think you could get a vault so low :D

Mega Dola -

to add to Airhog. I've never read any of the FaQs or guides, so this may or may not be in them. But you need certain things before going too deep in the dungeon:

Bow and arrows. For a fighter, these are crucial. You want a magical bow for sure. If you can get a good discount on enchant scrolls, make a magic bow. This is good against monsters that have some sort of magical attack, when you are afraid, and against certain uniques, like Wormtongue.

Items that give you See Invisible and Free Action. Paralysis will kill you and Free Action is vital. See Invisible becomes needed very quickly. At lower depths, you'll want the four basic elements resisted, hold life, poison and confusion resistance. But that will be a while.

Look for rods. Rods of Fire Bolt, Frost Bolt, etc are very helpful because they give you a nice punch to soften an enemy, hit a fleeing stronger enemy, etc.

Rod of Teleport Away - You can send away bad guys. Good last resort measure.

Rod of Recalling - worth its weight in diamonds, platinum and uranium. Most valuable rod for a warrior to have, imho.


Since autoscum is truned on, all levels will have something interesting. As such, you could find items out of depth, so items that come up later could be found earlier. Sometimes, all it is is my non-magical Executioner's Sword. Sometimes it's a creature out of depth, so beware. And sometimes it is a valuable object.


Also, staves. Staff of Perception and Teleportation can both be purchased at the stores. I'd use a Staff of Teleportation after you get the money instead of scrollls of Phase Door.


-Anxiety

Found a Lance, Holy Avenger. Not bad at all, if I do say so....

-Anxiety

I think that teleportation is good to have, but you should be careful using it, since you dont know where you are going. I wouldnt use it with 25 hp left thats for sure.

I was nearly killed at 850 feet, after a 3 headed hydra tried to ruin my day. Im still trying to get my dexterity and charisma off 3, but have been unable to buy the needed potions. Still looking for that ring of free action, or any item that will give me it.

I just finished off Boldor King of the Yeeks too :D Im not positive, but he is probably my best kill so far. Here is my character dump

I'm currently in a major vault. There's a Master Vampire guarding the Phial. Wish me luck....


-Anxiety

My guy is still going, Level 13 right now. Escaped starvation when I found the stairs to town with just 1 Food left. Haven't gone that deep yet-about 300', mainly because the stores don't have any word of recall scrolls. And with a char with a CHR 3, everything is so darn expensive. :)

Best item so far is a Main Gauche of Frost, from Bullroarer. Nothing else that special otherwise.

For people new to Angband, I would add to the great advice above:

1) Look for some means of finding traps, doors, and stairs. Traps can do permanent damage to your stats (until cured) and with your starting finances so low, it may be awhile before you can afford the cure. Finding secret doors and locating stairs when you need them are both nuisances especially with the half-trolls searching ability for doors in beginning-And you can break down doors you can't get unlocked with your high STR.

2) Look for a permanent means of lighting up a room-all sorts of nasties could be waiting for you in the dark...Usually the source is the Phial, but you might not find that right away. Scrolls and Staffs of Light are good until the Phial pops up.

3)Watch out for pack monsters and "breeders". On Level 1 packs of jackals often appear. They aren't difficult to beat, but if they surround you in an open room, they can kill a young character. The Cave Spiders on Level 2 and below are more deadly, and it only gets worse from there. Wait until you run into the various Hounds. :) Breeders are things like various mice, and worm masses that duplicate or breed far faster than you can kill them one on one if you don't get to them quickly. Use a distance weapon, or wand of some sort to help here. Breeders can quickly overrun a level-so watch out!

4) Another prime killer of young characters are likely the first "uniques" you'll encounter-Farmer Maggot's dogs-again try to keep them away from you as they have no distance attack.

5) See those glittery veins of ore in the wall? Use a shovel or pick and dig them out for cash.

6) Make sure if you quaff potions or read scrolls like Airhog suggested above, that you do it in a corridor or dead end with no monsters around. You don't want to read an un-ID'ed summon monster scroll in an open room! I personally take them back to the surface and sell them un ID'ed. Most are cursed, and the money you lose for the few rare good ones you find on low levels isn't that bad.

7) In stores you can use the examine command to see what the various items for sale do-helps a lot with the gazillion items in the game. Some items you get in the dungeon may require the "next level" of identify-a scroll of *Identify* instead of a regular scroll or staff of perception to find out the full amount of abilities on them. Artifacts and ego items usually fall into this category-an ego item is basically an item with more than just a basic + to damage or attack or armor class. My Main Gauche of Frost I talked about above is a ego item.

Airhog, I apologize for my ignorance, but how do I do a character dump? Never done one before...


-Anxiety

Goto The Character Screen. use F I belive. It gives the option at the bottom.

Excellent. Here, then, is my character. Currently. With his newest acquisition (the gloves).




-Anxiety

Dumb Jelly pits. You get no treasure, little experience out of them. Not worth the special feeling.


-Anxiety

I just made the ultimate find at 800 feet. a +6 Ring of Speed.

My character is now at +9 speed. All I need now is free action, and here i come 2000 feet.

Also picked up my first stat potion. A potion of Charisma.

oooh a ROS, I'm jealous :)

And with Jelly pits, I open the door to them see its a jelly pit, close the door and go elsewhere. Too much of an annoyance for too little reward.

Heh, just found Boots of Wormtongue -8,-8. What a disappontment to a "Special" level.

-Anxiety

wow haven't heard of that artifact before Anxiety-what powers does it have? Might be worth enchanting them to +0/+) at least if it has good ones.

Ugh, listen to this: got mobbed by manes after a pseudo dragon confused me on 550' or so. Used a scroll of recall and tried to run around to buy time. Ran into a jelly that acidified almost everything I had, including destroying an 'excellent' blessed flail that was pretty decent.

So I'm running, trying to buy time, hps going down fast, down from 212 to ...6, yikes! Four manes surrounding me, surely this is the end. One step...no swing at me! Step two...no swing at me. Step three...You feel yourself being dragged upwards!

Unreal, survival with 6 hps. Very blessed. So I'm level 17 now...

JAG

An *Identify* of the Boots:

It raises my Int and Wis by 3
Increases Stealth and Speed by 3
Feather Fall
Cursed
Activates for Phase Door

Issues:

The boots are:

(-8,-8) [2, +0]

Therefore, the boots hurt my attack and damage. Not good for a warrior. Probably really good for a mage, though.


-Anxiety

NAHAHAHA - My own Ring of Speed, at 900', in a lesser vault. Catching up....


-Anxiety

Had my first two 'special' levels back to back...a couple of orc pits. Still artifact-less...

I wish I had more free time right now. This looks like it would be a lot of fun. :(

Recent Char Dump:



-Anxiety

Thomkal- I use (code) and (/code) around the text. replace the () with [] of course.

Dola- My deepest Unique is level 21.

Lugdush the Orc.

Is anyone going to attempt stat gain?

I really dont have the time to try stat gain. I will be gone friday-monday most likely. Im debating on just slowly working my way deeper.

Mine's Sangahyando of Umbar. 1200 feet normally. But I'm ready to plunge.


-Anxiety

Dola - Almost took out Mim, but as He was almost dead, some gnome mages came around the bend and summoned creatures. I was low on HP and Shagrat and his orcs had just been summoned. Then another Gnome Mage brings in a pack of Earth Hounds. Didn't really have the desire to die today, so I used my Staff of Teleportation and went away. So, no Mim. But I am alive to hunt another day. (Did get Shagrat though)

-Anxiety

Anxiety: curse you :D If I could only find a ring of see invisible, or anything that would let me see invisible :D

I might have to dive, just to keep up :D

I'm definitely diving as far as I can get. Mim though might be a good guideline to stop by. He's tough to beat, much tougher than the Orc uniques like Shagrat.

Thanks for the code tips AirHog, posted my char dump above. I've replaced the Amulet of Resist Acid with one of Charisma +2, which sadly seems to have just raised my CHR by 1. :(

Thomkal: its the low CHR score that does that. I have found 3 potions of CHR and mine is up to 5 now I think :D

There should be a reward for the best looking Troll after the competition is finished. :D

Heh Bee-what three words don't go together-best looking and Troll. :)

Forgot to mention that I'm glad I followed my own advice-I sell un-ID'ed potions early on. Decided to start ID'ing them as I was getting lower in the dungeon-otherwise I would have sold a Potion of Constitution for chicken feed!

Just picked up a nice Dagger of *Slay Giant* that boosts my STR by 2

Smoked!

Evil combination...gnome mages summoning, shadow hounds blinding me...my one shot at healing and teleporting lands me smack dab in the middle of them. I love the creature to land the finishing blow though...

Ouch. that has to hurt. Anyways I am out of here until next week. If you guys need help just ask, I am sure that Anxiety will be happy to help ya.

Here is my character dump now.


I found a rod of recall, but my character doesnt have enough INT to activate it :D Still no ring of invisibility. Im just going to dive for one I guess. See you guys on monday :d

Damn! Cammithrim is really good. I didn't want anybody else to get it. :)

-Anxiety


(oh, I can active my Rod of Recall, just takes about 5-15 tries)

I think Colannon is even better, that Teleportation every 45 turns is a nice bonus :D It has saved my life more than once :D

Bah. I suck at this game. The only ring I've gotten is a cursed ring of teleportation, which wasn't too bad until the first time it activated put me in the right in the middle of an orc lair.

Well, I doubt I'll win, but it's a decent start.

Okay here's my latest char dump before I head off to bed. :)

Sachmo: You were, um, fighting with a shovel?

-Anxiety

Ahhh... Nothing like good old Troll Decorating Sense. :D

Probably one of the reasons that I wasn't having much luck hitting my killer.

Disclaimer: I usually play ADOM...I'm an Angband novice. Having said that, I'd like to play Zangband next time. I like going to different towns.

So after my first untimely death, I figured try try again. Only one interesting thing to note, somewhere between level one and four, I found a pot of intelligence...seems like a shockingly early level to find it. Thankfully I didn't sell it to the store for 7 gps. :)

JAG,

Don't stab yourself with your weapon by accident. :)

Sachmo,

Trust me we've all done that with a shovel in the weapon slot. One of the nice things about TOME is that you can put your shovel in a tool slot so you don't have to keep switching them out like that.

And yeah it'll be nice to "branch out" to other games after this round is over. Angband is nice for beginners and all, but other versions offer so much more variety.

Thomkal,

I expect to make mistakes. Is there a nice FAQ that isn't too spoily out there somewhere?
ADOM has a tool slot, also. It's nice for when you don't want to end up smacking someone with a stethoscope! :D

Heh, found Law Dragon Scale Mail. Dropped by an orc in a pit. Whoot!


Thomkal: Yeah, I'm sure each of us wants to win to create the next challenge.


-Anxiety

Found this new item I've never seen before -

Amulet of Trickery (+1)

There's no spoliers on it, so I use my other *Identify* scroll on it. This amulet is amazing! Are you ready?

+1 Dex
+1 Infravision, searching, stealth and speed
Poison, Nexus Resistance
Sustain Dexterity


That is a great amulet. I need one with a bigger bonus....


-Anxiety

Wow, nice.

And yes, I like the irony of using a weapon that slays trolls when our char is a half-Troll. Does that mean I become human if I use it on me? :)

Found a greater vault at 1400'. I'm going in.....

-Anxiety

Argh! I want to play :) I gotta wait until after the weekend... :(

Sachmo,

I posted on this thread on one on the main board about a couple places where you can find some help files. There is a FAQ or two as well-reachable on Thangorodim-through the HELP! Link I think.

Anxiety I've never seen that amulet before either, very nice indeed. 1400'? I see I have a long way to go still. :)

coo thanks

Ok how is this for a stupid death. Get down to about 600 feet and pick up some really cool items. A wicked armour, a ring of slow digestion, a hard cap of wisdom, a lot of wands, and I think it's time I better start heading to the surface to cash in. Around 300 feet I get stuck trying to find a stairway leading up and burn a lot of food. I'm beggining to worry, but feel I have enough food to easily make it out. Finally up to 50 feet and I used my last food. Now I'm worried, but all I have to do is find that up stair. No luck, I get hungry, weak, and eventually die from starvation on the 1st level. So why is it a stupid death? While looking over my character dump I notice I still had a food ration left, I was so sure I was out of food I didn't even check! Aargh!

My Rule #1
Never dive without a Word of Recall scroll, preferably more than one...

My Rule #2
Start stockpiling scrolls of Satisfy Hunger. :)

Feh, that "greater" vault wasn't a greater vault at all but a minor one. Just one I hadn't ever seen before (I think it's new) and it initially had greater vault characteristics.

-Anxiety

A bit more playing and here is Anxiety Nuglof as he currently stands:



Some neat new toys there.


-Anxiety

Wow! And here I thought I was doing well on level 13! Doh!

I didn't realize how bad I was playing until now...thanks Anxiety :p

these guys are the pro's, i think it should have been a newbie's only comp :)

ah well, my first dude died. nothing special. i learned a lot though. i.e. do not use unidentified objects :)

I am just starting out and have died a couple of times already. The last time a novice paladin blinded me (I think) and then killed be on level 4. I am exploring on around level 5 right now with my new character. My question is this: at what point do I abandon the "smaller" weapons that are providing me multiple blows? I am currently using either a rapier or a sabre which still gives me 3 hits per turn. How will I know when I'm ready to graduate up?

Great contest idea though, lots of fun. Believe it or not I have stopped playing NCAA2004 to play Angband. Blasphemy!

And yeah, a "newbie" and "veteran" competition would have been nice as well. I don't think there is anyway I can compete with you pros.

Remember first of all that any character can die at any moment. Only live characters are eligible at the end of the competetion.

Angband gives you some basic experience for later challenges.

I don't know whether I am going to win or not, but if I do, I intend on chaging things up a bit so that the new variant and challenge are much more leveled. Although, to be fair, he did choose a newbie-friendly character. I'd never play a fighter. Haven't since Moria until now. Fighters are good in the early game but hard to finish with.

Anyways, luck to all!

-Anxiety

Ok, I'm level 20-something. If I die, I'm not starting over!!!

I am enjoying this game, but would like to move onto something with more variety in next contest. ADOM spoiled me. :)

BTW...is anyone else being driven by the slot-based inventory? Let me carry my weight in magic items, for gosh sakes!

Yeah, I am having trouble deciding what to take with me and what to leave behind. I have this urge to pack-rat all of those old skulls laying around.... one of them has to be worth something!! :)

Haven't had too much time to play lately, but I did get my guy some more levels...and a nifty weapon to boot. But the clock is ticking...

Dagger of West is nice. Ya get three blows with it. Plus, it is slay "Stuff That Matters" for you at your level. And it has Free Action/See Invis. Good stuff.

-Anxiety

Im still using a dagger of extra attacks :D It gives me a +8 to my damage roll. and Does 5 attacks per turn. Nice weapon to have.

I have a maine gauche of extra attacks. 4 attacks per round.

I found a weapon of West. with my guy too...sadly it was a broken sword (1d2). :( I'm using the artifact dagger Narthanc and have for a quite awhile now. I'd like to get a weapon that does more damage, but you can't beat the 3 attacks/round. It's still taking out uniques at 900' reasonably well, so I guess I'll keep it a while longer.

Well knew I never should have gone into that greater vault I found at 900'-completely underequipped for it-one potion of healing, no way of teleporting, no means of mass killing. Got blinded by a pack of breeding Giant Fireflies (I think), and used my one mushroom of cure blindness early. I never could get unblinded to read any scrolls of recall in hopes of getting out, and something more powerful than the fireflies came around and walloped on me until I died.

Stupid me, I should have submitted the character dump as my entry into the contest, then go on with the vault even though if I survived it, I'd no longer be in the contest. Ah well.

Hmmm, in looking at the characted dump...I think my lantern ran out of fuel-rather than me being blinded-although some of the time I was blinded. Lovely. See even veterans make mistakes. :)

And the reason I wasn't carrying the potions of healing sitting at home was because I felt I wasn't in need of them yet-they were just taking up inventory slots and could have been destroyed by a breather. Perhaps I should have rethought that :)

I think a player who finds ways of increasing INT quickly and early on will do the best in this contest. Not being able to use many of the more powerful magic items really hurt.

T'was fun though, in the other variants out there you don't run into vaults like the one I did unless you are very lucky.

I was able to buy Gauntlets of Free Action for 1500 in the Armor Store. Methinks it's time to venture deeper.

sachmo: you can probably hang around 1000' with those, if your character level is high enough.

Here is my latest Character Dump. I just found some elven armour so I now have the 4 resists I need to dive to about 1400'


I found that holy avenger, and I am taking it with me now Its the only thing that gives me the ability to see invisible creatures. I still think my dagger of extra attacks is better. Also, the dwarven armor is decent, and I would probably wear it if I hadnt found the elven mail first.

Just a reminder, but your character has to be alive when you send it too me. So if it looks like you are going to die, be sure to save your game and send me the file. The reason you must be alive, is that is the only way to look at what uniques you have killed. Remember, the Unique with the deepest level will be at the bottom of the list.


You can send me a new character before you the contest ends next monday if it is better. Also, remember that you cannot continue to play on a character that you have sent me.

I have finally ran into mim. he is damn impossible for me to beat. he disenchanted all of my stuff that was non artifact :(

My dagger of extra attacks lost all of its pluses, and I just cannot hurt him fast enough. Any ideas on what kind of stuff to throw at him?.