Chaosforge Forum

General => Off Topic => Topic started by: Supernaut on January 26, 2007, 16:48

Title: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 26, 2007, 16:48
I hope Kornel Won't kill me and ban me forever for writing this topic ;).

What do you think about the game? What's your favourite race/class? Any character dumps? Any wins ;> ?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on January 26, 2007, 16:51
Great game... Deep Elf Reaver or Deep Elf Stalker.

/me kills Supernaut.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 26, 2007, 16:58
Arrghhh why did you kill my hopes?

I think one of the best sides of Crawl is that the races/classes not only make HUGE difference and influences great gameplay, but also make a specific feeling / atmosphere.

One of the most interesting race in my opinion is Ghoul. You really FEEL like having to hunt for meat and flesh. But it is certainly a very hard race to play.

My favourites are Demonspawn Reaver (This one is tricky as hell) and Minotaur Chaos Warrior worshipping Xom (this one is nasty as well. One time he just said "It's time to have some fun" and send some demons against me on Dlvl3. They killed me in 3rd turn after they appeared Xd)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Styro on January 26, 2007, 18:33
Crawl is a great game!

My favorite combo is probably a Sludge Elf Stalker, but I have never won with one. I have only won with melee characters - A Hill Orc Fighter and a Dwarf Fighter (can't remember what kind of Dwarf it was).
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on January 26, 2007, 19:04
The one I like the most is the Troll Berserker: They have lots of health, lots of strength, quick regen, can eat anything that's not rotten/poisonous right from the start, are able to perform unarmed attacks that rival weapons in strength (and can even be used to dissect corpses without wielding a proper blade!) and start worshipping Trog (one of if not the easiest god to please: killing things while praying is all you really need to do [though I sacrifice poisonous corpses on occasion as well], and not casting magic from memory is all you need to *not* do [why in the world would you make a troll magician in the first place??]), whose very first ability granted is Berserk (so if you run into Sigmund you can actually stand a chance even at the start).  Only limitations are that they are naturally dumb (only really bad once you start running into int-draining monsters, since if your intelligence drops to 0 you forget how to breathe), get stat upgrades only every other level/3rd level and can't wear most armor in the game.

>_> However, my luck has so far ensured that the farthest I've gotten is... level 8 or so.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Valkeera on January 26, 2007, 19:09
I tried it, but somehow couldn't get any liking to it. I still prefer ADOM :-)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on January 27, 2007, 08:04
Funny - for some reason, I specifically *dislike* ADoM :)

Trog (one of if not the easiest god to please: killing things while praying is all you really need to do [though I sacrifice poisonous corpses on occasion as well], and not casting magic from memory is all you need to *not* do [why in the world would you make a troll magician in the first place??])

Makhleb and Vehumet are in every way easier - only forgetting them angers them, they're glad to accept the killing of demons and the undead in their names (while Trog doesn't care), and summoned allies please them when they kill, whether you're praying or not. Considering one grants you the divine power of demonic summoning and the other's a god of magic conjurations and summonings (so you'll be getting the books as gifts, sooner or later), there's a good chance that all you'll be doing is invoking/casting, and then sitting back to enjoy the show. You end up playing a horde's sole commander, rather than a lone warrior :)
Also, using the most powerful summoning spells and abilities in Pandemonium gives some really sweet effects ;)

As for Troll wizards, if you check the spoilers you'll see that they're better at Earth Magic than they are at most forms of armed combat (too bad they suck terribly at Spellcasting). They're also not too bad at Necromancy.
Now, here's something I've been considering: a Troll Warrior of Kikubaaqudgha.
By investing most ability gains in Intelligence, and by using a decent ring of Int or the like (cap/wizard's hat of int if you're lucky, randart if you're patient), you'll certainly have a score of at least 12, and pretty fast. That's more than usable, considering Trolls are good at not wearing armor or shields and at not wielding weapons, and Kikubaaqudgha grants protection from Necromancy miscasts at high enough piety so there's plenty of room for magic practice.
Kiku (it's gonna' smite me for that, isn't it? :P ) also gives Necromancy-path books, so it's only a matter of time before you have access to them, and therefore there's no question of luck.
MPs're a problem, as Trolls have very slow natural access to it, but since they're massively strong regardless of playing style, they'll have plenty of room for chunks for castings of Sublimation of Blood. Since they're great unarmed combatants, this will take less time than it would have otherwise.
They don't need to cast Regeneration at all, and Pain hardly has a side-effect on them.
Now, if natural regeneration's kept under the influence of Necromutation, then with some planning they'll hardly need to eat ever again, while gaining immunity to several nasty forms of damage and still recovering lightning-fast, as Trolls do. If it isn't kept, then meh, they'll regain HPs like everyone else :P What's certain is that this will counteract many of the hunger issues, including those resulting from being a low-int-wiz. That's likely to be very unbalanced, as hunger's the Troll's main weakness, once Dragon Armour's found/created :P
Reaper summoning, Death's Door protection, eslavement of the undead, recall and racial access to massive melee skills are all gravy. Hell, he'll even be able to cast Bone Spray (that was the name, right?) often, as he'll have the strength to carry skeletons around!

The only serious problem with this character is that AFAIK Kiku <<TFoN is struck by a bolt of draining>> doesn't accept demon kills in any way, making the most readily available type of monster during the late-game useless piety-wise. This also means Pandemonium's a dangerous place to go for fear of excomunication, as you'll unavoidably "forget" your god of death - and I just can't play a game where I can't storm Pandemonium :)
Another minor issue is that this plan is very much a vision, meaning that it's based on how the character will turn out after some very rigorous play. Most of the time, you'll have to deal with hunger while still practicing your magic skills, all while finding living victims frantically. Good thing you don't have the option to sacrifice corpses, as that would put you in danger of your [very hungry] self ;P
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on January 27, 2007, 08:48
I have tendency to play Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Makhleb - probably becaus when I first started playing Crawl i reading much Warhammer books. Apart from that I enjoy playing Draconian Conjurers or elven Fire/Air Elementalists. One note worthy thing I did was trying to play a "converted" Paladin (i.e converting to Makleb for awesome poewer... I used paladins becuase they start with long blades skill xP) - sadly this didn't go well as the "good palladin god" (whatever his name was) insisted on smiting me everytime I forgot to pray to Makhleb (or occasionally send out-of-depth angles)

BTW what versions of Crawl do you play? Beta 26? Stone Soup? "Online" Stone Soup?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on January 27, 2007, 09:05
I play the original, and since recently also offline Stone Soup - where it seems they've nerfed Makhleb (no more piety from pet kills), and now I've been forced into doing my own killing! BOO!

The paladin god's the Shining One, and if I've understood correctly, you can curb his wrath by "waiting" a few thousand turns between leaving him and going for Makhleb, as time is a method by which you gain piety with tSO, and therefore should work against his penance once you leave him.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 27, 2007, 12:07
I tried it, but somehow couldn't get any liking to it. I still prefer ADOM :-)
I like ADOM a LOT (damn, classes like a farmer or a blacksmith rule) , but the lack of normal shops and more villages and stuff is annoying me... it has many very nice elements and some very irritating drawbacks. Though it is pretty damn hard as well.

If only those classes were more playable and you could buy more stuff in different shops (sort of like in Angband, but i would like to see more villages) I'm sure i would stick to it for much longer time.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Getix on January 28, 2007, 05:07
Great game... Deep Elf Reaver or Deep Elf Stalker.

/me kills Supernaut.

My first win(*) was a Deep Elf Conjurer.. at the beginning, vulnerable like a Former Human Soldier and deadly as a Pea Shooter(cit.)...
In the end, more dangerous than a bunch of ArchViles :D ...


(*) .. and last.. :( .
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on January 28, 2007, 05:43
I usually play at akrasiac with some Mountain Dwarf Fighters, mainly because I am able to survive a bit longer with them :P

But I have also run the occasional Paladin or Chaos Knight. I also like Crusaders for some reason, even though I suck playing them :P
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 28, 2007, 08:20
No wonder. In crawl Fighter/Mage proffesions are 100% harder to play.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on January 30, 2007, 12:41
Here's a question - who here is aware of the multiple uses of the Horn of Geryon?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 30, 2007, 12:52
Ive never seen this item. :(
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on January 30, 2007, 14:53
Ditto - so far my best attempt at Crawl - stone Soup died on Character Level 6, or so xP
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on January 31, 2007, 03:57
Well, I won't spoil the surprise just yet ^^
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on January 31, 2007, 05:35
Bah... remember kiddies - if you ever get good item's it's only because RNG will kill you in the next couple of minutes (if only I'd remember that wand of paralysis):
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on January 31, 2007, 10:22
You were doing so well! Oo
If you were killed by a magic dart, then that potion of heal wounds would have more than saved you. And why weren't you wearing your ring of slaying?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on January 31, 2007, 12:49
Bah... remember kiddies - if you ever get good item's it's only because RNG will kill you in the next couple of minutes

Quoted for truth:P

The only randarts I've ever got with my characters (a ring and a dagger, I think) were just the prelude of my supreme destruction. The RNG is even eviler(sic) than Kornel. :P
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 31, 2007, 15:10
First of all what is RNG? Second, how do you get such a detailed char information after you die? I want to post every one i did  (i had like 200 chars ;> )

And BTW anyone else thinks that all that info C:SS displays sucks? I don't want to know the dice rolls for christ sake! Yes, it is more helpful, but it totally destroys pseudo realism in game :(. And did anyone manage to find a solution to that Crawl online problem?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on January 31, 2007, 15:39
RNG = Random Number Generator.  I know not the answers to the other questions.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on January 31, 2007, 18:10
I agree, RNG really is eVil!!! i would like to post my best char till now, i just played with him and got to 2nd elven halls! With 3 books, 6 wands, loads of potions and unfortunatly very few scrolls i got killed by a polymorphing Ice beast (it was an iron troll before, i guess it was some kind of elven character who polymorphed). Unfortunatly i was a high elven Ice Elementalist so fighting an ice beast really was more than hard. My best char at the time :)

One thing i need to ask, is there anyone who has tried Telnet crawl and it worked well for him? The game shows like letters and messages on the screen, and it mixes with background and game screen, and looks really messed up. Anyone tried it?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Anticheese on February 01, 2007, 02:16
I enjoy playing CRAWL from time to time, Currently I'm hooked on Morrowind but my current record is something like a level 16 Demonspawn heavily mutated Fighter turned Wizard.

P.S - Supernaut, is your name a reference?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 01, 2007, 05:34
Heresy!

/me impales BDR on a fort pike!

RNG= Random Number God. That should explain its free will.
Giving praise to RNG and accepting its wrath will lead to redemption! ;P


The ultra-detailed char information should appear in the mortem of a Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup offline player, which should be in the game's folder.

What die rolls? I don't recall seeing any.

DL PuTTy. When asked, your host is crawl.akrasiac.org.
The weird text should go away (though I've encountered it once while watching some dude play).

Ah, and there are monsters known as Shapeshifters. I can say no more ;)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on February 01, 2007, 07:44
/me joins the angry mob

Random Numer God is like Zeus for the Greek Pantheon, the God above the other Crawl gods :P

I do play by telnet sometimes, and the strange characters you mention only appear sometimes when it's "synchronizing" (at least for me). I use PuTTy for telnet and it works great. Be sure to drop by the irc at freenode (##crawl) sometimes, there are really helpful people there!

About the numbers of the dice, I have never seen them :-/

And at the official page (http://crawl.akrasiac.org) you have all your played statistics, including detailed mortems (search for it a bit on the link provided) :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Karry on February 01, 2007, 11:44
I tried it, but somehow couldn't get any liking to it. I still prefer ADOM :-)
I like ADOM a LOT (damn, classes like a farmer or a blacksmith rule) , but the lack of normal shops and more villages and stuff is annoying me... it has many very nice elements and some very irritating drawbacks. Though it is pretty damn hard as well.

If only those classes were more playable and you could buy more stuff in different shops (sort of like in Angband, but i would like to see more villages) I'm sure i would stick to it for much longer time.

In ADoM every class is playable, compared to...
And there are normal shops, compared to...

Anyway, CRAWL. It makes a fine coffee break game, but normal people will never get very far, that privilege is reserved for game maniacs, like those who beat DooMRL on UV.

Umm...anyway, CRAWL. A game where a chosen class means nothing. A game where map generation code is one of the worst there is, and creating the ugliest and the most senseless labyrinths you can see in a game. A game that tells you NOTHING ! You have to look everything up in spoilers, just to be able to understand the system. A game where its pretty much impossible to create a stealth-based char. And dont get me started on the subject of Sigmund and player's ghosts...
ADoM is an infinitely more refined and pleasureable game than this sorry attempt at hardcore.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 01, 2007, 14:15
ADoM every class is playable, compared to...
And there are normal shops, compared to...

Anyway, CRAWL. It makes a fine coffee break game, but normal people will never get very far, that privilege is reserved for game maniacs, like those who beat DooMRL on UV.

Umm...anyway, CRAWL. A game where a chosen class means nothing. A game where map generation code is one of the worst there is, and creating the ugliest and the most senseless labyrinths you can see in a game. A game that tells you NOTHING ! You have to look everything up in spoilers, just to be able to understand the system. A game where its pretty much impossible to create a stealth-based char. And dont get me started on the subject of Sigmund and player's ghosts...
ADoM is an infinitely more refined and pleasureable game than this sorry attempt at hardcore.
ADOM vs Crawl you say? Ok here are some points that i agree with. Take this, ADOM lovers!!!  >>>>http://www.tripalot.com/roguelike/review.htm#adom (http://www.tripalot.com/roguelike/review.htm#adom)<<<

Besides i tried many times playing Blacksmith class (because i like the idea) but i failed, because many of his useful abillities can be used only with specific items which you probably don't get until dungeon 3rd or so. A class with a strong pet is somehow crippled. It doesn't get any experience for the pet's kills (pet gets all), so it advances muuuch slower. I tried playing as hunter specified class, going wild in wilderness, but somehow experienced werejackals started to be a problem, and finally my doom. I tried playing a stealth specified class, but well... i died. The game is huge, but it always seem to me...not finished. 2 villages? A shop with food rations only and a black market? And where am i supposed to sell items?

In Crawl chosen class means nothing? Maybe race too? There's no difference in an assasin and a stalker? No difference in playing style? No difference between playing an Ice Elementalist and a Wizard, or a Warper? No difference between a kobold assasin and a mummy necromancer? O'realy?

Besides i have to say that although the game is hard to play and to beat, after many many tries you get really better at it, so that you really see your mistakes (if you ever thought that you dont make mistakes, and you always die because of unfair dungeons, come on, dont be ridiculous). Learning curve is high, so is difficulty. But unlike Adom every game is different, maybe because of no quests or something else... beside the replayability is Soooo damn high, so that even the difficulty don't mean a thing...
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on February 01, 2007, 14:41
I agree with Supernaut, maybe a class doesn't mean "anything" (it does mean, in the early game, and some classes are MUCH easier than others, also keep in mind that your stats depend on your class, so it's important for the late game too), but race does mean, and a lot at that. And playing two different characters is really different. And actually I think it's a much better game to play without spoilers than Adom, or Nethack, for instance. The problem with Crawl are the early levels, although this is being corrected step by step by their development team with Stone Soup variant. It's much easier to survive (for me, at least) in SS than in "normal" Crawl.

But I like Adom too, a lot. I like the interaction, the game world, the "story", etc. They are different games and have different strengths. Also, not every game is for everyone, but just try to respect other people's opinions ;).
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 01, 2007, 18:07
The problem with Crawl are the early levels, although this is being corrected step by step by their development team with Stone Soup variant. It's much easier to survive (for me, at least) in SS than in "normal" Crawl.


Hey, when i started SS i have chosen a ghoul fighter and the first things i noticed were :
1. All the dice rolls, to hit, and damage were shown, which greatly destroyed the whole pseudo realism in game
2. I played with some "Wizard mode" on but i cant configure it. When i "die" the game asks me "Do you want to die" or something like that...and man it is really annoying.

Anyone encountered those "problems"?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Karry on February 02, 2007, 01:56
Quote
because many of his useful abillities can be used only with specific items which you probably don't get until dungeon 3rd or so.
You dont make any sense. Dungeons are not numbered, so whats stopping you ?

Quote
2 villages? A shop with food rations only and a black market? And where am i supposed to sell items?
Okay, so you dont want to sell items to black market. CRAWL : no villages ? nowhere to sell items ? most items are useless ? even ring of invisibility is absolutely damn useless ?

Quote
There's no difference in an assasin and a stalker?
Nope.

Quote
No difference in playing style?
Not really, no. The only difference in playing style is between "Fighter group" and "Mage group".

Quote
No difference between playing an Ice Elementalist and a Wizard, or a Warper?
None that would actually matter.

Quote
No difference between a kobold assasin and a mummy necromancer?
Not really. The only difference is that one starts with a spellbook. Thats all.

Quote
O'realy?
Yeah, realy.

Quote
after many many tries you get really better at it, so that you really see your mistakes (if you ever thought that you dont make mistakes, and you always die because of unfair dungeons, come on, dont be ridiculous).
Hmm, okay, i wasnt ridiculous in the first place, but whatever. The difference from ADoM is - there is always a way out in there. You get warned when you venture into some really dangerous places, there are usually some ways of fooling monsters, or means of escape, or something. In CRAWL - okay, you go around the corner on level 1 and meet face to face with an Ogre. Thats it. There is nothing you can do to it, and 99% of time you cant escape it. You're dead. Or you get killed with a dagger of electrocution on the same level 1. Still fair ? Or you find a jackal pack on the same level 1.

Quote
But unlike Adom every game is different, maybe because of no quests or something else... beside the replayability is Soooo damn high, so that even the difficulty don't mean a thing...
Uh, whats so different about it ? Every game is the same. You go around killing things, there is nothing else, nothing to do, nothing to see, its just mindnumbingly plain and boring...

Quote
I agree with Supernaut, maybe a class doesn't mean "anything" (it does mean, in the early game, and some classes are MUCH easier than others, also keep in mind that your stats depend on your class, so it's important for the late game too), but race does mean, and a lot at that.
Compare with ADoM, where race matters, and a class also matters. The choices you make at the start actually mean something.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: dpeg on February 02, 2007, 07:38
The problem with Crawl are the early levels, although this is being corrected step by step by their development team with Stone Soup variant. It's much easier to survive (for me, at least) in SS than in "normal" Crawl.

This process will be continued a bit, but note that survivability is rather high now... The OOD monsters are not a bug.

Hey, when i started SS i have chosen a ghoul fighter and the first things i noticed were :
1. All the dice rolls, to hit, and damage were shown, which greatly destroyed the whole pseudo realism in game
2. I played with some "Wizard mode" on but i cant configure it. When i "die" the game asks me "Do you want to die" or something like that...and man it is really annoying.

Anyone encountered those "problems"?

You have probably downloaded the debug version. Choose the ordinary one. (debug is not playable without brainrots :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 02, 2007, 12:36
Quote
because many of his useful abillities can be used only with specific items which you probably don't get until dungeon 3rd or so.
You dont make any sense. Dungeons are not numbered, so whats stopping you ?.
Hmmm but you come into dungeons in some order, dont you? For example first to carpenters dungeon, then to a dark hole, or whatever. This way you can surely number dungeons. And i didnt get any ignots in the 2 dungeons i was with my blacksmith, which was kinda...annoying.
Quote
2 villages? A shop with food rations only and a black market? And where am i supposed to sell items?
Okay, so you dont want to sell items to black market. CRAWL : no villages ? nowhere to sell items ? most items are useless ? even ring of invisibility is absolutely damn useless ? .
  No need for villages in a game that is so fast paced as Crawl. The shop system is much like in Nethack, except that you cant sell anything (which eliminates the problem of cleaning out a dungeon from items and then selling them). Besides you dont have any shops in DoomRl but noone whines about it ;). And this works well in a fast paced roguelike with only 1 dungeon and shops without restock. Black market in AdoM gives you no gold for useful items, so there is no point in selling them. And besides Adom has some villages. It could as well have more than 2, if it has those quests, it would as well have more villages, more quests, more anything. Right now it is a weird mix of RPG and Roguelike game. I love some ideas that AdoM has implemented, but still i find it annoying in the long run, that the world isnt bigger than this.  Many items in crawl are useless, or useless for your profession. But dont try to tell me that wands, and most rings or amulets are useless. It is just not true.

Quote
There's no difference in an assasin and a stalker?
Nope.

Quote
No difference in playing style?
Not really, no. The only difference in playing style is between "Fighter group" and "Mage group".

Quote
No difference between playing an Ice Elementalist and a Wizard, or a Warper?
None that would actually matter.

Quote
No difference between a kobold assasin and a mummy necromancer?
Not really. The only difference is that one starts with a spellbook. Thats all.

I can say nothing but that you didn t play the game enough :)
Quote
after many many tries you get really better at it, so that you really see your mistakes (if you ever thought that you dont make mistakes, and you always die because of unfair dungeons, come on, dont be ridiculous).
Hmm, okay, i wasnt ridiculous in the first place, but whatever. The difference from ADoM is - there is always a way out in there..
I couldnt find one when i got swarmed by so called experienced jackals in the wilderness with a beastfighter (or what it is called)

 
You get warned when you venture into some really dangerous places
  Well, this is really helpful rofl.

 
there are usually some ways of fooling monsters, or means of escape, or something. In CRAWL - okay, you go around the corner on level 1 and meet face to face with an Ogre. Thats it. There is nothing you can do to it, and 99% of time you cant escape it. You're dead. Or you get killed with a dagger of electrocution on the same level 1. Still fair ? Or you find a jackal pack on the same level 1. .
First of all  75% of the time you didnt notice a potion, a scroll of teleportation, a wand or whatever else could help you. Thats normal, as there are shitloads of items in CRAWL . Jackal packs are a bad example cause they arent that hard to kill unless you are a weak or multi class (and that is again where class makes a huge difference) , and i have never met an ogre on level 1 (although it is possible) and i have played much over 200 games. I found a monster with a dagger of electrocution 2 times. Did you never went through level 1 ?
An example how you can survive even in a hardest situation : Lvl 10 HE Ice Elementalist came to a hive with many many killerbees, and some other nasty monsters. Probably if i stayed there and tried to fight i would die very fast, as there were like 20 high level monsters around me. Fortunatly i had some scrolls of teleportation with me which i used and then defeated the monsters which flied on the whole level, searching for me. If i used that scroll  1 turn later i would be dead by now. And thats how, many of character die. Sometimes you just dont notice something that can help you.

Quote
But unlike Adom every game is different, maybe because of no quests or something else... beside the replayability is Soooo damn high, so that even the difficulty don't mean a thing...
Uh, whats so different about it ? Every game is the same. You go around killing things, there is nothing else, nothing to do, nothing to see, its just mindnumbingly plain and boring... .
If that would be truth there would be no winners. And probably people would use only one, the most suitable class -- race combination. But, because they like variety, they choose different combinations.

Quote
I agree with Supernaut, maybe a class doesn't mean "anything" (it does mean, in the early game, and some classes are MUCH easier than others, also keep in mind that your stats depend on your class, so it's important for the late game too), but race does mean, and a lot at that.
Compare with ADoM, where race matters, and a class also matters. The choices you make at the start actually mean something.
Actually, you said the same thing that Adral says.  You probably didnt notice the brackets () ;)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Styro on February 02, 2007, 14:42
It is funny how people can have such different opinions about games. For me, I really liked ADoM for a while, but then felt like it got too boring and repetitive. Primarily that is because the beginning game was pretty much the same each time I played. I stopped playing when the change got introduced that made creatures stronger that you kill a lot. When I had a really strong character killed by a bunch of Super Jackals On Steroids it was annoying to me.

And the reasons Karry gives for disliking Crawl are the very things that I like about it. I like the fact that choosing a starting class does not tie you in to a specific play style. If I want to play a Troll Fighter but then change my mind and turn it into a Troll Mage I can. I also like the fact that I gain experience in the things I use. I always thought it was strange in other games that I could kill tons of monsters with my sword and then when I gain a level, pick to cast spells or heal better. In Crawl, if you use a sword you get better with a sword.

I do miss the monster memory system that ADoM has. I think that it is great and would like to have that added to all roguelikes. I also really like the inventory system that Thomas Biskup uses.

In any case, to each his or her own. Everone likes different things and looks for different things when they play games. That is why having such a large variety of games available is a great thing.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 02, 2007, 15:26
It is funny how people can have such different opinions about games. For me, I really liked ADoM for a while, but then felt like it got too boring and repetitive. Primarily that is because the beginning game was pretty much the same each time I played. I stopped playing when the change got introduced that made creatures stronger that you kill a lot. When I had a really strong character killed by a bunch of Super Jackals On Steroids it was annoying to me. 
Yeah well... i always hated it.

And the reasons Karry gives for disliking Crawl are the very things that I like about it. I like the fact that choosing a starting class does not tie you in to a specific play style. If I want to play a Troll Fighter but then change my mind and turn it into a Troll Mage I can. I also like the fact that I gain experience in the things I use. I always thought it was strange in other games that I could kill tons of monsters with my sword and then when I gain a level, pick to cast spells or heal better. In Crawl, if you use a sword you get better with a sword.
That's actually not correct. Your troll will be a crap of a mage even if he manages to get that spellcasting point, he won;t be intelligent enough to learn the first spell (unless you put all ur stats into intelligence), and even if he does, he won't be good enough to cast it efficient (Which doesn't give you much, as at that point you really need the strongest means possible to kill creatures, and lvl 1 spell wont do much good).  And that's again, how the class affects you.
 
I do miss the monster memory system that ADoM has. I think that it is great and would like to have that added to all roguelikes. I also really like the inventory system that Thomas Biskup uses.
I actually miss the great monster DESCRIPTIONS!!!! That Adom has.

What i would really like to see is skills like those of a blacksmith or farmer (very unique indeed), but tweaked in a way so that they could be usable (or at least easier to use). The idea of a rpg/roguelike game would be much better with more villages, and more shops and stuff.

Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on February 03, 2007, 02:12
I actually miss the great monster DESCRIPTIONS!!!! That Adom has.

What i would really like to see is skills like those of a blacksmith or farmer (very unique indeed), but tweaked in a way so that they could be usable (or at least easier to use). The idea of a rpg/roguelike game would be much better with more villages, and more shops and stuff.


You might want to take a look at Incursion (http://www.incursion-roguelike.net/) to see what's coming up in the roguelike world. Take a peek at the manual and "White paper" to see what it's striving to accomplish.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Karry on February 03, 2007, 06:11
Quote
Hmmm but you come into dungeons in some order, dont you? For example first to carpenters dungeon, then to a dark hole, or whatever. This way you can surely number dungeons.
For what ? Nobody is forcing me to do things in any certain order.

Quote
And i didnt get any ignots in the 2 dungeons i was with my blacksmith, which was kinda...annoying.
This phrase only shows you dont really get the process of smithing in the first place. It is perfectly possible to find lots, and lots of ore right in the beginning, in certain places.

Quote
Besides you dont have any shops in DoomRl but noone whines about it ;).
Thats because DooMRL is not an rpg, but an action game, therefore your point is moot.

Quote
Black market in AdoM gives you no gold for useful items
Are we playing different games ? It gives you gold right off the bat, even more gold if you enter Thieves guild, and even more gold if you are the head of the Thieves guild.

Quote
If that would be truth there would be no winners.
Well, what can i say, people are weird like that, they like boring games. Its like how usians have this love for Nascar, or hunting games. Stupid, but they are selling like gold.

Quote
First of all  75% of the time you didnt notice a potion, a scroll of teleportation, a wand or whatever else could help you. Thats normal, as there are shitloads of items in CRAWL . Jackal packs are a bad example cause they arent that hard to kill unless you are a weak or multi class (and that is again where class makes a huge difference) , and i have never met an ogre on level 1 (although it is possible) and i have played much over 200 games. I found a monster with a dagger of electrocution 2 times. Did you never went through level 1 ?
Uh-huh. Except it almost never works out. Potions turn out to be potions of degeneration or poison, scrolls of teleportation work with a huge delay and move you, like, 3-4 squares from where you were before, and wands heal your enemies. Jackal packs are a perfect example, because unless you are a troll or something, you cant kill 4-5 jackals one after another on level 1, and they are much faster than you are, so no escape either.
My record was level 19 or 20, its way too hard for anyone after that. How do you call it, when you take a stairs down with a full health and die immediately on arrival, without a single chance to do anything at all ? Incredibly dumb, i say.

Quote
In Crawl, if you use a sword you get better with a sword.
Well, at least they done ONE thing right.

Quote
In any case, to each his or her own. Everone likes different things and looks for different things when they play games. That is why having such a large variety of games available is a great thing.
Sure. Except why dont all CRAWL fanatics pack up and get the hell out to their own newsgroup, instead of occupying the r.g.r.misc one. Like there is nothing in the world but CRAWL...

Quote
What i would really like to see is skills like those of a blacksmith or farmer (very unique indeed), but tweaked in a way so that they could be usable (or at least easier to use).
They are perfectly usable as is. I personally have won the game twice with a farmer.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on February 03, 2007, 06:31
Well Karry, you are forgetting a point - if you don't like the game, you can just get along not playing it. I think the only thing people need is respect for their opinions. Coming to a thread where people are discussing how they like a certain game to flame the game to ashes just because you don't like it seems a bit pointless and rude. For instance, Valkeera already stated she does not like the game, but did so in a more kind manner, without stirring up a lot of off-topic posts, and without questioning another people's tastes.

Also, I don't see the problem with r.g.r.misc, because I think it's open to other RLs as well. I've seen POWDER posts and DoomRL posts there, and nobody deletes posts from other games - it's just that a lot of people like Crawl. If you want to see more posts from other games, you can go and post about other games as well. Perhaps more people will follow your example thereafter :).
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 03, 2007, 13:47
Karry, you should really play the game, or at least read some spoilers, before you make such nonsensical comments on it.

Going directly to what you answered to, a kobold and mummy or in mostly *no way* the same. At the very least, a mummy can't quaff potions and doesn't require food, while a kobold is a hardcore carnivore, which, BTW, differentiates it from the vast majority of races, which are omnivorous.
Indeed, choosing between an assassin or a necromancer has little effect on gameplay, but playing an atheistic Mummy Assassin or a Demonspawn Gladiator of Xom, those are two games with almost nothing to compare. The first game is one of utmost patience, where you can spend thousands of turns in a corridor, waiting for monsters to slowly come to you, insted of alerting their many friends, and the second game is one of immediate action and constant paranoia, where almost anything could happen, at any time - you could gain horns, go berserk and be sent to the Abyss in a matter of single turns.
Of course, the number of game types between the two is vast.
Paths of magic or melee, you say? Playing an unarmed, unarmored Sludge Elf Transmuter's practically neither, nor is playing a Spriggan of Nemelex Xobeh, unless you insist upon counting evocations as magic.

Yeah, there's an issue with low dlvl/high monster lvl spawns. But that's rare, for the most part, and becomes mostly trivial if you give up on going head-on with every monster you meet, or taking the one class that you just can't play at your skill level. This game teaches you to run away when the risks are high. The problem's also balanced by often spawning great wands very early, which then work as a limited number of "problem solvers".
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 03, 2007, 14:16
Quote
Hmmm but you come into dungeons in some order, dont you? For example first to carpenters dungeon, then to a dark hole, or whatever. This way you can surely number dungeon
s.
For what ? Nobody is forcing me to do things in any certain order.  Still you do them in ur own order,  you choose , what you do next, and that is exactly what i meant.
Quote
And i didnt get any ignots in the 2 dungeons i was with my blacksmith, which was kinda...annoying.
This phrase only shows you dont really get the process of smithing in the first place. It is perfectly possible to find lots, and lots of ore right in the beginning, in certain places.
  Very nice, but I dont like reading spoilers.
Quote
Besides you dont have any shops in DoomRl but noone whines about it ;).
Thats because DooMRL is not an rpg, but an action game, therefore your point is moot.
DoomRl is a roguelike game, and not much of an action game. It doesnt have any features of an action game, unless you count being fast paced as being an action game. Damn, most roguelikes arent RPG games,as they dont have the plot which is important to RPG game, and normal RPG doesnt involve random dungeons, items and monsters.(´the one thing they have from RPG games is character development system. But thats the only one.).  Only AdoM has actually a plot that evolves ( a little).

Quote
If that would be truth there would be no winners.
Well, what can i say, people are weird like that, they like boring games. Its like how usians have this love for Nascar, or hunting games. Stupid, but they are selling like gold.
Counter Strike is selling a lot and people play it, and most people agree that its a great game, still im sure there are some weirdos that mean that Counter Strike sucks because it is too hard, and that it is very boring, so lets play chess.
Quote
First of all  75% of the time you didnt notice a potion, a scroll of teleportation, a wand or whatever else could help you. Thats normal, as there are shitloads of items in CRAWL . Jackal packs are a bad example cause they arent that hard to kill unless you are a weak or multi class (and that is again where class makes a huge difference) , and i have never met an ogre on level 1 (although it is possible) and i have played much over 200 games. I found a monster with a dagger of electrocution 2 times. Did you never went through level 1 ?
Uh-huh. Except it almost never works out. Potions turn out to be potions of degeneration or poison, scrolls of teleportation work with a huge delay and move you, like, 3-4 squares from where you were before, and wands heal your enemies. Jackal packs are a perfect example, because unless you are a troll or something, you cant kill 4-5 jackals one after another on level 1, and they are much faster than you are, so no escape either.
My record was level 19 or 20, its way too hard for anyone after that. How do you call it, when you take a stairs down with a full health and die immediately on arrival, without a single chance to do anything at all ? Incredibly dumb, i say.
I try all the new scrolls and potions on lvl 1 and 2 so i dont have such problems. Again, it shows that you didnt  play the game enough. Wands can be easily tried out BEFORE you find the OOD monster. One jackal "pack" at lvl 1 usually counts 3 jackals, which arent that hard even for a mage. And once again, like TfoN said, in CRAWL you dont fight monsters that you are sure to lose to. Besides the great system in crawl is that you have plenty of stairs both up and down a dungeon. So if you happen to come down and be surrounded by 20 Ogres go up and come in with another entrance´. And this is only 1 way of escaping. I encountered a situation, when i teleport only 4 tiles away only 2 times. And its not hard to use them even with delay...


Quote
In any case, to each his or her own. Everone likes different things and looks for different things when they play games. That is why having such a large variety of games available is a great thing.
Sure. Except why dont all CRAWL fanatics pack up and get the hell out to their own newsgroup, instead of occupying the r.g.r.misc one. Like there is nothing in the world but CRAWL...
This is very pathetic. I thought it was  newsgr. about roguelikes.
Quote
What i would really like to see is skills like those of a blacksmith or farmer (very unique indeed), but tweaked in a way so that they could be usable (or at least easier to use).
They are perfectly usable as is. I personally have won the game twice with a farmer.
Very nice. Because you think so doesnt mean you are right.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 03, 2007, 14:22


Yeah, there's an issue with low dlvl/high monster lvl spawns. But that's rare, for the most part, and becomes mostly trivial if you give up on going head-on with every monster you meet, or taking the one class that you just can't play at your skill level. This game teaches you to run away when the risks are high. The problem's also balanced by often spawning great wands very early, which then work as a limited number of "problem solvers".
After playing for some time you are almost sure which monsters you can beat with your class/race and which not, that becomes more intuitive :). You kinda get to know which monsters you can defeat with everything you have with ya.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 04, 2007, 13:00
Potion, scroll and wand identification - adding to what Supernaut wrote. For the convenience of new players interested in exploring on their own, I'm putting it in spoiler tags.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)


Supernaught, you quoted Styro on the matter of trollish mages - I worte, either here or on the "what would you like roguelikefied" thread, on that matter exactly. There are ways to make effective (and highly unique, compared with other class-race blends) troll mages, but it's tricky.


And adding to Supernaut's last post, the Tomb, the Slime Pits and the 3 underworlds are all dungeon branches that are nearly impossible for some characters, while being only challenging for others. I've personally never been able to really play the tomb, but raid Pandemonium almost every game. My recent games have been Mummies, however, so this should change. You really get to appreciate not having to eat after all those spell casting, god invoking DSs and all those berserking Trolls!
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on February 05, 2007, 10:29
Responding after 4 day absence
You were doing so well! Oo
If you were killed by a magic dart, then that potion of heal wounds would have more than saved you. And why weren't you wearing your ring of slaying?
Same reason for both - the weren't identified so i didn't knew what I had :(
Second, how do you get such a detailed char information after you die? I want to post every one i did  (i had like 200 chars ;> )
From the mortem.txt that is generated after every death - just remember that it gets overwritten after next death (note that this is the cease if you play offline - for online mortems folow Adral's instructions)

And as for Adom vs Crawl debate (wchih I didn't have patience to read fully) - IMO Crawl is better when you just want to "take a break" and simply play for a while, but Adom is better when you want to "feel the world"
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 05, 2007, 12:16
Same reason for both - the weren't identified so i didn't knew what I had :(
Ah, sucks!
IMO you should've tried drinking it anyway once at low health, but for all I know you drank a different one and were paralysed for it :P

One of my recent games was ended by an orc priest, which I could have easily killed with my wand of draining, if I hadn't forgotten about it!
And my great-going lvl 14 mummy necromancer was killed by sticky flames, which I could've managed by hiding behind my abominations instead of being hit by more (ahhh, ego... :) ), and by keeping a second ring of resist fire around (which I could've, as one was found a short time earlier). Alot of this had to do with getting so used to being able to heal with potions, I hadn't considered how much life is lost in the process.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on February 06, 2007, 08:07
Damn bone levels... and I finally got to the Temple... just to get killed by my former, "seriously-out-of-depth" self (http://www.zdechlak.w.activ.pl/images/smilies/damn.gif)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 06, 2007, 08:39
I suggest deleting bones files for a while, if they're what's keeping you back.

I see there're stairs going up nearby. Why weren't you going for those?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on February 06, 2007, 08:58
Because the ghost would follow me upstairs anyway - same speed ^^"
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Adral on February 06, 2007, 09:00
Hint:
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 07, 2007, 08:09
Just lost another mummy necromancer, this time at clvl13, to a greater naga. Avoidable. Bah!
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on February 08, 2007, 13:07
I managed to get a game that lasted longer than 2 and a half hours.. so far this is my best game yet!  I know, compared to some I might suck, but the cool part is I think I'm actually getting better!  As long as I can manage to not forget to heal/run away when I meet something bigger and badder than me/avoid combat while messed up by illnesses/etc....
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Supernaut on February 10, 2007, 16:43
I managed to get a game that lasted longer than 2 and a half hours.. so far this is my best game yet!  I know, compared to some I might suck, but the cool part is I think I'm actually getting better! 
  This is really a great thing about CRAWL. You really improve with time!
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on February 13, 2007, 01:02
Sigmund + wand of draining = :(

I guess I could have skipped on to the next dungeon level, but I like clearing levels before moving on (and there's no telling whether I'd have found myself in a worse spot on the next level anyway...), so I let him kill me the second/third time he showed up.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on February 13, 2007, 09:47
Since Sigmuns is typically out-of-depth, you can count on going deeper for saving your life. Of course that's not 100%, but almost so. Your game had a very good chance of going on much longer - plus you knew the location of at least one wand of draining.

And I suggest letting go of the "must clear level" attitude all together - it can really work badly against you :)
Unlike with DoomRL, you can always come back later and finish the job (well, with 2 exceptions, but those should come later).
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on February 13, 2007, 16:57
The options file is much easier to edit now... so far, though, I've run into a snag.  I'm not sure how to get the game to recognize the difference between cursed and uncursed items.  I've tried 'red:cursed\' and that didn't change the color of an item when I used a scroll of curse weapon (unintentionally, of course); I haven't seen whether it works on things that were spawned cursed or not.  Right now I've got 'red:cursed\|curse\'.. and if that's the reason then I'd like to know how I can make both scrolls of curse foo and cursed weapons appear red, because I like my menus to appear pretty and for things I don't really want to hang on to to be easy to see and thus dispose of when necessary.  I did have another issue that I was going to discuss (a weapon that stayed green even when not equipped) but then I realized my error was in leaving 'hand' in unmodified... can I simply put 't hand' in as a replacement?

EDIT: :sigh: Well, I managed to get both of these problems resolved ('a cursed', 'curse ', and 't hand' as I thought respectively seem to have done the trick); however I've got another: I'm trying to get blink, teleport and fear scrolls to appear as light yellow, and I've tried quite a few options but nothing seems to work yet.  This does not bode well as I think I may have similar issues with my potion colors.. and I haven't begun quaffing them yet.  I'll keep working at it though.. maybe I'll figure something out for these too. >_>  And what the heck does the \ do anyway?  It didn't seem to work properly when I tried using it...

EDITx2: Argh!  It seems that if a color isn't supported the game defaults to white (make that grey >_>), so it looks like it isn't working. :(  Guess I'll have to come up with a different idea....

EDITx3: ...Someone stop me, I'm getting more into editing the options than I am the actual game!

Seriously, though.. I have a question.  I want to make it so that if I see more than one monster, I stop, but if there's only one, then only bother to stop running around and grabbing things if it's a major threat or gets too close.  The latter two are noted in the help file, but the first isn't listed... is there a way to do this?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Elethiomel on March 18, 2007, 20:57
I used to play ADoM a whole lot. I liked it, but I am a notorious scummer (no, not save scummer). If I can add slightly to my character's power in a safe but repetitive way and entirely within the rules of the game? I will. ADoM is absolutely rife with opportunities like this. Herb scumming, ant scumming, gremlin scumming, and lots of less extreme methods. So I used to do that a lot. Then my character would become insanely powerful and I'd die to overconfidence. My best ADoM character ever was a level 43 High Elven Archer who walked through a "threat room" of Titans in an open cave while Berserk. He'd walked past them countless of times (they were on a travel route somewhere) without taking more than 10-20 damage altogether, but this time I forgot to switch away from Berserk. So he was dead. And I thought back on all the hours I'd been herb-scumming, the elaborate set-up to pick-pocket PoGAs off of dying gremlins, and I realised something profound.

I had hated every minute of it. Every single mind-numbing risk-less power-increasing minute I had been bored out of my skull but going through with it anyway because I wanted to have the best possible character. I looked upon the prospect of doing all that again and playing less overconfidently, and I just shook my head. I quit playing ADoM right there. Because I know myself well enough that I know beyond a doubt that if I have the opportunity to risk-freely increase the power of a semi-successful character? I will do so.

But a few weeks afterward I hungered for a roguelike again. I played around with Nethack, but found it too inexplicable and silly. I toyed around with Angband, but the non-persistent levels and lack of a serious food clock made me think that the ADoM scumming I had engaged in was only the very small tip of a very large iceberg I would get to explore if I stayed with Angband.

Then I played Crawl. What's this? I'm actually having food problems. I'm forced to dive deeper. There's no selling to shop so there's no mind-numbing treks through the dungeons hauling items of questionable value around. There aren't any infinitely-spawning creatures that you can get drops off of.

And most importantly, I never grow overconfident. No matter how high my character's AC is, or how many HP they have, in the worst case scenario death is one single mistake away. What's better, it has this neat patch that makes going from place to place in the dungeon a snap. And now it can track stashes, so I can search for an item I know I've seen while in-game, and go directly to it via the travel function.

And you can't scum in it. Well, you can, but all scumming choices are no-nonsense, strategic, long-term, early choices. When you start a character that is a Mummy the second time, you know beyond a doubt what you're going in for. If you start worshipping Nemelex the second time, you know what you're going in for. You learn Alter Self while being a Sif Munite, you know exactly what you're doing. You're doing this to scum, and only for that. But outside of these limited (and none of them are really risk free, save the Mummy ToD HoG ET situation, but that already requires a start-of-game choice that "I'm going to scum this game") situations, it's not a scummable game. The beauty of this is that people like me, who can't help themselves from scumming, can make large-scale strategic choices that disable them from the scumming path without feeling that they are, right then, gimping their character.

And it's fun. It's heaps of fun when you manage to pull off an escape from a seemingly impossible situation. When you meet an UH on DL5 and you get that first UH-heralding message, you stop up. The game makes you think. Teleports take time to kick in, so if you want to teleport you must decide so now. Blinking is fast but a limited resource. Controlled blinking even more so. ToD is a high-level escape spell that won't get you out of melee. All these are actual choices, instead of what you have in many other roguelikes, where whenever you are in a dangerous situation you just go "ah, I have 1-round fail-free teleport with precise control. I can get out of this, no prob. Only a mistype can kill me now."

Okay, yes, Crawl has some arbitrary deaths. However, most of them come within DL 1-3. Ghosts don't
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
, so you learn from that. And other DL1-3 kills are easily recoverable through starting a new character - Crawl is so fast-paced that early game deaths are more like speed bumps than setbacks.

Then you have your arbitrary later-game deaths. Yellow wasps. Swamp Confusion. Elf Annihilators. But whatever one of these you encounter, you can learn one simple lesson from it: If you see a monster with a new letter or an old letter with a new colour, run the hell away. Come back at full HP, full MP and with all your diverse protective items with you. Bring extra scrolls of blinking. And learn what it can do as safely as possible.

In fact, if Craw teaches one critical roguelike skill, it is: Run the hell away.


On a completely unrelated note:
You might want to take a look at Incursion (http://www.incursion-roguelike.net/) to see what's coming up in the roguelike world. Take a peek at the manual and "White paper" to see what it's striving to accomplish.
;)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on March 19, 2007, 11:57
ZOMG!
Srsly.
This game is fun.

My first game I played through just as it suggested. Mountain Dwarf, fighter, axes. Got killed on Dlvl 3. Came back for round two with a Demigod. Got killed on Dlvl 3- by the ghost of my dead Dwarf. Just about died laughing.

Now I'm experimenting with demonspawn berserkers. Head-butting with horns for the win!

I'd love to see some of these new roguelikes (DiabloRl, DoomRl, AliensRl, CastleVaniaRl, etc...) become as good as this one. They've got the potential, I think. :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on March 20, 2007, 07:50
DoomRL, and the new AliensRL, have loads of potential, by my book. They're nothing like DC, but diversity's a great thing to have :)

Demonspawn Berserkers are luck-based to a serious degree, and don't take advantage of a DS's very high invocation potential. I recommend either a Troll Berserker or a Demonspawn Chaos Knight instead.


ToD HoG ET - translation, please? :)

Swamp confusion is nearly entirely avoidable through poison protection (exceptions mostly being unique spellcasters), so I wouldn't count that as an arbitrary death, at all.
Elf Annihilators are so rare and location-specific, I wouldn't count those in, either. If you're going down the Elven Halls, you're either new to it, or well prepared.
Wasps can certainly fit in, but not during the late-game. Wands can easily make short work of them.
Unseen Horrors, however, I would count in the list, together with the damnable orange crystals, or whatever the acursed things are called. I lost a good Troll Berserker to one in two~ turns and, of course, couldn't escape.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Elethiomel on March 20, 2007, 08:55
ToD HoG ET - translation, please? :)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Swamp confusion is nearly entirely avoidable through poison protection (exceptions mostly being unique spellcasters), so I wouldn't count that as an arbitrary death, at all.
Unless it's the first time you enter the Swamp.
Elf Annihilators are so rare and location-specific, I wouldn't count those in, either. If you're going down the Elven Halls, you're either new to it, or well prepared.
Exactly, unless you're new.
Wasps can certainly fit in, but not during the late-game. Wands can easily make short work of them.
Unless you don't know how dangerous they are.
Unseen Horrors, however, I would count in the list, together with the damnable orange crystals, or whatever the acursed things are called. I lost a good Troll Berserker to one in two~ turns and, of course, couldn't escape.
Well, the next time you play a low-INT character, you will put a higher priority on Clarity or Sustain Abilities.

See a common theme in the above? All the creatures I mentioned as "arbitrary deaths" are arbitrary for unspoiled, first-time encounters. Most other (not within the first 3-5 character/dungeon levels) deaths in Crawl are avoidable with careful play and careful use of resources. The things I mentioned - and Orange Crystal Statues - are exceptions.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on March 20, 2007, 14:25
ToD HoG ET - translation, please? :)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thanks.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah, I understood "arbitrary deaths" as deaths which are arbitrary *on a regular basis*. The way you describe them now, I mostly agree with you.

I had encountered that Statue before I had even found Clarity or Sustain Ability. It was, admittedly, the first time I saw the thing, but I wasn't given a way to deal with it, regardless.
Unseen Horrors, which are much more common, can kill you off quite easily on dlvl7-10, if you're a non-fighter who hasn't found See Invisible yet. Especially when they spawn on a cave-like, corridorless level. Fighters are only different in that they can take a few solid blows while waiting for teleportation to kick in.

EDIT: quote correction.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Elethiomel on March 20, 2007, 16:40
ToD HoG ET - translation, please? :)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Thanks.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ah, I understood "arbitrary deaths" as deaths which are arbitrary *on a regular basis*. The way you describe them now, I mostly agree with you.

I had encountered that Statue before I had even found Clarity or Sustain Ability. It was, admittedly, the first time I saw the thing, but I wasn't given a way to deal with it, regardless.
Unseen Horrors, which are much more common, can kill you off quite easily on dlvl7-10, if you're a non-fighter who hasn't found See Invisible yet. Especially when they spawn on a cave-like, corridorless level. Fighters are only different in that they can take a few solid blows while waiting for teleportation to kick in.

Yes, the OCS can be death to someone with low INT who doesn't have access to clarity, sustain abilities, or potions of restore abilities, even if they've met them before. So they can be arbitrary even to the spoiled, prepared player. But I believe such cases to be rare in Crawl.

When it comes to Unseen Horrors, on the other hand, I somewhat disagree. Sure they can be a very large PITA, but if you're willing to blow a few potions of Heal Wounds, or even plain Healing, that can make a spellcaster hold out until the Teleport kicks in. If you are unfortunate enough that the teleport lands you within visual range of the UH again, though, you're SOL.

When I play casters on cave-levels, I tend to hug the walls. If I get an "It hits you!", I immediately reach for my closest source of digging and dig a tunnel into the wall so I have a corridor I can kill it in. Tactics from there on depends on what perishables I have access to and how many HP and how good defense I have.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on March 21, 2007, 12:14
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote
When it comes to Unseen Horrors, on the other hand, I somewhat disagree. Sure they can be a very large PITA, but if you're willing to blow a few potions of Heal Wounds, or even plain Healing, that can make a spellcaster hold out until the Teleport kicks in. If you are unfortunate enough that the teleport lands you within visual range of the UH again, though, you're SOL.

When I play casters on cave-levels, I tend to hug the walls. If I get an "It hits you!", I immediately reach for my closest source of digging and dig a tunnel into the wall so I have a corridor I can kill it in. Tactics from there on depends on what perishables I have access to and how many HP and how good defense I have.
Although teleportation and healing are obviously useful, these tend to fail me on too regular a basis (mostly by spawning badly). Obviously not always, as UH's aren't usually the end of my games, but they've made short work of many good chars of mine, and as I was later considering what I had done wrong, often no alternative path seems nearly airtight.
The cave-dig system I hadn't considered much, however. Possibly because I can usually fend off an UH by the time I can dig, but either way, I'll be sticking to this one. Tnx.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Elethiomel on March 21, 2007, 15:34
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote
When it comes to Unseen Horrors, on the other hand, I somewhat disagree. Sure they can be a very large PITA, but if you're willing to blow a few potions of Heal Wounds, or even plain Healing, that can make a spellcaster hold out until the Teleport kicks in. If you are unfortunate enough that the teleport lands you within visual range of the UH again, though, you're SOL.

When I play casters on cave-levels, I tend to hug the walls. If I get an "It hits you!", I immediately reach for my closest source of digging and dig a tunnel into the wall so I have a corridor I can kill it in. Tactics from there on depends on what perishables I have access to and how many HP and how good defense I have.
Although teleportation and healing are obviously useful, these tend to fail me on too regular a basis (mostly by spawning badly). Obviously not always, as UH's aren't usually the end of my games, but they've made short work of many good chars of mine, and as I was later considering what I had done wrong, often no alternative path seems nearly airtight.

Yeah, UHs are tricky with the escape from them being "airtight". There's the old standby of having poison resistance (well, or not. It works without also, but is more risky) and firing Poison Cloud or Evaporate at yourself so that the UH *has* to advance through it and thus becoming confused for long enough for the teleport to kick in. If your teleport puts you close to the UH, you should now know which direction it comes from and lay down more confuzzling clouds.

The cave-dig system I hadn't considered much, however. Possibly because I can usually fend off an UH by the time I can dig, but either way, I'll be sticking to this one. Tnx.

Yeah, well... a Wand of Digging is gold. Finding one early makes many things easier, not only UHs, but I seldom learn the Dig spell except for the Hive (dig around the lake instead of flying over it) and Hellrunning (Magic Map, Dig, go down the stairs, repeat), and I skip it for those areas if I don't have Selective Amnesia - it is too slot-intensive for anywhere I don't have a particular and specific use for it. Wands are usually enough.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on March 22, 2007, 04:31
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Quote
Yeah, UHs are tricky with the escape from them being "airtight". There's the old standby of having poison resistance (well, or not. It works without also, but is more risky) and firing Poison Cloud or Evaporate at yourself so that the UH *has* to advance through it and thus becoming confused for long enough for the teleport to kick in. If your teleport puts you close to the UH, you should now know which direction it comes from and lay down more confuzzling clouds.
Poison Cloud's another one where I'm likely to be able to deal with UHs easily by the time I have it, assuming I'm even practicing poison magic. Evaporate's a much easier spell, but it's also rather rare. Otherwise, I agree, and it's probably worth the risk even without poison protection.

Quote
Yeah, well... a Wand of Digging is gold. Finding one early makes many things easier, not only UHs, but I seldom learn the Dig spell except for the Hive (dig around the lake instead of flying over it) and Hellrunning (Magic Map, Dig, go down the stairs, repeat), and I skip it for those areas if I don't have Selective Amnesia - it is too slot-intensive for anywhere I don't have a particular and specific use for it. Wands are usually enough.
I try to always learn Dig, as I tend to also keep pets, and I hate having them stuck behind a corner. Walking them out carefully costs valuable food. Vaporising walls makes that much less frequent an issue. There's also Recall, but it isn't as utilitary, and doesn't help me if I'm trying to make room for my pets in the midst of battle (or in preparation). Free digging's also great for Pandemonium, where some vaults require Dig to get through, and where there's a very good chance of being cornered by hordes of demons. Facing them one at a time's a life saver, mostly if a 5's blocking an Executioner.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on March 26, 2007, 11:41
Well, I've been trying to play with multiple characters. DemiGod/DemonSpawn Reavers seem to be playable, but because I suck I don't get very far. Ditto with Draconians of any class. I managed to get a Troll Berserker to CharLvl 9, DungeonLvl 9, but that's the farthest I've gotten before or since. (It's also my over 4,000 pt game. The only game so far in which I've broken 1,000 pts, mostly because I got a +11,+12 Longsword from Trog. (Might've been randart, I don't remember.) That I didn't end up using, because I was going with unarmed attacks. Doh!!)

Kobolds seem like an interesting race to play as, but I typically get pwned by others of my kind. (They often wield elven/dwarven/orcish short swords. Bastards.) I wonder if there is a baby down there my Kobold could eat...

On a similar topic, I found a slice of pizza on lvl 1 of the dungeon. Swear to Trog.

I love this game.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on March 31, 2007, 09:09
Ah, and which kind of pizza was it? :)

I terribly dislike Reavers. They mean splitting your starting skills too many ways, and for what? Class has no real long-term effect, if you don't want it to have. By playing a more focused class you can almost always better survive the first few dlvls. After that, your starting class hardly matters anyway.

Have you played a Demonspawn Chaos Knight of Makhleb yet?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on March 31, 2007, 09:46
Quote
Have you played a Demonspawn Chaos Knight of Makhleb yet?
Khe he he, classic - most of my characters when I first started playing ToME were Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Makhleb :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Kornel Kisielewicz on March 31, 2007, 10:23
Heh that's funny, I play reavers most of the time, and I value their survivalability :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on March 31, 2007, 13:06
Yes, I have tried Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Mahkleb.
I just never seem to get very far with them. I think it's a combination of "W00T, I AM TEH DEMON!!!" retardation mixed up with never running away, and never being hungry when there's a corpse readily available. (And good luck finding one when I am... grr.)
Any way, I'll just have to keep on keeping on.

And I think the pizza was pepparoni. :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: maso on March 31, 2007, 17:42
Dont know if it has been mentioned in this thread you can play at crawl.akrasiac.org online and watch others struggle to beat the game. Also you can nose at other peoples mortems etc. What I like about this game that every character has good chance of winning with enough due care and attention after the early game lottery.
edit:oops use the search
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on April 13, 2007, 12:32
Heh that's funny, I play reavers most of the time, and I value their survivalability :)
Then please do explain them to me! :)

Quote
Have you played a Demonspawn Chaos Knight of Makhleb yet?
Khe he he, classic - most of my characters when I first started playing ToME were Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Makhleb :)
Don't you mean Crawl?
In that case, same here :) My first (and currently only) win is one.

I just never seem to get very far with them. I think it's a combination of "W00T, I AM TEH DEMON!!!" retardation mixed up with never running away, and never being hungry when there's a corpse readily available. (And good luck finding one when I am... grr.)
Heheheh... Yeah, that's something to get through :P
Consider you start up mostly human, or even less. Your demon-blood only comes into play later, and only after a few such "evilutions" it's time to start feeling uber :D


Thanks, and yes, akrasiac has been discussed. Problem is that (at least for me) it lags too much to be worth my while. I've tried PuTTy, and although that cleared up the page draw issue, it still lags like hell. I've also proposed a system to reduce lag (I'll find the page later...). Any other ideas for me?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Zephyre Syx on April 17, 2007, 17:18
My telnet display is completely screwed up.  I love to watch, but not if it's all choppy'n shi... er,...y'all have that problem or it's just me?
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Malek Deneith on April 19, 2007, 10:32
Quote
Quote from: Malek on March 31, 2007, 17:46:07
Quote
Have you played a Demonspawn Chaos Knight of Makhleb yet?
Khe he he, classic - most of my characters when I first started playing ToME were Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Makhleb :)
Don't you mean Crawl?
In that case, same here :) My first (and currently only) win is one.
Yeah, Crawl... been playing too much ToME when I posted that and got it mixed up.

As for crawl.akrasiac.org I'd play but default Win XP telnet client is screwy, and the only semi-normal other client that I found freezez for some reson after some time. (Dunno why, it just stops refershing or smth.)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on April 19, 2007, 11:08
Before you write off crawl.akrasic.org, you really ought to try it with PuTTY (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/) first.  That solved my problems with the standard telnet utility, though lag probably depends on your connection.

If you like the result, be sure to set it up in the options so that the keyboard controls are NetHack style (at least, you should if you'd rather use the numpad for movement instead of the vi-keys [yuihklnm,]).

EDIT: A special place has appeared. (http://chaosforge.org/crawl/index.php?title=CrawlWiki)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on April 23, 2007, 12:24
Still trying to get anywhere with my Demonspawn Chaos Knights of Maklehb.

Quick question about the Demon mutations. Are they completely random as to when and what you get? I once got two horn mutations at level 2, and on another ocassion an eyesight at level 4, with nothing before that. I've even gotten to level 6 with no mutations! :X
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on April 23, 2007, 22:56
There are certain mutations (which are supposedly worth their weight in gold) that you can only get after level 10, and some that you only receive before level 10.  Specifics can be found within the links on the akrasiac website.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on April 26, 2007, 09:32
The mutations information I wrote here's hardly spiloy, but just in case you don't want to see it, it's in tags.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This one's much more spoily.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on April 26, 2007, 16:18
Good to know. Thanks. :)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Pigmonkey on April 29, 2007, 18:35
Hi folks, I have a question on Draconians.  When do Draconians transform into their stronger form?  I'm assuming its sometime past level 5, because mine usually get killed before that point :(
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: BDR on April 30, 2007, 00:23
I believe it's level 10 when draconians get their color.  In case you're wondering, there's no way to influence which one you get.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on April 30, 2007, 04:09
It's at clvl 7.
And if you turn grey, you don't have a breath weapon but you have a more powerful tail and gain more natural armor, compared with other draconians, as you level up. Otherwise, this one seems rather inferior to the rest.

EDIT: Red, white and black draconains also gain a resistance at clvl18 (fire, cold and electricity, respectively). Green draconians gain poison resistance at clvl7.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Pigmonkey on April 30, 2007, 08:58
Thanks for your help everyone, what do you think the preferred class build for Draconians is?  I mainly play fighter characters...
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on May 01, 2007, 09:50
I like Draconian Gladiators, with their enhanced unarmed skill putting that tail to better use, but Draconian Fighters, Monks and Chaos Knights of Makhleb are all good choices. I prefer avoiding picking spell schools until after I know what color I am. With a melee class you also get to use your breath weapon as a ranged finishing kill against runaways. Oh, and pray for a Gold Draconian 8)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: RickVoid on May 01, 2007, 12:47
What's the deal with DemiGods? Are they and DemonSpawn basically both sides of they same coin, or are they really different? I know that DG's start of with no deity, and I have never seen one mutate (IE: Your divine ancestry asserts itself. You grow angelic wings.).

In fact, they really seem to be an inferior race. No god to give you powers, no access to classes that give you a god, no benefits that I've seen. :(
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: TFoN on May 01, 2007, 13:41
Slightly spoily. For the most part, nothing you can't discover with a little in-game experimentation, but there are some slight exceptions which I really don't feel like putting in a seperate, tagged paragraph.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Invain on May 02, 2007, 09:50
I really like the idea of a divine counterpart for demonspawn - similiar in terms of game mechanics, but with a completely different RP feeling... could be nice :)

I recently got back to Crawl after a long break, still a newb with much to learn. Currently experimenting with Minotaur CKnights of Xom - works better than I've expected, they are fairly powerful and very fun to play.
Title: Re: Crawl
Post by: Yuusha on May 20, 2007, 09:24
Crawl is probally my favorite rl, mainly because of all the different races and classes.