ADOM FAQ
ba...@digital-marketplace.net
thinker's ADOM site | Official ADOM site
r.g.r.adom FAQ
Last updated : 01 Feb 1999
This deals with Frequently Asked Questions about or involving the
newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.adom (r.g.r.adom). It does
not deal with questions about the game itself, as those are in the ADOM
FAQ, posted regularly to r.g.r.adom, or available at
http://www.aleph-null.com/adom/adomfaq.html. The r.g.r.adom FAQ is for
those seeking information about the newsgroup,
and the traditions and customs of its denizens. It tends to be a
friendly group, but some of the newer residents expressed a
desire for a guide to assist them through smoother enculturation. Here
it is! This document is always available at
http://www.aleph-null.com/adom/rgrafaq.html, or by e-mail by sending a
request to rgr...@aleph-null.com. Suggestions for
additions or changes should be made to thi...@aleph-null.com, the
maintainer of this FAQ.
Table of Contents
Section 1: Origins & History
1.0 The newsgroup's charter "What's this newsgroup for? What's it
about?"
1.1 A little history
Section 2: Posting advice & guidelines
2.0 If you're new to USENET
2.1 Spoiler policies
2.1.0 Recommended 'spoiler' post policy "Why do people keep putting
lots of space in the middle of their posts?"
2.1.1 What is / what constitutes a spoiler?
2.1.2 Why bother covering them up?
2.1.3 How should I compose posts containing spoilers?
2.1.4 Other general points
2.1.5 Credits for Spoiler policies
2.2 Dealing with stuff that doesn't conform to expectations
2.3 Taboo topics (troll food)
2.4 YAVP--A Guide to good Victory Posting
Section 3: Common abbreviations
"How do you expect me to read a post when half of it's in code? What do
all the abbreviations stand for?"
3.1 Items
3.2 Creatures
3.3 Places
3.4 People
3.5 Other
3.6 The ADOM Code
Section 1: Origins & History
1.0 CHARTER: rec.games.roguelike.adom
This group is for the discussion of the game ADOM, by Thomas Biskup, an
ASCII-character graphics adventure game in the
style of Omega and Nethack. All things pertaining to ADOM are acceptable
here, including requests for help locating and
playing the game, announcements of new versions of the game (which
should also be posted in rec.games.roguelike.announce),
and so forth. When posting information about gameplay which is not
mentioned in the manual and/or is not "common
knowledge", it is customary to put a notice such as [SPOILERS] in the
title of the post. Large binary files should not be posted
to this group. If you have a large binary which is related to ADOM,
please place it on an ftp or web site and post a message to
this group saying what the file is and how to get it. Posts on other
roguelike games such as Larn or BOSS should be directed to
a more appropriate newsgroups such as rec.games.roguelike.misc.
Commercial posts (advertisements,
MAKE.MONEY.FAST, etc) are also not appropriate for this newsgroup.
1.1 A little history
The proposal for rec.games.roguelike.adom passed (232:21) and was
created after its first proposal. It's announcement was
made on 22 Feb 1997 and propagation began soon after. Before this time,
ADOM chat was conducted on
rec.games.roguelike.misc, where you can still see the occasional ADOM
query/discussion.
Section 2: Posting advice & guidelines
2.0 If you're new to USENET
Before posting anything, I would strongly advise that you go to the
group news.announce.newusers and read the several
informative documents about using USENET. They will save you (and many
others) a lot of time and frustration. Of course, the
fact that you are reading a FAQ shows that you already have some
sensitivity to your environment and its requirements, but the
documents at news.announce.newusers should help you with some basic
netiquette and posting guidelines. They really do mean
it when they advise lurking for a while to get a feel for the natives;
it's like being at a party where you don't know anybody--you
might be successful by barging into a conversation and trying to be
entertaining, but more likely you'll end up getting a reputation
as being rude and insensitive. Listen for a while and when you start
noticing that the things you would have said are being said
by others, you're probably getting fairly enculturated to us and should
jump on into the discussions. Or you can just go for it; it
has worked out (eventually) for some. Well, maybe two. Have I mentioned
news.announce.newusers yet? :^)
2.1.0 REC.GAMES.ROGUELIKE.ADOM: Recommended 'spoiler' post policy
This section used to be an independent document that has been
incorporated into the group FAQ with the original author's
permission. Please direct questions/suggestions/flames about this
section to the maintainer of the r.g.r.adom FAQ, as listed at
the top of this document. These policies reflect a general consensus of
r.g.r.adom users, although not everyone follows or even
agrees with them entirely. Following them should prevent flames of the
"Use spoiler space, you..." variety.
2.1.1 What is / what constitutes a spoiler?
A spoiler is any piece of information which gives away something another
player might not know, or which requires some
degree of 'special' insight. For instance:
While it is not a spoiler to say that the Dwarven Elder in the Caverns
of Chaos will offer quests to players, it *is* a spoiler to
explain the quests, and detail how to complete them successfully.
It is not a spoiler to say that an artifact named 'Kinslayer' exists,
but it *is* a spoiler to list its powers and statistics (which can
normally only be found via great identify) or to reveal the location or
acquisition method of any artifacts (which can normally
only be found via actually playing).
2.1.2 Why bother covering them up? Won't people just find this all out
anyway?
Because it can ruin the game for people if they know exactly what they
must do, without discovering it for themselves. This is
why spoiler protection is strongly recommended--so that those who wish
to read spoilers can, and those who wish to avoid
them can, too.
2.1.3 How should I compose posts containing spoilers?
We recommend the following format:
Subject lines should contain [SPOILER] in the subject line (which should
be kept as near to the content of the message as
possible in replies), possibly [Minor SPOILER] or [Major SPOILER]
depending on how 'severe' the spoilers could be
considered (how much of the game do they affect?)
Make sure to include a spoiler warning within the text itself, as many
peruse the group from message to message without
looking at subject lines. This is where the inclusion of spoiler space
is appreciated. Spoiler space is simply a break between the
spoiler warning (or the top of the message) and the spoily content.
Personally, I recommend asterisks or similar every (other)
line, for about 20 lines (this can be an opportunity to be clever and
expressive). Some people recommend the use of the '^L'
character to insert a page break, but this does not work properly for a
number of newsreaders, so if you use this method,
please include some space filler as well (lest you be accused of being
agents of spoiliness, er...chaos). You can really fill this
space with anything you want, but it's preferred you don't insert 30k
ASCII graphics. Use common sense, bearing in mind the
purpose of the exercise.
If only part of a post is a spoiler, put the spoiler space before the
spoiler section (which should go at the end of the message).
This allows you to give 'hints' which are not really spoilers followed
by spoiler space before the *real* spoilers--so that readers
may pick either the hints or the heavy stuff.
2.1.4 Other general points
If your followup to a spoiler post must include those spoilers, be sure
to preserve the spoiler space and tag. If you've moved on
from that topic, then change the subject line and delete spoilers as
appropriate. I personally use the following format for
'changed' subject lines:
Re: Wilderness strategies [Was: avoiding encounters]
The above example being a post which no longer contains spoilers--some
users will automatically delete spoiler posts, so if
your post is *not* a spoiler, remove the spoiler tag, please. Of course,
if it is still a spoiler, leave the tag in place.
2.1.5 Credits for Section 2.1
Written by Matt Chatterley (ne...@itl.net) with contributions from many
readers of rec.games.roguelike.adom. Edited and
maintained by Richard Fowler (thi...@aleph-null.com), with the
continued aid of many ADOMites.
2.2 Dealing with stuff that doesn't conform to expectations
Sometimes things show up in the newsgroup that it's denizens do not
expect or desire. Universally belonging to this category are
commercial solicitations, MLM plans, porn ads, and all the other junk
commonly known as spam (no offense intended,
Hormel). While you should feel free to respond to the instigator of the
offensive message (or their provider) according to your
own inclinations, please do not include any response to the newsgroup,
as many residents have spam-filtering services and
would otherwise never see the spam if it weren't included in a response.
Let it die the ignoble, ignored, silent death it deserves.
There have also been occasions when personalities have collided, leading
to lengthy threads that contained little content other
than flames and defenses (whether by the original participants or
others). Feel free to express your opinions, but unless they are
relevant to ADOM, please take them to e-mail or a more appropriate
forum.
What should I do if someone is posting spoilers with no space, and no
spoiler warning headings?
You should email them politely (we're a nice bunch, please, no flames!).
It's likely they're a new user and not aware that we
prefer spoiler posts to be marked, informing them that some users may
not like them posting as such, and refer them to this
document. See section 2.1 for advised methods for posting spoilers and
the reasoning behind it all.
2.3 Taboo topics (troll food)
While the charter does not forbid discussions of the following nature,
they tend to quickly degenerate to flame wars and so are
not considered fit for polite company. If you want to discuss their
merits, you can, but you will likely find the crowd to be
short-tempered and even hostile. These are some of the quickest ways
into killfiles and will hopefully be ignored or replied to
only by e-mail if they come up.
Discussions regarding the potential release of the source code when 1.0
is completed. For or against, most of the reasonable
things that can be said on this topic have been said and it's all up to
Thomas, anyway. Please leave it alone as all it does is stir
up dust and irritate participants (and designers).
The functional status of the Save feature. It is designed as a "save so
you can continue your game later" feature, not as a "save
just in case something bad happens so I can avoid negative consequences"
feature. Thomas is well aware that people
"savescum" and while he has made it harder for people to edit savefiles
with impunity, he has not taken action to prevent
back-ups. Playing a character after it has died (by restoring a
backed-up savefile) is, according to the designs of the game's
creator, cheating. Having said that, many, if not most, have done it at
some time. If it makes the game more enjoyable for you,
do it, but be aware that completing the game using this method is not
considered a victory. More like a tour. Reformed
savescummers report an improvement in game enjoyment after kicking the
habit, so you might give it try if you've gotten
hooked on cheating while exploring the Chain. In summary, sinning in
this way is usually accepted and forgiven, but advocating
this sin might be met with less than friendly comments.
2.4 YAVP--A Guide to good Victory Posting
Woohoo! You finally won! Now you want to share your accomplishment with
the whole ADOM community. The first and
easiest instinct might be to just copy your character's .flg file into a
message and post it. Unfortunately, that usually results in a
long post, most of which nobody will ever read. Sure, you want to share
it, and many of us would like to give you your due
credit, but a plain old .flg file is just too much.
At the very least, you'll want to edit out the repetitive stuff that
every winner would be expected to have (there go most of the
carried-items and the monsters-killed lists). Items or monsters that are
unusual or that you are particularly proud of should be
left in (one person collected monster statues for their palace, another
saved several wish items for improving their homeland).
This much trimming should get you out of hot water for wasting bandwidth
(and download time), but it's still not the best.
For the best possible VP, you get to add more stuff back in: tell us
your character's story. Which quests did you take and in
what order? Any tense times or close calls? Lucky moments? Epic battles
in the wilderness? Just how did you get those stats
so high? Just picture your character around the campfire telling other
adventurers about their time in the Drakalor Chain,
teaching and being impressive. If the story stays in character, all the
better ("Grok not want paper with marks, but keep finding
them. They good for cleaning big sword. Later learned some reading and
wondered what marks meant."). Have fun with it and
we probably will, too.
Note that in addition to your adventures, any meta-game alterations
should be noted; if you pool-save-scummed at the very
end to get rid of some corruptions, you really should mention it or
better yet, play out the ending that Thomas intended. Posts of
characters that have been edited or otherwise cheated in any way are not
considered "wins" but if the cheat was subtle and the
game had other worthy elements, you might get a pat on the back or two
for your almost-win. Posting cheats is an
at-your-own-risk venture; the other adventurers might just throw you in
the campfire for invoking such demonic forces in your
effort to defeat Chaos. (After all, breaking the rules is chaotic and
they might think you've defeated one lord of ChAoS just to
put up another.)
Section 3: Common abbreviations
"How do you expect me to read a post when half of it's in code? What do
all the abbreviations stand for?"
3.1 Items
Since typing out the names of items can become repetitive (and we all
need to hoard our carpal-tunnel abuse for playing
ADOM), item names are commonly abbreviated in postings. The convention
for this comes from discussions of other
roguelikes, and generally follows a variant of two forms. The first is
to simply use an acronym of the item's name, so that a
Potion of Cure Corruption becomes a PoCC. The other convention is to
replace the item's category (ie. potion) with the
game's symbol for the item, marking the above potion as a !oCC. Some
people combine the two claiming the symbolic
representation can be confusing when used alone, giving us the !PoCC. I
find this last one useful, if a little unsettling at first,
because it marks the abbreviation as that of a game item and not some
meta-character, like a newsgroup entity such as TB
(Thomas Biskup), which I once mentally flashed as a non-existant Tenser
of Burning. So which symbols go with which items?
Read the manual! Oh, okay, here's the list.
[ armor/clothes/robes, shields, gauntlets/gloves, cloaks, girdles,boots,
and helmets
& necklaces/amulets or tools
( hand weapons
} missile weapons (bows, crossbows, hand crossbows, slings)
* rocks or jewels
/ missiles (arrows, quarrels, certain daggers, spears, javelins)
= rings
! potions
? scrolls
\ wands
~ bracers
{ musical instruments
% food, corpse of...
" books, spellbooks (SB)
in 0.9.9 gamma 12 the following started being used
' necklaces/amulets
] tools
Some of the more commonly abbreviated items are (sometimes with one of
the two leading characters missing)
\WoW -- Wands of Wishing(WoWi) or Wands of Wonder(WoWo); the difference
can be important.
"SBoDI -- Spellbook of Divine Intervention (Clerical spellbook)
!PoCC -- Potion of Cure Corruption
!PoE -- Potion of Exchange (PoEx)
!PoEd -- Potion of Education (PoEd)
?SoCR -- Scroll of Chaos Resistance
=RoDS -- Ring of Djinni Summoning
=RoI -- Ring of Ice
=RoS -- Ring of Slaying
&AoFA -- Amulet of Free Action
&AoLS -- Amulet of Life Saving
[GoS -- Gauntlets of Strength, not to be confused with
[GoGS -- Girdle of Giant Strength
(SoS -- Sword of Sharpness
(PD -- Phase Dagger
(DoD -- Dagger of Death
(<insert item abbreviation here> oD -- weapon of Death; there are
several
(WoS -- Whip of Slaughtering, not to be confused with
(WotS -- Whip of the Snake
There are also some specific items, such as the RotHK (Ring of the High
Kings) or the PoC (Phial of Caladriel--more
commonly seen as "the phial" since it's the only one in the game).
Some of the more frequently discussed items almost never have their
corresponding symbol, because they're just so darned
familiar; but it's really up to you. Keep in mind that the more cryptic
you are, the more likely you are to be misunderstood, so
try to keep the abbreviations within the Drakalor Chain dialect and not
just SiT (Speak in Tongues). If in doubt, type it out.
3.2 Creatures
There aren't a lot of creatures whose name shortens well, but the ones
that do are important. The most notable is WMoPC
(Writhing Mass of Primal Chaos), although the ACW (Ancient Chaos Wyrm)
and the AKW (Ancient Karmic Wyrm) quickly
come to mind, as well. Some have nicknames such as a certain cute puppy
frequently called "Kenny" after a cartoon character
who dies in almost every episode, and a certain Ancient Blue Wyrm
represented by a purple W, frequently heard as "Barney."
In general, recurring names are unique monsters that you will eventually
encounter in the game, including any references to
"Fisty" (Fistinarius), who appears on the final level.
3.3 Places
The names of the various game locations are frequently abbreviated,
usually using the abbreviation shown on the play screen
when on that level. The more common ones are: SMC (Small Caves), VD
(village Dungeon), CoC (Caverns of Chaos), ID
(Infinite Dungeon), ToEF (Tower of Eternal Flame), and the various
Temple levels WT, AT, ET, MT (Water, Air, Earth, Mana
Temple).
3.4 People
Some personalities in the newsgroup are frequently recognized by certain
references or abbreviations. If any of the following
are displeased with their description or reference, please let me know
and they will be adjusted accordingly.
TB, Thomas, Herr Biskup, the creator -- Thomas Biskup, the author of
ADOM. He is active in the group and quite
responsive to non-silly ideas and suggestions, as long as the one doing
the suggesting has clearly read and followed the
readme.1st file included with the current distribution.
3.5 Other
Frequently seen in Subject headers:
YASD -- Yet Another Sad/Stupid/Silly Death
YAVP -- Yet Another Victory Post
YAFM -- Yet Another Funny Message
Frequently seen in text:
RNG -- Random Number Gnereator
YMMV -- Your Mileage May Vary
TIA -- Thanks In Advance
HTH -- Happy To Help
LOL -- Laughing Out Loud / Lots of Laughter
ROFL -- Rolling On Floor Laughing
For more abbreviations along these lines, please see the Usenet Acronyms
Dictionary at
http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~tajwileb/dictionary.html.
3.6 The ADOM Code
A Code in the tradition of the Geek/Goth/Trek/Other_Obsession Codes for
expressing one's ADOM experience/preferences.
Currently in development. When it has a home, I'll list its URL.
© Copyright 1998, 1999 by Richard Fowler. This FAQ may be freely
distributed as long as these two copyright messages are
distributed with it. Karmic creatures are exempted from this
restriction.
ADOM © Copyright 1996-1999 by Thomas Biskup. All rights reserved.
Alexander Deubelbeiss
ba...@digital-marketplace.net schrieb in Nachricht
<396FA088...@digital-marketplace.net>...
>1.0 CHARTER: rec.games.roguelike.adom
>[...] Large binary files should not be posted
>to this group. If you have a large binary which is related to ADOM,
>please place it on an ftp or web site and post a message to
>this group saying what the file is and how to get it.
Just wondering: My isp simply deletes any messages with attachments posted
to alt.* outside of alt.binaries.* , in other words, even very small
binaries never reach this end of the wire. Is Swisscom some sort of
exception here? (They're also quite good at filtering spam - I usually only
see it when somebody replies to it)
ba...@digital-marketplace.net
>
> bard+AEA-digital-marketplace.net schrieb in Nachricht
> +ADw-396FA088.F5A1FCDA+AEA-digital-marketplace.net+AD4-...
>
> +AD4-1.0 CHARTER: rec.games.roguelike.adom
> +AD4AWw-...+AF0- Large binary files should not be posted
> +AD4-to this group. If you have a large binary which is related to ADOM,
> +AD4-please place it on an ftp or web site and post a message to
> +AD4-this group saying what the file is and how to get it.
>
> Just wondering: My isp simply deletes any messages with attachments posted
> binaries never reach this end of the wire. Is Swisscom some sort of
> exception here? (They're also quite good at filtering spam - I usually only
> see it when somebody replies to it)
Well indeed there are some news serves that do remove binaries
(attachments) based on the concept that they do not belong in
non-biniary groups, your new server is not the only one. I did not
write the charter, however from reading a few charters I believe the
intent was to allow binaries like sig cards and such other small files.