PATCH: Material Patch - lots of different materials for weapons and armor
L
computer in a mostly complete state for about a month now, and I just
haven't been in the mood to upload it and write a header - mostly
because I've been fiddling with Zelda Classic, best described as a
"Nintendo fangame maker".
But anyway, almost half a year ago I extolled the glory of a certain
Japan-made variant called NetHack Brass. I declared that I would
convert the best of its wondrous features into patches for the good of
the ordinary NetHack codebase.
The first of these was this monster steed patch
(http://www.greyfire.org/~l/monsteed.diff). The second of these (with
heavy contributions of my own) was the random Minetown generator patch
(http://www.greyfire.org/~l/mklev.diff). And here's the third of them:
<< http://www.greyfire.org/~l/material.diff >>
This patch, based on code written by you...@cds.ne.jp, allows a large
variety of objects to be made of different materials. For example, not
only can you now have iron and silver daggers, but also copper, gold,
platinum, steel and wood daggers as well (Though, not all of those
combinations will be randomly generated.)
The following objects can be made of different materials:
* Statues
* Pick-axes
* Weapons (unless they're: rubber hose, worm teeth or crysknives)
* Chests and large boxes
* Armor (unless they're: leather armor, studded leather armor, iron
shoes, polished silver shields, elven leather helms, dwarvish iron
helms, or made of cloth or dragonhide by default.)
* Platinum Yendorian Express Card (platinum instead of plastic, or so
its data file description says)
Materials have four strength tiers: wood, leather, bone, gemstone,
mineral and plastic are bottom-tier materials. Copper, silver, gold,
platinum and dragon hide are mid-tier. Iron, metal and glass (crystal
plate mail) are high-tier. Mithril is the best of them all. Also, elven
wood is crafted such that it's as strong as iron.
If an object is made of a material that's stronger than its default
material (the material that it is "normally" made of) then it gets a
(damage or AC) bonus or penalty equal to the difference in tiers. For
example, dragonhide gloves would lower your AC by 1 point more than
leather gloves would. And stone arrows tend to deal 2 points less
damage than iron arrows.
Objects have been changed thus:
* "Silver sabers" are now just "sabers" that have a high chance of
being generated as silver.
* "Leather jackets" are now just "jackets", and "Leather cloaks" are
now just "cloaks".
* Bronze plate mail, crystal plate mail, and various silver weapons are
no longer explicit items.
* Mithril-coats have been changed to "elven chain mail" and "dwarvish
chain mail", which are 1 and 2 AC points better than chain mail,
respectively. The odds of them being generated as mithril (making them
even better) are considerably lower than normal (as they were in
NetHack Brass), though better than that of other items.
* Gauntlets have been added, so you can't identify gauntlets of power
easily.
* Large boxes and chests can appear in iron, and as such are
considerably harder to break open.
* One can now wish for a lot of strange material-object combinations
which won't normally be generated, including iron elven daggers,
plastic bags of holding, and wooden halberds.
* Artifacts can now have an explicit material specified for them.
- Grayswandir and Werewindle are always silver.
- Excalibur, Snickersnee, The Sceptre of Might and The Tsurugi of
Muramasa are always metal (steel).
- Stormbringer, Cleaver and Grimtooth are always iron.
- Demonbane and Sunsword (the angelic weapons) are always gold.
* A silver-hating monster hitting you while you're wearing silver
armour may take silver damage. This might make a wish for silver plate
mail as desirable as dragon scale mail.
NOT COMPLETE YET!
This patch doesn't yet handle all of the special cases that can occur
as a result of having items made from unusual materials. Here's most of
what's missing:
* You can't specify object materials in special level definition (.des)
files yet.
* The crystal plate mail definition in Tower.des hasn't yet been
removed. Oops. (That won't stop it compiling successfully, though.)
* Silver-haters can still wear silver armour.
* Silver-haters can still loot silver chests (both monsters and
players.)
* Ice statues don't yet work.
P.S: My website as of 2006 is (http://www.greyfire.org/~l/).
Pasi Kallinen
>
> << http://www.greyfire.org/~l/material.diff >>
>
> This patch, based on code written by you...@cds.ne.jp, allows a large
> variety of objects to be made of different materials. For example, not
> only can you now have iron and silver daggers, but also copper, gold,
> platinum, steel and wood daggers as well (Though, not all of those
> combinations will be randomly generated.)
>
I wrote a materials-patch ages ago for 3.3.1, but it's slightly
unfinished (and did things slightly differently):
http://bilious.homelinux.org/~paxed/nethack/nh331-materials.diff
--
Pasi Kallinen
pa...@alt.org
http://bilious.homelinux.org/ -- NetHack Patch Database
John H.
> Firstly, I'd like to apologise, because this file's been sitting in my
> computer in a mostly complete state for about a month now, and I just
> haven't been in the mood to upload it and write a header - mostly
> because I've been fiddling with Zelda Classic, best described as a
> "Nintendo fangame maker".
I've played around a bit with that too. It's cool... but not as cool
as Nethack.
Interesting patch. On an initial lameness check I came up with
surprisingly little, except:
1. Doesn't this mean that crystal plate mail doesn't offer a higher
bonus than ordinary plate mail?
2. Nethack doesn't offer crystal-anything, or mythril-anything, for a
reason. The game was originally based off early Dungeons and Dragons,
and this patch severs its ties with that game, which is not cool for
historical reasons. Thus, I would suggest that only plate mail be made
crystal, and only chain mail can be made mythril (also because mythril
is a material suited for chain mail production).
3. Random items that are made of a material should be persistent in a
single game, that is, all boots of water walking should be made of
material X in a given game. (It might already be like this, I haven't
had the chance to look at the actual patch code yet.)
Gotta run, maybe I can comment more later....
- John H.
L
John H. wrote:
> 1. Doesn't this mean that crystal plate mail doesn't offer a higher
> bonus than ordinary plate mail?
hinder spellcasting.
> 2. Nethack doesn't offer crystal-anything, or mythril-anything, for a
> reason. The game was originally based off early Dungeons and Dragons,
"NetHack is not Dungeons & Dragons" is a catchphrase around these parts
for a reason. And the odds of mithril items randomly appearing are very
low (but that doesn't mean you can't wish for them.)
But, you're right on one thing - in my patch, only plate mail is
generated in crystal (but crystal statues, glass boxes and crystal
clubs can be wished for. Hmm...)
> 3. Random items that are made of a material should be persistent in a
> single game, that is, all boots of water walking should be made of
> material X in a given game.
What you're forgetting is that it's not the material that defines a
boot's magic properties, it's the style. Dragonhide jungle boots and
rubber jungle boots are both jungle boots (and thus both water walking
in some games.)
John H.
> John H. wrote:
> > 1. Doesn't this mean that crystal plate mail doesn't offer a higher
> > bonus than ordinary plate mail?
> It never did. The "point" of crystal plate mail is that it doesn't
> hinder spellcasting.
Huh, really? But what about in the days before armor hindered
spellcasting?
>
> > 2. Nethack doesn't offer crystal-anything, or mythril-anything, for a
> > reason. The game was originally based off early Dungeons and Dragons,
> "NetHack is not Dungeons & Dragons" is a catchphrase around these parts
> for a reason. And the odds of mithril items randomly appearing are very
> low (but that doesn't mean you can't wish for them.)
I stick by my comment on mithril. Nethack is not Dungeons & Dragons,
but there is still value in remembering the game's roots.
> > 3. Random items that are made of a material should be persistent in a
> > single game, that is, all boots of water walking should be made of
> > material X in a given game.
> What you're forgetting is that it's not the material that defines a
> boot's magic properties, it's the style. Dragonhide jungle boots and
> rubber jungle boots are both jungle boots (and thus both water walking
> in some games.)
Lots of random items, however, DO have materials that are determined by
its random description. It seems more like a Nethack thing to have
random items have similar properties across descriptions. To me
anyway.
- John H.
Darth.
John H. wrote:
> L wrote:
> > John H. wrote:
> > > 1. Doesn't this mean that crystal plate mail doesn't offer a higher
> > > bonus than ordinary plate mail?
> > It never did. The "point" of crystal plate mail is that it doesn't
> > hinder spellcasting.
>
> Huh, really? But what about in the days before armor hindered
> spellcasting?
I'd always assumed that crystal plate mail was in there for historical
reasons. In Rogue there's no way to fooproof your armour, so until you
find crystal plate mail your AC is at risk from corrosion traps and
acid attacks from monsters. Crystal plate mail is not affected by
these things and can therefore be a big turning point in a game of
Rogue.
Darth.
John H.
> I'd always assumed that crystal plate mail was in there for historical
> reasons. In Rogue there's no way to fooproof your armour, so until you
> find crystal plate mail your AC is at risk from corrosion traps and
> acid attacks from monsters. Crystal plate mail is not affected by
> these things and can therefore be a big turning point in a game of
> Rogue.
I've never seen crystal plate mail in the versions of Rogue I play.
They would seem to be unbalancing in fact, since it would be one item
that would give a tremendous advantage. The only other non-rusting
armor is leather, which is also the weakest. The alternatives are to
be careful around Aquators/Rust Monsters (difficult because they appear
for most of the first half of the game), wear a ring of maintain armor
(a random item that should be ID'd before trying on, and it raises food
consumption) or read a scroll of protect armor while wearing it
(permanent, but also random, little tricky to get use out of it before
it's ID'd, and only exists in some versions of the game).
Rogue's interesting because there are lots of items that can make the
game easier for you, but none gives too much of an advantage.
- John H.
Darth.
John H. wrote:
> I've never seen crystal plate mail in the versions of Rogue I play.
> They would seem to be unbalancing in fact, since it would be one item
> that would give a tremendous advantage. The only other non-rusting
> armor is leather, which is also the weakest. The alternatives are to
> be careful around Aquators/Rust Monsters (difficult because they appear
> for most of the first half of the game), wear a ring of maintain armor
> (a random item that should be ID'd before trying on, and it raises food
> consumption) or read a scroll of protect armor while wearing it
> (permanent, but also random, little tricky to get use out of it before
> it's ID'd, and only exists in some versions of the game).
>
> Rogue's interesting because there are lots of items that can make the
> game easier for you, but none gives too much of an advantage.
>
> - John H.
I may well have been using a funny version of rogue (irogue on PalmOS,
which is apparently based on urogue and rogue 5.3-clone). I'm not sure
if this is "traditional" rogue - it's a game that comes in many
flavours!
Darth.
Arthur J. O'Dwyer
On Sat, 16 Sep 2006, L wrote:
>
> << http://www.greyfire.org/~l/material.diff >>
>
> This patch, based on code written by you...@cds.ne.jp, allows a large
> variety of objects to be made of different materials. For example, not
> only can you now have iron and silver daggers, but also copper, gold,
> platinum, steel and wood daggers as well (Though, not all of those
> combinations will be randomly generated.)
Interesting. I may try this one out.
> NOT COMPLETE YET!
> This patch doesn't yet handle all of the special cases that can occur
> as a result of having items made from unusual materials. Here's most of
> what's missing:
> * You can't specify object materials in special level definition (.des)
> files yet.
> * The crystal plate mail definition in Tower.des hasn't yet been
> removed. Oops. (That won't stop it compiling successfully, though.)
> * Silver-haters can still wear silver armour.
When this gets fixed, perhaps silver-haters should still be able to
wear silver armor over top of a T-shirt.
> * Silver-haters can still loot silver chests (both monsters and
> players.)
Gloves would protect them, of course?
> * Ice statues don't yet work.
Interesting... Especially if there were a timer for melting the statues
(outside an icebox and not located on ice). I'm not sure how that would
work, exactly, but it would probably allow a couple Stupid Nethack Tricks.
:)
-Arthur
dogscoff
Arthur J. O'Dwyer wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Sep 2006, L wrote:
> >
> > << http://www.greyfire.org/~l/material.diff >>
> >
> >
> > * Ice statues don't yet work.
>
> Interesting... Especially if there were a timer for melting the statues
> (outside an icebox and not located on ice). I'm not sure how that would
> work, exactly, but it would probably allow a couple Stupid Nethack Tricks.
You zap the wand of fire --more--
The ice sculpture of a mastodon melts! --more--
A spellbook of identify falls out of the melting statue --more--
the spellbook of identify lands in a puddle of melted ice --more--
G - A blank spellbook
rpresser
dogscoff wrote:
> The ice sculpture of a mastodon melts! --more--
Maybe there could be a "wedding reception room" that always has some
ice sculptures in it?
Malcolm Ryan
L wrote:
> This patch, based on code written by you...@cds.ne.jp, allows a large
> variety of objects to be made of different materials. For example, not
> only can you now have iron and silver daggers, but also copper, gold,
> platinum, steel and wood daggers as well (Though, not all of those
> combinations will be randomly generated.)
Not brass?
Interesting. What is the main gameplay effect of this? Or is it
primarily 'flavour'?
Malcolm
L
Malcolm Ryan wrote:
> Not brass?
My patch uses only those materials which were specified in objclass.h
in the first place:
>#define LIQUID 1 /* currently only for venom */
>#define WAX 2
>#define VEGGY 3 /* foodstuffs */
>#define FLESH 4 /* ditto */
>#define PAPER 5
>#define CLOTH 6
>#define LEATHER 7
>#define WOOD 8
>#define BONE 9
>#define DRAGON_HIDE 10 /* not leather! */
>#define IRON 11 /* Fe - includes steel */
>#define METAL 12 /* Sn, &c. */
>#define COPPER 13 /* Cu - includes brass */
>#define SILVER 14 /* Ag */
>#define GOLD 15 /* Au */
>#define PLATINUM 16 /* Pt */
>#define MITHRIL 17
>#define PLASTIC 18
>#define GLASS 19
>#define GEMSTONE 20
>#define MINERAL 21
Note that my patch makes a few deviations from the comments above,
assigning stainless steel to METAL and ice to LIQUID.
Doug Freyburger
>
> My patch uses only those materials which were specified in objclass.h
> in the first place:
>
This allows for an artifact The Platiunum Flute from the
Apprentice Adept series by Piers Anthony. When you
pl(a)y The Platinum Flute it draws some energy from you,
asks you what instrument you would like to play, then
asks if you want to improvise. It ends up being a magic
harp or flute or drum or whistle.