Welcome back to the final episode of Let's Play Angband. This update is brought to you by me getting fired. The company and I had "irreconcilable differences" which translates to "I said things I worked on sucked and were useless" which is absolutely true. Next time you pay your taxes, remember this: That money goes towards paying people to write software packages which already have in-depth instructions for obsolete software which has had its funding completely cut and nobody uses. The reason: Nobody can read. You might think that I'm joking, but I'm not. This is worse than the time there were four different conflicting standards documents for the same satellite, all published by different organizations (also true, and previously my worst experience with government work).
Anyway I'm going to travel for a while next month, which is why I'm clearing this out of the way now. I was originally going to hold off posting the final-final entry until Let's Play Angband's first birthday (technically March 1st - it's a Leap Baby!). Maybe you have some space on your couch for a hobo? That would be kind of...rad. Also: If you have any freelance work for me. I like that kind of thing.
Let's get down to business. Lots of business. Sexy business.
Fist order of business: This asshole. Much like the US Army, he takes Hieronymus Gaylord through many exciting locales, as long as those locales are "dungeon" and this ends up making exploring the level a total bitch.
Which leads to this problem. Lacking any convenient glowing parts, the colossus takes quite a long time to destroy and also a whole bunch of bolts, making it one of my less favorite enemies simply because it requires minimal tactics (they have no special abilities) and a whole boatload of HP.
Which leads to this problem. Life Draining attacks are one of the worst and most obnoxious in the game, because they don't drain stats - they drain your experience. Now, of course, there is a way to get that experience back via items (a potion of Restore Life) but practically most players are going to stay in the dungeon while their life is drained - meaning that rocking your way through monsters doesn't add experience, just bring you towards your previous highest experience.
Yes, I believe you can actually lose levels from having your life drained, as well. In this case, about 20k experience points were drained; I'm not sure what the exact formula for computing draining is.
WIS up! We're getting there, slowly, inch by inch.
8d4? No katana is 8d4. Let's ID this sucker.
Aside from a name that makes it sound like gargling salt water, this is otherwise an extremely unremarkable, and horrifyingly lame, artifact.
[quote="Angband spoilers"] The Katana 'Aglarang' (8d4) (+0,+0) +5 dexterity, speed. Cannot be harmed by acid, electricity, fire, cold. Sustains dexterity. Level 30, Rarity 25, 5.0 lbs, 40000 AU (Angband 3.1.1) [/quote]
Well.. +5 speed isn't bad, but the rest of it. Man. Weapons of Westernesse are usually better.
Unique monsters continue to teach us that Tolkien was perhaps just a bit racist. I wonder if I had kept playing Scthangband if I would have eventually run into a Yellow Menace monster or something.
More unique items? Say it ain't so! This one is also just a little bit lame, but for those characters who aren't really rocking anything good already... Hieronymus Gaylord is just kind of blessed, you know?
Another troll pit is encountered...
... which takes care of that pesky experience drain.
Hieronymus Gaylord has packed up enough crud in his home now that he needs to just get rid of all of it. You might recognize a few artifacts that were thought to be useless here, which were stashed away "just in case". This is a big problem with me and roguelikes: Items are useful 'just in case' and as a result a whole boatload of them end up in inventories and clogging the house. This is an extension of what my (home) office is like, which I will not be posting a picture of because it's embarrassing. If you'd like to replicate it, have an art desk with a pile of papers stacked across it, and then fill the rest of the room with a whirlwind of books and loose paper. There may be a computer somewhere. Possibly a copy of Caress of Steel.
Long story short, shit gets sold.
These will come in handy for when more demons start showing up. Right now there's a lull in them (low-powered demons mostly stop showing up in the low 20s) but there will be more in the near future (they start appearing again in the late 30s and early 40s).
A mummy touches Hieronymus Gaylord and not only does he feel a compelling urge to do a stupid dance and sing but he also gets his constitution drained. Boo to that.
INT up! I can't believe that Hieronymus Gaylord keeps finding these things, because really, they're just so useless. I mean, dang!
An interesting cloak is also found. The real bonus here is that it provides disenchantment resistance, which, as discussed earlier in the thread, is somewhat hard to obtain and vital later on.
This time when fighting the colossus, Hieronymus Gaylord just goes head-to-head with the monster and ends up getting the snot beat out of him for his troubles. But, not knowing much better, he decides simply to blink across the room, and...
Ha ha. Fooled you guys, bet that you thought that was the end, didn't you? No, this update is going to go on for at least a little while longer. This would be kind of a lackluster end anyway, wouldn't it?
Out of materials to identify with, super-genius Hieronymus Gaylord decides that it's time to wield-ID some stuff. In this case it turns out to be a good idea, because it makes him smart enough to realize that it was a bad idea.
By now, we've descended to 1900' (L38) as well, which.. well, that's quite deep! It's further than I've ever gotten in a game, and that's quite impressive. Almost 2/5ths of the way there! Keep going, Hieronymus Gaylord!
The mystery cloak turns out to be this, by the way. For mages or rangers, not necessarily a bad choice if nothing else is available.
This might be the best enemy description in the entire game. It makes me think of... this. WARNING: May induce a desire to watch great TV from the 90s.
Confronted with a gaggle of mixed monsters, Hieronymus Gaylord wonders what's up. This is an unusual situation because we've got several species hanging out together - it must mean a four-chambered mini-vault! Curiously, it doesn't - the game just spawned several small blocks in the same room, which is very rare.
Down to 1950' (L39) and victory!
And another artifact! This one is actually, genuinely good: *Slay*ing demons is very important on a weapon for later (especially since this is the only bonus which affects Morgoth) but it has kind of lame bonuses and, as a weapon, is slightly better than Andruil. But it doesn't give anywhere near the number of bonuses that the current weapon does, so.. into the house it goes, which is where it SHOULD go. This is getting swapped as soon as there are other sources of see invisible available.
The monster description doesn't say it yet but this son of a bitch breathes slowness. That's right: Fighting these hounds means that you're going to hit (-10) speed unless you've already got speed bonuses. Anyway, Hieronymus Gaylord kills a few of them and makes it to level 34.
Now, what happens next, I don't have screenshots for. But I will tell you, because I remember it vividly, even if this game ended two months ago.
Inertia hounds are all over the place. Hieronymus Gaylord, cornered, is taking a real pounding from them; and finally, down to near death, he uses his Staff of Teleportation. This shoots him away to another corner of the dungeon and he breathes a sigh of relief, but unfortunately, there is a Balance Drake in the room. You might remember this monster as being extremely dangerous.
This is where the mistake is made.
Instead of taking a turn to drink a potion of healing and get the hell out of there, Hieronymus Gaylord skips the first step and just teleports willy-nilly, hoping that he'll end up in a safer place. You might remember that this is how Gob met his inglorious end. Well... to add insult to injury:
Hieronymus Gaylord telports exactly back into the spot that he originally left. And is rewarded with a message that is but one step removed from the most dreaded status line in the game.
However. Death comes with some rewards.
First of all, Hieronymus Gaylord takes the coveted 1101th place on the Angband Ladder which makes him better than almost half of the played characters. You can see the full details of what he was wearing, carrying, and had stashed at home on the ladder, by the way.
Secondly, his score was pretty good. That, however, does not show up on the ladder.
Thank you for reading Let's Play Angband.
Wait! What's this?
NEXT TIME: Fond farewells, variants, the Angband Speed Run, vault and monster editing, errata, and more! Wow!