Looks like I should stop saving anvils up and spread out the disappointment more evenly. The sadness seems to scale evenly with hoped for gains. Enjoying the new enemies etc.
I was fairly certain that pre-DLC an item's first Kronging was always a blessing, but now I think I've gotten some curses even on the first try. It's a bit scary. I don't even want to use them anymore. I've gotten some stiff penalties.
every time you get a blessing, it's 1-2 bonuses. every time you get a curse, it's like 5 negatives... It makes that "removes all negative effects from an item" ability at the end of the demonology tree really appealing.
Where do I sign? I just wiped. First 3 Kongs all gave negatives. 4th try gave a positive on an item that got negative first one or two. Make a full serpentine steel plate and get a back to back Kong-Fu. Alas. Didn't chop my hands off so I can roll again...
Howsabout Archaeology instead? I seem to recall reading that the total positive + negative enchantments are added together to form a large pool from which the resultant enchantments were pulled from, meaning this could potentially be better than just removing the negatives.
Ooooh. Mayhaps I'll be able to skirt Krong's disfavor as I took Archaeology for the first time. Inadvertently perhaps a slight counter to this threads initial frustrations.
Not sure about "a lot less useful," since corruption is a nuisance, even if it's usually avoidable. But a spell that moves a Krong curse from one item you've got to another you have at random might be fun. That prevents the will of Krong from being circumvented by mere mortals. And if you choose to drop all your items on the ground before using a movable curse spell, the curse could simply be coded to hit a random inventory-based wearable/wieldable object later on, in a random number of turns--say, 10-300. How would you like your favorite sword to acquire a curse in the middle of a corridor while dealing with a long line of zoo monsters? You'd accept the movable curse instead, and like it.
Pretty easy to pick up a random crap item and have it get the curse on it, so yeah, the will of Krong could quite easily be circumvented.
Is this a response to my suggestion? Because if so, you would have to drop all the items on your paper doll to make sure they don't get the curse, plus any other ones you like you were carrying along. Would be easy enough to create a check to see how many objects were on the paper doll, and if it didn't meet a certain number, the spell could fizzle. Or backfire, and curse your character. Or destroy an X number of items chosen randomly from your inventory. Lots of fun possible, there.
Think he means, have the one cursed item, then a bunch of crap equipped in all the other slots while your actual gear is in your bag/on the ground.
Yeah, I pretty much responded to that thought. Thing is, you can only munchkin-proof a game so far, before you find you're spending all your time ignoring ideas because people ingeniously create ways to work them around to unfair advantage. For example, you can copy your saved games over to another directory before approaching the lutefisk shrine for a reward, and if you fail to get something your character can use, do it again. You don't do this, and I don't do this, but at least a few people do--so should they toss out the lutefisk shrine, or Inconsequentia, because these can be screwed around with? What I'm suggesting, a spell that transfers a curse, probably will never be used. But if it's thrown out, I guess I'm saying it should be on its own (de-) merits rather than because players can misuse it.
To be fair, this is why I don't play with Permadeath on. I can reload the save game if I get cursed by Krong. It's balanced, when you realize you have to spend about 24 anvils on one item to really make it more powerful than the artifacts you can find. I've never got anything amazing from Krong except for the 2 AA on a pair of Rocket boots. I ended up trading them out I think for some really good boots.
2 rerolls later (after teleport glitched one that I didn't bother fixing as waiting for patch) things are going well. Krong has been nice 3/4 I've bothered using. I want to at least kill Dredmor for the first time. My tendency for attempting to regain mana irl while I play may no doubt hamper my odds. This game is really great, I play it more often and longer than triple A titles. I didn't even bother finishing Batman ACity post Strange. Big budget companies barring a couple like CD Project etc are actually participating in the furthering of their "trade". Tangent off...