Let's Play - SLASH'EM

[tanderson11]

Okay, I've decided to start my own LP. You may have heard of the rouge-like genre of games. Old adventure games that are typically text-based.

One particularly famous example is Nethack (nethack.org). This horrifyingly difficult game has frustrated generations of gamers. I myself have played this game for years and finally, two years ago I finally beat the game as a human Tourist. I beat it again as a human Valkyrie as well.

I can comfortably come close to ascending a decent percentage of Nethack games and the challenge has somewhat drained out of the game.

I went on the hunt for a suitable variant and found SLASH'EM (http://slashem.sourceforge.net) (Super Lotsa Added Stuff Hack - Extended Magic). This game is considered to be much more difficult than the traditional nethack game. So, without further ado, I present my

SLASH'EM - Let's Play

I will be playing on the SLASH'EM Pallas server and I will play SLASH'EM 0.0.7 with the Lethe patch. Please note, the server has no support for tiles so you will have to deal with ASCII, this is also how I am used to playing, I hope it isn't too much of an inconvenience.

The Story: We take on the role of a young adventurer. Intent on winning the favor of our patron deity, we have entered the Dungeons of Doom. Here we hope to recover the favored Amulet of Yendor, stolen by the hateful god Moloch and entrusted to his servitor the Wizard of Yendor.

That is our long term goal, short term . . . surviving rabbit attacks . . .

Our Character - @

The heroic adventurer we will use, represented by an "@" sign, can be a variety of things.

Here is the list of potential roles for our character:

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/3518/screenshot20110220at339.png


In addition, there are alignments, races, and gender.

The races are:
Doppelganger
Dwarf
Drow
Elf
Gnome
Hobbit
Human
Lycanthrope
Orc
Vampire

Alignments:
Lawful (a "good" alignment, Angles and celestial beings)
Neutral (anything goes alignment)
Chaotic ("evil" alignment, demons and devils)

The standard alignment dichotomy doesn't work because SLASH'EM alignment is one dimensional.

For a full breakdown of what races can play which classes look here: http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~eva/slashem/races.html


So, Playgrounders, which character should I run?

EDIT:
If you care, in my opinion the three most powerful classes are Wizard, Monk, and Rogue in no particular order.

[Spartacus]

Random, of course!

[Domochevsky]

Why yes, i have indeed heard of rouge-like games... they are quite colorful. :smallwink:

Random, go! o/

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Human Yeoman. Name? Chambers.

[The_Final_Stand]

*-Random

You fell in to a spiked pit! The spikes were covered with poison! The poison was deadly...

These words somewhat put me off Nethack. That there is a harder version speaks volumes about how insane the world is sometimes.

[tanderson11]

Okay! Looks like the general consensus is to play a random character . . . here we go . .

[Xefas]

Okay! Looks like the general consensus is to play a random character . . . here we go . .

The window for voting was less than 2 hours? :smallfrown: I was hoping for a Vampire Necromancer.

[psilontech]

Vampire Necromancer does sound interesting...

EVIL HORDE OF UNDEAD TIMES!

or

Doppleganger Rogue.
"I'm your friend!"
/shortsword backstab.

[tanderson11]

The window for voting was less than 2 hours? :smallfrown: I was hoping for a Vampire Necromancer.

Bleh . . . I was just itching to get a game going, it's been a long time and I couldn't wait to get started :smallredface:.

I see no reason I can't run two games at the same time.

Here is the first portion for our random character (who still lacks a name!)
And our chronicles begin!

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/8439/screenshot20110220at514.png
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8439/screenshot20110220at514.png
We are a young male elven Ice Mage devotee of Air. We have just entered the fabled Dungeons of Doom. Our faithful winterwolf cub (represented by the blue "d", also it lacks a name, any ideas?) trails behind us. We see our first enemy! The fearsome grid bug (no not really).

A quick detail of the contents of our pack reveals this:
http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/5716/screenshot20110220at518.png

Okay Ice Mages have a fairly simple strategy, keep casting the frozen sphere spell. If we keep enough spheres around, prepare for undead, be wary around shopkeepers, and utilize our winterwolf cub to the fullest we might survive.

After fighting a couple grid bugs we find the stairs down and poke our head down and find . . . this :smalleek:
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/3888/screenshot20110220at522.png
An artifact warhammer . . . unlike in D&D artifacts are not always good things to find. Each time you find an artifact, it reduces the chance of being able to wish for one. This artifact is particularly bad and heavy, so there is no reason we would bother carrying it.

We continue exploring dungeon level 1 and have a close encounter with some jackals
http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/1377/screenshot20110220at525.png
We were reduced to a low of 3 hit points, but after gouging on the raw corpses of our foe we feel a bit better. Tentatively, we explore the rest of the level, bracing ourselves for any more unexpected surprises.

Eeek! Sorry, we almost died. I really should play more slowly, a sewer rat reduced us to 1 hit point, but we managed to cast a freezing sphere spell in time to destroy it.

We clear the level, but it was pretty rough going. We fought at least 10 monsters, a pretty large horde for only the first dungeon level. Our prodigious mage gathers his pets at the stairs down and prepares himself for the next challenges.
http://img255.imageshack.us/img255/795/screenshot20110220at533.png

Of interest, we picked up a second scroll of enchant armor and an unidentified ring.


Alright, stopping there for some feedback on my style. Would you like more explanation? More in-character as opposed to metagaming? More/fewer screenshots? More details?

I will start another game for a vampire necromancer or whatever the playground wants, however (you really insist on sticking me with the most difficult combination in the game don't you :smallyuk:?)

EDIT: Fixed BBC code.

EDIT 2: Also, I'm sorry about the little black line around some of the screenshots. My mouse kept freezing up when I was taking them, I'll crop them in the future.

[Mewtarthio]

Wolf needs to be named Summer.

Grey Wind, Ghost, Lady, Nymeria, or Shaggydog will also suffice.

[Xefas]

Alright, stopping there for some feedback on my style. Would you like more explanation? More in-character as opposed to metagaming? More/fewer screenshots? More details?

I'm fine with that amount of screenshots. I like full-metagame for these rogue-like Lets Plays. I would, however, suggest more explanation and details. Go into some mechanics for those of us who aren't very versed in the genre (I've played some of the easier rogue-likes, but they're all different, afterall).

For instance, I liked you explaining about how artifacts work, and why you wouldn't want to pick up that particular one. I liked the little bit of strategy advice you gave about Ice Magi. More stuff like that.

Also, some sarcasm and faux-surliness wouldn't hurt. But maybe that's just me.


I will now start a vampire necromancer, however (you really insist on sticking me with the most difficult combination in the game don't you :smallyuk:?)

Of course!


EDIT 2: Also, I'm sorry about the little black line around some of the screenshots. My mouse kept freezing up when I was taking them, I'll crop them in the future.

That line doesn't really bother me. I dunno if the extra effort is worth it.

[tanderson11]

Wolf needs to be named Summer.

Grey Wind, Ghost, Lady, Nymeria, or Shaggydog will also suffice.

I was hoping someone would suggest one of those :smallsmile: I recently just started that great series of books!

[tanderson11]

I'm fine with that amount of screenshots. I like full-metagame for these rogue-like Lets Plays. I would, however, suggest more explanation and details. Go into some mechanics for those of us who aren't very versed in the genre (I've played some of the easier rogue-likes, but they're all different, afterall).

For instance, I liked you explaining about how artifacts work, and why you wouldn't want to pick up that particular one. I liked the little bit of strategy advice you gave about Ice Magi. More stuff like that.

Also, some sarcasm and faux-surliness wouldn't hurt. But maybe that's just me.

Alright, thanks for the feedback!



That line doesn't really bother me. I dunno if the extra effort is worth it.
Okay, I guess I'm just OCD about that kind of thing.



So let the second round of voting begin,
Tally:
Necromancer (Vampire) - 2
Yeoman (Human) - 1

EDIT:
To avoid double triple posting, I'm putting some relevant inventory related strategy here. Ignore it if you don't care about some lengthy strategy info

Items are crucial to success in Nethack and SLASH'EM, but you can't just pick up any item and hope it will help you.
This brings us to the important idea of item identification. The first part of this is B/U/C status. Each item is either Blessed, Uncursed, or Cursed. The distinction between blessed and uncursed rarely matters, but cursed items are an entirely different story. Cursed armor and weapons weld to your body and cannot be removed. Cursed scrolls often have the opposite of the intended effect (cursed enchant weapon makes your weapon have a negative enhancement).
The easiest way to determine the BUC status of an item is at an altar. Simply by dropping an item at an altar you can determine its BUC by looking at the color of flash it makes. Altars are rare, however, so often times items sit in your inventory until you find an altar. There is one other method, however, sentient, living pets will only "reluctantly" step on cursed items. This means, if a dog/cat/whatever steps on an item you should be good to use it, unless it gives a reluctant message.

Once you know the BUC of armor, weapons, and rings you are safe trying them on, this is not true of scrolls, wands, and potions, however. To use those items you need to know what they are going to do because it is not always safe. Reading a scroll of fire is a bad idea because it creates a column of fire that crashes on your head, for example. This is why we need to find the most crucial item in the game, the scroll of identify. Reading this allows you to choose an item in your inventory and identify all its properties including BUC.
"How do we identify it, if we daren't read scrolls?" you might ask. To do this we need to find a shop. Each item sold at a shop has a unique price. The cheapest scroll in the game is always the scroll of identify.

NOTE: There are other ways to identify rings and wands, and when they become relevant I'll explain them further.

So, much of our early game strategy is going to be: leveling up, acquiring items, and finding the scroll of identify (in that order).

We do, however, start with some items that we have already identified.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5195/screenshot20110220at609.png
This our inventory as it stands.

Our starting weapon, the quaterstaff, is pretty useless. We are going to try to upgrade to a powerful artifact weapon (not you, Ogresmasher) as soon as possible.

Studded leather also stinks, it is heavy and not very good, so we'll dump that when we can.

We have some food, which is always a boon.

We also have two scrolls of enchant armor. Once we find some good armor (the key to winning any game) we will enchant it to further reduce our Armor Class.

Spells, right now we have spell books for "Freeze Sphere", "Cone of Cold", and "Slow Monster". We cannot cast Cone of Cold reliably, however (79% fail chance). Freeze sphere, as you may have notice, summons a sphere of cold represented by a gray "e". These explode whenever they see monsters (including peaceful ones!) and deal a good chunk of damage. Slow Monster is not very powerful, but it is a useful tool nonetheless.

We have a potion of speed, which is virtually useless. I've never had a turn where I felt the best action I could take was quaffing a potion of speed.

In terms of rings, we have one un-identified ring, which is currently useless to us. We also have the interesting Ring of Polymorph. We will probably never use, it is not worth the risk of turning into some horrible monster, like a jellyfish, when we could stay in our human form.

Our wand of cold is extremely powerful for large scale, ranged damaged dealing. It shoots of bouncing ray of cold (which we are immune to). This deals 15-25 damage. The problem with it, however, is that it over laps with our other abilities. Currently our spells are only capable of dealing cold damage which means many monsters (undead especially) are immune to most of our attacks.


Alright, that is a whole heap of information about the inventory in SLASH'EM hopefully you can digest some of it. Below are some strategy and game plan cliff notes.

Okay the general plan for this character goes something like this:
1. Level up

We currently have 11 hit points and are extremely fragile. Before we descend to Dungeon Level 3, I am going to sit around and kill monsters until we level up. With a high Constitution score of 14, we should get many hit points each time we level.

2. Get items/find the mall

The next step is to traipse through the dungeon and loot everything we see. Hopefully we can get some good items. At dungeon level 4-6 there is a good chance (70%) that a special "Mall" level will generate. This level is full of 2-5 shops guarded by watchmen and plagued by muggers. It can be dangerous, but if we can kill the muggers we should be able to find some great items in the shops.

3. Level up some more

Seriously, we need to


I'll explain the steps after these more in-depth once/if we reach that stage.

[tanderson11]

Okay here is the next installment of our character's journey in the Dungeons of Doom.

I travel around in DL (Dungeon Level) 2, nothing interesting at first, I find the stairs down and poke our head down. I always do this for fear of falling down a trap door somewhere and we get stuck there and have to search for the upstairs.
http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/7002/screenshot20110220at653.png
I head back up and keep exploring, compared to the first Dungeon Level this level has been flat out boring. It's been so uneventful that because of the lack of corpses I am getting hungry. I'll save my food rations until I'm "weak" with hunger. I explore the entire visible area of the level, but I sense that there is more to this level.
Ha! My gut feeling pays off!
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/5118/screenshot20110220at654.png
After only a little searching I find a secret door, kill a lichen and a gecko (both of which drop edible corpses!) and we level up! Now we can cross off item one from our list of goals. I grab the scroll and the gold in the area beyond, and I find a chest. I loot it
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2481/screenshot20110220at655.png
it turns out that is locked, however. I break the lock with my quaterstaff, but it shatters the chest and tears the scroll inside. Remember how much I love quaterstaves? I clear the rest of level without any major events and we are once more ready to proceed!
http://img717.imageshack.us/img717/7407/screenshot20110220at656.png


EDIT: I nearly forgot, I picked up a can of grease in Dungeon Level 2. Cans of grease are a pretty useful, if heavy, item. When you apply grease onto an object it makes it slippery, obviously. This can help if you put it on your armor, it means monsters can't grab you. And it can waterproof bags.

The scroll we picked up was unidentified.

[Lord Seth]

This might be interesting, though I've always preferred video LPs.

[tanderson11]

This might be interesting, though I've always preferred video LPs.

This brings me to a question I've been considering. Would anyone be willing to spectate a live feed of the game?

[Cogwheel]

This brings me to a question I've been considering. Would anyone be willing to spectate a live feed of the game?

There's certainly a precedent for it. Steam thread's a wretched hive of livestream and villainy. Would probably cut down on the amount of technical exposition you can give, mind.

Also, doppelganger monk next?