bumcheekcend.ash - A zero setup semi-automated ascension script!

[bumcheekcity]

I know BCC doesn't plan to support these challenge paths, but it happens anyway, so here's my initial thoughts.

It doesn't look like Jarlsberg will be too hard. Food and companions will be up the players. The spheres are easy to support. There's a strange part with the blackbird that needs fixing, but that shouldn't be hard.

The weirdest thing I think will be dealing with staffs that enable banishing, olfaction, and mega item drop. You need to equip them before combat to enable the right jiggling skill, then trigger it in combat. That's a bit like the hebo.

That's my feel so far. I've added the spheres to my copy and I just do the parts requiring special staffs by hand. There's an abort in the avatar recognition code, but that's no surprise and restarting the script makes in continue.

I haven't gotten to the finally epic combat yet, but I'm guessing letters don't need to be farmed.

I bought two buckets and have all 30 skills, and certainly with all skills, Jarlsberg looks fairly easy. You basically crap MP, and kill everything in one hit. The key issue is getting initiative, because the general rule is that if you get hit, you die. Otherwise you can easily murder the crap out of and one-shot virtually every single enemy in the game, every time.

Spheres are almost trivial, I imagine familiars could be a little irritating. I would think that creating a basic function to automate combat would be easy as well.

Basically I can't see it being tricky, and if Winterbay doesn't have the time, I'll certainly start on it shortly.

 

[Winterbay]

I'd appreciate if you could start looking at it since I am a bit time constrained and also going the "slow" route will take a while to get to the "have enough skills to do useful things with"

Also, it appears something is up with the sourceforge page as I cannot commit things at the moment. Have you changed anything (like what Mafia did recently)? Or is my internet just stupid?

 

[bumcheekcity]

Thiknking for the new Castle in the Sky:

BASEMENT
If you have an amulet of plot significance, we should equip it, and immediately go for "You don't mess around...".
If you don't, and if you don't have a dumbbell, we should get one.
If you don't have an amulet, but do have a dumbbell, we should go for "You don't mess around...".

GROUND FLOOR
Just adventure for a bit until you get the "Top of the Castle, Ma" adventure.

UPSTAIRS
???

I think I'd prefer to quickly fix this, spin a release, then do AoJ.

 

[maximillian the red]

Thiknking for the new Castle in the Sky:

BASEMENT
If you have an amulet of plot significance, we should equip it, and immediately go for "You don't mess around...".
If you don't, and if you don't have a dumbbell, we should get one.
If you don't have an amulet, but do have a dumbbell, we should go for "You don't mess around...".

GROUND FLOOR
Just adventure for a bit until you get the "Top of the Castle, Ma" adventure.

UPSTAIRS
???

I think I'd prefer to quickly fix this, spin a release, then do AoJ.

Upstairs I think you want to:
Copper Feel -> Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery choice adventure, which will obtain a steam-powered model rocketship (opening HitS)

and:
Flavor of a Raver -> Raid the Crate choice adventure to acquire drum 'n' bass 'n' drum 'n' bass record
which is then used in:
Melon Collie and the Infinite Lameness -> Change up the Music which turns the wheel and satisfies the level 10 quest (I think)

There are other maneuverings you can do to get to the appropriate choice adventures also, for example:
Yeah, You're for Me, Punk Rock Giant -> Look Behind the Poster: takes you to Flavor of a Raver (to get the record)
and
Melon Collie and the Infinite Lameness -> Gimme Steam: Takes you to Copper Feel (to get the rocketship for HitS)

So in summation I think you want to do these on the choice advs:
Copper Feel
-> (first time) Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery
-> (second time, if you have a record) Go through the Crack (else) Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery (might skip)
if it turns out Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery doesn't skip, we probably want to get a brass gear or go fight a goth in Melon Collie

Melon Collie and the Infinite Lameness
-> (if you dont have the rocketship) Gimme Steam (getting rocketship with Whirligigs choice above)
-> (if you have the rocketship, and the record) Change up the Music
-> (rocketship but no record) Gimme Steam (goes to Copper Feel) and then Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery (might skip)
if it turns out Investigate the Whirligigs and Gimcrackery doesn't skip, we probably want to stay here and fight a goth or go to Copper and get a brass gear

Yeah, You're for Me, Punk Rock Giant
-> (if you dont have the record) Look Behind the Poster: takes you to Flavor of a Raver (to get the record)
-> (with a record) Get the Punk's Attention: Fight a Punk Rock Giant or Dig Through His Drawers: Gain ?-499-? Meat

Flavor of a Raver
-> Raid the Crate: first time acquire drum 'n' bass 'n' drum 'n' bass record, subsequently nothing (skips adventure)

I'd love a second set of eyes on this though.

 

[Crowther]

I bought two buckets and have all 30 skills, and certainly with all skills, Jarlsberg looks fairly easy. You basically crap MP, and kill everything in one hit. The key issue is getting initiative, because the general rule is that if you get hit, you die. Otherwise you can easily murder the crap out of and one-shot virtually every single enemy in the game, every time.

My experience exactly in softcore.

 

[DeathPhoenyx]

Since the castle revamp i have been getting this error when I try to run the script

> call scripts\bumcheekascend v0.54.ash

giant's castle (basement)
giant's castle (ground floor)
giant's castle (top floor)
Multiple matches against Giant Castle.
Bad location value: "Giant Castle" (bumcheekascend v0.54.ash, line 2467)

I know you guys are working on the script to adapt it to the quest but I ascended yesterday, so I don't need to worry about that quest for a while, is there a way I can modify the script so it doesn't check for that quest and it allows me to run it?

 

[Winterbay]

You can comment out the bcascCastle()-function and then also comment out the call to said function in the bcs10()-function.

 

[DeathPhoenyx]

You can comment out the bcascCastle()-function and then also comment out the call to said function in the bcs10()-function.

Ok I didn't know it would be so easy as to just comment out the references to that zone

In the end I had to edit out every reference to the castle in the script, but it was easy enough and didn't take long, thanks

 

[Winterbay]

There may be other references as well I think due to tower-farming code and similar I guess. I'll be updating the SVN-version when I get home with a version that should at least not ball on trying to be run.

 

[Crowther]

Well, I spent so much time yesterday spading Jarlsberg spell damage that I nearly ran out of time to start a new run. I did everything as fast as possible. Eat, drank, pulled stuff, and launched BCC's ascend. Fixed that castle errors, etc. I left it running and left to do other things. I don't normally run it unattended, but the script did very well. I had to stop if from farming pixels before I could use the olfaction staff (50 base myst). It tried to change to familiars, which I didn't have (I consider that a mafia bug for telling ascend they were available). I managed to get liver of steal on day one. Of course, that's softcore with all the skills and lots of toys.

I'm pretty happy. It will never be optimal, but still, that's pretty good for little new effort.

EDIT: Jarlsberg has such horrible item drop, using the staff of all-steak at the fcle might be a worthwhile optimization.

 

[Winterbay]

Getting an instant +50% with the eggman was rather nice I thought. I don't think I've had any item-dropping problems this run so far, more of a bad RNG with choice adventures.

 

[Winterbay]

Well, I spent so much time yesterday spading Jarlsberg spell damage that I nearly ran out of time to start a new run. I did everything as fast as possible. Eat, drank, pulled stuff, and launched BCC's ascend. Fixed that castle errors, etc. I left it running and left to do other things. I don't normally run it unattended, but the script did very well. I had to stop if from farming pixels before I could use the olfaction staff (50 base myst). It tried to change to familiars, which I didn't have (I consider that a mafia bug for telling ascend they were available). I managed to get liver of steal on day one. Of course, that's softcore with all the skills and lots of toys.

I'm pretty happy. It will never be optimal, but still, that's pretty good for little new effort.

EDIT: Jarlsberg has such horrible item drop, using the staff of all-steak at the fcle might be a worthwhile optimization.

The familiar-bit is probably due to a) you being in softcore with access to either a spangly sombrero or some spangly mariachi pants and the relevant familiar and b) mafia not recognising that you actually don't have that familiar. It should return from the familiar-swapping function without doing anything unless a) is true.

The SVN-version now runs with the latest Mafia and a) aborts at the castle and b) goes to the correct places to farm for items when needed.

 

[bumcheekcity]

I've added a quick bit on changing mood for Jarlsberg, and some provisional code to fight. I think that we shoudl be able to take very strong control of Jarlsberg's fighting because he only has very few skills. Of course, spading will be important but rome wasn't built in a day, etc.

 

[fronobulax]

The SVN-version now runs with the latest Mafia and a) aborts at the castle and b) goes to the correct places to farm for items when needed.

Since I whined about about using the latest SVN as opposed to a "released version" I feel I should report that I was unable to use r277 which is the latest at the time of this post. There were several instances of a missing semi-colon - "return 0" instead of "return 0;", bad function names (missing an _ as in "monsterHP()" when monster_hp()" was correct, an awkward declaration where a function's signature was incorrect and an undeclared variable which I couldn't figure out and so I gave up and punted.

This is not a knock on anyone maintaining the script - I check in nonworking code all the time and sometimes it is deliberate, but there is some tension between telling folks to use the latest SVN version and having the latest SVN version not even pass script verification. Perhaps to eliminate this when folks are told to use an unreleased version, the version should be specified, i.e. use r276.

Thank you. My ability to pick at nits and complain does not in any way diminish my admiration for and gratitude towards this script and the folks who maintain it.

 

[Winterbay]

Hmm... That's odd. That's not the one I committed though since I've been running that today without a hitch (well apart from needing to modify the Airship-check for seeing when it's done since the "castle.gif" image is no more)

 

[bumcheekcity]

Weird indeed. That's my version, but I checked it ran before I committed, and a diff to 225 (winterbay's previous version) showed nothing that should cause problems like that.

 

[fronobulax]

Just to prove I am not crazy, I recovered my modified copy from the trash, and re-downloaded 226 and 227. My copy is identical to 227 except for the edits I recall making. 227 and 226 differ by the addition of a block of code starting with "string consultJarl(int round, string opp, string test)" All of the errors I found were in the code added between 226 and 227. Given that 227 was checked in during the middle of the night in my timezone there is plenty of room for operator error and forgiveness

 

[Crowther]

I've added a quick bit on changing mood for Jarlsberg, and some provisional code to fight. I think that we shoudl be able to take very strong control of Jarlsberg's fighting because he only has very few skills. Of course, spading will be important but rome wasn't built in a day, etc.

I haven't ran it yet, but I like your new commentary.

 

[Winterbay]

r228 should run again at least. There were indeed a couple of odd things with r227 all being in that consultJarl-function.

 

[Crowther]

there is some tension between telling folks to use the latest SVN version and having the latest SVN version not even pass script verification.

Sorry for pulling out just that part, but I've been using the live SVN version regularly for a very long time and this version was the worst one I've ever seen (verification wise). I strongly believe you'll find it is an outlier, not the norm.