Some Fun with Statistics

[JellySlayer]

I was feeling a bit bored today, and decided that for my own interest, and possibly later for some use in the Wiki, I'd compile a bit of stats on how common particular winners are. What I ended up doing was going through this forum's YAVP forum, and picking out the class/race of each of the 265 recorded winners. I decided to include all challenge games, simply because I didn't want to have to worry about figuring out whether a challenge was legit or not. So the totals do include a few ironman or eternium man games, as well as regulars and ultras.

The numbers for race winners are pretty much what you might have guessed:
Gray Elf - 47
Drakeling - 41
Dark Elf - 38
Gnome - 32
Dwarf - 25
Hurthling - 21
Human and High Elf - 20 each
Orc - 10
Troll - 8

There are a few surprises in the classes section though:
Wizard - 52
Barbarian and Monk - 23 each
Beastfighter - 20
Paladin - 17
Archer - 16
Assassin - 13
Ranger - 12
Healer, Elementalist, and Bard - 11 each
Priest and Farmer - 10 each
Mindcrafter - 9
Fighter - 6
Merchant and Necromancer - 5 each
Druid and Weaponsmith - 4 each
Thief - 3

Of these, 28 were gray elf wizards, by far the most common winner. If we subtract these out, we find 19 gray elf wins, and 24 wizard wins. I find it interesting that gray elves and high elves have nearly identical win rates with GEWs subtracted out (gray elves still have slightly higher win rates because there were a few, although not many, high elf wizards as well). Orcs and trolls are notably underrepresented in terms of races, which, I'd suggest, has more to do with cosmetics of these races than difficulty per se. Orcs are probably depressed mainly due to the fact that for most classes, dark elves are generally superior thanks to the alertness skill and the increased lifespan. Trolls, while having a rather excellent skillset and starting stats, are hampered by their levelling problems and food consumption issues.

It's interesting to see that the overuse of wizards completely shuts out the otherwise rather good caster classes. Priests, druids, and necromancers are all, I would say, very underplayed (or at least underwon)compared to what might be intuitively expected. Most players typically rank priests in the top 3 or top 5 classes, for example, and although opinions of druids vary, I don't think many people would anticipate them being below farmers, fighters, and merchants. Of course, I should point out, this tally isn't representative of difficulty, but really more about popularity, although more difficult classes are unsurprisingly played less than easy ones, with the exception of farmers. I'd speculate that people looking for a "challenge class" pick farmers disproportionately over thieves and merchants, since farmers have more of a reputation for being rather difficult.

[edit]3 winners didn't bother to record their race, so the numbers for race and class don't exactly match.

[nathrakh]

Surprisingly low amount of troll winners. I've won with a troll twice (3rd win: Dragon-born barbarian & latest, my 14th win: Salamander-born bard) and I have to say that they aren't THAT bad. Levels don't mean much in ADOM, you can rock as much with 20 level character as you'd rock with 30 level one.

I myself cleared the first red dragon vault with the bard when he was ~20level and didn't have more troubles than I did with my other non-troll ones (which were much higher level).


edit: also, the bigger food consumption is a problem only for inexperienced players.. Trolls DO start with food preservation.

edit2: if you want, you may add my unposted PC's to the list: high elf beastfighter, drakish bard, hurthling paladin and that trollish bard.

edit3: after seeing that list, I really want thief to be my next winner... :-)

edit4: oh man, I've totally forgot my gnomish merchant win, I actually have 15 normal wins, not 14. so you may want to add a gnomish merchant there too.

[fazisi]

I don't post my wins.

[Sadface]

Thieves are excellently fun, if you survive past the beginning, and
if you actually use pickpocketing Except when going for an ultra
and wielding a weapon that scores crits vs. Andor, then their lv
25 power can get you killed...

[JellySlayer]

Not everyone does. 265 wins isn't a bad sample size regardless though--I'm assuming that what I've collected is probably reasonably representative, although there's probably a bias toward easier classes since people are more likely to post first or nearly-first wins. If I was feeling really keen (I'm not) I'd add hall of fame winners too.

[nathrakh]

You'd have to check you don't have copies tho. For an example, I've posted same winners here and the HoF.

[Silfir]

The precise fact that trolls are counter-intuitive and frustrating for inexperienced players, and really an acquired taste in general, is the reason they get played so little. Inexperienced players are more likely to post gray elf wizard wins anyway (since the most powerful characters give them the best winning chances).

There also should be a tendency for players to post only their first, or first couple of wins, and neglect the later wins more. Way back I only bothered to record my first four wins or something on the hall of fame.

A list of my wins (in order, mostly, over a rather precisely four year span, curiously):

High Elf Archer (Nov 2005)
High Elf Fighter
Gray Elf Wizard
Orcish Barbarian
Dwarvish Archer
Hurthling Barbarian
Dark Elf Beastfighter
Gray Elf Paladin (somewhere in between, forgot to make a flg for him)
Dwarvish Druid
Gray Elf Priest
High Elf Elementalist (ULE)
Dark Elf Ranger
Gnome Necromancer
Dwarvish Necromancer (four days later, Friday 13th challenge) (Nov. 2009)

Think I got them all. (Why, yes, I do like myself some elves. Sue me.)

[Sadface]

I like elves too.

Sorry

I don't have posts on this site for my priest or thief wins; the
priest crashed for a reason unknown to me (AFTER closing the
gate, on her way back up) and the thief technically died to
Drakon because I didn't know you needed to paralyze him as a
thief or else you get turned into a chaos being by trying to follow
him as he randomly teleports around the floor, stunned.

[zasvid]

If I was feeling really keen (I'm not) I'd add hall of fame winners too.

I have written a program to read the brinkster hall of fame and provide statistics about winners from there, however I have not gotten around to publishing them in an orderly manner (or provide an interface for the program).

[Sami]

I can provide you a list of my 55 winners if you would like to add them (but some of these are already posted in the YAVP forum).

I'm a bit surprised that there are so few hurthlings as it's my favourite race and as far as I know it's also nathrakh's favourite race.