Any Nethack players?

[obfusciatrist]

Is anybody else here addicted to Nethck? All my friend's find it amusing that with all my computer stuff my favorite game is is text based.

If you play, how long was it before you first ascension?

[divemaster]

I love nethack! Nethack is the greatest! I nethack all day at the office when I should be working!
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What the hell is nethack?

(Sorry, I couldn't resist)

[obfusciatrist]

Okay smartass.

That link should have been to here.

What is nethack? Simply the greatest computer role playing game of all time. It is easily the most complex, internally consistent game I have ever played. I have been playing off an on since 1992 and I have still never ascended (won).

It is also one of the few good examples of how freeware/open source software methods can produce truly superior software.

I just love playing a game that has me turning to my SO and saying, in all seriousness: "I need to eat a floating eye so that I can wear a towel on my head, allowing me to telepathically see the invisible nymph which just stole my blessed +3 Mjollnir!"

[capybara]

Ok, my sister is really really into nethack, religiously, and has tried to convert me. I downloaded it, looked at the list of 'codes' for objects and manouvres, tried it out, got promptly killed. I have been told it's swell, when one works out how to play. I trust your additional testimonial though. I'll give it another shot and report back in a few weeks. I've been looking for a thinkin' person's game for a while (Myst almost did it, Final Fantasy doesn't).

[Johnny Angel]

These days, it has become fashionable for people to label themselves `computer nerds,' some even claiming to have been into computers from waaaay back. When I meet one of these poseurs, I say, "Oh yeah? How many Nethack characters have you ascended with?"

Most of the Computer Science types around here don't even know what I'm talking about. And just forget about Code of Hamurabi or Towers of Hanoi.

[capybara]

Ok, Ob, now I'm hooked and it's finals week and I'm holding you responsible.
How can you escape from monsters if HP are low? Should you just pray and see what works
(it got me fed once)?
Why, when I prayed at my God's altar, was he displeased (archaeologist character)?
Oh, help me.

[tracer]

I played NetHack all the time, back before that bastard Version 3.0 came out and ruined the whole damn thing.

In fact, I was around back in the Golden Age [TM], when it was just called "Hack." Somewhere, I still have my 5-1/4" floppy diskette of Hack 1.03e.

Oh, and M.K.: try inscribing "Elbereth" on the ground if you get in dire straits.

[Johnny Angel]

M.K. wrote:

How can you escape from monsters if HP are low?

In most cases, you'll want to write `elbereth' on the ground, with a wand of digging, if you've got one. Be sure to stay in one place. Beware, it will wear off.

Or, you could pray. I hope you've been sacrificing corpses to your god at altars.

Or, you could read an unidentified scroll. If you fail to read it, you might teleport.

Or, you could zap the monster with an unidentified wand, or smash it with an unidentified potion.

But what I would do would be to don my gloves, pull my cockatrice corpse out of my backpack, and poke my enemies with it.

[obfusciatrist]

Well, I guess the best advice is to know when you should run away. There is no rule saying you have to kill every creature as soon as you see them.

Also, archaeologists have their benefits but I would recommend beginner's play focus on Valkyries, Barbarians, or Samurai for a bit to learn some of the ropes. They can usually take on anything you might find in the early levels.

But if you are just about dead by all means pray. Your god can heal you, but just be warned that praying too often is not good either.

As to why your god was displeased, I can only say that there are many reasons that can happen. But in the early levels the most likely cause would be failing to look out for your pet (or even worse, accidentally killing it yourself).

But keep playing. Every time you finally figure out how to get past a certain point, something will be waiting for you beyond it!

[Danielinthewolvesden]

I used to play the earlier version, "hack" & ???, good fun.

[Saint Zero]

I've been playing nethack for, geez, Decades I _still_ have not ascended. I'm so tempted to hack the code to just give a character what I want him to have, just for fun.

[Ann Onimous]

I played Nethack on the Amiga. How bad is that? Of course, dear husband has it on our computer at home. I play when I have time. Never ascended. Probably never will. But golly, it's fun!

[tracer]

In earlier versions of Nethack (and of course Hack), you could ascend out of the dungeon any time you were on the "up" staircase on the first level.

Of course, if you did so without the Amulet of Yendor, you wouldn't get a very big score....

[Suo Na]

*sigh*

The first time I check the boards in two weeks and I find a Nethack thread. I'll never escape this place. Oh well, despite the injury (and having to retype things three times) here goes:

I love Nethack. I've been addicted to the game for three years now, and still haven't ascended even a Valkyrie. Of course, I play mostly priests and monks (the monks kick ass, BTW) which aren't as easy to ascend. I did get up to the plain of air once with a Samurai.

Oh, and I've been able to throw Mojo and have it return. Valkyries rock!

If you want tips, here's the spoiler page. Check out the competitive game going on. I'd play but they don't have my character classes yet.

Off to play with my pet orange dragon who won't attack mind flayers....

[tracer]

A cheat you can do with Nethack that you won't see in ANY of the spoiler pages:

When you save a game and then restore it, Nethack compares the operating system's timestamp on the saved file with a timestamp encoded into the file itself. On a non-Unix operating system (e.g. an MS-DOS descandant), when you make a copy of a file, the new copy has the same OS timestamp as the original.

Thus, it is possible to save a game, copy the .SAV file (to another directory, perhaps), then restore that game -- and if you die, you can copy your copy of the .SAV file back where the old .SAV file was, and play that saved game again! Eventually, if you save whenever something good happens and copy the saved copy back whenever you die or have something bad happen, you will get lucky enough to Ascend.

[obfusciatrist]

Oh I think pretty much everybody knows about that cheat.

In fact, this is the basis of some of the Nethack competitions you can find. Essentially someone starts a game and teleports to every level for one turn so that the map is drawn, goes back up to the first level and saves the game. Distribute the save file. Everyone starts with the same dungeon.

But why would you want to cheat to ascend? Wouldn't be much more fun than cheating at solitaire. The only valid reason would be so that you can learn about certain situations and test various hypotheses; but that is what explore and wizard modes are for (the use of which disallows ascension).

[tracer]

But why would you want to cheat to ascend? Wouldn't be much more fun than cheating at solitaire.

Well, if you don't know....

Seriously, though, there's a kind of personal thrill you can get from saying "my character has more hit points/spells/armor/immunities than yours does". One other cheat I like to do is, while a game is running, dump all my gold and gems on level 2, go back up to level 1, copy the level 2 .LVL file, go back down to level 2, get my stuff, go back up to level 1, copy my copy of the level 2 .LVL file over the existing one, go back down to level 2, pick up this second copy of my stuff, go back up to level 1, and repeat until I am wealthy enough to buy out every Shopkeeper in the game.

[HomeSlice]

Great, I just DL'd it....I'm only going to play for 5 more minutes...I swear.

[Johnny Angel]

I back up my saved games. While I understand that there are some purists who think that the game is much better if you get no second chances (or 30th chances, as it happens sometimes), but the game would be abysmally frustrating if I couldn't go back and re-run the scenario that got me killed and find a way to get out of it.

[tracer]

Another one of my cheats is simply to use a binary file editor, open up my save file, find where my max hit points are stored, (searching for the little-endian binary representation of my hit points and max hit points usually works, especially if it's an unusual number), and upping it to 30000.

Once, I upped my hit points to 32767 in this fashion. When I lost a few hit points and healed them back, the don't-let-the-player-heal-back-more-hit-points-than-his-max algorithm "wrapped" my current hit points around to -32768 and killed me!

[Suo Na]

As one of those purists, I must say I'm disgusted with you who copy your save files, etc. in order to cheat. Why not just play in wizard mode? Saves time.

For me (and many other players) the frustration is part of the fun. That's why we have web pages devoted to Yet Another Stupid Death stories.

Because every game is different you have a lot more variety if you play by the rules than if you use external cheats. With cheating you only play each character class once. After you've ascended them all, why bother? Whereas I've been playing the game for years and still find it interesting.

If you do use external cheats don't admit it on rec.games.roguelike.nethack or they'll crucify you.

[SqrlCub]

I downloaded that again. I didn't recognize the name until I started playing it. Personally, I think Everquest is better simply becuase it hasimmersive semi-realistic 3D graphics. This one was alright too, but it shows how archaic computer games used to be. It is terribly addictive but Everquest is more so.

HUGS!
Sqrl

[jayron 32]

It is, bar none, the best game ever invented. I got hooked back at 3.0.0 (before the sub-dungeons (mines and quest) were added. Once I got the expanded version, it's even cooler. I tend to play barbarian, but occasionally I play Wizard with the hopes that I get a ring of polymorph and a ring of polymorph control as my initial roll. It actually happened once, though I died in some stupid way ( I think in that one I was killed by an halucinogen distorted black naga hatchling or some such). I will go a few months without playing, but then I always come back. Graphics are over rated; for my money give me a game with deep complexity and easy of operation and no graphics over one that has stellar graphics but little depth. Daggerfall is the graphical game that I have played that has come closest to Nethack in terms of depth of play, but even then the object classes are more limited.

As a side thread, what is the best weapon anyone has ever had, and not gotten through a wish (and wishing for the enchant weapon scrolls doesn't count)? I've had a few named weapons, but my best ever was a blessed, rustproof +4 dwarvish mattock gotten entirely through discovered and bought items.

[obfusciatrist]

I downloaded that again. I didn't recognize the name until I started playing it. Personally, I think Everquest is better simply becuase it hasimmersive semi-realistic 3D graphics. This one was alright too, but it shows how archaic computer games used to be. It is terribly addictive but Everquest is more so.

Sqrl

I don't know. I tried Everquest and enjoyed it, but there was so much waiting and when I heard about people spending hours online just to wait for a specific creature to be generated I gave it up (plus paying a monthly fee sucks).

I find nethack to be very immersive, I don't mind that I am not actually presented with a picture of the dwarf I am killing or that I have no idea what a Xorn is. I experience a little bit of genuine fear when I have a nice character going and run into a purple "h" (a mindflayer) or a yellow "L" (a lich). Anything that makes me afraid of the alphabet must be good.

Rather than 3D graphics showing how archaic the old stuff is, I think the old stuff shows how over-reliant programmers have become on pretty pictures.

[tracer]

So! Anybody remember "Rogue"?

[Suo Na]

As a side thread, what is the best weapon anyone has ever had, and not gotten through a wish (and wishing for the enchant weapon scrolls doesn't count)?

I'm currently playing a Valk with a blessed rustproof +4 long sword and the blessed rustproof +4 Mjollnir (a gift from Odin). I'm expert in both, and expert in twoweapon combat. And I just ran over Snickersnee in Gehennom (can't use it, though). Do my two level 22 silver dragon pets count as weapons? I gave birth to them myself. I think I have a chance at ascending this one.

[obfusciatrist]

I think I have a chance at ascending this one.

Oh, now you've done it. That phrase is YASD bait if I have every one. I expect your next post will be how you did something stupid involving insta-death.

[capybara]

Nethack newbie update: I just learned not to eat kitten corpses (it wasn't even my pet). I aggravate monsters. Bad.
Don't eat the purple ones. . .

[obfusciatrist]

Ah, that is a good lesson to learn. Feeding yourself is the first task, but you can't eat everything. Some things are particularly good to eat.

[Suo Na]

Nethack newbie update: I just learned not to eat kitten corpses (it wasn't even my pet). I aggravate monsters. Bad.
Don't eat the purple ones. . .

Don't sacrifice cats, dogs, or humans, either. You can eat your pets if it's not one of those three (I just love pet wraiths!)

Oh, and the Valkyrie just killed the priest of Moloch, and is still going strong....

[Baglady]

I just love playing a game that has me turning to my SO and saying, in all seriousness: "I need to eat a floating eye so that I can wear a towel on my head, allowing me to telepathically see the invisible nymph which just stole my blessed +3 Mjollnir!"

It's true he loves playing the stuff. He'll go through periods where that's all he does on the computer at home, for hours on end, for days and weeks at a time. No mouse action, mind you. Just click-click-click-clackaclacka-click-click for the whole night.

He has not however, said those exact words. When he plays Nethack he's usually completely oblivious to the world. He might THINK those words... but he's too busy going click-click-click-clackaclacka-click-click. If not for food and restroom breaks he would probably start growing cobwebs...

[Saint Zero]

Well, if you don't know....

Seriously, though, there's a kind of personal thrill you can get from saying "my character has more hit points/spells/armor/immunities than yours does". One other cheat I like to do is, while a game is running, dump all my gold and gems on level 2, go back up to level 1, copy the level 2 .LVL file, go back down to level 2, get my stuff, go back up to level 1, copy my copy of the level 2 .LVL file over the existing one, go back down to level 2, pick up this second copy of my stuff, go back up to level 1, and repeat until I am wealthy enough to buy out every Shopkeeper in the game.

Thank you for this one! This is hysterical, if you take time to gather up 20 potions of gain level, or whatnot. Makes the gain much more fun.

[monkeylucifer]

I used to play Angband...ALL THE TIME. I was on a tight budget and looking for a cheap form of computer entertainment and stumbled upon Angband, and my nights were never the same. I tried Nethack, but I was so far entrenched in Angand, that I never fully explored the game, but they are both the same type of "rogue" games from what I can tell. I guess I'll check it out....

[monkeylucifer]

I dl'd Nethack and played it for a while, but it just doesn't hold a candle to Angband. Nethack seems to have gone off in some interesting directions, such as the pet, sacrificing corpses, but these seem to be derivitive of MUDs. Angband has a much better developed interface and is use of multiple menus blows Nethack away. I stand by Angband.....(plus it's based off of LOTR, so there).

[obfusciatrist]

Well, everyone's different I guess.

I've tried Angband and just don't find it as complex or involving as Nethack. That's ok, I won't hate you or anything (ya bastard!).

[Saint Zero]

Seriously, though, there's a kind of personal thrill you can get from saying "my character has more hit points/spells/armor/immunities than yours does". One other cheat I like to do is, while a game is running, dump all my gold and gems on level 2, go back up to level 1, copy the level 2 .LVL file, go back down to level 2, get my stuff, go back up to level 1, copy my copy of the level 2 .LVL file over the existing one, go back down to level 2, pick up this second copy of my stuff, go back up to level 1, and repeat until I am wealthy enough to buy out every Shopkeeper in the game.

Dude, thank you for this! It's brought fun back to the game. Who cares about winning right now? I like stacking up 25 potions of Gain Level or things like that. Awesome fun!