what order of levels do you play?

[Shoob]

I find that I generally do wilderness to clvl 26-30, then from there I head to
bree
orc caves
mirkwood
dol goldur
erebor
paths of the dead
small water cave
etc (if I find I have the ring before then, I stick with erebor until lvl 50)
mordor
doom
angband

at least in general, lost souls generally skip straight to dol goldur. Ironman also skips to erebor from bree then to dol goldur (skipping boss of erebor until later of course)

[Yottle]

It depends on the type of character, of course, but I usually do pretty much the same. With quests on:

wilderness
barrowdowns
orc caves
old forest/moria (generally looking for a potion store at this point)
mirkwood
mordor
mt doom (if I have fire immunity I want to get to the top before finding the ring)
dol guldur
side quests (until I get the ring)
top of mt doom
angband

Sorceror without quests:
wilderness
sandworm lair (for tomes)
orc cave/old forest/moria/land of mountains (looking for markets)
paths of the dead (to level up to 40 or so)
helcaraxe (if I need the guaranteed artifact)
dol guldur
side quests (until I get the ring)
mt doom
angband

Fighter types will probably do the castle as soon as they can survive there to get the boss' drop. They will generally ignore the dungeons unless they can get the ring there.

Mages will usually take out all of the bosses with random drops and skip the other dungeons. Most of the time this is a waste of time.

[budswell]

Bree House
Barrow downs
Orc Cave
Lorien House
Sand Hole
Lorien Mage Quest
Old Forest
Mirkwood
Gondolin House
Maze
Wight Quest/Trolls
Lorien Spiders
Lorien Water
Minis Anor House
Minis Anor Mage Quest
Gondolin Eol
Moria

The only time I survived Moria I died in the house quest in Khazad Dum. The order differs slightly - never do Mirkwood spiders until I can fly. Never to wight quest (usually play magic users) until I have spectral weapon or spell.

Edit: Woo Hoo. Finally made it through Moria, so after that I apparently do the Sacred Land of Mountains. Lots of D's and A's, but I'm not dead... yet

[JuergenF]

Hm - after some pause from playing I just re-registered and since this forum is somewhat empty in comparison to the old - please excuse me for reviving this thread

do wilderness to clvl 26-30

Do you play weak char/class combos or why? After that doing BD and orcs would bore me even more than it's doing it my way
I usually choose 'power'combos and quests and the only class I go looking into the wilderness before the 'Barrow downs' is a druid, to get a Hydra-totem

Sorceror without quests:
wilderness
sandworm lair (for tomes)

Here I can understand skipping the beginner-dungeons...

[Xandor Tik'Roth]

Reviving threads will almost always trump creating a new thread. As for the empty forum, we had a hacker that deleted almost all of our threads.

As far as getting up that far in levels before hitting BD, a lot of people hit the wilderness so that there is virtually 0 chance of getting killed early on.

[IckyThingBane]

Do you play weak char/class combos or why? After that doing BD and orcs would bore me even more than it's doing it my way
I usually choose 'power'combos and quests and the only class I go looking into the wilderness before the 'Barrow downs' is a druid, to get a Hydra-totem

Wilderness is the powergamers method of choice. You can be killing mature dragons almost immediately, which grants way more experience than anything in the Barrow Downs or Orc Caves. You can then wander through the early dungeons as though the monsters aren't even there, picking up the skill points and gear.

My record for hitting level 25 in the wilderness is less than a minute. Admittedly, that was with a Sorc, but the same principle applies to other classes. It's just that in some cases you would need to start slowly with crebains or the thieves quest, just to get yourself going.

[JuergenF]

powergamers method of choice

Hm, how do you define 'powergamer'? 'small levels + unusual rooms+"joke"' monsters'? Then I take my hat off to you.

If you play with somewhat more 'normal' options, why do you play through e.g. the 'orc cave'? Or do you just TPort down to the next-to-last level?

You can then wander through the early dungeons as though the monsters aren't even there, picking up the skill points and gear.

Ok, that would bore me, I think. If I had level 25 to start, I'd go BD (just because I do princess-quests...) and then directly to (TP to Ork-level in between) Mirkwood (or deeper)...

I just was asking if you do really play all the levels of the early dungeons or just pick those that might be 'interesting'.

[Yottle]

...
If you play with somewhat more 'normal' options, why do you play through e.g. the 'orc cave'? Or do you just TPort down to the next-to-last level?
...I just was asking if you do really play all the levels of the early dungeons or just pick those that might be 'interesting'.

I level up to 25-30 in the wilderness and then hit the dungeons. If I have princess quests on I go through those fast to pick up the treasure and whatever skill points are being given out. I will also cruise through the Old Forest, Orc Caves, Moria, Rhun, and Land of Mountains fast to see if there are any markets (Probability Travel is the best way to do this). Other than that, there isn't any reason to explore above level 40.

If I am trying to win quickly, I will play a sorceror with unusual rooms. Sorcerors don't need any extra skills and they can safely find all the equipment they need in the Sandworm Lair. I can win in less than 24 hours of real time playing- I think that meets icky's definition of power gaming.

[IckyThingBane]

I would define powergaming as doing whatever it takes (within the rules) to get the most powerful character you can as soon as you can, skipping non-essential parts of the game regardless of whether they are fun and generally playing the game to win rather than necessarily to enjoy yourself or immerse yourself in the RPG aspects.

Mobile Cheese Factories TM (sorcerors) should probably be excluded from the discussion, as they have no need for equipment or FF skills.

I usually try to max out on FF skills, so I play on small levels with 98 quests. My order is identical to Yottle's, except that I would ignore Mt Doom until I have the Ring and farm Erebor after Mordor, until I have all the artifacts I want.

[JuergenF]

Ah yes, that's powergaming

I'm no powerdiver in vanilla angband either, but ToME I somehow play as a RPG - and so maybe too slowly.

I can get almost every char I start to clv > 40, but then hit a point where I just would like to play another race/class, just for a change... So after some years I still have no winner (I think/hope not because of inaptitude ) - but I still have fun!
Maybe I should start to get into the bushes sooner