Belated thoughts on 0.3

(Yes, I'm late to the party...)

Anyway, this morning my first significant 0.3 game became a bug on the
Tomb's windshield. Here are my thoughts.

It's hard to know from one game what's been changed and what was the
RNG playing with you. Ego accessory armour items seem more common. I
had found helms of see invisible and intelligence, gloves of strength
and dexterity, boots of stealth, and a cloak of preservation. If this
is a change, it's one I like, as many of these items had been too rare
to really plan for in one's overall equipment strategy.

With the dire flail being nerfed by two-handedness, were eveningstars
made slightly more common? This game had two, the first unfortunately
was a draining weapon found after I had pledged to TSO, but then a
bazaar stocked a second one.

I think I missed one bazaar because I just couldn't explore the level
fast enough to find it before the gate closed. (Boggarts can do
that.) Part of me thinks this is annoying, but part of me recognizes
that it makes scrolls of magic mapping actually worth carrying now.

Speaking of bazaars, the game's gold supply seems more generous. By
my rough estimate, the guaranteed gold drops on yaktaurs (maybe other
monsters, too, but I noticed the yaktaurs) seemed to not-quite-double
the amount of gold in the game.

On the other hand, potions of cure mutation seemed rarer. This game
had only two, and I had to use one early because my potion ID strategy
(quaff ID anything you find two of, scroll ID the rest as the scroll
supply permits) led to quaff-identification of mutation. I did the
four Hells wearing a ring of sustain abilities to control the chronic
stat-loss mutation. Ironically, the loot out of Tartarus, the last
Hell I did, included a very nice randart ring of sustain abilities
that played a role in my decision to try the Tomb.

I enjoyed many of the new vaults I saw. A whole-level vault I
encountered on D:26, a castle littered with amnesia traps, baddies,
and plenty of opportunites to die of stupidity or drowning, was nicely
laid out.

Whether by bug or design, I saw a number of what seemed to me out-of-
place monsters. There was a shapeshifter in the Hall of Blades, a
kobold in the Lair, and an orc band in one of the Hells. The last
made a nice ration in an otherwise food-scarce place.

It seems that high-end elves appear at shallower levels in Elf than
they did before. At any rate, I had seen a demonologist, a sorceror,
and an annihilator before reaching Elf 7, when a typical 0.2 game
might have had one high-end elf on Elf 6. I like this change, (if it
wasn't just chance) as I always thought of Elf 7 as a supremely nasty
surprise to the unspoiled. Of the two new elf types, I was impressed
by the master archer, who seems unique among Crawl's archers in
continuing to use a deadly ranged attack even after the melee
specialist has closed the distance.

Also, high-end orcs seem more common. I saw a few orc high priests
this game, when previously I seemed to find them at the rate of less
than one per game.

The new branch-end for the Crypt was also nice, though I would have
put curse skulls in some of the treasure rooms.

Cyrus

cyrus.pilcrow.RemoveThis@gmail.com wrote:

> (Yes, I'm late to the party...)

No matter

> It's hard to know from one game what's been changed and what was the
> RNG playing with you. Ego accessory armour items seem more common. I
> had found helms of see invisible and intelligence, gloves of strength
> and dexterity, boots of stealth, and a cloak of preservation. If this
> is a change, it's one I like, as many of these items had been too rare
> to really plan for in one's overall equipment strategy.

I think this is a consequence of the fact that such items are now always
glowing/runed/shiny etc. This change was made to get over the stupid "try
everything" approach.

> With the dire flail being nerfed by two-handedness, were eveningstars
> made slightly more common?

I don't think so.

> I think I missed one bazaar because I just couldn't explore the level
> fast enough to find it before the gate closed. (Boggarts can do
> that.) Part of me thinks this is annoying, but part of me recognizes
> that it makes scrolls of magic mapping actually worth carrying now.

Yes. I never did before, and now I always do, if possible.

> On the other hand, potions of cure mutation seemed rarer. This game
> had only two...

Well, for rare items like !CM you'd need more tries to do statistics. No
change here.

> I enjoyed many of the new vaults I saw. A whole-level vault I
> encountered on D:26, a castle littered with amnesia traps, baddies,
> and plenty of opportunites to die of stupidity or drowning, was nicely
> laid out.

Lemuel will love to hear that! Unfortunately, amnesia traps were removed for
trunk, but I am sure the Lethe vault can be saved in portal vault form.

> Whether by bug or design, I saw a number of what seemed to me out-of-
> place monsters. There was a shapeshifter in the Hall of Blades, a
> kobold in the Lair, and an orc band in one of the Hells.

This has been reported elsewhere, too. Anybody knows more?

> The new branch-end for the Crypt was also nice, though I would have
> put curse skulls in some of the treasure rooms.

Good idea. Care to give details on how your Crypt end looked like?

Thanks for the feedback,
David