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46

Discussion / Re: Pain filled lessons from DoomRL, a newbie's survival guide.

« on: October 04, 2010, 15:41 »

Thanks Game Hunter, I wasn't even thinking when I mentioned the Jackal, I avoided spoilers simply as a courtesy, not that I have a problem crawling through the wiki, spoiling myself.  I've removed the direct reference to the jackal, and I've modified the document here and the .odt copy I have ... I can attach that to the post if people would like.  I'll also be adding to this as things occur to me.  It's fun learning little tricks and things that would help in situations that you could normally plow through on ITYTD.

As far as the hoarding bit, yeah, it's subjective ... I just know that I don't need all those extra stacks of plasma or pistol ammo when clearing out a level, and I can quickly run in, grab something, use it or run out without having to bother with dropping stuff to make room. 

47

Discussion / Pain filled lessons from DoomRL, a newbie's survival guide.

« on: October 04, 2010, 11:14 »

I'd figured I'd make my first post to the forums, I really appreciate Thomas's (un)Official Strategy guide, it has really helped getting me up to speed. I'd figured I'd write down a few things that were fresh in my mind, and I may be giving bad advice, so feel free to pick it apart.

Without further ado I give you:

Pain filled lessons from DoomRL, a newbie's survival guide.
by C4Cypher

I'm a newbie to roguelikes, but for some reason I can't stop playing DoomRL … I've cleared 'I'm Too Young To Die' several times, but when I begin to try 'Hey, Not Too Rough' I get my ass handed to me. The higher difficulties require a little more than the obvious tactics. I'm keeping a list of the painful lessons I've learned.

1. Hoard.  No matter how much inventory space you have, you will often have need of more at times. First thing you should do when entering a level is find a safe place to stash the stuff you don't immediately need. 'Safe place' is relative but should be enclosed by doors and far from things that cause splash damage. If you can't find such a place, hold on to your stuff until you do. The most preferable place for this stash is near the exit if you can find it early in your exploration. Once you clear out a level, take stock of your available inventory, stashes included, and determine what is best to carry forward with. (see below concerning ammunition, much less will go to waste this way) Keep in mind that former humans of all kinds, Hell Knights and Barons can pick up and use medkits, teleporters and armor that you leave lying around, so if you leave a stash somewhere, watch the doors near it to make sure something isn't going to stumble into it.

2. Avoid bad situations and look for a better tactical angle.  Never assume that you can luck out.  You can take on bad odds, but you need to do so carefully, cautiously, and always, ALWAYS have an exit plan, be it a homing teleport or a nearby door you can close.  If a problem looks ugly, you can almost always find an alternative route, or make one.  This makes the rocket launcher useful to carry almost always, just for destroying walls, even if you don't use it in combat.

3. Know what ammunition is common and at which points in the game.  I love pistol builds, even though they're not the simplest to play … the downside is that you generally end up hurting for pistol ammunition the deeper you go, as human captains become less common, and former humans almost non-existent.  There is one opportunity in the game to get something that helps carrying ammunition, it's incredibly dangerous, and difficult to survive, but prepare for it, be ready when you find the stairs for it, for this humble item is well worth the effort later down the road for precisely this reason.

4. Try to plan to keep one effective weapon that does decent/mild damage, good accuracy (and is not a shotgun) … you find the Unique weapon that would make your life so much easier, but it's surrounded by barrels, and a baron of hell is sitting on top of it, … crap.  Have something you can carefully peck away at something ugly with, without spraying the dangerous things around it. Those rare, incredibly valuable items can mean the difference.

5. Nothing is worth dying for. … you find the Unique weapon that would make your life so much easier, but it's surrounded by Mancubi and Arch-villes … yes, plural.  Shit … one step anywhere near that situation and it gets ugly … and it's hard to get a shot at the Arch-Villes without eating more rockets than a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.  That special thing is worth going for, but not worth giving up so many health packs and armor that you'd find surviving the subsequent levels impossible to survive, even with the nice gear.  Choose wisely as to the cost of pursuing something dangerous.

6. Know what is inside special levels before you blunder into them.  I'm not suggesting you spoil the levels if you don't want to, but do know that you'll find out the hard way which levels are impossible to overcome, much less survive unless you're a one-man army, or using a specific build, sometimes it's better to bypass the special opportunity, if you want to meet the big guy at the end.

7. If you see something that says 'handle with care' … don't go pushing any shiny red buttons, especially if it's blue, and might be confused for a teleport.

8. Don't waste mods, you may or may not be a whizkid, but plan your mods almost with the same level of care as you would your build. Your mods are part of your build even, and while you can't predict which mods you will get, know what mods you really need for your weapons. I avoid putting mods on armor, unless I've got spare armor to switch out. I prefer boots first for agility, … just have a good idea as to which mods give the most benefits for each weapon, which mods will be overshadowed by your traits, and which mods you NEED for your build to work better.  Oh, a bulk mod on a BFG is never a bad idea, trust me.

9. Mancubi are unpredictable … they can be very easy one moment, but can still kill you very quickly if you get yourself into a bad situation.  I loathe the things, and I die to them almost more than anything else (baron's even) … handle with care, even if you still can usually kill them before they get a shot off.

10. Kill Arch-Villes with great prejudice.  Nothing else should be higher on your target priority list, and unless a Unique or a really, really good Exotic is at stake, no collateral damage is too much until you've wiped this particular evil off the map.  Fighting an Arch-Ville only to find that Mancubi that you just killed resurrect right behind you (did I mention that I hate them) … is a a bad way to die.

11. Know when to stay away from barrels, when to stay away from walls, when to seek cover and when to simply ignore everything else and pump out as much lead as you possibly can.  Splash damage against a wall will quickly negate any advantages of an active defense … Reverant rockets don't really count when it comes to staying against the walls, because they auto target, can't be dodged, just kill them fast or find cover.   Stay the hell away from Mancubi and walls when dealing with Mancubi.  Walls are not your friends when Barons are about.

12. Move barrels to improve your situation.  You can move barrels … it's dangerous to do so when enemies are about … but it can be nice to re-arrange barrels in a room to make it suitable for a stash, that or moving them so that any fire through a door you're breaching won't ignite anything behind you.

13. The combat shotgun is versatile and useful.  Even if you find something better and you're not playing a shotgun build, keep a combat shotgun handy with one stack of shotgun ammo. It's incredibly handy for dealing with weaker enemies without wasting your precious primary ammunition.

14. Know your options when you pull the trigger and your weapon goes 'click'. It takes 0.8 seconds to swap to a prepared weapon (without Juggler), but it's a hell of a lot faster than reloading, pulling a weapon from your inventory takes one second (I think) which is usually faster than reloading (Reloader and Shottyman notwithstanding). Sometimes it's just better to run like hell and take the time to reload everything before you head back into combat.  The tab key is your friend in these situations. Oh, and don't alt-reload the combat shotgun, just don't, ever, you'll feel awfully stupid because you sat there, happily loading one shell after another while a Demon chewed on you.

I'm writing this for the person who doesn't know any better, much like myself ... at the same time, any input, or more lessons people have learned would be appreciated.