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[popsofctown]

Whoaaa I autoexplored into Jorgun and two spriggan riders and he immediately petrified me (In spite of my level 2 MR I might say).  I used the only two turns I had before hardening to summon two Trog warriors.  I sat in stone and watched as the two trog warriors tried to kill the guys that were attacking me.  I fell down to 10% health before they finished everything off and then I unhardened.

[pubby]

I can't figure which, if any, key in Dungeon Crawl is not already in use so I can make a macro.

I usually macro '.' or 's' because they are redundant actions; both wait 1 turn.

[popsofctown]

They need to make one wait half a turn

[WalrusMcFishSr]

I can't figure which, if any, key in Dungeon Crawl is not already in use so I can make a macro.

I usually macro '.' or 's' because they are redundant actions; both wait 1 turn.

I like to use 1-4. Doesn't interfere with the numpad. For a wizardly type I often set "1" to "zaf" so I can zap stuff more efficiently. Later on I'll set them to my buff spells, so I don't forget to use Ozocubo's and phase shift and such.

My most recent win wore gold dragon armor but still wanted to cast deflect missiles...so I set a macro "TozeWo" to take off my armor, cast the spell and put it back on.

[pubby]

They need to make one wait half a turn

For a very brief period resting would rest in 0.1 turn increments, but apparently that put too much stress on the servers so it got reverted. Crawl is strange.

[popsofctown]

Hm.. So is there instead a random factor to how much of a jump on you something has when it comes into vision while you were fiving?

I want mini waits for combat though.  Sometimes you know something is moving towards you and will be in the adjacent cell in less than 1 turn, and you really want to melee it.  If you have a fast enough weapon you can just swing at the air, or if you have a ring that is irrelevant enough you can take it off.  The devs don't want to put an actual halfrest in even though those methods exist.

[popsofctown]

I got my second win of Crawl!  Won a MiBe.  Trog gifted me a good sling so I used slings a lot but I kinda regret it.  Even after training slings a lot, throwing stuff still did more damage, so it can't have been worth the skill points.

[popsofctown]

Is 4 runing considered easier than 3 runing now? I notice a lot of the runs on comborobin have 4 runes.  An awful lots.  On my MiBe run it felt like 3 runing was optimal, I hit the level cap during Zot5 so it seemed like I was sufficiently close to my power cap that grinding more wouldn't have been worth the risk.  I guess for characters that use more than zero magic maybe the tempo of a 4 rune run is better.

Which 4 runes are being so popularly run, Lairchild, Lairchild, Vaults, Slime?  I don't seem to consistently get access to enough rMut and rCor to want to do Slime.

[pubby]

A subset of the comborobin players are trying to get all of the max-skill titles in the game, and so that's partially why they're getting more than 3 runes. There's not enough XP to do it in 3 rune games.

[popsofctown]

But there's enough XP to do that in 4 runes? You've got to be kidding?

[sudgy]

I've been programming a roguelike game recently, and man does it take ages just to get a few basic things going.  It took me a while to get the screen to work well (with just text), and I've spent the last few days just making a good inventory system.

[sudgy]

I've been programming a roguelike game recently, and man does it take ages just to get a few basic things going.  It took me a while to get the screen to work well (with just text), and I've spent the last few days just making a good inventory system.

Okay, I just had to say, I'm making you able to die by hypothermia, and it was really creepy doing some testing.  I had five humans walking around for testing purposes, and while I was staying in the corner where it's a bit warmer, I kept on seeing them drop dead with the message "The human has died of hypothermia."  I ventured out into the cold and died as well.

[sitnaltax]

Bagged Low Scorer in Spelunky, the last of the achievements I was missing (except for the "play 1000 times" one). No jetpack, no cape, but I got a mattock which was a big help.

[chairs]

Can somebody teach me how to do SpAs?

[heron]

Can somebody teach me how to do SpAs?

Well, blowguns are pretty great, so shoot anything dangerous and run away. This works especially well becuase you're fast. Blowgun should carry you at least to lair and is pretty useful in lair too.

Edit: so I went to play a SpAs after this and found quicksilver dragon armour on D6. Yay.

[Jorbles]

Can somebody teach me how to do SpAs?

Well, blowguns are pretty great, so shoot anything dangerous and run away. This works especially well becuase you're fast. Blowgun should carry you at least to lair and is pretty useful in lair too.

Edit: so I went to play a SpAs after this and found quicksilver dragon armour on D6. Yay.

Yeah, basically you just run away while pelting anything you can kill with needles/darts/rocks/whatever. This is how you handle most things, saving your more potent needles for big threats like spell casters. Your biggest problem is killing things immune to poison. You can eventually up your damage with Stealth, Stabbing and Daggers (this is fun, but occasionally you end up in a sticky situation when you accidentally wake up something dangerous before you stab it). You can also try upping your damage with spells from summons or high damage spells, but you have to play it by ear based on books you find.

Try to get any spells or effects that let you be safer (ones that can deflect ranged things, ones that let you teleport, that butterfly spell, ones that immobilize or confuse opponents). Your biggest threat is things with ranged magical burst damage, things that might immobilize you somehow or things that have someway to stay close to you or box you in (almost nothing does, but the few things that do can be scary). Try to kill any of those sorts of threats really fast or just get out of their sight asap.

Some things like hydras can be difficult for you to kill because they regen fast and are immune to poison, but just run away from them, you're faster than most threats and can sneak around them later if you have to.

The hardest part about playing a SpAs is knowing not to bite off more than you can chew. Your HP is terrible so if you make a mistake it can feel punishing because you might die almost instantly, but the way the game is setup it is actually one of the easier classes to play as long as you know when to run away.

[popsofctown]

The stealth+backstab mechanic is sadly too swingy to actually use since with any amount of stealth there is a chance you wake the target up anyway.  It makes for a huge impact on whether you survive the encounter off of just 1 big die roll (well technically several, you know what i mean).

It'd be like it armor shared the same AC roll for all the hits that happens on the same turn.  No one would play axes+armor or use armor against hydras ever under such conditions.

It's a little sad.  You gotta use blowguns instead.


The only thing that can make backstab + stealth cool is if your stealth gets so through the roof that you can backstab kill a unique that you have no business killing.  It's still super risky, but at least there's a big reward in that scenario that makes the concept worthwhile.  You get a nice wad of experience and loot.  Sneaking up on an ettin to try to backstab it in order to save 5 blow darts for later isn't a good enough reward for the risk that it just smacks you and kills you regardless of your dodge or stealth stats.

[WalrusMcFishSr]

The stealth+backstab mechanic is sadly too swingy to actually use since with any amount of stealth there is a chance you wake the target up anyway.  It makes for a huge impact on whether you survive the encounter off of just 1 big die roll (well technically several, you know what i mean).

It'd be like it armor shared the same AC roll for all the hits that happens on the same turn.  No one would play axes+armor or use armor against hydras ever under such conditions.

It's a little sad.  You gotta use blowguns instead.


The only thing that can make backstab + stealth cool is if your stealth gets so through the roof that you can backstab kill a unique that you have no business killing.  It's still super risky, but at least there's a big reward in that scenario that makes the concept worthwhile.  You get a nice wad of experience and loot.  Sneaking up on an ettin to try to backstab it in order to save 5 blow darts for later isn't a good enough reward for the risk that it just smacks you and kills you regardless of your dodge or stealth stats.

If you want to play a super stealth-centric character, I strongly recommend Dithmenos. You can get stabbing to the point where it's almost reliable, and shadow step is a LOT of fun. Stabbing uniques, Pan Lords, TRJ, etc. is definitely in the cards.

However it's also recommended that you diversify to some extent. Hexes is a natural choice. Translocation is never a bad idea and Spriggans are good at it. Summoning or Necromancy are good options. Conjurations are also fine...you may remember that I actually had a SpAs of Vehumet who was a real firecracker. You just want maybe a bit more Spellcasting than usual (or a staff of energy) due to food, but that should never really be a concern. Other reasonable gods include Kiku or even Gozag.

But yeah, run away from everything scary is advice #1. Watch out for orc priests with your miniscule HP pool.

[Jorbles]

The stealth+backstab mechanic is sadly too swingy to actually use since with any amount of stealth there is a chance you wake the target up anyway.  It makes for a huge impact on whether you survive the encounter off of just 1 big die roll (well technically several, you know what i mean).

It'd be like it armor shared the same AC roll for all the hits that happens on the same turn.  No one would play axes+armor or use armor against hydras ever under such conditions.

It's a little sad.  You gotta use blowguns instead.


The only thing that can make backstab + stealth cool is if your stealth gets so through the roof that you can backstab kill a unique that you have no business killing.  It's still super risky, but at least there's a big reward in that scenario that makes the concept worthwhile.  You get a nice wad of experience and loot.  Sneaking up on an ettin to try to backstab it in order to save 5 blow darts for later isn't a good enough reward for the risk that it just smacks you and kills you regardless of your dodge or stealth stats.

This is actually a really interesting suggestion for making Stealth more useful. Like if they took two rolls to notice you it would greatly increase the value of Stealth (one to become alert and a second to specifically notice you). It really is punishing to try and play a stealth-stab build. I've done it, and it's super fun to instagib a room full of sleeping gnolls, but I'm pretty sure there were a lot of situations that became way harder because I tried to Stealth in and stab something than if I'd just blowdarted my way through trouble. (But yeah, I didn't really make it clear earlier, but Spells are more reliable than Stabbing.)

[sitnaltax]

I saw Dith mentioned, so let me throw in a plug for Dith as a non-stabber god. It turns out that Shadow Mimic is really awesome, both for conjurers and melee users--enough that the fact that the rest of the abilities don't match doesn't even matter. I played Dith on a VSIE and loved it--superpowered bolts and icicles (and Dispel Magic) and superpowered lajatang attacks.

[Grujah]

Invisible Inc actually got updated last month. Got some starting tools / Archive characters and some new programs at the Terminals. So it's a lot of fun to try it again.


I actually got the farthers I ever did on Expert Plus Ironman. I got to penultimate mission with Archive Internationale and (On File) Banks, Rapier and Dynamo. What eventually got me is that I only had starting Neural Disruptors and no other weapons and in Europe they have really high armor guards.

[pacovf]

Rapier? Huh, brave man.

[Grujah]

I have a soft spot for Rapier.
It wasn't that bad honestly, starting alarm 2 you get 2 power per turn and later you get huge jumps from Internationale (and I got Lockpick 2.0 early for when Rapier gets inefficient). At Alarm 0 you are super efficient especially if you get some early console and you want to stay at Alarm 0  as long as possible. I also had Emergency Power thing (if you are left with 3 or less power, you get 5, cooldown 3 turns) so I could intentionally drop very low at those starting turns. The only real problem is Alarm level 1, where you left with basically a Lockpick 1.0 and no real power gainer. :s

[pacovf]

I guess Rapier is usable when half your build is there just to enable it

Pretty sure that early Lockpick 2.0 is the main reason you got so far. It's the best all-purpose breaker there is!

I haven't tried the new programs and agents yet, I have to find the time (I've been super busy). I've heard archive Prism is da nuts.

[popsofctown]

I lost my job right as I was building up the courage to blow part of a paycheck on Binding of Isaac.  Sighz