Nethack

Arda Xi

1:26 PM

THE EYES ARE WATCHING ME

Grace Note

1:49 PM

@Arda Ask about telepathy in the parent Q&A!

Arda Xi

Ye, ye.

0

Q: How does telepathy work?

One particular dungeon level was swarming with floating eyes. Now, I don't like being watched, so I felt there was only one recourse. A few bits of flying magic later, I ate a floating eye corpse. Now, I'm told this conveys telepathy, which is supported by the "You feel a strange mental acuity" ...

Feeds

10

Q: Flowchart(s) for indirect identification

There are a lot of different ways of identifying items (as expounded here), and often it seems that several steps are required. I know there are lots of tables of this information on the NetHack wiki and elsewhere, but I am looking for one or more flowcharts that cover everything to make ID-ing a...

roguelikes nethack

4

Q: How to recover a crashed game in Vulture's

I was playing SLASH'em with the Vulture's GUI, on Mac OSX. The applicatiion crashed, and now when I try to start, I get a popup telling me that I have a game already with that name, and asking if I want to destroy it. Selecting "no" quits Vulture's. Does this mean that the crashed game is reco...

nethack tech-support slashem

1

Q: Can I change the movement keys in NetHack?

I recently downloaded NetHack, and have begun to play on my laptop. However, I find the directional key bindings rather cumbersome. I do not have a Number Pad, and would rather not use the NumLock function on my laptop's keyboard. So, I'm currently left to deal with the default non-numerical b...

nethack keyboard-controls customize

2

Q: A strategy for Nethack progress?

I've been playing Nethack for years but don't get anywhere near the end for one reason or another. I'm experienced enough to not eat old corpses, wear cursed items or pick the wrong fight, but what I don't know is how quick to move down. I can empty Sokoban and all the Mines but I'm never powerfu...

strategy nethack

0

Q: How does telepathy work?

One particular dungeon level was swarming with floating eyes. Now, I don't like being watched, so I felt there was only one recourse. A few bits of flying magic later, I ate a floating eye corpse. Now, I'm told this conveys telepathy, which is supported by the "You feel a strange mental acuity" ...

spoiler nethack

Arda Xi

The question is kinda moot, I died. [†: Well, I answered it nonetheless. You can use it as food for thought in later playthroughs ♪]

Arda Xi

2:06 PM

You actually wrote that up in the time between you telling me to ask it and me asking it, didn't you? [†: I only got as far as the spoiler part before you asked. ♪]

Hmm, the article did say it. Must've read over it then. Your answer is much clearer though. [†: That's the advantage of Stack Exchange over a wiki. We give answers instead of articles. ♪]

Arda Xi

2:49 PM

Gah. All my attempts to get a deep understanding of the different mechanics of Nethack are foiled by my dying before level 5.

I mean, I'm not looking for ascension, I just want to experience the game's magic.

sjohnston

4:31 PM

@ArdaXi is there a particular type of death that happens to you a lot? Dying is pretty normal in Nethack, but perhaps there's something specific you could work on?

Arda Xi

Monsters?

Grace Note

This should be pinned, probably.

23

Q: What's the key to failure in roguelikes?

I've tried a fair amount of roguelikes. Nethack, ADoM, ToME, Crawl and more. However, I can only very rarely got into midgame. My records, for example, are reaching the beginning of the Quest in Nethack (exactly once) or reaching Snake:4 at xl15 in Crawl. What is the key to failure in roguelikes...

strategy roguelikes

2

sjohnston

@Arda Make liberal use of Elbereth, even just writing in the dust. Don't forget to use your prayer when you're in trouble. Running and avoiding fights are legitimate, sometimes vital strategies. Those were the two things I needed to learn to get beyond the first few levels.

Arda Xi

@GraceNote Pinned it.

badp

@GraceNote blush

Arda Xi

4:37 PM

I don't get a lot of immunities soon enough either.

sjohnston

you don't usually run into problems that require immunities in the first few levels

You could also try a few games using "easy" classes like valk or samurai

badp

Fucking ants. [†: Ahahahahahahahahaha! Go Team Ant! ♪]

sjohnston

Fants?

►

woah, getting crowded in the house of Nethack

Someone should have started this room a long time ago

Arda Xi

@sjohnston I aim to please, in a terribly late fashion.

@sjohnston But I like zapping!

sjohnston

4:56 PM

Are you keeping your pet around? They're a damn pain, but it can help a lot to have them tank when you're a ranged class

Arda Xi

Yeah, unless I lose it.

sjohnston

lose as in dead, or lose as in wanders off?

Arda Xi

5:11 PM

Lose as in "where did you just... you were just here!"

Also, I keep drinking from the water fountain. I know I shouldn't, but I do.

Arda Xi

5:28 PM

My pet just... drowned.

Ring of teleportation does not do what it says on the tin.

It will never cease to amaze me how getting hit in the head with a boulder fixes polymorph.

I think the most annoying thing about perma-death is that every inventory makes the game different, and you have to get used to it again.

Arda Xi

6:30 PM

I'll try playing online, see if a log can identify my mistakes.

Alright, so someone is in here starring my messages, but I still feel ignored. [†: For the record, it's not me.]

sjohnston

7:12 PM

hmm, I am here now. Are you still hacking nets?

Arda Xi

Aye, online this time.

sjohnston

7:29 PM

huh, for some reason my console goes all buggery when I try to view your game

Which console?

windows cmd

Windows telnet?

yeah

Makes sense, it doesn't support... well, anything really

Try PuTTY

sjohnston

7:35 PM

the odd thing is that it works fine for some of the sessions and not others. And it was working fine at work, earlier today

Arda Xi

Yeah, I know. I enabled curses.

sjohnston

I was looking for telnet for iPhone yesterday. That was an exercise in pain.

There are about a dozen clients, all terrible

Arda Xi

You might wanna jailbreak for that, first.

Come on, monsters, spawn. I want at least level two before I go down.

Arda Xi

7:48 PM

Phew, that was close. Wow, I just got excited over a blind at sign escaping from an I.

sjohnston

ha

Arda Xi

7:59 PM

Hrm. I attracted a water nymph. What should I do?

I have an uncursed and a blessed scroll of confuse monster, a spell of slow monster,a potion of polymorph, booze and unidentified

All the other items are unrelated.

sjohnston

hmm

Arda Xi

Slow monster might put some distance between us, so I can use ranged attack?

sjohnston

maaaybe

Arda Xi

Screw it, worth a shot.

sjohnston

you could draw an elbereth

Arda Xi

8:04 PM

She stole my anti-shape-change ring and teleported out.

Could've gone worse tbh.

sjohnston

yeah, they're jerks like that

oh, I thought you were trying to avoid the stealing

Arda Xi

I was. I just think it was preferable she stole that ring.

sjohnston

ah

nymph problem solved

Arda Xi

Found her, killed her, got the ring back.

Oh, you're watching now?

sjohnston

yeah

Arda Xi

8:09 PM

Woops, wrong way.

Err...?

sjohnston

I was also thinking that

Arda Xi

Is that stack overflow or something?

Arda Xi

8:31 PM

I keep confusing >up with <down.

I actually learnt that undead thingy without being spoilt. It's a great way to level.

sjohnston

I stepped away. What undead thingy?

Arda Xi

Attempting to engrave on a tombstone

sjohnston

ah

Arda Xi

Killed by a werejackal. Damned full moon.

sjohnston

werejackaled

Arda Xi

8:41 PM

Such a tiring game. You get so immersed in your character, only to be forced to get immersed into an entirely different one the next time.

My record is the first room of level 6.

ttyrec messes up with curses too.

badp

@ArdaXi NAO should do ttyrecs for you

Arda Xi

@badp Yes, and they're messed up by curses.

badp

@ArdaXi it's probably something on your end

doublecheck terminal size

Arda Xi

Nah, curses is just not that compatible with stuff that is based on just a terminal

badp

no, ttyrec works on the top of curses

Arda Xi

8:46 PM

Well, yes, but not many players support curses.

Playing online makes me incredibly self-conscious.

badp

ttyrec
Specialized format used to record Crawl (among other) games. Google to find a player for your favorite platform. CAO ttyrecs all games in crawl.akrasiac.org/rawdata/<user>.
Since it's been asked before: a usable Windows tty player is termplay: angband.pl/termrec.html
Use !ttyrec to list ttyrecs for specific games.
ipbt is a nice viewer for Unix (chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/ipbt)

Arda Xi

I use termplay. It messed up on my own recording.

This game is masochistically addictive.

2

badp

9:11 PM

@ArdaXi There's probably a way to ask for a replay of your last moves via IRC + Telnet

at least, Crawl was setup this way.

You telnet to termcast.org, write !tv in ##crawl, Henzell and Termcast do the magic and you'd see your last moves replayed

except right now termcast.org doesn't want to be telnetted to.

Arda Xi

9:44 PM

How do you train spells again?

Arda Xi

9:57 PM

"You feel the power of Anhur increase. The altar glows black." That has to be good for my rep.

YES! It is I! The almighty Conjurer Xi, bearer of Magicbane! [†: You have two options now: Don't die because you finally have awesome stuff, or die in spite of it and start everything all over again. ♪]

Hmph. Telepathy is useless without a way to blind one's self.

badp

@ArdaXi You'll find one either way.

Arda Xi

@Myself I'll probably go for the latter option. (@GraceNote too)

I just confused a fog cloud. The real me is now confused.

badp

@ArdaXi art thou playing onlinest?

Arda Xi

I am!

badp

I can has see you then

Arda Xi

10:09 PM

Will Anhur be displeased if I abandon his artifact?

Shit.

You hit the wererat! The wererat summons help! The wererat bites!

badp

be careful there

use /

Arda Xi

Oh good. I had a spell of teleportation.

Huh?

badp

you could've used it to tell the wererat from the other rats

Arda Xi

Well, I'd have been screwed either way. So this was the safest move.

badp

btw, since you have ranged attacks use them

Arda Xi

10:11 PM

Yeah, I usually do, but I got cornered.

badp

don't go face to face with werefoo

fair nuff

Arda Xi

Perfect!

Elbereth makes the rats kill themselves. Thanks Anhur!

badp

o_O

Arda Xi

How can a fog cloud be insightful?

Alright, that's a bit cumbersome

But yeah, I'm far enough to get a really annoying death soon.

I should probably just call it a day.

badp

O_O

I'm just commenting you've got an artifact in dungeon level 3

did you make sure it's a good replacement for your staff, skillwise?

Arda Xi

10:21 PM

That was actually really easy.

badp

@ArdaXi I saw you dropping stuff, then suddenly gifts rained.

I'm not sure I understood what happened :)

Arda Xi

What I did was, I found an altar, offered a corpse on it to convert it, then offered another to get a gift.

badp

oh, I see.

Arda Xi

I noticed that it told you you sinned in your last session. That means that you're not living up to your alignment.

If you're chaotic, kill everything that moves.

badp

That's a bad plan.

Your pet moves.

Shopkeepers move.

Arda Xi

10:24 PM

I dunno, killing your pet is a really chaotic move.

And I told you, you have to kill it, not attempt to kill it.

Anyway, as long as you don't anger your god too much, you can get lotsa gifts.

@badp It's 1d4 instead of 1d6, but the magic effects make it interesting. I usually use force bolt anyway.

badp

@ArdaXi No, I meant, is it a kind of weapon you have training for?

(check #enhance)

Arda Xi

I love being able to login by just pressing Ctrl-A

I've trained for it now... I think.

My failure rate for identify is only 77% now

badp

77% chance of random awesome then

is it me or you haven't been moving much?

Arda Xi

I haven't, I've just been exercising divination

Okay, so, erm, there's a minotaur here.

They seem kinda nasty, genocide?

badp

um, yes, I had you stuck there for a while

genocide is certainly powerful

use wisdom

That might well be the last Minotaur you ever see this game.

Arda Xi

10:40 PM

> There is always at least one generated on each maze level

badp

@ArdaXi The maze is optional IIRC

oh, I thought the dog was your pet :|

Arda Xi

What the hell?

badp

try and use confuse on the dog

Arda Xi

phew

badp

now run like hell?

Arda Xi

10:42 PM

Elbereth time.

badp

I don't think ghosts do much with Elbereth

I'm wrong

well no more ranged attacks for the orc

Arda Xi

Wake up?

Thank you.

badp

you can press 'Esc' to skip a long list of --more--'s

Arda Xi

I was interested.

badp

although it's not as interesting

Arda Xi

10:44 PM

What the hell is this room anyway?

badp

bad luck I guess?

Arda Xi

Err, this isn't bad luck.

badp

A room that choke full of monsters kinda is

Arda Xi

No, I mean, there are no stairs here.

badp

What are those then?

Arda Xi

10:47 PM

Oh, right.

Weird.

badp

near the gem/rocks

They were covered by a corpse

oh oh, a water nymph.

Arda Xi

A nymph too? Come on.

badp

nah, water nymphs are on depth

Minotaurs not so much

and player ghosts are always a problem

I'd consider when you have time a strategic retreat upstairs to recover

Arda Xi

Well, yes, I was planning on that too.

badp

yay for autopickup :P

protip: 'D'

DC* in your case

maybe ID that spellbook and that ring

...and that scroll

Arda Xi

10:53 PM

A cursed spellbook never teaches you a spell; reading it always causes these harmful effects. Thus in general, never read a cursed spellbook.

badp

@ArdaXi I said "ID"

Arda Xi

Oh, right, for future reference.

badp

so that next time you find the same spellbook you already know what it is

eh, the cursed scroll of identify is safe to use

use it on the ring

(either)

ruh roh.

Arda Xi

Oh.

Err

Help?

badp

They are in a nice line

looks ideal for some roasting

now run :P

Arda Xi

10:56 PM

They kill each other, brilliant.

badp

not towards the e

Arda Xi

Speak quickly.

badp

I thought it was a granted :)

Arda Xi

Time for an escape.

badp

go through the lower exit

Arda Xi

10:57 PM

I teleported.

badp

that works too.

Arda Xi

I'm gonna go to sleep now.

badp

except now you must face them again

Arda Xi

Well, yes, but preferably with full Pw

badp

oh well.

nite.

Arda Xi

10:58 PM

nite

But really, e-level 7 on d-level 3 is impressive, right?

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