Brogue

This contest is now over.

Hey everyone, welcome to this weekend's contest! This is our eighth Brogue contest.

The seed for this contest is 265345.

How to compete:

1. The contest begins right now, on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 21:00:00 UTC (5:00 PM EDT.) You can start your game any time after this. The contest is open to anyone.

2. Start a game by control-clicking "New Game" in Brogue v1.6.2 and entering the seed.

3. Play through the game. You only get one chance. We are all on the honor system here.

4. Once you are finished, record your score and post the details of your game in this thread. Minimum requirements for consideration include your score, cause of death and lowest level reached. However, by request, I'm opening up the thread to all spoilers, so feel free to add screenshots, game recordings, character dumps, strategy tips, etc. You do not need to wait for the end of the contest.

5. The contest will run for three days (72 hours) and end on Monday, April 23, 2012 at 21:00:00 UTC (5:00PM EDT.) You must finish your game and post your results by this time to be considered in the contest.

6. As a result of point 4,
PLEASE DO NOT READ THE REST OF THE POSTS IN THIS THREAD UNTIL YOUR RUN IS FINISHED.

Again, honor system. I'll leave some white space below.

7. Good luck! Have fun etc.

Reserved for Results.

UPDATE: The winner is Creaphis, with 10,257 points! His run is described in great detail below.

I also cooked up a table with the overall contest results, through the first 8 runs.
brogue contest history

Code: Select all

Contest    Seed        Winner    Score    Max depth      Cause of Death
1           1297757    Nillo     14,461    19              burning
2           1292202    Pender    66,005    27              ascension
3           621726     mikeym    48,273    26              ascension
4           593360     Cybermg   12,006    17              burning
5           44757      Cybermg   76,985    27              ascension
6           140850     Nillo     78,228    27              ascension
7           592633     Nillo     30,514    28              centaur
8           265345     Creaphis  10,257    16              goblin

Well that did not go well. Stupid level 3 vampire bats.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/9120262/Pffftahahaah.broguerec
Paahhaha!

No points, depth 2, killed by a dar priestess.
Give you two guesses as to why.

7267 04/21/12 Killed by a zombie on level 14. (also lowest level reached)

myallies.broguerec

This was a very interesting seed. With no useful items to enchant except armour, no useful weapons to upgrade to and no staffs you're routed into a pet path, for which it provides a wand of plenty and a wand of beckoning.

On level 2, I discovered the wand of polymorphism by making an ogre - thankfully, still asleep. (Is the wand of polymorphism meant to be so potentially deadly? It should make level-likely enemies, IMO.) I deigned not to free the monkey, so it wouldn't wake the ogre and screw me over.
On level 3, I discovered the vampire bats, and used incinerary darts to kill them one by one. The door key was easy to get - a lucky quaff got me lev on the first try. THE POTION AT THE BOTTOM OF THE LEVEL IS GAIN LEVEL, MARK IT.
On level 4, I start quaff testing and discover descent.
On level 5, more vampire bats - but I have incinerary darts left over. Easily dispatched. Ah, and I finally find detect magic. I finish quaff/read testing on level 4 and continue.
Level 7 features more bats, but I can melee them down with my new armour/strength. Another potion of levitation and I reach the key. The choice of what pet to take is obvious - naga. Nagas are awesome, but their tendency to swish through water away from you to kill things is a double edged sword.

On level 8, I free a goblin mystic as well. I can see at this point that pet path is my fate. Goblin mystics on their own are squishy, but coupled with another pet to watch their back will last longer. That ring in the upper right? It's -3 regeneration. Perhaps if you spent enchantment scrolls on it a LOT it would be good enough to use, but I figured I wouldn't bother.

Level 9 is where a bunch of mistakes occur. I attack a wraith and make it flee - across a lake. I pick up a wand on the south of the lake, and zap test it on the wraith - to make two wraiths instead. A wand of plenty, huh? I could use this to make more pets... but my naga is going for the wraith across the lake, and its submerging properties make it awkward to target. I try to dive and zap plenty at my naga, but it hits a wraith instead (I have no idea why - can someone explain it?). My second zap of it copies my naga, but now it's out of charges. So if you run this, use the wand of plenty to make four nagas and steamroll the dungeon. Also, while my naga was off playing with the cowardly wraiths, an ogre walked up and one shotted my mystic before I could come to its aid. So, now I have two nagas. Not too bad, I suppose. Moving on...

On level 10, my nagas rush into battle against a LARGE group of totems, mystics and conjurers in the top - fearing for their lives, I rush into battle ahead of them and trigger a single tile pit trap. So they follow me out to level 10, out of battle at least.

Level 11 has me in an awkward spot - a poison gas trap is putting me and my pets on the other side of the level from where I want to go. What I didn't know was of a secret door that allowed me to get around - so, once my pets were out of sight, I dived through the trap - and much later they were able to follow. But before they could follow, I meet up with a dar blademaster - I throw a potion of incineration at him, and coax him to stand in the flames while meleeing him. Thanks to my ultra tough armour, he stands in the flames until he burns to death. In the top left is a altar trap that makes lots of pitfalls, so I quaffed levitation. The reward is scale mail of imp immunity, btw.

Still on level 11, I quaff levitation to get across the lake of lava and not have to go across the trap again (I still think it's the only way across), and open another door to get leather armour of multiplicity (that I never used). What I didn't know was that my nagas were ready to learn by now - so when I come back, they had killed a bunch of goblins in my absence, and one of my nagas was now a buff mystical protection caster. Cool! But I didn't want to waste the other learning, so I kept careful watch of them.
(cont)

Back on level 10, I see a will-o-wisp and let my other naga study it. Now it's immune to fire, hooray! My buff nagas wipe the floor and we continue down.

A series of pit traps (seriously, how are you meant to deal with these things?) dumps us all on level 13. I'm chased by a naga, but my pets kill it. I beeline back to the upstairs to finish level 12, first.

Level 12 is where things go horribly wrong. THERE IS A CONFUSION TRAP AT THE BOTTOM OF LEVEL 12, BY THE LAVA. My nagas trigger it over and over and over. I try to use my wand of beckoning to save the non fire immune one, but he eventually succumbs. Now I have only one naga, and no source of protection in my party, and no plenty or recharging or any other useful source of attack/defense.
Also, in the top right, there is a caustic gas trap. Me and my naga almost die from being trapped on the wrong side of it (don't flee east of it) I try to throw a potion of healing at my naga, but it does nothing. I wish I knew beforehand. Instead, I quaff descent and we both fall to the next level - almost dead, but alive.

Back on level 12 again, me and my naga can't regenerate fast enough with what food we have left. It almost dies to a zombie, and I have to tank for it. We fall to level 14 from a pit trap on level 13. A pixie in the top right is dispatched asleep, and a salamander is killed by my fire immune naga before my naga dies. Unfortunately, my low on hp naga triggers a caustic gas trap and succumbs. At this point I'm screwed, since I was relying on my pets for offense. I get cornered by an acid jelly and a zombie and run out of escape options. RIP

My advice to anyone who wants to play spoiled:

0) Don't zap the wand on level 2 - mark it as polymorphism and move on
1) Take the wand of plenty on the lake shore on level 9, and use it to clone your one naga into four
2) By level 10/11, pay attention to your pets being ready to learn. Give one protection and the rest staying-alive buffs (like immune to fire, and... can you get regeneration from a troll? That would be useful)
3) Search intensively on floor 11 and lower, especially for the confusion trap at the bottom of level 12 by the lava lake, and in general thereafter

4812 on lvl 12 :/ my pet naga died, thus i had no chance

661 Killed by a jackal on level 3 (level 4 explored).

Trying to rush through the eel infested bog to get to the locked door, a spawned pack of jackals cut off the exit.

My first time participating in one of these and its embarrassing...

Died on 3 to a couple of eels in the mud.

Score: 336

jaggus wrote:My first time participating in one of these and its embarrassing...

Died on 3 to a couple of eels in the mud.

Score: 336

You didn't see mine then.

I also died to the eels on depth 3. 456 gold, depth 4 explored.

Hmm, I quit before noting my score etc... it was rubbish, anyway. Swarmed by eels and vampire bats in the swamp at the top of depth 3 after returning across the chasm using a luckily found levitation potion. Attempted to guess ID another two potions to save myself from the eels and bats, 1st one: incineration: ouch (although luckily outside the swamp gas by then), next: creeping death. Bugger.
Athough I did learn that using a wand of transmogrification on an ally will result in something that isn't an ally anymore...

Died to the vampire bats on level 3. I noticed the incendiary darts in the nearby room, but by then it was too late to collect them and still have time to use them.

Perhaps this is a good time to discuss the impact of bats on the life of early-game characters. I often feel that their tendency to be generated on depth 2 or 3 is a little harsh even for a roguelike game. Consider the many characteristics of bats that make them hard for the player to deal with:
1. They move quickly, which means that you can almost never outrun them if you find that you cannot handle them in direct combat.
2. They fly, which means that you cannot use water to get them off your back, and they are not affected by potions of descent (which were generated in this seed).
3. They tend to be generated in packs, and are light sleepers. This means that if you notice bats, more often than not they will wake up before you can do anything about it and you will be followed by at least two bats.
4. Finally, their ability to drain life per hit means that if you have not yet upgraded your weapon (which is quite likely on depth 2 or 3) they might just heal themselves for more hit points than you can deal in damage, unless you're lucky enough to hit most of your attacks while they miss most of theirs.

Guitar wrote:Well that did not go well. Stupid level 3 vampire bats.

Haha same. Tested a potion that turned out to be descent, got two with incendiary darts, died to the third one. I guess that's what I get for testing potions away from the down-stairs.

Died on depth 14 to an underworm
6812 gold

That was a bad run. Those vampire bats on depth 3 spooked me, so I started desperately using items in my inventory only to discover that a vampire bat is less threatening than an Ogre/Goblin Warlord/Underworm. Thanks, wand of polymorph!

8677 killed by caustic gas on depth 14

This is so pathetic fighting through such messes defeating loads of strong enemies and f* bloat gets me

Though this was VERY interesting run, quite far on hard site IMHO, though I like that:) Had lots of close calls, made quite sum jumps to chasms/pits etc.

Only problem with this seed was almost no weapons, though I manage to get warhammer usable by, though still with considerably less strength than needed, it still was Way better than that starting dagger. I even though of wielding javelins...

Armor was like _*NICE*_. I generally end up ignoring armor quite a bit, but since this time it was basically only item worth enhancing, and i had it at something like +7 or +8, well it was ridiculously awesome, melee fights were of very little trouble, granted I have dealt with troll and nagas using polymorphism, since they could have caused some.

Anyways very sad death, just as I was starting to have high hopes since warhammer proved to be really cool combined with armor, but I guess spell casters would have eaten me alive anyways...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/j8j6w7 replay

EDIT:
Oh learned nice thing about wand of beaconing - you can free allies with it! So I got all allies that were in depth with three cages, then later I even got goblin mystic, though vampire bats finished him very quickly could have given way better chances for other allies to survive.

Died on depth 10. I'm not sure how to determine score if it doesn't appear on the high score list, and this one didn't make it.

The vampire bats on depth 3 provided an interesting situation. I was backed up to a pit ledge in a hallway, with about 5% HP. I had killed all but one bat, but that one bat was at full HP. Thinking things were about over, I zapped my unidentified wand at it. Oh, luck of luck, a polymorphed dragon! I apparently had a turn to react, so I zapped the wand again. A tentacle horror! I still had a turn to react. Assuming the wand was out of charges, I read one of my unidentified scrolls. Red filled the screen and the horror fled! Not willing to test my luck further, I healed up a decent amount of HP and simply jumped off the ledge to the next level.

Once there, I realized I still had the key to the vault above. So I went back up and got the armor, luckily without seeing the tentacle horror. After this, things went pretty well for a while. I did accidentally free the goblin conjurer instead of the naga, and it promptly got killed. Of course, it was replaced by the goblin mystic. At this point I thought things had taken a turn for the better. While there was still no weapon to be found, I was able to slowly kill everything I came across due to the continuous shielding provided by the mystic and the +7 scale mail of absorption.

Unfortunately, the mystic died on depth 10. I then ran into a pair of dar blademasters. After hacking at one for quite some time with the dagger, I killed it. But my HP was quite low, and I knew I had no chance against the other. So, hoping my luck from earlier in the game might still be with me, I zapped the wand of polymorphism. A jelly? No, an acidic jelly. I took out a few but eventually went down.

I've had bad luck the past 2 contests. Last week, I died on level 3 (I didn't even bother posting my score), and this time, I fell through the floor into level 4, and, wanting to back up into a corridor to fight a goblin conjurer, I stupidly backed up into the poison gas-filled corridor in which I had just killled a bloat. Then got blocked inside by the spectral blades.

Killed by a spectral blade on level 4, score: (didn't even make it on the list)

OK so I died to a Salamander on 16, but didn't remember to log my score!

When I go to look in the recording I find it's corrupted. Anyway to retrieve it?

Here's the run, which goes out of sync at turn 7,828 of 11,031: http://www.filedropper.com/bah

Almost the same as thedrin: 661 killed by a vampire bat on level 3, level 4 explored.

I died to my own total stupidity, fighting by hand when I could just have thrown another incendiary dart.

Glad it wasn't just me died to those pesky bats on 3 (after clearing half of 4 after a pit trap)! Tried a couple of emergency potions looking for health but got levitation and detect magic.. Oh well.

Nillo wrote:Died to the vampire bats on level 3. I noticed the incendiary darts in the nearby room, but by then it was too late to collect them and still have time to use them.

Perhaps this is a good time to discuss the impact of bats on the life of early-game characters. I often feel that their tendency to be generated on depth 2 or 3 is a little harsh even for a roguelike game. Consider the many characteristics of bats that make them hard for the player to deal with:
1. They move quickly, which means that you can almost never outrun them if you find that you cannot handle them in direct combat.
2. They fly, which means that you cannot use water to get them off your back, and they are not affected by potions of descent (which were generated in this seed).
3. They tend to be generated in packs, and are light sleepers. This means that if you notice bats, more often than not they will wake up before you can do anything about it and you will be followed by at least two bats.
4. Finally, their ability to drain life per hit means that if you have not yet upgraded your weapon (which is quite likely on depth 2 or 3) they might just heal themselves for more hit points than you can deal in damage, unless you're lucky enough to hit most of your attacks while they miss most of theirs.

I tend to agree, many of my characters die to bats now.
Assuming I don't get bats on level 3, I am usually able to go many levels farther.

Ogres are not nearly as bad when generated out of depth, at least you can run from them and they aren't generated in packs.

Oh, and score 345, killed by vampire bats on level 3.

I tried again. Killed by vampire bats on level 3.

And then a third time. Killed by a pack of jackals after having burned myself with a potion of incineration... fighting vampire bats on level 3.

I'm almost to the point of just quitting seeds that generate bats on level 2 or 3.

Tentacle Horror. Depth 2.

Fastest death ever.

Jacq wrote:Tentacle Horror. Depth 2.

Fastest death ever.

Heh, tried to use the polymorph wand?

Score: 10257
Killed by a goblin on level 16.
Yes, a goblin.

Contest.broguerec

A good game of Brogue has all of the elements of a tragedy by one of the great playwrights. A hero sets out alone on some grand quest, enjoys moments of glory, forges alliances, but then suffers the inevitable losses and betrayals that culminate in his complete and utter destruction. This was definitely a good game of Brogue. I saved the recording for the first time ever and I'm feeling inspired to write out a commentary.

Depth 1: Our hero, @, brave and full of hope, finds and tests a wand on a sleeping rat. It turns out to be a wand of beckoning, and the rat is dispatched easily, having slept through its magical relocation. This is mentioned here only because this is the only time in the entire game that a wand is zapped without major plot significance.

Depth 2: @ finds another wand, and tests it on another hapless forest creature. It turns out it's a wand of polymorphism! Seeing that the wand has created nothing more dangerous than a confused goblin, @ feels assured that the fates are smiling upon him. He frees a captive monkey so that his glorious quest will have a witness.

Depth 3: @ loses his footing and some of his dignity and falls to depth 4. He works his way back to level 3 and finds himself in unfamiliar territory - near three vampire bats. His faith in his divine blessing unwavering, @ runs to a nearby hallway, pulls out his wand of polymorphism, and fires! The first bat becomes an acidic jelly. This isn't a major improvement. He fires again, and it becomes a pixie. Good enough! Dispatching the pixie, @ wrenches a final charge from the wand, and the second bat becomes a bog monster - tentacles slapping feebly on the dry ground. The third bat is blocked by its massive bulk, and @ escapes to find five incendiary darts, 4 more than he needs to put the fight with the final bat decidedly in his favour. Once the smoke clears, the monkey finally reunites with @. Surprisingly uninterested in @'s tales of conquest, it finds the bog monster and tweaks it endlessly, shrieking with laughter at its helpless guttering.

The monkey then gets itself killed. @ is saddened by the loss, as he wasted a beckoning charge trying to save the damn fool.

Depth 5: Facing off against a goblin church service that is starting to overwhelm him, @ throws a jar of malevolent-seeming fluid into the midst of the worshippers. It turns out to be a potion of descent, and @ falls along with them. Finishing off the injured parishioners, @ wishes he'd have known what the potion was so he could utter some sort of witty one-liner ahead of time. "Let's take the action... downstairs!" @ frowns; that's not really very clever, is it? He resolves to work on it for next time.

Depth 6: @ accidentally attacks an acid mound, thinking it to be a pontificating something-or-other. His sole weapon corrodes.

Depth 7: Finding another goblin church service in his path, @ sighs and exchanges the steaming dagger hilt in his hand for a javelin from his bag. Fighting monsters close-up with range weapons is always so embarrassing! The goblins chuckle at the makeshift spear. Then they stop. Because they're dead.

Still thinking of his wounded pride, @ stumbles into a paralysis trap and is walloped by an ogre. Not pleased at all by how things are going, @ takes off running and leads the ogre in a chase around the dungeon before coming right back to where they started. @ throws a dart onto the paralysis trap at the perfect moment and wallops the ogre. It's not enough! Out of ideas, @ gulps a potion of levitation and floats across lava to safety, where he finds a naga and ogre in cages. They quickly explain that they are merely political prisoners, and @ agrees to spring them in exchange for their help in hunting down and killing all ogres (no offense, Ogre).

Depth 8: @ and his allies rescue a goblin mystic from its captors. @ smiles at his rag-tag team, and recalls from the tales he heard as a boy that the more rag-tag that a team is, the better its chance of success.

Depth 9: @ peeks into a lake just to see if it's safe to cross. Naga immediately takes off, cruelly murdering everything swimming in it. @ cannot contain his pride.

@ stumbles into a caustic gas trap. Goblin Mystic only escapes alive thanks to a quick shot from @'s wand of beckoning. @ explains to the nearly-skinless goblin that it doesn't matter how that trap got activated - who stepped on that darn thing anyway? What's important is that @ saved the goblin's life and therefore it must pledge itself into @'s service forever.

Depth 10: The team truly hits its stride, with the naga silently slithering off to slaughter entire hordes of sleeping monsters, and the goblin mystic casting 12 protection spells to aid in the destruction of one monkey. The ogre supervises.

Depth 11: @ identifies a wand of plenty in his bag. He perpetually postpones using it to expand his army. He tells his allies that he appreciates their individuality. In truth this is a precaution against mutiny.

Depth 12: It is the beginning of the end. Our hero finds it hard to make excuses for triggering yet another caustic gas trap, and then shoving Ogre and Goblin Mystic backwards into the gas. Naga glances at the wands of teleportation and beckoning tucked into @'s belt and then adopts a permanent look of deep skepticism and unease. Possibly driven by the sense that her life would soon be in her own hands, Naga sets about strengthening herself in any way possible. She learns fire immunity by studying whatever trace a dead will-o-the-wisp leaves behind.

Depth 14: Some awkward positional maneuvers leave @ surrounded by a blademaster, an ogre shaman, and Naga, solid wall in every other direction. @ curses himself for failing fencing 101. Recognizing Naga's tactical value, @ decides against forcing the bleeding and beleaguered serpent to die in his place, and that at the very least she should have the chance to die somewhere else. He zaps her with his wand of teleportation and watches telepathically as Naga reappears in the room next door, steps away from a completely healthy member of her own species. Now, with more room to maneuver, @ backs away and pulls a warhammer out of his bag, quickly cramming it full of magic until it's light enough to swing. He clubs, paralyzes and teleports his opponents until, his resources exhausted, he defeats an injured naga with a lucky swing of his warhammer. Behind it, Naga, fire burning in her eyes, breaks the ogre shaman in half.

Depth 15: Together, @ and Naga face off against a vampire with a door key in his pocket. The vampire's attacks are useless, and the bats he summons fall instantly before the combined blows of @'s dwindled army. Yet, a smile curls above the vampire's exposed canines, as he senses something he can use: scars of mistrust, animosity. The vampire casts discord at Naga, who immediately succumbs to its effects. @ reads a scroll of cause fear, hoping that this will give Naga time to calm down and think things over. The vampire runs, trapping itself in a dead end and is defeated by a final blow, but the curse is not broken. Naga comes back - hunting. @, cornered in the same dead end as the vampire, curses the fates for turning against him. He steels himself for his fiercest fight yet, but resolves to keep his pack shut out of respect for his former partner. Strength alone would decide this.

Surprisingly, he wins.

Depth 16: Disgusted at what he has been forced to do, @ marches onward, taking revenge against everything in his path. A salamander is led into a paralysis trap - it combusts the gas, yet still inhales enough to suffer its effects, and is instantly dispatched. An acidic jelly is beaten to death by @'s bare hands - every last pulpy fragment. He laughs when he sees yet another group of goblin worshippers. What could they possibly do to him, now that he is so powerful - and desperate? As swarms of spectral blades pierce his skin, a zombie, unnoticed, or simply ignored, approaches @ from the other side and attacks. @ is snapped back to his senses, as he realizes he is on the very edge of death. His final attempts to survive are not enough. A goblin totem fires one last spell of haste at one last goblin. The goblin reaches @, bleeding and shuddering with nausea, and attacks.

Before oxygen deprivation completely kicks in, @ remembers the goblin that his wand created up on level 2, and wonders if the fates were trying to tell him something else.

Creaphis, epic story man

I also had a nice game, maybe I should also write a story, hm...

Woohoo, thank you Creaphis!

Congratulations, Creaphis. Excellent description too

Now that we're all thoroughly spoiled, is this seed winnable, or is it too resource-poor? (Are there ANY staffs, useful rings or enchanted weaponry?)

Grats Creaphis enjoyed reading that

Finished yesterday but didn't post!

7826 Killed by a cloud of caustic gas on level 12. Although, sad to say, it was really a monkey that did me in -- it triggered the trap and kept me from getting out. Well!

(Linux players! You can use the --scores switch to dump your score table to the command line where it's easy to copy and paste.)