The NetHack thread

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mtj · Post by **mtj** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 12:23 am

Your original pet? The one you start out with?

Naturally...:

k - a tin of little dog meat named Rover

(SCNR)

But seriously, I never even heared of an ascension with the starting pet, but there's lots of ways to aquire new companions along the way.

Lasker · Post by **Lasker** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 2:41 pm

mtj wrote: Naturally...:
k - a tin of little dog meat named Rover

But seriously, I never even heared of an ascension with the starting pet, but there's lots of ways to aquire
new companions along the way.

That would be a rarity, indeed!
Not only that you have to prevent your pet's death.
It also shouldn't step onto a polymorph trap (arguable if it's still your "original" ono in this case).
Ascending with your original pet in one of the more powerful polymorphed forms seems somewhat
more likely to me, but still rare.

cram · Post by **cram** » Tue Nov 30, 2004 4:58 pm

Ascending with your original pet in one of the more powerful polymorphed forms seems somewhat
more likely to me, but still rare.

This is really stretching it, but how about if you polymorphed your pet into a non-eating creature and then left him on an Elbereth surrounded square on DL1. You could leave him there safely until you were ready enter the endgame. Of course you'd have to be pretty luck with a wand of polymorph

.

Remillard · Post by **Remillard** » Wed Dec 01, 2004 3:54 pm

foosh wrote:Yeah that's one big difference I've noticed between Nethack and Crawl. In Crawl, scrolls of remove curse seem readily available, so you can try on newly found armor without much fear. In NH however, I am always super-wary and honestly still don't know the best way to remove a cursed item I may have wielded or worn! (praying??)

For what it's worth, cursed items are a pain in the ass. However there are a couple of outs.

1. #dipping the item into a fountain has a fair to middling good chance of uncursing it ("You see the item glow blue" or something like that.)
2. If you are in good with your God and you have gone past your prayer timeout, you can sometimes get him/her/it to cast uncurse on every single thing in your inventory that's cursed. ("You are surrounded by a golden glow" or something like that.)
3. If you're desperate, there's always the "read the scrolls you haven't read" method, but this could have really serious side effects, depending on what you have that you don't know about.
4. #dipping the item in a potion of holy water is 100% successful

I've ascended twice, Barbarian and Valkyrie. I almost managed one with Samurai, but I got stupid and choked in Gehennom. I also almost managed with a Ranger, but, well there was an incident with a wielded cockatrice and a stairway, and I was carrying too much stuff. 'Nuff said.

I highly recommend playing on nethack.alt.com. Sounds like the other network version. Nethack.alt.com has several features that make it a hell of a lot of fun.

1. You can watch other people play
2. An excellent high score list to compete against (it's actually getting somewhat difficult to get on the list... I think you have to have at least 20k points or so, but it's been a few months since I peeked... and now after this thread, I"m going to have to try again.)
3. You can keep a .nethackrc file with them.
4. There is a phenominal amount of statistics kept for the game (types of death, ascensions, best games for the day, week, month, etc.

It runs on Debian with a script the owner has been working on for years "dgamelaunch" which is what allows the peeking in on other folks games. good way to learn too.

A few other tips:
1. Most characters should NOT attempt the Gnomish mines right away. They are deceptively simple. At most, go to the town and come back. You can always go back later.
2. I usually try Sokoban first. It has a guaranteed bag of holder or amulet of reflection. Either is extremely useful.
3. Don't read things you don't know what they are until you really have to. It sucks to blow something you could use later to stay alive.
4. Don't drink from fountains. Period.
5. There are only two kinds of lamps, and one is dirt cheap. You get what you pay for.
6. Blessed smoky potions likely are a bit gaseous. Non-blessed smoky potions usually aren't.
7. Sometimes your God will help sate your craving for food.

I think that's about it... there are many many habits that can keep you alive a good long time. Despite the luck factor in the game (which I'm not saying is not there) most deaths can be prevented by not being stupid. If you are getting your ass kicked, get out. If you are likely to get your ass kicked, get out.

Useful items:
1. Bag of Holding
2. Speed Boots
3. Magic Resistance
4. Some sort of reflection

If you have these, it's going to be a good game.

Regards,
Remillard

foosh · Post by **foosh** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 7:45 pm

Those dang towers of flame erupt far too often in Gehennom...

Lasker · Post by **Lasker** » Thu Dec 02, 2004 11:40 pm

foosh wrote:Those dang towers of flame erupt far too often in Gehennom...

Most of them (not all, unfortunately) are in corners or crosspoints.
Just cut them (move diagonal) and have much less trouble.

geekanarchy · Post by **geekanarchy** » Fri Dec 03, 2004 3:00 am

Remillard wrote:I highly recommend playing on nethack.alt.com. Sounds like the other network version. Nethack.alt.com has several features that make it a hell of a lot of fun.

Just a correction, it's nethack.alt.org, not com. You can read more about it at alt.org/nethack.

Sprotte · Post by **Sprotte** » Mon Aug 08, 2005 10:46 pm

I´ve played NH for a few years. Started on a Suse 8.0 system with Falcon´s Eye. It was very strange, I didn´t figure out what most of the menu options did... I used to pray and my god would be pissed

. I sat on altars. I did lots of stupid things.

I´d always play wizards and die of starvation. So, I got frustrated and quit the game ...

Luckily, I got interested again after finding rec.games.roguelike.nethack and some spoiler sites. I have been using the ASCII version ever since.

I finally ascended a monk. That felt like the biggest thing ever, although I followed no conducts and I had found a very early wand of wishing (and was spoiled to a high degree).

I have come to like the game so much that I read most spoilers, I follow RGRN, and I´m also hacking on the code (pretty easy to add little things, like new artifacts etc).

I proceeded to ascend Gryeth, a female orcish rogue. That game was incredible, because I went genocide-less, polymorph-less and I think vegetarian, and I was also role-playing.Gryeth used orcish equipment and weapons instead of the better elven stuff, and didn´t use any of the good artifacts - just wielded Grimtooth (orcish dagger) and a silver dagger.

After that came Riln, an elven wizard. He dashed through the game too spoiled and too quickly, and died on the astral plane, a few steps from the final altar. Ouch. Another clone of Riln ascended later, however.

I also ascended a Barbarian, which was far too easy to remember much about it. The game took something like five days of continuous (!) playing. I forgot any details (that´s what Nethack can do to you).

Some other characters had good chances but died to classic mistakes (choking on a tin of spinach in the Castle comes to mind).

Overall, the orcish rogue is probably my favourite class (poison resistance, roleplaying), but I sometimes play wizards and I´d like to ascend a healer (I keep trying).

Wizards are pretty easy once you get past the food problem (pray), get the magic missile spell, get Magicbane by sacrificing and get Identify. A fun class to play.

Nowadays I tend to go for conducts, I always play vegetarian, always go genocide-less (more fun), and might go geno-poly-wishless just to do it (although I don´t see the point of polyless, polymorphing stuff doesn´t really make the game easier IMO). Genoless is really not too hard, once you develop some tactics against the tougher monsters. Wishless is probably tougher, depending on what you find. Going without a bag of holding would be very hard.

Additional tips:

1. Running away often is a smart thing
2. Have a one-turn means of escape (teleport, digging)
3. Get speed boots (worth a wish)
4. Identify the identify scroll (it´s very cheap)
5. Let your pet fight for you
6. Learn what to eat and what not to eat
7. Have a distance weapon (stack of daggers)
8. If mine level 1 is lit, kill some dwarves for armor/weapons
9. Watchmen, dwarves and elves have good equipment
10. When in trouble, pray
11. Avoid mimics
12. Ants are dangerous

Sprotte

Remillard · Post by **Remillard** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 9:00 pm

I've ascended twice, and many many times came close, but something stupid happened in Gehennom. For me though, it takes a few lucky breaks in the beginning. I'm not the type who can ascend with anything no matter what.

My style tends to lend itself towards the Hack 'n Slash types of characters. I've tried a lot with wizards, and have only once come close. With a wizard, Ring of Slow Digestion is practically mandatory.

1. Go to Sokoban first. It has FOOD. And RINGS. And WANDS. And, the guaranteed BoH or SoR.
2. Then go to the Mines. If you haven't found an altar yet, use the one in Minetown and bless/curse identify everything you can.
3. Try to get the luckstone at the bottom of the mine. If you've found one elsewhere, don't bother.
4. Go back to the Dungenos and just start going deep.
5. Stop at Medusa unless you are completely ready.
6. Look for any opportunities to sacrifice at, or convert altars.
7. Quests are usually pretty easy, except for the Monk. That guy at the end of that one is bloody insane.
8. Get past Medusa and get ready for the Castle.
9. Prep for the end run.

That's about it.

ChristyMcJesus · Post by **ChristyMcJesus** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 11:05 am

Nethack is fun but I prefer ADOM.

KosiarZ · Post by **KosiarZ** » Sat Aug 13, 2005 9:20 pm

I played nethack (some old version) a few times long time ago; although i did not especially like it. I think that Angband is better, but i think that ill give Nethack another try if you say it's so good

Sprotte · Post by **Sprotte** » Sun Aug 14, 2005 10:16 pm

Other roguelikes are also good. It´s a question of taste.

The healer quest is pretty hairy, the Cyclops is a weakling but the staff of Aesculapius which he wields is just a monstrous weapon. I had over 100 hp already and he drained most of them and about four levels from me before I teleported him away. I finally tried to zap him with a wand of sleep, but I missed

So much for my first healer at the quest. The samurai quest is hairy too, same scenario - a weak quest nemesis with a killer weapon.

The wizard and barbarian quests are a piece of cake. The rogue quest I know by heart, it´s good because you find lots of scrolls and potions (great QA too). The master assassin is a pushover.

Ring of slow digestion is very nice for everybody, because you can drop all those heavy food rations. Wizards should just pray for food if necessary and go to Sokoban ASAP to collect comestibles. When you´re at the castle, all your food worries are gone

With fighter type classes (and healers) I tend to go to minetown first (shops, armor from the guards and temple for protection).

KosiarZ, you might wanna try it again. I was turned off the first time, too. Pick something like a barbarian and play cautiously. Do also read the Guidebook (comes with the nethack docs, in /usr/doc I think). The Guidebook is invaluable, but many beginners apparently don´t know it. It describes the classes and other basic stuff like alignment, praying, altars etc.

If you want more specific info, go to http://steelypips.org/nethack with a few hours of spare time. Another vast interesting realm is the newsgroup rec.games.roguelike.nethack. And on nethack.alt.org you can watch live games via telnet.There is an IRC channel #nethack on freenode.net.

oh, and the wikipedia article on NH is also entertaining (especially the descriptions of some stupid ways to die).

bLUEbYTE84 · Post by **bLUEbYTE84** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:15 pm

Hello,
I'm sure there are NetHack players out there. Let's talk in this thread about all things NetHack. You memories, questions, hints (better no spoilers IMO) etc...
So who plays NetHack?
Me, I'm quite new to NetHack, done a few games only. Starting to like the game.
First question: How come ponies and kittens are so strong and violent in this game?

dforsyth · Post by **dforsyth** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:42 pm

as per new regulation in OTW, all thread must contain a poll. the poll does not have to pertain to the thread, but it must be present. this way, people have something to do even if the thread is a complete washout. also, this will help fend off teh spamz0r. thank you for your cooperation.

nethack sucks like starcraft

Wietze · Post by **Wietze** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:04 pm

This is a dupe.

bLUEbYTE84 · Post by **bLUEbYTE84** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:09 pm

Wietze wrote:This is a dupe.

I did a search and come with nothing (in OTW). What is the dupe thread ?

mordredP · Post by **mordredP** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 11:22 pm

this post needs a poll

codergeek42 · Post by **codergeek42** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 12:20 am

I tried it several times, but my mage always died of starvation. I've since given up on it, mostly.

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 3:53 am

codergeek42 wrote:I tried it several times, but my mage always died of starvation. I've since given up on it, mostly.

Before thou dost succumb, #pray and ye may yet be saved.

bobobo · Post by **bobobo** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:13 am

Or if ye possess a book of stone to flesh, transform one of those boulders in a mighty chunk of meat (careful not to choke on it)

desultory · Post by **desultory** » Mon Jun 11, 2007 4:27 am

Merged the above eight posts.

bLUEbYTE84 · Post by **bLUEbYTE84** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 1:21 am

I play nethack in tty mode only (console). My framebuffer setup is 80x50 characters on screen but nethack only gets the half (80x25). What can I do to get it use all screen?

dochawk · Post by **dochawk** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 7:26 pm

Nethack is 80x25. The dungeon is sized to that. What you need to do is switch your console to that; nethack won't grow larger (although I want to say that I've seen the extra space to the right used for lists in some variant.

hawk

sirdilznik · Post by **sirdilznik** » Sat Aug 25, 2007 7:43 pm

[x] No. Angband is much better.

/dons fire-proof suit
/runs and hides

woodwizzle · Post by **woodwizzle** » Wed Sep 05, 2007 5:00 am

I prefer adom over nethack just because it sticks to one theme and it feels like a real consistent game. Nethack has bits of tolkien, bits of lovecraft and other stuff which always makes it feel like a game put togother without any thought to theme. Angband is a lotta fun too in the purest hack and slash and loot sense. I pray for a day when one of these classic RL gets a beautiful 3D interface. Falcon's and vulture's eye are nice but they still need work and I want my 3D card to be put to use.

The NetHack thread

Have you ascended with the Amulet of Yendor? (NetHack)

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