The Journey to 100%

[MaiZure]

Still, you provided interesting information about DS's berserk counter;  I seem to remember, a while back, when ArchAo666 was invented, someone wondering if it was possible to run the DS's berserk timer out through regular gameplay of that challenge.  For the record, I'm gonna say no to that, because in my current ArchAo666 game that I'm playing, I'm less than 50 levels from the end and my turn counter is just over 400000, so not even 1 million, let alone 10 million.  :)

Hold down the wait button (.) for exactly one minute and see how much time passes. Then extrapolate how long you'd have to weigh down your keyboard with a battery or something like that. I'm actually curious. My guess is that the game samples the input at some fixed rate (24,30,60) times per second.

[BBHood217]

Maybe we can finally see the Apostle's real colors without the red filter.

[Tavana]

Oh, one more thing I found while Code Diving (TM): It appears that there's a medal missing from the wiki, so if you're looking for 100% completion you'll have a hard time getting it. It's incredibly hard to get unintentionally, so I'll just tell you the name of it and put the conditions to earn it in a spoiler. If you read the name it should be fairly obvious how to get it, though. Happy hunting!

Medal: Gutts' Sorrow

Spoiler

Awarded for dying with the Dragonslayer

[ZicherCZ]

Hold down the wait button (.) for exactly one minute and see how much time passes. Then extrapolate how long you'd have to weigh down your keyboard with a battery or something like that. I'm actually curious.

Why so complicated? Set your RunWait command duration to 10M turns. Get the Dragonslayer. Clear a level, so nothing can disturb you. Use the RunWait command. Grab a coffee or two before the game processes 10M turns.

My guess is that the game samples the input at some fixed rate (24,30,60) times per second.

IMHO, I don't think so. From my experience, the game does not redraw the screen during long RunWaits, until there is actually something to redraw (e.g. a monster enters your line of sight). This makes long runwaiting quite tedious if you grabbed a Tracking map earlier, and the game animates all the monster movements.

EDIT: So I decided to actually test this. I set up the MaxWait parameter to 10 000 000, cleared Phobos base and level 2, and positioned myself to see water (fluids are animated while you're just idling around, but the animation freezes during runwaiting - with that I had an easy visual check that the game was still processing). Then I pressed the RunWait command.

After exactly 10 minutes, the water animation was still frozen, so the game was still processing. I interrupted the runwait and checked the "@" screen. The result is attached - 21 418 426 "turns" have passed. Now, the "turns" in the "@" screen mean 0.1s of ingame-time ticks, a wait command always takes 1.0s of ingame time (= 10 "turns"), and when I started, I was at 3086 "turns".

So in 10 minutes, slightly over 2M of "wait" actions were processed, and 10M turns would pass in ~47 minutes.

My computer is a five years old laptop - more up-to-date machines could probably handle the processing quite a bit faster.

[Tormuse]

Medal: Gutts' Sorrow

Spoiler

Awarded for dying with the Dragonslayer

Is that really in there?  I just searched the forums and the only reference to it is when TheLaptop said that it was going into the next version!  :o

Why so complicated? Set your RunWait command duration to 10M turns. Get the Dragonslayer. Clear a level, so nothing can disturb you. Use the RunWait command. Grab a coffee or two before the game processes 10M turns.

That's a good idea!  I might just do that on the second last level of my current game!  :D

Maybe we can finally see the Apostle's real colors without the red filter.

I'll post a screenshot.  ;)

EDIT:

EDIT: So I decided to actually test this. I set up the MaxWait parameter to 10 000 000, cleared Phobos base and level 2, and positioned myself to see water (fluids are animated while you're just idling around, but the animation freezes during runwaiting - with that I had an easy visual check that the game was still processing). Then I pressed the RunWait command.

After exactly 10 minutes, the water animation was still frozen, so the game was still processing. I interrupted the runwait and checked the "@" screen. The result is attached - 21 418 426 "turns" have passed. Now, the "turns" in the "@" screen mean 0.1s of ingame-time ticks, a wait command always takes 1.0s of ingame time (= 10 "turns"), and when I started, I was at 3086 "turns".

So in 10 minutes, slightly over 2M of "wait" actions were processed, and 10M turns would pass in ~47 minutes.

My computer is a five years old laptop - more up-to-date machines could probably handle the processing quite a bit faster.

I did the same, only I timed it for exactly one minute and got a result of about 3.2 million turns (or 320000 in-game seconds)  I guess my new computer is slightly faster than yours.  :)  I should be able to run DS out in about half an hour, I think.

[thelaptop]

Medal: Gutts' Sorrow

Spoiler

Awarded for dying with the Dragonslayer

What?  That got left in when KK released the source?  Holy crap... he said he didn't like the negative medals...  =.=

Must've been too funny to resist.

[BBHood217]

Icy does have one mortem that met the medal condition, yet no such medal was awarded.  Guess it was dummied out.

[ZicherCZ]

What?  That got left in when KK released the source?  Holy crap... he said he didn't like the negative medals...  =.=

Must've been too funny to resist.

Well, since DRL 0997.1 Sneak Repo was already out for some time ...

For the record, Gutts' Sorrow is not the only "new" medal left in the source. I also noticed a "Klear Cross" - those who remember Klear as a forum member might guess what the medal is awarded for, and others can, well, guess too (or code-dive for it).

EDIT: Another such medal noticed - the Purple Heart. A hint here - Tormuse recently stated that he learned something the very very hard way. He would receive the medal in that game (although the requirements are not quite as strict).

[Icy]

Interesting discussion! The extra medals must be dummied out as BBHood said, I would have achieved "Gutts' Sorrow".

Day 41:

After previous struggles, I tried some more for Chessmaster's Cross and got it pretty quickly. Getting better! I was more patient with each wave to wipe out as many Cacodemon corpses as possible before summoning more enemies.

Spoiler

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

 gf43wg4, level 4 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
 was burned by an imp on level 3 of the Phobos base.
 He survived 15680 turns and scored 32145 points.
 He played for 11 minutes and 42 seconds.
 He opposed the Nightmare!

 He killed 130 out of 172 hellspawn. (75%)
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Impatience!

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

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

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

  Chessmaster's Token
  Chessmaster's Cross
  Hell Champion Medal

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

  ###########################################################
  #.....................#.........................|.........#
  #.....##..##..........#################+###################
  #|....##..##..........#...........#...>...#...............#
  #.....................#|..........+.....\.###########+#####
  #..................[..#.##.##.....#.......+............i..#
  #...............##....#.##.##.....#..0.0..#.##...........i#
  #...##..........##....#...........+.....0.#.##.##.##......#
  #...##..............B.#......##...#.......#....##.##.##h..#
  #...h......|..........+......##...#.##....#..........##...#
  #...##...0......##.i..#..##.......+.##....#...............#
  #...##.......##.##....#..##.......#.h.....#...##..^0......#
  #.......##...##.......#...........#...##..+...##..........#
  +..##...##............#....##.##..#...##i.#......##.B..i..#
  #..##.................+.##.##.##..#.......#.##...##.......#
  #.....##.##.##.##..i..#.##........#...##..#.##.......##..i#
  #.....##.##.##.##..0i.#...........#...##\.#...%.i....##...#
  #................h....#...........#.......+...............#
  #................i....#......+....#.......#.....X.%.......#
  ###########################################################

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

  Health 0/50   Experience 4758/4
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +0

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

  Class : Scout

    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Intuition        (Level 2)

  Int->Int->HR->HR->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   nothing
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   shotgun (8d3) [0/1]
    [c] [ Boots      ]   nothing
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   chaingun (1d6)x4 [32/40]

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

    [a] green armor [1/1] (72%)
    [b] blue armor [2/2] (100%)
    [c] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [d] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [e] 10mm ammo (x78)
    [f] 10mm ammo (x100)
    [g] shotgun shell (x50)
    [h] shotgun shell (x10)
    [i] shotgun shell (x50)
    [j] shotgun shell (x50)

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

    None

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

    30 former humans
    9 former sergeants
    3 former captains
    21 imps
    41 demons
    3 lost souls
    19 cacodemons
    1 hell knight
    3 barons of hell

-- 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 3 he finally was burned by an imp.

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

 There are stairs leading downward here.
 There are stairs leading downward here.
 The voice laughs, "Flee mortal, flee! There's no hiding in hell!"
 You enter Phobos, level 3.
 You are hit! The imp dies. The imp dies. You dodge! The missile hits the hell
 knight. You dodge! Boom! You dodge! The missile hits the imp. The imp dies.
 You are hit! You are hit!
 You are hit! The imp dies. Your blue armor is damaged! You are hit!
 You dodge! The missile hits the hell knight. The hell knight hits you. You
 are hit!
 You dodge! The missile hits the imp. The imp dies.
 You are hit!
 You are hit! Your blue armor is completely destroyed! The hell knight dies.
 You are hit! You die!... Press <Enter>...

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

 1091 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 814 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 40 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 126 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 109 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 11 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 94 killed the bitch and survived.
 4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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


Next, I decided I was going to get my 5th diamond badge to reach the next ranking. I figured that Gatekeeper Diamond Badge would be pretty easy, but wasn't 100% sure about the wording around "clear". I was planning on using a Phase Device in Phobos Anomaly as anyone would, but wanted to know if I would need to kill all the rest of the enemies, so I watched Sereg's video of him earning the achievement.

The first thing that caught my eye was his method of doing Phobos 1, in that, he would stand at a corner and force a monster to instantly appear. It dawned on me that I was unaware of the Run->Wait trick. Usually when I would wait for enemies to approach, I would just mash Wait, or if I was feeling bold and careless, hold it. I never knew you could do Run->Wait! So +1 for watching the run. I also watched Phobos Anomaly of course and was curious about his off-corner position, but it makes sense with Run->Wait since the trick ignores Intuition, the one downside. This will help my gameplay out a bit more, rather than recklessly approaching enemies, though I suppose having done that all this time, my combat positioning is probably a lot better than it could be.

So I started my run. On Phobos 2, I got insane luck:

Spoiler

First time ever seeing one so early! Then on the floor before Phobos Anomaly:

Spoiler

On that note, I was wondering exactly how the damage from a massacre lever works? It gibs weak enemies, but doesn't kill Lost Souls or Demons, so I'm guessing it does 15-20 fire damage?

Anyway, I wasn't 100% sure if nuking Phobos Anomaly would count for the badge, but I had no Phase Device and figured it would be a good learning experience. Except...

Spoiler

:(

On the next run, it went a lot more regularly, and I got a lucky Phase Device positioning; almost the exact same as Sereg had! ;)

Spoiler

From there, I tried out my first major usage of Run->Wait, which helped a lot. Unfortunately, it was still defaulted to 20, which I've since raised to 10000, so it still took awhile. After clearing Phobos Anomaly, I stairdived to Babel and very carefully took out the Cyberdemon with Dodgemaster abuse.

Spoiler

Spoiler

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

 ghdfgh, level 8 Apostle Lt. General Scout,
 let an arachnotron get him on level 1 of Hell.
 He survived 62812 turns and scored 84544 points.
 He played for 34 minutes and 5 seconds.
 He was a man of Ultra-Violence!

 He killed 366 out of 509 hellspawn. (71%)
 He was an Angel of Max Carnage!
 He was also an Angel of Light Travel!

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

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

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

  Cyberdemon's Head
  UAC Star (bronze cluster)
  Gatekeeper Diamond Badge

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

  ##############################################====#########
  #..0...................#...................O+.====.........
  #......h.h.............#..M...###......###....====.........
  #......####............#......###.###..###....====....0###.
  #......####...####.....#...\..###.###..###....====###..###.
  #....>h####...####\...^#..........###..0...###.====##..###.
  #......####...####.....#....###............###====###......
  #.........0...####.....#....###......###...###====.........
  #..####................#....###......###.^....====.........
  #..####................#........###..###....0.====...###...
  #..####................#.###....###...........====...###...
  #..####.^..####........+.###..i.###...........====...###.|.
  #..........####.####...#.###..........0.......====.........
  #....####.+####.####...#......###......###...====|.........
  #....####..####.####...#......###......###..c====.###...###
  #....####.......####...#......###....c.###...====.###...###
  #....####..........00..#...B.........R.c....====#.###..0###
  #.....A.|..............#...................c====#..........
  #....A|^||X......".....#.....|.......c.cc..c====#......c.|.
  ############################################====###########

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

  Health 0/50   Experience 23517/8
  ToHit Ranged +12  ToHit Melee +12  ToDmg Ranged +0  ToDmg Melee +0

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

  Class : Scout

    Finesse          (Level 2)
    Hellrunner       (Level 2)
    Juggler          (Level 1)
    Dodgemaster      (Level 1)
    Intuition        (Level 2)

  Int->Int->HR->HR->DM->Fin->Fin->Jug->

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

    [a] [ Armor      ]   red armor [3/6] (47%) (P)
    [b] [ Weapon     ]   shotgun (8d3) [0/1] (T1)
    [c] [ Boots      ]   tactical boots [0/0] (100%)
    [d] [ Prepared   ]   plasma rifle (1d7)x6 [0/40]

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

    [a] shotgun shell (x36)
    [b] shotgun shell (x50)
    [c] large med-pack

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

    Fire       - internal 0%    torso 12%   feet 0%   

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

    46 former humans
    23 former sergeants
    11 former captains
    112 imps
    37 demons
    82 lost souls
    11 cacodemons
    13 hell knights
    5 barons of hell
    6 arachnotrons
    7 former commandos
    6 pain elementals
    3 revenants
    1 mancubus
    2 bruiser brothers
    1 Cyberdemon

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

  He started his journey on the surface of Phobos.
  On level 8 he encountered the Phobos Anomaly.
  Entering level 8 he was almost dead...
  He left level 10 as soon as possible.
  On level 12 he assembled a tactical boots!
  He left level 15 as soon as possible.
  On level 16 he found the Tower of Babel!
  On level 17 he finally let an arachnotron get him.

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

 the arachnotron. You are hit! The missile hits the arachnotron. The
 arachnotron dies. You are hit! You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron.
 The missile hits the arachnotron. The missile hits the arachnotron. You
 dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the
 arachnotron.
 You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the
 arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. The arachnotron
 dies. You are hit! You are hit! You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron.
 You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the
 arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. The arachnotron
 dies. You are hit!
 You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. The missile hits the
 arachnotron. You dodge! The missile hits the arachnotron. The arachnotron
 dies. You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You
 are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit! You are hit!
 Your red armor is damaged! You are hit! You die!... Press <Enter>...

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

 1096 brave souls have ventured into Phobos:
 818 of those were killed.
 2 of those were killed by something unknown.
 41 didn't read the thermonuclear bomb manual.
 And 126 couldn't handle the stress and committed a stupid suicide.

 109 souls destroyed the Mastermind...
 11 sacrificed itself for the good of mankind.
 94 killed the bitch and survived.
 4 showed that it can outsmart Hell itself.

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


Another diamond badge down and another rank up! I'm excited to get closer to that "Chaos" prefix for my ranking to flaunt!

[Tormuse]

...I never knew you could do Run->Wait!...

Oh!  I didn't realize you didn't know that!  :o  It's super useful, especially if you combine it with dropping med packs in doorways to attract Formers who like to pick them up.  (Commonly called "gift-dropping")  And yes, you'll want to adjust the "MaxWait" and probably also "RunDelay" as well.  The game normally puts a delay between each wait action.  I personally have RunDelay set to 1 just in case I decide I want to interrupt the waiting for some reason, but some more bolder players set it to zero, so all the waiting occurs instantly.

On that note, I was wondering exactly how the damage from a massacre lever works? It gibs weak enemies, but doesn't kill Lost Souls or Demons, so I'm guessing it does 15-20 fire damage?

I've wondered about that myself.  I think you're right that it's fire damage;  Lost Souls are resistant to bullets and fire, so it would have to be one of those two, but fire is much more likely to gib things; if it was doing enough bullet damage to gib Formers, the Lost Souls would not survive.

Anyway, I wasn't 100% sure if nuking Phobos Anomaly would count for the badge, but I had no Phase Device and figured it would be a good learning experience. Except...

Spoiler

:(

Oh...  ouch...  that's unfortunate.  :|  That's a really harsh lesson in how invulnerability works...  Invulnerability duration (and all other powerups too) is based on the number of actions you take, not time, so if you move quickly, (or otherwise do actions that take little time) you use up the invulnerability faster.  I notice that in the screenshot, you were running; that was a mistake.  Even the mere act of switching to running is considered an action that takes a tenth of a second; if you hadn't been running, you would've been fine.

Then again, having an invulnerability wear off just before a nuke goes is kind of a rite of passage for DRL players; I'm pretty sure everyone who has ever played the game has done that at least once.  :)  EDIT:  I mentioned it in a post once!  :D

[Sereg]

That thing with the invulnerability running out right before the nuke goes off? I've done that.  I've also managed to run wait through a nuke countdown.

Glad you found my video helpful... even moreso that you managed to learn something new from it.

Congratulations on General rank... looks like you're still going strong,  so I'll continue looking forward to your next achievement.

[ZicherCZ]

... and probably also "RunDelay" as well.  The game normally puts a delay between each wait action.  I personally have RunDelay set to 1 just in case I decide I want to interrupt the waiting for some reason, but some more bolder players set it to zero, so all the waiting occurs instantly.

RunDelay affects the delay between turns only if you are actually running - RunWait is unaffected and always occurs instantly. The test of RunWait performed by both Tormuse and me confirms this (with Tormuse's setting of RunDelay = 1 the game would only be able to process 60k wait actions per minute, and with my setting of RunDelay = 20 turns only 3k actions per minute).

What also needs to be mentioned - the Wait command always takes 1.0s, ignoring any player speed modifiers. Thus, a fast enough monster can enter your line of sight and get a shot at you before the player's Wait action actually ends. Keep that in mind and try to pick a safe location for runwaiting.

EDIT: Two more real-color-Apostle considerations - if you actually go for it, don't put Berserker armor on before you actually run DS out. BA causes nightmare demons to be spawned constantly, which would break any chance of running DS out in any reasonable timeframe.
Also note that the Apostle has longer line of sight, great speed and a good chance to attack, so it may attack you well before you actually see it. And if it does, the attack is strong enough to always proc Berserker trait.

[LuckyDee]

I also noticed a "Klear Cross" - those who remember Klear as a forum member might guess what the medal is awarded for, and others can, well, guess too (or code-dive for it).

Hehehe... this will most likely have something to do with

Spoiler

nuking at least n levels, where n is somewhere between 10 and 24? :D

[ZicherCZ]

Hehehe... this will most likely have something to do with

Spoiler

nuking at least n levels, where n is somewhere between 10 and 24? :D

Correct :).

Spoiler

n = 12.

[Tormuse]

Psst...  The Apostle is yellow!  :D

RunDelay affects the delay between turns only if you are actually running - RunWait is unaffected and always occurs instantly.

Incorrect.  I just tested it by setting the rundelay to 100.  It slowed down run-waiting and run-moving.

Also note that the Apostle has longer line of sight...

Ah, that explains how he was able to shock me so frequently!

...And if it does, the attack is strong enough to always proc Berserker trait.

Unless I don't have Berserker trait!  :)  (Malicious Blades FTW!)  :D