Favorite Companions and Training Sites

[Dodger]

Simple topic. I learned just tonight that the animated forest is amazing for training up killer bugs, if you're lucky enough to manage to tame one. If you lose sight of the stairs under all the mountains of loot, head to the other side of the room and 'L'ook at the squares until it tells you there's loot and stairs in the same tile. The respawn rate means there's never a shortage of targets, and the bug pulls aggression onto itself just by killing the first couple of things. I didn't time it, but it felt like only twenty minutes before mine hit level 29.

How about you all? What's your favorite training site and favorite companion?

[grobblewobble]

My favourite companion is the berserker emperor. His main weakness is having zero PV. But this can be fixed. As long as it is hostile, it will pick up armor and equip it. It will gain the bonuses from this armor but no penalties. So ideally, you should let it pick up and equip a moloch armor. Then you can tame it easily afterward with a wedding ring.

Can't say much about training sites, the animated forest sounds very good.

[anon123]

My favourite companion is the berserker emperor. His main weakness is having zero PV. But this can be fixed. As long as it is hostile, it will pick up armor and equip it. It will gain the bonuses from this armor but no penalties. So ideally, you should let it pick up and equip a moloch armor. Then you can tame it easily afterward with a wedding ring.

Can't say much about training sites, the animated forest sounds very good.

This strategy is limited to ladies only after the prerelease 7 - wedding rings tame berserkers of the opposite gender now, and only regular berserkers can be female Otherwise, it's a good idea. If you let them equip some spare shields and armor they could get awesome PV and DV. I recall reading someone got to haul the Chaos trinity without getting corrupted using what would be an abusive relationship: make the berserker hostile, let them pick up the items, then give another wedding ring.

As for the original question, I imagine quickling queens would go nuts in the animated forest

[_Ln_]

This strategy is limited to ladies only after the prerelease 7 - wedding rings tame berserkers of the opposite gender now, and only regular berserkers can be female Otherwise, it's a good idea. If you let them equip some spare shields and armor they could get awesome PV and DV. I recall reading someone got to haul the Chaos trinity without getting corrupted using what would be an abusive relationship: make the berserker hostile, let them pick up the items, then give another wedding ring.

As for the original question, I imagine quickling queens would go nuts in the animated forest

Did I miss a bug report? Why would TB do that, this mechanic was hilarious

On a related thought, two rfe's are in order:
1) Allow 'g'iving intelligent companions pieces of armor to equip.
2) Allow wishing for female variations of a monster.

[Blasphemous]

I normally play solo but on rare occasions when I have a companion, it's usually one that can be tamed with music (I love playing bards) and thus - killer bugs, like OP said.
Endless abundance in case your current bug dies, they are deadly starting from exp lvl 1, always catch up with the player due to high speed, don't summon useless hordes of monsters, don't cast bolts, throw rocks or shoot projectiles. The only downside is when you step on a fireball trap or kick trapped door and they explode. In that case, a hostile Killer Bug is exactly that - killer - and when its level is high, not even high lvl PCs can survive that.

[anon123]

Did I miss a bug report? Why would TB do that, this mechanic was hilarious

http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=1360

Looks like it was one of those "Kelly wasn't meant to be permainvis" bugs.

On a related thought, two rfe's are in order:
1) Allow 'g'iving intelligent companions pieces of armor to equip.
2) Allow wishing for female variations of a monster.

I'd upvote those. Companions don't currently pick up any items because anything they get their hands on before the player effectively becomes unavailable unless they're killed (that's official). I'm thinking you shouldn't be able to give them things like the Chaos orbs or trinity to equip though, because losing a companion in the Pyramid or Minotaur Maze and being unable to return would make the game unwinnable (very unlikely to happen, but people have done crazier things).

[Stingray1]

Well, you can't have 'companions' carry artifacts for you currently anyway. Monsters don't pick up artifacts, which is stupid and unnecessary.

I honestly don't get the argument for the game not being winnable. It can still be ended by quitting or leaving the chain or dying. If a player is stupid enough to make it unwinnable, too bad.

[anon123]

I honestly don't get the argument for the game not being winnable. It can still be ended by quitting or leaving the chain or dying. If a player is stupid enough to make it unwinnable, too bad.

ADOM can be highly unfair at times, and I do like it that way, because in principle you always have the possibility of coming ahead despite those shortfalls, and it is greatly satisfying to achieve it. But you don't have that with actions that make the game unwinnable (even if some of them you pretty much have be spoiled about and, indeed, do in purpose).

I think TB expressed a similar viewpoint in the bug tracker as his motivation to fix anything that causes those scenarios.

[Silfir]

My favorite companion is my own soul-crushing loneliness. I don't have to wait for it to catch up when I reach the down staircases, because it will never, ever leave my side for even a second.

[grobblewobble]

My favorite companion is my own soul-crushing loneliness. I don't have to wait for it to catch up when I reach the down staircases, because it will never, ever leave my side for even a second.

My honest answer too, actually.