So Archaeology is useless now?

Supposedly, Anvils are only bad 2/7ths of the time, and good the other 5/7ths. That's what someone who had been perusing the code was claiming, at least. So that's about a 28% chance of getting your item cursed. Not too terrible of a chance, but high enough that it'll happen from time to time.

 

Assuming positive and negative holds the same weight, then your "expected" payoff is 3/7 of a positive stat per anvil (5/7 - 2/7), or in the case on 20 anvil, roughly 8.6 more positive than negative.

The next question will be rather or not 8.6 stats are worth the potential of something really bad (like -vision, -necro resist for a necro build, -fire resist for a fireball build, -mana regen to push you off from cap, -block for an unarmed). All of which can render the item unusable because the last point matters a lot in all those builds.

Personally for me this means I just stack everything into amulet/crossbow. If it turn out good I use it, if not then I don't use it.

 

This is why most builds say "take Archaeology", because you can turn your nose up at Krong's curses and eventually turn them into gains, usually within 2-3 rerolls. Just walk around like normal and reroll when the cooldown expires, it's much less irritating than mashing spacebar 250 times.

Of course, this will most likely change in the next patch, but for now, not taking Archaeology is not something I would recommend. It's just too good right now with no real downsides.

 

I have NEVER gotten more than one bonus added through an Anvil.
Once something's been given a name, if I put it on an Anvil, it gets cursed. EVERY time I've tried.

Basically, the Archaeology tree will let me reset the item once it's been ruined by trying to enchant it a second time. That's about it.

If you need the extra XP, you're clearly not clearing out the levels properly.

 

Whatever. If want to ignore one of the best Skills in the game right now, that's your business.

 

"Once something's been given a name, if I put it on an Anvil, it gets cursed. EVERY time I've tried."

Well, either you've been having some incredibly bad luck, you haven't tried it very often, or someone's modified your game to screw you over. I can assure you (as the one who perused the code that Marak mentioned) that it is not only possible, but likely to get more than 1 positive enchantment on an item.

 

"Assuming positive and negative holds the same weight, then your "expected" payoff is 3/7 of a positive stat per anvil (5/7 - 2/7), or in the case on 20 anvil, roughly 8.6 more positive than negative."

Leaving aside the bugs in TTIAW, you get 1-2 positive enchantments and 2-4 negative enchantments respectively per anvil usage. Well, there's another bug or two, and special cases, but as a general rule, that's the case.

 

@Lord Blade Ultimately it sounds like you are not trying to enchant your item on Krongs often enough for the law of averages to even you out. Either that or you are selectively only remembering the curses.

 

@Lord Blade I have the strangest sensation you're pulling our legs.
Because, yeah, XP bonus is amazing, Rerolling artifacts is amazing, the entire skill tree is amazing.
IF you don't think so, you either don't use it at all, or you're doing it wrong.

@DerpTyrant A good rule to remember is that not everyone plays the game the same way. I play games to relax, and have fun, you apparently play games to enjoy challenges, and run through gauntlets. Perhaps you should go play Contra on Hard. With one eye open only, and one handed.

I've played Angband, ADOM, Nethack, and Slash'EM for 14 years. I think I deserve a break from their difficulty after all this time.
I've even played a bit of Omega. Which makes every other Rogue-like look easy in comparison.
It was only beaten once. Maybe twice. And the creator made it harder after that.

 

*@Lord Blade Ultimately it sounds like you are not trying to enchant your item on Krongs often enough for the law of averages to even you out. Either that or you are selectively only remembering the curses. *

Except that I've used EVERY anvil I've come across.

 

I've actually had the same experience as Lord Blade. If I put a named item on an anvil, it's gotten cursed every time. I did it about 4 or 5 times and just gave up after that. Maybe I just got RNG screwed, but it's spooked me enough that I just dont bother now.

 

Also, is it just me or are negative stats worst than positive? When I get positive I tend to get like 1 point buff or something, but every 1 negative seems to affect multiple things.

 

If you have issues with krong cursing your stuff simply save and continue before using it. Then if he curses your item, ctrl + alt + del and end the dungeons of dredmor task. Reload game and use again. This way you can just keep doing that until you get a positive enchantment. Of course it is cheating a tiny bit but considering you could just reroll the items that get cursed not terribly so.

 

@Lord Blade & @Despayre Then perhaps you should re-verify the files of your game, or delete the game and re-install it? You are not currently playing the same version of the game everyone else is.