More game mechanics: I'm hoarding attribute points until I find something that needs them. I think I'll need max strength for the best armor, but I don't want to buy it too early. Finally meeting the Black Death type zombies in the Catacombs. I know there's a trick where you let them hit you to get your hit points permanently lowered, then you get some benefit down the road, like protection against stun-lock, I think. I don't care if that works, there's nothing in character about it at all, so I don't want anything to do with it.
Another pattern emerges quickly: buy all the mana potions you can carry, go down and explore as far as you can, turning those potions into whatever best loot you can carry. Come back to town, sell, repair, reload on mana, repeat. I've reached another milestone, of sorts - I'm accumulating enough stuff that I need to store it. The only place that makes sense is around the fountain; I remember some old multi games where the whole courtyard would be littered with money, potions, and rings.
One of the few flaws about this game is the firing system, in that shooting on the diagonal can easily be a total miss. But you get used to it.
And on an ergonomic note, my hand positions for this game are unlike any other. The mouse is in its usual place, but my left is resting only on the F5 through F8 keys - these are your spell quick keys. Because of the odd floating position, I have the keyboard almost a foot further away from me, right up against the monitor, so I can rest my arm on the desk. This could be a little better, for those times when you want to quickly drink some liquid courage by pressing the 1-8 keys, which is where the belt potions are.
For a while, I assign the F5-F8 keys to whatever spell I can get my hands on, but now I remember the pattern I used to use: F5 is your best fire spell (bolt at first, ball later), F6 is your best lightning spell (bolt, then straight or chain), F7 is your tactical weapon (fire wall, then guardian), and F8 is your defensive spell (heal, then later teleport). Everything else, like Mana Shield, is only activated occasionally, and can easily be reached with the S shortcut key.
As I go further down, I remember now resistance is a factor. Some critters can only be hurt by fire or electricity. I still don't have teleport, and it would be really useful getting across all these rivers of fire. I finally have Fireball and Lightning, at least.
