NetHack

[Necronopticous]

Well, my annual NetHack pangs are back again and all attempts at convincing my friends and co-workers that it is the greatest game ever have failed as usual.

I remember there being some talk about NetHack back in the roguelike thread a while ago. Would anyone be interested in playing some games? I'm currently trying to ascend a chaotic priestess and even without conducts I'm having a hell of a time since I am out of practice.

http://alt.org/nethack/player-all.php?p ... onopticous

[CloudyMusic]

I've been a scrub/casual lover of NetHack for years. I haven't played it much lately, but I've been meaning to get back into it for a while; this is a good reminder to do so. Never gotten very far at all (I got to the Quest one time, I think), but I figure I'm still in the stage of learning all of the basic strategies, and once I have a solid handle on those, things will get easier.

[Necronopticous]

Getting to the quest is no easy feat, and it is true that once you get a better handle on the early game it gets a lot easier; the early game is by far the most difficult and dangerous section. There are some things you can do to help make that section a little easier, such as choosing a lawful female dwarven valkyrie.

Do you have an account on nethack.alt.org?

[CloudyMusic]

I have played on NAO in the past, but I can only find one of my names on there, and it only has three games on it, which doesn't seem right. I'll probably just start fresh, I suppose.

And I have been playing mostly lawful female dwarven valkyries, coincidentally.

[Necronopticous]

Well, that explains how you got to the quest!

Are you dipping for Excalibur @ lv5?

[CloudyMusic]

Yep, usually, though it's bit me in the ass a couple times

[Ruldra]

I made an account at NAO years ago but the buttons were all different from what I'm used to and I didn't know how to configure them. There were some other things to configure too and I thought it wasn't worth the trouble since my games don't last long anyway. I see no problem sticking to the vanilla offline version.

My games basically boil down to:

- Roll barbarian: die to dwarves/gnomes on my way to Minetown. I'm dying so much there I'm considering skipping that path and keep going down the main dungeon. It's not like I know what to do at Minetown anyway.

- Roll any other class: die to food poisoning or starve to death.

I kind of gave up on the game after so many deaths. I want to go back to it but my guys die so quickly it's disheartening.

[Moniker]

Ooh I may have to join in. Is it NAO tourney time? They usually have pretty good custom challenges each year.

@Ruldra - Roll a lawful Valkyrie instead. Dip for Excalibur. Don't hit the mines until you have a lighting source (you'll almost certainly find one in or before Sokoban). Look for wizard bones. Find or convert a coaligned altar. Then win. You should never starve: you can always pray when you hit bottom, and that's plenty. Just stay away from kobold corpses. IIRC, there have actually been numerous wins who ate nothing but fruit juice and prayer.

[Necronopticous]

I made an account at NAO years ago but the buttons were all different from what I'm used to and I didn't know how to configure them. There were some other things to configure too and I thought it wasn't worth the trouble since my games don't last long anyway. I see no problem sticking to the vanilla offline version.

Playing on NAO is great for so many reasons. Their game tracking/dumping is so awesome, and it is really cool to be able to go back and look through/share all of your old runs, or even watch the ttyrecs if you want. Other people can watch your games and give you help/advice! You can find other players' bones! True there are a few cons (latency/slight additional learning curve) but it is really worth it I think. As for configuration, I spent quite a bit of time tuning and tweaking mine--feel free to copy some/all of it to your liking:

http://alt.org/nethack/userdata/N/Necro ... us.nh343rc

My games basically boil down to:

- Roll barbarian: die to dwarves/gnomes on my way to Minetown. I'm dying so much there I'm considering skipping that path and keep going down the main dungeon. It's not like I know what to do at Minetown anyway.

The mines are quite treacherous, and are generally better to skip until you have a somewhat low AC, a light source, and some tolerance for traps. Being a dwarf or gnome can help you by making lots of the enemies here friendlies, but that is only one of many dangers. I find Sokoban to be a better first destination, personally.

- Roll any other class: die to food poisoning or starve to death.

As Moniker mentioned, prayer is super important in surviving early struggles with hunger. You don't want to pray every time you are hungry since there is a timeout for how often you can safely pray for help, but if you can get in a couple of lichen corpses or a food ration in between prayers you should be just fine (you probably want to wait roughly 1100 turns between prayers). As for food poisoning, keep track of the corpses that are poisonous and avoid them until you get poison resistance, or look up corpses you are unsure about in the nethack wiki to check before eating.

I kind of gave up on the game after so many deaths. I want to go back to it but my guys die so quickly it's disheartening.

Don't get disheartened. NetHack is almost nothing but deaths. The only kind of deaths that should be annoying to you at all are deaths that you don't learn anything from. If you learn even something small in the course of a run, then it is a success. Knowledge is the only way to get better at NetHack.

Get in there!

[Ruldra]

Thanks for the tips. I'm a bit busy nowadays but I'll get back to it eventually.

[Drum]

The game is way more fun when you are just dying over and over near-ish the start. Ascending is more of an annoyance than a challenge once you have all the stat boosts and best equipment. Keep playing though, the game is fun. Also, play Spelunky HD if you have a 360.

[Necronopticous]

Ascending is more of an annoyance than a challenge once you have all the stat boosts and best equipment.

That's why conduct play exists!

[CloudyMusic]

Been playing this a lot lately. I'm getting the hang of things to the point where I can make it to the Castle(-ish) pretty easily if I live past the first hour.

I've also learned some hard lessons about complacency/impatience during long, uneventful stretches. (Unintentionally fainted from hunger while levitating over sea monster-infested water, after having just lost my oilskin cloak. Oops.)

[Mischief Maker]

Vaguely related, I just started playing Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer DS on my commutes. Any tips (besides leveling up a +15 katana over several games)?

[Moniker]

Vaguely related, I just started playing Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer DS on my commutes. Any tips (besides leveling up a +15 katana over several games)?

The way to play, IMO, is a riceball run (just start with the big riceball and use what you find). But if you want to get a main dungeon clear under your belt, I recommend:

- Building a stash in the base village of items that require ID (IIRC, jars & staves), and bring one of each type on a win attempt so you always know what you're picking up.

- Make sure your weapon has air slayer melded onto it - very important in the endgame.

- Scumming bamboo village for pickpocket meat, robbing everyone on 4F, rinse repeat until you're fairly well equipped. This is more a prep run than a victory run.

- In my experience, a good shield is more important than a good weapon, so make sure to build up an iron shield. If you can meld a hide shield onto it, that's perfection. Contrary to what the game implies, only armor wards increase hunger. Not necessary to go too high; +5 is plenty. Same goes for your weapon, for that matter.

- Don't throw away light scrolls; they're really helpful for the marsh levels (where all the poisoners are - just run through those w/o stopping) and the trials. The final boss isn't as difficult as the floors leading up to him, and running away is usually preferable to fighting at that point, unless you're hyperpowered.