########################################################
# Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ.txt)
########################################################
# This file lists a number of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers,
# and sometimes also questions we wish were asked more often. :)
#
# Syntax is as follows:
#  Q:key word, for the question
#  A:key word, for the corresponding answer
#
# Questions are pushed into a menu in the order the questions are defined
# in this file. Answers need not necessarily be right next to the question,
# but it's easier to read if they are.
# There may be at most 52 questions, but it is recommended to keep the
# number much lower than that.
#
# This file is not meant as an easy-access spoiler file, but rather
# intended to answer general questions that crop up from time to time.
#

##############################################
# Beginners' questions about playing the game.
##############################################
%%%%
Q:goal

What exactly is the goal of this game?
%%%%
A:goal

A: To survive and to win, obviously. For this you need to find the fabled
Orb of Zot deep down in the dungeon and bring it back to the surface.
To enter the realm of Zot, you'll first need to collect three runes to be
found in various branches of the dungeon.

However, if you're new to the game you really shouldn't worry about this.
Just try to delve as deeply as possible and have fun exploring the many
side branches in Crawl with various characters of different species,
skill sets, and religions.
%%%%
Q:drop

How can I drop/pick up only part of a stack?
%%%%
A:drop

A: Press 'd' (or ','/'g'), followed by a number (the amount), and finally
the item's letter. For pickup, this is only possible when choosing items
from a menu, i.e. ',,' or 'gg'.
Stacks that are selected only in part are marked with '#' rather than '+'.
%%%%
Q:roguelike difference

What are the biggest differences to other popular roguelike games?
%%%%
A:roguelike difference

First, you might want to read the philosophy section in the manual ('?N') to
read about general important principles in Crawl Stonesoup game design.

As for specific differences, the most important are probably the following:
* Species is *much* more important the starting profession (or "class").
* Bones files only contain ghosts, never the dead character's equipment.
* You cannot sell items to shops or elsewhere.
* Resistances can be gained via mutations or items, never through eating.
* For most gods in Crawl, prayer doesn't have any effect at all. Where it
  does, it has both benefits and drawbacks. Check '^' to find out more.

Also, our aim is to give Crawl a really smooth interface, so you should really
read through the command list ('??') some time. The most intriguing "newish"
commands are probably the following:

* o, for automatic exploration of an unknown level
* G, for automatic travel to another level
* 5, for waiting and searching 100 turns or until something happens
* %, to access an overview screen for all your stats and resistances
* X, to access the level map for easier travelling and more subcommands ('X?')
* Ctrl-F, to find and travel to items or features you've seen before
%%%%
Q:downstairs

I can't find any downstairs. Am I missing something?
%%%%
A:downstairs

A: While this might be a bug, chances are the downstairs are somewhere in
a room closed off by a secret door. If you search (with '5') in suspicious
looking corridors and along walls near empty terrain, you will eventually
find one. Note that most levels feature three downstairs as well as three
upstairs, not counting any escape hatches. If you get stuck, you might
try another set of stairs from the level above.

Alternatively, if you are in one of the branches, you might also have
reached its lowest level and have to turn around to explore another one.
Check the overmap ('Ctrl-O') to see how deep you've delved into a given
branch, or the database ('?/b') for the number of levels for unseen branches.
%%%%
Q:stuck

I teleported and ended up in a closed room without any exits. Am I stuck?
%%%%
A:stuck

A: Hopefully not. Search all the walls with '5' in case there's a secret
door. If you really can't find any, it could be a bug and need fixing, so
please report it on our SourceForge tracker. In the meantime, you can try
to escape with digging, disintegration or teleportation.
%%%%
Q:survival

How can I avoid dying all the time? Can you give me some playing tips?
%%%%
A:survival

A: If you've got trouble even reaching the Temple, you might want to try
out the Tutorial for some general playing hints. (To do this, press
'Ctrl-T' in the character selection menu.)

Also, there are easy playing combinations and more challenging ones
(marked in dark grey on the selection screen). If you are new to Crawl,
sticking to the easier ones is advisable. In general, treat each new
monster you meet with utmost caution and keep an eye on your hit points
and magic.

For specific hints dealing with a particular character, you can press '#'
in-game to create a "dump" in your morgue folder that you can then post on
the rec.games.roguelike.misc group or in the Something Awful forum, so
other players can comment on your equipment, skills or spell selection.
Please try to trim your dump by removing stuff unnecessary for this task
(such as the extensive Vanquished list). If you join the ##crawl channel
of the freenode IRC, you will find helpful souls who will even watch you
and give hints should you play on one of the public servers.
%%%%
Q:cheating

Is there a cheating mode to Crawl where I can play without dying?
%%%%
A:cheating

A: Not a cheating mode, exactly, but if your build supports it you can
play in wizard mode (access with '&') where you are prompted whenever
you're about to die, and have access to a number of nifty commands to
create equipment, travel to distant branches, or fiddle with your stats
or skills.
Note that wizard mode games will never appear on the highscore list.

Many players reckon long-time use of wizard mode to be detrimental to your
playing skills. On the other hand, wizard mode has its uses: we are really
thankful whenever we get bug reports using wizard mode for reproducing and
exploring bugs.
%%%%
Q:weapons

I've got two cool weapons. How can I tell which one is better?
%%%%
A:weapons

A: "Better" depends on a number of factors, such as your weapon skills,
whether it's one or two-handed, the randart properties, the weapon brand,
and the monsters you're about to face. In general, switching from a weapon
type you are already highly skilled with to another one that you have no
skill in is a waste of time. The brands may greatly differ in damage output
but you can get a good idea by bashing a few comparatively harmless
monsters with each and comparing the results.

Of the enchantments, the second value (damage) is usually more important
than the first (accuracy) unless you hardly ever manage to hit with a
weapon.
%%%%
Q:religion

Which gods would you recommend to a beginning player?
%%%%
A:religion

A: The easiest gods to play are probably Trog (for pure fighters), Vehumet or
Sif Muna (for spellcasters), Beogh (for orcs) and Xom (for general fun).
When you reach the Temple for the first time be sure to read all gods'
descriptions and take your time in deciding which way to go.
%%%%
Q:starving

My characters keep starving. What am I doing wrong?
%%%%
A:starving

A: It's possible that you simply spend too much time on cleared levels
where not enough monsters are generated to dine on. You might also be too
choosy about what you eat: unless you are herbivorous you will have to
occasionally eat monster chunks, even those that sometimes make you sick
(coloured brown in the menu and the prompt). If you worship a god who
enjoys sacrifices pay attention to your own hunger status instead of offering
all corpses you come across.
Also, casting (difficult) spells will make you hungry, but high
Intelligence and Spellcasting will lessen this effect. If you press 'II',
you can read about the hunger effects of your spells.
Invocations likewise often have a Food cost.
%%%%
Q:ghosts

I keep getting murdered by my own ghosts. Can I deactivate them?
%%%%
A:ghosts

A: No, you can't. On the plus side, once a ghost has been loaded onto a
level, it won't be loaded again - unless you happen to die on that level,
thus creating a bones file featuring more than one ghost.
Keep in mind that you don't absolutely have to fight every monster you meet,
and with ghosts it's even easier: they cannot leave the level they were
created on.

Alternatively, you could play a couple of strong species/job combinations
for the sole purpose of busting those ghosts, for example Berserkers or a
spellcaster who's learned Dispel Undead.
%%%%
Q:abyss

I've somehow ended up in a place called "Abyss". How do I get out of here?
%%%%
A:abyss

A: If you are in the Abyss for the first time, chances of getting out are
slim. Still, here are a few general hints:
* You need to find a gateway leading out of the Abyss. These are rare!
* Don't stick around to fight, move as much as possible!
* The Abyss wraps around, so avoid going straight into one direction.
* If you have it, use defensive equipment (weapon of protection etc.).
* Use teleportation to hopefully end up in a completely new part of the Abyss.
* Teleportation might take much longer to kick in than in the Dungeon.
* Consider switching your allegiance to Lugonu to get out of there.
%%%%
Q:randart

What do the terms "randart", "unrandart" and "egoitem" signify?
%%%%
A:randart

A: Apart from the standard items you'll find lying around in the dungeon,
you might also stumble upon artefacts which come in two varieties:

* randart: a random artefact, usually a weapon or type of armour with
  random properties such as conferring resistances or abilities
* unrandart: an artefact that looks like a randart but is really
  predefined. While a few (formerly known as "fixed artefacts") have
  special hardcoded effects, for most there's no further difference except
  that players "in the know" can recognize such an item by its special
  description and/or colour/tile.

Neither of these types can be enchanted or branded, neither temporarily nor
permanently. There is another type of special item that pops up a bit more
frequently:

* egoitem: these are ordinary items with one special property. For example,
  a short sword of venom, a cap of see invisible, or boots of running.
  These can be affected by enchanting scrolls and also by corrosion and
  acids. Weapons of this type are branded, and only divine intervention can
  change the brand.
%%%%
Q:oklobs

Oklob plants suck! Are you planning to remove them at last?
%%%%
A:oklobs

A: No. We think that Oklob plants provide an interesting challenge.
Resist the urge to kill them at once. If you absolutely need to bypass them
use your resources wisely. A hint: They cannot see invisible.
%%%%
Q:instadeath

I went down these stairs and got killed instantly! Is this a bug?
%%%%
A:instadeath

A: Probably not. While your death might be due to an ill-placed vault (this
would be a bug), it is generally just really bad luck. We believe that a
game is more fun if the risk of death is real. This means that such instant
deaths cannot be fully avoided as Crawl relies on randomness for posing
challenges. It is important to realize that for highly skilled players, the
margin of such deaths is really slim...
%%%%
Q:zombified

My zombies refuse to follow me into the next level. Is this a bug?
%%%%
A:zombified

A: No, it's a deliberate design decision. As of version 0.5, zombies,
skeletons and simulacra are considered too stupid to manoeuvre along
staircases. We realize that this weakens Necromancers but we consider the
interface improvement of zombie herding becoming unfeasible to be more
important. Interestingly, this makes Necromancy and Yredelemnul more fun
than before.

Keep in mind that the same also applies to hostile undead of the same kind!
%%%%
##############################################
# Questions about the development process.
##############################################
Q:bug

The game keeps crashing. / I think I found a bug. What do I do?
%%%%
A:bug

A: Please submit a bug report on SourceForge, and give as much information
as you can: What were you doing at the time? What did you expect to
happen, what happened instead? etc.
Most importantly, what version are you playing? (If you're not sure, you can
check in-game with '?v'.) Console or tiles?

Sometimes a screenshot can be helpful. For crashes or monsters/items/levels
behaving oddly, we probably need a save file. To be on the safe side, attach
the entire zipped save of the character in question. If there are error
messages, please write them down. Short of a save file, a guide on how to
reproduce the crash (or bug) can be useful; you can use wizard mode for this.

If you don't log in to SourceForge or leave an email address at least check
the thread from time to time in case we have some more questions. In any case
leave a nick so that we can refer to you in some way.

Thanks in advance!
%%%%
Q:ideas

I've got millions of ideas! Can I join the team?
%%%%
A:ideas

A: No, you can't. At least not on ideas alone.

All of the devteam members submitted a number of code intensive patches
and/or took over responsibility over an important side project before
joining. A good way to become indispensable is to help us with patches or
vaults etc.

Please submit your ideas to the Feature Requests tracker of SourceForge. If
they catch the interest of at least one coder, chances are they'll make it
into the game.

Note that your idea has better chances to be accepted if you present the
ramifications on gameplay. Since we put a lot of emphasis on the interface,
a good proposal on how to make the game play smoother may go in without much
ado.
%%%%
Q:feature

Hey! Why did you close my feature request?
%%%%
A:feature

A: If you are logged in to SourceForge when submitting your feature
request, or choose to "Monitor" the resulting thread while logged in, you
will get an email any time someone replies to (or fiddles with) this
thread. Once a thread has been closed, you can still access it by searching
for requests with the "Closed" status.

We always try to give a reason for closing a request, but it usually boils
down to three reasons:
* It doesn't fit into the Crawl world as we see it.
* It violates Crawl's philosophy to avoid grinding and spoiler-heavy stuff.
* We just don't think it's interesting enough to ever be implemented.

Please don't let this stop you from bringing up more suggestions. Already the
next one might generate heavy interest and excitement, and end up in the
game. However, do try to be specific in your suggestions. If you cannot even
explain the basics of your idea, why should we bother to flesh it out, let
alone code it?
%%%%
Q:patch

I've written a patch for a cool new feature! Where should I send it?
%%%%
A:patch

A: Please submit it to the Patches tracker on SourceForge. Keep in mind
that without previous discussions, we may not be able to use the patch, or
it might need heavy modification. In general, it is safer to first file
your suggestions under Feature Requests and wait for people to become
enthusiastic and give feedback before you submit a patch. If you want,
you can also write a patch that implements an existing FR or fixes a bug.

If you'd like to write a patch but don't know how to go about it,
patch_guide.txt in the docs/ folder is the file for you.

We really appreciate your help!
%%%%
Q:help

I cannot code, but I'd like to help improve the game. What can I do?
%%%%
A:help

A: There are several areas where you can get creative and outside help is
much appreciated. These are:
* the maps/vaults (see dat/ folder, docs/develop/levels/introduction.txt)
* monster speech (see dat/database/, docs/monster_speech.txt)
* monster/item/spell descriptions (see dat/descript/)
* tiles (see source/rltiles/, docs/tiles_creation.txt)

Also, if you'd like to write a patch but don't know how to go about it, read
patch_guide.txt in the docs/ folder.

If you've got some cool addition, you can send it over the mailing list, or
post it as a SourceForge item. You can also help us by giving feedback on
the most recent version or trunk (available via git, Windows binaries
downloadable from http://crawl.develz.org/trunk/).

Thanks a lot for your support!
%%%%
Q:beta

Is there a way for me to play the new version before it is released?
%%%%
A:beta

A: There certainly is! You can play "trunk" (what will eventually become
the next version) online on http://crawl.develz.org, or you can download
Windows binaries from the same site. Note that trunk may be buggy, and that
many changes will invalidate your saved games. If that doesn't bother you,
go ahead and play!

Be sure to leave some feedback/suggestions/bug reports on the SourceForge
trackers. When doing so please mention the version (see '?v') you're
currently playing, in case the bug's already been fixed or the feature
already implemented.
%%%%
Q:interact

Is there a way for me to interact with other players?
%%%%
A:interact

A: If you play online on http://crawl.akrasiac.org or http://crawl.develz.org
you can watch games in progress, other players can watch you while you play,
and you can kill other players' ghosts. You can even send and receive
messages.
Check docs/ssh_guide.txt for an explanation about how to play online.

You can also chat in the Crawl channel (irc.freenode.net, ##crawl), or discuss
in the Something Awful forum or the rec.games.roguelike.misc newsgroup.
%%%%
Q:changes

What did you change in the most recent version?
%%%%
A:changes

A: The (admittedly highly subjective) highlights of the last major release are
listed along with the version information under '?v'. For more details, check
out changelog.txt in the docs/ folder.
%%%%
##############################################
# Questions about the Tiles version
##############################################
Q:tiles lag

The tiles version is awfully slow on Windows! How can I improve that?
%%%%
A:tiles lag

First, we're really sorry about that! Stonesoup 0.5 was tested on several
systems and the gigantic lag on some Windows systems was completely
unexpected.
Crawl 0.5 renders graphics using OpenGL and SDL. For most video cards, this
should be faster than the 0.4 version. However, the default driver that ships
with Windows is extremely slow. If you are having performance problems, be
sure to update your video card driver as a first step.

We're working on a solution for this problem, but in the meantime you can try
to see whether tweaking some options will improve performance. See
docs/tiles_help.txt for details. If things are still too laggy after all of
that, you'll have to either continue playing 0.4.5 until the problem has been
solved, or you could try the non-graphical console version.

We'd like to apologize for the grief that this has caused some players, but we
hope that it's understandable that making this change in 0.5 has allowed a lot
of graphical improvements: Uniques get on-screen names. All monsters get
health bars. Graphical menus. Full screen mode. Eee PC support. None of those
things would have been possible in previous tiles versions. On top of that, if
you have an adequate driver 0.5 can often be faster than 0.4, because the GPU
can easily do the work that used to take the CPU a lot of time.

At any rate, it'll be fixed.  Just be patient.  :)
%%%%
Q:tiles online

Can I play Tiles online?
%%%%
A:tiles online

A: Sadly, no, that's not possible at the moment. We are planning to change
that but so far we haven't even decided how to go about it, and so it's
still far off.

If you can, do give the console version a try: playing online is certainly
worth it.
%%%%
Q:tiles graphics

Is there a way for me to replace some of the tiles with different ones?
%%%%
A:tiles graphics

A: It depends. If all you want are minor modifications such as colour
changes you can directly modify the png files in the dat/tiles/ folder.

Otherwise, you'll need to be able to compile the game. In this case you can
either directly replace the tiles in the rltiles/ subfolders, or change
their paths in the dc-xxxx.txt files. For the compilation to be successful,
you may also need to delete or rename the *.png files in rltiles/. Upon
compilation, the newly rolled *.png files are copied into the dat/tiles/
folder which is where the game accesses the tiles it needs. You can then
share these files with other players, so they can use your tileset without
having to compile the game.

If you've created some nice new tiles or variations of existing ones you'd
like to share you might want to send them over the mailing list or submit
them as a SourceForge item. It's easiest for us if they are already in
32x32 png format, preferrably zipped if there are several.

See docs/tiles_creation.txt for a slightly more detailed explanation.

Thanks in advance!
%%%%
Q:tiles options

Is there a way to modify the size of the tiles screen, the font etc?
%%%%
A:tiles options

A: Yes. Play around with the options in settings/tiles_options.txt until
you are satisfied. See docs/options_guide.txt for some explanations.
%%%%