Eternal Deathmatch in "Deathmatch"

I didn't find an answer in the other threads about this mod and as thread necromany seems to be very much frowned upon, I decided to start a new one.

Well, my question is, is there an end to this mod or does it just go on forever (and ever)? I'm currently around the 33rd round of deathmatch (meaning I killed the first 80 or so monsters) and now the rounds don't seem to get harder anymore. Every new round is the same as the one before and they just keep coming forever (and ever).

If I die, of course, I'm resurrected and teleported out of the pit with the keeper giving me more of a reward for each additional round, but that's not a real ending either. I can't leave the area and I can't reenter the pit so there seems to be nothing left to do. Am I missing something or is it really just an eteral deathmatch? Or maybe this module wasn't desinged as much to be played, but more as a reference how to code a pit with respawning monsters, resurrection and rewards? I don't know. Anyone?

 

They just keep on coming.

There isn't any additional dialogue for when you leave the pit. You get a handful of gold, that's it.

I think the pit was probably just for bragging. "I got to level 40 with an orcish fighter" "I got to level 3 with a dwarven gun slinger".

So what character did you use?

 

OK, thanks a lot for the info. I guess I can stop the bloodshed now. :wink:

Well, at first I tried to tackle the deathmatch with a character similar to the one that I had finished the main game just before, meaning a morally good dwarven herbalogist/gunslinger, but soon realised that he was underpowered and that I wouldn't get far.

So, I switched myself into powergaming mode and tried come up with the character best suited for the task ahead. I used a male, hyperactive half-orc fighter. Of the five intial CPs, one went into DX and two into Dodge and Melee each. Then I sold my jacket to the virtual shopkeeper and bought a katana from the blacksmith. Then I bought eleven CP from the gyspy (one into ST, six into DX, two into Dodge and Melee each) and bought as many potions from the magic shopkeeper as I could, before killing him to get a lot of money. Then I went to the magical blacksmith to buy a dread armor and a shield and killed him as well. Then I bought a cheap axe, boots and gloves at the normal blacksmith and return to break open the magical smith's chest. Then I killed everyone else in the village that I could, meaning a rabbit and the spectators, as the other shopkeepers and their pets and husbands seem to be invulnerable, sold everything that I could, dumped everything I couldn't into the trash and bought all the potions, cures, salves and restorers that were up for sale before talking to the pitkeeper and slaughtering the monsters by the dozen, investing each new CP into ST.

I used the auto-save feature quite a lot tough. Not because of fear of dying, which really wasn't a problem with this character, but because the script responsible for the respawning seems to have some problems with turn-based combat. In the latter stages, often only three of four new mosters would appear and after you killed those, you'd be stuck in the pit, because you weren't dead and no new mosters appeared as you didn't kill all four of the previous stage, making reloading or starting over the only options. The script seems to function fine in real-time, but I do not function well in real-time combat and refuse to use it.

 

Killing the shopkeepers for money and loot. Good idea.
That would explain why you've gotten twice as far as my straight melee half-ogre.

The pit really makes it clear how underpowered tech characters are in the early game.