Animated Forest = Scumming?

[idoru]

While reading the endless debate on whether or not Treasure Hunter is a worthwhile talent, I noticed that of all the scummy ways to generate a lot of items, using the banshee in the Animated Forest was not mentioned. I do this with quite a lot of my characters (those that make it that far, anyway), and was curious if this is thought of as scumming for items.

[Elone]

Scumming or not, dont worry about it, cuz it's not a bad thing. Many people tag some methods as 'near-cheating' and they call 'scummers' inexperienced cheaters. Savescumming is the only bad form of scumming, and that's because it takes advantage of software from OUTSIDE of the game itself.

What I'm saying is, just because scumming can break a game, doesnt mean that it's a bad taboo and/or a shame. Stairhopping is not a CHEATING anymore; since we have this 1.1.1 version of ADOM which wont be updated anymore, it has become a FEATURE. Same as with other forms of 'oh so evil' scumming.

Similarly to savescumming, someone will scum gremlins/sheep/stairs, someone wont. Dont you DARE to start an endless flaming debate topic here (similar to the treasure hunter topic back there), or I will hunt you all down with the artefact 256-bladed random number generator (borrowed from william tanksley) and feast on your souls. I know where you live.

P.S. This is, in fact, a very interesting idea that I never tried! Scumming or not, I'll have a plenty of fun in it, and no one will stop me. You Screaming Sheep, here I come!

[Silfir]

The gains are enormous and potentially infinite, and the risk is low (unless you're slower than a level 50 banshee!). I think it qualifies as a scumming method.

And of course, Elone is right - Whether you want to use scumming methods or not is entirely up to you. Only savescumming disqualifies you from the Hall of Fame, and personally I think piety overflow should also be considered unlawful, but opinions differ.

I'll shut up now before I am brutally murdered...

[Subconscious]

Funny thing about the banshee...
She levels up ridiculously fast in the forest so she will pass the lvl 50 easily - IIRC I have had banshee with lvl 70 or more.
At the same time you get lots of loot you have one "easily" killable enemy that gives you a HUGE exp. boost!!!

Banshee cannot crush doors - Lock her into corner or some similar place and Acid ball her to death!
Huh? Scumming? Naaaaaaah...

Im frequent scummer of starsigns and I dont think it's bad thing. It is just speeding up things, you wouldnt start playing a melee char with magic bonuses or so... Or you would. The starsign doesnt affect that much on gameplay so its not that 'heavy'.

[Silfir]

I've had a Salamander-born Barbarian winner once... Starsigns usually help me in my decision of what kind of character to play. "Oh, I got Sword! I guess it's a melee character for me today"

[Nezur]

As far as I am concerned I do "scum" but I do not abuse obvious bugs or use grossly overpowered tactics that make the rest of the game a cakewalk.

Challenge games (perhaps the Archmage too) and one-shot try-outs are an exception. The above goes for my normal games.

Things I consider bugs or grossly overpowered:

• Piety overflow
• Wish engines
• Dragon gold doubling

[Grey]

Banshee/forest is scumming, but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing. Personally I don't touch it, partly because it's scummy, partly because it's boring, and partly because I'm shit-scared I'll screw it up and have my char slaughtered.

Only scummy tactics I tend to use in normal games are sickness abuse with herbs and pool-sipping for AoLS. Only things I see as being outright wrong to use are savescumming, piety abuse and ring-dipping wish engine (at least in terms of having a legitimate game - fine if you want to explore). I don't say Archmage wish engine because that involves such insane effort that if you do it you deserve it, and the top scores from people who've used Archmagery are quite justified. Dragon gold doubling I consider okayish to use as an alternative to the casino in the late game - obviously early game it can be abused quite horribly.

[Nezur]

Oh yeah, I forgot savescumming. I once intended to savescum a game and it just started to feel boring. I haven't savescummed since unless I'm testing features.

[Soirana]

next you will probably declare monster killing as scummy tactics. It gives you xp, items, gold and usually brings little risk.

p.s. and it is obviously not so needed for finishing game.

[Kato]

Argh...ok. So this thread has me confused on something...I thought I knew all the "scummy" methods, but I guess I am wrong. I have yet to use any of the so-called "scumming" methods, but I am always interested in them and their potential.

What is piety abuse and how is it scummy?
Pool-sipping for AoLS is considered scumming? uumm...how is pool-sipping scummy at all? It's not like you are save scumming after every sip, are you?
What is the archmage wish engine?

All the others I know what they are and how they are done...but these have been coming up recently and they are new to me.