Ancient Domains Of Mystery, forum overview / Spoilers / Early game herbalism
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4068 days, 21 hours, 56 minutes and 33 seconds ago. |
I think it's pretty clear that for a skilled ADOM player, the game is pretty much over once you get herbs. I mean, every time I read a report of an ADOM victory, somewhere the term "I farmed herbs and got my willpower and toughness up with morgia" will be included, in one or the other version, regardless of the class played or any other factors. Oftentimes, spenseweed and stomafillia are mentioned in similar circumstances. Now, if the game is pretty much won once a certain set of key herbs are obtained within a stable supply, namely (and most importantly) spenseweed or pepper petal, then I have the pleasure to now make an absolutely ludicrous statement. The best character of all the ADOM characters is the farmer. Why? Because a farmer starts with Gardening and four to five (at least three) herb seeds - plus lots and lots of almost useless plant seeds. Remember, the level on which a herb seed is planted becomes instantly able to support herbs. I just took a female gray elven farmer (chosen in case I wanted to sell elvish bread to Munxip in case I wanted to farm an early found potion shop - which turned out to be in no way necessary) with the following course of events: - Start with five herb seeds, Gardening at 24 - Generate VD, leave dog behind (probably dumb, but I don't like pets) - Enter wilderness square - DROP HERB SEEDS (<-- important - one try before I didn't, and wasted a perfectly good herb seed on a wilderness square!) - Plant lots of plant seeds to train Gardening - Enter first level of VD - Survive with lots of berserk archery (in that case, throwing of sharp or blunt objects - daggers, spears and rocks, in one case my scythe) - Spend three starting prayers on healing while fighting a rabid dog/hobgoblin tension room (tricky) - Not find a single point of PV (come on, that is just mean) - Gain a couple of levels in the process without dying (the only tricky part, tricky mainly because of being a gray elf) - Spend skill increases on Gardening first, Herbalism second and then some other stuff - After having reached just about 50 in gardening, plant a herb and immediately pick it --> burb root - Check guidebook to find out that two lines below burb root is moss of mareilon and three lines below is the all-coveted spenseweed - Use remaining four herb seeds to create stable three herb pattern; one withered in the process - Voilá, stable herb pattern producing moss of mareilon and spenseweed! The game has now been saved. Left is only the mind-numbingly dull process of picking 1000 spenseweeds and 100 mosses of mareilon and afterwards the lengthy and boring process of actually winning the game. So there you have it. All of you, start playing farmers. Begin the game with herbs and erase the word "losing" from your memory. Though that will have to wait until you can also erase "human tendency do make stupid things". Some additional considerations: - I chose the moss/spenseweed squares for the spenseweed, because it is better for healing purposes than pepper petals. If you don't mind avoiding the bloated status like the pest or are a drakeling, the choice of a pepper petal/morgia root square is of course better. - The rabid dog tension room yielded five rabid dog corpses; with these and Jharod's healing, I would've been (they've probably rotten by now, as I didn't keep or cook them) able to pull off that sickness herb training some of you love so much. - If you're out for real boredom, play a race that is more capable of surviving the early levels than a gray elf is. - At the same time, good learning and faster leveling will give you a high Gardening skill faster. Gnomes might be good, or hurthlings because they start out with extra-high Gardening. - This does not work for anyone but farmers, as far as I'm aware. Other classes with Gardening or hurthlings of any class might choose another way: Buy out Munxip's store until you've successfully bought at least three herb seeds off him. I highly doubt that you will be able to do this, as herbs are rare, the method is costly (merchants shine here) and shops stop restocking after a time. - Alternatively, get only one herb seed and try to get potions of holy water instead of more herb seeds. But you need a potion shop and an altar for that. You could also try and get lots of booze from beggars and change the boots for water from Yggaz, but I don't think he gives water. It might be an option for a potion based merchant. There you have it. Personally, I think this strategy is a wonderful one for farmers. Not only is it not that difficult to pull off, it even fits the character! I'm seeing these guys in an entirely new light. 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: 4897 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes and 19 seconds ago. |
I may be able to add a bit on this topic. About the 'plant the seed and pick' method. There is an easier way to find out which lines support which herbs. It will save that one seed. Use the 'l' command and hover your cursor on the topmost line that it will go to. This will be right under the text messages line. Now move it downward two lines, ok, that is your morgia line. Now count to yourself as you move the cursor downward: Moss, spenceweed, curia, alrunia, stomafillia, pepper petal, morgia. Repeat until the cursor is on the line you are standing on. Reguarding the gardening training. You didn't mention using your survival skill to get more plant seeds for training. In some tests that I have done though, I think that training the gardening skill in that way didn't yield great results. I need to test that more before being certain though. I read a similar post on farmers exploiting early herb gathering, but that was related to one of the 'challenge games'. I think it would be a great advantage for them, but for me at least, it wouldn't = an automatic win. Spenceweed is kinda similar to a well trained Cure Light Wounds spell. It's nice, but I still die a lot even with it. Moss trains the Dexterity stat to only ~25, which is handy for trolls, but not such a jump for elves. I suppose starvation training could get it higher, but I've not really ever tested that. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! |
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4068 days, 21 hours, 56 minutes and 33 seconds ago. |
The pattern is the same every level, or is it just the same in every VD: 1? I was under the impression that it shifts, just like the top trap type? Even without that extra herb seed, there's only a 1 in 7 chance that the line you plant your first seed in is alraunia, so you'd get at least one of the healing herbs in 6 out of 7 cases, even with only three herb seeds to start with (and decent Gardening of course). As I said, you could choose petals instead of spenseweed to get a shot at morgia roots. Increasing that 10 toughness some character are plagued with to 25 should work wonders to increase durability. It's just that I love spenseweed more. 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: 4897 days, 23 hours, 31 minutes and 19 seconds ago. |
Top trap type? You lost me on that one. I'm pretty sure that the top available line in any dungeon will be a morgia line. It's that way 100% of the time in the CoC Big Room. And it has always held true for me in the other dungeons I've visited as well. Using this counting method, even PC's without the Herbalism skill can skillfully harvest the proper herbs, and prune the undesirable ones. The reason I mentioned saving that one seed, is that it might be possible for some lucky PC's to generate more than a 2x2 square. I think. Put me in the 'fool filter', where I belong! |
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Silfir Registered user Writer of Overly Long Guides Last page view: 4068 days, 21 hours, 56 minutes and 33 seconds ago. |
Top trap type is a term connected to traps in levels. You know how there is always a regular pattern in the type of traps that are generated in each square? (One "you shudder" room should make it clear.) Every level (at least I think so) has a predetermined top trap type, meaning that the traps on it are always distributed in the same manner. That the first available line in the Big Room is always morgia doesn't say much about the other levels. If morgia is indeed connected to the shep a level is created, this makes the method all the easier. 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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exterminator Registered user Guerilla from the North Last page view: 5805 days, 2 hours, 40 minutes and 43 seconds ago. |
As far as I know the topmost line you can move the cursor with (l)ook command is always stomafillia/stomaceptia. This is the way I always use to count where I want to plant my bushes. Notice that it is the topmost line you can move the cursor, not the top available line. Se parhaiten nauraa joka toiselle kuoppaa kaivaa. |
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Gonzo Registered user doctor of journalism Last page view: 5943 days, 3 hours, 38 minutes and 40 seconds ago. |
Yggaz definitely can produce potion of water when given potion of booze. |
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J. Registered user You'll never get rid of me Last page view: 5664 days, 16 hours, 8 minutes and 43 seconds ago. |
I thought that you needed a level that has herbs already generated when using gardening? If you create herbs with holy water you can pick them, but no more herbs are generated unless you're on a level that already had herbs. Is using herb seeds/gardening different? 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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Soirana Registered user Chaos Freak Last page view: 4150 days, 2 hours, 31 minutes and 14 seconds ago. |
few things: succecive use of gardenning (getttin g bush from seed) converts level to supporting herbs. herbs line do not shift as trap lines do. good strategy for farmers survival overall A root is a flower that disdains fame. Kahlil Gibran(1883-1931) |