very hard game

There are also sparkling potions in this game. Inhaling their vapors tastes great and eases many a troubled mind.

Welcome to Let's Play Slash'EM Extended! My name is Amy, first poster here, and I chose the nickname "bluescreenofdeath" because that's what my PC is giving me for using it too much. What I want to do here is show off a fork of the classic roguelike NetHack, which is known to be a. The Slash'EM Extended fork is itself based on a fork called SLASH'EM (note the different capitalization); SLASH'EM adds a ton of stuff to vanilla NetHack, and Slash'EM Extended adds even more stuff while also trying to correct some game balance issues and fixing bugs.NetHack has been developed by the mysterious entity known as the "Dev Team", but the last official version came out 2013, which means it's not very likely to be updated again (but who knows for sure?). The latest SLASH'EM version is 0.0.7E7F3, being developed by another Dev Team, but it seems they have stopped development too, and since SLASH'EM always used to be my favorite NetHack variant, I contacted them to get permission for building my own variant based on SLASH'EM. They did, and Slash'EM Extended was born. Since then, I'm the one-man (or rather, one-woman) Dev Team of Slash'EM Extended, and still actively developing this variant.I'd also like to express my thanks to fellow RPGNet user KoboldLord , who amazed me with his great Let's Play of Sporkhack , which is another NetHack variant that inspired quite some of the changes in Slash'EM Extended. In fact, I've read the entirety of KoboldLord's Let's Play thread (all 93 pages of it) and thorougly enjoyed it; he even ascended several roles, including one in SLASH'EM (yay!), but the character writeup I liked the most was actually Mouse the Rogue, fighting unbelievable hordes of monsters on his ascension run. Thanks a lot for your Let's Play and insights on playing NetHack, KoboldLord - reading about your adventures has helped to make me a better player, too!Of course I'm in no way a NetHack expert, since I didn't ever beat the game (yet). The farthest I've ever managed to go was to some random level in the Gehennom, which means I didn't ever reach the Amulet of Yendor; getting it is about the halfway point in the game, and afterwards, the player needs to make their way back up passing all the previously visited dungeon levels as well as beat a series of extra hard levels, eventually reaching the Astral Plane (final level of the game) and playing the lottery trying to find the one altar on that level that allows the player to win the game. So this means I will probably die a lot in this Let's Play (NetHack is a game where death is permanent and erases the player's savegame file), but it should be fun nonetheless.At first I will retell a few of my past Slash'EM Extended characters' tales. There won't be lots of screenshots (but a few of them will appear in most updates), and I certainly don't have KoboldLord's skill at explaining the game to new players, so this Let's Play thread is meant mainly for players who already have some NetHack experience. People who don't know anything about the game may want to check out KoboldLord's thread though; he describes the adventures of his first characters in a very newbie-friendly way, explaining lots of the game's basics.By the way, NetHack and its forks are free software. There is a wiki at http://nethackwiki.com that also has download links for NetHack and many variants, so if anyone would like to play, they are free to do so. For reference sake, Slash'EM Extended can be downloaded here. And of course, this thread may be used for any NetHack Let's Play with screenshots; seeing a Slash'EM Extended Let's Play by someone else would amaze me like you can't believe!I'd also be able to aid players by giving hints (spoiler-free if that's wanted) because the NetHack wiki doesn't list every single detail that Slash'EM Extended changed. There is, however, a big Slash'EM Extended feature/changelog page at NetHackWiki that also has some screenshot examples.My first character in this Let's Play is a lawful male doppelganger Flame Mage. It's a battlemage class that's relatively easy to play, being good at melee and even better at spellcasting. Sorry for the lack of screenshots; later characters will be different.There will be audience participation in this Let's Play thread! You may suggest any role/race/alignment/gender combo for me, which I will then play after my pre-recorded characters are done (and there aren't many pre-recorded ones, so we'll get to the good stuff real soon). You can scroll down past the tales of my Flame Mage for a list of possible choices for my first "real" character.------- losgehts, the lawful male doppelganger Flame Mage, log from February 19th, 2014 -------Well, this run wasn't going great. Low strength made it hard to kill anything with that quarterstaff, low mana regeneration prevented me from spamming flame sphere/force bolt. Found a silver mace and used that for a while, then bumped into something in Minetown while blind. Despite using the "move, don't attack" command, it got angry at me. Tried to run back to the stairs when something was blocking the passage; turned out to be a monkey that had stolen a lizard corpse and an egg. After nuking that annoying monkey I managed to reach the stairs without the annoying enemy (it probably was a watchman) catching up to me.Tried to get to Sokoban instead. Got hit by some annoying hallucination (can't remember what that was, but maybe I accidentally ate some corpse that causes hallucination) on the Oracle level, killed some hallucinogen-distorted whatevers and ate their corpses. "Ulch - that meat was tainted! You feel deathly sick." Tried to pray to Earth. He didn't help me. Tried to polymorph into something that was sickness resistant (gnome zombie). Still not healed. Polymorph again. Back to doppelganger form, but still sick. Polymorph into "doppelganger". Finally got rid of that sickness, whew! That was way too close for comfort. By the way, I was low on health too, so a system shock would have killed me as well.Okay, found the stairs down... only to find out the level was a maze. Argh. It might take forever to find the Sokoban stairs there. And I didn't find it quickly. Somewhere in there I made the mistake of praying again, causing Earth to make me relearn my lessons and taking a ton and a half of experience points in the process. Damn it. Got down some more dungeon levels and found a shop with over a dozen of spellbooks, and I had a scroll of earth but didn't remember which one it was thanks to a goddamn mind flayer sucking 3 points of intelligence off of me. Anyway, kicked all the spellbooks away from the entrance, then randomly read a scroll (I think it was ELBIB YLOH or something now).It actually was the earth scroll! Now that the shopkeeper was buried in a shower of boulders, I grabbed and read all the spellbooks while shooing away some large mimics using Elbereth. Thanks to poison damage I was down to 4 STR (and no unicorn horn; the only unicorn that had appeared was a co-aligned one somewhere in the mines) so I didn't stand a chance even with my +4 silver mace. But I got the slow monster, cure sickness, healing and extra healing spells as well as some others. Now I just needed to dig out using my pick-axe and everything would be fine, right?Wrong. I didn't expect the damn shopkeeper to be able to jump out of the boulders! BAM, everything that I wasn't wearing was gone, and the shopkeeper dropped down the hole with me, happily blasting me with my own wand of fire now. And while I was resistant to fire thanks to being a Flame Mage, that didn't stop him from vaporizing my oilskin cloak, damn it! I tried to cast a fireball in his face but ended up damaging my plasteel armor, and since I was out of mana now, I made a run for it. A pile of killer coins appeared, thankfully blocking the shopkeeper from closing in on me as I ran through a corridor, and when I found the down stairs, I used it.However, now I was on another maze level with almost no equipment, and there were chillbugs and elven rogues. Thankfully they stole my ring of shock resistance and not the one of regeneration, but the chillbugs were doing more damage than what my healing spell could bring back, so even with the power surge technique I didn't stand a chance. Well, actually I nuked two chillbugs with my fireballs and seriously injured the remaining elf, but my armor was thoroughly burned now. One more hit and it would be vaporized. I tried a dust-Elbereth but the narrow layout of the maze (and probably more monsters lurking behind the visible ones) meant the chillbug continued to wail on me, and as I said already, my healing spell could not save me. The chest with all of my important scrolls and potions was gone too, that shopkeeper bastard had it in his inventory now. When I was down to single-digit HP, all I could do was to whack away at the chillbug in the vain hope of killing it, or rather, hopelessly cast that weak force bolt spell at it that kept missing anyway.R.I.P. It turned out there had been another chillbug behind that one too, as the "creatures vanquished" screen showed I had killed 2 chillbugs but 4 had been created, and I know they are generated in packs. I could have tried Elbereth but one of the annoying elfs was close by, too, so he would have killed me instead. Argh. Well, that game was borked anyway, maybe I'll have better luck next time.-------It's time for the readers of this thread to suggest a role/race/alignment/gender combo for me, which I will be playing in this thread. I'll give a short description of the available choices, and use a tier system to show the ones I'm most comfortable with. High tier means I'm confident to reach deeper dungeon levels with that choice; low tier means I'll probably die quickly.Slash'EM Extended also removes all restrictions on possible combinations. Everything is possible, including female valkyries and lawful convicts. Oh, and while we're at it: please suggest a name for our hero(ine), too! Preferably one that sounds heroic; for example, an elven character may be named after an elven hero from Lord of the Rings, or a Pokemon character may be named Tyranitar. The only restriction is that the character name shouldn't match the quest leader, nemesis or deities of my chosen role, meaning a tourist named Twoflower isn't possible, but a tourist named Rincewind or a wizard named Twoflower is.Archeologist - Adept at using tools, but his weapon choices are sub-par. Low tier.Barbarian - Melee-based role that's good at using heavy, two-handed weapons. Also starts with poison resistance. High tier.Caveman/Cavewoman - Fights with prehistoric weapons that don't do a lot of damage. Terrible at spellcasting. Low-mid tier.Convict - Melee role that starts with a very damaging but highly inaccurate weapon. Mid tier.Death Eater - Spellcaster with powerful but expensive starting spells. Starts with an amulet of life saving (basically an extra life), but is a slow role (low movement speed). Mid tier.Electric Mage - Battlemage with a specialization in lightning spells. Mid-high tier.Flame Mage - Battlemage with a specialization in fire spells. Mid-high tier.Gangster - Ranged combat class that uses automatic firearms and can create extra bullets out of thin air. Mid tier.Geek - Don't really know much about this role; probably a melee-oriented class. Also a slow role. Low tier.Healer - Has plenty of ways to heal himself and others, but is terrible at fighting and doesn't start with offensive spells. Low tier.Ice Mage - Battlemage with a specialization in cold spells. Mid tier.Jedi - Uses lightsabers that require power, which runs out all the damn time, and without their charged lightsaber, they're helpless. Low tier.Knight - Starts out as a melee class but can become a powerful spellcaster too. Can ride horses, but has to follow an annoying code of conduct. Mid-high tier.Monk - Unarmed fighting class that's harder to play than it looks like. Lots of special kung-fu moves but they take a long time to recharge. Gets penalized for eating meat. Low-mid tier.Necromancer - "Dark" mage that I can't really seem to get the hang of. Low-mid tier.Nobleman/Noblewoman - Please don't make me play one of these. They don't seem to excel at anything and are very likely to die early. Low tier.Pirate - Seems to be a melee/ranged fighter that can only use one-handed weapons and doesn't have much else going for him. Low-mid tier.Pokemon - Unable to use weapons, but good at spellcasting and acquiring new pets. Mid tier.Rogue - Can backstab fleeing enemies, good at using daggers in melee and for throwing. Has an obnoxiously hard quest to beat, though. Mid tier.Ranger - Totally not a Lord of the Rings elf. Best archer class in the game. Mid-high tier.Samurai - Melee fighter that has to follow a code of conduct even worse than the knight's. Mid tier.Tourist - Can become proficient at using just about any weapon, but has a relatively hard early game. Mid tier.Transvestite - Fast melee fighter that is very good at acquiring powerful pets. Mid-high tier.Undead Slayer - Supposed to be a melee fighter, but doesn't seem to be good at it. His ranged combat and spellcasting abilities suck even more. Slow role to boot. Low tier.Valkyrie - Melee class with cold resistance. Terrible at spellcasting though. Low-mid tier.Wizard - Caster class with access to lots of powerful spells, but bad at weapon combat. Low-mid tier.Warrior - Melee/ranged combat class that can ride horses. Bad at spellcasting. Mid tier.Yeoman - Slow role, but if riding a horse they can be quite strong. Low-mid tier.Chevalier - A cleric, being good both at melee and casting healing spells. Also starts out with a goddamn awesome dragon pet. Mid-high tier.Courier - Unplayably hard role that is slow, hungers rapidly, and doesn't get any useful abilites. Low tier.Priest(ess) - Bad at fighting due to the restrictions placed on most edged weapons; relatively good at spellcasting. Low tier.Alien - All they ever get is loads of penalties. Low tier.Argonian - Can swim and doesn't need to breathe. Also good at healing their wounds. Mid tier.Doppelganger - Has the ability to polymorph, but I never seem to be able to decide what to polymorph into. Can also do a leap to pass obstacles. Mid tier.Drow - The best unarmed fighter, able to put enemies to sleep. High tier.Elf - Can get sleep resistance. Elves are peaceful to them. Mid-high tier.Gastly - Can only eat old corpses, which makes them likely to die of starvation. Great starting resistances though. Low-mid tier.Gigant - Can throw boulders, but hungers rapidly. Giants are peaceful to them. Mid-high tier.Hobbit - Don't really know what's good about them, other than the fact they aren't renamed to "hurthling". Low-mid tier.Human - The "basic" race that's a jack of all trades and master of none. Low-mid tier.Insectoid - Can summon insects to their aid and don't need to fear Team Ant. Lack of hands makes it difficult, if not impossible, to use weapons though. Mid tier.Khajiit - Good at fighting unarmed. Mid tier.Kobolt - Starts with poison resistance and some throwing weapons, but falls asleep every so often, which can also happen in the middle of a fight with a dangerous monster. Low-mid tier.Lycanthrope - Randomly polymorphs into a wolf and can summon tame wolves, but that's not nearly as useful as it sounds. Fast hit point regeneration. Low tier.Maia - Starts with uncurable and uncontrollable teleportitis, and since I'm probably the only person on this planet who consideres this a good thing, they are: Mid-high tier.Mould - Starts with uncurable and uncontrollable polymorphitis. The random number generator is bound to polymorph them into something useless sooner or later. Low-mid tier.Navi - Good at kicking and using spears. Mid tier.Ogro - Aggravates monsters, and is good at fighting with clubs, which are a useless type of weapon that no one uses anyway. Low-mid tier.Orc - Can commit cannibalism without a penalty. Orcs are peaceful to them. Mid tier.Snakeman - Can wrap enemies, preventing them from getting away. Also have the ability to swim. Snakes are peaceful to them. Mid tier.Trollor - Has very fast hit point regeneration and a significant chance of auto-reviving on death. High tier.Ungenomold - Starts with uncurable and uncontrollable polymorphitis, and dies permanently if their hit points run out while polymorphed. Combine this with the random number generator that always chooses the worst possible polymorph forms for maximum torture. Low-mid tier.Vampire - Can bite and drain the blood out of monsters, but that never seems to give enough nutrition, so they are likely to die of starvation. Fast hit point regeneration. Mid-high tier.Dwarf - Good at digging and using tools. Gnomes and dwarves are usually peaceful to them. Low-mid tier.Gnome - Can transform items into better versions of themselves. Gnomes and dwarves are usually peaceful to them. Low-mid tier.Male - More susceptible to theft and kick attacks, but less susceptible to claw attacks.Female - Less susceptible to theft and kick attacks, but more susceptible to claw attacks.Lawful - Can get powerful divine minions. They get penalized for committing evil acts though.Neutral - Can arguably get the best artifact items, and receive lesser penalties for committing evil acts.Chaotic - Can commit crimes without penalties, and they are also less likely to anger their gods. However, if they do anger their gods, appeasing them is much more difficult.And please pick a name for my character too.I'm open to anything you suggest, and if there are several suggestions, the ones with the most votes going for them will go first but the other ones aren't going to get discarded; they'll just follow up afterwards. Of course I'm also busy with real life sometimes, which means I can't predict when I will be able to update, but I'll try to keep the thread going. And of course I'll read any NetHack tales of adventures by other players, too!See you next time!