How to play faster?

[sssimon]

I just lost a character to carelessness and having not played Crawl in a while:
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/sssim ... 143344.txt
It took me over 7h to get this character to XL 20. This feels like too long. Perhaps this is because I have a tendancy to clear out all levels along the way.

So, does anyone have tips for playing more efficiently?

[sssimon]

Hmm... autofight - I didn't know about that one. It's not a well documented feature The only info I found about it was in the changelog to 0.8.0.

[Jeremiah]

Actually, I was going to ask almost the exact same question.

I've just had a win on CDO, a 4-rune DDIE, which took over 24 hours, which is about the same time as all my other wins have taken, but I've noticed that most people play much faster.

I'm not talking about crazy speed runs with SpEn that take 1 hour - just the average games people win in around 6-10 hours. To me, even that seems impossibly fast; I can't really see how I could play any faster than I do while still actually making decisions about things and not just blindly mashing buttons.

I do use autoexplore and autotravel, but so far haven't really used autofight, as any fight seems like it could potentially be a risk that leads to death, so I want to be able to keep control while fighting.

[dpeg]

I noted that in my games stashing, and running to and from stashes takes a lot of time (despite autotravel). Players better than me have dispensed with stashes: if you don't need it, drop it. You can always find it with Ctrl-F. I have yet to master this trait.

[XuaXua]

I noted that in my games stashing, and running to and from stashes takes a lot of time (despite autotravel). Players better than me have dispensed with stashes: if you don't need it, drop it. You can always find it with Ctrl-F. I have yet to master this trait.

What do monsters pick up? I've dropped stuff to the floor in hopes of getting it later and it's gone missing and I don't see any jellies...

[dpeg]

Hey, I am a stasher myself. Regarding jellies, it probably does not matter. There are the horror stories of a jelly eating the whole stash -- you avoid that by not stashing. Combat wands should be collected, I guess. And dropped when you pass by Hive or Lair, I guess.

[Happy Corner]

Non-animal monsters will pick up anything they can use... potions, equipment, wands, etc. That's why, contrary to the knowledge bots' advice, you shouldn't shout in Labyrinths just to see if the minotaur is close enough to shout back - you don't want to give him the extra time to pick up all those randarts and rods in his treasure pile.

Lair 1-2 or Hive are good stashing places, yes. They never generate jellies or monsters that can pick things up, other than uniques (who are gone once you've cleared the level). I've never had an issue with stuff going missing from stashes there.

[cerebovssquire]

Lair 1-2 or Hive are good stashing places, yes. They never generate jellies or monsters that can pick things up, other than uniques (who are gone once you've cleared the level). I've never had an issue with stuff going missing from stashes there.

You might have a monster going down the stairs to Lair:1 so Lair:2 is still better by a small margin.

[XuaXua]

Lair 1-2 or Hive are good stashing places, yes. They never generate jellies or monsters that can pick things up, other than uniques (who are gone once you've cleared the level). I've never had an issue with stuff going missing from stashes there.

You might have a monster going down the stairs to Lair:1 so Lair:2 is still better by a small margin.

I encountered a hill giant on L:1 recently, so yes.

[sssimon]

To summarize the discussion so far we have two tips:

• Use autoexplore, autotravel and (when safe) autofight.
• Dispense with stashes: if you don't need it, drop it. You can always find it with Ctrl-F.

Anything else? What about diving to deeper levels for quick experience?

[dpeg]

Very good players are really fast. It is instructive to watch them. They know very well when to blast/bash without abandon and when to pause for a moment. This is not something we can pick up easily, though

[mumra]

Anything else? What about diving to deeper levels for quick experience?

This is of course possible but could slow you down significantly by making you have to start over

I tend to just trust in the RNG to throw me the odd out-of-depth unique or monster for experience boosts; you still have to know how to deal with them though!

Basically the way to play fast is to know your build and the game in general well enough to have already made certain decisions before they come up; then when anything new happens, stop and think. Playing too fast at the wrong time will always get you killed.

[Happy Corner]

I wish I could help the OP with how to play faster, but I'm still working on how to play better. Ugh.

[KoboldLord]

Learn to judge the situation better and speed will follow. The faster players are not good because they are fast. They are fast because they are good. Since they analyze in-game situations without being distracted by minutia, not only do they arrive at a more accurate conclusion, they arrive at this more accurate conclusion faster.

Without the ability to judge the possible approaches to in-game situations correctly, attempting to judge the best approach faster is just going to result in quicker deaths. This is probably not the desired result.

[sssimon]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me rephrase the question: how can I play more efficiently?
Should I attempt to kill every monster on a level?
Should I explore each level fully?
Are there levels I should omit? E.g., the Swamp is tedious but it contains possibly the easiest rune.

[mumra]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me rephrase the question: how can I play more efficiently?
Should I attempt to kill every monster on a level?
Should I explore each level fully?
Are there levels I should omit? E.g., the Swamp is tedious but it contains possibly the easiest rune.

I explore everything fully (and come back later for anything that's too hard at the time).

A full winning game can take something like 30+ hours so I really wouldn't be worried about ~7 hours to get to XL:20. Crawl is about value for money, not like the other modern trash you can finish by dinner time (and probably never want to play again...)

[cerebovssquire]

Thanks for all the comments. Let me rephrase the question: how can I play more efficiently?
Should I attempt to kill every monster on a level?
Should I explore each level fully?
Are there levels I should omit? E.g., the Swamp is tedious but it contains possibly the easiest rune.

It's common practice to skip Swamp 1-4, Shoals 1-4, and Pandemonium levels since the experience isn't worth the tedium in many eyes. Personally I do it only when I am low on consumables and want an easy place to stock up.

[frankhovis]

One of my ongoing characters might make some of you "slow" players feel better:

frankhovis the Severer (Demigod Gladiator) Turns: 293757, Time: 5, 04:08:18

HP 221/221 AC 19 Str 26 Exp: 27/1523556 (61)
MP 44/44 EV 28 Int 33 God:
Gold 4265 SH 37 Dex 25 Spells: 15 memorised, 0 levels left

And no, I haven't just left the game on for several days unattended.

Playing slow is a perfectly natural response to a game full of difficult, insta-killing challenges that require somewhat arcane knowledge. If anything, it's the speedrunners that are the freaks in this equation - but you notice them more due to their prevalence atop the various high score lists.

[AtT]

I play fast I die. Certain builds seem like they can play faster for longer but most of the time I find it necessary to slow down. I never play (my better characters) when I'm tired/frustrated/angry as those moods lead to impulsive behaviors and impatience.

Remember it's about having fun not playing faster. Seems to me that if you can spend longer on one character and still enjoy it you are a more efficient "pleasure seeker."

[paplaukes]

Crawl is already very good on cutting down the tedium (autoexplore etc). Autoattack (tab key) on weak stuff helps.

My favourite options bit, probably called 'edit options/rc' on cao, is 4-g:
travel_delay = -1 (default 20)
explore_delay = 5 (default 20)
Play around with these values, travel at -1 won't show your travels at all (so it's just ctrl + g, ..., arrival)
explore at 5 was lowest where I could still get what's going on onscreen (blind autoexplore at -1 made me slower if anything)

Waypoints help if you're leaving an area you'll come back later to.
CTRL+w, numbers to set waypoints, CTRL+g, numbers to visit the waypoints.

Macros help. click ~, then m for the macro making menu.
Macros I use often are are ff (throw whatevers available), cey (chop/eat/confirm), za, zb etc for spellcasting.
' key swaps between items a and b (weapons), helpful for switching staves as caster or swords/bows for melees;
= i to adjust weapon letters to a/b.

That's all I can think of for efficiency speed still comes from knowing the danger level well. And 7 hours for lvl20 sounds fast to me

[sssimon]

Thanks paplaukes! That is exactly what I'm looking for. Anyone else have similar efficiancy tips?