I understand backing up and reloading save games is a common (and frowned upon) practice in the rogue-like community, but this form of scumming can be abused on an extreme level in ADOM by saving right before a game-altering event and reloading until the desired result is obtained. This is particularly abusable in regards to gaming random events and allows for obtaining achievements in the steam release without much investment. A simple setup might look like this:
- Find a pool.
- Save right next to the pool.
- 'D'rink from the pool.
- If you didn't receive a wish (or whatever result you desired), forcibly close the ADOM process without saving.
- Reload game and try again until you receive a wish from the pool.
In this fashion, a player can obtain multiple wishes in a matter of minutes by simply closing and reloading the game. Similarly, they can completely avoid negative outcomes from pools and keep only positive outcomes. This makes tasks such as Ultra Endings MUCH easier by allowing players virtually guaranteed Amulets of Life Saving as soon as they find a pool (or make their way to one of the guaranteed spawns.) A quick trip to Darkforge could garner you all the necessary components to save Khelavaster and complete Gaab'Baay's quests, while granting you teleportitis, teleport control, permanent invisibility, and any many other intrinsics / gear pieces you could want, virtually risk-free. The easiest fix for this is probably to determine pool drinking results at character generation for the guaranteed pools, and on floor generation for randomly spawned pools.
This method can also be used to quickly grab otherwise hard-to-obtain achievements. Since achievements are awarded without saving or completing the game, players can knock them out with relative ease. Take, for instance, the multiple end-game achievements:
- The White Eagle
- Revered Martyr
- The Grey Hawk
- Neutralizer
Normally, obtaining these would require 4 characters to complete Ultra Endings, but they can all be completed with a single character given a little bit of preparation. Simply save right before entering the Chaos Portal, then kill Andor Drakon to unlock one of the achievements, reload, and complete the others.
In the same vein, you could rob the casino, then reload to unlock the achievement, but not face the consequences of the robbery. Story mode has been implemented to allow for saving / reloading in regards to character death, but specifically disables achievements so this method is something of a workaround.
I know steps have been taken in the past to help prevent tampering with save files, and I think taking measures to prevent the RNG abuse would help preserve the difficulty and spirit of the game. Players have to knowingly engage in these tactics, so they're not of terribly high priority to do away with, but their existence allows for a lot of presumably unintended abuse.