Longest time played before first victory?

[steveie986]

It was about 11 years, I think I started playing ADOM in the early 2000's, and my first win was in 2013.

I have to agree with the expansiveness of the game which surprised me. In some cases I wish I didn't spoil myself and found things on my own (HMV, temples, etc)

Yes, exactly. The first couple of years I played with no spoilers at all because I didn't have internet at home. It took me ages to figure out that the Infinite Dungeon was not the Village Dungeon. I'll never forget the first time I emerged from UD:8 into HMV. And the first time I discovered Dwarftown I was so thrilled I literally had goosebumps. Modern day gaming with its HD graphics can never watch the wonder of those ASCII characters. There are no moments in Dragon Age 6 or GTA 10 (or whatever) as breathtaking as that first glimpse of Dwarftown. There were times when I would dream in ASCII.

[plllizzz9]

Around three years for first win, then one for second...

Now I'm getting one almost every week. Practice makes perfect.

[Carter]

really depends what class you started playing too.

if you played elementalist/wizard first then most people will win within a year of steady play i would think. I can win about 80% of games with those two classes because it is simply a matter of not making any howling mistakes. And even then you can normally teleport away.

Archer is inbetween melee/magic and is pretty strong too once you get the mechanics right.

Whereas trying to play melee for your first win is very difficult and also kind of relies on strong weapons. You don't see that many "first win" posts where the player finished with an eternium halberd. 90% of them will be someone got vanquisher/executor etc.

[heavensblade23]

Around one month. With lots of help from the community and Guidebook, of course, but still very impressive.

A guy on SomethingAwful won after a week or two. He was a NetHack master already though.

[Paul 1602]

Not as good as some others, but I think it took me about 5 months, not completely spoiled, but I had a pretty ok idea of what was coming.
It was an orcish beastfighter that pretty much rushed through most of the game and closed the gate at lvl 37 xD kind of low for a beastfighter, but it worked
And I think it was pretty much my first serious beastfighter attempt, and my 5th-ish beastfighter overall.

[blunk]

So is this the bragging area about how bad I am?
I played this in mid ninties w/o internet guides, so cool when I once managed to get the gladius, was a kickass weapon that I gladly used to stomp down CC and of course died horribly below dwarf town.
Have tried it from time to time and finally made some progress in later years.
No, I've still not nearly finished the game but I don't play it so often, part reason it's sooo unforgiving and difficult.
I often bring it for holidays since it's playable on whatever old laptop I bring with me and doesn't require internet (although wiki certainly helps).
If I get to it I will maybe do some horrible let's plays 2015 (why on earth anyone would watch it ...) .

[BrianL]

I started playing in 2004. For a long time, I played unspoiled and had no idea what I was doing. I remember finding a stone spear of devastation early with my DE necromancer and asking my friend who introduced the game to me if that was good. I first beat the game in 2012 so it took a good eight years of on and off again playing. My first win was a ULE, though—I was (and am) pretty obsessed with the idea of saving Khelevaster. Since then, I had a string of stupid deaths mixed with another ULE and a UCG. One of my UCG candidates forgot to w5 on D:50 until becoming extremely corrupted and another character could bookcast wish, but starved to death because of the then new changes to the satiation mechanisms in regards to casting against health. I'm glad I won just in case I fall away for a few years here and there in the future. Mostly I don't have a lot of time these days.