> I have the impression Ascensions have become swamped by YASDs, that
> people are no longer Ascending but barely reach the lowest levels,
> spoilers and all. Though it is only an impression, this here computer
> types should have full files of accumulated statistics ordered by
> version and platform and players with game stats and random numbers to
> produce even more statistics measuring the game and all its aspects,
> including some interesting ratios and figures like Ascensions / YASDs
> ratio, degree of newbie-ness, median level, most lethal monster, least
> successful role, beginning to middle to final game ratios, etc.

> Because if I am right, then something changed from the early versions
> to the current versions and the game did not win in complexity but in
> difficulty, or even verges on impossibility? An impossible game is no
> fun at all! And it may not necessarily be the RNG but more subtle
> considerations, even the software to hardware relationship.

> In my current game I am fretting (freaking?). I have the
> identification spell, intrinsic telepathy, a towel (!), teleportitis,
> intrinsic teleport control, jumping and speed boots, cloak of
> invisibility (!!!), blessed +5 mace at expert level, rings of
> levitation, free action and shock resistance (among others), three
> beartraps, 14 blessed blank scrolls, a camera (Bones), $3000+, a stash
> with water potions... but wands are not showing up, a wished (fountain
> djinni) magic marker has only one charge, no polymorphing, health
> potions, magic whistle, aligned altars past Dlvl2 nor FOOD. Food is so
> hard to come by here that monsters are aggravated because gnomes
> abound but they are hominid (or anthropomorphic, cannot remember)...
> Stores, there was only one and it was armor, pointless after the
> invisibility cloak. Has been impossible to even pacify a single pet
> for the lack of food. No heavy hit capacity at all... as if the RNG
> had decided it was enough and the place became dry and dryness. Under
> these conditions it hardly seems possible to reach any middle level
> while lower levels have meant near starvation. As if the RNG had some
> hidden balancing equation that if you had already discovered so much,
> on average it is it s duty to make things harder to compensate near
> average zero... and leave you with as much as what you begun with,
> less some usage fee or depreciation...

> Anyone else with this impression too? Maybe the RNG INDEED became
> dryer or nearer expected average zero? Might some mathematician had
> had some passing interest in this game that he decided to balance
> things thus overall toward a big all over game zero? Or is it just the
> trend in some obscure hardware component that somehow affects the RNGs
> to fall all just next to nothing, zero?

> Danilo J Bonsignore