Announcing Conquest of the Wizardlands Expansion!

I really don't play NTTG because I love exploring and collecting things. That said, if it really does make the game so much more difficult to survive in, it kinda sounds like fun. =P

 

I am ready for this. Feel free to release it now.

 

NTTG has no real effect on the difficulty of the game. The loss of consumables is offset by the loss of monsters punching you in the face. It can disrupt non-Smithing crafters to some extent, unless they taKe one of the relevant craft boosting skills like CK, Rogue Scientists or Percpetion, but they hardly need all of them to keep up.

The biggest annoyance is the odds of a Brax-less floor goes up somewhat. Really, that's more because you can't sell your inventory and empty vending machines than because Brax has useful things to sell you.

 

There are a ton of less than optimal builds that can suffer because of the lack of equipment early on. No real effect is subjective for those of us who happen to be more experienced (perception is excellent to have on NTTG for the loot drops for instance.) Some builds can plough on regardless of equipment because their damage comes from skill-based things (Promethean + Blood Magic, Necroeconomics + Emomancy, etc.) On the other side of the spectrum, Vampire, Going Rogue, no healing skill, NTTG = DO NOT WANT. You will simply be unable to survive because, not only is Vampirism as is totally gimped, you can't eat anything (except for potions) and without alchemy/rogue scientist you're boned anyway. You'll also be short 1-2 experience levels at the very least per floor because though the gain is increased, it is still nowhere near how much you will need to progress.
A lack of monsters to punch you in the face is sort of offset by the fact that regardless of NTTG or no, ONE monster or ONE trap will be enough to send you back to the character screen given poor playing/bad luck. It's worse because you will, like it or not, end up with less equipment overall as well. And since we have random mini-bosses knocking around anyway, that's that much more likely.

TL;DR: Difficulty is subjective only for experienced players, and then again, the RNG can fail you if you put complete trust in whatever can show up. I'm also sure that while food and potions aren't much of a problem if you dig out every zorkmid you made and dump them into a vending machine, equipment isn't sold from a vending machine, except throwing weapons and bolts.

 

Note that I make these posts less in an attempt to change the minds of Warlock or others who dislike NTTG and more to mitigate the impression for new players that NTTG is bad. 'Cause it's not. What it is, is very different. Many gamers become very biased when the find a play style that suits them, and tend to believe anything different in automatically inferior. This is very evident in Magic: The Gathering players, who tend to become slavishly devoted to a particular color and sneer at the other four when they come up.

Warlock is correct - the differences between NTTG and Full Size Floors (hence forth FSF) are not subjective. What I'm saying is that the differences balance eachother out to create balanced play for all archetypes. FSF creates more gear for you to choose from, but even on NTTG you'll get the basic, level equivelent gear on every floor.

By the end of a NTTG game, you'll probably have had an opportunity to use one of every piece of equipment that can be found or bought, although you may not have found reduntant copies, which reduces your Kronging potential (to be fair, there's not as much Kronging potential to be had.) FSF floors let you do that. Is that a change in power level?

Well, if you're a dual wielder, yeah. But FSF creates much larger floors, meaning you spend more time fighting and get hurt more. FSF has more named monsters in them, one of the banes of melee players. NTTG rarely spawns one of them before DL4 outside of Monster Zoos. A slight fall off in gear vs a slight fall of in two hit kill encounters sounds like a decent trade to me.

NTTG vs FSF is full of these kinds of tradeoffs and I could probably fill three or four posts just talking about them. (Double EXP from Artifacts or more traps to disarm and sell for gold?) But that's not really what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is, if you've newish and trying to decide which is "best", play a lot of runs on both modes and find the one that you have the most fun with. I remain of the opinion that any difference in difficulty is negligible, and if one mode or the other appears more difficult it's because you are, in fact, just having less fun.

 

You make some excellent points in defense of NTTG, and I agree with almost everything you've said. Problem is, newer players can find it difficult to play on NTTG without knowing the ropes. Some mistakes and pieces of bad luck which are somewhat easily forgiven on FSF are less easily remediable on NTTG. Corruption of equipment for instance, via trap, enemy, or anvil.

Just so that you should know: I'm a completionist. I like spending time on big dungeon floors and rooting it out to the very end. It really is a matter of preference - but in some ways NTTG can be harder than FSF especially for newer players. Ingest Acid? yes please! Suffer Krong Curse? there goes my weapon or armor! Enemy corruption? why do we even need to ask?

It's just a preferential matter for me, I just like getting as much playtime as possible out of every floor and every attempt.

 

Just to note, smaller floors means less corruption overall...

 

What the heck do all of these acronyms even mean?

 

http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/for-the-convenience-of-the-new.2510/ this should help.

For the purpose of our ongoing discussion: FSF = full size floor(s), and NTTG = no time to grind mode.

 

And that post really needs to be updated. I look forward to adding "CoW" to the lexicon.

 

I was introduced to the game on NTTG, and it was actually quite an excellent tutorial. You can quickly get a feel for what your character can do, and see more immediate returns on your build. Not that it's a superior mode of play or anything, but it definitely has its place.

 

I admit ignorance: what's NTTG?

 

NTTG No-Time-To-Grind.
http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/for-the-convenience-of-the-new.2510/

 

Woot! More money for Gaslight Games! Less money for me!

 

IWWTSLPTWWIONIEMLANIDANC:

I wonder what that strange looking pink thing with wings is OH NO IT'S EATEN MY LIVER AND NOW IT'S DRINKING A NICE CHIANTI...

 

*puts in TODO.txt: "ADD FAVA BEANS"*

 

Directed to the Beta Testers: What's the good word on item variety as included in the alpha test of the new expansion?

 

Have you guys discovered any neat builds while testing? enlighten us?

 

I don't want to imagine what kind of crust is on that armor you found lying on the floor...

 

In homage to the new expansion as well as Troll Science, here's a little something:

Too little loot remaining to put in your retirement fund after beating Lord Dredmor? Troll Science has the solution!
1. Run build of Fungal Arts, Piracy, Perception, Clockwork Knight, Tinkering, Burglary, and Rogue Scientist.
2. Acquire lost wizard keys.
3. Travel to dungeon level 14.
4. If you survive, move to step 5.
5. Use portal to travel to Wizardlands.
6. Infinite Loot!
u mad lowbies?