Roman Republic Challenge - revisited

[Grey]

Okay, so I start off with notably 0 PP, which is quite annoying when I want to teleport about in corrupting areas... Wander off towards the stairs and get the unholy aura corruption. This puts us at corruption P, just one corruption away from the extreme level. Definitely time to go see the white unicorn...

Visited Guth'Alak, then took our moloch friend 'gut' to help with our quest. He brought the greater black unicorn down to critical (only receiving slight injuries himself) before the unicorn teleported away - I teleported after and finished off the job with burning hands. We are now fully cleansed of corruption. I left gut in the peaceful glade... was tempted to order him to kill the white unicorn too ;)

Note that our Wi is only high enough to cast radius 3 ball spells with the water orb now - we won't have such big balls for D50. Strangely got a Wi increase whilst walking about though... We're also much lower on speed now, but that won't be an issue I think.

Got Filk quest, and the purple prince fell to acidology (not quite Purple Rain, but close enough). I seem to remember our first kill being a beggar - pressed '&' and had it confirmed. 2 beggars killed - time for ID2. I don't want to risk using the moloch for this because I'm not sure if the reward will work... plus he'd be painfully slow against a quickling. One acid ball was all it took anyway.

I got the location of the scintillating cave, and by some chaotic twist decided to confuse him. He disarmed me (didn't know he could do that!) so I acid balled him. Brought us down to L, which is kinda surprising since he's a neutral char... Brought gut to the underwater cave for his water torture treatment again (which as the Americans will tell you is perfectly lawful) and we're at a very safe L+ once more. Deposited gut back in the unicorn glade and saved.

Next stop: scintillating cave and the emperor moloch. Who's up for that bit of fun?


.................................................. ....................
.................................................. ....................
.................................................. .....................
.....T................TTT.............T........TTT TTTT......T..........
..&..................TTTTT.................TTTTTTT... TTT..............T.
..@......T.............T.......TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT...T TTTTT.................
............................TTTTTTT.TTTTTTTTTTTT.. ..TT...................
..........................TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT .............T.........
..................T...TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.========TTT TT......................
..........T.........TTTTTTTT.TTTTTTTT....=====TTTT TTT.....................
...T.................TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.....======T TTT.....T.........TT.....
........................TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.....=====T TT.......................
.........................TTTTTTTTT.TTTT...======TT T..........T.............
..........T........T........TTTTTTTTTTTTTTT===TTTT T.......................
.........................TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT TTTTT...................
..............................TTTTTTTTTTT.TTTTTTTT TT..................T..
....T................T...............TTTTTTTTTT... .......................
.................................................. ...........T..........
.................................................. ......................
.................................................. .....................
Cicero St:45 Le:38 Wi:53 Dx:52 To:52 Ch:26 Ap:23 Ma:34 Pe:28 L+
DV/PV:178/61 H:732(732) P:811(811) Exp: 45/16537138 BUG Sp: 147
Blessed Coward

He: uncursed eternium cap (+1, +1) [+6, +6] [28s]
Ne: uncursed sapphire amulet "Preserver" [+4, +4] {Wi+7} [3s]
Bo: blessed robes of resistance (-4, -4) [+3, +12] {To+5} [60s]
Gi: uncursed girdle of giant strength [+0, +0] {St+12} [30s]
Cl: uncursed cloak of defense [+4, +0] [20s]
RH: uncursed rune-covered heavy mace "Purifier" (+5, 4d5+5) [-4, +1] {Wi+4}
LH: blessed medium obsidian shield "Protector" [+20, +4] {To+2} [46s]
RR: uncursed ring of the master cat [+0, +5] {Dx+16} (+16 spd) [1s]
LR: uncursed ring of slaying (+8 melee damage, +6 missile damage) [1s]
Br: uncursed bracers of regeneration [+6, +3] [18s]
Ga: uncursed gloves of smiting [+1, +3] (+2 damage) [6s]
Bo: blessed seven league boots [+7, +5] [30s]
MW: uncursed heavy crossbow of accuracy (+9, +3) [140s]
Mi: bundle of 5 uncursed weighted adamantium quarrels (+1, 2d6+10) [5s]
Tl: uncursed Chaos Orb of Elemental Water {Wi+10} [100s]


Full flg can be found here (http://www.geocities.com/darrenjohngrey/cicero.txt).

Saved game is here (http://www.geocities.com/darrenjohngrey/Cicero.zip) for the next player.

[meh]

Got it!
...

[gut]

> ridiculously stupid mistakes normally skilled players make

I forgot to talk to Sharod, before entering the BDC's. I actually
caught the mistake though, and went back for it. Whew.

[meh]

Nothing much happened in the scintillating cave. I killed the emperor moloch with a dozen or so acid balls, picked up his stuff and left. He didn't touch me, but I did get one corruption, 12 eyes. I suspect most of the corruption actually occurred on level 6, where it took me quite a while to find the stairs. I slowed myself down before the kill and advanced to level 49. I chose the shield master talent.

I picked up the trident in Terynio and then got the idea that it might be fun to take our moloch to the mana temple. It wasn't. It soon got frustrating to push him along corridors, but I didn't want to quit half way through. When I got to UL1, I noticed it was split by a river. So enough of that, someone else can carry on.

We really only need to do the mana temple before going to the gate. Unless someone wants to do a bit of training first, of course.

Save file (http://personal.inet.fi/koti/qolumbo/Cicero.zip). I didn't bother with any flg, as very little has changed. We have a trident and an armour in our backpack. That's basically it.

[gut]

Last four players:

Moloch, gut, Grey, meh.

C'mon vogonpoet, you know you want to! : )

[Soirana]

got it.

but i am still wandering what's a point to toy with wizard. Like bringing bazooka to archery range...

[Soirana]

Meh, you do realize what was wrong savefile? Cause what is lv21 wizard pretower and remmeber doing something in ToEF.
/gets really really angry/

[Grey]

It seems the correct file is here:

http://personal.inet.fi/koti/qolumbo/Cicero.zip

[gut]

The '12 eyes' corruption obviously overloaded Cicero's sensory
processing functions. He started suffering from terrible
hallucenations and flashbacks.

[meh]

Oops, Grey has the correct link, which I edited into my report.

[Soirana]

sorry doesn't seem i have time to play now. Sorry.

EDIT: got it again!
we will see if i can get killed with wizard in drunk state. I quess not.

[Soirana]

Did it. zzzz....

I have never got why mana temple is regarded to be difficult for wizards.

I dug into corridor around temple easily. In it once i feeled man being drained i acid balled twice immediately (feel free to heck map on position of mana draining eyes). i entered temple still on 200+ PP. I had to pray once for power points and to take back to entrance to change armpour for something granting death resitance.

honestly i didn't even bothered to have permanent light source. I did acid balled remains of man temple, when went to d48 and dropped in four orbs.

i have no idea if you killed Filk or not so i Left Water orb in tool slot and char on stairs.

p.s. what was so boring...

Good luck in boring wiardish ultra.

save file added. http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/4d722fda3c_1.71MB

[Grey]

Fire and Mana temple both taken down whilst drunk - very nice. Very easy with a wizard though.

We have the trident, but I have the feeling that the crown and medal of chaos are still both next to the D1 stairs. Whoever wants to continue will have to go up, fetch these, then dive down and clear D50 (I hope we're not going to pussy out and bypass D50 - this is a wizard after all). Might want some ammo training beforehand. Do we have enough humanoid and demon slyaers to take down Andy? I imagine we're out of potions of uselessness too, so no potential Far Slayer...

Would be nice if the final person or persons could take a video of their conquests.

[Soirana]

just remembered char has gotten POISON HANDS corruption. I have worn thick gauntlets for 90% of my turn just because i had no desire to check status of corruption removal available.

BE WARNED.

[gut]

> I have never got why mana temple is regarded to be
> difficult for wizards

To my knowledge, it's not. Doing the Mana Temple with
an anemic, limited turns wizard, who is never allowed
to smith, pray, or pickpocket... that's difficult : )

Good point about the PC being a bit too uber though,
maybe we should consider restrictions for the next
game. Then again, that would be a hinderance for
many.

Teleporting back to D:1 shouldn't be too irritating.
One really only needs to go to D:32 (maybe check the
casino), then take the shortcut.

[gut]

A double post bump.

[Molach]

Seems I am eligible. Gut, Grey, Meh and Soirana played last

So I got it.

Checking gear.

Equipped TotRR, only weapon skill level 6.
No chaos helm or amulet. Going up to D:1 to check.

Kill some monsters on the way, but even an ancient black wyrm only yields 1 skill point per hit.
Go out through darkforge, enter D:1, and happily finds both crown and amulet next to the stairs. Spend some time fighting monsters (to regenerate PP, mostly, for the rapid descent and rampage on D:50). No I did not pick up the chaos stuff first...

Go down again, teleporting through all levels I can.

D:38 - pick up antennae corruption.

D:50 - Drop Medal and Crown. Dig around to both levers, idea being to close gate while slaying the D:50. I become unsure whether it will open properly again. I decide to do it anyway. When north and south lever-chambers are both cleared, I handle both levers quickly. Immediately enemies start to advance on me...but then their righteous rage turns to panic. I have no intention of fleeing. I teleport into the middle of the centercourt, dual-wielding nonnak and purifier. Let loose the acid rain, surrounded by balors, ghost lords, greater balor and chaos warriors. Take some hits, bringing me down to 630 (from 740) some hits, but then they all start to drop. In the middle of fighting I get the thin and nimble corruption, +6 DV is nice. Big room cleared, I head back east.
Fighting my way through the Writhing masses of purple chaos, I find a potion of uselessness. Hm, what the hell, I think. Go upstairs, throw it. Far slayer, here we come. Hm, shining silver bracers? Okay good enough. Put them on. Fight more, find a potion of toughness and one of gain attributes, and one of education. We now know a little about courage.

Okay, I killed most of the D:50 (some ghosts got away). I teleported to pick up the chaos artifacts, put them on, removed curse on the medal, and handled the levers to re-open chaos gate.

Character is next to the gate now, but there are some things that can be done, if next player wants...

* We have some boost -foo- potions. Mabye some regular stat potions too.
* We have wand of wishing with 4 charges
* We have uncursed ring of djinni summoning, but holy water is going low.

Keep in mind, that we are not para resistant just now, medal of chaos does not grant this like preserver does. Player to enter gate might remember take of chaos stuff and drop it, and wear our helpful stuff instead.

Who feels up to the task? I have completed one or two ultras before, so the honor (or dishonor) goes to someone else.

Sorry I was unable to take video, a bit long game and not really interesting. But last fight can be cool to watch.

Le link: http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/1e871d5f1f_0.37MB

(.vlg is attached .zip)

Good luck.

Rome victor!

[gut]

I got it..

The deed is done. I first planned to kill Andy with missiles,
but changed my mind. I figured Cicero could handle melee, and
that would be a lot less trouble. I used the wishes for healing,
as opposed to speed.

I made a demo, but this is not a 'how you should kill Andy'
video. I was kinda careless because of how overpowered the
PC was, and also because of the long inactive time, I was just
eager to be done with it. I seemed to have forgotten we had
teleportitis, and it screwed me up in the middle of the fight.
It's kind of dull, finding Andy again, but it wasn't too bad.

Here is the demo, it runs ~7 minutes, and is ~100 KB zipped:

http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/56ebcdd633_0.1MB

Here is the same thing in screen.rec form:

http://myfreefilehosting.com/f/fe4e6104ec_0.09MB

Here is the .flg:

[Grey]

Hah, that was great to watch, in particular for how poorly executed it actually was... :P No blessing of the trident, no wish for speed... and Christ, those stat drains are horrendous. And you didn't even remove the stiff muscles corruption from what I saw... After watching that I don't think I will ever melee Andy - far too much trouble!

Good to see we made it though, and wishing for health was certainly inventive since we were lacking in potions (and a nice way to get use out of those wishes at last). Points-wise we're near the very top end for ULEs - in fact there are only 4 higher in the HoF, and two of those used wish engines to increase xp. So well done all round, really quite a fantastic achievement!

[gut]

I just didn't care about doing it optimally : ) The guy was insanely
overpowered, so it just didn't matter. As far as the trouble, the
only annoying part was from goofing up with the teleportitis. If
I hadn't blinked off into la la land, I would have just boringly whacked
him to death in round one. I didn't speed the vid up or anything, that
was really how carelessly I fought. The last PC I fought Andy with,
was anemic by comparison, I had to be careful with him : )

[meh]

Well done, everybody! Would there be interest in starting a new game?

[Molach]

Sure, concept can work for a lot of games, anyone jumps in when they want to have a go.

We need to find something interesting to play next time. Regular Chaos God? Maximum precrown? Or just a regular game with a different (challenging?) class.


By the way, I had to get cicero on my personal high-score list, so I played through the end game (I guess everyone can do this, now that he lived through the "real" game) Really helps to light the torch, and wish for "potions of ultra healing" and 3x"speed" (gave me 950 speed, not even funny) before entering gate. Zapped teleport scrolls instead of using spell too. Never had to use healing, though.

[gut]

Fighting Andy with an uber PC is just too easy. One of the recent entries in
the YAVP section, had mentioned how easy the fight was for their PC, that
they never lost a single HP. I mentioned that was pretty cool, and another
poster said that was actually pretty normal. That's just too easy for the
final fight of the game.

With my ULE PC that I played before Cicero, the fight was challenging
because of low stats, and miserable equipment. I had to be very careful
and strategic, and there was a real chance of defeat, that made it fun.
Cicero on the other hand, was rather a tank. There was absolutely no
challenge to the Cicero vs. Andy fight, and no fun at all. You can use optimal
tactics if you like, but believe me, you don't need them. Even using tactics
like orc barbarian vs. goblin tension room, you are still assured of victory.

For our next challenge game, I propose using a 'no herbs' restriction. That
should eliminate the 'uber' problem, while still allowing a reasonable chance
of victory. Perhaps if that's too severe, we can play with just picking all
the herbs we find 'on sight'. Just no herb 'farming' should provide an adaquate
restriction.

[Baranor]

I would say we are only allowed one wish if necessary to get the amulet. Otherwise we could be there all day and all night.

[M_bowwarrior]

you can start with a caracter created on the 2th of july... :)

[Baranor]

Speaking of which, are we going to get on that?

[Theym]

anyone want to start this back up?

[gut]

set some rules. I'm sure there will be some takers.

[JellySlayer]

I'd suggest starting a new thread if you're serious about this. Otherwise it will be too hard to figure out what's going on.

This will segway nicely into Weakest Link in May.