[slashem] BUC state of polypiled potions that got intermediately turned to water

[Janis Papanagnou]

I made a polypiling experiment in Slashem...
Polymorphed from a stack of three blessed potions of object detection
lined up in a row. The result was three potions; one was confusion,
one was amnesia, and some other potion. I assume their BUC state was
kept intact. I cleared confusion using a unihorn (so the BUC status
would turn to uncursed), in a fountain I flattened the amnesia (that
supposedly preserves its BUC state). After waiting for the polymorphed
form to time out I got again the three potions of object detection,
where two of them stack. It seems that the BUC status is not restored,
only the basic item type is.

Janis

[Pat Rankin]

On Friday, March 11, 2022 at 8:44:55 PM UTC-8, Janis wrote:
> [...] It seems that the BUC status is not restored,

> only the basic item type is.

I looked up the poly/unpoly handling a while back and item
type is indeed the only thing remembered from the original.

One thing I don't know is whether giving the poly'd item a
name matching an artifact of the original type will turn it
into that artifact when it reverts. It could depend on how
the name gets propagated.

[Janis Papanagnou]

On 13.03.2022 00:39, Pat Rankin wrote:
>
> One thing I don't know is whether giving the poly'd item a
> name matching an artifact of the original type will turn it
> into that artifact when it reverts. It could depend on how
> the name gets propagated.

I seem to recall that individual names of items will get lost,
at least when returning to its original form, but I think also
the other way round, if the original item gets polypiled.[*]

I usually #name a polypiled tool as "poly'd unihorn" or "poly'd
bag of tricks" to not put the latter into a bag of holding that
might then explode on reverting back.[**] The reverted back items
don't show that name any more. My expectation would be that this
should also prevent creating an artifact by that trick.[***]

Janis

[*] I should try to polymorph an artifact, BTW. (It might
not return to its original form.)

[**] That should not be an issue if the bag of tricks had
no charges when polymorphed, but paranoia rules of course.

[***] Or maybe the #name'ing/polymorph behavior had been
just designed exactly to prevent that exploit?

[Janis Papanagnou]

On 13.03.2022 02:56, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>
> [*] I should try to polymorph an artifact, BTW.

Polymorphing an artifact - I tried with the Sword of Justice) - was
mostly ineffective; the source code seems to say that there's a 5%
chance to change form. After succeeding it turned to a katana, and
after reverting it got its base form back, an ordinary long sword.
(So now there's an artifact less in the game.)

Janis

[Klaus Kassner]

But that will not increase the chance of getting an artifact by wishing
in that particular game...

[Janis Papanagnou]

On 14.03.2022 14:25, Klaus Kassner wrote:
> Am 13.03.2022 um 10:07 schrieb Janis Papanagnou:
>> On 13.03.2022 02:56, Janis Papanagnou wrote:
>>>
>>> [*] I should try to polymorph an artifact, BTW.

[ to check whether naming could be exploited when polymorphing items ]

>>
>> Polymorphing an artifact - I tried with the Sword of Justice) - was
>> mostly ineffective; the source code seems to say that there's a 5%
>> chance to change form. After succeeding it turned to a katana, and
>> after reverting it got its base form back, an ordinary long sword.
>> (So now there's an artifact less in the game.)
>
> But that will not increase the chance of getting an artifact by wishing
> in that particular game...

Unrelated to the original question in this thread but correct. The
probabilities depend on the number of generated artifacts. In Slashem
it's anyway a bit different an issue in practice since there's so many
artifacts that "pollute" the chance to get one the ordinary way by
sacrifices. Especially as a neutral character you also don't want to
lose any gained artifact (even a lesser one) since it may turn out to
have been the last one received. I did my tests to check Pat's thought
on a spare one in my stash that wasn't useful for my neutral character.

Janis