I on the other hand am ******ed and have killed my last two characters by drowning. Im actually rather amused by it.

This one can be a reminder to everyone not to go into the swamps without poison resist. http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/Gr...429-022126.txt

The second one I was just being dumb and not paying attention to my messages and let levitation run out.
http://crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/Gr...501-162724.txt

The biggest downside to the tile version(aside from being ugly) is that you can't play on the server. Once you learn the interface, I guarantee the keyboard is faster than the mouse... you can quickly cycle through stairs by bringing up the map and then typing ">" or "<" depending on whether you're looking to cycle through up or downstairs.

wow, hungry ghosts are brutal. it hits me a few times and I'm about to die of starvation then while desperately trying to shove some bread down my caster's throat it finishes me off the old fashioned way.

WTF? You did that in a few days? I played Hack for years and years without ever figuring things out beyond the absolute obvious. LOL You must've had a "Guide To Crawl" manual to learn it all so quick. All your armor is cursed, but it's all "+5" positive stat boost! That's bizarre to me.

I did try out Crawl, but the more I think about it, the more I realize I dont need an enhanced version of Hack, I need the simplified version. haha There's already too much in NetHack that confuses me to no end... sinks and fountains and thrones and alignments and figuring out that "you feel a sudden quantum shift" means that the ring you just put on is a ring of speed (I made that up of course but you know what I mean, cryptic sayings that may take MANY replays to understand)... Crawl is even worse in that regard.

I've been having alot of fun with necromancers but whenever I start to get deeper I just don't know what to do. Your minions aren't strong enough to fight on their own and your damage is insufficient to mow down enemies. I guess you have to get lucky and find another spell book or something?

Ahaha, this really made me smile. So accurate

Crawl is a lot simpler in many ways. Crawl doesn't have complex item and monster interactions on the level of nethack and there is a much reduced need for spoilers in general.

I dunno, the initial spellbook is quite strong and you can get pretty far with vamp draining+animate dead. Eventually you need to add melee or conjurations to deal with some of the later monsters, but in the mid game you're in good shape. Are you making it to the temple? Once you get there, you can take Kiku or Sif and you're guaranteed the book of death(iirc) with Agony and Bolt of Draining.

Yeah, Crawl's gameplay is much more straightforward than something like Nethack or ADOM, where knowing 30-40 obscure tricks (that are generally tough to learn without spoilers) is pretty essential to playing well. Crawl plays a lot closer to something like Angband, but without the neverending grind that is pretty much the entire point of Angband.

Ok, maybe that's the problem. I usually tend to stay pretty far off the enemies so I never got much use out of vampiric draining, not to mention it used a fair amount of MP and only seemed to work if you were at low health. And yeah, I usually get to the temple, get to the orcish mines and sometimes the elven ruins and die somewhere in there.

Today I had fun. Get to the bottom level of the orcish mines with a pretty decent orcish fighter looking for the altar. I get insta-confused when I get down there and there's an orc warlord and a ton of other stuff. I take quite alot of damage and have like 25 AC. So I decide to retreat. It doesn't work since I'm confused. I take another beating and am down to not much life. Try to retreat up the stairs again... and fall backwards in confusion killing myself. lol

Yeah, it only works if you're below full health and the max damage is equal to your max health - current health, which makes it a bit tricky. Depending on why you're playing Necros, you might want to give Death Knights of Yredelemnul a shot.

Don't enter the elven halls when you first find them. They're very deadly until your character is quite strong... as a ballpark I'll say XL 18 and for Elf: 7 you need to be even stronger. The Slime Pits are another area that you shouldn't enter anywhere close to when you first discover them.

In fact, you usually shouldn't enter the orc mines when you first find them either... orc mobs are not to be underestimated and you will run into orc sorcerors, high priests and warlords who will mop the floor with you if you enter the mines too soon.

Normally, you should go main dungeon->temple->lair. There are times when you'll want to dip into the mines to gather gold for a key shop item or to recruit orc followers as a Hill Orc Priest of Beogh(this is a strong and fun combo for newbies btw), but generally you want to proceed to the lair straightaway--the threats there are more manageable than those in the main dungeon or mines at the same depth.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try that out. Finding new comical ways to kill myself has gotta get old soon anyhow!

Hehe, this was EXACTLY my past experiance with Nethack too! After reading this thread I think I should prolly give it another go sometime though.

Juk

What exactly are classes in Crawl? It seems like all they do is influence your starting attributes and skills, but aside from that do nothing. So, for example, if I somehow rolled an orc mage with 18 strength, 10 int, 9 dex (not possible but assume) and just put him in heavy armor and gave him an axe he'd be no different than if I started as a fighter - except his starting skills would be a somewhat lower.

Also, wow, thanks for the recommendation on Hill Orc Priest of Beorgh. That is soooooo much fun. Having intelligent followers who gain xp while rambling about wanting to kill is just so entertaining.

Also is there any way to turn on more verbose combat messages? Like listing how much damage I do, how much xp I get, etc?

Starting class=Stats,Skills,Equipment,God. That's it.

Yeah, HOPr is quite cool... not sure how far you've gotten with them, but your orc followers gain experience and become more powerful and upgrade to stronger orc types. They also equip weapons and armour. One piece of advice: don't take them into the swamp.

Don't think so.

Seems to me like being a kobold solves the food problem as much as being a mummy would.

I just started my first kobold venom mage, after many dismal failures with enchanter & necro, and the first item I find is a dagger of venom. /rolls eyes

@#!$ ARG, that char was going insane. Followed up the dagger with a sling of frost, 150+ stones, a wand, and a boatload scrolls/potions. Getting one-shotted by orges is so tilting!

When you guys get to Zot remember to wear mutation resistance when you find the orbs of fire. This is from my most recent game not following my advice.


96647 | Zot:5 | Noticed an orb of fire
96649 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: You have tough skin (AC +1).
96652 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: You are clumsy (Dex -2).
96656 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: You are weak (Str -1).
96658 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: You have a fast metabolism.
96660 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: Armour fits poorly on your deformed body.
96663 | Zot:5 | Gained mutation: You possess an exceptional clarity of mind.
96672 | Zot:5 | Defeated an orb of fire

I made a MDFi to clean up a couple of pesky ghosts, and naturally he made it to CLvl 18 (would have been 19 or 20 but I got drained a bunch of times) and then got ruined by Boris. Well, Boris did most of the work, and then after I teleported and was running around with 40 HPs or so I got dropped by a blade trap. That sucked. I was trolling the dungeon looking for a source of poison resistance, or at least an enchant armor scroll for the gold dragon hide I found randomly spawned on level 2 of the Lair. I'd just found a ring of poison resistance and was on my way up to go do Snake when I got waxed. Ah well.

Boris is ridiculously dangerous at that level... next time run like hell even at full HP!

I just want to say that I love Dwarf Fortress.

Dan the Slicer (Kobold Venom Mage) Turns: 11537, Time: 01:27:51

HP 46/48 AC 10 Str 9 Exp: 9/2669 (16), need: 1241
MP 17/17 EV 17 Int 15 God: Sif Muna
Gold 400 SH 0 Dex 15 Spells: 3 memorised, 8 levels left
...
Skills:
+ Level 2 Fighting
- Level 8 Short Blades
+ Level 2 Throwing
+ Level 6 Dodging
- Level 5 Stealth
+ Level 3 Spellcasting
- Level 5 Conjurations
+ Level 1 Air Magic
- Level 6 Poison Magic
...
g - a +2,+2 dagger of protection
r - a +0,+0 vampiric dagger
u - a +1,+1 dwarven short sword
y - a +0,+3 orcish dagger of venom
R - a +0,+0 orcish short sword of freezing

Which weapon?

Also, how do I get Sif to like me and give me phat loot?

I would think protection by far; as a mage you have other offensive options and probably badly need the AC.

Cast lots of spells, she seems pretty easy to please.

EDIT: Actually, combined it looks like this is part of your problem. Your spell skills seem pretty low (and your short blades rather high.) You're really going to want Spellcasting to be as high as possible, so I'd start using your magic more all around. Since all of the loot Sif gives is spellbooks, you'll want to get used to it anyway.

A troll monk with the god who gives you those random cards is just awesome.