Second Win Doldrums

[ScrollOfCureBlindness]

What irony, I am playing a Wand neutral caster right now... and yeah, I usually fate-roll attributes and hope for the best. If RNG has some fun with the stats at the beginning, it might as well turn out well later when it dumps a pool, altar, power surge or overpowered spellbook early on. You never know.

[anon123]

That's just a few steps from rerolling to get certain birth messages. On Creator's Day only. And only allowing a specific set of starting attributes.

I already reroll enough to get decent Learning That's why I was so happy to find jaakkos' program. Before, I was using a batch file to help me run ADOM over and over again until it picked Candle.

[ScrollOfCureBlindness]

Just because the save is generated in a legit way doesn't mean you're not weighing the dice.

[JellySlayer]

I believe that starsigns are random for a reason - it's a bonus, not something you absolutely need to have a say in as opposed to race/class. That's just a few steps from rerolling to get certain birth messages. On Creator's Day only. And only allowing a specific set of starting attributes.
Might as well hack then replicate a fresh save to achieve the same thing...

^

I do this sort of thing a fair bit. Not the hacking the save bit. But I would say that a large majority of my characters are either Candle or Raven born. Depending on what I'm trying to do, I might reroll if I don't like my stats. I have rolled for certain equipment before (eg. wizard speedruns need a teleport book; my paladin speedrun start with a bloody dagger), although if I wanted to do that I'd probably just use the server now. Candle and Raven are the only ones that really change the flavour of the game. Importantly, Candle-borns never need to do the carpenter (err... kill the healer) quest and can always do the druid one. Raven borns get the rune covered trident before the ToEF. And they can escape dangerous fights early on. None of the other starsigns provide any benefits that I particularly care about.

I agree about the question system being mostly a waste of time. Although, from what gut has mentioned before, it is rigged quite favourably to get a lot of learning, so if you're playing an orc druid or something, it might be worth trying to use it, I guess.

I guess it depends a lot on what you want out of your game. If you just want to play whatever and have some fun and see how far you get, then it doesn't really matter about things like starsign or whatnot. If you want to win in <10000 turns, or win with a doomed thief, or beat the game using only acid spit, or beat the ToEF starting with a level 1 character, or whatever, then maybe only specific types of character are going to be useful to you, and the rest are dead on arrival.

[Soirana]

the only case i found questions being worth was hurthling smiths... As they St can't go bellow certain treshold [in order to drag all that smithery stuff and be unburduned] sacking strength in order to gain other tsats works rather well.

[Phoobnahr]

As always in ADOM, it really was mostly a case of carelessness.
As soon as my bad habits were mildly ridiculed away, the first character I rolled up has already made it thoroughly into the mid-game...

Mono the drakish wizard is currently diving into the CoC to save Khelavastar (with my shiny new ring of Djinni Summoning I just found in the Griffyard), and proceed onward to the water temple.
Since its become a topic of discussion in this thread, I'll mention that he also happens to be born in the month of the wand.

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Character Information
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Mono St:25 Le:20 Wi:27 Dx:23 To:24 Ch:16 Ap: 9 Ma:18 Pe:14 N-
DV/PV: 58/17 H: 164(164) P: 187(187) Exp: 17/319438 M: 33458



----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Inventory
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total weight: 2827 stones Carrying capacity: 3375 stones

Head : uncursed leather cap [+0, +3] [5s]
Neck : uncursed ankh [3s]
Body : uncursed ancient mummy wrapping [+1, +5] {Ap-8} [60s]
Girdle : -
Cloak : uncursed cloak of adornment [+0, +0] {Ap+5} [40s]
Right Hand : uncursed mithril scimitar of devastation (+0, 5d8+9) [32s]
Left Hand : uncursed small eternium shield (-2) [+9, +1] [24s]
Right Ring : uncursed ring of damage [1s]
Left Ring : uncursed ring of mental stability [+0, +0] {Le+1} [1s]
Bracers : uncursed bracers of defense [+2, +0] [10s]
Gauntlets : uncursed iron gauntlets "Ironfist" (-1, +0) [+1, +3] {St+7}
Boots : blessed seven league boots [+1, +0] [30s]
Missile weapon: blessed short bow of accuracy (+6, +0) [20s]
Missiles : bundle of 19 uncursed arrows (+0, 1d6) [38s]
Tool : -


----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Stuff
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Total weight: 2553 stones Carrying capacity: 3375 stones


blessed elemental gauntlets (-1, +0) [+0, +3] [10s]

uncursed amulet of death ray resistance [7s]
uncursed amulet of protection from undead [3s]
uncursed black torc [3s]
uncursed blue amulet [3s]
bone amulet [3s]
[20s]
Rings ('=')
uncursed ring of the fish [1s]
uncursed ring of stun resistance [1s]
blessed ring of fire resistance [1s]
blessed ring of djinni summoning [1s]
ring of fire resistance [1s]
Wands ('\')
uncursed wand of stunning (1 charge) [3s]
uncursed wand of light (7 charges) [4s]
cursed steel wand [4s]
uncursed wand of door creation (0 charges) [3s]
uncursed wand of trap creation (2 charges) [3s]
blessed wand of acid (3 charges) [4s]
blessed wand of fireballs (12 charges) [3s]
uncursed wand of wonder (4 charges) [3s]
uncursed wand of door creation (0 charges) [3s]
uncursed bronze wand [4s]
uncursed wand of door creation (6 charges) [3s]
uncursed steel wand [4s]
Potions ('!')
uncursed potion of potential beauty [4s]
uncursed potion of boost dexterity [2s]
uncursed potion of carrot juice [4s]
heap of 2 uncursed potions of invisibility [8s]
cursed potion of carrot juice [4s]
heap of 2 uncursed potions of ultra healing [4s]
uncursed potion of youth [4s]
uncursed potion of poison [4s]
uncursed potion of potential charisma [4s]
uncursed berzio potion [2s]
heap of 2 uncursed potions of raw mana [4s]
heap of 2 uncursed potions of healing [8s]
uncursed potion of beauty [4s]
heap of 5 uncursed potions of extra healing [10s]
heap of 2 potions of holy water [8s]
uncursed potion of training [2s]
uncursed potion of balance [4s]
cursed potion of booze [4s]
uncursed bubbly potion [4s]
blessed mottled potion [2s]
cursed potion of potential learning [4s]
potion of water [4s]
Scrolls ('?')
uncursed scroll of information [2s]
blessed scroll of warning [2s]
uncursed scroll of light [2s]
uncursed scroll of magic mapping [2s]
uncursed scroll of satiation [2s]
uncursed scroll of power [2s]
uncursed ratling pamphlet [2s]
blessed scroll of power [2s]
uncursed scroll of defense [2s]
heap of 2 blessed scrolls of identify [4s]
heap of 2 uncursed scrolls of uncursing [4s]
uncursed scroll of darkness [2s]
uncursed scroll of charging [2s]
uncursed papyrus scroll [2s]
uncursed scroll of item destruction [2s]
uncursed scroll of protection [2s]
blessed scroll of magic mapping [2s]
heap of 2 cursed scrolls of satiation [4s]
blessed scroll of familiar summoning [2s]
uncursed scroll of peace [2s]
uncursed scroll labeled "NADSIL SEETRURA" [2s]
scroll labeled "IDNUM AIROLG TISNART CIS" [2s]

38932 gold pieces [389s]

My mottled potion is a potion of cure corruption. My spell list is pretty excellent, including magic missile, fire bolt, frost bolt, lightning ball, acid ball, darkness, Invisible and teleport, as well as beneficial support spells like slow monster, slow poison, etc.
In my stash I've got spellbooks of fire bolt, acid ball, lightning ball, and teleport...
Still working on getting teleport control

I'm going to try to get precrowned as soon as possible... I've just pacified the big room, and there are stomafillia in there... probably going to go get the ring of the high kings pretty soon as well...

And for the record, I learned my lesson, and am keeping him at coward tactics almost all the time, even though he's pretty beefy for a wizard.

[Silfir]

The precrowning ship has probably sailed. I count at least six, seven if Moon Sickle was generated too, putting you at a minimum level of 26 to precrown. Regular crowning is still pretty sweet, though.

[Phoobnahr]

The precrowning ship has probably sailed.

I came to the same conclusion as soon as I actually counted my artifacts... A shame...

I'm considering trying for an ultra, so I'm not going to get crowned just yet... but if mono isn't looking ultra-worthy then I'll probably just get crowned.
I'm going for the ring of the high kings right now... its looking a bit hairy... might have to come back after clearing the water temple.

I'm fairly nervous about the ToEF... I've actually never lost a character in there, but assuming I make it that far, this'll be my first drakeling to enter the tower. I will definitely be watching your Lets Play tower chapter again Silfir... I think I should be okay, I've got a ridiculous amount of pepper petals, and a good amount of other healing... still gonna have to brush up again on tactics for the Worm...

edit: Got the ring of the high kings... Was a little hairy, but I just tried to keep my distance and pelt him with undead slayers and magic missiles. I almost wish I didn't have such an awesome melee weapon, because it tends to give me the illusion that I'm safe going toe to toe with baddies, which I'm not...

[JellySlayer]

Drakeling in the Tower isn't a problem. It's actually much, much easier, IMHO. You will need to use maybe 1-2 healings because of it, but the Wyrm will be a cinch with 300+ speed.

[Phoobnahr]

Well nevermind about that character...

Lost due to an unexplained crash just after my most successful darkforge raid ever (robes of resistance, eternium two-handed sword of devastation, book of death ray and book of acid bolt).

And having just obtained a giant boar skull, I was ready to make my first attempt at an ultra (my first kill was a mugger, so filk would have been on level one of the ID)

...Didn't fall victim to any of the normal crash causing bugs (didn't drop any ingots, or drop lots on an alter at once, etc), after selling off my loot to waldenbrook, I looked in one of his piles to buy back the cloak of protection I'd sold him, since mine was destroyed in darkforge, and the game immediately crashed.
Its the kind of disheartening crash that really makes a person not want to play ADOM for a really long time, in addition to which, the game won't open again... I restarted and shut down my computer, but to no avail. I remember I had this same issue with winbeta4 on one of my old computers many years ago... when I open the program the first window pops up for a split second before dissapearing without so much as an error message...
I know there's some fairly easy fix for that bug that'll allow me to open to program again, but frankly I don't think I have the heart to go through with it, only too find my character unrecoverable.

Oh well.

Rest in peace Mono