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Author Topic: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!  (Read 31997 times)

Un67

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Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« on: June 22, 2011, 06:26:33 pm »

Let's Play Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!

Website: crawl.develz.org (Information and downloads are on the site.)



Hello everyone, and welcome to a Let's Play of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, the awesome rougelike that everyone (should) love. I'm Un67, AKA, random lurker that no one knows or cares about, but I decided that I wanted to do a Let's Play of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, on the latest trunk build. Why would I do this, and on a forum that I practically never post on? Well, I'm going to have a lot of time over the coming summer, and may as well do something interesting while I play (fail at) Crawl. In addition, I think it might help me boost my enthusiasm for it, since more often then not I tend to randomly suicide my character/quit, for reasons I can't quite explain. Playing publicly (and I don't mean on a public server, I hate those) might turn out to be something of a therapy for said tendency. Finally, I honestly do like this forum, but I've never really had much of a drive to go out and post on it, so doing this LP might end up making me a lot more active here.

Also, I know fully well that only two months ago, Dr.Feelgood did an epic 15-rune KoBe run, something I cannot ever hope to match. However, what you do get to see is the extreme failures of a mediocre Crawl Player (the farthest I've ever gotten into the games is three runes and up to D-25ish) as I play hopeless combos like DGWn or TrAr or OgCK or... whatever, I don't even know. Still, I might somehow luck out and end up with a win, after going full out meatgrinder and throwing every single imaginable combination at the game, who knows? It certainly worked out for this LP (another one that I know that I cannot ever hope to match). But, I suppose that it doesn't really matter, in the end, as long as I manage to entertain you (in the way that you like), I'll be happy, and no matter whether I ascend or not I'll be a better player for it.

So, simply say a race/backgrounds combination with a name (I'm horrible at naming things), and I'll queue it up and will do it sooner or later! (most likely sooner, since I'm an awful player) Anything will pass, even the seeming impossible ones if you really insist on it. Who knows, I might somehow make it work! (Most likely not, but who knows, a guy can dream.)

Anyways, here's a list of races and backgrounds copied from the game to help you determine the style that you want me to go into a horrible death with:

Spoiler: Races (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Backgrounds (click to show/hide)

So, with that out of the way, let's start playing!

Characters:

Name - Combination - God - Updates

Argem Bargem - MuNe - Sif Muna - Updates 1a-4a
Made In China - DSCK - Xom - Updates 4b-6a
Dwarf Adopter - FeWn - None - Updates 6b-8a
Kog Haltpast - DDMo - None - Update 8b
Jill - NaWz - None - Update 9
Pacifist - TrBe - Trog - Updates 10a-13
Doctor Hans - OcTr - None - Updates 14-15
« Last Edit: July 08, 2011, 07:38:22 am by Un67 »
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breadbocks

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2011, 06:27:16 pm »

Mummy Necro.
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Un67

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2011, 06:29:08 pm »

Name?
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breadbocks

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #3 on: June 22, 2011, 06:30:14 pm »

Argem Bargem. Because you'll be saying that a lot at rot.
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Mr.Person

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #4 on: June 22, 2011, 07:55:23 pm »

Afterwards do an Octopode CK and hope for Xom to give you cool rings.
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MetalSlimeHunt

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #5 on: June 22, 2011, 07:59:41 pm »

Oh, you poor bastard. Hope you and Sigmund have some fun together. After Xom has had his way with the Octopode, Felid Wanderer for the lulz. Name is your choice.
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Un67

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #7 on: June 23, 2011, 08:36:51 am »

Update 1!

Queue:

Argem Bargem the Mummy Necromancer
___ the Octopode Chaos Knight
___ the Felid Wanderer

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the main menu for Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. There are a few options here, like the minigames Dungeon Sprint and Zot Defense or the tutorial and hints mode for beginners. There's also the Arena, which you can use to make monsters fight each other, if you've ever wondered about that. However, we're just going to play regular Dungeon Crawl, and I've already typed up the name of our adventurer, Argem Bargem.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I'm then prompted for species and background. (Obviously, this interface introduction is a one-time thing, so just skip over it if you already have played Crawl/if you think it's boring.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

And here, the great mummy necromancer Argem Bargem enters the Dungeon. All will shiver before him, fall before his dark magic, and rise up from the dead as his servants. Or, you know, brutally destroy him and use his mummified body as firewood. Whatever works to entertain you guys.

Anyways, we're in what's called an entrance vault, which is a specially designed area in where we enter (duh) the Dungeon. Here we see some stone walls, stairs leading out of the Dungeon, and some stones on the ground. Not much of interest, but I'll take the stones in case we run out of mana.

Also, at the bottom right hand corner, you can see some icons. There you can see my inventory and some icons, I can toggle them around to display other stuff. I've never been a big fan of that, however. There's also the mini-map, which is handy for simple navigation.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is the stat screen for Dungeon Crawl. It displays important things like like resistances, (ins/ex)trinics, and equipment. Right now, the only thing that's very interesting is our resistances. Mummies (and other undead characters) begin the game with rC+ (that's the abbreviation for Resist Cold 1), rN+++ (Resist Negative Energy 3), and rPois (Resist Poison). Mummies, however, are also saddled with rF- (the meaning of which should be fairly obvious by now, a weakness to fire). While this seems awesome at first (and it is, as rN+++ will render us totally immune to draining, and rC+ is OK), rF- really, really sucks. Why? The late-game monster, the orb of fire, renders rF essential. However, I doubt we'll even be getting close to that, so let's not worry too much. rPois is helpful enough, protecting us fairly well against the early-game killer the snake, but it's far from necessary. Finally, rRot will protect us from rot (temporary removal of max HP), which is good, since rot is Very Bad for mummies (I'll explain later).

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

This is just the mutation screen for Crawl. Mutations are certain game-changing alterations to your character, and they can be good or bad. Some races begin with unremovable and unchangeable mutations, while others will have to gain them through a variety of methods, most notably the potion of mutation. Argem Bargem, however, cannot gain mutations, as an undead mummy he simply rots when he's mutated (and did I mention that rot is Very Bad for mummies?).

As for our actual mutations, I've already explained most of them (the resistance ones, that is). On this list, the big one is "You do not eat or drink", as it means that our character will never ever starve, which will help us in spamming high level spells before most characters are able to, or rest for insane periods of time. Unfortunately, we also cannot drink, which means that all potions are off limits to us (and potions are the best panic buttons around). It's also why rot is so bad for us, since it's usually cured by healing/heal wounds potions, so we will be saddled with it for extensive periods of time. On the bright side, we won't be horribly rotted by potions of mutation. "You are immune to unholy pain and torment" means that the Symbol of Torment spell won't affect us, which is excellent as said spell takes out half of your current HP, making it one of the most lethal ones in the game. "You do not need to breath" means simply that we won't likely drown in deep water.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Now for something completely unrelated. This is the skill screen, displaying our progress in certain skills. Whenever skills are used, XP funnels into them, and this feature causes a Crawl-ism known as victory dancing, or doing repetitive and somewhat inane actions after battle to get your XP into the right skills. Anyways, we only have the ones in light grey right now, dodging, stealth, spellcasting, and necromancy. It should be fairly obvious what they do, as dodging boosts evasion, stealth boosts stealth, spellcasting boosts success rates, spell levels for memorization and MP (ok, not so obvious), and necromancy boosts necromancy spells. I'll keep them all on for now (you toggle them by clicking them or typing in the appropriate letter). Also, do you notice the -2s next to seemingly everything? Those represent out aptitudes, or how long it will take to get a skill up. This is one reason (out of many) why mummies are very bad species, but whatever, we'll make do somehow.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These are the spellcasting and memorization screens. The spellcasting screen allows you to cast spells you've memorized (we began with Pain, a decent resistable early-game damage spell). Each spell has a chance to fail, based on a variety of factors, and the success rate is somewhat vaguely displayed on the screen. (Important tip: "Good" is not good. Try not to trust the screen too much.) To use spells, you have to memorize them, and doing so uses up spell levels. Each spell has a certain level, up to 9, and they get progressively harder to learn and cast but more powerful. You also need to be at least the same level as the spell to learn it, but that's not a recommendation to learn level 9 spells at level 9 (you will fail, and badly). In our memorization screen, we have five spells we can learn, however, four of them are greyed out because we don't have enough spell levels. We'll return soon enough, I promise. For now, we'll just leave it alone, since Animate Skeleton, the only learnable spell, is kind of bad, IMHO.

Anyways, that's enough screens for now. Coming up in a few minutes in the next part of the update, after a short break, actual gameplay! (I promise you won't have to sit through that again.)
« Last Edit: June 23, 2011, 01:45:47 pm by Un67 »
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Un67

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #8 on: June 23, 2011, 08:37:28 am »

I begin the actual gameplay by picking up those stones you saw and spamming Pain onto a wall, victory dancing with my beginning 25 exp (somewhat ironic, if anything). No screenshot because victory-dancing is boring.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The results... are not very impressive. Oh well, our skills will rise soon enough.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

We then open the door, and find our first enemy, a kobold! I try Paining him, but he resists and it turns out that he has a goblin roommate. This could be bad. Two more Pains and the kobold is down. (Pain usually can 1-shot them, so this is a bit bad. Also, memo to anyone who is going to play a necromancer, Pain usually deals a small amount of damage to yourself, which I neglected to mention. Fortunately, we have rN+++, so it's harmless.)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I chuck a stone at the goblin before beating him down with my super mummy kung fu (and getting lucky in the process, since I very easily could have been demolished). Note that throwing random junk at enemies to weaken them before they can get to you is a good idea for everyone, unless you can do better. I then retrieve my stone and take the kobold's short sword.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another door reveals a lava moat and a rat, neat. With one casting of Pain, the rat dies.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Exploring a bit more around the building reveals some stuff on the other side of the moat (which I can't take, because there's no access point), and an ooze. The ooze could be bad news (hey, that rhymes), since they are pretty tough tanks for the early game.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

OK, this is really bad. After unloading a few Pains on the ooze, and throwing stones while on a constant retreat to take advantage of it's low speed (this is known as kiting, use it!), I end up on the other side of the building, and find another ooze and a kobold. This is REALLY bad.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Out of MP and not wanting to fight two oozes at once, I decide to use my super mummy kung fu skills (I realized I forgot the wield the short sword, /facepalm) and take out the ooze in close range. I managed to lower it's health by a nice amount, before I finished it off with my super mummy stone chucking skills. I then took out the kobold with stones as well. Here you see the carnage. And then I rest and take out the second ooze with sticks Pain and stones.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Paining a kobold brings us up to level 2, neat! Still not much I can do right now, though, although I will start memorizing things at level 3.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

With more exploration, we find another ooze. I think you guys know the routine by now...

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Another victory for Pain and stones.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I then find a bat and kill it with Pain. Bats move quickly and are annoying to fight, but should never kill you unless you are already weakened. I think I'll stop showing killing generic monsters with Pain, since that's boring for obvious reasons.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also, I find a scroll. Scrolls can be very helpful (or harmful) and contain a variety of magical effects. Like most items in the game, their identity is randomized, in fine rougelike tradition. I'll read-identify this later, when I have more scrolls.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I then zip around the Dungeon and collect some gold and kill a bat with Pain, before I came to this hobgoblin. They are the big brothers of regular goblins, and can be quite deadly to early game characters, and especially fragile ones. Treat them with care.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Of course, by this point I'm much stronger then it is and easily take it out along with its goblin friend. In the process, my necromancy skill goes up to 5. Yay!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I then take a scroll, and find a downward staircase and what's called a vault. The staircase will simply bring us to the next level, which I will take when I finish exploring the level. The vault, on the other hand, is one of many predesigned features in the game that will randomly occur during level generation. This one's not too interesting, all it has is a scroll which I doubt I will ever pick up. Others, however, can be extremely challenging and rewarding, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

None of the rest of the level seemed to be very interesting. I just Pained some more dungeon trash to death, got some scrolls, exploding darts, and a pair of gloves, which was a decent D1 haul. Coming next update: the horrors of D2!

(Note: There might be some odd points in here where it seems like there should have been a picture but isn't, and I don't mean as in forgetting to take them. Something seems to be screwing up my image captures, and I'll try to make it better next update. I took out the no-picture spoilers out of the update.)
« Last Edit: June 23, 2011, 11:26:39 am by Un67 »
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FuzzyZergling

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #9 on: June 23, 2011, 10:57:34 am »

I'd like to submit a character: Kog Haltpast, Deep Dwarven Monk.
I love dwarven monks.
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Frumple

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #10 on: June 23, 2011, 11:06:12 am »

Throwing in for another mummy, this time a wizard intending to worship sif. Name him Jill. Alternately a Naga wizard of the same name, but aiming for Nemmy, if you prefer not to repeat species. Either/or :P

Also, if you're feeling like an amusing interlude, try for a spriggan death knight in Zot Defense. Has trouble getting off the ground, sometimes, but the disabled food clock + lots of undead is kinda' fun, heh. Call that one Jack, if it comes about.
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Burnt Pies

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #11 on: June 23, 2011, 01:40:41 pm »

If we don't drown in deep water as you said earlier, why aren't we grabbing that scroll?
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Un67

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #12 on: June 23, 2011, 01:43:58 pm »

Not being able to drowning =/= being able to walk through deep water. The game just doesn't allow it, most likely for balance reasons if anything.
« Last Edit: June 23, 2011, 01:48:26 pm by Un67 »
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breadbocks

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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #13 on: June 23, 2011, 01:56:57 pm »

I think it gives a bonus to scrambling out of deep water.
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Re: Let's Play... Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup!
« Reply #14 on: June 23, 2011, 01:58:36 pm »

Ah. ok.
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