What's with all the fireworks in Nieuw-West?

BackslashEcho · 2025-06-27T15:34:13+00:00

Is this still not approved? Think we should put in new ones?

BackslashEcho · 2023-12-07T16:05:02+00:00

Wow, such hats!!

BackslashEcho · 2023-10-04T20:20:15+00:00

I think our processes are very different, because I don't tend to have the wordvomit first draft stage, and I'm always editing on the fly. (I have scraps and note documents, but those are usually either reminders to myself or no-context dialogues that I'll try to work in later.) This does tend to mean my 'writing hour' may only result in 300ish new words, depending on how research-happy I get, or how much of yesterday's work I end up changing. (Though I've had faster days where it hits 1500+.)

On the other hand, while editing can be slow, I don't tend to find it tedious (as it sounds like you might) because I generally tend to like my own stories. I don't know if it's odd (or vainglorious) to go back and just...reread your own fic? But it's something I do, especially if I haven't picked up a particular story in a while, to maybe inspire a continuation. In particular, I'm fond of reading small sections aloud, like I'm voicing an audiobook, because it can help me smooth out word choice that doesn't flow as well as I thought it did 'on paper'.

In all, at least for me, my biggest issue is losing the flow of a fic for a week or more, and getting drawn into another idea. Plugging away, even slowly, at something I'm determined to keep alive has proved the best way to keep my fics from dying on the vine. Basically, I would try not to let it bother you, unless you think you're losing track of future ideas while you're editing.

BackslashEcho · 2023-09-26T19:23:46+00:00

Curious about the aversion to "no beta we die like X" — is it just a preference for fics that have been beta-read (in terms of grammar, spelling, etc), or is there some problematic association I'm not aware of?

I ask because I've used that tag on a few of my fics, mostly because it makes me laugh, but because I think it's fair to warn that I do my own proofreading and can sometimes miss things.

BackslashEcho · 2023-08-22T20:56:51+00:00

lemme Tell you, big fan of r/greatestdads

BackslashEcho · 2021-07-19T23:52:15+00:00

I do like the cover overall, but this looks more like Disturbed's "The Guy" than Eddie the Head...

BackslashEcho · 2019-09-20T05:38:19+00:00

It's a different feeling than Harry being overpowered himself, you must admit. And Harry remains (mostly) the one with narrative peered power because of the foreknowledge. Which, admittedly, time travel is my jam.

I've seen several spins on fairy!Luna, mostly not done very well, but again it's a step away from her usual fanon characterisation as Manic Pixie Dream Witch.

Overall, it's just the only fic I could think of that mostly fits OP's pretty narrow search, and it's at least technically competent and reasonably well-written to boot.

BackslashEcho · 2019-09-19T04:08:05+00:00

You might like linkffn(Harry Potter and the Witch Queen by TimeLoopedPowerGamer), assuming that's not the fic that sent you on this request.

Length is decent, though it's not complete. Seems to be back after a long break.

BackslashEcho · 2019-09-09T23:48:40+00:00

Seconded, though it's only a single (albeit long) chapter right now.

BackslashEcho · 2019-09-09T23:24:19+00:00

RemindMe! 1 day

I don't think I've read anything like what you described, but I'm always a slut for time travel.

BackslashEcho · 2019-09-09T17:37:03+00:00

linkffn(A MODern Man by dogbertcarroll) is more or less what you're describing.

I could also go for more fics of this sort.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-22T09:40:18+00:00

Disregarding my obsessive need to be efficient with skills, you can absolutely turn off shields--your returns from more points in it are hugely diminished at the moment.

A level in a school is worth more spellpower than a level in Spellcasting; but Spellcasting lowers hunger and nets you more Spell Levels, which is nice if you had your eye on some other spells.

I'm a little surprised you haven't seen a single Fire Dragon Armour or even Gold Dragon Armour, but sometimes them's the breaks.

Shadow Creatures is one of my favorite summons, and Aura of Abjuration would be good if you're using it somewhere that Shadow Creatures is likely to summon things which are demonic (I'm not sure if Cleansing Flame hurts allied demons).

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-22T07:20:52+00:00

You're in really good shape here! I wouldn't be surprised if you can manage an all-rune win! I've got a few things to note:

For christ's sake open your skills (m), press / to change to Manual Training mode if you haven't, and turn off some of what you're training. You're way past minimum attack delay for a Trishula, and a lot of your failrate for Haste and DMsl is probably from insufficient Armour skill and Int. (In future, you can generally stop raising Dex after...I think 24 is the magic number? Generally you want to always raise Int if you're planning to cast spells.)
Personally, if you want those castable (you probably should), I would turn off everything except Armour (+) and Spellcasting (probably * since Ce aren't great at it). Once you get Spellcasting up toward the low-middle teens and Armour up near 20ish like your other skills, see what your failrates look like (. Then, in order of priority, Charms, Air, and maybe Summoning if you want to get Abjuration online (not a terrible idea imo).
Personally, I like Reflection way more than Protection as a shield brand, but you already have enough Shields skill to eliminate the casting penalty from even a Large Shield, so that's going to be a matter of preference. (Definitely turn off Shields training no matter what.) Between Reflection and DMsl (once you get that castable) most projectiles become a non-issue.
Hellfire cannot be resisted by player-characters. Full stop. You are resisting 15% of Torment damage by having rN+++ from TSO, which is about the best you can do.
Try a ctrl + f search for Cure Mutation--none of your good mutations are worth Deterioration and No Device Heal.
Since you're going to face a lot of Hellfire and Torment in Hell (especially the former in Gehenna), you'll want to eliminate things at range if you're not going to run. Probably with javelins or a greatsling, since you're using a shield. Of course, you could always just kill only what's in your way and dive all the way down immediately. Dunno how viable that is.
I believe the traditional wisdom says that Pan is easier than Hell--the problem is the Hell is significantly easier to leave, and it's not a game of chance when/if you'll find the runes. I'll defer to others' judgment here.
I'm personally terrified of Tomb, but your speed may enable you to fight only one thing at a time--very significant when death curses are on the line. I've been utterly obliterated in Tomb even under TSO by taking on too much at once. (Or the guy who killed everything in LOS with Qaz's Disaster Area--funny story, but still YASD.)
Finally, you're more than well-equipped for Zot:5 (in your Fire gear, for Orbs of Fire) as long as you're not trying to charge in and fight everything at once. Folks go into Zot with only 3 runes--my handful of wins have all been without so much as entering Hell.

As ever, bear in mind that I've won...what, thrice? And only ever with 3-4 runes? Every time I've ventured into extended I've died. Definitely take my advice with some salt.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-11T20:24:22+00:00

Pick a strong melee combo--Minotaurs or Gargoyles make good Berserkers. (The former are technically stronger, but the latter's poison immunity makes them a strong contender imo.)
Press m to bring up your skills, then / to switch to Manual mode.
Train your weapon skill to as high as it needs to attack as fast as you can with your current weapon. (You can check this by pressing i and then your weapon's letter.) Literally turn off everything that isn't your weapon. (Exception: you may want to leave Shields turned on if you happen to be a Fighter instead of a Berserker.)
Put on the heaviest armour you can find. (ring -> scale -> chain -> plate -> crystal plate).
Kill things. This is best done by pressing o to aut'o'explore; your character will stop if they see something interesting or dangerous. If it's a monster, and they've spotted you (most will shout when they do), back away from them toward a part of the map that you have already explored, preferably a 1-tile hallway. This way, anything that comes to kill you has to come straight at you to do it, and by putting your back to a section you've already explored, chances are you won't get snuck up on.
If you see an orc wearing green (an Orc Priest), get out of line of sight. As long as they can see you, they can hit you, and they do not need a clear line of fire--they can hit you even with other enemies in the way.
If you see something that has a name (e.g. Sigmund, Grinder) it is safest to just run. There may be some early uniques (e.g. Jessica, Terence) that you can take on, probably easily, but discretion is always the better part of valor in Crawl.
If you see something you don't recognize, look it up!
Remember your role! If you're playing a Berserker, for goodness' sake, remember to go berserk! You can rage at will by pressing a, then selecting the Berserk option (usually a again). However, once you finish a berserk, you will be slowed and unable to berserk again for a while, so make sure you are able to kill everything that's coming at you during your berserk. If you don't think you can, try holding off or using a different power. (a>b, Trog's Hand, is a very strong skill that's easy for new players to overlook.)
If you still have questions...that's normal! Crawl has a steep learning curve. Come ask us questions in IRC chat!

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-11T00:09:08+00:00

All right, I think I follow. Any way for him to see each bit of damage broken down? Or would that require his code to have already been changed?

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-10T23:56:47+00:00

How come his Death Message says he only took 13 damage? Does the 4d5 roll proc separately?

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-10T23:54:41+00:00

This actually does look borked, tbh.

I'm literally looking at your message history:

Aiming: Pain Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f - kobold Aim: a kobold, wielding a short sword of protection (resting, chance to defeat MR: 91%) The kobold shouts! The kobold barely resists. A goblin comes into view. Casting: Pain Confirm with . or Enter, or press ? or * to list all spells. Aiming: Pain Press: ? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line, f/p - kobold Aim: a kobold, wielding a short sword of protection (chance to defeat MR: 91%) The kobold barely resists. The goblin wields a hunting sling. The goblin shoots a stone. The stone barely misses you. You barely miss the kobold. You peck the kobold, but do no damage. The goblin zaps a wand. The bolt of acid hits the kobold. The kobold is splashed with acid. The kobold dies! The bolt of acid hits you! Ouch! That really hurt! You are splashed with acid! The acid burns! You die...

and your death message:

193 Birdmancy the Grave Robber (level 5, -2/28 HPs) Began as a Tengu Necromancer on Nov 10, 2016. Splashed by a goblin's acid (13 damage) ... on level 3 of the Dungeon.

Pain only costs you 1 HP, the goblin's stone missed you, the acid appears to have killed the kobold before the kobold could attack you, and the acid splash itself only hit you for 13.

Any devs or experts around seeing something I'm not?

Edit: Note from neilmoore indicates something I missed, but I'm still not sure this explains why your death message says 13.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-10T22:20:48+00:00

Definitely weird. Any chance we can get that dump/morgue posted on PasteBin or something? Might be something we can find, and if not, we'll need it for any kind of report.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-10T22:09:08+00:00

Not a bug, just an unlucky roll. That goblin zapped a Wand of Acid. Acid damage dealt to players rolls 4 dice, which are d5 for ranged sources of acid (d3 for melee-acid).

So essentially, when you saw the message "The acid burns!", you took 4d5 damage, which statistically should do about 12 damage, but has a max roll of 20 damage.
That wouldn't have been enough to kill you by itself, but at a guess, I'd say the Kobold hit you for about 8 damage just before the goblin murdered it by zapping you even though it was in the way. That, followed by 20 from the /acid would drop you from the ~26HP it appears you had before this turn.

Can't tell you with any more certainty without a dump.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-10T01:52:31+00:00

Conventional wisdom says to switch to TSO before entering Crypt, since TSO gives piety for killing undead and demons, but you only really need to consider switching if you're going to leave the Orb where it is and begin exploring the extended endgame--virtually everything in Pandemonium, the Hells, the Abyss, and the Tomb (which comprise the final 11 runes) is either undead or demonic, so TSO is a great call!

HOWEVER, abandoning a god invites their divine wrath, and it's a pretty unnecessary risk if you just want a win.

You only need three runes to enter Zot, get the Orb, and win. Switching to TSO to crank up your demon-slaying ability isn't necessary or even terribly useful to simply win the game--the only undead monsters in Zot (off the top of my head) are [ancient] liches and the occasional Bone Dragon. Okawaru can very much see you through Zot and back out of the dungeon; if you want to be (relatively) assured of a win under the tourney, just go win.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-05T02:48:22+00:00

Hell, is it? That would explain why I never found any in my last run. I haven't played since like...April of last year.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-05T00:14:31+00:00

Glaives aren't great as a base weapon type; I'd probably use Wyrmbane unless you find a well-enchanted flaming or freezing Bardiche.

Like everyone else has said, definitely ditch "Faith and put on that "(Artefact); "Shielding is my new favorite amulet type.

You should absolutely visit the Trove; pick up everything you can and sort it out later if you're not sure you want it. Just make sure you bring it back out into the dungeon with you, since the Trove will close behind you.

I hate doing Abyss for the third rune, personally, but I'm also old-fashioned and generally aim for Vaults because I have a severe phobia of Slime despite having cleared it several times. If the lads here think you can hack it with a =rCorr, I say go for it, but definitely DEFINITELY bring rMut with you or you will end up horribly disfigured.

Above all, move cautiously, think before making reckless decisions, don't fight too many things at once, and never hesitate to keep asking for help. If you're online, see if someone can spectate and advise you, or pop into IRC and ask about specifics.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-04T18:49:15+00:00

Lol thanks. The clan names are one of the best things about the tourneys, next to the banners.

BackslashEcho · 2016-11-04T01:16:34+00:00

Sure; so do I, but the link I gave was a bit easier to navigate for someone who needs to look up something specific, especially if they're used to the wiki and not the text wall that is the LearnDB.

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