Thursday 1 May 2008

What the RNG giveth, the RNG taketh away...

Not a direct Kharne-related post, but what follows is one of the reasons I love roguelikes so much, and hopefully someday, Kharne will have the same kind of atmosphere.

I started a new Crawl game the other night, and unusually for me for Crawl, I chose a non-Troll (I have an aversion to the Crawl hunger system born of too many deaths by starvation). I went with a Mountain Dwarf Fighter and almost immediately found a +0 gold dragon armour on the very first dungeon level. Now dragon armour gives an obscene AC for starting characters (at the cost of ruining your EV) along with lots of resistances.

Wearing it, I quickly found I was pretty much indestructible. Ogres and orc warriors were being two-shotted, and couldn't damage me. I stomped my way down to D10, and blatted the top levels of both the Orc Mines and the Lair (with enchanting the armour repeatedly, my AC was 30+).

I spotted an entrance to the Elven Halls. Now, historically, I've stayed out of this place because the amount of firepower those little 'e's can put out is obscene (and has bitten me severly before), but overconfidence got the better of me. So I went down, stomped about a bit, came back up and rested, and then went back down and then bamm!! - you know what happens next:

"Cast into the Abyss (deep elf mage)"

Oops. I panicked for a bit (I've not been to the Abyss for a long time, and have never been ported there), and then encountered an Executioner. Result, one dead mountain dwarf.

Obviously the karma of me getting an overpowered armour on D1 resulted in my death. Roguelikes, don't you just love 'em?
Anyway, here's part of the Morgue file:

Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup version 0.3.4 (crawl-ref) character file.

11855 Blorg the Cleaver (level 11, -4/90 HPs)

Began as a Mountain Dwarf Fighter on Apr 30, 2008.

Was a High Priest of Okawaru.

Slain by an Executioner (13 damage)

... in The Abyss on May 1, 2008.

The game lasted 01:36:17 (16959 turns).

Blorg the Cleaver (11855 points)

Race : Mountain Dwarf Res.Fire : + . . See Invis. : .
Class : Fighter Res.Cold : + + + Warding : .
Worship : Okawaru***** Life Prot.: . . . Conserve : .
Level : 11 Res.Poison: + Res.Corr. : .
Exp : 15335 Res.Elec. : . Saprovore : . . .
Next Level : 20084
Exp Needed : 4749 Sust.Abil.: + Rnd.Telep. : .
Spls.Left : 10 Res.Mut. : . Ctrl.Telep.: .
Gold : 1121 Res.Slow : . Levitation : .
Clarity : . Ctrl.Flight: .
HP : -4/90
MP : 7 Weapon : +4,+3 dwarven hand axe of chopping
Str : 22 Armour : +4 gold dragon armour
Int : 7 Shield : +0 dwarven shield
Dex : 12 Helmet : +2 helmet
AC : 32 Cloak :
Evasion : 2 Gloves : +3 pair of gloves "Ygimeoj"
Shield : 7 Boots :
Amulet :
Play time : 01:36:29 Ring : ring of protection from magic
Turns : 16959 Ring : ring of sustain abilities


You were in the Abyss.
You worshipped Okawaru.
Okawaru was exalted by your worship.
You were not hungry.

You visited 5 branches of the dungeon, and saw 20 of its levels.
You visited the Abyss 1 time.

Inventory:
Hand weapons
a - a +4,+3 dwarven hand axe of chopping (weapon)
n - a +1,+2 dwarven vampiric hand axe
J - a +3,+1 hand axe
Missiles
h - 12 +0 darts of ice
Armour
c - a +0 dwarven shield (worn)
g - the +3 leather armour of Clicank
(You found it on level 4 of the Dungeon)
It greatly protects you from fire.
It lets you teleport.

i - a +2 helmet (worn)
k - a +4 gold dragon armour (worn)
r - a +0 dwarven spiked helmet
s - the +3 pair of gloves "Ygimeoj" (worn)
(You found it on level 4 of the Dungeon)
It greatly protects you from cold.

Magical devices
t - a wand of flame (8)
y - a wand of confusion (3)
E - a wand of polymorph other (7)
O - a wand of confusion (4)
Q - a wand of slowing (7)
R - a wand of frost (8)
Comestibles
d - 4 bread rations
Scrolls
b - a scroll of torment
j - a scroll of detect curse
q - 7 scrolls of remove curse
I - a scroll of enchant weapon III
U - a scroll of paper
Jewellery
f - a ring of sustain abilities (left hand)
l - a ring of protection from magic (right hand)
o - an uncursed ring of ice
z - an uncursed ring of poison resistance
B - an uncursed ring of protection from fire
T - an uncursed ring of magical power
Potions
m - a potion of slowing
u - 2 potions of levitation
v - a potion of cure mutation
w - a potion of speed
Books
p - a book of Frost
A - a book of Hinderance
G - a book of Power
Magical staves
F - a staff of summoning


You had 1 experience left.

Skills:
+ Level 9 Fighting
+ Level 14 Axes
+ Level 1 Throwing
+ Level 8 Armour
+ Level 11 Shields


You had 10 spell levels left.
You didn't know any spells.

Overview of the Dungeon

Branches:

Temple: D:5 Orc : D:6 Elf : Orc:4 Lair : D:8
Swamp : Lair:2

Altars:

Okawaru: D:7, Orc:4
The Shining One: D:10
Beogh: Orc:3, Orc:4

Shops:

D:5: ? D:6: = Orc:3: *


Innate Abilities, Weirdness & Mutations



You have tough skin (AC +1).



Message History

The Executioner hits you but doesn't do any damage.

You hit the Executioner.

The Executioner is lightly wounded.

The ynoxinul hits you.

* * * LOW HITPOINT WARNING * * *

The Executioner hits you!

You die...



#

# .#

. . #

. .#.

. . #.#

....#.#.#

#.{1@#

#.{.3#.......#

...#.#. ...##..

. . .{ ...#

. .. ....

# ... #...#

##{ .#.#

.# ..#





----------------------------------------

Grand Total: 466 creatures vanquished

Notes
Turn Place Note
--------------------------------------------------------------
0 D:1 Blorg, the Mountain Dwarf Fighter, began the quest for the Orb.
0 D:1 Reached XP level 1. HP: 16/16 MP: 0/0
230 D:1 Reached XP level 2. HP: 21/23 MP: 1/1
1005 D:2 Reached XP level 3. HP: 29/29 MP: 1/1
1851 D:3 Reached XP level 4. HP: 32/37 MP: 2/2
2174 D:3 Reached XP level 5. HP: 36/42 MP: 3/3
2822 D:3 Defeated Garg's ghost
2822 D:3 Reached XP level 6. HP: 31/50 MP: 3/3
3012 D:4 Noticed Jessica
3018 D:4 Defeated Jessica
3207 D:5 Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon
3321 D:4 Defeated Monsty's ghost
3741 D:4 Reached XP level 7. HP: 56/57 MP: 4/4
3845 D:4 Noticed Ijyb
3861 D:4 Defeated Ijyb
3941 D:4 Identified the +3 pair of gloves "Ygimeoj" (You found it on level 4 of the Dungeon)
4280 D:5 Noticed Edmund
4308 D:5 Defeated Edmund
4436 D:5 Reached XP level 8. HP: 40/63 MP: 5/5
4817 D:5 Identified the +3 leather armour of Clicank (You found it on level 4 of the Dungeon)
4909 Temple Entered the Ecumenical Temple
4966 Temple Became a worshipper of Warmaster Okawaru
5202 Orc:1 Entered Level 1 of the Orcish Mines
5910 Orc:3 Acquired Okawaru's first power
6199 Orc:4 Entered Level 4 of the Orcish Mines
6531 D:7 Reached XP level 9. HP: 61/69 MP: 5/5
7527 Lair:1 Entered Level 1 of the Lair of Beasts
7557 D:8 Noticed Blork the orc
7567 D:8 Defeated Blork the orc
9406 Lair:1 Reached XP level 10. HP: 67/79 MP: 6/6
11998 D:10 Entered Level 10 of the Dungeon
12762 D:11 Defeated Brag's ghost
12965 D:11 Reached XP level 11. HP: 83/88 MP: 7/7
14995 Orc:4 Gained mutation: You have tough skin (AC +1).
15399 Elf:1 Entered Level 1 of the Elven Halls
15722 Orc:3 Acquired Okawaru's second power
16790 Elf:1 Cast into the Abyss (deep elf mage)
16790 Abyss Entered The Abyss
16959 Abyss Slain by an Executioner


3 comments:

Enne Walker said...

The abyss can definitely be quite rough, even for middling characters. For the most part, you just have to run like hell and hope for an exit or an altar.

Dave said...

Yes. It was, on reflection, a good thing though. I have a sneaking admiration for whoever (was it Linley himself?) who put in this lovely....feature, even if it did ultimately splat one of my more promising characters.

Enne Walker said...

I tried to dig up some historical data for my own curiosity, but it seemed pretty scarce and I couldn't find anything.

"Beware the Abyss" has certainly been a distinctive feature for as long as I've known Crawl. Maybe Darshan would know better...