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1

Century Lounge / Re: [M|Ao100|100%|YAAM] PISTOLERO! (Masterless Marine Win)

« on: January 18, 2025, 13:50 »

Interesting strategy - been a while since I played A100 or a pistol build (or much at all), but I have fond memories of Sharpshooter builds for that challenge. Combine that with HR and INT and you can get yourself out of harms way and snipe a ton of enemies off before they become a problem. That worked on HNTR though, don't think I ever tried higher difficulty A100 runs.

Pistols can still work on higher difficulties in A100, though the early game problems get really exacerbated in A100. I've done Sharpshooter in UV A100 before, but I think a Scavenger works best for a Pistol build in A100; you can get traits to help you survive the early game, and then get SoG when you find a pistol actually worth using, while Scavenger lets you get all the rare mods that really benefit pistols (if you ever want to achieve the dream of wielding a P3N2S2 Combat Pistol or P3N1S2 Blaster, Scavenger makes that actually possible without playing A666). You lose out on Dualgunner, but I think Dualgunner is a trap anyway on higher difficulties without a Nanomachic Pistol or Nano-modded Blaster, where you'll far too often empty your pistols while several enemies are still in range, and so a single souped up pistol + ammo box is much more reliable. Cateye is another nice A100 pistol build option if you want to keep Dualgunner and want to stack SoG with SoB, while having a mastery that still helps pistols. Not too viable in the standard game as it requires so many traits (which will make you either not get Cateye or your pistols up to speed until very late), but in A100 you got more than enough time to make it work, while having a much smoother early game than with the actual Pistol masteries. I once did a UV A100 + AoMC run with Cateye where I finished as a pistol build and it was quite fun.

My most hated enemies by far were the VMR and the Nightmare Arachnotrons (which came probably the closest to ending me in the second big cave near the end). I ended up using a Hellwave Pack to even the odds against a mess of Viles and Mancs that were too tightly packed together for me to get at the Viles easily. I also ended up having to fight two Cyberdemons near the end of the run, one on an island level where he was right in the lava, and another in a regular level, and in both cases, they took two full double-mags to bring down.

If you really hate VMR, I would strongly advise picking up Berserker in A100 runs even if you have no intention to use melee (and it's just nice insurance in general to protect you in case you do get ambushed by a big hit or accidentally push a Napalm Barrel into lava). Archvile zaps will always trigger it, and Mancubus and Revenant rockets will trigger it nearly half the time, while when it does trigger, berserk's +60% resistances are applied before damage calculation. This is especially powerful with the 0.9.9.8 Marine, as those resistances stack on top of their inherent 20% energy resistances, and so you're basically running around with inherent 80% resistances against them before your own armor is factored (this reduces an Archvile zap down to 4 damage, and even a max damage Revenant/Mancubus rocket won't deal more than 5, while unmodded Red Armor or even weak Nanofiber Red Armor brings that down to 1). It's not just VMR either, high damage rolls from other several hard-hitting enemies, like Barons and the bosses, as well as barrels, and your own splash damage, will trigger it too. And of course when you're berserked, you're now much faster at everything to help you kill them easier (or escape if needed). Alternatively, if you don't want to get Berserker (or before you can get it), just simple Fireproof Red Armor will neuter the VMR's threat; with a Scout/Technician, it'll reduce an Archvile zap down to 5 damage and Revenants/Mancubi won't do more than 7 at max, while with the Marine's energy resistances, it'll just outright reduce their damage down to 1 without any mods nor TaN.

As for Nightmare Arachnotrons... yeah they're the biggest bastards and there's no way to effectively eliminate their threat, while they can't trigger Berserker either, and even if you got the defenses to reduce all their hits down to 1, you still won't be able to tank a swarm of them. If you spawn into a Nightmare Arachnotron cave and have Berserker, you could facerocket yourself to at least trigger it and speed yourself up, you really need speed to not get overwhelmed by them. They're also a very big reason you want to keep Tactical Boots or other speedy boots handy and don't want to only have a pair of heavy boots (especially when you got no Hellrunner...), speed is crucial to survive them and if each movement takes you over a second, a swarm of Nightmare Arachnotrons will just gun you down as you try maneuvering to better positioning (at least on HNTR, caves will have relatively few enemies and so you can more realistically stand your ground against them, but if you ever try A100 on the harder difficulties, definitely don't leave behind those speed-boosting boots).

I entered the final level on an Invulnerability, and since it was another Pitch Black level, I decided fuck it and busted out the Angel Arm for the first and only time on the run to finish things off with a bang.

Darkness levels are very nasty, especially when you don't got Berserker to protect you if you stumble into a big hit, so I would say just nuking it was a wise decision!

2

Requests For Features / Re: Compilation of fixes, changes, and new ideas for version 0.9.9.9

« on: January 01, 2025, 22:15 »

This post is to organize new bugs and issues found in the 2nd beta of 0.9.9.9.

*Various audio issues

In addition to certain sounds having defaults that have always ignored any new sound you try defining for them in the sound.lua and now audio.lua files (such as the Nightmare Cacodemon and Lava Elemental projectiles using the default fireball sound regardless of what you put in for them, or the Revenant's projectile using the Rocket Launcher's sound even if you try giving it a different sound), I have found new sounds that ignore what you set for them.

*The Shambler's projectile now always uses the default fireball sound, ignoring what you set it for it in the audio file.
*All melee weapons use the default fireball sound when attacking with them, not only ignoring what you set for them but also the default sounds that were already assigned to some of them.
*Activating levers uses the powerup sound, rather than what you set for them nor the default switch sound (this does not apply to levers in special levels however, which are correctly using the switch sound).

One other minor audio issue is when releasing the Shamblers in Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab, their act sound upon releasing is distance-based. This is fine for Deimos Lab when you're right next to the spot they spawn when hitting the lever to release them, but in Hell's Armory, since the Shambler is released on the other side of the map, you don't hear it at all. Maybe you could argue it's better this way, but previously this sound wasn't distance-based.

*Warning messages are not colored

Self-explanatory, warning messages for when your armor is damaged/destroyed, when a nuke countdown is happening, or simply from killing everything on the level, are no longer colored. You can see a screenshot of it in this Discord message.

*If an item's name gets too long, it'll take up two lines of space in your inventory menu, and push other items off the screen.

Also self-explanatory, you can see a screenshot of it in this Discord message.

*If a run earns enough unique medals to earn one of the Heroic badges, you won't be awarded said badges until the next run you complete.

So like with the Technician badges, it appears the Heroic badges are also bugged to not be awarded on the actual run you earn them in, with the game instead giving them on your next run you complete, as seen in this Discord message. I assume this issue will also apply to the Armorer badges.

*You are unable to equip autoequip weapons from the ground if you are already holding another weapon, even if you have inventory space for it.

Yet another self-explanatory issue, you can see a screenshot of it in this Discord message.

*Gunrunner's autofiring is bugged.

So with the new JH targeting opening up the possibility to control Gunrunner's autofiring when running instead of only firing at the closest enemy, I thought to try testing if it worked that way now... only to find that Gunrunner's autofiring doesn't work at all. You'll run, and the targeting cursor will go to the closest enemy if you have it targeting a different enemy, with no firing happening. And even if you were pre-targeting the closest enemy, it still doesn't autofire. A pretty crippling bug that needs to be fixed ASAP (and hopefully Gunrunner will gain control over where its autofire shoots when that is fixed).

*If you reload a save, when you run -> wait with enemies revealed, you cannot stop it manually.

Normally, if you do run -> wait when enemies are revealed from a Tracking Map or the enemy revealed mechanic, you are able to interrupt it before whatever max wait time you have set in your config file. However in the current beta, if you save and then reload it, you are unable to stop it until an enemy gets in your vision or it hits the max wait time, and any inputs you do try inputting seemingly get "buffered" to get inputted immediately after you reach the max wait time. Weirdly this bug seems to only be present when you reload a save, as I have not encountered it on any run before saving.

*Cerberus Boots have a flat 50% plasma resistance, rather than giving +50% resistance to the base boots with a cap of 100%.

Not a bug, but something I noticed when making Cerberus Plasteel Boots, they had 50% plasma resistance rather than 60%. This isn't a big deal in this particular instance, but the main reason I bring it up is if you were to make Cerberus Boots out of the new Blood Boots, the resulting Cerberus Blood Boots would have 50% plasma resistance rather than 100%, which makes no sense. Since the only other moddable boots with any plasma resistance is Plasteel boots, this change would mainly just allow you to make Cerberus Blood Boots that retain their blood immunity (and make Plasteel boots a slightly better option for Cerberus Boots, which isn't a bad idea to help differentiate the resulting Cerberus Boots based on which boots you use, as otherwise they're all identical aside from Cerberus Gothic Boots having 200% durability).

*Blood Boots (almost) cannot be obtained outside of A100/666

I noticed in the source code that Blood Boots have a minimum depth of 25, which considering boots cannot spawn in vaults, this make Blood Boots almost unobtainable outside of A100/666 (I say "almost", because you can obtain them in Lava Pits/Mt. Erebus since item spawns there are based on floor 25, but your chances are very low that you'll get them there). I imagine this was intentional, given blood is primarily an A100 feature, with its only standard game appearance currently being in Limbo and rarely in caves on UV/N!. However, making Blood Boots an almost A100 exclusive makes it a particular pain in the ass for the Armorer badges, as now you cannot possibly get Armorer Gold without playing A100 or getting very lucky in the one special level you can find them, which isn't a big deal, but the bigger pain comes in that you now wouldn't be able to get Armorer Diamond without playing A100 at least three times (and likely more as you can go entire A100 runs without ever finding the Blood Boots), or otherwise getting very lucky with them spawning in Lava Pits/Erebus three times. And Blood Boots could still be useful in the standard game, so being able to get them if you're lucky could be nice (whether to make Limbo easier or as a life saver if you get a really bad late blood cave on UV/N!). A minimum depth of 17 or even 20 for the Blood Boots can work. If these boots must be kept an A100 exclusive, I wouldn't mind the Armorer badges being overhauled however to be less of a pure grind.

_________________________________________________________

The following aren't bugs/issues, but a couple more balancing ideas.

*Lessen the speed penalty on heavy boots.

A new mechanic added is fluids slowing your movement down by 20%. I like this change, but I think this change is excessively punishing on heavy boots that were given a big movespeed penalty to previously compensate for their ability to run through fluids with little to no damage, back when there was no speed penalty from fluids. For example, when playing a Scout wearing Cerberus Boots with no Hellrunner, you will have an abysmal 1.48 second movement speed in fluids with no armor on (or armor with no speed bonus/penalty), and an abominable 1.77 second speed when wearing Red Armor that wasn't agility-modded on top of those boots (better hope there's no speedy enemies around or you might get triple-attacked). And of course those numbers would be even worse for the Marine and Technician, while if the N! enemy speed bonus is added back on top, maybe a quadruple attack could be possible... As such, I propose the following move speed adjustments:

Gothic Boots: -15% -> -10%
Environmental Boots: -25% -> -15%
Enviroboots: -25% -> -15%
Lava Boots: -30% -> -20%
Cerberus Boots: -30% -> -20%

I'll also note that these new values still make these boots slower in fluids than they were in versions prior to the fluid-slowing moving mechanic, and they're still slow enough that you would rather wear movement-boosting boots normally, even after agility-modding them (-10% speed Cerberus Boots vs +25% speed Tactical Boots is no contest for what you want to be wearing at all times).

*Buff Tough As Nails to give +5% inherent energy resistances per level in addition to +1 inherent protection, nerf the Marine's inherent energy resistances to 10%, nerf Berserk's resistance bonuses to +50%, change Vampyre's SoB block to TaN, and change Malicious Blades' TaN block to Badass or SoG.

This is several different things but I'm putting them all under the same entry, as they're tied together, addressing TaN being an underpowered trait whose block means little to any mastery that blocks it, a requisite Marine nerf that would be needed if TaN is buffed to keep Marines from getting too tanky, addressing the overpowered defenses granted by Berserk and the Berserker trait, and a way to farther nerf the currently broken Vampyre, while giving the currently underpowered Malicious Blades something. I wrote up a big post explaining the rationale behind these changes in the JH Discord, but in case the person reading this isn't in the JH Discord or don't want to open Discord up, I'll repost it here under the following spoiler tags:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Wondering if Tough As Nails could get buffed. It's the basic trait i pick least by far, and I find it to be a "whatever" block for nearly every mastery that blocks it, while Ironman is the usually more useful filler defensive trait. Aside from general "offense > defense", some particular issues with it:

*1 point of protection matters little against bigger enemies, unless you already have such good armor that you can reduce their attacks down to around 5 or less damage.

*It is applied separately from your armor in damage calculation, which means TaN does not reduce the damage your armor takes, unlike inherent resistances will.

*TaN1 literally does nothing against plasma damage, since it's applied separately from armor (meaning it can't stack on armor with odd value protection to save an extra point of plasma damage) and gets rounded down to 0. TaN3 additionally provides no extra benefit against plasma, since it still can't stack with armor and will get its protection rounded down to 1.

*If you have good enough armor to reduce damage to 1, then any additional levels of TaN does nothing.

Just letting it stack properly with worn armor in damage calculation could be an idea to help address issues 2 and 3, though I don't know if that would be a pain to program, and it would also buff enemies that find armor, which could be either good or bad depending on how you see it (though that would only apply when a Hell Knight finds a Green Armor or another 1/3 protection armor, as now it would take 1 less damage from plasma hits, other enemies that can wear armor already have even value inherent protection and so gain no benefit from it). Another idea is to take a page from Ironman's buff and have each level of TaN give you +5% inherent energy resistances in addition to +1 protection, which will let it make more of a difference against the big hard-hitting enemies, help reduce the damage your armor takes, and will make TaN1 + 3 actually matter against plasma damage. If the latter idea was to be implemented, you would need to nerf the Marine's inherent energy resistance to 10%, or at least 15%, which would end up serving as a slight indirect nerf to Ammochain (which is blocked TaN).

I'm also thinking berserk's resistances could be nerfed to +50% rather than the +60% it is now. Aside from +60% being a weird number, Berserker itself is a very powerful defensive trait without even considering the offensive benefits of berserk; take any hit that deals 16 damage or more, you automatically reduce it by at least 60% (which stacks with whatever armor resistances and other inherent resistances you have), while you then get 20 actions performing all actions 50% faster and will reduce any farther damage by 60% during those actions (while getting even more berserk actions if you take any subsequent hit that deals 16+ damage), which you can utilize to kill the threat(s) much easier or escape without depleting your tactics. It's so good that in A100 and Nightmare runs, I find it well worth going out of my way to get Berserker shortly after I get my mastery + WK2 even if I'm not intending to use melee (though since berserked melee is so strong, having a competent melee sidearm is always handy). Reading old forum threads, I see once upon a time, berserk's resistances were briefly +50% after being nerfed from whatever it was prior, but people freaked out about melee being "nerfed too much" and so it was made +60%, don't know if people overreacted as I wasn't around for those early versions, but in current DRL, I think +60% resistances is too strong and melee would still be very powerful with berserk resistances toned back down to +50%. This would partly help Malicious Blades being grossly outclassed by Berserker too (though I think Malicious blades would still need help to be worth not being able to get Berserker).
 
If you implemented the TaN buff, the Marine inherent resistance nerfs, berserk's resistance nerf, and then changed Vampyre's SoB block to TaN, that would go a long way to reign Vampyre back in, without hurting the other non-Ammochain Marine builds. For some number crunching, with 10% inherent energy resistances + 50% berserk resistances + 12% fire resistance from a Nanofiber Red Armor, berserked Vampyre would have 60% acid and plasma resistances in addition to 72% fire resistance. This results in the following new damage calculations

*An Archvile zap gets reduced to 4 damage (currently it deals 1 damage)
*An average Revenant and Mancubus rocket gets reduced to 2 damage (currently 1 damage), and max damage Revenant/Macubus rocket gets reduced to 5 damage (currently 1 damage)
*An average Cyberdemon rocket gets reduced to 4 damage (currently 1 damage), and max damage Cyberdemon rocket gets reduced to 8 damage (currently 1 damage). This damage calculation also applies to intentional facerockets to trigger Berserker.
*An average Baron acid ball gets reduced to 3 damage (currently 1 damage), and max damage Baron ball gets reduced to 6 damage (currently 2 damage)
*An average Hell Knight/Cacodemon plasma ball gets reduced to 2 damage (currently 1 damage), and a max damage plasma ball gets reduced to 4 damage (currently 1 damage)
*An average Shambler bolt gets reduced to 4 damage (currently 1 damage), and max damage Shambler bolt gets reduced to 7 damage (currently 3 damage)

With these numbers, Vampyre would now need to get much more rare indestructible/regenerating armor in order to achieve near-IDDQD status than just building a Nanofiber Red Armor. Vampyre could put a power or technical mod on Nanofiber Red Armor to reduce nearly every energy hit to 1 to 3 damage, but then it would sacrifice the much needed agility mod it can currently put on to mitigate Vampyre's lack of Hellrunner, meaning it takes a bit more chip damage when rushing in to hordes. If you made these changes and also disallowed Vampyre from healing over 100% and/or made its prerequisites harder, I think that would knock it back down to the A tier without going as far as preventing berserk resistances from stacking with the Marine's or other inherent resistances. For one more note, if TaN was buffed and Vampyre was blocked it, I would suggest letting Malicious Blades get TaN, both to alleviate so many masteries blocking it and to farther help give Malicious Blades something over the other two melee masteries (change the block to Badass or Son Of A Gun).

3

Discussion / Re: 0.9.9.8 Build Tier List

« on: December 31, 2024, 22:57 »

Nice summary, I'll go through it in detail when I plan to do another run. Question though - what do you mean by floors and ceilings?

Floor means how good the build will be at its worst with bad RNG (particularly regarding item drops and generated EXP pool), and ceiling means how good a build will be at its best. So a good floor means the build will still function well even if you're getting repeated difficult bad levels while stuck with nothing more than common items and whatever you can get guaranteed from special levels, and a good ceiling means the build becomes that much more exponentially powerful when you do get all the good stuff.

4

Discussion / 0.9.9.8 Build Tier List

« on: December 31, 2024, 22:17 »

I posted this 0.9.9.8 (and early 0.9.9.9 beta) build tier list on the JH Discord and was asked to post it here so I could include the short summaries I wrote explaining my rationale for each ranking.

This tier list factors how the build does at every point in the game and overall consistency, not just ranking on potential (what good is potential if you'll always die before reaching it or will almost never get the rare equipment you need for it?), nor how likely a build gets you past Phobos (sure Phobos is usually the hardest part, but Phobos deaths are much less painful than deaths in Deimos and especially Hell, so increasing your odds of not dying in Deimos and Hell is still important), and considers how much the build actually helps you clear difficult levels and survive arduous combat situations (any build can 100% clear a level without damage with a perfect corner shooting spot and a Tactical Shotgun, but rarely will you find such ideal conditions, especially on harder difficulties, so the less you have to depend on ideal conditions the better). Tiers are ordered, but the ordering isn't super important.

S tier

(Clearly broken and needs to be nerfed)

*Vampyre - Trivializes the standard game when it gives you near-IDDQD even in Angel Of Max Carnage and is by far the easiest option for most challenges/badges. Strategy with Vampyre also often amounts to little more than "run into enemies, mash click until they die", with maybe some rocket jumps in there to close gaps and calculated facerockets to trigger Berserker before rushing in. Its only weaknesses is a mediocre early game (that is mitigated with the free trait you get and being a level 6 mastery), and the Hellrunner block makes it not so ideal for any time-sensitive challenges, but it's so strong it could probably still work in those. The gap between Vampyre and every other build grows even farther on Nightmare, when melee is very powerful at corpse handling and Vampyre can abuse respawns for a full health refill whenever needed. It also requires nothing more than a mundane Nanofiber Red Armor and Chainsaw (or even just a Chainsword) to break the game, no need for rare or otherwise hard-to-get equipment, so it's super consistent and its floor is greater than nearly every other build's ceiling.

A+ tier

(Borderline broken, might need a nerf but doesn't outright trivialize the game)

*Ammochain - EE block makes typical rapid fire weapons unreliable and not being able to get WK1/2 until level 10/11 minimum without putting off Ammochain sucks, but consuming 1 cell per plasma burst is so powerful, both ammo-conservation and combat wise (other builds can't do more than five consecutive shots with a Plasma Rifle + TH2 without needing to go through a long reload or building a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle, while Ammochain can do 40 consecutive shots with a vanilla Plasma Rifle without reloading), and having Reloader makes Shotguns a very reliable fallback, while that in addition to the Marine's durability makes the early game easy too. Also has the uncommon ability to get both HR + Berserker to make it even more powerful late game, and its non-EE blocks are irrelevant. Overall has a very high floor with one of the highest ceilings (just needs a Hyperblaster to crush the game, while getting any of the rare mods, a Laser Rifle, or Nuclear Plasma Rifle sends it into the stratosphere), with few special levels and challenges posing any issue.

A tier

(Very powerful and often optimal builds, but have enough drawbacks to usually not make the game a cakewalk)

*Shottyhead - One of the strongest mastery effects despite its simplicity, while also having very strong prereqs, being able to get WK at a reasonable level, doesn't require ancillary traits but still retains strong post-mastery options like Berserker and Intuition, and has probably the easiest early game of any build. Its only stumbling is the SoB + EE block makes any sort of Plasma Rifle much less effective, but this isn't a big deal unless the RNG is very stingy with shells when you essentially got rapid fire shotguns. It has one of the highest floors with one of the highest ceilings, while being good at every point of the game and rarely being worse than a solid pick for any given challenge, but being vulnerable to ammo concerns without a Nano mod keeps it from the A+ tier.

*Scavenger - Essentially plays like a masterless build, but gets more mods than usual and a lot more of those very coveted rare mods, that combines very nicely with the Technician's inherent abilities. While luck dependent, it'll usually get better equipment than other builds around the midgame, and is far more likely to obtain the super equipment that will trivialize the game. While it has the fewest blocks of any mastery and two of the blocks are pretty irrelevant, the Berserker block is painful and can leave the build somewhat vulnerable lategame without good armor. Like masterless builds, it can also lack power in late Phobos and early Deimos before you get the aforementioned buffed equipment, but is usually no worse than solid for any challenge that doesn't require immediate power.

*Cateye - The best build at damage avoidance, while it also offers a level of flexibility not seen in most other masteries, and has a good effect that benefits any weapon type, making it more of a "generalist" mastery than the actual intended generalist Scout mastery. Can have the problem of wanting too many traits however (particularly being unable to fit Int2 + WK2 + EE + HR in a timely manner), and Cateye can be lacking in power when damage avoidance is not possible, which cannot be alleviated by getting Berserker either as it's blocked (which also makes the build more fragile in the lategame). Often a viable pick regardless of the challenge, and does have the particular perk of being brokenly good in Angel of Max Carnage.

*Blademaster - No other build can clear floors faster, and Berserker in general is very strong, while its power scales up the higher the difficulty as its ability becomes more useful the more enemies there are. Its early game is on the weaker end and the late Whizkid acquisition sucks, while its effect doesn't really do much against isolated enemies, keeping it from being broken, but it remains consistently good floor and ceiling wise, and it remains an optimal pick for many challenges/badges, or when you just want to rush through the game with more power than a masterless build offers.

*Masterless Scout - The unequivocal best stair dive build, and the ultimate flexibility combines nicely with the Scout's inherent abilities. For more complete playthroughs however, its lack of power in the mid and late game can hold it back in difficult combat encounters and harder special levels, and generally specialization towards something will be more useful for any challenge/badge that isn't a stair dive. Still remains A tier for its stair diving dominance and the fact you can never really go wrong with it.

B tier

(Powerful builds with their fair share of drawbacks that keep them from being top tier picks)

*Masterless Marine - Generally outclassed by Masterless Scout and other Marine masteries, which fulfill their respective roles better, but it still has the strengths of versatility in a masterless build, and has a strong niche when you need a bulkier build than Masterless Scout while also needing said masterless versatility (particularly if you want Hellrunner on something bulky, which all non-Ammochain Marine masteries block, without having to make a detour for Triggerhappy as Ammochain would require).

*Survivalist - It fulfills its role well as the tank build, at the expense of having the worst offense in the game and a painful Hellrunner block. Usually terrible offense would tank a build's viability, but Survivalist makes tanking actually viable and gives you a big margin of error to play with, allowing you to get away with repeated mistakes and bad RNG rolls that would be fatal for nearly any other build. The lack of offense and speed can still get it overwhelmed though, and it's bad for any time-sensitive event, which alongside being generally outclassed by Vampyre, keeps it from being top tier.

*Masterless Technician - Mostly outclassed by Scavenger if you want to make the most of a generalist Technician, and mostly outclassed by the other Masterless builds if you want to make the most of having no mastery, as the Scout and Marine have stronger innate bonuses (particularly in the early game). But as a masterless build it's still pretty good, and it does have the niche of a generalist Technician's advantages that retains access to Berserker (which is particularly relevant in Angel Of Humanity).

*Army of the Dead - Probably has the lowest ceiling of any build, with probably the weakest mastery effect in the game (aside from Entrenchment) that becomes irrelevant with Nano-Shrapnal and Plasma(tic) Shotguns, and is probably never an optimal pick for any challenge/badge. But it has a good early and mid game with Shotgun specialization, Marine's durability, and relatively quick access to Whizkid, while Shotguns never become bad and it can still spec into a Berserker sidearm to help in the lategame if needed. With a high consistent floor that depends little on equipment/item luck, this build is rarely an outright bad pick outside of any challenge/badge that requires Hellrunner.

C tier

(Functional but held back by serious flaws, could use a buff)

*Sharpshooter - One of the strongest mastery effects in the game, and thanks to Technician, doesn't need to invest in Finesse to get Whizkid, which is very useful for a Pistol build. As a result, it has one of the strongest mid games and a still impressive late game, which is also boosted by it retaining access to the Good Stuff to bolster it farther in the later game (with the SoB block being its only real painful block). However, due to Pistol specialization and awful prereqs, it has an absolutely abysmal early game, the worst of any build, which gives it an awful survival rate in Phobos on harder difficulties if you're not very good at the game, and makes it very unideal for any challenge/badge where early power is needed. Such a polarizing mastery can be hard to rank, on a pure winrate basis it would be possibly the worst and generally Phobos is the hardest part, but since Phobos deaths are much less punishing time-investment wise, a build that offers such good mid and late game consistency still has value.

*Gunrunner - Has one of the highest potential ceilings in the game, being able to effectively get Pistol firing rates on Shotguns and Rocket Launchers while firing/moving/reloading all at the same time, and any combination of HR + Fin + Rel gives it an easy early game. But this mastery requires significant ancillary investment as it needs Shottyman to actually do anything worthwhile, which combined with a very late Whizkid acquisition and requiring the generally unhelpful Dodgemaster, gives it a very weak mid game. Gunrunner itself can also be rather finicky to utilize and is very ammo hungry whenever you use it, while the Brute block prevents you from effectively using a melee backup, as well as leaves you always frail. It can feel very good to wipe out a nasty horde in a quick run rampage, but deaths in Deimos are always painful and Shottyhead generally outclasses it (which you'll need to actively forego as you build to Gunrunner + Shottyman, as it overlaps Shottyhead's prereqs).

*Fireangel - Its defensive benefit is potentially very handy and no-damage rocket jumps is a nice benefit, but it offering no sort of offensive boost, while also blocking SoB and EE, leaves it with one of the worst offenses in the game, and the defensive benefit is not so good as to be worth the tradeoff. It has a tantalizing ceiling with being able to blow up everything with the Mother-In-Law, Nanomachic Tristar Blaster, or a nano-modded BFG 10K with no risk of blowing yourself up, but you'll very rarely get such weapons and often won't even get a Nano mod just to build a Nanomachic Rocket Launcher, which is necessary to take extensive advantage of rocket launchers offensively since rockets come in such small ammo quantities. It retains access to Berserker to compensate for the lack of offense, but besides not being easy to fit in, Fireangel removes the ability for you to get Berserker procs off of facerockets and barrels, making it not as strong as Berserker is in the hands of other builds. Overall it's not that bad, and has a decent early game thanks to Shotgun specialization, but it's never really any good either, outside of a particular niche with the Gatekeeper badges.

*Malicious Blades - The mastery effect is decent, but its offensive and defensive benefits are almost entirely outclassed by those of Berserker, which it blocks. The mastery has the benefit of its defense-boosting effects being usable with non-melee weapons, which when combined with it not blocking SoB like the other melee masteries, allows it to function more effectively as a hybrid-melee build, but such a build requires a ton of traits that leaves it weak for a long time, and having to keep a blade in your prepared slot to get said defense-boost prevents you from utilizing ammo boxes, hurting it farther in a hybrid build. Whether as a pure melee Technician or hybrid melee build, you are better off going masterless and getting Berserker instead, and a build specializing in blades specifically would still do much better with the other melee masteries. I don't see any challenge/badge where this is a remotely optimal pick, but it's never bad enough to rank it in the lower tiers.

D tier

(These builds aren't unplayable, but they're severely flawed and using them makes the game much harder, in need of significant buffs)

*Gun Kata - HR investment gives it a slightly easier early game than other Pistol masteries, but investing in Pistols still gives you a much harder early game compared to non-Pistol builds (and ultimately with pistols, you would rather stack SoG with SoB and get a level of EE early rather than get HR, as getting your combat to something acceptable is of upmost importance, so Pistol builds that don't go with any Pistol mastery still have the least painful early game). Unlike Sharpshooter however, it requires several ancillary traits to be effective; it technically doesn't require SoG3 but you need it ASAP or else your Pistols don't do shit, making Gun Kata effectively a level 8 mastery, but you also need two levels of Fin before you can get WK that's desperately needed for Pistol builds, then you need SoG 4 and 5 after that, still really want at least one level of EE so you stop missing so much, and you would want to fit in Int too... The SoB block without Sharpshooter's guaranteed max damage also makes your Pistols quite weak and unreliable, at least before you get SoG5, or before you get a Unique pistol or an Exotic pistol maxed out with Power mods. You altogether get a build with a weak early game, an abysmal mid game, and a still unimpressive late game, so you're always lagging behind other builds at every stage of the game. Gun Kata's effects itself can also be rendered pointless, as the "shoot faster after dodging" bonus doesn't matter once you reach the firing speed cap (nevermind the unreliability, if not outright impracticality, of utilizing it in typical difficult combat scenarios), and the reloading bonus doesn't matter if you get a Nanomachic Pistol or a Blaster (while being a finicky effect to utilize in general, especially compared to just using one Pistol and an ammo box). If you want to use Pistols with a Scout, you're better off going masterless or even Cateye, which doesn't block SoB and has an effect that is always useful regardless of what Pistols you have.

*Bullet Dance - It has theoretically the highest DPS ceiling of any build, but similar to Gun Kata it requires a grotesque amount of ancillary traits, while having the "Pistols suck in early game" problem exasperated by having to pick an actually useless trait in Triggerhappy, and Bullet Dance itself does more harm than good unless you find a Nano mod to build a Nanomachic Pistol or find a Combat Pistol and bulk mod the crap out of it, which you often won't. Said DPS ceiling is also rather overkill, when a Pistol with SoG5 and several levels of SoB will quickly kill anything before they can retaliate without the ammo-draining drawbacks of Bullet Dance. So you get a very weak early and mid game, for a late game that usually isn't all that hot either. If you want to use Pistols with a Marine, you're again better off going masterless, as you don't need to pick up Triggerhappy nor bother with Dualgunner until it's actually useful, while retaining freedom to get HR and even Berserker if you want extra lategame assurance (particularly in A100).

E(ntrenchment) tier

(Outright sucks, in desperate need of serious buffs or being overhauled completely)

*Entrenchment - Has awful prereqs that makes the early game hard, Finesse block cripples its offense with any weapon, requires a lot of ancillary traits that gives it a very hard mid game, all for a very underwhelming purely defensive mastery that both only kicks in when Chainfiring and gives resistances that are only slightly better than the resistances the Marine has inherently at all times. Then for the cherry on top, if you actually try to utilize it extensively, you'll waste a lot of ammo and quickly empty your clip, where you're then stuck with having to reload weapons that have 2+ second reload times while no longer having your resistances and not even being able to get Reloader to lessen the mauling you'll suffer. So you need to either find a Minigun and tons of bullets, or a Nano mod to make a Nanomachic Plasma Rifle, just to make the build even functional.

[--------------------------------------------------------------]

5

Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get

« on: December 14, 2024, 21:08 »

N! AoP + AoRA run for the first ever verified Inquisitor Angelic badge, as well as picking up Inquisitor Diamond

Just like with getting Eagerness Angelic in the 0.9.9.9 beta and wanting to get it officially without having to wait until 0.9.9.9 properly releases, I booted up 0.9.9.8 once more to claim the first ever official Inquisitor Angelic badge. I incidentally get Inquisitor Diamond too, which I would rather do a pure run for like other badges, but considering AoRA makes it so much harder and it gives you no benefits in AoP, I suppose I "proved" enough that I don't need dual angel cheese to get that badge. For the full writeup on this run, go see its own Post Mortem thread.

Aside from getting the big second Angelic, I also now exceed my 0.9.9.7 Diamond badge count, and get my "completion percentage" into the 40s. I think this could be it for 0.9.9.8 though, I might go get Quartermaster Diamond again and Quartermaster Angelic since those don't require N! and thus likely won't be changed much for 0.9.9.9, and I'm on an AoRA kick as is, might as well solidify myself as the AoRA master. It'll depend on if 0.9.9.9 starts seeing more progress soon.

Badge count - [26|26|26|18|6|2] Medal count - 44/50 Score - 618/1500 (41.20%)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 ONLYMEDKITS, level 12 Cyberdemon General Marine,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 46179 turns and scored 598958 points.
 He played for 51 minutes and 23 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 628 out of 949 hellspawn. (66%)
 He was an Angel of Purity!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 3
  Levels completed : 0

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)  25+ kills without taking damage
  Inquisitor Diamond Badge   Complete AoP on N! as Marine
  Inquisitor Angelic Badge   Complete AoP+AoRA on N!

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ##################................................#########
  #################...............####...............########
  ################.......####.....####.....####.......#######
  ###############........####.....####.....####........######
  ##############..........###.....####.....####.........#####
  #############...........###..............####..........####
  ############............................................###
  ############.....###............................####....###
  ############.....###............................####....###
  ############.0..####............................####&...###
  ############....####............................####....###
  ############............................................###
  #############..........####..............####..........####
  ##############.........####.....####.....####.........#####
  ###############........####...X.####.....####........######
  ################.......####..%..####.....####.......#######
  #################...............####...............########
  ##################................................#########
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 42/100   Experience 66284/12
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Marine

    Ironman          (Level 4)
    Finesse          (Level 1)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Tough as nails   (Level 1)
    Reloader         (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Berserker        (Level 1)

  Fin->HR->Rel->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Iro->Iro->Iro->TaN->Iro->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   blue armor [1/2] (7%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (4d6) (T)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] shotgun (9d3) [1/1] (P1)
    [b] combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
    [c] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1]
    [d] super shotgun (8d4)x2 [2/2]
    [e] green armor [1/1] (41%)
    [f] green armor [1/1] (21%)
    [g] green armor [1/1] (16%)
    [h] blue armor [1/2] (24%) (B)
    [i] shotgun shell (x38)
    [j] rocket (x10)
    [k] rocket (x10)
    [l] rocket (x9)
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    bullet     - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    melee      - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    shrapnel   - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    acid       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 95% 
    fire       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 95% 
    plasma     - internal 80%   torso 85%   feet 80% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    57 former humans
    62 former sergeants
    25 former captains
    147 imps
    50 demons
    139 lost souls
    32 cacodemons
    13 hell knights
    24 barons of hell
    16 arachnotrons
    16 former commandos
    7 pain elementals
    9 revenants
    15 mancubi
    14 arch-viles
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He saw, left a present and left.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 19 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
  He left level 22 as soon as possible.
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He decided it was too dangerous.
  On level 23 he encountered an armed nuke!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 70 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 18 of those were killed.
 14 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 2 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 36 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 7 killed the bitch and survived.
 27 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


[--------------------------------------------------------------]

6

Nightmare! / [N!|AoP + AoRA|66%|YAVP] - First official Inquisitor Angelic Badge! (with video)

« on: December 14, 2024, 20:37 »

I recorded this entire run, which you can watch in this Youtube link.

I previously posted about obtaining Inquisitor Angelic in the first beta for 0.9.9.9 to test if the badge actually needed any nerfs despite nobody ever winning it prior in the 11 years since 0.9.9.7, but I don't consider obtaining badges in the beta versions to count, and like with Eagerness Angelic, I didn't want to wait around until 0.9.9.9 launches proper to get the badge officially. So I went back to 0.9.9.8 once more and was able to obtain Inquisitor Angelic there to officially claim being the first person to have verifiably won it.

I would recommend reading the linked thread about my 0.9.9.9 beta Inquisitor Angelic run, for my thoughts on the badge and my general strategy, so as to not repeat myself here. The differences compared to that run is that I lead off with Finesse instead of Hellrunner, to increase the chances that I kill the Sergeants in Phobos Base Entry without them using the Small Medkits, and since I'll get Hellrunner very shortly into Phobos 2 anyway. Then in the lategame after getting Berserker, I end up just getting as much Ironman as I could and even a level of Tough As Nails, rather than Fin2 + Whizkid, since I was perpetually short on medkits and had no good armor in the later half, desperately needing all the extra survivability I could scrounge up.

If you're interested in reading the floor-by-floor breakdown I wrote up rather than watching the video (or even read it alongside to see my thoughts throughout), you can find it in the spoiler tags:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Phobos Base Entry - As always you start off in Phobos Base Entry, which is never actually difficult to get through. But getting through it without taking a decent chunk of damage is luck-based, and there's even more luck involved with killing the two Sergeants before they use up their Small Medkits. If I took about 25% or more in damage, or failed to get both Small Medkits, I would just restart, as limiting damage and getting as many medkits as you can is important, while any Phobos Base Entry shouldn't take more than a minute and so it doesn't take much time to get a good Phobos Base Entry.

Floor 2 - This went pretty bad; aside from that embarrassing mishap where I misclicked the wrong direction several times when trying to shoot a Former Human, I took a lot of unnecessary damage, having to needlessly burn a medkit already, getting my armor damaged, and being unable to explore a large chunk of the level before running short on time. At least I got a couple more Small Medkits, but it should have went better and I really want more than one armor.

Hell's Arena - Trying to actually clear Hell's Arena in this challenge would be out of the question, but I always go in and clear the first wave before leaving, as you need all the EXP you can get this early and it is usually pretty easy to clear the first wave without taking much damage if you don't get bad starting spawn locations, while if anything respawns and it's not in your way, you can just ignore it when kill % doesn't matter here. Doing the first wave of Hell's Arena should ensure you'll always reach level 3 before floor 3 to get that crucial HR + Fin + Rel combo before bigger enemies start showing up. As for this particular run, I took a few plasma balls that I shouldn't have, but taking 27% damage overall wasn't too bad and was worth the tradeoff for EXP. Just remember to take off your Green Armor here, it does nothing to defend against plasma and you want to preserve it for enemies it'll actually do something against.

Floor 3 - What a bad floor; sandwiched by Imps and a Hell Knight at the start, some more awkwardly placed Hell Knights I had to get through, I lose my only armor, and burn two Small Medkits without getting any back. I also had no time to try exploring the vault that spawned here, which could have had some really nice stuff in it. This run isn't looking too good at this point.

Floor 4 - A much needed rebound here; the starting position looked precarious with a Pain Elemental in sight, a Pinky horde to the south, and hearing a Hell Knight around. But I'm able to kill the Pain Elemental before the Pinkies come, while there's a very conveniently placed acid barrel to help me take out the Pinkies, and the Hell Knight stayed away until I could confront him in a better spot. I also not only found a couple Small Medkits and a fresh Green Armor, but also got very lucky with a crate that dropped a Large Medkit. Early found stairs allowed me to explore the rest of the floor with low pressure  and I get a lot of EXP without taking much damage, this run is back.

Floor 5 - Starting me right next to a Cacodemon and other nasties that blocked off any immediate safe zone wasn't good, but I get a bit lucky with the Caco wandering away until I cleared out the weaker enemies, while immediately finding an uncontested Small Medkit, Large Medkit, and Radsuit was very nice, as well as the stairs to The Chained Court spawning right next to me. The rest of floor had nothing noteworthy but wasn't bad, and the damage I take is irrelevant for the coming level as long as I don't die here. Just wished I had some more armor...

The Chained Court - A mandatory stop, as not only to get the Chainsaw, but the Chainsaw's free Nerserk on pickup still works in AoP, so you basically get a much needed free full heal here. While entering low on health, I try to avoid immediately picking it up, first popping the Radsuit I just found so I can cross the lava to get the two mods I normally wouldn't be getting here (as you need to hit all the levers to lower the center room's walls, doing which would make me take way too much damage to be worth it). I do almost die and I thought about burning a Small Medkit to be safe in case a Former wandered near the center room as I tried making my way back to the Chainsaw, but I decide against it to make the most of the Chainsaw's one time Berserk. After having to pick up the Chainsaw earlier than I wanted, I go make a quick dash to the left to kill the two Barons hidden behind the switches, to get some EXP while the Berserk makes it low risk, and then run back to get the mod in the south center room before the Radsuit runs out. Unfortunately I still end up taking a lot of damage on the way back and have to burn a medkit that I shouldn't have had to, but besides the Chainsaw and EXP, getting a Power Mod on my Shotgun and a Bulk mod for later was very worth it. Just unfortunate I forgot to pick up those shells while entering the next floor with almost no ammo left and my only armor is nearly destroyed...

Floor 6  - Floor 6 gave me a Lost Soul cave, which is the easiest level you can ask for at this point. But a Lost Soul cave also means low EXP and not many items, and I take a bit of damage still as I had to Chainsaw them all. I did found a couple Phase Devices that will be very handy for an upcoming level and a fresh Armor though, as well as some shells, so considering I could have been dumped on a floor that started me next to Barons before I have Berserker and no Sergeant in sight to get ammo from, I'll gladly take this.

Floor 7 - Another cave, this time with Pinkies too, and almost as easy. Considering I could have gotten a floor with Barons, Commandos, Arachnotrons, and Revenants before I have Berserker nor Red Armor, the easiness is appreciated, but I also would have really wanted more EXP, going into Deimos at level 5 and still with no Berserker nearby is not good. Also wasn't a good floor for items either, just a Small Medkit I had to burn anyway as I had to Chainsaw a bunch. As for possibly entering Military Base and Phobos Lab, doing so is basically a death trap in this challenge combination. If you have a Homing Phase Device by this floor and Phobos Lab spawned, you could go in, nab the two Small Medkits at the start, maybe try getting the two Large Medkits in the caves if you think you can handle the Nightmare Demons, and then use the Homing Phase once you do so or when you're about to get mauled by the Nightmare Demons, while you can then run off with the Combat Shotgun and fresh Blue Armor next to the stairs. Homing Phases are very valuable in this challenge when it'll let you skip any nasty floor or save your ass if you can't find the stairs in time, but getting all that nice loot and some EXP could be worth sacrificing it (don't think about trying that with Military Base though; while the Phobos Lab exit stairs are sealed off in a locked room that no enemy can reach you in, Military Base's exit stairs are in a sealed room full of Elite Formers, who will promptly slaughter you once you phase in).

Phobos Anomaly - You get a big restock here with two guaranteed Large Medkits and a Red Armor, as well some ammo, but you have to get through the very deadly Nightmare ambush, the reason why you absolutely need HR2. With HR2, after activating run with no armor, you can run through it without the Nightmare Demons catching you and won't take too much damage if you're not unlucky (just be sure to shut the door once you make it to the other side if you can, which will get you some crucial distance before tiring as the Nightmare Demons and Cacodemons have to wait for the NJightmare Imps to open the door). If you don't have HR2, you'll need either Berserker, a Rocket Launcher to rocket jump out, or getting lucky with Phase Devices, otherwise you WILL die here. As I had two Phase Devices, I decided to try using them to phase past the ambush and save me some potential damage... and the first does not get me through, but the second one does. Unfortunately there is still the Bruisers to get past, and since I don't have Berserker, while absolutely not wanting to risk getting sandwiched by them and the Nightmare enemies, I just try to ignore them and run through. The narrow terrain still resulted in me taking some heavy hits and I had to burn a Small Medkit, but entering Deimos with four Large Medkits and two Small Medkits is a good spot... if my ammo and armor situation wasn't so bad right now.

Floor 9 - Not a good floor at all, got a terrible starting spot and no medkits to replenish the ones I had to burn, while I already had to use my Bulk mod on my Red Armor. Also when running back to the stairs, I ended up in a bad spot with my face right next to a Mancubus, but luckily I got a double move on it and so only took that one melee hit from it. At least there were a lot of Sergeants to fix my shell shortage. As for the special levels here, as painful as it is to skip, you must skip Hell's Armory; you'll end up eating a ton of damage trying to clear it within AoRA's time limit, and you'll have to push through a lot of enemies in tight corridors just to get to the mods and weapon cache. Entering Deimos Lab on the other hand could be rewarding; actually clearing it is out of the question, but if you're willing to gamble, the crates could have medkits and armors, while you also get a free Blue Armor if you're fast, two mods, ammo boxes, and possibly a very good weapon from the weapon cache. You could just as easily though get nothing from the crates, some former could get the Blue Armor first, the weapon cache could have nothing useful, and you can just end up eating full Plasma Rifle bursts from the Commandos. I ended up not risking it here, but if I had Berserker and a better armor situation I may have done so.

Floor 10 - Yet another cave, this time Pinkies and Cacodemons, and much worse as I had nowhere safe to run, ending up having to stand my ground and shotgun down a bunch of Cacos with no cover. At least I got a couple Small Medkits here and finally get Berserker, but ended burning a Large Medkit as well as one of the Small ones, and my Red Armor took a beating.

Floor 11 - A breather with a lot of great items; a Blue Armor, a Combat Shotgun, a Rocket Launcher, and a Super Shotgun. Could have maybe explored a bit more than I did though, wasn't good to burn a medkit without finding a replacement. As for The Wall and Containment Area, they're free to leave if you enter them, so you can take the stairs to them if needed, but unless you got so many medkits you don't mind burning some, they're not worth trying to enter and clear. Well with Containment Area, you could enter and hope the crates drop a medkit or something else useful, but with so few of them, you probably won't get anything and will end up just losing health to the crate maze Imps for nothing. If you have a Homing Phase, you can just also run to the Backpack, grab it as the ambush spawns, and then immediately Homing Phase out, but considering my build doesn't need to carry that much ammo while Homing Phases are so valuable, I don't think that's a fair tradeoff.

Floor 12 - A very bad starting spot led me to taking a lot of damage from Commandos and nearly dying, while having to burn another of my precious Large Medkits. Only got a single Small Medkit for my troubles here that I had to burn too, and I end up leaving early as I found the floor too risky to explore farther. As for the special levels here, City of Skulls is free to enter and exit, so its stairs can be used if needed to escape, and it's normally the easiest special level in Nightmare by far, while Blood Skulls can potentially be very valuable in a challenge where healing is so precious, but without Blademaster, Shottyhead, or Gunrunner, you'll have a very very hard time killing everything within the AoRA time limit. As for Abyssal Plains, it's not free to enter at all and so don't go in it unless you're desperate. It does have a Large Medkit, but you'll probably burn one just trying to get to it. If you have a Shell Box however, maybe you can just run to the center, ignoring the Nightmare Imps and aforementioned Medkit, while then try to kill the Agony Elemental without taking much damage, succeeding which will award you skulls that could be useful and the stairs will be right there to exit. I never tried that but it could pay off.

Floor 13 - A small rooms level can normally be bad in AoRA as it can take a long time to find the stairs, but the less open nature makes combat is usually easier and indeed I wouldn't take much damage here. Only found a single Small Medkit though I had to burn and my Red Armor is nearly damaged while I still haven't found another Power Mod to make it Nanofiber to ensure I'll always have ok armor, at least I finally got some boots and a Shell Box.

Floor 14 - A maze... the absolute worst type of level you can get. I'm very fortunate though that I spawn with the stairs in sight, trying to find the stairs in a level with so many enemies and no good cover could otherwise get very nasty. I do bust out the Super Shotgun to see if there's anything useful I can find on the floor and take some calculated Archvile zaps for free Berserker triggers, but unfortunately I find nothing worthwhile before it gets too risky to keep pressing forward, damaging my Red Armor and taking some damage without replenishment.

Floor 15 - I start right next to a Homing Phase, great I have one mulligan in the final stretch, and I find a much needed Technical mod for my Chainsaw. Unfortunately I still find no armor, no Power Mod, and no medkits, while my lone Red Armor is in tatters. So despite the level being a bit easy, I'm not in good shape here...

Tower of Babel - The Cyberdemon is no threat when you have Berserker, still it would be unavoidable damage and I considered maybe trying to fight him the long way by repeatedly side-stepping rockets while SSGing him inbetween reloads. I decided to just run in and Chainsaw him though, and I wouldn't take much damage overall. Once you reach Hell, any run is viable to win, but with only a single Large Medkit and my armor situation in dire straits, while I'm unable to just grab an Invuln and make a mad dash to Dis, this run desperately needs some reprieve or very lucky stairs to survive.

Floor 17 - And I do get some reprieve, with early stairs and a Large Medkit. I try exploring for more, but end up just taking a beating and finding nothing worthwhile, at least Berserker saved me when a Mancubus got me at a very bad angle. As for The Vault and House Of Pain, they're free to enter and exit, while clearing House Of Pain could be doable but it's not worth the risk when you're running so low on medkits, especially when you have to deal with Nightmare Arachnotrons (not to mention if you accept the invitation to enter, you're locked in House Of Pain until you clear it, not good when you're on a time limit). As for The Vaults, you could try poking in to the left and right vaults to see if they have anything, but when you got Nightmare Arachnotrons, as well as Nightmare Archviles that will teleport out of the center vault, it is absolutely not worth it.

Floor 18 - A terrible start, I lose my lone Red Armor, and burn my last Large Medkit. I also make a very dumb decision at the end to try berserking through the Cacodemon vault hoping a Medkit or two could be inside after I couldn't just corner shoot them all, but there was nothing but a Green Armor, leaving me exiting the floor with no medkits, no good armor, and a quarter of my health, while still several floors from Dis. I was thinking the run was over at this point, but I press on...

Floor 19 - I get the stairs immediately, as well as the message that a unique spawned, but most importantly, after a few steps I see a Large Medkit I desperately needed. Unfortunately a group of Hell Nobles and a Commando are heading right towards it, fortunately ducking behind the crates and whipping out the Super Shotgun was all it took to take them all out, while luckily nothing else is in range to contest it. I then immediately find a second Large Medkit that's uncontested, as well as the unique, that turns out to be Nyarlatotep's Boots, one of the best uniques I could ask here for when it'll speed my movement up a lot and give me great foot protection. I explore a bit more and there wasn't anything else, I can't complain when those finds rejuvenated my run, but I would really like some armor better than tattered Greens... As for Unholy Cathedral, it should be a mandatory stop for any build with Berserker, but since it'll be a decent amount of unavoidable damage and I only had a single Large Medkit, I decided I was better off trying to preserve as much health as I can, despite how nice the Longinus Spear would have been...

Floor 20 - A very bad floor, I start off surrounded by a ton of nasty enemies, and while the Radsuit + Berserk ensure the Mancubus and Baron could only do 1 damage a hit, all the Arachnotrons and Commandos around would still rack up damage quickly. I thought I got through it, but then ended up surrounded by Arachnotrons while low on health. So after picking up a damaged Blue Armor and using a Bulk Mod I just found on it to get some decent armor, I decide it's time to use my Homing Phase. It gets me out of there and the stairs just had a lone Mancubus, but unfortunately there was no items nearby. I should have maybe explored a bit more, and should have seen if Mortuary spawned, where I could have went in, quickly rocket jump around Berserked to pick up some much needed Red Armors and Large Medkits before immediately leaving, but seeing how low on health I was and how precarious the floor was, I decide to just leave and use up my last Large Medkit, hoping I get a good run of luck to finish this out as I'm so close to the end...

Floor 21 - ...And I get an Arachnotron Cave, with a bunch of Arachnotrons in the open and no stairs in sight, I thought the run was over at this point. I survive it though with some careful maneuvering and usage of Run, while finding the most clutch of Small Medkits to heal me back up after getting near death, before then just making a mad dash to the stairs. Just two more floors left before Dis now...

Floor 22 - I spawn right next to a horde of Archviles, Mancubi, and Chaingunners; with nothing else better I just start Chainsawing them berserked, and in the chaos the Mancubi reveal the stairs to Mt. Erebus while I'm being knocked around. Seeing more enemies coming, I just take the stairs to Erebus as it's free to exit and enter, and I just need to make it to Dis to win, it's not worth sticking around to try finding anything or getting any more EXP so close to the end.

Floor 23 - Well the game is going to make me work for it in the penultimate floor, starting me next to a ton of strong enemies. I initially tried berserking through them all, but I decide it's better to just run away and try finding a better position, where luckily I then find a good corner shooting spot to take them out. After eliminating the immediate threat in still decent health I start exploring and find no quick stairs, but I do find a couple Phase Devices and a Large Medkit to basically seal this run. With time running a bit low, I decide to facerocket myself some to trigger Berserk as the Radsuit will limit it to 1 damage and then try using those Phase Devices to get me to the stairs. The second brings me next to them with a Baron and Archvile in sight, who I just ignore as I just need to descend the stairs to win.

Dis - Since partial wins still award you any badge that doesn't require a full win, you can just wait out the nuke timer and win at this point without risking dying to the Mastermind. But as I made it to her with a Medkit to spare, and while Berserker renders here a nonthreat, I just rush in and quickly Chainsaw her to death to claim victory.

Curiously, while in the 0.9.9.9 beta I could consistently make it to Deimos and then kept losing there, taking me 12 attempts overall (not counting the runs I Q+Y'd on Phobos Base Entry), here in 0.9.9.8 I kept dying in Phobos, but then the first attempt I make it to Deimos I end up going all the way, with it taking 8 attempts instead overall (again not counting runs that were abandoned in Phobos Base Entry). Maybe corpses not respawning in sight does help a bit with making Phobos more consistent even if you're rushing through levels, or maybe I just had a good run of luck in the beta and bad run of luck in 0.9.9.8. Overall for this specific run, my level and item luck was pretty mixed (the Super Shotgun and Laptop Boots were very nice, as was being able to go into Deimos with several Large Medkits, but I would have really liked a second Red Armor and another Power Mod), and I was often teetering on the knife edge there in the later half, but not having ideal luck makes succeeding in such a difficult challenge all the more sweeter.

Now for the first mortem to officially have the Inquisitor Angelic Badge! (And a cool Inquisitor Diamond too, which isn't a badge you see all that much either, granted the Marine's buffs does make that badge quite a bit easier now, definitely wouldn't try to double it up with Inquisitor Angelic back in 0.9.9.7).

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 ONLYMEDKITS, level 12 Cyberdemon General Marine,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 46179 turns and scored 598958 points.
 He played for 51 minutes and 23 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 628 out of 949 hellspawn. (66%)
 He was an Angel of Purity!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 3
  Levels completed : 0

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)  25+ kills without taking damage
  Inquisitor Diamond Badge   Complete AoP on N! as Marine
  Inquisitor Angelic Badge   Complete AoP+AoRA on N!

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ##################................................#########
  #################...............####...............########
  ################.......####.....####.....####.......#######
  ###############........####.....####.....####........######
  ##############..........###.....####.....####.........#####
  #############...........###..............####..........####
  ############............................................###
  ############.....###............................####....###
  ############.....###............................####....###
  ############.0..####............................####&...###
  ############....####............................####....###
  ############............................................###
  #############..........####..............####..........####
  ##############.........####.....####.....####.........#####
  ###############........####...X.####.....####........######
  ################.......####..%..####.....####.......#######
  #################...............####...............########
  ##################................................#########
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 42/100   Experience 66284/12
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Marine

    Ironman          (Level 4)
    Finesse          (Level 1)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Tough as nails   (Level 1)
    Reloader         (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Berserker        (Level 1)

  Fin->HR->Rel->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Iro->Iro->Iro->TaN->Iro->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   blue armor [1/2] (7%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (4d6) (T)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   Nyarlaptotep's Boots [6/6] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] shotgun (9d3) [1/1] (P1)
    [b] combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
    [c] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1]
    [d] super shotgun (8d4)x2 [2/2]
    [e] green armor [1/1] (41%)
    [f] green armor [1/1] (21%)
    [g] green armor [1/1] (16%)
    [h] blue armor [1/2] (24%) (B)
    [i] shotgun shell (x38)
    [j] rocket (x10)
    [k] rocket (x10)
    [l] rocket (x9)
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    bullet     - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    melee      - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    shrapnel   - internal 100%  torso 95%   feet 95% 
    acid       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 95% 
    fire       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 95% 
    plasma     - internal 80%   torso 85%   feet 80% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    57 former humans
    62 former sergeants
    25 former captains
    147 imps
    50 demons
    139 lost souls
    32 cacodemons
    13 hell knights
    24 barons of hell
    16 arachnotrons
    16 former commandos
    7 pain elementals
    9 revenants
    15 mancubi
    14 arch-viles
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He saw, left a present and left.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 19 he found the Nyarlaptotep's Boots!
  He left level 22 as soon as possible.
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He decided it was too dangerous.
  On level 23 he encountered an armed nuke!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 70 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 18 of those were killed.
 14 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 2 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 36 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 7 killed the bitch and survived.
 27 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


[--------------------------------------------------------------]

7

Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get

« on: December 08, 2024, 19:10 »

N! AoI + AoRA run for the first ever verified Eagerness Angelic badge, as well as picking up Quartermaster and Longinus Platinum

Ok so I'm not quite done with 0.9.9.8 yet, and well, what an unexpected badge to suddenly post as my first official Angelic. When testing out the first beta for 0.9.9.9 and finally playing some Nightmare in it, I got the urge to test if the previously never won Inquisitor and Eagerness Angelic badges really need any nerfs as has been proposed, and found them to be very winnable. Wanting to claim Eagerness Angelic officially and not wait for 0.9.9.9 to finish, I decided to boot 0.9.9.8 back up, and was successful in being the first to officially Eagerness Angelic. I also incidentally picked up Quartermaster and Longinus Platinum; the latter is a freebie once you play N! so it's whatever, and I was planning to do a pure AoRA run for the former, but if you can do Eagerness Angelic, is that really necessary? Anyway, the full writeup can be read in its own Post Mortem thread.

Having an Angelic after never getting one in 0.9.9.7, and exceeding my 0.9.9.7 Platinum badge count, my 0.9.9.8 file has indisputably exceeded my 0.9.9.7 file.

Badge count - [26|26|26|18|5|1] Medal count - 44/50 Score - 570/1500 (38.00%)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 NOMEDKITS, level 16 Cyberdemon General Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 57617 turns and scored 896737 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 39 minutes and 18 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 1269 out of 1338 hellspawn. (94%)
 He held his right to remain violent.
 He was an Angel of Impatience!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 6
  Levels completed : 3

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  Cyberdemon's Head          Killing the Cyberdemon w/o taking damage
  UAC Star (silver cluster)  50+ kills without taking damage
  Eagerness Angelic Badge    Complete AoI+AoRA on N!/90% kills
  Quartermaster Platinum Badge Complete AoRA on N!
  Longinus Platinum Badge    Complete Unholy Cathedral on N!

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ###########................................################
  ##########...............####...............###############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #####............................................##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####...&####............................####..0.##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####............................................##########
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ##########...............####.X.............###############
  ###########..................%.............################
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 82/70   Experience 125752/16
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +8  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +12

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Scout

    Ironman          (Level 2)
    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Reloader         (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 4)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 1)
    Whizkid          (Level 1)
    Blademaster      (Level 1)

  HR->Rel->Int->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Bru->MBm->Fin->Jug->Fin->WK->Iro->Iro->Bru->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   phaseshift armor [4/4] (92%) (AP)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Longinus Spear (8d8)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shell box (x46)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] plasmatic shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
    [b] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
    [c] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1] (B1F1)
    [d] blue armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
    [e] red armor [4/4] (200%) (B)
    [f] red armor [4/4] (100%) (A)
    [g] red armor [4/4] (62%) (A)
    [h] red armor [4/4] (100%)
    [i] onyx armor [2] (A)
    [j] Medical Powerarmor [6/6] (100%)
    [k] chainsaw (5d6) (BT)
    [l] shotgun shell (x70)
    [m] shotgun shell (x70)
    [n] shotgun shell (x70)
    [o] shotgun shell (x59)
    [p] shotgun shell (x70)
    [q] rocket (x14)
    [r] rocket (x14)
    [s] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
    [t] shell box (x100)
    [u] rocket box (x25)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    bullet     - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    melee      - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    shrapnel   - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    fire       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    123 former humans
    106 former sergeants
    60 former captains
    131 imps
    147 demons
    404 lost souls
    55 cacodemons
    20 hell knights
    58 barons of hell
    20 arachnotrons
    19 former commandos
    37 pain elementals
    16 revenants
    20 mancubi
    19 arch-viles
    4 nightmare imps
    16 nightmare cacodemons
    8 nightmare demons
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 agony elemental
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He saw, left a present and left.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 7 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  He decided to nuke the forbidden Lab.
  On level 11 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 19 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 19 he found the Longinus Spear!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 21 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
  On level 23 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 You wear/wield : a Longinus Spear (8d8)
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You miss the Spider Mastermind. You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 Next!

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 62 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 18 of those were killed.
 7 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 2 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 35 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 6 killed the bitch and survived.
 27 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


[--------------------------------------------------------------]

8

Nightmare! / [N!|AoI + AoRA|94%|YAVP] - First official Eagerness Angelic Badge! (with video)

« on: December 08, 2024, 18:37 »

I recorded this entire run, which you can watch in this Youtube link

In DRL since version 0.9.9.7, there has been 17 Angelic Badges, the highest tier badges available. Of those 17 badges, 7 have never been verifiably won by any player since 0.9.9.7's release back in 2013, which are; UAC Angelic (beat the standard game on Nightmare with no damage), Demonic Angelic (beat standard N! with 100% kills and no damage), Speedrun Angelic (beat standard N! in under 4 minutes), Pacifist Angelic (beat Archangel of Pacifism with only one enemy dying, which must be the Spider Mastermind), Inquisitor Angelic (beat Angel of Purity + Angel of Red Alert on N!), Eagerness Angelic (beat Angel of Impatience + Angel of Red Alert on N! with 90+% kills) and Masochist Angelic (beat Archangel of Masochism on N!). Of those 7, the formermost 4 have been deemed to be outright impossible without cheating, and the lattermost is considered possible though extremely extremely difficult. The middle 2, Inquisitor and Eagerness Angelic, while not intrinsically impossible like the aforementioned 4, were thought to be so absurdly difficult that they were bordering on impossibility and would require esoteric cheese with rare items to obtain (namely for Eagerness Angelic, finding an early Trigun and getting an Invuln chain that allows you to nuke most of the levels, or finding a Dragonslayer with Vampyre, surviving a nuke with Invuln, and then farming the infinitely spawning Nightmare Demons for a long time to buffer your kill percentage a huge amount), so me and Icy have been proposing to easen their requirements alongside the unwinnable 4.

Then the first beta version of 0.9.9.9 dropped, which made some big changes to Nightmare in response to most players finding it unfun and avoiding the difficulty altogether; these changes are enemies will not respawn in your vision, respawns do not drop their inventory (and so cannot be farmed for ammo), and most importantly, respawns no longer count towards the kill percentage. These changes still don't make the unwinnable 4 humanly viable, and don't affect Inquisitor Angelic that much, but they are significant for Eagerness Angelic; the main reason it was thought borderline impossible is the fact that the time limit of AoRA makes meticulous corpse disposal unfeasible and so all the respawns would inevitably prevent you from maintaining such a high kill percentage of 90%, thus allowing you to ignore them entirely and not have them affect your kill percentage makes the badge a whole lot more viable. There was still concern that requiring 90% kills, in conjunction with the restraints of AoI (which most importantly prevents you from carrying medkits to heal on demand), was still too much, but to be sure if the badge still needed nerfing, I tested getting it in the beta (as well as tested Inquisitor Angelic), and was able to win it (link goes to the Jupiter Hell discord). However, when looking at the winning mortem and calculating the kill % with respawns factored, it came out to... over 90%... so I would have still won the badge even without the aforementioned kill % change with respawns, meaning this badge was very possible all along. Since 0.9.9.9's official release is still likely a ways off and wanting to claim this badge first in an official version, I decided to go boot up the official release of 0.9.9.8 and win the badge officially.

When it comes for the build to use for Eagerness Angelic, Blademaster seems to be the clear best shot, as no other build can clear floors faster, and Blademaster's ability to make every killing blow an instant action gives you the capability to farm kills to make up the large amount of kills needed, namely from Pain Elementals as Blademaster can wipe out a whole swath of Lost Souls instantly (and indeed I would do a bit of Pain Elemental farming throughout this run, but it would end up proving unnecessary, as even if you removed all the Lost Soul kills, I still would have had over 90% kills). As for trait order, I leadoff with Hellrunner; since most of your actions will be just moving, the trait that makes your movement take less time is invaluable when you're on a time limit for every floor (while Hellrunner is also just great in general). I immediately deviate from Blademaster's prereqs however by taking a level of Reloader; just surviving early Phobos on Nightmare is very difficult as is without any combat-boosting traits, and getting Brute doesn't help much yet when you don't got a Chainsaw, while of the available traits, Reloader gives the biggest boost when you're relying primarily on Shotguns. Since you're doing so much reloading, making your reloads 30% faster saves you a lot of time too and thus gives you more actions to work with on each floor. I then deviate once more to get a level of Intuition; powerups are very important on N! when they're doubly effective, but especially so in AoI where you're unable to store medkits in your inventory, so you are very reliant on powerups to keep your health up, and especially especially so in AoRA when Invulnerabilities allow you to survive nukes, making immediately knowing where all powerups are located on each floor crucial. However, I do not get the second level of Intuition, as being able to detect enemies outside vision isn't too helpful when floors are so enemy dense and they're often on top of you immediately, while you desperately need to get yourself stronger ASAP, so I go for the second level of HR instead to get even more speed. At this point I'll be getting the Chainsaw, making it time to get two levels of Brute and then Berserker; Berserker is especially important, as being berserked speeds you up significantly, and when Berserker triggers from you being hit, berserk's +60% resistances get applied before damage is calculated, giving you a big defensive boost against the hard hitting VMR (or I can trigger it intentionally at nearly any time with a face rocket whenever I need said boosts). It is then the third level of Brute, and finally Blademaster. After Blademaster, I get a level of Finesse to farther increase my offense and overall speed, then I get Juggler since I'm swapping around weapons so much (especially handy when I use rocket jumping to get in an enemy's face, or to swap between my Shotguns and Chainsaw as needed without taking a hit). Then it's another level of Finesse for yet more DPS/speed, and then Whizkid to get more mods on my stuff instead of letting mods I find go to waste (though I don't take the second level, as I wasn't coming across enough mods to make it worthwhile). I finally take some levels in Ironman to give me some lategame assurance, since I could always run across some levels that deprive me of health.

Now for the actual run. With Phobos Base Entry, I just employ my usual tactic of immediately running to the base, and if Shotgunners come out early and I take a lot of damage, I Q+Y out. Otherwise there's not much to say about it, except you don't need to be fussed about trying to get the medkits as you can't bring them with you anyway. You can try to wait around and farm the respawning formers as much as you can within the time limit to both get more ammo + beef up your kill count a little, but it's not really worth doing here, and since you'll probably end up dying soon after, it's often a lot of wasted time. With the early Phobos levels, your immediate priority is to locate the stairs and kill whatever is in the way. Once you find the stairs, you can go around and kill more enemies to both get that crucial EXP and bolster your kill count, as well as grab any armor and anything else helpful that you can within the time limit (such as the Power Mod I found in an early vault, that was really helpful for my Shotgun). This early on, don't be too plussed with your kill %, you're unlikely to maintain 90+% at this point, so worry about buffing your kill count later and leave levels early if they get out of hand. For the early special levels, you absolutely have no chance of beating Hell's Arena with this challenge combination on N!, but you can dip in, clear out the first wave for extra EXP + some help for your kill %, and then immediately dip out (if you're feeling ballsy, the second wave could be doable, but you'll likely either get yourself killed or leave yourself in a crippled position if the next floor doesn't start you next to an uncontested health source). The Chained Court is then mandatory, having the Chainsaw and being a relatively safe place to get some more EXP before the really nasty enemies start showing up, yet I nearly botched it here and had some bad respawn luck with the Barons that prevented me from leaving in good health. Fortunately the next level I was able to get a health globe early and the level was about as easy as you can hope for a late Phobos level to be on N!. Phobos 7 then looked good at first, including having a Rocket Launcher at the start that is a key weapon for this challenge, and it had a very good Invuln spawn too, but when I tried getting to the Invuln as time ticked down, some Barons that picked up armor and other items nearly ruined the run, yet I was able to avoid letting the Baron blow up the Invuln and grab it just in time. Thanks to the Invlun and having just picked up Berserker, the extremely deadly N! Phobos Anomaly ambush was a nonfactor, without the Invuln I would have had to run back to the starting room and hope I can outlast all the Nightmare enemies without losing all my armor. The Bruisers can be bypassed, but with a facerocket to trigger Berserker, they can be killed without taking much damage for that sweet EXP.

Any run that makes it to Deimos is in a serious position to succeed, but Deimos 1 went rather awful, being near death at one point as I had to get a Berserk near barrels while a I could hear a Revenant, Mancubus, and Hell Knight lurking around. I managed to secure the Berserk without it blowing up or me dying, but I get banged up as I try to exit, and end up taking the stairs to Deimos Lab with my Red Armor damaged and my health in not too good of shape. I could have just exited Deimos Lab without issue, but I decided to take the risk to explore the rest of the level as the crates could have health and Blue Armors if I'm lucky, guaranteed Supercharges, a guaranteed Shell Box, two mods, and the weapon cache could have a very helpful weapon. It did get dicey but the risk mostly paid off as I exited the level in better shape, and one of the mods was a very useful Technical mod to speed up my Chainsaw, but I forgot the guaranteed Blue Armor, the weapon cache ended up having nothing good in it, and the other mod was not a Bulk mod to restore my Red Armor as I was hoping for. Luckily Deimos 2 started me next to an Armor Shard that wasn't too contested and so I got my Red Armor back in good shape, while this was the point I got a fortunate stretch of floors that really bolstered this run. Aside from that convenient Armor Shard, Deimos 2 had a vault with a Bulk mod and a Combat Shotgun, as well as an Invuln. Deimos 3 had more mods that allowed me to make a Tactical Shotgun and another Invuln, which I take advantage of to clear The Wall for a lot of EXP and a big rocket stash while taking little damage (without that Invuln, I wouldn't have entered The Wall, as with no means to heal and being on a timer, trying to clear it would have killed me or left me crippled). Then Deimos 4 gave me a very easy Pinky cave, as well as a nice Phaseshift Armor and a Power mod for it (plus another Onyx Armor I didn't need). I also fortunately got City Of Skulls instead of Abyssal Plains, which I enter as Blademaster has a very easy time with it and it allows me to rack up a huge amount of kills at little risk to buffer that kill %, being worth taking some minor damage. Deimos 5 and 6 were typical Deimos levels that weren't bad, but when playing a bit recklessly on Deimos 6 I took a concerning amount of damage, while an Invuln I was banking on got destroyed, leaving me in a not so good spot health-wise as I entered Deimos 7. Deimos 7 turned out to be an Island level, not good as a melee build when you don't have lava immunity, but in yet another fortunate turn, I happen quickly upon some medkits that were mostly uncontested, as well as another Invuln. With the rest of the floor being easy enough, I save the Invuln to take out the Cyberdemon with no damage and enter Hell in a very strong spot. Deimos 7 had a Firestorm mod too, not that useful but I slap it on my Rocket Launcher as I was unlikely to find the Bulk mods to make a Tactical Rocket Launcher at this point.

When you make it to Hell in good shape, your chances are very good that your run will succeed, but when you're unable to carry medkits, I can easily die if I overextend too much, or if I get a very nasty maze level or Arachnotron cave. The first two floors of Hell were on the easy side, and Hell 2 had an Invuln, which ended up being especially useful as Hell 3 did spawn me in an Arachnotron Cave that could have been potentially deadly without it. Hell 3 itself had an Invuln too, which I take advantage of to clear the Unholy Cathedral with no damage and secure the Longinus Spear, setting me up to finish the run. I keep the Chainsaw though to kill Pain Elementals without gibbing them as the Spear would (gibbing Pain Elementals prevent them from leaving Lost Souls behind, not that I really needed to squeeze those extra few free kills, but I just wanted to be sure I built a very good buffer in case I had to leave any preceding floors quickly). The remaining floors of Hell wouldn't threaten me and it was pretty smooth sailing the rest of the way as I blew through floors ridiculously fast, while Hell 5 even had a Sniper mod so I could make a Plasmatic Shotgun, the best weapon for destroying corpses (not that I really needed it at this point). Then there's Dis, where in AoRA, you can just wait out the nuke timer and take the partial win, which will still award the badge, but it was simple enough to run in berserked and smash the Mastermind's brains in.

Overall this took me six attempts, as well as a few more I Q+Y'd on a bad Phobos Base Entry... which isn't quite as much as you would expect to need for a badge thought borderline impossible for over a decade (and all those runs died in Phobos, with only one of them making it past The Chained Court, which died in Phobos 7). Granted, Reloader's buff in 0.9.9.8 was a big help, and 0.9.9.8's enemy reveal on the final three enemies is another advantageous factor, but this badge still should have been possible with my Blademaster strategy in 0.9.9.7 (if I tried this in 0.9.9.7, I would probably however go with Finesse for the second level and avoid Reloader altogether, and hope I get blessed with early Shell Boxes). As for the level luck, I had some pretty bad Phobos floors (that nigh-immortal Phobos 7 Baron would have haunted me if I didn't reach that Invuln in time...), but it's hard to ask for much better Deimos floors than what I got, and I had a great run of luck with not getting a single maze (those are run killers in Nightmare normally, let alone having to do so when you're under a timer and trying to kill most enemies). The item luck was pretty nice too, namely getting that early Power mod and a Rocket Launcher before Deimos were key to this run, as well as those well-time Invulns before crucial levels (it can't be stressed enough how good getting a Phobos 7 Invuln is). Very happy with how this run turned out, and better yet that it didn't require a big grind to get.

Now here is the mortem with that shiny badge never seen officially in a mortem before!

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.8a) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 NOMEDKITS, level 16 Cyberdemon General Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 57617 turns and scored 896737 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 39 minutes and 18 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 1269 out of 1338 hellspawn. (94%)
 He held his right to remain violent.
 He was an Angel of Impatience!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 6
  Levels completed : 3

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  Cyberdemon's Head          Killing the Cyberdemon w/o taking damage
  UAC Star (silver cluster)  50+ kills without taking damage
  Eagerness Angelic Badge    Complete AoI+AoRA on N!/90% kills
  Quartermaster Platinum Badge Complete AoRA on N!
  Longinus Platinum Badge    Complete Unholy Cathedral on N!

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  ###########................................################
  ##########...............####...............###############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #####............................................##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####...&####............................####..0.##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####....####............................####....##########
  #####............................................##########
  ######..........####..............####..........###########
  #######.........####.....####.....####.........############
  ########........####.....####.....####........#############
  #########.......####.....####.....####.......##############
  ##########...............####.X.............###############
  ###########..................%.............################
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 82/70   Experience 125752/16
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +8  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +12

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Scout

    Ironman          (Level 2)
    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Reloader         (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 4)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 1)
    Whizkid          (Level 1)
    Blademaster      (Level 1)

  HR->Rel->Int->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->Bru->MBm->Fin->Jug->Fin->WK->Iro->Iro->Bru->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [a] [ Armor      ]   phaseshift armor [4/4] (92%) (AP)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Longinus Spear (8d8)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shell box (x46)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    [a] plasmatic shotgun (8d3) [1/1]
    [b] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
    [c] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1] (B1F1)
    [d] blue armor [4/4] (100%) (P)
    [e] red armor [4/4] (200%) (B)
    [f] red armor [4/4] (100%) (A)
    [g] red armor [4/4] (62%) (A)
    [h] red armor [4/4] (100%)
    [i] onyx armor [2] (A)
    [j] Medical Powerarmor [6/6] (100%)
    [k] chainsaw (5d6) (BT)
    [l] shotgun shell (x70)
    [m] shotgun shell (x70)
    [n] shotgun shell (x70)
    [o] shotgun shell (x59)
    [p] shotgun shell (x70)
    [q] rocket (x14)
    [r] rocket (x14)
    [s] plasteel boots [2/2] (100%) (A)
    [t] shell box (x100)
    [u] rocket box (x25)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    bullet     - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    melee      - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    shrapnel   - internal 80%   torso 95%   feet 80% 
    acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    fire       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    123 former humans
    106 former sergeants
    60 former captains
    131 imps
    147 demons
    404 lost souls
    55 cacodemons
    20 hell knights
    58 barons of hell
    20 arachnotrons
    19 former commandos
    37 pain elementals
    16 revenants
    20 mancubi
    19 arch-viles
    4 nightmare imps
    16 nightmare cacodemons
    8 nightmare demons
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 agony elemental
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He saw, left a present and left.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 7 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  He decided to nuke the forbidden Lab.
  On level 11 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 19 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 19 he found the Longinus Spear!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 21 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
  On level 23 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 You wear/wield : a Longinus Spear (8d8)
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You miss the Spider Mastermind. You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 Next!

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 62 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 18 of those were killed.
 7 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 2 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 35 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 6 killed the bitch and survived.
 27 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


[--------------------------------------------------------------]

9

Nightmare! / (0.9.9.9 Beta 1) [N!|AoP + AoRA|66%|YAVP] - Inquisitor Angelic is very possible

« on: December 05, 2024, 20:28 »

So of the seven Angelic badges that were never verifiably won in over a decade of 0.9.9.7 and in the few months 0.9.9.8 been out, Inquisitor Angelic was one of them, and as a result, me and Icy have been proposing to nerf its difficulty requirement. 0.9.9.9's first beta brought some huge changes to Nightmare! however; namely enemies can't respawn in vision (without the aid of Archviles that is), respawns don't count towards the kill percentage (so you no longer need to dispose of every corpse to get 100% kills, but also can no longer cheese a respawn to puff up your kill count for any badge that requires less), and respawns no longer drop their inventory on death (so you can no longer farm infinite ammo off of formers). With these changes, I've been playing N! a lot in testing out the beta, and it got me thinking about how they affect these unwon badges. Masochist Angelic becomes a bit more doable, as it'll make getting through Phobos Base Entry without getting hit less luck-based and you can now more safely kill things if you find a nice camping spot, allowing you to get more crucial levels (and perhaps make surviving long enough to get Vampyre viable, so someone should definitely eventually win this badge). Eagerness Angelic becomes actually realistic now without have to cheese with an early Trigun or a miraculous Dragonslayer, though its 90% kill requirement may be still a bit high (so we amended our proposal of lowering it to 75-80% instead of the 50% we proposed before these changes). UAC Angelic becomes slightly more realistic, but I still think it's virtually impossible without save scumming (and so the proposal of nerfing it to UV remains), and Demonic Angelic becomes a lot more viable in theory, but considering how ludicrously impossible it already was, still absolutely no one is getting this without lots of save scumming (and so the proposal of changing it to 100% kills + Untouchable Pin or Medal remains). Then Speedrun Angelic is virtually unaffected, while Pacifist Angelic didn't require Nightmare anyway, and so both remain just as impossible, direly needing their requirements to be changed to something more realistic.

That leaves Inquisitor Angelic, which isn't really affected by these changes all that much, as kill percent is irrelevant, and since it's AoRA, you're typically not staying around in one spot for long nor sticking around the level long enough for respawns to start becoming frequent, so easier to manage respawns isn't much a factor. Thinking it through though had me questioning if that badge was as impossible as it was hyped up to be; while AoP + AoRA is a very nasty combo (you lose most of your healing in a challenge where you're forced to rush and thus take a lot of damage you can't easily heal off, can't use Maps to find the stairs and other useful items, can't use Berserks to speed you up and lessen damage, and can't use Invulns to avoid damage or as a mulligan if running out of time), there's nothing that makes it inherently impossible unlike the other unwinnable badges, you must simply play quickly to beat the nuke timer and survive well enough to make it to Dis. No having to avoid getting hit a single time while regularly dealing with 50+ respawning enemies, no having to kill more cumulative enemies in AoRA than what Quartermaster Diamond requires on top of them respawning and being unable to heal on demand, no having to beat the game in an inhuman time limit while desperately trying to push through WTF enemy density, and no having to run through 24 floors with no traits while praying not a single enemy dies to infighting or kills themselves or spawns on lava. So why has no one won it, was it really that inhumanly difficult, or was it that few people, if any,  actually gave it a real serious grind because they were that spooked by the combo of AoP + AoRA? Seeing how Angel of Purity is one of the least popular challenges, if not the most unpopular, I was wavering towards it being the latter, and so decided to give this badge a real try myself to ascertain if the badge really needed nerfing.

Right away, while it was certainly very tough, I got a feeling it was doable, as I was able to make it to Deimos without that many tries. I was unsure of the build, and I was initially trying Scout + early Intuition, but after a few deaths that couldn't make it past mid-Phobos, I ruled Intuition out; the first level practically does nothing, as knowing where powerups are is worthless when you can't use them, and since floors get so dense on N!, you can't avoid enemies anyway and they're often on top of you, so it was much more prudent to improve your combat and speed than being able to detect enemies outside vision. After I made it to Deimos 1 with the Scout and quickly died, I decided to try a Marine instead; this sounds unideal when speed is everything in AoRA and when AoP makes the Marine's powerup bonus irrelevant, but the most often cause of failure by far is simply running out of medkits and then health when you can no longer heal by powerups nor can keep armor in good shape, while punching through lots of enemies is the much greater obstacle than just finding the stairs, so having extra HP and those inherent 20% energy resistances makes a big difference here. Once I started using the Marine, I was able to consistently make it to mid-Deimos, so I knew this was the play if I could just be a bit luckier with items and floors.

As for traits, I naturally lead off with Hellrunner when it's AoRA and I want to limit whatever damage I can. After that it's Reloader + Finesse, you're relying on the Shotgun a lot, and this combo greatly increases the reliability of corner shooting, while giving you a lot more shots you can afford to make on each floor (you go from being able to do 150 shots + reload with the Shotgun per floor at maximum to 193). I was initially going for Rel2 too, but I found it wasn't too necessary and other traits were more imperative. Then you need Hellrunner 2 ASAP; aside from all the big advantages of HR2, you need it to reliably get through Phobos Anomaly without a Phase Device or Rocket Launcher that you often won't have, and even with HR2 you can end up burning all your medkits in the Anomaly if you're unlucky, so you can't risk making it to Anomaly without it. After HR2, I then go for Bru2 and Berserker; you can't really use melee much early on when healing is so limited and having HR blocks getting Vampyre, but when you can't repair armor, Berserker (that stacks very nicely with the Marine's resistances) is a major survivability boost once VMR start popping up (while you can then utilize it to quickly kill tough enemies when it makes sense to do so). After Berserker, I get Ironman to get some desperately needed HP and to better stretch out my few medkits I often have left by mid-Deimos (while slightly reducing physical damage is a nice plus too), and then I got another level of Fin when I made it far enough. As for the special levels, they're mostly a skip unless they let you more quickly escape a level and can be run through without much danger, but I did find it helpful to dip into Hell's Arena and kill some enemies, as with HR + Fin + Rel, you can do so without taking much damage and that extra EXP is helpful. The Chained Court is also mandatory; aside from the value of the Chainsaw itself, its Berserk on pickup still works, so this is essentially a free guaranteed full heal that you often really need, while you can also pick up some more EXP without taking much damage (I wouldn't complete the level though, I would just run through the right, pick off the formers there and kill the two Barons before leaving, that one free Berserk lasts just long enough for that and the two mod packs aren't worth burning your very limited medkits). When I got Deimos Lab, I would also take the opportunity to kill some enemies there as the beginning area gives you a very safe opportunity to do so and you can easily flee once time starts running low (it may even be worth going into the teleporters and possibly getting some medkits from the crates + the two mods and a nice weapon from the cache, but I never risked it as you can easily end up getting plasma'd by a Commando after teleporting or have to punch through a bunch of Cacos at awkward angles).

After making it to mid-Deimos so consistently, I knew this was completely doable, and after 12 attempts (plus about another half dozen or so I Q+Y'd on Phobos Base Entry), my theorycrafting about the badge would be proven correct. Finding a Phaseshift Armor in early Deimos was huge, and getting luckier with a random Nano mod in late Deimos was even better (which I put on the aforementioned Phaseshift Armor to ensure I always had decent armor in conjunction with Berserker and was very fast), while the RNG blessed me with late Phaseshift Boots too. That is not to say my luck was amazing though, I did get some really nasty floors in Deimos, including an Arachnotron cave in mid-Deimos that destroyed my armor reserve before that Nano mod and most of my medkits, and this very nasty maze at the end of Deimos, which I wouldn't have survived without Berserker. Hell started me off with another maze + barrel event, but once again thanks to Berserker, I am able to get through it. First half Hell was a bit shaky, as I only had a couple large medkits, and so I skipped Unholy Cathedral as a result despite how useful the Spear would be. When Hell 4 gave me those aforementioned Phaseshift Boots though, I also found a Homing Phase after killing a Baron and got a bunch of medkits from crates, at which the point the run was sealed. Once you make it to Dis you automatically won, as you can just let the timer run out and get the partial win, but since I had a bunch of medkits and very good armor, I go in and smash the Mastermind to bits.

Unfortunate this was in a beta and so it's not really "official" (which is why I didn't record a video of it), but I still found it worth posting as the first Inquisitor Angelic Badge, and to show that it is indeed possible. This is only the first beta of 0.9.9.9 and so things can end up changing quite a bit by the official release (such as N! possibly adding back a universal speed bonus for enemies that will make this a bit more difficult), but I can't see anything that can be changed that would make this badge impossible, so I'll be removing the proposal to nerf this badge's requirement to UV (and when 0.9.9.9 releases proper, I'll be sure to record a proper run of this badge). As for doing this badge in prior versions, as the Nightmare changes aren't a big difference to this badge as explained prior, this should be fully doable in 0.9.9.8. As for the possibility of this badge back in 0.9.9.7, I did use the Marine here, whose inherent 20% energy resistances did not exist then, and this run certainly wouldn't have succeeded without those resistances (that aforementioned Arachnotron cave that nearly killed me would have done me in for sure, and those resistances crucially stretched out my medkits as explained prior), but this should still be very possible with a Scout if you get good enough item + floor luck (I was able to get to Deimos with a Scout after all, it was just less consistent than with the Marine). Doing it in 0.9.9.7 however, would mean that Deimos and Hell have a bit less enemies (due to 0.9.9.8 modifying the danger formula to get higher values in Deimos and Hell, with the difference being most pronounced on N!), so that is one way this badge would be slightly easier there (and seeing how most of my runs were failing in Deimos, that could be meaningful).

With that all said, here's the glorious mortem:

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DRL (0.9.9.9 BETA 1) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 PUER, level 12 Arch-Vile Lt. Colonel Marine,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 40811 turns and scored 581230 points.
 He played for 1 hour, 1 minute and 17 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 629 out of 951 encountered hellspawn. (66%)
 He killed 677 out of 1053 enemy spawns total.
 He was an Angel of Purity!
 He was also an Angel of Red Alert!

-- Special levels --------------------------------------------

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 3
  Levels completed : 0

-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)  25+ kills without taking damage
  Inquisitor Gold Badge      Complete Angel of Purity (AoP)
  Inquisitor Platinum Badge  Complete AoP on UV
  Inquisitor Diamond Badge   Complete AoP on N! as Marine
  Inquisitor Angelic Badge   Complete AoP+AoRA on N!
  Quartermaster Bronze Badge Reach level 16 on Angel of Red Alert
  Quartermaster Silver Badge Complete Angel of Red Alert (AoRA)
  Quartermaster Platinum Badge Complete AoRA on N!

-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------

  ###########################################################
  #######................................####################
  ######...............####...............###################
  #####.......####.....####.....####.......##################
  ####........####.....####.....####........#################
  ###.........####.....####.....####.........################
  ##..........####..............####..........###############
  #............................................##############
  #....####............................####....##############
  #...&####............................###...0.##############
  #....####............................###.....##############
  #....####.....................X......#.......##############
  #..............................%.............##############
  ##..........####..............####..........###############
  ###.........####.....####.....####.........################
  ####........####.....####.....####........#################
  #####.......####.....####.....####.......##################
  ######...............####...............###################
  #######................................####################
  ###########################################################

-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------

  Health 77/90   Experience 62068/12
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +6

-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------

  Class : Marine

    Ironman          (Level 3)
    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Reloader         (Level 1)
    Brute            (Level 2)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Whizkid          (Level 1)

  HR->Rel->Fin->Bru->HR->Bru->Ber->Iro->Iro->Fin->Iro->WK->

-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------

    [ Armor      ]   phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (NP)
    [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (5d6) (BT)
    [ Boots      ]   phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%)
    [ Prepared   ]   shell box (x30)

-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------

    combat shotgun (8d3) [3/5] (P1)
    rocket launcher (6d6) [1/1]
    Railgun (8d8) [40/40]
    green armor [1/1] (100%)
    shotgun shell (x50)
    shotgun shell (x50)
    shotgun shell (x50)
    shotgun shell (x50)
    rocket (x8)
    power cell (x50)
    small med-pack
    small med-pack
    large med-pack
    large med-pack
    phase device
    phase device
    rocket box (x25)

-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------

    bullet     - internal 90%   torso 95%   feet 90% 
    melee      - internal 90%   torso 95%   feet 90% 
    shrapnel   - internal 90%   torso 95%   feet 90% 
    acid       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 80% 
    fire       - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 80% 
    plasma     - internal 80%   torso 80%   feet 80% 

-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------

    73 former humans
    80 former sergeants
    37 former captains
    104 imps
    83 demons
    162 lost souls
    37 cacodemons
    16 hell knights
    29 barons of hell
    10 arachnotrons
    15 former commandos
    9 pain elementals
    7 mancubi
    13 arch-viles
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

-- History ---------------------------------------------------

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He saw, left a present and left.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  He decided to nuke the forbidden Lab.
  On level 10 he found the Railgun!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he assembled a tactical boots!
  Level 23 was a hard nut to crack!
  He left level 23 as soon as possible.
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

-- Messages --------------------------------------------------

 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You're going
 berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind!

-- General ---------------------------------------------------

 67 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 14 of those were killed.
 13 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 5 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 35 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 1 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 14 killed the bitch and survived.
 20 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------


10

Off Topic / Re: Signs of life

« on: December 02, 2024, 15:33 »

Hey man, good to hear from you too - I don't think we were in touch much before either of us temporarily dropped out, but I hear ya on the DRL itch. Recently moved to a new house and still working to get my office/studio set up (I finally have a room to myself rather than occupying space in the living room), but I'll be sure to give 998 a spin once it's up.

Yeah I unfortunately wasn't involved much in the community side pre-JH, only making about a dozen forum posts here and then sporadically editing the wiki over the years. Aside from playing 0.9.9.8, 0.9.9.9 just had its first beta come out (check out JH's discord channel to get it), and getting more help with testing it would be swell.

11

Off Topic / Re: Signs of life

« on: November 29, 2024, 16:31 »

I came back around about a year and a half ago after getting the itch to play DRL again, which was probably going to be a month or two burst that ended after getting a few more Diamonds, but then development on 0.9.9.8 finally started back up after all this time and so I remained around since, both playing the game a lot and helping around where I can on here, beta testing, and on the wiki.

12

Requests For Features / Re: Compilation of fixes, changes, and new ideas for version 0.9.9.9

« on: November 21, 2024, 21:19 »

With the release of the first 0.9.9.9 beta, I'm gathering new bugs and other fixes to make regarding it here:

*Screenshots aren't being saved, unless you manually create a folder named "screenshot" in DRL's root folder

Self-explanatory, screenshots aren't saving without the aforementioned manual fix. With this version shaking up the folder structure, and moving the screenshot folder into the "drl" subfolder of the "user" folder, it simply seems the screenshot function hasn't been updated to account for the new folder setup.

*Nightmare's -10% speed penalty may not be working

So before, one of the errors listed was the player info screen not reflecting Nightmare's -10% speed penalty, but after playing Nightmare, it never seemed like I was any slower than usual, and after getting a setup to test with a Cacodemon while I was a Marine wearing equipment that neither sped me up nor slowed me down, I can confirm no speed penalty is applying (as the Cacodemon never got a double move, which it should about every 10 movements if the speed penalty was working).

After farther testing with previous versions back to 0.9.9.6 and Kornel stating he has no recollection of ever adding this "feature", it turns out it may not have actually existed in the first place (or if it did, it was silently removed back in a very old version prior to 0.9.9.6). Kornel also stated he doesn't like the idea of adding difficulty by nerfing the player, so we can probably expect it to never get (re)added to the game. However, there is the question on if enemies could get a universal +10% speed bonus instead (it has a similar effect to the speed penalty but the player won't be given a harder time on any time-sensitive event like a timed nuke level and dealing with N!'s respawning that becomes more frequent the longer the player is on the floor). It would have probably been overkill on old Nightmare that a lot of people found too difficult/unfun even with it lacking the supposed speed penalty, but with the new N! changes making respawns easier to manage and no longer needing to fuss with corpse disposal for kill %, it could be added as a farther means to spruce up N! (as well as assuage any potential complaints from returning players of the changes making N! too easy), and farther replicate the "fast monsters" aspect of actual Doom's N! difficulty (my concern though would be that it could make some barely possible badges like Everyman Angelic veer into the realm of borderline impossibility, either way this should get some discussion).

*Item reveal is not working in Nightmare. Have it activate when all active enemies are dead, or after all unique enemies have been killed once.

The enemy reveal mechanic works as it's supposed to in Nightmare (triggering when there's 3 or less active enemies alive on the floor at once), but item reveal isn't activating, even if everything is dead and you destroy every corpse. Having it activate when you have everything dead at the same time, or after all unique enemies have been killed once, will work.

*The game may crash if you attempt to use the Dragonslayer's altfire, Whirlwind.

When testing the Dragonslayer, the good news is I can confirm the permanent berserk effect now works as it's supposed to. The bad news is, we got yet another game-breaking bug with it, this time the game will get a fatal error if you attempt to use Whirlwind. After reloading saves and testing it some, the bug is not consistent and Whirlwind will sometimes work as it's supposed to, while sometimes it crashes with said fatal error, so I'm unsure what's causing it.

*Technician Gold badge wasn't awarded on the run that fulfilled its condition, and was instead awarded at the end of the immediate next run.

A weird little bug I noticed; after copying over player data I used in prior betas, I did some quick test runs to knock out some more assemblies, so I don't get any Schematics when testing Nightmare, and in the process I finished all the basic assemblies, which should give Technician Gold. However, in the run I did so, I was not awarded Technician Gold, and it was instead awarded in the immediate next run after where I died before I could even make any assemblies. The linked Discord mortems show it, but for additional info, the Power Armor assembly was the last Basic Assembly needed, and in the run I got both the Schematics for it from Armory and created Power Armor immediately after before leaving Armory, so maybe that caused this bug?

*The Mortem's kill ratio message seems to be based on the total enemy kill ratio with respawns factored, rather than the unique enemy kill ratio.

Self-explanatory, so for example if you kill every unique enemy at least once and thus fulfill 100% kills but leave any respawns alive, you won't get the "This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!" message. Badges and medals that have a requisite kill ratio are being properly awarded based on the unique enemy kill count however, so a minor bug.

*If you fulfill the clear condition for a special level (typically having every enemy spawn activated and having everything dead at once) and then leave with any respawns alive, the game will give you the level clear message in the exit text and the Mortem, as well as any badges/medals that require clearing the level, but the level will not be counted as completed for Conqueror.

Another weird bug noticed; I thought with the change to how the enemy kill count works regarding respawns, you could now have special levels be considered complete after fulfilling their complete condition without having to make sure no respawns are up when exiting. If you do complete a level and then exit with any respawns alive, you get some weird half-state of completion; the level's exit text and the Mortem's level history text will be what you get for completing the level (e.g. for The Vaults, the Mortem states "He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!" rather than "He managed to scavenge a part of the Vaults' treasures.", as seen in this mortem), and after testing, I can confirm you still get any badges/medals tied to completing the level (as seen in this mortem, where I still got the Grim Reaper's Pin and Reaper Diamond badge after leaving Limbo with respawns alive), but the level won't be counted as actually completed in the special level count section, so you won't get the Conqueror medal and (presumably) any badges that require achieving a Conqueror run.

*Modding display menu sometimes has inaccurate info.

The new modding display menu is a good addition to inform players what they're actually doing with any mod, but I noticed a couple issues. The first is when applying a bulk mod to armor and (presumably) boots, the display will show the bulk mod making said armor/boots 10% faster when it's the other way around (when applied however, the bulk mod still works as it's supposed to with making your armor/boots -10% slower). The second is when making an assembly like Tactical Boots or the Ripper that requires a second mod of the same type that you normally can't apply, the modding display will show the added effect of the second mod despite being unable to apply it without making the assembly (for example, if assembling Tactical Boots, the effect section will display your Steel Boots going from +10% to +20% speed).

*The game will not allow you to attempt applying Firestorm and Sniper mods to non-compatible equipment, notably preventing you from assembling Demolition Ammo.

Self-explanatory, this issue would also prevent being able to make any future assemblies that require adding a Firestorm or Sniper mod to non-compatible equipment (such as the proposed Scouting and Blastproof Armors).

*If too many sounds play in quick succession, the music will be turned off.

When employing the usual camping strats on Military Base, I noticed the music stopped playing. I saved and reloaded, which got the music playing again, but then I spammed some more run -> wait while nearby all the formers in the locked room and indeed that knocked out the music again. So it seems the cause is simply having too many sounds play at once, which can happen when spamming run -> wait near a group of enemies that can't reach you. The aforementioned saving and reloading restores the music, as does entering the next floor.

*Add ammo pickups to The Mortuary and Limbo.

A major mechanical change that was tested out is respawns no longer dropping any weapons and ammo they inherently have, both enemies revived by Nightmare/Angel of Darkness and by Archviles. With the other major respawn changes (corpses in your vision don't revive in Nightmare/AoD, and respawned enemies of either variety don't count towards the kill counter), this appears to be a fair change (100% kills in Nightmare without playing a melee build is very much viable, while you conversely can no longer farm a full inventory of ammo and Plasma Rifles off of any isolated Former, nor cheese Archviles with Formers on any difficulty to get as much ammo as you want). However, the big concern is Mortuary on any difficulty, as before you could rely on all the respawn ammo drops to soften the huge ammo sink the level normally would be, and even then you would still often come out with a significant net negative in ammo. With respawns no longer dropping ammo, you're outright in danger of running out of ammo or otherwise will likely deplete your ammo to a crippling degree, and if playing Nightmare, I don't see Mortuary being even viable without melee investment + strong melee weapon or having a Nano weapon (the Nuclear BFG helps, but aside from being able to easily get destroyed before picking it up, you can't easily recharge it when you got a bunch of enemies bearing down on you and it's not even that strong). To compensate, I think Mortuary should have ammo added, which can be in the form of at least one ammo box in each corner (have 10mm Ammochain in the top left, Power Battery in top right, Rocket Box in bottom right, and Shell Box in bottom left), and then on Nightmare, double the amount of them. As for Limbo, I thought it was fine without added ammo previously, as you could exploit the lava to great effect to easily dispose corpses and save lots of ammo, but with the new blood replacing the lava, thus requiring you to deplete much more ammo to kill enemies and allowing the Archviles to resurrect more than they could before, I think Limbo should get the same proposed ammo box in each corner (and then doubled on Nightmare).

*In the Nightmare version of The Vaults, the six Red Armors that are supposed to spawn next to the right vault's Barons may be bugged as it appears only one Red Armor is spawning, and the ease at teleporter camping the center vault's Nightmare enemies should be fixed.

As part of 0.9.9.8's big difficulty buff to The Vaults, on Nightmare it has UV's Arachnotrons and Archviles replaced with their Nightmare versions, and was supposed to spawn Red Armor next to the right vault's six Barons, so that they all have very good armor instead of only having one random armor between them. However, the Red Armors' spawning appears bugged or improperly implemented, as each time I played it, I only ever saw a single Red Armor drop from a right vault Baron each time (and it doesn't appear these Red Armors are accidentally spawning anywhere else, as the left vault with Nightmare Arachnotrons has no armors and I'm not seeing a bunch of Red Armors on the center vault's Barons either). Another issue is due to all Nightmare enemies becoming immune to fluids in 0.9.9.8, the newly added N! Arachnotrons and Archviles can walk over the lava blocking the center vault's teleporters and allow them to escape. Now I don't think this is itself a bad thing, it can add quite the scare factor to the level and it can put you in a really bad spot if a N! Arachnotron or Archvile suddenly pops up in a very awkward time across the long thin halls on the level or when you're trying to clear out one of the side vaults, and when going for the Scavenger badges, you still need to get lucky with Phasing into the center vault as the Barons still can't escape it. However, once you realize this and know both teleporters deposit teleportees right next to the stairs, you can simply camp next to the stairs to more safely kill each of the center vault's Nightmare enemies one-at-a-time, and then once they're all dead, you'll have a much easier time clearing out all the vaults. To prevent this, you can replace the lava blocking the teleporters with walls that can be destroyed conventionally, or by tying them to a lever inside the center vault that will destroy them (just make sure the lever is indestructible so it doesn't get destroyed in the inevitable crossfire when a player phases inside). Alternatively, if you want to keep the Nightmare enemies telporting outside of it, change the teleport destinations so the left teleporter's is as it currently is next to the stairs, while the right teleporter's drops you off on the opposite of the map; this would still allow you to spawn camp some of them (or maybe even all if you're lucky), but some others (or even most if unlucky) will evade the spawn camping and trying such can put you in a very dangerous position if one pops up in an unwanted direction while trying to kill another that just teleported in. I'm ok with either solution; the former makes opening the center vault and phasing into it a ton more dangerous, but the latter makes general exploring of the level paranoia-inducing and can be really evil with its potential to pinsir you between some of the nastiest enemies in the game.

*When using the Dragonslayer/Berserker Set in special levels, make killing the Nightmare Demons/Cacodemons not required for completion.

So to access the super secret Apostle fight, you're supposed to make it to Hell Fortress with the Berserker Set on, which you can find randomly if you're very very lucky, but are intended to fulfill the conditions on Nightmare to get them the guaranteed way. Getting the Dragonslayer works fine enough, but then to get the guaranteed Berserker Armor from Mortuary/Limbo, you have to use the Dragonslayer. Prior to 0.9.9.8, this was very difficult, as being stuck using the Dragonslayer means you can't use any corpse disposal weapon and the Dragonslayer itself can't gib big enemies like the Spear and Scythe since it deals melee damage, but it was doable. 0.9.9.8 however, made it so that just equipping the Dragonslayer now spawns infinite Nightmare Demons, while equipping the Berserker Set spawns infinite Nightmare Cacodemons on top. This is fine on normal floors, but this makes beating Mortuary/Limbo on Nightmare with the Dragonslayer an insane task, as in addition to all the corpses repeatedly reviving, you now got the Nightmare Demons repeatedly spawning, who will also repeatedly revive when killed. When testing I was able to do it... but when playing an AoMC + AoLT game (so I guaranteed one-shot everything and guaranteed gibbed Revenants, Cacos, and Arachnotrons, while having the big speed boost of AoLT both limited damage I took and limited respawns/NDemon spawns), and when having Vampyre (which is near-IDDQD since 0.9.9.8). Even then I got low on health at points, and without AoMC + AoLT, I'm not so sure I could have gotten everything dead at once. I simply don't see beating Mortuary/Limbo on Nightmare with the Dragonslayer being viable with any build except with Vampyre and maybe Blademaster.

The simple fix to this would be to not count the infinitely spawned Nightmare Demons towards the level's completion, that way you won't end up in a state where Nightmare Demons keep spawning/respawning on opposite sides of the map and you're unable to ever get everything dead at once. I would apply this to other special levels too, as it makes completing them much more of a tedious pain (Lava Pits/Erebus could also get out of hand if you get bad luck with the Nightmare Demon spawns, especially since lava doesn't kill them anymore). If it's not possible to program it that way, perhaps the Nightmare Demon/Cacodemon spawning should be disabled on special levels, or if that isn't possible either, then maybe just cap their spawning at like 50 per floor (on any normal floor you shouldn't be ever facing more than that, and as a bonus it also limits some potential cheese strategies where you abuse the infinite Nightmare Demons to puff up your kill ratio).

*Have screen shaking intensity vary based on the strength of the projectile/explosion

A new toggable feature in 0.9.9.9 is the screen shaking whenever an explosion of any sort happens. I do sorta like it, but it's rather janky in its current implementation, as the screen shake is pretty strong and seems to always play at the same intensity, regardless of if it's a 2 damage Imp fireball or a 36 damage rocket. This obviously isn't intuitive, and is rather annoying to see the screen shaking so much when just getting pelted by Imps.

_________________________________________________________

The following aren't specifically fixes to issues with the new beta, but rather just new ideas for 0.9.9.9 in general I had that I haven't proposed here yet, and I thought I may as well get them out now instead of continuing to sit on them until it's too late:

*Have more badges require at least a standard win.

Currently, with any badge that require winning the game, a partial win will still award it, except for the few that explicitly require a full win. Unless you actually care about your run's score, this makes a standard win and partial win nearly functionally identical, when they will result in earning nearly all the same awards (the only exception is any badge/medal that has a damage limit requirement, as nuking yourself can push you beyond the damage limit, while instantly disqualifying you from any that require damageless). This also makes the Mastermind even more of a nonfactor than she usually is, since as long as you make it to her with a nuke, you can just set it off and get whatever badge(s) you were hunting without any worry of dying to her. As for what badges to change in this regard, I think every Gold to Diamond badge that require winning the game should at least require a standard win (if they don't already require a full win), with the obvious exception of Pacifist Gold (since you can only get a partial win unless you get a second nuke + Invuln near Dis and pull off a double nuke on the Mastermind + JC), and I would also leave out the Angelic badges as a bit of reprieve, since they're absurd enough as is (though if you wanted to make them require a standard win too, Pacifist Angelic would need an obvious exception, and I would make an exception for Everyman Angelic too).

*Have dying to John Carmack count as a normal death instead of as a partial win.

Something I always found a bit weird is how dying to Carmack still counts as you winning the game, and aside from that being unintuitive, due to partial wins being nearly identical to standard wins as described prior, this results in the choice to fight Carmack having no real risk to it. Die to Carmack while on a Diamond badge run? No big deal, you'll still be awarded the badge. If the prior change is implemented to make partial wins less rewarding, this would be less of an issue, though I would still make this change.

*Disallow nukes from being activated in Hell Fortress, and consider having any active powerups get turned off when entering Hell Fortress.

When fighting the Apostle most recently, I noticed the game outright doesn't let you activate a nuke when it spawns, and I thought why not have this apply to Carmack too? The Lava Element only having 9 actions of invulnerability is deliberate to prevent you from getting easy double nukes off on the Mastermind + Carmack, but as long as you find an Invulnerability on Floor 23 and can rocket jump, it's trivial to nuke the Mastermind and then make it to Hell Fortress to nuke Carmack in time too with that single Invuln (and if you have the Trigun, it's possible to get a double nuke on both with just the Lava Element). To get a full win, I think you should be required to actually fight and kill Carmack conventionally, rather than rely on getting lucky with a floor 23 Invuln and skip having to fight him altogether. On another note, perhaps have any active powerups get disabled when entering Hell Fortress too, as even without nuking Carmack, you can take a floor 23 Invuln all the way to him and easily kill him without damage, or at least get most of the work done before he is able to actually fight back (the game already tries to enforce a fair fight by punishing you for trying to shoot him from out of vision, so it'll be fitting for him to depower you upon entering).

*Spruce up Hell Fortress' Apostle fight.

So I finally got to experience fighting the Apostle in Hell Fortress... and it was even more disappointing than the A100/666 fight. No unique entrance text to indicate anything is different, just the standard victory text when winning, and there's nothing different about the level itself, so you just fight the Apostle in a big empty room (which also means its resurrecting abilities don't get displayed, as the only other enemies are the Nightmare Demons/Cacodemons spawned by the Berserker set, which the fight should end before enough of them spawn to really get involved). Aside from more flavor with unique entrance and victory text, and the prior proposed buffs to the Apostle itself, a big way I think the fight could be improved is having a ton of corpses spawn in Hell Fortress with the Apostle, so its resurrecting capabilities actually get put to use.

*In The Lava Pits and Mt. Erebus on Nightmare, remove the last remaining Radsuit.

Previously I proposed have difficulty-dependent Radsuits on Lava Pits and Erebus to make them more appropriately difficult on the harder difficulties, which was implemented. When finally playing Nightmare however, I noticed the last Radsuit was not removed. Considering Lava Pits and Erebus see no real difficulty increase on N! as is compared to UV, other than a moderately more durable Lava Elemental, having no Radsuits on the level should be a fair change, especially since Radsuits last longer on N! and you can get more use of that single Radsuit than you could on UV (well Erebus needs way more than that, but even if its difficulty is buffed up elsewhere as I proposed before, I think it should still have the Radsuit removed).

*Allow Firestorm mods to be compatible with explosive weapons that have an explosion radius smaller than 3, having them increase these weapons' explosion radius by +1 instead of the usual +2.

Currently, there's an odd restriction with the Firestorm mod, where explosive weapons with an explosion radius of 1 or 2 cannot be modded with it (with the exception of the Tristar Blaster). This restriction doesn't make any real sense and is completely unintuitive (even Icy mistakenly thought you could apply Firestorm mods to small explosion weapons, as you can see in his guide to the Napalm Launcher here), as well as needlessly farther limits the utility of a rare mod that is already limited in its usage. If there's concern of a Tactical Rocket Launcher/Napalm Launcher having its explosion radius increased from 2 to 4 or a Demolition Pistol having its radius increased from 1 to 3 being too strong, then simply have the Firestorm mod give these weapons only a +1 radius boost rather than +2.

*Let the Lava Element appear as a random drop.

The Lava Element is an item with some potentially interesting applications beyond just serving as a guaranteed means to get a full win, as a source of temporary on-demand Invuln at any time. However, even if not saving it for a full win, you only have it for a single random floor you likely won't have any trouble with and then Dis, while you can never get it in A100 where you'll be much more probable to come across a floor that you would actually want to use it. As such, I think it would be neat if you could get the Lava Element outside of Lava Pits/Erebus as a random drop if you're lucky and get to play with it in more interesting scenarios beyond "set off nuke, pop Lava Element at 2 seconds left". You could give it a spawning weight of 3 or 2, and if you want to make the random drop of it an A100/666 exclusive, then set the spawning depth at 30+ .

*More Angelic badge ideas for existing special level sets

I previously thought up ideas of badge sets for special levels that currently have none, so why not potential ideas for completing the sets that already go up to Diamond?

Reaper Angelic: Clear The Mortuary/Limbo on N! in Angel of Humanity. (This is certainly a lot harder than Reaper Diamond, and gives you a reason to actually play AoH on Nightmare).

Scavenger Angelic: Clear The Vaults by luck on N! in Angel of Light Travel. (I don't think just upping it to Nightmare is enough compared to Scavenger Diamond, so the AoLT stipulation will add even more luck to it as you won't be able to stockpile much Phase Devices nor much rockets for a Napalm Launcher, nevermind the added difficulty of just making it to The Vaults with limited ammo and medkits in your inventory that you're sacrificing to fit Phase Devices and rockets in).

Longinus Angelic: Unsure, perhaps clear Unholy Cathedral on N! without Brute, Finesse, and Hellrunner, while excluding AoMC and AoLT? (Restricting Finesse and Hellrunner means outspeeding strategies will need some very specific equipment, particularly a Ripper or else you'll need to spend hours throwing a knife, or a very very good melee armor or two with a Hatred Skull or lots of medkits, might still be too easy for an Angelic badge but could be ok if the proposed change of adding Nightmare Demons to UC on N! is implemented)

Arena Angelic: I'm unsure of this one too, maybe clear Hell's Arena on Nightmare in Archangel of Humanity? (It is difficult to think of something harder than current Arena Diamond without pushing it into the realm of impossibility or lottery luck, and I'm thinking Archangel of Humanity is the only viable option here; you're not restricted to melee-only, but missing out on those two or three extra traits is very significant and of course you only have 10-14 max HP, I think it could be harder than AoB but shouldn't be impossible with the implemented Nightmare changes)

13

Discussion / Re: My mortem dump thread and progression record to as close to 100% as I can get

« on: November 20, 2024, 20:46 »

Since 0.9.9.9 has progressed enough in development to start getting beta versions tested (which is going to be implementing some major changes for Nightmare), I'm going to put this endeavor on hold for now. When 0.9.9.9 officially launches, I'll resume it, and hopefully the unwinnable badges get fixed this time, so 100% can be actually possible.

14

Post Mortem / Re: Badge Hunters for Version 0.9.9.8

« on: November 20, 2024, 20:41 »

Currently version 0.9.9.9 is in active development and is having beta versions tested for it, so in case anyone wonders, I'm gonna clarify that Diamond and Angelic badges obtained in any of the beta versions will not be counted here. As for what to do with this thread when 0.9.9.9 launches proper, I'm thinking unlike what the previous Badge Hunters thread did (where each version had separate Badge Hunters posts), I'll just roll 0.9.9.8 and 0.9.9.9 together, due to the short timeframe between both and 0.9.9.8 not having gotten much attention before 0.9.9.9 started getting beta versions, so people won't feel forced to reobtain badges they already got in 0.9.9.8 (while using the header system to note mortems that were achieved in 0.9.9.8). If 0.9.9.9 does majorly change any badges besides the unwinnable ones though, I may rethink doing that (such as if badges that require a specific challenge stop allowing Dual Angels). I'll also note that anyone that posts a 0.9.9.8 mortem with a Diamond or Angelic badge will still be counted here during the wait for 0.9.9.9, so if you have any, still post them!

15

Requests For Features / Re: Compilation of fixes, changes, and new ideas for version 0.9.9.9

« on: October 28, 2024, 06:54 »

For another potential hotfix for bugs and other issues, here is how I would prioritize the listed bugs and other issues based on how urgent I think they are:

Critical priority
*The trait selection lockup bug. (Uncommon but game-ending when it happens, with no way to salvage your game nor even a mortem in that state, but no apparent cause has yet been identified)

High priority
*Lightfoot Diamond and Angelic badges aren't being awarded when their requirements are fulfilled. (This is likely being caused by indirect kills being erroneously categorized as "melee" kills, which would effectively make these badges impossible to get)
*Dragonslayer doesn't grant any amount of berserk. (Aside from this notorious weapon's signature mechanic not working, this is a potential run ender if picked up by a build without Berserker or Malicious Blades, as you need to be berserked or have Malicious Blades' defensive boosts to survive being locked to a melee-only weapon)
*Halls Of Carnage's lava flood sometimes doesn't activate, allowing you to play the level at whatever pace you desire. (A beneficial bug, but aside from making a special level much easier than intended, this bug seems to occur at random and so it cannot be anticipated if any given run will benefit from this bug or not)
*You can easily softlock in House Of Pain on Nightmare and in Angel Of Darkness if you don't have the Arena Master's Staff, from an enemy reviving in an earlier room while you're locked in a later room. (While there are a couple other special level softlocks, this one stands out as it doesn't require an unwise Phase Device use, but it may not have an easy quick fix that would make this eligible for a hotfix, ideas on how to address it are in the special level section of the OP)

Mid priority
*A Technical mod's resistance boosts on armors/boots get carried over in assemblies that uses a Technical mod, as long as the mod isn't applied last to finish the assembly. (A beneficial bug, but it does make several assemblies better than they're supposed to be)
*Corpses can sometimes be ungibbable by explosions and plasma(tic) shotguns. (I see it frequently happen in House Of Pain's first room, where a Pinky corpse or two will just refuse to gib, but it's unclear what is causing it and that is not the only level it can happen)
*Brute's accuracy bonus is still not being applied properly to thrown knives/Mjollnir.
*When using the look command, you are unable to scroll the screen with your keyboard, preventing keyboard-only players in graphic mode from seeing the whole floor.
*Direct explosive hits seem to have their damage calculation occur after knockback, making them weaker than they should be or even deal no damage at all. (Would list this as high priority but it's a long-standing bug from prior versions and so may not have a simple fix)
 
Low priority
*Sharpshooter's effect doesn't work with the Demolition Pistol and (presumably) the Anti-Freak Jackal. (Could arguably be mid priority, but the affected weapons are rare and Sharpshooter isn't hurt that much by it, so it can be set aside for the next full version if it's not a simple fix)
*When rocket jumping, your targeting cursor can extend beyond immediate adjacent tiles, despite not being able to target any tile beyond that range. Previous versions would just lock its targeting to its valid range, which made rocket jumping around quicker to input. (As a heavy rocket jump user that is very annoyed by this bug, my personal bias wants to label this as mid priority, but it ultimately has little gameplay impact)
*Projectiles can occasionally clip through walls at weird angles, including explosive projectiles going through outer boundary walls without exploding. (Could be quite exploitable in the right circumstances, but happens rarely enough and is usually not impactful enough to be an urgent bug. Needs more testing to determine what causes it, I seen it happen in House Of Pain's first room a couple times in particular but seen it in random floors too)
*Ammo stacks dropped by ammo dispensing lever aren't affected by the difficulty multiplier. (Not sure if this is an actual bug or intended, but it's a minor issue either way)
*In floors beyond level 30 in A100/666, you still predominantly only see lava instead of a greater variety in fluid generation. (Not sure if an actual bug or if the new level 30+ fluid generation formula just has a very heavy bias towards lava, but either way you're not seeing greater fluid variety in deep A100)
*When the Apostle spawns on the final floor of A100/666, it and all enemies that revive/get spawned will be immediately revealed by the enemy reveal mechanic since technically everything dies when you first enter the floor, despite this being a boss fight. (Could arguably be mid or even high priority, but labelling as low priority since very very few people will actually encounter this and since the Apostle hasn't gotten its planned buffs yet that could make it an actually compelling boss fight).
*House Of Pain doesn't have a default song defined in the music.lua file, so it'll play a random song unless you add a proper entry for it in the music.lua file yourself.
*Various UI issues that don't affect gameplay. (see the OP for all that been compiled so far)