Dungeon Crawl: Stone Soup - The Soupening

garion333 wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

Oh, harsh death. Would magical resistance have helped preventing getting tossed into the abyss, or is that more or less unpreventable?

It would have for me. I was easily deflecting spells from an ... orc wizard? Anyway, it was saying that I was easily deflecting them, so I thought I was okay. Nope.

An orc wizard cannot cast you into the abyss with a spell. Some more advanced enemies can cast a spell called "banishment" to cast you into the abyss. Magic resistance can save your ass from this. However, you can unfortunately get cast into the abyss by any distortion branded weapon, which is likely what happened to you. To the best of my knowledge magic resistance cannot help you with this. It is a simple 10% chance every time you get hit. Even worse, if you wield a distortion weapon, you've got a 25% chance of getting cast into the abyss when you un-wield it. Horribly unfair in my opinion and a good reason to identify any weapon before you wield it.

Wow, those side rooms/areas can provide some nice stuff. I found a volcano in the Lair and came out of with +1 plate armor with fire protection and three flaming swords (good for the hydras).

I should have dumped my scrolls before going in, though. Lost a half dozen to fire damage.

Found Maud, Eric and Rupert on Lair:8. I will leave them all alone for a while. Rupert can see invis, which makes my stabbing engine useless. Going to need backup for him. I did kill Nergalle, and I've seen Swamp and Snake. I guess I will try one of those after Orc. Invis and Shroud of Golubria should make Orc pretty trivial now.

I had the seeds for a great run with a Centaur, but foolishly didn't want to let go my +1/+2 vampiric something-or-other. I'd also picked up a trident of pain: if I hadn't been afraid to unwield the vampiric blade, I've have realized it was a +8/+9 weapon. Died because I got trapped and just couldn't put out enough damage.

Sigh.

(I started wielding the vampiric polearm in the first place because I'd run out of arrows, and then didn't want to take the food hit to ever wield it again. That was very dumb.)

Annnnndddd dead. Cleared Lair 4, went to Lair 5 had 3 Death Yaks chase me back up and I couldn't get away.

Bollocks.

It's super tough to not play this all day long at work...

garion333 wrote:

It's super tough to not play this all day long at work...

^
This

kaostheory wrote:
garion333 wrote:

It's super tough to not play this all day long at work...

^
This

I'm lucky that my job involves a lot of SSH terminals, and DC:SS looks like just another terminal in the mix!

Not doing terribly well in my latest run, but I've managed to stay alive when surrounded by a bazillion enemies.

I do like playing as a Troll as I can eat just about anything.

Speaking of eating, setting the following in my rc file has made life much easier and faster:

confirm_butcher = never easy_eat_chunks = true auto_eat_chunks = true

New Run - Grey DrMo. I need to choose a God, and I can't find a Jivya altar.

I'm amazed at how quickly I can go from invincible to dead.

garion333 wrote:

It's super tough to not play this all day long at work...

No kidding. I'd much rather be playing than working. Very much fun.

In addition to work, I've got a pile of programming work for the course I'm in, and taxes to do as well. My playing will slow down for a few days, hope to pick it back up by later this week.

Michael wrote:

Speaking of eating, setting the following in my rc file has made life much easier and faster:

confirm_butcher = never easy_eat_chunks = true auto_eat_chunks = true

I get the first and last one, but what does the middle one do?

Sometimes I want to only butcher a part of a pile of corpses, so I'll leave the first setting the way it is, but the third setting will be helpful for me.

Thanks!

Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I get the first and last one, but what does the middle one do?

There's an options_guide.txt file in the documentation that's fun read - I found all sorts of gems in there. To answer your question:

easy_eat_chunks = false
If this is set to true then when using the (e)at command, the
game will automatically determine the oldest chunk that is safe
to eat, and eat it without prompting.
You will always be prompted to eat harmful chunks.
athros wrote:

New Run - Grey DrMo. I need to choose a God, and I can't find a Jivya altar.

Isn't there ususally (always?) and Jivya altar at the entrance to the Slime Pits?

EriktheRed wrote:
athros wrote:

New Run - Grey DrMo. I need to choose a God, and I can't find a Jivya altar.

Isn't there ususally (always?) and Jivya altar at the entrance to the Slime Pits?

Yep, at least it has always been my experience that you'll find your Jivya alter at the entrance to the slime pits in the lower portion of the lair.

Sweet. I've always wanted to try Jivya as a God, and this run seems to be a good candidate. My choice boiled down to either Jivya or Chei.

Not having much time to play or read about it, was curious how to fix my options file so that full-resting (pressing the 5 key on the main part of the keyboard) still has monsters interrupt an extended rest, but to re-enable allowing me to do the one-turn "rest" (5 on the numpad keys) to stand in place when there is a monster in view.

Farscry wrote:

Not having much time to play or read about it, was curious how to fix my options file so that full-resting (pressing the 5 key on the main part of the keyboard) still has monsters interrupt an extended rest, but to re-enable allowing me to do the one-turn "rest" (5 on the numpad keys) to stand in place when there is a monster in view.

Hmmm ... the "s" key has always been used for wait 1 turn and do nothing and should get you what you want.

Farscry wrote:

Not having much time to play or read about it, was curious how to fix my options file so that full-resting (pressing the 5 key on the main part of the keyboard) still has monsters interrupt an extended rest, but to re-enable allowing me to do the one-turn "rest" (5 on the numpad keys) to stand in place when there is a monster in view.

One turn rest is the period key. "."

So, I've picked up a third rune (Spider, Shoals, Vaults) with my MiFi, who is now L22.

I've been banished to the abyss twice by distortion weapons.

I ran into a high level Gargoyle Earth Elementalist Ghost on Vaults 5 who almost wiped my ass with two successive shatter spells. The walls were crumbling around me and every monster on the level was comin' a runnin' with all the noise going on. I had two burn two successive blink scrolls to get my ass back to the stairs.

I've got some huge equipment issues due to a lack of resistances. Neither Elf or Vaults had much of anything useful. I've had to swap out my gorgeous +5 Crystal Plate artifact armor for a more mundane Gold Dragon armor to pick up resistances. This shores up rF, rC and rP but I'm still completely lacking a good source of rN so I think its time to dump Okawaru in favor of The Shining One for the endgame. Fortunately, I've found the gloves of fencing, a +0,+8 ring of slaying and a randart set of boots with +5 damage so I don't have problems with damage output.

I'll give it 50/50 I make it out alive. I think I'll need to try and plunder The Crypts and Slime Pits to try and bolster my equipment before heading into Zot.

Michael wrote:
Godzilla Blitz wrote:

I get the first and last one, but what does the middle one do?

There's an options_guide.txt file in the documentation that's fun read - I found all sorts of gems in there. To answer your question:

easy_eat_chunks = false
If this is set to true then when using the (e)at command, the
game will automatically determine the oldest chunk that is safe
to eat, and eat it without prompting.
You will always be prompted to eat harmful chunks.

Most excellent, thank you! I'll check that file as well. I was looking through the file out of curiosity, and there does look to be quite a bit of tweaking that can be done. Most of the settings seemed to be at what I'd set them at anyway, but one thing I did tweak right away was the low hit point warning. I upped that to 50 instead of the default. (I'd already set the health bar colors to change earlier as well.)

Copingsaw wrote:

Hmmm ... the "s" key has always been used for wait 1 turn and do nothing and should get you what you want.

Michael wrote:

One turn rest is the period key. "."

Thanks, I'll try these keys next time I get a chance to play and that should do the trick.

Ok, I am playing a Vine Stalker Enchanter. I have a +3 +2 vampiric short sword and a the +8,+5 dagger of Grandeur {holy, Int+3}. I feel like using the short sword is what I should be using, but I am starting to have problems killing folks with it. Should I keep using it and skill up my short sword/stealth skill more, or should I switch to the holy dagger?

I'd stab with the dagger and switch to the sword for fighting. It should be a minimal skill investment to get the dagger easily usable. I wish I could give you the monster artifact quick blade Trog gave my huge axe swinging berserker.

EriktheRed wrote:

Ok, I am playing a Vine Stalker Enchanter. I have a +3 +2 vampiric short sword and a the +8,+5 dagger of Grandeur {holy, Int+3}. I feel like using the short sword is what I should be using, but I am starting to have problems killing folks with it. Should I keep using it and skill up my short sword/stealth skill more, or should I switch to the holy dagger?

Tough to say.

Your short sword and dagger both use the same skill so that's good. It should be one of the skills you concentrate on. If your trying to be sneaky/stabby, the dagger is the better weapon and it will also help your spellcasting with the added int. If your planning on a lot of melee then the short sword is your best bet.

I really wouldn't recommend a melee character using a short sword or dagger. Your finding out why with your lack of damage. I've always had a lot of trouble with the sneaky/stabby classes. It's great when it works but if you stir up the hornets nest your simply not in a position to duke it out. For me, sneaky/stabby really only works when you've got a back-up plan like a kobold berserker with his high damage berserk or a spriggan enchanter with his high spells aptitude and speed.

Homard wrote:

I'd stab with the dagger and switch to the sword for fighting. It should be a minimal skill investment to get the dagger easily usable. I wish I could give you the monster artifact quick blade Trog gave my huge axe swinging berserker.

Switching between them is probably a bad idea because it will end up wasting all of my permafood.

Copingsaw wrote:

Tough to say.

Your short sword and dagger both use the same skill so that's good. It should be one of the skills you concentrate on. If your trying to be sneaky/stabby, the dagger is the better weapon and it will also help your spellcasting with the added int. If your planning on a lot of melee then the short sword is your best bet.

I really wouldn't recommend a melee character using a short sword or dagger. Your finding out why with your lack of damage. I've always had a lot of trouble with the sneaky/stabby classes. It's great when it works but if you stir up the hornets nest your simply not in a position to duke it out. For me, sneaky/stabby really only works when you've got a back-up plan like a kobold berserker with his high damage berserk or a spriggan enchanter with his high spells aptitude and speed.

My problems with damage are probably related to Ensorcelled Hibernation starting to lose its effectiveness for me before I can get invisibility online. Once I get that working, hopefully I will be able to get more stabs in. I think for the time being I am going to stick with the vampiric short sword. I might be giving up a little bit in damage output while stabbing, but given I can't use healing potions or wands, it will be nice to have another source of healing.

So, should I enter the Labyrinth?

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/NightmareGWJ/NightmareGWJ.txt

Also, any comments are welcome. I usually get about this far and then die. My biggest problem is I have had trouble getting better protection; the plate in my pack is the first I have run across. Also, uncertain about which of the axes to use: the broad axe provides more resistances but the exec axe does more damage.

tboon wrote:

So, should I enter the Labyrinth?

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/NightmareGWJ/NightmareGWJ.txt

In all two of the runs I've had past XL10, I've found the Lair to be a good next move. That's what the CrawlWiki recommends too. The Wiki is mixed on doing the last level (Lair 8) right away, but I haven't had trouble with it. I've found the entire Lair manageable, but by all means have a way to kill hydras.

tboon wrote:

So, should I enter the Labyrinth?

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/NightmareGWJ/NightmareGWJ.txt

Also, any comments are welcome. I usually get about this far and then die. My biggest problem is I have had trouble getting better protection; the plate in my pack is the first I have run across. Also, uncertain about which of the axes to use: the broad axe provides more resistances but the exec axe does more damage.

Provided you have enough food, labyrinth should be a cake walk. I've never had a problem with them, no matter the class/race combo

athros wrote:
tboon wrote:

So, should I enter the Labyrinth?

http://dobrazupa.org/morgue/NightmareGWJ/NightmareGWJ.txt

Also, any comments are welcome. I usually get about this far and then die. My biggest problem is I have had trouble getting better protection; the plate in my pack is the first I have run across. Also, uncertain about which of the axes to use: the broad axe provides more resistances but the exec axe does more damage.

Provided you have enough food, labyrinth should be a cake walk. I've never had a problem with them, no matter the class/race combo

Oh, I see now. It's one of the timed entrances, so you risk losing it if you don't do it right away. My bad.