[QUOTE=shockeroo;112749]Only 2% of Steam players have an ADOM win, compared to say, the 23% that hit level 10. So I'd say a huge proportion of the player base struggle to get far into the game.[/QUOTE
Hand-picked statistics and out of context citation can win any argument....
Only ~4% get water orb, same for fire. So given permadeath I think quote is right, late game (post ToEF) is not a point of struggle.
7.3% killed Rehettep, what is not that far from level 10 and not that hard to do, yet ~2/3 drop. I don't believe game's dificulty kicks in or having Alertness/FW starts to matter.
Adm does reasonably good job in the Terinyo through quests. Once player gets to DT things get worse... in my unspoiled days I was past Casino without ever doing dwarven quest... Guess what... you will never learn WTF you should do if you have hard times for surviving for awhile.
So far rolled 15 casters with RoDS and shamelessly killed them within 200 turns. For eternium glory!
(after 15 I stopped counting...)