After-the-fact control of breed explosions

[krugar]

I must be missing something.

In the case of not having been able to stop a breed explosion, how does one go about controlling and even eliminating them? For most situations I use area spells with my Ranger, or try to be quick about killing the initial element. Stinking Cloud has been effective for stopping too much widespread if I cannot avoid initial breeding. But I'm now facing a large population of Giant Fleas with nearly no mana left.

I cannot believe the game plays like this. They are going to stop breeding eventually, no?

[buzzkill]

Breeders need to be stopped before they get their initial population base established. Stopping the after they've begun to breed explosively is almost impossible. Ball spells are your best bet, but even in DaJ with the 'bug spray' spell (huge area of effect designed to deal with most breeders) stopping them is very, very hard.

If there is a specific item you want, just haste yourself and wade through the breeders toward it. Make sure you have a teleport type escape. If there's nothing you have to have, just leave the level.

[Matthias]

Door creation is often the only way to kill massed breeders. That said, just leaving the area is the better choice in most situations

[Hajo]

Originally Posted by krugar

They are going to stop breeding eventually, no?

In my code diving attempts I saw places where breeders are limited. I think it was 100 per level, but that can be wrong/outdated information.

But it's hopeless anyways. If you manage to kill 25 with a big ball spell, the remaining 75 easily fill up the gap again ...

If there aren't pressing reasons to stay, change the level. This is the good side of Angband random levels - you can easily recreate them if they are hopeless.

[krugar]

Thanks folks. I guess I will have to restart this level.

[nullfame]

Originally Posted by krugar

Thanks folks. I guess I will have to restart this level.

This is not the end of the world. Many things can force you off a level. This is one of them. Knowing when to, uh, flee is essentail to success. There is no shortage of monsters or levels in the pits of Angband. You don't have to kill everything you encounter nor clear every level you enter.

[krugar]

Originally Posted by nullfame

This is not the end of the world. Many things can force you off a level. This is one of them. Knowing when to, uh, flee is essentail to success. There is no shortage of monsters or levels in the pits of Angband. You don't have to kill everything you encounter nor clear every level you enter.

Yes, I'm fully aware of the general principles behind all but just a few roguelikes. No news there. That idea is constantly being repeated over the years. The reminder is unnecessary.

I'm however critic of the mechanics behind these breeder types. Seems to me maybe an abusive and lame method to introduce a challenge into the game (with all due respect). But until I give it some more thought I won't be extending my criticism any further or suggest alternatives. Let's just say I was slightly disappointed.

[Laie]

This is one of the few cases where "Sleep Monster" or "Mass Sleep" may come in handy. The breeding pests shouldn't resist the spell.

[Gockel]

Actually i had the feeling that they stop multiplying after a certain point (at least in zangband 240r5). at least in some of my first games it happened that i got stuck with my mage in a dead end with a gremlins plague in the adjacent room. as i didn't have any means of teleporting etc. (didn't spend much thought on safety then ) and my chances of surviving a walk through the pile of gremlins was 0 i simply killed around a 1000 of them in a corridor, hoping that eventually i would be powerful enough to make it through.
but after ~5 minutes the gremlins simply stopped pouring into the corridor, so i took my chance and walked towards the exit. i could see that in a more distant room there was still a huge amount of them but the rooms next to our battle site were almost completely deserted.
no idea if i missed something but i had the feeling they simply stopped multiplying.

ah, and of course yesterday i discovered the mutation which allows you to induce impotence that was nice, really enjoyed watching 3 software bugs zooming about, while i collected, identified and sorted items, before finally -after a loong period of balancing pros and cons- i decided to kill them

[nullfame]

Originally Posted by krugar

That idea is constantly being repeated over the years. The reminder is unnecessary.

I'm sorry. I don't know the skill level of every new poster. With all due respect your join date is last week. Clearly this is your first expereince with explosive breeding. I thought it would be polite to offer advise that maybe you haven't seen before. You just seemed quite disappointed to come across an unsolvable problem when Angband is full of them.

You just have to prioritize killing them. I will kill a breeder before a legit threat in the same room. Not much different than chain-summons. Those can get out of control too.

Originally Posted by krugar

I cannot believe the game plays like this. They are going to stop breeding eventually, no?

I believe when you are out of their detection range they will stop breeding.