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'Giving' to pet(s) (Elvenking)
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chrisinpants
Jul 7, 2012, 2:44:48 PM7/7/12
to
Hiya!
So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again. When I chat to him he asks me for a potion of healing. I've tried leaving fully id'd healing and full healing infront off him, he's not interested. He'll even step on it, and wander off. I've smashed it in his face (thrown) and that doesn't seem to bother or satisfy him. Does he expect silver service?
After a little while he'll just go back to cursing orcs. Is this elven humour?
What silly part of me do I need to unsilly?
There's a couple of big dragons in our gang, twice my level, so it will all go wrong at some point, but trouble in the ranks won't get us anywhere.
Oh I have searched but can only find references to source, oh and notes in a spoiler about humanoids asking such things when 1/2 health is depleted. Perhaps patience is key. Pointers are much appreciated.
Chris
So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again. When I chat to him he asks me for a potion of healing. I've tried leaving fully id'd healing and full healing infront off him, he's not interested. He'll even step on it, and wander off. I've smashed it in his face (thrown) and that doesn't seem to bother or satisfy him. Does he expect silver service?
After a little while he'll just go back to cursing orcs. Is this elven humour?
What silly part of me do I need to unsilly?
There's a couple of big dragons in our gang, twice my level, so it will all go wrong at some point, but trouble in the ranks won't get us anywhere.
Oh I have searched but can only find references to source, oh and notes in a spoiler about humanoids asking such things when 1/2 health is depleted. Perhaps patience is key. Pointers are much appreciated.
Chris
chrisinpants
Jul 7, 2012, 4:37:43 PM7/7/12
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Ah! 'She looks sound and hale again'...
How to chat with a dragon anyone? I can't seem to find a reference for roars and such like. Elves are easy, now.
How to chat with a dragon anyone? I can't seem to find a reference for roars and such like. Elves are easy, now.
Jonadab the Unsightly One
Jul 9, 2012, 7:20:21 AM7/9/12
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You can use a stethoscope to check on a pet dragon, if you
can find one, but in my experience pet dragons generally can
take care of themselves pretty well as long as you keep them
with you all the time and continue exploring downward
through the mines.
They're more robust than dogs, so you shouldn't need to
provide them with healing.
They shouldn't go ferral unless you leave them alone (or
maybe if you use them as a steed repeatedly, if you're not a
knight; but dragons are kind of slow for steeds anyway).
Dragons generally only have hunger issues if you start doing
something time-consuming on a cleared level (polypiling,
extensive alchemy, sacrifests, any kind of farming, etc.) or
traveling back and forth across multiple cleared levels
(e.g., from deep in the main dungeon to Minetown and back).
So don't do that until you can stand to lose the pets (or
you have a stethoscope).
Eventually you will need to do some of those things, and
your dragons will go ferral; but by then you can probably
get along without powerful pets (barring certain kinds of
conduct play, notably pacifism). Former-pet dragons (of
most colors) are not especially dangerous once you have
reflection, just stay out of melee range, which is easy to
do unless you're polyselfed into something painfully slow.
Janis Papanagnou
Jul 9, 2012, 8:09:43 AM7/9/12
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Am 09.07.2012 13:20, schrieb Jonadab the Unsightly One:
> In my experience, chatting with a dragon isn't particularly useful.
> [...]
> In my experience, chatting with a dragon isn't particularly useful.
> They're more robust than dogs, so you shouldn't need to
> provide them with healing.
Later in the game pet dragons will (more or less) easily die.
> provide them with healing.
Having a stethoscope and the healing spell to cast is helpful,
also a wand of undead turning is an excellent option to apply
in case of their death.
Janis
Doug Freyburger
Jul 9, 2012, 2:51:08 PM7/9/12
to
chrisinpants wrote:
>
> So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no
> less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one
> of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little
> uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again.
That usually happens when pets are confused by hunger. I think you
>
> So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no
> less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one
> of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little
> uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again.
encountered two problems at once. This problem was the hunger.
> When I chat to him he asks me for a potion of healing. I've tried
> leaving fully id'd healing and full healing infront off him, he's not
> interested. He'll even step on it, and wander off. I've smashed it in
> his face (thrown) and that doesn't seem to bother or satisfy him. Does
> he expect silver service?
up a potion except randomly. This problem was the injury.
> After a little while he'll just go back to cursing orcs. Is this elven humour?
wanted healing. He was also hungry so he wanted to eat but because he
was avoiding combat because he was injured he did not generate his own
corpses to eat. At some point he healed enough to be willing to fight
monsters and then he started generating his own food again and stopped
being hungry.
When in doubt toss a food ration at a pet who might be in trouble.
Corey
Jul 9, 2012, 3:12:40 PM7/9/12
to
To: Doug Freyburger
Re: Re: 'Giving' to pet(s) (Elvenking)
By: Doug Freyburger to rec.games.roguelike.nethack on Mon Jul 09 2012 06:51 pm
> chrisinpants wrote:
> >
> > So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no
> > less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one
> > of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little
> > uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again.
>
> That usually happens when pets are confused by hunger. I think you
> encountered two problems at once. This problem was the hunger.
>
> > When I chat to him he asks me for a potion of healing. I've tried
> > leaving fully id'd healing and full healing infront off him, he's not
> > interested. He'll even step on it, and wander off. I've smashed it in
> > his face (thrown) and that doesn't seem to bother or satisfy him. Does
> > he expect silver service?
>
> I think it takes a spell of healing. Not sure how to get a pet to pick
> up a potion except randomly. This problem was the injury.
>
> > After a little while he'll just go back to cursing orcs. Is this elven hum
>
Re: Re: 'Giving' to pet(s) (Elvenking)
By: Doug Freyburger to rec.games.roguelike.nethack on Mon Jul 09 2012 06:51 pm
> chrisinpants wrote:
> >
> > So, I'm diving into my first 'proper' game of nh (as a Barbarian, no
> > less) and I have a few cool elves hanging about with me as pets but one
> > of them - Piddles, an Elvenking (formally a kitten) - is a little
> > uppity atm, he lashes out at me now and again.
>
> That usually happens when pets are confused by hunger. I think you
> encountered two problems at once. This problem was the hunger.
>
> > When I chat to him he asks me for a potion of healing. I've tried
> > leaving fully id'd healing and full healing infront off him, he's not
> > interested. He'll even step on it, and wander off. I've smashed it in
> > his face (thrown) and that doesn't seem to bother or satisfy him. Does
> > he expect silver service?
>
> I think it takes a spell of healing. Not sure how to get a pet to pick
> up a potion except randomly. This problem was the injury.
>
> > After a little while he'll just go back to cursing orcs. Is this elven hum
>
> My theory - He was hurt down to half hit points from combat so he
> wanted healing. He was also hungry so he wanted to eat but because he
> was avoiding combat because he was injured he did not generate his own
> corpses to eat. At some point he healed enough to be willing to fight
> monsters and then he started generating his own food again and stopped
> being hungry.
>
> When in doubt toss a food ration at a pet who might be in trouble.
unless you have a pet rat and brain it to death with it.
> wanted healing. He was also hungry so he wanted to eat but because he
> was avoiding combat because he was injured he did not generate his own
> corpses to eat. At some point he healed enough to be willing to fight
> monsters and then he started generating his own food again and stopped
> being hungry.
>
> When in doubt toss a food ration at a pet who might be in trouble.
Doug Freyburger
Jul 9, 2012, 4:25:20 PM7/9/12
to
Corey wrote:
Are pets below some size or health unable to catch thrown fod?
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> > When in doubt toss a food ration at a pet who might be in trouble.
>
> unless you have a pet rat and brain it to death with it.
In my experience when I throw a food ration at a pet my pet catches it.
>
> > When in doubt toss a food ration at a pet who might be in trouble.
>
> unless you have a pet rat and brain it to death with it.
Are pets below some size or health unable to catch thrown fod?
Jonadab the Unsightly One
Jul 9, 2012, 7:54:16 PM7/9/12
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On Jul 9, 4:25 pm, Doug Freyburger <dfrey...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> In my experience when I throw a food ration at a pet my pet catches it.
Dogs certainly do, at least if they're having hunger issues.
> In my experience when I throw a food ration at a pet my pet catches it.
> Are pets below some size or health unable to catch thrown food?
Dunno. I've only ever had a pet rat under two circumstances:
A) When suffering from serious problems due to having
been bitten by an early-game wererat. In this case the
pets were just fodder to get between me and enemies
long enough for me to try to find a safe place to heal
(in order to survive long enough to try my prayer
timeout again). I didn't really care if my pets lived or
died at that point. I had other priorities.
B) When playing with the convict role patch.
In this situation, I never had enough food to spare
that I could afford to throw any of it to a pet. I was
constantly in imminent danger of fainting.
Jonadab the Unsightly One
Jul 9, 2012, 8:02:37 PM7/9/12
to
On Jul 9, 8:09 am, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanag...@hotmail.com>
wrote:
> Later in the game pet dragons will (more or less) easily die.
In the late game, sure.
In this case, however, the OP specifically mentioned that
the pet dragons are twice the player character's level.
I'm thinking they'll probably live for a while, barring
polymorph traps. The larger problem will be keeping them
from assasinating always-peaceful monsters that you'd
prefer to have left alive. A magic whistle could be handy,
especially if the OP doesn't have a key. (Pet dragons
by themselves could be shut behind a door without a
key, but the Elvenking will open any unlocked doors.)
wrote:
> Later in the game pet dragons will (more or less) easily die.
In this case, however, the OP specifically mentioned that
the pet dragons are twice the player character's level.
I'm thinking they'll probably live for a while, barring
polymorph traps. The larger problem will be keeping them
from assasinating always-peaceful monsters that you'd
prefer to have left alive. A magic whistle could be handy,
especially if the OP doesn't have a key. (Pet dragons
by themselves could be shut behind a door without a
key, but the Elvenking will open any unlocked doors.)
Janis Papanagnou
Jul 10, 2012, 3:58:06 AM7/10/12
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Am 10.07.2012 02:02, schrieb Jonadab the Unsightly One:
> On Jul 9, 8:09 am, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanag...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Later in the game pet dragons will (more or less) easily die.
>
> In the late game, sure.
>
> In this case, however, the OP specifically mentioned that
> the pet dragons are twice the player character's level.
They still die. Many of mine did, sooner or later.
> On Jul 9, 8:09 am, Janis Papanagnou <janis_papanag...@hotmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Later in the game pet dragons will (more or less) easily die.
>
> In the late game, sure.
>
> In this case, however, the OP specifically mentioned that
> the pet dragons are twice the player character's level.
("twice the player character's level" doesn't say much.)
> I'm thinking they'll probably live for a while, barring
> polymorph traps.
with other monsters.
Janis
chrispin
Jul 13, 2012, 3:52:44 PM7/13/12
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Hey thanks for the replies, they're most helpful. I ended up working it out and then suffering the loss of a hard drive, just when I had it all figured out, if ever. The dragons and elves got on quite well for a while nut after sorting out an aligned altar, they got in the way so some of them died when I left them on another level for a while, but I got over the nerves of having big pets around. They seemed to take care of themselves anyway, which was nice. Actually, I rather miss them.
Doug Freyburger
Jul 13, 2012, 4:23:34 PM7/13/12
to
chrispin wrote:
>
> ... and then suffering the loss of a hard drive ...
These days I keep my Nethack distribution on a USB stick. Copy the
whole thing annually in case I lose it. I have had to change file names
when I moved to a new laptop overwise just kept using the same stcik.
>
> ... and then suffering the loss of a hard drive ...
These days I keep my Nethack distribution on a USB stick. Copy the
whole thing annually in case I lose it. I have had to change file names
when I moved to a new laptop overwise just kept using the same stcik.
chrispin
Jul 13, 2012, 5:21:31 PM7/13/12
to
On Friday, July 13, 2012 9:23:34 PM UTC+1, Doug Freyburger wrote:
> chrispin wrote:
> >
> > ... and then suffering the loss of a hard drive ...
> chrispin wrote:
> >
> > ... and then suffering the loss of a hard drive ...
>
> These days I keep my Nethack distribution on a USB stick. Copy the
> whole thing annually in case I lose it. I have had to change file names
> when I moved to a new laptop overwise just kept using the same stcik.
Yeah I think that's the way to go. I just got an old tape a while back and a load of 40gb tapes so I was planning to set that up to mirror everything, which has kept me feeling safe. And then the HD dies, typical. On a usb stick, I can play anywhere :).
> These days I keep my Nethack distribution on a USB stick. Copy the
> whole thing annually in case I lose it. I have had to change file names
> when I moved to a new laptop overwise just kept using the same stcik.
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