The 'Questions too small to need their own thread' thread

[XuaXua]

How does one determine Skill needed to achieve minimum weapon speed on a given weapon without
1) using the combat excel sheet
2) looking at the code

Is it a keyword to look for when I hit '@'?

[BlackSheep]

You have to know the formula. It's described in detail on the knowledge bot page:
http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=attack+delay

The keyword on the @ screen for minimum speed with a given weapon will vary depending on the weapon in question.

Essentially, for weapons with delay of 140 or higher, your minimum delay is 7, and the skill needed will be twice the difference between 7 and (weapon delay/10).

For weapons with delay under 140, minimum delay is half the base delay rounding down. Substitute that for 7 in the formula above. Sabres are an exception in that their base delay is 5 even though it should be 6 according to this formula.

Unarmed Combat is slightly different, as delay drops by 1 for every 5 levels (with fractional drops for levels that aren't a multiple of 5).

[Southpaw]

How does one determine Skill needed to achieve minimum weapon speed on a given weapon without
1) using the combat excel sheet
2) looking at the code

Is it a keyword to look for when I hit '@'?

General rule of thumb: If your weapon skill equals your base attack delay you're at, or close to, your minimum delay (plus one skill if your base delay is odd).

Details:
Weapons cannot have a minimum delay slower than 7 (70%) (exception of sabers, which have min delay of 5) , so if your weapon has a base delay greater than 140% (most of the good ones do) than you need to get some more skill than the above rule of thumb suggests. The formula to calculate your actual delay is BASE_DELAY - WEAPON_SKILL/2

Examples:

• A Club has Base Delay 13, so its minimum delay is 6, at 13 skill you'll have a delay of 6.5, and at 14 skill you'll hit your minimum delay of 6
• An Executioner's Axe has base delay 20, which would normally mean a minimum delay of 10 (half base delay, rounded down) but like I mentioned above, you cannot have a minimum delay slower than 7, so the minimum delay for the Axe is 7. You would need 26 skill to reach minimum delay with this Axe.

You may also find the knowledge bot info on attack delay useful: http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=attack_delay

Lastly, you may also find this useful:

If you go to your init.txt file and set show_gold_turns and show_game_turns to true (you can use Ctrl-F and search for show_ and they will come up, just remove the # to uncomment them) you will be able to see exactly how long your last action took (such as your attack swing) next to the turn counter in the game. You can cross-check that number with your minimum delay to know if you've reached it.

[Zicher]

Are Okawaru powers helped much by high Invocations?

they last longer, which is pretty useful.

The success rates of invoking his powers are also affected - although this stops to be a problem around Inv=10, which is probably not that "high".

[mageykun]

@XuaXua:

There's also this table in the wiki you can use as a quick reference.

Although, as certain people are keen to point out, it is the wiki, may not be up to date, etc. The usual disclaimers apply.

[XuaXua]

+X Staff of Pain Brand (or Excruciating Wounds) or forced +0 Staff of Death ?

From Bots (looks like that "random2" is wrong):

  Code:

Enhancer staves (fire, cold, air, earth, death) have (2*evoc + magic skill)/30 chance of getting random2(1.25*(magic skill + evoc/2)) extra damage that ignores AC (except earth), but checks the appropriate resistance. Air also needs to pass a (damage dealt + air + 1)/20 chance, and death a (necro + 1)/8 chance.

  Code:

Brand which inflicts 1d(necromancy skill) extra damage on necro+1 out of 8 successful hits.


Assuming Staff of Death follows Pain Brand rules:

  Code:

Does not affect those with rneg (demons, undead, unliving, shadow dragons, death drakes, holies). (For the record, a monster's necromancy skill is HD/2, HD if undead or demonic).

As I'm Nemelex (12.7 Evoc, 8.5 Necro) I'm leaning towards staff of death. Then it's Staff of Death vs. Lajatang of Pain... At least I always pass the Necromancy 8/8 test.

[Tiber]

The learndb says enslavement can be used to get around the death curse. Yet, when I enslave a mummy and it dies, I still get the curse. Has this been changed, is this a bug, or am I misinterpreting it? Playing 0.11 BTW.

[KoboldLord]

The learndb says enslavement can be used to get around the death curse. Yet, when I enslave a mummy and it dies, I still get the curse. Has this been changed, is this a bug, or am I misinterpreting it? Playing 0.11 BTW.

Enslave a nearby ogre, order it to attack the hostile mummy. The ogre gets the death curse, not you.

[Southpaw]

Should I use a Demon Trident with one hand and a shield or two? Currently an MiFi

[ldierk]

Should I use a Demon Trident with one hand and a shield or two? Currently an MiFi

Use a demon trident with a shield. This is generally true for all one and one a half handed weapons.

[rebthor]

Should I use a Demon Trident with one hand and a shield or two? Currently an MiFi

Use a demon trident with a shield. This is generally true for all one and one a half handed weapons.

I think he should use two shields. Reasoning, one shield is very helpful for 3-rune game so two shields would be even better.

[Fungus]

If you worship Jiyva, kill the Royal Jelly, and then abandon Jiyva... what happens? Does Jiyva cease to exist (and thus cease to punish?)

[Kate]

Jiyva is angry enough at you to stick around and give penance, before ceasing to exist once it's done.

[TehDruid]

Jiyva is angry enough at you to stick around and give penance, before ceasing to exist once it's done.

How convenient...

[mageykun]

Wizmode testing says no. If you kill the royal jelly while worshiping Jiyva (which is somewhat frustrating to do and places you under immediate penance for attacking it. Oddly however, the summoned slimes created while under penance were neutral) and then abandon him, the altars stay, and you can rejoin.

If we wanna justify this from a Small Gods perspective- I got some 'splaining.

Having believed in Him is different from never believing at all. So it's not that Jiyva now has no believers- he has no believers who worship him. Who pay him respect. As long as you're alive, there's still one mortal who accepts his existence, even if you regard him with distaste or hatred now. You would have to master double-think or die to remove the last vestiges of belief.

Edit: dang ninjas!

Double Edit:

Jiyva is angry enough at you to stick around and give penance, before ceasing to exist once it's done.

Went back to wizmode and confirmed. If you mash 5 long enough, eventually the little jello altar stops dancing and vanishes. Jiyva is powered by hatred.

[Southpaw]

Jiyva is powered by hatred.

SLIME FOR THE SLIME GOD




Blood for the Blood God!

[mageykun]

Back on topic! Questions, that is.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't named Orcish allies used to have their names show up without mousing over them? Like uniques? Is there an option I can toggle to fix this? Because the clutter is well worth the fun.

[blackflame]

Do auxiliary attacks like headbutts from horns, kicks from hooves or talons, etc. benefit from a higher Unarmed Combat skill? Or are those consistent in damage, accuracy, and frequency no matter what? I can't figure out if I'm any better off with a minotar/tengu/monstrous demonspawn monk than any other comparable species.

[phonix]

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?t ... e_Required

Is this accurate or some ancient information?

[KoboldLord]

Do auxiliary attacks like headbutts from horns, kicks from hooves or talons, etc. benefit from a higher Unarmed Combat skill? Or are those consistent in damage, accuracy, and frequency no matter what? I can't figure out if I'm any better off with a minotar/tengu/monstrous demonspawn monk than any other comparable species.

They used to, but that was taken out because unarmed combat is already really good, and the mutations pushed you into it too hard. The trade is supposed to be a valuable armor slot for damaging auxiliary attacks, but if you didn't go unarmed combat you got all the bad and none of the good.

[sir_laser]

http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=Skill#Experience_Required

Is this accurate or some ancient information?

Looks pretty accurate. If you test it in Wizard mode the numbers in the skill screen under "points" seems to match the table. More XP is required for fighting and spellcasting, and less for evocations and invocations.

[galehar]

Back on topic! Questions, that is.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't named Orcish allies used to have their names show up without mousing over them? Like uniques? Is there an option I can toggle to fix this? Because the clutter is well worth the fun.

Are you playing local or webtiles? Because the latter doesn't support name tags.

[CommanderC]

Do auxiliary attacks like headbutts from horns, kicks from hooves or talons, etc. benefit from a higher Unarmed Combat skill? Or are those consistent in damage, accuracy, and frequency no matter what? I can't figure out if I'm any better off with a minotar/tengu/monstrous demonspawn monk than any other comparable species.

They used to, but that was taken out because unarmed combat is already really good, and the mutations pushed you into it too hard. The trade is supposed to be a valuable armor slot for damaging auxiliary attacks, but if you didn't go unarmed combat you got all the bad and none of the good.

Not true. Punches still benefit from UC (melee_attack.cc, line 1152).

  Code:

    case UNAT_PUNCH:
        aux_attack = aux_verb = "punch";
        aux_damage = 5 + you.skill_rdiv(SK_UNARMED_COMBAT, 1, 3);


I don't think this is a bug. After all, you can't use this kind of aux attacks while wielding a shield.

@blackflame: Fighting skill can increase the damage of your aux attacks (+65% at level 27), and additive effects like might, berserk rage, or slaying are even better. The wiki page has been updated recently, although it still needs some improvements. http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=Unarmed_Combat

[mageykun]

Back on topic! Questions, that is.

Maybe I'm misremembering, but didn't named Orcish allies used to have their names show up without mousing over them? Like uniques? Is there an option I can toggle to fix this? Because the clutter is well worth the fun.

Are you playing local or webtiles? Because the latter doesn't support name tags.

Local. Allied name tags appear on mouse over, but not otherwise.

...I'm really not sure anymore if this is changed behavior, or if I'm just crazy.

[Fungus]

All things being equal (skill/speed/etc), is a weapon with a base damage of, say, 4 and a damage bonus of +8 going to do the same damage as a weapon with base 8 and a bonus of +4?

I ask because I have a +16, +16 Wyrmbane and I'm trying to figure it whether those bonuses are worth swapping it out for another weapon.

[cerebovssquire]

No. Base damage scales with weapon skill, unlike weapon enchantment. It's also affected by the Fighting skill to a lesser extent. As such, Wyrmbane isn't bad but a good dtrident/glaive/bardiche is very likely to be better at high skill levels. At low skill levels or against dragons, you may wish to swap out, and of course the rF+ and AC +5 might be handy now and again.

[Southpaw]

http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php?q=weapon%20damage

This should give you the information you need as well

[crate]

Wyrmbane is really quite good if you can get it to +18. It's faster than a dtrident so it probably does reasonably comparable damage, and rF+, 5AC, and evocable rage are all pretty nice. I suppose dtrident becomes better in comparison if you get to higher polearms skill, but at skill 14 I suspect they're pretty similar.

Personally if I got Wyrmbane at a point when I was using a one-handed polearm I would use it for the rest of the game because it is cool. The only time I've found it on a polearms character was when I had a holy bardiche though (but I still used it against dragons just because!!).

[Fungus]

I'm currently using a +6, +8 battleax of electrocution, but thought it might be worth switching to since I could use it with a shield. So... Wyrmbane +16 (min delay 5) with a shield vs. electric ax without? I'm thinking the ax would be stronger but maybe I could use the defense on my DD. Centaurs/Yaktaurs still pincushion me quite a a bit.

[crate]

If you are using a battleaxe with decent skill you shouldn't even bother picking up any polearms.

[rchandra]

You can always carry wyrmbane until you're in melee range, just use it for the AC.

Does Roxanne's Blink other spell work on -cTele levels?

edit:
just thought of an awesome/terrible idea: if the enemy cannot see invisible but you can, make both you and him invisible to lower his accuracy. will this work?

[Arthandas]

After installing the game I get the "Save directory does not exist and I can't create it" message. What should I do? I'm playing the 0.10.1 version on XP.

[rchandra]

After installing the game I get the "Save directory does not exist and I can't create it" message. What should I do? I'm playing the 0.10.1 version on XP.

you can try using the zip instead of the installer for a quick fix.

[KoboldLord]

Do auxiliary attacks like headbutts from horns, kicks from hooves or talons, etc. benefit from a higher Unarmed Combat skill? Or are those consistent in damage, accuracy, and frequency no matter what? I can't figure out if I'm any better off with a minotar/tengu/monstrous demonspawn monk than any other comparable species.

They used to, but that was taken out because unarmed combat is already really good, and the mutations pushed you into it too hard. The trade is supposed to be a valuable armor slot for damaging auxiliary attacks, but if you didn't go unarmed combat you got all the bad and none of the good.

Not true. Punches still benefit from UC (melee_attack.cc, line 1152).

  Code:

    case UNAT_PUNCH:
        aux_attack = aux_verb = "punch";
        aux_damage = 5 + you.skill_rdiv(SK_UNARMED_COMBAT, 1, 3);


I don't think this is a bug. After all, you can't use this kind of aux attacks while wielding a shield.

@blackflame: Fighting skill can increase the damage of your aux attacks (+65% at level 27), and additive effects like might, berserk rage, or slaying are even better. The wiki page has been updated recently, although it still needs some improvements. http://crawl.chaosforge.org/index.php?title=Unarmed_Combat

Blackflame did not ask about offhand punches. Blackflame asked about mutation-related auxiliary attacks, which do not benefit from unarmed combat.

[Turkwise]

So my question is this: Where'd my food go??? I went into the Shoals with 8-10 each of bread and meat rations, by the time I got through it was gone - without eating it. Are there monsters there that destroy your food?

[Blade]

So my question is this: Where'd my food go??? I went into the Shoals with 8-10 each of bread and meat rations, by the time I got through it was gone - without eating it. Are there monsters there that destroy your food?

Harpies.

[tormodpwns]

If I'm on D:4 and have M&F at level 6 and I am told that I have become a monstrous Demonspawn, is it worth switching over to UC?

[rchandra]

If I'm on D:4 and have M&F at level 6 and I am told that I have become a monstrous Demonspawn, is it worth switching over to UC?

No, the auxiliary attacks from the mutations will work fine without UC skill as of 0.10, so as long as you're using melee you'll be fine.

[Jeremiah]

I guess the real question is not about auxiliary attacks but whether the guaranteed eventual claws:3 will be better than polearms as a standard melee attack.

[KoboldLord]

There isn't a clearly superior choice between demon trident & shield, bardiche, or unarmed for a typical character. A demonspawn that mutates claws will have somewhat better unarmed, but not so much better that it becomes a clearly superior choice compared to the other two. The talons and horns and other non-claw body slot facets for being monstrous don't matter at all, of course, because they are not affected by unarmed combat skill.

Ultimately, pick what you like, informed by what actually spawns in-game. If it's still fairly early, you might as well switch to unarmed. It's not every day you draw monstrous, and it can be fun to fight unarmed with lots of auxiliaries even if it may or may not turn out superior to the alternatives.

[rebthor]

I guess the real question is not about auxiliary attacks but whether the guaranteed eventual claws:3 will be better than polearms as a standard melee attack.

When you get claws:3 is not guaranteed, it could be really early but it could be XL 27. Given that he's only at M&F 6, it might be worth it, but it's by no means a no-brainer.

[Arthandas]

After installing the game I get the "Save directory does not exist and I can't create it" message. What should I do? I'm playing the 0.10.1 version on XP.

you can try using the zip instead of the installer for a quick fix.

Thanks, it works but I would also like to fix that installer issue. I tried to make the save directory folders manually but the game still cannot place any files in it because it doesn't have permission.

[SinCosTan]

Does TSO approve of obsidian axe usage? I reeeeally doubt it, but I could always be wrong.

[crate]

TSO (and Elyvilon or Zin) will give you penance if you attack with the obsidian axe.

[mageykun]

Does anyone know how the mino-counter is affected by confusion? Do you retaliate in a random direction, like with attacking or walking? Is it disabled? Is it unaffected?

[sir_laser]

Should rN+++ and Statue Form's "halves torment damage" not stack together? I just got tormented with both and had 35% of my max HP dealt as damage.

[galehar]

Should rN+++ and Statue Form's "halves torment damage" not stack together? I just got tormented with both and had 35% of my max HP dealt as damage.

Just tried in wizmode, I took 17%. Maybe you got tormented twice in the same turn.

[BlackSheep]

Does anyone know how the mino-counter is affected by confusion? Do you retaliate in a random direction, like with attacking or walking? Is it disabled? Is it unaffected?

The counter attack is not affected by confusion.

[Zenonira]

According to this: http://crawl.develz.org/info/index.php? ... zari+wrath

Ashenzari's wrath ends after you have gained 2 XLs. Can you ever get rid of it at XL 26 and 27?