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That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 04:34
by Grimm
Do you do anything idiosyncratic in Crawl, something that doesn't affect play much but which you almost superstitiously HAVE to do?

When I play dwarves I refuse to use orcish gear - unless it is incredible stuff. I will go without gloves and boots etc. if orcish ones are the only ones on offer.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 05:12
by mageykun
I still use nethack style zigzag evasion patterns when charging at or retreating from missile firing monsters. (Ie, up left, down left, up left, etc. instead of left left left). This does absolutely nothing as firing arcs are not constrained to the 8 cardinal directions, but I do it anyways (no effect on gameplay unless certain people get their wish and diagonal movement is suddenly penalized).

I inscribe every item I take of the corpse of a unique with their name- credit where credit is due (if I leave it on the floor- they don't get any). Within reason. Equipment and wands mostly.

Usually, if I find a new altar to my current god, I make a point to stand on it and pray. Gotta pay respect and all.

I'm horrible at naming things, and will drag the process out forever if gven the chance, so I make a point to name rougelike characters as quickly and as haphazardly as possible. Often this means I pause, focus on the radio for a second, and pull a random word from the conversation to use as a name. For a while I was naming characters after the reporters, but I started to feel guilty after getting half the staff of NPR killed.

There's probably more, but that's all I can remember off the top of my head.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 05:45
by danr
I try to name characters using the abbreviations of their species, background and god, eg. Hammock the Halfling Arcane Marksman of Okawaru (HaAMok), Kocky the Kobold Chaos Knight, or Habeas Orbus, The Halfling Berserker (started as Assassin). (Habeas Corpus in latin means something like "bring forth the body", so Habeas Orbus: bring forth the Orb.)

I also try to do stuff like pray or sacrifice on altars of my god, and while I don't refuse to wear orcish gear, I do think about the fact that my character, if elven or dwarven, would probably prefer not to.

I've also started inscribing good items from uniques with the name of the unique, as a "keepsake".

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 07:37
by Jenx
I like to name characters after other characters. Right now I have 3 guys created called Problem Sleuth, Ace Dick and Pickle Inspector. Haven't gotten them anywhere, but there's time.

I too pray every time I see an extra altar of my god. It might not do anything, but one has to keep the faith strong!

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 10:39
by Grimm
Another altar pray-er here. There should be a tiny piety gain for that - like one point, with no repeat prayers at that altar for 1000 turns or something to prevent piety scumming.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 11:04
by jpeg
Grimm wrote:Another altar pray-er here. There should be a tiny piety gain for that - like one point, with no repeat prayers at that altar for 1000 turns or something to prevent piety scumming.

Nope. That would encourage (otherwise useless) altar praying, meaning for optimal play you'd have to do it every 1000 turns. It's fine if players do it for flavour (I occasionally do it myself), but if it were actually rewarded, it would lead to degenerate play. Sorry.

Also, when I play I usually name my characters after species/background combo, too.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 12:34
by KoboldLord
jpeg wrote:Nope. That would encourage (otherwise useless) altar praying, meaning for optimal play you'd have to do it every 1000 turns. It's fine if players do it for flavour (I occasionally do it myself), but if it were actually rewarded, it would lead to degenerate play. Sorry.


I'm pretty sure it would not do that, and would still not be optimal play.

Piety decays over time with most deities. The trip to the altar to pray will typically decay more piety than praying at the altar would grant, so unless you were passing through anyway it would NEVER be a good idea to detour for this purpose.

Even if you're playing a worshipper of one of the deities that remains steady or improves over time, you're almost certainly better off generating a new level and getting the piety from whatever sources spawn there.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 12:50
by Jenx
I really don't think giving any actual benefits from praying on an altar a second time is a good idea. It would be fun if it did get acknowledged though - First time you pray at an altar of your diety (aside from the one you converted) perhaps could make the diety give you a different message than just the simple "X is pleased with you".

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 14:12
by Stormfox
As I posted elsewhere, I have a tendency to start pressing the directional keys slower and more lightly when I'm making a stealth approach. (The former actually does help in the sense that you're paying more attention to the messages and will better see when/if the monster wakes up on you.)

When making stashes, I always put the pile of weapons directly to the right of the pile of books. (I play ASCII.)

When playing a non-orc, given the choice between orcish gear and generic gear of the exact same quality, I'll take the generic. Orcish gear just "feels" more shoddy even if there's no in-game difference.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 15:53
by GrimmSweeper
I have to inscribe at least the Orb when I'm at the very end. My last won game on the Akrasiac server was a HaTM. On his orb, the scrawled words were 'Screw you hell'. Kinda buried, but I think it was the time I was ambushed by a couple of Hellions and had to repeat Gehennom 4 or 5 times. An OgSu had an Orb with "BEST OGRE EVER". And he was, until this tournament where nht blew it out of the water with an all-runer and under 120k turns.

Mind, he also had a Giant Spiked Club custom titled "MR. STICK". I have a tendency to inscribe non-randart weapons that have >= +5 in damage bonus.

Summoners I use Spammals pretty much exclusively until the mid-game. As in, clvl 11-14, Lair cleared, received book that has mid-game summons. Even then they still find their use until I have Sputterflies.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 16:49
by danr
jpeg wrote:
Grimm wrote:Another altar pray-er here. There should be a tiny piety gain for that - like one point, with no repeat prayers at that altar for 1000 turns or something to prevent piety scumming.

Nope. That would encourage (otherwise useless) altar praying, meaning for optimal play you'd have to do it every 1000 turns. It's fine if players do it for flavour (I occasionally do it myself), but if it were actually rewarded, it would lead to degenerate play. Sorry.

Also, when I play I usually name my characters after species/background combo, too.


It could be a one-time-only effect. ("Before you pray, you clean years of dungeon debris off the altar. You feel that your god appreciated this.") And then a chance of restore abilities, heal wounds, +1 to a stat, or a piety boost.

I just feel like an altar of one's god should have _some_ usefulness.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 17:16
by ohmi
Praying at alters could behave similarly to sparkling fountains -- praying to any of the aligned good gods might provide a chance for a small benefit.

I too tap slower and lighter when stealthy and harder when trying to make the final killing blow or attempting a stab. I'll often tap a rhythm when fighting early to get rid of a pesky cockroach, like "Shave and a haircut", or, if the fight seems to be taking longer and I'm not dying: Bach's minuet in G.

Would there be game issues with having ctrl-shift-dir or something like that mean move very very slowly but more stealthily?

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 18:26
by szanth
I'm the kid who, when he played games like Earthbound and Final Fantasy, would make a sound effect or punch the air in time with what the character was doing, believing that it helped somehow.

I'm also the 23 year old who, when he plays games like Crawl, hits the directional key with authority when he believes it will cause the killing blow, and occasionally accompanies this with taunting, often vulgar variations of "CLACK-CLACK, SON! CLAAAACK CLAAACK SOOOONNNNN!"

I'm very white.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Thursday, 20th January 2011, 22:34
by Drayse
Definitely agree with the tapping keys slower for stealth and harder for damage thing. Also if my my character wears robes, I'll try on every one I see even if its just a normal one and keep whichever has the color I like more.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 02:04
by Grimm
I do that whenever I play robe-wearing characters! There are some pretty snazzy threads available, it's definitely worth comparison shopping. Or just going with the rotting rags for the "downmarket intimidator" look.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 02:15
by Wolfechu
jpeg wrote:
Grimm wrote:Also, when I play I usually name my characters after species/background combo, too.


This. Name is the absolute last thing I do in chargen, and I try to make it sound as elfy/dwarfy/merfolky as possible. Spriggans are always named after plants/flowers. If they're venom mages/stalkers, they're named after poisonous plants. Demigods tend to get 'historical' demigod names.

Centaurs, oddly, are named after former US presidents. No, I don't know, either.

I almost always, 99% of the time, pick race randomly, and then a role I think suits it. Or sometimes doesn't, depending on my mood. Kobold monks seem to thrive as much as KoBe, in my experience. I rarely start a game with a specific role/job in mind.

I don't pray at altars to my god. Or at least, I didn't till I read this thread. I suspect that might creep in now, as it's too cute not to do ;)

I do the robe thing, too. If I have a necromancer in a bright purple robe, he will try on every damned piece of gear he comes across until he finds something more sinister.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 07:26
by dtsund
I keep my stash sorted. A stack of scrolls, a stack of books, and so forth.

I used to keep my stash sorted into things like a stack of potions of healing, a stack of potions of heal wounds, and so on, but I stopped. This is pretty much useless in the console version anyway.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 11:49
by szanth
Wolfechu wrote:
jpeg wrote:
Grimm wrote:I do the robe thing, too. If I have a necromancer in a bright purple robe, he will try on every damned piece of gear he comes across until he finds something more sinister.


Indeed. It kinda makes me sad that robes are the only kind of armor with this distinction. I suppose it makes sense, though, how would you have a pattern on chainmail.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 13:07
by Jenx
Quite simple, really. You just use different colored rings when weaving the chain mail and you are able to make patterns on it.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 14:05
by Stormfox
Wolfechu wrote:Centaurs, oddly, are named after former US presidents. No, I don't know, either.


Really reaching for it here, but any president (or other national leader/hero) from before the automobile era is almost always immortalized somewhere with a statue of him on a horse. There's your centaur.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 21st January 2011, 19:23
by Grimm
Cloaks are coloUred too but they're hard to see behind armor.

I have been through several phases of stash sorting. Currently I am trying a "no stacking, one item per square" approach in very large Lair chambers. Tedious but makes me feel like I'm getting somewhere, until I need that stashed amulet of rMut when I'm in the Mines.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Tuesday, 25th January 2011, 14:28
by JeffQyzt
Um...is all of this robe/cloak variation a tiles thing? If so, do they keep the same tile if you leave and come back later? Seems like all the generic robes I find are dark red (I think - RG colorblind ASCII player here...)

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 28th January 2011, 09:23
by Grimm
Whenever I see a quokka, I think "Ah, lunch".

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 28th January 2011, 14:31
by szanth
Grimm wrote:Whenever I see a quokka, I think "Ah, lunch".


Me too! They just look like the most food-like creature in the dungeon, aside from maybe sheep.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 28th January 2011, 14:34
by Zicher
Grimm wrote:Whenever I see a quokka, I think "Ah, lunch".


I say the same when playing Troll Berserkers and meeting Sigmund :mrgreen: .

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 28th January 2011, 17:54
by Grimm
Sheep look too much like yaks for me to entirely relax around them.

After I have gone back and gleefully murdered Sigmund at XL 10 or so, I have taken to eating his corpse out of spite, whether I need the food or not. Sometimes I'll cut his corpse up and throw the chunks into water or lava, if available.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Friday, 28th January 2011, 20:22
by Sometimes
Grimm wrote:I have taken to eating his corpse out of spite

ALWAYS. I am happy to hear someone else does this. I quite liked the image of my High Elf Crusader tossing down his sword and picking up a leg with a calculating look.

Spriggans and mummies must do the best they can, scattering him for fish is usually enough.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Tuesday, 8th May 2012, 16:57
by MyOtheHedgeFox
Do not worship dark deities.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Tuesday, 8th May 2012, 17:13
by pratamawirya
Sometimes I say "Hungry, hungry, lose some weight" when eating a contaminated chunk, so that I don't catch Nausea afterwards (doesn't make sense, I know).

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Tuesday, 8th May 2012, 21:38
by IronJelly
hey, i'm not the only one who feels some compulsion to pray at altars to the god I already worship? Sweet! and yes, I think a flavor message would be useful there, even if no benefit is gained.

my other habit, as wasteful as it is, is drinking fountains dry when i find them. Even normal ones. It's not harmless, but i was an ADOM player, and fountains could occasionally grant you a wish. Yes, it took a while in Nethack to unlearn this dangerous habit.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 00:18
by dante3214
I won't renounce my faith to whatever God I've chosen.

I also find myself praying randomly during my character's travels for no reason. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who prays at the altars when he sees one ^_^

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 12:25
by Deimos
Because I go through dozens of chars a day, every one is named Rex. From the legends of successful runs of olde to the most recent dungeon popcorn, each are named Rex. Every. Single. One. I havent run a non-Rex (and I'm not joking; I havent ran a single char for a single turn that was named anything but Rex) in at least about a year now.

Every time I use demonspawn I have to swap their sprite out with the black, demon-looking one. A slightly red tinted bald man with horns on his head just doesn't' do Demonspawn justice.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 15:20
by Confidence Interval
Grimm wrote:eating his corpse out of spite

This. I eat Sigmund and other uniques after I have killed them (where they leave chunks, obviously). Sometimes I imagine that I will absorb some of their power or abilities in this way.

I never do. Mostly it's just to celebrate my having defeated them.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 16:23
by JeffQyzt
You all should be playing ghouls.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 16:33
by Grimm
Are you saying corpses are...a ghoul's best friend?

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 16:36
by JeffQyzt
Yup, exactly. Die, man, and you'll be a ghoul's best friend.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 18:27
by rebthor
Confidence Interval wrote:
Grimm wrote:eating his corpse out of spite

This. I eat Sigmund and other uniques after I have killed them (where they leave chunks, obviously). Sometimes I imagine that I will absorb some of their power or abilities in this way.

I never do. Mostly it's just to celebrate my having defeated them.

I do this too. It's great as a Troll especially since you're often hungry. I visualize ripping out Sigmund's heart and eating it to gain his power. Then I feel kind of grossed out. Then I remember what a jerk Sigmund is and I don't feel as bad.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 19:32
by Konebred
The quokka thing makes me laugh. Every time I see one in any game I am all like "What up, quokka (cracka)."

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 19:40
by snmjk20
i get bored as i enter vaults and die to mara around xl17-19
damn mara and his tempting demon trident
also innate reaching in all polearms

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Wednesday, 9th May 2012, 23:05
by TehDruid
o - TAB - p - c - e - 5 (if not full HP)
Repeat until the Orb is in sight.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Sunday, 3rd June 2012, 05:45
by Grimm
I am firmly convinced that the first play of a fresh trunk download has better drops than subsequent plays of that same download.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Sunday, 3rd June 2012, 09:24
by cerebovssquire
I keep diving to D:4, looking for the Temple, and then continuing my play from D:1 with a god. Now you know why my winrate sucks.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 00:47
by XuaXua
cerebovssquire wrote:I keep diving to D:4, looking for the Temple, and then continuing my play from D:1 with a god. Now you know why my winrate sucks.


That's how you toss away a good early Sewer or Ossuary.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 00:55
by Grimm
XuaXua wrote:That's how the pros toss away a good early Sewer or Ossuary.

ftfy

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 02:54
by XuaXua
Grimm wrote:
XuaXua wrote:That's how the pros toss away a good early Sewer or Ossuary.

ftfy

Did that one better. :)

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 02:56
by Grimm
The shade is 0000FF, not 000080.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 10:22
by Jabberwocky
Really XuaXua. The shades are completely different.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 11:07
by rchandra
He had to make up the colour, it's that thing he does.

Re: That thing you do.

PostPosted: Monday, 4th June 2012, 14:08
by XuaXua
Grimm wrote:The shade is 0000FF, not 000080.


I considered hot pink. You're a moderator; go in there and fix it yourself if you're gonna get all nitpicky about it. :mrgreen: