Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

Diogines: Dec 22, 2007; Beaky the Tortoise says, click here to join our choose Your Own Adventure Game!

Paradise Lost: Clash of the Heavens!

I just got my first 15 rune win, ever, with my vine stalker assassin! Only now have I truly come to appreciate the awesome power of the stab-stab-stab-sneak-stab!

All credit due to the fact I managed to get level 3 regen mutation early on and black scales for some bonus armor early on.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 00:59

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 12, 2024 09:18

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

Summon mana viper is so drat good. Its even useful in the late game because most spellcasting enemies will lose several turns with two mana vipers chomping on them. I even managed to completely stunlock Lom Lobon with them.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 01:02

Reginald Bathwater: Dec 19, 2009; MINE EYES CAN BUT WEEP AS THEY BEAR WITNESS TO THE MAJESTY... THE BFG 9000!

Should I stick with +0 Leather {rElec, rPois, Slay+5} or is the poo poo-tier defence on a vinestalker going to get me killed? I can build a dragon armour up to +5 with my scroll hoard.
Full dump here
http://pastebin.com/n4tKZgTy
Grug the Necromancer (Vine Stalker Assassin) Turns: 45889, Time: 02:06:37

code:

HP 107/107       AC 19     Str 19      XL: 20   Next: 23%
MP  33/33        EV 22     Int 22      God: Kikubaaqudgha [******]
Gold 2490        SH  7     Dex 18      Spells:  9 memorised,  4 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis +     a - +9 quick blade (pain)
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     T - +0 leather armour of Xasial {rElec rPois Slay+5}
rNeg   . . .     rCorr    .     A - +1 buckler of Lies {Str+4 Int+5}
rPois  +         rRot     +     m - +2 helmet {SInv}
rElec  +         Spirit   +     p - +2 cloak of the Thief {+Fog Slay-2 SInv Stlth+}
SustAb .         Warding  .     Z - +2 pair of gloves
rMut   .         Stasis   .     r - +0 pair of boots
Gourm  .                        (no amulet)
MR     ++...                    R - +6 ring of protection
                                j - ring "Qihieh" {EV+1 Slay+4 Stlth+}

@: repel missiles, very resistant to hostile enchantments, extraordinarily
stealthy
A: fangs 3, regeneration 3, magic shield, antimagic bite, no device heal 3, rot
immunity
a: Receive Corpses, Torment, Renounce Religion, Evoke Fog
}: 1/15 runes: decaying

# ? Sep 14, 2014 01:25

LordSloth: Mar 7, 2008; Disgruntled (IT) Employee

sometimes, crawl just decides to flip you the bird.

I had a timed bazaar announce itself on D:12, before I'd had the opportunity to find the Lair or Orcish Mines. There were four armor shops, including a randart pearl dragon and steam dragon armor. The only thing I could afford was an ego leather armor, i passed.

a - 2794 gold a pitted pearl dragon armour
e - 1215 gold a smoking steam dragon armour

There were plenty of embroidered gloves and boots I would have bought if I hadn't already spent most of the mere 500 gold I'd found by this point.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 01:43

spacejung: Feb 8, 2004

Well, I lost my last promising character, I'm gonna bow out at this point.

Great finish Centaur of Ascension members, BirdoPrey I see your final character got Gloorx Vlooq'd... good luck to anyone who wants to burn the midnight oil and steal another one, I'm proud that we've finished in the top 27 clans. Until next time.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 02:06

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Reginald Bathwater posted:

code:

HP 107/107       AC 19     Str 19      XL: 20   Next: 23%
MP  33/33        EV 22     Int 22      God: Kikubaaqudgha [******]
Gold 2490        SH  7     Dex 18      Spells:  9 memorised,  4 levels left

rFire  . . .     SeeInvis +     a - +9 quick blade (pain)
rCold  . . .     Clarity  .     T - +0 leather armour of Xasial {rElec rPois Slay+5}
rNeg   . . .     rCorr    .     A - +1 buckler of Lies {Str+4 Int+5}
rPois  +         rRot     +     m - +2 helmet {SInv}
rElec  +         Spirit   +     p - +2 cloak of the Thief {+Fog Slay-2 SInv Stlth+}
SustAb .         Warding  .     Z - +2 pair of gloves
rMut   .         Stasis   .     r - +0 pair of boots
Gourm  .                        (no amulet)
MR     ++...                    R - +6 ring of protection
                                j - ring "Qihieh" {EV+1 Slay+4 Stlth+}

@: repel missiles, very resistant to hostile enchantments, extraordinarily
stealthy
A: fangs 3, regeneration 3, magic shield, antimagic bite, no device heal 3, rot
immunity
a: Receive Corpses, Torment, Renounce Religion, Evoke Fog
}: 1/15 runes: decaying

A total of 9 slaying is really tempting. I think you should stick with it a bit and maybe see how fast you can get haste castable in it before switching to something heavier, at least.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 02:09

Sage Grimm: Feb 18, 2013; Let's go explorin' little dude!

So I think I just made my team name proud. Zin recited at Sonja, she got confused and hits herself with her short sword of distortion.

code:

_Sonja disappears!

EDIT: Aww, she just insta-teleported and abyssed me later on instead. WELP.

Sage Grimm fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 02:24

Beeme: Oct 7, 2013

What does it take to tackle extended, and have I got it?

My only win was a 5 rune one, many versions ago. I feel like my resistances might not be up to snuff? Elf 3 and Vaults 5 weren't too bad, except for the two times the elves threw me in the abyss, and in there it was one close call after another. I definitely panicked.

I found that +12 chainmail on D7 and it seemed like it carried me since then. I've got enough enchant armour scrolls stashed to upgrade any dragon armour. Plenty green and golden dragon hides, but having this chainmail, I was holding out for a pearl dragon one. Also got a scroll of acquirement that I'm not sure what to use for, and there are a great many books available.

Beeme fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 03:53

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

Your character has statue form castable which means you can do Tomb if you play carefully. The thing is you need better resits for Pan and Hell because the fiends will rip you apart without them. Fire dragon armour won't really work since you're relying on statue form to negate torment. You could use the fire dragon armour to clear Zot and then statue form to go through Tomb in hopes of finding some better gear, but unless you're feeling bold you should probably stay out of extended.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 04:06

Prism: Dec 22, 2007; yospos

I just got a manual of a skill I'm going to be using for a long time (Fighting on a MiFi).

Right now I have like 8 Fighting because I'm in Lair. Is it more advantageous to use the book later and leave it in a stash somewhere, or not? Basically, does it give me more aptitude for a certain amount of skill XP, when I should just use it now, or a certain number of skill ranks, where I should wait until I'm on later ranks that cost more?

# ? Sep 14, 2014 04:57

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

Prism posted:

I just got a manual of a skill I'm going to be using for a long time (Fighting on a MiFi).

Right now I have like 8 Fighting because I'm in Lair. Is it more advantageous to use the book later and leave it in a stash somewhere, or not? Basically, does it give me more aptitude for a certain amount of skill XP, when I should just use it now, or a certain number of skill ranks, where I should wait until I'm on later ranks that cost more?

I believe they last for a certain amount of experience points. In any case having more skill now is always better (don't save potions of experience, either).

# ? Sep 14, 2014 05:12

Sage Grimm: Feb 18, 2013; Let's go explorin' little dude!

Beeme posted:

What does it take to tackle extended, and have I got it?

Yeah, you'll need some form of rF, up to at least rF++ to be comfortable in Pan or Hell. Same goes for the other resistances. At this point you could switch over to The Shining One to get rN+++ with Crypt providing you with easy piety.

Your character can definitely ninja the runes in Pan if you bump up your Stealth from your current value of 0 (and you should have been working on that when you got Abyssed so close calls wouldn't happen so much!). May even be able to fight certain Pan Lords if you patched your resistance holes and found a holy branded bardiche (bumping up Polearms when you do). Your spells and weapon skills are such that you are a well rounded hybrid that's essentially missing equipment. Spellcasting is rather high; you should only be working on that for getting MP and spell slots rather than spell hunger. Since you are a hybrid you aren't going to be spellcasting much past getting your buffs into play so that experience could have gone towards other things. Are you training Hexes for anything in particular? Otherwise I'd shift your attention toward Stealth and either Invo or Evo.

Toss the Hat of Pondering, it might have added to your Abyssing woes and at this point its usefulness is down to giving you a pip in MR. Mobility is key to Crawl. Toss that ring of dexterity for something else, either the protection from fire or see invisible if your replacement head piece doesn't provide that. The amulet of warding is barely better than a stock one, I'd take Guardian Spirit or Clarity over it unless you need the slot for rN. rMut is situational, maybe in a cacodemon/neqoxec heavy Pan level or fighting Orbs of Fire.

Find more potions of curing. You have none in your inventory which is worrisome if you ever get confused or heavily poisoned. Get more evocable items and replace your wands. Fireball is past its prime, so is lightning (it's loud). You'll want wands of fire, cold and draining instead if you do ever use them.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 05:25

Prism: Dec 22, 2007; yospos

kaschei posted:

I believe they last for a certain amount of experience points. In any case having more skill now is always better (don't save potions of experience, either).

I don't save potions of experience but I was willing to raise Fighting a little higher before I re-grabbed the book - 12ish or so. But it doesn't look like I need to, so that's pretty okay by me; time to take advantage of it.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 05:35

pathetic little tramp: Dec 12, 2005; by Hillary Clinton's assassins; Fallen Rib

I was looking at the tile sheets and I noticed something a little weird.

11 rows up is where the tiles for runes live. I recognise the usual 17, but what's that weird one at the start and the M-in-a-shield looking one at the end?

# ? Sep 14, 2014 05:46

Read: Dec 21, 2010

Diogines posted:

I just got my first 15 rune win, ever, with my vine stalker assassin! Only now have I truly come to appreciate the awesome power of the stab-stab-stab-sneak-stab!

All credit due to the fact I managed to get level 3 regen mutation early on and black scales for some bonus armor early on.

VS gets Regen 3 by default.

pathetic little tramp posted:

I was looking at the tile sheets and I noticed something a little weird.

11 rows up is where the tiles for runes live. I recognise the usual 17, but what's that weird one at the start and the M-in-a-shield looking one at the end?

I would guess those are both Sprint related things.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 05:51

Nicolae Carpathia: Nov 7, 2004; I no longer believe in the greater purpose.

pathetic little tramp posted:

I was looking at the tile sheets and I noticed something a little weird.

11 rows up is where the tiles for runes live. I recognise the usual 17, but what's that weird one at the start and the M-in-a-shield looking one at the end?

The M-in-a-shield is the elven rune of Zot. It generates sometimes in Linesprint, but nowhere else as far as I know.
The weird one that's just a white rune is listed as "generic.png" in the tiles source, and it's assigned to MISC_RUNE_OF_ZOT. I have no idea where such a thing might exist. Edit: Looking at the code, it seems to be the generic base type for runes, and if it generates, it's a bug.

Nicolae Carpathia fucked around with this message at 06:17 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 06:15

Miracon: Jan 1, 2010

Deep Dwarves with vampiric axes are ludicrous. I found the +8 war axe of Truth {vamp, +Blink rF++} on D:4 and proceeded to mash o and tab as fast as I could for the rest of the game. Ever see someone using a war axe in Zot? Using almost no tactics I got the Speed Demon 3 banner with a 2 and a half hour win while almost never being in danger. Look at those huge stacks of consumables! Anything that looked slightly threatening could be berserked to death, and anything that survived could be buried in consumable spam.

It makes a sharp contrast to the Centaur Warper I played a few days prior. Centaurs are overpowered in a tedious way, but Deep Dwarves are overpowered in a hilarious way.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 07:04

SirSamVimes: Jul 21, 2008; ~* Challenge *~

Was the bugfix for the Dithmenos aura applied to 0.15 or trunk only?

# ? Sep 14, 2014 07:24

Beeme: Oct 7, 2013

Sage Grimm posted:

I toasted through all of my curing and heal wounds potions in Abyss. :downs:

There was a point when I got cornered at low health, with my teleportation scroll delayed, then made the idiotic mistake of using a scroll of silence, which I didn't realize kept me from using blink scrolls. I used most of the potions as I waited. Eventually teleportation kicked in, I waited the silence out without making a move, and used regeneration to recover my health. You're definitely right that Ponderous and the lack of stealth were at the root of my troubles, besides stupidity.

Spellcasting got so high because I was training it for a couple of spell slots I wanted, but got so engrossed on Elf 3 that I completely forgot about skills and left it on for a very long time. As for the training in Hexes, I had no idea what to train, and saw that there were books for Silence and Invisibility, so I figured I would shoot for that.

Isn't the +5 dex ring worth wearing? (The +3 one was a mistake, I must've picked it up somewhere and swapped to it by accident hahaha) I just checked, and it's giving me 6 EV! I really have no idea how good that is, or how much AC/EV is "enough", so I was just stacking as much as I could. I very rarely use the damaging wands, and didn't really know which were better. I kept these around mostly because I didn't have any other way to cause ranged damage and figured I might at some point need to.

Thanks for the in-depth evaluation! I really needed it.

With your advice in mind, I think I can solve rF, rC and rN by ditching ponderous for a hat of rC, converting to TSO, eventually having him brand my Demon Trident, using a buckler of resistance I just realized I had left behind, and switching to Fire Dragon Armor. That gives me rF+++/rC++ in regular form, and rF+/rC+++ in statue form, with two fire protection rings I could swap into, for up to rF+++/rC+++. I'll also make sure to buy potions. Haven't found amulets of clarity or stasis yet though, or anything to protect me against corrosion. And there's nothing else to give me MR, besides Ponderous.

Beeme fucked around with this message at 07:53 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 07:50

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Miracon posted:

It makes a sharp contrast to the Centaur Warper I played a few days prior. Centaurs are overpowered in a tedious way, but Deep Dwarves are overpowered in a hilarious way.

This is very true. I probably could have won fairly easily as CeVm(for a nemelex's choice) but more or less I ended up suiciding into a kraken out of boredom because I couldn't stand kiting things anymore.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 14:23

Inexplicable Humblebrag: Sep 20, 2003

Nicolae Carpathia posted:

The M-in-a-shield is the elven rune of Zot. It generates sometimes in Linesprint, but nowhere else as far as I know.
The weird one that's just a white rune is listed as "generic.png" in the tiles source, and it's assigned to MISC_RUNE_OF_ZOT. I have no idea where such a thing might exist. Edit: Looking at the code, it seems to be the generic base type for runes, and if it generates, it's a bug.

Pretty sure that was the only rune tile for generic, non-demonic, non-pan runes for a while. Runes for the lair branches and Vaults were comparatively recent additions.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 14:31

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Ophan are the most unfun enemies to fight as a demonspawn(or anything evil). They literally just surround you with high-damage clouds that take forever to go away, and then once in a while take potshots at you-but if you're not evil the clouds don't matter at all. What a weird, annoying enemy.

That sorta goes for most of holy pan, but at least mighted melee mobs can be a more general threat as well. Pearl dragons might be the biggest gently caress-you currently in the game to 'evil' players. I haven't died to one before, but their breath attack is seriously lethal to evil characters, and again, basically nothing to non-evil ones.

LazyMaybe fucked around with this message at 15:20 on Sep 14, 2014

# ? Sep 14, 2014 15:16

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

Oh, more importantly though-holy poo poo Seven_Tentacle_Salute is in the top 20 teams! 18 right now to be exact, gosh dang.
I definitely didn't expect either that or being the highest on our team when we started, but I didn't think I was going to 15-rune at all this tournament.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 17:45

Davzz: Jul 31, 2008

Uh, why the heck does just about every Spider enemy corpses give a measly 1-3 gold when worshipping Gozag?

I guess he's doing some sort of calculation based on how much of the "corpse mass" turns into gold? Because spiders are definitely much more lethal than a bunch of other enemies...

# ? Sep 14, 2014 17:52

legoman727: Mar 13, 2010; by exmarx

Welp. Eating the purple was in sixth place at one point.. but looks like the other teams hadn't given up like I did. Still. 12th isn't bad.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 17:56

Internet Kraken: Apr 24, 2010; slightly amused

http://dobrazupa.org/tournament/0.15/players/internetkraken.html

Once again Gelatinous Body III remains out of my reach. Probably could of gotten it if I didn't get burned out in the middle of the tourney due to a bunch of dumb deaths. I did pretty poorly overall, but still had fun. This is probably the best release to date.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 18:18

Brannock: Feb 9, 2006; by exmarx; Fallen Rib

I'm happy the tournament is over because I got burned out hard by "trying-to-win" after getting my two initial wins in short order. Seems like a pattern now for me, I start playing again, get 2-3 wins in a few days, can't repeat that success, take a long break, then start playing again...

At least I helped get the abyssal team to 3rd place on the first day and scored one of the first five wins!

Really looking forward to what's in the pipeline for 0.16.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 18:48

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

It's not over! There's two hours left!

I'm gonna win this HECk in that time.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 18:51

Tarezax: Sep 12, 2009; MORT cancels dance: interrupted by MORT

I got my second win ever during this tournament so I'm happy.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:07

Panic! at Nabisco: Jun 6, 2007; it seemed like a good idea at the time

I wanted to get a win during this tournament before I moved. I got SO CLOSE. And then I got a pan lord in the face during the orb run, I moved across the country and had no non phone internet for a while, and that was that. :cry:

Sorry, purple people eaters.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:43

paranoid randroid: Mar 4, 2007

Sage Grimm posted:

Yeah, you'll need some form of rF, up to at least rF++ to be comfortable in Pan or Hell. Same goes for the other resistances. At this point you could switch over to The Shining One to get rN+++ with Crypt providing you with easy piety.

I'd go as far as saying you should consider getting rF+++ for Pan. Cerebov can strip a level with his melee attacks and his firestorm hurts even at rF++.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:48

Pitch: Jun 16, 2005; しらんけど

What rc file option do I set so I always see the anime loading screens?

# ? Sep 14, 2014 19:54

Hempuli: Nov 16, 2011

Doing better than ever before with a Deep Dwarf Necromancer (Makhleb). Not having much experience with casters, there're a couple things I'd like to ask:

1. Is there some general agreement on what kind of spells to learn after being done with the starter book? I found a book shop selling the Necronomicon and have found various low-level books (book of burglary, dreams etc), I assume it might not be smart to keep using necromantic spells since there'll be more undead stuff coming? Or is this a baseless fear seeing that I'm only aiming for a 3-rune win?

2. Which of these might best fit me?

The Moom Troll armour would feel like the best choice, but is it too encumbering for a pure caster? I've been using the funnily-named artifact robe this far.

3. How about weapons? I assumed that I'd want to keep using short swords and daggers due to being a caster, but these are my options right now:

The staff would sound like an ideal option, but then again I have no Ice spells??

4. I have got antennae, +4 AC, fire-breathing and hooves from mutation roulette, but also berserkitis 1. I have a cmut potion - the berserkitis hasn't been a problem at all this far, but should I try to get rid of it asap? (also I have a potion of mutation - maybe I ought to drink that and then cmut and hope for the best?)

Sorry for the mass of questions!

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:12

Pitch: Jun 16, 2005; しらんけど

Moon troll armor is pretty lightweight, but you don't want it in this case. As a deep dwarf, neither of the regeneration effects will apply to you, and the guardian spirit will make your mana stop regenerating.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:22

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

Splatted my HeCK in vaults (after a SPECTACULAR save by Xom). I just didn't have the damage output to compete with everything I had to fight, and I was playing super fast. Man, vaults is really tough for melee.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:27

Inexplicable Humblebrag: Sep 20, 2003

Hempuli posted:

3. How about weapons? I assumed that I'd want to keep using short swords and daggers due to being a caster, but these are my options right now:

The staff would sound like an ideal option, but then again I have no Ice spells??

You don't need to stick to light weapons as a caster; you can happily tromp along slugging stuff with an executioner's axe or great mace, the only problem is that if you dump enough XP into those skills to make it a really good offense, you're taking that from your spells.

That said, a DDNe of Makhleb kinda wants to be a melee dude - you either distract things with summons and murder them, or you tank the blows and let your summons do the murdering, depending what point of the game you're at. I would suggest either polearms (reaching is good and lets you attack from behind zombros) or maces and flails (DDs are OK with them and they don't need boatloads of XP to get viable). Axes are also good.

Alternatively if you want to be a pewpewshootmans mage then use the staff - it triggers off Evocations which DDs are amazing at, the enhancer effect not kicking in doesn't really matter, and it only takes 12 skill to get to mindelay. Consider it training wheels until you find a staff that does enhance you.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:30

LazyMaybe: Aug 18, 2013; oouagh

LogicNinja posted:

It's not over! There's two hours left!

I'm gonna win this HECk in that time.

Do you just need to have started the game while the tourny was going, or does it only count wins you get done before the end?

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:33

LogicNinja: Jan 21, 2011; ...the blur blurs blurringly across the blurred blur in a blur of blurring blurriness that blurred...

IronicDongz posted:

Do you just need to have started the game while the tourny was going, or does it only count wins you get done before the end?

Pretty sure it's the latter.

# ? Sep 14, 2014 20:40

Kekekela: Oct 28, 2004

50351 | Snake:1 | Identified the +2 leather armour "Cock" {rC+ Str+3 Curse} (You found it on level 1 of the Snake Pit)

:dong:

# ? Sep 14, 2014 21:00

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 12, 2024 09:18

kaschei: Oct 25, 2005

Hempuli posted:

Doing better than ever before with a Deep Dwarf Necromancer (Makhleb). Not having much experience with casters, there're a couple things I'd like to ask:

1. Is there some general agreement on what kind of spells to learn after being done with the starter book? I found a book shop selling the Necronomicon and have found various low-level books (book of burglary, dreams etc), I assume it might not be smart to keep using necromantic spells since there'll be more undead stuff coming? Or is this a baseless fear seeing that I'm only aiming for a 3-rune win?

Ne, like Su and IE, goes really well with an early hybrid transition. DD can get animate dead castable and lean on "zombie armour" and vampiric draining while you get an axe up to par.

That said dispel undead and agony, if you happen to find book of death, are a pretty devastating combo until you start running into demons, and both reward extra spellpower well IIRC (agony has a bonus to its MR chance that means it's quite a bit more useful than other single-target MR-checking spells).

# ? Sep 14, 2014 21:29

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Crawl 0.15: Terrifying, Ever-Gnashing Radulae

«‹›297 »