Welcome back to Let's Play Angband! This update is brought to you by me whoring myself out and saying that you need to click here, here, and/or here and then also click the 'digg' button. This will get me more money eventually, and more money means more Let's Play Angband (actually it doesn't, but I love money). If you love the slightly sardonic but also informative tone of Let's Play Angband, then you will probably also my incredibly sardonic and mildly informative tone about Twilight.
Wait a minute! Angband! I almost forgot! Didn't we leave off with some item hanging around on the floor? We did, and I don't have a screenshot of what it was. I'm sorry, but you'll have to just live with the suspense of knowing that it was probably a complete bullshit item. I apologize for this. But I don't apologize too much, because of what happens next.
Hieronymus Gaylord accidentally drinks a Potion of Smartness, or whatever it is, because he becomes uglier (boo) but also a little smarter (also boo). INT is one of the most useless stats for a paladin, because using magic devices, mana, saving throw, and all other magical accouterments are determined almost solely based on WIS, which he has in spades. So this is kind of a bust.
Some wussy hobbit is also no match for the mighty dwarven Gaylord, and I will give a prize to whoever makes a character based on Hieronymus Gaylord in the Dragon Age Origins character creator thing and posts a screenshot of it. Now that I think of it, that would be a fun little thing to do.
This, by the way, is what gets dropped by Bullroarer. That is an awesome item, but you know what? It's getting sold. Frost is a x3 multiplier, Gaylord's getting 3x hits with his dagger (or whip, but he's holding the dagger for the time being - I forget why), and nothing is going to change that. I think that this is, overall, the worse deal, and mo money means less problems here in the world of Angband. Unlike in the real world. So the scimitar gets sold.
Another unique monster falls before the mighty paladin death machine that I have so finely honed, mostly by making sure that he has a multi-hit weapon and a bow that doesn't suck too hard. So far I've only used prayers for environmental support like lighting rooms and finding doors. That is kind of awesome. Not even a bless!
The hits: They just keep on comin'. This floor is absolutely loaded with uniques! You'll also notice all the loot that's hanging around from the companion monsters, which is substantially lower than it would have been in earlier versions of Angband; they seem to have tried to fine-tune the loot drops into a reasonable range, making the game scratch my loot itch a little less. This means that maybe I should be playing Torchlight instead, but I know if I started, I would never touch Angband again. And that can't happen. Yet.
Here's a cool little new item: A glove-slot armor that increases your attack. Unfortunately the AC bonus on these suck so they're going to get sooooold.
These, however, will fit nicely into an ego-item niche that has yet to be filled. Plus the bonus on them is incredible, even though Slow Descent is one of the most useless ego abilities for armor to have, since it's just going to prevent fall damage. And fall damage is not going to hurt Hieronymus Gaylord; he's too rad.
Back in town, Hieronymus Gaylord checks out the black market and finds this doodad hanging around on a shelf. It is, in fact, completely useless and will never be bought, but I do enjoy showcasing all the new things that've been added to the game. Strangely, none of them seem to be monsters. Yet.
But there is a potion of Charisma on sale, for cheap, and so Gaylord picks that up to regain his lost charisma point. Score!
Level 19 is obtained. This is a pretty good level, and we should start diving deeper soon, because it's going to be getting harder and harder to raise levels unless some hounds are being beat up. Again, since Hieronymus Gaylord has intrinsic blindness resistance, they will not be a problem until Fire Hounds show up.
Speaking of fire! However, Hieronymus Gaylord is already rocking the fire-resistant chainmail so he doesn't need this. It will, however, fetch a pretty penny back in town.
Seriously, this is what happens when you don't run into a unique monster between Smeagol and 500'. Everything shows up all and once and tries to kill your ass, except by now the levels and equipment have been gained to the point where you, instead, will be killing them (and their asses).
Let's check out where Hieronymus Gaylord is at right now. Equipment-wise, he's pretty set until there's an artifact or ego-item which is going to boost his WIS; the two Rings of Strength are ridiculously overpowering him, and I just haven't found anything else good to fill those slots with yet. The Slow Descent boots have mercifully been replaced with Free Action, which is important at this point in the game, and of course there's Resist Fire. Actually, that cloak isn't enchanted yet, which is silly, and that gets fixed fast.
Inventory-wise, he's rocking a pretty good set of items with just enough space to haul back some of the good stuff. Treasure Location rods are actually worth keeping around now that they detect objects in addition to treasure veins, which allow them to be used as sort of a pseudo magic map. Potions of Speed, incidentally, now begin appearing much deeper and are much, much rarer.
Our old friend The Wolves return, and for their efforts are given the chance to level up Hieronymus Gaylord. He gladly takes the opportunity, even if they want to give him kisses and hugs, which frankly is still disgusting. But that's what dogs are like.
Okay, this looks like an ugly situation. Hieronymus Gaylord has just expended all of his mana trying to cast Orb of Draining to thin out this crowd of nasty insects, but has failed each and every time, and now suddenly he's in the unenviable position of needing to go through some containment procedures.
Unfortunately, in doing so, he missed out on these. Daaaaaamn.
Uh oh.
Alright, so this is the feature I like most about the new Angband, which I didn't even think of until now: When you (I)nspect a weapon, it gives you all of this information. No more min maxing by hand! Not even for tunneling! That's just absolutely crazy.
Unfortunately this weapon is on the black market and therefore phenomenally expensive and out of Hieronymus Gaylord's price range.
Curious, I check out the stats on the whip. 9.1 damage vs. others, huh? That's not bad - my by-hand min/max was actually pretty close to what the real value is. It looks like the modifier for undead damage is 1.5x now, though, which seems a little.. low.
This is also found on the dungeon floor. It actually won't serve much purpose, as it doesn't heal any HP at all! That's kind of a gyp for an item which is otherwise quite good.
Here we see an instance in which using a wand on an enemy to identify it is actually very, very smart. Jellies and eyes don't move, so if you accidentally zap them with a wand when they're at full health, what's the worst thing that's going to happen? They might get a speed bonus, but they're already so stupidly slow that it doesn't even matter. This is one of the few situations in Angband where it's always safe to use-ID.
And finally, Hieronymus Gaylord caps off this update with a bunch of traps. Traps, traps traps, traps, traps, and more traps. I just love traps!
NEXT TIME: Unique monsters! Danger! Death (but not Hieronymus Gaylord's, he's a badass)!