Fafnir
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 315
Registered: 11-05-2004
IP: Logged

I doubt it's higher intelligence - I generally run Troll Berserkers as well (with very low INT), and it seems to happen fairly regularly. What the hell, I'll try a little source-diving.

*dig dig dig*

Got it! Here's the relevant code (spells1.cc):

    // scrolls of identify *may* produce "extra" identifications {dlb}:
    if (power == -1 && one_chance_in(5))
        id_used += (coinflip()? 1 : 2);

one_chance_in (in stuff.cc) does exactly what it sounds like (it's not influenced by ingame factors), so essentially there's a 20% chance of getting extra identifies with the scroll. If you do get extra IDs, it's fifty-fifty whether you get one extra or two extra.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I meant to say - berserking for things you can beat easily is a really bad idea. It burns food, it leaves you helpless when you come out, but more importantly it contaminates you with magic. If you get too contaminated, you'll start to mutate - and the mutations are biased towards bad ones. It's a really useful skill, but it should be used only when necessary.

____________________________
Stupidity kills.
Absolute stupidity
Kills absolutely.

---

[Last edited by Fafnir at 12-24-2006 10:34 PM]

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

My character made top 100! Sadly, he was killed by an orc wizard working with a phantom (damn blinker) and iguana...

More questions! Is there any penalty for being Engorged as opposed to Full or at Normal food levels? I ask because one strat I have is to eat until I can't eat any more, then sacrifice the rest of the corpses I find until I become merely full again. Also, is there a food penalty for sacrificing corpses? And am I right in my guess that my weapon turning bright gold = enchant weapon III (or is it only II [though really, I thought II was a different color]?) How much Dex do I want to have as a Troll Beserker (obviously not as much as Strength, but it is still important for dodging, right?) You said axe skill carries partly to mace + flail skill; does this apply both ways? If I have to choose between an unID'ed normal weapon and an unID'ed branded weapon, which should I go with (until one or the other is ID'ed)? When is a good time to go Berserk; when I'm looking at a group of 5 or more enemies that on their own would not go down in one or two hits, or what?

It is getting harder to come up with new questions, though.. b0rsuk, you have been *very* helpful, thank you.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

EDIT: Came up with some more questions.. Books are effectively useless if your god is Trog and you don't want to piss him off by casting spells from memory, correct? And I noticed you were playing a hill orc priest with Zin as your god, and that you never seemed to pray a lot yet had a lot of favor with him; how does that work? Is it because he isn't as big on the killing or is it just because (I think you implied this) favor naturally rises with him over time instead of decreasing like with most of the other gods? Also, I saw a red K appear while you were playing, what is that? Ooh, just remembered; are there any good rules of thumb regarding inventory management (besides dropping things that you find are useless, and not picking up stuff you can already tell is useless)? I hit the limit for items on my last character and most of them were weapons I wanted to ID but couldn't... Oh yeah. I see also you seem to have autopickup disabled; any reason?

I think that's all of them.. so far.

---

[Last edited by BDR at 12-25-2006 05:17 PM]

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

BDR wrote:
My character made top 100!

Congratulations !

Is there any penalty for being Engorged as opposed to Full or at Normal food levels?

In A.D.O.M., but not in crawl. If you're extremely satiated you may be unable to drink a potion (even potions satisfy your hunger a little bit, so potions of poison are not totally useless if you're immune), but it happens very rarely.

Also, is there a food penalty for sacrificing corpses?

I don't follow you. If you suspect (killer) gods reward martyrs who sacrifice corpses even if they have nothing to eat, then no.

And am I right in my guess that my weapon turning bright gold = enchant weapon III (or is it only II [though really, I thought II was a different color]?)

As you said, different color. But scrolls of uselessness can produce very weird colors, too.
There's one quirk about Scroll III I'm not sure it's mentioned anywhere. I played the game for a year or more, and didn't know it. It may be in the item description. If you enchant your weapon with a (temporary) spell such as Fire Brand, Frost Brand, Lethal Infusion or Poison Weapon, you can read Scroll (...) III to make it permanent. Not that it makes scrolls of Vorpalize Weapon useless, but it's nice to know.

How much Dex do I want to have as a Troll Beserker (obviously not as much as Strength, but it is still important for dodging, right?)

Hard to say how much. But I'd worry more about Intelligence. If it's below, say, 7, you're in danger. Some enemies (and Xom, too!) can drain your intelligence. It's temporary, but if it falls below 1 you forget how to breathe. One of my last characters was extremely unlucky to find an Orange Statue next to him upon descending a staircase. He lasted two turns with int7.
It may happen that you'll be able to avoid int drainers or kill them fast enough, but best not to take any chances.
I suppose there are different strategies in developing a character - playing into his strengths, or compensating for weaknesses...

You said axe skill carries partly to mace + flail skill; does this apply both ways?

Both ways. It would be best if you read the manual I linked on previous page. If you stick with axes, you'll have discount learning Polearms and Maces&Flails.

If I have to choose between an unID'ed normal weapon and an unID'ed branded weapon, which should I go with (until one or the other is ID'ed)?

Uhh. Branded weapon is by definition better, unless you're hoping for a scroll of Vorpalize Weapon, which is sure to show up sooner or later. Somewhere in the Lair, Snake Pit, sometimes Orcish Mines...

When is a good time to go Berserk; when I'm looking at a group of 5 or more enemies that on their own would not go down in one or two hits, or what?

I suppose even Berserk isn't straightforward enough :-/. I use berserk when there are enemies I would otherwise have problems handling. Or in rare circumstances when I need to sprint somewhere, like a staircase or teleport trap.

EDIT: Came up with some more questions.. Books are effectively useless if your god is Trog and you don't want to piss him off by casting spells from memory, correct?

Yes, unless you're planning to abandon Trog later. But he wouldn't like that, especially if (hint) you have high status in his eyes.

And I noticed you were playing a hill orc priest with Zin as your god, and that you never seemed to pray a lot yet had a lot of favor with him; how does that work? Is it because he isn't as big on the killing or is it just because (I think you implied this) favor naturally rises with him over time instead of decreasing like with most of the other gods?

Both. Zin and Shining One aren't thrilling by killing, unless it's demon or undead. But there are other reasons to pray with these 2 gods, for example drain resistance.

Also, I saw a red K appear while you were playing, what is that?

I'm puzzled. red K is either a big kobold, or ordinary kobold highlighted in some funny way. If you read the option file, you'll learn sleeping monsters are highlighted blue, fleeing or otherwise occupied(backstabbable) are green. Friendly monsters are reversed, but it doesn't work very well for bats.

Ooh, just remembered; are there any good rules of thumb regarding inventory management (besides dropping things that you find are useless, and not picking up stuff you can already tell is useless)? I hit the limit for items on my last character and most of them were weapons I wanted to ID but couldn't.

It's a workaround, but you can stash your items somewhere. No monsters are ever generated in Ecumenical Temple except for divine punishment. No monsters in the Lair have hands.
It's hard to say, really. It's next to pointless to carry two identical empty wands, because you'll be rechaging only one of them anyway. Most of weapons shouldn't interest you if they don't fit into your skills, BUT even ordinarily looking weapon can be a random artifact. I try to carry a backup weapon and various pieces of armor with me, but not too much. I don't like jellies, much less Oklob Plants. Grr. I'll have a replacement orc fighter on his way to revenge, and Dire Flail is a nasty weapon indeed.

.. Oh yeah. I see also you seem to have autopickup disabled; any reason?

Personal preference. I don't trust autopickup, even if it doesn't pickup anything if there's a monster in sight. Picking up an item takes a turn. I don't have access to crawl configuration file, so I can't define what kind of items it picks up. I don't want to repeatedly become overburdened because it (probably) picks up identified scrolls of forgetfulness or immolation.
Sometimes I turn it on to fish out gold from piles of orcish warriors or ogres.

Tip for today: be very, very careful. Better to use up all your supplies killing an early ogre, or escape, than die with supplies left.

____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

---

[Last edited by b0rsuk at 12-26-2006 08:37 AM]

Krishh
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 282
Registered: 06-05-2004
IP: Logged

I found that to enable the numpad in Putty, select terminal->keyboard->initial state of the numpad to Nethack.

Edit: Which, it turns out, is said on the website of the server, linked below.

---

[Last edited by Krishh at 12-26-2006 09:37 PM]

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

The server has its own website, and it's got a nice update recently. Check it out !

http://crawl.akrasiac.org

You can see stats per player, per race, class etc, scores, rankings... Also morgues (character dumps from death, last messages blah blah).
like this: http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/b0rsuk/morgue-b0rsuk-20061225-1629.txt

My last character is still alive and already has two runes !

____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

---

[Last edited by b0rsuk at 12-26-2006 04:23 PM]

bandit1200
Level: Master Delver
Rank Points: 290
Registered: 10-29-2003
IP: Logged

I read the topic as "pub crawl server". Must be the xmas excesses still on my mind.

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Questions.. there are more of them...

With the question about whether there was a food penalty for sacrificing, I was asking because it seemed like I went from Engorged to Full faster after a sacrifice than if I was simply exploring, or even after normally dissecting a corpse. Now that I think about it, though, is it perhaps because sacrificing takes more turns than normal dissection/exploring?

I was watching a spellcaster; and noticed something strange; is there a difference between "very safe" and "protected" from missiles? (I saw protected from on a different game)

What's the difference between Swift and Fast? Is it just that the guy I was watching was flying instead of running/walking around?

If you are flying and become burdened, will you (if your burdens get too heavy) drop back to earth, and only be able to move thanks to the item trying vainly to grant you flight in the first place, or will you simply be unable to move until you drop your burdens (like if you get overburdened on the ground)?

I also saw that this particular guy had what appeared to be a maxed out Conjurations skill (it was level 27, gold, and the percent next to it was grayed out); do experience points that would normally go into this skill automatically go into other skills? Or do they just sit there waiting for another skill to be used?

"Your armor glows purple and changes." What happened? It looked as if he either made it weigh less or made himself able to carry more...

Is there a command for automatically choosing to go back to different areas you've been to, or is this some special ability?

You mentioned that if your intelligence falls below 1 the character forgets how to breathe; is there any equally disastrous penalty for strength and dexterity falling below 1?

What are the major differences between zombies and normal monsters?

The game keeps track of every single item drop in the game (very useful), and it only keeps track of their location by floor through the search, but can monsters move them between floors? If so, will the game keep track of this, or will it act the same way the map does (items show up in the last place you saw them at)?

If you have a stack of items of different types, which shows up on the screen? If you have two different items (with different colors) of the same type, which one shows up?

And thanks for that tip on Putty, it'll make moving around much easier. Also, that new update letting you see character files/morgue dumps is neat. One more (question) for the road, though, how do you view ttyrec files? Somehow I'm not sure that Notepad will suffice (lovely in its simplicity as it is)..

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

BDR wrote:
With the question about whether there was a food penalty for sacrificing, I was asking because it seemed like I went from Engorged to Full faster after a sacrifice than if I was simply exploring, or even after normally dissecting a corpse. Now that I think about it, though, is it perhaps because sacrificing takes more turns than normal dissection/exploring?

If it really takes more food, it's because it (supposedly) takes more turns. If something makes you hungry, it generally says so in spell/item/god power description.

I was watching a spellcaster; and noticed something strange; is there a difference between "very safe" and "protected" from missiles? (I saw protected from on a different game)

There are two spells protecting from missiles. Deflect Missiles and Repel Missiles.

What's the difference between Swift and Fast? Is it just that the guy I was watching was flying instead of running/walking around?

Swift affects only movement speed, and the effect is smaller. Fast is stronger, but it causes much more contamination. A character who is Fast or Invisible frequently may even start to glow. Fast comes from potions, wands, or is a part of berserk. As far as I know, Swiftness comes from a spell only, but two races (centaur and spriggan) are Swift by default and can't benefit from the spell.
It is said Swift provides additional bonus if you're flying.

If you are flying and become burdened, will you (if your burdens get too heavy) drop back to earth, and only be able to move thanks to the item trying vainly to grant you flight in the first place, or will you simply be unable to move until you drop your burdens (like if you get overburdened on the ground)?

I know flying or levitation increases your carrying capacity, but I heard it may be unpleasant if the spell wears of and you're carrying too much... My guess is that current #1 character died this way.

I also saw that this particular guy had what appeared to be a maxed out Conjurations skill (it was level 27, gold, and the percent next to it was grayed out); do experience points that would normally go into this skill automatically go into other skills? Or do they just sit there waiting for another skill to be used?

I don't really know, but even if it stil goes into Conjurations and is 'wasted' (which would be really dumb), you can still turn the skill off on 'm' screen. If you turn a skill off, it takes 4x times less experience from unallocated xp pool, and increases 4x slower.

"Your armor glows purple and changes." What happened? It looked as if he either made it weigh less or made himself able to carry more...

That's a strange message, but I believe that's how a hide behaves if you use a scroll of Enchant Armor on it. Instead of getting +1 to AC, hides transform into corresponding armors. Dragon hide into dragon armor. Troll hide into troll leather armor (name is misleading, it counts as heavy armor).
You get hides by butchering corpses of certain monsters. Dragon armors used to be very good, but with recent changes I'm not sure anymore.

Is there a command for automatically choosing to go back to different areas you've been to, or is this some special ability?

Press '?' for help. Yes, there is. CTRL-G allows you to automatically travel between different levels, or even dungeon branches. It's very safe, stops upon encountering a monster, etc. But in certain cases you'd want to exclude certain areas from travel or set waypoints. There are some very nasty immobile monsters, and you don't want to even see them unless you're prepared.

You mentioned that if your intelligence falls below 1 the character forgets how to breathe; is there any equally disastrous penalty for strength and dexterity falling below 1?

Apparently, yes.
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/scoring/other_killers.html

What are the major differences between zombies and normal monsters?

Zombies are undead, and can be targeted by many spells, items and abilities that work on undead. Destroying an undead doesn't please Trog and other bloodthirsty gods. Because it's already dead, it's hard to tell just how wounded it is. Zombies are immune to negative energy, poison, mind-affecting spells and cold. They're slower than normal monsters, seem to be slightly more durable, but lose all of their abilities. This makes Giant Eyeball zombies very, very pointless (totally harmless). Zombies can never panic, but near destruction they flee for 1 turn and immediately charge again. It seems that zombies never sleep.
Skeletons are like zombies, but weaker. Zombies and skeletons either don't heal, or heal very slowly. Friendly zombies seem to heal, but it takes a lot of time.

can monsters move them between floors?

No. Only if you lead to another level yourself.
Oh. them. I realy don't know.

If you have a stack of items of different types, which shows up on the screen? If you have two different items (with different colors) of the same type, which one shows up?

No idea, but weapons, corpses and armors seem to have a priority.

One more (question) for the road, though, how do you view ttyrec files? Somehow I'm not sure that Notepad will suffice (lovely in its simplicity as it is)..

No, not notepad, you're missing the point. ttyrec let's you see a movie of how the character was played. I just watched one, and it's a little creepy.
You'd think that a player named Schik would know how to move diagonally.
In linux there's the ttyrec program and you play it with

ttyplay filename

. There are some mentions of windows versions, but I can't test them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ttyrec

____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

---

[Last edited by b0rsuk at 12-27-2006 11:04 PM]

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 622
Registered: 07-06-2004
IP: Logged

b0rsuk wrote:
In linux there's the ttyrec program and you play it with

ttyplay filename

.

Just so Jamie's legacy will live on the boards... s/linux/Unix

ttyrec is great, though. One of my favourite little programs ever, right next to (y)talk. Now that's instant messaging!

Turkey
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 09-27-2006
IP: Logged

And thanks for that tip on Putty, it'll make moving around much easier.

Could you elaborate on this please? I am having difficulty moving fast/efficiently using Shift+x. When I watch others (such as yourselves) you are really zipping around the dungeons - I can't!

b.t.w. I play (well, try to) under the guise of Archibald.

Thanks in advance for assistance from you guys.

Edit: quote was from BDR (I'm new to all this!)
Edit: okay I think I'm getting the hang of Shift+x now (just finished my best ever game using the technique... a measly 490 - but I'm chuffed). When travelling fast am I right in thinking you stop if you encounter a monster?

---

[Last edited by Turkey at 12-28-2006 10:40 AM]

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

Yes, fast travel of all kinds stops when a monster is in sight, when you become hungry, starving, lose hp from poison, get a gift from god (doesn't work for Xom for some reason), prayer is over, an enchantment is fading out...

I use / for fast travel in a single direction.
CTRL-O : automatic explore mode. It's not 100% efficient and doesn't move very tactically (for example may lead a melee warrior to a middle of big room), but works most of the times.
CTRL-G : interlevel travel.

On 'X' map:
- press . to move to position marked by cursor
- press > or < to cycle through down and upstairs.
- press TAB to cycle through shops and portals.

When something interrupts your travel initiated by CTRL-G or X map screen, and you deal with the obstacle, hit the CTRL-G or X again, press enter (sets cursor to previous target) and enter, once again.

The game keeps track of all items on the floor, in shops, or even spells !
press CTRL-F and type trident. You'll get a list of all tridents you know of, along with their locations. You can press a letter to automatically travel to the item. Very useful when you find a crossbow and want to find all the bolts you left lying around.


____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

Turkey
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 09-27-2006
IP: Logged

b0rsuk, thanks for the detailed tips and advice, I'll have to experiment now.
Another question that I can't figure out the answer to: how long in real time is your longest game (excluding pauses and coffee-breaks etc.)?

So, back down into the dungeon...

This game is so addictive.

Turkey
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 09-27-2006
IP: Logged

Okay, so I've had a few more doomed attempts and I am slowly getting to grips with stuff in the game. Much is still puzzling me though...

I was playing as a Gnome Fighter and read a scroll (although I could have quaffed a potion though... I forget now) and all my immediate surrounding squares 'burst' into life with lots of reverse 'b's whilst in mid-combat. As I was unsure what they were I decided to try and sprint to a safe corner and gather my thoughts ready for my next move. I managed to evade and escape the 2 hobgoblins and the rats that were doing a good number on me, however the mystery 'b's (multi-coloured) followed me. They did not seem to attack and after a few more turns they 'died'. I only glimpsed one message that mentioned something about butterflies! I'm assuming they were on my side as they did me no harm, but they didn't do much else from what I can gather. Can anyone tell me what it was I had happen to me?

Also I am now okay with the different modes of travel, but I can't get to grips with the CTRL-G. When I press the keys I get the following:
(D) Dungeon
Where do you want to go?
So far so good I reckon, but whatever I try pressing from there, I just go back to the main game

Again, I would appreciate any advice & tips.

I don't know if this makes any difference, but my keyboard is a German layout - I can usually figure out/work around different commands & keystrokes - but this one has me stumped.

Syntax
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1218
Registered: 05-12-2005
IP: Logged

What a great server and a brilliant idea! I'll be watching a few sessions then I'll have a go myself. Seems the transition from Nethack shouldn't be too tough...

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

Hint #0: You've read a scroll of Random Uselessness. It tends to produce effects even more useless than a swarm of friendly butterflies. The butterflies could actually be useful to slow down enemies pursuing you.
Next time, examine it before doing anything silly.
All inverse characters are friendly creatures. Creatures on blue background are sleeping. Ones on green are awake, but occupied with something else - running away, wandering around without noticing you, or fighting a creature friendly to you. Creatures on both blue and green backgrounds can be stabbed in melee.

Hint #1:
Try something else, not gnome warrior. This combination would frustrate seasoned crawl player. There are VERY few successful kobolds, and gnomes make worse warriors.
Gnomes are very good at earth magic and not bad on other kinds of magic. Either try gnome earth elementalist, gnome wizard, or a warrior of different race.
If you still like the idea of a bloodthirsty gnome, try a gnomish assasin. Gnomes are good at stealth and backstabbing.

Minotaurs, dwarves, trolls, orcs make very good warriors. Humans, nagas and ogres are decent, too. Gnome is possibly the worst race for a melee warrior.

About CTRL-G : the (D) letter suggests that you press d if you want to go to the Dungeon (main branch). Then you either press enter for default level, or type a number to go to specific level. If you discover other branches, such as Ecumenical Temple, Orcish Mines or The Lair, they'll be added to the list.
CTRL-G is pointless as long as the only level you visited is the first.

Longest game in realtime ? Depends on how careful (how fast) you play. Greensnark (first winner on the server) won a fairly plain victory and it took him one day. I advanced my character to level18 in 9 hours, then died.
It is possible to play quite a bit longer than that. You need three runes to enter the Realm of Zot, but you can get more if you're brave and well prepared. The runes easiest to obtain are found in Snake Pit, Swamp and Vaults. But you can find one in the Abyss, too, another one in Pandemonium, the Tomb, and some in one of 4 hells.
-----------
Syntax: good luck :>

____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

---

[Last edited by b0rsuk at 12-29-2006 07:19 PM]

BeefontheBone
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 184
Registered: 05-11-2006
IP: Logged

Oooh, snazzy! And right when I've gotten into roguelikes again (not a lot else to play at my Dad's over christmas. It's not a bad thing ). I plugged in my lovely new widescreen monitor today, and decided to give it a try out by ... erm, playing ZangbandTK on it. I get to see a lot more dungeon at once now

Now all I have to do is get less reckless so I can get somewhere with LDC...

____________________________
Braindead's Mordor Site - Dungeon crawling having nothing whatsoever to do with LotR. Plus a freeware remake in-progress, featuring descriptive text written by yours truly!

Beef Row wrote: Actually, it doesn't really matter because the soap is a lye.

Turkey
Level: Roachling
Rank Points: 13
Registered: 09-27-2006
IP: Logged

Again, thanks b0rsuk for all your advice and pointers. Yes I've realised the Gnome Warrior combination was a bit hard to play. My greatest success (733 points!) came from a Human Crusader. I will follow your much earlier advice and use humans until I get more proficient with other stuff (like butterflies ).
Just got killed by Mercury's Ghost on DL4!

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Well, I had to dig for it on the Internet, but I finally found something that can play .ttyrec files on Windows here. It's not perfect but it works only slightly less well than watching the game in real time (I say this only because the stats of characters you watch don't show up for me until the player looks at a status screen or whatnot with the realtime watching, whereas with the player I've seen a few characters not go away on the in-game status comments area, which is only slightly annoying). I also found this, but it looks like that may take rather more work to get going (and I'm a bit too lazy to work at finding out how to get it going when I can find a program that's all set up already).

It took slightly less digging to find a program that can unzip/decompress .bz2 files (though if you have WinRAR [merely annoyware so practically free] you can use that), which is here (and WinRAR for the curious is here). Then again, you might prefer 7zip, but I've not tried it.

---

[Last edited by BDR at 12-30-2006 08:01 PM]

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Betcha thought this was dead and gone. Well, I've got some more questions.. not a lot, but enough to justify bringing it back.

1. Is there a limit on the number of items that can stack with each other (like if I've got 90 arrows and pick up another 20 and the limit is 100, the other 10 will end up in a new stack)? Or is it solely limited by my carrying capacity?

2. If there is no limit (or if I'm under the limit with the bigger stack), and I pick up a new stack of arrows/darts/etc., and the missiles are the same in name as another, bigger stack of missiles but refuse to stack with them, can I infer from this that they are not the same type of missile (and that they are instead special in some way, assuming the bigger stack is made of +0 or normal arrows)? I've played a few games where I found after dying that the new stack that didn't stack with my other arrows were arrows of flame or +3/+4 or some such.

3. If the answer to 2 is yes, is there a way to use this trick for divining the differences between hand weapons (or am I doomed to either using an id scroll or wield-id'ing them)?

4. Is auto-prayer any good? I've seen it in the help screen but I've never used it.

BeefontheBone
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 184
Registered: 05-11-2006
IP: Logged

I believe the stacking works like ADoM's - things which appear to be the same but don't stack are in fact different. However, I've no idea if there's a limit to stack sizes. You could check by dropping some of one stack, then the rest (and some of the larger stack) separately, then pick up the first lot and see if it stacks with the original stack. Or, more easily, see if they combine on the floor when you drop some from each (I think).

____________________________
Braindead's Mordor Site - Dungeon crawling having nothing whatsoever to do with LotR. Plus a freeware remake in-progress, featuring descriptive text written by yours truly!

Beef Row wrote: Actually, it doesn't really matter because the soap is a lye.

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Here's a quicker question: I see trolls automatically get two +s in their resistances sheet and are named saprovores; what exactly does this mean, and what does three +s refer to (I'm assuming one +s are omnivores and no +s are carnivores)?

BeefontheBone
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 184
Registered: 05-11-2006
IP: Logged

Essentially, they eat excreta and/or detritus. See here. 's not a common term. No idea on the plusses.

____________________________
Braindead's Mordor Site - Dungeon crawling having nothing whatsoever to do with LotR. Plus a freeware remake in-progress, featuring descriptive text written by yours truly!

Beef Row wrote: Actually, it doesn't really matter because the soap is a lye.

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Here's another question (I don't think I asked this one): How do I decide which weapons to spend either scrolls or time on for identifying them? I get that runed, glowing, dwarvish, elven, and orcish modifiers generally denote better items, but is there anything else to take into consideration?

Maurog
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1501
Registered: 09-16-2004
IP: Logged

Dwarven, elven and orcish are *not* keywords for special weapons, they just signify which race produced them. There are some bonuses (for example elven armors don't obstruct you at all), but you don't need to specially identify them.

____________________________
Slay the living! Raise the dead!
Paint the sky in crimson red!

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

The options file is much easier and more fun to edit now, so I'm trying to get my options file to make my life(s) as a TrBe nicer. I've (mostly) succeeded on the part of my item list (though there seem like there will be more bugs to work out yet), but I have a couple things that don't seem to be working right: trapwalk and the =g option for auto_inscribe. I'm also wondering if there's a way to make it so that if more than one monster shows up, auto-explore stops, but if there's only one (like a hobgoblin or some other easy monster) then only stop if it gets too close for comfort (or if I get hit by something harmful). Monsters that will ruin my day if they get too close or if I don't react ASAP will get taken into account as well (slowly, perhaps, but they will, even if it takes me over 1000 games to get it right; so it's not like I'm just going to sit back with auto-explore all the time and wonder what happened when I die suddenly).

On a side note, I had a recent game that was both one of my best and worst: There was an imp on the first level, and I killed it, which boosted me straight to level 3 (this was after a couple more normal fights)! Unfortunately, there weren't any stairs down, secret doors, wands of digging/disintegration, or teleport items that I could find... so I couldn't continue. Definitely one of those 'better luck next time' games.

b0rsuk
Level: Smiter

Rank Points: 489
Registered: 11-23-2003
IP: Logged

b0rsuk moved and doesn't have internet connection yet.

1. As far as I know there's no limit to items stacked on one pile. If ammo splits into several piles, its because it has different attributes (+1, +2, of fire, of pwnedness...)... but I heard some reports about a bug related to ammo stacking.

2. I think the only way is to use or ID the weapon. Any branded weapon will reveal itself once wielded, but it may be harmful in case of weapon of distortion(rare). Hint: branded weapons with not very useful brands (like reaching) still have high chance of high hit/damage modifiers, so they're worth checking.
Elven, orcish etc weapons tent to get some minor bonuses. It's around +1/+1 for dwarven, +1/-1 for orcish.
If you wield a weapon and it doesn't show any brands, and it's not a weapon you're skilled with, it's probably not worth it. Unless it's something special like demon trident, quick blade, lochaber axe etc.

3. I suppose autoprayer can be helpful to reduce monotony with gods who appreciate kills. It doesn't autopray with monsters in sight and has some other tweaks. But I still prefer manual way. I mean, there can theoretically be a situation where you're fleeing from a monster around a corner and lose a turn because of autoprayer.


____________________________

http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20051128/adams_01.shtml

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

Well, I tried autoprayer, and funnily enough it actually works the complete opposite of the way I'd like it to work; because it only activates when monsters are not in sight, I can't use it to save me energy during fighting so I can be credited by Trog for killing things. The only good thing about having it on might be if I wanted to sacrifice corpses all the time, and most of the time I'd really rather eat the chunks if I'm not Engorged (Trolls have very high hunger rates.. but then, they have pretty fast regen too, and can eat chunks more safely than other species, so the only time it's a big problem is if I run into a dearth of monster corpses/encounters). So, yeah, I gotta agree with you on that feature.

On the other hand, the team made the options file a lot easier to change (no more mysterious vi editor with no way of knowing how to even exit the file), and so I fiddled with it some. I love greedyexplore (it makes travel automatically head for things you want and pick them up [and stops by default to show you what got picked up]; it does stop if there's a monster though) and I've also used a thing called ban_pickup successfully to keep from picking up bad potions and rings and such. However, a few things mentioned on the options page at akrasic don't seem to work as well. For instance, I'm having issues with trying to get auto_inscribe working; it seems like it worked on royal jellies and such, but it seems to not be working on maces, axes, and clubs, as well as a few other things. I'm also not having any luck with trapwalk; it should let me walk over traps (if I have enough HP) but traveling is still not going over traps automatically. runrest_ignore seems to work with prayer ending, but I can't get it to work for poison (I'm a freggin' troll, it takes more than 2 levels of poison to override my regen!) Another issue I'm curious about is whether there's a way to make travel stop as soon as two or more monsters show up, but not just one (unless it is either dangerous by itself or can summon plenty of friends, and even if not I do plan on a general buffer zone so nothing gets too close ) I'm also having issues with colors but I am pretty sure that I'll eventually get it the way I want it with enough persistence.

BDR
Level: Master Delver

Rank Points: 106
Registered: 10-03-2006
IP: Logged

:sigh: My latest game ran something like this:

La de da de da.. *reaches level 7* Wow, there are a lot of shops here! And cool stuff to buy too! And hey, I got corrosion, a level of cold, and 2 levels of fire resistance in my amulet (acquired) and 2 more levels of cold resistance plus 6 more evasion points (my dex being low this game) out of my ring! Pretty sweet... Now something's gonna kill me for sure... *reaches level 12* Well, the Orc Mines were a bust... hey, what's this? An iron troll and a hydra? Hm... Dang, that iron troll is hurting me much more than I am him, better hoof it a little... Heh, a jackal got between me and the hydra; now to heal up while that one futilely tries to kill me... It's just me and you now, hydra, and I'm full on health! .....@#%^, I lopped off a head with my unarmed attack. ....screw running, I'll try killing him faster than he grows new heads... "You have died" :/

jamie
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 365
Registered: 04-15-2005
IP: Logged

Alneyan wrote:
Just so Jamie's legacy will live on the boards... s/linux/Unix

Was I really that much of a fanboy? hee hee

____________________________
#f3i2g# Disclaimer: I'm Welsh, left-handed, and stupid. #f3i2g#

Alneyan
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 622
Registered: 07-06-2004
IP: Logged

Of course not! I would never dare, on account of our friendship and all that.

That, and I'm... you know, it's kind of embarrassing, but I've actually been running FreeBSD for the past two weeks.