Blackguard first impressions and missing docs

[wobbly]

Originally Posted by Nick

My understanding is that you have to have someone who is officially approved in some sense to contribute to the official Apt repo. Magnate (who still appears here occasionally) has done this in the past, but there isn't really anyone regularly doing it now.

I actually talked to Magnate not that long ago over at the freeorion forums. It sounds like he is pretty busy these days and I haven't seen him there for a while which is generally a sign that he doesn't have a lot of free time at the moment. I doubt he was update anytime soon.

[Tom Warner]

Originally Posted by Sphara

Pick High-Elf race.

My HT finally died of running out of healing potions while fighting a bunch of nasty orcs, but I actually re-rolled with a half-orc and put a few points in INT and it's been much smoother sailing now that the rituals are actually useful.

Originally Posted by Sphara

Find Ring of Open Wounds. Activate it often for healing.

Found one, it's a huge help. The impaired regen is quite dramatic and it's nice to have healing available from non-potions,

Originally Posted by Sphara

Buy Fear and Torment book as soon as you can afford it and are able cast Maim Foe spell. Use Maim Foe against everything nasty you decide to fight (does not work on undead afaik). It radically lowers melee damage taken by enemy hits.

Just got the book, 1 level away from learning the spell so I'm pumped

Another nice change: automatically swapping in the best digger in inventory is huge. It's so smooth to be able to just carry a Shovel of Digging and not have to bother with the manual swap dance.

[DavidMedley]

Try to never rest with Blackguard.

[Pete Mack]

@David--
Right. Also beware of gorging while sucking down enormous numbers of !CLW.

[Tom Warner]

Originally Posted by DavidMedley

Try to never rest with Blackguard.

Yep, one of the hardest adjustments was fighting my instinct to rest after every fight. Open wounds is a huge help and now I got an amulet of regen too so I do get HP back at a somewhat reasonable rate just running around between fights. Have definitely been mindful of the gorged thing--so far so good by mostly not eating unless my hunger drops below 20%.

[Tom Warner]

Should monsters with shrieks be able to haste themselves too? It doesn't really change anything I guess, the first shriek was enough, but I've had a couple experiences with shrieker mushroom patches and terrified yeeks and such screaming to wake everything, hasting themselves, and then screaming even more off the speed bonus they got. I could see it being more of a problem if there was something else nasty in the room that I didn't want getting hasted 3 times in one turn ........

[Sphara]

Originally Posted by Tom Warner

Should monsters with shrieks be able to haste themselves too? It doesn't really change anything I guess, the first shriek was enough, but I've had a couple experiences with shrieker mushroom patches and terrified yeeks and such screaming to wake everything, hasting themselves, and then screaming even more off the speed bonus they got. I could see it being more of a problem if there was something else nasty in the room that I didn't want getting hasted 3 times in one turn ........

I think "monster is moving even faster!" message from multiple hastes, means just that the monster will be hasted a longer period of time, not gaining ever more increasing speed. Otherwise Yeek royalties would easily gain something like >+50 speed in just couple of turns.

[Tom Warner]

Originally Posted by Sphara

I think "monster is moving even faster!" message from multiple hastes, means just that the monster will be hasted a longer period of time, not gaining ever more increasing speed. Otherwise Yeek royalties would easily gain something like >+50 speed in just couple of turns.

Ah, that makes more sense. I think it's still new that shriekers can haste themselves now too but it's also really funny imagining a scared little yeek racing around the room, screaming so loudly it scares itself even more and starts running even faster.

[Pete Mack]

In (significantly) older versions, haste really was additive: each call added +10 speed, and it never wore off. I believe this was considered unfair and bad for gameplay, since the usual response was just to flee the level.

[Tom Warner]

That would be terrifying!