So I've been trying to get a lawful win (i.e. using Valpurus' gifts), and it's tough. Today I decided to use wizard mode to compare my large sword choices. Mostly, I wanted to see if it was worth training my arm strength up and then using a bastard sword one-handed, compared to a flaming sword. (I didn't include vanilla long swords in the comparison, because flaming swords are fairly common and are better in all ways: even when both are made of meteoric steel, the flaming sword has +1 max damage AND the flaming modifier for the same weight.)

So I generated the weapons, and changed their materials to various mid-to-advanced materials. Noted their damage ranges and the AStr requirements to one-hand wield them (and in the case of adamant, two-hand wield). (A few weapons, such as mithril and it's decendants, had such low AStr requirements that I didn't bother writing them either.) Here are my results:

             Flaming   Bastard        Two-Handed         Scimitar
Iron:           3-6    3-7  (15 astr)  4-8  (46 astr)     5-9  (48 astr)
Meteoric Steel: 3-7    4-8  (11 astr)  5-9  (35 astr)     5-10 (37 astr)
Mithril:        3-7    4-8             5-10 (18 astr)     6-11 (19 astr)
Octiron:        3-6    3-6             4-8                4-9
Diamond:        4-8    5-9             6-11               7-12
Adamant:        6-11   7-13 (23 astr)  8-15 (9/71 astr)   9-17 (10/75 astr)
Valpurium:      4-9    5-10            7-12               7-14

As you can see, the largest difference in per-hit damage between a flaming and a bastard sword is when they are made of adamant, and even then it's only a 1-2 damage difference. While I'm not sure about how much damage the flaming modifier adds, I suspect it's somewhere around 1-6, which makes bastard swords a mostly ineffective alternative for flaming swords... On the other hand, at the valpurium level, the two-handed sword is a clear winner, with a negligible arm strength requirement and a full 3 point damage bonus over a flaming sword.

How the fuck do mushrooms smell?


Let me backtrack for a moment. Magic mushrooms. Bane of many an adventurer's lives. Once these foul creatures have infested a level it becomes a wasteland, hazardous to any who enter. A place where lingering for more than strictly necessary can be fatal.

Why does this occur? Two reasons: One, magic mushrooms multiply. This is perfectly OK. Mushrooms are known to do this sort of thing. Two, they produce clouds of magic bubbles which cause numerous magical effects: invisibility, levitation, teleportitis, and most dangerous of all, polymorphitis. The mushrooms beset themselves and their clones with these powers, causing the infestation to spread unpredictably around the level, quickly spiraling out of control, until mushrooms begin transforming into things like octiron golems and orc marshals.

Status-effect-causing clouds are common in IVAN. There's mustard gas, skunk smell, farts, and two different colors of magical bubbles. Fortunately for the player, who might want to avoid such things, there exists a protection: Occasionally, while eating normal mushrooms, you can gain an immunity to all gasses, with the following message:


Which brings me back to my original statement: How the fuck do mushrooms smell?

The same goes for carnivorous plants. And golems, skeletons, and all manner of other creatures (which I'm only assuming are not immune to smells).

I guess what I'm saying is, it's time to end the tyranny of magic mushrooms. It's time someone went into the code and removed their noses.

You never can tell... if you're sane, you know you're sane. And if you're insane, you know you're sane. So if you think you might be insane, you're probably teetering on the edge...

Lost a good character today. Dual spears, one ruby, one mithril. 331 HP or so (armor of great health +5... kept expecting to get one-shotted by a named baddy walking around a corner). Guy took a point-blank Enner scream without batting an eyelash, then butchered him in two rounds of melee. Would have been a lot more powerful if I had ever found a SoCM... I mean really, I used 3 AoLS in this game, but didn't find a single cloak of resist until GC5, and never found any SoCM.

So I was cruising around the GC. Thought I had perma-telecontrol from an earlier encounter with blink dogs, didn't. Anyways, I waltz into GC6, fully aware that it's the zombie room, and plan on bee-lining to the exit, only deviating for exceptional gear. Survived two veteran kamikaze dwarves with no real damage. Spotted Xinroch... wasn't feeling confidant enough to take him on, so I teleported (this is how I discovered I didn't have control). Got out. It was close but not too bad.

I sighed in relief, and went on to explore GC7. After a while, I noticed that my box of wands was gone! Odd. I figured I'd just left it behind on an earlier level for some reason or another. I continued exploring, fought off a lot of nasty golems (two arcanite, a few others) and dark knights and orcs and so forth. Suddenly a bunch of my shit is vanishing! What's going on?! Now I'm teleporting everywhere! Holy crap, where did this dragon hide golem come from! And an orc officer AND a veteran dark knight, all at once! And my glove is gone (followed by my arm a few turns later)!

Yeah, it was quick from there. Got tore up fast, died, AoLS triggered, died again immediately. At first I wondered if my high HP had caused my namesake to spawn and visit unholy wrath upon me... but the marked lack of explosions made me think otherwise. Then I realized -- GC7? That's the mystic dark frog level. Fuck me! That should have been a cakewalk, if I'd been thinking right and paying attention to my status! I had sodm, and had left a telecontrol ring on a previous level somewhere.

Final score: 39292.

The odds have to be extremely low, however. I believe this is the first time I've ever found a pair of boots of agility with any enchantment other than +1.

It is in fact possible to find un-enchanted *gear* of *stat*. For example, I just found a pair of boots of agility sans plus.

Likely caused by a deleted post.

fuckin' furries

Five years? Daaang. Too bad you haven't been more vocal during your time...

Impressive victory by the way -- you join an elite few who have achieved the high priest victory, in ANY variant. Congratulations.

Azba: Did you look at this?