Blades Runner
Posts: 552
Joined: Tuesday, 10th April 2012, 21:11
Saturday, 11th January 2014, 23:56
Learning From Morgue Files
Preface
This guide is intended for intermediate players, as it deals exclusively with strategy. Players very new to the game will be best served focusing on tactics, which are harder to teach in words. I think the best way to learn tactics is to play a lot and to spectate strong players. Some tactical advice from this forum (from crate I think) that really helped me was: "When you first see a creature, it is often best to move away rather than towards it." That simple advice can teach a lot about monster AI, movement, positioning, and the role of noise, which are the heart of tactics in Crawl.
I. Introduction
a) Instructive power of morgue files
Crawl demands strategic decisions from the player from start to finish. Reviewing morgue files can help strengthen decision making. It does so by giving a window into the thought processes of stronger players. This guide is inspired from chess, where one of the most time tested ways to improve is to play through the games of masters.
b) Where to get morgue files
Latest tournament
Overall game list
Recent wins
c) Choosing games
Any of the players with 50 or more wins are generally a safe bet to learn from. First, decide which species you're interested in. Then, open up five or so player profiles, scroll down the list of wins, and open tabs to any winning games of the species you want in the game version you are playing. Note how many runes they got, because that can affect the end character a lot. Try to collect five or more games that look interesting.
d) Mindset
It's important not to mindlessly ape what the player did. There's no guarantee that the RNG will give you what you want, so always base strategic decisions on the materials you have at hand. The goal of learning from morgue files is to identify key decisions the player made, and ask why they might made those choices. It can be very instructive to mentally walk through the process of building and playing a winning character. There will also be general patterns to notice across games. Again, remember to think critically, because trying to copy a character exactly tends to fail, and you also might be looking at someone's challenge game where they intentionally handicapped themselves.
II. Reviewing The Morgue File
a) The Overview
The first screen of the morgue file has a lot of information packed into a small area. Take a moment to look it over at first, and get a general feel for the character. Is it a caster, fighter, or hybrid? How did the player build around species strengths and limitations? After that, I think the most important areas you want to look at are: god choice, stats, defenses, weapon, and body armor. Try to think why they may have chosen each one, and how it synergizes with the rest. Did they pump one stat or are they fairly even? Are AC\EV even or is one very high? (try to think about minimum defense numbers you want to aim for on your characters) Look up weapon base types and egos if they are unfamiliar to you. Check out armor weight and think how it affects the character's spell casting, stealth and evasion. God choice influences the character immensely, so look up anything you are unfamiliar with and apply that knowledge to the character before you.
b) Skills and Spells
Once you have a clear picture of the overall character in mind, then proceed down to skills and spells. For spells, look at the success rates and think about how the selected spells contribute to the general plan of the character. Note spells that recur often across games. For skills, try to think about what order they were built in, and note their stopping points. What was the character's main offense in early, middle and late game? How do their skills fit in with their equipment, spells, god and stats?
c) Branch order and Actions
Afterwards, you can also look at the milestone section, to get a general view of branch order and skill training. The new Actions section is extremely informative. Through it you can see what spells and weapons the player used, how often, and at what experience levels.
III. Summing up
This needn't be a laborious and time consuming process. Just go through and notice as much general patterns as you can, and ask yourself questions. Personally I think it's really fun to look at the wide variety of characters and items, and see the creative ways that people use to win. Going through the questioning process will yield fruit in your games, by giving you a rational basis to make your decisions from. Asking questions on the forum is good too, but it is satisfying and useful to strengthen your own ability to assess choices as they come up.
Bonus
This guide is intended for intermediate players, as it deals exclusively with strategy. Players very new to the game will be best served focusing on tactics, which are harder to teach in words. I think the best way to learn tactics is to play a lot and to spectate strong players. Some tactical advice from this forum (from crate I think) that really helped me was: "When you first see a creature, it is often best to move away rather than towards it." That simple advice can teach a lot about monster AI, movement, positioning, and the role of noise, which are the heart of tactics in Crawl.
I. Introduction
a) Instructive power of morgue files
Crawl demands strategic decisions from the player from start to finish. Reviewing morgue files can help strengthen decision making. It does so by giving a window into the thought processes of stronger players. This guide is inspired from chess, where one of the most time tested ways to improve is to play through the games of masters.
b) Where to get morgue files
Latest tournament
Overall game list
Recent wins
c) Choosing games
Any of the players with 50 or more wins are generally a safe bet to learn from. First, decide which species you're interested in. Then, open up five or so player profiles, scroll down the list of wins, and open tabs to any winning games of the species you want in the game version you are playing. Note how many runes they got, because that can affect the end character a lot. Try to collect five or more games that look interesting.
d) Mindset
It's important not to mindlessly ape what the player did. There's no guarantee that the RNG will give you what you want, so always base strategic decisions on the materials you have at hand. The goal of learning from morgue files is to identify key decisions the player made, and ask why they might made those choices. It can be very instructive to mentally walk through the process of building and playing a winning character. There will also be general patterns to notice across games. Again, remember to think critically, because trying to copy a character exactly tends to fail, and you also might be looking at someone's challenge game where they intentionally handicapped themselves.
II. Reviewing The Morgue File
a) The Overview
The first screen of the morgue file has a lot of information packed into a small area. Take a moment to look it over at first, and get a general feel for the character. Is it a caster, fighter, or hybrid? How did the player build around species strengths and limitations? After that, I think the most important areas you want to look at are: god choice, stats, defenses, weapon, and body armor. Try to think why they may have chosen each one, and how it synergizes with the rest. Did they pump one stat or are they fairly even? Are AC\EV even or is one very high? (try to think about minimum defense numbers you want to aim for on your characters) Look up weapon base types and egos if they are unfamiliar to you. Check out armor weight and think how it affects the character's spell casting, stealth and evasion. God choice influences the character immensely, so look up anything you are unfamiliar with and apply that knowledge to the character before you.
b) Skills and Spells
Once you have a clear picture of the overall character in mind, then proceed down to skills and spells. For spells, look at the success rates and think about how the selected spells contribute to the general plan of the character. Note spells that recur often across games. For skills, try to think about what order they were built in, and note their stopping points. What was the character's main offense in early, middle and late game? How do their skills fit in with their equipment, spells, god and stats?
c) Branch order and Actions
Afterwards, you can also look at the milestone section, to get a general view of branch order and skill training. The new Actions section is extremely informative. Through it you can see what spells and weapons the player used, how often, and at what experience levels.
III. Summing up
This needn't be a laborious and time consuming process. Just go through and notice as much general patterns as you can, and ask yourself questions. Personally I think it's really fun to look at the wide variety of characters and items, and see the creative ways that people use to win. Going through the questioning process will yield fruit in your games, by giving you a rational basis to make your decisions from. Asking questions on the forum is good too, but it is satisfying and useful to strengthen your own ability to assess choices as they come up.
Bonus
Spoiler: show