CSDC Week 1 - DgCj, CLOSED


Official tournaments, but also any competition, challenge of the week or other player initiative for competitive crawling.

Zot Zealot

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 00:13

CSDC Week 1 - DgCj, CLOSED

The Week 1 challenge is now CLOSED.

Please use this thread for discussion of all things pertaining to Week 1 of the Crawl Sudden Death Challenges competition.

Week 1: DgCj

Tier I Bonus: Kill Geryon (do not need to win).
Tier II Bonus: Kill Antaeus (do not need to win).

Update as of 1/29/14: Tier II Bonus changed to collect icy rune due to bug that fails to place Antaeus in some games!


CSDC Season 1 Results and Standings

Week 1 Challenge Wins
Last edited by WalkerBoh on Monday, 10th February 2014, 00:23, edited 9 times in total.
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Vestibule Violator

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 01:56

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

My game started off with running over to a glowing spear, then being attacked by jackals, and equipping the spear after running out of mana, only to find out it was a cursed spear with -1, -3. I survived, then found book of the warp and a dagger of elec. things are looking up. :)
To all new players: Ignore all strategy guides posted on the wiki, ask questions in the Advice forum, players with lots of posts normally have the best advice.

crawl.akrasiac.org:8080 <- take this link to play online or spectate.

For this message the author Tiktacy has received thanks:
WalkerBoh

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 02:47

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

My character died at XL 2, then at XL 6. Now I am playing the same combo just for fun, I hope it will not break the sequel command. Please let me know if it can cause any problems.

Zot Zealot

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 03:38

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

Nope, you're fine. Sequell will still report all of your games of course, but my scoring sheet is already equipped to handle this - it will only look at your first one (or two) completed games for each challenge. I anticipated that some people wouldn't be content to just kill off their char and walk away. :)

For this message the author WalkerBoh has received thanks:
Sandman25
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 05:37

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

So, we can start now, right?
"Be aware that a lot of people on this forum, such as mageykun and XuaXua, have a habit of making things up." - minmay a.k.a. duvessa
Did I make a lame complaint? Check for Bingo!
Totally gracious CSDC Season 2 Division 4 Champeen!

Zot Zealot

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 07:10

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

Yep, the DgCj challenge is open from now until 2/10/14 at midnight (so 7pm EST on Sunday 2/9).

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 428

Joined: Friday, 17th December 2010, 22:07

Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 08:59

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

Had a rather Odd game, as I never found a wand of digging, cloak of preservation, amulet of conservation, wand of teleport, or a book with Firestorm or Sticky Flame.

Was fortuitously granted fireball quite early in the game which pretty much sealed things.
Hardest part of the game for me was Depths:5, which was just completely insane. Must have killed 50 draconians there over the course of an hour or so, and burned through all of my scrolls of teleport and potions of healing. That left me with exactly one teleport for Zot, which I ended up using.

I wanted to go after Geryon, but without controlled blink, teleport, or a storm spell, I decided not to.

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/moose/morgu ... 083558.txt
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Shoals Surfer

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 09:32

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

Moose wrote:I wanted to go after Geryon, but without controlled blink, teleport, or a storm spell, I decided not to.

You were afraid of Geryon but engaged a pandemonium lord instead??? Anyways, congrats on the win!

nago wrote:Congrats... but what about a new topic for each week? In that way we would have a more organized forum - or maybe a different topic for each division, I dunno.

I concur. This forum is quite empty at the moment and distinct topics for each challenge would keep things more organized in my opinion.

A quick question for WalkerBoh:
Each challenge runs for 2 weeks, but new challenges are released weekly - did I get this right?

Shoals Surfer

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Post Monday, 27th January 2014, 13:12

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges - Week 1

Pretty sure I gained the honour of being the first to die in pursuit of this challenge, though as I was XL1 I get another shot.

Zot Zealot

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 00:50

CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Edited due to post moving...
Last edited by WalkerBoh on Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 13:48, edited 2 times in total.

Dungeon Master

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 01:07

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

I'm willing to bet that I had the most hilarious death of the contest so far: http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/wheals/morg ... 204451.txt

I managed to survive the first explosion only to have one boomerang back while I was eating :(

Shoals Surfer

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 02:06

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Just hit level 4 and stumbled on a gnoll pack. One mis-key later and I was well on my way to an early exit from this round. Ah well, maybe next time. Good times.
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 05:06

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges

We're playing trunk. Transfer save if trunk was updated, yes or no?
"Be aware that a lot of people on this forum, such as mageykun and XuaXua, have a habit of making things up." - minmay a.k.a. duvessa
Did I make a lame complaint? Check for Bingo!
Totally gracious CSDC Season 2 Division 4 Champeen!
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 05:36

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges

CRAP! Who the F#$% filled Labyrinth with a bunch of f#$%ing monsters and invisible stalkers?
"Be aware that a lot of people on this forum, such as mageykun and XuaXua, have a habit of making things up." - minmay a.k.a. duvessa
Did I make a lame complaint? Check for Bingo!
Totally gracious CSDC Season 2 Division 4 Champeen!
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 06:03

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges

XuaXua wrote:We're playing trunk. Transfer save if trunk was updated, yes or no?


Yes.
take it easy

Zot Zealot

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 06:52

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Added a list of challenge wins to the first post of this thread. A short list for now, but there are already quite a few people with promising chars in play. No one's completed the bonus yet though!

My sympathies to everyone who already put their poor DgCj to rest, though wheals your death did give me a good chuckle. :lol:

The games currently running by division right now...
  Code:
MorganLeah: L17 DgCj of No God
Cheibrodos: L17 DgCj of No God
ackack: L14 DgCj of No God
Sphara: L13 DgCj of No God
nago: L13 DgCj of No God

Arrhythmia: L16 DgCj of No God
aspy: L16 DgCj of No God
TedronaiSDC: L1 DgCj of No God

sanka: L17 DgCj of No God
tasonir: L15 DgCj of No God
Charos: L4 DgCj of No God

mopl: L18 DgCj of No God

HenryFlower: L15 DgCj of No God
fearitself: L13 DgCj of No God
headcrab0803: L5 DgCj of No God
Moanerette: L1 DgCj of No God

some12fat2move: L14 DgCj of No God
andinto: L11 DgCj of No God


Good luck!

Tomb Titivator

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 08:26

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Alas, I splatted my DgCj within an hour of your posting... at exactly XL4. Not even a hilarious death to share here. Oh well, I guess I can still play the combo for fun.

Halls Hopper

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 08:34

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Miskeying or misjudgement is quite punitive, but it's also the interest of this challenge. Due to heavy changes in my life atm, i have less time to play, but the challenge teach me to be more... accurate? prudent? well, better player :p

Thanks WalkerBoh, and good luck to all the promising players :)

Shoals Surfer

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 14:24

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges

Arrhythmia wrote:
XuaXua wrote:We're playing trunk. Transfer save if trunk was updated, yes or no?


Yes.


Snake and Swamp have gotten considerably harder; don't know if that should affect things or not, but it probably makes a big difference if you're not through them yet. I sure wish I hadn't updated.

Mines Malingerer

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 15:48

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

At level 13 right now but struggling. Cleared lair and on orc 3 but still using starting book plus animate dead.

My firepower is becoming outclassed and not sure where to skill at this point. I'd think I would have found a book to set my elemental direction by now and dg apt make me worried about "wasting" exp.

Any advice?

Vaults Vanquisher

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 16:29

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

good tactics to take enemies one at a time and blasting the shit out of them with IMB+battlesphere works pretty well, I think.

Zot Zealot

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 17:12

Re: Crawl "Sudden Death" Challenges

ackack wrote:Snake and Swamp have gotten considerably harder; don't know if that should affect things or not, but it probably makes a big difference if you're not through them yet. I sure wish I hadn't updated.

Indeed, if you have a game in progress I might also recommend not updating. Those of us who haven't started yet will just have to take the changes into account.

Slime Squisher

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Joined: Saturday, 9th March 2013, 14:22

Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 17:35

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

i knew i should have started my game faster :lol:

can anyone explain what got harder in those branches? is it related to the new vinestalkers?

Vaults Vanquisher

Posts: 428

Joined: Friday, 17th December 2010, 22:07

Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 17:48

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Yes, what's changed? Looking at the logs, nothing pops out:

http://crawl.develz.org/trunk/changes.txt
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Shoals Surfer

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 18:02

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

adozu wrote:can anyone explain what got harder in those branches? is it related to the new vinestalkers?

You know what this weeks challenge really needed? Mana Vipers! :D (among other stuff, you can check the actual commits here)

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 18:02

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

The changelog gets updated by hand and isn't always up to date, here's some recent commits that have to do with Swamp/Snake:

  Code:

commit 7ad9fedfe6f1e7b45d9f49b8369ed327c58aec27
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 05:18:37 2014 -0330

    Let siren song actually trigger
   
    Somehow the code block that would cause the drowned soul call to
    begin mysteriously vanished between the effect originally being coded
    and tested and now. Even I am not sure what happened to it, and the
    reflog hasn't helped. My best guess is that somehow it was accidentally
    deleted along with nearby debugging code, maybe?
   
    I think the original code determining song duration here was more
    involved, but I cannot remember it. This will at least allow it to
    function, and might well be good enough as-is.

commit 4f3d528f9858c47704bb04dc87adb7239fd94474
Author: Neil Moore <neil@s-z.org>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 03:41:44 2014 -0500

    Properly credit barbs deaths to NON_MONSTER.

commit 8eb4e64a35967c9c2744656c765f70a522c5d1c5
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 04:19:02 2014 -0330

    Fix an overlooked monster rename in vaults
   
    Apparently des cache is tricksy...

commit c4afc85cc01148c98a1a39974b5b678d224483af
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 03:23:46 2014 -0330

    Remove harpy food stealing attack
   
    Unlike potion and scroll destruction, there is scarcely any plausible
    way this could deprive someone of a needed item - food is simply far
    too abundant for it to matter, and individual food items almost
    completely interchangeable. Yet, despite having essentially no
    mechanical benefit, it caused frustration and annoyance to many people.
   
    This combination of trivial gameplay impact and widespread annoyance
    seem to me a good reason to remove this superfluous gimmick from what
    is otherwise a solid and threatening monster; harpies will be plenty
    notable without it.

commit 0d02e00fb5b1de902bc2c4e9a573c9a3f5e24855
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 03:12:16 2014 -0330

    Nudge manticores deeper
   
    Since they're scarier now.

commit 17664159b66dbdcebd2ec779688b33cc67c7e95d
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 01:38:25 2014 -0330

    Salamander populations for Depths
   
    This adds both plain salamanders as well as mystics and firebrands
    to the lava tables for Depths, with liberal use of MONS_NO_MONSTER
    to thin overall numbers quite a bit, given that individual monsters
    will be much stronger than worthless lava worms and such.
   
    (Lava population adjustments for elsewhere will come later)

commit f2fb3806c8a0591dd66198f44303f1b25ff88614
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 28 01:12:36 2014 -0330

    Experimental band and population adjustments for Snake
   
    This deploys the new and revamped monsters into their home.
   
    Naga mages and warriors show up more often, but on shallow floors have
    a chance to spawn alone instead of in a band. Salamanders are able to
    show up in naga bands in place of plain naga (with low frequency).
    Guardian serpent bands focus moreso on melee-capable creatures than
    ranged ones and are larger (but the serpents themselves rarer).
    Sharpshooters get smaller bands that often contain other sharpshooters
    instead of other professional naga (but can still show up as a support
    in other bands). Ritualists get bands of snakes instead of naga (with
    more common use of mana vipers than elsewhere). Anacondas are more
    common in general, and greater naga somewhat more common outside of
    the rune vault (though they still do not come with a band). Salamander
    mystics will sometimes accompany a naga band (though are the rarest
    support) and even more rarely spawn alone with a couple salamanders.
    Shock serpents are also a mid-range encounter at moderate frequency.
   
    Since there is a lot of experimental content at work here at once, these
    weights are most definitely provisional. I fully expect them to need
    some revisions in fairly short order (along with some of the monsters
    themselves, perhaps), but this is a least a starting point.

commit e7ee5c1e24520cf344129e66447f21fb2c38b6c1
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 22:56:54 2014 -0330

    Remove lava fish
   
    Stat-wise, they were extremely similar to lava worms (just slightly
    weaker) - so much so that I see no reason for them to exist given that
    they don't even really show up in the very narrow earlygame window
    where you might be able to even notice the differences between the two.
   
    Where lava fish occured, I have mostly replaced them directly with worms,
    barring a minor exception or two.

commit a7736ecfa01bf4d3bd88a784d5bcde119fb4cbbb
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 22:31:10 2014 -0330

    Remove friendly fire from monster OTR
   
    Even in a branch where most of the monsters naturally resist it, the
    friendly fire can be problematic (around, say, anacondas, and now also
    salamanders and shock serpents), and without being able to liberally
    use this spell, naga ritualists suffer greatly. Let's just assume that
    their explicitly esoteric magics have found an answer to this problem,
    and go with an implementation that plays better.
   
    This also simplifies tracer logic, since it can simply check only
    for the presence of susceptible hostiles and not the balance between
    those and friendlies.

commit 50cabbc5685c0fe1baccd5e80c4c3dc99b8669eb
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 22:24:10 2014 -0330

    Salamander Mystics
   
    These are offense/support casters intended for use both in a revised
    Snake population and in Depths salamander bands. They currently
    possess bolt of magma, haste other, single-target ignite poison, and
    mystic blast (though I am less sold on the last spell; I simply haven't
    found a better replacement yet - and hey, the name fits!).
   
    Their ability to haste allies partially replaces the former Naga
    Enchanters's role in Snake, while also working to aid the slow-moving
    salamanders in other deep lava encounters. Localized ignite poison is
    a potentially interesting combo for their placement in Snake, being
    able to inflict decent AC/EV-ignoring damage if you've let yourself get
    poisoned by some other source. Bolt of magma and IMB round out the
    package with some simple direct damage. (Physically, they are much
    weaker than basic salamanders.)

commit b2eb5936f1518af7632c04434a4d174deab9dcc9
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 22:22:02 2014 -0330

    A single-target variant of Ignite Poison for monsters
   
    This is basically what it says on the tin: Ignite Poison delivered
    to a single location via a (non-resistable) enchantment beam. The
    damage inflicted is greater at the same power compared to normal
    Ignite Poison, but making it non-smite-targeted is a considerable
    limitation in the player's favor, of course.
   
    Intended for Salamander Mystics.

commit 74110c2ed729d31551db9e75c030e4147c9f78da
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 17:35:51 2014 -0330

    Revert accidentally nerfed monster Refrigeration
   
    When the LoS attack spell code was cleaned up and merged, refrigeration
    damage when cast by monsters seems to have been unintentionally reduced
    (the power argument was used in two different fashions in the merged
    functions). This made Fannar's damage go from 3d10 to 3d6, and the
    Cocytus Serpent's from 3d15 to 3d7. This commit restores their old
    levels of damage.

commit fa889232a6361324f113756cda467dda18cfc6e6
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 17:28:59 2014 -0330

    Make Ignite Poison properly useable by monsters, overhaul effect on players
   
    This finishes some of the generalization made previously to this code
    to make it less player-centric and adds tracer-like checks to allow
    monsters to guess when it's worth casting (ie: will do more to their
    enemies than their allies).
   
    A lot of the player damage code left over from when it could hurt the
    caster wasn't really suitable for a monster effect and so has been
    removed or changed. It can no longer destroy items in your inventory
    (including 100% of all poison ammo carried!) nor create flame clouds
    based on this. Damage for higher levels of poisoning has been greatly
    stepped down and poisoning no longer stacks with naturally poisonous
    physiology (ie: being a naga or kobold) in terms of damage inflicted
    on players.
   
    I don't actually have a home in mind for this code directly, but I
    plan to use it as the base for a single-targeted version of this
    effect, and maybe it would be okay on player ghosts?

commit 8d9c36ec037e204a88726b6036cd8a4cd6a54ebb
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 26 02:03:50 2014 -0330

    Salamander Firebrands
   
    These are intended as the new top-tier lava monster, replacing and
    exceeding old salamanders. Their melee strikes create a ring of
    flame clouds surrounding their target's position (but not actually
    beneath their target) and their melee damage is considerable. Further,
    unlike their lesser cousins, their movement speed is high enough that
    even on land they are faster than average (and even faster than that
    in their native lava).
   
    Unlike lesser salamanders, they deliberately do not spawn with
    reaching weapons, so that any player can melee them down without
    being forced to stand in a flame cloud, however the ring does
    synergize nicely with any other salamanders they might appear
    alongside them and poke at you from range. (For the benefit of allies,
    the firebrand has enough control over its flames to keep from placing
    them beneath non-resistant allies, but will happily place them under
    hostile creatures that are not its primary target).
   
    Outside of Depths, I think they would also make a very suitable
    monster for Gehenna.

commit 10a3214abc2bedc287c85227ec6b315bcf871c76
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 22:34:53 2014 -0330

    Nerf/adjust Salamanders
   
    The difference in power between salamanders and the next-strongest
    lava creatures is immense (and lava fish and worms are so similar
    as to be nearly identical), leaving a potential threat gap that could
    be filled (and a new high end created in its place). Also, thematic
    association could allow them to introduce more variety in Snake's
    monster set at somewhere other than the top-end, provided they didn't
    hit quite so hard.
   
    Salamanders recieve a considerable HD nerf, cutting their AF_FIRE
    damage considerably. Also, they no longer always recieve flame-branded
    weapons with decent plusses - the weapons are instead always unbranded
    (they already do fire damage in melee anyway), with only a chance of
    plusses. They will now never spawn with a bow and melee weapon at the
    same time (but the chance of a bow is somewhat increased and the bow is
    still flaming) and only with reaching weapons. They also recieve a small
    boost to their defenses and MR factor.

commit 58153df85821007f5bc48f3afdb4eda438c690c5
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 20:44:16 2014 -0330

    Actually rename sharpshooters and ritualists in vaults

commit 2da5d474e64888e07c63ec4bf88c63c66912aba2
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 19:59:07 2014 -0330

    Replace Naga Enchanters with Naga Ritualists
   
    While I don't consider enchanters as problematic as many of the
    monsters I've revamped, the value of yet more sources of confusion is
    questionable and I think invis other risks being more obtrusive than
    the mechanical value it adds here (particularly when it will be used
    primarily upon melee monsters, many of whom will still be slow). Elf
    already has its early floors populated by a multitude of things that
    like going invisible on you.
   
    Enchanters' role as a speed buffer for low tier naga bands is a valid
    one, but I am considering the same spell on a different rarer monster
    and wouldn't want it used twice in the same place. Early naga bands
    can be addressed in other ways (like more common use of naturally fast
    or ranged monsters).
   
    As for ritualists themselves, they are esoteric mystics focusing around
    poison magic in ways that other naga do not. They possess virulence and
    OTR (as well as one slot of force lance for direct damage), enabling them
    to support other naga's poison attacks as well as be supported by them,
    with damage output that is hopefully suitable for stronger encounters of
    shallow floors and also deeper in a more supportive role.

commit e0bd77ff095112be4c27e08735841481ba30f1e2
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 19:25:07 2014 -0330

    Adjust OTR damage formula when cast by monsters
   
    While effective and apparently balanced as a player spell, when used
    against the player, OTR is underwhelming - in definite part due to
    player's greater hp, ready access to !curing, and the fact that players
    can kite with the spell while monsters will not. Overall it does little
    direct damage while potentially poisoning too heavily (though all this
    often amounts to is costing you a !curing after the battle is over).
   
    With that in mind, I have rebalanced the effect against players in 3 ways:
   
    1) It inflicts considerably more direct damage
    2) It inflicts only half as much poisoning
    3) The damage falloff by distance is greatly reduced for monster casters
       in general. (It made the effect too trivial if not engaged in melee with
       the caster, and monsters do not require any extra mechanisms to discourage
       engagement with the player)
   
    Overall it should be be more threatening against players in an immediate
    sense, while being less likely to leave you in the deep red afterward.

commit 1b3431abdc1814c557cd63e9987609757cd02531
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 19:16:07 2014 -0330

    Fix some issues with a few enchantment durations on monsters
   
    Several effects were lasting much less time on monsters than
    intended and/or never wearing off with time at all. This includes
    mostly things likely to never be relevant (dimension anchor and
    retching), but also notably the -MR effect from ?vuln versus
    monsters. Due to what looks like confusing aut with turns, it lasted
    only 1/10th as long against monsters as players!

commit b13491cb91936ebc94d743f3114e4071e3a6fecc
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 25 19:06:02 2014 -0330

    New monster spell: Virulence
   
    This is a hex whose effect is twofold. First, it multiplies the amount
    of poison already in the target's system (this cannot be resisted), then
    attempts to apply a level of poison vulnerability (which can be resisted
    via MR)

commit 494c5fece274f39ea1875407b6632be2f55d10f3
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 20:21:24 2014 -0330

    Revamp shock serpents
   
    While the original version may have been conceptually interesting, it
    had multiple mechanical problems. Even putting aside the bugs in the
    implementation of monster static discharge, frying its allies when
    injured doesn't seem like a good mechanic to me, and the way static
    discharge jumps means that many messages are generated for every single
    event (for similar reasons I don't think it works very well as an active
    spell for them either). Also, shock's damage scaling meant it was
    basically harmless on a monster of this tier - a cantrip as best.
   
    This commit attempts to take the central concepts of the original
    design and make it a more effective and workable monster. Shock
    serpents now passively gather charge when in combat. After multiple
    turns of building charge, they can unleash it as an unavoidable arc
    of lightning aimed at their primary target (and nearby allies, in the
    style of dazzling spray) which does substancial damage. However,
    injuring the shock serpent discharges ALL of the sustained charge
    as a (much weaker) reprisal effect. The idea is that the player will
    be encouraged to suffer through the reprisal to avoid a worse attack
    and that it might sometimes change target priorities in a large melee
    or affect retreat tactics employed.
   
    In addition, I have replaced shock with a stronger electrical bolt
    styled after atomic eels. The code duplication involved here bugs
    me, but shocks if far too weak and lightning bolt too strong and the
    atomic eel bolt cannot just be made into a spell and given to both
    of them without reducing eel fire rate significantly.
   
    Finally, they get slight hd and melee boost, and lose the poison
    resistant and poisonous corpses. So much of Snake already leaves
    poison corpses and it doesn't seem to me that there's much need for
    any poison association here.
   
    Note that a great many numbers here are quite provisional, particularly
    charge rate and the power of lightning torrent itself.

commit b60b56d1d5abf02e2796e4b4a2447739c7b3e1fa
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 14:27:13 2014 -0330

    Prevent some monsters from spawning with cursed weapons
   
    I've been conservative with this functionality for the moment, and
    applied it mainly to cases where switching between weapons is
    critical to a monster's overall functioning. This includes satyrs
    and naga snipers (who are archers that spawn wielding a melee weapon
    and thus cannot even use their ranged focus at all if it happens to
    be cursed), spriggan assassins (who rely on using their blowguns),
    and Sonja (whose blowgun can I THINK start out cursed, which seems
    a shame). There are maybe a couple other things that could benefit
    from this, but it seems clear that archers shouldn't randomly be
    deprived of their ranged weapons on generation.
   
    The exact method of simply uncursing whatever item is generated,
    after the fact, strikes me as somewhat hacky, but it is how vault
    code to generate uncursed items currently works and the alternative
    seems significantly more complex, so....

commit 1df55a26386c252583a27030b63ec684747ca781
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 14:26:33 2014 -0330

    Don't deduct energy twice when monsters cast portal projectile
   
    It was charging them both for firing a ranged attack and casting a
    spell.

commit 964fbc2a738965f594d346463ecb71b975c79fd0
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 14:23:47 2014 -0330

    Marksnaga adjustments
   
    Remove both corona and slow from their spellset. The former doesn't
    do much, the latter already has a caster in the zone, and overall
    this differentiates them more from fauns as well as focusing on
    their unique spell: portal projectile. (It also raises their damage
    potential overall)
   
    Also nudge up HD and hp, remove chance of sling (which does notably
    less damage).
   
    Finally, I renamed them to something I consider a little less silly
    than 'marksnaga' (ie: Naga Sharpshooter), though if anyone is truly
    attached to the original, feel free to rename it back.

commit b83c81532b4fb6888d36f770d57ef7c990c42c82
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 12:47:31 2014 -0330

    Sapper snake adjustments / renaming
   
    Base damage is increased a decent bit, which should hopefully make
    them a bit less harmless to things not purely relying on their mana.
    Speed is decreased somewhat (though they are still fast) to give
    vulnerable people a little more room to get away.
   
    I removed the 'heal on mana drain' effect, since I'm not sure it
    really adds anything of substance to them, as their longevity can be
    increased via more hp and if they're draining that much mana from you,
    you have other problems already. I wouldn't be adverse to putting it
    back if anyone especially cares, though; I'm more neutral than opposed.
   
    Also renamed from 'sapper snake' to 'mana viper'. I have to admit
    personal bias in not really liking the original name, but this is
    also something of a shout-out to the old and long-removed snake that
    used to call Snake its home.

commit d645ae573854e12a216d8e0d9dad21586d72495b
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 11:59:23 2014 -0330

    Adjust antimagic mp drain against players (especially AF_ANTIMAGIC)
   
    The amount of mp lost to antimagic attacks was highly erratic, being
    based both on the melee damage inflicted as well as a large random
    range. This was additionally somewhat problematic from a design
    perspective as it was difficult to make an antimagic monster that
    inflicted reasonable damage without completely draining your mana pool
    in a hit or two.
   
    AF_ANTIMAGIC now drains mp based on the attacker's HD instead of damage
    done (provided the attack does pass AC, like many other AFs), and the
    mp drain is more normalized, so the extreme highs and lows will happen
    less often. The idea is that some mp loss will happen more regularly,
    but this loss will be somewhat less spiky. Lom's melee might have gotten
    a buff, but probably he can handle that.
   
    I didn't adjust how antimagic WEAPONS work, as those involve more questions
    of symmetry with the player, where damage inflicted might indeed be the
    better baseline for the severity of the antimagic applied, but possibly
    their mp drain versus players could be adjusted similarly, too.

commit c5ac3ddaa719bc5bb9e3c6f35572cb7bc536806c
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 11:24:18 2014 -0330

    Don't bother to inflict staff damage of 0 for weapons without any

commit e94eb2fb6b68baccb94861d75f577f4d22532cd8
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Fri Jan 24 11:21:18 2014 -0330

    Don't let monsters cast a summon spell if it's already at its cap
   
    Not only is doing so generally a complete waste of time, it's often
    directly counterproductive to the summoner, as it will erase monsters
    that have moved to engage the player and replace them with ones around
    the summoner (who is often further away, especially if the summons
    are fast).

commit 732301385daa64f7b8e827f25a3d3127038829b2
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 16:51:05 2014 -0700

    Sapper snake tile.
   
    Didn't turn out anywhere near as well as some of my other recent
    creations, but it's better than nothing.

commit 14dc4adf2ea50f94547b0c43d02b8ea0a8d8dbe6
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 16:25:05 2014 -0700

    Shock serpent tile.

commit 14f5202df6cd6b1fb4aca5694f2d091c08261d89
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 15:24:11 2014 -0700

    Let most naga tiles show shields.
   
    Naga enchanters don't, at the moment, thanks to the arm pose. If they
    get a better tile perhaps this can change.

commit 8a6592779e9b34d59d194eaf33b362b4c6466f62
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 15:19:59 2014 -0700

    Badtiles for marksnagas and naga enchanters.

commit 5b6e87f133d061fba1f419e655486046923d790d
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 14:00:29 2014 -0700

    Experimentally replace a few of the rune vault enemies with the new guys.
   
    The numbers for these might need more work, if this is warranted at all.

commit af0a5ddbd468554f86b7b4ef8c6c36c7d985221f
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 13:17:04 2014 -0700

    Give marksnagas a chance of a sling and shield (|amethyst).

commit 6f26326460c1aac973fdf3b69076c0a179df68fa
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu Aug 16 14:33:57 2012 -0600

    Implement Portal Projectile for marksnagas in place of Leda's.
   
    For whatever reason, extra-stable footing doesn't apply to liquefied
    ground, so that part of the original rationale fails; the new
    replacement is partly motivated by my observation that in a lot of
    scenarios where marksnagas turn up, the rest of the nagas in the pack
    tend to block their lines of fire - so this helps make them effective
    even in those scenarios.
   
    This is a variation of the implementation I've had floating around for a
    while (20f9716) updated for more modern Crawl.

commit f2ee4041714a42f9b9d64681cee6b63b0269c73b
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 11:29:11 2014 -0700

    Two new professional nagas: naga enchanters and marksnagas.
   
    Naga enchanters are a sort of naga shaman - they can confuse you, haste
    themselves and their allies, and cast Invisibility Other (a new spell
    which is exactly what it sounds like).
   
    Marksnagas deal with ranged weaponry and cast Corona, Slow, and Leda's
    Liquefaction. (I'm not convinced the latter is the best idea, but nagas
    have stable footing - thus if, say, courtesy of a guardian serpent
    they're surrounding their foe, they have the edge in melee; plus they
    all can spit poison at the very least, and should be able to volley at a
    fleeing foe).
   
    I can envision quite a few tactical combinations of abilities between
    the spell sets of these enemies, the reworked guardian serpents, and the
    garden variety nagas; this should hopefully make Snake less of a slog.

commit 577cd625285568925aa066f57bfe5a7d13fa436b
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 11:03:05 2014 -0700

    Sapper snakes.
   
    A mid-tier Snake denizen, they have an anti-magic bite which heals them
    proportionally to MP drained. Wizards beware!

commit 37506b97f642ec2ccf47fc76feca7b4269bd061b
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 4 10:43:50 2014 -0700

    Shock serpents.
   
    These are a mid-to-high-tier Snake enemy (at the moment), intended to be
    more interesting than the current variety of fast physical / venom
    damage plain snakes and slow but hard-hitting nagas.
   
    They deal mainly electrical damage in one of three (or four) ways -
    directly through their bite, at a distance with Shock, or at melee range
    through Static Discharge - invoked by them directly or as a response to
    taking damage.
   
    Tactical management of shock serpents could be interesting - hitting
    them when they're surrounded by enemies will damage those enemies
    courtesy of the discharge effect.

commit 55b71c2b7481b5cf067ccabb02894b9f818e7fa3
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Thu Aug 16 15:10:57 2012 -0600

    Let monsters cast Static Discharge; support for arbitrary start points.
   
    Right now it's just ghosts that will cast it, but I have at least two
    seemingly viable ideas for this functionality - one involving a new
    enemy and one involving an unrand.

commit 1af1fca8f0719cdbc1f27a4fe47e5d8ff533adcd
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 22:33:49 2014 -0330

    Depths population table adjustments
   
    Much less sweeping than Swamp and Forest, understandably. This adds
    spriggan air mages and berserkers as mid-tier encounters, and defenders
    as rarer high-tier ones, as well as making a few other adjustments
    here and there. Deep trolls are rarer, flayed ghosts are somewhat more
    common, and modest changes to a few other things I felt were a bit too
    common or rarer.
   
    (Defenders were added to the list twice with different ranges and
    weights. I am not sure how better to reconcile the fact that all
    weights in the OOD range are so incredibly low (and defenders make
    sensible solo vault spawns from this list) with wanting them to
    sometimes spawn OUTSIDE of vaults, as their band is a point of interest
    for them. Possibly it would make more sense if the scale for depths
    greater than 6 were not so different than depths 6 or below, but
    adjusting this would be a lot more work right now)

commit f6f1125b1162dce73b511aec0c172148e49d2947
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 22:32:39 2014 -0330

    Replace plain tengu with buffed ravens in tengu warrior/conjurer bands
   
    Plain tengu are pretty worthlessly weak, especially given the depth.
    Ravens are quite a lot stronger than them now, and there is a long
    narrative association between tengu and crow familiars.

commit af21f3db3ec79239812ef3d3e1f3f882fdcb9fb6
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 22:32:03 2014 -0330

    Somewhat reduce the number of professional deep trolls in deep trolls bands
   
    They were probably slightly too common overall.

commit 6e871df78c431a04435d23c85ec805393248632c
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 19:56:19 2014 -0330

    Adjust Shoals spawn table
   
    A similar edit as with Swamp: monsters from the forest dispersal
    are introduced and the weights of some others adjusted. Bats are
    far less common, hippogiffs are replaced with griffons increasingly
    by depth, high tier merfolk are much more common outside of Shoals:5
    itself. Water nymphs are added as a mid-tier spawn, with rarer fauns
    as low ones and then even rarer satyrs deeper. Water elementals can
    spawn randomly to break up some of the monotony of filler spawns,
    along with an ocassional wind drake.
   
    For a few reasons I am somewhat less pleased with this than the
    Swamps weights, potentially because Shoals had a larger band lacking
    in many meaningful encounters and with fewer things to fill it with.
    I expect there will be more changes to come in future.

commit 811f4f39a19a0d7380cd9fd92b4da0705928dc9d
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 19:54:12 2014 -0330

    Make impalers and javelineers sometimes spawn without a band on shallow Shoals depths
   
    This is so they can be used even more often earlier on without involving
    the same kinds of numbers seen on Shoals:5.

commit c539712b13c92846c97d4e9d92cce4c820103f77
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 17:13:20 2014 -0330

    Adjust Swamp population tables
   
    This commit does some considerable refiguring of the Swamp population,
    working in the Forest refugees slated for it and making several other
    changes.
   
    Shambling mangroves and smaller spriggan rider bands have been added
    as moderately rare midrange encounters, with spriggan druids and thorn
    hunters as rarer deep ones. Ravens are made much more common (now that
    hopefully they're a bit more meaningful). Vampire mosquitoes are less
    common, shadows replace hungry ghosts (and are more common), multiple
    incredibly weak monsters no longer show up on deep floors. Water
    monsters are much less frequent overall and eels removed, with thorn
    lotuses added (less common overall than in their original homes). And
    probably several other tweaks I have forgotten to mention here.
   
    As always, such changes are provisional and will need to see real
    playtesting.

commit c219c26bfb426e1786894f8b282c3b30729cff4d
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 17:11:22 2014 -0330

    Slightly reduce wisp band size, rarely spawn vapours with them
   
    Pairing vapours with wisps is an idea that was tried a while back,
    and then canned due to the forest fires vapours were prone to starting.
    With that now made less of a problem (and vapours overall improved from
    their old state back then, too), I think it's worth trying again.

commit 0685f9efc0ff3a740c698acca1b634b4c7cac4af
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 15:09:43 2014 -0330

    Reduce extreme (buggy) steam spread rate from fire clouds over water
   
    Not only are the absolutely massive explosions of steam created by flame
    clouds over water somewhat annoying to have to sit through whenever you
    (maybe inadvertently) cause them, but it looks like they were probably
    unintentional in the first place. The steam cloud's spread rate (in just
    this one context) is left unfilled at a default of -1. Of course, spread_rate
    is an unsigned 8-bit integer.... (it should be noted that steam's NORMAL
    spread rate is 22)
   
    If you use wizmode, you can see that even a single flame cloud can produce
    steam at up to 15 or so spaces away from the original source, which is rather
    insane. I have reduced the spread rate to normal (and increased the generation
    rate just a touch), which I think produces far less intrusive effects.
   
    I'm not fully sure of the numbers, which might need further adjusting, but
    combined with the last commit, I think it's a definite quality-of-life
    improvement in Swamp for both people being attacked by vapours and those using
    fire and lightning themselves.

commit 0dbf6e2f6ab4827ef94d0d6c883b863c66022cbb
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 15:04:16 2014 -0330

    Don't let burning mangroves start forest fires
   
    This was mechanically somewhat problematic in Swamp, when vapours were
    prone to causing LoS-filling explosions of steam just by doing their
    normal thing, and players using lightning and fire attacks primarily
    tended to contend with the same issue a lot of the time as well.
   
    Given that mangroves are actually notably less prone to wildfires than
    many trees (especially in such a watery environment!), just make them
    produce a shorter flame cloud instead of a full forest fire. I think this
    will probably play better in the branch they show up in.

commit fc2dd07f6af65b4e9bab49d086deb96e871952ce
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 23 15:44:25 2014 -0330

    Make shark blood frenzy message more specific
   
    So that players will understand what is actually triggering it without
    already knowing.

commit dd4bd0d329a67085d6c9b0faecbfb1fcf2957eec
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 23 15:42:02 2014 -0330

    Add a simple monster implementation of manticore barb damage
   
    I'm not sure this is really necessary and cannot operate the same as
    the player's in any case, since monsters don't really know how to
    stand still. Thus theirs will wear off even when stationary (though
    moving accelerates the process as they take damage).
   
    It might just be simpler to make the monster bleed or something, instead
    of this extra code for an effect that will rarely happen or be meaningful
    (though manticores have already been suggested as a possible player
    summon several times, so....)

commit 487b75a77a18d6c10fa492c9f06a046d0298509c
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 23 14:58:20 2014 -0330

    Revamp manticores
   
    These were a fairly unnotable monster, especially so in Shoals
    (though usually barely worth noticing in D, either). They now fly
    (which one might expect from the wings, and helps them become stranded
    less frequently in Shoals), move at speed 8 instead of 7 and act at
    normal speed. Their melee is considerably improved, as well as the
    accuracy of their spikes.
   
    The spikes get a new effect. When they hit the player and inflict damage,
    the barbed spikes become embedded in your body and will cause further
    damage with every step you move. Resting for a few turns will remove the
    spikes, but other actions will not (nor will thet wear off while asleep/
    paralyzed/etc.). Moving will eventually cause them to snap off, but this
    is much less quick than resting (and incurs non-trivial damage during that
    length of time).
   
    The idea is to create an impairment that limits the player primarily via
    damage and is overwise inobtrusive. If you are in no danger, then you can
    simply charge the manticore and accept the extra damage. But in more dicey
    situations, it makes running away not so automatically a correct answer
    and could hopefully cause tension between flight and standing your ground.
   
    Numbers are provisional and will likely need further adjustment following
    playtesting.

commit 3b6715411341475540d2cb36859f48379e8bdb2c
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 22 22:47:57 2014 -0330

    Let blood scent trigger if blood would be spilled over ineligible squares
   
    Most particularly this applies to water, when cannot be bloodied. But
    it seems curious that sharks have a gimmick that involves reacting to
    blood, when combat in their native terrain can never produce anyway. Since
    there are good reasons not to recolor water red all the time, instead
    merely trigger blood scent when blood would otherwise have been created,
    but do not bloody the square itself.
   
    Something similar could arguably be done for Ignite Blood, though I am
    uncertain of the implications of creating massive clouds of steam whenever
    you fight over water.

commit bfa2403b7f766ed32e6213c48e997ccaa586efc8
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 22 22:43:51 2014 -0330

    Unbreak monster blood scent and web sense
   
    It looks like it was assuming everything was out of range if it had
    any distance at all.

commit a4782071bdf70dfeeed85eebd00e3361c265a500
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 15:12:50 2014 -0330

    Make siren/mermaid mesmerisation scale with HD
   
    It previously had flat power, regardless who was using it. The net
    effect of this change is that sirens become slightly harder to resist,
    mermaids stay the same, and the low-HD sirens/mermaids in that Sewer
    vault become much easier to resist.

commit 0d6be078a4445c9ad6efac7254384650a2756be0
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 15:09:03 2014 -0330

    A few more siren behavioral tweaks
   
    Make sirens even more likely to prefer deep water than before (to
    the point of being willing to move past the player to reach some, when
    previously they never would if shallow was available closer to them).
    Given how key it is to their offense, it seems important to prioritize
    it further.
   
    Also adjust siren pathfinding slightly so that they will attempt to
    move around the player instead of stopping in front of them, if you
    happen to bar their path.
   
    Finally, remove siren's melee attack altogether. It almost never
    works anyway and was harmless even when it did. It is better not to
    give the illusion that she will actually hit something when she so
    rarely does, I think.

commit 4a95513685cd52e08a0870072e977854e10af435
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 14:57:26 2014 -0330

    Teach sirens a new offensive trick
   
    A long-acknowledged problem with sirens is that while their
    mesmerisation can be powerful and relevant when supported by dangerous
    allies, they are completely harmless on their own yet can still camp
    out where you can't reach them and prevent you from leaving as well.
    The solution I propose to these staring matches is to make lone sirens
    actually dangerous and so I am giving them a powerful and thematic form
    of offense: calling up the spirits of the drowned to inflict the same
    fate on their captive audience.
   
    When a siren starts to sing, it starts a counter that will (after a
    short time) start to continuously call up drowned souls from nearby
    deep water. These drowned souls have very short duration and die upon
    hitting something, but their touch inflicts considerable AC-ignoring
    drowning damage.
   
    Since mesmerisation can already be powerful in the presence of allies,
    said counter will not be incremented in the presence of more than a few
    HD worth of them (and thus sirens with existing support will not call
    up drowned souls). This ability is intended foremost to give threat to
    the many sirens one encounters WITHOUT any backup to speak of without
    making all others much more dangerous.
   
    I think requiring deep water to perform this ability could work well with
    their already-existing behavior to pull the player towards this terrain
    and gives a powerful incentive to try and not let that happen.
   
    Most of the numbers involved here are provisional, including rate of
    soul calling, damage of individual souls, number of allies required to
    inhibit using it, etc. The idea is that it should be quite dangerous on
    its own without making situations where a siren's presence is already
    dangerous far moreso, but nor should one or two harmless monsters prevent
    it outright.
   
    Let's see how it plays.

commit df4788baaa0839bc2f5ada2494950d4c7c0516b9
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 14:49:58 2014 -0330

    Adjust siren pulling behavior
   
    Siren pulling is now irresistible if you are already mesmerized and
    happens passively each turn (without her needing to renew her song),
    but only triggers if the player did not themselves approach the siren
    that turn. (The idea is that this prevents you sometimes jumping
    multiple spaces in a single turn and makes the pulling behavior more consistent but also
    more powerful).

commit 793613a4102c519e0bd44eb4fa8f3754bfbef145
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 14:42:20 2014 -0330

    Remove a pointless special case
   
    Mesmerisation only worked if the player can see the monster mesmerising
    or was already mesmerised by them previously, so this ends up merely
    reducing the frequency that invisible (but seen!) mermaids at low hp
    will mesmerise. And considering they have no way to go invisible on their
    own anyway....

commit ca45539f9be5e410f04aa8a6d9f26379353b47c8
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 12:55:07 2014 -0330

    Fix failed siren/mermaid mesmerisation attempts consuming no energy

commit c1d4bd84cf172f1de8ddd32975faf9d6337df5fa
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 12:52:17 2014 -0330

    Improve siren pulling behavior
   
    Sirens will no longer pull you into positions that cannot see them
    (and thus break mesmerisation in the process) and will not be completely
    confounded by many apparently non-obstructing walls, but rather pull
    you forward along the beam path between your position and theirs (instead
    of only in the direction of the sign difference between your two
    positions, which might be occupied).

commit e5de0d2f622b234c779aeb75044d0cafed4ab126
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Tue Jan 21 12:26:51 2014 -0330

    Fix a few issues with siren movement behavior
   
    Sirens should now be less likely to voluntarily break LoS with a
    mesmerised player, either by stepping away or ducking around a
    corner. Hitting a siren will no longer sometimes cause it to start
    dancing or run off to the top-left of the map. Also sirens should
    more properly maintain a target lock on the player, even while
    moving away (this would affect ranged attacks if they had any).
   
    Unfortunately, it seems there's no clear good way to go about fixing
    the fact that under almost no circumstances will a mesmerising siren
    actually use its melee attack. The best solution I could find causes
    the siren to oscillate back and forth around the spot it wants to
    stand, which I don't consider an improvement. But given that siren
    melee is pathetic and irrelevant anyway, I consider this relatively
    unimportant (and plan to give them something better to replace it
    anyway)

commit d0dc3288d81b9331ab36b93936f6c995a62eb9a2
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 22:12:23 2014 -0330

    Don't consider rDrown- monsters the same as rDrown+ for engulfing

commit 7380c6ef4b339873560f89dd5575c41b0b6bdde3
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 22:09:26 2014 -0330

    Give nymphs a drowning touch (and minor stat tweaks)
   
    Unlike water elemental engulfing, this does not silence or cause any
    lasting effects, but is simply water-based direct drowning damage applied
    with their touch attack (AC-ignoring).
   
    Also reduce their hd slightly, base melee damage slightly, and waterstrike
    damage slightly.

commit 806f4fe5a7f0687b314be53ec2b709e08c361b88
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 22:07:14 2014 -0330

    Rename AF_DROWN to AF_ENGULF
   
    It's a bit more fitting with what it does (and I'm about to reuse
    AF_DROWN for something else)

commit bc8360aaf3b22e0584fea06ea129354bf486c195
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 17:57:09 2014 -0330

    Reduce strange interactions between Shoals tides and temp water
   
    When a tidal change happened, sometimes large chunks of temp water
    would be outright removed (even when they were far from the shoreline),
    and without actually removing the terrain change marker (which caused
    bits of land that were curiously immune to being flooded again).
   
    I have to admit that I don't entirely understand all the tidal code
    so it's possible this fix doesn't do exactly what I think it does, but it
    does seem to address the visible issue - temp water is preserved
    regardless of tidal movement, which continues to operate normally around
    it.

commit 61e05370bc7496d70a91b32e74a85f0818189899
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 17:54:47 2014 -0330

    Give water nymphs a passive aura of water which follows them around
   
    This power performs some of the same functions as waterport touch
    (forcing melee confrontations to be in range of waterstrike), without
    directly throwing the player around. Their new home will have plenty
    of water to use anyway, but this serves as a failsafe when lured onto
    land (and can also synergize with other nearby creatures).

commit c2945490ebe89497d61981cfa3df8e91d2bd4462
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 17:43:48 2014 -0330

    Don't add terrain change markers when changing a terrain from itself to itself
   
    You could instead just, y'know, leave it what it already is.

commit ac6ca4548c00c5cb49c950086407a4675ffc2f59
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sun Jan 19 16:39:19 2014 -0330

    Remove nymph waterport touch
   
    While I still feel like the attack could create a number of interesting
    tactical problems, the mostly-irresistable player relocation was fairly
    unpopular, so let's try giving them something else instead.
   
    (I'm pretty sure outright removing an AF type doesn't cause save compat
    issues if it couldn't occur in a ghost_demon struct, right?)

commit 4d157780a42ef6100d50fa12be606cd54a84e1dd
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 20:13:04 2014 -0330

    Nudge a couple early merfolk vaults slightly deeper

commit 4077693112024357f5550f539bef18a45e9210fe
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 20:02:27 2014 -0330

    Buff monster merfolk and mermaids somewhat
   
    Merfolk were the most common 'standard' monster in most of Shoals, but
    pretty underwhelming - similar in stats to an orc warrior and losing in
    melee against a lone elephant, when elephants themselves spawn in packs
    from a much earlier floor and aren't even major powerhouses then.
   
    This boosts their damage, hd, and hp, as well as making sure they always
    actually spawn with a weapon. Mermaids are now also guaranteed a (lesser)
    weapon and get a melee damage boost. Neither is liable to be too much
    scarier, but hopefully just a little less ignorable.
   
    (The size of bands involving merfolk were nudged down slightly in
    compensation, since the elite merfolk are actually dangerous)

commit c3013328026260f61aee00a63df90dac971c872e
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 18:32:43 2014 -0330

    Adjust fauns and satyrs for Shoals
   
    Generally this is an overall power reduction, with a few other tweaks.
   
    Faun and satyr hd and hp are reduced - notably the satyr hd reduction
    also cuts the power of their rouse effect and prevents it from affecting
    impalers. Fauns however also recieved a tiny melee buff and slightly better
    melee weapons.
   
    Accounting for the much lower expected player MR when first encountering
    them, faun spells are diluted so that slow will be somewhat less common
    and confusion much less common. (The method this is accomplished is
    unpleasantly hacky, but without more fine-grained control of spell
    frequency within a single set, I am not sure how to reduce it low enough
    without removing it entirely). Satyr overall cast frequency is also
    somewhat reduced.
   
    Faun bands are now a little smaller, and fauns and satyrs both have a
    1 in 3 chance to spawn without a band, however their bands now have a
    chance of containing a single mermaid. Accompanying other monsters that
    can actually harm you will give mermaid mesmerize more of a chance to
    do work, and would a faun really turn away the company of such a charming
    maiden?

commit eee81776fc97a1fbedb1ab2afe6ebd20b5d2b9c2
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Sat Jan 18 12:16:17 2014 -0330

    A few tweaks to monster Cause Fear
   
    Don't flash the screen and print messages unless you can see the source
    square of the effect. Don't cast if all possible targets are already
    afraid (and don't reapply to already-feared targets, just as the player
    version already does). Reduce the duration against the player to something
    more sane.

commit 3ed202c3d93f06cb0f568e2dbecace3cc5a5d6ea
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 16 11:40:21 2014 -0330

    Some spriggan band adjustments for Swamp
   
    Druids now have a 1 in 3 chance of coming with a small band of either
    plain spriggans or an ocassional rider. Riders themselves now only have
    a 1 in 3 chance of their band, and it is smaller. Shambling mangroves
    no longer can come with a druid (a hasted mangrove sounds excessive for
    a mid-tier Swamp encounter) but sometimes a single rider accompanies
    them instead.

commit 557bad80a24e57888f4632f71ff2a3c7310c5fa3
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 16 11:28:19 2014 -0330

    Nerf spriggan druids slightly
   
    A little reduction to their HD, melee, and a bit more to their EV.
    Druid's call threatens to be pretty scary in Swamp, so let's weaken
    them just a little in other ways.

commit 9d7b9d09aaf0ef989e9956251c6e9623c9a106d1
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Thu Jan 16 11:10:05 2014 -0330

    Adapt thorn hunters and lotuses to a marshy home
   
    Both monsters recieve some stat nerfs to themselves and thorn volley's
    scaling formula (though lesser than treants did, as thorn hunters were
    comparatively less scary in their original homes and intended for a
    higher-tier threat slot here than shambling mangroves).
   
    Briar patches are made amphibious so that they can be spawned across
    water, and thorn hunters likewise gain the ability to swim, though at
    a reduced speed compared to their land movement.

commit 3ddfe14736f6ae913331acf41fff7a8e2e73c220
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 23:09:36 2014 -0330

    A new description for Shambling Mangroves
   
    The old treant description references a few things that aren't entirely
    true anymore.

commit d0431c8b13b822fe77cab00e137dd12a4c2eaa40
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 22:47:59 2014 -0330

    Buff ravens' damage a bit, make them spawn in small bands
   
    They're likely still not very notable, but maybe not always completely
    irrelevant when they spawn in Swamp (or, now, from Shambling Mangroves).

commit 7d24744ddebebb28b8f3be82764695a0cb668852
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 20:58:09 2014 -0330

    Don't spam rooted characters with a ton of needless messages when rooted
    and moving through shallow water.

commit 5637cb1e08c5adaeb6073b8b35e56f3b57a7db43
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 20:56:27 2014 -0330

    Adjust grasping roots
   
    The roots can now impede targets in shallow (but not deep) water as well as
    land, but their movement slowing and EV-reducing effects are reduced in power.

commit 68bd4261cb0a3b3318f271d3b3fa11119628d1e3
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 20:52:59 2014 -0330

    Let shambling mangroves sometimes nest ravens instead of wasps
   
    Intended as part of another overall nerf compared to old treants.
   
    I wouldn't mind seeing a 3rd option for what kind of fauna might
    be hiding in their foliage, but I'm not sure what a sensible choice
    might be (there seem to be few options that are both thematically
    plausible and mechanically reasonable).

commit 82ffb2bf210dacde50705aab21a4568f35c12420
Author: DracoOmega <draco_omega@live.com>
Date:   Wed Jan 15 20:49:21 2014 -0330

    Treants -> Shambling Mangroves
   
    In preparation for the Forest migration, treants have been replaced with
    their marshy cousins. Moving to a lower-level branch, there are nerfs all
    around (and more to come). They have lower HD, hp, damage, and AC, and
    also contain fewer wasps. However, they also lose their fire vulnerability
    and become amphibious, as suits their new waterlogged home.

commit 062a2ce7d35b096a390e057a6902cd83c4ab2c69
Author: ontoclasm <yokomeshi@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 20:59:24 2014 -0600

    Shadow & mushroom form tiles

commit cfacb1039cb948b213ff066e7d6bbd7b8c55f0aa
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 16:23:58 2014 -0700

    Harshen piety hits for Dith firestarting; fix some edge cases.
   
    Forest fires, Conjure Flame, and Ring of Flames now incur piety hits
    properly, and the piety hits for everything else are much harsher
    (you're probably going to get penance for trying to do anything
    fire-related).

commit c7e39278c09070980bc29b4ebe06058dc6e3c077
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 16:13:32 2014 -0700

    Revert "Revive a monster Ignite Poison implementation for FoVM enemies."
   
    Apparently someone else is going to do something similar in the
    immediate future.
   
    This reverts commit 65f686f80ba4bcb81cbe48947271143fe96d4b20.

commit 2beed7a36fd5adbce0f92f139e984420b50bb25a
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 15:49:42 2014 -0700

    Make vine stalker enemies less of a dummy.
   
    They get a normal attack in addition to the bite; if they're used as
    spellcasting enemies, they can remove the effects of antimagic through
    their antimagic bite just as the player version can. This will probably
    be more relevant if/when there's a version of the enemy that can cast
    spells
   
    Actually, this will be more relevant in general if/when they actually
    spawn somewhere (Swamp and/or Snake have been suggested for good
    candidates for this, probably moreso Swamp).

commit 65f686f80ba4bcb81cbe48947271143fe96d4b20
Author: Steve Melenchuk <smelenchuk@gmail.com>
Date:   Mon Jan 27 15:16:47 2014 -0700

    Revive a monster Ignite Poison implementation for FoVM enemies.
   
    The relevant old commit is ab7eb6992d0672e1189193d82656b790ddd6dc9a;
    this is cleaned up and modernised a lot from its original
    implementation (mainly it has a tracer whereas the original
    implementation did not).
   
    The new FoVM spell set is Venom Bolt, Poisonous Cloud, and Ignite
    Poison. This might benefit from some more adjustment - it's a spell set
    that can potentially generate a lot of collateral damage if you get too big
    of a swarm of nearby poisonous enemies; some other ideas I've had
    including replacing one of the two damage spells with Poison Arrow (one
    shot, one target) or Mephitic Cloud (low area of effect, can still be
    ignited semi-reliably).


Mostly, a lot of forest critters are being placed in Swamp/Snake (Sometimes with some nerfs for spawn level) and also several of the monsters were updated/revamped/replaced in those branches, also some new monster variants were added.
Spoiler: show
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Shoals Surfer

Posts: 329

Joined: Tuesday, 7th May 2013, 17:09

Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 21:51

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

It looks like the demonspawn-enemies branch was merged as well. Trunk of 24 hours ago was a lot different than trunk now. It's obviously not a crisis if we just go ahead and score this one normally but there's weirdness to it.

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1031

Joined: Friday, 26th April 2013, 19:52

Location: AZ, USA

Post Tuesday, 28th January 2014, 22:09

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Figures. It doesn't affect too much this week since everyone with a completed game except moose died before the areas that these changes impact.

Just gives those of you who started early the option to not update to the branch changes until next week.
User avatar

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 5832

Joined: Thursday, 10th February 2011, 18:30

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 02:59

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Still what the $#!+ with those labyrinth mini-vaults, I've never seen so many!
"Be aware that a lot of people on this forum, such as mageykun and XuaXua, have a habit of making things up." - minmay a.k.a. duvessa
Did I make a lame complaint? Check for Bingo!
Totally gracious CSDC Season 2 Division 4 Champeen!
User avatar

Spider Stomper

Posts: 216

Joined: Monday, 1st April 2013, 04:41

Location: TX

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 03:53

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

4 runes and I still haven't found Apportation! It's so stressful not having my precious spell I'm thinking of calling it quits after getting 6 runes and Geryon's head.
take it easy

Barkeep

Posts: 3890

Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25

Location: USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 05:47

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Okay so I just got the serpentine rune in the new Snake. (I thought we were supposed to stay up to date immediately so I did. Oh well definitely made Snake more interesting.)

In general there are fewer large groups of nagas, but the new guys and the new guardian serpent ability to blink nagas toward you (and often behind you) makes it more dangerous overall. On the whole I think Snake is going to be more fun than before—the Vaults redesign is a good analogy—but for the people in this particular forum, it might be hard to appreciate that until after the competition.


Only done it once, so take that into account. That disclaimer aside, first impressions and advice:

I had rElec, so the shocking serpents (sea snakes that mated with electric eels) weren't much of an issue. YMMV—fortunately they are pretty rare, at least based on my play through.

I also had a pip of rF, but I don't think the salamanders would have added much difficulty beyond what is already in there, even if I didn't have rF, to be honest.

Sharpshooters can be rough. They tend to come in small packs in Snake 3 and 4, and there will definitely be some scattered throughout 5. They know portal projectile. Also, unlike centaurs and yaktaurs, they are actually smart enough to continue using their bows/crossbows when you are next to them, so adjut your tactics accordingly. They can spawn with either bows or crossbows; all kinds of ammo brands can be flying your way (nota bene!), so be careful. My two closest calls in Snake (got down to about 30% health each time) were from unexpected Wiglaf who chased me into a greater naga, and from a sharpshooter who had silver bolts, which I didn't realize immediately—I had a few mutations and they took out big chunks of life. Fortunately dazzling spray works pretty well on sharpshooters.

In fact, I leaned on dazzling enemies a lot in Snake, and it worked extremely well. I mean, it did before too, but a lot of the new enemies' special attacks and gimmicks are disabled, or at least drastically reduced in effectiveness, if you get blind to stick.

Mages seem to haste up even more often; at least, from last time I remembered. And they seem stronger overall, though maybe it just felt that way due to the way they interacted with the new enemies and abilities.

Salamander mystics (I think that's what they were called) like to haste other, but otherwise I didn't find them noteworthy. Only fought a few of them the whole way through; they (as of now) have the ? glyph because a tile hasn't been implemented yet.

There was some new type of naga mystic (IIRC) that casts toxic radiance and supposedly has some ability called virulence that makes the poison attacks of nearby enemies more effective (*just* what Snake needs, right?). I generally found they weren't anything to write home about, either. I had rPois for Snake; presumably this just makes rPois even *more* of a necessity for Snake. However, possibly these naga mystics are more dangerous in conjunction with poison bolt-ers and greater naga's poison arrow, if their virulence ability buffs that, you should be wary. (Not sure if it does, didn't really come up this play through.)

Had to teleport a few times due to guardian serpents' blinking crap all over me. I'd say the guardian serpent buff and the sharpshooters are the biggest new dangers. Greater Nagas are still rough, but then they've always been.

Barkeep

Posts: 3890

Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25

Location: USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:07

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Oh yeah—mana vipers (I think that's what they were called).

Didn't find them that bad, they are fast and seem to have high EV. Or else it seems like magic doesn't hurt them as much—no idea if that's just in my head. Not too bad though, they hit you and drain mana, but don't do much damage. If you have a decent melee attack to resort to (and obviously you should by Snake, always, anyway), you should be fine. I killed 6 or 7, generally amongst some other enemies; I think one time they forced me into a retreat rather early in an encounter that I otherwise might have stayed and fought, but I was not in any real danger (granted, that's because I fled early).

For reference, my Dg started Snake at level 15 (almost 16), finished at level 17 with one-third of the way to 18.

Currently 150 health, 36 Magic, AC 19, EV 24, SH 12. Using a really nifty +7, +4 artifact falchion of electrocution with a couple of resistances on it, and a ring that has neg intelligence and rC-, but +9 damage (couldn't pass it up). Slightly lower HP, and only 18 AC, when I entered Snake.

Got a ring of wizardry, so I didn't get as much in spell levels as I otherwise would have—only 7 levels in conjuration, 5 in hexes. Nonetheless that was sufficient to dazzle greater nagas—or really, everything but mana vipers who seem to resist all sorts of magic attacks—very effectively. Dazzling spray is dope.

I had very good MR throughout, too, just so you know. Not sure whether, or how much, that helped. I did have haste castable, I used it more than I needed to (obviously, as that's the point of getting the spell), but there were three times when being fast felt pretty critical, four counting Wiglaf.

Good luck!
Last edited by and into on Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:19, edited 2 times in total.

Shoals Surfer

Posts: 300

Joined: Tuesday, 19th February 2013, 23:34

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:09

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Ughh. I'm glad to have gotten Spider and Swamp. DgCj is a pretty fun build. With the awesome Int, you don't miss the lack of a god so much, except for spell choice. I found Frost and Ice, so my path was chosen for me. The slow skilling is a PITA; up to XL17 and only now gotten Freezing Cloud online; have enough Necro for Dispel Undead, but no spell slots.

Found 6 !Beneficial Mutation, which has to be some kind of record. All and all, a fun game so far. I'm at the point now where boredom alternating with terror is a factor.

Barkeep

Posts: 3890

Joined: Wednesday, 14th August 2013, 23:25

Location: USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:24

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

HenryFlower wrote:Ughh. I'm glad to have gotten Spider and Swamp. DgCj is a pretty fun build. With the awesome Int, you don't miss the lack of a god so much, except for spell choice. I found Frost and Ice, so my path was chosen for me. The slow skilling is a PITA; up to XL17 and only now gotten Freezing Cloud online; have enough Necro for Dispel Undead, but no spell slots.

Found 6 !Beneficial Mutation, which has to be some kind of record. All and all, a fun game so far. I'm at the point now where boredom alternating with terror is a factor.


Yeah, I had Snake and Shoals—good times. I'd say new Snake is getting closer to being on par with Shoals, though Shoals 5 still takes the cake. However as I had rPois, and didn't have access to renewable flying, I really didn't feel like screwing around with tides.

The depressed skill growth is a bit of a drag; but yeah, with some luck from the RNG, plus the good stats and health / mp growth, the lack of god hasn't been bothering me that much. I found 3 !Beneficial mutations myself, actually. Though that is also why those silver bolts hurt so damn much. One of those potions just gave me horns, but I got some nice black and rugged brown scales from the other two.

Spider Stomper

Posts: 209

Joined: Friday, 12th April 2013, 15:00

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:50

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

oh, I splatted miserably
http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/headcrab0803/morgue-headcrab0803-20140129-064712.txt
i guess ill have to get used to this webtile lag

Unarmed Combat 27.0

Posts: 670

Joined: Saturday, 12th January 2013, 22:48

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 06:55

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Yeah, I've never played online and the lag is a huge bummer.
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Shoals Surfer

Posts: 301

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Location: Tel'aran'rhiod

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 07:27

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

diviton wrote:Yeah, I've never played online and the lag is a huge bummer.

You get used to it. As a result you'll play more carefully and achieve better results :) At least this is how it went for me when I transitioned from offline to online play.

---

Regarding the challenge I had not much time at my disposal the last two days, but it's looking kind of promising. Found a potion of experience at level 6 and this
  Code:
 a - the +3,+3 Elemental Staff (weapon) {rElec rF++ rC++ MR++ AC+5}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)

was huge! I'm lacking some utility spells though...
User avatar

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1891

Joined: Monday, 1st April 2013, 04:41

Location: Toronto, Canada

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 07:30

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Tedronai wrote:
  Code:
 a - the +3,+3 Elemental Staff (weapon) {rElec rF++ rC++ MR++ AC+5}
   (You found it on level 8 of the Dungeon)


Haha, crazy unrand crew checking in. I've got both the singing sword and autumn katana, though you can probably guess which one I'm using, which feels pretty slick. I also found Iron Shot and a staff of earth without much hassle, and I've got rF++ on swap, so really I've just got to get to Zot and the game is mine. And maybe figure out if/how I can kill Antaeus.
take it easy

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1031

Joined: Friday, 26th April 2013, 19:52

Location: AZ, USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 07:33

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Have to admit that overall I'm impressed at how far most of you are getting! Definitely expected a lot more quick splats. And cheibrodos, if you want to die sometime soon that'd be great. Just sayin'. :wink:

For playing online, in general the server closest to you geographically will be fastest. But keep in mind some servers have much higher traffic, so if lag is really bad maybe try a different, less-used server. I personally have few problems playing on cao.

Cocytus Succeeder

Posts: 2173

Joined: Saturday, 2nd February 2013, 09:52

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 07:54

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Do you play tiles?

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 5382

Joined: Friday, 25th November 2011, 07:36

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 08:31

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Funny, I also had the elemental staff. Lost to a really dumb attempt to flee from some spriggans (I was hasted, but even so, they chipped away at me over time). Really should have been a won game. Should have used more heal wounds charges...

A major problem was the lack of aoe spells, I hadn't found any storms, and only had poison cloud. I probably should have memorized poison cloud, but I was holding out for some reason. Guess I can't set my sights on firestorm :( Ended up with 2 runes.

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/tasonir/mor ... 082735.txt

Is airstrike damage reduced by rElec? Looking at the morgue, I had switched to my staff of energy, and didn't have the elemental staff on...that could have been a big mistake. I never found a crystal ball of energy, which was another thing that was really holding me back.

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1131

Joined: Tuesday, 4th January 2011, 15:03

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 09:03

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

and into wrote: I'd say the guardian serpent buff and the sharpshooters are the biggest new dangers.


I'm pretty sure that the guardian serpents could blink nagas next to you before the challenge started. I have died to it ~3 weeks ago. The others you mentioned are new.

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1031

Joined: Friday, 26th April 2013, 19:52

Location: AZ, USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 13:54

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Magipi wrote:Do you play tiles?

No, I play console.

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1131

Joined: Tuesday, 4th January 2011, 15:03

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 16:31

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

I'm currently on Cocytus 7, I have cleared the whole level, wandered around, but I have found Antaeus nowhere.

Antaeus, the only time when I need him he is gone.

Maybe I'll fail the first challenge. :(

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1031

Joined: Friday, 26th April 2013, 19:52

Location: AZ, USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 16:39

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Wow... normally that'd be a great problem to have. He wasn't guarding the rune?

Abyss Ambulator

Posts: 1131

Joined: Tuesday, 4th January 2011, 15:03

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 16:49

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

No, I wandered around the level shouting, I have even casted shatter about 6 times just to make a lot of noise. He is nowhere.

Also:
  Code:
93de46b | tenofswords | 2014-01-28 15:37:03 -0500

Antaeus buff: give him the new Flash Freeze.
He may have had the scariest melee in the game, but anybody in extended
would be able to run circles around him without him doing much, making
him rather underwhelming for the lord of the already most boring Hell.

Flash Freeze, one of the Legendary Destruction spells, is a instant-hit
line-of-fire beam with decent partially irresistable cold damage that
gives a status that both slows player movement for a short bit
and blocks monsters from casting the spell again.

A perfect match, even if he still can't necessarily catch up to hasted
characters; the slow and damage are serious enough with the ice fiends
and other jerks around most Cocytus:$ vaults.


Maybe a dev noticed this challenge?

Unarmed Combat 27.0

Posts: 670

Joined: Saturday, 12th January 2013, 22:48

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 17:25

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Died on D:1. The second enemy I encountered was a pack of Jackals. Absolutely nothing I could have done to survive. =\

Second attempt, I died on D:4 because I took a step and spotted 4 gnolls and a gnoll shaman. The gnolls were immediately hasted, I was caught in a net and was dead in two turns.

I feel pretty shafted. =(

Dungeon Master

Posts: 3618

Joined: Thursday, 23rd December 2010, 12:43

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 17:55

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

diviton: I had the same (jackal pack). Was playing slowly and carefully, and it didn't work out. Don't worry so much, blame it on the non-seeded nature of the contest. Next time will certainly be better :) Who wants to play without god anyway?

Halls Hopper

Posts: 69

Joined: Monday, 20th February 2012, 10:43

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 18:22

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

I'd say the best part of this challenge is : "YAY!! I beated dpeg!!!!" :p

For this message the author Cedor has received thanks:
HenryFlower

Zot Zealot

Posts: 1031

Joined: Friday, 26th April 2013, 19:52

Location: AZ, USA

Post Wednesday, 29th January 2014, 18:32

Re: CSDC Week 1 - DgCj

Haha good timing on the Antaeus change. This gonna be like the Murphy's Law of CSDC: anything that can affect a challenge, the devs will tweak during that week.

Definitely a bummer, diviton and dpeg. Should even out over 10 weeks, unless you just get hilariously unlucky.
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