YASD, so many things I don't understand

[sage1234]

I am not sure if this by design, but I am finding that I am getting killed in new ways then having to reach out to the forum's to determine what the fix for this death is if any.

Here are some of the examples, if your swept up by a tornado around deep water or lava immediately quaff a potion of flight. Someone specifically designed this trap, I won't fall for it again but was it necessary?
If your rmut doesn't protect you and you get the berserk in combat mutation, quaff a potion of cure mutation asap.

Now my latest, if your brainless at -5, and might need to escape combat what do you do?

I still hate the paralyzed deaths where I just press space until I die.

I realize that 0.17 is too easy and the game needs to be made harder. Requiring specific knowledge of unique situations, rewards the long time player and punishes everyone else. Is that the point?

[amaril]

Ideally, if DCSS deaths are supposed to be 'fair' or 'deserved,' you should be able to figure out where you went wrong without anyone else's input, and (even moreso) you should have been able to identify the danger prior to the death and subsequently avoided it, had you been a better/more careful player. The majority of deaths are 'fair,' IMO. However, there are a number of unintuitive/concealed mechanics, so it isn't always apparent that something is as dangerous as it actually is. Brainlessness paralysis or the relative danger of the *Rage mutation are perhaps examples of concealed info. According to the manual:

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If any attribute drops to zero for some reason, you will experience very unpleasant side-effects, being slowed and suffering some stat-specific negative effects.

This doesn't mention specific effects of stat-zero, nor does it mention the probability of those effects occurring, so it is up to the player to infer that statzero is probably bad and should be avoided at all costs. *Rage is only spoilery in that you can't know how likely it is to trigger without spoilers--that being said if you know that going berserk at an inopportune point could be fatal, and you have the rage mutation + a way to get rid of it, you should probably get rid of it. Alternately, you could play in such a way that going berserk is unlikely to kill you.

Learning all of DCSS' mechanics is borderline impossible, but you can get a good enough idea through experience/reading spoilers. For example,if you hate paralysis deaths, you should know to be very careful around things that can paralyze you, and you can almost always learn that something can paralyze you from its description.

Any death by drowning feels awful--especially in conjunction w/ tornado. Lom Lobon is a trap and it sucks. Deep water/lava shouldn't auto-kill you IMO; it could at least give the player a turn to blink out/activate flight.

I realize that 0.17 is too easy and the game needs to be made harder.

I don't think that this was the intent behind the amulet change: AFAIK the intent was to make 'perfect' resistances less common because they are (arguably) bad design regardless of their power level. In the case of .18's amulet reform, the game might actually be easier now overall: a good reflection amulet is so much better than access to swappable stasis/clarity/rmut in the vast majority of situations that the amulet reform might be more of a buff than a nerf, at least in a 3-rune game.

[sage1234]

Thank you. Although sometimes frustrated with death, I keep coming back for more. I think the best thing I can do to be a better is to learn from my deaths and improve in the future. Also this is a lot like life, well except you don't die most days.

I have to admit I was frustrated this morning when I hit stat 0 for int, had a I known the issues it would cause I could have taken different actions, but I did learn and for me that is the point.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Regarding attribute loss

It is a significant threat in some parts of the game. Notably tomb and hell branches regularly inflict threatening levels of attribute loss. This is largely, but not completely, mitigated by wearing an item that sustains attributes. If any stat drops to zero the character is in serious, often lethal, trouble. That means when a stat gets to the point where an enemy or hell effect could reduce an attribute to zero, then further loss must be avoided until the attribute has recovered somewhat. In practice that means leaving the area that causes the loss, in order to gain experience in an area that is relatively safe (from attribute loss at least).

For example on my current character (Gh, so low attributes) I did tomb without SustAb. At one point my dexterity dropped to less than five. So I left tomb and finished off elf. Then with attributes completely recovered I finished off tomb.

[TonberryJam]

At the beginning your choice of Race/Class/God/skills has the ability to make the early dungeon a cake walk. boosts to stats can help a lot.

[dpeg]

Stat inflicted death might feel unfair now, but it used to be a sudden death in earlier versions. Players made sure to always have 8 (I think) of Dex,Str,Int each. (I believe there was an attack by orange crystal statues that could drain a stat by 7. Talk about spoilers.)

I agree that drowning shouldn't be an instant death either. We've got rid of this for stats and for starvation, and drowning should also be prolonged. Incidentally, I brought this up yesterday. Looks like it only needs a detailed enough plan.

[Sprucery]

I think it would be consistent if you could only die by getting your HP to 0 or below. So drowning should start doing damage to you.

[dpeg]

Sprucery: Exactly. Still needs more details to be sorted out.

[Psieye]

If your rmut doesn't protect you and you get the berserk in combat mutation, quaff a potion of cure mutation asap.

On this specific point: there is no rMut anymore in the latest version. Blocking line of sight (or priority quick-killing) is how you avoid being mutated. Getting the berserk mutation doesn't mean an instant death sentence though - you could rely on ranged combat or spells instead. If you must melee with that mutation, luring is a given. Agreed it makes things tedious but it's not impossible to cope with.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

Drowning/lava doing damage rather than killing would remove a number of strange special cases too. Dragons can push you around, but not when you're at the edge of a cliff.

[sage1234]

If your rmut doesn't protect you and you get the berserk in combat mutation, quaff a potion of cure mutation asap.

On this specific point: there is no rMut anymore in the latest version. Blocking line of sight (or priority quick-killing) is how you avoid being mutated. Getting the berserk mutation doesn't mean an instant death sentence though - you could rely on ranged combat or spells instead. If you must melee with that mutation, luring is a given. Agreed it makes things tedious but it's not impossible to cope with.

Thank you, I often don't consider how flexible this game is or all of weapons or defenses.

[duvessa]

Can we just admit that some spells should absolutely not be used by monsters, player ghosts included? Tornado is one of them.

[4Hooves2Appendages]

I think the main problem with monster tornado use is that it's really rare. Also many players will never use the spell. So when people encounter it they have really no idea how it works and the mechanics are fairly arcane and complicated.

This could be mitigated by earlier, limited exposure. Imagine a monster with a smaller less damaging tornado that isn't anywhere near lava/deep water. But sure, taking it away from monsters is also an option. Although dancing the double-tornado tango with Lom feels pretty epic.

[Sar]

the problem with Lom's Tornado is that it often pushes you through walls

[4Hooves2Appendages]

I guess they are, ehm, low walls. Too high to jump/see/climb over, but not too migh for a TORNADO!