Animated forest of tedium

[YourMum]

So I haven't done the animated forest in years due to increased confidence, knowledge of the game and it just being a waste of my time. Now the DH is a 2 level deathtrap I find myself looking at the animated forest a bit more favourably. Accept it's nothing like i remember. About 3 in 4 trees are hostile and there seems to be so many more of them, or at least less free space. This is results in quickly becoming surrounded with trees, most of which won't move if there's space (which there probably isn't) because they want to attack you. I've managed to get across and back ok, but it's has taken me (not the character) far too long to do it. I think my character, a dwarf monk, had it fairly easy with high st, to, pv and dv, all the nice monk talents, and a ring of invisibility. Is it me or is it worse? How are people getting across with doing the DH? I'm gunna use the darkforge backdoor when i next have to decend that far. I know it's a bug exploit but i think it's worth the boredom or certain death.

[taickyto]

I almost always go through DH, because the Animated Forest takes, as you say, way too much time.
When I truly have to cross the forest, I either have a character that can just hold 7 (but you can obviously not do it too much times, as the trees soon turn into balor trees) or I just dig a convenient path in the walls, where only a few trees will be generated.
Or you can just have a wizard with 99 willpower and work your way by fireballing everything

[SirTheta]

AF probably needs to be toned down more. I don't know if something changed in p21/p22, but its tedium was reduced in some prerelease, and I went through it afterwards and it was an okay area. Maybe something changed in p21/p22, but 3/4 trees hostile sounds like either exaggeration or huge change accidentally implemented.

taickyto: Holding any key is an awful idea... Just take your time and play carefully.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I went through AF recently in p22 after fleeing like a chicken from an ancient karmic dragon guarding the downstairs of DH:2, and I didn't find any difference with respect to previous versions.

[YourMum]

no exaggeration! occasionally a path would open and i'd wriggle through then i'd find myself surrouded. a quick 'l'ook around and best 2 of the 8 trees surrounding me would not be hostile. occasionally yeah it might be 3, but occasionally they'd all hostile too. i found a helm of teleportation and a book of far sight so i could hop between holes in the trees, but there does seem to be more than before (god knows what version that was, before 1.1.1 probably), maybe due to the general increased monster numbers. sadly the decreased hostility found everywhere else hasn't reached the forest. i've taken to big punching a path through the forest, but this was a quest i could do even elven wizards holding a couple of sheilds and gulping down a few potions of invisibility. not anymore! probably just a bunch of monk-haters

[sylph]

I think the forest is a *lot* less tedious now that we can see which trees are hostile. I really like it as it is!

[heavensblade23]

It's a super annoying area I dread having to deal with, especially multiple times. I wish there was some kind of shortcut opened up after you've passed through it once, maybe back to DT after completing the quest?

[Dlightfull]

I don't know if the forest has changed, but i remember passing through it easier in 1.1.1 than in p20. It's only easy to pass through it if you have on demand controlled teleportation, otherwise you get surrounded frequently and have to skip turns untill a gap opens up.

[Booster]

I don't mind the animated forest too much - if you have invis it doesn't take THAT long to get through. There are not nearly as many trees as there used to be so you never have to wait more than few turns to move. If you have on demand TP one thing I like to do is dig a small section right next to each stairs and put a door there (leaving one space behind the door to jump to) - makes it pretty quick to get through.

I attempted to go through the DH and cleared a tension room of clay golems, but when a Titan dropped me to 1/3rd HP I got my scrawny wizard behind out of there pronto. Won't be going back there anytime soon :)

[YourMum]

If you have on demand TP one thing I like to do is dig a small section right next to each stairs and put a door there (leaving one space behind the door to jump to) - makes it pretty quick to get through.

i was wondering about that, whether it filled the screen as much as the big room does and how much you can dig in it...

i've just taken to tanking from one side to the other swinging big punch now. slow but steady going.

[JellySlayer]

If you have invis and dual shields (100 stealth is probably good enough too), it takes only a few minutes to get to the other side. Without invis, it's much more tedious because the hostile trees will slowly congregate around you.

I've seen people dig tunnels to pass parts of the AF before. I think you can definitely make one across the bottom row. Don't remember about the top. Definitely not the sides.

[GordonOverkill]

It's extremely easy with 7LBs, very high speed, teleportitis plus controll etc. Crossed the forest with 7LBs in 2:07 minutes in one of my recent episodes. With slower chars i usually walk close to the walls and fight hostile trees during the turns when there is no chance to progress. It's a little tedious but not too bad in my eyes.

[sylph]

It's extremely easy with 7LBs, very high speed, teleportitis plus controll etc. Crossed the forest with 7LBs in 2:07 minutes in one of my recent episodes. With slower chars i usually walk close to the walls and fight hostile trees during the turns when there is no chance to progress. It's a little tedious but not too bad in my eyes.

This is almost how I approach it, but I tend to stay away from the walls wherever possible, and move into a blank square even if it doewsn't get me closer to my goal, as long as it isn't moving away. This stops me getting surrounded.

[Stingray1]

If you have invis and dual shields (100 stealth is probably good enough too), it takes only a few minutes to get to the other side. Without invis, it's much more tedious because the hostile trees will slowly congregate around you.

I've seen people dig tunnels to pass parts of the AF before. I think you can definitely make one across the bottom row. Don't remember about the top. Definitely not the sides.

You can dig a tunnel on all four sides I'm assuming then, because the last time I did my tunnels were on the right side and top and it came down from the top on the left to next to the stairs there.

[Tyrnyx]

I'm fairly sure it has the same dimensions as the big room. You can tunnel right (and block the path with a door and then use wands [for speed, or just continue digging but it's far so chances of a broken pickaxe before you finish are rather high] to tunnel up and then left around it all. It's definitely wasteful on digging resources but if you got a lot and your DH are deadly (as they do seem in the new prereleases) then it can be worth it if your going to go back and forth a couple times and don't want to lose your mind.

[Stingray1]

Yes, typically I pass through the forest around 6-8 times a game. It's not all that tedious really. You must just make sure to get into openings when they appear and kill off the hostile trees.

[YourMum]

Well yeah that's what I used too do, invisibility, double shields, wait for the spaces etc. I guess I'm just unlucky!

[Blasphemous]

I have no problem with the forest as it is.
It has always been a choice between tedium and danger.
I usually have no problems getting through the forest without harm and I normally do so only twice or three times.
Once I discover the other side of DH, I have the whole place mapped and with 1-2 potions of booze and guaranteed wand of tele, I subsequently take DH path every time.
Occasionally with some nasty stuff spawning there, I might consider returning later or going through the forest again but really, how often do you actually have to pass through the forest in the course of a single game?
2-4 times is typically maximum in my case and it's always doable, without having to kill a single tree while there, only some that will follow me down/upstairs.

EDIT: Digging a tunnel doesn't help. The trees will be spawned there.

[Tyrnyx]

I think it's changed during new prerelease. The pictures of the dwarven halls look stupid difficult - I'm fairly sure now it would require major luck to cross safely or 1 blessed scrolls of magic mapping + wands of tele + booze and it'd still might be a risk.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

I think it's changed during new prerelease. The pictures of the dwarven halls look stupid difficult - I'm fairly sure now it would require major luck to cross safely or 1 blessed scrolls of magic mapping + wands of tele + booze and it'd still might be a risk.
That was in p21, but in p22 that was tweaked and it should be back to normal (I say "should" because I haven't played enough games to be sure if it really is, but in the game I did play, it seemed fine, exciting as before but not impossible with some skill and luck).

[YourMum]

Probably slightly less insane but my last character that got there entered DH1 in dark room. Monster detected and found the place was packed, and there were 3 monsters in the fairly smaller-than-average room i was in. All typical nasty DH stuff with a few greater-nasties. Obviously I left the lights off and fled tail between my legs. After leveling up a bit and going through the forest I tried going up through DH2. Same detail, about 4 or 5 monsters, giants, a red quickling (a queen?), usual stuff. Again I ran.

This is my problem. What I liked about it previously was that there was a chance to creep through in your tip-toes like a hobbit hoping to avoid the 5 or 6 proper hard monsters, doubling back if ever there was trouble, trying to find a different route, coming back with another plan if my route to the other stairs became blocked. Really thrilling stuff, and made you have think and use every trick in the book if you couldn't just fight and teleport your way to the goal. With 30-odd monsters on each level and a decent-sized welcome party by each staircase this can't happen.

I have to say this though: with a lot more monsters being generated non-hostile (not gunna call them friendly!) things probably wouldn't have been that bad. Maybe 3 out of 5 hostile and there would be a good chance some of those would be attacking each other. Makes traversing such areas a little easier.

[Qui]

Well I found DH in p23 almost empty. DH:1 generated with 6 monsters, DH:2 with 31 (but most were locked in a tension room). What was left roaming around was fairly high-level, but not overwhelmingly so, I remember fire giant, frost giant jarl, hydra, greater mummy...

[YourMum]

Arrgghh I forget about p23! I've been trying to finish my last p22 game so I haven't downloaded it yet. Good to hear that.