User:Kernigh/brass/2

During my work with the brass interface patch, I played several test games, mostly in debug mode. Thus this is my 2nd game of brass after my final installation (erasing the playground for the last time). I played this game at 22 September 2006.

Gameplay
As in vanilla, I play elf thus randomly choosing between Priest, Ranger and Wizard. For this game I rolled Wizard. I started this way:



My first setback occured at turn 703, when Morris discovered a falling rock trap. "Morris is hit by a rock! Morris is killed!" Thus I had no pet. Difficult situations would now require Elbereth and force bolt.

At turn 1192, I discovered a general store at Dlvl3. This interested me because in my last game of SLASH'EM, there were no shops but two in Minetown.



At Dlvl4 there was a magic whistle, but I had not pet to use it with. I found another general store at Dlvl4. Then at Dlvl5 when at turn 1993 I tamed a kitten and found an armor store. Now things became interesting, for I could use my pet and the whistle to steal armor! By turn 2787, in addition to the CoMR that I started with, I also had:


 * a +0 green robe
 * a +0 plumed helmet
 * a polished silver shield
 * a slippery cloak

The robe seemed to be a plain robe, and I could wear it under my cloak in the body armor slot, like in SLASH'EM. The plumed helmet seemed to be an ordinary cheap helmet. I had no boots because I sold back the fumble boots. I knew that the shield was a shield of reflection and that the cloak (not being worn) was an oilskin cloak.

I had to visit my Dlvl3 stash to store some things before I could start carrying the shield. Upon wielding it, I discovered that it was a +2 polished silver shield. This gave me an additional incentive to wear the shield, though I would have to remove it to cast spells – both force bolt and detect monsters reached a 54% failure rate despite the robe.

Things seemed to go well, with one problem: at experience level 4 I still had only 18 max HP. Sometimes I poked monsters with Sting and took damage before I switched to force bolt, so I often had to retreat and heal.

I returned to Dlvl5 and finally convinced my pet, now a housecat, to grab that expensive conical hat from the shop. At turn 5047 I wore it; it was a +0 cornuthaum. Having armor so good, so early distracted from my HP, lower than it would be in vanilla or SLASH'EM.

Things started to become bad at Dlvl6, when I went to melee a rabid rat and its first bite (at turn 6383) poisoned me. My stats had read "St:6 Dx:12 Co:9 In:20 Wi:15 Ch:7", with 21 max HP at experience level 5. As I now know, NetHack brass has three types of poison, reducing strength, dexterity, or constitution. NetHack brass also scales max HP with constitution. This rabid rat's poison dropped my constitution by five points to Co:4. My max HP fell by 3 to HP, and my max unburdened carrying capacity dropped from 330 to 230, leaving me burdened because my inventory weighed 236. I needed a unicorn horn, but it was too early in the game. I decided not to #pray, because a read through src/pray.c showed that (as bad as it was for me) reduced constitution is only a minor trouble, so I would need to raise my luck before prayer could heal it.

Now I could not fight a group of hill orcs (even with Sting) because they went into the Dlvl6 weapons shop and equipped themselves gratis. I left the orcs in the shop, so I could not shop there.

I went down to Dlvl8 anyway (exercising my consitution back up to Co:5). There, a soldier ant surprised me at turn 9625. I was between my new pet little dog and the place where I expect a hidden door:

--- ..|@d#f# ..| a ...#### ---  # HP:18(22)

I pressed [s] once and the door appeared. (I might not have noticed the soldier ant yet.) "The soldier ant bites! (6pts)  The soldier ant stings!--More--  The soldier ant's sting was poisoned!  (14pts)--More--  You die..." In less than one turn, the solder ant had taken 20 HP.

I had not even tried to attack the soldier ant, yet it killed me in one turn. Some features of NetHack brass might be unique, but the soldier ants are as problematic as they were in vanilla.

Quotes from the dump
Your inventory Weapons y - 6 +0 darts named safe z - a +0 boomerang named safe E - the +0 Sting (weapon in hand) J - 4 +0 shuriken named safe Armor b - an uncursed +0 cloak of magic resistance q - an uncursed +0 cloak of displacement named safe (being worn) B - an uncursed +0 pair of water walking boots named safe (being worn) I - an uncursed +0 cornuthaum named safe (being worn) K - an uncursed +0 robe of power named safe (being worn) Q - an uncursed +0 pair of gauntlets of power named safe ...  Wands c - a wand of teleportation (0:6) h - a blessed wand of magic missile (0:6) /* recent find, unidentified */ M - a wand of locking named safe (0:3) ...

Final attributes You were piously aligned Your alignment was 57 You were sleep resistant You were aware of the presence of orcs You were clairvoyant You had infravision You were displaced You could walk on water You are dead

Your skills at the end Fighting Skills bare handed combat  9% /* when forgetting to wield weapon */ Weapon Skills dagger group       43% staff group        56% throwing group     59% Spellcasting Skills attack spell       60% divination spell   16% enchantment spell  50%

Dump and recordings
''I might provide dump and recordings later. --Kernigh 03:26, 24 September 2006 (UTC)''