-crawl 4.12- YASD, Quark the Orc

Dungeon Crawl version 4.1.2 alpha character file.

I'm enjoying this particular build immensely, although it can be very
difficult at times. I ended up dying in the lair to a unique I don't
believe i've ever encountered before. Very nearly had him, but c'est la
vie, I suppose. I particularly enjoy the improved AI for enemy
spellcasters. They tend to blink much more often, and retreating around
a corner won't necessarily lure them toward you.

I'd love some tips from someone knowledgeable with 4.1.2. I'm also
curious as to whether anyone's managed to escape with the orb in this
version. A cursory search of r.g.r.m and google didn't turn anything
up.

The character dump follows:


Quark the Pike-Orc

Race : Hill Orc Res.Fire : . . . See Invis. : .
Class : Gladiator Res.Cold : . . . Warding : .
Religion : Okawaru Life Prot.: . . . Conserve : .
Level : 10 Res.Poison: . . . Res.Corr. : .
Exp : 7388 Res.Elec. : . Gourmand : .
Next Level : 7760
Exp Needed : 372 Sust.Abil.: . Rnd.Telep. : .
Spls.Left : 11 Res.Mut. : . Ctrl.Telep.: .
Gold : 596 Res.Slow : . Levitation : .
Clarity : . . . Ctrl.Flight: .
HP : -7/88
MP : 17
Str : 21 Weapon : +1 spear
Int : 9 Armour : +4 plate mail (ponderous)
Dex : 13 Shield :
AC : 22 Helmet : +0 helmet (int) (curse)
Evasion : 4 (4) Cloak :
Shield : 0 Gloves :
Boots : +0 pair of elf boots
Play time : 01:11:24 Amulet :
Turns : 13226 Ring : uncursed ring of magical power
Ring : uncursed ring of wizardry


You are in the Lair.
You worship Okawaru.
Okawaru is most pleased with you.
You are not hungry.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
l - a +3,+1 orcish dagger of venom
// Butchering tool.
w - a +1,+1 spear (weapon)
C - a +1,+1 orcish battleaxe
// Hadn't identified this yet.
Armour
c - a +0 orcish buckler
//I'm curious as to exactly how much the effectiveness of polearms are
reduced when wielding a shield
m - a cursed +0 helmet of intelligence (worn)
t - a +4 plate mail of ponderousness (worn)
//I never tried to enchant this, because I assumed it was a randart.
Looking at it now, it seems as if ponderousness may simply be an aspect
of the armor, in the same way non-randarts can bestow fire or cold
resistence.
v - a +1 banded mail of fire resistance
//Wasn't identified.
F - a +0 pair of elven boots (worn)
Magical devices
b - a wand of random effects (15)
k - a wand of fire (6)
x - a wand of enslavement (9)
z - a wand of disintegration (0)
J - a wand of cold (3)
N - a wand of paralysis (
Comestibles
h - a meat ration
M - a lemon
P - 4 bread rations
Scrolls
a - a scroll of curse weapon
j - 2 scrolls of remove curse
n - 2 scrolls of detect curse
q - 3 scrolls of magic mapping
s - a scroll of paper
G - 2 scrolls of summoning
Jewellery
e - an uncursed ring of wizardry (left hand)
f - an uncursed ring of magical power (right hand)
A - the cursed ring of Smunao
This ring brings its wearer more in contact with the powers of cold
and
ice. He or she gains resistance to cold and can use ice magic more
effectively, but becomes more vulnerable to the effects of fire.
It affects your evasion (-1).
It insulates you from electricity.
//The troll unique that killed me was zapping me handily with a wand
of lightning. If this had been identified at the time, I probably would
have survived.
Q - an uncursed ring of teleport control
Potions
d - a potion of healing
i - 3 potions of levitation
y - 2 potions of speed
I - 2 potions of paralysis
Books
B - a book of Changes
Magical staves
E - a staff of death
Carrion
g - a rotting grey rat corpse


You have 27 experience left.

Skills:
+ Level 8 Fighting
+ Level 13 Polearms
+ Level 7 Armour
+ Level 2 Dodging
+ Level 1 Shields
+ Level 2 Unarmed Combat
+ Level 1 Spellcasting


You have 11 spell levels left.
You don't know any spells.


Message History

The bolt of fire hits Snorg.
Snorg is almost dead.
Snorg bites you!
You die...

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Vanquished Creatures
An unseen horror (D:9)
Erolcha (D:11)
Michael (Lair:1)
A giant brown frog (Lair:1)
2 trolls
A hippogriff (D:12)
A giant slug (Lair:1)
A skeletal warrior zombie (D:12)
//A zombie of a skeleton? Seems redundant.
5 yaks (D:11)
3 manticores
A wraith (D:11)
A hungry ghost (D:12)
A wyvern (D:10)
A wood golem (D:11)
A gila monster (Lair:1)
2 ice beasts
A necrophage (D:7)
5 ogres
5 centaurs
A yellow wasp (D:
2 giant lizards (Lair:1)
3 brown snakes
2 orc warriors (D:12)
9 giant frogs
4 giant beetles
5 giant iguanas (Lair:1)
A brain worm zombie (D:
2 orc priests (D:12)
A flaming imp (D:11)
2 imps
2 hounds (D:6)
5 giant ants
4 orc wizards
2 mummies
2 shadows (D:10)
A brown snake zombie (D:
A giant iguana zombie (D:9)
Ijyb (D:2)
3 jellies
4 gnolls (D:5)
12 snakes
A giant ant zombie (D:9)
8 worms
9 giant mites
16 giant geckos
8 green rats (Lair:1)
2 giant eyeballs
A gnoll zombie (D:7)
19 giant bats
9 giant cockroaches
9 giant newts
8 goblins
10 grey rats (Lair:1)
8 hobgoblins
13 kobolds
6 orcs
2 orc zombies
6 quokkas
15 rats
18 small snakes
2 plants (Lair:1)

274 creatures vanquished.

Rubinstein wrote:
> Jason C. DeWilde wrote:
> > Dungeon Crawl version 4.1.2 alpha character file.
> >
> > I'm enjoying this particular build immensely, although it can be very
> > difficult at times. I ended up dying in the lair to a unique I don't
> > believe i've ever encountered before. Very nearly had him, but c'est
> > la vie, I suppose. I particularly enjoy the improved AI for enemy
> > spellcasters. They tend to blink much more often, and retreating
> > around a corner won't necessarily lure them toward you.
>
> Snorg is one of the most wimpy uniques in 4.0.0 b26, though rarely seen
> even here. That's hopeful news: does monster and in particular unique KI
> finally has been improved?
>
> > I'd love some tips from someone knowledgeable with 4.1.2. I'm also
> > curious as to whether anyone's managed to escape with the orb in this
> > version. A cursory search of r.g.r.m and google didn't turn anything
> > up.
>
> I'm afraid that would be difficult. The only person I know who was
> patient enough to check this version more thoroughly is Erik. Most of us
> gave up soon and eventually so did Erik. I give the question back to
> you: what do *you* think about it, compared to b26? How many chars have
> you killed until you got one going? How do you like Zot traps on D:1 or
> has it been fixed in the meantime?

I was quite shocked when I initially discovered a Zot trap on D: 1. One
of my very first characters was zapped straight to the Abyss less than
two minutes after entering the game. Blade traps are also relatively
commonplace now, although they seem to do far less damage than they are
known to do in b26.

The changes made to weapons seem nice. Polearms and shields are much
more useful now. Normal, unvorpalized weapons also have the capacity to
strike quite hard from time to time. I noticed this in particular with
my late orc's trident. Fairly often, successful blows would result in a
message such as "You pierce the foo!" or "You impale the foo!!" Hits
such as these seem to do, as would be expected, exponentially more
damage.

I also enjoyed the changes to polearms and whips in terms of giving the
wielder a pseudo-ranged advantage. For example, against enemies with a
short reach or small weapons, you are occasionally able to parry
attacks. There is also a bonus +3 to EVA when using these weapons,
although I am not quite sure whether this modifier is related to the
parrying or not.

Smaller weapons [especially ones that are better for the dextrous
rather than the strong] seem to be much less effective against monsters
with heightened AC. As such, this makes those early Ogres we all know
and hate very deadly.

It appears that some new monsters have been added. Different flavors of
imps, in particular. While this doesen't make any large impact on the
game itself, more variety is, in this case, enjoyable.

The spellcasting / ranged attacking monster AI, as I mentioned, has
been improved. In short, they tend to not engage the player in melee.
While this does result in significantly more deaths through being
plinked at with magic missle or centaur arrows, it is both realistic
and challenging. However, because both of these types of mobs [orc
casters and centaurs] tend to appear on D: 3 or so, it can be
frustrating for melee characters.

All in all, I do find 4.1.2 to be playable and enjoyable, but it is
most certainly for advanced Crawl players. I for one am not one of
these, and as such, 4.1.2 is really more of a coffee break game than
b26, which is much more forgiving.