How do you handle the deaths of promising characters

[AzuredreamsXT]

Permadeath is something of a difficult adjustment for me lol, I just died with a character I really liked, a perfectly preventable death I might add, and it sucks! I'm so used to being able to reload and try again...

Actually this brings up an important question, I hate losing characters probably because I spend way more time on them then is intended. As a roguelike, this game is meant to be played in just a few sessions per character no? My last character that got the orb had 30+ hours played

What kind of playtime does your typical crawler invest into a character? One to three sessions I'm guessing, a few hours per?

[One-Eyed Jack]

Next time, don't make mistakes. Or at least not the same ones.

[Siegurt]

My win times range pretty widely from 11 hours on the short side, to 40 on the long 15 rune side, of course i'm not known for playing particularly quickly either.

I usually play in 2-5 hour sessions, depending on how much time I have available, almost never anything longer than 6 hours at a stretch, average is probably 3. it's quite a large number of sessions for me of playing, but I may be the exception rather than the rule, I'm not sure.

[duvessa]

My average time for recent wins is 3:36:06, of course this is inflated by idle time.

edit: fastest is 2:30:12 (never done a successful speedrun), slowest is 12:59:41

[Magipi]

My average time for recent wins is 3:36:06, of course this is inflated by idle time.

Compared to this, my fastest win is 8h55min, and my slowest is 34 hours

[Sprucery]

I play really short sessions, from 5 minutes to 1 - 2 hours. I also play really slowly: My last 3-runer was Turns: 234739, Time: 2, 00:25:44. So losing an advanced character really hurts. I deal with the loss by starting a new character immediately.

[Tedronai]

For a 3-rune game I need round about 8 hours. This is the case for webtile games. I could be way faster, but lag significantly slows me down (chaining commands without seeing what is going on can be fatal).

When a character dies I usually try to identify why that happened. Usually it could have been avoided and thus had been my own fault. Therefore it is only just that I'm punished for being stupid... (nonetheless I will still rage a bit)

[Lasty]

I've been clocking in at about 5-6 hours for my 3-rune games, sometimes closer to 8-9 for characters that are having a harder time. Each of those numbers probably is inflated significantly by idle time, since I don't necessarily save-quit when I need to stop playing but intend to return. The more experience you have and the more you fine-tune your settings to automate routine tasks, the more you'll trim down that playtime per character.

[njvack]

I usually weep heavily while drinking cheap Canadian whiskey until unconsciousness takes me in into sweet, comforting arms.

[some12fat2move]

My average time for recent wins is 3:36:06, of course this is inflated by idle time.

Wow, the idea of ascending a character the same day as starting it is pretty mindblowing to me...

To the OP: duvessa AKA minmay is one of the best players in existence, so don't take that as an example of a normal timeframe

[mopl]

I usually weep heavily while drinking cheap Canadian whiskey until unconsciousness takes me in into sweet, comforting arms.

I feared being the only one having such manners...
... I also build a little grave in my garden, containing the morgue file in a matchbox...

[Mattchew]

It sucks to lose a good character, especially when you could have saved it, which is usually the case for me even looking only at immediate tactics.

I try to learn from my mistakes. My main lessons are a) recognizing an emergency situation, which I am getting a little better at, and b) not panicking, not hoping that a little more running or flailing away will resolve the emergency, which I am maybe getting a tiny bit better at.

I have never won a game in less than 100K turns, or less than 24 hours of play time. I'd like to get faster, but I suspect the best way to get faster is to practice on simple builds and I'm always more interested in playing something I haven't won yet. I usually play 1-3 hours a stretch, but it takes quite a few sessions to win when I do. You're not alone in being a slow player.

[Tiktacy]

I just go ascend the same character in a sprint, that usually makes me feel better.

[Senban]

Permadeath is something of a difficult adjustment for me lol, I just died with a character I really liked, a perfectly preventable death I might add, and it sucks! I'm so used to being able to reload and try again...

Actually this brings up an important question, I hate losing characters probably because I spend way more time on them then is intended. As a roguelike, this game is meant to be played in just a few sessions per character no? My last character that got the orb had 30+ hours played

What kind of playtime does your typical crawler invest into a character? One to three sessions I'm guessing, a few hours per?

From this and some of your other posts I think where you're going wrong is being too good at the game. What I do is suck really bad at it, so when another bloody character dies from something like getting a decent sword and thinking that'll help I just shrug. Any bit of the game that isn't a frantic doors-of-fate-slamming-shut stair-dance-of-death is clover. And if all else fails just think like a Viking (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OyYnstGB3rM).

[AzuredreamsXT]

It sucks to lose a good character, especially when you could have saved it, which is usually the case for me even looking only at immediate tactics.

I try to learn from my mistakes. My main lessons are a) recognizing an emergency situation, which I am getting a little better at, and b) not panicking, not hoping that a little more running or flailing away will resolve the emergency, which I am maybe getting a tiny bit better at

The later x1000 for me. I've lost two great characters now because I thought "Hmm, well I need to escape from this monster but I can save a scroll of teleport/other consumables and just run, I should be fine"

Then I die, and again realize that this is Crawl, and that the character is never coming back. Then I tell myself I'm done with Crawl, and then I start another character

[pratamawirya]

I turn into Hulk and regret it later.

[Lasty]

I've been clocking in at about 5-6 hours for my 3-rune games, sometimes closer to 8-9 for characters that are having a harder time. Each of those numbers probably is inflated significantly by idle time, since I don't necessarily save-quit when I need to stop playing but intend to return. The more experience you have and the more you fine-tune your settings to automate routine tasks, the more you'll trim down that playtime per character.

As another thing to consider with time taken, I'm playing tiles but using exclusively keyboard controls. I'm pretty sure keyboard controls save time over mouse/graphical interface controls, so if you want to reduce the amount of time you spend on each character and you're using the graphical interface, you might look into learning the keyboard interface.

[TehDruid]

Playing tiles with keyboard only, my fastest 3 rune wins are around 2 - 2 + 1/2 hours without magic though.

[njvack]

I turn into Hulk and regret it later.

I still remember Hulking out when I fell down a pit after stoning a Master Lich on Medusa's level. Still wielding that !@#$ cockatrice.

NO I DON'T WANT MF !@#!$$ POSSESSIONS IDENTIFIED

...

well actually I kinda do

[pratamawirya]

I just go ascend the same character in a sprint, that usually makes me feel better.

This is hardcore.

EDIT:

I turn into Hulk and regret it later.

I still remember Hulking out when I fell down a pit after stoning a Master Lich on Medusa's level. Still wielding that !@#$ cockatrice.

NO I DON'T WANT MF !@#!$$ POSSESSIONS IDENTIFIED

...

well actually I kinda do

Wait, are you talking about some other game?

[njvack]

Wait, are you talking about some other game?

Yeah, nethack.

Every time I get annoyed about something in crawl, I remember back to nethack and think "it could be so much worse."