As if my 170 hours spent in this five dollar game wasn't enough, they release another $3 DLC. 

I LOL'd at the description (and especially at the hardware requirements) 

Deep within the pocket dimensions of the Wizardlands, the mighty Wizardkings plunge their hands greedily into their stashes of magical wizarding booze, desperately searching for more mana. Their time has passed, and they have faded into the drunken myths of obscurity. Some of them can still be seen on street corners, but most people just give them five zorkmids and walk away.

While the Wizardkings have faded into the hangover-fuelled mists of time, their artifacts of power corrupt the world. Powerful wizarding keys, strewn about the Dungeons of Dredmor during a grand night out, threaten the very reality of existence. Mystical wizarding graffiti, spray-painted on the walls during a particularily good party, holds the secrets of other worlds.

Once again, it is time to enter the Dungeons of Dredmor. (If you see the Wizard Triangulon, place his hand gently into a bucket full of warm water.)

Key Features:

• Explore the Wizardlands!
• Trade grafitti with your friends and send them to their terrifying deaths!
• Crust potent, yet instable, crusts on your equipment with the new Encrusting system!
• Explore your very own pocket dimension, and decorate it to your taste!
• New Skill Trees: Communism, Banksterism, Magical Law, Egyptian Magic, Paranormal Investigator, and Tourist!
• Minibosses!
• New monster types!
• Diggle Hell! It's a real place!
• Two new audio tracks!
• Wield baffling, incredulous, powerful, and just plain stupid items!
• Keep Gaslamp Games off of the streets! We're running out of matches to sell and will soon be forced to start gnawing on our own legs.

PC System Requirements

Minimum:

• OS:MS-DOS 5.5
• Processor:IBM 386 Personal Computer
• Memory:1 MB RAM
• Graphics:Hercules Graphics Adaptor
• DirectX®:5.2
• Hard Drive:20 MB HD space
• Sound:Adlib compatible sound card; Roland MT-32; Gravis Ultrasound
• Additional:640kb should be enough for everybody. Are you brave enough for 640kb?

Recommended:

• OS:Windows 7
• Processor:Intel Quad Core Machine, or AMD Equivalent
• Memory:4 GB RAM
• Graphics:Videocard capable of running DirectX9 or above
• DirectX®:9.0
• Hard Drive:40 MB HD space
• Sound:An enormous subwoofer
• Additional:640kb should be enough for everybody. Are you brave enough for 640kb?

In case anyone else has it, I found my first "Lost Wizards' Key".

You can run them once (total) for a mini-level that may have some nice stuff.  I got two great items considering I found this one on level 1.

Chrtwenggorzar

As I said it's a Level 1 so shouldn't be terribly risky.  Oh.. and I swear this one is good - you won't go to diggle hell when you dial that one in.  Promise.  You believe me... don't you? 

Note:  You gotta find the Pocket Dimension thing lying on the dungeon floor, on each character, before you can go dial up your stargate (complete with an old Ultima gating sound IIRC).   They're basically a seed that people can share and use once per install (but there are a massive amount so the end is nowhere near).  Thing is.. you can also toss in a cruel prank where an invalid Wizards Key will send you to "Diggle Hell".  Which I assume is downright punishing. 

I purchased the new DLC (I had already bought the base game during a previous sale) and sat down this weekend to learn how to play the game. Boy was I suprised; this game is a load of fun and addictive as hell. It beats the pants off Warlock, Master of the Arcane (everyone's current fav) in the fun factor. I would also say that underneath the attempts of humor that the game puts forth lies a much deeper game, strategy wise, than Warlock.

Overall, I give it big thumbs up.

You are playing it on Permadeath as it was meant to be, right?

I've become rather addicted to some of the good "Roguelike" games over the past year or two.  They're certainly challenging.

Originally Posted By Nefaro (5 AUG 2012 10:44pm)

You are playing it on Permadeath as it was meant to be, right?

 

 

I've become rather addicted to some of the good "Roguelike" games over the past year or two.  They're certainly challenging.

I assume so since upon my first death I noticed there was no save game for that character any longer.

By the way your code worked great and to return the favor here is the one I received during my game:

kymagakgorgor

I got some more too:

1st level:

Inporrhogorjal

Positzukgorlech

Powuzchugorjaf

Wkpokchagoriz

And a dungeon level 3 one:

Valpotpokkolwa

I've been dying a lot in the early levels on the highest difficulty level.  It feels more difficult than it used to be in places.  I may have to go back to 'Dwarven Moderation' to get back to Dredmor again.  This last one I actually found three wizard codes on the first level.

I have yet to beat this game. I haven't even beaten Dredmor.

Rest assured, the DLC is on my list.

Just have some Afrika Korps to keep me busy right now.

What is a good starter skillset?

I have never played the game before, but think it would make a nice addictive romp for those lost hours.

Originally Posted By Yskonyn (7 AUG 2012 11:40am)

What is a good starter skillset?

I have never played the game before, but think it would make a nice addictive romp for those lost hours.

It's my go-to game for when I get burned out on most everything. 

As for skill sets I think mixing and matching them, then seeing how they perform together, is a big part of the fun.

If you go for a light Mage style setup, I can easily recommend Promethean Magic for a damage-dealing skill set.  It's the best straightforward pew pew Nuke set of them all and you also get a Fire Drake summon spell at the the third slot which helps you slog through a wizard's very squishy early stage.   Also get at least a couple reliable 'escape' type skillsets that let you teleport, turn invisible, etc for when a bunch of stuff gets up close and starts hammering your negligably-armored caster dude.

In that case you mostly only need ye good 'ole Fireball spell (4th in Promethean) to splatter rooms with AoE fire and kill stuff. Just make sure you have escape skills, potions, etc ready at all times for anything that makes it through your firey circles of death.  Also be sure to do your best to maximize your mage-tastic stats so you get the most power, least mana-use per spell, and biggest mana regen possible so you can spam firey death (and whatever other skills yout ake in support). 

I think Mages are weaker early in the game (without a summon anyway) but melee fighters still take a helluva beating late game when lotsa dots and magic damage get high.  I recommended a Magey build because once they get going, their AoEs take out stuff FAR faster.   I'm still figuring out a good melee build but my best so far is one focused on the Counter stat so that he could block damage & also make a counterstrike when it's test succeeded in melee (managed to kill Dredmor on Dwarven Moderation with it!.. via DoT bug though

This site has all the skill info & such.. gotta let it load up a bit though.

http://j-factor.com/dredmorpedia/

I'll be sure to try some of the suggestions here, but I do agree that finding out for yourself wether certain skills work well with others is part of the fun. But the game is rather unforgiving! I have yet to wander past the 30 minute mark with a single character. :s

Originally Posted By Yskonyn (7 AUG 2012 11:40am)

What is a good starter skillset?

I have never played the game before, but think it would make a nice addictive romp for those lost hours.

http://community.gaslampgames.com/threads/mr_stranges-unofficial-strategy-guide.1185/

This site has some character builds (article 5 & 6). I have tried a few of the builds to get me familar with the game. After I feel like I know what I am doing I will go the route of Nefaro and expirment with different builds.

The game is one of the best "bang for the buck" games out there.

"This site has all the skill info & such.. gotta let it load up a bit though.

http://j-factor.com/dredmorpedia/ "

Great site, Nefaro. After surfing the site I did get a little ticked off upon learning that several items I sold thinking they were useless in fact could have been utilized in recipes to build useful items.

I enjoy the dry humor in the game but one complaint I have is that instead of using "cutsy" terms for the various attributes of your character I wish it would use more traditional terms such as strength, piercing damage, etc.. In-game decisions would be much easier make if the traditional terms were used.

Thanks for the pointers!

Farmer's link to that Unofficial Strategy Guide is a great read, I suggest you check it out to get an idea of the strengths of all the skillsets and get a general idea on how to improve.  Although it's not been updated to the latest expansion, I believe the biggest changes were made around the previous (free) expansion and the writer went back and revised some things for it. 

For a basic skill build premise, try to have a plan for:

1) Damage Output

2) Crowd Control and/or Area Of Effect Damage Output

3) Melee Defense or Avoidance Skills

Having extra resists against 'special' damage types (non-melee ones) is always nice too, but much of that will likely come from the equipment bonuses you happen across, so I didn't include it as #4.

Also:

Remember to focus your outfit and skillset on the few Stats that relate to your build theme.  If you plan on nuking stuff with spells (the ones that use mana to cast) then you should be getting lots of Spell Power and Sagacity to really ramp up their dps, since Spell Power gives most of those extra damage and lowers the casting cost.  Likewise, with a tough melee character you'll want to concentrate on Burliness & Melee Power for your common damage output (a weapon or two) along with some melee & piercing resistances (much of it from armor obviously) along with lots of either Block or Counter (focus on one if possible to get it high).  Just make sure you're not wearing stuff that penalizes your bread & butter stats that are the base of your Damage and Defensive focuses.

Solid info there, thanks Nefaro.

I didn't often get the crafting skills since you're still often relying on random loot placement to get the ingredients you need.   Add to that your precious skill selections on level-up and they're nearly always left at level 1 for me.  It also used up so much backpack space that it'd be difficult keeping open slots for new loot.   Fortunately that has been addressed in this latest expansion, with the "pocket dimension" device.  Now you can just drop the masses of ingredients on the floor there and keep your backpack space open.  You can only do crafting in the pocket dimension, so I imagine this was part of the reason for making it.  Thank God they finally addressed that .. pack space limit was becoming a real issue what with all the expansion stuff. 

Taking something like Alchemy, for it's level 1 heal/mana pot creation, is a decent filler however.  Now that they've added the 'Encrusting' system and the pocket dimension, taking a crafting skill for filler is quite viable.  So I'm taking them more often with this latest xpack.