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[Let's Play] Crawl: Ch. 9, Adventures in Probability

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Posts

  • Darkchampion3dDarkchampion3d Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    So I went down to check out the ziggurat with a character who was essentially Zot ready. Had no idea what this was as I had never seen it before.

    High elf crusader with a nice enchanted doublesword that I vorpalized, excellent dodge. Could self haste, forescry, ice shield, ice armor, summon hordes of air elementals etc etc.

    He got utterly fucking destroyed on a floor populated by like 40 angels and daevas. You will die if you go in here and don't leave before you get towards the bottom.

    Darkchampion3d on
    Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
  • Darkchampion3dDarkchampion3d Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    kedinik wrote: »
    Rius wrote: »
    I ran into an "island" of sorts, surrounded by a ring of deep water, with a single room that apparently had a dozen centaurs in it.

    They came out one at a time, got confused one at a time, and fell in the water and died one at a time =)

    Interesting.

    I think that, pre-Stone Soup, Dungeon Crawl used to include a branch off the Lair that was mostly water and centaur herds. Maybe an homage?

    The shoals.

    Darkchampion3d on
    Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
  • juice for jesusjuice for jesus Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I ran across one of those centaur islands in an older version of Stone Soup, too.

    juice for jesus on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Christ goddamnit!

    My best run as a pure caster so far, and instead of slowly working through the Orcish Mines like I should have, I went down another level in the main dungeon. Good thing too, because I found a bookshop, finally, that had useful books; bought the book of Air for a second attack line other than poison.

    Ran into a stone giant; he resisted my Confusion and Mephitic Cloud attacks a few too many times, and I forgot I had swiftness and deflect missiles while I was trying to run away =( I couldn't use my scrolls of teleport because there was a massive amount of undead apparently in the center of the level.

    Rius on
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    The only thing better than getting 1shot by your own ghost with Bolt of Iron is 1shotting yourself with Bolt of Iron. The fact that this new ghost will perform the former on me without fail is only icing.

    fadingathedges on
  • AntinumericAntinumeric Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.5-svn (crawl-ref) r10470 character file.

    4046 ... the Fighter (level 9, 0/156 HPs)
    Began as a Mountain Dwarf Fighter on Aug 14, 2009.
    Was a Priest of Okawaru.
    Killed from afar by Erolcha (22 damage)
    ... with a crystal spear
    ... on Level 9 of the Dungeon.
    The game lasted 00:19:29 (7357 turns).

    WHAT THE CHRIST? Crystal Spear?

    Antinumeric on
    In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence.
  • BahamutZEROBahamutZERO Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh dear, Crystal Spear on dungeon level 9? That sucks for you :lol:

    BahamutZERO on
    BahamutZERO.gif
  • AntinumericAntinumeric Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I'm just spitting with anger- I was bezerked with full health when I went into that battle, always in close combat but noooooo- I did have a teleport scroll so i guess I should have used that...

    Has anyone ever actually had a completely unwinnable situation? I've only had the one- The entry room on D:1 was the long corridor with glass walls and monsters, led to a single room with no exits and a trapdoor down... into SIGMUND! and a gnoll rape gang!

    Antinumeric on
    In this moment, I am euphoric. Not because of any phony god’s blessing. But because, I am enlightened by my intelligence.
  • juice for jesusjuice for jesus Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    One time I started out in a series of 2x2 rooms connected by secret doors. The only way out was down an escape hatch, which led me to my doom.

    juice for jesus on
  • Darkchampion3dDarkchampion3d Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    jdarksun wrote: »
    Uf. Swamps are my new bane. One day, I'll get a Rune.

    I generally avoid swamps until I have poison res and some way to effectively kill hydras if I'm a melee. Though I have played a game where I got totally fucked for poison res and had to go clear swamps, kill a swamp dragon, and then enchant it's skin.

    Of course, then I took my newfound swamp dragon armor with it's nice poison resistance and went to clear hive. Hive 1, right by the entrance: Ring of poison resistance :x:x:x:x:x:x:x

    Darkchampion3d on
    Our country is now taking so steady a course as to show by what road it will pass to destruction, to wit: by consolidation of power first, and then corruption, its necessary consequence --Thomas Jefferson
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Hydra are no problem for me, but goddam insubstansial wisps are a nightmare. I think I need summons.


    e~ Earlier today i found a short rod, a feathered hat and a pile of money in a little side cubby. I immediately thought "a pimp died here."

    fadingathedges on
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Ice Conjurer. 2x Bolt of Frost will kill any hydra, but the wisps really dont mind me shooting tons and tons of spells at them. It eats up a million magic and food all said and done to kill one, and in the Swamps they are an amazing pain in the ass when they start showing up in multiples. The most success I've had vs them was with a big nasty greatsword + Tukima's Dance.

    fadingathedges on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    So, lately I've been playing Deep Elf Venom Mages. Sting is great for a long time, and I'm finding it quite useful against large scary things like ogres and packs of orcs. Sting a few times, then kite the mob until it dies. Been picking up the first quarterstaff I see and training with it, hoping to come across a Staff of Something Useful or a lajatang.

    Poison Weapon is great for helping train up Enchantment and and helps you kill stuff faster to avoid getting splatted while training melee. Cure Poison removes the crippling need for a ring of poison resistance in the early game, and we all know how good Mephitic Cloud is.

    I try and get ahold of Air/Cold spells as soon as possible, though, for improved defense and alternate attacks. Undead monsters and/or anything resistant to poison/cold is a problem, though; I try to save wands for that stuff.

    I always worship Sif Muna, but she's such a boring god! What are some other great caster support gods?

    Rius on
  • FrosteeyFrosteey Elaise 1521-2945-8940Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I would personally suggest that you abandon any hope of training up melee skills. You want some fighting to boost the absolutely terrible Deep Elf HP, but that terrible HP makes melee really impractical for them in most situations.

    I was going to say that as a conjurer Resist Poison isn't all that great since you should ideally never really need it until swamp, but it's actually fairly useful to be able to eat poisoned corpses, I guess.

    Vehumet will guarantee that you get Poison Arrow relatively early. That's really the only conjuration spell you need once you can cast it reliably, since it will hit anything really hard. Either cold or fire skill could still be useful for the multi-target bolt spells, and air has decent supplementary conjuration/enchantment utility.

    Nemelex is amazing once you get decks of summoning rolling reliably. They're a bit less useful for a conjurer since you can't tank and prolong the summons' lives, but they're still amazing at clogging up firing lanes and dealing a lot of damage. And the other decks besides Destruction are all pretty useful.

    Okawaru kind of sucks since I'm pretty sure he'll still give you heavy armor all the time. (He can actually be decent for a caster with limited armor slots)

    Eylvilon might work as a general purpose god, but I hate Elyvilon.

    Everyone else is pretty close to worthless. Especially early-mid game.

    Frosteey on
  • TorgoTorgo Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I had a chaos branded hammer gifted to me. My Chaos Minotaur was destroying everything. Then the game crashed. I restarted to find the game had reloaded the level and reset me back TWO levels since I had been in some tough fights right before it crashed. Fighting my way back up to the point where it had crashed, I got killed by Blork the Orc, whom I had killed before.

    CRAWL!!!

    Torgo on
    History is a spoiler for the future. (Me on Twitter)
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Thanks for the advice, Frosteey. I think I'll try Vehumet on my next run through, then, and not worry about melee so much.

    Rius on
  • datac0redatac0re Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Quick question - is there a way to make it so that when I die, instead of closing the game, it goes back to the title screen? It's a minor annoyance that I'd like to get rid of if I can.

    datac0re on
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Are only Rods hindered by shields or is my buckler also going to weaken the casting bonus effects from my Staff of Conjuration?

    fadingathedges on
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Hmmm.... I'm weak on ammies and my rings are Wizardry and Magic Power.

    My buckler gives resF+

    My weapon options are Staves of Conjuration, Magical Power, or an artifact mace that gives MR abd resF++. Currently using the mace, thoughts?

    fadingathedges on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Is there any way to turn off Bones files? If Crawl is going to make me face the ghosts of my former venom mages who are now incredibly strong and can do 8-10 damage in a hit with an unenchanted dagger and 5 strength, the least it could do is say it's sorry.

    Rius on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Why not just delete them then?
    Frosteey wrote: »
    Vehumet will guarantee that you get Poison Arrow relatively early. That's really the only conjuration spell you need once you can cast it reliably, since it will hit anything really hard. Either cold or fire skill could still be useful for the multi-target bolt spells, and air has decent supplementary conjuration/enchantment utility.

    I'm playing my first Venom Mage now, and I'm five starred with Vehumet. Only gotten one god gift spellbook in 13 player levels and 26,000 turns, and it turned out to be the starting Conjurer Ice book. :(

    Edit: Is there some way to organize your list of learned spells?

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • TorgoTorgo Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Rius wrote: »
    Is there any way to turn off Bones files? If Crawl is going to make me face the ghosts of my former venom mages who are now incredibly strong and can do 8-10 damage in a hit with an unenchanted dagger and 5 strength, the least it could do is say it's sorry.

    Delete everything in your morgue directory. Your high scores are saved, but no more ghosts. I do the same thing because dying to high level ghosts is bullshit.

    Torgo on
    History is a spoiler for the future. (Me on Twitter)
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Is there any way to split a stack of food/potions/scrolls etc?

    fadingathedges on
  • juice for jesusjuice for jesus Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    "d" to drop
    then the quantity you want to drop
    then the letter of the item

    So if you want to drop 3 scrolls and the letter is "h":

    d 3 h

    juice for jesus on
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    nice, thanks.

    I've done Lair Swamps Hive and Mines, now what? Still no Pois Res so I don't want to go to Snakes yet... Elven Halls?

    fadingathedges on
  • HedgethornHedgethorn Associate Professor of Historical Hobby Horses In the Lions' DenRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    nice, thanks.

    I've done Lair Swamps Hive and Mines, now what? Still no Pois Res so I don't want to go to Snakes yet... Elven Halls?

    If you can get all the way through the Mines, you should be able to do a few levels of the Vaults. And you should find some good items there.

    Hedgethorn on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    So are Hunters even possible to take through the game? I've seen very, very, very few stacks of arrows in all the time I've been throwing myself at Crawl.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • fadingathedgesfadingathedges Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I tried one for a bit once and they seemed to pop out a little more than when you care about them, even once I had gone back to Conjurer. Ultimately I feel like if you're going to forego melee defensability for the most part, you should choose to take a massive array of spells rather than a bow ;p


    I died, wish I had went to bed. Got to Halls5 and fucked up, had so many ways to save myself and ignored them all ;/ 115k with 1 rune though, new record for me.

    fadingathedges on
  • HedgethornHedgethorn Associate Professor of Historical Hobby Horses In the Lions' DenRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    korodullin wrote: »
    So are Hunters even possible to take through the game? I've seen very, very, very few stacks of arrows in all the time I've been throwing myself at Crawl.

    Considering that only about 1 out of every 4 arrows you shoot actually get destroyed (otherwise you can pick them up again), I don't think it would be too bad. I tend to rely heavily on missile weapons for backup for my melee characters, and I still always end up with a cache of hundreds--if not thousands--extra arrows and bolts.

    Hedgethorn on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I just tried a High Elf Hunter.

    Ran out of arrows by D:3. Didn't find any more until D:5.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • Dr.TongueDr.Tongue Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    The trick to using hunters is to use a few arrows as possible til you can start enchanting a large stack of them. Every +1 your ammo gets greatly reduces the chances of losing ammo when you shoot/throw it.

    Dr.Tongue on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I always wondered how people who won the game managed to do so with so few arrows/blowgun needles.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    You've got to Evoke it; hit "a" and it'll be in the list of options there. It doesn't always levitate you like a Nethack ring does.

    Rius on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    I think there are boots of levitation that levitate you until you turn them off, though.

    Rius on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    jdarksun wrote: »
    Rius wrote: »
    You've got to Evoke it; hit "a" and it'll be in the list of options there. It doesn't always levitate you like a Nethack ring does.
    Ahhh. Well, that's much less useful than hoped. Good for short trips, not so much for immunity from the waters of the Swamp.

    It's not so bad, especially if you get a ring or mutation of controlled flight. It's also a good way to up your Evocations skill without blowing a ton of wands.

    Speaking of a ton of things, every game I end up having a lot of trouble with inventory space and weight. I keep having to trudge back to the Temple in order to dump things like spellbooks, randarts and god gifts I have no need for, and increasingly, wands. Foodstuffs are also taking up a ton of my encumberance, especially bread rations and meat. I find myself occasionally snarfing one or the other when I'm between "full" and "hungry" just to get it out of my inventory. Is there something better I can do about this?

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    How on earth do you drop only a portion of a stack of something? I can't seem to figure that out.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    If you want to drop 3 potions labeled with an X, then you type

    d3X

    and hit enter. "d" is the drop menu, which almost nobody who uses tiles realizes at first, heh.

    Rius on
  • korodullinkorodullin What. SCRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    Oh I know "d" is the drop menu, but the keystroke help screen has it as "d#" which does nothing.

    korodullin on
    ZvOMJnu.png
    - The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
  • FrosteeyFrosteey Elaise 1521-2945-8940Registered User regular
    edited August 2009
    The biggest weight problem for most characters is lugging around too much food and wands.

    You almost never need to be carrying around more than three or four rations with you for general exploration. Maybe bump it up to five if you're a conjurer without anything to mitigate hunger. There are a few branches where you're not going to be able to eat corpses, but even then, you'll probably find a ration every floor or so.

    Wands of Frost, Flame, Magic Darts get useless quick unless you want to train Evoccations or you're a melee class in absolute desperate need of something to hit fleeing opponents with. I generally drop Polymorph wands once I can handily take care of most things they're useful against. I eventually start to drop Lightning since Draining/Fire/Cold are more useful general purpose wands. Random Effects isn't really worth carrying around except very early game. Fireball isn't terrible I guess, but I don't bother with them.

    My wand loadout once I'm into, say, Vaults is
    Haste and Healing (If available, regardless of if I have other sources)
    Teleport (If available, and no teleport mutation or whatever)
    Draining
    One of or both Fire/Cold

    If I'm a melee class that's particularly fragile or just has some strength to spare, I might carry around a Slowing or Paralysis, but the resistables that aren't Polymorph are usually the first to go.

    Scrolls, I generally go with two blink, two fog, three teleport. two or three remove curse, and a handful of identify. Everything else is either incredibly situationally useful or valuable enough that it should be used or stored as quickly as possible.

    Don't carry around more than one or two spellbooks (two only if you only need a single spell from one of them that you will learn immediately as soon as you get the spell slots, then just drop the book).

    Don't carry around armor for situational use. There are really only a few situations where it might be particularly useful, and if you aren't worried about your score, you can just run back to your stash to grab it. Same goes for weapons, pretty much. You'll generally only have a single really good weapon that you want to use for combat. Aside from that weapon, you only want to bring along probably a single utility weapon (something that still does decent damage with really good resists, flaming weapon for dealing with hydras, poison resistance for eating poison corpses).

    Frosteey on
  • RiusRius Globex CEO Nobody ever says ItalyRegistered User regular
    edited August 2009
    In what situations do you use a scroll of fog? I've never used them after identifying them.

    Rius on
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