Day 4/1: Concentration Loss?

Day 4 was too easy. Without a spleen hit, any fullness or drunkeness, I ascended. I think I even forgot to buy healing potions.

I forgot to get stuffies, but I did simply meatfarm a bit and eat some fruits.

I reascended as Pastamancer with a moxie sign. Just to see how no-farming for food works in practice. My plan was to Teetdrop a myst-class again. After all, Mysticality day tomorrow. Somehow, I was not quite up to the top of my game. Also, I'm starting to question the efficiency of spending the first 10 turns of the game using the Arena. Especially since I only got a lead necklace to show for it.

It also severally hampers the ability to get a stomach on the first day. I ended up dropping Teet ahead of schedule, just to have a nice amount of turns banked for tomorrow.

I also forgot to get flowers, even though I had broken my stone. Concentration loss... PvP will be my first priority tomorrow :-)

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 5 Carbohydrate Cognoscenti (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 100
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Wombat

p.s. A simple bummer is that even though I permed Mojomuscular Melody last run, I didn't get a purple snowcone. That ususally speeds up the first day immensely :-) From this run I plan to simply pick up a Gnomish skill, just to get those done and over with.

Day 3: d1g1t4l pr0bl3ms

I was looking at the Tower, getting all the way there with stats, cursing the 2 drunkeness from the dictionary and pretty lame overall RNG, but thought I had a slight chance of making the Tower.

Then it dawned upon me, I hadn't fully farmed the bloody pixels yet :-)

Well, that seems to be the task for tomorrow: Farm pixels, defeat the Naughty Sorceress. That easy, with more than enough wiggle room to farm missing tower items.

After defeating her, I can go drink some White Canadians, fill my remaining stomach with souped up fruits (for variety), get a towel, finish Felonia's quest, and more of that type of stuff.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 11 Sub-Apprentice Accordion Thief (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 677
Days Played (this run): 3
Sign: The Mongoose

p.s. On another note, for non-stasis runs, it really *is* necessary to open up "better than soda water" sources of MP. Seeing as how the KGE outfit is too unreliable, and Doc Galaktik quest too cumbersome, I'm thinking of making White Citadel more of a staple. The food is nice filler too, the high chances of hippy suit a big bonus, the rabbit's foot a nice alternative to not killing the Baron. As mongoose sign, I've found I hardly get any cool accessories, like the ones I can make drop/jewelcraft as mysticality sign.

planning day 3: The return to the Peak

First of all, I should get PvP out of the way, I've got no shore trips and no food eaten, so that will be a boon.

Next up is getting access to the Island, getting the swashbuckling getup, dictionary, and onwards to the valley. Only after I get pr0n legs should I eat, and not before I get the dictionary should I drink.
[edit]
With chefinnaboxlessness, two White Citadel burgers seem to be better than pr0n m4nic0tti. Soooo. Even better with milk of magnesia.
[edit2]
Two pr0n stirfry are even better. We're back to the pr0n plan. Because one pr0n stir-fry and one white citadel is also better.

With 20 adventures saved and 48 from rollover, that leaves me 68 adventures to complete the job of getting the dictionary in. With wads, 73, but I'd prefer to save the wads till the tougher later levels. (Actually, I've only got 12 wads in inventory, so I need to smash some stuff later on, like the drywall axe and giant needle).

The first ten adventures I could spend at the Icy Peak. This should give me the guaranteed supply of meat to shore myself to the Island. I already have the dingy planks. Then I can switch to my sleazy gravy fairy to up the chances of getting the outfit, as well as an acoustic guitarrr.

Right after getting the dictionary is the best time to drink up to the fullness limit, so that I can take the gravy fairy onward into the valley to get scrolls and a lowercase N.

After that happens, the regular Gallery (if necessary) Airship/Castle/HitS maneuvers can be started. See if I can get close to level 11 with enough time to raid the DD as well. An interesting twist would be to use the 8-bit realm to manipulate the queue. I also still need a rhythm musical instrument, so I could also use the Guano Junction for manipulation purposes.

Day 2: Quagmire

Even though according to some standards, I made considerable progress, personally I felt as if I was quite stuck, and the RNG was dealing me an unfavourable hand.

It took me a 2nd round of Teleportitis, to get the Oracle, for example. White Citadel took longer than I bargained for too. And all the while, I was desperately low on meat, quite an annoyance as well.

To top it all of, I was clumsy myself as well. Wiping out valuable snowcone-buff turns with cooking and crafting. Not taking the time to get meat yesterday just broke me up, quite simply. And I used the tonic water function of the Still too sparingly, I should've simply gone all out.

At least I got White Citadel completed, so my mana shortages are no more, Cloaca-Cola is a lifesaver, in that aspect. And although tomorrow I'll eat two gnochetti, a grue egg omelette and pr0n m4n1c0tti, (if all goes well), the day after, I can probably eat a White Citadel burger. And, due to a Hippy Suit dropping on the way, I'll also have all the fruit I can mix tomorrow, once I unlock the Island. Mandarina colada, Mae West and prussian cathouse with a snifter seem the way to go. And I'll have room to use one of those to top off too.

Also, I've got +8 adventures for tomorrow (chrome crossbow, dead guy's watch and a meat maid), which should help. I'm not believing in a possible 3-dayer, but a 4-dayer seems quite likely.

What will be interesting to see is where the breaking point will be where I have to switch from crossbow to LTS. Right now, without any moxie buffs, except for Twinklefairy, I'm up to 115 buffed moxie. So, there's some margin there for improvement.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 9 Hurdy-Gurdy Hooligan (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 436
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Mongoose

p.s. And pvp was 25 out of 25. Nice to be able to attack up. I won my last fight purely on the popularity mini.

Day 3 and Day 1: Zoom! Zoom!

The 3rd day was actually somewhat uneventful, except for a few cases of friendly RNG. I ascended with a decent, although not quite comfortable margin of 20 adventures, bettering my previous record with 1 turn. *grin*

The most amusing was to PvP and try to get some rank, instead of flowers. I didn't fare that badly.

The new run has gone off to a zooming start, due to the continuing friendly RNG. It was rather tight when dealing with the Friar's, but I managed to get the dodecagram with a margin of 8 turns or so left.

After getting the stomach and dropping my path I charged forward, got a 3-turn billiards room, and a slightly less fast Library, but I got into the Gallery and then managed to rack up stats like there was no tomorrow. I barely managed to keep up my soda water habit, and due to expenses failed to get a mushroom patch. I think I'll just farm a few extra goat cheeses tomorrow.

I also picked up some pixels already, but have made no steps to killing the Bonerdagon or getting my mining gear. That all seem to be tasks for day 2. I'm wondering if I can make this a 3-dayer, it seems pretty unlikely, but it should be possible to make it a 4-dayer with comfortable margin. In fact, I've been pondering to go slightly out of my way and do the White Citadel quest and get a hippy suit. That will both give me slighly cheaper MP (Cola, as I didn't get a KGE Outfit) as well as allow me to mix superhuman quality drinks.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 8 Button Box Burglar (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 221
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Mongoose

p.s. Forgot to PvP before drinking.
p.s.2 I might bother with a full-fledged planning post.

Day 2: Not Quite Judgement Day

Today I was of the mindset that stats, stats, stats wasn't everything, since tomorrow is another stats day. I focused on finishing up the loose ends and quests as well as running around in the gallery. I've got the digital key, wand, swashbuckling gear and more of that type of stuff.

My outlook is good, but I'm somewhat anxious. I spent an inordinate amount of time doing various calculations of best booze/food patterns, taking factors as milk and such into consideration, which is quite a headache if you're trying to calculate down to the adventure. In the end, I decided that they're basically all close enough to optimal. For booze I found the interesting discovery that getting an extra umbrella is more important than getting pirate drunkeness.

Foodplan: 2 gnochetti, 1 grue egg omelette and pr0n m4nicotti (in case of a pr0n legless valley, this is replaced by a spicy enchanted bean burrito and cranberries)
Boozeplan: Gimlet, as much Roll in the Hay as I can summon umbrella's for, filled up with improved bottles and Imp Ales.

Also I'm gonna have Innabox smith a Super Power Sword X tomorrow. I also made a chrome crossbow for that one adventure advantage, haha.

I used my wand to zap a bottle of gin, and got sleepy, confused and drunk spading my ! potions. (I have 2 object detection potions and a muscle potion). Either I have to do activities that wear them off for the first 20 turns (cooking, cocktailing, pirate in disguise), or spent 1800 meat to get "disco power nap".

Tomorrow it's for keeps!

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 10 Vibe Robber (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 406
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Mongoose

Day 1: Trying too hard?

I managed to get the Patch, Stomach and even a Knob Goblin Elite Outfit, I'm snugly into level 6, although I've got the Goblin King yet to kill.

Still I can't help but feel I might be pushing too hard for a 3-dayer, so that I'm not relaxed enough to just let it all flow and happen.

I took Spirit of Ravioli with me to be a bit sturdier. It's nice. I also got two Hellion Cubes, so I won't be completely choking on the mushrooms. The food for tomorrow looks to be: Two Hell Ramen, Gnochetti and bat haggis.

With the KGE clinched, I perhaps ought to aim for the Gallery already, just make tomorrow about racking up the levels. In any case, I shouldn't forget to visit the DD tomorrow, or else the chances of 3-day are very, very slim indeed :-)

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 6 Sample Swindler (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 163
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Mongoose

p.s. Only after this post, did I realize I forgot to actually *eat* the 5 extra fullness of the Stomach of Steel :-/
Two hot wings and a bat haggis were enough.
And of course, I banked a few turns for tomorrow, although technically speaking, I could have banked about a dozen more.

Day 4: Catching up on Quests

It mostly went as planned. Except that the day started with real bad luck. I was naught for three with Mr. Klaw, and it took close to 40 turns to get the miner's outfit and 3 ore, although the game was nice enough to give a safety vest. I had to pre-emptively down 15 wads to be sure to have enough turns to cook and such.

From there on, my luck turned, and I got the Wand relatively easy, as well as only needing to spend 2 turns dressed as a pirate. I got a shirt (which is inferior to the Safety Vest) and the dictionary. The Valley was relatively forgiving, as well.

I got into the airship and got 4 immateria before running out of adventures.

Tomorrow will be "hi mein" day, as I smashed some items for nuggets. I've got 3 hot nuggets, 2 stench nuggets, and a spooky nugget. So, statwise, the best will be the go for 3 hot hi mein and a spooky hi mein, I think. In fact, my stats look pretty balanced, from where I'm standing.

This simply leaves the old Airship, Castle, HitS, Tower for tomorrow. (Oh, and a DD, for keys, and a prayer for no NG/barbed wire fence)

A doozy! *knocks on wood*

Afterwards, I can booze up with White Canadians, and figure out the new quest to unlock Fernswarthy. The Tuesday content is quite unclear to me.


Keypunch (#30036)
Level 10 Ravioli Sorcerer
Turns Played (this run): 549
Days Played (this run): 4
Sign: The Mongoose
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

Day 4: Planning Post

This day is somewhat tricky. I'll probably reach level 11 easily, but won't be able to finish the Sorceress quest due to Key shortage.

I have to balance finishing quests with gaining offstats. What I preferably want to do is eat all my foods with milk of magnesia, yet, I need to get pr0n legs before I can eat all. And the pr0n legs require 15 turns (1/3 of 45 rollover adventures) of shoring.

Also, I would like to balance the mining quest with getting the wand (to not suffer superfluous teleportitis). Perhaps I should just postpone eating the "supermeal" with grue egg omelette and pr0n m4nic0tti 'till day 5. It would be easier to just eat 3 gnochetti and the cream of pointy mushroom soup, once I get a second goat's milk.

After the trapper, I can then balance teleportitis with taking holidays. After I get the Wand, quickly go down that other Dungeon for a Key. Backfarm pixels, and then finally take on Rofl'Mao. See if I've got turns left to go up the beanstalk (Computer says: Yes).

I could even be *more* lazy, and use the slack of a 5-dayer to farm a 31337 scroll, maybe even a second 31337 scroll, a hippy outfit and (hi) mein ingredients!

I'll just have to see how much turns I can spend tomorrow.

[update]

I never really researched Hi meins. But apparently all it needs is nuggets, and 2k worth of buyable ingredients. I just pulverized a broken sword for 1 stench and 2 hot nuggets. This opens up new food venues. It might also slightly deprecate the value of muscle sign for Myst class. (But not for muscle and moxie!)

[update]
The new dinner plan is to munch as soon as I hit the first goat's milk. On the menu is two hawt hi meins, a stinky hi mein, served with a grue egg omelette and don't forget the veggies: stalk of asparagus

Captain Pantsless

Yesterday evening, I had a farewell happening for myself and several colleagues, who are all moving on to new jobs and opportunities.

This morning, I spent my KoL turns in a rather trancelike, focused state, just *flowing* through my turns. That was really enjoyable.

Random Observations
- Especially this run, I simply don't have enough turns to make it a 4-day teetotal. I will comfortably make 5 days. If I had gotten stomach on day 2, it would've been better, I suppose.
- Being a muscle sign turns you into some sort of Bubba of mushrooms. Mushroom pasta, mushroom kebab, plain mushroom, stuffed mushroom, mushroom stir-fry, mushroom quesedilla, mushroom soup, mushroom everything.
- During this run, so far, I've had one pair of pants drop. Knob goblin harem girl pants (power: 10, moxie +1). Now, really. Unless you count the pair of mariachi pants (power: 10) from the sewer as a drop. I've been visiting the Armorer for pants, and am currently wearing a troutpiece.
- Meat is plentiful as mysticality class. You don't spend shitwads on soda water. Heck, it's cheaper to Tongue of the Otter myself than go to the Doc. I've managed to spare 9,000 on buying Spirit of Ravioli (a perm-candidate).
- Perming CLEESH was a good move. It gives easier access to the Gallery, and also better survival in the Gallery. While I could only two-hit kill, and the monster got the jump on me, I just CLEESHed him into a frog and squashed it. Hilarious and effective.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 10 Ravioli Sorcerer
Turns Played (this run): 369
Days Played (this run): 3
Sign: The Mongoose
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

p.s. Other perm-skill candidates are Canneloni Cocoon and Springy Fusilli. I'm slowly starting to feel the need to get more +iniative. Both are just too useful over Manicotti Meditation for that to be a serious candidate. It's a good 2nd-tier skill to keep, though.

Recoup

Blogger has been a meanie, not allowing me to post.

3-day run!

No stasis, no-path lead-in, muscle sign. I'm pretty happy with myself. I didn't spend a turn doing anything after breaking the prism, just for the record. It makes me the #64 in personal records in HC No Path. Pretty impressive, if I say so myself.

For now, I've jumped into a teetotal Pastamancer, hoping to see what a Myst class can make off free Gnochetti. So far, it's not going too well, but it's supposed to be a less hard-charging run. I didn't make Stomach on day 1, and I decided I'd be better off banking on day 2, since day 3 will be a Myst day.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 6 Spaghetti Sage (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 164
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Mongoose
Path: Teetotaler

Yesterday

I was really, really, really excited about how it went (I teetdropped against all odds, but got lucky with the booze, and succeeded in making it a 5-dayer after having been cowed). But I'm even more excited about today. I'm a total and utter muscle sign convert.

Farming seems trivial with a mushroom patch. The plunger is a real meatsaver in the beginning, as is the general store a fantastic place for being outfitted, having the services of a meatmaid guaranteed and of course the meatcar in a pinch. There's innabox for the basic smithing, should you require some. There's a nice questy all-combat area. It will give the sign-gym for the two muscle class trophies I still need to get. And, to top it all of, there's the bugbear beanie, wich allows you to dick around in the bugbear store for that little zest in your 2-fullness filler.

I plan on working out a preplanned mealplan with the help of mushroom farming and the bakery.

Compared to the Mysticality sign, which has...uhm. Oh yeah, I remember, the MCD which gives a paltry bunch of bonus stats, but mostly gets you beat up. And a handful of trinkets that you have no use for. And I guess Chez's sometimes has something useful to eat. As mysticality class without Melody, the Mysticality sign might be preferable. Except that farming food becomes so easy.

Today was bliss, my offstats are trailing a bit, but I really, really went forward at an amazing pace. In fact, a 3-day run seems within the realm of possibilities, if not the realm of probabilities.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 10 Rattlesnake Chief (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 400
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Mongoose

Day 4: Silence before the Storm

In real life, there's a major storm blowing over my country. A construction crane toppled over right on top of the building next to the one I work, and in the afternoon, it was decided that with a worsening forecast, everybody was to be sent home.

It took me two hours of terrible traffic, but I'm safe and sound at home.

Kolwise, I got a key from the Dungeon, cook, ate and drank. Spent some turns sewering and that's about it.

I got 152 turns banked.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 9 Caribou Smacker
Turns Played (this run): 400
Days Played (this run): 4
Sign: The Opossum
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

Oh no! More herb brownies!

Actually, I ate just one. It was the special, and a nice 2-fullness filler.

I saved up a few turns already for the banking tomorrow. Tomorrow I will cook and eat, run the DAILY DUNGEON and that's about it, I think. And PvP, of course. I'm starting to get inklings that it might become a 5-dayer, after all.

I've got the wand, but not the Digital Key. The bonerdagon is still alive, and I have yet to type "yoho" into the Strange Leaflet.

I'll get 116 adventures from rollovers and adventures saved.

That gives me 84 adventures to expect from eating and wads. Or, rather. I should have, at most 155 adventures left at tomorrow's end of day. I could spend the surplus adventures (if there are any) preferably fishing for clover, cooking, or taking a moxie shore trip.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 9 Caribou Smacker
Turns Played (this run): 382
Days Played (this run): 3
Sign: The Opossum
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

Day 2: One thing I forgot

I've managed to get a liver and reach the Gallery today, two feats that have helped my progress greatly. I'm one muscle point away from level 8, so tomorrow I'm eating with goat's milk. Somehow, it still feels like it's gonna be a 6-dayer.

The thing I forgot is that both the Gallery clover as well as the Louvre adventure have a "scaling factor" towards your mainstat. That didn't stop me from getting 10.6 muscle substat average, which is kinda neat, considering how much turns I spent in the Knob Goblin Treasury to get fast meat for MP.

With all being well, I haven't made much quest progress (killed the Goblin King, saved the Friars, but no digital Key, nor investigated any cyrptic emanations) since yesterday.

As I said, feels like a 6-dayer. Still going to bank on day 4 and try for a 5-dayer.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 7 Narwhal Pummeler
Turns Played (this run): 263
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Opossum
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

Day 5 & Day 1: Majestic Mysticality

I did finish easily, managed to neatly slide into level 15, nab a tattoo, a shrimp fork and a towel, buy the skill and jump the gash.

And found myself day 1 of a Muscle Teetotal run. The idea is that at the end of the run I'll have a nice muscle day, hopefully giving me the opportunity to make it a teetotal 5-day'er. Then I can start out on 2 muscle days, and who knows, this will allow for a 4-day Teetdrop Turtle Tamer?

Ah, dreams, anyway.


I started out a bit lazy, by eating my tummy full at Chez's with 5 spicy jumping bean burrito's. Better luck and more edginess next time.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 5 Penguin Frightener
Turns Played (this run): 135
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Opossum
Path: Teetotaler (Hardcore)

Understanding the Clover Nerf

The mathematical aspects of this game have recently become more clear, due to using mafia and the leveling to 30.

I always had an intuitive sense of how using turns to maximize stat gains was important, but never did I actually calculate such affairs, until now. For example, this run, I've been able to keep up an average of about 11.5 main substats/adventure, including food and booze. If I kept that up, I would reach level 11 after about 940 turns.

Obviously, in the later parts of the game, stat gains dramatically increase. A 700 turn run would require a minimum average of about 15.5 stats/adventure. Usually, there's some overshoot, because Level 11 is merely required to reach the base of the tower, and the tower holds a lot of stat gains.

If you realize that an average volleyballtype familiar of someone with a reasonable number of familiar skills permed gives about 4 main substats bonus (32 pound bat, 2:1:1 distribution) per combat, it becomes quite clear why volleyballtypes are so beloved by speed ascenders. (And the sombrero even more so for SC, but that's another discussion).

And then we get the clover. Assume a muscle class. To reach level 11, a muscle class requires 104*104 mainstat substats. Which is equal to 10816 substat points. A single clover gives 300 substats on a normal day in the Gallery. It gives 450 substats on a stat day. That's 300/10816*100% and 450/10816*100% or ~2.8% and ~4.2% respectively of all muscle substats required for a run.

Assuming a 1 in 3 drop of the worthless trinket. That's 4 turns and 145 meat for an average of 1% advancement of all stats required/turn. Suppose clovers were still unlimited and you were able to reach the gallery at level 7 (1600 muscle substats). That would mean you'd only have to spend 100 turns and 3625 meat (for 25 clovers) to get to level 11 on a stat day. Softcore or Hardcore...no difference. In softcore that kind of meat is easily "pulled", in Hardcore it requires only a modest amount of turns in places like the Treasury, or some saving up of the meat from the boss bat and goblin king.

Thank Jick for the nerf.

Day 4: No shirt, no beard, no worries

I predicted today would be a great day and then I had an epiphany.
Banking for stat day.

Seeing as how I want the level 15 skill from this run, and I was going to get far, but probably not all the way into the tower, I decided to bank turns for mysticality day, tomorrow.
I decided to do some pre-emptive farming and mixing upping. I did quickly finish the Valley quest, and also did, simply for the sake of it, pre-farm a few items. I will be 15 adventures short of 200 after rollover tomorrow, which I consider an excellent starting point.

I basically have everything that I need for the Tower, except for musical instruments. I suppose I'll have to see to those when I get there. A disco banjo is easily made, and a broken skull shouldn't be too hard to farm.

I secretly had been hoping to get a goat's beard, so I could smith the linoleum staff (bah, linoleum is the suckiest of the three) into a hairy staff, which regenerates MP and also held out hopes for a Pirate Shirt. Alas. No worries, though, I can easily do without.

As a coup de grace, I autosold the facsimile dictionary for "Spirit of Ravioli", so I will have a bit more base HP. And if I end up being dumb and stupid, it will also be a good fallback skill to take with me through the gash :-)

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 10 Ravioli Sorcerer (Harcore)
Turns Played (this run): 695
Days Played (this run): 4
Sign:The Opossum

p.s. Flawless PvP on the attack, so far. And the bat provides enough spare meat for me to spend some on Hatorade.
Ranking:116
Fights Won/Lost: 99/10

Day 3: Pacifism is so Passe!

After a pretty decent start, I suddenly found myself in a position where I made a wrong choice. I decided I wanted to get a Hippy Outfit. I didn't have that many adventures left, I had only done one shore trip (barbed wire fence!) and wasn't super-wealthy. But I pushed to the Mysterious Island anyway. I got a bunch of little paper umbrella's from my vacations, I used my sewer clovers to get an extra knick-knack for a clover (if it came to that), and then charged hard (19 turns with the gravy fairy, using a green snowcone) to get the Hippy Outfit.

Only then did I start checking which drinks to make, and realized...bottle of whiskey + soda water + LPU = Roll In The Hay. I didn't need fruit, at all, for the best of mysticality drinks. And day 4 and 5 could've been fine with the barrel.

Also, when I later on wanted to fight the Bonerdagon with less risk, I realized the best potion to make required a tomato (already gotten from the kitchens), but I had put my Hippy Outfit on and forgot to switch to the Lihc face and Miner's pants for the fight itself (I still won).

Conclusion: The Hippy Outfit is not really useful in anything except (Boozetefar) moxie runs. I would've been better off spending a bunch of turns at the barrels with suboptimal drinks and saving the snowcone for a different moment.

Otherwise, all went fine, I even managed to get my spleenful of wads at the end of the run, even though the armors did not cooperate. I'm a single moxie-point away from level 10, I got the zapping wand, and access to the Island, including Obligatory Pirate Outfit.

Not much stands in my way to make tomorrow a great day!

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 9 Linguini Thaumaturge (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 606
Days Played (this run): 3
Sign: The Opossum

p.s. Haven't gotten any shirts to drop, yet :-(

Day 2: Gallery!

Hurray, I managed to get into the Gallery and reach level 8. My main failure was in efficient drinking, but 3 extra-spicy blood maries, a Ducha de Oro, fine wine, Imp Ale and vodka&cranberry as nightcap wasn't *bad*, per se.

The barrels mostly beat me up, but I did also get a clover. Which allowed me to make the Pasta of Peril, which got me into the Gallery (together with the glass balls).

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 8 Vermicelli Enchanter (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 388
Days Played (this run): 2
Sign: The Opossum

For fun, my encounter listing as according to mafia:
Dark Elbow of the Woods (5)
Dark Heart of the Woods (2)
Dark Neck of the Woods (12)
Friar Ceremony Location (1)
Knob Goblin Kitchens (6)
Haunted Billiards Room (4)
Haunted Library (4)
Unlucky Sewer (2)
Beanbat Chamber (1)
Knob Goblin Treasury (1)
Haunted Library (4)
Menagerie 1 (1)
Menagerie 2 (3)
Menagerie 3 (18)
Knob Goblin Treasury (11)
Lemon Party (2)
Menagerie 3 (10)
Knob Goblin Laboratory (11)
Menagerie 3 (1)
Knob Goblin Laboratory (1)
Menagerie 3 (6)
Haunted Conservatory (1)
Haunted Gallery (8)
Knob Goblin Laboratory (12)
Haunted Gallery (36)
Lemon Party (3)

Check the comments for the encounter results.

Day 1: Back in Business!

Luckily, I managed to clovercard my way to level 30 today!

And now I'm back in business of _playing_ the game.

I chose pastamancer, for no particular reason, except that it would mean a myst day at the end of the run. And the pastamancer has several skills I can use, not least of all Transcendental Noodlecraftery.

The run itself was old-school fun, trying to squeeze the most out of it, and I do say, that with a 1-pound Cheshire Bat, and no rewards except 5 gems and Stainless Suspenders, I've come quite far. I'm level 6, with all quests completed (except level 6, itself). I've got a digital key and a meat car. I've got the baron's monocle. I've got an enormous moxie boost.

Due to today being a moxie stat day, the suspenders and good old madrigal, I might be range-fighting for a bit longer. However my goal is actually to be active in the gallery tomorrow, so I got the glass balls from the Goblin King. We'll see how that pans out.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 6 Spaghetti Sage (Hardcore)
Turns Played (this run): 192
Days Played (this run): 1
Sign: The Opossum

I'd like to spend some time mulling "Pickpocketing for moxie classes". It's one of the most exciting updates since the rumpus room, if you ask me. The boon might seem small, but getting a ratarang while farming for rat appendices would be a great thing! The bonus for backfarming is good too and last but not least: A new familiar!
It's also upped the value of +init skills. I've always been a bit reluctant of them and haven't permed a single one. With this change, however, they become more premium material, especially over-developed etcetera, for the moxie runs.

Up to then, I'll have to get my +init from the penguin shorts/skirt and bonerdagon necklace.

I'm such a numbnut

I don't know how I do this, but I manage to screw up the simplest of things. I just couldn't be bothered to look up the drunkenness factor of oily mushroom wine, I simply assumed it was 1. It was 3.

3 Mae West + 1 mushroom wine = 15 drunkenness.

And I was doing so well. I had already managed to get to level 28 with just one combat engagement. The clover, clover, clover, dance card waltz had already netted me about 140k substats...

Not all is lost, however. I didn't waste too many adventures, and tomorrow is another moxie day. Shame about the lost PvP-fights and the 35 or so adventures I could have used.

Bugger.

Keypunch (#30036)
Level 28 Accordion Thief
Turns Played (this run): 4,712
Days Played (this run): 18
Sign: The Opossum

Idealer

I've had plenty of ideas on the KoL forums. And since adventuring isn't all that much to write about, I'll make a little list here of serious and less serious suggestions I've made, that have not been adressed yet in any way (either fixes or gameplay changes making my peeve irrelevant).

Clan switching at the recruiter. Too often I fail to switch clans :-/ Just a minor suggestion.

Multi use on Yummy Tummy Beans. This is just suddenly a major annoyance I'm confronted with. Basically, I have to hit the server several hundred times, while it could be solved in just a handful of hits.

A record of prism breaking. A very controversial issue. I feel strongly about it, although I do understand the opposition to it. It's mostly a "feels right" thing, more than anything rational. Probably will never happen, because the game has done without that record for so long. I think that's just silly. It would make me a happy camper to have what I consider to be a "true" record.

No Inactive players in PvP. Also somewhat controversial, but the thread mostly got derailed by someone with issues of identity. I think it's just not in-spirit of PvP to have long-abandoned characters still around as virtual punching bags. Not that I mind, as it helps my levelling...but still. I really hope this will get adressed.

Valley displaying a bridge after bridging it. More of a silly suggestion. I'm all for artwork consistency :-)

Prosthetic Forehead usuable as hat. Another silly suggestion. This was more born out of boredom than anything else. It still would be neat, but it would require quite some complex coding to be done. Or some wacky work-around, in any case.

Cheaper gift packages. This I still feel is a good idea. The high-end packages don't get used, because they are simply too expensive for the hearts. I hate to see content go to waste and it would just be so much more fun for receivers too to get a bigger variety in gift packages.

Valhalla just for Astral spirits. Slightly silly. Perhaps an extra channel called /astral would work too. I simply think this would be funny. Not really necessary.

Two related suggestions:

Advertising spiffed up and Upkeep for mall stores. The latter thread is a bit outdated, but I was amused by my own suggestions in the former. Advertising is really a bland process right now, and there's room there to introduce humorous references, as well as a slightly more engaging mechanic than simply dumping meat. Just like with PvP, I would love to have a way in which long-abandoned stores wither away, although it would hurt price-levels to a degree. It just makes sense to me to keep a certain "flow" going, though.

Two threads that are not suggestions:

Everybody is my multi. This thread was in response to several threads at the time for people asking the services of other people to "play turns" for them or to farm for them. This was me taking the idea to the extreme. Not everybody got it, but I still think it's funny.

KoL->Dutch Dictionary. For the Dutch KoL players. It's been dead for a long time now, though. I'm still proud at all the fun responses.

2007 Prospective

I could rave about 2006 and what I achieved and how it was great, but you know me, I'm interested in the future, not the past.

What are my goals for 2007? To complete the level 30 trophy set. This run will not take too long anymore, and then I'll have got half of the available ones.
Another goal is to complete my HC skillset. I've got about 40 skills out of slightly over 100.

This is slightly trickier, as it requires far more dedication. Constant 5-day runs will give me about 6 or 7 ascensions a month, which make it *just* possible. Then again, the high-level trophy runs will take a while, so might interfere.

As might NS13, and later on, NS15.

This, I'm looking forward to. Just as the Gallery added some very cool content (way funnier than beating up Yeti's) I'm hoping to see similar gamechanging concepts being introduced.

For now, I should just get this run over with. I'm too cheap to go all-out on clovers (and dance cards), but 30k main substats per day isn't thrilling me either. At this pace, it would take another 2 weeks. Right now, my plan is to acquire normal stats for a few days, then bank for moxie day, and go at it with dance cards and clovers. Should give a nice boost.