Cause of death: Pool abuse

[JellySlayer]

A note on the doomed/curse thing, I happened upon the fact that one of those statuses gives you random encounter after random encounter in the wilderness so is a good way to get a scum load of arrows. Then you can just pray your troubles away depending on your standing with your local god/dess

As long as you don't mind also running the risk of fighting a bazillion jackals. You also have to use an altar to treat curse/doom. Prayer won't work.

I normally sip pools very early in the game or not at all. If I'm desperate to get an intrinsic, or, less commonly, a wish, I might try the pool lottery later in the game if I have a spare blink dog corpse or a ring of teleport control, and way to treat dooming. I also tend to play a lot of drakelings and other short-lived races, so I'm cautious about sipping too late in the game. While it is possible to lose any years that you've gained by sipping, in my experience, it rarely balances it out that way. For specific challenge games, there's some added reasons to sip: if I'm playing a doomed PC anyway, the chance of getting para resist or perma invis outweighs almost all of the risks. In a speedrun, if you haven't run into any blink dogs yet, pool sipping is the desperate man's method of getting teleport control.

For nateskeez, I guess the question is: how pissed off would you be if sipping resulted in this character's death? If level 12 is a rare and happy opportunity for you, taking unnecessary risks is probably not prudent--there are other ways to most of the best intrinsics.

[anon123]

Sorry for the thread resurrection, but I don't like to create new topics if I don't have to. So, I was wondering, what is everyone's current stance on pool-sipping?

I only drink from pools if I'm not very satisfied with a particular PC, and getting something nice from sipping (like +Invi, nice intrinsics and of course a wish) would make the difference between resuming gameplay or quitting.

With serious PCs that have made it far in the game, I think of colored zeros as +Curs +Doom +Tele -TCtr machines and treat them as such, even if I have means of removing bad luck and reacquiring good intrinsics. Most of them are available via corpses, guaranteed artifacts or easily-attained items.

You also have to use an altar to treat curse/doom. Prayer won't work.

I thought your deity can remove cursing and dooming via prayer if your piety is really high?

ironcash, if you want to doom yourself to milk wilderness encounters, javelins of doom (missiles!) and weapon of damnation are probably the best way. They can be removed at will.

[nateskeez]

For nateskeez, I guess the question is: how pissed off would you be if sipping resulted in this character's death? If level 12 is a rare and happy opportunity for you, taking unnecessary risks is probably not prudent--there are other ways to most of the best intrinsics.

True.
Level 12 is not too rare for me, but I still have yet to actually finish a game after playing ADOM for 7 years (safe to say I suck).
I was a bit happy about this PC though, because I had already obtained Serpent's Bite and a fair amount of slaying ammo. Unfortunately, none of that mattered long after my initial post. A damn lightning vortex ended up right next to me when I went down to the next level. I had one chance for a move, and had no construct slaying ammo yet. I critically damaged it with one shot, but with my abysmally low max HP, it killed me with it's utterly predictable kamikaze. Bah!
Time to start a new game...

[grobblewobble]

So, I was wondering, what is everyone's current stance on pool-sipping?

After having bad luck sipping a few times, I became a pool hater. I will only sip if I have a means to deal with dooming, sickness, water elementals and losing TCtrl.. and even then, only if I have to. But admittedly, for a brand new character it's an interesting gamble. Fasizi had a point, never drinking from pools is a bit boring.

[Silfir]

I pool sip for a wish or not at all. I generally try to have doom-removing piety by then.

[anon123]

True.
Level 12 is not too rare for me, but I still have yet to actually finish a game after playing ADOM for 7 years (safe to say I suck).

Relax, you'll eventually make it. I've also been playing for a rather long time (late 2006), and only scored a victory quite recently. Even then, I'm not sure it technically qualifies, since that PC has yet to leave the Drakalor Chain. That's barring savescummed wins, of course, of which I have a couple made around 3 years ago. It was nice to see D:50 by myself for the first time.

A damn lightning vortex ended up right next to me when I went down to the next level. I had one chance for a move, and had no construct slaying ammo yet. I critically damaged it with one shot, but with my abysmally low max HP, it killed me with it's utterly predictable kamikaze. Bah!
Time to start a new game...

Did you have any potions of invisibility, scrolls/crystals of darkness or wands of teleportation in your inventory? Any of them could have saved your life. Vortices don't explode in the dark and won't blow up in your invisible face unless you provoke them.

[nateskeez]

Relax, you'll eventually make it. I've also been playing for a rather long time (late 2006), and only scored a victory quite recently. Even then, I'm not sure it technically qualifies, since that PC has yet to leave the Drakalor Chain. That's barring savescummed wins, of course, of which I have a couple made around 3 years ago. It was nice to see D:50 by myself for the first time.

Congrats on that win. I've never savescummed. It's been really tempting, but I want to win a game the first time without dying. Obviously, with my play style, It will probably take me another 10 years, but hey, I'm havin fun.

Man! I totally forgot about vortices and darkness! That's exactly what I need to keep reminding myself: that this game is turn-based. I need to stop and think more, especially in dangerous situations. I'm just so tired of playing the early game over and over and over that I sometimes try to rush through it. Thanks again for reminding me!

[anon123]

Congrats on that win. I've never savescummed. It's been really tempting, but I want to win a game the first time without dying. Obviously, with my play style, It will probably take me another 10 years, but hey, I'm havin fun.

Thank you, and that's what matters - having fun! As an anecdote, I remember that when I was really new to the game, and not as spoiled as now, I didn't care about star sign, starting equipment, stats or anything... I just kept on generating new PCs that would end up dead pretty quickly in the ID, which I thought was the main dungeon. But it didn't matter, I was enjoying the game.

Man! I totally forgot about vortices and darkness! That's exactly what I need to keep reminding myself: that this game is turn-based. I need to stop and think more, especially in dangerous situations. I'm just so tired of playing the early game over and over and over that I sometimes try to rush through it. Thanks again for reminding me!

You're welcome. Darkness is pretty overpowered, in general. Many early-game threats (and even some later ones like titans) can't see in the dark and will just stand there waiting for you to kill them (unless they panic). Just make sure they don't stand in a doorcase tile, which due to a bug lets them see you - I suffered a vortex-assisted YASD that way.