Let's Play Cavequest, part 5: Let's Play Cavequest, part the fourth.

Welcome back to Cavequest! I've managed to get my wizard skills up enough to use Merlin's Cap, and I've also put another point into stamina. I'm saving the rest of my life points, because I forgot to keep track of how much treasure I got last time I went caving and I don't wanna come up short of the 1000 silvers I need to buy the hat.



Good thing, too, because it turns out I didn't make a lot of money.



I skip over the armory and pick up the cap at the witches lair. I'll save the rest of my silvers for later - I can't afford anything useful right now.



Here we are back in level 2. Hey, what's that treasure doing there? I thought I cleaned this place out last time?



I duck into the next room to see if its monsters/treasures are also back (they are), then I move on to room 3 and the hidden door I'm sure is there. Time to use my new hat!



I check my inventory to find out which pocket the hat is in: #2.



I cast the spell, and the door appears. Neat! Looks like I don't need intelligence, so long as I have the hat. Now to open it:



What?! Lemme just check the manual:

SCROLL.USE
The attribute Intelligence determines your capability to find
and open secret doors in the cave. A perfect intelligence
(18) will always find and open the doors when attempted. A
lower intelligence will also suffice, but the attempt may
have to be made several times. In general, the higher your
intelligence, the better your odds at success.

Nuts! Looks like I won't be going any further on this foray.



I clear out a couple rooms on my way out so that I'll have some life points for some intelligence.



I make myself as smart as I need to be, and pick up a little more stamina to boot.



At the armory I upgrade my weapon to the great sword. I now have the all the best equipment. Still no projectiles, though. With my 0 dexterity, they're currently of no use to me.



When I return to the cave, the monsters I killed before are still dead. I think that what's happening is that when I quit and restart the game it respawns all the monsters. That's kind of a shame: the win condition I've set myself is exploring every room in the caves and killing everything I find, and if they're respawning I can't really do that. Plus it means that I don't have to worry so much about resources, because if I run out of treasure and enemies I can just quit and they'll be back. On the one hand, that means I can't put myself in an unwinnable state, but on the other it kills the challenge. I've decided that I'll be continuing after each death, and my thinking was that this would mean permanantly losing whatever I'd collected on that run. Not so any longer!

Anyway, before heading for the secret door at the end of the main corridor I enter every other room I can reach in level 2 and use the Cap of Merlin. I don't find anything.



Finding secret doors is pretty great. You guys can't hear it, but a little tune plays and the game excitedly tells you in all caps that you've found something. Now to open the door:



Yeah, that one point I put into intelligence still doesn't make me very smart. I keep trying for a while, and then:



It opens! Huzzah! I don't think I'll ever actually need more than one point of smarts, but opening doors is gonna be a hassle until I get some.



I head on through and kill some bats. The secret door closes behind me, and I have to use the Cap of Merlin again to re-reveal it (along with another secret door at the other end of the corridor). I open it again after mercifully few attempts. I know I just said I won't need any more intelligence (and I like the idea of keeping my character moronic), but one situation where it could be helpful is if I go through a secret door and find a tough enemy on the other side. Being able to quickly open the door and run away could be helpful. Or I could just talk to the enemy and take all the time I need to escape.



I carry on to the left. Looks like the enemies behind the door will tend to be tougher than the ones before it. The treasures haven't improved much, though.



Or maybe things are just the same. These giant bats are no threat, and there aren't even all that many of them.



The next room at least has multiple leeches. Scary stuff.



In room 16 I remember that I should be checking for doors, but I don't turn anything up. I take a moment to check the other rooms I've visited on this side of the secret door, but I don't find anything. Back to exploration!



Huh.



I guess I should have seen that coming. If you look closely at the .gif, you'll see that it actually took the rat three hits to kill me. Sure, those hits occurred over the space of 12 frames, but I guess my armour is doing something, despite appearances.

SCROLL.OLD
The Giant Rat be nearly as fast as a bat! Their appetite be
described as insatiable and they often travel in small herds.

Nearly as fast as a bat. Hmm. Looking ahead, at least two of the monsters we haven't seen yet (all of which are stronger than the rat) are faster than the rats. Something to look forward to.



I choose to continue, forfeiting my silver, life points, and treasure. The game doesn't bother with the land of the gods after continuing (no point without any life points), but it still sends you to the armory and witches lair despite your not having any money. Anyway, I get back to the dungeon.



I immediately turn and leave, which allows me to save and quit.

Next time:
I charm a rat, and explore some more of level 2.

But wait, there's more:

After the above post I responded to a few comments from others on the forum where this was originally posted:

Torzelbaum
Great now I have this mental image of your character pushing with all his might on a hidden door ... that you have to pull to open.

aturtledoesbite
I am amused at how these bats, rats, bugs, and skeletons are able to understand English well enough for you to talk them into inaction. Especially since you're arguably too dumb to know much in the way of wordplay.

Mogri
I can't help but think this game would be easier at its original speed.

I decided to experiment. I've been running the game at 3000 cycles (which seems to be the DOSBox default), but I took shots at the rat encounter at about 1000 cycles:



and at 7000:



And yeah, it was easier at a slower speed: I managed to kill the first two rats without being struck. I deliberately didn't attack the third so that I could see how long it would take me to die (not very). Higher speed was pretty much the same as at regular speed: very prompt death. I read someone online* saying that the trick to the game is to run it at max cycles, because your health regeneration is tied to the speed the game runs at. I tried cranking it up, and at first it seemed to be working. I was able to hold the move button and move indefinitely, because my restedness was regenerating faster than I was using it. But then this happened:



I didn't even make it to the rat. Seems like the fast cycle idea is a bust.

One thing with the speed though: you can't tell from the .gifs, of course, but the sound was all messed up on different speeds. At 1000 cycles the sound effects were way too slow. At 7000 they were over almost as soon as they started. At 3000 they sound just about right, which makes me think that it might be the speed the game was intended to run at.

I think I'm gonna stick with 3000, but I might start slowing it down for fights that I'm having trouble with. I've still got a few other options for dealing with rats that I haven't tried yet, so for now I won't change anything.

*Here, and looking again he was running it at ~450 cycles and switching up to "a few thousand CPU cycles", so I've misunderstood.