Funniest Nethack Moment
Home User
Here's mine!
As a brand-new Nethack player, I learned (by accident) that I can drink from
fountains. I try it, and the first time - POOF! - out pops a Genie, and he
gives me a wish!
I thought 'Wow, this is cool!'
You all can imagine the dozens of cursed, poisoned, nymph robbed, gold lost,
snake bitten, mad-Genie-pummelled character corpses littering the dungeon
that resulted from this bit of 'good' luck right at the beginning!
Of course, as an aside, I had absolutely -NO- idea what to wish for that
first time. I think I might have gotten a (regular) longsword or something!
Yet another example of the RNG showing it's sense of humor!
Gandalf the Black
news:3a78...@queeg.apci.net...
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . .
.
>
> Here's mine!
>
> As a brand-new Nethack player, I learned (by accident) that I can drink
from
> fountains. I try it, and the first time - POOF! - out pops a Genie, and
he
> gives me a wish!
Hey, same thing happened to me too! Think maybe Nethack is secretly
programmed so that nebwies get wishes, guaranteed? =) Anyway despite the
horrible things that can happen from fountains, I still drink from every
one I see, unless there is some very important reason not to. It makes
things interesting, and quite often I manage to make things work out in
the end. For example, water moccassins/demons plague me. But when I get
them from fountains, I usually escape to a lower level, returning later to
smite their bottoms.
Anyway. My funniest moment...hmmm... this also has to do with fountains.
Well, I had started a new game. After wandering around the first level, my
Valk found a fountain. 'q'uaffed it a few times, and out springs a water
nymph, who promptly stole everything I owned except for a blindfold before
teleporting off into the wild blue yonder (yendor? =)). Oh dear. So, with
my solitary blindfold, I tried quaffing again. The _very_ first time I
quaffed:
"You attract a water nymph!--more--"
"The nymph stole a blindfold!"
Sigh. At least the fountain was dried up, so as not to tempt me further.
I started chasing the two nymphs around, but XL1 Valks are not good at
unarmed combat. Finally I get a few hits in on one nymph, when...
"The nymph zaps a long wand.--more--"
"The nymph has made a hole in the floor!--more--"
"The nymph falls through..."
Aaagh! Of course I lept in after her and started searching for her again.
But what should I come across but... a fountain! I 'q'uaffed. This is
what happened:
"You attract a water demon.--more--"
"The fountain dries up."
Oops.
So I started running away from the water demon. I'm running down a hall,
when I run into the nymph, going the other way. In a few turns, it was all
over. Probably the unluckiest - and the funniest, in retrospect - games of
Nethack I have ever played.
Gandalf the Black, killed by two water nymphs and a water demon.
Jonathan Brent
news:3a78...@queeg.apci.net...
> Of course, as an aside, I had absolutely -NO- idea what to wish for that
> first time. I think I might have gotten a (regular) longsword or
something!
>
> Yet another example of the RNG showing it's sense of humor!
>
The first time I got a wish... I had _no_ idea what to do with it (or how
stupidly lucky I was! :))
After considering various wonderful rarities to wish for (a broadsword? a
pickaxe? or maybe even plate armour???!) I simply typed in 'gold'.
The genie gave me ONE lousy gold piece and ran off. The barstard! :)
Scott Lewis
I aimed my first Wand of Make Invisible at myself, I thought it would be
really cool if my dog were invisible too. I imagine the look on my face
when my dog disappeared would have been riotous.
-Scott-
Benjamin Grayland
Jonathan Brent wrote in message <3a78da48$1...@news.iprimus.com.au>...
I wished for an egg.
- benjamin grayland
Rob Ellwood
>
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal
> Nethack moment . . .
Here's a repost of my "Pet shop follies: a foolish
anecdote", from 1999:
_________________
Earlier today, I started up an Archeologist. On level 2,
I was attacked by a were-rat plus friends. I had to pray for
healing before the battle ended. Even though I attacked the were-
rat first, I was were-ified before I zeroed him.
This left me hundreds of turns to kill while I waited
for the prayer timeout. Most of it was spent as a 2 pound rat
underneath 200 pounds of possessions. Bored of pressing the
space bar, I wondered if #monster brought in extra rats each
time, or whether the old ones were teleported back to you.
I used #monster a couple of times, and you get extra rats.
("Would you like extra rat with that, sir?" "Yes; please.")
OK, maybe I used #monster more than a couple of times.
I had to confirm my findings.
Once back to human form, I went to a shop on that
level. I figured that a dozen or so rats milling around
for a while would randomly scatter the shop contents across
several city blocks. I could wander through the rest of
the level, idly picking stuff up and slaying beasts. This
would be far less boring than standing at the shop entrance
and waiting for DumbCat to pick up something better than a
-2 Tribblebane.
Before I got to the shop, I turned back to the 2 lb
rat again. In retrospect, I must have used #monster a couple
of times more at this point. I had rabid rats, giant rats,
and sewer rats. And people thought that I would never amount
to anything!
I eventually got to the shop, which quickly half-
filled with rats. My evil plan failed. (So much for my
potential career as an Evil Overlord.) The rats at the back
couldn't push their way to the front. The rats at the front
weren't trained as retrievers, so they just milled around,
then dropped their loot. I also got the impression that most
of the objects were too heavy for rats to pick up.
You just can't find decent minions anymore.
Foiled in my villainy, I pushed my way (with some
difficulty) through mobs of rats to the stairs leading to
the Gnomish Mines. (How many rats do you get per #monster,
anyway? Or were they starting to breed?) I prayed my were-
dom away, then ferried down a few loads of rats, averaging
about three rats a load. I started wandering around the
mines, to see what my loyal subjects were up to.
I saw a few civilians in the distance, but I never
had to draw whip: they died of, ah, natural causes before
I got there. All I had to do was pick up the loot. (Maybe
I do have a career as an E.O. after all.)
By the third corner, I was ahead of the rats. I
turned the corner and saw a squad of the GRA (Gnomish
Republican Army) nearby and closing fast. I wielded my whip,
snarled in defiance, and fled. (See! Definitely E.O.
material!)
One gnome almost caught up when I had to dodge
around a particularly stubborn rat. By then, the other
gnomes were debating the local pecking order with my
immigrant rodents. A bit later, the fast gnome got into
his own argument.
I went all the way back to the first corner and
waited. After a long time of listening to noises in the
distance, a lone gnome staggered around the corner. He
made it three steps before two members of my Home Guard
had a chat with him about where they could grab a bite to
eat.
He only had 8 GP on him, the cheapskate.
Bored again, I ferried DumbCat up the stairs,
leaving the rats to conquer the Mines or die in the attempt.
(Not much of an E.O. plan, but hey, rats are cheap.) I
went over to the stairs down to the normal dungeon level.
I ferried down ten or twelve rats to keep me company, then
started exploring.
Nothing really interesting happened. One rat went
crazy from hunger and attacked another rat. Down one. I
felt a moment of sadness a while later. Down two. I
peeked up at level two at one point, just in time to see a
rat starve to death. Down three. Ten percent lost to
attrition isn't that bad. The E.O. wasn't part of the ten
percent, so everything was spiffy.
I had just finished pickaxing a statue when a grey
slug showed up and a rat vanished from sight. I looked at
the slug, but it was far enough away that I could clear up
my end of the room before going to greet him. I looked for
the trap door that the rat had fallen through, but didn't
see it. I stepped to the pile of ex-statue rocks, and found
the trap door.
I landed right beside a were-jackal. Deja vu: I
zeroed him and his buddies, again with the help of a prayer,
and again I got were-ified. This time, I ended up as a 20
pound critter under the 200 pounds of loot.
This time, I got a bit carried away with #monster.
(I did not get carried away with #monster when I was a were-
rat. At least, not by my standards.) The room had about 30
jackals milling around before I stopped. I suppose there
were a similar number in the adjacent rooms and corridors.
Early on, a gnome or two had tried to gate-crash.
For some mysterious reason, they did not succeed. I sus-
pected that I wouldn't be picked up many experience points
on this level.
With hundreds of moves still to go before I could
re-pray, I was suddenly attacked by a giant ant! I hadn't
noticed it, since it was a brown "a" in a sea of brown "d"s.
The jackals hadn't attacked it. (Defected to the rebel
alliance, no doubt.) It quickly blasted me back to human
form.
I grabbed my arms and armor, then squished the ant.
I had some difficulty. The jackals just milled around and
laid bets. Five rooms away, a jackal politian was haranguing
the crowd about "the ants, our natural allies". (Are critters
of the same color friendly to each other? Or did I scramble
the program by overflowing the "pet" array?) [The ants were
too tough for the jackals.]
A second ant forced its way to the front. This time,
the totes only gave me even odds. Down to only two HP, I
seized a wand and zapped. I missed the ant, but killed two
jackal spectators. (Served 'em right, the traitors.) A moment
later, I bit the biscuit myself.
In the post-mortum, NetHack told me that my Archeologist
was unlucky. Jeez, tell me something I don't know.
I just hope that turkey doesn't get turned into a bones
level. "The jackal hits! The jackal hits! The jackal hits!
The jackal hits! The jackal hits! You die..." <What! I never
even got off the stairs!>
Fortunately, there is a defense. If you go down the
stairs surrounded by a solid wall of friendly rats or jackals....
--
Rob "crime did not pay" Ellwood
Bored now; off to were I can make more trouble.
Ransom Smith
>
>Of course, as an aside, I had absolutely -NO- idea what to wish for that
>first time. I think I might have gotten a (regular) longsword or something!
Ha! That's nothing. You small, simple minded people. Back when *I* got
my obligatory DL2 "newbie wish" I was already thinking big.
@ Foehg, escaped the dungeon with a fake plastic imitation
of the Amulet of Yendor.
AAaargh. Figures.
--
[http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=5913]
[http://www.koth.org/] [http://www.nethack.org/] [http://www.slashdot.org/]
D "Share this dragon / If you do / Lucky end / For them and you"
wy...@engin.umich.edu
>
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment .
Well, when I first started playing, I loved having a pet kitten of my
very own. I went to great lengths to keep them alive and to get them
food so they'd grow up nice and strong.
So I was trying out a chaotic elven wizard, enjoying the free magic items
and of course my pet cat Fluffernutter. I got my very first wish from --
surprise -- a fountain. Now, I had no idea what to wish for, of course.
So, having just read the Elric series of books, I wished for
Stormbringer, just to see what would happen.
"Wow! I actually got Stormbringer! This game rules!"
I went and jumped the nearest rat, draining the poor thing's soul away.
"Cool! What a great weapon; I'm going to great this game! Maybe I'll
ascend! Hey, Fluffernutter, look what I got..."
The bloodthirsty blade attacks! The black blade draws life from
Fluffernutter! You destroy the poor Fluffernutter!
"No! Fluffernutter! What have I done! Why?!"
After spending a while in mourning, I moved on. Thanks to my weapon,
mostly, I managed to make it to mine town, in which, well, things didn't
go so well.
The bloodthirsty blade attacks! The watchman gets angry!
*as I try to run away*
The bloodthirsty blade attacks! The watch captain gets angry!
"D'oh! Better run into a shop, where I'll be safe..."
The bloodthirsty blade attacks! The shopkeeper gets angry! The
shopkeeper zaps a wand of fire! You die...
Well, it was fun while it lasted...
Chris
--
| Optimists say the glass is half full; pessimists, half empty.
| Engineers say the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
http://wyrmhole.net original anime art and the Monthly Animefan
Alternative
Andreas Schmitz
>> As a brand-new Nethack player, I learned (by accident) that I can drink from
>> fountains. I try it, and the first time - POOF! - out pops a Genie, and he
>> gives me a wish!
><Snip>
>Hey, same thing happened to me too! Think maybe Nethack is secretly
>programmed so that nebwies get wishes, guaranteed? =) Anyway despite the
So THAT's funny, 'cause the same thing happened for me, too!! Since this has
been one of my first moves at all, I just pressed enter (and got a useless
weapon IIRC)...
Once, I had a wizard starting with a spellbook of identify and a magic marker
(yes, can't get better...). On the first (!) level, I found a bag of holding
(any more wishes?). Second level: a jewelry shop with 15 rings or so. Since I
was 3rd level, I couldn't cast identify that good, and so I tried to identify
some rings by waiting a while, casting, waiting... (had enough food rations)
Okay, to get experience, I wanted to kill the monsters that waited in the
door. Shit, a soldier ant (after SOME time). Okay, so I dropped the rings,
bought one of slow digestion, wanted to go out. Shit, that damned soldier ant
is hard! Back into the shop, I realized that (since I didn't owe the shopkeeper
anything) the ant was able to follow me... DYWYPI?
Andreas, killed by a soldier ant...
gnohm...@my-deja.com
"Home User" <no...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
My funniest wasn't in a proper game. I had heard about wizard bones and
wanted to try it out just once, so I started up in wiz mode and wished for
all sorts of goodies and deliberately got killed and chose to leave bones.
Then I started a normal character and went to pick up the bones.
Wow, this is cool!, I said. My +10 GDSM and +10 speed boots and +15 mojo
really rock! And after drinking a dozen blessed potions of gain level, I
don't even notice getting blasted by my PYEC and Eye of Tapioca and Staff of
Escapeulapius. Whooo-eeee!
I barely got off the level when I fell into a pit. The spikes were poisoned.
I died instantly. Justice was served.
Who says cheaters never win? I couldn't have "won" the game, but I won big,
by getting a huge bellylaugh out of it! Heck, I'm starting to get all
chuckled up just thinking about it now, years later.
The RNG knows everything. Beware.
(Of course, I wasn't really cheating, just trying out the wizard bones trick
in a spirit of scientific investigation. If I had really been cheating, I
probably would have been in the wrong frame of mind, and wouldn't have
laughed so hard.)
Sent via Deja.com
http://www.deja.com/
Philipp Lucas
>OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
Hmm... I think the funniest moment of my career was an instance of the
classical "The valkyrie that would not die"-syndrome. On one of my first
visits to the castle, I did lack magic resistance as well as a means to
kill nymphs. Titans cursed me, my armor got disintegrated, nymphs robbed me
blind. After I fell through a trapdoor or a hole, I was stuck in a maze
between Medusa and the castle. Needless to say, I didn't have any means to
blind myself, so going up was not an option. I decided to tackle the castle
and go down in glory.
So this almost naked valkyrie, wearing nothing but low boots and an iron
helmet, carrying just a few lizards, a rusty longsword and some minor
trash, stood there at the entrance of the mighty castle guarding the depths
of Gehennom -- and conquered it singlehandedly.
I did not think about what I was actually doing until I finally got the
wand. Then rationalisation set in, I wished for some artifacts and armor --
and died shortly thereafter.
--
Philipp Lucas
phl...@online-club.de
Paul Vader
Tangent - After I read that, I tried wishing for stuff that doesn't come in
eggs (hobbit eggs, master lich eggs, etc.). In every case I got an egg, but
it never hatched unless it was for a egg-laying creature. I would have
expected a random egg if it wasn't a recognized type, but instead it
appears you get a sterile egg. Weird.
This also boggled me by realizing that there has to be an "egg laying" bit
for all the monsters. Neat detail!
Silly wish dept: I once wished for a blessed tin of wizard of yendor meat
(for tele control). Apparently, whenever you do this you get giant mimic meat
instead. *
--
* PV something like badgers--something like lizards--and something
like corkscrews.
Kate Nepveu
> Ha! That's nothing. You small, simple minded people. Back when *I* got
> my obligatory DL2 "newbie wish" I was already thinking big.
> @ Foehg, escaped the dungeon with a fake plastic imitation
> of the Amulet of Yendor.
> AAaargh. Figures.
Heh. That is funny, though I'm sure you didn't think so at the time...
Kate
--
http://www.steelypips.org/ -- NetHack Spoilers; Paired Readings; Reviews
"'Hi!' she said brightly. 'I'm the inner babysitter!'"
--Getting in touch with one's inner child is not always wise
Terry Pratchett, _Hogfather_
Jonathan Brent
news:slrn97ilr7...@localhost.localdomain...
> On Wed, 31 Jan 2001 19:52:56 -0600, Home User <no...@nowhere.com> wrote:
> >
> >Of course, as an aside, I had absolutely -NO- idea what to wish for that
> >first time. I think I might have gotten a (regular) longsword or
something!
>
> Ha! That's nothing. You small, simple minded people. Back when *I* got
> my obligatory DL2 "newbie wish" I was already thinking big.
Heh. I remeber when I got polymorph and poly control for the first time. I
was
a mumak (eat karma, RNG!), but I felt I could go one better:
What do you want to become?
"Heheh, I'll show this game who's boss!"
> The Wizard of Yendor
You feel like a new man. You are burdened.
"Doh!"
(YANI: The Wizard of Yendor appears in a puff of logic in front of
you -more-
The Wizard of Yendor says: "* THERE CAN ONLY BE ONE! *" -more-
You turn into a newt -more-)
William Harris
>Home User wrote:
>>
>> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal
>> Nethack moment . . .
>
> Here's a repost of my "Pet shop follies: a foolish
>anecdote", from 1999:
> _________________
>
> Earlier today, I started up an Archeologist. On level 2,
>I was attacked by a were-rat plus friends. I had to pray for
>healing before the battle ended. Even though I attacked the were-
>rat first, I was were-ified before I zeroed him.
[rest clipped]
OMG! Stop! Stop! I'm herniating my lungs! I don't know when I've
laughed so hard (gasp gasp)
--
William Harris
Weyfour WWWWolf (Urpo Lankinen)
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
I think I have told about these before...
Once when my dog got itself killed in a trap (or something), it left a
whistle. My sister thought that maybe it had swallowed it...
Then the strange coincidence: My sister came to the room and said
"Nethack again? Yuck." And right after that, I found a scroll labeled
JUYED AWK YACC.
Oh, and the newt-door-weapon row I saw once was pretty cool... *g*
--
$_='%?&%[=&+=?%=[%&+&%[*?]&=&~[;&+&{=?[?&%&[&{[%&^=?=[&%&]=?%~&~[?&+&~YiFF!
=[=~| Weyfour WWWWolf (aka. Urpo Lankinen), a lupine technomancer |=?*_=}?]
%}&};| ICQ:4291042 | www...@iki.fi | http://www.iki.fi/wwwwolf/ |&;&=~?]';
tr/?~=*;%&[{}]+_^ (),.:@\/\n0-9!|a-zA-Z/0-9acde/d; $_=pack("H*",$_); print;
Purma Olli
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
This was way back when playing on Amiga 500, so you always noticed when
there were many creatures in the level as the game slowed down a lot. And
the Castle was a little bit annoying this way.
My funniest and most memorable Nethack moment was the time I first reached
the Castle. I didn't have any means of levitation or any other ways of
getting over the pits to the treasure rooms. So I prayed several times to
piss off my god, hoping for an iron ball chained to my leg. And it worked.
I picked up the heavy iron ball and tossed it over the first pit hoping to
land on solid land. After a couple of falls to the trap doors I landed to
solid land and killed the dragons that were waiting there.
I now know that this could have been done more efficiently but still it
was quite cool.
--
Olli Purma
Antti S. Brax
> So I prayed several times to piss off my god, hoping for an iron ball
> chained to my leg.
Damn! Why didn't I think of that?!
--
/"\
\ / ASCII RIBBON CAMPAIGN Antti S. Brax - a...@iki.fi
X AGAINST HTML MAIL Old school
/ \ (AND NEWS TOO, dammit) http://www.iki.fi/asb/
Gandalf the Black
"Weyfour WWWWolf (Urpo Lankinen)" <www...@iki.fi> wrote in message
news:m2y9vpg...@saunalahti.fi...
> "Home User" <no...@nowhere.com> writes:
<Sniporama>
> Oh, and the newt-door-weapon row I saw once was pretty cool... *g*
>
Hmmm... a gremlin with a gem horde?
How about this:
-------------------
HoLy_Sh?T...@yAhOO.coM
-------------------
A player about to be spanked by a giant, 2 orcs, lich, yellow light, cobra,
master mind flayer, troll, invisible black light, couatl, dwarf king, 2
ogres, a mummy, aaaand a cockatrice, coming at him from all angles. If he
manages to escape, he'll be able to come back and use that coaligned
altar. Now if only he could reach that ?SoTeleport ! =) Please note: this
is _not_ biographical, although I wish it was...
--Gandalf the Black, killed by an email address
Boudewijn Waijers
I was playing Guusje, my elven wizard, who had just turned level 15 and had
been given the Quest assignment by the Wizard of Balance. She had the spells
of remove curse, identify (three spellbooks in stock!), a magic marker, lots
of scrolls, ... Suffice to say, she was really doing well, just asking for
YASD.
She had returned to the main dungeon, since I felt she wasn't up to facing
the Dark One yet. There, on level 14, she found a beehive. After killing the
bees, she picked up the lump of royal jelly, and started eating them.
To see how strong she was becoming, I took off my gauntlets of power. A few
lumps later, her natural strength had gone up to 18, where it stayed (since
she was an elf).
I continued in the dungeon, liberally putting my blindfold on and off, to be
able to keep track of Rothond II, her large doggy. She beat up tigers,
kicked some rothe butt, zapped a few chickatrices, and ...
then she walked over a chickatrice' corpse, forgetting that she had not yet
put her gauntlets of power back on, while blindfolded...
--
Boudewijn Waijers
I don't like good losers,| www.win.tue.nl/games/roguelike/nethack/latest
'cause a good loser is a | for links to the latest version (3.3.1)
loser. - "Geoff", on | ftp.win.tue.nl/pub/games/nethack.331/...
"The Weakest Link". | for direct downloads of the new release
Boudewijn Waijers
3A7917CB...@home.com...
> I grabbed my arms and armor, then squished the ant.
> I had some difficulty. The jackals just milled around and
> laid bets. Five rooms away, a jackal politian was haranguing
> the crowd about "the ants, our natural allies". (Are critters
> of the same color friendly to each other? Or did I scramble
> the program by overflowing the "pet" array?) [The ants were
> too tough for the jackals.]
You answer your own question: the ants were too tough for the jackals.
That's why they wouldn't attack them.
Pets never attack a creature that isn't obviously weaker than they are
themselves. It's what keeps them alive...
> Fortunately, there is a defense. If you go down the
> stairs surrounded by a solid wall of friendly rats or jackals....
That brings up a question: suppose on level 6, the room with the up stairs
is completely filled with creatures. Now, you're on level 5, and three pets
are standing next to you.
If you go down the stairs, would your pets follow you (they should: they
don't know that level 6 is overflooded already), and if so, where would they
end up on level 6.
What would happen if level 6 was completely filled (not only the room with
the up stairs)?
Weyfour WWWWolf (Urpo Lankinen)
> > Oh, and the newt-door-weapon row I saw once was pretty cool... *g*
> Hmmm... a gremlin with a gem horde?
Nope. A random grin. =)
My situation was something like this:
+---------
|.........
#######@:-)........
|.........
|.........
secre...@my-deja.com
on slashdot recently:
by Bob Abooey (User #224634)
Who needs anymore damn games flooding the market. Nethack is
all I need. That game has it all, it takes skill, immagination,
smarts, and fearlessness. Yes you must be fearless to play this
game for hours and hours with your hand constantly clicking on
the hjkl keys... hlhlhhjjjhhllhhjjlhlhjjjjljj... yes, carpal
tunnel be damned. RSI HA! I laugh in your face. Hour after hour,
click click click cold numbness, click click click.. sharp
shooting pain...click click click
Ah yes, nethack, the one true game.
Yours,
Bob
--
ekhowl
> Just happened today...
[snip...]
As I don't have the original post around anyore, I'll answer here.
At least for me this situation was funny, but very frightening at
the same time.
I picked up a ?oGenocide. "Hmm, let's read it and wipe out all the
arch-liches... *reads the scroll* Ooops! It was a cursed one, aargh!".
--
Jussi Ekholm, "Everything is so fine it could be
the ill flower don't let your mind take you in misery
ekh...@saunalahti.fi all the feelings you're not so much pleased
they're just to take you to sweet harmony"
Jason Short
>
> OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
I a recent ascension, I was playing a caveman. In true caveman-style, I
was using conflict.
I was on my way back up with the amulet, and on Jubilex's level there
was a gremlin who multiplied (actually, this gremlin may have been there
before on my way down, but I don't remember).
What followed I do not understand. These gremlins just kept
multiplying, fighting each other (because of the conflict), and killing
each other off. I know that with each multiplication the HP of both the
new and old gremlin are half what the original gremlin's were. However,
somehow this was being thwarted. The number of gremlins just kept
increasing, and their HP never went toward zero. I had to cross the
level about five times since I kept being warped back down. After about
my third crossing I was amazed at the number of gremlins, and counted
them - there were about 150 of them; they covered nearly a full quarter
of the screen (loosely). After my final crossing, they covered the full
right side of the level - there must have been over 300 of them. An
average square in the upper right corner had five gremlin corpses on it
- they had gone through a number of life cycles. They had an average of
about 7 HP each; the process certainly wasn't slowing down. I stood
around for a moment watching them in awe, then left for the last time.
Why did this happen? With each multiplication, the HP of the gremlins
should decrease [1]. I had some thought that when they kill a monster,
a gremlin might gain HP - so that somehow they were gaining more HP than
were lost in the multiplication. In grow_up(), I see that the number of
HP gained is dependent upon the level of the monster being killed rather
than how many HP that monster has - so high-level gremlins who had low
HP might give each other a lot of HP when they grow up from killing each
other [2]. But do non-pet monsters grow_up from killing each other?
Looks like they do [3]! Therefore gremlins can breed indefinitely, and
usually will when conflict is on! Having a pet gremlin (which I've
never done) may lead to always-increasing quantities of gremlins!
Does this sound like a bug to anyone else? Shouldn't the number of HP
gained from growing up be limited by the number of HP the killed monster
had?
[1] http://nethack.dhs.org/source/src/potion.c#L1788
[2] http://nethack.dhs.org/source/src/makemon.c#L1297
[3] http://nethack.dhs.org/source/src/mhitm.c#L989
Right after ascending this caveman, I decided to go back to my
bread-and-butter and play a wizard. For this first time I can remember,
this wizard started out with a ring of slow digestion - as well as the
normal wizard goodies. I decided I would try to go both weaponless and
foodless in this game - and was promptly killed by a newt when I didn't
watch my HP closely enough. Playing the caveman made me forget how weak
wizards are.
jason short
Sascha Wostmann
> That brings up a question: suppose on level 6, the room with the up stairs
> is completely filled with creatures. Now, you're on level 5, and three pets
> are standing next to you.
>
> If you go down the stairs, would your pets follow you (they should: they
> don't know that level 6 is overflooded already), and if so, where would they
> end up on level 6.
I'd suspect that since the downstairs are occupied, I and my pets will
land on the next free square from the stairs, that could easily be at
the other end of the level, if there's no nearer space available.
> What would happen if level 6 was completely filled (not only the room with
> the up stairs)?
that's a rhetorical question, isn't it? Does the game hang in an
endless loop looking for a free square?
Sascha
--
net...@gmx.de http://www.nethack.de/
You break up the fortune cookie and throw away the pieces.--More--
This cookie has a scrap of paper inside. It reads:--More--
They say that you should remove your armor before sitting on a throne.
Ray Chason
>OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal Nethack moment . . .
This one was a long time ago, and I've quaffed too many potions of booze
since then to remember all the details, but...
I was out cold. It may have been a trap, or a potion, or bad food; I
forget. But while I was out, a nymph came along and stole a wand of
lightning. She then teleported away, came back, and zapped me several
times with it.
Unfortunately for her, I was wearing a shield of reflection.
A different sort of YASD.
--
--------------===============<[ Ray Chason ]>===============--------------
PGP public key at http://www.smart.net/~rchason/pubkey.asc
Delenda est Windoze
Dylan O'Donnell
> Boudewijn Waijers :
>
> > That brings up a question: suppose on level 6, the room with the up stairs
> > is completely filled with creatures. Now, you're on level 5, and three pets
> > are standing next to you.
> >
> > If you go down the stairs, would your pets follow you (they
> > should: they don't know that level 6 is overflooded already), and
> > if so, where would they end up on level 6.
>
> I'd suspect that since the downstairs are occupied, I and my pets will
> land on the next free square from the stairs, that could easily be at
> the other end of the level, if there's no nearer space available.
Right. From enexto() (the "place something as close as possible to a
certain spot") function:
/*
* Walk around the border of the square with center (xx,yy) and
* radius range. Stop when we find at least one valid position.
*/
Though you yourself have a 50% chance of displacing whatever's standing
on the stairs to said nearest-free-point.
> > What would happen if level 6 was completely filled (not only the room with
> > the up stairs)?
>
> that's a rhetorical question, isn't it? Does the game hang in an
> endless loop looking for a free square?
From another source comment elsewhere:
/* actually we have real problems if enexto ever fails.
* migrating_mons that need to be placed will cause
* no end of trouble.
*/
Exactly what happens, I haven't tested, but it looks as if it'd be
problems more with two monsters trying to occupy the same square, or
your pets ending up in solid rock (since their old location
information has failed to be updated). I could easily be mistaken
there, though.
--
: Dylan O'Donnell http://www.spod-central.org/~psmith/ :
: "Note that computers turn us into aliens." :
: -- Zarf, out of context :
james mcgill
Jukka Lahtinen <wal...@clinet.fi.no.sp.am.invalid> wrote:
>I think this shouldn't happen too often..
It only has to happen once to ruin your day.
I'm trying to find a way to test this is wizmode,
but it is fairly tedious to setup the situation.
Ziggy, killed by a jackal.
--
% a piece of food (elf corpse named Ziggy)
Dylan O'Donnell
> In article <walker.9...@cantina.clinet.fi>,
> Jukka Lahtinen <wal...@clinet.fi.no.sp.am.invalid> wrote:
>
> >I think this shouldn't happen too often..
>
> It only has to happen once to ruin your day.
>
> I'm trying to find a way to test this is wizmode,
> but it is fairly tedious to setup the situation.
Doesn't take too long in Vlad's tower; small, and niches to stand
in while you wait out the 20K turns or so.
You climb down the ladder. mnexto failed (do.c)?--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'd better #quit.--More--
rloc(): couldn't relocate monster--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'd better #quit.--More--
I still reckon this is a pathological case, though :-)
Boudewijn Waijers
>>> What would happen if level 6 was completely filled (not only the room
with
>>> the up stairs)?
>> that's a rhetorical question, isn't it? Does the game hang in an
>> endless loop looking for a free square?
> From another source comment elsewhere:
>
> /* actually we have real problems if enexto ever fails.
> * migrating_mons that need to be placed will cause
> * no end of trouble.
> */
>
> Exactly what happens, I haven't tested, but it looks as if it'd be
> problems more with two monsters trying to occupy the same square, or
> your pets ending up in solid rock (since their old location
> information has failed to be updated). I could easily be mistaken
> there, though.
Well, I actually tried it in wizard mode.
I levelported to the Sokoban stairs, and went to Sokoban 1 (level 5). I
solved the first level, conjured a werewolf and let it bite me. Then, I
killed the werewolf, and waited on the up stairs until I changed into wolf
form myself.
Next, I filled the level with wolves (various forms). There were now
creatures all over the level, except for four spots where boulders were
left.
Next, I left the level, taking the one wolf next to me to level 4. There, I
wished for two blessed figurines of a dog, waited until all three pets there
were next to me, and levelported back to level 5 (there was only one free
space next to the down stairs, so I couldn't take all three pets by other
means.
When I arrived back on level 5, I got the following error messages:
mnexto failed (do.c)?--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'd better #quit.--More--
rloc(): couldn't relocate monster--More--
Program in disorder - perhaps you'd better #quit.--More--
Upon which the program continued.
Level 5, where I did arrive, now still had lots of pet wolves, plus the my
two conjured dogs, that were located on and next to the stairs, and myself,
on the spot of one of the boulders that I left over.
So, I destroyed the boulders and went back to the up stairs. I went up once
more, taking one of my dogs with me. I conjured up an angel, a rothe and
waited for the three of them to be next to me and levelported back to level
5.
I got the same four messages as before.
This time, the dog came with me, and level 5 was filled with wolves and my
two dogs. After returnning to level 4, my angel was gone, but the rothe was
still there.
So, the game didn't crash, but I did get some error messages.
Nathan F Russell
The obvious question is how to fix this, without opening the door to
overfilling a level containing some incredibly powerful creature.
My suggestion would be that when a level overfills, the least powerful
monster dies (possibly of suffocation?)
Nathan
Asher Densmore-Lynn
>The obvious question is how to fix this, without opening the door to
>overfilling a level containing some incredibly powerful creature.
>
>My suggestion would be that when a level overfills, the least powerful
>monster dies (possibly of suffocation?)
Oh dear.
That's almost elegant.
Especially because, under some insane circumstances, the PLAYER might be the
weakest monster on the level.
jesdynf, killed by a Malthusian mischance
I like... (:
--
Asher Densmore-Lynn <jes...@fastlane.net>
Nathan F Russell
Densmore-Lynn) wrote:
>On Mon, 05 Feb 2001 19:21:45 -0500, Nathan F Russell wrote:
>
>>The obvious question is how to fix this, without opening the door to
>>overfilling a level containing some incredibly powerful creature.
>>
>>My suggestion would be that when a level overfills, the least powerful
>>monster dies (possibly of suffocation?)
>
>Oh dear.
>
>That's almost elegant.
>
>Especially because, under some insane circumstances, the PLAYER might be the
>weakest monster on the level.
(snip)
Of course, in this case, the characterr would be unlikely to live very
long in any event (except in special cases, like a 1st level character
stumbling into a level full of floating eyes or shriekers)
Nathan, killed by a buffer overflow
Harri Haataja
>On 6 Feb 2001 04:12:06 GMT, jes...@brain.kitenet.net (Asher
>Densmore-Lynn) wrote:
>>On Mon, 05 Feb 2001 19:21:45 -0500, Nathan F Russell wrote:
>>
>>>The obvious question is how to fix this, without opening the door to
>>>overfilling a level containing some incredibly powerful creature.
>>>
>>>My suggestion would be that when a level overfills, the least powerful
>>>monster dies (possibly of suffocation?)
>>
>>weakest monster on the level.
It seems downstairs is already quite full. Continue anyway? [y/N?]
You fall down the stairs -- More --
You land in a pack of rats, crushing one of them.
--
Windows Task Scheduler is a really nifty tool and should probably
be disabled and removed if at all possible.
-- Securityportal.com Jeff pt IX
William Harris
<pu418t0eor31lj5r2...@4ax.com>:
>I'm used to posting on the local newsgroups of my college, where it is
>usual to simply post underneath (many people treat them like web-based
>discussion boards, the other online means used to discuss courses).
(wince)
When I was in college we didn't have newsgroups or even a network. :-)
Perhaps you could be a force for change in your local community?
------
William Harris
William Harris
<walker.9...@cantina.clinet.fi>:
>So, trimming down the quotes to what is necessary will give you a wider
>audience. (I don't *think* I'm the only one who skips ugly quoting.)
Heh. If I have to go more than a screen or two, I skip.
------
William Harris
Peter Backgren
willia...@earthlink.net says...
95% of such cases only
have
a single line
like this
could have been
at
the end.
Eskimo
--
//------------------------------
//Remove absolutelynospam to mail directly.
//Ascended:WVPTKHSBCP
//In progress:30000 turns
Antti S. Brax
Snickersnee from the first offering. Then went a couple of
DLVs down and found a tombstone: "[removed to protect the
innocent] killed by an ape while helpless" with a cursed
Mojo and blessed Excalibur (and 2 other weaker artifact
weapons). I forgave the RNG every single helpless death it
had done to me. ;-)
After that I got two magic lamps from minetown (SDSM, cloak
of magic resistance), got Frost Brand and another artifact
weapon as a reward. Kicked major butt with +6 FB and became
bisected by Ashikaga Takauji. Mothers, don't let your kids
do the quest without a /WoD.
Kanbei, killed by Ashikaga Takauji.
wy...@engin.umich.edu
> After that I got two magic lamps from minetown (SDSM, cloak
> of magic resistance), got Frost Brand and another artifact
> weapon as a reward. Kicked major butt with +6 FB and became
> bisected by Ashikaga Takauji. Mothers, don't let your kids
> do the quest without a /WoD.
Very true. The one time -- the ONLY time I've ever let Ashikaga Takauji take
a swing at me, he cut me in half. Ever since, I won't do the quest till I
have some method of dealing with him.
Oh, but btw, a /WoPoly works almost as well as /WoD. I once turned him into a
red mold (which can't wield the Tsurugi, obviously), and he was just a tad
easier. ^_- I didn't get the usual message when I killed him.
Chris
--
| "Eyes playing tricks, like little round devils!" - The Tick
http://wyrmhole.net original anime art and the Monthly Animefan Alternative
Ryouga
"Rob Ellwood" <rob.e...@home.com> wrote in message
news:3A7917CB...@home.com...
> Home User wrote:
> >
> > OK - Here's a new thread idea - your funniest personal
> > Nethack moment . . .
>
> anecdote", from 1999:
> _________________
>
> Earlier today, I started up an Archeologist. On level 2,
> I was attacked by a were-rat plus friends. I had to pray for
> healing before the battle ended. Even though I attacked the were-
> rat first, I was were-ified before I zeroed him.
>
> This left me hundreds of turns to kill while I waited
> for the prayer timeout. Most of it was spent as a 2 pound rat
> underneath 200 pounds of possessions. Bored of pressing the
> space bar, I wondered if #monster brought in extra rats each
> time, or whether the old ones were teleported back to you.
> I used #monster a couple of times, and you get extra rats.
> ("Would you like extra rat with that, sir?" "Yes; please.")
LOL!!! LOL!!!! That sounds like my friend playing Birthright.. "I've got
Legion of the Dead, let's just summon 13 skeletons every turn...."