Ancient Domains Of Mystery, forum overview / Spoilers / Handy tips for newcomers
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rmcin329 Registered user Last page view: 5426 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes and 17 seconds ago. |
I know of talents to learn better from books and to decrease the cost of casting out of them, but not to decrease the required time. Good and great book caster(yes you have to get good book caster to get great book caster) will reduce it to only 50% more PP and triple the time. |
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Molach Registered user Lord of DurisMud Last page view: 5352 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes and 55 seconds ago. |
Okay, it is indeed fault in the manual, which incorrectly states quintuple. It is well known, so apologies for that. Three times PP & time. I don't think there is a way to decrease time book-casting. Talents specifically state they lower PP cost. Manual says something about spells taking time because you have to utter words loudly instead of "willing" it to happen. I guess. Makes book-casting not very good for attack spells. Unless you kill monsters with that attack, that is. Forgot to add the required tip update: 23. "[...]but a potions of raw mana will NOT work." Hehe, did I ever learn this the hard way? It just seemed so logical it would...I mean, RAW mana doesn't and booze does? [Edited 1 time, last edit on 1/12/2008 at 08:02 (GMT -5) by Molach] |
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4279 days, 6 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds ago. |
64. Remember to have fun while playing! Nothing hurts your chances more than playing half-heartedly because the game not being fun. Remember you can save anytime, anywhere, and come back later. 65. Likewise, if you find that some of the hints above distract from the fun of the game for you, feel free to ignore them. Remember that you can play the game in any way you want! You don't win ADOM by doing everything you can to become as uber-powerful as possible. You win ADOM trough not dying. As long as you don't die, everything goes! You drop the golden ball. You kick the golden ball. It slides to the west. Suddenly Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, appears! "That's not how you play Quidditch! are you even listening?" Which direction? (123456789) 4 Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is hit by a bolt of acid! Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is annihilated. You hear the ecstatic cries of a large crowd! |
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gut Registered user Painted this one too. Last page view: 5108 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes and 28 seconds ago. |
you want to play, don't just play the first one you roll. Generate one, note the stats that are most relevant for them, then 'Q'uit. Roll a few more to get a good idea of what stats are poor/average/good for your PC. For instance, if you start a gray elven wizard that has a Learning stat of 14 you should re-roll for sure. The same goes for a trollish barbarian that starts with a Strength stat of 21. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! [Edited 1 time, last edit on 1/15/2008 at 12:23 (GMT -5) by gut] |
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Nightmare Registered user Soul Calibur 2 Last page view: 4809 days, 20 hours, 13 minutes and 46 seconds ago. |
I don't know about 66. That Trollish Barbarian could find an eternium two handed sword in the SMC and you'd all of a sudden be having a great time. The reroll of the grey elven wizard could start with 25 learning. He could also start the game with a book of know alignment and a book of cure disease, hope that quarterstaff has some good bonuses on it. Point is, there is so much randomness built into this game, a character with lousy stats and crummy starting gear could be on the upswing very quickly if they find a good item or two. Likewise, a few missteps and bad luck, and your reroll with great stats will be in big trouble or gone. Yeah, I consider some characters "throw-aways" if they get a lame birth month, and I'll play a bit more recklessly with them than I would with an all star character (one with a great birthmonth and kickass stats). But I'll still give them a chance to happen upon great luck or triumph through perserverance. "As for me, I feel priveleged to be among the only species able to make scientific inquiries." -unknown "Be sure to keep your distance if you don't have resistance." -DG |
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Darren Grey Registered user Last page view: 4450 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 32 seconds ago. |
Some chars can be throwaaways, but you normally need to play them to get a proper feel for that. Stats aren't always so vital as other factors. In fact a character with low stats for his class will normally have lower experience requirements for the first few levels, meaning they can have an easier ride than their counterpart with highly inflated stats. Waldenbrook, the dwarven shopkeeper, mumbles: "I'd offer 9 gold pieces for yer dwarven child corpse." |
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Battle bunny Registered user I'm just that cool Last page view: 6038 days, 2 hours, 26 minutes and 11 seconds ago. |
It is strange though, I would expect to be able to run better while still fresh and unhurt. Playability > realism, though. Also, with wizards, I was often tempted to keep offensive spellbooks for bookcasting after reading them twice, but unless you are very dumb, you shouldn't: you will find enough books later on. (\_/) (o.0) (> <) ( / \ ) Don't click this http://www.mindistortion.net/iwantyoursoul/?i_am=Darkcutter |
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J. Registered user You'll never get rid of me Last page view: 5875 days, 1 hour, 2 minutes and 52 seconds ago. |
To get the most castings out of the book, you read it once, and only read it the second time when your available castings become low, like under 50. Books are heavy to carry and easily destroyed so you might want to read it all the way the first time, though. If you're feeling happy, don't worry, it'll go away. Originally posted by noob: "I'm everytime amazed how you people know to exploit every single little bug (or not-bug) for elaborated scumming tatics even if the feature seems completely useless or bad." |
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gut Registered user Painted this one too. Last page view: 5108 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes and 28 seconds ago. |
Nightmare: >I don't know about 66. That Trollish Barbarian >could find an eternium two handed sword in the >SMC and you'd all of a sudden be having a great By that logic a hurthling mindcrafter could too. Is there anything that says you are more likely to find that weapon if your character has low stats? The chances are most likely the same, for your PC to find nice items, regardless of having poor starting stats. All other things being equal, the PC with better relevant stats, is better. Items will be fixed quickly enough by just playing the game, but getting high stats will be much more difficult. Strength is an easy stat to fix, up to 18. Just carry some large rations. Increasing it beyond 18 is more cumbersome. So every point you get beyond 18, is quite valuable. Just think about training with garth, he charges a lot more to give you that 26th point on any stat, than for the 19th. >The reroll of the grey elven wizard could start >with 25 learning. He could also start the game >with a book of know alignment and a book of cure >disease, hope that quarterstaff has some good >bonuses on it. Firstly it is impossible for a wizard to start a game without an offensive spellbook. Having generated countless wizards when writing my guide, I feel pretty confident saying that. Undesirable starting books are fixed the following way. First, go to the ID (takes about 20 game turns). Second, find the down staircase (takes about 75 game turns). Third, climb staircases, and keep an eye out for books (almost gauranteed in about 150 game turns). Total turns spent = ~250. Of coarse, you don't even need to do that. Your one offensive spell, should last plenty long enough, for you to find a second. On the other hand, a poor learning stat is fixed the following way. Obtain the pickpocketing skill, get it to 100, and pick every pocket you find for the next 50,000 game turns, in the hopes of finding enough potions of learning/gain attributes to fix it. Or perhaps you prefer the crystals of knowledge method, for the 2 races that are fortunate enough to start out with it: Step 1, get a pickaxe (this can take a while). Step 2, get about a zillion gold pieces. Step 3, dig perhaps level D:8 until your pickaxe breaks. Step 4, pay Glod to repair said pickaxe. Step 5, repeat steps 3 and 4 until your finger prints wear off. Training with garth takes the same 1 gazillion gold pieces, so that's not much of an option either. Also any wizard that starts with a poor learning stat will only get a fraction of the spellcastings as a smart wizard. Therefore you need twice as many books. >Point is, there is so much randomness built into >this game, a character with lousy stats and >crummy starting gear could be on the upswing >very quickly if they find a good item or two. A PC with better stats, would be on more of an upswing. >Likewise, a few missteps and bad luck, and your >reroll with great stats will be in big trouble Valid point. I should have mentioned, that it's quite annoying to spend a long time generating a character, only to have them die quickly. If one does 'roll scum' they should probably do so with reasonable limits. Darren: >In fact a character with low stats for his >class will normally have lower experience >requirements for the first few levels, meaning >they can have an easier ride than their >counterpart with highly inflated stats. Lower stats = faster level ups? I've never heard of that. My experience says, the higher your learning stat, the faster your race/class combo will level. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! |
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4279 days, 6 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds ago. |
It's true, lower stats overall lead to quicker leveling. It's to equalize the chances. Of course, Learning also has an influence. I have to say, I've found myself rerolling gray elven wizards as well when their Learning is below 20. In the end, it's a matter of philosophy. When I play a character, do I deal with his strengths and weaknesses, even if his weaknesses are considerable? You drop the golden ball. You kick the golden ball. It slides to the west. Suddenly Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, appears! "That's not how you play Quidditch! are you even listening?" Which direction? (123456789) 4 Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is hit by a bolt of acid! Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is annihilated. You hear the ecstatic cries of a large crowd! |
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Darren Grey Registered user Last page view: 4450 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 32 seconds ago. |
gut: Do some testing and you'll quickly see that a character who starts with low stats for his class will have lower experience requirements than one with higher stats. This quickly evens up by level 20, but in the early game it can be handy. Biggest reason not to throw away early characters is because generating them can take an annoying amount of time. Scumming the question system is the most ridiculous waste of time - I can't understand when anyone would do that. Every character will get evened up eventually, so there's no need to put such effort in. Also I fully believe that, barring extreme bad luck, almost any char could be made to win. Just stay on VD1/2 till level 10 and take everything carefully after that... Only unplayable char I've ever generated was a troll with 3 Pe. Waldenbrook, the dwarven shopkeeper, mumbles: "I'd offer 9 gold pieces for yer dwarven child corpse." |
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gut Registered user Painted this one too. Last page view: 5108 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes and 28 seconds ago. |
I won't need to test it. If you are sure it's true, I have no problem taking your word for it. I wonder how much of an advantage it gives, %10 - %20? Maybe it's just me, but I still think it's much more beneficial to have higher relevant stats. How much sooner do you hit 9,000 exp. points, than 10,000. Perhaps 50 - 100 game turns? How about 90,000 vs. 100,000. I think, probably about the same, 50 - 100 game turns (because monsters give more exp. points as you progress through the game). Sometimes it would take much fewer game turns! (If your fighting lots of monsters or perhaps even a tension room, achieving those extra points is a matter of like 20 - 40 game turns.) On the other hand, taking ANY stat from the low 20's to the high 20's, takes a LOT of work, but gives a high reward. Starting a PC that has any relevant stat at a very high level is a tremendous boost. What difference does it make for a fighter? ST = 21 vs. ST = 29. Forget the extra carrying cappacity, extra HP and extra to-hit bonus, just look at to-damage. It's just about like starting the game with a blessed ring of damage! What does it mean for a spellcaster? LE = 17 vs. LE = 25. You get many more spellcastings from each book. Meaning you won't be stranded without offensive spells in the early game (this can be deadly). You don't need to find 2 or 3 of each book, 1 will most likely give you all the castings you need. Attempting to learn powerful spells with LE = 17 will result in a castings score of ~100. That's kind of a waste (of lightning ball or such) of a good book... if you ask me. I agree whole-heartedly about the question system. I set the configuration variable, but it's not that big of a deal to press 'r' for 'random'. As far as starting a new game taking a long time. Well I can't judge how long it would take a new player, but I can test myself quickly. It takes on my setup these keypresses: SPACE, g, SPACE, s, d, f, SPACE, s, +, m, x, ENTER. This will start a grey elven wizard, with the name x (which I can change later, if he's worth it.) He will have the ALERT, and LEARNED talents. Grand total of 12 keypresses. Not really that time consuming, to do it, say, five times. That should be enough to yield a PC worth investing time in. I just don't see the sense in investing your real life time in a PC that is crippled to start, except maybe as an extra challenge. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! |
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noob Registered user Last page view: 6139 days, 9 hours, 20 minutes and 48 seconds ago. |
I like the question system and mostly answer it (I don't look up all the effects of course - if you meant that). It's like already part of the gameplay. Appart from adjusting some stats it also helps to get into the role of the character and recover a little from "walking tank syndrome" and related "impatient fast-key-hitting syndrome" since it builds up some slowness, care and a feeling of this character being special (a winner). And THIS adds to survivability because my chars usualy die if I don't stop playing in time and fall into routine-key-hitting (besides very-early bad luck of course). [Edited 1 time, last edit on 1/14/2008 at 20:43 (GMT -5) by noob] |
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Molach Registered user Lord of DurisMud Last page view: 5352 days, 12 hours, 2 minutes and 55 seconds ago. |
I rarely answer the questions now. But for me, that is because it makes the game easier. Knowing which questions affect the less-useful stats like Ap, Ch and Pe, Ma for fighters, will make the game easier. Toughness is one of my favourites to boost by questions (hitpoints, PV)as is learning to ensure literacy or for the spells. But part of the reason might be the fast-hitting key syndrome too. |
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4279 days, 6 hours, 50 minutes and 42 seconds ago. |
That question system gets mighty boring after you've answered your way trough it, say, 100 times. That's why I only do random now. I also like to use every character if possible, if I'm in the mood for playing. Which I've been rarely since my last win... You drop the golden ball. You kick the golden ball. It slides to the west. Suddenly Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, appears! "That's not how you play Quidditch! are you even listening?" Which direction? (123456789) 4 Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is hit by a bolt of acid! Harry Potter, the apprentice wizard, is annihilated. You hear the ecstatic cries of a large crowd! |
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Darren Grey Registered user Last page view: 4450 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 32 seconds ago. |
gut: I just did a bit of testing with troll barbarians to quantify the differences in experience requirements. It seems to vary by up to 15%, and does carry through to the later levels. Can make a difference of 2.5 million by the time it gets to level 40. Of course that's no reason to deliberately aim for weaker characters (especially since the starting stats don't seem to be the only factor here - quite worth further investigation actually, when I have time, since it seems that there are specific incremental levels of xp requirements). But it can make a little difference, which often is all the stats themselves do. I don't agree that St 21 or Le 17 are all that disabling - I've had fighters and wizards with each that can cope fine. Of course perhaps my opinion on this is more to do with my philosophy of not caring too much if I win or not - the fun's in the playing, so to speak. The majority of games I try these days are Iron Man attempts, where I'm quite certain the character will die anyway so I'm not too fussed about the starting stats (or even the spellbooks for priests I try). In a normal game you're likely to die early anyway, unless you boringly spend the first 10 level on VD4. I will perhaps take some more risks with a character I care less about (such as trying the puppy quest), but simply quitting seems silly to me. Also I do tend to starsign scum sometimes, which makes character generation longer. I generally have a specific character I want to play in mind when starting, so certain signs aren't wholly desirable. Restarting the console and going through the whole process again and again to get a decent starsign can take some time. Well, maybe it doesn't take that long really, but it's boring :P Waldenbrook, the dwarven shopkeeper, mumbles: "I'd offer 9 gold pieces for yer dwarven child corpse." |
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gut Registered user Painted this one too. Last page view: 5108 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes and 28 seconds ago. |
I think maybe you missed my point, about restarting characters, that fall a bit short on their most relevant stats. I didn't mean to imply that they are too difficult (or less fun) to play. Just at a disadvantage. It's just a tip, not a game-changer. I'll bet that I'm not the only experienced player, who re-rolls characters without even thinking about it. It is so much by instinct by now, that it took me until #66, to even notice that I do it, and maybe new players should too. Think about it like this. If you press 'r' to have your attributes modified randomly, the game could drain ST by several points, and put it into stats like CH. If 4-6 points are drained from LE, that's more than a WISH worth. Further more it would mean that you wouldn't even get faster level ups as a trade off, as your stats aren't lower, just altered. This would be an advantage for virtualy no character. It would be especially damaging for fighters. A fighter is just plain cheated. He will get no use out of higher irrelevant stats. I can't think of any reason, for any player to choose 'troll barbarian', other that for high ST and TO. Anyway. Interesting test results. I think I am just obsessed with game turns, I think of every thing in terms of game turns. Even when reading that post I thought to myself, "hmm... 2.5 million points for an exp. level 40 troll. I wonder how many game turns that equals out to." My own philosophy is to beat the game in the fewest turns possible. So I realize that higher relevant starting stats, may mean a lot more to me, than for a new player. At any rate, I will cross out #66. I was unaware of the 'faster level up' trade off, that low stat PC's get, at the time I posted it. But if given the choice, I would still rather have the higher relevant stats 10 times out of 10. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! |
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Darren Grey Registered user Last page view: 4450 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 32 seconds ago. |
I would rather have the stats too, but I was just pointing out that it isn't all suffering. One thing I should clarify though (and which is quite interesting) is that the stats seem to be weighted in affecting experience. St and To affect a barbarian's experience requirements far more than the other stats, for instance. So 6 points of St transferred onto Learning will give a 10% reduction in xp needed. If you really wanted you could manipulate the question system to give you much lower experience requirements (at the cost of pathetic stats for your class). Derailing things slightly, have you ever tried the Lithium Man challenge? (complete the game in as little turns as possible by only visiting the fire temple and the CoC) Waldenbrook, the dwarven shopkeeper, mumbles: "I'd offer 9 gold pieces for yer dwarven child corpse." |
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gut Registered user Painted this one too. Last page view: 5108 days, 8 hours, 25 minutes and 28 seconds ago. |
That IS interesting, and possibly exploitable. I have noticed the 'weighting' of stats before, in other areas of the game. Like when wishing for stats directly, a wish for WI will yeild many more points than wishing for ST. I wonder if the weighting is universal, or class dependant. If LE counts heavier for spellcasters, and ST more for fighters, it probably isn't really exploitable. On the other hand, if ST is always counted as more valuable than LE, regardless of class, a wizard could really drain his ST in favor of faster level ups, and easily fix his ST later with ogre corpses and such. This could potentially yield many extra exp. points for a wizard that makes an early game visit to the bug temple. About the lithium man challenge, I will post that story on Moloch's lithium man thread. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! [Edited 1 time, last edit on 1/15/2008 at 22:25 (GMT -5) by gut] |
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Darren Grey Registered user Last page view: 4450 days, 6 hours, 8 minutes and 32 seconds ago. |
No, they're not weighted like that unfortunately. For Wizards Le and Wi are more weighted, for assassins Dx etc. So yeah, not really exploitable, but kinda interesting. Waldenbrook, the dwarven shopkeeper, mumbles: "I'd offer 9 gold pieces for yer dwarven child corpse." |
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rmcin329 Registered user Last page view: 5426 days, 18 hours, 54 minutes and 17 seconds ago. |
It could also be race weighted, along with class. For example Dex being more weighted then str and toughness if you're playing say a dark or grey elven wizard. Or pherhaps appearance. |
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