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The NetHack thread
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 10:47 am
by foosh
Just wondering how many gentooers out there have played or are currently playing NetHack?
How many have "ascended" ??? How many times?
I (relatively) recently got into NetHack and am completely engrossed. This game is AMAZING...
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 10:51 am
by HIMLIMS
i'm not so keen on these tipe of games, specialy not the ascii versions
i know gameplay is way more important than graphics, but no graphics at all ... no thanks i pass
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 10:59 am
by Aruviel
I have never ascended, even though I have played this game from 3.3.0 version. Many times I have been in "could have ascended" situation. Something like, so perfect valkyrie with a perfect equipment, AC -26 and excellent weapon (Mjollnir+6 and Gauntlets of Power) and almost perfect instricts.
But then... I died in Gehennom, because I didn't have a poison resistance. THAT was kinda hard place. Really, really hard. I just watched again and again how my char fell down to the pit where was spikes, and which were poisoned. There went ~140hps in a one blow. Sniff. :'(
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 11:06 am
by Celtis
HIMLIMS wrote:i'm not so keen on these tipe of games, specialy not the ascii versions
i know gameplay is way more important than graphics, but no graphics at all ... no thanks i pass
Try playing noegnud-nethack if you don't like the console version.
I've only been playing for a couple of years and I've never been anywhere near ascending, it's easily one of the most playable games around (once you know what you're doing that is!)
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 11:53 am
by Imek
I'm more concerned about becoming the the ElDeR cHaOs GoD in ADOM. I only really play NetHack on the nethack.notdot.net UF telnet thing at school.. Though I would like to try the NetHack version on a bootable Linux floppy
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 1:25 pm
by emil
I've been playing on and off for about 10 years. (currently off). During that time I've ascended twice; the first time with a healer which made me really proud - they are not the easiest class in the beginning, and the second time with a priest.
'm not so keen on these tipe of games, specialy not the ascii versions
i know gameplay is way more important than graphics, but no graphics at all ... no thanks i pass
I have tried the various GUIs to nethack but never liked them, I can only play with the ASCII interface... And the OP is right, I have never come across another game as addictive.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 1:39 pm
by Aruviel
That's true what you sayed about GUIs of nethack. They are uncomfortable and somehow difficult to use. ASCII with a text illustrations and imagination is a great form of graphic.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 4:41 pm
by mirko_3
ok... so how did everyone really learn to use nethack? any guides? or simply in-game help? I tried it a couple times, but without doing any reading on it, so it ended up being quite... complicated...
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 5:10 pm
by Aruviel
First you should just learn to use those keys. And if you don't want to spoil yourself, you only need to play this game again and again and then learn from your mistakes. Playing a few times at this game just isn't enough. Nethack requires a lot of studying. And no, I'm not trying to scare you
. That's one part of the games enjoyable elements, though it can be very frustrating to beginners to die because they have no food.
Ingame help can be found behind ? key. And there's always a nice nethack guidebook, which comes with the game. Guidebook is here too:
http://nethack.org/v343/Guidebook.html
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:06 pm
by foosh
I read the guidebook before starting. That's pretty much critical. Also, if you're not already a vim user, get used to using the "hjkl" movement controls -- before long it'll be second nature. Then, as you read through the guidebook (but more likely, as you're playing through the game and have to refer back to either that or the "?" help) make notes of diff commonly used commands on a sticky note. Again, before long you'll just "think and do" and the controls will be transparent...I think that's the first step to enjoying NetHack.
I also agree that the ASCII graphics are better than the GUIs...though I'll probably never be able to explain to someone why a capital D is scarier than any cartoonish drawing.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:09 pm
by ZothOmmog
I have never ascended, even though I have played this game from 3.3.0 version. Many times I have been in "could have ascended" situation. Something like, so perfect valkyrie with a perfect equipment, AC -26 and excellent weapon (Mjollnir+6 and Gauntlets of Power) and almost perfect instricts.
But then... I died in Gehennom, because I didn't have a poison resistance. THAT was kinda hard place. Really, really hard. I just watched again and again how my char fell down to the pit where was spikes, and which were poisoned. There went ~140hps in a one blow. Sniff. :'(
This is why I don't play Nethack or Adom anymore. Investing hours into a character only to have him blip out of existance because of one moment of bad luck is not my idea of a good time. The frustration of losing a high level character because of a few high-level monsters who got lucky with their paralyzing abilities is just too great for me to ever go back.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 6:36 pm
by Aruviel
Well, that was only purely stupidity of mine. In that stage of the game, a char absolutely should have a poison resistance. That death gave me a hard lesson.
Hey, I didn't tell you how I accidentally moved my another valkyrie on her quest to the lava? It was a very frustrating too to watch how fully healthy valkyrie was burned away. Maybe I'm masochist or something, but this game is so damn addictive.
And ADoM was a quite easy game to play through with a Dwarven Paladin
Umm... Sorry that small off-topic.
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 8:15 pm
by mirko_3
ok, I guess I'll start playing tomorrow then (that is, I'll start learning...)
one more thing though: is a sorcerer a hard character to start with? I mean, they usually are the weakest at the beginning in these games, and I guess it'll be especially hard learning all the keys for all the spells... or not?
Posted: Fri May 07, 2004 9:06 pm
by foosh
mirko: I haven't played with a sorcerer or heavy magic-using character yet, but no I don't think casting spells should be difficult at all. (Though I'm sure you're right about starting with a much weaker character than some of the others.)
I believe you can access your known spells in a menu by typing + (the symbol for a spellbook) and cast using Z for "zap" (as opposed to "z" which is used for "zapping" wands)
Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 5:00 am
by Aruviel
With wizard you have to be very, very careful. They are very weak in a combat. I don't know any good tactics or more tips how to play with wizard. I once had a wizard who had very good armour, like AC -24 and reflection and magic resistance, but it died very easily. (Damn that energy vortex
)
Most beginner-friendly classes are (IMO) barbarian, samurai and valkyrie. Valkyrie might be the easiest char to begin. But with testing you find classes which you like most
And yeah, using spells is very easy. Just press Z (shift + z on my keyboard) and then you just have to choose the spell from the list.
Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 5:08 am
by nonotme
just don't eat medusa meat
Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 6:44 am
by foosh
I guess I don't really want blatant spoilers here, but what can you do with unicorns? Can anyone give me a cryptic "tip" that doesn't give away TOO much??
Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 6:59 am
by Aruviel
Well, unicorns like from gems
and their horn is very useful (if it's not cursed). And sacrificing not co-aligned unicorn on your own alignment's altar is a very good thing.
Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 3:50 am
by foosh
I'm wondering if the people who chose to vote on the last option have ever tried playing NetHack, or if they just saw what it looked like and said "no way" based on that...
Posted: Mon May 10, 2004 4:34 am
by nonotme
foosh wrote:I'm wondering if the people who chose to vote on the last option have ever tried playing NetHack, or if they just saw what it looked like and said "no way" based on that...
wouldn't surprise me. people miss out on an amazingly indepth, complex game because it doesn't look shiny. their loss.
Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 9:34 am
by norc
Whats about a multiplayer Nethack??
A question: How can i install Nethack from a winxp computer on a suse-unix
as a normal user??
Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 9:53 am
by emil
norc wrote:Whats about a multiplayer Nethack??
From the nethack website (
http://www.nethack.org/):
Code: Select all
How about a multi-player version?
See Things we are NOT doing.
so this will probably not happen anytime soon.
/emil
Posted: Tue May 11, 2004 10:25 am
by plate
Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 7:43 am
by norc
plate:
Where can i download
DevTeam Releasing Multiplayer Nethack and Counter-Hack Terrorist Mod
It looks nice, but i play only Americas-Army for few months. There isnt any time for playing nethack, but i have to have it;)
Posted: Wed May 12, 2004 9:38 am
by norc
you forgot my question. how can i install nethack on a suse computer from a winxp computer (network) as a normal user.
Nice one.