my stupid newbie questions

[gosos]

Ill keep these to the same thread. I have played some rogue likes before. I generally suck at them. Read some newbie guys and doing the Troll bezerker start with Candle. Save scummed the start so I don't have to keep logging in.
Started with Quick and Healthy. Not sure if that is good or not.

1. command issue. What is :w How do I do that? \m appears to be alt. \c appears to be control
2. how do i keep him fed? I die alot running out of food. I don't get enough corpses in the newb dungeon unless I am lucky. I did get food preservation.
3. i need to take my armor off right to do the true bezerk? I think I saw that in a newbie video. I don't remember.
4. what talents should I focus on? What skills. I know its open to debate. Two weapon skill seems useless since for a troll 2 handed weapons seem best. Is survival important due to food issues? Any other tips?

[St. Viers]

1. Just press shift+colon and the w. It's that easy XD
2. You'll probably need to buy some food, and make sure to eat all the safe corpses that drop (holding onto any rations you find until you get hungry). Early game maybe stair-hop in the ID to generate a fair pile of food items (rations/melons, etc)
3. IIRC you can't be wearing any defensive items except gloves rings and (?)bracers.
4. Getting food preservation to 60 (and then 80 i believe) doubles it's chance to generate corpses. Survival isn't too useful, because it takes lots of time, and is unreliable until you get it pretty high. Athletics is a good skill, as is Herbology (higher levels means almost no chance of cursed herbs, and having blessed stomafilla herbs will solve your food problem until you reach the colosseum (where you can buy cooked lizards, leaving your stomoafilla free to get crowned with)

[gosos]

thanks more questions.

Ill probably restart to go for treasure hunter. Ill have to generate until i get another candle

1. any setting to remind me i am starving? I miss the message quite a bit.
2. how do i use herbology? do items just show up? are there key levels for this?
3. are weapon talents important to trolls? with my restart i am going to alert (since I need for treasure hunter) and not sure what else.
4. any other newbie race/class combos that are good? any recommended talents? Id like to try a few different things. any star signs to go along with those?
5. i found a cooking net and saw that i can cook. how would i do this if i had the skill?
6. any safe places to drop items I don't want to sell?

[gosos]

one other question. i have read the wiki and parts of the manual. how does aging and lifespan work? is this only a problem with aging attacks? or does the game go on for years in game and you just get old?

[anon123]

1. any setting to remind me i am starving? I miss the message quite a bit.

There's a setting to flash the screen when you're starving, and it's enabled by default, but it doesn't work under Windows. Just keep an eye in the status bar. If you use walk commands (w + the direction you want to walk towards), the game will stop you every time.

2. how do i use herbology?

'a'pply the skill while standing on an herb bush. The game will tell you its status on a successful check, and whenever you stand there again. "Full of blossoms" = you can safely pick herbs at least twice, "strong" = you can safely pick herbs at least once, "withered" = the next pick could kill the bush. The higher your Herbalism is, the lower the chances of decreasing a bush's status when picking.

do items just show up? are there key levels for this?

Can you elaborate on this?

3. are weapon talents important to trolls? with my restart i am going to alert (since I need for treasure hunter) and not sure what else.

4. any other newbie race/class combos that are good? any recommended talents? Id like to try a few different things. any star signs to go along with those?

Elf wizards and archers are good, although the low Toughness makes early game somewhat difficult. Monks are very powerful if you can deal with the encumbrance and armor restrictions. Orc and troll barbarians start pretty strong. Drakeling paladins also seem like a good combo.

Popular talent lines are the speed and PV-related ones. They will let you survive or outrun early-game threats.

We have an ADOM wiki where this sort of question is answered in articles, I'll drop a few links here for you to read.

http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Classes
http://ancardia.wikia.com/wiki/Star_sign

5. i found a cooking net and saw that i can cook. how would i do this if i had the skill?

'a'pply it.

6. any safe places to drop items I don't want to sell?

Some people like using the old barbarian's glade for storage. It's immediately available in a game, and if you only spend the amount of time needed to drop stuff and leave, the barbarian himself will never pick your items up. Once you have access to on-demand, controlled teleportation, the dwarven mystic's room in Dwarftown is also nice. Without teleportation, it's completely isolated from the rest of the level.

how does aging and lifespan work? is this only a problem with aging attacks? or does the game go on for years in game and you just get old?

Yes. You do age naturally as in-game time passes, but this won't be a problem even for the most short-lived races. What you have to watch out for are aging attacks from ghosts of all kinds (even bats) and later in the game, shadow wyrms. Attack these from a distance and don't let them corner you.

[grobblewobble]

I die alot running out of food.

If you're burdened your food consumption increases. Strained, even more. So if you're low on food, make sure you don't carry too much.

Also visit the ratling traders near the arena and buy cooked lizards.

[ghostrobotmoonzombie]

as a barbarian lover i think you'll have an easier time with a candle orc or dark elf as appossed to the troll. While orcs have a low lifespan they dont hunger as fast as trolls and you will level quicker and your str and to will still be pretty high, they also get find weakness. Dark Elf barbs are ok, they have a very long lifespan and once you get a better weapon and toughness things will get easier, they also get find weaknes and alertness. human barbarians always start with an amulet of luck and a two handed sword.

you can true beserk with a shield also which is nice if you have a great one hander.

[Mobius]

Also should know that it's rare to get new skills.

Also you have not asked about 'c'hating or quests. You should!

[gosos]

1. how do i identify as a barbarian? I cant read scrolls?
2. tried a sword orc barb. didnt want to keep restarting for candle. seems ok. how is this?
3. my spear broke. do weapons and armor break from use? Im not sure how it happened. I must have missed the weapon. so do i have to keep getting new weapons?
4. not sure what to do after i finish the starter dungeon. got to level 7 and tried the puppy cave and got owned on level 7. I have healing now on my orc.
5. i have treasure hunter. what other talents should i get? without the ability to ID, im not sure how useful treasure hunter is for a barb.

[Pim]

Identifying stuff with an illiterate character:

If you've been to a town with a shop, most likely Barnabas' Black Market in Lawenilothehl, then make sure you walk over every item they have for sale. That will allow you to recognize those items if you come across one later in your adventures (or if you already have one in your pack).

You can also try using any item (wear it, zap it, drink it, etc.), though of course, that involves a much larger risk.

There is a quest available later on, in Dwarftown, which will allow illiterate characters to learn to read. It's also possible that eating the corpse of a really smart monster could suddenly make you literate. "Sage," perhaps? I don't recall exactly.

Food consumption:

You can't be too careful when it comes to starving to death. If you're running low on rations, stop what you're doing and go back to Munxip's food shop, and buy more food. Eat it, then buy more to carry with you. If you don't generate money fast enough to keep yourself fed in this way, then know that there are several factors by which you may be able to reduce your food consumption:

1. Don't carry too much weight
2. Don't be a troll
3. Don't be invisible
4. Don't wear artifacts
5. Don't spend so much time wandering around in the wilderness

Being able to cook your food is HUGE, as it doubles the satiation value you get from corpses. If you are lucky enough to be able to cook, then do it every time; it is surprisingly effective even at lower skill levels.

The Survival skill is not very useful for preventing starvation, because using the skill takes up large amounts of time (meaning you will get hungry again soon), and achieving success with the skill only provides a small amount of food (roughly 20% of the value of a ration).