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Thread: I'll never have a character like this again (Rant as well as YASD)

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Posts
    325

    Default I'll never have a character like this again (Rant as well as YASD)

    I think I'm bored of this game.

    Don't get me wrong, that's not an attack on the game. I've gotten 18 years of pleasure out of it. Most games should be so lucky.

    But the fact that I'm angling into very luck-dependent, death-defying types of playstyle in order to maintain my interest suggests to me that it might have run its course for me.

    I've achieved all the main victory types and another mere victory with different R/C's just feels like slightly different ways of doing the same thing... and my brain lacks an appetite for re-solving the same problems.

    It seems a lot of the people on here are not like me in this regard and are happy to do vanilla victories week after week? I am actually curious if this is true or if I'm assuming too much, or if they have any methods of keeping the experience fresh. Because as random as this game is, I feel like I've seen it all for the most part.

    Anyway, for the last year and a half or so I've played the exact same way using the exact same star-sign, race and class, and insisting on the exact same improbable line-up of goals to be met. It seems that the more unlikely the goal, the sweeter it is if it is achieved?

    The character: a book-born ratling assassin.

    The goals (I quit if I fail any of these):
    collect SMC blanket first thing
    Kill Kranach and return his corpse for the end-game message
    Pregenerate the puppy for later rescue
    While not obligitory, I never resist the impulse to go for a precrowning, sometimes two.
    Complete the old barbarian's quest.
    Kill no cats.
    Obtain the tome of donors.
    Save Khelevaster.
    Kill Keriax by day 30.

    Perhaps more achievable for other R/C combo's? Countless ratlings have been tossed into the infernal meat grinder. While I've not kept a tally, I'd guesstimate about 1/8 accomplish the first three goals, and then another 1/10 of those show any promise at all of achieving the next five, and hardly any meet enough progress with enough time left on the clock to achieve the last.

    Enter: my most improbable character.

    There are lots of things I covet for purposes of meeting my checklist. This character had ALL of them, plus extra. It was completely unprecedented, a winning lottery-ticket character, handing me everything on a platter. I don't mean merely rare, I mean I've gone through over a hundred dead ratlings to get a character like this, perhaps many hundreds (not kept count). Keep in mind that none of these things are improbable if you play a character for long enough; it's their timeliness that makes this special.

    Got starting two talents. I don't scum for this, but it's always nice to be three levels ahead with talents. I always choose the same path: the speed talents followed by the archery talents (thinking ahead to slaying the dragon with missiles).

    The highest starting learning score I've ever seen on this R/C combo: 23.

    Found slb's on day 1.

    Killed Kranach in my preferred method, which rarely works: Pull the Sheriff onto the wilderness tile, SHOOT EVERYONE WITHOUT MOVING then pull him into the map and immediately hand the reward over: minimizes chance of the corpse rotting.

    Found altar in the big room in the puppy cave.

    First pre-crown was nature's companion. Speed bonuses are highly valued for keeping the game-clock down to meet my last goal, to the point that I'll even keep the black torc equipped.

    Found a ring of speed and bracers of speed. My speed score was 140-something when unencumbered and not bloated when artifacts were equipped.

    After eating Keethrax and oracle and drinking a blessed potion of learning, learning score was 31. The corruption was teleportation, plus I had eaten a blink dog earlier AND I had a ring of teleport control as backup. Makes exploration a lot quicker.

    A random statue gave me two rings of (n)ice. So now I had two reasons (the other being the fireproofing armour) to be ready for fire tower.

    Found a strength of atlas tome. Ever since the addition of ego items, I am loathe to potentially pass up on an un'id'd valuable weapon or armour. Plus the extra cash is nice, selling heaps of weapons at a time. But I hate walking around encumbered as it slows me down and keeping the game clock low is a priority. So this solves that.

    I dared to read the tome once I got the high learning score and 90+ literacy, and was successful. And then I found a book store with two more atlas books!

    After a potion of raw mana and training up the effectiveness a bit, I was able to keep the spell on permanently, despite no concentration. Perfect. I also had a pile of about 10 scrolls of power, just in case.

    Moldy dungeon was in a convenient place, got the donor tome.

    By day 13 I had cleared more than I had ever cleared before at this point on the clock: several random dungeons, discovered dwarftown, killed master necromancer, reached ice queen.

    For perspective, my next-most successful character game clock wise was a char that found quicksilver quarterstaff in smc and slb's, and he only REACHED the master necromancer's level on day 15! And he didn't have atlas tome or nearly as good stats or speed.

    Also dropped into darkforge briefly, was able to kill a steel golem with ring of damage equipped and an adamantium rapier I purchased earlier, but I didn't feel I had high enough pv to risk the dungeon what with the random teleportation risk.

    I'll be honest, I think this is the first time I seriously thought I might actually get anywhere with my stupid goal of killing the dragon on day 30.

    So I'd been playing a long time and had already saved my char and was going to go to bed. I ate a snack, then decided to fire up the game again and play a little more. I went to the frost giant cave.

    I had two potential strength potions, blessed and drank them, my str was 20 and my potential now 27. First frost giant corpse gave me a str boost (which was the main reason I went there).

    I think back now and I ask myself what I was thinking: didn't I know? I am pretty sure I understood the damage potential of these enemies, especially the berserkers and their burst damage. I was able to get off a berserk hit without being hit back, then switched to defensive and hit again, and never took damage. Then due to clumsy fingers I hit berserk mode on the round that I would get hit back, and the berserker got off a crit followed by a normal hit and that was the end of me.

    I've been through painful char deaths before, but I've become hardened to it over the years. This is the first that stung in a long time, because the haunting words keep coming back to me, 'I'll never have a char like this again.'

    I think I need to take up a more benign vice, like alcoholism.
    Last edited by auricbond; 06-08-2017 at 05:04 PM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Posts
    701

    Default

    It seems like the challenge you set for yourself is more about extreme start-scumming than actual difficulty. Not really surprising that it's making you bored, frustrated, and sloppy.

    Have you tried Lithium man? It changes the game a lot by removing many guaranteed resources and no-brainer areas. Takes me back to those unspoiled days when I was getting murdered in ToEF all the time.

    Other silly challenges I've played to keep things interesting:
    • Unarmed-only mist elf necromancer
    • Dual-wield-melee-only mist elf ranger OCG
    • No-pickup man (no auto-pickup, no use of pick up commands except for the chaos orbs - not finished with this one yet)

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