YASD -- Engraving

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Hi all,

I was playing a healer. I had gotten to DL Level 5, XP Level 8. I had
an athame named Magicbane which helped me a lot (Elbereth -- mainly) and I
managed to kill a few water demons.

In any case, while trying to engrave Elbereth, I picked the wrong
weapon, and eventually died.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

jorge estrada wrote:
> Boudewijn Waijers wrote:
>
> > Michael Ng wrote:
> >
> >> In any case, while trying to engrave Elbereth, I picked the
> >> wrong
> >> weapon, and eventually died.
> >
> > I think excessive use of Elbereth is like save scumming (not that I
> > think it's wrong, mind you).
>
> Sorry, i don't think one or the other is wrong, but i don't think
they
> are comparable. Backing up your saved games makes the game much
> easier while keeping you from learning the skills to win. Writing
> Elbereth doesn't stop people from learning how to ascend.

Correct. While in my opinion cheap, Elbereth is not comparable to save
scumming.

> > After a while, you'll get deeper into the dungeon, and more and
more
> > monsters will ignore Elbereth. If you don't improve your playing
> > skills, you'll never learn the skills needed to defeat them.
>
> But relying on elbereth for the early game doesn't keep you from
> learning or practicing when it is no longer as useful.

In the early game your pet is likely your most valuable asset, and
Elbereth isn't the best way to help him out. If you play the best of
all character classes or happen to find an expensive camera, blinding
can be better. Blinding monsters not only stops them from actively
chasing you, but also effectively impairs their AC by two points,
making them easier for your pet to deal with. I used to lose little
dogs to newts in the first few turns of the game until I started
blinding them. Now I blind every monster I encounter until my pet has
gained a few levels, at which point I only blind the ones that do
significant damage (dwarfs, watch captain (be prepared to get hit
yourself), etc.). Doing this greatly increases my pet's survivability
in the early game and thus increases my own. Your mileage may vary.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

Michael Ng wrote:

> In any case, while trying to engrave Elbereth, I picked the wrong
> weapon, and eventually died.

I think excessive use of Elbereth is like save scumming (not that I
think it's wrong, mind you).

What I do mean is that using it too often will not help you in
developing your other playing skills. Your *real* play will never
improve if you constantly try the easy way out.

After a while, you'll get deeper into the dungeon, and more and more
monsters will ignore Elbereth. If you don't improve your playing skills,
you'll never learn the skills needed to defeat them.

This is one of the reasons why I never use Elbereth.

--
Boudewijn Waijers (kroisos at home.nl).

The garden of happiness is surrounded by a wall so low only children
can look over it. - "the Orphanage of Hits", former Dutch radio show.

 

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Archived from groups: rec.games.roguelike.nethack (More info?)

"Boudewijn Waijers" <kroisos@REMOVETHISWORD.home.nl> wrote:
>
> After a while, you'll get deeper into the dungeon, and more and more
> monsters will ignore Elbereth. If you don't improve your playing skills,
> you'll never learn the skills needed to defeat them.

So he will constantly die at a specific depth of the dungeon. This is
nethack. You have to die to learn. In my experience nothing helps more
to learn a lesson than to die because of it.

I think it is an important point for playing nethack to learn the pros
and cons to every practice one uses, when to use it and when to choose
another one.

If engraving Elbereth takes you further, that's fine with me. But
everybody learns soon enough that this is only a small part of being
able to ascend a character.

Bye
Patric