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Topics - iainuki

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1
Discussion / Some maybe contrarian opinions on master traits
« on: June 14, 2020, 02:39 »
DoomRL's difficulty is enormously tilted to the early game.  This isn't unusual among roguelikes, Nethack and Angband are both other roguelikes I've played with the same characteristic, but DoomRL takes it farther than either of those games.  A character that survives Phobos Anomaly can usually win the game, and one that survives the Cyberdemon is almost certain to, IME.  Because of this, the best choices for the early game are whatever keeps you alive longest.  The game gets easier the farther you go, so even choices that aren't optimal for the late game make sense because you don't need late-game power as much as early-game power.  You can't take a master trait until the mid-game, which automatically means that master traits don't help during the hardest part of the game.  Because of their blocks and requirements, though, they can hurt during the early game, if the master trait you want hurts your early-game survival chances.

Because of this, I evaluate a lot of the master traits differently than some other commentary I've seen, and I'm not convinced that masterless builds aren't straight up better than most of the master traits.

I group the master traits into three rough categories, master traits that don't hurt your early game through requirements or blocks (whether a master trait is any good itself), bad traits with bad blocks and requirements (never useful, don't take these), and good traits with bad blocks and requirements (the hard cases).  To explain which master traits are in which categories though I first need to briefly cover what other traits are good and bad, and those too fall into three rough categories, good for the early game, situationally useful in the early game, and not early game material.

Good Early-Game Traits

  • Intuition: IMO the strongest trait in the game, knowing where enemies are is tremendously powerful for shooting them without getting shot back.
  • Hellrunner: Faster movement reduces the chance of being shot when moving into the sight range of an enemy before you can act, lets you kite enemies and close to melee, and on Nightmare! reduces the speed with which corpses respawn.  Hellrunner also gives a direct defensive benefit for dodges as well.
  • Son of a Bitch: The only direct damage trait for shotguns and rapid-fire weapons.
  • Finesse

Traits Situationally Useful in the Early Game

Most of these traits are only good for characters specializing in a particular type of weapons, and that type of weapon is usually obvious.

  • Brute and Berserker: Melee is the weakest early game weapon, but going berserk from taking lots of damage in one hit is surprisingly useful even for characters who don't use melee as their primary damage source.  Brute and Berserker are typically both needed to do enough damage to make up for getting punched in the face repeatedly.
  • Son of a Gun and Dual Gunner: Pistols are also weak in the early game, and only the huge bonuses from these traits make them viable.
  • Reloader and Shottyman: Only shotguns and rocket launchers need to be reloaded often enough for Reloader to pay off, but it's perfectly possible to use shotguns and rocket launchers without these traits, shell and rocket boxes exist.
  • Eagle Eye: Only rapid-fire weapons really need this trait, though pistols, melee attacks, and most importantly rocket launchers also benefit.  As the prerequisite for Intuition this is also important for all marines and technicians, though unfortunately they may not be able to afford it in the early game.
  • Triggerhappy: Useful for rapid-fire weapons but often a lower priority than Son of a Bitch, Eagle Eye, and Finesse.

Traits Not Useful in the Early Game (or Ever)

Offense is more important early than defense because you can prevent damage with better tactics, so most of the defensive traits end up here.

  • Whizkid: is a great trait but only useful after you get enough modpacks to power it.
  • Juggler: is good for any character who uses multiple different weapons, but usually you don't have enough choices for it to matter until the midgame.
  • Dodgemaster
  • Ironman
  • Tough as Nails and Badass: Badass's knockback reduction is useful for melee characters but isn't a priority even for them.

Master Traits with Good Prerequisites and Blocks

Some of these traits are good, some of them aren't, but they're all playable in a way that other master traits aren't.  The good master traits are considerably better than other traits, and the not-so-good ones still might be worth taking depending on what other traits are available, angel-of challenges you're undertaking, weapons you've found, and so on.  One important note is that the melee and pistol master traits all have weak early games if you aim straight for them.

  • Blademaster: Hellrunner, Brute, and Berserker are the traits that all melee characters want ASAP.  The blocks prevent you from using pistols or rapid-fire weapons well, but shotguns are the best early-game weapon anyways and shotguns plus melee in the endgame is fine.  The free attack after a kill is good but not great.
  • Malicious Blades: Finesse, Hellrunner, and Dodgemaster are good for most characters, and Brute is something all melee characters want.  Son of a Bitch, Reloader, and Son of a Gun are all unblocked so rapid-fire, shotguns, and pistols are all viable.  Losing Eagle Eye hurts rapid-fire and (to a lesser extent) pistols, but weapon choice and mods can mitigate that.  The biggest costs are losing Intuition and Berserker.  The double attack partly makes up for the loss of Berserker, and the resistances are the best part of the trait and useful whether you're attacking in melee or not.
  • Gun Kata: The only painful block is Son of a Bitch, and given you're putting up with pistols in the early game anyways, the only real diversion is Dodgemaster.  The benefits however are situational enough to not be that powerful.
  • Shottyhead: Not having access to Son of a Bitch hurts shotguns and Juggler doesn't do much early on, but the firing speed reduction is a solid bonus.
  • Fireangel: Again, blocking Son of a Bitch is a significant downside for shotguns.  Losing Eagle Eye doesn't matter for a character who only uses shotguns but forecloses Intuition, and limits rapid-fire weapons and rocket launchers as secondary weapon options.
  • Cateye: Cateye and Intuition are some of the best traits in the game, Son of a Bitch is good, and Triggerhappy is useful for rapidfire builds.  The only real downside is that it blocks Reloader and through it Shottyman, which hurts but doesn't foreclose shotguns.
  • Scavenger: Eagle Eye, Intuition, and Whizkid are all good traits though only Intuition is really strong in the early game.  While blocking Berserker makes melee nonviable, it's possible to use pistols and rapid-fire weapons without Dualgunner or Triggerhappy.  How much benefit you get from Scavenger depends a lot on how much luck you have with finding unique and exotic weapons and what modpacks you get from them, ranging from multiple nano modpacks to virtually no modpacks at all.

Bad Master Traits with Bad Prerequisites and Blocks

I don't know if I could justify taking any of these master traits.

  • Bullet Dance: This trait has an awful combination of antisynergizing requirements and blocks.  Rapid-fire weapons and pistols fill the same role, single-target DPS at range, so you don't get a viable two-weapon style out of taking traits for both weapon types.  Son of a Gun 3 is much better for pistols than Son of a Bitch because the attack bonus increases with every level of Son of a Gun.  Triggerhappy does nothing for pistols without this trait, and you can get more shots per second more efficiently by taking Son of a Gun or Finesse.  To add insult to injury, it also blocks Hellrunner and Eagle Eye.  Losing Eagle Eye in particular hurts both pistols and rapid-fire weapons and blocks Intuition.
  • Entrenchment: Tough as Nails 2 and Badass 1 are more or less dead traits, particularly for a non-melee character, and having Finesse blocked hurts rapid-fire weapons and all other weapons too.  Meanwhile, the limitations on chain fire are crippling: it only works on monsters in LoS, it stops when you run out of ammo or get knocked back, and it takes three turns to ramp up to the boost in damage output.
  • Survivalist: This trait has a toxic combination of bad prerequisites and awful blocks.  Missing out on Hellrunner and Son of a Bitch hurts almost all possible characters, and missing out on Berserker means no melee.  The prerequisites are all defensive, and Badass in particular isn't even good at that.  Finally, the benefit is entirely defensive and only okay at that.

Good Master Traits with Bad Prerequisites and Blocks

Some of these traits are considered good, and in specific circumstances they are, but they also have major downsides.  I've never managed to get some of them to work, and others only seem useful in particular challenges.

  • Sharpshooter: Aside from the general weakness of pistol traits early, Sharpshooter's required Eagle Eye 3 is excessive given the base accuracy of pistols.  None of the bans are too awful: obviously losing Dualgunner hurts any pistol build, but it's not essential for pistols, and Son of a Bitch is only mandatory for rapid-fire weapons, which pistols can comfortably replace.  The increased damage and decreased variance from Sharpshooter's ability is quite good, and having to take Eagle Eye 3 does have the silver lining of opening up Intuition.
  • Vampyre: Vampyre only requires one dead trait, Badass 1, since marines don't need the Tough as Nails requirement.  However, the Hellrunner block really hurts all low-level melee characters, and the Eagle Eye and Son of a Bitch bans hurt all non-melee alternatives as well as banning Intuition.  That said, Vampyre offers the best defensive ability for any trait. 
  • Army of the Dead: Like Vampyre, Army of the Dead requires only one dead trait.  The traits it blocks, though, are strong choices for every character: Finesse and thus Juggler and Whizkid, Eagle Eye and thus Intuition, and Hellrunner.  Notably, it's the only shotgun master trait that doesn't block Son of a Bitch, and none of them foreclose melee, pistols, or rapid-fire weapons as secondary choices.  Meanwhile, Army of the Dead's makes shotguns do significantly more damage to heavily-armored enemies, which is useful against many late-game monsters but not as valuable early on.
  • Ammochain: Ammochain has two problems, antisynergizing requirements and the ban on Eagle Eye.  Reloader just doesn't provide much benefit for rapid-fire weapons, and the lack of Eagle Eye increases ammo consumption while decreasing DPS with rapid-fire weapons.
  • Gunrunner: Gunrunner's primary disadvantages are requiring Dodgemaster and Juggler, neither of which are outstanding early, and banning Son of a Bitch, which is the only trait that boosts shotgun damage.  Blocking Whizkid also hurts starting in the midgame.  The extended run duration and ability to fire while moving are quite strong.

2
This is definitely the hardest badge I've managed.  How many other players have this one?  I killed 803 characters to get it, and that doesn't count the innumerable quits in Phobos Base Entry because I took too much unavoidable damage.

The mortality stats look like this:

456 entered Hell's Arena.
92 stormed the Chained Court.
30 encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
17 entered Hell's Armory or Deimos Lab.

     45   On level 1 he finally nuked himself.
    341   On level 2 he finally nuked himself.
    160   On level 3 he finally nuked himself.
    108   On level 4 he finally nuked himself.
     73   On level 5 he finally nuked himself.
     28   On level 6 he finally nuked himself.
     18   On level 7 he finally nuked himself.
      5   On level 8 he finally nuked himself.
     11   On level 9 he finally nuked himself.
      5   On level 10 he finally nuked himself.
      4   On level 11 he finally nuked himself.
      1   On level 12 he finally nuked himself.
      2   On level 13 he finally nuked himself.
      1   On level 14 he finally nuked himself.

Early on I usually died from failing to find the stairs, and as far as I could tell a lot of these deaths were unavoidable: I simply spawned too far from the stairs or had to take a 50/50 that took me away from the stairs rather than toward them.  I also often died from running out of health.  I eventually figured out that it was better to wear green armor all the time to make it less likely I would die from too much damage, because the ability to be more reckless when searching compensated for some of the speed loss I took from wearing armor.  I tried playing quickly to get more attempts in, but I finally succeeded when I slowed down and played more carefully.  I don't know if I needed to play the many games I played faster to learn how to finally succeed, though.

I had many frustrating late-game deaths too.  I died instantly when I stepped into the sight range of commandos early on Deimos twice, and another two times I hit early arachnotron caves without any cover and that was equally lethal.  Small rooms levels also killed me twice by running me out of time before I found the stairs.  I miscalculated the distance to the stairs a few times as well, including in Hell's Armory.  One run I discovered that the nuke can go off after you jump in the portal in Phobos Anomaly.

This final successful run had three notable bits of early luck: an agility mod in the Chained Court, a shellbox late in Phobos, and a combat shotgun in a vault that was close enough to the stairs for me to grab it without running out of time, I believe on Phobos 4.  I was seriously low on medpacks at several points in Phobos and had one small medpack left when I hit Phobos Anomaly.  At this point, I have strategies that will almost always clear Hell's Arena and Chained Court without running out of time while also grabbing the modpacks.  In this run, I was short enough on shells that I grabbed the shells in the Chained Court but couldn't afford the time to grab the cells.

The early levels of Deimos are always brutal in this challenge and this was no exception, but there were no levels so difficult that I was completely without medpacks or had to rush through monsters in hope of finding the stairs.  In this challenge you really want to see Deimos Lab rather than Hell's Armory because you can grab the normal modpacks and special weapons without running out of time, but I drew Hell's Armory, which is only good for picking up a plasma rifle (I hadn't found one before it) and some cells.

Deimos 2 was the real turning point where I thought I might have a chance to win because I found a power modpack to make the tactical shotgun and a second agility mod to make tactical boots.  With tactical boots running out of time before finding the stairs is much less of a problem, meaning that if you're going to die, you're probably going to die to monsters.  On Deimos 3 I found an early map that showed me the most items I would ever see on a single level this game: an assault shotgun (note this was right after I made a tactical shotgun), a rocket launcher (I still hadn't found one), a missile launcher, a technical modpack, and two power modpacks.  Unfortunately the power modpacks and the rocket launcher were too far from the stairs for me to make it back in time, so I had to pass on them.  I never saw another rocket launcher, a double shotgun that I could reach, or another power modpack after the two I couldn't reach on Deimos 3, so the only one I ever got went to the tactical shotgun.  I found more bulk modpacks than anything else, and of course they are the least useful in this challenge (and in general).  Aside from the fireproof red armor, the bulk-modded plasma rifle, and the fireproof duelist armor, I also bulk-modded a blue armor that I used to fight commandos, arachnotrons, and cacodemons where I had to trade fire with them.

Containment Area is the branch you want for this challenge, useful for padding your kill count, the crates, a missile launcher, and the rocket box.  Since I already had a missile launcher, the duplicate was superfluous, but the rocket box was important later.  As papilio notes in their description of this badge, it gets much easier once you have both Gunrunner and Shottyman.  Like Tormuse and unlike papilio, I went Shottyman first: my testing showed that it saved more time than Gunrunner during the critical early levels.  I got the combination of both on Deimos 4 or 5.  I didn't think I had enough health to do City of Skulls even if I got that branch, but instead I drew Abyssal Plains which made the decision for me.  Halls of Carnage is better than the Spider Lair (though Tormuse showed it's possible to beat the Lair in AAoRA), for the extra modpacks, a ton of shells, and because it's much easier to get the BFG.  I got an agility modpack to finish tactical armor there, which made it much less likely I would run out of time on the subsequent levels.  There were a couple of places I was nervous about shells before the Halls but after that point I was never in serious danger of running out.  The fight against the Cyberdemon was nerve-wracking, first I had trouble finding the damn thing and was worried I was going to run out of time, but even once I did I ran out of rockets (I went through 4 rockets from the launcher, another 7 from my inventory, and all 20 from the rocket box) and had to finish it with the tactical shotgun.

I was lucky with layouts in both Deimos and Hell, lots of open levels with big rooms.  The BFG was critical at several points: when I came down the stairs next to a commando, a pack of sergeants, and a group of arachnotrons; when I came down the stairs next to a pair of arch-viles accompanied by a commando and a bunch of sergeants; and when I had to deal with arch-viles and groups of mancubi in the clear.  Also, I learned the BFG works with Gunrunner, which wasn't useful but was amusing.  I ditched the chainsaw in the Containment Area for more room for ammo, I'm still not sure if that was the right decision, or if it would have been worthwhile to keep it to pad my kill count in the Unholy Cathedral.  I found a duelist armor and a phase shift armor in Hell 3, and somehow I managed to kill an arch-vile without them being destroyed.  I used the agility mod I found on the same level for the phaseshift armor, which replaced my tactical armor for level exploration, and made the duelist armor fireproof to give me an armor I could fight in without it being as slow as the red armor.  My kill count at the beginning of Hell was only about 78%, which made me very nervous, but with the improved gear and Intuition 1 I managed to almost clear most of the levels, causing my kill percentage to creep up about 1% per level through Hell.

I picked up a homing phase device early in Deimos, and it probably saved my life on a Hell level with big rooms, small causeways between them, and lava everywhere else that was packed with arch-viles, arachnotrons, and hell barons.  I might have been able to make it to the stairs without it, but it would have been a near thing.  Once I got Intuition 2 and Hellrunner 3, I was confident I would win.  The Spider Mastermind was a joke with 30 rockets and a rocket box.

This may be my last DoomRL badge.  For most of the time I spent working on it, I was not having fun because it's so luck-based, and the other diamond and angelic badges aren't looking much better.  Almost all of them also require playing on Nightmare, which I don't find enjoyable.

--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 12 Cacodemon General Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 38646 turns and scored 285394 points.
 He played for 6 hours, 3 minutes and 6 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 655 out of 789 hellspawn. (83%)
 He was an Archangel of Red Alert!

 He saved himself once.

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 5
  Levels completed : 1

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

  Mastermind's Brain
  UAC Star (bronze cluster)
  Minor Icarus Cross
  Quartermaster Angelic Badge

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

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

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

  Health 50/50   Experience 61186/12
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +0  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +0

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 1)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Reloader         (Level 2)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Shottyman        (Level 1)
    Gunrunner        (Level 1)

  HR->HR->Rel->Rel->SM->Fin->Jug->DM->MGr->Int->Int->HR->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   phaseshift armor [2/2] (58%) (A)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   missile launcher (6d6) [0/4]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   rocket box (x16)

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

    [a] tactical shotgun (8d3) [5/5]
    [b] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [52/52] (B1)
    [c] nuclear plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [24/24]
    [d] BFG 9000 (10d6) [100/100]
    [e] fireproof red armor [4/4] (90%)
    [f] fireproof duelist armor [1/2] (35%)
    [g] shotgun shell (x50)
    [h] shotgun shell (x33)
    [i] power cell (x50)
    [j] power cell (x50)
    [k] power cell (x10)
    [l] large med-pack
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] large med-pack
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] large med-pack
    [q] phase device
    [r] homing phase device
    [s] power battery (x120)

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

    Bullet     - internal 0%    torso 30%   feet 0%   
    Melee      - internal 0%    torso 30%   feet 0%   
    Shrapnel   - internal 0%    torso 30%   feet 0%   

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

    60 former humans
    80 former sergeants
    41 former captains
    128 imps
    31 demons
    145 lost souls
    40 cacodemons
    15 hell knights
    30 barons of hell
    20 arachnotrons
    18 former commandos
    10 pain elementals
    14 revenants
    3 mancubi
    16 arch-viles
    2 bruiser brothers
    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 Hell's Armory.
  He decided to nuke Hell's production center.
  On level 10 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 10 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 11 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  He broke into the Containment Area, but gave up against the overwhelming forces.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 15 he assembled a tactical armor!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 19, hell froze over!
  On level 19 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind.
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 You wear/wield : a rocket box (x20)
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched!
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies.
 Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 2191 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1177 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 915 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 74 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 23 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 15 killed the bitch and survived.
 8 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

3
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC+AoRA|YAAM] Quartermaster Diamond
« on: May 16, 2020, 19:42 »
This is another badge that took more attempts than by any rights it should have.

I died a few dozen times figuring out the early game, and then I killed some characters at Hell's Armory and Deimos Lab figuring out how to do those levels fast enough, but after I managed to get a nanopack there I figured I would be good.  Even after I fucked up and lost my power red armor to baron acid in Halls of Carnage, I thought I would be good.  Then, I got the world's worst levels for a gunrunner build, level after level of the small rooms layout filled with lava barrels.    What's worse, I had to take repeated lava baths on these same levels, which had drained my health packs so I couldn't afford to keep myself at full health, and I saw no power cells after the Halls of Carnage and few shotgun shells.  I had to cannibalize the BFG's cells for my plasma rifle and almost ran out of those too.  I was on my last shellbox and the shells left over from three sergeants on the previous level when I finally misestimated my line of sight (I suspect a mancubus had line of sight on me without me having line of sight on it) and an arch-vile blast combined with a mancubus rocket killed me while I was trying to gunrunner them to death on another small rooms layout that forced me into close quarters with them, since I couldn't afford to plasma rifle them from outside their LoS because I was almost out of cells.  That was an intensely frustrating loss.

That was followed up by the game where I got a plasmatic shrapnel shotgun and a nuclear plasma rifle from Hell's Armory, and then on Deimos 5 I hit an arachnotron cave entirely out in the open on three sides.  I had berserk from a pack on the previous level, but while I killed most of the visible spiders, the remainder tore me to pieces when the berserk ended.  There was an invulnerability globe close-ish that maybe I could have made it too, but it was at least equally likely that I died because of more spiders shooting at me.

Then, after a few low-level deaths (not counting the usual dozens of quits in Phobos Base Entry), I finally lost three characters to near-misses in Deimos Lab where I almost but not quite finished before I ran out of time and the nuke went off.

This game was unremarkable in comparison.  I got a plasma rifle and immediately made a high-power plasma rifle on Phobos 6, but I didn't get a combat shotgun until Hell's Armory, where I immediately made it into a tactical shotgun.  I cut it close on Hell's Armory, less than 30 seconds, but I could have sped up if I'd needed to.  The phaseshift armor I found on Deimos 2 or 3, and I made it fireproof soon after.  With tactical boots and phaseshift armor plus the decreased numbers of monsters in late Deimos and Hell, I didn't need to worry about running out of time any more.  The rest of the game was forgettable: I had plenty of ammo and saw only one little rooms layout.  I accidentally took Shottyman instead of Gunrunner, and it completely didn't matter.  The phaseshift boots came from the Vaults, and that made the final levels of Hell a joke.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

4
Post Mortem / [U|100%|YAFW] Scavenger Diamond
« on: May 04, 2020, 22:29 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 15 Cacodemon Lt. Colonel Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 163347 turns and scored 393430 points.
 He played for 7 hours and 46 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1293 out of 1293 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!

 He saved himself once.

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 11
  Levels completed : 11

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (silver cluster)
  Aurora Medallion
  Conqueror Badge
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Hell Champion Medal
  Scavenger Platinum Badge
  Scavenger Diamond Badge

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

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  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 48/40   Experience 117721/15
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Scout

    Ironman          (Level 1)
    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Blademaster      (Level 1)

  Int->Int->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->HR->HR->Bru->Bru->Ber->DM->Bru->MBm->Iro->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   powered red armor [7/7] (99%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   Azrael's Scythe (9d9)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   BFG 9000 (10d6) [180/220] (B3)

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

    [a] combat shotgun (7d3) [0/5] (S1)
    [b] tactical shotgun (8d3) [1/5] (T1)
    [c] hyperblaster (2d4)x3 [52/52] (B1)
    [d] laser rifle (1d7)x5 [68/68] (B2)
    [e] Revenant's Launcher (7d6) [1/1]
    [f] power cell (x47)
    [g] power cell (x70)
    [h] large med-pack
    [i] large med-pack
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack
    [l] homing phase device
    [m] hatred skull
    [n] Hell Staff
    [o] cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%)
    [p] shell box (x100)
    [q] shell box (x100)
    [r] rocket box (x20)
    [s] power battery (x120)

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 85%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 85%   torso 85%   feet 85% 
    Fire       - internal 85%   torso 95%   feet 85% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    112 former humans
    82 former sergeants
    58 former captains
    158 imps
    89 demons
    439 lost souls
    45 cacodemons
    39 hell knights
    66 barons of hell
    26 arachnotrons
    20 former commandos
    47 pain elementals
    35 revenants
    24 mancubi
    30 arch-viles
    12 nightmare demons
    2 bruiser brothers
    2 shamblers
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Angel of Death
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 6 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
  He broke through the lab.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 12 he assembled a power armor!
  On level 12 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 13 he found the Acid Spitter!
  On level 14 he found the Revenant's Launcher!
  On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 17 he found the Azrael's Scythe!
  He then destroyed the Unholy Cathedral!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  On level 19 he found the Charch's Null Pointer!
  He managed to clear the Vaults completely!
  On level 20 he found the Hell Staff!
  On level 20 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 You see : John Carmack (unhurt) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits the lost soul. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The
 lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies.
 The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul
 dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost soul dies. The lost
 soul dies. The lost soul dies.
 You swap your weapons. You are hit! That hurt! You' going berserk! You feel
 like a killing machine! You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 John Carmack reloads his rocket launcher. You need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. You need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. You're going berserk! You need to taste blood!
 You hit John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
 Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now. Next!

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

 1232 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1123 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 67 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 20 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 12 killed the bitch and survived.
 8 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

This one took more attempts than it should have because I had to learn how to play without Son of a Bitch, which means weak rapid-fire weapons and generally low DPS.  I wanted to do Unholy Cathedral so I'd have a guaranteed way to get Scavenger Diamond, which meant melee, and I thought I'd try out Blademaster since I'd never done that trait before.  This and some terrible luck led to some failures:

  • Sloppily died to a former commando after finishing a ripper and the Wall on Deimos 4
  • Died to a baron of hell on Deimos 4 after running out of armor and medpacks.  The guaranteed red armor in Phobos Anomaly got wrecked when a phase device dropped me right next to the bruiser brothers, and while I picked up some blues to replace it in Hell's Armory, those also got destroyed by barons.  I did Containment Area with a green armor I found in a supply crate there that got destroyed, and that drained my medpacks.  On Deimos 4 a baron finally got me.  I only found one power mod ever this run which really crippled my ability to assemble useful gear, and got no special mod from Hell's Armory.
  • Another game I also lost the Phobos Anomaly red to the bruiser brother because I phase-deviced on top of them.  Hell's Armory gave me an onyx modpack, then I found a random nano modpack on the ground on the next level---but I had no armor to use it with, the blue armor from Hell's Armory had gotten destroyed.  On the next level I finally got a red armor to make cybernano.  However, I found no health globes or medpacks (they spawned on the levels but got picked up and used by barons/hell knights) all the way down to Deimos 6.  The forced lava bath on Halls of Carnage plus the acid spam from barons was too much for my one remaining medpack even with cybernano armor.  I half gave up in disgust after not having enough health to do City of Skulls.
  • Of the seven modpacks (six guaranteed) before trying to fight the shamblers in Deimos Lab, five of them were bulk modpacks.  I made a gatling gun and tactical rocket launcher, but neither of those could take out shamblers, so I died.

This game I was chronically short of power modpacks, which is why I ended the game without a plasmatic shrapnel shotgun even though Deimos Lab gave me a sniper modpack.  The laser rifle also came from Deimos Lab.  I thought a burst cannon was probably the best use of the accuracy bonus given that I wanted to use the nano modpack for armor since I was building towards melee.  The battle with the shamblers was more exciting than I would have liked given that I was using a T2 plasma rifle (I didn't have the final agility modpack for the hyperblaster), but that turned out to be sufficient with Hellrunner 2 and blue armor backing it up.  The Wall took more or less all my cells and shells, I was using my chainsaw on the next level to conserve ammo until I could kill enough sergeants.  That level let me finish my power armor and hyperblaster, though, and after that point the game became steadily easier.  I had berserker by the Halls of Carnage which made them a lot more doable, plus I phase-deviced myself into the middle to buy some time to blow through the walls and kill barons in the last section.  The Revenant's Launcher made things even easier and Azrael's Scythe, as always, turns the game into a total joke.  I tore through the Mortuary so quickly I didn't even make level 16 before I finished the game.  John Carmack summoned some lost souls I used the BFG to clear before I closed to melee, but after that I tore through him in a couple of rounds.

5
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC+AoMs|100%|YAFW] Masochist Platinum
« on: April 30, 2020, 23:46 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 16 Cacodemon Lt. Colonel Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 159907 turns and scored 416699 points.
 He played for 7 hours, 6 minutes and 54 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1331 out of 1331 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Masochism!

 He saved himself 2 times.

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 10
  Levels completed : 10

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Aurora Medallion
  Untouchable Badge
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Shambler's Head
  Chessmaster's Token
  Hell Champion Medal
  Masochist Gold Badge
  Masochist Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..................................................|X......#
  ................................................|||.......#
  ................................................|}|.......#
  ................................................|||.......#
  ................................................|.|.......#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 48/50   Experience 126108/16
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +2

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->HR->HR->DM->TH->HR->Fin->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   powered red armor [7/7] (98%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   hyperblaster (2d4)x5 [19/40] (F1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   cerberus plasteel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   power battery (x80)

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

    [a] combat shotgun (8d3) [5/5] (P1)
    [b] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
    [c] BFG 9000 (10d6) [169/169] (B2)
    [d] Acid Spitter (10d10) [10/10] {a}
    [e] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
    [f] shotgun shell (x46)
    [g] power cell (x20)
    [h] homing phase device
    [i] power mod pack
    [j] technical mod pack
    [k] shockwave pack
    [l] hatred skull
    [m] Hell Staff
    [n] tactical boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [o] phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%) (A)
    [p] shell box (x100)
    [q] shell box (x28)
    [r] rocket box (x20)
    [s] power battery (x80)

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

    Melee      - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 0%   
    Acid       - internal 25%   torso 25%   feet 100%
    Fire       - internal 25%   torso 75%   feet 100%

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

    90 former humans
    78 former sergeants
    53 former captains
    176 imps
    56 demons
    457 lost souls
    42 cacodemons
    20 hell knights
    55 barons of hell
    36 arachnotrons
    22 former commandos
    56 pain elementals
    48 revenants
    55 mancubi
    39 arch-viles
    11 nightmare imps
    8 nightmare cacodemons
    1 nightmare demon
    7 elite former humans
    5 elite former sergeants
    5 elite former captains
    2 elite former commandos
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 5 he assembled a gatling gun!
  On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
  He purified his fellow comrades.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  On level 11 he assembled a power armor!
  On level 11 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
  On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 16 as soon as possible.
  On level 17 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 17 he found the Hell Staff!
  On level 18 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 19 he encountered an armed nuke!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  On level 19 he found the Acid Spitter!
  He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
  On level 21 he found the Medical Powerarmor!
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  On level 22 he found the Cybernetic Armor!
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (mortally wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 Carmack raises his hands and summons hellspawn!
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (almost dead) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits the revenant. The missile hits the revenant. The missile
 hits the revenant. The missile hits the revenant. The revenant dies. The
 missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. John Carmack dies.
 Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 1216 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1109 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 66 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 19 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 12 killed the bitch and survived.
 7 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

I realized after posting my Inquisitor Platinum that there was actually another one that needed to be in this series: Masochist Platinum. Technically, I didn't need to play this on UV, just on HMP, but I did it on UV anyways.

Like the others, Angel of Masochism is all about not being hit.  How do you avoid being hit?  Angel of Mass Carnage plus Cat-Eye.  I kept the red armor I got from the Arena fixed all the way through the end of the game (I turned it into the power armor you see on me eventually).  Chained Court was a little more exciting than I like but a timely level-up saved me.  I got a plasma rifle before Military Base, which is all a Cat-Eye build needs to shred through the formers there.  I had a phase device for Phobos Anomaly, and it teleported me into the safe region, so I did it without taking damage.  Hell's Armory turned up a firestorm modpack and and a nano pack.  I had to wait until I killed the arch-vile and most of the barons in the Containment Area to reach Whizkid 2, at which point I assembled my hyperblaster and power armor.  I decided the best use of the nano pack was power red armor given that I had no exotic armor available, and I was playing Angel of Masochism.  I stand by this choice.  I got a ton of agility modpacks this game: at one point I had 4 of them in my inventory, waiting for steel boots and a power modpack to finish my cerberus boots.  Power modpacks were scarce, and I barely had enough for my power armor, another for it, and to finish the cerberus boots before Mt. Erebus.  Of course, with P-modded power armor, a firestorm-modded hyperblaster, and eventually tactical and cerberus boots, I had no trouble with the endgame.

6
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC+AoP|100%|YAFW] Inquisitor Platinum
« on: April 28, 2020, 20:42 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 16 Cacodemon Lt. Colonel Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 169773 turns and scored 425286 points.
 He played for 4 hours, 52 minutes and 6 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1132 out of 1132 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Purity!

 He saved himself once.

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 10
  Levels completed : 10

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Aurora Medallion
  Untouchable Badge
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Hell Champion Medal
  Inquisitor Gold Badge
  Inquisitor Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ......................................................|}..#
  .......................................................||.#
  ................................................X.........#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 50/50   Experience 130476/16
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +2

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->HR->HR->DM->Fin->HR->TH->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [6] (AOP)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   burst plasma rifle (1d9)x8 [30/80]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   steel boots [1/1] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   BFG 9000 (12d6) [121/130] (B1P2)

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

    [a] tactical shotgun (9d3) [5/5] (P1)
    [b] hyperblaster (2d4)x3 [40/40] (T1)
    [c] tristar blaster (4d5)x3 [0/45]
    [d] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
    [e] Railgun (8d8) [40/40]
    [f] shotgun shell (x50)
    [g] shotgun shell (x50)
    [h] large med-pack
    [i] large med-pack
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack
    [l] large med-pack
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] homing phase device
    [o] cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [p] shell box (x100)
    [q] shell box (x83)
    [r] shell box (x100)
    [s] power battery (x120)

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

    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 25%   feet 0%   

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

    82 former humans
    84 former sergeants
    45 former captains
    164 imps
    101 demons
    255 lost souls
    38 cacodemons
    27 hell knights
    72 barons of hell
    42 arachnotrons
    15 former commandos
    29 pain elementals
    65 revenants
    17 mancubi
    44 arch-viles
    7 nightmare imps
    5 nightmare cacodemons
    12 nightmare demons
    7 elite former humans
    5 elite former sergeants
    5 elite former captains
    2 elite former commandos
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
  He purified his fellow comrades.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  Level 11 was a hard nut to crack!
  On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
  On level 11 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  On level 11 he assembled a burst cannon!
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 12 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 13 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 16 as soon as possible.
  On level 17 he found the Railgun!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  On level 19 he found the Trigun!
  He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
  On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : Iainuki (unhurt) | floor | [ m ]ore
 Targeting canceled.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (severely wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The
 missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (mortally wounded) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. John
 Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 1209 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1104 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 65 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 18 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 12 killed the bitch and survived.
 6 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

The same idea as Eagerness Platinum.  On the whole I think Purity is easier, the ability to store health in the form of medpacks is simply more important than any of the abilities powerups provide.  The biggest problem Purity faces is having no way except Armor Depots to repair armor.

The beginning of this run started normally enough.  It's worth noting that the one and only time it's possible to get berserker without the Berserker trait is picking up the chainsaw in the Chained Court.  I saved this for dealing with the Arena Master.  On AoMC at least with any kind of ranged-build character it's far better to gun down the Arena Master while berserk than to try the chainsaw.  I suspect this may hold true without AoMC too.  I had a double shotgun and a shell box so naturally I got Military Base rather than Phobos Lab (since you can deal easily with the nightmare demons with a double shotgun and shell box even if you aren't on AoMC).  The only real annoyance I had to deal with was lacking a combat shotgun until I finished Military Base and lacking a plasma rifle until Hell's Armory.  I took damage immediately after the ambush in Phobos Anomaly, before I had a chance to move, and when I used a phase device it took me right next to one of the bruiser brothers, who proceeded to helpfully take my red armor down to 68% or so.  A commando took it down to 53% in Hell's Armory and I was planning a replacement until I saw that for once, instead of a schematic, for once I'd gotten an onyx modpack.  I put it on my P-modded red armor (I had Whizkid 1 after killing the Shambler) and that solved my armor problems for the rest of the game.

Honestly, once I had indestructible 6-protection armor I coasted the rest of the game.  I did The Wall just for the experience, hit Whizkid 2 there, and immediately assembled my hyperblaster.  I had no chance of beating the Cyberdemon damageless since he spawned two tiles diagonally down from me, so I just gunned him down as fast as possible and took one point-blank hit while doing so.  For the first and only time, I saw some potentially useful gear in the Vaults, two phaseshift armors and the Trigun, but none of it was useful to me as I already had committed to my POA red armor and wasn't using pistols.  The Railgun is an interesting weapon that I never really found a use for on the levels I saw.  In Hell I was finding medkits faster than I was using them and was tearing through the levels.  For some reason the mortem doesn't include the arachnotron cavern I saw, but you definitely know your character is strong when you encounter one of those and think, "Oh, I needed some more cells anyways."  John Carmack didn't even get a shot in.

7
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC+AoI|YAAM] Eagerness Platinum
« on: April 28, 2020, 15:55 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 15 Cacodemon 1st Lieutenant Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 145527 turns and scored 324454 points.
 He played for 4 hours, 57 minutes and 12 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1258 out of 1258 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Impatience!

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 9
  Levels completed : 9

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  Mastermind's Brain
  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (silver cluster)
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Chessmaster's Token
  Hell Champion Medal
  Lava Silver Badge
  Eagerness Silver Badge
  Eagerness Gold Badge
  Eagerness Platinum Badge

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

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

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

  Health 50/50   Experience 101401/15
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +2

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->HR->HR->DM->TH->Fin->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   cerberus green armor [0/0] (100%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [16/40] (A1T1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [68/68] (B2)

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

    [a] plasmatic combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
    [b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [5/5]
    [c] chaingun (1d6)x6 [40/40] (F1)
    [d] blaster (2d4) [10/10]
    [e] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6]
    [f] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
    [g] BFG 9000 (10d6) [169/169] (B2)
    [h] red armor [4/4] (100%)
    [i] red armor [4/4] (100%)
    [j] red armor [4/4] (100%)
    [k] gothic armor [6/6] (200%)
    [l] medical armor [2/2] (100%)
    [m] Shielded Armor [2]
    [n] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
    [o] Berserker Armor [0]
    [p] 10mm ammo (x140)
    [q] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [r] shotgun shell (x31)
    [s] power cell (x22)
    [t] cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [u] rocket box (x20)
    [v] rocket box (x20)

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

    Bullet     - internal 0%    torso 15%   feet 0%   
    Shrapnel   - internal 0%    torso 15%   feet 0%   
    Acid       - internal 0%    torso 70%   feet 0%   
    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 70%   feet 0%   
    Plasma     - internal 0%    torso 50%   feet 0%   

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

    112 former humans
    80 former sergeants
    98 former captains
    158 imps
    131 demons
    364 lost souls
    69 cacodemons
    30 hell knights
    42 barons of hell
    20 arachnotrons
    23 former commandos
    37 pain elementals
    14 revenants
    30 mancubi
    29 arch-viles
    12 nightmare demons
    2 bruiser brothers
    2 shamblers
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
  He broke through the lab.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Deimos Lab.
  On level 9 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
  On level 9 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  He sounded the alarm on level 10!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
  On level 12 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Halls of Carnage.
  On level 14 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 18 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 19 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
  On level 19 he found the Shielded Armor!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  On level 20 he assembled a cerberus armor!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  On level 22 he found the Berserker Armor!
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The missile hits the Spider
 Mastermind. The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched! The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind
 flinched!
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : a Spider Mastermind (almost dead) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
 missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
 missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! The
 missile hits the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies.
 Congratulations! You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 1201 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1097 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 65 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 17 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 12 killed the bitch and survived.
 5 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

While I'm chasing platinum and diamond badges, AoI and AoP seemed doable with the same strategy as AoMC.  The biggest difficulty in both of them is lack of healing, in AoI because you can't save medpacks, and in AoP because you don't get healing globes.  The solution to this is straightforward: just don't take damage.  The Cat-Eye scout in AoMC is good at that.  Honestly this took me longer than it should have because I kept fucking up.

Rather than rushing for Cat-Eye, I went Finesse->Whizkid after Intuition 2 because AoI meant that I wouldn't be able to save modpacks for later, so I wanted to be able to finish assembles and still mod them later ASAP.  This was the right decision.  The Chained Court and Phobos Lab had a lot of bulk packs, so I finished a tactical rocket launcher after Deimos Lab because I didn't even have a second plasma rifle to put a bulk mod on that point if I'd wanted to.  Deimos Lab had two rare mods, sniper and firestorm.  Because I hadn't finished my hyperblaster at that point (I hadn't found a plasma rifle early enough to put the technical and agility mods I'd found on it), I put the firestorm mod on a chaingun in case I later got enough modpacks to build demolition ammo.  I did not: I ended up prioritizing cerberus boots and armor over the weapons just because on AoI there's no way to recover from taking a bunch of damage except by getting lucky.  As you can see above, I finished the game with only some modded plasma rifles for primary weapons.  The sniper pack went to a plasma combat shotgun as usual, which was as usual amazingly useful for both corpse disposal against arch-viles, dealing with armored targets on levels with unbreakable walls, and destroying walls when I needed to (this made the Halls of Carnage so much more pleasant).

I did in fact need to get lucky once: the City of Skulls was utterly brutal despite going through multiple suits of red armor, I left the level with like 10% HP and luckily spawned near a large health globe on the next level.  That was the only real close call.  After that it was mostly smooth sailing.  The pile of special armors in my inventory came courtesy of Mt. Erebus.  Of course, they were far too late to be useful, since I couldn't have saved modpacks for something like cerberus gothic even if I'd wanted to wait until that late.  You can't full win without luck on AoI (there was an invulnerability globe on Hell 7, but it was too far from the stairs for it to last long enough for the nuke countdown), so I just went for Mastermind's Brain instead.

8
Post Mortem / [U|AoMC+AoC|100%|YAFW] Daredevil Platinum
« on: April 28, 2020, 15:30 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 14 Cacodemon 1st Lieutenant Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 98349 turns and scored 304765 points.
 He played for 3 hours, 31 minutes and 12 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1035 out of 1035 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Confidence!

 He saved himself 2 times.

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

  Levels generated : 8
  Levels visited   : 6
  Levels completed : 6

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Daredevil Bronze Badge
  Daredevil Silver Badge
  Daredevil Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  .................................................X........#
  ..........................................................#
  .......................................................|}.#
  .......................................................|.|#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 45/50   Experience 91642/14
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +2

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->HR->HR->DM->TH->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [4/4] (95%)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   burst plasma rifle (1d10)x8 [34/80] (P1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   steel boots [1/1] (61%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   power battery (x112)

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

    [a] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [0/40] (A1T1)
    [b] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6]
    [c] plasma shotgun (7d3) [30/30]
    [d] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
    [e] BFG 9000 (10d6) [54/100]
    [f] fireproof phaseshift armor [2/4] (36%) (P)
    [g] plasma shield [0/0] (70%)
    [h] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
    [i] shotgun shell (x14)
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] phase device
    [l] fire skull
    [m] cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%)
    [n] shell box (x45)
    [o] shell box (x100)
    [p] rocket box (x20)
    [q] power battery (x80)

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

    Acid       - internal 25%   torso 25%   feet 25% 
    Fire       - internal 25%   torso 50%   feet 25% 

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

    32 former humans
    52 former sergeants
    25 former captains
    86 imps
    75 demons
    449 lost souls
    23 cacodemons
    10 hell knights
    67 barons of hell
    54 arachnotrons
    14 former commandos
    43 pain elementals
    36 revenants
    23 mancubi
    27 arch-viles
    11 nightmare imps
    1 nightmare cacodemon
    1 nightmare demon
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack

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

  Level 1 was a hard nut to crack!
  On level 1 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 3 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
  On level 4 he found the City of Skulls.
  He wiped out the City of Skulls.
  On level 6 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 7 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 8 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 8 as soon as possible.
  On level 12 he was foolish enough to enter Limbo!
  On level 12 he assembled a burst cannon!
  On level 12 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear Limbo from evil!
  On level 13 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  On level 14 he ran for his life from lava!
  On level 14 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 16!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 John Carmack.
 Chain fire ( full ) -- Choose target or abort...
 You see : John Carmack (heavily wounded) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The
 missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits
 John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 Chain fire ( full ) -- Choose target or abort...
 You see : John Carmack (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
 Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
 Boom! Boom! Boom!

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

 1175 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1073 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 64 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 16 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 11 killed the bitch and survived.
 5 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

Decided to try this dual challenge coming off my initial AoMC Destroyer Platinum and Gatekeeper Diamond badges.  It was very straightforward, I won in only a couple of attempts.  This run was only notable in how little gear I found: Hell's Armory had a plasma shotgun but no rare modpack (another schematic instead), and there were almost no modpacks in the normal dungeon levels.  I had to prioritize finishing cerberus boots for the Lava Pits/Mt. Erebus because I didn't have enviropacks to do them otherwise, so I was left without a hyperblaster even by the time I finished the game.  I used the bulk packs I did find to make a burst cannon instead.  The phaseshift armor was nice but spent most of the time so damaged I couldn't use it, and after a stretch of a couple of levels in Hell without armor shards I couldn't use it at the end of the game.

9
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 16 Cacodemon 1st Lieutenant Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 180875 turns and scored 406727 points.
 He played for 6 hours, 18 minutes and 10 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1227 out of 1227 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 10
  Levels completed : 10

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Aurora Medallion
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Shambler's Head
  Hell Champion Medal
  Gatekeeper Diamond Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  .............................................X............#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ...............................................|%%........#
  ...............................................%}%........#
  ...............................................|%|........#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 48/50   Experience 123158/16
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +3  ToDmg Melee +3

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 3)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->HR->HR->DM->TH->Fin->SoB->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   fireproof red armor [6/6] (98%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   nanomachic plasma rifle (1d7)x8 (F1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   BFG 9000 (10d6) [130/130] (B1)

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

    [a] hyperblaster (2d4)x3 [40/40] (T1)
    [b] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6]
    [c] missile launcher (6d6) [4/4]
    [d] cerberus duelist armor [2/2] (100%) (P)
    [e] energy-shielded vest [1/1] (92%)
    [f] ballistic shield [0/0] (100%)
    [g] shotgun shell (x70)
    [h] power cell (x70)
    [i] power cell (x70)
    [j] power cell (x20)
    [k] power cell (x70)
    [l] power cell (x70)
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] large med-pack
    [o] large med-pack
    [p] lava element
    [q] cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [r] shell box (x100)
    [s] shell box (x100)
    [t] rocket box (x20)
    [u] power battery (x80)

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

    Melee      - internal 0%    torso 4294967266% feet 0%   
    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 55%   feet 0%   

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

    131 former humans
    98 former sergeants
    112 former captains
    138 imps
    119 demons
    250 lost souls
    62 cacodemons
    35 hell knights
    78 barons of hell
    39 arachnotrons
    16 former commandos
    30 pain elementals
    35 revenants
    19 mancubi
    44 arch-viles
    12 nightmare demons
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he assembled a gatling gun!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 7 he sneaked into the Phobos Lab.
  He broke through the lab.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  On level 9 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  On level 9 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  He emerged from the Containment Area victorious!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 16 as soon as possible.
  On level 17 he stumbled into a complex full of arch-viles!
  On level 17 he found the Grammaton Cleric Beretta!
  On level 18 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 20 he assembled a nanomanufacture ammo!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  On level 22 he arrived at Mt. Erebus.
  He managed to raise Mt. Erebus completely!
  On level 23 he assembled a cerberus armor!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He overloaded a nuclear BFG 9000 on level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 The missile hits the baron of hell. The missile hits the baron of hell. The
 missile hits the baron of hell. The missile hits the baron of hell. The
 missile hits the baron of hell. The missile hits the baron of hell. The
 missile hits the baron of hell. The baron of hell dies. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The
 missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits
 John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack.
 Chain fire ( full ) -- Choose target or abort...
 You see : John Carmack (mortally wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The
 missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits
 John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John Carmack!
 Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 1174 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1073 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 20 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 64 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 15 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 10 killed the bitch and survived.
 5 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

I failed to get Gatekeeper Platinum in my Destroyer Platinum run because of nerves.  This took a couple of attempts mostly because of stupidity.  I had one run where I nuked myself at the Cyberdemon (I had invulnerability that ran out, it's almost certain that I could have just gunned the Cyberdemon down while invulnerable, the nuke was stupid and unnecessary).  In this game Hell's Armory had a nano pack, and while it took forever to find the necessary bulk packs (I needed the one in the Mortuary), once I did I pretty much clicked to win through the rest of the game.  I found a random firestorm pack I slapped onto it once it was clear I wasn't going to be able to use it to finish one of the assemblies I haven't discovered yet.  (I have found so many schematics.)  Chain-firing with a firestorm nanomachine plasma rifle tore through John Carmack faster than I'd ever seen him die.

The other highlight of this run was the arch-vile complex:
Quote
You enter Hell, level 1. There's the smell of blood in the air! There's the   
 smell of blood in the air! You hear crackling flames! You shiver from cold... 
 You feel there is something really valuable here!

Two vaults filled with cacodemons and another useless pistol unique.  (Why don't I ever find these in a marksmanship run?)  Luckily I could kill all the arch-viles first before tackling the cacodemons.

10
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 16 Cacodemon 1st Lieutenant Scout,
 nuked the Mastermind at the Hell Fortress.
 He survived 168310 turns and scored 422516 points.
 He played for 9 hours, 24 minutes and 10 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 1203 out of 1203 hellspawn. (100%)
 This ass-kicking marine killed all of them!
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!

 He saved himself 4 times.

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 10
  Levels completed : 10

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

  Medal of Prejudice
  UAC Star (gold cluster)
  Untouchable Medal
  Grim Reaper's Badge
  Hell Armorer Badge
  Hell Arena Key
  Gatekeeper Silver Badge
  Destroyer Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  .........................................................|#
  ........................................................}|#
  ........................................................|.#
  ..........................................................#
  .................................................X........#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ..........................................................#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 70/50   Experience 129049/16
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +2  ToDmg Melee +2

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 2)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->SoB->SoB->TH->MCe->Fin->Fin->WK->WK->HR->HR->DM->TH->HR->Fin->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   fireproof red armor [6/6] (99%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   hyperblaster (2d5)x3 [30/40] (P1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   cerberus steel boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   power battery (x85)

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

    [a] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [5/5]
    [b] assault shotgun (7d3) [6/6]
    [c] nuclear plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [24/24]
    [d] nuclear BFG 9000 (8d6) [40/40]
    [e] BFG 9000 (11d6) [100/100] (P1)
    [f] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
    [g] Angelic Armor [7/7] (100%)
    [h] power cell (x47)
    [i] large med-pack
    [j] large med-pack
    [k] large med-pack
    [l] homing phase device
    [m] envirosuit pack
    [n] envirosuit pack
    [o] shell box (x100)
    [p] shell box (x59)
    [q] shell box (x100)
    [r] rocket box (x20)

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

    Melee      - internal 0%    torso 4294967266% feet 0%   
    Acid       - internal 25%   torso 25%   feet 100%
    Fire       - internal 25%   torso 80%   feet 100%

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

    90 former humans
    130 former sergeants
    62 former captains
    116 imps
    101 demons
    280 lost souls
    44 cacodemons
    22 hell knights
    80 barons of hell
    26 arachnotrons
    41 former commandos
    31 pain elementals
    43 revenants
    67 mancubi
    42 arch-viles
    7 elite former humans
    5 elite former sergeants
    5 elite former captains
    2 elite former commandos
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 shambler
    1 lava elemental
    1 agony elemental
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind
    1 John Carmack
    1 Arena Master

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 2 he entered Hell's Arena.
  He left the Arena as a champion!
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  He defeated the Hell Arena Master!
  On level 5 he found the Arena Master's Staff!
  On level 7 he marched into the Military Base.
  He purified his fellow comrades.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He destroyed the evil within and reaped the rewards!
  On level 11 he witnessed the Wall.
  On level 11 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  On level 11 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  He massacred the evil behind the Wall!
  On level 12 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 12 he romped upon the Abyssal Plains.
  He slaughtered the beasts living there.
  On level 14 he ventured into the Spider's Lair.
  He cleared the Lair, kickin' serious spider ass!
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 16 as soon as possible.
  On level 17 he stumbled into a complex full of mancubi!
  On level 19 he entered the Vaults.
  On level 19 he found the Malek's Armor!
  He cracked the Vaults and cleared them out!
  On level 20 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  On level 20 he found the Angelic Armor!
  On level 20 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
  He managed to clear the Mortuary from evil!
  On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He managed to clear the Lava Pits completely!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  He nuked level 24!
  He defeated the Mastermind and found the TRUE EVIL!
  Then finally in Hell itself, he killed the final EVIL.

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

 hits John Carmack. You are hit!
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : Iainuki (boosted) | floor | [ m ]ore
 Targeting canceled.
 You quickly reload the hyperblaster.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (mortally wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John
 Carmack.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : John Carmack (almost dead) | pool of blood | [ m ]ore
 The missile hits John Carmack. The missile hits John Carmack. The missile
 hits John Carmack. John Carmack dies. Congratulations! You defeated John
 Carmack! Press <Enter>...
 You feel relatively safe now.

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

 1157 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 1058 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 19 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 64 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 14 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 10 killed the bitch and survived.
 4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

Rather than chasing the badges with incredibly luck-based openings (which seems to be most of the Platinum/Diamond/Angelic ones), I've been trying to find ones that are easier to get started.  Destroyer Platinum seemed like a good bet, and it did indeed prove an interesting challenge.  Angel of Mass Carnage plays very differently compared to the standard game in ways that both help and hurt, though on the whole I think it's clearly beneficial once you learn the strategies.  I definitely got significantly better at it over the course of the challenge, and the amount of grinding Phobos Base Entry was an order of magnitude less compared to most of the other high badges.  I suspect having learned the damage avoidance strategies required here will make me a better player in general.

My standard Cat-Eye scout build was the obvious right choice here, since the best way to minimize damage is not to let anything shoot at you in the first place.  I completed one run before this one where I misremembered the amount of damage you could take and still get the Untouchable Badge, which is why this game didn't pick up Destroyer Silver and Gold too.  This run had very little good luck at all.  The only notable thing that went my way was finding a phase device before Phobos Anomaly that took me out of the ambush.  Hell's Armory had a useless schematic.  Envirosuit packs were very thin on the ground, so I had to save modpacks to make cerberus boots for the Lava Pits.  (The envirosuits in the inventory at my end came from the Lava Pits and the last level.)  I only saw three agility mods the whole game, so I had no tactical boots, just A-modded cerberus boots.  P-modding a hyperblaster in AoMC is a bad idea because of the knockback, I discovered.  The one mistake I really regret though was getting nervous on Babel because I almost had Gatekeeper Diamond too, if only I hadn't been a little greedy against the Cyberdemon.  Now I have try to do that again.

11
I spend most of my time playing DoomRL these days playing Phobos Base Entry over and over and over, and consequently I've developed a real hatred for it.  These complaints are specific to the high-difficulty version.

1. It's boring.  There are about four or five different layouts, so once you've learned them all, it's the same thing every time.

2. It's random.  There are some things you can do to mitigate the randomness, but there are huge factors that are outside your control that are massively swingy.  The big ones are the hit and damage rolls of the initial formers, the movements of the first two sergeants, and your damage rolls and whether the sergeants get a chance to use up their medkits.  This is worse for some challenges than others, Angel of Berserk is particularly bad.

3. It's important.  You can easily come out of Phobos Base Entry with 50% health and no medkits or 80% health and two medkits while making no serious mistakes either time.  More than half my games I just quit out of Phobos Base Entry because an initial roll went poorly, and I know the game isn't worth continuing.

I think the first problem is what makes this worse than other roguelikes with brutal early games, even though DoomRL's early game is the most brutal of any roguelike I've played.

12
Century Lounge / [U|Ao100|99%|YAVP] Centurial Platinum
« on: April 06, 2020, 17:41 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 24 Demon 2nd Lieutenant Scout,
 completed 100 levels of torture on level 100 of Hell.
 He survived 493203 turns and scored 2389449 points.
 He played for 4 days, 9 hours, 11 minutes and 8 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 4021 out of 4054 hellspawn. (99%)
 He was a real killing machine...
 He was an Angel of 100!

 He saved himself 9 times.

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

  Levels generated : 0
  Levels visited   : 0
  Levels completed : 0

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

  UAC Star (silver cluster)
  Experience Medal
  Centurial Bronze Badge
  Centurial Silver Badge
  Centurial Gold Badge
  Centurial Platinum Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  #===^==================================================}|==
  #===##====================================================|
  #===##===================================================}=
  #====================#=========#================}|======}|=
  #===##=##============##====================================
  #=0=##=##===##X===================}=#/#=####===#########/##
  #=========|=============================|==========/=======
  #======================================}===========#===}|==
  #========================#}========#0=========}====#=======
  ####+#+########}=========[}=}=================|====#=======
  #=======0=======}=========|========/===============#=======
  #====0=======##|===============/========################/=#
  #;=======##==##==========/================}================
  #========##======================================##===}==\=
  #=##=##=====#==================|========##==##===##=##=##==
  #=##=##=====#========================}#=##==##======##=##==
  #========================/=========/===============|=======
  #================================================^=}=======
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 70/70   Experience 844214/24
  ToHit Ranged +4  ToHit Melee +4  ToDmg Ranged +5  ToDmg Melee +5

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

  Class : Scout

    Ironman          (Level 2)
    Finesse          (Level 3)
    Hellrunner       (Level 3)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 5)
    Eagle Eye        (Level 2)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)
    Whizkid          (Level 2)
    Triggerhappy     (Level 2)
    Cateye           (Level 1)

  Int->Int->SoB->Fin->Iro->Fin->WK->WK->SoB->TH->MCe->Jug->SoB->SoB->SoB->HR->HR->DM->Fin->EE->HR->TH->EE->Iro->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   cerberus onyx armor [2] (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   minigun (1d7)x8 [200/200] (P1T2)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   cerberus acid-proof boots [0/0] (100%) (A)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   hyperblaster (2d4)x5 [40/40] (F1)

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

    [a] plasmatic combat shotgun (8d3) [5/5] (P1)
    [b] tactical rocket launcher (6d6) [5/5] (T1)
    [c] assault plasma rifle (2d6)x3 [40/40]
    [d] plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [73/88] (B3)
    [e] burst plasma rifle (1d10)x8 [80/80] (P1)
    [f] assault shotgun (9d3) [6/6] (P2T3)
    [g] super shotgun (10d4)x2 [2/2] (P2)
    [h] VBFG9000 (10d8) [95/195] (B1)
    [i] Jackhammer (8d3)x3 [9/9]
    [j] fireproof red armor [6/6] (100%) (P)
    [k] fire shield [4/4] (200%)
    [l] phaseshift armor [4/4] (100%) (AP)
    [m] Malek's Armor [3/3] (100%)
    [n] shotgun shell (x50)
    [o] shotgun shell (x32)
    [p] large med-pack
    [q] large med-pack
    [r] large med-pack
    [s] homing phase device
    [t] phaseshift boots [4/4] (100%) (A)
    [u] shell box (x100)
    [v] power battery (x120)

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

    Acid       - internal 0%    torso 70%   feet 100%
    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 70%   feet 100%
    Plasma     - internal 0%    torso 50%   feet 0%   

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

    246 former humans
    398 former sergeants
    548 former captains
    171 imps
    69 demons
    247 lost souls
    73 cacodemons
    142 hell knights
    528 barons of hell
    172 arachnotrons
    10 former commandos
    27 pain elementals
    234 revenants
    360 mancubi
    376 arch-viles
    64 nightmare imps
    74 nightmare cacodemons
    136 nightmare demons
    49 nightmare arachnotrons
    9 nightmare arch-viles
    4 elite former humans
    7 elite former sergeants
    4 elite former captains
    5 elite former commandos
    43 bruiser brothers
    11 shamblers
    2 lava elemental
    7 agony elementals
    5 Cyberdemons

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

  On level 12 he assembled a tactical shotgun!
  On level 12 he assembled a gatling gun!
  On level 12 he assembled a fireproof armor!
  On level 12 he assembled a plasmatic shrapnel!
  On level 21 he assembled a tactical boots!
  On level 21 he assembled a tactical rocket launcher!
  On level 21 he assembled a focused double shotgun!
  On level 25 he found the Jackhammer!
  On level 26, hell froze over!
  On level 28 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
  On level 29 he assembled a hyperblaster!
  On level 34 he found the Malek's Armor!
  On level 35 he assembled a burst cannon!
  On level 36 he ran for his life from lava!
  On level 38 he assembled a cerberus boots!
  Level 42 was a hard nut to crack!
  Level 45 blasted him with an unholy atmosphere!
  On level 47 he stumbled into a nightmare arachnotron cave!
  On level 50 he found the Anti-Freak Jackal!
  On level 55 he ran for his life from acid!
  On level 58 he assembled a cerberus armor!
  Level 60 was a hard nut to crack!
  Level 64 was a hard nut to crack!
  On level 65 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
  On level 66 he ran for his life from acid!
  On level 73 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
  On level 77 he found the Frag Shotgun!
  On level 78 he was walking in fire!
  On level 78 he found the Revenant's Launcher!
  On level 83 he assembled a VBFG9000!
  On level 89 he ran for his life from lava!
  On level 90, hell froze over!
  On level 95 he assembled a fire shield!
  Level 96 was a hard nut to crack!
  On level 98 he assembled a assault rifle!
  On level 100 he finally completed 100 levels of torture.

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

 Run - direction...
 Run - direction...
 Run - direction...
 Run - direction...
 There is a chaingun (1d6)x4 [40/40] lying here.
 It doesn't seem to move there.
 Run - direction...
 It doesn't seem to move there.
 There is a pistol (2d4) [0/6] lying here.
 There is shotgun shell (x13) lying here.
 There is shotgun shell (x13) lying here.
 There are stairs leading downward here.
 You did it! You completed 100 levels of DoomRL! You're the champion! Press
 <Enter>...

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

 1040 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 962 of those were killed.
 1 of those was killed by something unknown.
 9 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 56 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 12 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 10 killed the bitch and survived.
 2 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

LuckyDee on the quick questions thread suggested that Centurial Platinum ought to be a relatively reliable badge if I could confidently play Ultra Violent, and at this point I can, so I did.  I played my standard hybrid shotgun/rapid-fire build aiming for Cat-Eye.  As usual, I detoured to Intuition 2 (why wouldn't you since Cat-Eye takes Intuition 1) and Whizkid 2 (This is Ao100).  The early first level of Ironman was a misclick that delayed key things.  After that, I went for Juggler, which if you have Finesse and are running are a generalist build I've found to be very helpful (and it's Tormuse approved!).  Then, I maxed out SoB because it helped ammo efficiency (a big concern) and damage on both my rapid-fire weapons and my shotguns.  After that, I finally went for defense, first Hell Runner and Dodgemaster, then more offense with Finesse, Eagle Eye (I was using a hyperblaster and shotguns for offense for most of this, and even at max Cat-Eye range a hyperblaster hits at like 62%), and eventually Hell Runner, Trigger Happy, and Ironman.

Level 12 gave me four modpacks, enough to finish four key items, a tactical shotgun, fireproof red armor, gatling gun, and plasmatic shrapnel combat shotgun.  Even on Ultra Violent, corpse disposal is invaluable just to nerf arch-viles.  Because I wasn't going to have Reloader, the ability to reload quickly for disposal was important, so a combat shotgun it was.  I P-modded it and ended up using it a fair amount for combat anyways because plasma works better against enemies with armor or to destroy monsters' cover without destroying items.  I P-modded the fireproof red armor when I could.  It would serve me until I managed to P-mod the cerberus onyx armor: without the extra 2 protection, I needed the 6 protection on the fireproof red armor against sergeants and captains.  I P-modded all my primary weapons, like all my tactical shotgun, to save ammo.  I T-modded the gatling gun, which I had abundant ammo for, to save on P mods.

I tried to avoid carrying 10 mm down stairs, only keeping the gatling gun and, eventually, replacing it with the minigun in the mortem.  I used the 10 mm bullets to save on shells and cells.  On at least one occasion in the 20s, I actually ran out of everything but 10 mm ammo and was relying on the gatling gun.

I found a super shotgun on the same level as I finished the focused double shotgun, so I left the focused double shotgun behind.  The wiki's advice on the super shotgun vs. the focused double shotgun is slightly out of date (in 0.9.9.7 the focused double shotgun is not statistically superior to the super shotgun), the super shotgun's advantage is moddability and other assemblies.  I never found a nanopack to make a nanoshrapnel supershotgun, and I could have done other things with one, so in retrospect, I should have kept the focused double shotgun because I could use Juggler with it, as it's a situational weapon.

The Jackhammer on the other hand was a good find.  The wiki talks it down, but for a character with SoB and Trigger Happy, it solves a very important problem: coming down the stairs next to a pack of dangerous demons.  If there isn't a wall behind the enemies, the Jackhammer's extraordinary knockback will kick them so far back they won't see me any more.  If there is a wall, well, there isn't another weapon that can do this:

Code: [Select]
------------------------------ Past messages viewer -------------------- 100% --
   ^                                                                        ^   
 You enter Hell, level 83.                                                     
 You see a combat knife (2d5) [2n].                                             
 You open the door.                                                             
 Fire -- Choose target...                                                       
 You see : an arch-vile (unhurt) | floor | [m]ore                               
 Targeting canceled.                                                           
 Fire -- Choose target...                                                       
 You see : an arch-vile (unhurt) | floor | [m]ore                               
 The arch-vile dies.                                                           
 Fire -- Choose target...                                                       
 You see : pool of blood                                                       
 Targeting canceled.                                                           
 Fire -- Choose target...                                                       
 You see : pool of blood                                                       
 The arch-vile dies. The baron of hell dies. The baron of hell dies. The baron 
 of hell dies.                                                                 
 You reload the Jackhammer.                                                     

On an early cave, I saw the Trigun on another side of a lava river but I was sufficiently short of health that I didn't want to risk crossing to try to get it.  There were also some demons over there, which killed my 100% chances.  Of course, a couple of levels later, I ended up surrounded on three sides by arch-viles with barons of hell destroying my cover, so I had to homing phase device out.  The last level I had to leave for fear I'd die was the nightmare arachnotron cave on 47.  I started with an invulnerability globe and an energy shield, but I ended up on the downstairs with three nightmare arachnotrons next to me, with their melee attacks shredding the energy shield and no way to get to the cells the arachnotrons I'd killed had dropped.

I made a cerberus armor out of onyx armor because that's what I found first, though I later saw a gothic armor.  I don't know how much better the indestructibility is than the 50% resistance to melee/bullets/shrapnel, as that was a significant liability.  I found a phase shift armor fairly early, but I preferred to keep its movement bonus.  Later I found the boots to accompany it.  I also used Malek's a fair bit early but not at all later.  The firestorm modpack on the hyperblaster came reasonably early, before floor 40, and I thought making an extremely powerful weapon was the best use rather than an assembly.

Most of the junk you see in my inventory in the mortem was me cleaning up assemblies I hadn't made yet, finding ways to store more cells, or both.  If the onyx pack hadn't showed up on floor 90 or so, I would have put it on the phase shift armor but instead I just made the useless fire shield assembly to make sure it doesn't show up as schematics.

This was pleasantly more strategic than a normal game, but also really long.  The Cat-Eye build I ran with was quite strong but also required paying attention, if I ever do this again I'm going to have to figure out if I can make a character where I don't actually have to pay attention while I'm playing.

13
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 6 Demon 2nd Lieutenant Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 14142 turns and scored 112215 points.
 He played for 20 minutes and 27 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 144 out of 273 hellspawn. (52%)
 He was an Angel of Shotgunnery!
 He was also an Angel of Overconfidence!

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

  Levels generated : 4
  Levels visited   : 0
  Levels completed : 0

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

  UAC Star (bronze cluster)
  Shottyman Silver Badge
  Shottyman Gold Badge
  Shottyman Platinum Badge
  Shottyman Angelic Badge
  Daredevil Gold Badge

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

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

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

  Health 32/50   Experience 13002/6
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +0  ToDmg Ranged +3  ToDmg Melee +3

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

  Class : Scout

    Hellrunner       (Level 1)
    Son of a bitch   (Level 3)
    Intuition        (Level 2)

  SoB->SoB->SoB->Int->Int->HR->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nothing
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   assault shotgun (8d3) [5/6] (P1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   protective boots [2/2] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   nothing

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

    [a] shotgun shell (x50)
    [b] shotgun shell (x50)
    [c] shotgun shell (x5)
    [d] shotgun shell (x50)
    [e] power cell (x20)
    [f] large med-pack
    [g] phase device
    [h] phase device
    [i] phase device
    [j] power mod pack
    [k] steel boots [1/1] (100%)
    [l] protective boots [2/2] (100%)

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

    Acid       - internal 0%    torso 0%    feet 25% 

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

    1 former human
    23 former sergeants
    14 former captains
    4 imps
    7 demons
    61 lost souls
    3 cacodemons
    2 barons of hell
    3 arachnotrons
    2 former commandos
    6 pain elementals
    4 revenants
    3 mancubi
    2 arch-viles
    8 nightmare demons
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  On level 7 he stumbled into a nightmare demon cave!
  Then at last he found Dis!
  On level 8 he finally defeated the Mastermind.

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

 You see : out of vision
 You reload the assault shotgun.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : out of vision
 You reload the assault shotgun.
 Your assault shotgun is already loaded.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : out of vision
 You reload the assault shotgun.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : Iainuki (wounded) | floor | [ m ]ore
 Targeting canceled.
 Fire -- Choose target...
 You see : out of vision
 You hear the scream of a freed soul! Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
 Mastermind! Press <Enter>...

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

 957 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 881 of those were killed.
 1 of those was killed by something unknown.
 9 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 55 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 11 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 9 killed the bitch and survived.
 2 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

The run that I finally beat the Mastermind with was surprisingly ordinary.  The only standout features were a nightmare demon cavern on Hell 7 where I actually had to get about some kills to hit 50% (I ran to the stairs and shotgunned demons until I had two eating my face, and that was more than enough) and a midgame power mod on my assault shotgun (the best mod, IME, for ammo conservation and knockback).  I'd never gotten any armor this game (I don't know if there was armor generated on one of the levels I didn't fully explore).  I used the Tormuse method to corner-shoot the Mastermind, since I had zero chance of winning a fight when she could shoot back.

For comparison, I reached the Mastermind and died with three characters.  My first character I just didn't have enough ammunition to get the kill.  (I started taking more risks to go after sergeants and started avoiding ammo-intensive enemies more after that.)  The second character I should have gotten the kill.  I'd found a sniper mod pack and made my assault shotgun into a plasmatic shrapnel assembly, which made getting to the Mastermind a lot easier because I could gib corpses.   I did a lot of damage to the Mastermind with it, but the pillars in Dis aren't indestructible, and like an idiot I kept using it until there was only one square left, at which point the Mastermind could see and shoot me.  I had a combat shotgun that I'd kept for the express purpose in case that exact thing happened (I didn't know the pillars were destructible for sure before I tested it), that I could have switched while the pillar still had two squares left.  I also could have moved to the bottom pillar instead of the top.  I even had the Necroarmor, which gave me decent defense, unlike most of my characters.  Dying there was pure stupidity on my part.  The third character I had a plasma shotgun, but I was critically short of ammunition for it and my assault shotgun, there wasn't really anything I could have done to fix that issue AFAICT without probably dying in the process (there was a group of arachnotrons on Hell 6 I could have tried mugging for cells, but that would have been very dangerous, and Hell 7 was a nightmare demon cave with no ammunition available).  Those characters, and many other others, also found pain elemental caverns that let me rack up some kills (some I've seen have given me over 200 kills).


Getting this badge was an extremely frustrating experience.  While it doesn't require doing any of the really tedious things in Nightmare, it required an extraordinary amount of luck.  I killed hundreds of characters to get four to the Mastermind, and that doesn't even count the hundred or so more I quit on seeing the first level (Arachnotron caverns on Hell 1 weren't worth playing out, we all know how that would end).  That said, the amount of skill involved surprised me.  I was clearly getting better at playing this ridiculous challenge.  I finally got a character to the Mastermind yesterday, and today I managed to get three more.  That wasn't an accident.  The skill-to-luck factor still doesn't feel very favorable.

14
I know I'm not treading new ground here, I'm sure these observations have been made before, but I wanted to note that as a relatively new player of this game, I don't find Nightmare fun.

The primary challenge on Nightmare is the respawning monsters.  The only way to prevent respawning, without some late game weapons that take luck to obtain, is making sure monsters die on the right tile (another corpse, a door, or fluids).  This in turn means that actually shooting the monsters takes a back seat to manipulating their movement, which takes a fiddly combination of dancing around, positioning guess-work, dealing damage carefully calibrated not to kill something, gift-dropping, and waiting.  I'd guess the amount of time spent waiting (measured by in-game turns) by a typical good player on Nightmare is a majority or at least plurality of their game actions.  In real time, I've watched good players take 15 minutes on a single Nightmare level.

Meanwhile, the respawning also exacerbates some of the more frustrating aspects of the randomness of the game.  Knockback is not consistent because damage rolls aren't consistent, which cuts down on the number of circumstances where it's possible to reliably position monsters so they don't leave a corpse.  Some levels are much, much easier to prevent respawning on than others, and if you generate a level with lot of big rooms with awkwardly placed doors preventing repawning can verge on impossible.  If you end up in a situation where you have to kill something where it will respawn, it can stay dead long enough for you to clear the rest of the level or immediately resurrect the moment you kill it, which is particularly brutal when a high-HP enemy gets a full refill rather than dying.

Maybe there's a play style that mitigates these issues, but if it exists, I haven't found it.

15
Nightmare! / [N!|23%|YAVP] UAC Diamond
« on: March 19, 2020, 13:57 »
--------------------------------------------------------------
 DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
--------------------------------------------------------------

 Iainuki, level 8 Demon Sergeant Major Scout,
 defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
 He survived 12394 turns and scored 259075 points.
 He played for 15 minutes and 39 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 231 out of 991 hellspawn. (23%)
 Who gave him the ticket to Hell, anyway?

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

  Levels generated : 11
  Levels visited   : 5
  Levels completed : 0

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

  Major Icarus Cross
  Compet-n Gold Cross
  UAC Platinum Badge
  UAC Diamond Badge

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

  ###########################################################
  #>#####################................................####
  ######################...............####...............###
  #####################.......####.....####.....####.......##
  ####################........####.....####.....####........#
  ###################.........####.....####.....####.........
  ##################..........####..............####.........
  #################..........................................
  #################....####............................####..
  #################....####....%.......................####..
  #################....####....X.......................####&.
  #################....####............................####..
  #################..........................................
  ##################..........####..............####.........
  ###################.........####.....####.....####.........
  ####################........####.....####.....####........#
  #####################.......####.....####.....####.......##
  ######################...............####...............###
  #>#####################................................####
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 13/50   Experience 24628/8
  ToHit Ranged +0  ToHit Melee +6  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +9

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

  Class : Scout

    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Brute            (Level 3)
    Berserker        (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Blademaster      (Level 1)

  Bru->Bru->Ber->HR->HR->DM->Bru->MBm->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nanofiber red armor [2]
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   chainsaw (4d7) (P)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   steel boots [1/1] (80%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   shotgun (8d3) [0/1]

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

    [a] pistol (2d4) [4/6]
    [b] combat shotgun (7d3) [5/5]
    [c] green armor [1/1] (22%)
    [d] green armor [1/1] (83%)
    [e] green armor [1/1] (100%)
    [f] green armor [1/1] (1%)
    [g] blue armor [2/2] (81%)
    [h] 10mm ammo (x20)
    [i] shotgun shell (x2)
    [j] rocket (x10)
    [k] rocket (x5)
    [l] large med-pack
    [m] large med-pack
    [n] phase device
    [o] phase device
    [p] envirosuit pack
    [q] envirosuit pack
    [r] bulk mod pack

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

    Bullet     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Melee      - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Shrapnel   - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Acid       - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 
    Fire       - internal 60%   torso 73%   feet 60% 
    Plasma     - internal 60%   torso 60%   feet 60% 

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

    44 former humans
    25 former sergeants
    22 former captains
    50 imps
    7 demons
    46 lost souls
    1 cacodemon
    4 hell knights
    9 barons of hell
    3 former commandos
    3 pain elementals
    1 revenant
    7 mancubi
    7 arch-viles
    1 Cyberdemon
    1 Spider Mastermind

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 5 he stormed the Chained Court.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  On level 9 he entered Hell's Armory.
  He left the Armory without drawing too much attention.
  On level 11 he assembled a nanofiber armor!
  On level 11 he arrived at the Containment Area.
  Not knowing what to do, he left.
  He left level 15 as soon as possible.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  He left level 17 as soon as possible.
  He left level 18 as soon as possible.
  On level 20 he was foolish enough to enter the Mortuary!
  He managed to escape from the Mortuary!
  On level 22 he entered the Lava Pits.
  He decided it was too hot there.
  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 hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind flinched! You need to
 taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 You need to taste blood!
 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 dodge! You are hit! You dodge! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge! You
 need to taste blood!
 You hit the Spider Mastermind. The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations!
 You defeated the Spider Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
 Next! You're going berserk!

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

 409 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 384 of those were killed.
 And 15 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 10 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 8 killed the bitch and survived.
 2 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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

This took many more than 28 attempts, as you can see.  (Hundreds total, but probably less than a hundred after I came back to this challenge after winning my platinum badges.)  Not included in the statistics are the many many quits at Phobos Base when I took too much damage for it to be worth continuing.  A lot of these deaths felt outside my control.  Usually, the problem was wide open rooms I had to cross that were filled with more enemies than I could reasonably kill.  That said, I have definitely improved at the game since my last group of failed attempts at this badge because I was making it farther somewhat more consistently.  Most of my runs still died before Chained Court.

This run wasn't unusually lucky at the start, the only thing notable was a lost souls cave on Phobos 4 that gave me a breather right before Chained Court.  Chained Court yielded a bulk and power mod.  I power-modded the Phobos Anomaly Red Armor ASAP, and then when it dropped to half durability on Deimos 3 I made nanofibre armor out of it.  The stairs in Deimos weren't notably close but once I killed the Cyberdemon, in Hell I had a decent run of close stairs.  The down stairs on the level before the Mortuary were a long ways away so I risked the Mortuary, which turned out to be doable given that I was already berserk and had Hellrunner/Dodgemaster, though I had to chainsaw an archvile on the way.  I never saw a rocket launcher the whole game.

My strategy for the speedrun is a mix of stuff I learned from Tormuse's run (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRF0BhPlNFM) and frozenca's run (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNCYNHbSnlQ).  The early game is the shotgun until you get to Chained Court, though I've found it's useful to grab a combat knife since once you have Berserker it's easy to get into situations where the knife does more damage than the shotgun, particularly against single armored targets like barons of hell.  (That didn't happen this game.)  I have also learned that taking the early game more slowly is more successful, trying to go as fast as possible all the time leads to too many mid-game deaths.

Like Tormuse but unlike frozenca, I stopped to clear Chained Court to get the mods and the experience from the barons.  Both Tormuse and frozenca go straight for Blademaster, taking Hellrunner 2 into Brute 3.  To me, going for Dodgemaster first, Hellrunner 2, Dodgemaster, Brute 3, and then Blademaster has worked better.  My run is still slower than frozenca's though.  Tormuse fights in the Anomaly, but every time I've tried to fight the nightmare demons and cacodemons in the ambush I've died, so running seems to work better.  (In this run I ran out of berserk near the bruiser brothers so fighting them was out of the question.)  For mods, I use the first power mod on the red armor and hope to find a bulk mod to make nanofibre.  The time advantage of nanofibre is just enormous because I don't have to spend time thinking about my armor.  I make a piercing blade chainsaw when I get a chance.  (This game I never saw an agility mod.)  Finally, tech mods go to making grappling boots.  (This run I didn't see any at all.)  Like frozenca but unlike Tormuse, I skipped Unholy Cathedral.  It just doesn't feel worth the time cost, since for most of Hell my goal isn't to fight things anyways.

Since I now have a diamond badge, maybe it's time to hunt angelics?  Shotgunnery Angelic is apparently pretty luck-based even if it's the easiest, I'll have to give the angelics a closer look.

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