Ramblings of a returning player

[Sprucery]

I'm returning to Crawl from a couple of years' break and I'm loving it! I have 12 victories but I feel like a newbie once again... My first victory was with a HOFE in 1999 and Crawl 3.20. In that version, only one rune was required but all runes weren't guaranteed to exist (no Swamp rune in that particular game). Also, controlled teleporting in Zot:5 was still possible, which made it quite easy. The next victory (MDHe) was in the pre-release of version 3.40, where 3 runes where required and controlled teleporting disallowed in branch ends.

After that, I've won with HuRe, MDHu, HOCj, DsHu, NaCj, HuHu, SENe, GEFE, MDBe and DDFi (this last one in SS 0.5.1 over 3 years ago). Now some of those races and classes don't exist anymore...

Crawl has obviously changed a lot. I always loved it and now I'm more hooked than ever! Unfortunately time to play gets more and more limited... I think in the early days Crawl was quite a bit harder in the early game, but if you got a character to Lair, then the rest was a bit easier. Now the branch ends are harder and there are much more dangerous uniques. I used to do Lair, Mines, Snake, Swamp in this order and normally there was no need to reatreat from a branch once you entered it. All uniques could usually be killed by the time you met them, except Sigmund, Boris and maybe Xtahua. Don't get me wrong, I know some of you can win the game with any combo blind-folded and typing with your nose, but I consider myself an average player at the most

Now I'm painfully learning new things like 'krakens have to be treated with respect' and 'enormous slime creatures can dish out decent damage' (bye bye DD Stalker of Chei). Btw I'm playing version 10.3 on one machine (already got 13.0 on another). I'll update after my current character, HOWz of Fedhas who has 2 runes (Swamp and Shoals). I got the Swamp rune before clearing D:14, though I had to apport the rune and teleport out without killing the bone dragon (pestilence ending). Also I left Nikola alive on Swamp:3. Then I dipped to D:15 but didn't like it (icy statue, vault guardians, yaktaurs etc.) and went to Shoals. The last level was way too much, but I managed to apport the rune when someone opened the door of the rune vault while I was standing in the upstairs next to the door I'll go back to kill'em all (including Agnes and Ilsuiw) and gather the loot a bit later. Currently clearing D:19. Well, I'm sure the character will be dead quite soon now that I posted this...

[dpeg]

Sprucery: Very interesting story, thanks for sharing it!

I sometimes say to playery who get frustrated with Crawl that this is a game where you can easily take off a few years, knowing that in some years time a new version will be waiting for you. Great to see someone do that, and still having a blast with it.

Re: limited time: That's a peril of age and responsilibity, the killers of aimless fun. But you can check out Sprint for some quick deaths, I think the idea is awesome and it is a genuine Crawl experience, even if the format is completely different. Regarding the standard game, we have tried to make it shorter over the years, but most people still need around eight hours for a win.

[daggaz]

Now I'm painfully learning new things like 'enormous slime creatures can dish out decent damage'.

Change this to 'titanic slime creatures can dish out stupid amounts of damage' and you are pretty much set.

[Bloax]

'enormous slime creatures can dish out decent damage' (bye bye DD Stalker of Chei)

Temporal distortion (a->b) usually breaks them apart (and if they merge after it, just use it again), and if you're not strong enough to take it while happening to be in a corridor, your best bet is to teleport/step in time. (

[1010011010]

Enslave turns a Titanic slime creature into a 5 for 1 deal.

[Sprucery]

'enormous slime creatures can dish out decent damage' (bye bye DD Stalker of Chei)

Temporal distortion (a->b) usually breaks them apart (and if they merge after it, just use it again), and if you're not strong enough to take it while happening to be in a corridor, your best bet is to teleport/step in time. (

Thanks for the tip, I probably underused Chei's powers in many situations, because it was probably my second game with it. Slouch was used a lot, though.

[Sprucery]

Enslave turns a Titanic slime creature into a 5 for 1 deal.

Does it split? And if yes, can the enslavement wear off at different times so that the creatures start fighting each other?

[1010011010]

Does it split? And if yes, can the enslavement wear off at different times so that the creatures start fighting each other?

It can and attacking one will make it hostile but not the rest.