The Basics of Spelunking - part 3c

[WarHamster]

From Ye Olde Guide to Adventuring and Spelunking:

 

"Remember, oh Adventurer, that a rat is not always a rat. Take heed or be sorry."

 

Heh, awhile ago, with my still wet-behind-the-ears party of adventurers, I braved the dangers of the, rather cryptically titled, Bat Cave in A1. After having slaughtered the titular bats, I faced the good ol' cave rats. Ah, I thought, giant rats, now they are the quintessential foes of newbie characters. Onwards! Swiftly I dealt with them, with but a few scratches to my party members. Lo and behold, I spotted another batch of these nasty rodents and charged them. Even if my spellcasters were low on Mana, I thought, hah, I don't need magic, I have my fearsome combat prowess and besides they are just rats...

 

(Insert: A scene from Monthy Python and the Holy Grail - the attack of the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog)

 

OK, so after hacking these "just rats" for quite some time, watching my characters' HPs drop precariously low, I started wondering what was wrong. These little buggers would just not die! With no MP, my mage even resorted to blasting them with his precious Wand of Bolts (doing very respectable (for this level) amounts of damage with each hit) and still those long-toothed fiends refused to die. Finally, after running away (which greatly reminded me of the above mentioned Python scene) and getting healed and rested before returning, I was able to send the last of those damn critters to their maker.

 

Those rats were the mung rats. And they are, as you veterans know, like cave rats on steroids (and amphetamines and whathaveyou). From now on, I will check what/who the target actually is and not just look at their game icon. It's nasty to have the cave rats and mung rats have the same icon, when they are so vastly different foes. It would have been nice to have, e.g. a differently colored icon for the mung rats (nothing fancy, just recolor the cave rat icon).

 

So there. Let this serve as a warning to other Avernum newbies. Check your targets!

[Callie]

This is why Avernum should have a scry monster spell and a bestiary like its predecessor.

 

I actually remember those rats. All four of my characters pit themselves with their dinky weapons, and I barely made it out alive.

[Randomizer]

The Exile version was worse because after fighting my way into the hidden altar and looting the place, I thought I'll just rest up before heading out. Coming out of the secret door was wall to wall rats waiting for me. There went all the replenished energy to clear the horde.

 

Avernum is hack and retreat. You never want to get low on health and mana. Even if you survive the monsters, there is always a chance of a random encounter on the way back to town.

[WarHamster]

Quote:

Originally written by Randomizer:
Even if you survive the monsters, there is always a chance of a random encounter on the way back to town.

Indeed. And it seems that these random encounters usually happen at the worst possible of times - like when you've forgotten to save since the last big fight in the dungeon you just cleared (happened to me).

[Maledictis]

I save compulsively. Seriously. Generally, when I play, my right hand is on the numpad, and my left is on Ctrl+S. SAVEHOAR.

[Callie]

The problem with compulsive saving occurs when you absentmindedly do something stupid.

[The Mystic]

Like entering one of the trapped rooms in Erika's tower in E3/A3, and saving the game before you realize you're trapped.

 

Then again, compulsive saving can be a good thing; there have been many times when I've forgotten to save, and had to redo as much as an hour or two of progress.

[Randomizer]

That's why you need multiple saves, which I didn't do until two years ago. One save before a dungeon area and a few inside to keep from losing too much time.

[Callie]

Having certain points in a town that automatically save the game would be a nice feature, unless you're in Blosk or whatnot.

[Celtic Minstrel]

Doesn't a simple "look" command tell you what a monster is? If you had "look"ed at them you would have known they were mung rats.

[Callie]

Yes, but it doesn't reveal the creature's statistics to a first-time player.

[WarHamster]

Quote:

Originally written by Celtic Minstrel:
If you had "look"ed at them you would have known they were mung rats.

Yeah, but in-game those critters look exactly like normal cave rats, that I had been fighting 30 seconds ago in the adjacent room (or so). So, IMO, I have a good reason to expect them to be those same, your normal garden variety, giant cave rats. I'm not complaining that they were mung rats, mind you, just a bit annoyed that they have the same game icon with the cave rats. Two creatures with such a great difference in combat abilities should have some visual difference, IMHO. (And as I said above, a simple recoloring would have sufficed, e.g. cave rats are grey, mung rats are black.)

I will "Look" at my foes from now on, for sure, to be spared of nasty surprises. However, as Excalibur said above, even if I had "look"ed at those mung rats, I would not have had any idea what to expect (other than them being different) beforehand. I've never heard of mung rats before. Giant (cave) rats are a fantasy staple and I can sort of know what to expect from them, but mung rats... no idea. Never did I expect them to be such nasty beasts! Oh well, live and learn, eh? Still, a bestiary would have been swell.

P.S. A1 seems to have more, eh, interesting surprises in store with regards to animal stats. Those vipers (IIRC) have a nasty bite!! The two snakes in the nephil cave (that the goblins are building) were the nastiest opponents in the whole cave! That seems a bit strange. I'd have thought goblins and nephil could have posed a bigger threat, but maybe that's just me.

[Callie]

Just wait until you encounter mung demons.

[Eamon]

Another warning for newbies, or non observant experienced players like me. In Avernum 3 one should not assume it is a good place to leave your horses at the front door if the name of the place is "The FADING Tower." I made it through but the disappearing tower took my horses along for the ride of their lives. I can buy new horses, but I didn't care for my temporary reduced traveling speed.