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From: pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier)
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack,comp.sources.bugs
Subject: overcoming bordom
Message-ID: <1788@sigi.Colorado.EDU>
Date: Thu, 6-Aug-87 13:32:30 EDT
Article-I.D.: sigi.1788
Posted: Thu Aug  6 13:32:30 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 11:23:00 EDT
Sender: news@sigi.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: pell@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Anthony Pelletier)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 37
Summary: play "low-ball"
Xref: mnetor rec.games.hack:1070 comp.sources.bugs:157

we have been playing version 1.0.3.   Let's face it, escaping with the
Amulet is just not all that hard. I won one game yesterday and two the day
before.  A friend in the lab won twice yesterday.
Making your character invincible is not hard.  Once that is done, running
up a score in the many millions is shear tedium--255 of all gems, cursed and
un etc., none of the monsters are tough at that point.

So we have taken a slightly different approach.  Instead of trying to run up
points, our new goal is to get to hell, get the Amulet, and get out
with as few points as possible.  I took a wizard out last night with 25
hit points, strength 13, experience 4.  
The point total was 35,000 or so.  I thought that would
be the score to beat; but less than an hour later, tom got out after a trip
to hell for the Amulet with 15 hp experience level 1, total points: ~28,000.
It seems that a trip to hell and back is worth about 20K no matter what, so the
lower limit is around there.

A side benifit is that we spend (waste) less time playing.  My win yesterday
took less than an hour and tom's took less than 15 minutes.
And it is more fun when one is playing "on the edge."

Another way to relieve the tedium is to restrict yourself, 
as one person has already suggested, no genocide, no wishes.

There was also talk a while back of making the game harder after the first
few levels.  Is that being pursued?  One thing that might be good is if you
could not teleport back from hell and all the monsters were tougher on the way
back up.  

Happy hacking

tony

P.S.  once when I was really bored with an invincible character, I took off
all my clthes and ran around naked, killing and eating everything in site until
I choked on my food.  I guess I always wanted to do that.  I wonder what
the analysts in soc.(wo)men would have to say about such fantasy.