YAAP - Gary-Wiz-Elf-Mal-Cha (spoilers)
Gary Wong
Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
version 3.3.1. (Once upon a time I had played plenty more games under
older versions, but I don't remember when, or how many.) Until this
game, I'd never made it past the castle (many years ago I think I
might have made it into Gehennom in explore mode, but that's all).
I've read every interesting spoiler I've come across, and happily dive
into the source when curious, but still came across some surprises:
Double Trouble in particular fooled me.
The story goes something like this...
I started off with some help from the RNG, either with an initial
+oIdentify or picking one up before long. (How do all the other
ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
that far.) I stuck to the Dungeons of Doom as far as the Oracle
without too much trouble (being able to cast identify _really_
helps!). The Oracle was a bones file from a former priest, where I
picked up some spellbooks (+oRemCurse was one), holy water, and a
robe, among other things I forget. Then it was up to Sokoban for the
(BoHolding. Around this time I sacrificed for Magicbane which I used
almost exclusively for the rest of the game. (I also left the
[CloMagRes behind for the robe, for better spellcasting.)
Then it was down into the Gnomish mines, where I identified a magic
lamp which I rubbed for a wish on SDSM. I bought 7 candles from
Izchak out of pure optimism, having never found the Candelabrum before
(let alone the vibrating square). The rest of the shops didn't have
much to offer (I did find another magic lamp somewhere early in the
game, but I don't think it was in a shop). The shrine was Lawful, so
I did nothing much there (maybe some BUCing, but I could already
identify anyway). Near the bottom of the mines I met an arch-lich who
was extremely nasty (apparently they shouldn't be created outside
Gehennom, so I guess it was a polymorph trap?). This was the first
serious problem in the game, but eventually I defeated it and all the
monsters it created. Shortly after I decided I didn't want any more
of that, so I used the second magic lamp on 2 blessed magic markers,
and wrote a ?oGenocide to take out Ls. After that it wasn't much
trouble getting to the luckstone.
Then it was back to the Dungeons of Doom, past a co-aligned shrine on
Level 10, and down to the Quest (first time for me with a Wizard). I
was only level 12, but hopped over to say `hi' to the Wizard of
Balance anyway, for lack of anything else to do (exercise wisdom, if
nothing else). I came back to the Dungeons, and quickly made level 14
thanks to a friendly succubus. (After this, I think every level
advance was from a succubus, wraith, or !oGainLev.) After that it was
down to the Tower of Darkness to thump the Dark One (who seemed to be
very easy to kill, once I chased him up the staircases).
I went back to the Dungeon for a while with the Bell, and then played
with the Eye of Tapioca (or whatever) to get back to the bottom of the
Quest to have some fun with the altar. I had a +oCreateMon by this
point, and happily sacrificed lots of vampire bats for Stormbringer,
but before long was crowned and further big favours from Anhur didn't
seem forthcoming (surrounded by golden glow, play the right
tune... but no protection or +oFngrODeath).
So it was back down to Medusa, with a =oLev across the water I think,
to take her out with blindfold and mirror. Perseus had the [SoRefl,
but I already had SDSM and didn't want the spell penalties, so I left
it behind and headed down to the castle. I made some noise on my
wooden harp (curious to see what happens, really, instead of just
levitating around) and eventually found the tune and lowered the
drawbridge. I've never been drowned before, but I think I got scared
and genocided ;s anyway. The beasts inside the castle weren't too
much trouble, and I happily collected the /oWishing and zapped up a
[HoBrilliance, [GoPower and [PoSpdBoots, having had lots of trouble
finding any other decent armour. (I poly-piled a T-shirt at one point.)
I shortly fell down a trap door into the Valley of the Dead, where I
ate the couple of corpses that the wraiths left and went on down into
Gehennom. This went by very quickly, having a +oMagMapping and
+oDetTreas which I cast at the beginning of each level and then +oDig
to make it over to the staircase (with a detour for any interesting
items or monsters). I paid off whichever demon princes I could
negotiate with for about 50 zorkmids each (having never met them
before and not being willing to risk fighting them unnecessarily). I
wasn't quite sure which order to do the towers in, not having been
there before, but eventually figured out where Vlad was and stopped
off for the Candelabrum. I remembered advice from spoilers to find
the vibrating square before killing Rodney, so I headed down and
marked it. For a while I'd been worried about my AC but never really
found enough cash to buy much protection, despite hoarding every
zorkmid I came across (no vaults or Ludios, admittedly). I invoked
the Eye back to the bottom of the mines to spend what little I had
(something like 20000, I think), and up to the Altar. I'd always been
too scared to convert a shrine before, but decided I was tough enough
to do it now, so sacrificed something and killed the angry priest of
whoever-it-was. Hmmm, there was something I came here to do... what
was it? That's it, buy protection... oh... whoops. So I had to waltz
through the dungeon looking for the friendly shrine, instead. I was
level 28 by that time and could only afford one 11,200 zorkmid
donation, hrmmph. Oh well, back down to Gehennom, figure out how to
get into Rodney's towers, kill him for the Book, and back to the
vibrating square.
I couldn't quite remember which order to do the bell, book and candle
thing, so I tried a plausible guess, and it worked. (I'm still none
the wiser about what the order is, since I don't remember what I
tried...) On down to Moloch's sanctum, for the Amulet, then started
on my way back up.
I knew Rodney would appear more than once (by seeing him listed as
killed several times in other YAAPs) but didn't realise two could
appear _simultaneously_ until it happened. And though I knew fake
Amulets existed, it didn't occur to me that they crop up on half of
the two Rodneys... until picking one up in Gehennom and carting it all
the way back up to Medusa before thinking it might be a good idea to
identify it. Whoops. Somewhere around this point I had my brain
sucked by a master mind flayer -- I thought I'd be alright with a
[HoBrilliance and a full can of grease, but evidently not. Not really
a big deal with a unicorn horn and being able to cast identify and
magic mapping, but I genocided h to be safe.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from the Planes, but found the
portals easily enough writing ?oGoldDet. Earth wasn't much trouble (a
few dig spells), and the air elementals weren't as hard as I was
scared they might be (stand back and cast magic missile at them -- I
didn't think until later that I could have used a ring of conflict).
Fire was OK, and the bubble thing in Water works out once you see it.
It was fairly lonely there, having already genocided ;s.
Then the Astral plane at last... I tried the centre altar first,
meeting Pestilence on the way, who killed me either on the way there
or back (one "AoLifeSaving down, two to go). Oops. YASD - I'd been
relying on a blessed unicorn horn, but realised later it would have
been safer to cast cure sickness. That altar turned out to be
lawful, so it was back out of there again (those Angels really are
a pain, aren't they?) -- fairly slow going, I was casting magic
missiles or stabbing with Magicbane as the mood struck me, stopping
to cast extra healing whenever my HP fell below 100. I used a /oDeath
on Pestilence -- 3 zaps to kill him twice, I think.
I was burdened by this point (I got scared after being killed by
Pestilence, and took a spare "oLifeSaving and some !oFullHealings out
of my (BoHolding) so dropped my 20,000 zorkmids on the floor, thinking
I wouldn't need them where I was going, either way. I suppose that
hurt my score -- oh well.
I tried the right hand altar next, past Death (who is much easier than
Pestilence -- next time I'll try to find where Death is, and go
straight there), and the altar was Chaotic:
You offer the Amulet of Yendor to Anhur...
An invisible choir sings, and you are bathed in radiance...
The voice of Anhur thunders: "Congratulations, mortal!"
"In return for thy service, I grant thee the gift of Immortality!"
You ascend to the status of Demigod...
Amulets
g - an uncursed amulet of life saving
y - the blessed Eye of the Aethiopica
L - an uncursed amulet of life saving (being worn)
Weapons
m - the blessed rustproof +2 Magicbane (weapon in hand)
Armor
f - a blessed +4 silver dragon scale mail (being worn)
i - a blessed rustproof +4 helm of brilliance (being worn)
n - an uncursed fireproof +2 robe (being worn)
o - a blessed rustproof +4 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
r - an uncursed fireproof +0 small shield (being worn)
F - a blessed burnt +4 T-shirt (being worn)
I - a blessed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
Comestibles
l - an uncursed lizard corpse
Spellbooks
W - the uncursed Book of the Dead
Potions
C - a cursed potion of full healing
Rings
d - an uncursed +1 ring of protection (on left hand)
G - an uncursed ring of levitation (on right hand)
[forgot to take that one off, whoops]
Wands
c - a wand of teleportation (0:2)
x - a wand of cancellation named DON'T PUT IN BAG! (0:7)
B - a wand of cancellation named DON'T PUT IN BAG! (0:2)
H - a wand of death (0:3)
T - a wand of secret door detection (0:11)
Tools
b - an uncursed blindfold
h - a blessed bag of holding
k - a cursed lock pick
s - an uncursed stethoscope
u - a blessed +0 unicorn horn
A - the Bell of Opening (0:2)
K - the uncursed Candelabrum of Invocation (no candles attached)
R - a magic marker (0:23)
Gems
P - an uncursed luckstone
Contents of the bag of holding:
the rustproof +6 Stormbringer
a +5 silver saber [never used it, but I gathered it might be handy]
lots of food (lembas wafers)
lots of scrolls (mostly blank paper)
lots of spellbooks (I'd learned 31 spells, but only kept about half the books)
lots of potions (mostly full healing, 8 potions of holy water)
lots of rings
a wand of wishing (1:3)
a rustproof wand of fire (0:5) (no idea how this got rustproofed)
lots more wands
a blessed magic marker (0:46)
lots of identified gems (all identified at some point, some forgotten because
of mind flayer accidents)
Final Attributes:
You were the Glory of Arioch.
You were piously aligned.
You were fire resistant.
You were cold resistant.
You were sleep resistant.
You were disintegration-resistant.
You were poison resistant.
You were magic-protected.
You saw invisible.
You were telepathic.
You were warned.
You had infravision.
You were invisible to others.
You were stealthy.
You could teleport.
You had teleport control.
You were levitating.
You were protected.
You were very fast.
You had reflection.
Your life would have been saved.
You were extremely lucky.
You had extra luck.
Bad luck did not time out for you.
Good luck did not time out for you.
You survived after being killed once.
Vanquished creatures:
Orcus
Jubilex
The Wizard of Yendor (10 times)
Death
Pestilence (2 times)
an arch-lich
a high priest
Medusa
an Archon
24 dragons
The Dark One
5 Angels
Vlad the Impaler
8 master mind flayers
5 mind flayers
10 air elementals
187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
more than 120...]
a green mold
Genocided species:
hobbits
dwarves
bugbears
dwarf lords
dwarf kings
mind flayers
master mind flayers
liches
demiliches
arch-liches
jellyfish
piranhas
sharks
giant eels
electric eels
krakens
Voluntary challenges:
You genocided 17 types of monsters.
You never changed form.
You used 6 wishes.
You did not wish for any artifacts.
[You never engraved Elbereth. Never reverse-genocided. Never lured
wraiths to another level. Never abused graves for ghouls. Probably other
trivial challenges I can't remember.]
Goodbye Gary the Demigod...
You went to your reward with 5461894 points,
Stormbringer (worth 30000 zorkmids and 75000 points)
Magicbane (woth 400 zorkmids and 1000 points)
The Eye of the Aethiopica (worth 15000 zorkmids and 37500 points)
Bell of Opening (worth 100000 zorkmids and 250000 points)
Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 300000 zorkmids and 750000 points)
Book of the Dead (worth 350000 zorkmids and 875000 points)
60 gems, 3 amulets, and 0 pieces of gold, after 49123 moves.
You were level 30 with a maximum of 258 hit points when you ascended.
You made the top ten list!
No Points Name Hp [max]
1 5461894 Gary-Wiz-Elf-Mal-Cha ascended to demigod-hood. 127 [258]
I forgot to copy my stats, but I think from memory they were St 25, Dx 17,
Co 16, In 24, Wi 24, Ch 18, max Power over 700, and AC -31. Without the
helm or gauntlets, I was St 18, In 20, Wi 20.
Cheers,
Gary.
--
Gary Wong g...@research.att.com http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~gary/
They say that it is easier to kill the Wizard than to make him stand still.
Kate Nepveu
> Beware of spoilers...
> Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
> version 3.3.1.
Congratulations!
> Shortly after I decided I didn't want any more
> of that, so I used the second magic lamp on 2 blessed magic markers,
> and wrote a ?oGenocide to take out Ls. After that it wasn't much
> trouble getting to the luckstone.
Do you mean you used both magic lamps for one marker each? I didn't
think you could wish for 2 magic markers with one wish.
> I couldn't quite remember which order to do the bell, book and candle
> thing, so I tried a plausible guess, and it worked. (I'm still none
> the wiser about what the order is, since I don't remember what I
> tried...) On down to Moloch's sanctum, for the Amulet, then started
> on my way back up.
> I knew Rodney would appear more than once (by seeing him listed as
> killed several times in other YAAPs) but didn't realise two could
> appear _simultaneously_ until it happened. And though I knew fake
> Amulets existed, it didn't occur to me that they crop up on half of
> the two Rodneys... until picking one up in Gehennom and carting it all
> the way back up to Medusa before thinking it might be a good idea to
> identify it.
Hell, I almost got out of the dungeon with a fake Amulet, my first
ascension. I also messed up the ritual a frightening number of times,
without a scroll of charging...
> I tried the right hand altar next, past Death (who is much easier than
> Pestilence -- next time I'll try to find where Death is, and go
> straight there), and the altar was Chaotic:
Famine's given me a harder time, but yes, Death is easy.
> lots of spellbooks (I'd learned 31 spells, but only kept about half the books)
Dear lord, no wonder you were on the edge of burdened. I ditched all
of mine before entering the Planes, after re-reading key ones, when I
played a Monk...
> 187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
> more than 120...]
_Because_ they were on the Quest.
> a green mold
Ah, the OB Lone Weak Monster.
Congratulation again.
Kate
--
http://lynx.neu.edu/k/knepveu/ -- The Paired Reading Page; Reviews
"I can't promise that I'll grow those wings
Or keep this tarnished halo shined
But I'll never betray your trust
Angel mine" --Cowboy Junkies, "Angel Mine"
Chase
>ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
>that far.
try keeping notes.
>I couldn't quite remember which order to do the bell, book and candle
>thing, so I tried a plausible guess, and it worked. (I'm still none
>the wiser about what the order is, since I don't remember what I
>tried...)
candle, bell, book. remember: get some light, ring the bell for an
audience, and lastly read the book to your audience ;)
>(those Angels really are a pain, aren't they?)
yup.
>fairly slow going, I was casting magic
>missiles or stabbing with Magicbane as the mood struck me, stopping
>to cast extra healing whenever my HP fell below 100.
try teleporting them away, with spell or a wand
Gems
P - an uncursed luckstone
bless it next time and this (look down) won't happen.
>You were extremely lucky.
>You had extra luck.
***>Bad luck did not time out for you.***
>Good luck did not time out for you.
>187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
>more than 120...]
special lvl monsters don't coun't (castle, quest etc.)
>I happily collected the /oWishing and zapped up a
>[HoBrilliance, [GoPower and [PoSpdBoots
GoP hinder spell casting, in case you didn'y know...
-happy hacking
Raisse the Thaumaturge
>> Beware of spoilers...
>
> Do you mean you used both magic lamps for one marker each? I didn't
> think you could wish for 2 magic markers with one wish.
You can *wish* for them. You won't get them, however, because they're
not stackable. Every magic marker is unique.
Raisse, killed by burning scrolls
--
@ a human or elf (peaceful thaumaturge called Raisse)
-------< Ascended 12 times, but never in 3.3.1 yet >-------
ir...@valdyas.org (myself) http://www.valdyas.org/irina
Gary Wong
> Congratulations!
Thanks!
> > Shortly after I decided I didn't want any more
> > of that, so I used the second magic lamp on 2 blessed magic markers,
> > and wrote a ?oGenocide to take out Ls. After that it wasn't much
> > trouble getting to the luckstone.
>
> Do you mean you used both magic lamps for one marker each? I didn't
> think you could wish for 2 magic markers with one wish.
Hmmm, I'm not sure what happened now. As Raisse points out, if I wished
for two I would have gotten one. I certainly had two at the end of the
game -- I must have found or poly-piled the other and forgotten about it.
The "challenges" told me I used 6 wishes in the game, though I can
only account for 5 (2 magic lamps, and I think 3 from the castle
/oWishing). The /oWishing was at 1:3 when I finished -- that means I
can't have zapped it more than 3 times, right? Which must mean I used
one wish I forgot about.
> > lots of spellbooks (I'd learned 31 spells, but only kept about half the books)
>
> Dear lord, no wonder you were on the edge of burdened. I ditched all
> of mine before entering the Planes, after re-reading key ones, when I
> played a Monk...
Ah, of course :-) Another thing that never occured to me... I'll
have to remember it for next time.
> > 187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
> > more than 120...]
>
> _Because_ they were on the Quest.
I see, that makes sense.
Cheers,
Gary.
--
Gary Wong g...@research.att.com http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~gary/
They say that you don't always get what you wish for.
Gary Wong
> >How do all the other
> >ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
> >that far.
>
> try keeping notes.
If I could know at the beginning of the game that I would ascend then
I would keep notes, but it's hard to be thrilled about making notes
for every tourist that wanders into the Dungeons of Doom to be eaten
by a newt in the second room...
> >I couldn't quite remember which order to do the bell, book and candle
> >thing, so I tried a plausible guess, and it worked. (I'm still none
> >the wiser about what the order is, since I don't remember what I
> >tried...)
>
> candle, bell, book. remember: get some light, ring the bell for an
> audience, and lastly read the book to your audience ;)
Thanks -- I'd read that before, but didn't have it memorised. I
couldn't remember if the audience would care about the bell being rung
in the dark :-)
> >fairly slow going, I was casting magic
> >missiles or stabbing with Magicbane as the mood struck me, stopping
> >to cast extra healing whenever my HP fell below 100.
>
> try teleporting them away, with spell or a wand
Ah, another thing to keep in mind -- thanks!
> P - an uncursed luckstone
>
> bless it next time and this (look down) won't happen.
>
> ***>Bad luck did not time out for you.***
I've been curious about this for a long time -- does "bad luck will
not time out" have any effect when your luck is always positive? I
presumed it doesn't, and certainly expected my luck to be positive the
whole time, so never bothered blessing the thing. (If I wasn't
clinging on to Magicbane the entire time I would have blessed it of
course, for fear of random curses.)
> >I happily collected the /oWishing and zapped up a
> >[HoBrilliance, [GoPower and [PoSpdBoots
>
> GoP hinder spell casting, in case you didn'y know...
True, but I didn't need anything else in the "cloak" slot so was able
to wear a robe, and had enough spell skills that all the failure rates
were at 0 except "Escape". (I didn't care about those -- the only
Escape spells I learned were "teleport away" and "invisibility", and I
had teleportitis and permanent invisibility already. As you point
out, "teleport away" would have come in handy on the Astral Plane, but
I didn't know you could cast it at monsters until you suggested it.)
Cheers,
Gary.
--
Gary Wong g...@research.att.com http://www.cs.arizona.edu/~gary/
They say that tengus don't wear rings, why should you?
Chase
>> >How do all the other
>> >ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
>> >that far.
>>
>> try keeping notes.
>
>I would keep notes, but it's hard to be thrilled about making notes
>for every tourist that wanders into the Dungeons of Doom to be eaten
>by a newt in the second room...
>
just keep notes of important things, like wishes, altars etc. they help
greatly when playing the game too. I know you spent a long time searching
for that altar...
>> >fairly slow going, I was casting magic
>> >missiles or stabbing with Magicbane as the mood struck me, stopping
>> >to cast extra healing whenever my HP fell below 100.
>>
>> try teleporting them away, with spell or a wand
>
>Ah, another thing to keep in mind -- thanks!
welcome. you can teleport them, just not yerself (or any of the riders).
>
>> P - an uncursed luckstone
>>
>> bless it next time and this (look down) won't happen.
>>
>> ***>Bad luck did not time out for you.***
>
>I've been curious about this for a long time -- does "bad luck will
>not time out" have any effect when your luck is always positive?
no, it will just keep it at the same. but if you had accidentially broken 25
mirrors w/ a wand of striking or something...
>
>> >I happily collected the /oWishing and zapped up a
>> >[HoBrilliance, [GoPower and [PoSpdBoots
>>
>> GoP hinder spell casting, in case you didn'y know...
>
>True, but I didn't need anything else in the "cloak" slot so was able
>to wear a robe, and had enough spell skills that all the failure rates
>were at 0 except "Escape". (I didn't care about those -- the only
>Escape spells I learned were "teleport away" and "invisibility", and I
>had teleportitis and permanent invisibility already. As you point
>out, "teleport away" would have come in handy on the Astral Plane, but
>I didn't know you could cast it at monsters until you suggested it.)
>
glad 2 b of help
Raisse the Thaumaturge
> Beware of spoilers...
> Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
> version 3.3.1.
Congratulations!
> (How do all the other
> ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
> that far.)
I usually finish a game in no more than three days real-time; once I
know I'm likely to either ascend or die a horrible death at a very
advanced level, I play every spare moment.
> I stuck to the Dungeons of Doom as far as the Oracle
> without too much trouble (being able to cast identify _really_
> helps!).
Yes. I love the identify spell! My P and W who have it early last
significantly longer than the ones who don't.
> Near the bottom of the mines I met an arch-lich who
> was extremely nasty (apparently they shouldn't be created outside
> Gehennom, so I guess it was a polymorph trap?).
Either that or a doppelganger or something. I don't think mere
chameleons turn into arch-liches.
> I used the second magic lamp on 2 blessed magic markers,
How? Magic markers don't stack.
> I came back to the Dungeons, and quickly made level 14
> thanks to a friendly succubus. (After this, I think every level
> advance was from a succubus, wraith, or !oGainLev.)
It usually is after level 14, in my experience. Could be a challenge:
never gain any levels except from real experience.
> I went back to the Dungeon for a while with the Bell, and then played
> with the Eye of Tapioca (or whatever)
LOL! "Aethiopica" (to be exact: "the Aethiopica")
> further big favours from Anhur didn't
> seem forthcoming (surrounded by golden glow, play the right
> tune... but no protection or +oFngrODeath).
You don't get a spellbook of finger of death when you're crowned and
you're a chaotic wizard, apparently. Only neutral wizards get it.
> I
> wasn't quite sure which order to do the towers in, not having been
> there before, but eventually figured out where Vlad was and stopped
> off for the Candelabrum.
You can go right to Rodney's doorstep (the little tower with the moat
that he's actually in) before you even find Vlad's tower. Waking him
up, or killing him, before getting all invocation items and finding
the vibrating square is not recommended.
> (no vaults or Ludios, admittedly).
No vaults? No vaults *at all*? Strange.
> killed the angry priest of
> whoever-it-was. Hmmm, there was something I came here to do... what
> was it? That's it, buy protection... oh... whoops. So I had to waltz
> through the dungeon looking for the friendly shrine, instead.
The priest of Moloch in the Valley of the Dead will also happily sell
you protection. He (or she as the case may be) is guaranteed, at
least.
> (I'm still none
> the wiser about what the order is, since I don't remember what I
> tried...)
Strike a light to read by, make a noise to wake up your audience,
then read them to sleep again :-)
> I'd been
> relying on a blessed unicorn horn, but realised later it would have
> been safer to cast cure sickness.
If you have enough Pw and can cast it with 0% failure, yes. Or quaff
potions of extra or full healing.
> I tried the right hand altar next, past Death (who is much easier than
> Pestilence -- next time I'll try to find where Death is, and go
> straight there),
Yes, Death is the wimpiest of the three and you're probably immune to
his touch. Just don't try to kill him with a wand of death...
> 187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
> more than 120...]
Because the guaranteed-monster creation for the Quest doesn't take
the limit of 120 into account. Xorns, minor demons (or just lemures)
and vampire bats are the W quest monsters.
Raisse, killed by a vampire bat
Dylan O'Donnell
> Gary Wong <g...@research.att.com> wrote:
> > Beware of spoilers...
> > Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
> > version 3.3.1.
>
Seconded.
> > (How do all the other
> > ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
> > that far.)
I just don't post YAAPen :-)
> > Near the bottom of the mines I met an arch-lich who
> > was extremely nasty (apparently they shouldn't be created outside
> > Gehennom, so I guess it was a polymorph trap?).
>
> Either that or a doppelganger or something. I don't think mere
> chameleons turn into arch-liches.
They can, inasmuch as they've got a 2/3 chance per shift of not being
restricted to animals and able to turn into anything; however,
doppelgangers are more _likely_ to turn into arch liches, as they have
a 1/7 chance of picking something from the Big Nasty list. (They have
a MONSTR of 11, though; the Mines would need to be pretty deep and you
fairly experienced for them to be found there.)
> > I used the second magic lamp on 2 blessed magic markers,
>
> How? Magic markers don't stack.
He never said he _got_ them both :-)
> > I came back to the Dungeons, and quickly made level 14
> > thanks to a friendly succubus. (After this, I think every level
> > advance was from a succubus, wraith, or !oGainLev.)
>
> It usually is after level 14, in my experience. Could be a challenge:
> never gain any levels except from real experience.
No quaffing unidentified potions until PoGL is known (probably via
monster), then. Also, sometimes succubi are hard to turn down...
> > 187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
> > more than 120...]
>
> Because the guaranteed-monster creation for the Quest doesn't take
> the limit of 120 into account. Xorns, minor demons (or just lemures)
> and vampire bats are the W quest monsters.
Vampire bats and xorns are the specific monsters; B and W the monster
classes. (One of the exceptions to the rule that the former are
usually instances of the latter.) However, only the specific monsters
receive the extinction exemption, not the classes.
(Lemures are only created in Gehennom, and usually the only ones
you're very likely to find are on Juiblex' level. Except now, manes
can grow up to be lemures...)
--
: Dylan O'Donnell http://www.spod-central.org/~psmith/ :
: "Peek-a-boo, I can't see you, everything must be grand; :
: Boo-ka-pee, you can't see me, as long as I've got me head in t'sand..." :
: -- Michael Flanders, "The Ostrich" :
Karl Knechtel
: Beware of spoilers...
Spoilers are implicit in YAAPs; don't worry about it :)
<snipppage applied>
: Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
: version 3.3.1. (Once upon a time I had played plenty more games under
: older versions, but I don't remember when, or how many.) Until this
Congratulations!
: I started off with some help from the RNG, either with an initial
: +oIdentify or picking one up before long. (How do all the other
: ascenders remember how their games started? My memory won't go back
I don't know about the others, but I start keeping a diary for my
characters at about 5000 turns or when they get something really
interesting, whichever happens first, and continue to record major events
thereafter (in a text file) until YA[AP|SD].
: Then it was down into the Gnomish mines, where I identified a magic
: lamp which I rubbed for a wish on SDSM. I bought 7 candles from
: Izchak out of pure optimism, having never found the Candelabrum before
: (let alone the vibrating square). The rest of the shops didn't have
I always do this, just because it's a pain to go out of your way later on
in the game to go back to the Mines and get them... by that stage I like
to have the Mines *completely* cleared out, and a 'base camp' set up
somewhere in the main DoD branch.
: identify anyway). Near the bottom of the mines I met an arch-lich who
: was extremely nasty (apparently they shouldn't be created outside
: Gehennom, so I guess it was a polymorph trap?). This was the first
: serious problem in the game, but eventually I defeated it and all the
: monsters it created. Shortly after I decided I didn't want any more
Ouch. That's *much* worse than the Mumak of the Mines(TM). Good job. :)
: I went back to the Dungeon for a while with the Bell, and then played
: with the Eye of Tapioca (or whatever) to get back to the bottom of the
^^^^^^^
Lol. "Aethiopica" I believe.
: Quest to have some fun with the altar. I had a +oCreateMon by this
YES. Very useful item. :) Especially if you like to collect artifact
weapons for score. ;)
: point, and happily sacrificed lots of vampire bats for Stormbringer,
: but before long was crowned and further big favours from Anhur didn't
: seem forthcoming (surrounded by golden glow, play the right
: tune... but no protection or +oFngrODeath).
The spellbook is supposed to accompany crowning, no?
: I shortly fell down a trap door into the Valley of the Dead, where I
You *did* pick up the guaranteed wand of wishing in the Castle, *right*?
: marked it. For a while I'd been worried about my AC but never really
: found enough cash to buy much protection, despite hoarding every
: zorkmid I came across (no vaults or Ludios, admittedly). I invoked
Killing shopkeepers works well for this; there's also lots on the floor
in Gehennom and especially in the zoo in Rodney's tower, though by then
it's a bit too late...
: the Eye back to the bottom of the mines to spend what little I had
: (something like 20000, I think), and up to the Altar. I'd always been
You do realize you don't need a co-aligned altar for donation, and that
you can even buy protection from the priest in the Valley of the Dead?
Now you do. :)
: I was burdened by this point (I got scared after being killed by
: Pestilence, and took a spare "oLifeSaving and some !oFullHealings out
: of my (BoHolding) so dropped my 20,000 zorkmids on the floor, thinking
: I wouldn't need them where I was going, either way. I suppose that
: hurt my score -- oh well.
I'm usually burdened for most of the game. I tend to carry a *lot* of
stuff around in the BoH. Seems to work OK for me...
: I tried the right hand altar next, past Death (who is much easier than
: Pestilence -- next time I'll try to find where Death is, and go
: straight there), and the altar was Chaotic:
I agree, Pestilence is much worse than the other two. IMO the Riders
ought to be closer to each other in difficulty.
: Weapons
: m - the blessed rustproof +2 Magicbane (weapon in hand)
: Armor
: f - a blessed +4 silver dragon scale mail (being worn)
: i - a blessed rustproof +4 helm of brilliance (being worn)
: n - an uncursed fireproof +2 robe (being worn)
: o - a blessed rustproof +4 pair of gauntlets of power (being worn)
: r - an uncursed fireproof +0 small shield (being worn)
: F - a blessed burnt +4 T-shirt (being worn)
: I - a blessed fireproof +4 pair of speed boots (being worn)
Not #twoweaponing, and such a miserable shield as that; impressive :)
But didn't the shield hurt your spellcasting chances?
: Rings
: G - an uncursed ring of levitation (on right hand)
: [forgot to take that one off, whoops]
It shouldn't make a difference...
: Contents of the bag of holding:
: the rustproof +6 Stormbringer
Does one still have to remove artifacts from the BoH to get them to count
for score? This had been the case in several older versions...
: a +5 silver saber [never used it, but I gathered it might be handy]
: lots of food (lembas wafers)
You might have wanted to take some out, in case of running into Famine.
lembas wafers are very light btw.
: a rustproof wand of fire (0:5) (no idea how this got rustproofed)
Wands are sometimes generated that way, especially (AFAIK) if generated
from polypiles. There's no manual way to do it that I know of; the flags
are a placeholder apparently - TDT hasn't decided yet what effects rust
etc. should have on a wand...
<snip>
: Vanquished creatures:
: Orcus
: Jubilex
: The Wizard of Yendor (10 times)
^^^^^^^^
That's probably below average. I'm not sure why Juiblex ranks so high though.
: Death
: Pestilence (2 times)
3 total Rider kills is almost certainly below average.
: 187 vampire bats [these were mainly in the Quest -- not sure why there's
: more than 120...]
The limit apparently doesn't apply for the characteristic monster on the
Quest (i.e. vampire bats for W, centaurs for Ra, wolves for S).
: a green mold
Your unique kill? :)
: [You never engraved Elbereth. Never reverse-genocided. Never lured
: wraiths to another level. Never abused graves for ghouls. Probably other
: trivial challenges I can't remember.]
Pretty good. The latter two challenges are probably more frequently
upheld than the former two.
: Goodbye Gary the Demigod...
: You went to your reward with 5461894 points,
: Stormbringer (worth 30000 zorkmids and 75000 points)
OK, so I guess you *can* leave them in bags now. :)
: Bell of Opening (worth 100000 zorkmids and 250000 points)
: Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 300000 zorkmids and 750000 points)
: Book of the Dead (worth 350000 zorkmids and 875000 points)
I heard they were worth this much and confirmed it in Wiz mode, being
quite surprised. Were they worth this much (anything) in previous versions?
Karl Knechtel {:>
da728 at torfree dot net
NH 3.3.1 M D Zahlman-Ran-Elf-Mal-Cha 100(100) 50(50) -5 10 15000
[++ )+++ 2+++ P+ S++ D+/!D p- $++++ t++ s+++ W++ E- PS+/- PP+++ G++ !C
I+++ @W(15)* N !Y X+ So Sp++ sb-- !wb
Raisse the Thaumaturge
> Gary Wong (g...@research.att.com) wrote:
> : but before long was crowned and further big favours from Anhur didn't
> : seem forthcoming (surrounded by golden glow, play the right
> : tune... but no protection or +oFngrODeath).
> The spellbook is supposed to accompany crowning, no?
Only for neutral wizards. For chaotic wizards, the fact that they're
chaotic appears to take precedence and they get Stormbringer.
> : a rustproof wand of fire (0:5) (no idea how this got rustproofed)
> Wands are sometimes generated that way, especially (AFAIK) if generated
> from polypiles.
Or he picked it up on the Astral Plane. ISTR that any normally
rustable items in angels' inventory are created rustproof.
Raisse, killed by a bolt of fire
David Goldfarb
Karl Knechtel <da...@torfree.net> wrote:
>Not #twoweaponing, and such a miserable shield as that; impressive :)
>But didn't the shield hurt your spellcasting chances?
A small shield will only increase failure rates by 3-5%, not really
a significant difference. Heavier shields impose a big penalty.
>Does one still have to remove artifacts from the BoH to get them to count
>for score? This had been the case in several older versions...
For values of "several" equal to "one".... Prior to 3.3.0, artifacts
didn't count at all for score.
>: Bell of Opening (worth 100000 zorkmids and 250000 points)
>: Candelabrum of Invocation (worth 300000 zorkmids and 750000 points)
>: Book of the Dead (worth 350000 zorkmids and 875000 points)
>
>I heard they were worth this much and confirmed it in Wiz mode, being
>quite surprised. Were they worth this much (anything) in previous versions?
In 3.3.0 they weren't worth anything; as mentioned above, in versions
before that no artifacts were worth anything.
--
David Goldfarb <*>|"Feeling smug about one's opinions is the very
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu | lifeblood of the Net."
aste...@slip.net |
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- Dawn Friedman
DeborahRG
>Beware of spoilers...
>
>Last night I finally made my first ascension, on my 89th attempt in
>version 3.3.1. (Once upon a time I had played plenty more games under
>older versions, but I don't remember when, or how many.) Until this
>game, I'd never made it past the castle (many years ago I think I
>might have made it into Gehennom in explore mode, but that's all).
>I've read every interesting spoiler I've come across, and happily dive
>into the source when curious, but still came across some surprises:
>Double Trouble in particular fooled me.
Congratulations! Double Trouble is startling the first time you see it. I
think I only encountered it my first time in Gehennom. More recently, I seem
to be able to kill RodneY before he can manage the trick.
<snipped>
>
>I went back to the Dungeon for a while with the Bell, and then played
>with the Eye of Tapioca (or whatever) to get back to the bottom of the
>Quest to have some fun with the altar.
LOL! That's what I used to call it, because to me, tapioca seems filled with
squishy eyes!
>I had a +oCreateMon by this
>point, and happily sacrificed lots of vampire bats for Stormbringer,
>but before long was crowned and further big favours from Anhur didn't
>seem forthcoming (surrounded by golden glow, play the right
>tune... but no protection or +oFngrODeath).
But you did get the spellbook later? My ch Wiz made a huge mistake trying to
brave Gehennom without it.
<snipped>
>multaneously_ until it happened. And though I knew fake
>Amulets existed, it didn't occur to me that they crop up on half of
>the two Rodneys... until picking one up in Gehennom and carting it all
>the way back up to Medusa before thinking it might be a good idea to
>identify it. Whoops.
Naming items does help to avoid confusion.
<snipped>
>
>Then the Astral plane at last... I tried the centre altar first,
>meeting Pestilence on the way, who killed me either on the way there
>or back (one "AoLifeSaving down, two to go). Oops. YASD - I'd been
>relying on a blessed unicorn horn, but realised later it would have
>been safer to cast cure sickness. That altar turned out to be
>lawful, so it was back out of there again (those Angels really are
>a pain, aren't they?) -- fairly slow going, I was casting magic
>missiles or stabbing with Magicbane as the mood struck me, stopping
>to cast extra healing whenever my HP fell below 100. I used a /oDeath
>on Pestilence -- 3 zaps to kill him twice, I think.
>
>
Pestilence killed me too my last ascension (thanks "oLS). I think he is much
tougher than Death or Famine.
Great game!
Deborah