I keep on forgetting to detect traps

[Ithulta]

My hobbit hermit sorcerer has died many, many times because I forgot to detect traps. Should I just give trying to rely on my own diligence and use inertia control? Would it even be that helpful? One hundred game turns seems a like a bit of long gap, particularly if I've got some nice gear and am casting essence of speed (which I often am).

[AnonymousHero]

What I do is map it to some easily accessed key combo like Ctrl-D. (Same with detect monsters.)

You can then easily train your muscle memory to automatically press Ctrl-D every few steps.

[Bewilderness]

Nice. I've just discovered macros properly - I didn't bother with them playing Angband, but I followed the example in the help docs and it's made my manathrust about 500% more time efficient.

[Yottle]

If you use the run commands (Shift+arrow) you will automatically stop when you get to the edge of your trap detected area.

You notice at the bottom of the screen it tells you whether you are in a trap detected area?

[Ithulta]

I have it set to a fairly easy macro (Alt-S then t; stolen from Killerbunnies). I just forgot eventually for some reason. I might have just teleported somewhere and not gotten the warning, I might have just entered a new level and again not gotten the warning, but it eventually happens and my character gets instakilled. Looking at the spoilers, it'll be a while before I can cast detect traps with inertia control. Too bad, 40 mana (at max) is a big price to pay to keep me alive. I'll probably have properly trained myself to detect constantly by the time I survive long enough to cast it.

[Yottle]

The basic rule of playing a sorceror is if you get surprised, you die. In contrast a warrior can blunder around and deal with things as they come at him.

Besides detect traps, a sorceror also needs to be constantly detecting monsters and using Vision to know the terrain. At higher levels I try to keep myself sped up, telepathic, and protected with Stone Skin. I tend to keep Probability Travel going also.

[Ithulta]

After, a while I just got a little tired of being instakilled by traps, so I tried out some weirder (to me) combinations, RohanKnight and Thunderlord. Are the hits to stealth much of a problem? Could they be overcome in the mid- to late-game with some decent equipment?

[Yottle]

Stealth is not that important, unless you are playing a class like an assassin. Both Thunderlords and RKs have other properties that more than compensate.

[Derakon]

The way stealth basically ends up working out in ToME: either you care about stealth, in which case you pick stealthy races and choose stealthy gear (and maybe take a few points in the Stealth skill), or you don't give a damn, in which case you may as well wear aggravation gear.

Oh, and use keymaps, not macros. Macros are valid at any keypress, while keymaps are only valid when the game is waiting for your next turn input. Macros also basically remove keys from the game, so they can be hard to undo if you accidentally map an important key.

Also, there's a special syntax for the 'm' menu and others like it. For example, this keymap would fire the first thaumaturgist spell at the closest target (assuming the re-use existing target option is on):

*tm@Cast a Thaumaturgy spell\raa

Much safer than relying on Thaumaturgy to be the third item in your list of 'm' actions.

[Ithulta]

I actually prefer the way macros work. Having to manually clear prompts before using keymap is kinda annoying. All my macros are mapped to alt key combinations, which are unused in- and out-of-game. I'm not exactly sure what you mean about the special syntax, but I know how to use the @ option in macros if that's what you're talking about.

[Yottle]

I use macros also. I always put a couple of escapes at the start to avoid accidents.

[Ithulta]

Same.

[Ithulta]

Dang, Thunderlords are tough! I'm working my way through the Land of Mountains with ironman_rooms on, and I've already killed Ancagalon at level 38!

[Ithulta]

Agh, I died.

[overtrix]

By the time you get well down in the dungeon and come (especially, but not only) to those "sea of traps" cavern-like vaults, they cripple the gameplay side of things IMO. Simply too many, the dungeons must have some undetected multitude of trap-obsessed tachyonic imps who flash around the place like Santa Claus on Chritmas Eve, each time they hear footsteps on the stairs. If I ever catch one, they'll long to instead be spending many lives of their small kind under torture in the depths of Barad-Dur, as if it were a fortnight at Butlins.