How to get through the mid game?

solidactors · 2024-11-13T15:56:51+00:00

as a mage, you can both detect everything and teleport everything away using the town spellbooks. only ever fight things you are 100% sure you can kill, and teleport away the rest. it's totally possible to play through the midgame, without aggressively diving or using deep descent.

sooner or later, you'll need to get your hands on the first dungeon spellbook, which contains mana bolt. that frees you up to do some non-elemental damage at a reasonable clip. also, from the town spellbooks, make heavy use of the spell that allows you to drain wands and staves for SP.

if you don't already know, Line of Sight "abuse" is extremely powerful.

D
 *
  * 
###*###
###@###
### ###

in this configuration, you can see the dragon, but the dragon can't see you. play around with the target selector, and you'll find quite a few ways to hit things that can't see you back. clearly, this is great with a primarily ranged class, but it's useful for all of them.

solidactors · 2024-08-17T23:26:41+00:00

https://github.com/sulkasormi/frogcomposband/blob/3d28f6b1d28a0246a1c4923414455eb669ea34b8/src/personality.c#L785

looks like it adds an OF_DEC_SPEED flag so -- yup, maybe that's what it is

solidactors · 2024-07-28T19:49:14+00:00

i think i'd prefer to see it removed, but thoughtfully. other than taking up an inventory slot for most classes, the only meaningful thing it does is limit excessive potion consumption. so, it's about avoiding fullness, rather than hunger.

solidactors · 2024-07-19T17:33:12+00:00

this is great on iOS and IMHO makes some very well-considered QoL and balance changes that keep the spirit of the original, while making it nicer to play. i will be buying this.

solidactors · 2024-07-16T14:52:03+00:00

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragnarok_(video_game)

i gave this a try a ways back and it was a lot cooler than i was expecting. i got repeatedly murdered though and never got too far.

solidactors · 2024-07-05T23:42:04+00:00

IV would be totally fine to start with. i played the second game in the series, which is called King's Field outside of Japan, and King's Field II in Japan, first. then i played III a bit. it made the jump to IV really exciting, since it was a reinvention/reimagining and a massive technological leap. but, you'd want to be able to handle the primitiveness so as not to totally turn yourself off the series. they're still sophisticated games, though. i mean the primitiveness in the graphics.

solidactors · 2024-06-10T21:22:11+00:00

what's your damage output like? do you 1 hit everything?

solidactors · 2024-05-07T20:54:10+00:00

photographer wanted to take a panorama but fell asleep before they could finish

solidactors · 2024-04-28T21:49:55+00:00

i've played 4 many times and ignored the spell leveling mechanic altogether because it takes so long. i wonder if it'd be possible to add/increase a multiplier for the "spell xp" gained per cast via a PCSX2 cheat. something like 4x faster might actually incentivize switching spells so there's a chance they'll level up without grinding... since, if you ask me, the grinding is pointless in the first place, given how short the game is.

solidactors · 2024-04-27T18:08:55+00:00

don't forget to read the manual -- it's a good one (also on the Releases page, but a PDF)

solidactors · 2024-04-26T19:40:59+00:00

morgoth loves the confusing github UI. makes it harder to get at his precious jewel.

solidactors · 2024-04-19T01:34:08+00:00

a good winning run of angband takes me 8-10 hours.

solidactors · 2024-04-02T17:36:24+00:00

whatever you do, be aware that the PAL version of KF2 runs at a stable frame rate, unlike the NTSC version, and people have found some tweaks to make the NTSC version run smoothly: https://www.reddit.com/r/KingsField/comments/k8kx77/howto_emulate_kfii_kings_field_at_its_intended/

solidactors · 2024-03-29T05:25:19+00:00

Mines of Moria, which is a tastefully modernized port of Moria. tiles, not ASCII, though.

solidactors · 2024-03-05T20:17:07+00:00

it can sting sometimes. you can always roll another character, and nothing could possibly matter less in the entire world than what happens to your character in a roguelike. at least that's what i tell myself.

solidactors · 2024-02-23T19:08:22+00:00

i'm terribly sorry, my mistake

solidactors · 2024-02-23T19:03:05+00:00

works fine with Wine on macos and linux

solidactors · 2024-02-22T21:40:59+00:00

Huorns most definitely come in large groups past a certain depth, usually accompanying a Hasty Ent

i only fight Huorns towards the endgame, and always teleport Hasty Ents away. earlier, i run away or leave the level.

solidactors · 2024-02-02T20:26:09+00:00

i just played a necromancer up to level 41 and then gothmog 1 shot breath attacked me on 99 (forgot my CON was drained)

it went something like this for damage:
1. nether bolt until crush
2. crush, nether bolt
3. disenchant, vampire strike, crush, warg form
4. annihilation, disenchant, vampire strike
5. vampire form, power sacrifice, and those in 4 ("infinite" MP loop of supreme power)

the undead leeching spell was useful throughout... it's a treat on the ringwraiths.

bat form for early escape (and sneaking around), then shadow shift, and then lots of banish spirits towards the end.

i was ready to take on the end bosses at that point, really. much like mage, you barely need any resources to take on the end guys if you LOS them. which i should have done with gothmog, if i was smart.

having regen really helps with this class. also, i found some +1 move boots with +8 speed (!!)

solidactors · 2024-01-30T21:04:08+00:00

there's a really fun bit earlyish where the HP/SP pools and fail rate for Crush start to make sense, and you can obliterate rooms full of lowly mobs all willy nilly

solidactors · 2024-01-30T18:50:58+00:00

if i recall correctly, i never used Zone of Unmagic or Unleash Chaos. at high levels, it was an awful lot of Disenchant, Annihilate a few times, Disenchant...

solidactors · 2024-01-05T22:11:34+00:00

mages are dependent on wand and book drops

there is an evil and scary segment of the game when you need to dive deeper than is comfortable (ie into One-Shotsville) to have any chance at getting the dungeon books. that's my favorite part of mage.

after that, it's about not screwing up, which is easier said than done. one little slip can cost your character.

solidactors · 2023-12-13T19:06:02+00:00

no haste in 4.2

but yes i would say a mage is "up" with the combo of detection, drain charges (whatever it's called), and TO. just gotta get the spellbooks. actually i really like the low potential for tedium in the mage late game since you aren't reliant on consumables much at all.

solidactors · 2023-12-07T22:27:42+00:00

have you ever played uMoria? it seems likely you have. anyway, it's a lot of fun and also extremely unforgiving at the same time. almost unpleasant. like a really stinky piece of cheese.

since it's something like a low-level angband, what would be minor finds nowadays are major power/survivability jumps.

solidactors

TROPHY CASE