Species / Class popularity breakdown

[chequers]

I made a little google doc showing what characters people play, broken down by species & class.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12rWBgXix3dFa9NyrU4poiULAY6cT_NiVqQxggOJampM/edit?usp=sharing

You can see three things:
* Absolute popularity of each species/class combo
* Relative popularity of classes by species
* Relative popularity of species by classes

Fun facts:
* Demonspawn, Gargoyle and Minotaur make up over 30% of games!
* If you're playing a centaur, coinflip odds it's a hunter
* Out of the four elementalists, ice elementalists are played as the widest variety of species (8 races with >5% pick rate, compared to 6 for AE/EE/FE) [time for a +2 ice aptitude race -ed]

[WalkerBoh]

Interesting, but I would recommend using cv>0.14 rather than cv=0.15. Then you won't miss trunk games, which make up a significant portion of games played.

[Greyr]

I really enjoyed this, thank you for taking the time to fill it in.

What I take away from this is that Ghouls are still my favorite race, and for good reason!

[tasonir]

  Code:

32% of nagas are transmuters.

Dear god, what have I done?!

[Sar]

sssssssshame on you

(edit: also Spider Form resets the movespeed so Tm does have some special attractiveness for Na)

(except if you go Chei)

[Sphara]

If it is around 50% odds centaurs being a hunter, I'd like to know what are the statistics of centaurs not using bows at all

[McGeekster]

If it is around 50% odds centaurs being a hunter, I'd like to know what are the statistics of centaurs not using bows at all

I centaur with crossbows.

[tasonir]

Centaurs are actually a great race to go crossbows on, but I largely use this fact to argue that we really lack a good crossbow race and there should really be someone who's actually better with crossbows than another ranged weapon

[and into]

  Code:

32% of nagas are transmuters.

Dear god, what have I done?!

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair

[Hirsch I]

Nothing beside remains.

[tasonir]

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

In case anyone didn't know the poem beforehand, and because everyone should read it again, it's always been one of my favorite poems. To be fair, I don't really know all that much poetry, but you can't go wrong with this one

[RoGGa]

chequers, care to share the source and process involved in creating the spreadsheet.

I'm wondering how this compares to combo wins
and if it's not too time consuming, I'd like to give it a shot.

Edit: nvm, I download the spreadsheet and then noticed the "info" sheet and how you created it. Cheers!

[Skrybe]

I'm not surprised that Gr and Mi are popular; they're easy to play. But why is Ds the most commonly played species? Do Ds have some advantage that I'm not seeing, or is it simply because demons?

[scorpionwarrior]

I'm not surprised that Gr and Mi are popular; they're easy to play. But why is Ds the most commonly played species? Do Ds have some advantage that I'm not seeing, or is it simply because demons?

Mutations are fun. When I was starting playing this game I played a ton of Ds because interesting things were more likely to happen early on

[chequers]

Yep, it seems people value two things when picking a class: a) interesting mechanics and b) kick ass melee skills. Look at the top 5 races: Ds (a & b), Mi (b), Gr (b), Op (a), finally DE are next as the prototypical squishy mage with neither.

[tasonir]

I'd argue that death/churn rate is also an important factor. I agree with everything above as well, but dying with a race makes it likely that you're about to start another character of that race. DS's are going to hope for better mutations, Mi/Gr are played by newbies who tend to die a lot and have been told (correctly) to keep trying that combo until they master it (at least enough to win). Op is the awesome 8 ring mechanic, which people love, although it's rather hard to make stick due to the 1 ac problem taking a lot of time to finally solve. And DE's are squishy as well...they're all races that die well, as strange as that may sound for Mi/Gr

[daggaz]

... Op is the awesome 8 ring mechanic, which people love, although it's rather hard to make stick due to the 1 ac problem taking a lot of time to finally solve...

I think if you are paying much attention at all to your AC on your Op, you are probably doing it wrong.

But good point about the churn rate. Would be interesting to see this weighted by turn count as well.

[Sar]

who needs Ozo Armour or Stoneskin or rings of protection anyway

certainly not squids

[and into]

Pshh, I bet you enchant your hat, too, Sar.

I only play pure octopode, bro. 1 AC 4 lyfe.

[tasonir]

If wanting to wrap my sweet, sticky tentacles of love around every monster in the dungeon and hug them until they fully grasp the power of love is the wrong way to play an octopode, then I don't want to be right. Anything less than unarmed combat simply won't do.

[Hirsch I]

Pshh, I bet you enchant your hat, too, Sar.

I only play pure octopode, bro. 1 AC 4 lyfe.

how do you keep 4hp? leveling up would give you some health, wouldn't it?

[and into]

Pshh, I bet you enchant your hat, too, Sar.

I only play pure octopode, bro. 1 AC 4 lyfe.

how do you keep 4hp? leveling up would give you some health, wouldn't it?

Easy man, you just keep yourself as damaged as possible while exploring, that way your max HP can be whatever but you will stay true to the 11 HP lifestyle, which is what is important.

Edit I don't know what you are talking about with 4 hp tho that is just silly, no one should play with 4 HP. That is only 36.36363636363636363636363636363636363636363 percent of the hps you should have.

[Hirsch I]

I just discovered "1ac 4 lyfe" means "1ac for life". I tought you meant 4 hp. im dumb. im out.

[SaidTheAlligatorKingToHisSon]

Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley

The desert just seems to make for great literature. This poem appears in game (flavour text for ghoul):

In the Desert by Stephen Crane
In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, “Is it good, friend?”
“It is bitter—bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it
“Because it is bitter,
“And because it is my heart.”

Which is also the best flavour text in the game imo. Then there's Frank Herbert's Dune which I loooooove. To devs: Make Shai Hulud a unique worm, game needs a unique worm.

[and into]

I thought Stephen Crane's short stories were pretty good, though never top of my list. Had the good fortune to read some of his poetry in a class and really liked it, though. Good stuff, and tends to be overshadowed by the more canonical works (usually, you read "The Open Boat" and/or "The Red Badge of Courage" at some point in elementary school and that's it).

[daggaz]

who needs Ozo Armour or Stoneskin or rings of protection anyway

certainly not squids

Oh, I wear AC items if and when they show up, but they arent my priority by any means.

My priority on an Op is to make sure that anything that tries to get next to me dies before then, or failing that, that I can avoid said melee situation in a hurry. So generally thats focusing on my ranged attack power, which may or may not support using spells like ozo armour.