(Sorry, Chris, sent this post via email by accident.)
On 26.01.2022 19:43, Chris Bowers wrote:
>
> One interesting thing about role difficulty is the interesting
> sampling going on.
I don't understand that. (Non-native speaker on this side of the post.)
>
> Is it that more Arcs are ascended because they are easier?
If you mean to compare Arc and Kni, and according to the Wiki tables,
the absolute ascension numbers are insignificant, because there's
roughly twice as many Arcs played and only a few more ascensions if
compared to Knights. So we may wonder why Arcs are played more often.
I seem to recall that Knights are generally considered to be not that
interesting to play (but may be misremembering).
>
> Do servers attract more expert players than what happens when people
> play on their own consoles at home (which is more casual play?)
When I started to play on NAO I tried to ascend every character (not
that I'd have succeeded in that goal, but played more attentive than
at home). Not sure about other players' play.
>
> But I don't really figure the end game much into role difficulty
> because I believe the endgame after the castle to be easy and the
> early game hard.
Yes, that is very true for Nethack (less for Slash'em). Difficulty is
coined by the early game and often also until the midgame (depending
on how a game evolves).
>
> My friend who also plays has suggested that riding the horse is very
> difficult, most people do it (too early) and die all the time, making
> them think that Knight is a very tough role.
Early you can slip, fall, and die due to the few HP that character has.
But it had been pointed out here that feeding the horse with all these
apples will make riding safe, even immediately after starting the game.
In the rare cases when I ride I start a bit later. But it's a very good
option, probably underestimated.
In my previous post I forgot to mention speed; riding will also make
you faster, which makes Knights compete with Archeologists or Samurais
in that respect. With a warhorse you are even faster. Until Knights
reach XL:7 (where they get intrinsic speed) the horses are a boost of
their proficiency. The only real issue with riding I seem to recall
is a complicated food management, for yourself and for your steed.
> Riding should be rare,
> and you don't need to ride at all the whole game (it may be a "trick"
> as I've mentioned earlier: something which seems beneficial that can
> lead to death).
In my games I only occasionally mounted the steed, and did not ride
continuously, but I think every mount makes a steed less tame.
Janis