Question about riding

[xlnt]

hi all and sorry for not searching everywhere, hope i dont bother someone with my little question

i play a mighty barbarian cavalry (lvl 19) and i try to get a new mount - a hyppogriff. I tried 2 things - using rodeo and using a capture ball. While i succeed in the rodeo - i *always* get thrown .. .and with the ball - i neved succeed. Any hints there? do i need to ride a scrowny horse till i get a better riding skills before rodeo-ing a beter mount?

thanks

[chris]

Originally Posted by xlnt

hi all and sorry for not searching everywhere, hope i dont bother someone with my little question

i play a mighty barbarian cavalry (lvl 19) and i try to get a new mount - a hyppogriff. I tried 2 things - using rodeo and using a capture ball. While i succeed in the rodeo - i *always* get thrown .. .and with the ball - i neved succeed. Any hints there? do i need to ride a scrowny horse till i get a better riding skills before rodeo-ing a beter mount?

thanks

For the Capture Ball, you will need to injure the monster first, usually bringing it down to just a mere single star in health. Often, this is hard to do without accidentally killing it, so things like wands of magic missile or shooting arrows from a weak bow can help.

For riding, it looks like you need more skill first. Have you done any riding? I can spoil the Rodeo calculation if you like.

[xlnt]

i start with *some* skill in riding, [beginner], it's ok to just know that i need more skill to be able to ride better mounts, so no need to spoil for the ball - i know how it works and i use it on a monster with just 2 red stars of health left - but the activation always fail - guess it's a magic device and my carachter sucks at operating these

well, back to the scrowny horses untill this barbarian cavalry learns how to handle a hyppogriff i guess

p.s. by a single star of health - you mean 1 and no more? single does the trick and 2 is too many? i here i was, knowing it all

[xlnt]

I have a question about rings - i wear 2 rings of slaying - the one on my left hand seems to add only to my shooting - any info on that?

thanks

[ekolis]

Speaking of riding, I noticed that when I was playing a beastmaster, and my scrawny horse "evolved" into a regular horse, my riding speed dropped by 5! I suppose it's harder to ride a stronger animal, but it sure seems like a harsh penalty!

One other question, actually - is the speed scale for riding the same as the speed scale for going on foot? E.g. if I am riding and have +3 speed, is that the same speed as +3 speed on foot? Or is it faster, or slower, or dependent on the creature I'm riding?

[Atriel]

Dunno if much got changed since Heng/Entro but will try to answer the questions

You must hit high level monsters while riding to improve riding. Problem is, riding skill has sort of a cap (actually, you gain very little after the cap if I remember well) level-based. So you must ride weak monsters first.

Get a Two Headed Hydra =] They evolve fast and even not being fast monsters, they're great to train Riding! And 4H Hydras have +10 spd on evolution (plus luck, of course, see below). My cavalry tries usually did this.

About speed, take a look - probe - the speed of the monster you're riding.

Evolution works so that the monster you get has its speed re-rolled based on the evolved monster, so a fast scrawny horse can become a slow unruly horse (or something...)

Each monster can get up to +-10 speed difference, and this is a LOT!
I had a GWOP with +30 spd and before that, a Lord of Change that also hasted himself to +40 a =]

[xlnt]

i changed the title and will use my thread to ask questions and seek help for my troubles - hope noone is too offended

i need a way to go through a lot of items and tell which to keep - example:
i went in a room with 90 young dragon and managed to kill them - now i got 5-6 tiles with 40+ items on each and a monster that i can't deal with is close by. how to quickly tell if there is an artefact in the stacks of items?

i have scroll of *destraction* and a staff of earthquake and what-not

p.s. seems i cant change the thread's name...

[chris]

Originally Posted by ekolis

One other question, actually - is the speed scale for riding the same as the speed scale for going on foot? E.g. if I am riding and have +3 speed, is that the same speed as +3 speed on foot? Or is it faster, or slower, or dependent on the creature I'm riding?

The speed scale is the same, riding or not.

Also, how fast you are while riding is a function of both the innate speed of your mount and your riding skill, so you should see your speed increase as you become more proficient at riding. In newer versions of Hengband (and in Entro/Chengband) you can actually get something like +5 more speed while riding than your mount actually possesses.

It helps to haste your mount, so be on the lookout for wands of haste monster and staves of haste monsters. If all else fails, you might even chuck a potion of speed against an adjacent wall!

[chris]

Originally Posted by xlnt

I have a question about rings - i wear 2 rings of slaying - the one on my left hand seems to add only to my shooting - any info on that?

thanks

Combat rings only effect melee for the weapon in the same hand. So unless you are wielding your weapon two handed or dual wielding (and a riding class generally won't do this), you only gain a benefit from a single ring.

[chris]

Originally Posted by xlnt

i changed the title and will use my thread to ask questions and seek help for my troubles - hope noone is too offended

i need a way to go through a lot of items and tell which to keep - example:
i went in a room with 90 young dragon and managed to kill them - now i got 5-6 tiles with 40+ items on each and a monster that i can't deal with is close by. how to quickly tell if there is an artefact in the stacks of items?

i have scroll of *destraction* and a staff of earthquake and what-not

p.s. seems i cant change the thread's name...

Destruction will remove the artifacts, so don't do that. Are you familiar with the pickup preferences file? Press '_' to activate this feature. It takes a bit of effort to learn but is essential for dealing with mountains of junk ...