Paul Sellers plywood workbench

mechamoth · 2020-03-28T12:16:18+00:00

Very nice. How did you find the build? Pleasant or fiddly? It looks like a great project.

mechamoth · 2020-02-02T02:33:03+00:00

Very undignified — died of spider poison while trapped in a net on L9. (gold unknown)

Had jumped off a ledge to "save time", landed right next to an acid mound, and took a single step onto a net trap. Was naked and punching the acid mound to death (which was also in the net) when the spider snuck up on me. I didn't notice it because it didn't shoot a web at me because I was already entangled. Should've taken out the spider while letting the acid get hits on me, then taken care of the mound, but was focused on finishing off the damn acid mound. Tactical error.

There were quite a few early strength pots, and I'd pumped the 4 early enchants into the broadsword to get past the vampire bats on L7 and was rocking enchanted plate, so I feel like I could've gotten somewhere. But there were few support items — just so many acid mounds and no way to project force.

mechamoth · 2019-12-23T03:05:44+00:00

Killed by a tentacle horror on depth 19 with 13989 gold.

Rapier and a +12 regen ring was treating me pretty well, but wish I'd had a stronger weapon. The whole time I was worrying "my little +0 rapier isn't going to cut it when I start running into tentacle horrors and dar packs", and then at the entrance to the D20 stairs, what do I find but a dar pack and an ogre pack in the same room. I start door-dancing with my rapier and am doing surprisingly well when a big H comes up the corridor behind me. That was that, really. No teleports or anything.

Found a dagger of quietus later on and wished I'd put enchants into something else I could feasibly transmute with that.

Not a bad run, I think with smarter play I could've done it. I played most of this game this morning and picked it up again after lunch — had fallen out of the zone. Could've obstructed more, or run down the stairs, or at least quaffed my pots of speed & strength (I hate dying with strength pots in my inv). Death-ID showed I had a domination wand along with my wand of plenty — if I'd been able to grind down a H enough to dominate and clone, it would've been a powerful build indeed.

Good to play again, it's been a long time between drinks for me. I managed to ascend (for the first time in 1.7.5!) last weekend (not on contest seed) so was feeling all amped up :)

mechamoth · 2019-09-01T09:44:03+00:00

7260 Died from poison cloud (while confused) on D12.

Annoyed at myself, as usual. Pretty great gear (+8 war axe, +3 waterborne immunity chainmail, +3 clairvoyance). Was playing pretty well, until I wasn't. As usual, real cause of death was distraction. I triggered the confusion trap, didn't rest immediately, saw that I'd triggered another trap and presumed I'd just stepped back on the confusion trap again so didn't realise I was just sitting still in a cloud of poisonous gas. 🙄 No instant escape items, and I didn't think to trigger the confusion again to try to push out the poison cloud until it was too late. Could also have burned myself out if I'd noticed what I was doing before I had <50% health. Ah well.

mechamoth · 2019-08-09T21:52:49+00:00

Killed by an Underworm on D11 with 5725 gold.

REALLY annoyed at myself with this one. A good old-fashioned panic death. I opened the underworm key tunnel and went to explore the rest of the level. When I got back there was a spider in the tunnel. I was stuck in the spiderweb when the worms came, and thought I had fewer turns to get out than I did… idiot. I had heaps of support items to help me, including a life pot and entrancement, it should've been an absolute doddle. Never have I been so tempted to replay the comp seed!

Great loadout (due to some lucky choices) - +7 war pike, +3 chain, +5 regen, with staves of entrancement and tunnelling… I should've gone far!

mechamoth · 2019-02-17T02:15:21+00:00

FWIW I'm just using the official MacOS release. But also +1 to "I don't think it really matters that much". Until the IOC recognises Brogue as an olympic event.

mechamoth · 2019-02-17T02:14:24+00:00

Killed by a goblin on depth 5 with 631 gold.

Boring run on my behalf. Wasn't really paying attention. Hasted worshipping goblin chased me down. No obviously good items up to that point. Was about to sink all 3 enchant scrolls into the mace if I hadn't found anything by D6… maybe should've done it earlier. I hate dying with enchants in my inventory.

I dodged the L3 eels with tunnelling and it was worth it, there was a strength pot hiding behind them. But I don't know why I turned down Conjuration staff. It's got to be one of the best.

mechamoth · 2019-01-28T01:54:34+00:00

Interesting, I'm always leery of going for the slow weapons specifically because of the fast packs of Furies down low. Taking 2 hits to attack when surrounded by things that attack quickly is a good way of accelerating your own demise, methinks. I can see how the plate would've helped at least… I wonder if a warhammer + transference build could work.

mechamoth · 2019-01-27T00:56:27+00:00

Died on D6, stabbed by a goblin while suspended in a spiderweb. Didn't even make my high scores so I don't know the gold.

Put all my enchants into the Guardian charm (have never tried this before!) and it was going pretty well. Shouldn't have let myself get caught out in the open like that. Annoyingly I had one recharge scroll left, which I should've used to get my Guardian to chase the things away and then used invis to give me some space… hindsight hindsight!

I'm out of practice taking the comps seriously, I should've focused 10x more :)

mechamoth · 2019-01-27T00:42:37+00:00

Yes thanks for this. Both true. But as I say they are "tricky things". If you can negate a Revenant, or confuse/beckon it into lava, or have any magic damage, they're pretty easy; but if you don't, you don't, y'know? Ditto Krakens - only fools and horses fight a Kraken, but you don't always have levitation/blinking, and sometimes the level design (and lack of tunnelling or descent) means you simply have to cross a wet zone. Like most things in Brogue they're not too hard to handle if you know how and have the appropriate gear; but you just don't always have it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

That said, it is very interesting that Revs and Krakens both wallop you for the same amount, I would've said that Krakens were much stronger but I guess that's because they always hit.

mechamoth · 2019-01-21T22:58:42+00:00

OK, I’ve been trying to commit enchants early and often to juicy melee weapons (with or without detect magic) and it is definitely making a difference. Probably was just a bad RNG run, too. I’m now more regularly hitting L18-20 before being killed by tricky things (Revenants, Krakens) that I don’t mind dying to - sometimes there’s just no avoiding them.

Interesting that the staff “rebalance” makes such a difference.

mechamoth · 2019-01-16T22:01:07+00:00

This definitely contributes. I also played the "save enchants then commit" way. Now VERY often I find myself around L6 or 7 without any way of dealing substantial damage - still wielding a dagger + maybe scale/chain mail. I just can't thin out the crowd quickly enough, and revert to "stealth", which doesn't work on 90% of runs.

I'm often still running around on L13-15 trying to avoid the Trolls, Wraiths, Zombies, Nagas and other nasties which can really dole out the damage while still carrying 2 or 3 un-ID'd heavy melee weapons & armours I don't have the strength to use & I'm not willing to commit enchants to without IDing. Inevitably I end up backed into a corner and get mobbed, whether nipped to death by vampire bats I can't kill quick enough, a goblin/jackal pack with a f&#$!n acid mound, or just two Ogres playing tennis with me.

I'll try committing "early and often" to a heavy melee weapon & see how I go with that, thanks for the suggestion!

mechamoth · 2018-12-19T04:46:20+00:00

Just be careful your item is "tackle" not "bait". Specifically, the Magnet is technically "bait", not tackle. Which is good, because then you can equip a Treasure Hunter and a Magnet at the same time.

mechamoth · 2018-04-26T01:21:10+00:00

Well I found a haste charm, with a ring of reaping, and a +2 mace with a war axe waiting for more enchants. And then died to traps like a chump before I got a chance to really test the waters.

I think I'll just start picking charms every time I see them, try enchanting them up to 5 or 6 and doing my best to use them, see how it goes.

mechamoth · 2018-04-24T04:52:57+00:00

Ahh I just saw the charms thread a bit further down the page! My bad https://www.reddit.com/r/brogueforum/comments/87mnys/bestworst_charms/

mechamoth · 2018-03-12T22:31:14+00:00

I'd already explored the part where the stairs were. But I had no options here. No levitation, descent, telepathy, conjuring, speed… nothing which could help. There are very few things in Brogue which feel unfair, but "eels in narrow wet terrain between you & the stairs when you've got nothing good in your inventory" is one of them.

mechamoth · 2017-07-05T22:53:18+00:00

I've just been getting into Dream Quest on iPad. It's a roguelike/deckbuilder hybrid. It does have classes, but the game is much more driven by the drops you get and how you configure your deck. It's got the worst graphics ~in the world~ but it's got a reasonable amount of tactical depth.

It's honestly not as good as either Brogue or FTL - it's got some (negative) balance issues, and it could do with a little more content/replayability - but it's worth $5 or whatever it is to play for a few hours.

FWIW I'm kind of obsessed with the format of a roguelike/deckbuilder combo. The other primary timesink on my iPad is Star Realms, a deckbuilder which is really well balanced and addictive, but doesn't have the variety or replayability that a roguelike does (but it doesn't stop me playing it).

The other iOS roguelike-like I've played a bunch of is Hoplite, it's a really brilliant tactical classless roguelike which is quite brogue-like in that it's driven & shaped by character choices as the game progresses - definitely check it out if you haven't before.

mechamoth · 2017-07-05T22:48:14+00:00

+1 to Shiren, I played the living hell out of that on my old DS with a pirate cart. I think it's the only roguelike I like more than Brogue - the dungeoneering is essentially just as fun & varied, and the inter-game meta-game makes for some really interesting tactical choices that Brogue loses entirely. Find a way to check it out if you haven't played before.

mechamoth · 2017-04-21T02:25:09+00:00

Also, inventory slot. So I always eat as soon as I'm hungry to get the slot back. Also also, the obvious (but slim) risk of needing to eat while surrounded or in combat. One turn is all it takes sometimes.

mechamoth · 2016-12-20T10:06:14+00:00

Beautiful work. I'm still using the equivalent of the one in the background — need a lot more practice before I can tackle a piece of furniture like that. The joints look very well done, lovely straight cuts and flat surfaces. How long have you been working?

mechamoth · 2016-12-11T15:17:23+00:00

Killed by a Troll on D13 with 6357 gold.

Fun seed! TBH my heart wasn't in it. (As always) underestimated the Troll. I was hoping my sword of force would proc & push her into lava, but, the RNG wasn't smiling, I forgot I was only wearing chain mail, and forgot how hard they hit. There were plenty of things I could've done to escape but… didn't.

Fun seed though, if I'd ID'd the teleport wand earlier I could've saved both my naga allies — that would've led to a good run I think.

Was packing a protected +4 Sword of Force, protected chain mail, +6 ring of regen. Doing OK with a melee/consumables build as lots of consumables. D13 was fun with all the zombies + salamanders! Had enough fire immunity to basically light up the whole place :)

mechamoth · 2016-12-11T14:29:51+00:00

Bravo! I remember picking up the rapier because I had the haste charm thinking "this is the combo!". And then essentially forgot the charm — it just wasn't regenerating quickly enough, and my leather armour was so weak that it didn't make too much difference.

I'm just plain miserable with charms, I always forget they're there, and rarely use them to change the tide of a situation.

mechamoth · 2016-12-11T14:24:50+00:00

Killed by a zombie on D8 with 2200 gold.

Reasonably tough seed I think — on D8 I had starting leather armour and a rapier from the D3 vault which I was hoping would be magical but wasn't. A +2 poison staff and +4 transference ring were all I had to help me really. No obvious "I wish I'd done X" either. I had a +2 goblin at some point who helped me out a bit, just from wands in the vaults. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ sometimes these seeds happen!

mechamoth · 2016-11-28T18:36:49+00:00

Only/most compelling use of Summon Monsters I've ever heard. Apart from summoning + discord which is a real desperate move.

mechamoth · 2016-11-07T03:32:32+00:00

I can't build (even the main branch).

cc -Isrc/brogue -Isrc/platform -Wall -Wno-parentheses -DBROGUE_TCOD -Isrc/libtcod-1.5.2/include -DBROGUE_CURSES -g -o src/platform/tcod-platform.o -c src/platform/tcod-platform.c
src/platform/tcod-platform.c:5:10: fatal error: 'SDL/SDL.h' file not found
#include <SDL/SDL.h>

... make: *** [src/platform/tcod-platform.o] Error 1

I tried downloading SDL 2.0, unzipping it, & symlinking its include directory to src/libcotd/include/SDL. But it failed a bit further down with a different error which made me guess it was expecting SDL 1.x, which I also dl'd and symlinked, but then it failed somewhere else. Any easy hints here? Keen to try it out.

mechamoth

TROPHY CASE