Chaosforge Forum
DoomRL => Post Mortem => Topic started by: 2birds1stone on October 13, 2016, 03:17
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Whenever I go into a challenge run like Angel of Purity, I immediately ask myself "what is the strongest build I can possibly play under these restrictions?". For Angel of Masochism, I said "well I'll just heal with Vampyre then"; for Angel of Light Travel, I said "gottagofaster". Angel of Purity resists this approach to a some extent, in that the thing it takes away can't just be compensated for with a build, and it doesn't give you any advantages to play into -- so I instead asked "okay, what's the strongest DoomRL build?". Melee builds were out because not having access to Berserk packs makes them near-unplayable, which in my opinion left either Ammochain Marine or Gunrunner Scout -- Orandulum told me to consider Cateye Scout, but I don't think it compares to the other two, it guzzles ammo like no tomorrow (unlike Ammochain) for a less tangible and versatile DPS increase than Gunrunner. Sharpshooter Technician is really strong too, but it gimps your early game in a way that neither Ammochain nor Gunrunner do (and in fact, the reason I consider Gunrunner to be better than Ammochain is that Gunrunner's early game is almost good enough on its own -- it's really not that far off what I'd be buying for Masterless Scout).
I know a lot of people on the forum (including players better than me) think Gunrunner is bad, I think y'all insane. This game (as I currently understand it -- and admittedly my Nightmare! failings suggest I misunderstand the game to some extent) is all about finding a safe route to either the exit or a defensible camping point, and Gunrunner is both the best escape tool in the game and the best [short-term] DPS increase in the game.
I had a somewhat touch-and-go but mostly uneventful Phobos, spent a lot of time on around 12% health but managed to heal most of that when a level kindly spawned double vaults for me. Missed 100% kills thanks to an early acid river fucking up my kill rate (and EXP gain) by locking me out of ~70% of the level, but I probably wouldn't've got 100% anyway -- ammo's a pain for shotgun runs (which is definitely one big strength Ammochain has over every other non-melee build in the game).
Had Tactical Boots (I still stand by these being totally broken) by Deimos 1 but found myself hovering at ~20% health again -- but no biggie with 4ish large medpacks. Found Phaseshift one Deimos 2, fuck yeah -- I attribute much of my success to these items.
Seemingly twenty (honestly not sure how many, maybe five or eight?) HKs/Barons were way too close to my Deimos 7 spawn, which seemed total bullshit, but thanks to Phaseshift and Dodgemaster (and a timely switch to Blue Armor when I got a little cornered) I managed to survive it. I've always been a strong believer that "vanilla" (non-Angel) DoomRL never deals you unwinnable levels providing you build well and don't overshoot for acheivements when RNG's against you, and while I do *not* believe the same to be true of Angel of Purity, I do think a lot of players (especially newer players) try to YOLO bad spawns when escape routes exist. I also try to be a bit optimistic about bad spawns -- it makes me feel good to remember that every monster that spawns on you is a monster you don't need to kill later in the level.
This mortem seems to have become "2birds soapboxes his DoomRL opinions despite not actually being particularly good at the game and not really being active on the forum", so while I'm being a self-important wanker, I figured I'd talk about the Elephant Gun. I know a few guys here think it's a bad/mediocre weapon, and while I mostly agree, I think it completely breaks Gunrunner Scout. The most common complaint seems to be the reload speed, but if you always step-reload it, that's completely irrelevant. The drop-off is worse than Tactical/Assault/etc., but that's never seemed particularly relevant to me given that most corner shooting is often done at the 2--3 square range. It is worse for radar shooting, but it's still perfectly adequate for the task. Conversely, I'm not 100% sold on the Elephant Gun for Army of the Dead -- MAD does nothing to mitigate the 2 second reload speed, and Marine doesn't have Scout's movespeed; "always step-reload" is still a little on the slow side when you're camping a corner.
Using the rocket launcher, I managed to kill Cybie in a single Gunrun, switching to Elephant Gun for the last bit of the damage to conserve rocket ammo. Took U/C as early exit because of Acid/Lava rivers -- I could've kited Angel of Death, but I *really* didn't feel like it.
Stairdived the rest of the way down, partly because of ammo concerns, but mostly because I'd already missed 100% kills and felt pretty bored of the run at this point (this is why I will likely never finish Angel of 100). Gunrunner is insane for stair-diving, for obvious reasons -- You literally just blast your way to the exit, and the knockback on the Elephant Gun is often enough to keep enemies out of LOS. Spider Mastermind wasn't even a fight, I had four large medpacks and Blue Armor, I wasn't even trying to take cover against her.
Who knows, maybe I'll actually get a non-LT/MC/OC Nightmare! win at some point. I'd like to actually get good (lol, "good", you guys have set way too high a standard that I'll likely never reach) at this game before retiring forever, and I'd definitely like to do that before Jupiter Hell gets released. I think I made a mistake in playing so much Ultra-Violence, I think I acclimatised to the difficulty and picked up some bad habits that aren't serving me so well in Nightmare!, though I couldn't identify what those habits are.
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DoomRL (0.9.9.7) roguelike post-mortem character dump
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AAA, level 9 Hell Baron Colonel Scout,
defeated the Mastermind at the City of Dis.
He survived 1325826 turns and scored 158248 points.
He played for 2 hours, 25 minutes and 36 seconds.
He was a man of Ultra-Violence!
He killed 522 out of 709 hellspawn. (73%)
He was an Angel of Purity!
-- Special levels --------------------------------------------
Levels generated : 11
Levels visited : 2
Levels completed : 1
-- Awards ----------------------------------------------------
Cyberdemon's Head
UAC Star (gold cluster)
Untouchable Badge
Hell Champion Medal
Inquisitor Gold Badge
Inquisitor Platinum Badge
-- Graveyard -------------------------------------------------
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-- Statistics ------------------------------------------------
Health 33/50 Experience 35980/9
ToHit Ranged +0 ToHit Melee +0 ToDmg Ranged +0 ToDmg Melee +0
-- Traits ----------------------------------------------------
Class : Scout
Finesse (Level 1)
Hellrunner (Level 2)
Reloader (Level 2)
Juggler (Level 1)
Dodgemaster (Level 1)
Shottyman (Level 1)
Gunrunner (Level 1)
Rel->Rel->SM->HR->HR->DM->Fin->Jug->MGr->
-- Equipment -------------------------------------------------
[a] [ Armor ] blue armor [1/2] (40%)
[b] [ Weapon ] elephant gun (12d3) [0/1]
[c] [ Boots ] tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
[d] [ Prepared ] rocket launcher (6d6) [0/1]
-- Inventory -------------------------------------------------
[a] red armor [4/4] (85%)
[b] phaseshift armor [1/2] (14%) (A)
[c] shotgun shell (x50)
[d] shotgun shell (x50)
[e] shotgun shell (x50)
[f] shotgun shell (x50)
[g] shotgun shell (x50)
[h] shotgun shell (x40)
[i] shotgun shell (x50)
[j] shotgun shell (x50)
[k] shotgun shell (x50)
[l] large med-pack
[m] large med-pack
[n] large med-pack
[o] shell box (x100)
[p] shell box (x100)
-- Resistances -----------------------------------------------
Plasma - internal 0% torso 10% feet 0%
-- Kills -----------------------------------------------------
51 former humans
55 former sergeants
16 former captains
97 imps
72 demons
141 lost souls
14 cacodemons
23 hell knights
13 barons of hell
13 arachnotrons
7 former commandos
11 pain elementals
2 revenants
2 mancubi
1 arch-vile
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 left the Arena as a champion!
On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
On level 9 he assembled a tactical boots!
On level 14 he found the Enviroboots!
On level 15 he assembled a elephant gun!
On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
He left level 17 as soon as possible.
On level 17 he invaded the Unholy Cathedral!
He fled the Unholy Cathedral seeing no chance to win.
He left level 20 as soon as possible.
He left level 21 as soon as possible.
He left level 23 as soon as possible.
Then at last he found Dis!
On level 24 he finally defeated the Mastermind.
-- Messages --------------------------------------------------
You dodge! Boom! You are hit!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
Boom! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge! Boom! You dodge!
You use a large med-pack. You feel fully healed. You are hit! You are hit!
You are hit! Your blue armor is damaged! You are hit! Boom!
You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge!
You start running!
You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You are hit!
You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You are hit!
The Spider Mastermind flinched!
You dodge! You dodge! Boom! You are hit!
You dodge! You dodge! You dodge! You dodge!
Boom! You dodge! You are hit! You dodge!
The Spider Mastermind dies. Congratulations! You defeated the Spider
Mastermind! Press <Enter>...
You feel relatively safe now.
-- General ---------------------------------------------------
313 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
253 of those were killed.
3 of those were killed by something unknown.
28 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
And 12 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.
17 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
2 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
12 killed the bitch and survived.
3 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.
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