Short Newperson Questions


Ask fellow adventurers how to stay alive in the deep, dark, dangerous dungeon below, or share your own accumulated wisdom.

Blades Runner

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Post Thursday, 24th October 2019, 18:07

Re: Short Newperson Questions

People usually switch gods just before extended.

Switching out of Kiku is silly in nearly every case, as Kiku's corpse ability is useful all game (including extended, and even more relevant for ghouls there than usual). The spells in necronomicon are excellent (even if undead can't use some of the great ones, haunt and infestation are both very good spells).

~~~

Chei's performance stats do not suggest Chei to be one of the worst gods. Winrate for Chei is pretty good, though I hold that Chei is awful for streaks thanks to the brief window that you're slow but have no abilities. If you pick Chei in early altar you can easily just die to an OOD 2h ogre you're forced to fight.

So strong but with some undue risk (relative to other gods). Only Xom is more risky.

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Zot Zealot

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Post Thursday, 24th October 2019, 18:55

Re: Short Newperson Questions

I switch gods pretty often, whenever I get a god I don't like from a faded altar. Usually it's survivable. As a goul you don't have much to fear from Kiki wrath, I think.
I agree with the others that corpse delevery is very strong, though it shines especially when you're underleveled (doing a lairless run or something like that).

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Snake Sneak

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Post Thursday, 24th October 2019, 19:00

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Magipi wrote:Switching from one of the best gods (Kiku) to one of the worst (Chei) - yes, I would call it silly.

Are you using Kiku's corpse delivery (and then animate dead or simulacrum or something) often enough? My guess is no.


No, I don't have simulacrum yet, and not enough magic to get the combo working well.
Have had a lot of success with Chei, why do you consider it so much worse than Chei? Why do you think Kiku is one of the best?

Snake Sneak

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Post Friday, 25th October 2019, 06:04

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thanks much.
I'm really enjoying Ash too as a very different way of playing for me. Would I be correct in thinking that one of the only poor choices for Ash would be a barehanded Transmuter (who thus cannot bind the weapon hand)? What would be a good choice for someone like that who still wishes to cast good utility or escape spells (at least level 6, maybe even up to level 8 for special forms and / or controlled blink) but who lacks great inherent spellcasting (such as troll)?

Cocytus Succeeder

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Post Friday, 25th October 2019, 07:29

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Kiku is good mostly because of corpse delivery. Raise an undead army on every level, and replace them as they die. I think it works best if you lead the army and tank for them, not hide in the background. (If you have no animate dead nor simulacrum that is a cruel joke of the game. Most unfortunate.)

Chei is bad because you cannot walk away from danger. I guess in the late game it is less of a problem because you can have cblink or passage of Golubria. You also cannot haste, but that is less relevant, first because your boosted stats give enough power to compensate, second because in recent versions haste is so rare that prectically noone ever has enough.

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Zot Zealot

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Post Friday, 25th October 2019, 07:57

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thanks much.
I'm really enjoying Ash too as a very different way of playing for me. Would I be correct in thinking that one of the only poor choices for Ash would be a barehanded Transmuter (who thus cannot bind the weapon hand)? What would be a good choice for someone like that who still wishes to cast good utility or escape spells (at least level 6, maybe even up to level 8 for special forms and / or controlled blink) but who lacks great inherent spellcasting (such as troll)?


You seem to be talking of end-game powerhouses, without regard of how to get there ;)

If you really want to try casting high-level spells as a troll, I'd try going for a bcrawl troll^Jiyva. Bcrawl makes a few changes which make this viable, but getting an atheist TrEE through Lair is hard (I have yet succeed :oops:). Other than that, Chei might be your best bet. Or Sif (if you don't care about casting these spells often).
I think an octopode dragonform ^ Ash could also be really strong (wield-meld a staff), but again getting there is going to be tough.

I think throwing specialists and crossbow-based characters are also unsuitable for Ash, but otherwise anything goes.

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Slime Squisher

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Post Friday, 25th October 2019, 10:26

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thanks much.
I'm really enjoying Ash too as a very different way of playing for me. Would I be correct in thinking that one of the only poor choices for Ash would be a barehanded Transmuter (who thus cannot bind the weapon hand)? What would be a good choice for someone like that who still wishes to cast good utility or escape spells (at least level 6, maybe even up to level 8 for special forms and / or controlled blink) but who lacks great inherent spellcasting (such as troll)?


For the first question, the most important skills for a Transmuter are still related to spells, even without a boost to UC you can still get a lot from the other bindings.

For the second, I've actually done a few challenge games with species that are not suited to casting. As a personal recommendation, you probably want an ogre to start things off - if you want a minotaur or troll, that's fine too. Aptitudes will really make for a hard early game, and don't be surprised by miscasts and low Int nerfing your play into the ground. This being said, Ashenzari is a very powerful choice for such casters because both your spell success rates and power are brought up. These two chardumps are from different versions of the game, but should give you an idea of how things work:
1) This was my first idea that started off like "why not give beefy a turn as the BBQ chief?", and it was a lot of fun to play. Needless to say, don't get too greedy. If you're good for a 3 rune win, take it.
2) Success with 4 runes. The game was not very generous with Air books, so I went for Earth. BVC has great synergy with lightning which has bad accuracy. In the end, with brilliance it was no problem to cast Shatter and not too risky to cast Tornado.

Other good choices would be Vehumet (naturally), and Dithmenos (strong). Both have a slow start, but if you are careful you can make very cool casters with them. Personally, I would lean towards Dithmenos for having both good defensive strength and the destructive shadow imitations.
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Blades Runner

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Post Friday, 25th October 2019, 14:47

Re: Short Newperson Questions

petercordia wrote:I switch gods pretty often, whenever I get a god I don't like from a faded altar. Usually it's survivable. As a goul you don't have much to fear from Kiki wrath, I think.
I agree with the others that corpse delevery is very strong, though it shines especially when you're underleveled (doing a lairless run or something like that).


Switching off Kiku isn't silly because the wrath is really bad. Switching off Kiku is silly because Kiku is one of the best gods in the game in both 3 rune *and* extended.

40+ zombies with a good chunk of them being gold dragon zombies and such are still very relevant in fights with hell/pan lords, and the torment protection finally matters in extended also.

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Snake Sneak

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Post Wednesday, 30th October 2019, 20:24

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Sorry, is there something obvious I am missing? I have been trying for a very long time now to find a way to view all of the items on a single tile of floor without having to stand on that tile. When I use "X" and go to the tile and use "v", I do not see a way to scroll or switch through the things to see what is there. I'd like to be able to see, without too much trouble, just how many and of which kind corpses are around, for example, and if only one item is on the floor in addition, the corpse is buried. Am I missing the obvious? Any tips welcome, thanks in advance.

Zot Zealot

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Post Wednesday, 30th October 2019, 22:08

Re: Short Newperson Questions

I think cntrl-x shows all items around, but it might be ctl-o or cntrl-z or some other control+letter.
It gives a list of all items in LOS

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Snake Sneak

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 12:54

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thank you, that does help, but for some reason it does not show corpses unless I go and stand on them first. Is that intended?
It seems to only show the top item in a stack if the stack has never been stood on. For example, if I never stand on a stack and press ctrl-x, I can see a list of items and features, and one of them contains a "club". I can see that this square contains more than one item. When I go and stand on it, only then do I see: it also contained another item (a corpse, for example, but also: a potion).

Zot Zealot

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 16:41

Re: Short Newperson Questions

I think this is because when you haven't stood on a stack you're not supposed to know what's in it. The game keeps track of what you know and only tells you about objects you "know" about.

The caveat is that you can figure out some things if you carefully keep track of the messages (eg "the scales of the dragon are intact enough to wear" means there'll be a dragon corpse & scales on the tile the dragon died on) or examine monsters before they die (to find out which weapons/wands they'll drop). I'll agree this is annoying and I never do this myself.

Blades Runner

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 17:32

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Unread post 45 minutes ago
I think this is because when you haven't stood on a stack you're not supposed to know what's in it. The game keeps track of what you know and only tells you about objects you "know" about.


I don't think this explanation holds/is internally consistent. If you control f search the floor with . you'll see the items, even those in a stack across water that you can't reach w/o flying. If player knows the items and location with this method there is no good reason to bar viewing this information with tile xv view.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 18:43

Re: Short Newperson Questions

TheMeInTeam wrote: If you control f search the floor with . you'll see the items, even those in a stack across water that you can't reach w/o flying.

This is incorrect. If there's more than one item in a stack, and you have never seen the contents of it, control-F,. will only show the seen or topmost items. xv (and control-X) shows the exact same list of items control-f does.
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Blades Runner

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 20:33

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Huh, I had no idea. My apologies for misinformation then. Makes me wonder if I've missed stuff that way while using auto explore.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Thursday, 31st October 2019, 22:36

Re: Short Newperson Questions

TheMeInTeam wrote:Huh, I had no idea. My apologies for misinformation then. Makes me wonder if I've missed stuff that way while using auto explore.

Unexplored piles are autoexplore destinations, by default you'll travel to them while using autoexplore (which makes them "seen")
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Snake Sneak

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Post Wednesday, 6th November 2019, 20:15

Re: Short Newperson Questions

I'm trying Qazlal for the first time, and see that his first power grants immunity to clouds to me "and my divine allies". Is that just a poetic way of saying "all my allies", or does "divine" mean only a certain type (of which I have no idea)? It appears that the wiki may be a bit out of date, but maybe this is just flavour text.

Zot Zealot

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Post Wednesday, 6th November 2019, 22:47

Re: Short Newperson Questions

"divine" allies are only those that you get through the god ability which turns clouds into elementals. All allies you get through spells or evocations will still be damaged.

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onomastikon

Snake Sneak

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Post Friday, 8th November 2019, 19:39

Re: Short Newperson Questions

2 short ones:

- have zigurats (the first run, not the second iteration, as listed in the patch notes) become much more difficult in 0.24? I'm finding orbs of fire on level 3 already! I'm used to finding orcs here...
- on a new character I see his max hp in parentheses, it looks something like this HP: 79/79 (80) -- I have only seen this on sick, or rotted ghouls before. This was on a low level dungeon and I had not seen any source of rot or sickness. What could this come from otherwise?

thank you!

Zot Zealot

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Post Saturday, 9th November 2019, 00:24

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Necrophages and necromancy miscasts can also cause rot, could it be one of those?

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Slime Squisher

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Post Saturday, 9th November 2019, 01:32

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:- have zigurats (the first run, not the second iteration, as listed in the patch notes) become much more difficult in 0.24? I'm finding orbs of fire on level 3 already! I'm used to finding orcs here...

AFAIK it's more-or-less always been possible to get very strong monsters even on an early Zig floor; just unlikely.
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Post Saturday, 9th November 2019, 14:56

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Undead species cannot mutate or morph and will rot instead. Perhaps you're playing an undead species and got zapped by a wand of polymorph?

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Snake Sneak

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Post Saturday, 9th November 2019, 20:15

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thanks! I think it must have been a necrophage then, I'm not playing undead.

Can I ask about skill levels? I've seen player dumps of caster characters finishing who usually leave their main spell skills around 20ish, but rarely max out at 27. I've also noticed for myself that even at the end of a 15-rune game, having 27 skill doesn't seem to be that much more power than 24 -- but is there some sort of "ideal level" around 20ish? That surprises me a bit. I read the wiki page on spell power, but I'm just not good enough in math to understand it, and I don't really understand this "step down" principle. I'd be happy with a rule-of-thumb kind of thing for casting level 9 spells effectively. Thanks!

Zot Zealot

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Post Saturday, 9th November 2019, 20:46

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Basically, spell skill has very little effect on spell power, when your spell skill is sufficiently high. There isn't really a hard cutoff, but I basically don't train spell skill for spell power beyond 50 spellpower.
So At the point were your casting level 9 spells, the only benefit of increased spell skill is to allow heavier armour or a bigger shield.
20 skill is probably the point where most species can comfortably cast level 9 spells in fire/ice/pearl dragon scales.

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Snake Sneak

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Post Sunday, 10th November 2019, 20:09

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind. I can't reach max spellpower of a level 9 even with maxed skills unless I have 3 boosters, right?

Playing a troll transmuter, I just opened a door of a room and found 3 potions of degeneration right next to each other. Again, I suspect that this is not entirely random, but nevertheless: For which reason could the game not switch off autopickup for potions of degeneration? Do they have some possible bizarre niche use for a transmuter or a troll?
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Slime Squisher

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Post Sunday, 10th November 2019, 21:47

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind. I can't reach max spellpower of a level 9 even with maxed skills unless I have 3 boosters, right?

Playing a troll transmuter, I just opened a door of a room and found 3 potions of degeneration right next to each other. Again, I suspect that this is not entirely random, but nevertheless: For which reason could the game not switch off autopickup for potions of degeneration? Do they have some possible bizarre niche use for a transmuter or a troll?


For the first, you need either a really high Int stat (>42 I think) and high skills, or an enhancer like a robe {Archmagi} combined with the previous. Augmentation 1-3 also contributes if you are playing a Ds character, and Wild magic 1-3 improves SP while increasing %s for failure.

The only potion pickup reason I can think of is that you still have a degeneration potion in your inventory, and the game treats it as a "you have this already, take some more" kind of thing. If you have other potentially dangerous items identified but not used up or dropped (noise / torment / vulnerability) they will also be picked up automatically. Uselessness scrolls are the same. If you pick up something by mistake like a stone that missed your char, your pickup list is updated to always take more stones. You can change your list directly if you want, it is accessed through this button:
itemlist.png
itemlist.png (343 Bytes) Viewed 13065 times


I tend to exclude all unknown spellbooks, because of a personal dislike for cluttered spell lists. You can also trim away the wands or ammunition types you don't feel like using.
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Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Monday, 11th November 2019, 03:11

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thanks, I'll try to keep that in mind. I can't reach max spellpower of a level 9 even with maxed skills unless I have 3 boosters, right?

With 0 boosters and 27 in all relevant skills it takes ~112 int, With 1 booster it takes ~75 Int, with 2 boosters it takes ~50 Int, with 3 boosters it takes ~33 int to get to max possible spell power.

See:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... P-E00/edit

For more details (I think that spreadsheet is still up to date)
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Snake Sneak

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Post Monday, 11th November 2019, 14:13

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thank you!
I seem to not be able to turn off picking up stones, even when in my list it is listed as turned off (a "-" sign before it). Odd.

Ziggurat Zagger

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Post Monday, 11th November 2019, 17:12

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thank you!
I seem to not be able to turn off picking up stones, even when in my list it is listed as turned off (a "-" sign before it). Odd.

If you have a stone, you will always pick up a stone, also, if there's any ammo you've shot/thrown/fired you'll also always pick it up (those settings are independent of the list)

To stop picking up stones you have to pick up all the ones you've thrown, and *drop them* (otherwise autoexplore will pick them up again, even if they aren't on your auto-pickup list)

You can also disable the "pickup thrown items" behavior with
  Code:
pickup_thrown=false

in your init file, but I think that's better off on, in the general case.
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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 13:13

Re: Short Newperson Questions

I'm getting a little sick of falling down X floors and dropped into a midst of a mob pile (not infrequently with a nasty unique already in view) on a new unexplored level where teleporting is also dangerous. It seems no matter how carefully I play, this is my downfall in the midgame. What am I missing? What should I be doing better to prevent this? I do not see any shafts, and I am not sure which skills let me view them better. My last games have been with a Tengu with permaflight, and even that doesn't seem to help. I find it quite frustrating, and suggestions appreciated.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 14:39

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:I'm getting a little sick of falling down X floors and dropped into a midst of a mob pile (not infrequently with a nasty unique already in view) on a new unexplored level where teleporting is also dangerous. It seems no matter how carefully I play, this is my downfall in the midgame. What am I missing? What should I be doing better to prevent this? I do not see any shafts, and I am not sure which skills let me view them better. My last games have been with a Tengu with permaflight, and even that doesn't seem to help. I find it quite frustrating, and suggestions appreciated.

This is the situation where you need to stop playing "normally" and start dipping into your limited resources (AKA consumables). Immediately when you are shafted into enemies, the first thing to do is look at your entire inventory. Wands of enslavement and scrolls of fear are extremely strong in this kind of situation. Other generic consumables, such as potions of haste/might/brilliance, are powerful in general, and this is the situation where a power boost is needed most.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 17:30

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Checking wands, spells, potions, and scrolls and considering them is a good idea in any situation you identify as dangerous.

The trick is otherwise knowing the situation is dangerous soon enough.

For shafts specifically best stuff tends to be magic mapping, fear, digging, blinking, buff potions (haste especially, but also invis in some scenarios), or in some cases you can reposition/kill everything if you have enough sustain. Rarely a teleport is warranted, especially after mapping (if you have digging wands you'd much prefer a corridor/something near map edge rather than middle). What helps you the most depends on what's around where you drop.

It does suck to lose chance at a portal vault due to shafts, or to get those very early game shafts where you simply don't have time to ID any consumables. I lost my tournament streak that way, though given my performance over ensuing games I'd have not extended it much longer.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 19:09

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thank you very much. I did mean "how to avoid falling down a shaft" -- is there anything I can do to prevent it?

Another question would be: Is there any point to these smallish entirely sealed-off chambers? I don't mean vaults, I mean these chamber-like things that are frequently 3x3, 4x4, sometimes a bit larger, and often either entirely or at least mainly composed of transparent crystal. There is usually sometimes treasure and always a monster in it, but sometimes just a monster. There are no doors (not even runed ones), and since there is no way to tunnel through, or blink into, them, they just seem like some remnant from an earlier version where they had some purpose, but I can't figure out what it is. Now, they seem to register in my radar -- my pathing treats those monsters as visible enemies, even though there is no way for me to reach them or them to reach me. Is there some trick involved?

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:26

Re: Short Newperson Questions

AFAIK only way to prevent shafts/random teleports into bad situations is to worship Ashenzari. I'm not sure if/how much piety you need for full protection.

Of course, the most dangerous time for shafts by far also happens to be the time in the game before you've found altars, so how much this helps compared to using consumables properly as needed (once you have them) is debatable.

I know the rooms you describe but I don't know the design intention for them. There are ways to end up in them (accidentally or intentionally), and they usually have a permanent tele trap or hatch in them so you can get out.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:33

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Every tile you explore has a fixed chance of shafting you. There's nothing you can do to prevent shafting, other than not fully exploring dungeon floors (not recommended) or playing a few games in a branch which doesn't have shafts (would recommend, but not because of the shafts).
Edit: except Ash gives protection to traps.

I think the sealed of monsters are just for decoration. In Vaults you can fight them if you annoy an Ironbrand convoker until he Recalls them, but I don't think that that's intentional.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:36

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Another question would be: Is there any point to these smallish entirely sealed-off chambers? I don't mean vaults, I mean these chamber-like things that are frequently 3x3, 4x4, sometimes a bit larger, and often either entirely or at least mainly composed of transparent crystal. There is usually sometimes treasure and always a monster in it, but sometimes just a monster. There are no doors (not even runed ones), and since there is no way to tunnel through, or blink into, them, they just seem like some remnant from an earlier version where they had some purpose, but I can't figure out what it is. Now, they seem to register in my radar -- my pathing treats those monsters as visible enemies, even though there is no way for me to reach them or them to reach me. Is there some trick involved?

If they are made of transparent "rock", you can use a wand of digging to open them up. Other materials (most commonly "stone") are undiggable. With Lugonu, corruption can be used to mess with any walls that aren't "unnaturally hard". Beyond that, if you are playing an older version, there was a way to get in by using Fedhas to create deep water, flying over the deep water and getting banished, then exiting the abyss while not flying, putting you in the closest non-deep-water square. As far as teleportation goes, generally those inside tiles are unteleportable (this is a game feature that the player cannot see), and even if they are teleportable, the chances of actually landing there are very small.

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:48

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thanks. I'm playing 0.24, and these are all crystal and thus unnaturally hard.

I just put on a pair of +0 gloves and my AC went from 5 to 7. Take them off, from 7 to 5. Shouldn't the difference be 1, not 2? The gloves are really not enchanted. Am I missing the obvious?

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Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:52

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:I'm playing 0.24, and these are all crystal and thus unnaturally hard.

I'm not sure if corruption can mess with crystal walls. I know that digging cannot.

onomastikon wrote:I just put on a pair of +0 gloves and my AC went from 5 to 7. Take them off, from 7 to 5. Shouldn't the difference be 1, not 2? The gloves are really not enchanted. Am I missing the obvious?

Armour skill gives you a multiplier on the combined base AC of all your armour, not just body armour.

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Zot Zealot

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Joined: Thursday, 16th August 2018, 21:19

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 20:59

Re: Short Newperson Questions

To add to stormdragon's answer, your AC probably went from 5.9 to 7.1 (or something like that)

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onomastikon

Slime Squisher

Posts: 419

Joined: Monday, 12th September 2016, 16:25

Post Thursday, 14th November 2019, 22:28

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Thanks. I'm playing 0.24, and these are all crystal and thus unnaturally hard.


Sometimes these are just scenery.
Ascension reports with too many words since 2016.

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onomastikon

Snake Sneak

Posts: 123

Joined: Wednesday, 1st May 2019, 19:31

Post Saturday, 16th November 2019, 10:18

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Since I cannot see exactly how much damage I do with weapons, I'm not sure how important it is (especially in the early game) to switch to the "best" (= most promising brand, highest enchantment) weapon I happen to stumble across vs. using the more mundane weapon I have been using and for which I have already invested some skill training and/or a weapon for which I have better aptitudes. I try experimenting and using my own inductive reasoning, but RNG makes it nearly impossible for me to draw any decent conclusions / the parameters seem so variable. Seems to me the early in the game, the more valuable enchantment values (even independent of brands) are, since I often have so little training as to make inaccuracy a serious issue. Also, brands seem to make up more of the damage the earlier in the game (since I am doing so little on my own).
Any rules of thumb?
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Slime Squisher

Posts: 405

Joined: Sunday, 27th January 2019, 13:50

Post Saturday, 16th November 2019, 11:08

Re: Short Newperson Questions

onomastikon wrote:Since I cannot see exactly how much damage I do with weapons, I'm not sure how important it is (especially in the early game) to switch to the "best" (= most promising brand, highest enchantment) weapon I happen to stumble across vs. using the more mundane weapon I have been using and for which I have already invested some skill training and/or a weapon for which I have better aptitudes. I try experimenting and using my own inductive reasoning, but RNG makes it nearly impossible for me to draw any decent conclusions / the parameters seem so variable. Seems to me the early in the game, the more valuable enchantment values (even independent of brands) are, since I often have so little training as to make inaccuracy a serious issue. Also, brands seem to make up more of the damage the earlier in the game (since I am doing so little on my own).
Any rules of thumb?


This is somewhat tricky, but damage on the whole doesn't change too much imo because many enemies also become tougher as I progress through the game. In early D: it's perfectly reasonable to use a poison dagger because of the base accuracy, swing speed and brand utility - almost nothing is immune, and later on it is much less useful. Electrocution is resisted by relatively few enemies throughout the basic 3-5 and even extended, and the damage remains consistent so it's a very popular brand on any weapon. In the late game, a higher damage base with a percentage brand definitely wins by !s, and a lot of people will say that flaming and freezing weapons are the best all-around killers. I would add that vorpal is one of my late game favourites on a big hitter like executioner axes or double swords.

Rules of thumb, just stick to the weapon(s) you have the most skill with. Sooner or later, you'll get good stuff that fits your build.
There is always something new to learn.

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onomastikon

Snake Sneak

Posts: 123

Joined: Wednesday, 1st May 2019, 19:31

Post Saturday, 16th November 2019, 12:18

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Thanks much!
One more: Not sure if this is a question about turn sequence, RNG, or speed, but I notice when I am running away from an nearby monster, especially an adjacent one -- frequently in the early-game context of applying some poison and kiting -- that when my movespeed is standard 1.0, sometimes the monster will "catch up", but not always; sometimes the adjacent monster will, when I move, move and follow me, but also hit me, but not always. Why is this? Is the monster moving at 1.1 and will thus hit me once in every 10 turns, or does it not work that way? I basically want to know when to judge whether running makes any sense or just gets me hit without me getting a chance to do anything (besides move).
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Slime Squisher

Posts: 405

Joined: Sunday, 27th January 2019, 13:50

Post Saturday, 16th November 2019, 13:58

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Your question was answered in detail in this thread. There is a random element to motion that sometimes will work for you, and other times against you. Be aware that some creatures like snakes or hydra have more speed when swimming.
There is always something new to learn.

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onomastikon

Snake Sneak

Posts: 123

Joined: Wednesday, 1st May 2019, 19:31

Post Monday, 2nd December 2019, 11:00

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Recently trying to have fun with Kiku, and have now played four characters with this god choice and have never received Animate Dead. Now, on my fourth, I have received Simalucrum and Death Channel (both of which I will need a while before I can cast, and I was hoping on not investing in Ice beforehand), but again no Animate Dead. What are the chances of actually getting this spell with Kiku? I had heard that the chances are actually quite high. Am I supposed to just hang in there until I can get Simulacrum up (and then that means investing in ice, or finding a spell with ice in it first and training that)?
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Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 4478

Joined: Wednesday, 23rd October 2013, 07:56

Post Monday, 2nd December 2019, 11:15

Re: Short Newperson Questions

IIRC you had a 62.5% chance of getting Animate Dead in the second gifted book (50% chance straight up, plus 25% chance if you fail the first roll). (Someone please correct me if that's wrong.) Bad luck, but just go with the spells you have, maybe you'll find Animate Dead later. Get Death Channel castable first, then Simulacrum.
DCSS: 97:...MfCj}SpNeBaEEGrFE{HaAKTrCK}DsFESpHu{FoArNaBe}
FeEE{HOIEMiAE}GrGlHuWrGnWrNaAKBaFi{MiDeMfDe}{DrAKTrAMGhEnGnWz}
{PaBeDjFi}OgAKPaCAGnCjOgCKMfAEAtCKSpCjDEEE{HOSu
Bloat: 17: RaRoPrPh{GuStGnCa}{ArEtZoNb}KiPaAnDrBXDBQOApDaMeAGBiOCNKAsFnFlUs{RoBoNeWi

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onomastikon

Snake Sneak

Posts: 123

Joined: Wednesday, 1st May 2019, 19:31

Post Monday, 2nd December 2019, 12:34

Re: Short Newperson Questions

Sprucery wrote:IIRC you had a 62.5% chance of getting Animate Dead in the second gifted book (50% chance straight up, plus 25% chance if you fail the first roll). (Someone please correct me if that's wrong.) Bad luck, but just go with the spells you have, maybe you'll find Animate Dead later. Get Death Channel castable first, then Simulacrum.


Thanks. So the chances of not getting it are around 40%ish? So not getting it 4 times in a row is .4 x .4 x .4 x.4 = around 2.5%? I'm not very good at math
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