For the Convenience of The New

Welcome do the Dungeons of Dredmor Forums. Like most places, there's kind of a learning curve to this place, and it can be a little intimidating. Now, most of you are here because you like playing roguelikes, and if you'd like to just wing it until you get the hang of things we understand and respect that! But some of you might like a little help getting up to speed. This thread might help you a little.

For starters, lets look at some very Common Abbreviations used around these forums that may or may not make any sense to you when you first see them.

DoD - Dungeons of Dredmor (y'know, the game we're talking about playing)

RotDG - Realm of the Diggle Gods, DoD's first expansion

YHTNTEP - While occasionally mistaken for a reference to the works of H.P. Lovecraft, this is actually the abbreviation for You Have To Name The Expansion Pack, DoD's second expansion and first expansion containing nothing but fan created content.

CotW - Conquest Of the Wizardlands, DoD's third expansion pack.

NTTG - No Time To Grind, the setting that makes the game go faster

FSF - Full Scale Floors, the default mode of the game and the opposite of NTTG

DM - Dwarvish Moderation, the "Normal" difficulty in DoD

GR - Going Rogue, the "Hard" difficulty in DoD

PD - Permadeath, usually attached after the difficulty involved (i.e. GRPD is Going Rogue with Permadeath)

EDR - Enemy Dodge Reduction or

AA - Armor Absorption or

RNG - Random Number Generator

DL - Dungeon Level, as in, what floor of the Dungeon you are on

CL - Character Level, as in, how many skill points you have (used rarely)

Proc - Procedure, used to describe when an effect with % chance, such as a critical hit, or the Berserk Rage buffs.

WIP - Work In Progress, usually refers to a mod who's creator either wants feedback, plans to make extensive changes, or both.

ID - Interior Dredmorating by r_b_bergstrum, one of the most popular mods around the forums, and one that does nothing but add rooms.

RR - A mod megapack from lccorp that adds skills, items and rooms.


Next: Phrases with Unique Meanings...
...and what they mean! Some words or phrases you may see that seem meaningless are explained here! Other words or phrases have unique context around here. When necessary, links will be provided to illustrate, but keep in mind that Thread Necromancy is bad.

Counter Crit-Crit
Refers to the capriciousness of the RNG, which will often cause an attack on a monster to get countered with a critical hit, then roll the monster's follow-up as a critical hit as well. Note that the RNG can also favor the player like this as well. Rebalancing has made this much, much less common, but it is still held up as an example of sever RNG misbehavior.

Essential
When capitalized, generally refers to any piece of modding tech created by master codesmith Essence.

FaxHat
Known by a number of other names (Fax's Fedora, That Crazy Hat, Maslech, the Eater of Beatings). For detalis, go here: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/the-best-and-worst-krong-enchants.1882/ Scroll down a bit to read all about it but be warned: this thread is long.

FaxPax
A mod created by Fax Celestis that contains vast quantities of items, skills and rooms.

Dennis Conner, Adventures of
Read all about it here: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/the-adventures-of-dennis-connor.2391/

Dredmorpedia
Useful reference source complied by J-Factor that includes core game, expansion and mod equipment, monsters, spells and recipes. Not all mods included. Thread can be found here: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/dredmorpedia.1459/

Wi§p
Don't worry, he likes you.

Hall of Badasses
A list of people Essence has called out in his sig as totally badass. Why? I'll let him explain it. Look here: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/essences-hall-of-badasses.2589/#post-24664

Fisk/Skoll
The act of putting something into the Horadric Lutefisk Cube to make Lutefisk out of it.

Gish
Any variant of the spellsword archetype, i.e. any class that specializes in both melee combat and magic.

Bugs That Are Actually Features
There are a lot of weird things about DoD that may not completely add up when you first see them. Before taking a spin to the Bugs forum, here are some "issues" that are already well known and probably not ever meant to go away.

Double Zoos
Sometimes there are two monster zoos one a floor. It does happen. You can see into both of them if they're close enough, it's a weird part of how the code for them works. You can even cast spells into them without line of sight You only get a reward once you clear both. Sorry 'bout that.

Can't Get There!
Yes, sometimes items spawn across solid bodies of water or even on little islands and you can't easily get to them. These juicy little bits of bonus content are only for the nimble of mind, who discover ways to get to them.

OMG the wall just blowz up!
Sometimes walls fall down when you hit them hard enough. Consider this incentive to throw your bombs at the walls all the time, to find the hidden stuff.

Can't Fix Krong!
No. No, you can't. Flames of the Heckforge will not fix Krong's debuffs on your equipment, so you'll just have to deal. We can't all be Fax.

Features That Are Actually Bugs
DoD can be buggy sometimes. Here are a few things that are out of whack that the devs will probably get around to fixing soon. You probably shouldn't count on them lasting too much longer.

Multiple Level-ups
Sometimes you can get multiple level-ups because of weird XP stacking things. This happens a lot in Monster Zoos when you massacre 5 or 6 mobs at a time with AOE spells. It's well known, so you don't need to report it, but no word on when/if it will be fixed.

Chest of Evil

Steam
Fortunately this can be worked around. Go to "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dungeons of dredmor" and look for the .exe file to run your game hassle free!

Full Bug List
Known, confirmed bugs are kept in a convenient list that you can find here: http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/the-current-bugs-thread.4118/

Features That Are Truly Obscure

It Belongs In A Museum!
How does it work? Well, space is limited but there was a whole thread about it here:http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/archeology-question.3808/#post-42807
And that's about all I can think of for now! Take care around the forums, don't try and burn anything down and don't bait the devs.

Unless you're Essence and/or haikus are involved. Haiku makes everything OK.

 

Deserves to be stickied by the god of stickies !

 

How are chests of evil bugged? And the critical ignoring defense isnt a bug. It is designed that way(whether that will be balanced is another story) so I would say it is unbalanced but it is not a bug as it is the current intended behavior.

 

Ad the Steam bug, Steam itself. Might want to ad that DoD can be played without Steam.
Also, you may want to add some description to the FaxHat and Dennis Connor links. I didn't know they were stories until I clicked the links.

Great thread and very thoughtful.

 

I just lol'd so hard I got +1 all over the floor.

 

What am I now? The GaslampGame's Forum's new meme?
lul - I like everything that I support, anything that is funny/ particularly creative, or otherwise epic!
(looking at you Essence, since every other post you make seems to get liked ^^)

 

Well it will be nice for melee builds if crits from enemies are supposed to be reduced as well.

 

A few that you missed:

Proc - short for "procedure" -- used to describe when an effect with % chance, such as a critical hit, goes off in the Random Number Generator.

Feature, not bug: Destructable dungeon walls -- There are hidden treasures and rooms in DoD, often containing treasure.

 

At the time I wrote this, "He likes you" was the best way to describe Wi§p's role in the forum. Fortunately, he himself describes it much better.

Wi§p tells us what is good. Do you want to contribute to the forums in constructive and meaningful ways? Pay attention to what Wi§p likes. That will give you a good idea of what qualifies.

 

OT: There needs to be a Wisp in the game that says it likes you.

 

Now I'm the unfoficial critic for the forums? ^^

I wouldn't mind this (as long as it isn't a Will o' Wisp based on me), but I don't support it either, it would be a bit awkward to like myself..

 

" I like you so much"

 

Seems like the right place to ask, what the lutefisk do you all mean when you call something a "gish" skill ? This is the only place I've seen that term used.

 

Gish means spellsword, basically. Its a carryover term from DnD character design forums - think it's part of githzerai lore or something.

 

Exactly that. A melee-based mage, or a spell-slinging warrior, depending on the way you want to look at it.

 

Wow. I could have sworn I had added that to the list at some time. Problem = corrected.

 

Probably my favorite type of character build in DoD, followed closely bit smithing tanks.

 

This should be update to include YHTNTE - You Have To Name The Expansion

 

Also sometimes referred to as NTXP.